Women and Work: Then, Now and What The Future Holds

Women and Work: Then, Now and What The Future Holds

Inspirational

Women and Work: Then, Now and
What The Future Holds

When I was eighteen years old, I majored in English Literature in my Senior high school year.  As we read the poems, plays and novels I was often struck by how the world has been unfair towards women.  I was often left shocked angry and sad for the female leads in the novels, plays and poems we studied. From their inability to choose who they love, when to have children, access to education, access to certain professions like studying medicine or law….Oh, the scandal to want to be educated! They were born in a wrong time.  It is this reflection that makes me sober when I think of how far we have come.   Is there still much to be done? Yes, but this does not cloud my perception of whether we are better of or worse. 

In the 21st century, our society has made significant progress with regard to gender discrimination, we can vote, go to school and choose our professions among many other freedoms.  Granted, some professions are still male-dominated, and settling in those spaces can be quite difficult, we still acknowledge and are happy that the doors are open to women now. We are way better of than women in earlier years. We still do have a gender pay gap to consider, friendlier maternity leave policies to be implemented, ending child marriage, socialising our society to not accept domestic violence as a norm amongst some of the hurdles we need to jump.

Women are now given the opportunity to sit at the table in boardrooms, in parliament, etc. And it is now our responsibility to take up space. We must show up when given the baton in this relay. Women before us were ostracised and ridiculed for wanting this opportunity and so we must not take it for granted.

It is now our responsibility to be the torch bearers for the next generation. We owe it to ourselves to empower young girls, to teach them how to speak up, and to teach them to take up their own space in whatever field they want to be in.

Over the last 10 years, in particular, a significant amount of research has been conducted on gender diversity in leadership. We are now living at a time when women leaders are on the rise, especially in the political space.  I love this because representation at the top is the best way to get your challenges considered. Being in the IT world I do believe that we need more women in IT.  There is a noticeable lack of Snr Software Engineers. I am confident that this will change with time as more young women take up IT studies.

This is a great time for women to surround themselves with women who are powerful – you have to step out of your comfort zone and put yourself in spaces where you will be inspired. Things like resilience, courage, and leadership are like muscles that you have to build and strengthen, so do whatever you must to ensure that you are constantly working those muscles and learning from various leaders.

“Our Deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light and not our darkness that most frightens us.  We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.  Your playing small does not serve the world.  There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you” Marianne Williamson. I love this quote because it implies that women can do great things.

Be courageous.

Bertha Musanhu – Head of Delivery Operations

Bertha has been with The CRM Team for 5 years overseeing Delivery Operations, she is a Prosci Certified Change Management Practitioner, a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing Functional Consultant Associate and she holds a BCOM in Marketing Degree. She is currently busy with an Advanced Project Management Certification and is equipped to deliver projects using Agile Principles. Her Favorite workplace Moto is  “When our Customers Win, We win! ”

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Women Who Do It All: Family, Home, and Career.

Women Who Do It All: Family, Home, and Career.

Inspirational

Women Who Do It All: Family, Home, and Career.

South Africa will celebrate this year’s Women’s Month under the theme: “Women’s Socio-Economic Rights and Empowerment: Building Back Better for Women’s Improved Resilience”. As part of The CRM Team’s August monthlong theme, we aim to inspire women from all walks of life.

Among the most admirable qualities of women is their ability to juggle many roles. For example, wives, mothers, and career women. The ability to play all those roles at once is admirable, but also quite challenging.

There is no one-way formula to handle a career, being a wife, and motherhood – no clear instruction on how to “have it all.” But one thing is for sure, you can do it, and you can do it well.

A woman’s career ambitions and her responsibilities as a mother are in constant conflict from what I have heard, but as a woman, you should be able to thrive in both. As a Marketing Manager, a wife, and a mother of three beautiful girls, it is only by grace and my support structure that I have managed to juggle all of the roles.

There is no doubt that there is difficulty in managing to be a wife to my husband and making sure that we spend as much time together as we can, then giving individual attention to all three of my daughters, and then making sure I give my utmost best in the role I am in at work.

So how do I do it? Firstly, having a supportive and active partner makes a huge difference. We do everything together, we raise our children together, and we succeed in our careers together. Having a strict routine works wonders for me.  A routine that gives equal attention to my family and career – because it requires a lot of attention. Someone once said that there is no such thing as “work-life balance” just life and I fully live by that motto. It is quite important to work with people that understand that you have a life outside of your work and once that is clear it gives time for your personal life to thrive as well.

 

A lot of young people currently feel like they have to choose between having a career and a family – but what if I told you that you can do both? I hope to inspire women to see that you can have both! With a bit of hard work in between it is very much possible to excel at home as a spouse, a parent, and at work. It all comes down to the environment you choose to be in, having a child or a family shouldn’t limit your career goals.

