Digital transformation remains at the top of the business agenda and organisations in every sector are grappling with the best way to embrace new technologies to stay ahead of their game.

It is an absolutely critical issue for businesses with disruption being faced from all sides, and something that is only going to intensify as the relentless progress of technology marches on.

>Read more on the 5 factors defining digital transformation

Playing catch-up is no longer enough and maintaining the status quo is unthinkable, but while digital transformation may not be optional, it can still misunderstood and even feared, especially at the C-suite where many leaders feel out of their depth with changing technology.

Who should be leading the charge and is the CTO the right person to be at the helm?

Without doubt, the CTO or technology leader within an organisation needs to be included in any transformation project from the outset but they can’t do it single-handed. The CTO needs to be heavily involved in any transformation project but shouldn’t be left alone to fight inertia within an organisation without much help from the rest of the executive team. This is a recipe for disaster.

A team effort

Digital transformation is about how technological choices combined with policy and culture choices can lead to a better organisation. As such, the entire executive team must be involved early on in the planning stages and the team as a whole needs to be an integral part of the ongoing process. Because digital transformation touches every part of a business it needs to be championed and led by the whole senior leadership team.

>Read more on the factors that determine success in digital transformation

A CTO needs to take on the role of the ‘bridge builder’ between the strictly technical components of a transformation strategy and how they can apply to people and process in the specific context of an organisation. Digital transformation is a team activity. Each role needs to bring to the process their full insights and experience for the CTO to manage.

The CTO has specific technological insight and therefore needs to be directly involved in helping the entire organisation identify where technical systems are simply obsolete and not fit for purpose so as well as being a bridge builder, CTOs naturally lead the charge when dealing with a technology-led approach.

They must be able to explain where the value is in the application of technological change in context – too often we see visions that are de-contextualised from the reality on the ground. This kind of technological planning does not allow for realistic strategic planning.

With visions of the ambitious but feasible in sight it is then the whole leadership team’s task to decide what course they are going to map out and to work together on the digital transformation journey.

>Read more on the sharing economy

Here are some steps to success:

Undertaking a digital transformation journey together: Key elements for success

1. Understand the drivers for change

You know you need to digitally transform, but do you know why? Understanding this is crucial and will be unique to each organisation, although there are common themes we see time and again. Sometimes these drivers are intrinsic to the organisation and sometimes they relate to the wider context it is operating in.

2. Identify the right approach

It’s vital to consider the different approaches for how your organisation will deliver digital transformation, as this will dictate how the programme of change is planned and executed.

While there are four main broad approaches organisations can take, in reality, a successful programme will take elements from each.

• Process-led: Making change by redesigning internal processes to reduce inefficiencies.

• Technology-led: Starting with the new system to be implemented and then designing from there.

• Brand-led: Using your brand promise and values as the basis for a digital transformation.

• Customer experience-led / Service design-led: Taking an evidence-based approach to designing and delivering a customer experience.

3. Getting going: introducing a roadmap for change

Whatever is driving the change, going from ‘we must’ to ‘we are’ is a big step. What happens next? We recommend the following key elements to get going.

• Take stock: Conduct a digital health check – a short survey designed to yield a large amount of data on how digital is seen and used by various teams, and how the organisation as a whole values digital thinking.

• Think big: Using your organisational vision and the outputs from the digital health check, the next stage is to devise an idealistic concept for how digital will help your organisation address the internal and external drivers for digital transformation you identified in the earlier stages of the project.

• Build advocacy: Create a low fidelity ‘prototype’ of your concept and use it to demonstrate your vision to everyone in your organisation – either face to face, via a recorded talk, web conference, or similar.

• Gap analysis: To act on your vision you need people who are capable, technologies that are fit for purpose, and attitudes, which will foster innovation. Your vision is linked to strategic goals, you’re starting to get staff buy-in, and you now need to understand the difference between where you are now and where you want to get to.

• Define your initial roadmap: The part that everyone is scared of – the roadmap – can be defined broadly in a single day with the right focus and facilitation. If it takes longer than that, it’s probably getting too detailed for an initial roadmap.

>Read more on an analysis of the potential and the challenges of digital transformation

4. Winning hearts and minds

Time and again we see companies start with technology and then move straight onto processes, forgetting about one of the most important elements – people! Really effective digital transformation is about helping people change.

It’s no secret that humans are an easily spooked animal. And so when you say “hey everyone, we are going to transform the business to be more efficient and offer a better customer experience” what people actually hear is “hey everyone, we are cutting jobs and replacing you with software”. It doesn’t matter how you say it, how great your smile is, or what sector you work in. Everyone has the same base response – fear, doubt, uncertainty.

If you don’t replace that fear response with excitement and confidence, it will creep in, set and your transformation is dead before it has started.

Digital transformation can only succeed as a team effort, with the CTO an absolutely key member. With the right understanding, approach and leadership, businesses can be steered into a culture of continuous optimisation and improvement that will enable them to drive change and deliver value.

Simon Wakeman is a global freelance consultant, working with founders, leaders and investors in scaling businesses.

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What is the role of the CTO? — Taking a deep dive into the role of the chief technology officer (CTO) in the tech sector.

7 tips to help the c-suite drive effective, data-driven digital transformation — Here’s how business leaders can drive effective digital transformation efforts.

The post What’s the role of the CTO in digital transformation? appeared first on Information Age.

Hugo Larguinho Bras, partner at e*finance Consulting Reply, spoke to Information Age about how RegTech capabilities can aid Asset Management and Asset Servicing companies in navigating new regulations

Digital capabilities are playing an increasingly large role in financial services operations, able to increase efficiency, improve customer experience, and reduce strain on staff. However, asset management and securities companies often struggle to get to grips with new, more stringent regulations while continuing to deliver value for their clients. This leads to a need to improve on their processes to ensure that they stay compliant.

To help tackle this issue, e*finance Consulting Reply collaborates with financial companies and recommend the best solutions in line with their existing infrastructure and processes. Asset management and securities customers can leverage a selection of regulation technology (RegTech) capabilities that fit their specific goals and ways of operating. With the RegTech market becoming more varied over time, this guidance is proving vital towards compliance success and maintained user service.

Hugo Larguinho Bras, partner at e*finance Consulting Reply — a Reply Group subsidiary — explained the key obstacles that the IT services company is helping its clients overcome when it comes to staying compliant, and how RegTech is disrupting the financial services space.

Defining your transformation approach

According to Hugo Larguinho Brás, establishing a model for regulation management, while ensuring that any risk is minimised, in a short space of time, is a prominent challenge for asset and securities managers.

