There’s a whole lot keeping modern CIOs awake at night. On a daily basis, the typical CIO is tasked with managing technology and IT. But they aren’t only ‘managing’ IT. These busy C-level execs also have to ensure that IT teams deliver world-class services that support business needs, while also keeping up with their competitors and handling the ever-increasing demands of their customers. And talking about keeping apace with things, today’s CIOs must also stay up-to-date with the latest solutions and technologies so that they can develop and deliver the shiny new apps that support broader marketing and business objectives, all while managing, and making the most of, legacy systems.

Ultimately, all of these roles and responsibilities come down to one thing – handling, and being open to, change.

This is where IT Service Management (ITSM) becomes every CIO’s greatest asset. A set of policies, processes and procedures for managing the implementation, improvement and support of IT services to meet the needs of a business, ITSM doesn’t focus on hardware, networks or systems; instead, it aims to improve IT services and align these improvements with broader business plans.

“Business and IT tend to speak different languages. ITSM creates a common tongue between the two for better understanding and collaboration,” says Edward Carbutt, MD at Marval Africa.

WHEN BUSINESS MEETS IT

The overall aim of ITSM is to improve the performance of a business, states Paula Sartini, founder and CEO of BrandQuantum. Getting this right means giving IT a strategic view of the organisation. IT needs to be aware of what pain points are holding the business back and identify ways to overcome these challenges, she continues. Once it has a view of this, the IT department can design, create, deliver, support and manage the IT services that will help the company achieve the desired results.

For Colin Thornton, MD of Dial a Nerd and Turrito Networks, when embracing ITSM, IT becomes a strategic enabler of business objectives. On the other hand, a non-ITSM approach sees IT operating with more of a 'break-fix' methodology – with the primary function being to react and repair things should an issue arise. In the past, IT just needed to keep systems online and was kept separate from business requirements, but with ITSM, business explains end goals to the IT department, which is then tasked with delivering, supporting and maintaining the systems needed to achieve these goals.

But ITSM isn’t only about reaching your business objectives; it also provides a measurable standard that business can use to gauge how IT is performing, notes Nick Truran, CEO of Agile IT. With ITSM, a list of services and deliverables is agreed upon upfront so that the level of IT services delivered matches business expectations, which makes it easier for business to calculate IT costs accurately.

Ilze Nel, TAC manager at NEC XON, describes transforming digitally as being a bit like changing the course of a large ship. You may be headed in the right direction, but the results aren’t immediately evident. Planning and deploying new projects can be tedious, time-consuming and also rather expensive. But with transparent ITSM processes in place, everyone’s expectations are aligned – and that makes your digital transformation journey easier.

Take artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, for example. These innovations are aimed at handling non-critical, repetitive tasks so that employees can focus attention on being strategic and delivering a greater service to the organisation, says Sartini. Using ITSM, an organisation is better equipped to decide which tasks can and should be automated to improve employee efficiencies. It can then develop simple solutions that these same employees are happy to use.

Says Muggie van Staden, MD at Obsidian Systems: “Automation of the mundane is the key to ITSM.” But he cautions that businesses must focus on learning and continuous improvement. The service lifecycle defines all the processes and procedures an organisation uses to identify, create, deliver and manage IT services from birth through to archive. AI uses machine learning and realtime information to understand these processes and procedures better and, in turn, enable better service.

THREE GOLDEN RULES FOR IMPLEMENTING ITSM

According Van Staden, making your ITSM implementation a success is all about three key things: customisation, customer centricity and going beyond just IT.

CUSTOMISE:

With ITSM, one size most certainly does not fit all. Van Staden advises that businesses don’t blindly follow best practice dos and dont’s. Every customer, application and service management strategy is unique. “Following a trend and trying to copy and paste a case study as a solution won’t work,” he says. When adopting an ITSM solution, you need to ensure that it is tailored to your organisation’s needs, culture and way of working, he adds.

