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by Neri Basque, Vice-President Solutions Architecture and IT Governance, Minacs - July 15, 2015

The Power of Cross Pollination
Same Customers, Same Business Challenges, Same Tools … Then Why Different Solutions?
By Neri Basque, Vice-President Solutions Architecture & IT Governance 
Minacs

At our Manila office, we’ve developed a gamification module for a direct marketing client that sells beauty and wellness products across the US. This module aims to improve key operational measures including sales conversion, quality score, and talk time. The goal is to increase sales for the client’s products delivered through highly motivated and engaged advisors who convey the client’s unique brand experience. The same module is now being used for a leading telecom client in the US.

Technology, tools and platforms, process framework, and innovative ideas should not be restricted to a single industry or vertical. There is a great deal of commonality across industries, and with the right amount of knowledge and domain expertise, they can easily find an application across industries.


Business Challenges Across Industries Are the Same! Oftentimes, So Are the Solutions

It’s possible to apply the Pareto principle (80–20 rule) to business challenges. Across industries and verticals, approximately 80% of the challenges faced by enterprises are similar, and 20% are unique to that industry or company. Some of the common challenges are revenue and profitability achievements, market insight, customer satisfaction, customer retention, cost reduction, operational and resource productivity, supply chain efficiency, and competitive differentiation. We have categorized these into five key client needs: Adaptability & Flexibility, Business Sustainability, Customer Experience, Business Insight, and Enterprise Productivity.

Chances are, a solution for one category of issues is applicable to clients facing similar issues in another industry. For example, our experience in the high tech industry tells us that customers between the ages of 16–30 are constantly looking up devices that help them post, share, capture, create, and consume social content more easily. This insight has helped us create one of the most successful telematics solutions in partnership with a leading auto OEM to inform, engage, and motivate vehicle owners to try, subscribe, and purchase additional telematics and infotainment services and subscriptions.

Another example is workforce management. The Minacs Workforce Management model begins with forecasting to predict arrival patterns and hourly details. Then, based on the requirement, we determine staffing, schedule the talent pool and, using real-time tracking, ensure we stay on point. This model has worked across verticals with all our clients and is foundational to every successful operation.


Internal Cross Pollination

Cross pollination doesn’t have to occur only externally. Cross pollination between teams and departments can result in very positive outcomes. At Minacs, we’ve created playbooks that outline our service delivery framework. The objective of our playbooks is to standardize the way we work across our 35 global sites, enabling us to codify the learning and results for best practice sharing. The playbooks also allow each site the flexibility to define operational structure based on their particular nuances. Over our nearly 40-year existence, we have found that having this strong foundation helps us drive best-in-class performance and innovation across the enterprise. Some of the benefits are:

· Shared vision and alignment with overall framework for operational excellence at the site and functional levels.

· Streamlining of processes, roles, and activities at each site providing continuous clarity and direction.

· Seamless communication between site heads and functional heads for resolving issues and partnering on key decisions.

· Defining of and adherence to clear performance management approaches including goal-setting exercises, review mechanisms, and performance appraisals.

· Informed decisions resulting in improved return on investments.

Training is another area where we can standardize certain modules that will be useful across industries. The customers, their needs, and the processes of how to engage, understand, and empathize with their issues remain the same. Analytical models, which are used to predict customer behavior, and algorithmic logic, which enables us to deliver the right message to the right customer at the right time in real time, have been used across industries to enable intelligent business operations.


Cross Pollination: The Way Ahead

We support a leading automotive client with telematics subscription marketing, billing, and a host of other services. We recently implemented the same solution with a telecom player. We achieved this in a shorter time to market, and it also helped us leverage the learning and best practices to deliver competitive advantage.

Customers across different verticals are often similar; the business challenges enterprises face are the same; and often the tools, technology, and frameworks available are the same. What differs is one’s ability to adapt the model with new variables and deliverables, the very same variables and deliverables that will change and evolve at a much faster pace than ever before. Are you ready?