“All companies have some specificities, and so it’s difficult for them to navigate amongst the various offers that we see on the RegTech market,” he explained.

“It requires some time and analysis to make the right choices to define the future model. So, if some of our clients need to quickly correct pitfalls immediately to show the regulator that they are treating the case, then it doesn’t leave much time to define the ideal model.”

He recommends filing a request for proposal (RFP) to understand the possible options and which vendors can deliver value. From here, organisations can properly prepare for a time-sensitive deployment of capabilities.

When advising relevant executives on how best to go about this step, Hugo Larguinho Brás recommends the following actions:

• Anticipate regulatory evolutions. “Adapting to new regulatory obligations with tight deadlines forces you to do the minimum viable to comply, undermining your capacity to create value.”
• Raise concerns up to the highest level possible in the organisation: “Most needs regarding data will be shared by other entities throughout the company, so a common solution might need to be implemented across all departments, which helps strengthening the sponsoring and sharing costs.”
• Ensure that the transformation is agile: “Once the strategy is decided, and as you go through your initiative, you may discover new opportunities to create value that you hadn’t thought of before. So, you need to remain able to address any required changes on the journey. By achieving this, the target can evolve as you transform.”
• Have the right business and IT experts in place: “It’s important to combine the right level of subject matter experts, who know your processes and the regulations, with the right technologists, who know the technology that you will deploy. Having the buy-in and involvement of all internal departments (Compliance/Risk, Business, Operations and IT) is essential. A transformation project can only work if everyone agrees on the direction to go.”
• Ensure proper data quality: “It is often a challenge to capture all the data required by a regulatory process, and much of that data is not clean because it has not been checked or updated for a long time. This carries a risk to the deployment of the new process. Many regulatory initiatives require a data cleaning as part of the first steps.”

RegTech capabilities driving value today

Two main types of RegTech capabilities are helping financial service institutions stay compliant: software that encompasses the whole system — for example a full client onboarding cycle — and software that manages a particular process, such as reporting or document management.

Hugo Larguinho Brás explains: “The technologies that handle the whole process from A to Z are typically heavier to deploy, but they will allow you to cover most of your needs. These are also more expensive and often more difficult to adapt in line with a company’s specificities.”

“Meanwhile, those technologies that treat part of the process can be combined with other tools. While this brings more agility, the need to find and combine several tools can also turn your target model more complex to run.”

“We see more and more cloud and on-premises solutions available to asset management and securities companies, from software-as-a-service (SaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) deployed in-house, to solutions combined to outsourced capabilities. Recently, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have entered the RegTech space, adding further intuition in line with demands while continuing to evolve.”

While variety is always healthy no matter the market, it’s vital that companies make the right choices. One misstep can bring down your whole strategy.

The benefits of a services partner

E*finance Consulting Reply distinguishes itself from competing consulting service providers by bringing together expertise from an array of disciplines, owing to Reply Group’s collaborative approach across subsidiaries. With company needs, and those of their respective clients, continuing to evolve, having insight on hand for whenever it’s needed is paramount to delivering value.

“We have the right mix of subject matter experts, people who understand the regulations, the concrete operations and the technological expertise.” said Hugo Larguinho Brás.

“As part of Reply, a big IT consulting group, we have this capacity to help our customers access any tool available on the market in terms of functionalities, deployment complexity, scalability and maturity. This is our differentiator.”

“So when it comes to entering the RegTech space, this is our differentiator, and we also have the right combination of SMEs and technological capacity.”

This article was written as part of a content campaign with Reply.

Related:

Bank IT compliance: how financial services can stay compliant with regulations — Exploring the strategies that can help organisations stay on the right side of the law, meeting regulations and industry-adopted standards.

Regtech disruption trends: how digitisation is enhancing regulatory processes — From AML and KYC to data protection, these are the biggest disruption trends that are occurring in Regtech.

The post How RegTech helps financial services providers overcome regulation challenges appeared first on Information Age.

Research from WM Reply has revealed three key pillars that organisations need to consider when maintaining an effective hybrid working model

Our workplace has changed. With remote and hybrid working now introduced to the masses – where we work and how we work will never be the same again. Whilst businesses were quick to react to the pandemic of 2020, providing more flexibility and hybrid working options, the path forward is not so clear for everyone. Organisations need to take that step to define the hybrid model that works for them. WM Reply engaged Ipsos MORI to conduct qualitative research with senior IT professionals to shine a light on our new world of hybrid working and to understand the challenges and opportunities within the business world.

So, what did we learn and how can we develop a robust hybrid working strategy that enables growth and support for our people and our organisation? In this article, we explore the three key pillars that surfaced from the research.

People

We know from the ‘What’s next for how we work’ research conducted by BCG, that 70 per cent of those who have been working remotely felt they were able to be as or more productive working from home as they were in the workplace. People will therefore need a reason to return to the office. There are many proven benefits of office-based working including stronger connection & synergy between co-workers, boosted collaboration during decision-making processes, decreased employee exhaustion & burnout and improved time management. However, it is vital that leaders communicate the ‘worth it’ equation to their teams. It is important that the reasons as to why employees should return to the office are effectively communication to get buy-in from the workforce. 

This can be taken an extra step further by ensuring that people are involved in the planning of the hybrid workplace model. Ultimately, there are benefits in allowing employees to choose how and when they work. It therefore makes sense that their feedback is considered when the organisation builds out the hybrid working model that works best for them. 

What’s your ‘worth it’ message?

Platforms

We have seen many new tools and platforms introduced to enable remote working within business, but are we using the right ones, do we know how to use the right tool for the right task, and are we getting the most out of our investments? According to the Ipsos research, companies might seek to bring the functions that they use under a single work and communication platform, to reduce operational complexity and give staff an integrated solution.

This technology plays a critical role in hybrid working. Employees need to be able to work seamlessly between workplace and home, and there needs to be ease of connectivity between people in the office and those working remotely. Utilising platforms to improve communication between office-based and remote employees will alleviate some of the pain points of the hybrid working model such as impaired collaboration, weakened relationships and disrupted work processes.

Places

It is clear that the ‘office’, as we knew it before the pandemic, no longer provides what we need to meet our modern workplace hybrid working requirements. We will need to reimagine how we use office spaces, providing inviting collaboration zones and introducing technology and ways of working that support our hybrid meetings. The solution is to integrate physical spaces and technology with three key concepts in mind: equity, engagement, and ease. Maybe even the location of the office needs to be reconsidered, providing regional hubs to support a wider talent pool.

