business
‘‘
TALKING
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Companies need to adopt technologies
that focus more on the customers and give
them the best experience possible. So, this
is true all over the world, and the Middle
East is no exception.
There are some industries, such as tourism
and entertainment, that used to be low-
profile in their technology adoption and
Digital Transformation, and now are playing
catch-up technology wise.
They've been behind for many years and
didn't invest enough, now they need to
compete. You need to deploy technology for
that. So, overall customer experience is the
focus for the next couple of years.
What are your
customers' requirements?
Now there is disruption coming from outside
individual industries which can provide a
better service to customers. The focus is
now on retaining customers which means
companies have to be cost effective.
“
COMPANIES
NEED TO ADOPT
TECHNOLOGIES
THAT FOCUS
MORE ON THE
CUSTOMERS.
They need to be smart and understand what
the customer needs and adopt whatever
technologies are necessary. You might need
to have partnerships as the old business
model is not valid anymore.
So there are so many disruptions that
customers ask us how they can be
competitive. How they can retain their
customers and attract more. These are
big questions. Our answer is it is all about
customer experience. If the customer enjoyed
dealing with you, they will continue dealing
with you and you can attract more customers.
Other companies are more in to making
themselves more efficient, so they can pass a
saving on to the customers so that they can
attract more customers.
Which verticals are your customers
operating in?
At SAP, we have specialised solutions for 25
different industries, most of which are active
in the region. In this region oil and gas are
important but all other industries are active.
We are going in to new industries like sports,
entertainment and tourism.
To give you an example out of KSA, we have
helped a sports league to get clubs to utilise
IoT to be deployed in the stadium to make
money by allowing commercials to sell to
the fans.
Another idea we have suggested to the
same sports league is to adopt the solution
we have used with the German National
Football Team. We use IoT to measure the
performance of players and for coaches to
be able to take real-time decisions. This is
another solution we are trying to convince
the sports league to host, and then allow
subscriptions to different clubs to use the
solution. So, there are so many ideas about
future technologies. n
“
IF THE CUSTOMER
ENJOYED DEALING
WITH YOU, THEY
WILL CONTINUE
DEALING WITH
YOU AND YOU CAN
ATTRACT MORE
CUSTOMERS.
38
INTELLIGENTCIO
www.intelligentcio.com