A digital business strategy is critical, especially in today’s world, where technology is not only part of the proposition of some companies, it also allows them to pivot and find new value propositions, depending on the needs of their core customers.
For this exercise, I’m gonna use these categories where an organization should focus on to improve its performance and secure a place above its competitors.
- First is the scope and the value, a digital business strategy allows an organization to provide the infrastructure for customers to experience their core values and also be a part of the upcoming solutions that contain common pain points, this strategy allows us, by using analytics insights, to better know the customers and how to help them in more ways than originally expected, and still provide them with the expected value they rely on.
- These type of strategy allows companies to scale according to the market needs, it could be during a holiday season, or a specific timeframe where the demand can increase. The infrastructure is ready to respond to that demand of the moment, it can also respond in terms of efficiency on opposite scenarios like low demand seasons when you could save on areas that are not required, so in terms of scaling we got upscale and downscale, to provide the value required for specific occasion. Related to this, this strategy allows us to gather enough data to understand those behaviours and make the most out of them, like a specific situation taking in consideration a trend or an insight.
- Lastly, the DBS helps us with the speed of the demand, pivoting quickly, and optimizing the features and services that are required to be launched at the right time. One example: A friend that works in Cherry company from Chile and exports to China, it takes weeks to have the product in the country, the customer expectation is that, on the right season, they can receive the product on the same day or couple of days, even though the product us not available during the whole year and this makes storage complicated, only on certain season it makes sense to be ready for a high demand shift which could be immediate, and then other times of the year when the demand is lower or it needs to be shipped to other places. In this case, they need to use the right tools to be able to supply their customers at the right time before they decide to consume another product. The Speed that DBS brings is also required for internal usage, communication with the departments involved in logistics, with the customers through immediate messaging, the partners in the supply chain, this can also be solved by a good digital business strategy.
The challenges of how value is realised only when ‘consumed’
Working as a product manager for the software development industry, one of the hardest things to find is that after months and months of working on a product or solution, you find out that there were features that we didn’t really need, or rather the customer didn’t need, so to understand your customer and his or her pain points is important, also to figure out if this customer even exists, if the demand exists, if you arrived on time or if you’re too late or too early. When you developing features, it’s usually because there is a reason behind it, data to sustain it, and also your customers are asking for it. Even when deciding if you want to implement or pivot into a new service, you need to be aware if this is just a nice to have, and consumers are ready to pay for it because it is solving a need.
Develop a suitable DBS ( Digital Business Strategy ) for an organisation to leverage technology and create differential value.
First, I selected one of the current projects I am managing for a B2B company in the logistics industry in Morocco, their mission is to allow local businesses to order all types of consumer items and have them delivered in less than 24 hours, this is their original statement and I point it out here because it will determine great part of the strategy. I believe it is important to understand what is the value that you’re providing to your customers, regardless of the trending technology or tools available, if you understand what is the mission, what was the original reason why the customers came to you, it’s easier to take decisions on where to pivot and where not to, if you’re still accomplishing what they need, this guarantees demand.
This company already has plenty of their process digitalised, also they got a proven strategy by using technology, so I’ll try to focus on possible next step scenarios for the near and long-term future, I’ll point some of the steps taught by the program and I’ll go one by one mentioning my findings on each of them:
- When scanning the market: The original users of the service are a segment of people called Berber or Amazigh, and they are a very diverse group in North Africa, many of them set up brick and mortar shops around the Morocco, and the tool that we are building is helping them in finding the supplies for their shops. We also have wholesalers, distributors and factories, where the retailer customers buy their in-store products from. Even though there isn’t one specific competitor right now in that market, in that location, there are others in other countries, so when expanding, they’ll also become our competitors The company offers digital services that allow for these store owners to find the best price for a product in order to resell it to you and me, a customer walking on the street. A low hanging fruit possibility is that there are other types of businesses that offer products from different suppliers and they need a tool to be able to generate large quantity and diverse orders of products, regardless of the industry, that have a high dependency on the price margin, and they need a comparison tool to get the best margin for every product they offer, including the closest provider and delivery service.
