New Buzzword in boardroom - Omnichannel?

CEO: Hey, we were playing golf last week with my CEO friend and I’ve heard that their company is planning to implement ERP software what we discussed recently. He told me that it will streamline their supply chain entirely – maybe we need it two, what do you think CIO?

CIO: We’ll we have 20 different ERP-systems in place from past product line based systems and from the business you’ve bought – it will take a decade to synchronize them. Sound like marketing automation in post 2010? We have nearly all the pieces in place, but separately in different parts of the organization without synchronized communication across all channels?

What about bringing one of Big Data element, customers, in the boardroom? How do we value different customers and groups in 2015? Do we use our experience on judging whether this is the right direction? Just like in the past, 12 years ago as Tom showed? https://marketoonist.com/2003/01/the-focus-group-of-one-syndrome.html

The value of understanding the needs and behavior of customers hasn’t changed so much over the past years, the channels where interaction is made has exploded dramatically as we have experienced. So to better understand current customer behavior, we need to gain data out of different customer interactions across different channels. And that cannot be done only by doing brand awareness studies having descriptions of a “look alike customer “. So essential questions are – what is omni channel, how can utilize it, what is the commercial value of it etc. According to Wikipedia Omnichannel is “Omnichannel retailing is the use of all physical channels (offline) and digital channels (online) which offers a seamless, innovative and unified customer experience. Omni comes from the Latin Omnibus which means "for all" and channels refers to the method in which consumers interact with the company.” Interesting example is with the case Macy’s (sponsored by Google…): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L62N0XOsmgU .

According to Omnichannel.me, there are three essential points to acknowledge this into reality:

1. In exploring and discovering products in your brand domain that data should be transferable for me to collect and use universally.
2. In exchange for this data, the customer will give you access to other data they have collected that will far outweigh the value of the limited data in your brand universe.
3. All experiences offline and online should allow an individual to identify themselves and present a brand with the opportunity to access my preferences.

One could argue that it is not the data. Yes, that’s true, but Data is one of critical elements. We need to able to identify that this is exactly the business relationship what we are talking about. This is essential to understand how he/she (or person in charge within company) is behaving in different interaction points with the company. This is where Bisnode can help you, whether it is to identify relationship or to maintain the relationship data. Based on identified and maintained data, we can provide you external data to verify your understanding about your customers as well as give more insight to gain new ones.

So, could one concrete way of converting Big Data to commercial success via better Omnichannel experience? Judge yourself, the evidence is out there.