Increase investments in customer insights, cut tech debt, experiment in Web3: Forrester

With 2023 around the corner, leaders are encouraged to increase their investments in customer insights and engagement, cut spending on tech debt and experiment in Web3 according to Forrester.

Slower spending and inflation will most likely bring a turbulent 2023 according to new data from Forrester’s 2023 planning guides.

These planning guides have been written for business leaders in various industries including CX, channel marketing, security and risk, and sales operations. In these guides, it recommends to industry leaders where to cut spending and increase investment.

Sharyn Leaver, chief research officer at Forrester said, “Leaders are faced with navigating a tumultuous business landscape defined by global unrest, supply chain instability and soaring inflation, as well as the ongoing aftermath of the pandemic.”

Forrester recommends leaders to increase investment in two areas; customer insights and engagement and technology that improves CX and reduces costs.

With 2023 unlikely to look like any past recession, many assumptions about customers and their behaviour will be rendered useless. Forrester said that leaders should invest in new customer data and analytics tools, such as experience research platforms (XPRs), to sharpen audience targeting strategies.

For technologies that improve CX and reduce costs, current economic headwinds will require focusing on technology tuned for optimisation and resilience. Forrester said leaders should invest in tools that drive loyalty and reduce operational costs, such as robotic process automation (RPA) and agent-assist apps.

Leaders need to decrease their investment in technical debt – including cloud and low-quality data partners and innovation outsourcing.

Many thought the cloud would be the antidote to technical debt, but yesterday’s lifted-and-shifted workloads are now debt themselves given how inefficient to operate and difficult to upgrade they are. In 2023, leaders should consider early cloud deployments as candidates for technical debt reductions.

Partners will continue to play an important role in growth, but two key areas are ripe for cuts. As third-party data quality continues to drop, leaders should streamline these partnerships to only those that add value to customer relationships. Second, firms that relied too heavily on partners for digital innovation during the pandemic-induced digital sprint should bring more innovation in house.

Where possible, leaders should experiment in extended reality, the metaverse, and Web3 that offer immersive experiences.

Forrester said these interlinked — and arguably overhyped — technologies hold the promise of immersive experiences linked to token-based ecosystems that use cryptocurrencies and public blockchains.

Leaders in consumer industries should experiment with metaverse precursor platforms such as Roblox and Decentraland to open doors to new audiences.

Leaver said business leaders are no strangers to planning in uncertainty.

“As we approach 2023, a different flavour of uncertainty looms. Global unrest, supply chain instability, and soaring inflation dominate the headlines and point to an economic slowdown. Hiring freezes and layoffs, meanwhile, have hit the tech sector despite a still-robust overall job market,” she said.

“A recent Forrester survey of US business leaders found that many are holding on to optimism. Most leaders expect at least some increase in overall spending next year, while many anticipate spending more on talent and technologies.”