Cognizanti

An annual journal produced by Cognizant

VOLUME 8 ISSUE 1 2015

Part II

Digital
Business
2020:
Getting there
from here!
Benchmarking Digital
A Digital Experience
Index Is Born

Cognizanti is an annual journal published by Cognizant. Our

mission is to provide unique insights, emerging strategies and
proven best practices that globally-minded companies can use in
their quest for business and IT performance excellence.
All articles published in Cognizanti represent the ideas and
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and not necessarily those of Cognizant. They are put forward
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Copyright 2015, Cognizant Technology Solutions

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permission of Cognizant.

Benchmarking Digital

A Digital Experience
Index Is Born
By Anand Chandramouli, Sanjay Fuloria and Nitin Bajaj

To successfully navigate
the digital transformation
journey, companies need to
continuously measure the full
spectrum of digital services
delivered to customers and
then assess the quality of the
digital experience. Doing so
can ensure they are not only
meeting user needs but also
outperforming rivals near
and far.
The digital re-imagination of business is
upending traditional customer behavior
and business practices. The next wave of
business growth, efficiency and effectiveness
is predicated on a robust and intuitive digital
strategy. The cornerstone of that strategy
is the ability to offer customers a rich and
relevant digital experience: the ability to
access products and services through an array
of comfortable and secure digital channels
(i.e., customer portals, mobile apps), with
minimal or no intermediation cost.
The evolving digital ecosystem is premised on
four major components: social, mobile, analytics and cloud technologies (aka, the SMAC
Stack). There is no right way to piece
together these components; the ultimate strategy will vary by company and industry. Given

the complexity involved, we believe its best

for these technology components to be assessed
individually and in a systematic way, to
understand how they contribute to, or in some
cases undermine, the delivery of a relevant and
meaningful digital customer experience.
To succeed with digital, companies need
a standard methodology and scoring
mechanism that can help them understand
their digital maturity in each component of
the SMAC Stack vis-a-vis their competitors,
and work to continuously improve it, to meet
if not exceed customer expectations.
By indexing the digital ecosystem by its component parts in every major industry sector,
digital strategists (CIOs, CDOs or CMOs)
can more effectively plan and make informed
business-technology investment decisions.

Mobile-First
Experience Index
Of the four technologies in the SMAC Stack,
mobile is arguably the most influential. The
proliferation of mobile devices has ushered in
mobile-first thinking at progressive companies
across industries, many of which are increasingly
designing their products and services to attract
and delight mobile users before replicating specific offerings for laptop and desktop users.
This is why we developed the Mobile-First
Experience Index, a digital maturity measurement methodology that gauges how
specific features and functions contribute to a
rewarding, meaningful and fulfilling customer
experience, across industries.
Cognizanti 4

As with all of our Mobile-First Experience

indices, the P&C Insurance Index will
examine customer-facing mobile apps across a
variety of mobility parameters, including:

Our Mobile-First Experience Index is the first

of our Digital Experience Index series, which
will measure how companies across industries
fare at each layer of the SMAC Stack (see
Quick Take for a metaphorical view, next
page). Just as the S&P 500 index tracks
broad equity markets and signals vital price
information, the Mobile-First Experience
Index will measure the digital savvy of organizations mobile apps in an objective, transparent and mathematically rigorous manner.
The first instance of this index will track the
functionalities and services offered by the top
100 U.S. P&C insurance companies apps
(see Figure 1 for an illustrative example).

OO
OO
OO

Customer service queries.

Product information availability.
Access to forms and documents.

In addition to its binary measurement, the

indexs results can be mined for pointers
to help organizations identify app features
and functionalities that can propel them to
industry-leading status.
The index will help answer questions such as:

Our methodology is predicated on the

presence/absence of application features.
The index is a simple mathematical gauge
of the manifestation (present or absent) of
a particular mobile app feature. If a feature
is present, a score is awarded based on its
assigned popularity; otherwise, a zero score is
given. The popularity of a feature is a simple
function of the number of companies that
include it in their app(s).

