Will Your Business Exist Tomorrow? 4 Steps to Improve Your Chances

Business models have been changing so rapidly in the last few years. Every established business must have a reason to worry about their relevance in the future. The two things changing our world are – innovation and agility combined. As an individual or a business, are you proactive on these two things to not become irrelevant tomorrow? While people drive change, how can technology help you prepare for tomorrow regardless of our industry?

1. Innovate very quickly – product, vertical & business models

There is an explosion of talent and creativity that is being driven towards challenging & exciting startups as against the juggernaut businesses. There is a new excitement in the buyer and a change of buying behavior. Is your business innovating faster than your competition contextual to this buyer and talent? Are you innovating to create niche product differentiation, empowering your customer’s business and innovating your business model to stay ahead? Are you leveraging trends such as Smart Assets & IOT, Digital, Analytics and User Experience in your execution plan – be it marketing, market perception or product?

2. Automate your Business Processes

We are having so many dialogues recently with customers across verticals to get leaner, quicker and smarter while ensuring lower risk to business. While often perceived as a necessary evil, automating business processes has many advantages for the longevity and profitability of competitive businesses.

• It improved employee workload balance and accountability
• Ensures business risk and decision making is better controlled
• Improves response times, thereby improving employee & customer satisfaction

The world has moved to driverless cars and robotics in surgeries. Thinking of automating your business processes against a competitive world of innovators, is not an option but essential. This comes in the form of portals, business process management, business applications, collaboration tools or analytics for starters. To start the journey and drive employee mindset is essential.

3. Multi-Channel Communications with Customers & Employees

Businesses not only need to improve the way they connect with customers to differentiate. They also need to improve the way they connect with employees beyond the announcement board or email. The modes of communication are spreading – portals, self-service, social, chat, contact centers and the list goes on. People time in transactions or interactions is coming down. Get emotionally intelligent using technology, capture behavior and take speedy action to improve satisfaction of customers and employees, alike. Tools like Microsoft Dynamics 365 adds a lot of value to your business.

4. Outsource what is not core to your business growth strategy

I may sound like a broken tape recorder if I talk about why outsource. Hence, I shall focus on options to outsource.

• Transformational Managed IT Services for over 30% customer satisfaction improvement. This can include management of data centers, networks, applications, and end users
• Remote Proactive Monitoring Services typically cuts down 40-50% operating costs
• Service Management and Process Consulting improve SLA’s and employee productivity
• Cloud is a game changer in delivery models for infrastructure and applications. It helps businesses reduce large capital investments and improve predictability & agility
• Contact centers for processes such as customer service, service management, order management, etc.

I have personally been engaged with multiple businesses recently since I took over the applications business within Intertec. All I can is that exciting times are ahead and our biggest challenge is the speed to adopt an ocean of opportunity.