Objective-driven business built to survive tech hype

29 Oct 2018

There's big hype around robotics and AI, but too often businesses are diving into those without closely examining two core aspects around this: do you have a use case for new tech implementations, and also, will the tech implementation be effective when working with your existing processes?

Jan Kühn is a director of INOVO

Your business must always be objective-driven, not swayed by technologies. For the purposes of illustration, let’s examine how this can be applied within the contact centre environment.

Shiny new technology

As much as a business will change, some things will also still stay the same. People will always buy services and products, owe you money, and they’ll always need some kind of service from you - just how you go about achieving them may change.

Introducing chatbots, automation or other forms of AI, for example, to your contact centre might sound like a great idea, but only if there is a clearly defined business case that proves its suitability and effectiveness in solving existing and future business challenges.

Bear in mind that you first need well-structured and clearly defined business processes linked to achieving the right business outcomes before you think about introducing any new technology.

Process optimisation before tech

If you’ve identified the need to integrate technologies or business systems, don’t focus on getting two systems to work together, it’s about mapping the process first. Once that’s done, deciding what technologies form part of that process will determine whether there is an actual need for new tech or not.

The easiest way of looking at integration is to look at the absolute essentials in terms of fulfilling a process. When it comes to measurability, it’s necessary to monitor all platforms by automatically building in capacity to provide and monitor metrics at each touch point. The accumulation of this data then removes the mystery from process optimisation - you can’t change and improve something unless you can measure it and track progress over time.

Irrespective of the nature of your business, the goal is to get everyone working more productively according to the business requirements/purpose, i.e., to sell or collect more, or to service customers better. When the correct and optimal processes are in place and the company is working efficiently, keep those business objectives in mind and only add in new tech options that have proven capabilities in enhancing those processes and achieving the objectives that make a real business impact.