How CEOs can take advantage of digital transformation

There is an urgent need for CEOs to listen to their customers in order to thrive amid digitalization.

Digital transformation continues to reach new heights. Today, it’s one of the biggest buzzwords that everyone is using.

“Disrupt or be disrupted” has consequently become the stern warning given to all companies who choose to stay on their course without taking heed of the new advances in the digital shift—or else, their businesses may become obsolete.

As the digital disruption takes root with digital transformation on the agenda of many organizations, the big questions now are: How can CEOs fully take advantage of it? How can digital transformation translate to growth, especially for companies in the Philippines?

Let’s start with the “why.”

As digital technologies continue to flourish, there is an urgent need for CEOs to listen to their customers in order to thrive amid digitalization.

With consumer demand fueling the economy, now is the time when the ‘customer is king.’

In fact, the Philippines remains the second highest in terms of consumer optimism, according to a Nielsen study.

With such consumer optimism driving our economy, companies need to start listening more to how customers access solutions or how they transact to avail themselves of services.

As technology continues to change our way of life, organizations need to ensure that today’s customers are satisfied with their digital experience.

A Philippine DX Report by SAP – https://technology.inquirer.net/50652/only-half-of-consumers-in-the-ph-are-delighted-with-their-digital-experience – revealed that consumers who are delighted with their digital experience were over eight times more likely to stay with a brand than those who were unsatisfied.

For Filipino organizations, there is an urgent need for them to think of going digital and to catch up with the demands of customers.

To quote Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP, “the pace of adoption has gone from 10 years to as little as a week.”

How will organizations take on digital transformation?

We have the “why” and now comes the “how.”

How can CEOs address the urgency for digital transformation?

With the different legacy systems and all kinds of methodologies required by businesses to run, CEOs around the world, including those of the Philippines, must first address complexity.

In trying to create better business functions, complexity becomes a burden for organizations, especially with the business processes, systems, and procedures that can affect their ability to be part of a globally competitive landscape.

Now more than ever, companies are facing an overwhelming volume of data and pressure to boost productivity. Employees also demand more purpose and new skill sets that will help them go about their tasks.

To address these difficulties, companies will need a suite of solutions that will allow them to draw meaningful insights from their data and effectively allocate resources to their customers to become intelligent enterprises—all while giving them the opportunity to thrive in the digital shift.

Consider these solutions as foundations that tie together all critical business processes and data-driven insights to better predict, stimulate and anticipate business outcomes, with the goal of helping organizations run intelligently.

This is what SAP believes in and it has provided us a clearer basis to create industry-based innovations that reflect our efforts in helping different lines of business as they lean towards the digital transformation.

When we talk about intelligent enterprise, it refers to a concept that operates with visibility, focus and agility to achieve better outcomes.

It does more with less, and empowers employees through process automation, delivers best-in-class customer experience and invents new business models and revenue streams.

Before becoming an intelligent enterprise, companies must first consider the three key areas of technology: (1) an integrated suite to bring intelligence into the applications used to manage customers, supply chains, networks, employees and core business processes; (2) a digital platform, to handle data from any source (1st party or 3rd party), in any format (structured or unstructured), and support the development, integration and extension of business applications; and (3) intelligent technologies, to apply intelligence to data and processes, through innovations such as machine learning, advanced analytics and Internet of Things.

By becoming an intelligent enterprise, companies can achieve game-changing outcomes faster, more effectively, and with less risk.

There are many possibilities to:

* Do more with less, and empower employees – through process automation, freeing time for people to do more meaningful work

* Deliver a best-in-class customer experience – by anticipating and proactively responding to end-customer needs

* Invent new business models and revenue streams – by monetizing data-driven capabilities and applying core competencies in new ways.

CEOs can strengthen their digital journey and take advantage of being an intelligent enterprise.

With a good and reliable partner to help them, organizations can achieve their desired outcomes and create the best digital experience for customers. —CONTRIBUTED