The employee experience changed drastically during COVID – and their workday and workplace will continue to change. There are new and evolving platforms, such as Microsoft Viva, to support communications, wellbeing, knowledge management, engagement and learning. However, each financial services organisation needs to understand what these platforms offer and how they can support a hybrid operating model. There is more to do than just implement these new platforms as they need a defined purpose and part to play in a person’s day.

There is an opportunity for organisations to change how they work and embrace hybrid working for the benefit of their people, customers and organisation as a whole. Outside of our workplaces, there remains global uncertainty with socio-economic issues. What people need now, more than ever, is certainty in how and where they work.

Written by Martyn Mansell, Senior ACM Consultant at WM Reply

This article was written as part of a content campaign with Reply.

Related:

How hybrid working is impacting operational efficiency — Hybrid working, while important in today’s business world, has brought new complexities to consider.

Going from start-up to market leader with people-first business transformation — Laurent Deramaix, CEO at Business Elements and partner at Reply, spoke to Information Age about the value of people-first business transformation.

The post The three pillars of hybrid working appeared first on Information Age.

Gartner has projected an almost 7 per cent increase in government IT spending worldwide, to total $588.9bn in 2023, with all but one segment seeing growth

Along with improving citizen experiences and engagement, governmental bodies can progress digital skills across the workforce through updating tools and approaches for operations.

Implementing what Gartner calls a ‘total experience’ (TX) strategy — which helps agencies manage employee and citizen interactions — can help towards minimising friction, while failing to do so can lead to service delays and underwhelming service experiences.

As with previous government spending predictions, software is set to be the highest growing segment in 2023, according to Gartner, followed by IT services and internal services.

The devices segment of Gartner’s spending research is predicted to be the only area not to see growth in 2023, as end-users extend the shelf life of devices that were acquired at the onset of the pandemic.

“Government organisations are continuing to modernise legacy IT and invest in initiatives that improve access to digital services as constituents increasingly demand experiences that are equivalent to online customer interactions in the private sector,” said Daniel Snyder, director analyst at Gartner.

“The total experience (TX) framework, which helps agencies manage employee and citizen interactions, is enabling transformation and will remain among the main drivers of IT spend in 2023.”

>See also: How the water industry can plug customer experience leaks

Data and digitalisation top agenda for CIOs

Initiatives such as migrating services to the cloud, modernising applications, and fortifying network security are among the primary innovation priorities that governments are focused on to improve public engagement and satisfaction.

According to the 2023 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey, digital transformation; leveraging and using data effectively; and technology modernisation are the top three priorities of government CIOs.

Alongside these goals, CIOs will need to tackle challenges such as varying stakeholder expectations, and developing action plans accordingly.

“Delivering on these priorities depends on establishing a shared, organisation-wide digital vision and integrating that vision into enterprise-level strategies,” said Apeksha Kaushik, principal analyst for government and education at Gartner.

“In alignment to these priorities, investments will increase in cybersecurity, application modernisation, cloud platforms, integration technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), and business/data analytics tools.

“Government CIOs will need to address concerns of digital transformation with mission objectives. They need to work closely with government executives to ensure a shared understanding of vision, roadmap and linkage to mission critical priorities.”

Related:

Rebuilding public infrastructure with digital capabilities post-COVID — How governmental bodies can rebuild public infrastructure with digital capabilities.

Crown Commercial Service launches Big Data and Analytics framework — The UK Crown Commercial Service governmental department has today launched a framework to help the public sector improve data use and services.

The post Global government IT spending to grow 6.8 per cent in 2023 — Gartner appeared first on Information Age.

Matt Weston peers into his crystal ball and makes predictions as to how digital transformation will continue to evolve in 2023

Back in 2019, who could possibly have predicted just how tumultuous the early 2020s would be for digital transformation?

When the pandemic hit, an urgent acceleration of digital transformation initiatives followed. Companies of all sizes, across a broad range of industries, were forced to invest in advanced, collaborative technologies in an effort to adapt to the new normal.

Covid was certainly a shock to the system for those organisations that had not previously invested heavily in digital.

However, it helped many to establish a solid foundation to begin building towards a brighter future, driven by technology.

As so much has changed over such a short space of time, and with firms now more reliant on technology than ever before, the big question that business leaders will be asking themselves is: what key digital transformation trends will 2023 bring?

Digital transformation trends in 2023

With the New Year just around the corner, now is the perfect time to ponder this question.

Doing more with less through automation

UK businesses are facing a decidedly bleak economic outlook. With the country in the throes of a crippling cost-of-living crisis, as the effects of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine ripple across the globe, the UK is expected to remain in recession until well into 2023, and perhaps beyond. Amid these financially turbulent times, companies are being forced to make difficult decisions when it comes to their budgets, and how they can aim to drive efficiencies in the most cost-effective ways possible.

Automation adoption is often viewed as one of the best methods that companies can employ to streamline processes and boost revenues without causing costs to spiral out of control.

Recognising the benefits that can be brought by automation, 54 per cent of organisations have already begun implementing robotic process automation [RPA] into their processes, according to a Deloitte survey. With the economy in such dire straits, and the landscape continuing to look so grim for businesses, it is highly likely that we will see a greater number of companies investing in this technology than ever before.

Not only will implementing automation be an affordable alternative to investing in a full digital transformation project for many businesses, it will also provide a basis upon which to create new efficiencies in the years to come. Indeed, Gartner predicts that, by 2024, hyper automation will enable organisations to lower their operational costs by 30 per cent.

At a time of great economic uncertainty, when every penny that businesses spend needs to be clearly justified, automation is a proven and dependable cost saver.

Digital sustainability

As the world faces a growing climate emergency, and with recent events like COP27 shining a light on the urgency for nations to take action, sustainability has become a major topic of discussion in recent years.

While the onus for addressing the crisis lies largely with those countries that are producing the highest levels of pollution, there is much that businesses can do on an individual level to play their part. This has seen organisations introducing a wide range of sustainable initiatives, such as modifying production processes to emit less waste or emissions, and implementing conservation techniques, such as using less energy and water on-premises.

One of the other key initiatives that businesses are employing is becoming more reliant on technology than other, less sustainable practices and processes. As such, in 2023, it is likely that more companies will seek to drive sustainability in their operations via implementing composable enterprise strategies – businesses breaking down the tech stack into smaller components and services called microservices or packaged business capabilities (PBCs). By doing so, businesses will be able to unlock and integrate data and applications and apply automation and analytics to derive insights.

With VentureBeat reporting that, currently, around 90 per cent of tech leaders recognise sustainability as a key objective in their organisation, we can expect to see a greater portion of business budgets being allocated towards this cause over the next 12 months.

