The digital consumer has blurred the
separation between the use of technology and customer behavior. This is quite a powerful statement, yet very
apparent for any organization that quickly continues to react to the ongoing demand
for information.
Within today’s business world, the digital
consumer has become supreme, and marketing quickly adapts in unlocking the
potential purchasing power. Information
Technology departments everywhere are forced to learn new skills and become
proficient in new areas simply in order to support the business.
In the past, consumer power resided in
where a purchaser chose to spend their almighty dollar. Unless accompanied by a weekly flyer, there
was no such thing as “price-match guarantees”.
If you wanted to pay a cheaper price, your choice was to shop around
brick-and-mortar stores hoping you would find what you were looking for.
The revolution did not occur overnight,
however thanks to advancements of the Internet, as well as mobile technology, yesterday’s
voiceless consumer has been granted the ability to provide product and service
opinions to a very critical and captive audience. Combine that with the ability to buy anything
from anywhere in the world and now the purchasing public controls the outcome
of a product or service rather than commercialism dictating what we can have
and when. This ideology is backed up by
Forrester who published in 2000, 12% of all airline tickets where purchased
online. In 2013, this had increased to
62%.
Companies and enterprises have recognized
this shift in power, but embracing it is another thing. The key issue at hand in order to do so, is
the massive technology requirements driven by eCommerce, customer analytics,
marketing automation, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, and of
course, mobile technology.
“By 2017, nearly a third of all US
corporate and government tech purchases will be business technology. Spending will rise by 10 percent or more per
year, and business technology will compromise over half of new product
purchases in 2015. In contrast,
traditional IT spending will grow by only 2 percent to 4 percent per year
through 2017.” – Forrester
So what is the end result for companies?
Simply put, marketing and technology departments
need to work more closely together.
Enterprise technology must remain within the IT Department but without
close consultation with marketing or communications departments, they will
never completely understand customer behavior and how customers use
technology. Furthermore, CIO’s and IT
Directors alike need to help the enterprise change the way they think about
technology. IT can no longer be seen as
a cost centre, or a means of which to simply conduct business. The paradigm shift now needs to focus on a
customer first, top-down approach, where the associated cost is a direct result
of doing, and improving, business. Not
an easy task by any means. Essentially
CIOs and IT Directors need to build a business technology agenda for the
organization, and have it accepted. To
become and remain successful, organizations will quickly realize this new
approach. The enabled consumer is
dictating this new methodology.
Organizations will quickly see the returns in better sales, once
technology leaders are a part of the corporate solution. Today, software and mobile technology is not
simply one method of doing business. It is
your business.
I’m Mike M.
