COVID-19 Solutions: Digital Transformation for Accelerated Efficiency and Cost Savings

Efficiency at the Enterprise Level

Holistic assessment of enterprise-level operations like services, sales & marketing and indirect spend can reveal areas to significantly improve efficiencies and lower cost while accelerating digital transformation. As areas ripe for optimization are identified, key strategies like automation, re-engineering internal processes, demand management and redundancy consolidation can be considered, developed and applied.

“How can companies reduce their cost structure to make sure they align with the demand in the marketplace now, and in the long-term?” Batra said. “Is there a different way to think about needs? Based on that, organizations can adjust cost structure while eliminating low-value activities.”

Analysis begins with a baseline overview of current business operations, key performance indicators and on-site observation to establish hypotheses to best serve needs. Deep analysis of factors like risk, dependencies, business impact, timing and outcomes play an important role in providing appropriate recommendations and a clear path to kickoff. Our rapid assessment approach is aimed to accelerate implementation initiatives within a matter of days or weeks depending on scope and individual needs.

Strategic Optimization in IT Development and Engineering

Optimizing engineering and IT processes help businesses reduce development costs, increase transparency and accelerate time-to-market for maximum value and more immediate returns.

We have found that engineering transformation revolves around four areas:

• Engineering process optimization
  
• Demand management; with a focus on project prioritization based on business value
  
• Improvements to infrastructure
  
• Optimizing global operating models

 “Prioritize where there might be opportunities and identify where you might be overspending, so you can scale back and focus on those higher-impact projects,” Batra said.

Efficiency in Service Operations

Growing reliance on digital channels to meet demand during the COVID-19 crisis is challenging organizations to improve customer experiences online. Customer-facing organizations, like retailers and hospitality organizations, are hit particularly hard in a few service areas, each with the potential to have long-lasting effects on customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention.

• Call Center Optimization: Call centers are on the front lines when providing customers with the answers they need, but can often be overwhelmed due to high traffic. Longer wait times can result in additional cost, while negatively impacting customer satisfaction. An end-to-end digital system tightens operational costs, helps automate common inquiries for speedier interactions, and route customers to trained call center reps – ultimately increasing conversion rates while meeting consumer needs.
  
• Managing the Workforce: Managing customer-facing employees, who face greater risk for exposure, as well as a growing remote workforce requires organizational change. For remote workforces, organizations should focus on redefining their tech stack, while tightening operational cost for efficiency.

“As more and more business moves to online, the need for that human connection is still there,” Batra said. “How can they give customers an optimal experience through these challenging times?”

Enhanced Salesforce and Marketing Effectiveness

Enhancing Salesforce and Marketing effectiveness creates an opportunity to drive top-line growth, while also identifying pockets of spending that drive inefficiencies. Tighter Sales and Marketing operations also allows organizations to better understand their customers, improving targeting, delivery and effectiveness of personalized customer experiences, while eliminating unnecessary spend.

Holistic review of strategy, structure and processes can uncover significant efficiency opportunities across the sales and marketing organization. Our approach can move to implementation quickly, deploying an agile approach and minimally viable solutions while paving path for longer-term digital transformation.   

Strategic Cost Reduction through Indirect Procurement

Indirect procurement optimization requires a close analysis of an organization’s internal processes and spend. In larger organizations, similar or duplicative services -- like purchasing office supplies, for example -- may span across multiple divisions, resulting in silos that obscure the bigger picture.

Artificial intelligence or machine learning platforms can accelerate breaking down divisional information silos, aggregating spend across the enterprise under one unified view. A consolidated data view allows organizations to better track and tackle costs from different divisions across the organization, and quickly determine trends or impact over time as well as savings opportunities.