Technology tailored to remote work and culture

As previously mentioned, the coronavirus crisis placed technology centre stage for many businesses. With the introduction of stay-at-home directives because of the pandemic, organisations were forced to move many of their processes online in a bid to keep physically dispersed teams connected digitally.

Miraculously, the great work from home experiment which Covid brought has proven to be far more successful than many predicted, with numerous organisations planning to make remote working a permanent part of their pattern. After all, Office for National Statistics [ONS] figures show that, as of February 2022, 84 per cent of workers who had to work from home during the pandemic said they planned to carry out a mix of working at home and from their place of work moving forward.

With work flexibility clearly here to stay, and becoming increasingly central to company culture, staff productivity, and inclusivity, there is a good chance that we will see the gap between those organisations which have embraced long term hybrid working – and those that have shunned it – continue to grow.

Furthermore, tech developers will work hard to tailor their collaboration and flexible working tools to meet the increasing demand for such products. By investing in these technologies, businesses can empower their teams to continue working seamlessly together across multiple locations, thereby solidifying their distributed flexible workforce.

All eyes on 2023…

Considering how much has happened in the world of digital transformation over the past few years, it is not a leap to think that the next 12 months will also bring their fair share of technological advancements.

With the pandemic having fundamentally changed the way that many of us work, we will continue to see the evolution of solutions specially designed to empower teams to choose where they work from, without causing undue harm to operational efficiency.

However, with all the ways that the world around us has changed so far this decade, there are bound to be a few digital transformation surprises in store for 2023 which no one could predict.

Matt Weston is managing director of Midlands-based IT support provider Vantage 365

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New emerging technologies to watch out for – Computers that work at the speed of light, gene editing, artificial intelligence – the potential for numerous emerging technologies can be overwhelming. Which ones should you as a business be focused on?

The post Digital transformation trends in 2023 appeared first on Information Age.

Former Healx and Monzo executive Meri Williams has been appointed as new chief technology officer at business expenses solution Pleo

Williams joins from AI drug discovery company Healx, where she served as technical advisor, having previously held the role of CTO, spearheading the use of AI to find new medical treatments for rare diseased.

Prior to this, she honed her experience in fintech leadership as CTO of mobile-first challenger bank Monzo.

During her tenure at Monzo, between 2018 and 2020, Williams helped scale the company’s tech team by 300 per cent, and led investment in platform resilience and business continuity as its customer base grew to over four million.

Additionally, Williams is chair of The Lead Developer conference, which since its inception in 2015 has expanded to London, New York, Berlin and San Francisco.

The appointment, which closely follows the arrival of former American Express exec Abigail Slater as new UKI head of operations, comes as Pleo continues to invest in real-time oversight on company spending.

>See also: The biggest senior technology hires

“I’ve been incredibly impressed by Pleo’s journey over the past few years, from a disruptor in the business spend management market to an essential platform of choice for thousands of enterprises across Europe,” said new Pleo CTO Williams.

“Now, the organisation has expanded again to become a vital lifeline for thousands of businesses across Europe. The excitement of this journey is in how, along with the Pleo team, I can continue the company’s journey into becoming an indispensable partner during a time of economic uncertainty and trepidation.

“I am thrilled to be joining this first-class team that inspired me in every interaction thus far.”

Nicco Perra, co-founder of Pleo, commented: “We are delighted to have Meri join the Pleo team. She brings a wealth of industry experience to Pleo and Meri’s background in utilising technology and data insights to generate value for companies aligns perfectly with Pleo’s growth plans — as well as our continued role in helping businesses gain greater control and visibility over their spending.

“As a valued voice for LGBTQ+ rights and the role of women in technology, and as well as rapidly scaling technology organisations, Meri has simultaneously improved teams’ diversity, inclusion, and ways of working. This fits with Pleo’s determination to foster workplaces, including its own, based on belonging, where everyone feels valued.

“Meri will be an incredible force for us and the companies we work with.”

Pleo, now worth $4.7bn, reached unicorn status in 2021, when it raised $350m in Series C funding.

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Q&A: Covid-19 drug discovery and tech trends — Meri Williams, while CTO of Healx, spoke to Information Age about key drug discovery and tech industry trends.

Can fintech innovation be a force for good social impact? — With social impact rising up the corporate agenda, Paynetics CEO Mike Peplow considers the role that fintech innovation can play in this endeavour.

The post Pleo appoints Meri Williams as CTO appeared first on Information Age.

Laurent Deramaix, CEO at Business Elements and partner at Reply, spoke to Information Age about the value of people-first business transformation

No matter the sector of focus, staying up to speed with evolving customer demands in-store and online is essential for businesses. This is increasingly calling for the aid of digital capabilities augmented alongside the expertise of staff, to bolster efficiency and improve experience. To ensure that their investments in tech pay off long-term, organisations will often work alongside integrator partners to establish and carry out a strategy suited for their goals.

One such integrator proving successful in the business transformation space is Business Elements. A Reply Group company since being acquired in 2021, Business Elements has been scaling itself into a market-leading consultancy over time since 2014, with a focus on Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform implementation. To help stay in tune with the needs of customers, Business Elements constantly monitor what aspects of a strategy need to be adapted, and share the array of expertise at the disposal of consultants not only in the company itself, but throughout Reply generally.

BE’s CEO Laurent Deramaix joined the company in 2020 from Microsoft, bringing with him an approach that emphasises co-creation. When considering what has led to its success over the years, he said: “We have a vision where we thrive as a community of experts in Dynamics 365 and Power Platform, who always look to challenge themselves.

“We always strive to help grow the people in the businesses we work with, to the point where they can be magnets for new talent.

“As a services business, we also know the importance of empowering a diverse and inclusive organisation with departments that all work together towards a common goal.”

From 50 consultants working for Business Elements when Deramaix arrived in 2020, the workforce is projected to be around 100-strong by the end of 2022.

For businesses, attracting and retaining talent is proving one of the biggest challenges in the market. Staff are increasingly looking for plus points beyond the salary, including company culture and day-to-day empowerment and impact that can be made on the bottom line. To succeed in overcoming this challenge, being a people-first organisation is vital, and for Business Elements, it’s a case of practicing what they preach.

“We always say that we are a people-first company. This means establishing strategy with purpose as well as ambition,” Deramaix explained.

“You need to utilise different types of skills, including authenticity, awareness, and intuition. We invest a lot into that side of things to ensure that we can really have a culture where people feel comfortable to not put not only their skills, but soft skills at the same time.”

