Competing effectively in a digital economy

This issue of Unify has an uncompromising theme running through it – any enterprise that intends to thrive in the digital age must deliver swift, personalised, transparent and consistently accurate service…

Or wave goodbye as customers walk into the arms of the competition.

Responding effectively to this new commercial reality requires two things.

  • First, turning sometimes deeply entrenched corporate behaviour on its head so that the company becomes customer-centric rather than inward-looking.
  • Second, deploying systems and processes that support this way of working, giving customers the experience they expect, and supporting staff in meeting or even exceeding those customer expectations.

Building a truly personalised service will transform the way we interact with our customers.

Responsiveness

Much of Gamma’s growth to date can be attributed to its focus on achieving a high level of responsiveness to customer needs, and it’s been more than the result of simply a cultural mindset. Outward-facing digital communications have played an important role while at the same time relatively limited inward-facing systems have given customers selected control and insight into some of their services.

But the company recognises that this is not enough: it too must adapt to the new digital reality. The result is a change programme that will have farreaching impacts both for Gamma’s customers, and its staff. Multiple old systems will be swept away, replaced by a new portal, available to all customers, giving both company staff and customers access to a single repository of all information relevant to each individual relationship.

Explains head of digital change David Doherty:

“Customers are telling us that they want more interaction; more communication from us to them, and more ways in which they can interact with us. They want us to make it easy for them to work with us whilst being empowered to access information for themselves. They also express the desire to network with Gamma and other Gamma customers in order to achieve the best possible return from their services. We don’t see these needs as static. They will develop further over time, and so it’s a key part of our programme that in deploying a solution to meet the current demands that we keep an eye on the future.”

...an end-to-end purpose-built customer experience, aligning to the technical, organisational and market needs of our customers.

Enabling Technology

Gamma’s choice of enabling technology is Salesforce, a software solution that many customers will already be familiar with. The scalability and open APIs make it particularly well equipped for the role.

This will in due course replace the legacy systems, streamline information flow, eliminate islands of data and create a single repository of information that is integrated with the Gamma back office.

Development work is already well advanced, and Gamma is in the process of gathering feedback from a selected group of customers on the portal now being designed. “We are using the Salesforce Integrated Communities Portal and going for a dashboard-type approach. It’s going to be colourful, easy to consume data and use, and most importantly will be built the way our customers want,” says Doherty.

The launch of the portal is scheduled for early 2019, with the initial set of functionality available to all Gamma customers being order tracking, billing, service health and ticketing. Underpinned by advanced analytics and AI, further features will be added over time, including functionality giving customers control of the services they are buying from Gamma. For example, virtually real-time control of SD-WAN services will be accessible via a dedicated sub-portal.

Says Doherty; “This project has and continues to consume a high level of investment, in both time and money, but we see it delivering the strongest of benefits, making us even easier to do business with, and enabling our customers to extract even more value from the services they buy from us.”

Gamma’s customer-centric digital transformation

Personalised Service

Explains Customer Service Director John Murphy:

“Personalising the service we can provide to our customers is an area that we’ve been focused on for some time. A truly personalised service would be unique in our market and could transform the way we interact with our customers.

We see our digital transformation as the key to taking the next step on our customer service strategy, which is an end-to-end purposebuilt customer experience, aligning to the technical, organisational and market needs of our customers.”

Not for the first time, Gamma is taking its own medicine. At the same time as urging customers to embark on their own digital change programmes in order to thrive, Gamma’s own digital strategy is making it fitter, stronger, and ready for the next chapter of its story of continuing growth.