Member Article

2018 Survival Guide: The New Year’s Resolutions Your Organisation Should Be Making

A new year marks a fresh start for most. From security, to upskilling, to investing in the right tools and solutions to maximise business impact – organisations should be focusing on various business and technology areas in the year ahead to ensure they remain competitive.
Our latest research of senior business leaders, The New Rules for a Tech-Empowered Customer Experience, showed that organisations are struggling to address customer expectations, with 9 in 10 facing challenges when delivering good customer service. Whilst 89% believe their company is ready to meet the demands of the digital customer today, only 50% would describe their business as “digital-first”. What was encouraging to see is that business leaders appreciate the importance of adapting to changing customer needs and expectations. But it’s clear that in 2018, businesses must shift their focus towards the following resolutions:

1. Take a security-first approach We live in a world where cyberattacks are constantly evolving and organisations are continuously at risk. This in unlikely to change in 2018.

With the added context that the cost of suffering cyberattacks is on the rise – and with GDPR coming into force early next year – it becomes unforgivable for businesses to fail to address this.

That’s why a security-first approach should be a top business priority for organisations of any size and from every industry. Many believe that cybersecurity is a standalone aspect of their business, when in fact, it must be integrated in all departments; for instance applied across a variety of tools, policies and training. Most importantly, a security-first approach must start at the top. By making it a strategic imperative for the board, business leaders ensure their organisations is future-proof. After all, ‘new year, new me’ doesn’t apply to cybercriminals.

2. Upskill with the help of tech Having the right technology in place is key to unlocking human potential. Take cloud services as a prime example of this. Giving employees the freedom to work from where they do their very best work each day with cloud-based productivity tools, organisations need to look at ways they can help employees with working remotely.

Technology has very much been the instigator behind the era of disruption we’re living in, and in the new year, organisations must learn to make the best of these solutions if they’re looking to thrive and boost performance.

Those businesses who fail to adopt a more forward-thinking approach using technology are likely to continue to suffer productivity challenges.

3. Invest in the right tools and solutions Emerging technologies such as AI are becoming increasingly fundamental to an organisations’ business strategy.

After all, in an increasingly digitalised world, it’s no secret that customers have evolved in their sophistication from five years ago. Pleasing the customer has never been harder, organisations of all sizes are under immense pressure to deliver unique, valuable customer experiences and customer services.

Our own research found that AI was cited as the most beneficial tool for customer services by over a third of respondents. Not only this, the findings also revealed that one of the biggest customer shifts expected will be the acceptance of chatbots or other AI-driven interactions.

As such, any company which plans to be in tune with the wants and needs of their customers in the coming years would be wise to bear this in mind when planning any new tech investment.

Final thoughts

Of course these are not changes that will happen overnight.

There is the ongoing hurdle for organisations with large legacy infrastructures: overhauling older IT systems quickly enough to keep up with evolving demands. Besides this, training staff and shifting the business focus to emphasise the importance of cyber security are a few other factors business leaders must think of in the new year.

It is vital organisations work with trusted partners who can help them make the most of transformative technology to better serve their customers.

By Alex Guillen, Go to Market Manager for Insight UK

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Alex Guillen .