Bounteous, the digital innovation partner of global brands has released the results of a study conducted by Forrester Consulting research. The research aims to evaluate digital transformation maturity and the benefits companies at varying levels of maturity have realised. The results emphasise higher financial growth, customer satisfaction and employee experience for advanced companies driving digital innovation.
The study, titled Co-Innovation Partnerships Drive Digital Transformation Success surveyed 415 global decision-makers. Those decision-makers were responsible for their company’s customer engagement and digital transformation strategies. They conducted six interviews with customer engagement and digital transformation leaders in September 2022. The study revealed that the most digitally advanced companies experience double digit growth at nearly twice the rate of their less mature peers. The findings indicate that companies that continually invest in a strong data and technology foundation. Additionally, the right ecosystem of partners, are enabled to operate at the velocity customers demand while improving ways of working.
Key research findings include:
- Maturity requires co-innovation partnerships. Digitally advanced companies focus on their core strengths and engage partners that align around common goals. They bring innovative ideas and best practices to the table.
- Moving at the speed of the customer requires continuously turning the right insights into the right actions. Digitally mature companies invest in a solid data and technology foundation and the right partners to help them achieve this.
- High velocity leads to high growth for digitally advanced companies. The most digitally advanced companies in this study operate with agility and speed. In return, they have significantly happier customers and employees. Furthermore, they are twice as likely to experience double-digit year-over-year growth, compared with their less mature peers.
According to Keith Schwartz, Founder and CEO of Bounteous, “It has never been more critical or more complex, to meet and exceed rising customer and employee expectations.” Today’s organisations cannot afford to ignore the importance of choosing the right partner to lead their digital innovation initiatives. Those leaders who are committed to implementing the right data foundation. In addition to selecting the right co-innovation partner is set up for success to compete and win in their categories.”
Other lessons to learn:
- Advanced companies didn’t just grow financially; they also reported higher customer satisfaction and employee experience. Becoming a digital leader is about more than just growing revenue.
- 42% of advanced companies experienced double-digit growth this past year compared to only 22% of beginner companies.
- Advanced companies report already seeing benefits in the form of higher customer satisfaction (72% vs 56%). In addition to improved employee experience (56% vs 41%).
- Advanced companies drive digital innovation by changing how they contract with partners:
- 62% of advanced companies used outcomes or performance as part of their pricing models.
- Advanced companies outpace beginners in customer experience technology investments:
- AI / Machine Learning: +23%
- MarTech: +24%
- Personalization: +19%
- Commerce Platforms: +16%
- Customer Data Platforms: +14%
Enterprise Times: What this means for business.
Bounteous’s research is interesting because it raises some very plain truths for enterprises.
Customer expectations have only accelerated in the past few years, requiring companies to keep pace with their digital transformation efforts. No company can ignore rising customer expectations and expect to survive. Companies that fail to build systems of insight and ways of working to continuously understand and address customer needs will fall behind. The research found the most digitally advanced companies experience double-digit growth, twice the rate of their less mature peers.
The key to success: These companies continually invest in a strong data and technology foundation. In addition to finding partners to enable them to operate at the velocity customers demand while improving operations.
Clearly, to survive, companies must digitally transform technical infrastructure and business culture. In today’s competitive market, this is vital to enable the agility required to respond to increasing customer and employee expectations.
