How can you build a digital ecosystem that supports your business goals?

In many instances, brands are obsessed more with what their competitors are doing and not honest with themselves about their current state of business and digital presence. An honest introspection will go a long way in setting up a profitable and sustainable digital ecosystem.

“Não existe vento que possa ajudar o barqueiro que não sabe onde está!”Ter consciência do que sua marca significa e representa para as pessoas é o fato central. O desafio é percorrer a trilha digital que leva a condição de MARCA DESEJO. A partir desse estágio as pessoas vão naturalmente eleger sua marca como DESTINO. Isso é uma verdade no ambiente digital|físico. Aqui na SUN/G5 perseguimos o impacto e a relevância, pq em uma “sociedade desatenta”’ a geração de LEADS é consequência do DESEJO. Que por sua vez é resultado de um complexo conjunto de valores e assets.

From my point of view, we should start by looking where are we now! Do a SWOT analysis, write down which data we have and we know for sure. Which data are we missing as we don't know, collect, process them. Then look on the technical side, what are our tools today, what are their usage, are we using them correctly? Do we maximise the efficiency of the tool? I see many companies, even Nespresso, buying tools/licenses, but not training enough people or not even ensuring people are constantly train for the new update. This is what creates a little gap that becomes a huge gap over the years and even bigger when there is no off-boarding, onboarding for each functions, by people able to understand all the specificities of each job.

A lot of people understand digitalization the same as digital marketing / digital selling. They often forget that the best martech stack is useless if your internal structures are still based on thousand of Excel sheets, and dozend of data silos. So before going to digitalize your customer experience, boost your internal data structures to enable digitalization.

First, HEAR what the business users have to say. Initiate discussions with business leaders/users whose roles are most impacted (performance) by and dependent on digital solutions. This engagement is crucial to accurately assess how well current digital ecosystem aligns with business strategy and goals. Following this, perform an analysis to identify areas where your digital ecosystem is performing effectively, areas where it falls short and critical areas where it fails to meet set expectations. For example, critically evaluate the efficacy of your CRM system in supporting your customer relationship goals, and determine whether your e-commerce platform aligns with and actively contributes to achieving your sales growth targets.

I am still a big fan of Simon Sinek‘s golden circle. The different abstraction levels of WHY, HOW and WHAT already help to describe and define the most relevant dimensions of a value and KPIs Framework. Especially the answer to the WHY is really often missed. You find HOW and What explanations, guidelines and targets broken down in almost every corporation. But you rarely see organizations with a clearly described WHY. On the one hand it’s astonishing because the WHY easily helps to explain WHY everything else is important - it gives a purpose. But when you start outlining the WHY, you will recognize how hard it is. But I can really encourage every management team of an organization to take time to clearly work out and write down the WHY.

Having a clear vision for a digital strategy is next to impossibility as the digital ecosystem and platforms changes very rapidly. The vision has to be a short term one and to be assessed and finetuned frequently.

Its a really interesting topic but there is 2 layers to it: 1. The company vision & objectives 2. Your department vision & objectives. These cant be 2 unique points of view, but rather your departmental one should roll in or compliment the company one. It’s important to have measurements of success - what is it you are trying to achieve, and just as important what is going to keep you honest! How are you going to measure it? - loads if companies set goals but miss the crucial step of having measurements in place to keep themselves honest. Another realm to consider is adopting to change - if there is a critical pivot point - how will you adapt to change in order to still move towards success.

A estratégia da marca deve estar a serviço da estratégia do negócio. Esse é o ponto de partida. Acompanhar a velocidade de evolução e transformação do ambiente digital, implica em aceitar planos de curto prazo. Se vc considerar o “salto” que teremos com a “democratização” da Inteligência Artificial, e seu consequente impacto em todo o ecossistema digital, se torna um perigo definir projetos de médio e longo prazo. Os ajustes da estratégia digital deverão ser feitos a partir dos 4 macro objetivos da marca: Reputação Vender muito Vender rápido Vender valor

Como diria o Gato Da Alice nos pais da maravilha: Para quem não sabe onde quer ir, qualquer caminho serve. Defina seu objetivo, principalmente o porque deste objetivo. Defina como vai fazer, execute, corrija, execute, execute e vai chegar lá!

