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Cloud-based Customer Communications: Choosing the Best CCM Solution for Your Business

Posted on March 27, 2023 by SmartComm

By Simon Tindal, CTO of Smart Communications

No longer a buzzword, the cloud is here to stay! With an anticipated 17.3 percent growth in public cloud revenue in 2019, more and more organizations are turning toward cloud-based customer communications to strengthen satisfaction and retention. Anyone who has done their research already knows there are a multitude of terms being used to describe cloud deployment models. And even the most tech-savvy agree that interpretations of “the cloud” can get a bit foggy.

If your organization is starting to warm up to the idea of a cloud-based customer communications solution, it’s time to familiarize yourself with the various deployment options available to find the solution that best fits your needs. To help guide you in your cloud-buying journey, here are four criteria to look for as you choose a modern CCM system to ensure you find the solution the best fits your needs and allows you to fully reap the benefits only a solution truly built for the cloud can deliver.

Faster Time to Market

According to a Keypoint Intelligence-InfoTrends report, speed of production and execution was a top reason many enterprises opt for a cloud-based customer communications solution. Sure, your on-premise solution will eventually get the job done, but is the downtime and maintenance hindering your speed to market? Those still holding on to their legacy systems are likely leaving innovation on the table and falling behind the competition. A cloud-based solution improves speed by drastically reducing time spent maintaining a local IT infrastructure, freeing up resources to allow organizations to better prepare for anticipated market changes. The cloud also improves business agility, allowing companies to go to market faster, thus maintaining a competitive edge. On-premise legacy solutions that are now hosted in the cloud are limited with fixed resources, making it challenging to scale.

PRO TIP: Ask vendors how frequently their platform is updated. Platforms that are updated frequently and automatically push these updates live to their customers (vs. relying on IT departments to manage complicated upgrades), making it easy to stay ahead of the curve.

Interoperability

Legacy platforms initially built for on-premise deployment likely still rely on outdated technology standards, offer limited APIs, and are unable to integrate with key elements within the customer’s technology stack. As cloud services become more important to today’s organizations, so is the need for interoperability, or the ability for cloud services to connect with and understand each other’s APIs. A true cloud-based CCM solution is equipped with a suite of API integrations and is built with modern standards to enable seamless implementations, giving enterprises immediate access to the latest innovative tools. For example, SmartCOMM^TM’s Conversation Cloud^TM is an all-in-one cloud solution that connects all your data, applications, and history to build conversations that are relevant and impactful, time after time, making it easier to increase internal efficiencies and scale personalized interactions.

The key is finding a platform that offers the flexibility needed to take your customer communications to the next level.

PRO TIP: Examine how extensive a vendor’s API suite is and look for technology that’s built with modern standards to facilitate interoperability. Look for vendors that have a published API set as this will lead to easier interoperability.

Enhanced Organizational Efficiency

A CCM solution that’s truly built with the cloud in mind increases productivity by enabling employees to work together through the number of tools available in the cloud. Cloud-based communications solutions have the power to break down organizational data silos, making it easier for employees, customers and third-parties to communicate and collaborate. Rather than relying on IT as the go-to data source, a cloud-based CCM solution equips organizations with enhanced data visibility across departments, making it easier to decide which users have what level of access to what data. This also streamlines work efficiencies and increases collaboration as staff will know which communication documents are directly assigned to them. Imagine having one version of a document that can be worked on by different people – with the cloud, there’s no need to have multiple copies of the same document in circulation!

PRO TIP: Ask vendors how users can interact with the software to avoid reliance on other divisions within the company for data insights and how quickly important upgrades are implemented. A software that’s truly designed with business users in mind should be more than willing to demonstrate these essential capabilities.

Improved Customer Satisfaction

Easier access to customer data allows organizations to create a more consistent and rewarding experience throughout the entire lifecycle as they have greater insight into behavior patterns and individual communication preferences. As technology continues to grow and evolve, customers expect organizations to keep up or else they will gladly find another option that better serves their communication preferences. As you explore cloud-based communications solutions, it’s important to look for platforms that can easily deliver communications via multiple channels based on customer preferences and allow for recent interactions to inform subsequent outreach to that customer—even allowing a conversation to start on one channel and continue on to another.

