| | April 20188CIOReviewrganizations that adapt the fastest are the ones that grow the fastest. This is known wisdom in the business world and in the 21st century, enterprises need to continuously transform in order to stay relevant and profitable. It is the ability of an organization to constantly renew itself and evolve in the face of a rapidly changing environment that defines how business agile it is. In light of this, implementing technologies that enable and boost business is the new norm.Innovation is absolutely crucial here to maintain deep-rooted business agility. Companies that are not willing to innovate and still depend on outdated approaches of doing things often fall behind the competition because of their inability to dynamically shift in the environment. According to a Microsoft Asia Digital Transformation Study, 92 percent of respondents agreed that every organization needs to become a digital business to drive growth and deliver superior customer experience. Today, companies need to upgrade customer management, improve operational efficiency, acknowledge stakeholder expectations, become cost efficient, move ahead of their competition and produce top results at the same time. Many companies are thus adopting the processes of digitization to leverage its greater benefits and gain business agility.Serving the modern customerBusinesses today need to alter their offerings and operations to cater to the new-age customer. User expectations have drastically changed because of modern technological services and consumers now expect the same consumerization of enterprise products and services. Businesses are still coming to grips with this and are working to gain significant efficiencies through technologies such as AI and machine learning, which are progressing rapidly to form the foundations of business agility. Therefore, it has become crucial for companies to implement technology enabled services.With the proliferation of the internet, firms are now in a unique position to assist their customers like never before. Thanks to data aggregation from multiple sources, they can take faster business decisions and predict outcomes whilst being armed with the right information. They are implementing unified platformsthat help to co-ordinate business better and also evaluate significant performance indices. Businesses nowadays are thus being compelled by customer demands to cut down costs and increase productivity.Focusing on core competencies At the same time, companies should also remember to always focus on their core competencies and outsource specific tasks to specialists. This is the single most important piece of advice for them to stay cost efficient and derive long-term value. While they assess and improve current processes, they must also learn to eliminate traditional blocks that pose challenges. They must remember to use technology as an enabler for achieving business objectives, empowering employees and improving customer interface. The visibility granted by technology should serve these key purposes.Even if the benefits may not be clearly apparent at the outset, the simple act of creating a sole source of company data can set organizations on the path to total synergy. HOW DIGITIZATION AND TECHNOLOGY CAN BRING BUSINESS AGILITYOBy Guruprasad Srinivasan, President, Quess Corp Ltd. IN MY OPINION
< Page 7 | Page 9 >