6 Key Areas essential to any Retailer’s Transformation Strategy as Retailing continues to change rapidly because of digital technology

In the midst of the extraordinary change being driven by online retailing, major retailers worldwide are continually adjusting strategy to create value. But competing priorities and distractions can lead retailers to forget perhaps the most important underpinning of all strategic imperatives: customer empathy. The irony of this, and the appeal, is that based on this simple frame of reference – putting yourself in your customers’ shoes – most retailers already know how to win.

In the name of innovation, many retailers often implement new systems that are intended to reduce cost, improve sales and be good for customers, but, in fact, if they had listened to their customers the retailers would have learned they wanted something different.

Although all industries are still in the midst of digital transformation, other industries, such as travel and banking, aren’t as fixated on channels and haven’t fallen into this trap. They have learned to deliver seamless, convenient, non-intrusive, enabling experiences. Retailers that do the same have the best chance of balancing returns on investment and increasing share of wallet with delighted, brand-loyal customers.

Bottom-line takeaways in six key areas essential to any retailer’s transformation strategy: mobile, social media, personalized marketing, cross-channel integration, loyalty, and digital shopping.

1. MOBILE - Mobility is perhaps the most important channel of all. Retailers need to adopt a “mobile-first” model for deployment to shoppers and associates given the inherent rapid change and ubiquity of mobile interaction. The vast majority of shoppers are now connected almost every waking hour of their day. But retailers haven’t caught up.
2. SOCIAL MEDIA – Although shoppers are very active on social media, it’s their platform and they really don’t want the noise that many retailers generate: more than 60% of surveyed shoppers said their purchases are not influenced by social media.
3. PERSONALIZED MARKETING – Personalisation runs hot and cold. Retailers understand the power. Shoppers are hungry for more relevant, customized experiences.
4. CROSS-CHANNEL INTEGRATION – Customers want it all – the convenience of online shopping with the comfort and immediacy of the in-store experience. And they want to use their devices to research and price check while in stores. The tip of the Omni channel spear is “buy online pickup in-store.” It’s the most tangible, proven way to engage and identify customers across channels. 
5. LOYALTY – Loyalty programs, when done well, are good for retailers and their customers. But retailers are not leveraging loyalty anywhere near as well as airlines and hospitality companies. Shopper satisfaction with retail loyalty programs is generally low. Although retail loyalty programs do create loyalty, and shoppers are enrolling (92%), impact could be substantially increased by improving perceived value and ease of use.
6.  DIGITAL SHOPPING – Digital shopping (Web and mobile) continues to be an important – and threatening – channel both for transacting and influencing in-store purchases. More and more shoppers are looking to brand Web sites, e- tailers and other online competitors. With increased price transparency and expectations for faster, lower-cost delivery also comes increased threat to the bottom line. What do shoppers want? A collective experience online! No single feature is more important than the rest.

Shoppers want robust information, easy access to service, a variety of payment options, stored profile information, and real-time offers. Retailers must rely on their online experience, price and product selection to differentiate themselves from the competition.

For more details visit us @www.urssystems.com

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Is Your Smartphone Smart Enough To Save your Time!! Lets get updated on the Telecom and Networking Buzz...

The study revealed that Smartphone usage in the country is not only leading to proliferation of entertainment and social networking but also creating a buzz around things such as productivity and achieving more. "Smartphones are becoming a tool for driving productivity".

• IT SAVES TIME: Indian users perceived smartphones as enablers of productivity by saving time, enhancing communication and collaboration with colleagues, providing more flexibility and simplifying their lives and thus saves time. According to the study, 77 per cent of smartphone users in India find that their device saves time. Globally, one-third of business smartphone users said their devices save them more than 5 hours during an average working week. “Smartphones have made a major impact on the way we conduct business and communicate with friends and family, driving our ambitions to be productive in order to change the way we contribute to work, our communities and society”.

• MOTIVATED USERS: Rather than simply ploughing through a to-do list, modern productivity means consciously creating more time to focus on the things that matter most. The study found that 67 per cent of business smartphone users globally indicated they are “always looking to improve their productivity” and 69 per cent are “constantly looking for new ways to get things done as efficiently as possible.”

Smartphone reflects their status, helps them manage communications, is secure, helps them achieve more, is durable, gives them flexibility and simplifies their lives as against other smartphone users. 

