Differentia Consulting - Strategy 2023

Active Intelligence and ESG in 2023

Moving towards an active and sustainable 2023

As 2023 begins, Differentia Consulting would like to thank you for your continued partnership and custom over the past year and share our thoughts on what opportunity 2023 will bring.

Active Intelligence and Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) reporting are now more critical than ever before. For that reason, this edition will offer additional guidance in those areas. Including the latest updates, events, and focused pieces on how your organisation can lean into Active Intelligence and ESG in 2023.

?-Matt Parker, Marketing Manager at Differentia Consulting?

Strategy??

During any downturn, it is imperative to fully control the type of decisions that are driven by data. Qlik has introduced the term ‘Active Intelligence’;?optimising the value that can be extracted from data as part of a hyperautomated, mature data eco-system. At Differentia Consulting we simplify the outputs of this approach by utilising the ‘Five Rights of Active Intelligence’.?

The ‘Five Rights of Active Intelligence’ ensure that data should be available to answer specific questions:?

• Using the right information?
• Shared in the right place?
• Delivered at the right time?
• In the right format?
• To the right person?

When faced with a question that requires multiple data sources or responses to answer it, an Active Intelligence solution will enable the?right person to make the best possible decision?in any given circumstance or situation.?

2023 will be a focus year for ESG reporting and compliance as organisations deploy systems to monitor, measure, and manage their environmental, social, and governance obligations, in particular for sustainability. The impact will be felt most where ESG reporting is required on two fronts: to satisfy not only investors?but also audit requirements. As a result, many organisations will need to deploy solutions to manage ESG requirements.

Differentia Consulting offers solutions for both ESG reporting?and ESG management across your supply chain.

2023 is also going to be another year of IT skills shortages and Differentia Consulting has pledged to keep its services available on an hourly basis where possible to?help clients with their short term needs. If you would like to discuss how we can help you provision or even fully manage your data pipeline and analytics solution we are keen to hear from you.

Transparent and sustainable supply chains?

Demand will continue to increase for?more transparent supply chains. Buyers and investors will not only scrutinise your organisation’s ESG reports, but will also review your supply chains’ ESG scores.

As an example, you might acquire your supply of apples from a local market to achieve a high sustainability score. However,?if the market trader actually flies your apples in from China and then drives a few hundred miles to the market with them your score will be greatly impacted.?

When investing in products and services,?evidence from the entire supply chain will be required at the point of decision. For each link, there will need to be a demonstration of energy efficiency that is supported by more sustainable technologies.?

Furthermore, social and governance policies will need to be consistent throughout your supply chains. Your organisation might be on top of its HR and security policies, but it falls on you to ensure that the same can be said for the rest of your supply chains.?

The entire process of your operations is now open to scrutiny, and so next year you will need to manage them to compete.

Active Intelligence for next-level customer service

When we talk about Active Intelligence there is an emphasis on how it will help an organisation and its business users to innovate and compete, but the positive impact on its customers is largely ignored. At Differentia Consulting we believe that Active Intelligence can breathe life into your customer service.

Line up, line up

What problem can garner resentment at the start of any experience? A long queue. Whenever there is a surge of custom, your staff can become overwhelmed. Ideally, you would have modelled past data and predicted when queues are likely to form, but that’s not always possible when there are too many or unaccounted for variables at work…

Imagine if on busier days your car park camera systems that are continuously monitoring activity levels could automatically send an alert to employees in the form of a text or notification and ask a simple yes/no question if they would like an earlier shift. Or in an approach similar to theme parks, the format and flow of the venue could continuously change (guided by Active Intelligence) and adapt based on the number of people present to prevent long queues and waiting periods. The famous Disney castle was placed in a prominent position to keep foot traffic moving as guests entered Disney Land, with Active Intelligence you will know when to activate your own features to keep your customers moving (digitally or in person). Common customer relationship problems can be solved when you are utilising Active Intelligence.

Do you treat your customers like VIPs?

Customer service speaker?Geoff Ramm?authored the book ‘Celebrity Service’. In essence, it outlined how an organisation can improve its level of customer service by imagining customers as stars of the stage and screen. This leads us to…

If you were delivering a package to your favourite celebrity would you say, “It will be there at some point between 12 and 6?” Or would you go out of your way to find and tell them the most accurate and precise time possible?

When you utilise Active Intelligence, it’s not only your organisation that reaps the benefits but also your customers. Providing the latest tracking data and updates enables customers to make provisions and better plan their day. No more waiting half a day for a shipment that may or may not arrive.

Be active, not ambiguous

A reason for not providing your customers with Active Intelligence might be to hide behind ambiguity. “It’s on its way. It’s processing. Your delivery is in transit…” thinking that if the customer does not know how long they will have to wait, there will be fewer objections. Customers prefer honesty and transparency to ambiguity because then they can manage their expectations and plan accordingly. Ambiguity creates stress (the feeling that arises when you are doing one thing when actually you want to be doing something else) because it makes it impossible for the customer to act.

Yesterday’s news

After ambiguity, some of the greatest customer service-related confusions result from systems delivering stale data. This includes the embarrassing situation where a customer has contacted you directly for an update, but afterwards, your systems persistently send out historic messaging that fails to reflect the latest information that was delivered in person, causing all kinds of confusion. Even worse a customer might act on the faulty information and make a time commitment (such as a five-hour journey). However, if your customers also had access to Active Intelligence, everyone would be on the same page.

Help your customers become more innovative

Everyone can benefit from Active Intelligence, both organisations and their customers.

You owe it to your customers to provide them with the gift of Active Intelligence.

We look forward to discussing with you how we can help you build a more sustainable business that is able to compete in a world on new challenges, with data driven solutions that make a difference.

Thanks for reading.

For a full copy of our winter Newsletter please see: https://www.differentia.consulting/news/differentia-consulting-newsletter-winter-2022/