Most organizations will claim that their departments operate towards one common objective. While not incorrect, this tends to be a large-picture objective but may not be the actual day-to-day objective. Finance looks to manage growth in an efficient way, HR looks to hire and keep valuable employees, developers want to create a great product, sales want to convert opportunities into dollars, and marketing generates awareness and opportunities. It’s OK to acknowledge these different and sometimes conflicting objectives, the importance is to create an environment that each team can co-exist and reach their individual objectives.
We are able to draw similar parallels with the animal kingdom. Whole ecosystems of animals that have their own objectives in mind. Often these objectives can benefit other animals. This is known as symbiosis. Take for example the Egyptian Plover and the Nile Crocodile. This little bird perches itself in the mouth of the crocodile to pick at food. For the bird it is a source of food, for the crocodile, its mouth gets cleaned to prevent infections.
What is Enhanced Symbiotic Performance?
Enhanced Symbiotic Performance is the state in which the various teams across an organization are able to work cooperatively and achieve their individual objectives, while increasing productivity and operational efficiencies.
How is Enhanced Symbiotic Performance transforming financial enterprises?
In many financial enterprises, teams work in silos. Advisors are looking to increase their client list and grow their clients’ assets. The compliance teams actively protect the organization from any liabilities. The enterprise marketers look to create more business opportunities for the organization, including at the advisor level. Efforts can be made to increase collaborative efforts. However, the limitations of traditional tools prevent organizations and teams from achieving Enhanced Symbiotic Performance. In order to achieve this state, financial enterprises are implementing a universal tool that allows each team to achieve their own objectives.
Digital Agent is one of these tools that are able to create Enhanced Symbiotic Performance and teams reach a state of supportive co-operation. Financial enterprises across North America have implemented Digital Agent for different reasons. Regardless of the initial trigger that lead these companies to seek out Digital Agent, everyone of them experienced Enhanced Symbiotic Performance.
To further explain the transformation these financial enterprises experienced, it is important to examine the before and after of each individual department and how they benefit.
Enhanced Symbiotic Performance is the state in which the various teams across an organization are able to work cooperatively and achieve their individual objectives while increasing productivity and operational efficiencies
Transforming Enterprise Marketing
The enterprise marketing team is looking to build awareness and increase the opportunities for the organization. The issue is that they are asked to deliver more results for the same size budget. Utilizing their advisor teams as a distribution channel for their marketing content will allow them to expand their reach and increase opportunities. Traditionally, there would be no easy way to distribute this content across hundreds or thousands of advisors. Furthermore, some information or detail would need to be changed for different advisors. After the transformation, the marketers are now able to distribute messaging across the entire advisor network, including customization, all automatically.
Transforming Advisor Marketing
Financial Advisors are not focused nor trained to be marketers. However, marketing themselves has become a necessary part of successfully growing their business. The roadblock they face is that marketing tools are expensive and complex. After the transformation, they have access to easy-to-use tools that deliver similar results to the more complex marketing tools. However, advisors are now connected to enterprise marketing content and to the compliance team.
Transforming Compliance Processes
For a compliance member, their objective is the protection and limitation of corporate liability caused by communications. Traditionally, their main tool would be email. They would receive advisor content via email, print it off and mark up the document and send it back to the advisor. We can see many problems with this process. This process would often take weeks, they would not be able to make minute changes, could not be published immediately after changes, lacks the context of the site, and there is still a risk of circumventing the compliance team. After the transformation, content is delivered via the platform, all changes are made within, and it is automatically published upon approval.
Organizations may try tear down the silos between departments and create one common objective for the entire organization to work towards. It is important to not lose sight of the fact that each department has different day-to-day objectives that they are focused on. Instead of trying to optimize each department individually (which is contradictory to their non-siloed messaging), organizations need to look to create Enhanced Symbiotic Performance. By implementing a common tool and processes that lead towards a larger objective but allows for each department to individually benefit for each other.
Differentiate Product & Service Offerings
• 50% or more B2B companies will differentiate themselves offering easier, more personalized, more connected purchasing experiences’ (B2B Online)
• 25% of technology and business decision-makers cite product and service innovation as a DX driver (Forrester)
• 46% of DX strategies and executives claim evolving customer behaviors and preferences as a key driver of DX (Altimeter, a Prophet Company)
Differentiation is a core driver for many industrial companies, especially for product manufacturers that often compete in crowded markets. DX can enable differentiation of product and service offerings by creating opportunities for new capabilities and optimizing current product and service delivery. The key measures of differentiation show up in time to market, rate of new product or feature introductions, and improved product quality. To achieve these goals, enterprises are leveraging technology to better understand their products and create proactive enhancements that set them apart from the competition. Examples include real-time simulation of product changes and improved collaboration across the value chain from design through service. Augmented reality is differentiating value propositions and additive manufacturing is enabling net-new design possibilities, meaning technology is being used to drive a state of constant change and adaptation. Closing the loop between the planned and realized value propositions, companies can quickly recognize customer needs and go to market faster with solutions that better meet their customer requirements.
