How it Works
DXR - Digital eXperience Rating
An Intuitive Metric for Universal, Emperical DEX Performance Measurement
DXR The Metric Behind ServiceDesk Optimizer (SdO)
DXR – A Universal, Empirical Digital Employee Experience (DEX) Metric
To measure Digital Employee Experience, SdO is built around a universal, empirical Digital Employee Experience Rating, or DXR, which is the ratio of User Wait Time to User Active Time, expressed as a percentage.
The DXR metric can be applied to most desktop entities:
1. DEX Events – periods of active time
2. User Sessions – a sequence of DEX events
3. Desktop Apps – DEX events for a particular exe
4. Web Apps – DEX events for a particular browser URL
5. PC's, Workstations, Virtual Desktops, Terminal Servers – DEX events for a particular desktop device
DXR is an intuitive metric that reflects the real-world user experience. For instance:
• A DXR of 5 means that the user is wating for 5% of the time
• A DXR of 10 means the user is wating for 10% of the time.
• and so on
Experience has shown that DXR values of 5 and below represent an acceptable Digital Experience. DXR values of 10 and over, however, represent a poor or degrading Digital Experience.
While SdO is currently deployed on Window platforms, DXR can be applied on any device that has a UI with an Active Time and Wait Time, including mobile devices, providing SdO with a future proof roadmap,
How does SdO Work?
A SdO agent is installed on the Windows Desktop endpoint which then sends user session activity as a series of DEX events to the SdO server where it is stored in a database.
Each DEX event includes these fields (amongst other fields):
|
Event Field |
Description |
|
Event Timestamp |
The date and time of event capture |
|
Active Time |
The amount of time (in secs) the user interacts with the Desktop. Note: Event ends when exe or URL changes or times-out after 60 seconds of inactivity |
|
User Wait Time |
The amount of time (in secs) the user is kept waiting by the desktop |
|
DXR (Digital Experience Rating) |
(User Wait Time / Active Time) * 100 |
|
Desktop App Name |
Exe file name |
|
Web App Name |
URL when Desktop App is a web browser |
|
CPU Bottleneck Detected Flag |
Flag set if CPU utilisation is > 80% |
|
RAM Bottleneck Detected Flag |
Flag set if RAM utilisation is > 80% |
|
Disk Bottleneck Detected Flag |
Flag set if a disk queue is > 2 |
|
NET Bottleneck Detected Flag |
Flag set if NET output queue is > 2 or NET input > 80% utilisation |
The SdO “smarts” are built into the SdO agent, in fact, some of the agent’s capabilities are currently “patent pending”.
The SdO server also hosts the SdO web apps. The SdO web app used most by support staff is the SdO Workbench which provides three core capabilities:
1. Identify User Sessions and Desktops with Poor or Degrading DXR
o Alerts are raised, and displayed in the SdO Overview Dashboard, when DXR thresholds are reached
o There is also the Rolling User Session vs DXR Dashboard, with a red/amber/green display which lists the currently active user Sessions and the DXR value for each user session. In this way support staff can proactively identify users who experiencing DEX issues without a support ticket even being raised. Yet!
2. Investigate and Resolve Digital Experience Issues
o When a user session has been identified as having DEX issues it can investigated using the deep-dive User Session Analysis and User Session DXR Replay capabilities.
o For each period of activity, the replay app displays:
· The DEX metrics, including the DXR metric, colour coded on the DXR value i.e. red, amber or green
· The wireframe outline of the user’s foreground window, colour coded on the DXR value. If the foreground window does not fit on the desktop the window coordinates are displayed in amber. If the foreground ground window is not visible on the desktop it is effectively invisible to the user and the coordinates are display in red as the use may think the desktop app has crashed.
· The name of the desktop app which owns the foreground window
· The current URL (aka Web App) if the desktop app owning the foreground window is a web browser.
· The resource bottleneck flags which display red if there are CPU, RAM, Disk or Network bottlenecks detected on the endpoint device.
· The network round trip time (RTT) for the communicating with the remote user.
· Note: a period of activity ends when the user changes foreground window or does not use the keyboard or mouse for 60 seconds
3. Digital Experience Analysis and Reporting
o Useful for understanding:
· Underlying DEX trends and objective proof of DEX performance e.g. to provide answers to any negative perceptions of DEX performance by user groups
· Which desktop apps, and web apps, are involved in periods of poor and degrading DEX performance
· Which hardware and software configurations deliver the best DEX performance
o Daily, Weekly DXR Trends
· Views of DXR by Computer, Desktop App, Web App, etc.
· Comparisons of DXR by Computer, Desktop App, Web App, etc.
o Active Desktop App and Web App Inventories – which Desktop Apps and Web Apps are being used most e.g. for ROI calculations
o Computer Hardware Config vs DXR history
o Computer Software Config vs DXR history