Who wants self service ? Not employees or managers ! Customers ?

In the good old days before technology stormed the world, interactions were always in person; people met each other and remembered faces, names, salient points about professional and personal lives. Conversations were the way to engage, communicate, serve and ask for services. This was typically followed up with some paperwork to record the intent and agreement between the interested parties. Business was all about people connecting with people, building relationships and sustaining them over a lifetime.

Initially technology was all about automation, to create faster processes reducing execution time. It was followed by reengineered process automation with workflows to reduce paper movement between involved stakeholders and approvers. The internet revolution offered remote working capabilities extending the reach of technology enabled workloads; mobile data and smartphones broke the last barrier creating a mobile workforce that could work on the go anytime, anywhere, as long as they were connected.

First few deployments were selective with the devices being seen as status symbols to be proudly flouted when in meetings or with friends; as the price points dropped exception became the rule and almost every employee and manager was equipped with a device or connectivity. Expectations rose with every audible or vibrating message alert wanting to be attended to immediately intruding into life, breaking relationships, pushing the limits, creating compulsive disorders and medical conditions unknown thus far.

Technology continued to evolve, get better and smarter creating new possibilities; every manager now expected to know adequately every function that impacts their working. Start with Attendance, Leave and Travel, Vouchers, Expenses and Reimbursement, Delegation of Authorities and approvals, Budgeting and Expenses, Revenue and Profitability, Resource Planning, Manpower allocation, Hiring to Attrition Management, Outsourcing to Contractor Management, everything has converged in the new Digital World.

It was a matter of time that self-service became the norm, the default way of working; the rising bar continued to push the limits of workloads that could be transferred to the staff and reducing the “overhead” costs at Branch, Region and Head offices. The App world completes the delegation of work with no option; quicker, faster, cheaper being the mantra, the inflection point reached rather quickly with every new proposition adding to the checklist of the busy executive, manager and 24X7 worker, no option, no choices.

Cost cutting and optimization continues to challenge enterprises and their constituents pushing the proverbial envelope continuously; enterprise solutions were never designed for self-service, functionality that was added with evolution and time. After the initial set of training conducted with operationalization of the system, people were left to their own devices to understand and use the systems. As time taken for self-service tasks kept increasing, exceptions too rose simultaneously casting shadows on efficiency and effectiveness.

Managers having the option reverted to paper and delegated the chore to their Assistants creating a gap in the process and eliminating benefits that could have been accrued with solutions deployed. Organizations continue to push the change agenda in the endeavor to keep elevating operational efficiency. With limited connect to ground realities, the seeping inefficiencies go unnoticed until a new wave is created to review why the business growth or profitability is challenged in a growing industry or market.

Industry is witness to the fact that today customers are being cajoled into self-service of all types; drop boxes, machines and kiosks, websites, portals, and mobile apps. Did they embrace it willingly and thanked the providers ? Probably yes in a few cases considering the people based services were minimalistic and did not create customer delight; for the rest it was initial euphoria of owning your destiny and controlling the way you are served which later turned into frustrated experiences with unresponsive unaligned backend resources.

Today technology providers are building systems that obviate the need for technical resources to build and deploy solutions. Business self-service is the new mantra where functional users are being egged to drop their dependence on IT resources and implement business friendly solutions. History again appears to be repeating itself with most Business Users enthusiastically wanting to take up the offer, again based on past unsatisfactory experiences from IT and technology vendors; shadow IT is being touted as a good thing !

Attending the launch of a new disruptive solution, the pitch was all about self-service by anyone who wanted to use it; their journey next time…

The threat of Private Social to B2B business, especially in IT Products or Services

In the early days of the internet era, an IT consulting company started a forum of decision makers and senior IT leaders to gain insights on their pain points and opportunities to engage. Participation was by invitation to begin with, later opened up for aspirants, selectively approved. To keep the group focused, membership closed when the count reached 200. The forum created multiple threads on technology, leadership challenges, industry specific groups, and finally groups for current and potential users of vendor solutions.

Driven by some early adopters, the forums gained popularity offering candid and uninhibited sharing of views on various subjects, much to the nervousness of the company. They appointed a moderator who befriended the group fairly quickly with her friendly yet incisive comments, making her part of the inner circle. She seeded thoughts and discussions which benefited the company and thus no censorship was imposed. The most commented and visited forums pertained to ERP and other solutions gaining popularity with enterprises.