CUSTOMER CENTRICITY:

We all understand the importance of considering the customer when developing any user interface. And yet, Van Staden believes that most organisations still have a lot of work to do in this area. Something as simple as offering self-service facilities is a great way to give your customers options and improve the services you offer. Times have changed rapidly and with the democratisation of devices, mobility and the growth in the app market, there are now so many channels to communicate with your customers and receive real-time, direct feedback.

MORE THAN JUST TECHNOLOGY:

ITSM is not only an IT solution. ITSM is about the business and should be inclusive of all people. This means that the solution should speak to the entire organisation, from finance to human resources, sales through to customers.

Unpacking ITIL

IT Service Management (ITSM) is often used interchangeably with IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). But they are not the same. ITIL refers to a group of documents that provide various framework and best practices for building an ITSM solution and successfully delivering IT services. Think of ITIL as being a bit like a guidebook for ITSM. This systematic approach to ITSM contains close to 30 processes that help businesses manage risk, improve customer relationships, implement more cost-effective practices and build a stable IT environment that fosters growth, enables scale and is open to change. All of this is aimed at aligning IT services with the needs of the business.

Delving into ITSM

1. ITSM in SA: are local businesses embracing these processes?

Edward Carbutt, MD at Marval Africa, believes that the South African ITSM market is still relatively immature. The reason for this is that the ITSM space is largely misunderstood. There is a lot of confusion in local markets about what ITSM really is, so the true value that it brings to business is not fully recognised or realised, he says. In addition to this, he highlights that many companies have the wrong idea about ITSM, assuming that it is merely a service desk or a workflow system. But this is not the case.

Most local companies have adopted ITSM, but have not fully embedded it within the business operation, notes Nick Truran, CEO of Agile IT. This means that most local ITSM implementations are immature. He says too many IT departments are focused on the next new thing, when they should actually be coming up with strategies to build their technology investments into their existing IT infrastructures.

2. What if I don’t have the required IT capabilities in-house? Can I outsource my ITSM?

For Hannes Botes, CTO at MANXiT, the answer is yes. IT Management as a service (ITMaaS) is defined as outsourcing the management of a company’s IT – a concept that can either strike fear into the heart of every CIO or be seen as a saviour for businesses struggling to deliver globally competitive services. By outsourcing the management of IT, companies no longer have to worry about managing their day-to-day IT operations and can, instead, focus on their core business issues, namely running and growing the organisation. ITMaaS service providers will offer all the management tools users need to access and view their IT environment, monitor and evaluate performance and, ultimately, improve the functionality of their IT environment via a cloud delivery model.

3. What are your top ITSM dos and don’ts?

According to Marval Africa’s Carbutt, ITSM can’t just be left to the IT department. It requires the input, consideration and collaboration of all areas of the business. He stresses that businesses need to be wary of `technobabble’ and keep processes, instructions and rationale simple to guarantee that everyone in the business understands it. Carbutt also advises that businesses avoid overcomplicating things. “ITSM is about simplification and streamlining. If you follow the basic steps and apply them to your unique requirements, the simplest way will reveal itself and should be adopted.”

For NEC XON’s Ilze Nel, end-users must be included in the ITSM implementation because they are the ones who will be using these processes every day. It requires internal marketing and communications that clearly outline ITSM’s purpose and goals. People often see automation as a threat to their jobs, so you have to anticipate their need for reassurance. Another important consideration, notes Nel, is that businesses don’t expect significant results immediately. There is no vanilla, out-of-the-box solution that perfectly fits every business and every scenario. And that should be factored into the timeline and cost estimates for the project.

Similarly, companies with limited knowledge about ITSM often select the most expensive ITSM products because they assume it will provide them with everything they need. Companies will purchase the Ferrari of all solutions and then only use a fraction of the capabilities. “It’s important to remember that this is a time-consuming and labour intensive process,” says Nel. “But, done properly, it delivers undeniable results and is worth every effort for business, IT and customers.”

Ensuring brand uniformity and accuracy in the digital world.

