What is a personalized customer experience and how to improve it?
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Personalized customer experience
What 2020 has taught us? NNTC’s focuses and strategies for 2021
Dmitry Doshaniy, NNTC General Manager, summarized 2020’s results and determined development strategy for the next year. What 2020 has taught us and what strategy to follow in 2021? In today’s blog, we will share the main insights from Dmitry’s interview.
2020’s online survival is 2021’s new normal
Online communication services, messengers, and platforms have won extra audience as a result of self-isolation and business events going online, which is the case for both B2C and B2B sectors. For example, we at NNTC also felt the need to enhance online communication with our audience. Thus, we held webinars for customers and partners, which was a great and rewarding experience for our team.
After 2020, it’s even easier for tech companies to sell online. If, for example, you sell software a customer doesn’t need to “touch and feel”, all you need to do is provide a demo version or deliver an online presentation, and then close the deal through Zoom. This was not possible before and has only recently turned into a common business practice, and we believe these changes also bring us business development opportunities. The fact that online business meetings have become a new normal can unlock new development opportunities and boost our geographic expansion.
Technology is a lifesaver – and 2020 has proved it
During the lockdown, society has become more technologically advanced. Even the most stagnant skeptics appreciated the importance of technology and learned how to use its benefits. This interest will continue after people return to the offices. We are happy with that, since NNTC sells its solutions to people who are not afraid of technology and strive to use it for good.
In addition, we will see growing investments in healthcare and infectious disease control solutions, both organizational and technological. Indeed, this year, Apple and Google have developed an API to track contacts with virus carriers. NNTC also already offers a solution for manufacturing and construction sites that detects social distancing violations and helps identify contacts with infected people, so that affected personnel can be promptly sent to quarantine and receive medical treatment. Indeed, technologies save people’s lives.
Make decisions wisely in 2021
2020 has been a good year to cultivate morale and find new ideas and approaches for business development. Moreover, our specialists had such a good practice in implementing ideas that they have reached a brand-new level of product development speed.
Now, it is time to adopt a more balanced and less opportunistic business approach. The year 2020 has shown that we need to carefully calculate and consider response time in advance. When a demand arises for a certain type of development, the temptation is to meet this demand as soon as possible using R&D resources. However, we need to look beyond and carefully consider the next steps to avoid wasting precious time and resources in pursuit of such demand. We need to be preparing for the post-crisis time right now and think long-term rather than short-term. We are actively reviewing our solution portfolios taking into account the company activities completed in 2020. From now on, our strategy involves fewer products and more active product development.
I try to be optimistic and believe that the next year will be better than 2020. Also, in 2021 we’ll face a very intense deferred demand, as after any crisis. After the pandemic, people will be even more eager to live better life, traveling, meeting with peers shopping, and completing professional projects.
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“It’s alive!” Merging IT with manufacturing to give birth to the digital factory
Today’s business leaders have a greater awareness of the need for all-in digitalization and industrial safety solutions. Moreover, experts have no doubts that long-established industries, such as oil and gas, mining, metallurgy, and metal working, can experience a significant performance boost only through engaging information technologies. So how is it going? Well, let me use classical literature to explain.
Do you remember the notorious Frankenstein’s monster?
He was a sophisticated work of science and engineering meant to be a fully functional human ability to comprehend, think, move, and talk. Modern manufacturing is the same: it’s built from vital parts, which consistently solve given tasks. However, making a separate part digitally driven is the same as trying to bring only one limb – let’s say, a hand – of Frankenstein’s monster to life What’s the point if the rest doesn’t function?
Intelligent digitalization works like the lightning discharge that raised Frankenstein’s creature from the dead and started quite a thrilling story. You would even find yourself throwing hands up in the air and screaming “It’s alive! It’s alive!”, if you transformed an entire enterprise in an insightful way into a single information environment with correct data collection. So, this will be the main focus of today’s post, where I will also talk about how to coordinate transformation stages.
Make it digital
Information technologies keep penetrating into all business processes and directly impact workforce productivity. Bridging the gap between IT and business expertise results into synergy and provides business with solutions to digitalize multiple production processes.
