A November 2016 publication from Forbes, in association with Hitachi, reported the results of a survey of 573 top executives worldwide. The research, appropriately titled How to Win at Digital Transformation, highlighted several important findings on digital transformation priorities, and outlined how companies can digitally transform their operations.
It’s a somewhat nebulous goal. One interesting quote from the Forbes article on the role of technology in digital transformation states that, “digital transformation is not about technology. Rather, it uses technology as a means to an end and goes beyond business.” This actually makes a lot of sense. Although keeping up with technology is a priority for organizations today, the end goal should always be a business outcome, not a specific technology. This is a more realistic approach than the all too common one in which companies spend to purchase solutions without having a clear path to leveraging them or an idea of what they ultimately will return in revenue and savings.
Instead, digital transformation has to start with understanding the people, culture and processes that already exist. Only when there is consensus on what these are like can organizations move forward to choose the technologies and tools they will need to drive transformation.
This is especially true in the Customer Communications Management (CCM) industry, where many businesses are focused on checking off a list of communications channels and turning off print, rather than driving a strategy of customer engagement using technology and business process improvement.
According to Forbes’ research, over half of all businesses surveyed plan on investing in digitization and data and analytics capabilities over the next two years. This is not surprising given that most business users outside of IT are starving for analytics capabilities to help them derive business insights. The challenge will be in finding and retaining technical staff to do this.
Unfortunately, many companies lack the core competencies internally to be leaders outside of their own lines of business. When it comes to digital transformation, strategically outsourcing these services to a trusted vendor is an excellent option for these companies, as it brings a wealth of specialized knowledge to the table in an easily implementable approach that can rapidly transform a company’s digital capabilities.
When it comes to customer communications management, many companies are struggling in their interactions with consumers who are accustomed to excellent experiences from companies like Uber and Amazon. They try to improve their customer touchpoints across proliferating channels by investing in technologies like composition tools and archival solutions. However, integrating these tools into existing systems and workflows is a complex endeavor that is outside the skill set of most organizations, especially those with large investments in legacy systems.
It’s a departure from the not invented here syndrome traditionally found in large organizations, but today many realize that they can no longer go it alone but need to bring in partners to help them. For these organizations, outsourcing their customer communications is a faster path to communications success, one that gets them best in class communications that can be implemented and scaled at the speed they need to remain agile.
DataOceans offers a customer communications management solution that help companies in many industries improve existing customer communications, including billing and invoicing for print, portal, tablet and text. Newly transformed customer communications can be implemented in as little as 90 days without significant involvement of client IT resources and offer highly targeted and personalized customer experiences that increase revenue and improve efficiencies. Talk to one of our CCM experts to learn more.