When Paula Sartini arrives for our interview, I’m momentarily taken aback. She’s wearing a little black dress with a lace overlay and elaborate fluff around the neckline, and killer heels perfect for dancing the tango.

She’s certainly turning heads on a sweaty Joburg morning. Then her make-up artist steps in and moves her hair a fraction so she’s picture-perfect.

It feels like overkill for a friendly chat in a café, but Sartini is the founder and CEO of BrandQuantum, and this time, the brand she’s promoting is herself. Smart marketing indeed. If you can’t make your own brand look good, how can you be trusted with the brands of your customers?

“Brands are built on trust. If you can’t even get your logo right, how can I trust the services you’re offering because it looks like you don’t know what you’re doing?”

Sartini looks gloriously exotic too, and tells me her parents are Argentinian. She’s fluent in Spanish and that Latin speaking style makes her conversation fast-paced and passionate.

A varied background has given her skills in marketing, accounting and art, and she learned coding as a kid when her engineer father brought home an Apple computer and helped her create a game where she calculated the profit on selling lemonade. “I learned the logic of programming, even though I just wanted to play with my dolls because I was really girly. But I’m very grateful now because that logical brain kicked in,” she says. “I’m not an engineer, but I’m very logical and I love statistics, accounting and numbers.”

All her skills have now combined in BrandQuantum, a business she launched in 2014 to help companies protect and promote their brands by making their communications consistent and secure.

She talks about gorgeous fonts and typefaces, and how you can spoil her beautiful design work on a logo by squashing and distorting it. It sounds a little precious, but she explains it well. “Brands are built on trust. If you can’t even get your logo right, how can I trust the services you’re offering because it looks like you don’t know what you’re doing? Maybe you’ll send me the wrong terms and conditions or the wrong information if you can’t get the simple things right,” she says. “If you’re a bank and you write to me in Comic Sans, I wonder if I can really trust you, because what you’re showing me isn’t very believable. It could be the difference between getting the business and losing it if you can’t even maintain your brand.”

AUTOMATE THE PROCESS

The BrandQuantum solution is based on software that was developed for her previous business when she was helping companies take their IT products to market. After about 150 projects, she realised it would be useful to have some software to take what she had learned and automate the process. “The work is quite analytical to determine if there’s a market opportunity. You look at the market factors and the offering, and put all the numbers into the software. Then the process is based on numbers, and not just the egos around the table.”

“One of our big shifts was in our own thinking about what we are, and now we know we’re a software company.” 

When clients call in BrandQuantum, they usually start by wanting tamperproof email signatures and letterheads to help avoid phishing scams and fraudulent communications. As part of the consulting process, Sartini monitors all the communications being sent out, and assesses the logos, advertising material and other corporate collateral.

Then the team can create consistency across all the documentation and store approved, up-to-date versions in a central repository in the cloud. The BrandOffice and BrandMail software give the employees instant access to these standardised communications, and if something needs to be changed or updated, it can be done overnight and the old material will disappear. This uniformity also helps companies meet the compliance, legal and risk management aspects of doing business.

Giving people instant access to the correct logos, letterheads and forms automates those tasks, eliminating errors that come from having old versions hanging around in the system. It also gives them more time to do strategic things like use their judgement and initiative to add a personal touch to their communications. The aim isn’t to stifle personal contact by making people rigidly adhere to corporate protocol, Sartini says.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

“Artificial intelligence and automation is where we want to go, but it must create opportunities to give us more time to talk to people because everyone wants an authentic relationship. One of the scarcest things is human attention,’ Sartini says. “We don’t shrink-wrap everything to where there’s no human intervention.”

In the past year, the IT side of her company has come to the fore, as clients adopting the products are now driving it through their IT departments as much as through the marketing side, and her team works with the client’s technicians to roll out the software and train them to support it.

“Our discussions have become more serious because we’re solving operational issues as well as brand issues. The CIOs are adopting it to solve their challenges and we have to dovetail into their systems. One of our big shifts was in our own thinking about what we are, and now we know we’re a software company.”