PRO TIP: Look for a platform that is poised to deliver interactive, on-demand, and batch communications across multiple delivery channels, and can future-proof your customer preferences as new channels emerge.

Making the choice to invest in a cloud-based customer communications solution is an important step in an organization’s digital transformation journey. It’s also likely one of the biggest investments your business will make. Make sure you fully understand the nuances and the benefits only a platform built from the cloud up can deliver.

For more insight to help guide your cloud-based CCM buying journey, download our latest thought leadership, Conquering the Brave New World of Modern, Cloud-Based Customer Communications Management: A Buyer’s Guide.

Brexit and Its Impact on Customer Communications

Posted on March 27, 2023 by SmartComm

By Chris Murphy, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Smart Communications

The political and economic uncertainty surrounding Brexit – the UK’s exit from the European Union – is leaving thousands of organizations with a plethora of unanswered questions surrounding the possibility of significant commercial impact as well as an inability to adequately to prepare for the unknown. Companies are not only having to effectively react to the impact of leaving the EU in and of itself, but open questions remain as to the exact conditions of that exit. Many large UK-based companies have already sunk a combined $1.1 billion dollars preparing for GDPR, a future of similar of operational upheaval stemming from Brexit looks ominous.

Yet, despite so many unanswered questions, forward-thinking companies can respond to the uncertainty around Brexit by preparing for the one thing that they know will definitely come – change. This change is going to manifest itself in a variety of methods — the way that companies communicate with their customers, regulatory and compliance standards changes, as well as significant shifts in governing body oversight.

With many companies in the midst of significant digital transformation efforts and a renewed focus being firmly placed on customer experience, interruptions caused by Brexit have the potential to destabilize a lot of the stellar work that has gone into improving companies’ relationships with their customers. Customers will look to the brands that they do business with to provide them with a clear path detailing how Brexit will impact their ongoing relationship and require a clear communication strategy via their preferred channels of choice.

Even before Brexit, a Thomson Reuters study shows that financial institutions in the EU need to implement 44,000 regulatory changes per year; that’s one every 12 seconds.

It’s clear that Brexit will provide both challenges and opportunities to leading insurance and financial services organizations – both regulated and non-regulated – regarding their relationships with customers, internal stakeholders and regulators. As forward-looking organizations prepare for the upcoming raft of changes, leveraging a modern customer communications platform can empower businesses to move with both speed and agility – helping them to better navigate the uncertainty that lies ahead. Below are a couple of questions organizations should ask to help understand if it’s time to rethink your customer communications strategy.

How do I remain compliant and maintain consistency across communications?

As a result of Brexit, some organizations will be impacted by legal entity changes requiring updates across thousands of different communication documents. A modern customer communications platform equipped with a centralized relationship map with shared content will identify exactly where each content asset is currently being used and allows updates to be made once and shared across all dependent communication templates.

For existing communications, do I have to rely on IT to make any changes?

With a heavy reliance on IT, many legacy communication platforms require a large investment and long lead times in order to update their mission-critical documents. A platform that is designed to leverage shared content and can be used by business users across various departments can not only speed up the efforts of these critical updates but will allow IT to dedicate more time and resources toward other strategic projects.

Can I work collaboratively on communications across multiple stakeholders?

Depending on Brexit’s outcome, customers could become subject to existing British laws or will remain part of current European laws and protections – all of which will need to be communicated to customers in a timely and consistent manner. Collaboration across IT, legal and compliance, marketing, CX, and line-of-business owners will be imperative to achieving the required alterations to communications.

One insurance company is saving thousands of hours a year through business user ownership of their templates.

Do I have the speed and agility to perform required changes?

Speed and agility are the hallmarks of a successful digital business. But they will also be required to ensure compliance with mandated changes to avoid financial penalties. The ability to elastically scale on a modern cloud-based communication platform will afford organizations the speed and agility required to not only respond to required changes brought about by Brexit but will also effectively launch new products and services in a fraction of the time that legacy communications platforms allow for.