For example, solutions to run diagnostics and avoid expensive equipment downtime. Some technologies even reduce the time it takes to gather information on equipment health, such as digital twins or drone-based industrial inspections. Environmental monitoring matters as well, so we can find solutions that forecast unplanned emissions, thus allowing us to minimize them and use the data as evidence in disputes with supervisory authorities.
And what if all these tasks could be solved comprehensively? What if we could put all technological achievements together, season it with new e-services, and build a unique environment, a digital ecosystem? Ladies and gentlemen, I proudly present the digital factory concept.
Digital factory vs. digital twin
Digital twin is a replica of a certain process, a digital model of a physical asset, process, or technology. Companies can have digital twins of numerous things: wind turbines, wells and deposits, or production lines. The digital twin provides both design details and the dynamics of how something operates, thus allowing to anticipate its wear and tear and optimize operation. Despite everything, these are small replicas of certain parts that can’t make business truly digital.
Digital factory is a wider concept. It describes an enterprise that leverages IT in its every aspect: automated manufacturing, optimized business processes, services, and product promotion. The concept implies a single information environment turning hectic data from multiple sources into a structured data-driven representation of the enterprise. Decisions of a company like this are guided by complete and constantly updated information.
Digital worker: industrial safety solution and business value for the digital factory
Industrial enterprises are overwhelmed with information. Let me tell you about Digital Worker IoT platform for industrial safety, one of our solutions, to illustrate. This platform integrates global and local positioning, video surveillance, video analytics, access control and management, and pre-shift examination systems, as well as smart devices. Integrated systems enable you to detect threats or HSE and occupational safety violators in real time; for example, those who misuse personal protective equipment (PPE). An event log keeps all records of hazardous situations.
The solution logs information about tens of thousands of actions and each can be analyzed to make forecasts. For example, a recurring error allows you to conclude that personnel should take additional training to master certain skills. It would be useful to share such information with HR department. And this is just analytics from one solution designed to ensure occupational safety. Business and production data flows can be combined to bring transparency in every single enterprise production process at all levels. Digital factory is an enterprise that seizes every IT opportunity.
Step-by-step digital transformation guide for enterprise
- Step #1. Technology digitalization. Create advanced digital infrastructures and RPA-based systems to collect data and control both equipment and technological processes. It should be noted that already at this stage enterprise performance goes through the roof, although big changes are yet on their way. Our occupational safety services, particularly the above Digital Worker, are well-tuned and implemented in some real manufacturing facilities.
- Step #2. Production digitalization. This stage requires the creation of a digital platform to collect, store, and process data, use some analytics tools (machine learning, digital twins), and engage production planning and management systems using the same models and data from the digital platform. Production meets technology here to give you a clear vision of technological processes and equipment health to manage business. A good example here is using RFID tags to label product components.
- Stage #3 (Final). Digital services and apps are to be created on top of the rest to improve efficiency and performance. Data analytics tools allow for prompt and, ideally, automatic adjustment of production and technological processes, thus eventually raising product quality, reducing its cost, and improving other parameters (e.g. efficiency improvement services using digital prototypes or digital twins).
As for digital transformation project for a particular customer, it’s always a client-centric story since every project focuses on each company’s individual strategy to the maximum possible extent. A customer sets the goal, and our task is to help achieve it using digital tools. We unlock the full potential for automation and digitalization and advise the customer on the most economically beneficial technologies. The most important thing in our work is to ensure synergy so that each newly implemented service multiplies the business effect.
How do you know that enterprise has become a digital factory?
A unified information environment is a game-changer you won’t miss. According to different estimates, today, some 80% of decision-making time is spent on collecting and verifying data. Unified environment will optimize all this and dramatically accelerate decision-making.
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Market expert view on the best VR headsets for manufacturing challenges
Today we have prepared for you a visualization of analytics from market experts about VR headsets comparison. Which VR hardware is best for your needs? The infographics will clearly describe the strengths and weaknesses of the different helmets, so make sure to spot an ideal helmet for VR safety training.