There doesn’t seem to be any international competition for what BrandQuantum offers, and Sartini believes the company can win business globally. New York State University could soon become a client, as it’s in discussions to implement the software to manage its brand across all departments and faculties. BrandQuantum has already started to go international on the back of clients with foreign operations, and New York State University would be an important win.

“We can take this South African software international,” Sartini says.

Ask any company, and they’ll probably tell you that customer experience is one of their key focus areas. But ask them who’s in charge of the customer experience, and the responses will be mumbled.

Driven by unparalleled insights, innovation and increasingly fierce competition, it certainly appears as if the golden age of the customer is upon us.

Life used to be much simpler: you had a product, or provided a service, and if people wanted it, they’d buy it. There was little in the way of visibility into customer satisfaction, other than the fact that they kept buying your product, or stopped. There was also a lot less choice. The focus, it can be said, was squarely on the product. Customers were seen as targets to which something could be sold.

It was only after World War II that things started to change. There were now more products than ever before, and, so the thinking went, there really should be some effort to understand what was going on in the mind of the customer. At the time, a man named Ernest Dichter had an unusual skill set: he was interested in marketing, but also had some psychology training. It was in the 1930s when Dichter first struck upon the notion that people buy products because they’re in some way an extension of what they believe. It could also mean people want to buy something because it reminds them of an earlier version of themselves, the way a convertible car, say, will remind a (probably middle-aged man) of his youth and long-forgotten freedom.

“Customers are no longer impressed at receiving an SMS or email with their name on it; they are looking for tailored offerings that show that companies know them.” – Paula Sartini, BrandQuantum

This was getting beyond the product into a person’s head, and in some ways laid the foundation for much of what goes on in marketing today.

Supply chains and delivery methods are now vastly improved, and, with increased competition, differentiation is becoming much harder. There are now also well over four billion of us on the internet, and many of us demand to be addressed by name and prompted when our detergent is running low.

While there are pockets of customer experience (CX) excellence, what’s surprising is that so many businesses continue to do things the way they’ve always done them. Large enterprises continue to act like they have no idea who you are, despite you being a customer of theirs for the last 20 years. There are different reasons for this, but perhaps part of the problem is the proliferation of data, and the inability to harness the insights.

HIGH-RISK JOB

It’s into this maelstrom that the customer and marketer are pitched, one consuming, the other recording. Will we ever get any better at this?

One measure of how seriously companies are now taking the customer is the rise in the number of customer experience officers (CXOs). The position first emerged in the United States and has slowly spread around the world. There aren’t a huge number of them in South Africa, possibly because companies are still figuring out what the role should entail.

Customer experience appears to be an atomised position – everyone’s aware of it, but it’s seldom anyone’s sole job. The danger of this is that nobody ends up doing it. And if it’s someone’s job, it’s more likely they’ve been in the company for years, and know everyone by name. This is because it’s a high-risk job, and you’ll probably be stepping on a lot of toes. CXOs need to ensure that all information about the customer experience flows through them, so they’re in charge of this data set. Another measure of how seriously a company takes the position is the resources they apportion it: you can’t be very effective with no budget, and no staff. It’s said that a favourite trick of those who want to get rid of the CXO is to shuffle them off to a distant and dusty department to live out their days, which proves it’s still largely a political game. But this is changing. The customer has never been more important, and the experience they receive from all parts of the organisation is now firmly on the C-level’s agenda. Expect to see the appointment of more CXOs who will report directly to the CEO and the board.

What are leading companies doing, and what can we expect this year? Artificial intelligence paired with customer data can now be usefully deployed in the enterprise. Companies, though, will be challenged by how they blend humans and chatbots to provide a seamless service. Companies will also be making sense of the customer data they already have, which will assist both bot and human in quickly discovering context in customer conversations.

DEEPER UNDERSTANDING

Waldo Marcus is the chief customer experience officer at the Avidity Group, which markets itself as a customer experience specialist.