When it comes to improving the long-term prospects of customer organisations, BE aims to combine classical company and industry skills with soft capabilities, including communication, problem-solving and emotional intelligence. It’s this approach that is key towards ensuring that talent stays on-board with their employer’s journey.

Profitability needs to be properly balanced with employee experience for any business to prosper in the long run. For Deramaix, overcoming what can be perceived as a paradox entails emphasising a diverse workforce from the top down, with the leadership team setting an example.

“Having a diverse team not only refers to demographics like race and gender, but also means junior talent working with more senior members of the team,” he said.

“At the same time, you need to look at the onboarding process and ensure it caters for office and hybrid working, and is always reacting to changes in the market.”

By addressing this themselves, Business Elements were able to double its profits, which demonstrates the importance of continuous innovation when it comes to the onboarding process, as well as internal operations.

Going forward, Business Elements is looking to maintain its people-first approach to ensure the company can continue to deliver “operational excellence” for its customers.

“When you grow a lot, you need to take care of the continuity of the quality,” Deramaix said.

“But what is new now is that we can start to scale our success. This means we can start planning to take on more leaders who can either develop the company further, or create other spin-off organisations.”

This entrepreneurial spirit that the company is carrying throughout its scaling journey encourages employees — no matter the level in which they work at — to progress further in their line of work, and consider how they personally can make real impact in their organisation and market. After all, with the business world seeing purpose on a societal scale rise up the agenda, empowering talent is paramount.

This article was written as part of a content campaign with Reply.

Related:

Building a people-centric workplace within a flexible office environment — With flexible working serving as a currently major workplace trend, we explore how to build an environment with the workforce at the forefront.

The four key digital transformation trends the CXO should focus on — Here are the biggest trends that executives across the tech sector should consider when it comes to digital transformation.

The post Going from start-up to market leader with people-first business transformation appeared first on Information Age.

The use of Appian low-code capabilities by Anglian Water has led to a 63 per cent reduction in capital carbon, and is advancing the utility company’s sustainability initiatives

Anglian Water uses the Totex Delivery Workflow (TDW) — a cloud-based solution built on the Appian Low-Code Platform — to manage and monitor thousands of capital-intensive projects, including pipeline management and smart meter installation and maintenance.

Energy utilisation, assets, and costs can be tracked using the Appian platform, giving the utility company the capability to iterate asset design through the investment and design phases to reduce capital carbon — a value relating to materials and construction processes.

Real-time insights delivered by the solution ensure that Anglian Water staff can access the metrics they need to make accurate and time-sensitive decisions.

Users are able to access cloud-based information from anywhere, on any device, making the system ideal for hybrid working.

This all-important data-driven visibility has proved key to helping reduce the company’s environmental impact, while maintaining value for customers.

Currently serving as the largest water company in England and Wales by geographic area, Anglian Water is on target to achieve net zero operational carbon emissions by 2030. Its partnership with Appian was established in 2019.

>See also: How the tech sector is measuring ESG impacts

“We and the other English water companies have committed to being net zero carbon for operational emissions by 2030,” said Richard Buckingham, climate change and carbon manager at Anglian Water.

“We also have another target of reducing capital carbon by 65 per cent by 2025 from our 2010 baseline, then to 70 per cent by 2030.”

Steven Teasdale, area vice-president for UKI and the Middle East at Appian, commented: “Anglian Water needed an intelligent workflow solution to provide real-time data to make sound, robust business decisions across investment projects in its network. But with their ambitious goals around sustainability and operational efficiency, time was of the essence.

“The Appian Low-Code Platform enables Anglian Water to create and expand on the TDW solution quickly and easily, help accelerate their data-driven decisions and see the immediate impact of their investments on their zero-carbon transformation journey.”

Low-code technology has also proven useful in mitigating the tech skills gap across the UK, and globally, with users being able to leverage it without the need for a traditional coding background.

Related:

How the water industry can plug customer experience leaks — Melissa Cowdry, director of field marketing at Odigo, discusses why the water industry needs to prioritise customer experience, and how automation and as-a-service solutions can help.

Responsible Tech Series: how tech can lend itself towards sustainability worldwide — The Responsible Tech Series explored how tech can help businesses to adopt a model entrenched in global sustainability.

The post How Anglian Water is reducing environmental impact using low-code appeared first on Information Age.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is launching an inquiry examining the pending involvement of big tech in UK retail financial services

Warnings of financial services sector competition being harmed have been expressed by the UK regulator, as Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta look to continue innovating in the industry, reports the Financial Times.

The FCA will ask the corporations — which all hold FCA permits for payment processing in the UK — for their perspectives on how Silicon Valley could expand into payments, deposits, credit and insurance.

All four companies hold payment action permits, with Amazon and Apple also having some permissions regarding consumer credit and insurance.

While the watchdog acknowledges that big tech involvement of financial services would bring “increased efficiency” and “healthy competition” in the short term, it states that this could lead to longer term exploitation of ecosystems and data stores, to “lock consumers in”.

The body has also suggested that tech companies generally should share customer data with traditional financial service institutions.

>See also: How the regulation of big tech can affect your business

Sheldon Mills, executive director of consumers and competition at the FCA, explained: “Across the world, we’ve seen the capability of Big Tech to offer transformative new products in areas such as payments, deposits and consumer credit.

“We want to make sure that these benefits are fully realised while, at the same time, ensuring good consumer and market outcomes. This is vital when we consider the role of big tech firms in the provision of key technological infrastructure like cloud services.”

Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta are yet to comment on the FCA’s inquiry.

Involvement so far

Mobile payment apps such as Apple Pay and Google Pay were used by 27 per cent of consumers in 2020, double the statistic found in 2017, according to the FCA.

Building on this, Apple recently acquired credit reference agency Credit Kudos, with a view to launching a US-based ‘buy now, play later’ service called Apple Pay Later.

Additionally, Amazon announced plans to enter the UK insurance space with its Amazon Insurance Store, last week.

Responses to the FCA are allowed to be submitted until the 15th January 2023, with the body planning to issue a feedback statement in the second half of 2023.

Related:

Safeguarding the open source model amidst big tech involvement — Dima Lazerka, co-founder of VictoriaMetrics, discusses how the open source model community can be safeguarded amidst increasing big tech involvement.

Can fintech innovation be a force for good social impact? — With social impact rising up the corporate agenda, Paynetics CEO Mike Peplow considers the role that fintech innovation can play in this endeavour.

The post FCA examining big tech disruption of financial services appeared first on Information Age.

