After committing to a customer focus, businesses must explore how IT can make the digital business transformation occur for both external- and internal-facing clients.
Digital at scale is defined differently by every business, but the one thing in common to all is the need to use technology to improve how the customer experience is delivered, whether it’s customer-facing or behind the scenes. This could mean an improved shopping cart experience for an online retailer a highly-secure app for a bank or a patient portal for a healthcare provider. All of the experiences live in the mobile sphere, where many searches and purchases occur in today’s digital world.
The quality of the behind-the-scenes IT integration largely is responsible for a consumer’s impression of the experience: the site must load quickly; there must be high-quality images and video; and timely customer service options.
Digital Business Transformation Defined
Digital transformation is the front, middle and back operations of any business. There are customer-facing operations. And operations the customer never sees, but which can positively impact them and the business.
These areas are:
• The front encompasses the digital business and includes interactive, connected products and analytics
• The middle covers the operations that keep the business moving forward and that the customer never sees, such as software platforms and process automation
• The back contains the systems and technologies that keep a business humming and relevant, including IT security, engineering and modernization through the transformation of legacy systems
In McKinsey’s Digital @ Scale, the authors describe a concept similar to the one we use at Cognizant. Especially interesting is the depiction of “establishing an ‘amoeba’ IT and organizational foundation that learns and evolves.” An “amoeba IT” organization grows, adapts and changes shape over time. This type of IT organism has the ability to respond quickly to customer demands by rolling out new ways to create user-friendly interactions with the company to drive engagement and, ultimately, sales. A flexible IT organization helps create positive customer experiences.
And a positive user experience and feeling translates into more sales on and offline, according to the Google research. That’s right, even sales in brick-and-mortar businesses get a boost from positive, IT-influenced online capabilities. Google reports that mobile-based shoppers are more than “2.3 times as likely to make an in-store purchase” compared to other devices. While many consumers regularly use retail shops for “showrooming,” a new contingent of buyers is actually interested in using the online experience to inform offline purchases. And companies are taking advantage of the online experience to drive new and returning customers to stores in the real world: “Retailers are now looking at their stores as ways of enhancing the customer experience, making their locations destinations in their own right by running themed events to showcase new products, having experts on hand to help consumers compare products and give advice, or offering classes to show how to use new purchases such as cameras or phones,” according to Cognizant’s perspective.
Take, for instance, the hip eyewear retailer Warby Parker, which began its life as an online-only retailer. The company’s use of technology has allowed it to move from the purely digital world to the physical world by building retail shops around the country. By owning both ends (online and offline) of the customer experience, the company helps customers experience their products before buying, negating the disastrous financial effects of showrooming. Companies built on the internet like Warby Parker have a distinct advantage compared to legacy concerns: Starting from scratch today allows companies to organize and integrate technology into all aspects of operations. It’s, of course, more difficult to do if the business has existed for many years and advanced IT implementations through cobbled-together solutions brought together over many years. But it’s not impossible. In fact, traditional stores that roll out a full digital experience may have an advantage because of their existing real-world stores if they can quickly move to improve the online experience.
Increasingly, retail store foot traffic starts with the online experience, which is predicated on exceptional IT proficiency. Sometimes these skills are available within an organization, but many times companies must look outside the four walls of the business to find the latest thinking about and ways to attract new and legacy customers.
No matter where you find your business as it relates to the continuum of technology, you’ll need to decide which direction is right for your business:
• building out a resilient and nimble IT infrastructure;
• bringing IT services consultants; or
• some combination of the two.
These are the ways to ensure digital at scale succeeds in any business setting. As technology continues to advance and competitors take advantage of it, the organizations that lag in adoption will face serious questions about long-term viability.
The only thing that’s certain: Doing nothing is not an option.
Phil Walsh is Head of North American Field Marketing at Cognizant, a Fortune 200 company and one of the world's leading professional services companies, transforming clients' business, operating and technology models for the digital era. Our unique industry-based, consultative approach helps clients envision, build and run more innovative and efficient businesses. Phil has a Master of Business Administration from Wingate University.