According to a report released in August by IDC, global spending on IT products and services is growing steadily, and is expected to increase from $2.4 billion in 2016 to more than $2.7 billion in 2020.
Most of this will come from companies that invest in cloud, mobility, and big data to advance their Digital Transformation process.
Digital Transformation is one of the major catalysts in the current evolution of companies. It is an evolutionary process that goes beyond new technologies and information systems, expanding also into the modernization of business culture, processes and models.
Consumers and employees change much faster than companies are able to adapt, creating critical issues in departments and business processes (such as marketing, sales, services, and innovation).
Vision
In the present scenario, it is crucial to analyze and rethink the entire customer experience, including all touchpoints with the company, services and products.
The term Digital Transformation means the process that redefines and renders the overall offer of your business more competitive by analyzing and listening to the needs of the market and through the use of digital technologies.
— Fabio Lalli, CEO @ IQUII
In this context, focus on Customer Experience is increasingly important in the process of the digital transformation of a company.
Creating a collaborative and constructive internal pathway that drives your company towards a customer-centric approach is, however, often a critical element: the IT department plays a key role in the process of transformation but in many cases it is not connected to the involvement of all the other company functions such as business and marketing.
The risk of a fragmented, or IT-centric approach is to overlook the creation of a knowledge-based culture of consumer expectations, preferences and values in the face of a culture based on technological integration without an organic design.
It is therefore clear that even though Customer Experience is one of the key drivers of Digital Transformation, end-user centrality often remains a concept that is difficult to apply.
A real transformation takes place when the use of digital technologies leads to a change in the way a company operates, and in particular in interactions with its customers and the value they generate.
The recent report by the Altimeter Group “The 2016 State of Digital Transformation” defines Digital Transformation as redefining investments in new technologies, business models and processes to generate value for its customers and employees and compete more effectively in a Digital economy in constant change.
The drivers of the Digital Transformation
According to research published by Brian Solis, 55% of corporate digital transformation managers identify their primary catalyst in “transforming customer behaviors and preferences”.
The other factors driving the process of digital transformation of companies are:
· for 53%, growth opportunities in new markets;
· for 49%, influenced by the pressure exerted by the competitive advantage acquired by competitors more advanced in the process of digital transformation;
· finally, 42% point to new regulatory standards.
Inspiring
Today, companies undergo modernization processes to varying degrees, modifying systems, models, processes and architectures along the path.
Those who choose to invest in knowledge of the customer experience and the digital and mobile journey, focusing on a customer-centric approach, are able to identify spendable insights and concrete goals for their business.
But, if 50% of companies study and map the customer journey of their clients, only 20% focus on the mobile and the micro-moments that characterize it.
Mobile has paved the way for what Google has termed “micro-moments”, which are completely overturning traditional consumer paths by moving the do, buy and learn moments onto mobile.
This shift has led to a fragmentation of the customer journey into hundreds of micro touchpoints where people search for an on-demand customer experience (real-time content, reviews, experiences, and information, optimized for their smartphone).
Including the strong impact of mobile on consumer behavior, decisions and values, companies with a resilient infrastructure are then able to adapt to these and emerging trends and technologies (wearable, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual and Augmented Reality).
The factors driving companies in Digital Transformation
If customer experience continues to play a key role in the digital transformation process, other factors influencing the company’s actions and choices towards maturity include innovation, agility and digital relevance.
Digital Transformation requires a multidisciplinary approach that involves more actors, processes and knowledge:
· Governance and Leadership must be able to guide business evolution;
· People and Operations must be involved in the process of transformation and change;
· Creating processes and strategies that improve touchpoints and customer experience;
· Introducing figures and competencies within the organization that increase Digital Literacy;
· Technological integration between functions, groups and processes to support a holistic customer experience;
· Collection of Data, Insight, and Analytics, and the measurement of initiatives developed by the organization.
This last point is particularly important for those companies that are pursuing a digital transformation process.
The lack of data or ROI that can make the Digital Transformation’s value measurable (highlighted as one of the biggest challenges by 69% of companies) curbs growth towards digital relevance.
What are the interesting metrics in the Digital Transformation process?
In the Big Data era, many companies still have difficulty gathering, understanding and planning activities from the data and insights they have available.
