The COVID-19 pandemic causes a challenge as well as an opportunity for organizations to accelerate their digital transformation. Due to the pandemic’s limitations and crises, businesses must respond swiftly, migrate to digital channels, and adapt products and services to suit rapidly changing customer demands.
To stay afloat and thrive, businesses must swiftly adopt new technology and ways of working, reducing the time it takes to deploy digital solutions. To do so, the Connected Enterprise strategy must be used to carry out the digital transformation that integrates front, middle, and back offices and focuses on every process, function, and business connection.
Panelists from KPMG Singapore, Grab Indonesia, Tokopedia, and Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison provided interesting insights about what companies must do to become connected enterprises and how to be more focused on customers at the CTI IT Infrastructure Summit 2020 panel discussion session on Thursday, March 10, 2022. More information can be found in the following article.
What Does it Take to Become a Customer-Centric Connected Enterprise?
According to Anton Ruddenklau, Head of Financial Services Advisory at KPMG Singapore, companies must first adapt their vision and perspective, as well as have a willingness to change, in order to handle business dynamics in the connected enterprise era that focuses on consumers.
“Companies in the twentieth century were unique in that they had to begin changing their vision, strategy, and philosophy. Starting with a company concept that has worldwide capabilities,” Anton said.
Additionally, Anton stressed the need for internally connected enterprises to be able to redesign and exploit data. In the digital era, he also stated that corporations must have an ecosystem approach.
On the other side, Roy Nugroho, Director of Grab for Business at Grab Indonesia, stated that his team is focused on expanding the business. The key is to provide MSME businesses, kiosk agents, and driving partners with the tools they need to serve millions of people.
As an example, Roy stated that during the epidemic, Grab reacted to the situation by launching the Grab for Business (GfB) service.
“We’re aiming to achieve economic improvement for partners and users by starting with a vision and attitude.” Since the pandemic, GfB has established an online shop and marketplace aggregator to help. The GrabFood platform can sell food to any business, from individual entrepreneurs to major businesses. “This aligns with our mission of providing a broader concrete benefit for everyone while balancing end-users and corporate partners,” Roy explained.
Similarly, Herman Widjaja, Tokopedia’s Chief Technology Officer, stated that his company focuses on consumers in order to become a connected enterprise. According to Herman, it is critical for businesses to understand their clients so that the technology team can act as an innovator rather than merely an enabler.
“As the world evolves and greater innovation is required, we must adjust our thinking. The IT team is no longer only an enabler, but also a revenue generator and a creator of new ideas that help clients be more productive on our platform,” Herman added.
Meanwhile, Chirag Sukhadia, Chief Enterprise Data Analytics Officer at Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (IOH), stated that his company is in the process of offering personalized goods and services to both B2C and B2B clients in order to anticipate future demands.
“To expand the database and better understand consumers, we use machine learning in IT systems. We also foster a data-driven decision-making culture. By introducing new digital channels, we put customers first by putting insights and comprehensive standards in place “he stated.
Read also: How Can Connected Enterprise Help You Build a Customer-Centric Business?
Market Analysis: Optimize and Respond
Connected enterprises are required by the changing realities of the new normal to connect data sources and acquire insights faster. As a result, Anton believes it is critical for businesses to set priorities in order to optimize and adapt to market dynamics.
“To begin, consider how we track data and generic data models. The second issue is how to keep data secure, which includes supply-chain and payment systems. As a result, be aware of the dynamics that exist among consumers, staff, and supply-chain partners,” he stated.
Apart from the actual payment, he claims that the supply chain is also a vulnerable sector. He stated that teams who grasp how and why data performance is vital for decision-making are critical for connected enterprises.
Meanwhile, Grab, the Singapore-based super-app startup, claimed that they often receive input from end-users and business partners via multiple channels. According to Roy, his party is attempting to promptly implement any comments received from users and business partners.
“We currently have over 7,000 business clients,” he added. “We get immediate input from them and strive to respond rapidly, especially during the pandemic.”
Roy cited one of Grab’s rapid responses when the company launched Grab Protect in the midst of a pandemic to protect the safety of customers and drivers’ mobility. Meanwhile, Grab launched GrabMart for MSMEs, allowing small businesses to join digital MSMEs.
“In terms of qualitative research, we are aggressive in making online visits to MSME partners to learn about their issues. Our team brainstorms internally to produce powerful goods based on that data. In quantitative terms, there is something we can be certain of when it comes to the data we obtain and the data we use to make it a reality. fresh ideas,” he added.
Herman acknowledges that, as a marketplace, Tokopedia faces challenges in establishing a customer-centric culture. According to him, technology can be leveraged to ramp up customer problem solving.
“It is obvious that everyone must innovate. Digital innovation must focus on the journey to recognize clients, develop empathy, and use experiences to address issues, rather than simply the technology “Herman said.
This, he claims, is in keeping with Tokopedia’s purpose of connecting all Indonesians so that they may purchase anything from anywhere and start a company from anywhere.
Chirag, like IOH, acknowledges that his party places the customer at the heart of every business and innovation. He noted that digital expansion is a vital element of innovation, citing collaborations with a number of technology businesses to establish connected enterprises as an example.
Such collaborations, he added, might help companies earn from financial invasions, as well as internal and external changes and investments in IT network infrastructure. Investment in IT infrastructure, according to Chirag, may grow the network, develop capacity, boost speed and capacity, and turn into a network solution to fulfill customer demands.
“We’re trying to figure out how to better respond to customer demands and boost interaction. Consumers want network access rapidly, so we’re working to figure out how to respond and, eventually, deliver innovative products like loans for the unbanked,” Chirag closed.
