The contradiction every leader feels
Digital transformation is still priority number one, yet customer experience scores across Australia are sliding. Why? Because too much of the budget - and the brain-space of your top people - is tied up nursing platforms nobody loves.
The Six Frictions
Over the past year, we've mapped six recurring pain-points inside mid-market stacks. They're not isolated issues; together they form a growth anchor.
| Friction | Quick pulse check |
|---|---|
| 1. Maintenance Tax | If more than 70% of the IT budget is "keeping the lights on", you are funding status-quo, not progress (Gartner, 2025). |
| 2. Agility Anchor | Forrester calls the rising backlog a "tech-debt tsunami"; nearly 70% of firms say it now slows every new feature launch (Forrester, 2024). |
| 3. Talent Repellent | 58% of developers are ready to quit over "embarrassing" legacy stacks (Storyblok, 2025). |
| 4. Silo Tax | Only 14% of Australian brands have a unified customer view despite first-party data being a top priority (Arktic Fox, 2025). |
| 5. Security Debt | Exploits of known, unpatched vulnerabilities grew 34% YoY and now drive one-fifth of breaches (Verizon, 2025). |
| 6. Experience Deficit | 37% of Australian brands saw CX scores fall in 2025 while another 58% stagnated (Forrester, 2025). |
Why productivity is the real casualty
Maintenance Tax doesn't just waste money; it blocks every new line item the CMO proposes. Agility Anchor means product teams ship weeks late, letting nimbler rivals set the pace. Talent Repellent drains priceless domain knowledge. Add the Silo Tax, and the data you already own sits idle while marketing buys lookalike audiences. Meanwhile, Security Debt keeps the board awake and Experience Deficit leaks customers in plain sight.
A smarter modernisation play
Big-bang re-platform projects are out of favour for good reason. Instead:
- Diagnose first - quantify each friction in hours lost and dollars trapped.
- Redeploy capital - shift 10% of "run" spend into "grow" pilots that prove quick ROI.
- Go composable, not colossal - plug in best-of-breed capabilities where the drag is worst, rather than ripping out everything at once.
- Measure talent impact - show how freeing engineers from bug-fix duty unlocks roadmap velocity.
One conversation to start un-anchoring
In 90 minutes we can map your six frictions, size the productivity upside, and give you a phased, budget-realistic roadmap.
Book a Spark Discovery Call: [email protected] | https://luminatecx.com/evolve
Stop letting yesterday's tech dictate tomorrow's limits. Let's turn the anchor into an engine.
References
Arktic Fox. (2025). 2025 Martech Maturity in Australia: High Hopes, Low Utilisation. https://licerainc.com/46054/2025-martech-maturity-in-australia-high-hopes-low-utilisation/
Forrester Research. (2024, November). AI rush is fuelling a tech-debt tsunami. In CFO Dive. https://www.cfodive.com/news/tech-debt-tsunami-building-amid-ai-craze-forrester/733984/
Forrester Research. (2025). Forrester CX Index 2025: Australia Highlights.
Gartner, Inc. (2025). Communicate IT Business Value: A Comprehensive Guide. https://www.gartner.com/en/information-technology/topics/business-value-of-it
Storyblok. (2025, June 10). 58% of Developers Are Considering Quitting Their Jobs Because of Inadequate and "Embarrassing" Legacy Tech Stacks. https://www.storyblok.com/mp/devbarrassment-survey
Verizon. (2025). 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report. https://www.verizon.com/business/resources/reports/2025-dbir-executive-summary.pdf