I was 17 years old, stepping into my matric year, when I left my parent’s home and started my own life. At that point, I was not sure how I would have the financial resources to study further since I did not have any support structure at that point in my life. My circumstances did not determine my future, so I decided to give it my most determined shot, and to do my best to pay for my studies and become an independent person. I made it a life goal to have a partner that would be supportive and to give my children a support structure. I had that same mindset with my career as well, to give my all and go above and beyond to excel. I am also not saying there aren’t tough times, but it is how you as a person react to it and how you decide to approach it that makes a difference.

 

Of course, there are things I have had to push aside in order to have work-life harmony, like having a hobby. However, I still set aside time monthly to go do my nails and spend time alone with my husband. Times like those are very important.

 

My story is not a guide on how to be a career woman, wife, and mother. It is simply to inspire all women out there to know that it is possible to balance it all, it might not be easy but you can do it! Your personal goals are as important as your career goals. Never feel like you have to choose.

 

You are a phenomenal woman and there is nothing you cannot achieve if you put your mind to it.

Bianca Kruger – Marketing Manager

Bianca Kruger is the Marketing Manager at The CRM Team, with responsibility for marketing programs, brand management, strategic marketing campaigns that drive business objectives. Bianca has over 10 years of experience in B2B and B2C marketing and holds a qualification in Business Management.

Innovative, Dynamic, and Passionate is what best describes Bianca.

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The 4 Hurdles To Jump in The Digital Adoption Race

The 4 Hurdles To Jump in The Digital Adoption Race

Digital Transformation

The Four Hurdles To Jump In The
Digital Adoption Race

With the onset of the pandemic in 2020, it was as if the entire world went digital. Companies enabled remote work, retailers encouraged online shopping, and staying in touch with loved ones became entirely virtual. Although so many aspects of our personal lives have been transformed through digital services, there is still a great deal of work to be done when it comes to digital adoption within the workplace.

 

Let’s take a look at some of the challenges companies face when it comes to digital adoption and how we can help you overcome them.

 

Change Management

The ultimate goal for most organisations is to create happy clients who return. A digital-first strategy should not only enhance customer service but also create a meaningful and positive experience for employees. However, even investing in the most advanced software money can buy will yield a low ROI if no one in the organisation wants to use it.

 

This is where we can help you through change management. We focus on changing the mentality and approach throughout all the levels in your organisation in order for the implementation of new technology processes to be met with enthusiasm and optimism instead of resistance and fear of change.

 

A 2021 Digital Business study mentions that businesses who adopt a digital-first strategy can expect an average revenue increase of 34%.

 

Digitally-adept Employees

According to a study published, employees spend an average of 22 minutes every day figuring out how new applications work.

 

To decrease and potentially eliminate this time expenditure, companies need to prioritise the onboarding process of new employees, upskilling existing employees while tackling challenges linked to data processing, customer intimacy, speed and customer journey optimisation.

 

In order to drive digital adoption and boost a digital skillset, organisations have to work on making the interaction between humans and machines as natural as possible.

 

In areas like automation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence; innovative applications that provide and organise information into usable data in real time is required. So are the skills to utilise the software.

 

Instilling Curiosity and A Hunger To Learn

In life there is always something new to learn. So, implementing the same lifelong learning culture and mentality within your organisation will help keep your company on top.

 

Investing in your employees and regularly upskilling them with crucial digital know-how is vital to guarantee scalability and sustainability. This will dramatically increase the ROI derived from the implementation of new software and creates more room for innovation as employees gain an understanding of digital workflows and processes.

 

Strategy Supportive Solutions

A digital-first strategy and its supportive solutions go hand-in-hand. One cannot thrive without the other.

 

Many businesses realise the need to transform and that being digitally enabled will help them gain a competitive advantage. However, there are many businesses that feel they’re missing the mark when it comes to solutions that support their strategy.

 

As we know with digital infrastructures and software, updates and changes in technology occur so frequently that traditional training simply can’t keep up. Combining that with the fact that people forget 90% of their training within a month, it’s easy to see just how important it is to have solutions that support your digital strategy.

 

Here’s Where We Come In

To compensate for the training and retraining programmes, you need to have an agile solution that provides performance support, such as a User Adoption Strategy which happens to be our forte!

 

If you’re ready to become a confident, digital-adept organisation, click below.

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Why migrate to Dynamics 365 in the cloud?

Why migrate to Dynamics 365 in the cloud?

Dynamics and Power Platform

Why migrate to Dynamics 365 cloud?

The disruption and advancement we’re currently experiencing is largely because of the technology landscape that has changed, there’s no going back. On-premise business solutions and costly infrastructure is something of the past.

All businesses were built on state-of-the-art on-premise technology, but this is now ineffective and insecure. Agility, scalability, accessibility and mobility have never been more important, especially as new trends continue to challenge businesses, solutions, and processes alike.

 

Moving to the cloud has to be a business priority for any modern organisation. This isn’t something that happens overnight, one needs to build a plan, strategise and take manageable steps.