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Building the Hospital of the Future
The hospital of the future may look quite different from what we are used to. Rapidly evolving technologies, along with demographic and economic changes, are expected to transform hospitals worldwide. Building the digital hospital of the future requires investments in people, technologies, processes, and premises. Therefore, hospital management should not expect ROI right away. However, in the long run, digital technologies will improve care quality, operational efficiency, and patient and staff experience.
Thank you, doctors!
With the COVID-19 spreading, hospitals worldwide are working at full capacity, and healthcare workers are saving lives every day. We admire and thank those heroes for their commitment and hard work. We wish them to stay strong in this hard time!
Moving towards hospital of the future
There is a range of solutions to improve customer experience and make hospitals more comfortable for patients and personnel. It will become a new normal sooner or later.
Digital experience
Digital solutions improve patient experience by providing real-time access to medical knowledge. The best way for hospitals to establish good relations with their customers is to become open and user friendly. Digital and AI technologies streamline the process of making appointments with doctors and reduce the number of forms patients need to fill out, while analytics, machine learning, IoT solutions, and portable devices analyze patient health condition and suggest treatment procedures to doctors.
Healing and well-being
Wristbands for patients and doctors plus visitor badges with RFID tags ensure appropriate access levels, while CCTV cameras with AI features recognize faces to locate patients who look unwell and need help, and accelerate recovery. Moreover, AI-enabled video analytics solutions can identify threatening situations as, or even before, they occur.
Hospital operational efficiency
RPA (Robotic Process Automation) solutions automate hospital’s ancillary and back-office services, considerably reducing costs and personnel work effort and improving service reliability; AI systems and electronic health records populated with data from various sources improve decision-making; while cognitive analytics tools sort through and find the most important personalized data points, thus boosting work speed and quality.
Talent development
VR solutions help surgeons practice upcoming surgeries, while Learning Management Systems transcend geographical boundaries and reduce costs allowing them to share their surgery footage and specialized expertise with a larger audience of students and colleagues. Cognitive analytics and RPA solutions automate hospital personnel recruitment and study patient information and requirements to match patients with doctors having appropriate competencies.
Project: Mohammed Bin Khalifa Cardiac Center
Our team was lucky to take part in the joint project with our strategic partner NGN International (Bahrain). We provided general design, control, and implementation of the end-to-end technology infrastructure for the Mohammed Bin Khalifa Cardiac Center in Manama, Bahrain, under the patronage of His Excellency Lieutenant General Doctor Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, President of the Supreme Council of Health.
The Center has a floor space of 172,765 sq.m and one of the fastest-growing IT networks in the world. It uses a sophisticated technology to combine resources of physical and virtual servers and connect the entire work environment to the cloud.
In addition, Vocera Communications smart badges enable effective hands-free information exchange between doctors in real time. Data analysis and business intelligence solutions gather data from all systems of the Center and provide accurate results for better decision-making. Redundant IT systems ensure business continuity during various internal and external emergencies, effective data flow, and data availability anytime, anywhere.
Step by step
The hospital of the future is not built in a day. It requires consistent development and global expansion of innovations. Increasing healthcare investments and concerns about lives and health of patients and medical personnel will make hospitals more and more technologically advanced, which, we believe, will save and improve people’s lives.
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Developing in partnership: how to effectively strengthen relations in the World of innovative technologies
Here, we’ll answer the hottest questions about the technology company partnership with technology companies and talk about the NNTC partnership program in simple words. Everything you wanted to know but did not dare to ask.
Why partnering with technology and innovation companies?
Creating value for customers is a must-do in the business world. Sometimes a customer wants to have a new idea implemented, which requires more development effort and fast action. This makes partnerships valuable, especially when you have partner developers ready to pack and deliver everything on demand.
Smaller companies also benefit from partnerships with technology companies. Partnership opens the door to larger resources: marketing, sales, legal, technology, and HR support. A vast selection of out-of-the-box products – even if made by partners only – gives a company a strong competitive edge in a crowded market.
