Technological hurdles are causing a drop in performance in the service sector
Workday, a provider of enterprise cloud applications for finance, human resources and services automation, commissioned IDC to conduct a study showing that professional services organizations are struggling with performance degradation due to technology challenges.
In a fast-moving world with constantly changing market conditions, companies are required to adapt to conditions just as quickly and flexibly. Profitability is an important keyword here - always linked to efficient processes and improved performance. However, it is precisely at this critical pivotal point that enormous deficits are revealed, particularly in the service sector. For continuous added value and effective, seamless process optimization, investments must be made in technical innovations. This was also highlighted by over 400 executives surveyed in a recent study by Workday and IDC: there is a lack of integrated, data-driven business systems for project management - including resource and financial management. Kyle Wilkinson, Strategic Industry Advisor, Professional and Business Services, EMEA at Workday, outlines the three key findings for the professional services industry.
1. the state of an entire industry is at risk
Maintaining competitiveness is crucial, especially in the service industry. However, the transition and extended use of technology is no longer optional, but a necessity to sustain the business. The industry's top priority must therefore be to create accurate service offerings with excellent performance in terms of customer experience and satisfaction. This, as well as improving project efficiency and profitability, can only be achieved through the use of technology.
2. flexibility and scalability are mandatory
When selecting their service providers, customers are increasingly looking for a certain degree of scalability - both upscaling and downscaling. The use of cloud systems by the service industry creates the much-needed agility of their own internal and customer-related processes. This enables them to react to changing market conditions in the short and long term and restructure their business model in a resilient manner.
3. adapt artificial intelligence early on
According to the managers surveyed, there is a huge need for improvement in financial reporting, expense management and insights into available data. In order to make ideal use of big data in its existing form for business recommendations, support from AI systems is a factor that should not be underestimated. This allows the customer experience to be almost perfected, anomalies to be quickly identified and automations to be set up. This optimization of their own resources and processes has a direct impact on the ROI and the resilience of the service-providing company's own business model.
Digitalization is essential for the service industry
Customers' tolerance levels for poor customer experience are falling rapidly. Service providers can no longer afford to be late in the digital transformation of their business. They should become early adopters of new, helpful technologies in order to implement the required agility, operational efficiency and service experience.
Source: www.workday.com