Quickly it became a forum that the group depended on for most of their technology decisions driven by experiential sharing overriding the marketing case studies shared by vendors or paid research from esteemed consultants and haloed market leading research entities. Pain points, what not to do, what to be wary of, formed bulk of the content; shared learning improved the possibilities of success for the receivers. Observing the unprecedented success, the idea was flogged by some of the IT vendors with limited traction.

The first mover advantage sustained itself even when the seeding company changed hands through multiple acquisitions until … on behest of one of the sponsors, the acquirer attempted to clamp down on some of the negative comments. The group had gained life of its own; senior IT leaders used their collective clout to create an independent group with no sponsors or any strings focusing on the magic sauce that kept the group cohesive; the unbridled sharing of knowledge and discussions on the now fast pace of technology change kept the group going.

At their annual conference, the Vendor’s senior leadership probably feigned surprise when the CIO mentioned that he was part of a closed mobile messaging group which discussed threadbare every vendor, their solutions, pros and cons of implementation partners, and at times even pricing ! The closed group on one of the most popular messaging solutions was a sought after group by CIOs. Most of them visited the group multiple times a day and posted their queries, trials and tribulations, to which responses were quick and worthy.

The story more or less repeated itself with another major global IT solutions vendor and a couple of amused CIOs who were giving feedback to the CEO and the Sales/Marketing team about why they have had challenges and slower takeoff in recent times. Their monopoly was shaking; while they had some doubts on seeds of the root cause, their fears were confirmed in this discussion. There was no social media feed alert or trends to analyze, this was scarily hidden from public view and it impacted them in a big way.

For the CIO group – of the CIO, by the CIO, for the CIOs – loved by the customer, the global giants as yet have no antidote; closed conversations within the group virally impact revenues and profitability though miniscule at the moment, can potentially grow to gargantuan proportions. Technology led disruption to technology providers who also offer social listening tools ! No one anticipated or were prepared for this impact. Consumers have used public social media to get better customer service, private social media opens new channels for B2B.

My CIO friend who coined the term Private Social, attempted to provide steps to reduce the impact to business (Click here). Largely behavioral, the outcomes will depend on the ability of individuals to imbibe them and practice with consistency. Reality is that vendors have to treat their customers with TLC to keep them happy; I am not recommending that they out of the way and pamper them, but sticking to the basics of supplying a product or service with fidelity to the promise made during the pre-sales period.

Is there a positive side ? But off-course, it’s a windfall for vendors who get leads out of the blue with customers calling them for discussions about their products and services referred to by existing satisfied customers. They should take the upside as an endorsement of living up to commitments, thank their customers and continue to use their mojo with the new wins too. The digital world continues to create new disruptions to entrenched forces, be prepared for the next unknown threat and opportunity !

Big customer of a small vendor, or small customer of a big vendor

The CEO was perplexed that despite his product having all the features and more when compared to the market leader, most enterprise customers were shy of giving him business. His product was priced at a discount to the larger and dominant players thus providing great business cases and ROI; the technology platform was current versus competition. Customers liked the product and agreed that it met specifications and requirements; however it did not result in business. His company was a young startup and had few customers.

The world of startups is exploding and they offer solutions for existing and imaginary problems that you may have never thought about. Consumer applications are finding their way into the enterprise while the choices for enterprise applications have increased manifold. Convergence across the differing use cases creates opportunities for IT to automate and/or create new process efficiencies. These are beginning to offer viable alternatives to the large vendor solutions with complex licensing models and maintenance contracts.

Meeting a few entrepreneurs exhibited the most prominent feature across all the discussions was the belief and the passion in their ideas. Everyone had a dream to challenge the big players, wanted to solve problems of the world, and almost everyone was born a digital native. For these individuals the pursuit of their dream overshadowed the difficulties they faced learning to survive in fiscal deficit. With loads of infectious enthusiasm they happily demonstrate the value of what they have or plan to build to anyone interested.

They have like-minded teams with great technology skills and ability to create solutions with velocity that puts many enterprise IT teams to shame. They are able to react quickly to market and demands of their sparse customers; the struggle is largely around creating a dialogue with business and IT leaders on how their solutions will benefit the enterprise. They are the advocates and the best salespersons for their companies and solutions and in an endeavor to get first few customers, it is highly probable that they are willing to offer bargain prices.

Most enterprise CIOs and business heads find themselves meeting these entrepreneurs more often, now competing with the larger well established local or global solution providers. The gorillas with loads of muscle power, large number of customers, and an ecosystem of system integrators create doubts in the minds of potential buyers on the stability and longevity of the minnows. Thus in the face of perceived risk most customers end up making the expensive choice of going with the well-entrenched players.

