The Impact of Disruptive Business Trends are Causing a Rethink of Shared Services.

The concept and use of shared services have been around for almost 30 years. However, shared services have matured to a level of organizational standard practice for support services across multiple business units. Despite this evolution, the penetration of shared services that represent wholly developed and full capacity operations is relatively low. Today, businesses should expect to rethink shared services to deliver more than cost savings and anticipated service levels. Businesses should demand a high quality “customer experience” that provides comprehensive support, easy access to information and seamless integration into the business. The top five reasons that shared services operations continue to fall short of business expectations are still relevant (see the full list on page 2). Customer-driven Shared Services, when properly implemented, help the business focus more on delivering against strategic goals and objectives and less on managing non-core support services and technology. However, as the law of unintended consequences would have it, business innovations and trends have somewhat hampered the ability for organizations to fully realize these objectives. These trends have caused an increased demand to leverage support services in an integrated, consistent, and cost-effective manner while providing an optimal support service “client experience”. For a support service to provide the intended value to the organization, the strategy for service delivery, technology enablement, process management, customer support, and analytics must be clearly thought through and aligned to the overall business objectives of the organization.

WGroup Strategy Brief - Customer Driven Shared Services

Part 2 in the UX Team Series

We hope you’ve read the first article in this mini-series on the UX team. If you did, then you should be convinced that you need UX professionals involved in customer strategy, not just design. Now you may have found yourself wondering how that might look. You’re in luck because this second article in the mini-series answers just that.

Here’s what it would look like to integrate UX professionals into all parts of the strategy.

• You would ask the right questions in order to find out in-depth who the persona/buyer/user is for your product/service.

• You’d have a user-research informed map of the flow of how the user goes from point A to B in any situation.

• You would audit your product/service to analyze if you can salvage any parts or if you need to start from scratch. Therefore saving you time and money.

• You’d engage in fast prototyping, allowing you to iterate rapidly in development. This allows you to work on small chunks of your product. You analyze, develop, reanalyze, adjust development, and on in a creation cycle.

Remember, this process is ultimately about meeting the user’s goals. But it’s also about using the most efficient strategic process to do so. User experience reduces the risk that you’ll design the wrong product for your target audience. It’s about saving you grief as well as time and money.

Let’s get this straight: if you think user experience (UX) starts and stops with design, then you are not getting the most out of UX. In fact, you might be setting your user experience endeavor up for failure.

User experience should start with the very first strategy meeting. This means you have to include your UX professional at that meeting and all strategy planning after.

If you want a product/service that will truly provide great user experience, then your UX professional need to work on the strategy, vision, and planning. Currently most companies contract UX professional just for design and execution and leave them out of the strategy because they think they’re only designers. However, that’s like trying to build a puzzle using inside pieces and the edge pieces from two different puzzles. They just doesn’t fit together. And you end up with a disorganized mess.

Integrate your UX professional into customer strategy. You’ll have a company who better understands users and their behaviors and is more effectively oriented towards them. And that can only do good things for your organization.

Are US retail banking customers happy with their banks? How do bank CEOs see the future? We know that banking is being changed by a combination of technology, millennial preferences, and non-traditional disruptors. And while many customers are currently generally happy, sentiment can turn on a dime. Learn how banks can understand changing consumer expectations and stay one step ahead.

fsi-anticipating-bank-customer-needs-pwc

IRPA AI Founder, Frank Casale, Speaks to VP Automation & Department Development at Deutsche Telekom Technical Services about his role and the significant benefits of RPA and AI.

Frank Casale: What role have you played in DBs Automation journey?

Sebastian Zeiss: I have introduced the concept of RPA to the technical services division of Deutsche Telekom and run the first POC. As that convinced our top management I got the role to create a team that would run the robots, and equally important identify new potentials and actually find ways to digitize our processes. In later stages I was also tasked with identifying and implementing new technologies that would help us to even further digitize our process landscape.

Frank Casale: What has been your biggest lesson learned so far? 

Sebastian Zeiss: It´s about people and ideas à RPA is just a tool and you really night the right people with the right ideas to successfully implement automation concepts. That is even more true for cognitive automation. You need both: top down and bottom up commitment. For a successful start the top management needs to fully support what you do, only that will allow you to overcome barriers. And equally important, the frontline employees have to be willing to play along, so change really plays an important role. Sometimes you need to be a “guerrilla” in your own company. if you always ask if you’re allowed to do something you won’t get anything done.

Frank Casale: Beyond cost save, what in your opinion is the most significant benefit of RPA and AI?

Sebastian Zeiss: There are several benefits:

• Scalability -> Suddenly increasing transaction amounts can easily be covered with RPA (and AI), while it would be almost impossible to get more workforce on short notice
• Quality increases -> Once you have programmed /trained a bot It will deliver perfect quality
• Agility -> RPA/Bots allow you to develop new concepts agile.  You don’t need to make changes to your core systems, but you can still deliver helpful tools within a few months.

