SPS Global is a Business Reporter client.
For businesses worldwide, the time is now to drive operational excellence and reach out to future frontiers
Global industries are facing a polycrisis: geopolitical conflicts, economic slowdown, supply chain disruptions, labour shortage, climate change and other external pressures are adding to uncertainty.
Nevertheless, companies are recognising that this crisis also provides key opportunities to innovate, distinguish their business from the competition, and lay foundations for lasting success. Recent CEO surveys are highlighting growth as the top CEO priority for the next 12 months. Rather than retreating or laying low, 69 per cent of CEOs remain optimistic about their companies’ prospects.
This focus on growth, despite external uncertainties, suggests a fascinating phenomenon. Companies are heavily investing to reset their organisations for growth, to attract and retain talent and to develop product and service innovations. The biggest planned investment, however, is in technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), to optimise operations and design tech-driven business models.
A tech-powered growth strategy
The key management challenge is to define the transformation strategy towards tech-driven business models that will be resilient and deliver sustainable business growth. What are the important steps that will enable your company to seize future opportunities ahead of the competition without losing pace in your current core business? This article explores five key enablers that can unlock opportunities for growth:
Business efficiency
Intelligent automation technologies such as AI, robotics, intelligent document processing, cloud and blockchain will redefine business operations. Streamlined processes will enable straight-through processing of standard business cases, allowing human talent to focus on complex cases and important customer contacts. Systematically optimising business efficiency can set new benchmarks in operational excellence and free resources for growth.
Customer experience (CX)
Technology such as generative AI (GenAI) will revolutionise customer interactions, offering predictive insights and automated solutions that refine the customer experience and deliver a competitive edge. By offering personalised, omni-channel communication that resonates with customers, businesses can foster long-term relationships. Leveraging data analytics, companies have a superior understanding of customers’ needs and can offer the right services at the right time. AI-enabled customer self-service options will accelerate response times, improve the service experience and turn CX into a dynamic growth engine.
Employee experience (EX)
65 per cent of businesses are facing labour shortage as a major growth barrier. Implementing flexible hybrid workplaces and enhancing the employee experience are key to winning the war for talent. Virtual assistants for employees combined with automation of cumbersome admin tasks and optimised office logistics can help ensure the best hybrid workplace experience, supporting employees wherever they are.
Agility and scalability
Scalable business models based on automation technology and global access to qualified employees will enable businesses to quickly respond to changing market conditions and scale operations. Businesses can swiftly adapt to new trends, rapidly scale operations and outpace competitors, ensuring they are primed for growth and innovation in real-time.
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards
ESG criteria are increasingly important for consumer, employee and shareholder decisions. Digitalisation helps optimise supply chains and business processes, leading to lower emissions and improving governance. On top of this, we can leverage technology to track and monitor business processes and the corresponding ESG impact. This leads the way to implementing robust ESG principles into the core of business operations.
Key success factor: a holistic approach
The speed of technology adoption is not the only factor that determines a company’s future success. It is also essential to master integration into business processes. A holistic approach that encompasses people, process and technology is key to maximising the benefits.
Take the use of GenAI for customer care automation as an example. GenAI can be used to “understand” the content and context of inbound customer requests and automatically construct an answer to the query. However, GenAI is not 100 per cent accurate – it makes mistakes and “hallucinates”, leading to dissatisfied customers.
A holistic approach can redesign this process and detect the best possible combination of technology and human intervention touchpoints. An intelligent workflow engine can triage and route incoming queries based on predefined and programmed confidence levels. So, if there is a request with a 90 per cent confidence level rating, the engine sends a summary and GenAI-proposed response to a junior service agent for final check before it reaches the customer. If the query is complex and the confidence level is below a defined threshold, for example 50 per cent, the request is routed to a senior service agent for detailed investigation.
Choosing the right partner
A key challenge for tech-driven growth is having digital and process expertise in place, understanding the right timing to invest and adopting technology rapidly. According to studies, 80 per cent of companies will struggle to attract the tech-talents to drive digital business strategies. This is where strategic partners come into play.
Businesses can better focus their core team on growth, while seeking support for technology-driven process optimisation and digital business operations. Companies need a safe pair of hands that can cut through the noise in the market – a partner that has the knowledge and experience to apply technology in a business environment. In addition, a good partner will bring in core capabilities such as business process design, global operations, governance and data security.
Unlocking business growth
Visionary leaders will act proactively and transform today’s challenges into tomorrow’s triumphs. They will leverage technology and partnerships to optimise business operations for maximum flexibility and scalability. They will strengthen their positioning by enhancing customer experience. They will systematically use excellent employee experience to retain talents. They will spot future markets for tech-driven business ahead of the competition, seize upcoming growth opportunities and outpace their rivals.
At SPS, we’re committed to helping businesses unlock their growth potential through our suite of Technology Business and Enterprise Workplace solutions. SPS stands as a strong transformation partner reimagining the potential of AI, data analytics and automation to set new benchmarks in business process operations, carving out a path to unparalleled growth and efficiency.
Our team of experts has years of experience working with companies across a wide range of industries, from healthcare and finance to retail and manufacturing. To learn more about how your business can unlock growth, visit spsglobal.com/en/growth-enablers.