Leanne Aldrich, software solutions consultant at Amdaris, identifies the five biggest digital trends to watch in the burgeoning legal tech sector

Technology is changing the legal sector. The UK government has recently announced that it is investing £4m to modernise the UK legal industry through its LawTechUK programme. The initiative is a part of a drive to keep the UK at the global forefront of legal services.

All law firms are under increased pressure to adapt to new ways of working and the changing expectations of both their clients and employees. A recent survey by Wolters Kluwer found that 77 per cent of legal professionals interviewed understand the importance of legal technology. However, only 32 per cent think their firm is prepared to use it to be more productive. In light of this, legal businesses must rethink their workflows and methods to ensure they don’t fall behind their competitors.

Across the sector, many trends are improving efficiency, security, and, ultimately, leading to more profitable and rewarding work.

Here are five tech trends that are currently shaping the landscape for law firms.

>See also: Technology, regulation and the law: don’t be caught out

1. More adoption of tools for automated document management

Many tasks in the legal profession can be automated. In fact, according to McKinsey, between 22 and 35 per cent of tasks can now be automated, including tedious and time-consuming document reviews and contract updates. This frees up lawyers to use their time on more important tasks, such as liaising with clients.

Furthermore, artificial intelligence and machine learning technology have been proven to be very useful in the legal sector, as they help firms be more efficient. This includes looking at historical data examples to apply rules for new situations, helping companies save time and money. According to Deloitte, BT’s internal legal team was able to save up to 50 per cent of their time in reviewing documents by applying AI.

2. A shift to the cloud

An increasing number of law firms are moving to the cloud for their data management. According to IDS, 74 per cent of law firms in the US are currently storing client data in the cloud, as clients proactively ask for cloud solutions.

This shift has been, in part, due to more people working from home during the pandemic, but also as a way to protect the firm from cyber security attacks (as we will see in the next point). It also plays an important role in retaining talent as it allows employees to work more flexibly where and when they want.

>See also: Becoming “cloud smart” — the path to accelerated digital innovation

3. A greater focus on data security

According to the American Bar Association’s recent report, 29 per cent of lawyers said they had been victims of cyber security attacks last year, with 37 per cent admitting to having lost revenue as a result of these security breaches.

With more people working remotely, data security has been more difficult to achieve. However, the rising uptake of cloud technology has been a key enabler to help solve this issue. Moving data to the cloud can be more secure as firms rely on tech providers with bank-grade data encryption, making information much less vulnerable to hackers. Furthermore, by having regular independent security audits in place, companies can prevent unauthorised access or alteration.

4. More legal tech spending

Notably, Gartner estimates that legal departments will increase their legal tech spending threefold by 2025. Adding to that, Statista expects the legal tech market to reach $25.17bn in revenues in 2025. This growth is pushed by the development of new technological tools that can help improve the delivery of legal services.

A new generation of law graduates is entering the legal profession. They have grown up with technology and are more likely to want to see it in their workplaces. This new generation of lawyers, and the need to keep up with the current market, both factor into the increase in legal tech spending.

>See also: Six steps to overcoming the digital adoption challenge

5. New employee retention tactics

The Great Resignation is not expected to slow down anytime soon. One in five workers are planning to leave their job this year, according to PwC’s Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey.

The legal industry was also heavily affected by this exodus of talent leaving the profession. Law firms need to act quickly if they want to attract and retain talent. Offering flexible work — in terms of where and when — can help entice the new generation of legal professionals who seek the right work-life balance, and are not as interested as previous generations in careers that burn them out.

We can expect to see a blurred line between technologists and lawyers, as firms look to expand their legal technology and innovation capabilities by focusing on the skills their existing staff already have. Moreover, firms are planning on borrowing expertise from other internal/external functions via rotational programmes or going down the route of hiring new talent.

The bottom line

The law profession is certainly due to change in the upcoming years, and there is no doubt technology will play a key role in this. It will not be about replacing legal professionals but rather augmenting their skills, using technology to improve efficiencies in delivering services, and freeing up lawyers’ time for client liaising where emotional intelligence may be needed.

Written by Leanne Aldrich, software solutions consultant at Amdaris

Related:

Disruptive Innovation: The emerging sectors applying digital technologies — Exploring the trends that are emerging within fintech, insurtech, proptech and regtech.

Five UK lawtechs to join first LawtechUK Sandbox R&D Initiative pilot — LawtechUK, the legal sector transformation scheme from Tech Nation, has revealed the first five lawtech companies that will join its Sandbox R&D Initiative Pilot.

The post Five digital trends to watch in the legal tech sector appeared first on Information Age.

Helen Yu, founder and CEO of Tigon Advisory, explores how organisations can become “cloud smart” for accelerated innovation

“Cloud-first” is history. In the beginning, organisations from all industries raced to the cloud. With the first wave of cloud innovation, we saw a broad shift from the single-cloud mindset to a multi-cloud model. Gartner indicates that about 75 per cent of enterprise customers are currently relying on two or more public and private cloud solutions.

The CXOs I work with are passionate about expanding their multi-cloud portfolio for each of their lines of business. The CIO and compliance teams, on the other hand, are often hesitant. Today, greater cloud choice has also led to a massive spike in complexity. Most report app development is slow and cumbersome, and managing their portfolio across clouds is difficult and expensive.

The “cloud chaos” dilemma

VMware CEO Raghu Raghuram characterised the second phase of the cloud transition as “cloud chaos”, in his keynote at the 2022 VMware Explore event in San Francisco.

“Cloud chaos” comes from a landscape of unknowns. What is our enterprise cloud architecture? How do public and private clouds co-exist? What about edge computing? How do we align legal and compliance requirements in the multi-cloud world for heavily regulated industries such as fintech? Those daunting tasks and risks reflect the multi-cloud complexity and chaos we constantly live in.

Having worked with many organisations transitioning away from “cloud chaos”, I see similar challenges regardless of the size of the business. It takes a vast amount of effort to architect and manage multi-cloud platforms. Think about scalability, interoperability, consistency, and a unified user experience. Think about the skill sets and knowledge required to build and operate cloud-native apps. Also, think about automating and optimising cloud management, architect cloud, and edge infrastructure. Think about connecting and securing apps and clouds. And finally, think about app security, legal, and compliance among other areas. These challenges keep CIOs up at night.

>See also: How securing cloud data saved one business £18,000

From “cloud chaos” to “cloud smart”

The solution and next phase in the cloud journey – “cloud smart”. Raghuram describes this as taking an architected and planned approach to multi-cloud and digital transformation. With a “cloud smart” approach, organisations have the freedom to select the right cloud for the right app, based on the needs of the individual app.

