Tag Archives: transformation

03.21.15
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A new success criteria has emerged – Speed

 “The clock starts ticking as the customer starts clicking” (Jody Sarno, Forrester)

Companies that are able to anticipate their customers’ needs have a clear advantage in our world of rapidly changing customer demands. Speed is of the essence. Companies across the world are looking for ways to understand not just what has happened, but what would happen next so that they can meet the customer without having to cross a divide.

The challenge is how to adopt a framework that provides the platform for speed.  Everything is becoming more and more connected.  Many call this the internet of things, but we could also look at it as simply an opportunity to connect with our customers in a whole new way, an Internet of Customers. In fact, over 75 billion things will become connected by 2020, and this leads to trillions of customer interactions.

Making the data speak

Each interaction represents a data point, a piece of history that can be used to understand what will happen next.  Today, retail companies like Rossignol create a social profile of their customers to offer services like modifications to the equipment to help the skier’s performance, or a training regimen based on his actual use. Hospitals want to track patient behavior – from patient activity levels to blood pressure to help provide a better standard of service and care. And energy companies are collecting data from big machine performance, or seismic activity and weather data to try to get more effective at preventative maintenance of their oil rigs. It’s using the data to predict the future which should be the foundation of the Big Data hype.

Companies want to transform how they sell to a customer, deliver better service, create targeted campaigns, build better products, optimize operations. And business people need the right insights to take action, instantly.

Join Salesforce at our Nordic Speed of Change City Tour in April. We are coming to Helsinki, Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm. More information and registration for free at www.salesforce.com/eu/speed

12.11.12
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Social will fast forward you from the Stoneage to satellites

Not all of us may want to ride a satellite. But we certainly would not survive for very long in the Stoneage. A year ago, at a conference with the Group CIOs of Europe’s biggest companies, a CIO had the courage to stand up and tell us how his organization made the journey to complete business transformation. How they did it, is not as remarkable as the speed at which it happened: “6 months ago we were in the Stoneage – now we are trying to figure out how to make our satellites move faster”.

The propellant was social. By breaking down the internal boundaries on the new platform, they made the leap from transactions to engagement. Not only internally, but even more so when interacting with customers and business partners. Now you might think the company in question was one of those agile, high techs who are used to all things digital and the Internet of things. It wasn’t – it was a hard core manufacturing company with traditional products and traditional markets. And French.

You raise your arm in the audience and ask the obvious question: But how?

R. “Ray” Wang from the Harvard Business Review has one really good explanation: people-centric values, delivery and communication style, and timing. http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/05/how_to_engage_your_customers_a.html)

And salesforce.com Chief Scientist JP Rangaswami explains it with warmth and humour in this recording from Cloudforce Nordics in Stockholm on October 23, 2012:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgE7NbViu38&feature=plcp

Social is about people. Business is about people. Transformation is about people.

By building your journey on what matters to people, you will engage both employees and customers. Running your business will no longer be a series of data transactions; with the help of the many available social tools it will be run by data driven conversations .