1.     Customer

The customer experience is the essence of everything. The customer can be involved in a business interaction with new processes and technical opportunities. Is the customer also at the centre of the strategy?

Technology can allow for an easier customer experience: common and up-to-date product information, easy and fast customer service, transparent delivery process, well-maintained warranty process.

Communication can significantly develop the Customer Experience: blog, vblog, podcast, chat, bot and chatbot are few examples of that.

2.   Operational efficiency

IT can continue to make a significant contribution to improving business efficiency.

This requires that business processes are also designed and developed in the IT considerations. Existing policies should be challenged (constructively) and together with new flexible and effective procedures. Flexible (Agile) procedures for both IT and business development are a good basis for the development of operational efficiency.

Less is more!

3. Cost control and cost transparency

The price of digital services has declined significantly. However, this is only one cost factor; Every service also needs to be really occupied. The service is expensive even if the unit price is affordable.

In particular, the difference between investment and operating cost is blurred. This must be clarified in order to make cost awareness widely known to the organization.

The role of it remains a great opportunity for reporting product and customer profitability. Even better basic data management (Master Data) gives a significant improvement in cost control.

4.    Development Management

The development of IT and business must also be done in well managed process. We must clearly clarify the business strategy, the orientation of the IT strategy based on this, and then link development plan between these two.

No good plan is worth anything unless it is implemented. That is why business management in a rapidly changing business environment is even more important. The rapid development steps (scrums) must not be an unplanned tinkering, but a decisive and planned progression.

5.   Artificial Intelligence and ethics

Most businesses are increasingly dealing with artificial intelligence (AI). We continuously use more or less consciously different algorithms. In manufacturing industry we have IoT and further Industry 4.0, which are becoming a everyday technology. Customer work is shifting to ‘bot’ and ‘robot’ time.

The effects of these must be identified and consequences must be defined based on the company’s values. Corporate management cannot leave this to the technicians.

The year 2020 will be really challenging, but inspiring.