I also bet that your company has a website and probably a Facebook or Linkedin page and a Twitter account, and that employees are able access email and some other apps when they are out and about.
Thanks to digital and mobile technologies, every company – including your own – regardless of the industry they operate in, is becoming a digital company: a company that uses digital technologies to engage with employees, customers and suppliers. These three key stakeholder groups, who now expect to engage with organisations on and offline, via a range of mediums including phone, direct mail, e-newsletters and social media, in a seamless way, are driving this shift.
In reality however, few companies have mastered the art of delivering this effortless and coherent experience across multiple channels, where information about customers or employees is shared between channels and the level of service they receive is consistent across them all. In fact, according to an Economist survey from last year, only about one-fifth of small-businesses say their company delivers a seamless omni-channel experience.
To be honest, this is not entirely surprising. Digital transformation is complex, requiring changes not only to technology and business processes, but also to corporate culture.
According to Constellation Research, a firm that specialises in technology-enabled change, digital transformation is really about the business model shift that allows organisations to change the way they engage with customers. Citing the example of Uber, Constellation says, “They didn’t just add on a mobile tracker to schedule drivers more efficiently, they used a technology-enabled business model to disrupt the industry and engage with customers in a fresh way.” Of course, as a start-up it was easier for Uber to do this. What’s really hard for most companies is adapting their existing IT and business processes.
So what can they do to ease the pain?
A good first step is often to roll-out an open-standards mobile platform so that existing software can easily be made available to employees in the form of mobile apps. The chances are you already have this capability in your business.
So then what? Use the mobile platform to develop cross-channel apps. This is why it’s vital to have an open standards approach: it means you don’t have to worry about integration issues, even if you’re working with different suppliers. Cross-channel apps will make your data available to a much wider range of employees, regardless of how and where it was collected and stored.
Another key component of that transformation is the integration of mobility into the customer experience. As well as the mobile optimisation of your website, it’s worth thinking about creating specific mobile apps for particular customer service issues or requirements. The Domino’s pizza ordering app or the Addison Lee cab booking app spring to mind here. It’s not just consumer brands that this is relevant for too – plenty of B2B organisations also have very successful customer apps, including Sage and Microsoft.
At the same time it’s important to address any company culture that might inhibit digital transformation. In most organisations, different departments are responsible for different parts of the customer experience and the related data and are often unwilling to cede control or even share. Since a true digital business relies on open-ness and a single view of the customer, it’s vital that these attitudes are changed – from the top down.
Finally in order to make the transformation to a digital enterprise as painless as possible, I would recommend creating a digital transformation map that details where you are today, your end-goal and how you plan to get there. You may be surprised at the number of dependences required for each step of the journey. However don’t be discouraged: whether planned or not, the extent to which today’s businesses are already digital enterprises is pleasantly surprising.
Ioan MacRae, Head of the midmarket at Avaya
