Holy Grail of going digital

In my previous Industry Insight, I covered the need for companies to map their customers' digital journeys and align their digital transformation strategy accordingly. Being technologically ready and able to do something is one thing, but having the will and organisational culture required to act effectively is an entirely different matter. To achieve the latter requires profound change and a deep understanding of the customer journey.

So, let's get to the crux of the matter - what is the Holy Grail of business in the digital age?

The only way to achieve the depth of information and data required is by acquiring a single view of customers and the application of real-time predictive analytics.

What do I mean by single view?

Single view solutions allow for the convergence of multiple channel touch points to a single view. It's a bird's eye view of the customer, regardless of how they interact with the organisation. Single view provides an automated data quality framework to filter, map, rationalise and de-duplicate customer information. It allows businesses to effortlessly manage up-to-date, comprehensive information from multiple channels. This empowers organisations with the ability to anticipate their customers' needs and to interact with them in a meaningful way.

Analytics are an inextricable part of any successful customer engagement endeavour. As the quality and quantity of data received continues to increase, analysts are able to gain an increasingly accurate nuanced understanding of customers.

Some of the most important information that can be gleaned from analysis includes: monitoring customer behaviour; highlighting preferences; measuring the effectiveness of campaigns; determining customisation effectiveness and the performance of distribution channels.

Historically, data was static - once recorded, it remained unchanged. Analysing this data can be likened to creating a snapshot of a user that one can look at to determine certain characteristics such as: demographics; relevance and eligibility.

However, real-time information creates dynamic data which is continually updated. Analysing dynamic data is like creating a constant live streaming reality show that permits the acquisition of much deeper insights into customer behaviour.

Therefore, companies must seek analytical tools that can process dynamic data in real-time, allowing the business to take maximum advantage of the increasing flow of rich data.

Gartner predicts that by 2020, more than 75% of companies will deploy advanced analytics as part of a platform or analytics application aimed at improving business decision-making. Companies are accelerating the shift in focus of their investments from measurement to analysis, forecasting and optimisation. Deployment of advanced analytics technologies is said to be to achieving those aims.

Where does South Africa stand in this digital revolution?

Analysing dynamic data is like creating a constant live streaming reality show.

Any CIOs/CEOs sitting on the fence wondering if they should start thinking about digital transformation may want to consider the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) comments that the time for experimentation with digital is over. IDC predicts that, by the end of 2017, two-thirds of the CEOs of the Forbes Global 2000 enterprises will have digital transformation at the centre of their corporate strategies. It further predicts that by 2020, 60% of these companies will have doubled their productivity by digitally transforming many processes from human to software-based delivery.

IDC confirms that transformation must be an enterprise-wide change that involves organisational and cultural disruption, business model innovation, and awareness of the digital ecosystem all the way through to connected products and services and deriving value out of information.

IDC talks about the four pillars of digital transformation: mobile; social; cloud; and analytics. It explains how digital transformation is one means of creating "anti-fragile" businesses that can weather, leverage, and actually thrive on disruptions.*

In the face of such statistics and predictions from globally respected research houses, why are some South African companies still playing a waiting game? The reasons can be various, but usually, the cost of acquiring the right partner with the requisite technology and skills to take them on the digital journey is top of the list. CIOs would do well to remember that 'local is lekker' and SA has a reservoir of IP that often flies below the radar.

International trends are hugely relevant for Africa, where the mobile subscriptions count alone is predicted to reach one billion by 2017. The commensurate business opportunities for South African companies that have invested in digital transformation and focused on ensuring they deliver consistent high quality experiences to their market, can only be described as immense.