Published on the 17/08/2016 | Written by Donovan Jackson
Put simply, digital transformation is a big deal for two very good reasons…
The first is that it makes doing business better. The second is that if you ignore it, be assured your competitors won’t.
That’s according to eBlueprint, an Australian outfit which is stepping up its activity in the New Zealand market. Pete Raleigh, digital practice lead at the company’s Auckland office, said at the root of the challenge is the increased number of channels and continuous connectivity.
“That means expectations are changing. People are engaging on a personal level through far more channels. Those engagements go beyond their friends and social networks and extend to relationships they form with businesses. If your business isn’t doing that and delivering great customer experiences, you could be limiting your chances of remaining competitive.”
Company founder Richard Lynders added that the ‘transformation’ part is about change. “Businesses are looking at how things are currently done and seeking ways to do it better and more efficiently. That doesn’t mean getting rid of existing technology systems, but it does mean realigning them and, where necessary, investing in new technology to facilitate that engagement of customers in this hyper-connected digital era.”
In his view, the end user experience is king and a fundamental driver of the necessity for New Zealand companies to chart their digital transformation strategy.
“User experience is one of the major reasons for investment in this journey. The combination of mobile services, social media and analytics is disrupting like never before. Take advantage of it, and you can drive the success of teams, enable new business models and innovations, and put customers at the centre of everything you do.”
“If your business isn’t delivering great customer experiences, you could be limiting your chances of remaining competitive.”
Now more than ever, said Lynders, customers drive business success; with more variety and more choice, they have the power to switch (and are doing so in droves in, for example, the electricity industry. According to the Electricity Authority, some 418,000 consumers changed their provider in 2015). “You have to leverage digital technology to understand customer needs and behaviours, and provide more humanised and enhanced experiences for end users,” he said – or face being left out in the cold as customers seek and find those experiences elsewhere.
Much like IT is transversal across industries, Raleigh said digital transformation initiatives span a company’s various divisions and processes. “It’s really a push to being online, being efficient and removing bottlenecks to operations. It’s about eliminating paperwork, making it easier to engage with employees, partners and customers by expanding the reach of your business channels to deliver that enhanced user experience.”
While many, perhaps even most (given the prevalence and accessibility of the digital technologies described by Gartner as a nexus of forces) companies are on some sort of a digital transformation journey, what can be lacking is strategic direction. In this high-stakes game, said Raleigh, that’s what eBlueprint delivers, underpinned by its integration, cloud services, digital and consulting practices.
“Not having a comprehensive strategy is a real risk – but there’s a further challenge in that having a 5-year plan and strategy is insufficient. The rate of change is constant, so you need to change direction in favour of a more flexible, more frequently updated digital strategy which is representative of what’s happening now and what’s coming down the track.”
To help with introducing eBlueprint’s approach to digital transformation, an eBook has been created to coincide with their arrival in New Zealand. Readers can register to download the ‘Mapping the Digital Transformation Journey’ eBook off the eBlueprint website.
