The 3 biggest DX data challenges SaaS and tech companies face

In 2021, the SaaS market size was evaluated to be roughly $272.5 billion, and growing at a rate of nearly 12% per year.

With all that opportunity on the table, companies in this crowded space are looking for innovative ways to distinguish their brand and offering, and outpace the competition.

You probably know where we’re going with this. For companies of all shapes and sizes, offering an excellent digital experience is a massive competitive differentiator. Of course, effectively collecting and using DX data to create a better online user experience comes with its own set of challenges.

In a recent Forrester study commissioned by Fullstory, leaders at SaaS and tech companies shared their biggest DX data challenges. Here, we’ll break down what the top challenges are, how the numbers compare to other industries (specifically: consumer goods/manufacturing, ecommerce/retail, travel/hospitality, and finance/insurance), and explore how Digital Experience Intelligence (DXI) can help organizations address those challenges.

Not just any old data will do

If there’s one thing that tech and SaaS companies have no shortage of, it’s data. But having mountains of data doesn’t get you anywhere unless you have the right data.

In the survey, 55% of tech/SaaS respondents said their organization doesn’t collect the right digital experience data to extract actionable insights. This number is slightly higher than the average across other industries surveyed, which was just under 44%.

The best approach to collecting digital experience data is through autocapture (rather than solely through manual instrumentation), which ensures that all digital experience data is at your fingertips when you need to identify a problem, answer a question, or monitor a trend.

Surfacing the right insights

So, you have the right data. How do you find the needle in the haystack? With endless digital experience data at your disposal, knowing what to pay attention to can be tricky.

In the survey, 47% of tech/SaaS respondents said their organization doesn’t know what to measure or where to start measuring insights from its DX data. This percentage keeps with the average across other industries, which sits just below 46%.

This number illustrates why it’s critical to choose a digital experience solution that can sift through the haystack for you, automatically identifying action-ready insights. For example, Fullstory comes equipped with dozens of experience signals that identify unusual user behavior or issues that need to be addressed, rather than forcing you to dig for them.

Understanding engagement is a pain point

According to the survey, only 33% of tech/SaaS organizations strongly agree that they have a clear idea of how prospects and customers engage with their organization. This is a significantly lower percentage than the average across other industries, where 44% of respondents strongly agreed.

This tells us that tech and SaaS companies are lagging behind other industries in developing a clear, functional understanding of how users engage with their product, site, or app. And while this could be because tech and SaaS experiences tend to be more complicated than other experiences and therefore are more difficult to understand, it’s still a challenge worth noting.

By combining quantitative and qualitative data, a DXI solution like Fullstory gives you the context you need for a complete, digestible understanding of the digital user experience.

The future of DX data for tech and SaaS

It was clear from the survey that, more than any other industry, SaaS and tech companies are placing a significant emphasis on digital experience improvements in the near term. Here are a few notable findings:

The takeaway is pretty clear: Your peers (and competitors) in the tech and SaaS world are investing in their digital experiences. The DX train is pulling away from the station, and gaining or maintaining a competitive advantage means being on board.