As corporates grapple with digital transformation, the sheer complexity of using technology to increase a company’s speed and learnings is clearly not for the faint-hearted.
Technology is no longer limited to the back office and companies need to learn how to disrupt themselves to survive, insists Gianni Giacomelli, Business Leader, Digital Solutions, Genpact, a New York-based firm which helps companies harness the power of digital. Giacomelli was in Mumbai on business recently, and spoke to
“Digital transformation trends as a whole fall into two general areas: transforming the customer experience and making operations more efficient and compliant. With both, it’s all about connecting the front, middle, and back office,” says Giacomelli.
Giacomelli drives the growth strategy and go-to-market operations for Genpact’s digital-led solutions portfolio. He also oversees the company’s design thinking services to help drive innovation and is responsible for many of Genpact’s portfolio extensions leveraging technology and analytics.
Corporate executives are being proactive, looking for competitive advantages by embracing digital, data and analytics to transform the way they run their businesses, says Giacomelli. Banks, for instance, are trying to reclaim visibility and control across all channels. “A consumer’s experience in the branch needs the same level of sophistication and engagement as that available online,” he says.
The challenge: “Many of the idiosyncrasies originate deep in the bowels of a bank, say in transaction records, and not at the marketing/CRM level, ” he explains. The entire thing centres on making sure the digital transformation strategies are integrated from the front office through to the back.
Design is important for brands, insists Giacomelli. “A human-centred design approach in digital transformation is critical to reimagine the customer experience.”
Design thinking and innovation
In many cases, interaction between siloed front and back offices hampers the ability of enterprises to provide the optimal customer experience.
The solution is to design intelligent automation, enabled by a variety of new digital technologies including artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the human experience.
Citing again the example of banks, he adds: “It’s all about creating an omnichannel experience. It needs to be consistent, irrespective of what channel the customer takes to the bank. If the customer goes to a physical bank, the branch needs to remember what it has done just the same way a website would.”
The design needs to view things “both from the customer journey view, and also from the employee view. The latter means using design to understand how employees interact with and manage processes throughout the enterprise.”
AI tool
Given an environment that is constantly being disrupted by new technologies and increasing competition, corporates are keen to identify business outcomes, and are not interested in merely buying products.
As part of its ongoing strategy to drive digital-led innovations, Genpact has created Genpact Cora, the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) based platform, to accelerate digital transformation for enterprises. The platform is an interconnected network of different digital technologies that help companies tackle business issues.
“Genpact Cora enables us to accelerate and scale digital transformation for companies. It targets specific operational business challenges, helping companies re-frame and solve their most pressing real-world business challenges,” says Giacomelli.
The tool is also being used to review drug safety. A top pharmaceutical company is testing Genpact Cora’s AI, analytics, predictive modelling, and other technologies to automatically collect and analyse data from numerous sources on drugs’ adverse effects. It transforms drug safety operations from simply tracking issues to predicting and solving potential problems, with lesser human error, higher drug quality, better patient outcomes, and 100 per cent regulatory compliance.
“Genpact Cora can learn and prescribe what actions are needed by companies to improve their business processes and improve their competitive position in the market,” adds Giacomelli. Most importantly, it has an “open API architecture and a robust governance layer. This is critical to managing risks and controls in a highly digital environment,” he says.
Human touch
Genpact is working with a consumer products goods company in India to help transform its supply chain operations to ensure that it oversees refrigeration for a product effectively through its delivery operations and into the stores. As supply chains become increasingly complex, agility and responsiveness are key differentiators that can influence customer retention, and overall profits.
The company uses small refrigeration units that it can deliver directly to the stores, and the devices include sensors that leverage internet of things (IoT) technology.
Citing another example, he says, is the work that the company is doing internally at Genpact. “We are using an AI-enabled chatbot to support our human resources team with employee queries,” says Giacomelli. The bot handles basic queries, 24/7, and the HR staff can address more complicated queries.