BY Guest Writer
We now have a more well-connected globe with the pandemic, which further strengthens conversations around digital transformation that addresses how we use technology to create better experiences for interconnected customers, improve overall efficiency, drive change and innovation while improving the timeliness and quality of business decisions. At the root of it all, we must realize that the future of work is digital and we need to change how humans approach work and productivity measures by re-inventing the work-flow processes and communication channels.
Of all the popular ideas of the Internet boom, one of the most dangerously influential was Metcalfe’s Law. Simply put, it says that the value of a communications network is proportional to the square of the number of its users. Metcalfe’s Law tries to put figures around the astronomical increase in the value derivable when things are connected. Robert M. Metcalfe, one of the inventors of Ethernet, while trying to quantitatively explain the internet boom described it with the two to the power of number of users less one i.e. 2^(n-1). This revealed the possibilities of businesses when seamlessly connected via technology. Lets take for an example a business that has only one hundred (100) customers; IF CONNECTED, Metcalfe says it has 2^99 possibilities, that is, six point three four times ten to the twenty-ninth power (6.34e29) otherwise pronounced 0.634 nonillion opportunities of interactions by US definition. Imagine what you can make of those many possibilities with human agents and interests, emotions and interaction choices. Knowing this, what would you like to make possible in your business venture with seamless interconnectedness?
The internet revolution just started as the new definition of work emerges (work-from-home or wherever you are), internet connectivity increases (future is mobile), and artificial intelligence becomes second-nature. The foregoing has made technology a go-to for the required transformation, that puts value offering for innovative business solutions a click away from customers all across the globe.
The law is said to be true for any type of communications network, whether it involves telephones, computers, or users of the World Wide Web. While quality professionals have gone on to define value as something that is done right the first time, has a change of state and someone is willing to pay for same; it remains inevitable that even that perception increases with more customer demand. You should immediately see why venture capital organizations are willing to stake huge moneys on technology-driven products with fast growing community of users and possibilities.
Building a digital organization requires the deployment of technology as a competitive edge for the external and internal engagements. It is however worthy to note that transformation is a process or journey that must begin with a strategic end in mind, which entirely harnesses the options made available by new technologies. A good strategic path needs to engage with all stakeholders (internal and external customers) to find common winning grounds that places on the table core business objectives. Do engage a tech expert to help stretch these thoughts further.
Aside from interconnectedness, Leveraging on Analytics helps us effectively filter through the large amount of seemingly daunting data we generate. Numbers don’t lie they tell us, but what is your business doing with the numbers? Minding those digits bring to your awareness new trends and options hidden within the pile. Valuable insights can be discovered about customer behaviors, buying patterns and their experiences, and preferences. Patterns spotted from analytics can completely revolutionize how you do business, what you are focused on and what you should rather be putting your energies behind. How should you be serving your customers based on what they currently want or will want in the near future? This is how the future is created with humans and value delivery at its core.
Can you create realtime capabilities that allow you respond swiftly to uncertainties and enable on-time interaction with customers? The power of right information, sales motivation (to drive acceptance and conversion) and product improvements should be offered to customers in a timely manner. This includes proposing and implementing solutions to existing pain-points around their current subscriptions on your bouquet. You can also use analytics to measure products usage activity while paying close attention to how that impacts your bottomline numbers. You can then use this discovery to cross-sell and upsell complementary and premium services to active customers and to provide additional value for their purchases. What are your customers saying and what promotions and incentives are targeted at those desires? You ultimately want them to become ambassadors after they have bought. How many low activity customers can you turn into loyal before they move on to a competitor? Yes, analytics helps you proactively re-engage with customers, while reducing loss of existing business.
Despite the need for a good strategy, the businesses across the world experience a space and time challenge, which internet technologies attempt to solve with ease. Whereas, business owners and the workforce must be aware that humans are daily getting hooked on products and services that have second-nature triggers, allow them be in control, variably rewards their usage, and offer non-static investment options. The mix of a good strategy and the hooked philosophy deliver top-of-the-mind people-centered solutions.
It, however, is no news that digital transformation will: save you a lot of cost while improving efficiency, empower your workforce, motivate innovation, better the overall customer experience, and speed up how you make decisions. All the afore leave you with a transformed business. It then becomes necessary to realize that everything (people, processes, and products) is connected and must remain so for maximum impact. Yes, the ability to connect diversities including humans and machines bring new narratives to the fore – like automation, self-driving cars, shuttle to the moon, humans like birds, humans walking on water and a lot more I’m-possible realities. How can you take your entire business to the mobile tap of a device? How can you seamlessly connect all stakeholders’ interest in simple clicks on-the-go? Can your business become available every time and what automations will that require? What experiences are your customers craving to be delighted with that can be added to your product spice?
In some of my classes, I tell participants to start by imagining the impossible, and yes that is where you should start your value creation process because humans want more. Our customers have expectations and so do our employees, now imagine what becomes immediately possible when we tow the co-creation path and deploy continuous improvement through the use of technology. I am signing out for now, yours in tech, Olufemi Ariyo.
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