Extra tags: Real-Time Datadata analyticsdata management
by Niraj Naidu, APJ Head of Field Engineering, Datastax
According to a recent McKinsey & Company Consumer Pulse Survey, despite macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties, Asian consumers still offer a ray of hope for consumer goods companies and retail businesses. With the festive season here, businesses must be ready to meet increased demands and use this opportunity to learn more about post-pandemic customers' needs.
In the past two years, at the height of the global pandemic, consumers have shown an outsized demand for ecommerce, and this has prompted brands to shift their focus from generalisation to hyper-personalization. These consumer behaviours are likely to stay - with at least 60 percent of respondents expressing the intent to continue engaging through digital channels even as the pandemic abates.
In IDC's "Progressing Supply Chain Resiliency" report, however, almost half of organisations surveyed believe that a lack of digital competencies limits the ability to transition their supply chain to new business models. A resilient supply chain must be agile enough to meet dynamic customer demands and flexible to manage changing market conditions while having business intelligence and capabilities on-hand to analyse, assess and determine the next steps to stay ahead of the competition.
Connecting experiences through real-time data
The digital-savvy consumer today demands a holistic, seamless, and “human-centred” online experience. Forrester observed that companies focused on excellent User Experience (UX) and Customer Experience (CX) benefit from greater customer loyalty, increased revenue, a higher market evaluation, and better-performing stock.
Human-centred design is a marriage of great UX and CX, putting customers at the heart of your business through problem-solving and enabling you to create products and services that resonate and are tailored to your audience's needs.
How does real-time data help in creating such experiences? Real-time data analytics applies models to data to help businesses provide insights to make better decisions quickly.
From a customer's perspective, data from previous commercial transactions, website or social media engagement, and even IoT devices, can direct engagement such as personalised recommendations, superior customer moments, and improve critical processes such as inventory management, fulfilment of goods and services, and after-purchase services.
Empowering businesses with "just-in-time" opportunities
Many small and medium enterprises operate with a "just-in-time" (JIT) inventory management system. SMEs can reduce inventory holding costs, increase inventory management, and improve efficiencies by reducing waste and overproduction and requiring smaller investments to keep their businesses running.
To build a sustainable supply chain and tap into the benefits of JIT inventory management, businesses can investigate past transactional data, seasonal shipping trends and even map projected volumes to determine what works best proactively.
However, with many businesses, complex data infrastructures, data silos, data warehouses, and data lakes can get in the way of these kinds of real-time data advantages. Tangled data landscapes inhibit the abstraction of information across teams, hampering collaboration and hindering the development of always-on customer engagement.
Building a future-proofed model
IDC speaks to five stages of supply chain resiliency maturity - ad hoc, opportunistic, repeatable, managed, and optimised. Businesses must find a way to innovate at scale when it comes to enabling data intelligence and the ability to quickly turn massive data into focused, actionable insights.
To build a foundation for intelligent supply chain management and move your business up the maturity ladder, businesses should look into the following:
- Centralising and enabling access to real-time operational data via a fast, reliable database.
- Boosting computing power, speed, flexibility, and advanced functionality to analyse data in real time.
- Continue to finetune tech investments in data enablement with a "Pay-as-you-go" IT investment strategy.
- And developing a long-term business strategy supported by data insights that consider digital disruption and time-to-response to capture market share and easily take advantage of new market opportunities.
The future is digital, and data will continue to be the currency for sustainable and competitive growth.
