How do we think about transforming into the future, when we’re faced with so many changes in our present, such as working from home mandated by stay at home orders. Watch me share some of my thoughts, in this short video.
That said, the need for businesses to digitally transform has grown. For instance, in February 2020, IDC conducted two surveys in China of over 100 CXOs to gather their opinions regarding the impact the coronavirus will have on IT and digital transformation initiatives. Three of the top impacts on enterprises were reported as:
- Improved corporate ability of long-distance collaborative work
- Wide recognition of the value of digital transformation and information technology among all employees
- Gaining ability of online marketing and business development.
There it is: Digital Transformation front and center. “The value of digital channels, products and operations is immediately obvious to companies everywhere right now,” says Sandy Shen, senior director analyst, Gartner.
Put simply, organizations should use this time to accelerate the transition.
For instance, technology adoption through digital transformation holds the promise of enhancing labor productivity and efficiencies, which is especially important as businesses strategize on how to get work done with employees at home. Applications that enable long-distance collaboration, such as Webex, provide a relevant example of this. As another example, the more companies automate their processes and workflows, the more flexible they can become in the face of economic uncertainty. As Vijay Gurbaxani — professor of Business and Computer Science at the School of Business, University of California, Irvine — writes: “In short, any investment that allows you to boost the capabilities of your workforce, or increase efficiency or productivity in a material process, is a no-brainer.”
Cisco, as a company, and my team in the Global Partner Transformation (GPT) organization are here to help you, our valued partners.
At GPT, we’re focused on helping our partners develop new capabilities and services across the entire spectrum of partner types to ensure we meet customer needs and continue to grow profitably. And let’s be clear, our customer is no longer only the IT department. IDC states that Line of Business buyers influence 80% of IT purchases and control 60% of the budget. 70% of these Line of Business buyers say it’s critical to link IT to the business outcome. It is all about developing and selling business outcome solutions to our expanded set of customers. This can be done on your own (according to IDC, by 2025, 2/3 of enterprises will be prolific software producers) or this can be done in partnership with a complementary partner, such as an independent software vendor. Cisco will continue to be here to support you in this transformation and can link you to business outcome solution ideas here and complementary partners. As an example, check out how two of Cisco’s partners, MazeMap and Telenor, worked together with Cisco to deliver an awesome joint solution to our customer.
GPT is here to help you stay the course on your digital transformation journey by inspiring, enabling, and incentivising you to continue to transform. Yes, the current macro economic environment is challenging, but we are here to help you today to continue to build differentiated customer value with win stories, tools, pilots, models, programs, and enablement.
In addition, Cisco Customer Experience (CX) continues to accelerate our customers’ success, and profitable growth for our partners. Cisco is seeing a 3x faster software growth with resellers who have CX practices. Higher renewal rates accelerate technology adoption and partner profitability while delivering real business outcomes. CX and GPT are focused on helping you, our partners, monetize, operate and organize, while building a sustainable lifecycle model that accelerates customer success, and your bottomline.
In other words, we are all here for you.
Additionally, to further support our partners (and customers) who are issuing work from home policies, Cisco is offering free services and training to assist remote workers across the globe. Please find more information here.
Take care of yourselves and your families, and please don’t hesitate to contact us at askgpt@cisco.com to discuss how we can support you in your digital transformation journey.
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