A mi me ha resultado muy útil tener 100% claro lo que necesitan nuestros clientes antes de desarrollar cualquier solución digital. La única forma de saber lo que necesita el cliente es preguntándoles directamente y la mejor forma para garantizar el éxito de tus desarrollos digitales es involucrándolos en todo el proceso.

Major benefits of Digital ecosystems is to build awareness, engage customers to buy and provide continuous feedback to improve growth and loyalty. its important to have customer journey to make sure their learning out brand, purchase the products, services, emotions and feedback to captured at right stage. Customer Journey in Digital ecosystem define their continous connect and also should have alternate approach to make sure customers are satisfied and happy with connect at each stage. Recently Indian Airlines are started using GenAI to provide Chatbots to clarify customer queries which got extended to provide the ticket booking also.

Mapping your customer journey is crucial in refining your digital ecosystem. It involves charting each touchpoint where customers interact with your brand, from initial awareness to post-purchase support. Analyze these interactions to understand customer experiences, motivations, and pain points. This insight allows you to tailor your digital assets, like websites and social media, to meet their needs more effectively. Focus on enhancing user experience at every stage, ensuring seamless transitions and personalized engagement. By understanding and optimizing this journey, you can increase customer satisfaction, loyalty, and business success.

Mapping my customer journey feels like being a novice detective on a stakeout in my own digital neighborhood. It's about tracing the steps from that first curious glance (hello, awareness!) to the "take my money" moment (purchase, finally!) and beyond. Armed with personas like character sketches and scenarios like mini-movies, I'm sketching out each touchpoint, trying to get into the minds of my customers. It's a mix of guesswork, eureka moments, and facepalms. The goal? To understand their needs, cater to their whims, and maybe, just maybe, make them digital fans for life. Here's to decoding the digital maze of customer hearts and minds!

In recent times, I have found it more useful to map communities instead of personas because reaching such a specific target is quite challenging. I prefer identifying a group of similar consumers and designing a model for them. The messy middle model, in my opinion, is a good starting point.

Reflecting on a healthcare sector overhaul, the challenge was integrating diverse digital components while ensuring compliance and data security. Drawing from this experience, it's not just about selecting the latest technology; it's about aligning each component with your business's unique needs. For instance, integrating electronic health records seamlessly into patient portals not only improved efficiency but also elevated the overall patient experience.

One of the biggest mistakes is trying to do it all from day one. Tip 1 - Pick one element you will start with, it can be a social media profile, a website, a business page. Getting one element live is more critical than getting 5 elements 50%. Tip 2 - launch and iterate. Don't strive for perfection. It's more critical to launch, learn from feedback and then improve as you go. Tip 3 - Focus, it's better to have 2 well managed digital properties than 5 stale social media accounts.

Having a synchronised digital ecosystem with right platforms, channels, tech is great but organisations need to play to their strengths but also be able to adapt with always changing trends and shiny new tools. Utilise 1st party data where needed, for an airline / travel sector competition and margins are very fine. Therefore be able to upswell and cross sell smartly utilising tech, data and strategy is very vital. The key here is to enhance consumer experience with ease and simplicity, that should be the end goal.

This part can get tricky especially as you venture into the more technical parts of this. The key is to find a trustworthy partner or company who fully and deeply understands what you are trying to achieve THEN trust their advice on the technology parts. Most cookie-cutter companies don't bother tailoring the solution for businesses. They don't even bother understanding your business. So if you can find someone who takes the time to fully understand what your about, then they are more likely to help you implement the right solution.

Choose your digital components that meet: 1. Data security & privacy, tools that work on your private cloud, behind the firewall and your data never has to leave your environment 2. Easy integration / deployment such that you can see the impact immediately 3. Ease of digital components scaling with your organization and adaptable to your digital transformation journey 4. Make vs buy - Cost of going live is 20% of your building and same / lower cost than you making it 5. Cost of the components earn for themselves from the digital transformation cycle

You need to launch and Learn. It is all about the data and you need to make your data is clean and accurate. The decision’s derived from the data can improve your world. Whatever the data shows you 📈 📉 📊 embrace it and optimize it.