What is more, infrastructure solutions are increasingly harder to sell to end customers. However, when they combine with a partner’s ready-to-use service they bring value to both IT director and business users.
How does it affect the partners’ business?
Partnership gives access to numerous resources that allow your company to enrich its business portfolio. Besides products and services, partnerships contribute to networking among business peers, thus feeding your market power. Partnerships lavish private events, innovation presentations or access to particularly valuable documents on its members. Remember though, that your business will experience positive effect if a partnership is aligned with your company’s strategic goals. Interestingly, there are companies using artificial intelligence to identify the most beneficial business partners.
Why partnering with NNTC?
NNTC partnership will give you access to an expert team that serves some of the largest government entities in the UAE and actively implements projects and innovations with partners around the globe. NNTC is a part of the large international IT Group with a huge customer base and wide knowledge of different IT solutions. We aim at competence exchange, IT solution portfolio expansion, and implementation of joint projects to reduce costs of customers operating across different regions of the Middle East. With our agile mindset and focus on each customer, we can easily customize most of our products in line with a specific task or certain conditions.
Another important thing: thanks to our large in-house Product Development Team and huge investments in R&D, when you work with NNTC you and your customer will always get a tailored product.
Furthermore, our partners enjoy the following extra benefits:
- NNTC Deal Registration Program that rewards partners for bringing new customer opportunities and providing value selling by educating customers and prospects about NNTC solutions.
- NNTC marketing development funds (MDF) on the accrual basis to support NNTC partners’ marketing and business development activities that generate demand for NNTC solutions. MDFs are calculated at the end of each quarter and available for use within the following one.
- Partner demo equipment: affordable, robust, and portable demo kits to showcase NNTC products.
- End-users can access NNTC Partner locator at 10n.tech website.
What options does NNTC offer to its partners? What is included in the partner program?
Our program is simple, supportive, friendly, and free of complicated specializations, huge investments or boring and useless actions. All that we kept in the program are tools that help our partners grow, protect investments, and guide them to new deals or customers. NNTC partner program features three membership levels: Diamond, Gold, and Silver. Partners qualify for a single membership level based on previous and planned achievements.
- SILVER members are interested in taking the first steps in starting a relationship with NNTC. There are a few very simple requirements that will help the partner to get basic knowledge and skills to focus on opportunities where NNTC products could be used.
- GOLD members are experienced in delivering NNTC solutions. They achieved significant sales performance and a high level of customer satisfaction. Gold Partners enjoy enhanced benefits designed to enable sales and technical competency to meet the needs of our mutual customers and to increase revenue growth.
- DIAMOND members deliver the highest value to their customers. They demonstrate sales and technical expertise across all NNTC solutions. They consistently achieve revenue targets while attaining high levels of customer satisfaction. Diamond level membership provides partners with the richest program benefits.
What solutions does the program include now? Will the program expand?
Authorized NNTC partners have access to our entire product portfolio, including detailed documentation and NNTC sales enablement materials. The program includes the most demanded solutions. For example, Digital Worker or the iFalcon Control solution set powered by facial recognition technology.
What are the NNTC technology company partnership requirements?
NNTC partners are companies that offer vendor products to their current or potential customers and add value by providing greater expertise or integration with business processes or third-party products.
All partners sign a Partner Agreement. When a partner initially enters the program, they have 30 days to attain certification requirement. All pre- and post-sales certifications are valid for two years from the certification date. Members shall renew certifications before the expiration date to enjoy the full range of NNTC partnership benefits.
To start your journey towards partnership with NNTC technology company, email us at [email protected] or just fill in the form on our website.
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High-tech enterprise bingo challenge
What are the odds that your enterprise is benefiting from all the innovative technologies? We invite you to complete the Bingo Challenge by NNTC and check how technologically savvy and lucky you are.
RULES: Cross out all cells with activities your company has. When you cross out a row, column, or five diagonal cells, you have Bingo!
You can download this high-tech enterprise bingo challenge in full resolution and share it with your colleagues!
