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Your business and the New Technology

Digital transformation, everything to the Internet, cloud, and technology refreshes. Welcome to the new world of computing. If your business isn’t currently experiencing some change in its use of digital tools, it will be soon. For those in the process, their customers will benefit from new methods of placing orders, completing transactions and connecting with your company. And while it’s important to keep up, technology evolution needs to coincide with a review and overhaul of the business processes behind their use. If managing the customer with new technology has changed yet managing the business has not it may be time for a process review.

The assessment consists of asking a few key questions that allow you to envision the customer experience. For example, are added efficiencies at point of sale being lost to incomplete processes during customer interaction? I’ve witnessed transactions where credit cards are inserted for verification, purchases acknowledged by clicking “ok” but then I’m handed a paper receipt to sign for my purchase. For one reason or another it appears the transformation wasn’t carried through to the end of the sales cycle.

A second business process to examine closely is how your supply chain connects to the new technology. What happens when stock runs low and ordering is required? Whenever possible take advantage of business to business (B2B) strategies that allow for automatic notification and ordering. An easier and more efficient process is a sure sign of success.

Finally, information about customers who are purchasing products will be in a simple format and readily available. This will provide demographics used in future marketing, understanding profitability in contracts and commitments for your services and other growth initiatives to be developed. Gathering the information can be easy, but the process to make it useable is more challenging.

Organization transformation is three-fold that includes technology, process and people. Be sure to engage your employees as they can provide valuable ideas and a view of how customers are being affected by changes.

The end result of this work will be the new technology allowing you to be smarter in how you sell to and serve the customer.

One last piece of advice, the size of the investment isn’t as important as the reason why. As change is designed, clearly state the business benefit.

Written by Ted Saul, Sr. Staff Writer

Ted Saul is a business coach that assists with Business Plans and Project Management. He holds a master certificate in project management and has earned his MBA from Regis University. Ted can be reached on LinkedIn, TedS787 on Twitter or emailing Ted@tsaul.com.

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