 

Firstly, when it comes to business solutions, start by understanding the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Power of the Cloud and the benefits it offers. This will certainly challenge the traditional way of thinking and misconceptions about cloud. One needs to understand that on-premise CRM or ERP solutions cannot deliver on the needs and expectations of future organisations.

 

What used to be good enough is no longer good enough. It is common to hear business leaders, especially in finance and operations, claim their existing systems work just fine. But unfortunately, complacency in business is often the downfall of innovation and growth.

 

The fact is, although on-premises solutions are good enough for now and get the job done, they are fast becoming obsolete and more importantly, the competition is using the cloud to accelerate growth.

 

It’s time to take advantage of Dynamics 365 data integrations, out-of-the-box functionality, plus advanced machine learning and predictive analytic capabilities. This will certainly optimise legacy processes in real-time, outpace, out-manoeuvre and out-earn any on-premises competitor.

 

Customisation

Most old school business owners have a misconception that their business needs are unique and this is a barrier to migration. It is common among on-premise businesses that have developed customised solutions over many years. Their business needs are not as unique as they think.

 

Migration to the cloud can help businesses eliminate cumbersome customisation and at the same time, massive expenses, infrastructure and processes. Often what they consider to be unique, is less about the specialised requirements of a given IT environment and more about what is perceived to be proprietary. They often have a limited understanding of what is possible in the cloud.

 

Dynamics 365 migration program

Moving on-premises Dynamics CRM solutions to Dynamics 365 Cloud can help businesses create efficiencies, control costs and improve productivity with a migration assessment.

 

Improve security, privacy and reliability

Business leaders can have peace of mind knowing their sensitive business data is stored in highly secure, state-of-the-art data centres owned and managed by Microsoft. Their data will be there when they need it, thanks to a 99.9 percent uptime service-level agreement (SLA).

 

Bring all your data together

Typically, CRM and ERP data has been maintained separately. Dynamics 365 allows one to connect this data for a 360-degree view of the business and access it from familiar solutions like Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Power BI.

 

 

Enable scalability and flexibility

Support business growth without costly changes to your IT infrastructure, including the ability to quickly activate and deploy new users.

 

Free up IT resources

Improve IT productivity by reducing the complexity associated with managing hardware and software and providing support. Eliminate the hassle of software maintenance tasks – such as backups, upgrades, and patches -and free up IT staff to focus on strategic planning and other high-priority work items.

 

Adapt to your business needs

Enhance the Dynamics 365 experience with prebuilt business applications, developed by Microsoft and select partners and available through the Microsoft AppSource marketplace. If a business has a unique need, build apps using Microsoft Power Platform and then customise and extend them.

 

Increase collaboration and productivity

Enhance teamwork and boost productivity by accessing information from anywhere, at any time, from any device. Enable remote employees to share information in real time, allowing for easier and more efficient collaboration.

 

Empower the business to do more

Dynamics 365 provides the tools and information businesses need to compete, succeed and excel by providing access to innovations like AI and predictive analytics.

 

Why Microsoft Dynamics 365?

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is an end-to-end software-as-a-service business platform that comprises of interconnected workloads and services designed to both transform and enable an organisation’s core customers, employees and business activities.

 

It combines all the workloads that a business needs to run including finance, sales, supply chain, retail and customer service. It also includes AI and machine learning to enhance core offerings and provide industry-leading solutions to common problems like AI-enhanced cash flow forecasting, and the optimisation and automation of order fulfilment.

 

Finally, Dynamics 365 is built on Microsoft Azure, which offers a trusted platform and a broad ecosystem of services, and it is integrated with Microsoft 365’s productivity apps such as Outlook, Office and Microsoft Teams.

Emil Hickley- Head of Engineering

Emil’s aim is to create beautiful, easy-to-use products that people enjoy using. He specialises in SaaS. He is passionate about talking business, strategy, and devising pricing strategies. 

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The Benefits of Marketing Automation

The Benefits of Marketing Automation

Dynamics and Power Platform

The Benefits of
Marketing Automation

Marketing and sales strategies require some finesse in order to convert consumers into paying customers. Long gone are the days when you could cast your net wide in the hopes of catching one or two fish. Consumers are becoming more particular about how they interact with businesses and brands and how they prefer to be marketed to.

 

People prefer, and often expect, highly individualised marketing efforts that speak directly to them. Although it is possible to provide these kinds of experiences while manually performing your marketing and sales activities, it is no longer practical. You or your marketing team could end up spending a significant amount of time and resources on designing and implementing tailored marketing messages in the hopes of converting one or two customers. Marketing automation systems can help you market more effectively and efficiently.

 

Sales and marketing teams are more efficient.

Using a marketing automation system frees up your marketing team since they will no longer need to manually manage many marketing-related tasks. That means they will have more time to strategise and focus on generating even better marketing content, campaigns, and projects. The same goes for your sales team.