It’s clear Brexit will introduce a multitude of organizational, economic, political, and jurisdictional changes for organizations. Being able to effectively navigate these changes in an agile fashion to maintain transparency and trust with your customers through this period is going to be a strategic imperative for every organization.

Smart Communications is the leading cloud-based customer communications platform. Contact us to learn how we can help you navigate Brexit and the impact it will have on your customer communications strategy.

An Exciting New Chapter in Next-Generation CCM

Posted on March 27, 2023 by SmartComm

By James Brown, CEO of Smart Communications

On July 18, we announced our acquisition of global digital transformation software company, Intelledox. We are thrilled about this exciting new chapter as the combination of our companies is a game-changer, resulting in the industry’s only cloud-based, next-generation customer communications management platform. We truly are SMARTer together, and enterprises that want to intelligently transform the conversations they have with customers in today’s increasingly digital world will reap the benefits.

To be successful today, companies must deliver personalized, relevant and interactive communications – all at tremendous scale. Ensuring the best possible customer experience means these communications must be consistent and meaningful throughout the entire customer lifecycle—from acquisition to servicing, and every interaction in between. By joining forces with Intelledox, we will redefine customer engagement, allowing enterprises to deliver best-in-class, two-way customer conversations throughout the entire customer journey while improving internal efficiency and creating ROI that is unmatched in our industry.

If you are not already familiar with Intelledox, its cloud platform connects to any system of record and provides next-generation forms, built-in workflow, and on-demand customer communications. It is designed to digitally transform traditional forms-based processes into intelligent, conversational user experiences that streamline internal systems, manage risk and reduce demand for support services and, as a result, deliver more customers ready to transact. The company has enabled hundreds of enterprise and government organizations and more than 22 million users globally to rapidly transform paper or PDF-based processes into intelligent, data-driven customer experiences.

We couldn’t be more excited to welcome them to the Smart Communications family and look forward to sharing more details in the coming weeks and months about what this means for our current customers and what it could mean for any enterprise who wants to take its customer communications programs to the highest level possible.

In the meantime, we invite you to watch this video to learn even more!

Achieving Digital Transformation the SMART Way

Posted on March 27, 2023 by SmartComm

By Hitesh Bhindi, Director of Professional Services at Smart Communications

According to IDC, worldwide spending on digital transformation initiatives will reach nearly $2 trillion by 2022. So, what’s keeping your organization from jumping onboard? Let’s face it, digital transformation for any organization large or small is a huge commitment, not to mention a big financial investment. There are reasons why some are hesitant to pull the trigger, but that doesn’t hide the fact that digital is here to stay. Transforming to a digital-first organization and in turn, selecting a modern customer communications management (CCM) platform are both critical decisions for any company that wishes to maintain its competitive edge.

While revamping your customer communications strategy and incorporating new technologies does invite certain complexities, the tradeoff of improved communications across a wide range of channels will be well worth it. But, before you reach out to your boss with an exciting new idea on how to push your organization along the digital route, take some time to think things through and develop a comprehensive plan of action.

Why Upgrade to a Modern, Cloud-Based CCM Solution?

It’s important to clarify why now is the time to modernize your customer communications strategy and emphasize the need for change. Shockingly, many people still have the mindset, “If it’s not broken, why fix it?” According to Forbes, a recent study found 83 percent of enterprise workloads will be running on cloud servers instead of on-premises platforms by 2020. The cloud has come of age! Companies that don’t embrace the cloud, and the internal and customer-facing benefits it affords, risk falling behind their competition.

How to Gain Buy-in Across Your Organization

Key to the success of a digital transformation project is employee engagement. Barriers to this often include people feeling that either the new program doesn’t relieve their pain points, or it was imposed on them with little or no input. It’s important to be aware of these sentiments within your organization to identify how going digital can help address their needs. In our latest whitepaper, Setting the Stage for Change in the Digital Age: How to Gain Organizational Buy-In, we reveal five key steps to follow that will help the process run smoothly.