Asked how companies can deliver a better customer experience, Marcus says the first step is to understand exactly what it is the customer wants and expects, instead of just assuming we know the answers.

Quoting from the Customer Experience Insight website, Marcus says customers will be best served by:

* More personalisation: Most customers still want a one-on-one experience. The challenge is to create one in the growing age of anonymity.

* More options: Besides a real human on the phone, customers also want to be able to interact with a company through other channels, such as from its website or through social media.

* Constant contact: Companies need to work out which information to provide to a customer, as well as through the channel they prefer.

* Listen closely, respond quickly: Are you acting on your customer feedback? If so, tell them about it, or they’ll stop giving feedback.

* Giving the front-line more control: Customers now expect service and sales representatives to be able to handle anything — and have the authority to satisfy customers.

Paula Sartini, founder and CEO of branding specialists BrandQuantum, also says companies need a deeper understanding of what’s important to their customers, and should realise that not all customers want exactly the same thing. For some, the speed of the product or service is important, while others may see price as the determining factor, for example.

Sartini also mentions that customers have been spoilt by services such as Uber, and now expect the same type of superior experience from other companies, across all industries.

Sartini quotes Walker, a US-based customer experience consulting firm, as saying CX will replace product and price concerns by the end of this decade.

“Customers are no longer impressed at receiving an SMS or email with their name on it; they’re looking for tailored offerings that show that companies know them,” she says.

RISE OF THE CXO

One way of thinking about this is to divide your customers into different segments, but probably not according to demographics. Jacqui Conradie, a senior manager, digital transformation: industries & go-to-market at Deloitte Africa, says customers making a recurring payment, for example, don’t need a personalised customer experience, nor do they expect one. Others, though, do want a high-end experience, and, she says, the trick is knowing what each segment wants from each point of contact. And if a company isn’t able to engineer a customer experience touchpoint, ‘they should just make sure that it’s positive’.

“The idea is to align your measurements to more than just revenue and the direct feedback customers are giving you.”

– Waldo Marcus, Avidity Group

How do you determine if a company needs a customer experience officer? Marcus says while almost all senior executives believe a superior customer experience will be to their competitive advantage, under 10% of customers feel they’re getting the experience they deserve. He says chief marketing officers are often tasked with delivering the customer experience, and although marketing and CX are closely aligned, marketers are mostly concerned with sales, perhaps to the detriment of the customer experience. The CXO is not only focused on revenue, but how customers experience a product or service before, during and after their engagement with the company.

Sartini suggests that while some companies have appointed CXOs, this isn’t necessary for all companies, many of which could get by ensuring that departments across the organisation meet the customer’s expectations.

Conradie agrees that there’s no decisive answer, and it will depend on, among other things, the size, type, industry and culture of a company.

What’s important, though, is someone who champions the customer. Conradie says in mapping customer journeys at established organisations, ‘we often notice the disturbing trend that the journey follows the internal organisation structure rather than the ideal customer experience’.

“An organisation should look at the journey as an integrated whole so that there’s an opportunity to fill any gaps and make sure that whoever is fulfilling the role of the customer champion can really be objective when it comes to breaking down the siloes within a business to create the best possible customer experience,” she says.

DROWNING IN DATA

Many organisations have mountains of data about their customers. How should they make use of it?

Marcus suggests companies ask some fundamental questions: what is it they want to achieve with this customer data? What’s motivating the consumer to engage with you? It’s not all about revenue, he says, but rather about creating a sustainable relationship. Other questions to consider: why are customers spending money with our competitors rather than with us? Where are our customers on their spending cycle? What kind of personal data are we gathering from them?

Conradie says while customers may come into contact with marketing and sales, they will also ‘touch’ other parts of the organisation. Analytics can help track these interactions.

“Rather than ask what kind of data needs to be harvested, marketing executives need to ask what problem they’re trying to solve and then glean the best insights from the data available to them to make better decisions in pursuit of solving a specific problem.”