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Business Intelligence (BI) strategy has to be based on current "REALITY": Explore the Value of BI in INSURANCE

Building a BI strategy has to be focused on something other than developing the perfect data warehouse. In the most basic terms, if you already have the data, then how will combining that data help you do something new? It might cost less money when it is consolidated, but the cost of consolidation is significant and the cost of maintaining this degree of consolidation is also high. 

Any BI strategy has to be based on current reality. Many companies strive at considerable cost to develop an all-encompassing data warehouse, only to find that as fast as they integrate applications, the landscape changes and they have to change the model. Insurance companies are particularly vulnerable to this problem since sales, service, underwriting, and claims often develop and deliver new applications in isolation from each other.  

Developing and delivering an approach to BI can drive business improvement and benefits realization, and highlight the significance of IT.

The obvious key to all business intelligence (BI) strategies is data. Having said this, perfect data is not required to derive significant value from what exists at any given point in time. It is a simple fact that all insurers generate copious volumes of reporting. It may be poorly structured and little used, but it reflects the fact that a high volume of existing information is held in structured fields and that someone, at some point, has developed an extract to develop a report.

Before delving into approaches, it is worth remembering that insurance-related BI is not as complex as some would have you believe, and it can be broken into five areas that can quickly create business benefit if sufficient transparency can be generated. They are:

1. Reducing expense costs
2. Reducing the average cost of claim
3. Reducing claims frequency
4. Increasing profitable sales
5. Improving customer retention (for those customers you want to retain)
6. Collectively, they drive profitable growth.

Clearly, the list does not cover every aspect of insurance. Everyone has a favorite corner of the insurance universe to explore. The items do represent those areas where the money is spent and where improvements can reduce combined ratios and drive profitable growth. If your BI cannot be tied back to one of the above areas in a clear line of progression, then it is information for information’s sake and adds no value to the business. This is not to say that the information is the wrong thing to gather -- rather, it is the fact that it is not being used effectively. This becomes something to be fixed.

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CIOs need to decide how they will position the IT organization in relation to emerging digital business technologies, such as the Internet of Things, 3D printing, wearable technology, robotics and cognitive systems.

Regardless of your industry, every CIO will need to prepare for the upcoming digital business technologies and the impacts it will have on the enterprise.

CIOs should use this research to start forming their positions on digital business technologies, and to prepare their IT organizations with the right resources and skill sets.

Two key attributes will cause some CIOs to hesitate in making digital business technologies part of the IT organization's responsibilities:

1. Digital business technologies are operational in nature. The IT organization is used to owning and supporting "back office" and infrastructure technologies. Digital business technologies are aimed at supporting "front office" and operations.
2. Digital business technologies are emerging technologies. Drones, the IoT and cognitive systems are not commonly part of the IT agenda.

However, we encourage CIOs to understand how relevant these technologies are, and will be, in their industries, and to give them a fair assessment. There is much at stake — in both business value and technology investment.

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Data centre market will be driven by the revival of growth-related projects across verticals such as banking, insurance, telecom and the government segment.

India to become the second largest market for data center infrastructure within the Asia-Pacific region (source: Gartner)

Gartner has estimated that the market value of Indian data centre infrastructure will increase by 5.4 per cent from $1.92 billion in 2014 to $2.03 billion in 2015. Accordingly, India will become the second largest market for data center infrastructure within the Asia-Pacific region.

Gartner believes that the data centre market will be driven by the revival of growth-related projects across verticals such as banking, insurance, telecom and the government segment. Large enterprises are likely to invest in infrastructure replacement and growth related projects covering enterprise mobility, cloud and big data solutions. Moreover, Indian enterprises will be focusing on building intelligent data centres that focus on optimising existing hardware assets by using additional software capabilities. This will drive increased attention on newer trends such as public cloud, and integrated systems.

Within the Indian IT infrastructure market, server segment revenue is forecasted to reach $677 million in 2015, a three per cent increase over 2014. Gartner further forecasts that enterprise networking will be the biggest segment with revenue expected to reach $948 million in 2015. Data centre consolidation and virtualisation, along with cloud and mobility solutions, are the key trends influencing network purchases. The firm is of the view that there is great potential for both users and vendors to leverage some of the emerging technologies to drive growth.