So how can businesses make the jump from “multi-cloud happened to me”, to “multi-cloud is a deliberate strategy”?

• Move from disparate development, operations, and security to a new approach where you can accelerate app dev on any cloud. The key here is a consistent developer experience across clouds, which reduces developer toil.
• Move from today’s siloed cloud infrastructure to a new approach where you have consistent enterprise infrastructure across any cloud with greater resilience, security, and cost-efficiency.
• Move from today’s fragmented employee experience to a more frictionless experience in which employees can seamlessly and securely access any app from any location, whether they’re at home, on the road, or in an office environment.

Here’s how some companies successfully migrated from cloud chaos to cloud smart.

VMware’s Cross-Cloud Services portfolio incorporates these strategies, helping organisations transition from “cloud chaos” to “cloud smart”. Raghuram illustrated the five key areas critical for every organisation at VMware Explore 2022:

1. A state-of-the-art platform for building and deploying your cloud-native apps.
2. Cloud management for monitoring and managing the performance and cost of your apps across different clouds.
3. Cloud and edge infrastructure for operating and running your enterprise apps.
4. Security and networking to connect and secure all your apps and clouds.
5. Anywhere Workspaces for accessing any app on any device securely.

Among all areas VMware Cross-Cloud Services targets, I am most thrilled by its cohesive solution to monitor, manage, and mitigate security risks, improve governance, and simplify compliance with confidence. With increased visibility to the multi-cloud platforms, risk exposure and access leaks can be identified and addressed quickly. Consistently enforcing security controls is made easier and less resource-intensive as well. Data breaches, third-party cyber attacks, and other security events can be evaluated, mitigated, and controlled. Evidently, centralised governance across multi-cloud with a single set of rules is a critical piece of the journey to “cloud smart”.

The big picture

When I work with CXOs on the transition to smart multi-cloud environments, the conversation always comes back to people, processes, and tools. Based on Gartner and my personal experiences, we should strive to:

• Adopt a coordinated, holistic approach for multi-cloud management and governance.
• Standardise cloud policies, define processes, and clarify ownership.
• Align IT priorities with business and compliance objectives. Map out functional business needs for app platform, cloud management, cloud and edge infrastructure, security, networking, and anywhere workspace.
• Balance functional and IT requirements to materialise functionality, drive consistency and efficiency across different cloud platforms.
• Leverage best-in-class multi-cloud management platforms, services, and processes to smartly manage multi-cloud environments.

To be transformational, competitive, and successful today, organisations must accelerate their digital transformation and innovation. The best and fastest way to get “cloud smart” is to follow innovators and best practices. A unified and multi-cloud management solution should be top of mind as you adopt a “cloud smart” approach.

Related:

Forget digital transformation: data transformation is what you need — Stefano Maifreni, founder of Eggcelerate, discusses why organisations must focus on data transformation to maximise long-term value.

The top business benefits of VDI, now and in the future — Dominik Birgelen, CEO of oneclick, discusses the top benefits that virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) can bring to businesses.

The post Becoming “cloud smart” — the path to accelerated digital innovation appeared first on Information Age.

Stefano Maifreni, founder of Eggcelerate, discusses why organisations must focus on data transformation to maximise long-term value

Digital transformation is a key mantra for organisations looking to keep pace with their digital age competitors. Businesses need to find ways to modernise and streamline their operations to stay ahead of the game. To that end, there has been much buzz around digital transformation in recent years. It’s one of the most prevalent business trends right now, as more and more companies look to leverage the power of technology to transform their services and processes.

However, while many businesses understand that they need some form of transformation to stay competitive, many struggle to figure out how they can make this change happen. After all, this process can be complex and challenging — especially since most organisations are not precisely flourishing right now.

This article will explain why data is a cornerstone of any successful digital transformation strategy, and what you should do about it if you’re ready for data transformation instead of digital transformation.

Defining digital transformation

The digital transformation uses new technologies to restructure an organisation and its processes to improve efficiency and meet customer needs. At its core, digital transformation is about finding new ways of doing things, making the most of new technologies, and improving your business.

Digital transformation initiatives can vary significantly from one organisation to another, and it all depends on the needs and challenges of each company. In general, however, digital transformation initiatives can involve IT modernisation; cloud technology; process automation; artificial intelligence and machine learning; and transforming communication with customers.

Digital transformation isn’t just about making slight improvements to your business. Instead, it’s about creating new ways of doing things and finding ways to deliver higher-quality services and products. Organisations must be willing to change how they operate to achieve this. They need to be open to adopting new technologies and transforming their business models to suit the needs of their customers.

Data: the cornerstone of any successful digital transformation strategy

One of the most critical aspects of digital transformation is understanding how your organisation leverages data. Once you know how your organisation uses data, you can work on optimising data usage and applying analytics and insights to drive better business outcomes.

If you don’t have a data strategy in place, your organisation will likely struggle with leveraging data for digital transformation efforts. Without a data strategy, it isn’t easy to know where your data is coming from, what type of data you have, and what you plan to do with it. Having a data strategy in place will help you determine where your data is coming from, what type of data you have, and what you plan to do with it, thus allowing you to create a plan for leveraging data for digital transformation efforts.

How to leverage data for digital transformation efforts

If you want to leverage data for your digital transformation efforts, you should do a few things. First, you need to understand your data. This means assessing your data sources and determining what type of data you currently access.

You also need to decide which data sources you need and where you can find them. Once you understand your data, you need to figure out how to use it to drive better business outcomes. At this point, you must consider how to best process, analyse, and transform your data to maximise its value.

Additionally, you must prioritise your data transformation efforts. Start by identifying which data transformation initiatives will impact your organisation most. Then, ensure you have the necessary resources and budget to make these efforts a reality.

Bottom line

Digital transformation is essential for businesses to restructure their processes to improve efficiency and meet customer needs. However, one of the most common pitfalls is for digital transformation to become a very large IT project.

Organisations must start with a clear idea of what business problem needs solving, and then leverage data effectively to achieve success with digital transformation. There is much more to data transformation than simply taking advantage of the data you already access. Data transformation is an entirely new way of doing things that requires organisations to find new ways of collecting data and transforming data sources into something useful.

Related:

Six steps to overcoming the digital adoption challenge — Hartmut Hahn, CEO of Userlane, identifies six steps that organisations can take towards overcoming the challenge of digital adoption.

Data science and AI: drivers and successes across industry — Heather Dawe, UK head of data at UST UK Data Practice, discusses how data science and artificial intelligence (AI) are driving digital transformation success across sectors.

The post Forget digital transformation: data transformation is what you need appeared first on Information Age.