Conradie suggests the marketing organisation pay more attention to metrics such as ‘affinity’, ‘engagement’ and ‘actions’ instead of likes, clicks and views.

A key part of the customer experience management process is around how it’s being measured.

MEASURING SUCCESS

Marcus says there are various tools available, and ‘it depends how far down the rabbit hole you want to go’.

Many companies use a net promoter score (NPS), or how likely you are to recommend the company or product to someone else. The problem is that it’s a bit of a blunt axe: your detractors aren’t just non-promoters. Some people are also willing to be detractors and promoters – at the same time – which also proves how fickle people can be. Laying down an NPS system is also costly and time-consuming, and once it’s installed, companies feel bound to use it.

For Marcus, the best option may be a mix of methodologies, such as NPS, customer satisfaction ratings, or loyalty drivers, the last of which, he says, change with every generation.

“The idea is to align your measurements to more than just revenue and the direct feedback customers are giving you,” he says, adding that perception metrics will be a good start to develop a base for measurement.

It’s also important to remember that while a superior customer experience is important, it shouldn’t be pursued at all costs. If it adds an extra cost to the product or service, will the customer still be interested? And what is it costing the company? If a company bends over backwards every time they deal with a customer, it may prove to be unsustainable in the long run. Companies should instead aim at providing a uniform level of service. 

From bricks to clicks, technology is the driving force behind the transformation of the retail experience.

Technology has fundamentally changed how customers engage with the retail market. Online shopping experiences, omnichannel solutions and personalisation have shifted the goal posts, moved the benchmarks and toppled retail empires. It is also technology that’s putting power back into the retailer’s hands, granting them an all-access pass into customer minds and a deeper understanding of the nuances of customer behaviour, operational efficiencies and strategic planning.

Forrester, in its report ‘Masters of the Top Four Retail Tech Trends’, revealed that retailer success hinges on investment into technology that makes them better at retailing rather than better at innovating. It also underscored the importance of personalisation, omnichannel strategies, analytics and digital in refining customer experiences and operational capabilities.

This research is supported by a study undertaken by Google in 2015 that found 82% of smartphone users check their phones before they buy anything in-store. The majority aren’t committed to a specific brand when they start their shopping research, nor are they committed to a specific store – their purchasing decisions are shaped by access to information and the simplicity of the experience.

“Retailers are using technology to create a more seamless experience between in-store and online channels,” says Michael Renzon, CEO of inQuba. “Leading retailers are shifting their value proposition from shop and go to more immersive experiences. Customers who are increasingly connected online are also seeking more experienced-based retail through the tangible store environment.”

A DIFFERENTIATED OFFERING

For those retailers paying attention to how technology can help rather than hinder, their investment is creating an evolving value proposition that augments the customer experience. Progressive retailers are using both traditional and emerging technologies to enhance how people engage and reshape brand perceptions. The Forrester report points out that, while there is ‘no silver bullet for winning the loyalty of every potential customer’, smart investment into commerce technology can add significant value to the customer journey.

Paula Sartini, founder and CEO of BrandQuantum, adds: “Consumers have come to expect that retailers understand their needs and even pre-empt them based on prior buying patterns and behaviours. Whether in a physical store or transacting through online platforms and apps, consumers expect the same level of service, convenience and understanding of their needs. By understanding what customers want and what is most important to them, you can deliver a differentiated offering that meets expectations.”

Data and analytics solutions have evolved to a point where they can provide the industry with insights that make a significant difference to how they interact with customers or design store layouts.

A case in point is McDonald’s. The company thought that its customers wanted healthy salads and wraps. It was a thought that would cost the company around 500 million orders according to an interview in The Wall Street Journal. The chain was chasing the wrong market. Its customers wanted Big Macs and chips and milkshakes and all the accoutrements of a fast food experience. They wanted a treat. So, McDonald’s went back to its roots – a strategy designed to talk to the right customers in the right way, a strategy that worked. In January, the firm announced that it was about to open around 1 000 new restaurants while investing in technology that improves customer experiences and digital engagement.