Good news is that there is a wave of fresh air wafting through the crevices in the enterprise fortress – the data center and the application landscape; some successful and early adopter CIOs have taken calculated risks and the call to work with startups. The benefits in almost call cases have been beyond compare with quick and unbelievable ROI; for the struggling beginners these saviors were embraced and they stretched to exceed expectations. The CIOs pleased with success built symbiotic relationships by mentoring them.

For the safety net seekers following conventionally long implementation cycles, the larger players provided rich functionality though with restrictive practices offering ROI over 2-3 years. They became victims of their choices when they could have taken an alternative approach and experimented with the newer generation solutions and enjoyed associated benefits. The loss of agility came with its own set of challenges considering the fact that rarely a solution change is undertaken after long cycle of implementation.

Startups nurture their customers who imposed faith in them; large enterprise customers bring them credibility. They contributed significantly to their revenues which in turn helps them raise money from interested sources. For the large players another customer is just another customer even if you are a dominant force in the industry; exception being companies who are larger than these large vendors and they are just a handful. Relatively size does makes a difference to the treatment the vendors give to a customer.

All things being equal the question is where do you want to be ? A big customer to a small vendor or a small customer of a big vendor ? Your choices will determine not just your success but also your ability to influence the product direction, shape industry solutions, and finally give you a financial advantage. Having been in all the three camps, I would say that being a big customer of a startup outweighs the perceived risks; the sluggishness imposed by big vendors can be a big challenge; finally as a part of startups now I love big customers !

The Power to say No

Over the years for the business dependence on IT has grown to reach a state that it is unimaginable to think of any business running without IT. I am sure that we can start creating a list of exceptions which may be different by geography or economic classification, but predominantly every business operation uses IT to sustain, grow, diversify, improve, analyse, and a lot more.

Over the years the IT Head also transformed through the journey working lock step with the demands of the organization providing the necessary solutions, sometimes wildly successful and challenged, delayed or unsuccessful. Through the era the IT leader kept moving outward from the glasshouse to the factory, warehouse, corporate office, and field and wherever the internal customer was present, and then beyond to where the external customer lived.

Over the years as the transition occurred to the CIO, the discussion changed from the nuts and bolts, three letter acronyms, servers, routers, hardware, software, networking, to business process, order to cash, procure to pay, customer analytics, increasing revenue, strengthening the bottom line, creating competitive differentiation, managing supply chains, collaboration with the suppliers and customers, new business opportunities, until the difference with other CXOs started blurring.

Over the years one characteristic that has not changed is the acceptance of demands = reasonable or otherwise, requirements - rational or not, time pressure to deliver - urgent or not, budget cuts - downturn or not, accepting everything business desired, spoke about, or demanded. The IT function was expected to stay subservient to cajoling, coercion, ransom, threats, with the proverbial sword hanging inches from the neck; if you cannot do it, we will find ways outside to get it done a la shadow IT.

IT was not expected to challenge, they were expected to deliver; whether it is a report that no one sees, a quick fix that stays in UAT for weeks beyond the deadline, systems that saw usage drop faster than the stock market in the downturn, one liners or vague or assumptive requirement definitions, or in recent times consumer devices to be connected to corporate networks. A challenge or denied service was sacrilegious and a pile of turndowns could lead to “lack of alignment” to what business wants.

With increasing comfort with business, conviction, and communication, CIOs have looked the other in the eye and engage in a non-confrontational debate which has germinated into acceptance of the CIO viewpoint and its intent only to the best interest of the enterprise. It’s a newly discovered facet that boosts confidence and fuels itself; the spark is now traveling virulently. CIOs have created the freedom to say “No” to the unreasonable and ill-defined.

When any discussion is based on data, facts, and sound logic, the outcome normally takes predictable route. The acceptance of the CIO into the “Inner Circle” is happening; the retention requires practice of democratic principles. CIOs should exercise this power judiciously and use it to create a better solution or paradigm that encompasses hitherto unused tenets. It takes some wisdom to differentiate between the need and the want and not play favourites; it is always a bad time for dictators who can be overthrown quickly.

Go and exercise this choice, you will be surprised !

Can the CIO help improve Customer Service ?

The headline for the discussion said “Business transformation”, the participants were CIOs across different consumer facing service industries, the audience a mix of 80 odd CIOs wanting to take away some pearls of wisdom from the collective experience of over 100 years on stage; after all not too often you get to hear success stories on how business has been transformed by CIOs with a mix of people, process and technology.