Kyndryl has launched its new open integration platform, Kyndryl Bridge, to help its business customers orchestrate IT estates and drive growth

Using the new platform, businesses will be able to customise their mission-critical workloads, while leveraging interoperability to ensure business and tech goals are aligned for the long-term.

Utilising operational data patterns and expertise to generate actionable insights, the new offering looks to redefine how organisations improve and accelerate their AI-powered analytics and business objectives.

Designed with configurability in mind, Kyndryl Bridge is evolving to deploy ready-made, industrial scale solutions from Kyndryl and its broad and growing partner ecosystem, which includes companies such as Cloudera, Microsoft and Nokia.

Its management tools, powered by automation and AI, will provide tech leaders with real-time insights to prevent downtime and better forecast future needs and costs.

By innovating to deliver solutions through platform-enabled services, infrastructure services provider Kyndryl — created through a spin off of IBM‘s managed infrastructure services last year — looks to accelerate its customers’ digital business journeys.

On average, Kyndryl Bridge has been estimated to reduce the number of IT incidents, per server per month for enterprises by 74 percent.

“Dealing with complexity is what Kyndryl does best, and what customers need most. Kyndryl Bridge will be a way for our customers, and Kyndryl, to run their mission-critical infrastructure and digital transformation journeys better,” said Martin Schroeter, chairman and CEO of Kyndryl.

“Kyndryl is committed to transforming how IT services are delivered, and Kyndryl Bridge is core to our long-term strategic mission to grow our ecosystem of alliance partners, use tools and IP to create a robust advanced delivery system, and ultimately dedicate more expertise and focus to best serve customers at scale.”

Antoine Shagoury, CTO of Kyndryl, commented: “By enabling leaders to focus less on managing IT systems, they can build and support their digital business strategies while freeing up IT resources for higher-value work.

“It provides greater access and control over critical tools, and Kyndryl experts in cloud, data and AI, security and resiliency, mainframe modernisation, and other important aspects of the IT estate.”

Overcoming complexity

Although digital modernisation efforts globally lead a majority business agendas — 60 percent of CIOs cite it as their most critical growth driver in 2022, according to PwC — complexity and skills shortages have slowed progress.

These key obstacles can be overcome through automated, detailed insights and connected systems without silos.

“Enterprise IT leaders today are responsible for the management of increasingly-complex IT estates that demand greater oversight, interoperability, and AI-powered analytics to avert challenges and downtime,” said David Tapper, program vice-president, outsourcing and managed cloud service at IDC.

“The ability of Kyndryl Bridge to connect the many tools, workflows, and processes in which enterprises have spent years investing, while delivering real-time, actionable insights and recommendations, is a powerful proposition for enterprises throughout the global economy.”

More information on the new Kyndryl Bridge platform can be found here.

Related:

IT risk management best practices for organisations — Dan Matthews identifies the IT risk management best practices that CTOs must implement to keep the organisation properly protected.

Enterprises to spend average of $31.4m on tech in next three years — A WalkMe study has found that enterprises are planning to invest an average of $31.36m in increasing tech uptake over the next three years.

The post Kyndryl Bridge launched, providing IT estate orchestration to businesses appeared first on Information Age.

Melissa Cowdry, director of field marketing at Odigo, discusses why the water industry needs to prioritise customer experience, and how automation and as-a-service solutions can help

Utilities are essential for everyday life and work — especially water. Services need to be delivered quickly, effectively and with minimal disruption to ensure homes and businesses have access to one of the most basic human needs: clean water.

In the UK, consumers and companies have no choice over their water provider. However, despite little regulator or market pressure, the way water services are delivered has been changing over recent years; with the evolution of the sector allowed to unfold over the long term. But then COVID-19 happened.

The pandemic and current cost of living crisis have opened the floodgates for rising water bills and customer dissatisfaction. The average price of a daily shower has risen by 16p to 60p, and the cost of running a bath each day now totals around £1,015 a year. A recent Ofwat study also found 17 per cent of non-household customers were unhappy with their water supplier’s service last year; up from 6 per cent in 2020 and 8 per cent in 2019.

Two years of COVID-19 showed that utilities companies had to combine effective scenario planning with customer experience (CX) transformations to enhance their interactions with the citizens. Many are increasingly looking to intelligent automation to predictively maintain, monitor and repair systems, with a rising focus on omnichannel CX.

Automation: stemming the CX tide

When the pandemic hit, the water industry had to change how they interact with customers. With national lockdowns forcing people to stay at home, and payment offices closed, digital channels became critically important. Indeed, McKinsey reported the general trend of customers moving online saw some digital activities grow more than 40 per cent.

Digital is now more important than ever before. As such, water providers must focus on weaving the technology which underpins digital services — intelligent automation — into the DNA of their engagement strategies to provide a 360-degree omnichannel customer experience.

Undoubtedly, contact centres are central to any company’s customer service effort. And with the exponential amount of data generated now, they can play a huge role in overall business strategy. Embedding intelligent automation is essential for water providers going forward; accurate and seamless service delivery can only be represented and executed in large part by its contact centre operations.

CCaaS: delivering on utility automation

The requirement for consistent service means the utility sector can often find it challenging to integrate automation without impacting the efficiency of systems. Causing further challenges, AI-driven tools like intelligent automation have, until now, primarily been considered the concern of IT departments. This has often lead to automation projects remaining siloed and businesses never quite realising projects’ full potential.

Contact Centre-as-a-Service (CCaaS) solutions offer water providers the opportunity to rapidly deploy key new technologies that make the most of analytical tools to overcome these challenges. Managing and scaling customer communication has always been difficult, not least for water companies. But CCaaS solutions can enable water providers to create integrated, customer-centric channel hubs and arm their agents with sophisticated analytics to operate them. They also provide the intelligent technology required to integrate automation into operations in a seamless and ultimately profitable way. While also facilitating and encouraging collaboration between agents regardless of where they are located.

Improved customer and agent experience, higher return on investment and increased output accuracy aren’t unfamiliar to many business leaders in the water industry. However, those who fail to read the room when it comes to customer service automation risk falling behind the rest of the industry. CCaaS solutions — flexible by nature — could prove valuable investment for utility providers looking to quickly roll-out automation without disrupting existing services.

Related:

How conversational AI is revolutionising the utilities sector — Sebastian Glock, senior technology evangelist at Cognigy, discusses how conversational AI is driving innovation in the utilities sector.

A sector under siege: how the utilities industry can win the war against ransomware — Barry Cashman, regional vice-president UK&I at Veritas Technologies, discusses how the utilities sector can win the war against ransomware.

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