“Retail needs more data in order to be more efficient,” says Scott Orton, regional sales director, Activate Group. “To know where the problem areas are or what the potentials are, they need real analytical data into elements such as how many people come through the door, what time of day is busiest, what areas are the most interesting and where people are spending time, how to keep people in the store.”

Of course, there’s no getting away from the potential value added by emerging technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). Ikea has already climbed aboard this train. In 2017, the furniture giant built immersive VR experiences so customers could wander through virtual stores and learn more about the products on offer while also enjoying the opportunity to hang out with pandas or have virtual pillow fights. The company is known for its willingness to adopt new technologies to enhance customer experiences and the VR concept, while fairly limited, did the job.

“Technology introduces greater convenience, ease, speed and often more variety,” says Professor Adre Schreuder, Consulta. “These aspects are proven to be significant contributors to satisfaction, which ultimately leads to improved retention and loyalty. The great thing about technology is that it enables businesses to introduce these factors such as convenience at a reduced cost and with far greater efficiency. There are some great modern examples in this regard – Netflix, Apple Music, Steam, Amazon and so on. All of these entities have in some way redefined the typical operating model of their respective areas through the use of technology. And they’ve done it in such a way that it is as beneficial to their customers as it is to themselves.”

The move to enterprise content management (ECM) is growing as companies appreciate that this software improves productivity and helps grow profitability. However, the paperless office isn’t here just yet – and it’s going to take some time before employees change the way they view document storage.

Daren Moodley, portfolio manager/architect at First Technology Digital, says ECM is important for companies because most data is unstructured and resides in multiple systems, such as shared drives, USBs, SharePoint, SAP, vaults and so on. “Hence, it’s practically impossible to ensure compliance, records management and archiving without an ECM strategy and system. And, given that data is growing at around 30% per year, getting this data structured and making it easily accessible is critical.”

Wilhelm Greeff, business manager: BPS at Decision Inc, adds that companies need to move away from information that lives on shared drives and user PCs, which isn’t being properly managed and maintained through automated business processes. “The risks here are obvious... and yet a lot of companies choose to continue operating this way and miss out on the benefits and advantages that (ECM) brings to an organisation.”

ECM software transforms how organisations manage information to enable a digital workplace, optimisation of costs and drive better business results, says JP Lourens, software and solutions product manager at Kyocera Document Solutions South Africa. “These are all business drivers that are vital for a company’s profitability, longevity and sustainability.”

SAP chief data officer Peter Blignaut argues that ECM is vital to digitising end-to-end business processes. He says having content available as part of a business process improves productivity because it reduces the time staff members spend in locating information during each step in the process.

In addition, says Paula Sartini, founder and CEO of BrandQuantum, ECM is becoming more important in helping companies to improve their customer experiences, which is starting to become the key differentiator for customers. “Marketing departments are starting to pay more attention to the overall brand delivery at every customer interaction and are looking to implement solutions such as ECM to improve employee efficiencies, deliver consistent brand experiences and meet customer expectations at every touch point.”

Automated

Moodley notes ECM not only helps improve productivity by allowing users to quickly find what they are looking for, it also streamlines processes such as approvals and co-authoring. “And, with a growing percentage of today’s users becoming increasingly mobile, it can aid in the use of mobile technology, another productivity plus.”

ECM is key to ensuring that the many small decisions that make up the daily operations of any organisation are made with current information, adds Blignaut. “For example, an ECM solution can ensure that all documents related to an employee are available to a manager evaluating (that) employee.”

Blignaut notes that a good ECM solution makes information much easier to access, both by making sure that the information is correctly classified for searches and by facilitating embedding content in business processes.

An ECM solution revolutionises the way an organisation performs business processes, adds Monique Williams, Hyland Southern Africa’s regional manager. “Digitised documents and files in a wide range of formats (can) be searched, managed and immediately made available to staff across the organisation.”