OO

OO

OO

What are the mobile application features

and functionalities that the top 100
companies in a sector offer?
What transactions can customers carry out
through mobile applications?
How seamless is the customer experience
that companies deliver between channels
customer portal vs. mobile app?

Indexing P&C Insurance Apps

Our inaugural Mobile-First Experience Index benchmarks the critical mobile
app capabilities of leading property and casualty industry companies. Here
is a sample of what the results might look like for the insurance sector.
Industry Index

350

Company 10

202

Company 9

203

Company 8
Company 7

223

Company 6

220

Company 5

227

Company 3

230

Company 1

Company
Information

Policy
Management

Claims
Management

Customer
Support

Notifications

Emergency
Assistance

Payments

Document

Index Score

234

Company 4

Company 2

Tools

209

286
299

Note: The total score represents the cumulative measure of the specific features or functions
contained in an individual companys app(s).
Figure 1

Quick Take
Indexing Digital Jewels
With the proliferation of mobile devices and applications, powered by exponentially growing
processor speed, we have a digital Indrajaal. Also known as Indras net,1 this term is a metaphor for
interrelatedness, and visualizes the universe as a vast net, with a jewel at each vertex. Each gem
represents an individual life form or unit of consciousness and is intimately connected to all the
others. Thus a change in one jewel is reflected in all the others.
In todays world, every individual is a connected jewel in the digital matrix. As people interact,
transact and do business, they generate an unprecedented data footprint, or Code
HaloTM, which when put to use, can amplify outcomes at a rate that a
linear, rational mind would find difficult to comprehend.
The proliferation of digital technologies whether mobile
phones, smart devices or broadband connectivity is often
described in non-linear terms, such as a hockey stick
(a plateau followed by a steep climb), or the silhouette of
Mount Fuji. This digital Indrajaal must be studied in-depth
and chronicled to understand the way it will transform our lives.

Gauging the Raging Digital Metamorphosis

Companies in the midst of a digital metamorphosis confront tough choices. Our digital
indices are intended to guide organizations on
this journey of transformation.

Digital Experience Index series will help

make sense of the exciting forces that are
already inspiring companies to reimagine
daily business transactions.

We firmly believe that the time is now to

chronicle the unfolding digital era. The

Note: Code HaloTM is a trademark of Cognizant

Technology Solutions.

Footnotes
1

Atharva Veda, Verse 8.8.6; The Avatamsaka Sutra, sourced from Indras Net, a book by Rajiv
Malhotra, Harper Collins, 2014.

Authors
Anand Chandramouli heads the Cognizant Research Center, which offers a range of research services. He
regularly writes on capital markets, and is currently championing research as a service (RaaS) an on-demand
research service delivery model. Anand is a statistician by training and has a wide range of interests spanning
economics, financial markets, strategy, philosophy and literature. He can be reached at Anand.Chandramouli@
cognizant.com | https://www.linkedin.com/pub/anand-chandramouli/52/93b/65.
Sanjay Fuloria, Ph.D, is a Senior Researcher with the Cognizant Research Center, where he oversees primary
research activities and writes thought leadership white papers based on both primary and secondary research.
He also manages the units research as a service (RaaS) projects. He has more than 14 years of industry-related
research experience. Sanjay can be reached at [email protected] | linkedin.com/in/sanjayfuloria.
Nitin Bajaj oversees research operations at the Cognizant Research Center and has over 14 years of experience
in the technology, management consulting and financial services industries. His area of research interest
is the intersection of personal technology, corporate culture and management. Nitin can be reached at
[email protected] | in.linkedin.com/in/nitinbajaj.
Cognizanti 6

About Cognizant
Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) is a leading provider of information technology,
consulting, and business process outsourcing services, dedicated to helping
the worlds leading companies build stronger businesses. Headquartered in
Teaneck, New Jersey (U.S.), Cognizant combines a passion for client satisfaction, technology innovation, deep industry and business process expertise, and a
global, collaborative workforce that embodies the future of work.
To learn more about Cognizant, please visit: www.cognizant.com.

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