In many industries today the competitive battleground is quickly shifting to the effective use of data to drive marketing, sales, customer support, R&D, and to deliver hyper-personalized user experiences and digital products. These changes are most readily seen in companies that engage customers on the web and through mobile apps. As more and more of customer interactions and engagements move to mobile apps and websites these changes will be all the more pronounced. Just think about mobile banking, mobile commerce, mobile search, mobile media, mobile news/content and mobile travel apps. These apps and the companies behind them are now offering incredible levels of near instant personalization based upon their knowledge of your preferences, location, shopping history, loyalty status, etc. The more effective companies are at using their knowledge of you to personalize your experience, the more attractive, convenient, productive and sticky their apps become. We at Cognizant call the effective use of data, "
Code Halos" strategies. Code Halos are the data that surround you, your activities and preferences. It is the combination of personal and enterprise data used to provide the optimal experience.
Companies that will win in this competitive battlefield will understand that data collection, processing speed, analysis, situational awareness and the hyper-personalization of the users' experiences are the keys. They will recognize it is about speed. It is a race to collect, analyze, and personalize. The late US Air Force Colonel and great military strategist John Boyd coined the acronym OODA for observe, orient, decide and act. He identified the fact that decision-making could be a competitive advantage. If you can make good decisions faster than an opponent you have a powerful advantage. Think about this in terms of a boxer in the ring, or a fighter pilot in the sky. If you can understand the situation, make good decisions and act faster than your opponent you will likely win. The same is true when the effective use of data is involved in user experiences and commerce.
Code Halo strategies is a way to think about and structure your information logistics in a manner that will give you information dominance. Information dominance means you have an information logistics infrastructure in place for collecting data, analyzing and personalizing experiences better and faster than your competition. This information, with the right IT infrastructure and architecture, can be used to instantly provide hyper-personalized experiences on the web and on mobile apps for customers, prospects, partners and employees.
Your information logistics systems must be fast enough to keep pace. If your information logistics systems lag due to legacy systems that cannot support a "real-time" environment that is required for mobile apps and websites, then you have some hard choices to make that will impact your company's ability to succeed in this new world dominated by information.
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Kevin Benedict
Writer, Speaker, Editor
Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work
Cognizant
***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