Crafting a Plan for Digital Transformation

Once you’ve done your homework and connected with key stakeholders across your organization, it’s time to develop a proposal for your executive team. You’ll want to start by articulating how a cloud-based CCM will help your organization improve your communications. Then, you’ll need to address how you’ll update your operational model to match a new, digital-focused communications strategy. Using the data gathered during the fact-finding process, you can create a digital content roadmap highlighting where digital communications can be incorporated. Finally, you’ll want to showcase areas of opportunity for quick wins and demonstrate ROI early. Seems straightforward, right?

While it might not be a one-day project, it will be well worth the process!

Achieving Digital Agility in the Age of COVID-19

Posted on March 27, 2023 by Ayla

By Neal Keene, Field CTO of Smart Communications

The coronavirus pandemic hit businesses quickly and unexpectedly and introduced significant challenges and a need for rapid response. While no one expected the massive impact of this crisis and the speed at which it happened, one thing is certain – we must adjust to the new “normal.” Experts predict that even when the crisis is under control, its effects will last far longer than a few weeks or months.

Below we highlight a few of the challenges businesses are facing in the age of COVID-19 and ways to improve digital agility in order to overcome this disruption and lead meaningful conversations with customers at a time when it is more important than ever.

Need for Speed

Businesses are quickly adjusting their processes and operations to meet a new set of customer demands and employee needs, while continuing to meet regulatory and compliance requirements. Even before this crisis, KPMG found that 80 percent of revenue growth will be reliant on digital offerings and operations by 2022. COVID-19 has undeniably accelerated the need for digital transformation, making it imperative for businesses to transform the way they operate. So, how do businesses continue to provide the high-level digital experience customers need and expect during this now “all-digital world”?

Especially during a time of crisis, the cloud needs to be in your arsenal. This pandemic has further increased the demand for digital capabilities including self-service portals, mobile communications, eCommerce portals, and more. Moving to a cloud-first, scalable solution where digital, adaptive engagement and process automation enable customer-driven interactions, guided conversations, and personalized communications provides the infrastructure needed to support convenient, compliant, accessible communications that can be quickly delivered through the customer’s preferred channel.

With the vast majority of people now working from home and an increased desire for “hands-off” approaches, reducing reliance on print communications is key. Those companies that have invested in cloud-based technologies focused on digital delivery are better positioned to quickly shift their focus to all-digital or nearly all-digital communications more quickly and can rest assured that these communications are timely, personalized, and interactive.

Quickly Adjusting to New Policies and Changes

While face-to-face meetings are at least temporarily a thing of the past, how do you reach those customers that relied on in-person interactions? With the speed at which new policies and changes are coming, companies who were caught off guard are realizing the urgent need for a solution to quickly replace those transactions that were historically done in person.

Take the recent launch of the US Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) as an example. In response to the new Small Business Administration (SBA) relief effort, businesses began flooding lenders with applications to take advantage of newly available funding, which offered federally backed loans on a first-come, first-serve basis. With the initial $349 billion in funds depleted in less than two weeks, small businesses are now anticipating the next wave of funding to be approved by the House, which would add an additional $310 billion to the government-backed program.

If you’ve seen people standing in line on the news or the flood of complaint articles appearing online, that’s because the PDF form was released before banks were ready to process the influx of applications, let alone provide a digital way to accept them from borrowers. This could have been prevented via a completely mobile guided process to apply and file for essential relief. Companies that never want to experience this frustration again, will certainly now be encouraged to transform their forms process.

Improving Business Continuity

Brian Solis, a world-renowned digital analyst, anthropologist, futurist, and now global innovation evangelist at Salesforce, recently stated: “One thing I’m sure of: we’re not going back to business as usual. We need a new perspective to see problems and opportunities in a new light. What’s happening now is a tremendous exposure to weaknesses in digital transformation and innovation initiatives. Beyond infrastructure modernization, organizations need to invest in systems and operations that learn from shifts in behavior, preferences, and aspirations.”