 

A marketing automation system usually centralises most, if not all, marketing tasks. This will make your marketing team’s jobs easier. It will also assist them to be more efficient since they won’t need to switch between systems or learn and use different programs.

 

Bringing your marketing and sales efforts into alignment.

Marketing and sales are not the same things. Marketing refers to the customer journey. These marketing efforts could include various touchpoints where customers engage with your business, brand, products, or services before they make a purchase. On the other hand, sales refer to the transaction where a consumer purchases something from your business.

 

Using a marketing automation program puts your marketing and sales efforts on the same page. This makes it easier to nurture leads through the marketing funnel and convert potential customers into buyers.

 

It makes financial sense.

It is possible to reduce your marketing costs by around 12% while increasing your sales productivity by 14.5% by implementing and using marketing automation systems.

 

Businesses, especially small businesses, may find it challenging to dedicate time and resources toward marketing efforts. When you say marketing automation software, one person could potentially achieve the same marketing goals as a team consisting of multiple members. This could make your marketing more effective and free you or your team members up to focus on other vital tasks.

 

Get more from your data.

Gathering, storing, and interpreting your marketing and sales data is vital to designing and implementing effective marketing campaigns. In most cases, marketing automation software can automatically generate reports. These reports could be as broad and general or as specific as you need them to be.

 

Reports generated by your marketing automation software could help you establish which campaigns are performing well. It can also help you identify potential issues and friction points in your customers’ marketing journey. This allows you to see exactly where you are losing leads and therefore losing sales. Knowing where potential customers are exiting your sales funnel can help you improve in these areas, possibly leading to a higher conversion rate.

 

Focusing on your customers.

When your marketing team no longer needs to manually manage certain marketing activities, they will be able to dedicate their time and resources to other areas. One of these areas is to focus on creating more personalised content and interactions with existing and potential customers.

 

Your marketing team will be able to create highly unique and personalised marketing messages based on the reports generated by your marketing automation system. These marketing messages could be highly targeted by using the segmentation capabilities provided by your marketing automation system.

 

These targeting efforts can be amplified when you use your marketing automation system to display marketing messages across multiple channels. These channels include social media, email campaigns, sponsored content, online advertisements, and search ads.

 

Customers could perceive these targeted marketing efforts in a highly positive light. 44% of clients would move to a competitor if your company does not respond to their inquiries fast enough. More than that, they crave a personalised experience, preferring that overpriced when making a purchasing decision. Marketing automation benefits both your company and your customers by enabling you to provide highly personalised marketing messages that are more likely to convert.

 

Better marketing systems and processes.

Some marketing systems and processes could become impractical as your business grows. This can make managing these systems or processes labor and time-intensive. Marketing systems and processes that don’t meet your company’s needs could mean that your company does not grow as much as it could.

 

Suppose a marketing system is manual or needs to be managed by a specific person in your team. In that case, it makes it difficult to scale it as your company and marketing team grows. Having a marketing automation system could make it easier for various team members to design, develop, implement, and track your marketing efforts.

 

Better lead nurturing.

Making your sales and marketing efforts more efficient and effective and bringing the two together while harnessing your data and focusing on your customers means that you will be better able to nurture leads. You will be able to generate personalised marketing campaigns and implement and automate these campaigns to see the best return on your marketing investments.

 

Using a marketing automation system means you can increase your productivity as well as your return on investment. It can allow you to harness the data that you gather in order to provide existing and potential customers with the best marketing messages. These messages could encourage more sales and greater customer loyalty.

 

The time and resources that you save by using a marketing automation system can be used to focus on other vital areas of your business. For your marketing team, this could mean strategising and implementing more and more successful marketing campaigns that can be automated.

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The Five-Minute Guide to Dynamics 365 Marketing

The Five-Minute Guide to Dynamics 365 Marketing

Dynamics and Power Platform

The Five-Minute Guide to
Dynamics 365 Marketing

Did you know the average consumer attention span is eight seconds? Research has shown that the average attention span has shrunk by nearly 25 percent between the years 2000 to 2015.

Then, doesn’t it then make sense to tailor your marketing strategy to keep your customers and viewers as engaged as possible? Dynamics 365 Marketing may be your best bet.

Although, it is a big platform and can definitely feel overwhelming when we’re getting started.

Come with us as we break down what exactly 365 Marketing is and how it can massively boost customer engagement.

What Is Dynamics 365 Marketing?

Dynamics 365 for Marketing is the first marketing tool under Microsoft’s belt. It falls under the Dynamics 365 umbrella, which is a line of products focused on resource planning CRM tools. The intention behind the software is to give small to medium-sized businesses the tools they need to run successful marketing campaigns across a variety of channels.

It comes with powerful tools that we can use right off the bat to design and deploy campaigns across various channels. It also provides plenty of high-end templates that have great drag-and-drop interfaces and ample space for change.

 

What to Expect?