It started off well demonstrating the rich experience of the moderator who put across some sharp questions to the CIOs. Into the discussion, a couple of service incidents specific to their company had the CIOs on the defensive in an attempt to rationalize what appeared to be process lapses. Few from the audience joined the charge and soon it appeared to be a “Consumer redressal forum” with the hapless CIOs on the dais unable to defend and afraid to rebut the moderator. A brave soul from the audience chastised the moderator for diverting from the core subject and the personal affront to the CIOs. Sensing trouble, the organizers closed the discussion citing time constraints.

Later in the day a debate set off between a few panellists and a bunch of CIOs on whether CIOs can influence service outcomes in the call centre, field service, or responses received by the customers. Service exceptions are reality despite the best intentions and efforts of the enterprise. With attrition being sky high in service functions, training time has been shrinking with on the job training becoming a norm for some.

Even when process and technology has been engineered for effectiveness, the people challenge remains. So what options exist for an enterprise and what can the CIO do to create a consistent framework that the enterprise can depend to provide consistent, scalable process driven service outcomes across geographies ? Is there a best practice that can help to reduce the customer pain ?

Products entice a first time buy, but services create repeat customers. Irrespective of how the service is delivered, via call centre, on premise break-fix or at service centre, it is important to set expectations and manage customer interaction with empathy. Sears coined the “Customer is always right” paradigm; in the current hyper competitive world and unreasonable expectations, the customer has the ability to take her business away to competition.

Enterprises need to stay connected to the customer via all channels seeking and listening to feedback that is out in the social media. It is a space to watch not just what they are saying about your company, but also competitors. I believe that every CXO including the CIO should stay aware of the pulse of the services and continuously improve on the experience with a feedback loop. After all your customers can be your best sales persons and success (or an irate customer) is only 140 characters away.

Market Capitalization and Customer Satisfaction

Recent front page news pieces in many dailies, online media, (and almost everywhere) claim that a tech company’s market capitalization has overtaken the long standing leader on this metric. It’s being written about by many business publications, tech journals, writers, edits, and discussed by everyone as an important event. Now, even as the displaced leader CEO retorted, “We are still the most profitable”, customers like me cringed. Analysts are now creating theories around the dark horse’s upsurge, about a company which was written off by the same analysts—not too long back, if memory serves me right.


Over the last couple of decades, I watched the new leader with interest—wondering why they never had mainstream commercial success, despite having products which almost everyone loved. In the meanwhile, the displaced moved from strength to strength creating a monopolistic era. Everyone hated this practice, but continued to embrace its products as if there was no choice. Choices came and withered away like the autumn flower; a few showed promise, but could not sustain themselves in a hyper competitive world where big brother came down guns blazing on any who dared a challenge. All along, our new leader continued to innovate, gaining a small but steadily growing breed of followers—never big enough to raise an alarm, but shunned by IT organizations as too esoteric.

The erstwhile leader spawned many factions seeking alternatives, never really succeeding enough to threaten. Fan following and hate groups alike embrace every news, release, solution and acquisition. Corporate customers experimented, but left with no real choice, continue to grin and bear it. Governments’ attempt to leash the giant bore puny results, as the alternative movement around open source has remained just that—an alternative that few are interested in.

Did customers love this ‘choice’ of one, and the price it came at? A survey will probably show the number of naysayers touching highs on product quality, price, support, or any other parameter that you may want to explore. The challenger scores on all these parameters, but surprisingly continues to receive no traction.

With guaranteed revenues from the ever growing corporate market and almost 90% market share, the fruits of such labor remained the envy of everyone in the technology world. At least, that was the case till a couple of weeks back, when surprise, the giant was belittled. Did the CIOs suddenly realize the value of embracing the alternative and shun the “standard”? Have analysts become wiser, or did the company create a game changing product (or service) that swept the world off its feet?

We all know the answer; the new leader was created by the end consumer, not the corporate world. With the exception of a few industries that discovered its efficiencies, enterprise shops avoided these technology solutions, or allowed it at the fringes with multiple caveats, despite the pains of managing existing solutions.

With increasing consumerization of the end computing device, the future will displace the old and boring, though deemed standard and secure devices of today. Our personal choices indicate that there is a very small place for the past leader. The new hero of today has consumers raging upon every new innovation that has come from its stable.

Over the next few years, I believe that this rapidly growing mindshare will put pressure on IT organizations and the CIO to be inclusive of this trend rather than fight it. The only spanner in the works could be situations where the new found success becomes an anchor round the neck—one which drags down the innovation pipeline or consumer connect that has become the hallmark for the industry. After all, market capitalization has limited (or nill) correlation to customer satisfaction.