Competitors are a serious threat, and larger, growing businesses place a high value on activities such as market research and competitor analysis in order to stay one step ahead. In fact, there is almost no limit to the amount of information available about competitors and how your organization compares — a situation that can lead to analysis paralysis for some. As a result, the organization that processes business insights the most efficiently and effectively is more likely to gain a competitive advantage in the long run. Regardless of industry, technology has become a significant investment for all businesses, yielding tangible results in the development of service offerings and, ultimately, revenue growth.
When technology is used to deliver the four benefits listed below, it becomes a competitive advantage.
Real insight, real responsiveness
— Identifying and resolving issues before they become major headaches has obvious advantages, regardless of your industry. If your competitors are able to respond quickly and solve problems with ease, it could be due to their software. Many business management systems provide real-time access to business data, making it easier to identify problems – customer complaints, missed invoices, project delays – as they arise. With this information, the company can devise a strategy to resolve the problem as soon as possible, rather than ignoring and exacerbating it.
Competitive pricing, and accurate quoting —
Business management software may be assisting your competitors in this area. It has the potential to increase efficiency, lowering overall service prices. Sophisticated reporting functions can aid in the accuracy of project costings, resulting in fewer cost overruns and fewer disgruntled customers.
Work anywhere, anytime — Work no longer starts and ends at the workplace. Working remotely is becoming increasingly common, with site visits, business travel, international clients, and other factors necessitating the completion of work outside of office hours and away from the physical office. This is where cloud business software really shines. It enables you and your employees to access work programs and up-to-date business data from any device, at any time.
Online access and improved service — Online customer portals, for example, can make it easier for clients to check the status of a project, pay an invoice, or request a new service. Expectations will rise as more businesses use technology to automate services, and if you can’t provide the same level of service, you may struggle to retain customers.
As we move towards a more data-driven business landscape, the use of comprehensive and dependable technology, such as business management software, will become an important determinant of short-term sustainability and future success.
On a daily basis, new technologies enter the market. In many cases, they present opportunities for organizations to reinvent their business models and significantly improve the efficiency of their operating models. Companies that are better prepared and skilled at leveraging these technologies will have a significant competitive advantage. To gain this advantage and outperform competitors, organizations must transform in ways that place humans at the center of any organizational shift, deploy technology quickly, and innovate at scale through ecosystem collaboration.
Companies need a proactive, empathetic, human-centered technology strategy built around adapting operations and building resilience to effectively address the need, which can provide the enterprise with a stronger competitive edge. Companies will also need to use data to improve agility and power innovation, accelerate AI to drive growth, and unlock new opportunities through ecosystems and partnerships. Despite these opportunities, businesses must prepare for an exponential increase in cyber security risks.
To keep up with the accelerating digital landscape, businesses are undergoing rapid transformation across their people, process, and technology capabilities. Cloud, applications, artificial intelligence, and robotics should be at the heart of their enterprise technology transformation. Because of its agility and scalability, the cloud is the preferred platform for both infrastructure and applications. Applications facilitate interactions between businesses and their customers, as well as interactions within larger ecosystems and across multiple channels. AI enables businesses to gain insights by simulating human intelligence and analyzing massive amounts of data. When combined with cognitive technologies such as machine learning, speech recognition, and natural language processing, robotics enables businesses to automate higher-order tasks that previously required human perceptual and judgment abilities. Leaders in digital transformation recognize that the promise of these technologies extends beyond simply freeing up time to think or increasing efficiency. The true promise of AI is in its ability to augment and improve human intelligence by assisting us in making better decisions.
The end result will be a completely new way of viewing the world. When a global consumer products company embarked on their AI journey, they discovered this. Beginning with robotic process automation (RPA), the company quickly saw growth opportunities where it could leverage robots, cognitive capabilities, and AI to improve revenues. The company improved the customer experience, freed up valuable employee time to focus on more strategic initiatives, and delivered ROI by deploying bots to handle certain processes.
Embrace ecosystems and partnerships
Customers were increasingly demanding personalization, convenience, and great experiences prior to the pandemic. This trend will only accelerate after the pandemic. At the same time, as previously stated, cyber risks are increasing. Companies are realizing that they cannot meet all of these demands on their own. They will require collaboration, but they must also challenge sector boundaries in order to become more agile and capable of large-scale innovation. We see this as online retailers collaborate with brick-and-mortar stores to provide customers with a more convenient experience, and as global technology companies tap into start-up ecosystems to fuel technological development.
According to IDC, by 2023, 60% of G2000 companies will have a digital developer ecosystem, with half of those enterprises driving 20% of digital revenue through their digital ecosystem. Predictions for the digital developer ecosystem By 2023, 60% of G2000 companies will have a digital developer ecosystem, with half of those using it to drive 20% of their digital revenue.
Nonetheless, while businesses recognize the value of a partnership ecosystem, there is some skepticism. More than half (54%) of corporations are skeptical of the opportunities presented by partnerships. For decades, a “do it yourself” culture has prevailed in business. Companies must break free from this mindset in the digital age by becoming more collaborative and open to partnerships, rapidly disassembling and reassembling value chains. After all, no single organization can be an expert in every aspect of digital technology or cyber security. Collaboration is the only way to safely harness new technology to its full potential to drive human-centered transformation and scale innovation.
Technology is connecting every aspect of our lives, allowing us to grow and innovate more. It does, however, necessitate businesses creating sources of value other than the bottom line – people value, social value, and customer value. Leading companies are already doing this by viewing technological disruption as an opportunity rather than a threat and reinventing themselves to capitalize on new sources of value. The good news is that the pandemic has provided an opportunity to level the playing field for those who have fallen behind. In a post-pandemic world, all businesses will need to accelerate their digital journeys by putting humans first, embracing technology quickly, and innovating at scale if they want to create a competitive advantage and thrive in a future remade by today’s crisis.
As new technologies emerge at a rapid pace, organizations that are adept at recognizing the opportunities they present will gain a significant competitive advantage. Data will also play an important role in improving agility, enabling innovation, propelling growth, and opening up new opportunities through ecosystems and partnerships. However, cyber security and privacy protection must be integrated into all stages of the transformation journey.