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The Role of IT is Indeed Changing: IT needs to be the key advisor as technology becomes the business

Indian IT leaders expect to invest 65% of their IT budget in delivering new services, the highest in the world. As software-driven business transformation becomes the norm, and businesses use new applications to engage their employees and customers, this trend is expected to continue, and accelerate, in the years to come. With the focus on innovation, 71% of India Inc’s top management considers IT to be fundamental to the organization’s success or very strategically important, compared to 51% in the United States.

What IT should be doing Now?

Managing the changing role of IT isn’t about control; it’s more about embracing what could become of today’s technology experts and how they can evolve into strategic business partners.

Drive better engagement with business stakeholders: IT needs to define strategic initiatives in the  context of business goals and communicate performance against strategic metrics so the business can understand IT’s value. IT should move beyond internally-focused metrics to external business metrics such as revenue and customer satisfaction, and routinely measure and report on key performance metrics in the language the business will understand.

Gain business support for the IT organization: Now that more CIOs are reporting directly to their CEOs they have the opportunity to become an equal, strategic partner who delivers clear value to the business and in return garners the budget and support needed to implement the strategy.

Build trust with the business by increasing transparency into investments and priorities: Help the business understand how you can optimize resource utilization and spend across internal and cloud service providers, make sourcing decisions based on a true understanding of cost and value and minimize budget variance and schedule uncertainty.

Identify the key roles that drive innovation and invest accordingly: IT organizations will always have to maintain existing technology investments and support end-user needs, but that shouldn’t be the primary role going forward. Search for the IT rock stars in the organization, give them time and resources to deliver new products and services, and truly innovate. As you shift more of your energy and focus to new services, over time your budget balance will shift from maintenance to innovation.

Educate the business on disruptive trends: IT organizations should understand how new technologies can drive business success. Stay on top of the latest technologies and invest in the required skills, talent and training. Don’t wait to be asked by the business about cloud computing, Big Data or mobility, for instance; look for ways to collaborate with the business in developing a proactive plan to leverage them.

Evolve IT from support to strategist: Today IT is the “problem fixer”; IT is the go-to for customer complaints; and IT maintains systems. But tomorrow IT needs to be the strategy expert. IT needs to be the key advisor as technology becomes the business.

For more details visit us @www.urssystems.com

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CRM strategy to create a winning customer experience: A telco can gain real time feedback and deliver tailored offers to customers by empowering customers through self-help apps

Customer service is re-emerging as the core business strategy to create a winning customer experience. Great service needs to be consistent across all mobile devices, as well as social and digital media channels. It also needs to be personalized and consistent with marketing efforts by helping in retention and growth through enhanced customer experience and engagement. It also explains the current market scenarios and challenges that need to be addressed in order to place a successful strategy for customer relationship management (CRM) in place.

 Self Service applications allow customers to manage their mobile account transactions real time from their individual phones. Customers can even raise their own trouble ticket or request and provide MNOs with real time customer feedback. A study estimates that 80 percent of calls to call centers are related to simple queries.  By empowering customers through such self-help apps benefits the customers and helps the operator to reduce customer care cost. It also holds the potential for an augmented customer engagement, provided it is a personalized and secure interaction. By developing a rich interaction suite through the mobile self-service app, a telco can gain real time feedback and deliver tailored offers to customers. Talking about the customers, with a well integrated self service app they can resolve their issues within one session without having to wait for a 24 hour process time line.

Africa, Asia and Latin America emerged as the untapped markets for such apps. In such growing economies, MNOs can deepen relationship with customers by providing them a tool like self-service apps. In a fiercely competitive market, low engagement level contributes to high customer churn.

 Self-service apps provide MNOs a branded presence on the customer’s device, and a channel to have a continuous personalized dialog with customers. A positive customer experience via a self-service app generates repeat usage, loyalty and advocacy.

In terms of creating new application, the problem especially arises in mobile first economies where mobile device models are attached to pre- and postpaid contracts on 2G and 3G networks which make it difficult for developing and embedding self service apps on handsets. On the other hand, emerging economies which have poor literacy rates present a challenge in adoption of adoption of such apps. Here, it is important to create a simple intuitive user interface (UI) with one touch options and minimum number of menus and click through pages. MNOs will have to find ways to overcome such issues in order to create opportunities for advanced and rich interactions.

For more details, visit us @ www.urssystems.com

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