Improve Customer Experience
• 41% of technology and business decision makers are looking to improve the customer experience through DX (Forrester)
• 75% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase from a company that knows their name and purchase history and recommends products based on their preferences. (Accenture)
• 71% of executives view understanding the impact digital technology will have on their customer’s behavior and preferences as their top challenge (Altimeter, a Prophet Company)
Organizations across the globe are recognizing that customer-centricity is fundamental to their DX strategies and to effectively compete in the digital marketplace. Buyers expect customizable products and experiences and for issues to be addressed in real time or before challenges arise. Digital interfaces and communication coupled with new services are strengthening customer engagements and brand reputation. From net promoter scores to increased service revenues, customer experience can now be measured in more meaningful and actionable ways than ever before. At the core of this new normal of customer success is the ability to create more intimate relationships with customers through technology capabilities and building a culture of customer-centricity. Extending the customer lifecycles can be achieved with use cases like equipping aftermarket services with customer intelligence that monitors performance of deployed products, enabling more proactive service and upselling to meet customer demands and avoid unplanned challenges. It can also take the form of new direct communication channels to achieve and accelerate customer time to value, as is the case with guided maintenance and remote service enabled by connected product monitoring.
Create New Business Models
• 41% of executives cite new business models as the top DX driver (Forbes Insights)
• 30% of industry revenues will come from new business models by 2020. (WEF/Accenture)
• Companies are recognizing that digital customers increasingly demand high-quality experiences and guaranteed outcomes, rather than just products and services. This development is leading to new, outcome-based business models.’ (WEF/Accenture)
There is a massive shift of companies moving from selling standalone products, to providing end-to-end services or for manufacturers ‘products as-a-service’. As customer expectations rise, buyers become more cautious about large capital spend and prefer the reduced commitment offered by usage or outcome-based business models. Buyers are experiencing the same uncertainty and rate of change as providers, and the ‘servitization’ of all things has emerged as a way for both parties to mutually reach value. These new business models shift traditional metrics like top line growth by recognizing service and future recurring revenue as equally or more important than current sales. Traditionally, the monetization of products has ended at the point-of sale; however, with the proliferation of digital capabilities including cloud computing, mobile applications, and IoT, services and related revenue can be gained post-sale. There are many examples of this ‘on-demand’ business model proliferating through industries with the development of the ‘sharing economy’. For industrial enterprises, this business model transformation is creating the opportunity to offer new SLAs that promise specific pay-per-value outcomes for customers – and these new SLAs come at a profitable new price.
Reduce Business Risk
• 21% of technology and business decision makers cite regulatory compliance as a DX driver (Forrester)
• 42% of companies cited IT security and risk management as the main focus of digital transformation efforts (HBR)
• 39% of DX strategies and executives claim new standards in regulatory & compliance as a key driver of DX (Altimeter, a Prophet Company)
Risk is more of a driver of change for industrial enterprises than ever before. Between the shifting buyer-supplier dynamics we’ve discussed and uncertain global trade and regulatory conditions, companies simultaneously cannot afford to take risks and yet are required to take them. Supply chains have become more complex, and materials and goods move globally at breakneck speed. Yet many industrial companies still rely on heavy use of paper to do business, where information can be challenging to interpret, maintain, and scale, creating compounding compliance hurdles. Risk can be measured by the number of compliance incidents such as worker safety incidents, data loss, or with product and service liability and warranty claims.
DX technology being applied to meet these ends and reduce risk by enabling smarter decision making and more calculated risk taking, as well as yielding fast reactions when challenges arise. This is prevalent in mission-critical industries like pharmaceuticals or automotive, where performance is crucial and regulatory compliance with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is continuously top of-mind. Analytical capabilities and connected technologies are providing real-time compliance reporting systems such as plant risk assessments, work forecasting systems, and quality inspection reviews. Connecting workers can alleviate overhead costs for OSHA standards and health and safety (HSE) policies, while connecting physical assets can verify critical systems such as infrastructure are properly functioning. Regulatory compliance has historically been an organizational hurdle; however, DX adopters are not just using technology to comply but differentiate and drive new business value.
Executing on an Industrial Digital Transformation Strategy
Whether enterprises are just starting out or building on existing DX initiatives, it’s crucial to align business needs with the desired value or outcomes and the DX technology and solution to achieve it. Often a combination of multiple technologies as well as people-driven process transformation are required to achieve true differentiation. DX initiatives frequently fail when companies rely too heavily on one silver bullet technology rather than taking a holistic approach to their transformation strategy. Complementary capabilities of multiple technologies are required to enact step change to transform products, processes, and people. Navigating these interdependencies can be daunting and complex. Identifying strategic partners that recognize, understand, and can guide industrial enterprises through these choices is critical. From discovery stages aligning overall objectives and priorities, through proof-of-concept trials, and implementing enterprise-wide solutions at scale, it takes a small army to drive true transformation. Applying strategic technologies to the right outcomes will expedite time-to-value and drive industrial companies through disruptive waves and enable them to ride the momentum of the digital revolution.
