At this point it's well documented that no one likes to wait for webpages to load. On top of it organizations across industries understand that web performance impacts the bottom line.The problem is delivering fast, rich, engaging web experiences across an increasing variety of browsers, mobile devices, networks and locations is not easy. To find out more about the challenges of delivering quality web and mobile experiences in this complex environment Akamai commissioned Forrester Consulting to survey 210 US IT professionals across various industries. The resulting Forrester Consulting report, "Shifting Performance Strategies And Solutions For Mobile And Web Delivery," can be found here.

This is the first in a series of posts where we will take a deeper look at the key findings from the report and provide best practices on how to overcome the web and mobile performance challenges of today - and tomorrow. As mentioned above the majority of organizations realize web performance impacts the bottom line. Yet Forrester found that the minority of organizations measure the impact of web application performance on the business.
 

• Only 20 percent of respondents currently quantify or capture the business impact of slow loading web or mobile applications

• 42 percent don't currently track the impact of performance on the business but plan to do so in the next 12 months

• 38 percent don't have any plans to do this within the next 12 months 

Does it matter that we have no insight into the impact of web performance on the business?

Yes. Yes; it does. In an era of where doing more with less has become a corporate mandate IT organizations and the LoB require a viable business case for web and mobile performance optimization. Little to no visibility into the business impact of web performance can result in a lack of business case, budget and resources for web performance optimization.

• Only 22 percent of respondents have been able to adapt the web performance optimization techniques and technologies they need
• Close to 70 percent know that they need to optimize web performance but are left without the business case for the required resources

So what can we do about this?

There are various solutions that enable you to show the business impact of web performance. These solutions range from very limited and free to full featured and expensive. There are plenty of organizations that have highlighted the fact that web performance is a business issue and have reaped the associated benefits. Walmart for example has shared some of their findings on how to measure the impact of web performance on the business (more information and full presentation available here). You can learn from their example.

The fact remains - no visibility into the business impact of web performance - equals no business case for optimization - which often equals no budget.

In our next post we will cover rising business and end-user web experience expectations and why delivering quality experiences has become so difficult. In the meantime if you are interested in learning more download the report "Shifting Performance Strategies And Solutions For Mobile And Web Delivery" here.

Lorenz Jakober is a senior product marketing manager at Akamai