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Time to become “AI Responsible”
We have recently accepted the idea of omnipresent AI adoption, but new changes and technology reshaping are already on the doorstep. Have you heard of the Responsible AI concept? Let’s take a closer look at it, since it will soon become a mandatory tool to build business relationships.
Proofs of Concept are in trend now
Enterprises usually struggle to develop AI pilots into production. Unfortunately, many solutions, when facing approval and development obstacles, never overgrow the “Proof of Concept” stage. You might encounter such a situation too. Being concerned about disruptive effect of innovations, most businesses just try them out in a few cases and do not go further. Thus, robots are trusted to make the first lead touch only, with all other steps being usually assigned to a human being. This is why such robots are not expected to do more than read, write, speak, and copy/paste.
In such circumstances, the value and business potential of AI cannot be unveiled and win the so much needed customer confidence. Meanwhile, AI-based solutions can completely change the approach to working, training employees, ensuring people safety, as well as dramatically speed up business processes. So where is the problem?
AI communication problems
The first communication problem arises between participants of the solution implementation process. Unfortunately, product developers and customers speak different languages and often focus on different features of the proposed solution. Due to such misaligned visions of AI and its potential, the technology capabilities are underutilized.
The second communication problem arises when a customer interacts with the final product and perceives it as something hostile or suspicious due to a lack of information about its benefits and functions. Let’s consider recruiting robots. HR people are more concerned about their jobs and afraid of robotic automation possibly causing lockouts rather than interested in studying the solution capabilities.
How does the AI Responsible approach solve them?
It is simple. This approach assumes transparent unified communication with many target groups, and can be used by both AI-powered product developers and employees who are responsible for implementing artificial intelligence solutions in their companies.
AI-based decisions need to be explainable in order to be trusted. According to a recent PwC survey, 84% of CEOs agree with this statement. As well as buyers. Consumers want the convenience of services tailored to their needs, together with the peace of mind knowing that companies are not unknowingly biased against them — and that their government will protect them with laws regulating how their data can be used. As we can see, being just useful is not enough. It’s important to get clear, and we at NNTC go this way with each of our products.
The “AI Responsible” formula has five key components to identify AI responsibility:
- GOVERNANCE will introduce clarity to AI objectives and tasks within an organization. Before developing or implementing a solution, assign and document the responsibility of each process participant. Then, align AI with the current business strategy and identify processes that need to be optimized using AI. What result should we expect? How will it manifest? Who will monitor the effectiveness and document problem areas? Can you give guarantees that the solution will be effective?
- ETHICS AND REGULATION. AI-powered solutions must be developed in accordance with the established legislation and regulations of the organization, which should be morally responsible and ethically defensible. Notifying of compliance with the established guidelines will build confidence in AI.
- INTERPRETABILITY AND EXPLAINABILITY. Let the user understand why a particular AI reached a particular decision. Explanations should be tailored to the different stakeholders, including regulators, data scientists, business sponsors, and end consumers: never leave them uninformed making your product into a mysterious black box for them.
- ROBUSTNESS AND SECURITY. Eliminate all possible risks and flaws in your product, and timely release necessary updates and patches. Tell your customers what problems have been solved, quickly fix bugs, and listen to feedback.
- BIAS AND FAIRNESS. Fight against discrimination and train your AI to perform its functions fairly and equitably.
Only those who are responsible will survive
The ability to develop AI responsibility is a cornerstone of its further development and recognition. In a world filled with a variety of solutions from styling photos like watercolor paintings to recognizing car license plates, the advantage will belong to a reasonable developer who explains algorithms and is ready for a dialog with users.
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No more classrooms! VR for trainings and education
Gartner predicts that by 2022, 70% of companies will experiment with immersive training, and 25% will deploy it in production. Are you one of those 25% quick thinkers?
You can also download a full-resolution version of this infographic in PDF format:
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How to win and retain customers after the Pandemic?
In this year’s Global Consumer Insights Survey PwC polled city dwellers on their purchasing behavior in two separate studies, one before and one after the coronavirus outbreak. The survey resulted in certain insights that demonstrate new buying habits to emerge. How technologies can help save customers after COVID-19?
