Relate Technologies has repositioned itself to take advantage of the so-called "age of the customer" in a bid to boost its top line 50% year-on-year.
The Cape Town-based application development company and Microsoft partner will focus on creating solutions that aid its clients in dealing with customers' demands for information in an age when customer engagement channels have exploded. MD Geoff Lander says the company has developed a three-year plan that he anticipates will aid revenue growth by at least 15% year-on-year.
Established in 2004, Relate Technologies is an application development company developing custom business applications for companies in SA, the UK and the US. Its new strategy is based on research and findings from IT industry analysts, Forrester Research and Gartner.
Lander says the 40-employee-strong company previously focused on building financial and operating systems, and now wants to invest in products that will fulfil customers' needs. These products fit into four segments: new customer acquisition, the onboarding process, client retention, and customer service.
New products
Relate is developing solutions on platforms such as mobile and near-field communication (NFC) to speak to each of these segments, says Lander. NFC is one of its biggest focus areas and the company is looking at developing a platform structure, he adds.
"Our new strategy and positioning takes our strength of using technology to help companies 'work smarter' and refocuses this strength on helping companies use technology to win, serve and retain customers by improving the customer experience across all touch points," says Lander.
Head of marketing and public relations Julian Diaz explains the group is looking at its existing solutions and seeing how these can be repurposed to speed up the process of putting information into customers' hands. He says the company will take its current offerings and develop these into new applications.
Kobus van der Westhuizen, head of innovation, adds the group is also incentivising its staff to come up with ideas that can provide "customer service at the speed of thumbs". His aim is to make service so simple and fast that calls to contact centres are eliminated.
To do this, Relate is using analytics to determine when people phone call centres, and for what, to create proactive solutions, says Van der Westhuizen. Diaz adds the company is not limited in terms of the platforms or products it can develop.
As a Microsoft partner, the company also offers SharePoint and Dynamics CRM consulting and development services.
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