Simha Sadasiva, CEO and founder of AI-powered customer experience automation platform Ushur, unveils a novel perspective on digital transformation, arguing for a customer-centric, gradual and cost-effective approach to modernisation.
Digital transformation is a pressing matter that most contemporary businesses engage with consistently. The prevalent concern emanates primarily from the fact that organisations tend to approach this task from a misguided perspective.
They often emphasise the changes they need to instigate, rather than focusing on the desired outcome they intend to achieve. The common notion is to perceive digital transformation as an exhaustive revamp across the organisation, with IT serving as the central decision-making unit.
Simha Sadasiva, CEO and founder of Ushur, postulates that this approach is a potential disaster. Sadasiva’s extensive experience demonstrates the pitfalls of such a method, as companies embark on protracted 3-5 year journeys of replacing legacy platforms, often incurring costs of over $50m, only to be left with a partially transformed business. This arises because upgrading the infrastructure doesn’t inherently modernise the system of customer engagement.
Contrary to popular belief, digital transformation can materialise incrementally, providing immediate, targeted benefits to customers and users. This can be achieved without spending $50m from the onset and without a multi-year overhaul of seemingly obstructive legacy systems. Sadasiva shares insights on how this could be done.
Digital transformation should ideally commence by addressing a straightforward question – what should the customer experience be like? This directive assists in identifying suitable processes and infrastructure. Sadasiva asserts that digital transformation should occur in stages, starting with the customer experience. Rather than introspecting on their deficiencies, organisations should consider their customers’ wants. Insurers, for instance, can discern the most friction-prone customer engagements leading to a high volume of inbound interactions and address these issues independently, without overhauling their core policy administration or claim systems. The solution needn’t originate at the centre.
Organisations can identify what Sadasiva refers to as “micro-engagements”, subsequently digitising and modernising these experiences in a manner that gratifies the customer. Numerous customers have observed immediate success with this “a la carte” digital transformation approach because it is purposefully designed to positively impact the customer as swiftly as possible. This also provides sufficient leeway to complete the rest of the transformation journey appropriately. The impact is faster, the initial investment is reduced, and there’s a clear sight of value accompanied by real-time customer feedback.
Sadasiva advocates for instant eradication of any friction in customer service to retain customers throughout the extensive process of complete digital transformation. Modern customers prefer companies that accommodate them, not ones they need to seek out. Companies must ensure customers do not endure inconvenience now for the promise of improved service later.
Read the full Ushur post here.
Ushur’s innovative AI-powered Customer Experience Automation™ platform is meticulously designed to automate complete customer journeys, end to end. With backing from leading investors such as Third Point Ventures, 8VC, Pentland Ventures, Aflac Ventures, and Iron Pillar, Ushur’s solutions are being utilised by top insurance providers worldwide, including Irish Life, Unum, Aetna, Cigna, and Tower Insurance.
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