The COVID-19 situation has deeply affected urban consumers’ views on spending.
Before the outbreak, consumer confidence was sky-high. Almost half (46%) of PwC’s survey respondents said they expected to spend more in the next 12 months. After the outbreak had begun, the percentage of those who said they were going to spend less in the next few months almost doubled. The number who said they were going to spend more dropped by more than 10 percentage points.
Even in locations where lockdowns have been partially lifted, urban consumers are making fewer shopping trips, consuming more at-home entertainment. For consumers to feel confident enough to return to physical interactions with retailers, the first thing they need is solid assurance that places of business have a plan to make their customer experience as safe as possible.
Customer behavior after the Pandemic
COVID-19 outbreak reinforced the already growing trend of online shopping. People explore different ways to access products and services.
- 86% of polled consumers are likely to continue to shop online/by phone when social distancing measures will be removed.
- This trend shows a high popularity in the Middle East: 58% of customers after COVID-19 said they’ve started shopping more on mobile phones.
The survey data demonstrates emerging behavior patterns and new consumer preferences. We’re facing the importance of developing new ways to reach out to customers after COVID-19, and not taking them on a merry-go-round of hectic ads and irrelevant content. That’s why transactions deserve better security, especially those related to banking apps and online shopping. Wire payments grow in number (53% of respondents used mobile phones to make payments, and 90% are going to keep it this way).
Win customers with biometrics-based apps
Biometrics facilitates onboarding, helping app users to become your clients. We launched a biometric onboarding module for a mobile wallet app in Oman, leveraging video analytics to help people benefit from financial services without visiting a branch office. The app is a mobile wallet, where you can add a card issued by any bank and perform all necessary financial transactions. It is available to the general public in official app stores. Bank receives information about the interests and preferences of users to make special offers. It helps to convert app users into bank clients.
Reinforcing online operations protection
Hackers are skillful in capturing security codes from SMS or PUSH notifications. Digital signature for smartphones can really save the day if your clients prefer paying online. The private key can’t be captured by any hacker because it’s generated in the user’s smartphone and safely encrypted. According to PayConfirm, they provide client-server software for transaction confirmation that suits any digital channel. It includes online/mobile banking, one-time passwords, and works online and offline (even in airplane mode). This solution can prevent phishing, social engineering, data switching, and SIM-module switching attacks, which gained momentum during COVID-19.
Less shopping time with video analytics
Video analytics can be of use in creating personalized offers targeted at a specific audience.
Previously, customized points of sale (POS) used to recognize customers at the entrance and generate specially-for-you offers. This technology evolved during COVID-19. Now consumers can place an order in a personal account or set a rule for a particular POS. With this feature, visitors can automatically get a preferred type of coffee entering a cafe or pick a packaged order without excessive human contact. Video analytics will even recognize a customer wearing a medical mask.
Amazon has been working on biometric identification for a long time to enable face-initiated payments. Visitors take products they need and leave the store. Cameras recognize the products and the shopper to automatically charge their bank card. Shopping takes less time and involves fewer encounters – even eliminating contacts with salesmen – meanwhile ensuring a safe customer experience.
Temperature checks
In addition to facial recognition, a POS can be equipped with a temperature measuring tool and improve overall safety, retaining customers after COVID-19. One sick person at work can stop activities of an entire shopping mall or office and quarantine hundreds of people. We have developed a compact contactless solution for the timely detection of visitors with fever. It combines the thermal scanner functionality and face recognition accuracy. The scanner – a thin screen with a built-in camera – is installed at the entrance to scan visitors’ faces. It identifies them (successfully, if a visitor is in a customer’s database) and checks their temperature with up to 0.2-degree accuracy. If a person with high temperature enters a building, security personnel immediately gets notification.
The research and assessment of the pandemic impact on the world are still under way, revealing new interesting changes extending to every aspect of our everyday lives. The business faces a real challenge to respond to these changes as soon as possible by listening to consumers and meeting their new expectations of comfort, security, and service.
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