Businesses of all shapes and sizes are adjusting to operational risks and searching for new ways to reshape their business continuity plans. Specifically related to communications, EY emphasizes that “clear, transparent and timely communications are necessary when creating a platform to reshape the business and to secure ongoing support from customers, employees, suppliers, creditors, investors and regulatory authorities.”

As communication volume continues to surge, at the same time as internal operations are far from business as usual, successful companies need to be in a position in which business users are in control and can quickly implement changes and manage processes quickly and easily, without the reliance of IT.

Where do you go from here?

It’s more important now than ever before for businesses to be equipped with the tools and capabilities needed to be more digital-focused, agile and customer-centric. In fact, digital agility will be a key factor in determining who continues to struggle and who perseveres and emerges stronger once the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided.

The good news is, there are solutions that can empower businesses to succeed. Need help navigating your next steps toward achieving digital agility in the age of COVID-19 and sustaining it moving forward? Connect with us and one of our experts will be in touch.

7 Signs It’s Time to Upgrade Your Current Document Generation Solution

Posted on March 27, 2023 by SmartComm

By Sienna Quirk, Senior Director, Product Marketing at Smart Communications

Legacy document generation solutions are fine for basic communication, but what happens when you need to create or change templates or want to build in more complex logic? Often these watershed moments of change occur when your current solution lets you down. Changing regulations, expansion into new markets and channels, mergers and brand updates can be a nightmare for those in your organization responsible for managing template updates and creation.

Is it time to rethink your current document generation solution? Here are seven signs you’ve outgrown your current solution and what to look for when evaluating a new one.

If your current solution requires coding, IT resources, or professional service dollars to make necessary updates, it’s time to upgrade. If you want a solution that makes faster updates, look for one that is built to be user-friendly and includes a modern user interface (UI) for admins and users with features like a drag and drop editor, if/then logic, and shared content. These features ensure updates are done in real time, without the headache of waiting on IT or spending your day coding templates one by one.
If your solution requires a template for EACH AND EVERY variation, it’s time to upgrade. No one wants to manage a template library in the thousands. Instead, look for a solution that can address multiple channels, languages, and brands all within a single template. Cutting down on the number of templates in rotation means less time spent managing and updating and more time dedicated to on meaningful projects.
If your solution was built for a single channel or limited channels, it’s time to upgrade. Customer engagement should start where your customers are, which today could be through various channels including text, email, and voice assistants, and less and less in the mailbox. Look for a solution that can address multiple communication channels and is built with changing technology in mind. Solutions that contain features like open APIs can more easily adjust their channels as new technologies emerge.
If your solution struggles to handle complexities like charts, graphs, images, and videos, it’s time to upgrade. Look for a solution with a proven track record of incorporating the type of content into your document that allows you to better communicate and connect with your customers.
If your solution lacks the ability for users to personalize their message, it’s time to upgrade. Document templates are great for locking down content and ensuring the right messaging and branding leaves your company the right way, every time. But a locked template can still offer personalization without risk. A templated approach to communication doesn’t have to mean your company is void of personality. Look for a solution that allows a business user to connect with their customer in approved areas of a template that show that they’ve listened, and they care.
If you struggle to quickly address changing compliance regulation in your templates, you’re putting your company at risk and it’s time to upgrade. Look for a solution where updates can be made once and flow through to all the templates that are affected, in real-time. This removes the risk of outdated templates making their way into the market during times of change.
If your solution requires business users to work outside of your system of record or requires your users to email Word documents back and forth, it’s time to upgrade. Look for a solution that provides a seamless experience inside Salesforce, or your systems of record, to increase adoption and ensure compliance.

How quickly you can adjust templates when regulations or company priorities shift could make the difference between a smooth go-to-market strategy and a clunky time-consuming project that takes high-value employees away from important activities. To avoid these risks for your company, make sure you have a solution that can scale with your changing business and that is set up to change with you as technology and customer expectations grow. When done right, having the right document generation solution in place can increase efficiency, reduce risk, and allow your business to scale.

Curious to learn more about the needs of today’s sales teams and how a modern document generation can increase your ability to scale with a rapidly changing market? Tune in to our webinar, Improving Sales Efficiencies with Modern Document Generation, to start your journey toward SMARTer document transformation.

