Editorial
The Gist
- Integrated business benefits. Achieving a future-ready, integrated business leads to 17.3% higher revenue growth and better customer engagement.
- Integrated business solutions. Essential for CMOs; integrating customer data, marketing, CMS, ecommerce, and analytics drives better decisions.
- Business integration priority. For CIOs, focusing on data strategy, security, and interoperability is key to avoiding operational chaos and inefficiency.
According to "Future Ready" authors, businesses that are future ready can engage and satisfy customers while simultaneously cutting costs. MIT-CISR research shows that the 22% of firms achieving this status have 17.3% higher revenue growth and a 14% greater net margin than their industry average.
Let's take a look at how to achieve an integrated business.
Getting there involves two changes. First is industrializing data and systems infrastructure, which entails moving from silos to "building a platform mindset with API-enabled business services that can be accessed across the enterprise and externally."
Second is delighting customers with integrated experiences. This requires personalization using data and the capability to "develop new attractive offers, build mobile apps and websites, improve customer experience in different channels, and empowering relationship managers."
To be clear, focusing solely on the latter won't suffice as it "eventually adds more complexity to fragmented systems and processes, increasing the cost to serve the customer." Consequently, Software AG CEO Sanjay Brahmawar states, "Integration is a barrier to innovation." Hence, industrializing is crucial for efficiently connected businesses, essential for both business agility and CMOs' ability to delight customers. With this in mind, let's delve into what CIOs and CDOs think about the state of business industrialization.
What Are the Business Costs of Not Having an Integrated Business?
Brahmawar asserts, "The business costs of not having an integrated business include reputation loss, loss of revenue, fines, and risk." While these points are valid, manufacturing CIO Joanne Friedman argues, "A lack of business integration typically results in fragmented data, slow decision-making, increased operational costs, and longer time to value. Today, it is a business risk to be a siloed enterprise in a connected world."
Regarding risks, New Zealand CIO Anthony McMahon notes, “A lack of integration doesn't necessarily create process inefficiencies, but it's an indicator. And with inefficiencies comes waste.” First CIO Deb Gildersleeve elaborates on the potential waste, saying, “One of the costs is often more people because things do need to be connected and if they are not connected in an automated way, they will be connected via manual work. There are also the opportunity costs of missing signals because the data isn't connected.” CHROs, whom I spoke with several years ago, labeled this manual work as human Band-Aids. This issue is particularly significant for CMOs, as it typically makes servicing customers harder and more expensive, directly affecting the NPS score.
Related Article: Put Your Things Together for an Awesome Customer Experience
What Should CMOs Want Integrated?
Given this context, how can CMOs ensure that resolving these issues receives the necessary priority? Friedman suggests, “CMOs should start by prioritizing integrating customer data platforms, marketing automation, content management systems, ecommerce, analytics, and internal communications for seamless customer experiences and data-driven decisions.”
Gildersleeve agrees and suggests that “Campaign information ties to outcomes, posting of content, and analytics of content. To get this prioritized involves demonstrating where that information will benefit the organization and how it can be used to improve messaging for better outcomes.” Additionally, McMahon recommends “getting priority involves setting up very clear requirements.”
Related Article: AI in Business: How Company Leaders Are Taking the Plunge
How Do CIOs Avoid the 'Chaos of Connectivity'?
Brahmawar suggests that organizations with poor business integration suffer from a "chaos of connectivity." Gildersleeve candidly adds that it is “not an easy thing to do but being planful about systems and data and what and where it needs to be connected will help avoid this. Integration leaders should keep the diagrams up to date. A picture makes the need to move from chaos clear.”
In addressing transition CIO Martin Davis advises, “The best way to avoid chaos is to have a plan... A strategy... An architecture! An Enterprise Service Bus or something of that nature.” This underscores the importance of architecture. McMahon further suggests, “CIOs should ensure there is a principle of reusable architecture and that all decisions are documented as patterns and reference architecture.” Adding to this, Friedman emphasizes, “CIOs can avoid chaos by focusing on a centralized data strategy, ensuring interoperability, and prioritizing security. They should add governance frameworks and change management to this. These are key.”
Impact of Integration Just Working
What is the impact of integration functioning properly across both legacy and modern systems? Undoubtedly, successful integration facilitates a unified experience, which is precisely why enterprise architects dedicate significant time to customer journey maps. Effective integration is also vital for the successful deployment of generative AI. Davis notes, “A connected digital enterprise where processes flow from customer through the business in a seamless manner is more efficient and more effective.”
Where integration works, there is “end-to-end efficiency, followed by customer outcomes,” says Anthony McMahon. Gildersleeve adds, “The biggest driver of a connected enterprise is the data. Modern organizations need to understand what the data is in each system to be able to connect and automate across systems.” Davis agrees and says, “with a seamless flow of data and processes, the results are customer satisfaction, efficient business, and ultimately higher profitability.”
Where integration is effective, Anthony McMahon observes there is “end-to-end efficiency, followed by customer outcomes.” Gildersleeve contributes, saying, “The biggest driver of a connected enterprise is the data. Modern organizations need to understand what the data is in each system to be able to connect and automate across systems.” Echoing this sentiment, Davis asserts, “with a seamless flow of data and processes, the results are customer satisfaction, efficient business, and ultimately higher profitability.”
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In essence, resolving business integration issues leads to a competitive advantage. Friedman states, “A connected enterprise delivers data integration and interoperability. These are the linchpin for real-time decision-making, agility, and seamless internal communication. Ignore these and you are in a data castle that may be well-designed but go nowhere.”
Parting Words on Creating an Integrated Business
CIOs and CMOs need to collaborate in creating an integrated business. The significance of this endeavor is profound. By combining data with experiences that foster business differentiation, they can establish a sustainable advantage, particularly as generative AI enhances customer and employee experiences.
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