If you’re not prioritizing your infrastructure to support digital transformation, your competitors could soon leave you in the dust. IT infrastructure upgrades are proving essential for handling the data-driven, personalized customer experience that is becoming the expected standard.
By investing in IT infrastructure upgrades that allow the harnessing of customer data, some enterprises are easily outpacing their competitors. Consider companies such as Lyft and Uber, who don’t own a fleet of cars but are upending the transportation-for-hire industry. Airbnb doesn’t have to solve problems around cleaning staff, stocking towels and sheets or even real estate taxes, because they own no properties. Yet, their innovative approach to travel accommodations is shaking up the hotel industry. These companies are investing in data-driven technology that helps them deliver services that their competitors can’t touch because they’re bogged down with managing cars and hotels.
Adding to that mix is the retail behemoth Amazon, whose algorithms help them anticipate just what a customer will order next based on their browsing history and past purchases. Their understanding of customer behaviors is creating a retail environment where companies know they must invest in the necessary IT infrastructure upgrades to be able to customize experiences to compete in a world where Amazon exists.
The good news is that cloud computing has removed the barriers that may have otherwise existed to keep other retailers from accessing the kinds of technology that Amazon uses to customize the customer experience. Want to rub shoulders with Amazon? Here are the necessary elements in IT infrastructure upgrades to support digital transformation:
It’s critical to look a couple of months out, and then five years out, to determine whether an infrastructure solution can grow with you. Talk with your potential provider to determine whether your infrastructure will grow with you in a cost-effective, responsive way. Talk about this in terms of bandwidth, geography and cloud partnership.
Your provider should understand your business needs and be able to sit down with you to determine the features and network assets necessary to help you meet your current goals and look ahead to the future.
Communication architecture is increasingly important, so invest in network and carrier diversity for business continuity and to enhance the customer experience.
It’s important to select partners that are focused on investing in their core competency that prioritize network diversity and will invest in more capacity, with a technology-forward mindset themselves. They should be fully transparent in terms of design and deployment.
TailWind specializes in working with organizations investing in IT infrastructure upgrades. Contact us to get started, and we can help reduce the stress of an infrastructure upgrade and create a path for an environment that grows with your company’s future changes.