Digital implementation should be agile and staggered to make sure you start early, keep adding the features as per plan. Now with Gen AI, technology is changing fast so make sure you keep enhance with latest tech to make sure you achieve your OKRs. Define and evolving KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to track and identify the opportunities to improve.

En un entorno donde las tecnologías evolucionan rápidamente y los usuarios se convierten en expertos en tiempo récord, es esencial no solo seguir el ritmo, sino anticiparse a las nuevas necesidades. No solo hay que crear un ecosistema digital sólido, sino que también hay que asegurar que nuestras herramientas y plataformas se adapten a las expectativas en constante cambio de nuestros usuarios. Implementar, medir, escuchar y mejorar no solo es una estrategia; es el mantra que impulsa el éxito sostenible en estos tiempos de tecnología e innovación digital en los negocios y las organizaciones.

Launching my digital ecosystem feels like the grand opening of a digital theme park. It's time to switch on the lights, test the rides (aka my digital components), and see if they thrill my audience. Monitoring functionality, usability, and performance is like being a quality control guru, making sure every digital ride runs smoothly. Collecting data? That's my goldmine of insights, guiding me to tweak and tune for peak performance. And just like a theme park, my digital world needs constant sprucing up based on feedback and trends. It’s an ongoing adventure in adaptability, aiming for that perfect mix of fun, function, and flair. Bottom line - just start. Just program that first ad. Just send that first email. Just start!

Remember Digital Strategy is going to be a Changing Goalpost ! The Digital Technology is evolving extremely fast, what ever you choose, it might get outdated in next 2 years and you might have to start with new S curve. Always think of Agile practices, Start with Quick wins. Quick wins are the small wins, which are easy to achieve, demonstrate success early on, and help you to gain confidence. By Delivering Quick wins and Agile practices, you get more opportunities to gather feedback, improvise your direction for digital program. Execute your digital program with Excellence! Whatever you do, ensure high quality, customer experience is improved, and makes impact.

De acuerdo a mi experiencia en diferentes sectores, a lo largo de los años, hay 5 claves para garantizar el éxito de un ecosistema digital: 1. Establece tus objetivos claros alineados con las necesidades del negocio 2. Preguntarse constantemente cómo cada aspecto de la plataforma contribuye a los objetivos 3. Enfocarse en la integración. De nada sirve contar con la mejor tecnología si no está debidamente integrada con el resto de plataformas y procesos del negocio 4. Priorizar la automatización y evitar en la medida posible tareas manuales que multipliquen procesos y errores 5. Asegurarse de que siempre habrán datos que respalden la toma de decisiones

🌐 Crafting a Strategic Digital Ecosystem: 1. Goal Alignment: Align digital initiatives closely with overarching business objectives. 2. Interconnected Platforms: Ensure seamless integration of digital tools and platforms. 3. Data Analytics: Leverage data insights for informed decision-making and optimization. 4. User-Centric Design: Prioritize user experience in digital interfaces to enhance engagement. 5. Scalability: Build a flexible ecosystem that can adapt and scale with evolving business needs. By constructing a cohesive digital ecosystem that harmonizes technology, data, and user experience, you fortify the foundation for achieving and surpassing your business goals. 🚀🌐

Be agile, learn by doing, empower small teams to deliver rapid prototyping and mvp's that you can easily pivot several times until you fine tune the solution. The end point will never be something that you were aware and the starting point

When building a digital ecosystem, it’s crucial to consider not just the selection of platforms, tools, and stakeholders, but also the bandwidth needed for mastering and integrating these elements. Many companies overlook this, leading to underutilized platforms and teams that fail to synergize, remaining merely the sum of their parts. Adequate resourcing is key to ensuring that the ecosystem evolves into a cohesive unit that effectively supports business goals and fosters innovation. 1+1 = 3 takes extra effort, but it is the key to a successful and differentiated digital ecosystem.

Build a thriving digital ecosystem by defining goals and audience, choosing platforms wisely, creating valuable content, fostering collaboration, leveraging data, and investing in technology. Start small, stay flexible, promote through various channels, and measure results for success.