Users of 365 Marketing can build personalized marketing and customer journeys with targeted messages and marketing activities sent at various stages of the customer’s engagement. These tailored, automated customer interactions foster good leads and encourage continuous movement through the pipeline.

Dynamics 365 benefits from being closely tied to other branches of the Dynamics CRM system, like Dynamics 365 Sales and Customer Service. It does certainly improve Microsoft by pressing the advantage of usability. This is because it uses the same Common Data Model to store and share data with other apps.

All the apps associated with the package share the same core, or “brain,” meaning they’re always in sync with one another and always up to date. This means we can push for efficient sales and marketing strategies and bring various teams together.

They also designed the software to work on a variety of platforms, with a uniform UI that works on mobile, tablet, and desktop. One of the biggest benefits of using Dynamics 365 Marketing is the ability to lean on both real-time and outbound marketing.

 

Real-Time Marketing

Real-time marketing is all about the current customer journey. Any real-time planning should include event-based triggers. For example, it gives us the flexibility to create real-time responses based on signals coming from customers. This means you can:

  • Build a rich data profile
  • Select the best channel for each customer
  • Interact at the appropriate times

It also means we can personalize our messaging and even include dynamic text and images, which connects us with customers wherever they are. This could happen through push notifications or even emails and text messages.

 

Outbound Marketing

Outbound marketing lets us connect our marketing and sales operations with email marketing, lead scoring, and social media posting. With outbound marketing, we can:

  • Capture strong and promising leads
  • Manage those leads through a custom process
  • Leverage social media effectively
  • Get customer feedback with online surveys

Perhaps we want to dive more into Facebook, Instagram, or even LinkedIn. Or, if we want to unearth what qualifies as a good, productive lead, the combination of real-time and outbound marketing is a game-changer.

 

Who Can Use It?

Many entry-level cloud solutions lack the tools most businesses need and want. This may include high-end resources and tracking capabilities. 365 is significantly more powerful than these but also more complex. As a result, it’s unlikely tiny companies will ever need full 365 coverage. That being said, it is very well suited to the wider-end of the small to mid-sized business range.

Although we can use the app for both B2B and B2C marketing, it is ultimately best suited for B2B marketing. 365 for Marketing is a great toolset for mid-sized businesses that are ready to put a little more time and money into their marketing efforts. This is especially true if they’ve outgrown the basic, native marketing features of other Dynamics 365 apps like Sales.

Features of Microsoft Dynamics 365 and How It Can Transform Your Business Process

To give a general overview, it is important to go over the app’s primary functions. We want to see what problems 365 Marketing solves and the benefits it offers to its users. It has a set of fundamental capabilities that simply need to be translated into more practical business terms.

 

Customer Journeys

 

Customer Journeys in 365 Marketing is ideal for marketing automation and streamlining daily procedures. These would be tasks we’d want done with no direct involvement from the marketing team. We could design a system where the customer journey is mapped out, with various aspects and triggers accounted for. We then play that journey out and predict how it will unfold based on their responses. This means we change or adapt the process as the client’s needs evolve.

As any smart marketer will tell us, we need to map out the client’s path before we create campaigns and generate leads. This is an area 365 Marketing succeeds in.

 

 

With the help of 365, we can distribute our campaigns through a variety of channels. It comes with templates and design tools that help us quickly create professional-looking branded emails, build lead capture forms, and establish dynamic landing pages. This is all with conversion in mind.

We can also develop SMS or text message and social media campaigns, which connect with Microsoft Social Engagement. This comes packaged with any of the suits’ CRM tools, which gives us more control over our social media marketing.

 

Managing Events

 

Modern marketing is all about providing value to current and potential clients. If a company does so by presenting events like conferences or seminars, 365 Marketing has several built-in tools to assist you.

The app’s event management capabilities include everything you need to create an event. It includes venue and speaker management, registrations, scheduling, and attendance tracking.

There’s even a portal management system that allows businesses to construct a customised event site. Here, attendees could manage their profiles, attendance, and registrations, and get all the information they need about speakers and event schedules.

 

Managing Leads

 

All marketing initiatives aim to produce leads. 365 Marketing comes with simple lead management features that make it easier to track, score, and nurture leads.

The app uses an intelligent, automated lead-scoring system that qualifies leads at every stage of the customer journey. This is based on predetermined rules, such as marketing email engagement, website visits, and event registration. This allows us to rate leads based on criteria that reflect what’s most important to us.

 

Insights and Analytics

 

Analysing a campaign’s success is an important aspect of marketing, as it guides any further decisions. We want to gain knowledge and refine our marketing strategies as best we can. Insights are the way to do that. Besides the lead-scoring measures stated above, Dynamics 365 has powerful analytical tools capable of gathering and analysing data, as well as providing actionable insights.

 

Let Us Help You Grow

Anybody can grow with the right marketing tools and know-how, and we can help them do that. With powerful flexibility and limitless possibilities, it’s clear that Dynamics 365 Marketing is the way forward. We help craft memorable experiences for your customers and nurture relationships. This is the value we offer and stand by.