5 Ways SMARTER Conversations Ease the Impact of COVID-19

Posted on March 27, 2023 by Ayla

By Chris Murphy, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Smart Communications

The impacts of COVID-19 may be with us for quite some time, so companies will continue to deal with a vast amount of uncertainty when it comes to planning for a new normal. However, one thing is certain—the demand for digital solutions to support remote work and collaboration while continuing to continue to deliver a high-touch customer experience when face-to-face interactions aren’t possible will be a catalyst for accelerated digital transformation initiatives. Embracing a digital-first approach to the way you communicate with your customers will build a solid foundation of much-needed trust and loyalty and will help companies survive this unexpected challenge.

We’ve pulled together a quick guide that helps clarify how a modern approach to customer communications will help ease the impact of COVID-19 for companies looking to embrace change.

Click here to download the full tip sheet, 5 Ways Your Company Can Respond to COVID-19 Through SMARTER Conversations.

4 Steps to Prepare for a Pain-Free Legacy CCM Migration

Posted on March 27, 2023 by SmartComm

By: Chris Murphy, VP Product Marketing at Smart Communications

Adapting to the always-connected customer has become a catalyst for digital transformation – especially now as we adjust to the new norms brought forth by COVID-19. When it comes to customer communications management software (CCM), more organizations are finding that their legacy print system models and applications are turning into roadblocks and preventing agility. These fragmented systems are unable to communicate efficiently across business units and company divisions. Nor can they easily integrate with marketing, eCommerce, and CRM systems to coordinate data and messaging, which leads to a disjointed customer experience.

The good news is, you don’t have to become victim to an outdated legacy system. Here are four key steps to follow to prepare for a seamless CCM migration and ensure you are well-equipped to digitally transform your customer communications.

1. Understand the goal of the CCM migration

Gaining consensus on the why of the migration of your CCM platform is a crucial, but sometimes overlooked part of obtaining organizational buy-in and the successful fruition of any digital transformation project. Is the impetus of considering a new customer communications management strategy driven by compliance reasons, core system modernization, to reduce risk, to centralize communications across lines of business, to reduce costs, to instill more agility into communications strategy, to better empower business users, or maybe to provide an overall better customer experience? While all these may be realized benefits of moving to a modern CCM solution, the primary driving reason will help to dictate not only the core buying and evaluation group that you’ll need to work with but also the key performance indicators and success metrics that you’ll use to quantify the success of the project.

2. Determine which deployment option is best

As more organizations begin to adopt and develop a cloud-first strategy, it’s likely that your organization has already discussed the option of leveraging an enterprise application in the cloud. Before jumping head-first into a migration, it’s important to ensure everyone has a basic understanding of not only the options available but also the benefits of each approach in order to determine on the best approach for your company.

Software as a Service (SaaS): A method of software delivery in which software is licensed and then accessed online via a subscription, rather than being purchased for installation.
Platform as a Service (PaaS): A cloud computing model in which a provider delivers hardware and software (typically those needed for application development). The provider hosts the hardware and software on its own infrastructure, rather than requiring users to install in-house.
Cloud: Simply put, cloud computing is the delivery of computing services over the internet. These services are offered as either public or private cloud. With public clouds, all hardware, software, and other supporting infrastructure are owned and operated by a third-party service provider and users share those resources with other organizations or “tenants”. With a private cloud, resources are exclusively used by one organization either via an on-site data center, or a hosted data center. Either way, the services, and infrastructure are on a private network with hardware and software dedicated solely to one organization.
Hybrid Cloud: A combination of on-premise and public/private cloud, each performing distinct functions, with orchestration between the platforms.
Managed Service: A deployment model in which a third party manages a customer’s IT infrastructure and/ or end-user systems remotely, requiring hosting, management, and staffing costs.