- Second, when scanning the tech: Our customers are using social media such as Facebook to communicate with some of their customers, and they are also using Whatsapp, because of their type of language, they may prefer prefer audio, or video functionalities to spread and message and this is a functionality we’re working on. Related to that last paragraph, these tools also have extra functionalities that can be implemented, for example, notifications to alert of price or time changes, to take advantage of a boosted timeframe when you can take advantage of better pricing, discount or timing for delivery. The company already has a extensive mobile approach where the business and the logistics are handled to make orders, to purchase, to deliver, and so on, and we are already working on tools to match the providers and suppliers expectations of their own customers at their right time, these could be enhanced to allow for better geolocation, sales management and lead generation. Regarding analytics, there’s opportunity for measuring the purchasing behaviour of the retailers and the nearby competition to suggest the best time and approach when buying a product, because our customers rely on a very low margin industry, similar to how Airbnb allows hosts to define their own Listing prices and helps in taking the decision with Smart Pricing, in this industry we’re speaking about cents being important in making a difference when purchasing large quantities and bulk package pricing, together with the right timing to get a specific product. We can compare pricing of products per category, per suppliers, per industry, and per season, to the detail of understanding the changes on a product real-time and send the corresponding stakeholders interested in it. This reminds me of tools for stock traders or Forex traders, where they are reviewing the best time to buy and sell, and those decisions could be taken rather quickly or as long term investments to make the most profit out of an order. Working on the Cloud: We still need to test on multiple markets abroad, using this advantage that the cloud tech tools we use already provide coverage in other regions. There’s potential to do test runs in other markets that already speak languages that we support and just require potential partner to try, a first version with a few set of products.
- While scanning emerging technologies: Because of language restrictions close to our main customer, we’re considering an approach to use AI to communicate with them without the need from them of reading directly on the screen of their phones, although further investigation on the support of particular languages is involved, it’s still considered a good take on improving the experience for this group of users and others in the future, also the communication between the logistics process and the store owner could use this technology, especially for customer support and when choosing the products that best fit their needs, at the moment of making an order. There is also a payment system enhancement in the making, introducing a digital balance which already exists as an earn-and-use point system, the usage of this balance could extend outside of the stores. Big data also is considered, it could impact the price and the demand of certain products depending on regional consumption behaviours.
- Consider new technologies and new products For current users: If we go back to our company’s mission for a second, it’s easier to see a future company path, as a reminder, our mission is to “Allow businesses to order all types of consumer products”, and because we are helping these type of businesses thrive, we could argue that one of our goals is to make our customers succeed in their businesses. So, what would be their main pain points to engage with their customers, efficiently, and reassure their customers that they’re providing the best product for the best price available, and doing so, allow them manage their inventory and they are suppliers and providers inventory as well? Well, there are many discussions on all the different tools that we could provide, and also services around, just making them be the best retail business they can be. For new users: as part of generating tools to make this businesses manage their inventory and clients successfully, this put us on other markets that also require manage of inventory, digital balances, and even logistics, which could be used outside of the brick and mortar service.
- Develop New Value Propositions: After making this small study, regarding our customers, current and new ones, what comes to my mind is how to leverage new technologies to help them be better than their competition. Similar to the industry for people that create content online, we believe that the platforms that allowed them to create, manage and generate this content, while also engaging with their audience, the right approach, and if we migrated to this industry, building the tools for them to“generate their own content “, in this case it’s the products they offer for the customers and the way that they deliver those products to their customers, only makes me think about giving them the tools for them to manage and expand their business. So we’re not talking only about providing them with the physical items they can offer, but also the things that they will require in order to offer those items and take the most out of them, could be tool to promote themselves, offer new Products that they may not have considered could be offered in their store, And could potentially turned them into something more than a brick and mortar shop.
How can we validate this proposition, we are already have set up process in which we can offer them trials to offer products and services that don’t require much of an investment to them, and that their customers, the people that visit their source could need and cannot find currently on these stores.
In conclusion, there’s much much work to be done, network that can be built, to generate new types of users, open markets, and expand the current customer base, if we focus on the main pain points that they currently have and possibly will have in the near future.
Rob Moya 孟一凡
Director at Pengyi Labs Singapore | Costa Rica
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robmoya
微信Wechat: robyifan