Sebastian Zeiss is the keynote speaker at the 4^th Annual Automation Innovation event, on December 13^th in London. He will presents thought provoking ideas about the future of RPA, AI and cognitive, as well as their expected impacts on corporations, citizens, laws, and the industry players who will be introducing revolutionary technologies. For more information on his session, and a glimpse at the other high-level speakers, take a look at the agenda. To receive a copy directly to your inbox, email Carrie.Simon@irpanetwork.com.

Our annual discussion of the themes that will define the year ahead. What can you do now to prepare for success in 2017?

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Vendor management is increasingly becoming the primary role of IT. As the cost effectiveness, reliability and flexibility of third party services increase, more applications, infrastructure and platforms are moving from in-house to the cloud. This is driving a fundamental restructuring of IT with a greater focus on building relationships with providers and working with them to deliver IT services to support the business. As this transformation takes place, IT leaders need to optimize their VMO and implement initiatives for better strategic vendor management.

WGroup Insights - Optimizing Vendor Management Organizations - Strategic...

You’ve all heard about user experience (UX), and if you haven’t, you can read an introduction here. A lot of information out there about UX can seem a bit vague, so here are five myths that we’d like to clear up before you dive into UX.

Myth #1- UX = UI (User interface)

The UI is just the face of the computer system the user is interacting with. UX isn’t just about the appearance of a system, it is about the how the user thinks, makes decisions, and integrates your product/service into their lives.

Reality- UX = Perception + Sensations + Interactions

Myth #2- UX is a box to be checked.

UX starts long before you start designing and lasts long after you are done developing. It is the entire process of learning about your users, adjusting to their behaviors, and evolving the product/service. It unites the user’s needs with the business digital strategy, and in turn affects that very same strategy. It’s not a step; it’s a way of life.

Reality- UX is a continual process of evolution.

Myth #3- UX is all about technology.

Like we said before, UX is a way of life and, unlike the sci fi will have you believe, technology isn’t quite life. UX is ultimately about helping people with technology simply being the tool that we use to do this. We don’t use technologies just for fun. We use them with strategic purpose.

Reality- UX uses technology to help people accomplish their goals.

Myth #4- You already understand your user.

Most companies believe they know their user, but what they have are just assumptions. User research is crucial before any designing or developing can be started. Testing is also integrated into every part of the design and development by testing your prototypes with your target user population. You also need to remember that people’s goals and needs change as society and trends change and you must be ready to respond.

Reality- User testing helps you understand your user’s needs and goals and how they change over time.

Myth #5- UX adds time and money

If you just look at a side-by-side scheme of a traditional design and development methodology next to one which integrates UX, then it might look more expensive. But you have to consider how expensive and time-wasting is it to design and develop a product/service that users don’t want or need. Building the right product from the beginning is much faster and cheaper than trying to fix a failed product.

Reality- UX ensures you build the right product/service from the beginning, saving time and money.

Like all methodologies and changes, UX must be well thought out and strategically applied. There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all in business. But when done right for your brand and business, UX will give you the confidence to know you’re actually making a difference with your target audience.

3 Advantages for your product (with UX)

• Decisions are based on data and research, not on intuition
• Allow your application to engage users and early adoption
• Everyone in the organization is part of the process, same message across all channels/departments

User experience is at the center of the organizations as a top priority for transformation. It’s what drives brands, finds, converts, and retains users, and ultimately boosts revenue. A majority of decision makers have it in their top three priorities and most organizations see a ROI almost immediately. It’s not something you can afford to ignore.

“But what is user experience,” you ask yourself. Don’t worry, you are not the first person to ask this question. Let’s lay it out for you.

User Experience (UX) is the sum of all your feelings while interacting with a human designed object, in this case software interface and it involves:

• → How useful and adaptable a system is
• → If the users can do what they need to do
• → How fun, attractive, and pleasant to use it is

When a user feels valued because of their experience with a system, service, or product, they’ll become a fan and they’ll talk about it. They’ll do your marketing for you. Great UX shows the difference between customers and fans. Customers use a service or buy a product.  Fans use it, talk about it, and come back for more.

Most importantly, great UX saves you money and boosts your revenue.

Skeptical? Here’s how:

1. Loyal customers (Fans) come back and spend more. Forbes estimates that boosting customer retention by 5% can increase profits by at least 25%.
2. Great UX makes your products easier to find and buy. Combine this with users who feel more loyal to and excited about your brand and you get sales.
3. You’ll save money on marketing. The first step to great UX is knowing your users inside and out so you’ll be able to get straight to the marketing methods that reach your target audience best.
4. Designing for UX will reduce the risk of building the wrong product. It’s much cheaper to design and develop a system based on UX research than it is to develop a system that needs to be changed or scrapped later.
5. It will make you more innovative. All the research and analysis you do to create a great UX will naturally launch your company into this frame of mind. It will push you to constantly be at the top of your game and at the front of the market.

Creating an exceptional user experience takes research, data analysis, creativity and deliberate planning. It´s aligning all touch points -branding, marketing, customer service- to have happier users and boosted sales.