3. Assess your digital readiness

This might be your most important step in the process because it will show you exactly how ready your organization is to make the leap to a more modern, cloud-based service. As part of any CCM migration, it’s important to consider whether or not to add digital channel production to your existing print operations. First, you’ll want to evaluate your print operations to see which document types can most easily be digitized. Begin by measuring print volume by department, categorizing types of printed collateral, and identifying types of customers receiving print documents. Start creating a content inventory list that covers basic metrics surrounding the total number of communication documents and templates you have, the total number or percentage of reusable content, volumes by document, and which department owns the content. It’s also important to start thinking about the complexity of the documents – are they easily converted to digital channels or are they very complex – these may up end up being prioritized later in the migration process. This process allows you to trace and quantify your current reliance on printed collateral while recognizing any knowledge gaps that exist so you can perform a CCM migration efficiently and effectively.

4. Know your existing cost model

Cost is always one of the biggest issues when it comes to justifying a migration strategy business case. When starting the cost evaluation process, most businesses realize they know a lot less about their full cost model than they thought they did. Depending on how many communication documents, forms, and templates need to migrate, and how they’re currently being generated, it can be confusing to put a figure on it. If you don’t have a comprehensive view of the current cost model, it can be hard to make a migration strategy business case look positive to key stakeholders. While some of us are lucky to have a corporate decision that’s driving migration out to the cloud, having a clear picture of your all-in costs (don’t forget on-premise maintenance and operational costs, print and mail delivery costs, etc.) will only benefit you in the long run by setting realistic expectations upfront. Working with a vendor to establish a solid ROI calculation or looking at similar total cost of ownership (TCO) studies can also be an invaluable input into any evaluation decision criteria.

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Let’s face it, change is hard. But, remember that your customers’ lives are changing, so to stay ahead of the game, your organization must be willing to change too. Are you ready for a more simplified, pain-free legacy migration? Discover how our Migration Studio reduces the cost, time, and complexity inherent with CCM software migrations.

4 Emerging Trends Revolutionizing Customer Communications

Posted on March 27, 2023 by SmartComm

By James Brown, CEO of Smart Communications

It became clear in 2018 that the drive for meaningful customer communications has become a major focus for businesses looking to gain a competitive edge. As the communications landscape continues to evolve, companies must look to new tools and technologies to meet growing consumer demands. So, what customer communication trends can we expect to see in 2019? We gathered insights from several key industry analysts and experts to identify some common themes.

Increased Adoption of Cloud-based Platforms

Nine out of 10 companies are expected to have some portion of their infrastructure in the cloud this year. Cloud adoption has officially come of age and enterprises are starting to act smarter when it comes to workload migration and scalable communication strategies. Previous security concerns have been eased and the benefits that accompany cloud computing are resonating. There’s no denying, however, that communicating with customers has become more complex. Having a cloud-based customer communications solution in place gives enterprises the functionality needed to provide more timely and relevant conversations. As a result, we’ll see a tremendous surge in businesses buckling up for their cloud journey in 2019 – especially at the enterprise level.

More Unified Communications Architecture

In 2019, a growing number of enterprises will build or revamp their communications architecture so that it can more effectively be leveraged across business units. According to Deviprasad Kuppuswamy, Cognizant CCM practice lead, “connecting to marketing and CRM platforms will help communications platforms to provide better message visualizations to customers, enabling them to take quicker actions.” Consumers are becoming more accustomed to seeking out information on their own, they now expect nearly instant responses to their needs and requests. Especially as more communication channels are added to the mix, speed and agility will provide a massive advantage for enterprises looking to scale. A unified communications architecture will help businesses meet these growing demands.

Heightened Focus on Analytics to Fuel Personalization

A more unified communications architecture allows for deeper analytics that can be used to drive personalization across various touchpoints. In 2019, we expect enterprises will start to deliver this more personalized customer experience. Enterprises will no longer be able to rely solely on the traditional methods of communication, such as print or email. To create new digital experiences, business users will have to rely on data-driven insights across various stages of the customer lifecycle to determine the customers preferred channel for communications and more.

