Seamless digital experience is a priority for every organization that wants to protect its brand reputation. In today’s world, providing that experience means managing well the challenges presented by networks with thousands of connected devices, remote IT teams, and the rapid adoption of new technologies.

In this post, we’ll break down how to do that by looking at best practices for digital experience management. These tips support both WiFi and wired network ecosystems and will ensure reliable connectivity, budget-friendly scalability, and boosted user satisfaction for global enterprises.

The Complexity of Digital Experience Management

Digital Experience Management (DEM) is the process of using technology to analyze metrics from touch points across the network ecosystem in order to determine the quality of each user’s digital experience.

These touch points include client devices and IoT devices, applications, portals, wired and WiFi network connections, and more. Essentially, any part of the network that could impact a user’s interaction must be analyzed and evaluated. These evaluations must take place consistently and provide IT professionals real-time feedback on key performance indicators (KPI) that adequately convey user experience.

With that in mind, let’s look at best practices for digital experience management.

Best Practices for Digital Experience Management

1. Use Intelligent Network Analytics Solutions

Preserving network reliability means responding to issues before they impact users. This requires the real-time analysis of the entire network ecosystem, and the proactive identification and resolution of issues.

This is only possible with intelligent network analytics solutions. Powered by AI, these solutions learn to recognize what is normal and what is abnormal for each specific network they analyze. 

With this support, issues are identified while they are still small and network mysteries are eliminated. 

2. Automate Alerts and Notifications

It isn’t enough to work with an AI-powered solution that will identify issues in real-time. These solutions must also automatically alert IT to any problems so that teams can implement resolutions as soon as possible.

With automatic alerts, IT can focus on other critical responsibilities, trusting that they will be alerted in real-time at the first sign of any issue. No alerts means the network is working reliably and digital experience is optimal.

3. Set Up Continuous Network Testing

Enterprise digital experience can suffer at any moment. Networks should be continuously tested so that IT professionals have advance notice if any element fails to operate as expected. Some tests need to be run multiple times a day, while others are only needed once a week or once a month.

Because of this, a DEM best practice for this area is to work with an automated solution that allows for both scheduled and manual synthetic network testing. With this support, IT can both “set it and forget it,” trusting that the solution will alert teams to any problems, and also, always have the option to run a test manually during an off-scheduled period.

4. Centralize Visibility and Control

To ensure a reliable and optimal digital experience, IT must have centralized visibility and control over the entire network ecosystem. This is especially crucial for teams responsible for overseeing multiple sites, but it is even important for teams who manage one, onsite network. 

All networks are vast, complicated ecosystems. Issues are often intermittent, and can build on one another. To preserve operational efficiency and ensure users have the digital experience they need, IT must be able to tell at a glance where networks are working, and where they are not.

This visibility and control extends to any required troubleshooting. IT teams should not have to travel to remote sites to troubleshoot problems. They should be able to resolve issues from any location at any time. This ability also saves IT teams from needing to access either out-of-the-way locations while onsite, such as high ceilings, or crowded locations, such as open-plan offices or board rooms in order to resolve issues.

5. Prioritize Security

Network security is a high priority, especially with the influx of devices on today’s networks. To ensure a good digital experience, network users must know the network is trustworthy.

A few best practices in this area include: 

• Using network segmentation to isolate different network users. We recommend setting up three different networks: your most secure network should be for employees, a second network should be for IoT devices that often don’t support the strongest encryptions, and a third network should be reserved for guests.
• Enabling WPA3 encryption to protect the network used by employees.
• Defining and enforcing security policies for remote and hybrid employees. This should include measures such as using VPNs and MFA, and regularly updating router firmware.

6. Simplify Device Setup

Simplifying device setup helps network users and IT teams. The faster new devices are connected, the faster IT can move onto the next important task, and the faster the new technology will start improving users’ digital experience.

In regards to network analytics solutions, when enterprises adopt plug-and-play solutions, they make it easy for IT teams to be proactive in optimizing performance and preserving business continuity.

7. Focus on Future-Proofing (Prepare for Future Network Demands)

Every enterprise knows that its network demands are not static. The number of users, the types of applications and other technologies needed to support business strategies – all will change. Networks must be equipped to support this change. Otherwise, enterprises will face expensive network redesigns and unsupported users, which equals a disastrous digital experience.

There are a few different ways to design robust, future-proofed networks. Enterprises can focus on vendor agnostic solutions, and can research WiFi 6, 6E, and WiFi 7 options to determine which best supports their unique network and users’ needs.

We recommend gathering digital experience analytics for several months from your network before making any technology decisions. These analytics will allow you to see the current state of network performance and better predict what you need to maintain reliable connectivity into the future. 

Ensure Enterprise Growth and Stability

No enterprise can last for long without prioritizing a positive digital experience for all employees. These digital experience management best practices give organizations the technological support they need to ensure they know three things:

1. What their users are actually experiencing
2. How that compares to what enterprises want them to experience
3. How to bridge the gap between the two

For the best DEM, global enterprises trust our Wireless Intelligence Platform and DEX Agent.

The Wireless Intelligence Platform is the fastest and easiest way to proactively eliminate mission-disrupting WiFi and wired issues from any location. With WIP, enterprises optimize the digital experience before users ever know there’s a problem. Get a free trial here.

With the DEX Agent, enterprises get digital experience metrics directly from users. The DEX Agent application runs as a background Windows service on individual devices. It works with Intel WiFi chipsets, and the Intel Connectivity Analytics program, to send telemetry data to the Wyebot cloud infrastructure, giving global organizations a centralized platform for digital experience management. Download the datasheet and contact us for more information.

Wyebot is the leader in AI-driven WiFi Automation. Our sensor, cloud, and client device technologies eliminate wired and WiFi network issues and improve the digital experience for every user, independent of location. Our award-winning, first-to-market, innovative solutions are changing people’s lives in the enterprise, healthcare, manufacturing + warehousing, MSP, retail, and education industries.