We work with businesses to make magic and deal with many Microsoft products and services. Talk to one of our experts today and let’s see what we can do for your business.

Improve Your Business

To reduce costs, improve efficiency, and offer the customer service your clients deserve, you want to implement Microsoft Dynamics 365. Book a demo today to see how it can enhance your business.

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What Are The Top 5 Digital Transformation Trends

What Are The Top 5 Digital Transformation Trends

Digital Transformation

What Are The Top 5
Digital Transformation Trends

Over the last two decades, most global companies have had the luxury of digitising over time, so why is it such a buzzword in 2022? As technology changes, companies need to be agile enough to adapt to the changes. Digital transformation is not a once-off deal, it’s a process that’s constantly evolving.

 

If you’re looking to get ahead of the cultural shift, there are five digital trends that are set to take off in the near future.

 

What Is Digital Transformation

 

Digital transformation is fundamentally shaping new ways for businesses to improve experiences, from internal departments to the end-consumer. It’s a cultural shift that involves adopting new technologies and harnessing the benefits to improve innovation, value, and efficiency.

 

Because of the pandemic, hybrid work models have been the forefront topic across the globe. We’ve had to change the way we work and interact with customers in all areas of business. It created a space where we had to shift the way we collect and integrate data while implementing a new space for employees to thrive.

 

Benefits Of Digital Transformation

 

Successful digital transformation can unlock business potential and help you  increase your return on investments. Based on their transformational efforts, the following benefits highlight what most companies find rewarding.

 

  1. Improved Data Collection

Digital transformation optimises the way businesses collect and translate data. This means that departments can integrate raw data into insights across numerous touchpoints.  This is fundamental to accessing a single view of the operations, customer journey, production, and finance. With this, you can use data-driven insights to improve workflow efficiency and enhance customer experiences.

 

  1. Managing Resources Effectively

From marketing and sales to C-suite, every department will be able to leverage off integrated applications, software and databases – a centralised portal that optimises business intelligence. This is a sure way to help keep employees connected while managing their day-to-day operations.

 

  1. Access To Data-Driven Insights

You can now unlock insights that meet the needs of your customers. This is the perfect way to create a more effective customer-centric strategy. Data-driven insights not only help you become more agile, but it also helps you make informed decisions, improve operations and discover new business opportunities with sufficient market evidence. If you’re an enterprise that places high-value on data, you’re set to see competitors use more data insight practices and collaboration.

 

  1. Improved Customer Experiences (CX)

One way to deliver a seamless customer experience is through digital transformation. Transformation affects the cadence of how your sales and marketing team discover new prospects. The challenge for most brands starts with the customer experience. Customers have limitless products and services offered to them day-to-day and it’s important to break through the noise. One way of enhancing CX is to give customers autonomous control over their data. When you provide the right features to meet customers’ needs, this will help your team manage expectations and earn long-term trust.

 

  1. Shifting Digital Culture & Collaboration

Trends predicted that by 2020, “83% of enterprise workloads” will run on the cloud. Approximately 41% of these workloads were predicted to run on public cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services. Private-cloud-based services were predicted to have an additional 20%, while hybrid cloud platforms accommodated 22%.

 

Not only do these tools deliver effortless collaboration, they also help your enterprise move forward digitally. In order for your business to remain sustainable, the latest digital shift is a crucial one.

With this, upskilling and digital learning can be enforced and employees are able to take advantage of the benefits.

 

  1. Increasing Digital Adoption

In the evolving digital space, Implementing the right digital assets will elevate your business from the inside-out. Getting your employees to help drive the mission is a crucial part of your transformation.

 

To achieve business objectives, finding an effective user adoption strategy is a great place to start. Whether it’s increasing CRM user adoption,  implementing AI applications, or both — It’s important to find the relevant strategy that meets your business needs and employees’ capabilities.

 

Top 5 Digital Transformation Trends For 2022

 

Getting to know what’s ahead in the digital landscape will help you understand the why’s and how’s. Take note of the digital transformation trends that are set to take off in the near future.

 

  1. Protecting data and efficient cybersecurity

Now more than ever, cybersecurity and data protection has become the next priority for 2022. During the course of the pandemic, customers spent more time on smart devices and companies were forced to move to hybrid work – having to adapt to new technologies in the process. As a result, a lot of companies recognise that automation and applications need to be secure in order to earn customer trust.

 

With that being said, customers are going to see a lot more high-placed value on security features that are being deployed to applications and software.

 

  1. Automation

Small businesses are likely to adopt and automate processes going forward. It’s predicted that within the next year, automation will go as far as medium-to-large enterprises due to more accessible solutions. Whether you conduct business in manufacturing, market research or customer support, a number of businesses will start implementing a combination of digital assets into daily workloads.

