Reaching new markets in 2020 and the years to come is tightly connected to innovation. This way companies can achieve sustainable growth and they can keep competition at bay. Before thinking about reinventing the whole business model, companies can design and build new products to cater to any and all their customer needs.
1. Innovation through companion apps
Companion apps are those that offer a clear and simple set of functionality to customers or employees. They are a good choice for companies that offer more than one service or product. For such companies, developing one single app to encompass the whole pallet of services would end up in a complicated and ultimately unusable product.
The best options for these companies is developing an app with a clear purpose for each service they offer. For example, a bank can have an app for managing loans, an app for managing current accounts and an app for credit cards. Another good example would be a telecom company having separate apps for prepaid services and for mobile phone plans.
A big corporation can develop an app for its employees to make it easier for them to find available parking faster and easier thus increasing productivity.
A key feature of companion apps is their simplicity. This kind of app should be easy to understand and use and bring real value to customers.
2. Innovation through sharing data
Companies generate tons of data around the year. Keeping this data in house can seem like a smart idea in terms of guarding the company’s interests when it comes to competition. But simply sharing data is no threat. In fact, making this data available can lead to faster market transformation. In the absence of data the market evolves and changes slowly. Since there is nowhere to learn from, companies can be stuck doing the same things over and over again without understanding why progress is delayed.
All the departments in a company generate data. From sales and marketing to operations. Make this data available between departments. Someone could come up with an idea to improve processes, automate them or change parts of the business for the better leading to higher productivity and increased revenue.
Such an example is Ernst & Young. They were working together with various banks on their Effective Interest Rate (EIR) needs and developed a methodology for producing the monthly EIR reports. It was first implemented using Excel and SQL Scripts which proved incredibly hard to scale, so EY partnered with us, Atta Systems, to develop a platform that automates this reporting task. You can see more about the Effective Interest Rate Calculator here
3. Use data visualisation and data analytics
Companies generate and gather data on a daily basis. Ans the bigger the company, the bigger the amount of data. It can be a real challenge to extract useful insights for sheet upon sheet in an Excel. So how can this be simplified? Through visualization and analytics.
By doing this, you can encourage efficiency, productivity and growth. Business operations can become more refined, leaving more time and energy for innovation. Looking at data in a visual way helps clearly identify trends and patterns, unsuspected bottlenecks and even challenging periods across the year. You can use diagrams, maps, charts, plots, decision trees and many more. You can read all about them here.
4. Embrace digital transformation
One thing we always stress at Atta Systems is transformation vs. migration. For true innovation to happen, you need to transform your processes, not simply move them from offline to online.
Taking a digital first approach helps you automate time consuming manual tasks, eliminate obsolete steps or forms, simplify processes and increase productivity. It can seem like an intimidation endeavor, but with the right partner digital transformation can bring your company to a whole new level. The good news is that you as a company don’t have to be digital savvy. That is the job of companies like Atta Systems.
5. Innovate customer facing interfaces
Customer facing interfaces are those places where your customers interact with your company, your services or your products. Your websites and mobile apps are the best examples. This is where you can wow your customers by making them easier to use, faster, more tailored to their actual needs, more helpful.
Innovation begins with the right partners
For a non tech company, innovation can seem complicated. This is why we, at Atta Systems, approach it in phases and small steps in order to make it easy to understand for any type of client, from the tech founder to the non tech CEO.
Our innovation process begins with understanding your company, your needs and the market. We set objectives and develop solutions that bring real value and help transform your business in a sustainable and profitable way.