The success of the actions taken by the organization is closely related to customer satisfaction (28%), traffic generated on their channels and productivity (27%) as well as revenue (26%), and only after that is customer experience perceived as a metric to be considered (25%).
Traditional metrics are no longer able to measure new paradigms, channels, experiences, content, and technologies in their entirety.
The risk is to waste energy by monitoring individual efforts delivered without understanding that every action must be integrated into a comprehensive strategy that requires integrated measurement.
This type of measurement and the relevance of the KPIs evolve to the progress of the Digital Transformation maturity stage, when it becomes necessary to trace the common roadmap to departments, integrate consumer experiences and business performance indicators.
The 6 stages of Digital Transformation
In fact, the Digital Transformation of a company can be broken down into six phases that lead to maturity and which, as defined by the Altimeter group, are:
1. Business as usual: in the first stage the organization maintains a traditional and sedentary perspective of its customers, processes, models, metrics, business models and technologies;
2. Present and active: first experimentation attempts are initiated within the organization with the aim of improving and increasing specific touchpoints and processes;
3. Formalized: in the third stage experimentation becomes intentional, initiatives become more relevant, requiring the involvement of the executive branch for new resources and technologies;
4. Strategic: splinter groups within the company recognize the strength of the actions taken and a strategic roadmap identifying ownership, effort and investment in digital transformation begins;
5. Converged: a dedicated team guides strategy and operations based on a customer-centric approach and business goals. A new organizational infrastructure takes shape;
6. Innovative and adaptive: all company functions recognize digital transformation as a process of constant change and a new ecosystem is formed to identify market trends and emerging technologies.
The benefits of digital transformation
Digital Transformation is a steady and incremental process that must be pursued within the long-term perspective.
The benefits resulting from it take on more value over time, leading to returns on non-negligible investments, such as:
· Increase in market share (41%);
· Increased customer and employee engagement (37%);
· Increased traffic volume generated by web and mobile (32%);
· Increase in revenue (30%).
Rethink Loyalty in the Digital Age
The focus shift from a sales-oriented vision to a customer-oriented one has brought to the fore the value of Loyalty for brands and companies.
Digital has created the opportunity to build a much more personal and unique relationship with consumers, boosting the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) by cultivating loyalty and retention rather than pursuing a steady acquisition of new consumers.
Omnichannels, system integration, and new digital touchpoints today allow us to rethink Loyalty in qualitative terms: demand is no longer how to build loyalty with its consumers, but what kind of loyalty will it generate
People want to interact with companies in ways and on channels that are part of their daily routines and activities.
Touchpoints change and move where users interact, as in messaging platforms.
It is no coincidence that the Bot explosion began with their introduction on Facebook Messenger, which enabled a new engagement tool for more than 1 billion users (MAUs).
With the continuous improvements made by Facebook, it is possible for companies to create loyalty and rewarding programs within the platform.
In November, there was news of an agreement between Facebook and Paypal introducing the payment system within Messenger and expanding the functionality that Bots make available to companies and retailers.
Of the potentialities and prospects of Bots, we have discussed it more in depth in our free eBook on Business ChatBots.
We have also developed, still in private beta, our Saas JeegBot platform through which to activate, autonomously manage, and monitor your own Bots for FB Messenger
Over the past year, thanks to the trust of some of our customers, we have consolidated our experience in the area of system integration and the improvement of user experiences through the creation of integrated strategies focused on data management, integration between online and offline and different systems and a vision directed to multichannel and customer experience.
Our role as System Integrator has led to the emergence of projects and architectures that can communicate with different systems and technologies by creating digital transformation paths.
InsideIQUII
We help brands and companies create change, streamlining processes and managing flows and information.
We have advanced projects that we will continue to talk to you about in the coming weeks in the Retail sector, focusing on the integration of eCommerce, CRM and legacy systems through Middleware that can enhance Loyalty and Gaming mechanics like that realized for Original Marines.
In Sport, we have also worked on creating slimline systems and architectures that are flexible to customer needs and integrated into mobile touchpoints such as FIR Live Score, the all-in-one platform for data entry and the production in real-time of content developed for the Italian Rugby Federation.
One experience that has enabled us to acquire another valuable background in Mobile, Sport and large events was that of the International BNL of Italy and the implementation of the official #IBI16 app.
If you are interested in understanding what opportunities this can generate for your business, contact us for a personal consultation.