 

  1. Cloud Solutions

Cloud-based services are incredibly scaleable, cost-effective and easy to use. As more enterprises move away from on-premise safekeeping, running applications on cloud platforms have become a ‘must-have’ solution. Where security is concerned, cloud platforms come with improved cybersecurity features that help keep data and sensitive information safe. In addition, your team will be able to collaborate more effectively and the cloud’s scalability allows big data to thrive.

 

  1. Hybrid Models (Working From Home)

Brought to you by the pandemic, hybrid working is set to become part of a permanent business model. What we can expect in the next year is an increase in employee expectations, and as the future of work heavily relies on connection – organisations will be forced to adapt. For instance, connecting virtually with colleagues is becoming a common hybrid solution for most. To drive productivity and employee retention, you will need to deliver digital-first solutions along with connected experiences that fit into the work from home space.

 

5. 5G and The IoT

Introducing the new age of mobile communication, the 5G network is set to define interaction on another level. When you invest in 5G and expand on the internet of things, your business will improve its cost and production. It will also become a concrete benefit for organisations that have adopted hybrid working. Greater flexibility, responsive networks and improved security are just some of the benefits that accommodate a connected future.

 

Digital Adoption Strategies

 

Within the last year, it was reported that 73% of businesses failed to meet the value out of their digital transformation efforts. According to forbes, 70% had failed adoption programs due to employee resistance. Businesses may understand the value of digital transformation but they’re not getting the value from these assets because of poor adoption practices.

 

Adapting to the following strategies will help you get the most out of your digital assets:

 

  1. First explore the digital assets that your business needs and plan how you’re going to roll out new technologies. You can do this by creating awareness in phases. Use the first phase to highlight how the benefits will help your employees’ manage day-to-day workload.

 

  1. Create a workshop or event to drive hype around the new digital asset/s. You can successfully onboard employees by showcasing a detailed presentation and answer any questions that they may have. This could include training activities, benefits of the technology, and how it fits into the enterprise as a whole.

 

  1. Poor communication leads to poor decision making. Start providing departments with the right know-how to prevent future project failures. Open up and support staff by letting them ask questions. Until the user gets comfortable with the tech, it becomes relatively easier to achieve adoption.

 

  1. Training doesn’t always come with a one-size-fits-all approach. Tailored learning can be super beneficial when dealing with new processes. People tend to learn and upskill at different stages, so be sure to personalise training.

 

  1. Following up from time to time will allow employees to grow with your transformational efforts. It also helps them feel confident enough to implement future digital assets more effectively. Start surveying how well the programs are working and identify any gaps that are hindering growth and development.

 

Bottom Line

 

Companies are continuing to digitally transform their workforce. With the latest predictions, you’ll be set to deliver steady, high-value solutions to your customers — while fostering happier, more productive teams. In addition to this, you’ll be able to improve operational efficiencies every step of the way.

 

Explore the future scope of digital transformation. Learn how The CRM team can help you get there.

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Digital Technology Adoption Survey Findings

Digital Technology Adoption Survey Findings

Digital Transformation

Digital Technology Adoption Survey Findings

The CRM Team, in partnership with ITWeb, conducted a Digital Technology Adoption survey in May 2022 to find out how effectively South African companies and people are adopting technology in different industries.

The survey was met with great participation with a total of 209 valid responses recorded.

From these captured responses, the key findings were that only 53% of the respondents stated that they had the right software to serve their customers, and 32% said they did not.

49% of the survey respondents stated that they had a digital adoption strategy for at least three years. While 20% of respondents reported having a digital adoption strategy for one to three years, and 13% of respondents said that they are not currently planning to deploy a digital adoption strategy. 12% said they were just about to roll out a digital adoption strategy, while 6% said it had been in place for less than a year.

The survey asked participants how familiar they were with the ADKAR model of change management. 57% said they had no idea what it was. 25% of respondents are aware of ADKAR but have never used it, while 12% stated that they use ADKAR to manage change on various projects.

According to the respondents, when asked which factors assisted their organisation’s adoption of digital technologies, 22% said online training, 14% said cross-functional collaboration, 14% said integration with customer experience, and 12% said change management practices.

There were five main points cited by respondents as the primary drivers for adopting digital technology: increased agility (15%), easier customer service (14%), better innovation (14%), improved departmental collaboration (12%), increased revenue (10%), and reduced non-value-added work (10%).

Within their digital adoption strategies, respondents plan to implement the following technologies:

According to the survey findings, the top 3 drivers for digital technology adoption are customer experience improvement innovation, and process improvement.

Respondents responded that the most common barriers to digital transformation are: economy (29%), lack of resources (21%), and lack of digital business skills (17%).

The survey results indicate that CEOs are most likely to adopt digital technology (32%), followed by CIOs (21%).

