Businesses must constantly adapt and adjust to the market. Technology is constantly changing and the companies that are willing to innovate are the ones that will rise above the competition. It’s not always simple to make the necessary changes, but you can quickly see which businesses have done so.
A very good example of this is social media. The companies that embraced social media early on quickly outpaced the competition and made more sales. The same thing is happening with new technology and this is the perfect time to start focusing on how you can make your business more efficient and tailored to your clients.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence or AI is often thought of in the form of robots, but AI is becoming more and more useful for businesses.
In most cases, artificial intelligence is used to manage chatbots, which helps ensure customers receive answers almost immediately to their problems. The service allows the chatbot to learn how to respond in the most common scenarios and from there, it learns and implements collected data to help customers solve their issues.
AI is also used to create and manage events, meetings, and other business information. The ability to program your own AI is usually not feasible, as it can require quite a bit of manpower to get everything set up, but there are services that will do this for you. You can see some big increases in customer satisfaction by employing this option.
Companies that implement the AI technology will find themselves ahead of the pack. More and more businesses are starting to use AI services and this will only grow in the future.
ETLs
ETL solutions allow you to keep data secure while extracting, transforming, and loading it. ETL services save you time by automating the process of extracting data and preparing it for storage, but they also allow for a better level of security than you would otherwise achieve.
In the extract part of ETL, the data is selected and extracted. This requires examining various data sources, checking the refresh rate of the sources, and determining the priority of the data. Various fields are extracted and the information provided is parsed into a table to make it simpler to sort. This is also the point where data may be enriched to make it easier to analyze. Any missing or corrupted information is set aside for investigation later on or the process may be put on hold.
The transform phase is where the data is classified. For example, if there are a number of transactions, they can be turned into events, divided by date and time, and location data is changed into coordinates or separated by area. PII data is masked where necessary for privacy. Old or duplicate and incomplete data is purged and everything is filtered and validated to ensure the most useful information is selected.
Finally, the load phase is activated and the now transformed data is uploaded in batches to a secure data warehouse or streamed.
Big data is an essential part of any company and having access to it via ETL tools and the ability to sort through it permits companies to adjust their marketing and client info. When you know what days your clients are purchasing, or more about who they are, it is much easier to create targeted marketing campaigns. You’ll be better able to serve your audience when you can look at who they are.
Digital Ecosystems
The past few years have seen quite a bit of innovation in this area. AirBnB, Booking.com, and other similar sites have put the power in the customer’s hands. People are becoming used to being able to find products and services that are focused on their specific needs and that are flexible to an extent for them.
For businesses, an open ecosystem collects real time information and this is contributed to by other people. For example, with AirBnB, just about anyone can list their home or a room on the platform to create a listing. From there, they can adjust it according to the customers’ feedback, and it also provides a rating system. This means it is up to the client to determine how well a business does.
As this method of business continues to grow, it makes sense that more businesses will need to implement similar measures. It’s no longer good enough to tell your customers what they can do. Now you’re going to see a rise in the personalization of services and products to meet customer demand.
Not surprisingly, technology can change the way you do business. Over time, it can also make or break your business. It is in your best interest as a business owner to know what is out there and to gauge whether or not it will be the next big thing.
