Questions with "Ruben Spruijt of Dizzion"

In various forums and through LinkedIn, I came across Ruben Spruijt, the Field CTO at Dizzion. Ruben is a fervent advocate for End-User Computing (EUC) and dedicates his time to traveling globally, imparting his vast knowledge to all willing to learn. His expertise is well-recognized; he is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP), a NVIDIA GRID Community Advisor, and has been involved in the Citrix Technical Professional (CTP) program and as a VMware vExpert for many years.

Eager to delve deeper into his insights, I approached him to see if he would be interested in participating in one of my 5-question interviews (Turned out to me more than 5). Given his enthusiasm for sharing knowledge, I had no doubt about his willingness to contribute

"There are several different views and definitions that define the Digital Employee Experience into a DEX score, where it focuses primarily on performance monitoring, trend analysis, and user sentiment to evaluate the Digital Employee Experience. Do you feel that this is an adequate definition or how would you define Digital Employee Experience aka a DEX score?"

DEX is DEXY these days, it seems everyone is talking about DEX these days even classic application performance monitoring solutions are positioning themselves in the new DEX category which is all the good, at the end it is more important what the business value is with DEX and how it can help to 'get work done' more efficiently in a modern hybrid workspace. I believe it is important to make sure it is clear what DEX means because I have learned: 

A confused mind says "no". 

I would like to go a bit deeper and understand what DEX is, what a DEX score means, what it contains, why it matters, and what is missing today. A DEX solution and associated score provides insights into the real and perceived user experience and should evaluate the end-user experience or quality of user interactions with the local endpoint OS and installed applications, virtual desktops and applications, web applications, and mobile applications. Let's focus on the core DEX components: 

OS and application performance monitoring: 

Evaluates the efficiency of technical aspects of the user workspace, including load times, responsiveness, and resource utilization across devices, operating systems, applications running in the end-user context, and virtual desktop and application environments.

Trend Analysis: 

Involves examining changes in end-user behavior and preferences over time to anticipate needs and adapt to the end-user computing solution accordingly. 

User Sentiment: 

Gauges the overall satisfaction of users with their digital experience, often collected through feedback forms, reviews, and direct user interactions.

DEX4DaaS: 

This user-centric 'DEX for EUC' captures and measures the real user experience from the end-user perspective looking inward to virtual applications and desktop solutions. It will use remote protocol statistics provided by e.g. Amazon Workspaces, Citrix DaaS, Dizzion Frame, Microsoft AVD, and others. Also, the input latency, system latency, and display response all from the end-users and their devices are used to display and report how good, effectively, reliable, and with what quality the end-users can interact with an end-user computing solution.

"In your daily interactions, have you noticed an increasing emphasis on the importance of Digital Employee Experience? Do you find companies are interested in adopting a DEX-focused approach to their support desks or are they more interested in other areas to spend their budget? "

Yes, I do see a noticeable trend towards prioritizing DEX with our customers and partners. Similarly, I do hear from End User Computing community friends and the recent acquisition of UberAgent by Citrix underscores this. I believe this is all driven by the increasing end-user expectations, the workspace complexity, and its impact on end-user satisfaction, retention, and overall business success. Managed Service Providers, DaaS vendors, and organizations in general are investigating and investing in DEX solutions to enhance their service quality, reduce resolution times, and the overall improvement in user satisfaction. This shift is part of a broader digital transformation effort aimed at staying competitive in a digital-first world.

Where would those companies not interested in a DEX approach be focusing on?

Not all companies prioritize DEX equally. Those less focused on DEX may allocate their budgets towards areas like AI and Workspace AI projects. Others might prioritize direct revenue-generating activities or cost-reduction measures over investing in the user experience. Some customers use their budget to cover the cost increase of their VDI/DaaS and virtualization solutions like Citrix and VMware.

Continuing with the strategy, use analytics on all relevant levels and user feedback to understand your starting point. Then form a dedicated DEX team: Include members from customer success, business owners, application owners, workspace architects, infrastructure cloud architects, and, of course, key end-users.

Write down the observations, challenges, and above all the requirements, provided by team members. Prototype and include (demo) solution examples to energize colleagues by the opportunity and latest developments of DEX solutions. 

"Do you have specific tools that you use?"

I like the ease of use of some of the (newer) DEX solutions like ControlUp and Liquidware, especially when they are designed and running as a cloud service. I love that you can start small, and move fast, and these solutions often do work and should work in Physical PCs, virtual desktops, and application and multi-cloud DaaS/Cloud PC environments.

"What are the key features that you see as essential to that strategy? "

From my point of view, the key features of a DEX strategy are:

User-centric Culture: Prioritizing user experience in every aspect of the End User Computing solution, from technology, business process, and decision-making.

Comprehensive User Feedback System: Collecting and analyzing user feedback across multiple touchpoints to understand their needs and pain points, bring this into the DEX solution, and let the solution automatically resolve issues before they appear – when possible. 

Continuous monitoring: Utilizing continuous system and application performance monitoring and it impact in end-user experience. Use robust tools that create the 'canary in the coalmine' because you want to have enough data, so you predict the problem before IT (and the end-user) sees it.

Cross-functional Collaboration: Ensuring that various departments work together towards the unified goal of enhancing DEX.

"What is missing in the DEX strategy or just doesn't do enough? 

"Hmm, I would summarize it with we need to go from IT-centric monitoring to user-centric monitoring and analytics. Also, what is the end-user perceived performance, and not only what does the telemetry (IT) data show? These are separate items. We need to focus more on the end user's perceived (and real) performance.

"Looking to the future do you see companies adopting a DEX strategy in large numbers or is it a phase that will pass and be a niche area? "

I believe we are in the end-user computing digital era with digital overload and heading into a contextual era powered by AI. Looking to the future, the adoption of a Digital User Experience (DEX) strategy by Managed Service Providers, DaaS vendors, and companies is not just a passing phase but a fundamental shift that is likely to expand significantly. Several factors contribute to this trend, for instance:

Digital Transformation: As businesses continue to undergo digital transformation, the focus on DEX becomes a critical part of staying competitive. Companies that provide superior digital experiences and deliver the best end-user experience are more likely to retain customers and attract new ones.

End-User expectations: Consumer expectations for seamless, efficient, and enjoyable End User Computing experiences are continually rising. Businesses need to meet these expectations to remain relevant and avoid losing market share to competitors who prioritize DEX.

Technological Advancements: The rapid advancement of technology, including AI, Workspace AI, Collaboration solutions, Unified communications, and Desktop as a Service do provide businesses more tools to Get Work Done. These advancements are all part of the EUC Hexagrid and do make it easier Got Work Done in an effective, engaging, and fun way – the major challenge is to integrate these solutions into the DEX solution hence it is key to have a DEX strategy that covers the wider EUC spectrum.

Economic Efficiency: The organization will recognize that investing in DEX will lead to significant cost savings by doing more with less people, automating remediate, reducing customer churn, and lowering support costs through improved self-service and auto remediate (upcoming) challenges.

It is about end-user satisfaction, measuring how good the user experience is, and solving issues before the end-user sees it. It is that simple.