 

Thank you to everyone who participated in the survey we value your feedback and we received quite insightful results. The participants who completed the survey stood a chance to win a R3000 Takealot voucher. A draw was conducted from the 209 valid participants, and Riaan Myburgh won the voucher! A huge congratulations to Riaan.

 

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Youth Month Special: Hearing from the Youth of The CRM Team.

Youth Month Special: Hearing from the Youth of The CRM Team.

Inspirational

Youth Month Special: Hearing from the Youth at The CRM Team.

Youth Month is tied in with remembering the young people who partook in the Soweto Uprising and celebrating the young people of today. To end off youth month, we spoke to the youngest member of The CRM Team, Johan Nel, to hear his thoughts on the present status of the young people of South Africa and what he trusts the future will bring for youngsters in this country.

 

What has kept you headed to prevail quite early in life?

I would give a great deal of credit to my father. My father has been my wellspring of motivation to succeed – he imparted in me that nothing comes free in life and that hard work pays off.

 

What does success look like to you?

Success to me is waking up every day and looking forward to going to work. Money does not measure success – a sound working environment means the most to me.

 

Being a young person with a job and knowing how high youth unemployment is in South Africa, how does that make you to feel?

Privileged without a doubt, yet additionally sad. Having a steady work and a rooftop over my head causes me to feel special yet miserable that there are individuals out there who do not have similar privilege.

 

How would you think the government needs to fix the unemployment rate among youngsters?

The government, first and foremost, has to make a more straightforward way for individuals to become business visionaries. There has to be a simpler way for individuals to begin their businesses.

Secondly, the community should work together to drive employment. Perhaps if the community would help the less privileged to apply for work, help the less fortunate to get access to sites such as LinkedIn and help them apply for work then surely that will make some sort of difference.

Tertiary institutions also need to furnish studies with experience. When we finish our studies all we get a piece of paper, meanwhile organisations insist that we should have experience, even for entry-level positions.

There is no guidance to prepare students for what comes after finishing your studies, you are left in the deep end to fend for yourself.

 

In your opinion, how does the future of youngsters in this country look?

Difficult. There is insufficient support for young people in this country. Employment seemingly will become more difficult. The competition in the workplace is becoming tough, employers now seek individuals with multiple expertise to do various tasks rather than employing many people to do those duties.

 

In the event that you could offer the young people of South Africa any advice, what would it be?

  1. Do what you excel at. Play on your strengths and be open minded to enter the unknown and to learn new skills.
  2. Understand what you are great at and learn what is else you need to excel along the way.
  3. Try not to fear change.
  4. Follow your passion.
  5. Be creative. Utilise every asset you have, if all you have is a cell phone and internet use it for your potential benefit.

 

What change do you want to witness in the young people of South Africa?

I might want to see youngsters be versatile. To face challenges and advance as much they can.

 

Where do you see yourself in the future, and how do you intend to get there?

I want to further my studies so I can bridge the gap between being a delivery manager and a developer. Developing is what I am currently inclining towards.

 

Like Nelson Mandela once said, “The youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow.” At The CRM Team, we celebrate our young people and seek to uplift those who are struggling to find direction. We hope you will be inspired by this article.

 

Johan Nel – Delivery Manager

Johan is a Dynamics 365 Delivery manager with experience in various industries in the last 5 years. He specializes in Agile processes and has been running projects with this methodology for the last 5 years. He has played various roles ranging from Analyst to Project Management.

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Drive Change And Adoption Of Your Technology Investments

Drive Change And Adoption Of Your Technology Investments

Digital Transformation

Drive Change And Adoption Of Your Technology Investments

The CRM Team will be hosting a free webinar titled Adapting To Change: User Adoption & Technology, helping business leaders optimise their software investment through effective change management.

This topical session will illustrate how effective change management and training improve user adoption and help maximise investment in new solutions. Whether one is planning to implement a new solution or already has a solution that users are failing to embrace, this user adoption, training, and change management session will outline how to improve adoption through proven methodologies.

Mark James, head of training at The CRM Team, says new technology solutions may promise to improve your business, however, without user buy-in and adoption, your ROI and business impacts may be disappointing. “Imagine you have to complete a series of tasks in a dark room. The fact that there is low to no visibility makes it almost impossible to execute your tasks effectively.” 

“At the risk of stating the obvious, it might be easier if you could simply flick a switch and light up your playing field. Creating the ideal systems solution for all your users and stakeholders can be just as challenging, but you can light up your playing field by consulting and involving key users in the process, from planning, through execution, all the way to realising a return on your investment,” he explains.

Discover what works and what does not in change management and user adoption programmes. Join The CRM Team and get an overview of the most effective Adoption and Change Management strategies to accelerate one’s digital transformation.

Delegates will see first-hand how to rapidly release the value from your technology investments as these change management specialists share their insight and practical tips for maximising user adoption.

The webinar will be held at 10:00 on 21 June 2022, for more information visit https://www.itweb.co.za/webinar/crm-team-adapting-to-change-user-adoption-technology/

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