This, she says, means that many processes can be automated with a digital solution, particularly structured processes that follow predefined steps and have predictable outcomes. “For example, in accounts payable, any amount under R500 could be paid automatically.”

Lourens says ECM enables automation of manual workflows and legacy business processes, while empowering employees to take control of information and processes and providing organisations with the control and insight necessary for driving business innovation substantially increases productivity.

“ECM improves collaboration across the workforce, because everyone has access to the same documents. Plus, people on the move will be forced to follow business rules, will be more productive, and will be able to make decisions based on information easily accessible and secure.”

Regulatory advantage

Another advantage to ECM Lourens cites is the ability to comply with regulations, because it aids companies in ensuring that policies and procedures are up to date and that they are prepared for regulatory audits.

“ECM security controls, combined with the auditing and reporting capabilities, provide the tools to both create and enforce boundaries for everyone within the organisation and also offers the ability to make informed decisions within the boundaries of the organisation’s policies and procedures.”

Integrating security

Lourens says today’s tools integrate with office scanning, printing and database services, using several methods and tools such as connectors and APIs, enabling organisations to digitise more of their processes and transform the way they operate.

“An ECM solution allows for a structured process to be enforced with no deviation. A documented process is only as good as what is performed in the actual world. It allows organisations to be flexible in adapting to business needs. Any changes made to a process are instant and adhered to from the very next instance.”

Williams adds that an ECM solution also enables documents and decisions to be routed to the right people as soon as that information comes in. This, she says, is particularly helpful with unstructured information that still requires human intervention, such as an invoice for something the company didn’t order.

Sartini notes, however, that to be effective, it is important that permissions-based access is set up so that specific departments and individuals only have access to the information that is relevant to them.

Lourens says demand for ECM systems is growing as it provides the integrative middleware to automate multiple business processes, as well as to adhere to regulations and remain compliant. “ECM enables users to simplify and streamline these critical procedures.”

Adds Blignaut: “Yet medium-sized and smaller organisations often adopt a subset of ECM solutions in response to specific regulatory requirements or business challenges and don’t yet see the opportunity to deploy ECM across the organisation.”

There is an appetite for ECM solutions, particularly ones that are going to improve on customer experiences and build the brand, but companies are looking for options that are going to improve efficiencies from the get-go, notes Sartini.

However, she cautions, ECM can add to the complexity of systems if not managed properly and if not easy to use. ECM solutions should be streamlined to ease the pain for the employees in accessing the right information quickly, and give them the peace of mind that they are using the correct content and latest documentation available, she notes. “Only then will ECM drive efficiency, improve productivity and contribute to the company’s bottom line.”

This, says Sartini, means that ECM needs to be seamlessly integrated into a company’s software, and information needs to be centrally managed to prevent employees accidentally tampering with company documents or making changes to brand content.

Not yet paperless

In the short term, says Blignaut, ECM won’t replace paper. “There are too many systems based on paper and too many regulatory challenges. However, we do see that customers are trying to reduce the quantity of paper and associated overheads.”

Lourens notes that all businesses use paper in some way, which means ECM can assist in any sector. There are, however, some industries that are more paper-intensive than others and require much more aggressive ECM adoption, such as logistics and hospitality, he says.

“We live in a digital age, where everything is done either from a mobile phone, tablet or laptop. We no longer use physical road maps to reach our destinations, instead, we use a GPS. The era of having to use legacy systems, processes and procedures to achieve an end result is over.

“It is easy to see how ECM eliminates many of the obstacles created by paper, such as labour-intensive procedures, slow distribution of information, delayed decision-making, misplaced originals and the inconvenience of retrieving files from storage.”

Although the benefits are there, implementation does mean changing long-term behaviour around storing and retrieving information, says Blignaut. “Change management is key to ensuring successful ECM deployments.”

Greeff agrees that ECM won’t aid productivity unless there is a drive to actively make use of the features and benefits it provides. This, he says, is why change management is key. “Like any tool, it’s only as effective as the end-user utilising it.”