Systems | Development | Analytics | API | Testing

We live in a world that is increasingly digital and data-driven. We have wearable devices to monitor our steps, heart rate, and sleep quality. We have Alexa, Siri, or Google ready to take our shopping orders, play our playlist, share the latest news. We can see what shows are trending on Netflix and curated suggestions for us based on what we watched. We cannot get away from data. Where does data live? Who has access to them? What do they do with them?

The pandemic has been unkind to many retailers, with customer expectations shifting seemingly overnight. During the great recession of 2008–2009, e-commerce grew, and brick-and-mortar retail declined. As the economic recovery took hold, that trend continued while off-price, discount, and emerging players succeeded by appealing to new consumer demands. For example, in January 2020, fast-paced home delivery was perceived as a unique selling point offered only by select stores.

It’s one of the great paradoxes of doing business in the 21st century: Customers expect more personalized products and services even as in-person customer contact decreases. This is just one of several disruptive trends facing every industry. At the first day of Hitachi Financial Services Summit 2021, I addressed these challenges in a keynote session with Marek Chlebicki of Raiffeisen Bank International.

Vibrant and dynamic digital-first telco M1, a subsidiary of Keppel Corporation, is focused on transforming telecommunications in Singapore. M1 provides a suite of services to more than 2 million customers and is Singapore’s first digital network operator. Data analytics have played an essential role in M1’s growth since the company launched commercial services in 1997.

The world is changing for telecommunications operators. We live in a digital age when people, information, and services are more connected than ever, and people expect virtually any service on demand, at their fingertips. STC is already a telecommunications leader in the Middle East, but to remain on top in a competitive field, we must continue to grow and provide valuable experiences for our customers.

Maybe these situations sound familiar to you… You want to enhance the activities of your company with digital, data-based approaches. The opportunities and challenges of digital transformation are obvious, so it makes sense to rethink certain business strategies based on data. You’ve built a strategy through creative methods like design thinking, and you know exactly what data-centric solutions you need to develop – but the technical departments are pushing back.

Digital transformation has been talked about for many years, but the pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation journeys for many enterprises. Forced to adapt to changes in the business landscape and customer behavior, businesses have adopted more digital tools and technologies to drive innovation and increase resilience.

As businesses advance their digital transformation efforts, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are evolving — arguably as significantly as the shift from materials resource planning (MRP) to ERP. Just as businesses reimagined operations by leveraging advances in hardware and software in the 1980s, they’re now turning to next-generation ERP.

Integrating digital technologies into every area of your business can vastly improve your finance analytics.