From Transformation to Automation

Naturally, the drive toward digital transformation presents a need for further automation. Big data analytics and machine learning capabilities only work well when information is captured in a central database. Breaking down silos is key to internal success. In 2019 enterprises will want to have more control, either by enhancing internal capabilities or choosing vendors who offer more business-friendly capabilities that give them more control at every touchpoint. The landscape for service providers and technology vendors is undoubtedly changing. According to Kaspar Roos, founder and CEO of Aspire, vendors “will need to operate much closer with their partners and start driving innovations through co-creation.”

Curious to see what else leading industry experts have to say? Download our 2019 Predictions piece for a deeper dive into the trends above and more.

3 Ways to Make Customer Conversations SMARTER in 2020

Posted on March 27, 2023 by Ayla

By James Brown, CEO of Smart Communications

A company’s success or failure is directly related to the experience they provide to their customers and central to exceptional experiences is the quality of communications they are delivering to them. Given that 62 percent of consumers will leave a company that isn’t delivering on their communications expectations, organizations that don’t have a customer-centric strategy in place risk losing customers to those that do. To inspire companies to make conversations SMARTER in 2020, we’ve identified three ways that will help deepen customer relationships while improving the overall customer communications experience.

Shift Focus from Communications to Conversations

Modern consumers no longer want to be communicated at, they want to have a conversation with the company they are doing business with – and we can thank the evolution of technology for that! To help put this into perspective in today’s modern age, a communication can be defined as a message that is developed and delivered. It’s often a static, one-way output, such as a printed billing statement or policy document. A conversation is a two-way interaction that is highly personalized and can be delivered across multiple channels, specifically digital. Having the technical capability to deliver customer conversations will enable companies to focus on learning more about their customers by using data to inform and develop more relevant conversations in the future.

Leverage Modern Tools and Data to Personalize Communications

The shift toward more engaging conversations is certainly a journey, but a great place to start is to deliver more personalized communications – and there are plenty of modern tools available to make this possible. According to Viswanath Maddali, vice president of client services at ValueMomentum, having tools in place that can help measure document history, points of interaction and support document tracking are extremely valuable when it comes to better understanding your customers. Having improved insight into the document journey is the first step toward understanding the historical interactions a customer has had with your company. Furthermore, being able to capture data from points of interaction can be used to improve and tailor communications with an individual customer down the road. Document tracking tools help companies determine whether the customer is actually opening and engaging with the communications sent across different channels. Modern customer communications management (CCM) platforms can help companies that are stuck in the static, one-way communication stage. They are increasingly evolving to enable digital workflows, provide flexibility and scale to support instant communication through a variety of new channels.

Use Artificial Intelligence to Improve Organizational Agility

As more companies begin to understand the impact and value data can have on their business, it’s an extremely exciting time to be in the data and analytics space. Looking specifically at the various capabilities that fall within the artificial intelligence (AI) umbrella, whether its refining processes, utilizing real-time data to drive personalization, or leveraging AI-powered insights, each one individually brings great insight to the organization. And we’re already seeing a significant number of companies beginning to incorporate AI into their overall business strategy. According to Forrester Research, 53 percent of global data and analytics decision-makers say they have implemented, are in the process of implementing, or are expanding or upgrading their implementation of some form of AI. Those that do embrace AI in 2020 will be one step closer to building frictionless automated processes within their organization, bringing them one step closer to having SMARTER customer conversations that can be delivered across multiple channels.

What’s the Next Step?

In 2019 there was a tremendous focus on migrating to the cloud, but in 2020 it’s clear that the focus is all about optimizing the customer experience. From a customer communications perspective, this means evolving your current communications strategy to focus meaningful, dynamic two-way conversations. Moving to the cloud is an essential component of a successful digital evolution, and it’s just the tip of the iceberg!

Want more inspiration from industry experts on ways they’ve been able to make conversations SMARTer? Download our whitepaper, Resolve to Make Customer Conversations SMARTER in 2020.

Or, you can also attend our live webinar, Pro Tips for Making Customer Conversations SMARTER in 2020, for a chance to ask questions in real-time!

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1. Understand the goal of the CCM migration

2. Determine which deployment option is best

3. Assess your digital readiness

4. Know your existing cost model