For businesses to be successful, they need to keep extremely close tabs on the technologies that affect the macro environment in which they operate, which can sometimes mean that old business models can quickly become outdated and no longer viable. However, merely looking at technology as a business enabler is not enough. Businesses, and CIOs especially, need to keep a close eye on their consumers and the ways in which technology is changing interactions with them.

Developments on four fronts are converging to impact the customer experience – mobile, information, cloud and social:

Mobile

Due to the increasing number of mobile devices available, one can virtually be contacted anywhere at any time. Being contactable at all times is expected, as is connectivity, anywhere in the world. The number of places where connectivity does not exist is shrinking fast; there is even a Wi-Fi hotspot at the last base camp before the summit of Mount Everest. With such connectivity, consumers use their devices to interact with businesses in a number of ways, including purchasing, researching product and service information, communicating with other consumers about products and services, and even communicating directly with businesses.

The number of mobile devices available is constantly increasing and, further to this, devices continue to become more and more affordable. This means a larger portion of the world's population is able to become connected.

In support of this, a 2014 study carried out by Accenture explored how South African consumers are gearing up for a digital lifestyle found that 25% of respondents planned to purchase a new smartphone, 23% planned to purchase a laptop and 19% planned to purchase a laptop within the next 12 months, in addition to their current devices. The survey also found that 51% of respondents said that they preferred to use several devices at the same time, for different uses.

Information

Users are no longer consumers of information, but creators of it and this has led to an explosion in data volumes. One of the effects of this on businesses is that they can no longer hope to control the visibility of all that is being said about them. However, they can leverage the online presence of their target audience to their advantage by providing significant additional information to interested consumers, which is increasingly being required by savvy consumers, to support their decision and path to purchase.

The Accenture survey also found that 33% of respondents planned to increase their broadband Internet spend over the coming 12 months, and 55% planned their spending to stay the same. Only 4% did not plan any spend.

Cloud

Cloud computing is often considered one of the most important technological developments in decades. While there are always challenges when transitioning to a new infrastructure or software, the benefits seem to far outweigh the challenges in terms of transitioning to the cloud.

Through cost efficiencies, increased efficiency, flexibility and improved accessibility, cloud is unlocking new opportunities for businesses.

For example, GiftHub, created in 2008, offers developers a place to store the source code of their applications in the cloud. It already has 3 million members and hosts more than 4 million projects. The anticipated growth rate between 2013 and 2017 for the public cloud is 23.5%, five times more than traditional IT. This is one of the newest frontiers for businesses to exploit.

Social

People are increasingly interacting with each other and with businesses in new ways. Despite the value that people place on their privacy, they are continuously using technology to deliver new interactions in their daily lives. For example, someone recently created the website "namemydaughter.com". The idea was that people using the internet would decide on a name for a newborn baby, bringing about change to social norms and traditional cultures.

People also want to manage their interactions on the Internet across a wide range of devices.. The result is that businesses need to evolve strategies to communicate that are functional across any number of devices.

Connectivity is increasingly the norm in most people's homes. In 2013, 78% of European households were already connected to the Internet, and the enterprise needs to accept that Internet marketing can no longer be geared toward more affluent individuals or those who go online at work.

Because these trends are as relevant in Africa as they are in other parts of the world businesses that are early adopters of international best practice can gain a competitive advantage. The explosion in capacity for broadband and the investments that are being made in Africa, not least with the addition of the SEACOM cable infrastructure that delivers extra bandwidth to Africa, as well as future planned developments, are constantly driving down the price of broadband Internet, which will only speed up further adoption.

I believe there is great scope for the reduction of fixed and mobile broadband pricing on the back of the capacity increases we are seeing in Africa. Certainly resiliency has drastically improved and service providers have matured in their approach to building resilient and robust broadband networks for the African continent. While consumer-facing broadband Internet price points are still significantly higher than in other international markets, though, but this is set to change over time.

The 360-degree customer relationship and the digital customer experience

It has become virtually impossible for businesses to generate more online data about themselves than their customers do. Other users are able to access this data instantaneously and will take their business elsewhere if they decide that expectations will not be met.

Consumers expect to be able to contact a business at any time and to receive a quick and comprehensive response. Moreover, they expect to be able to do this through a number of channels.

In an online environment where disgruntled customers can do great deal of damage to a brand in a short time frame, businesses must ensure that they are equipped to deal with managing multiple communication channels effectively.

Not all communications channels cost the same to maintain, with support for call centres costing twice as much as any other, and web chat/callback, email response and web self-service being the cheapest to run. Businesses need to decide on the best mixture of channels for them; they may be well served by optimising the lowest-cost channels, provided that customer satisfaction is not sacrificed.

Digital customer interaction is only the first step. Levering technology for advantage necessitates an overhaul of the entire business, which can prove to be a major challenge. Not only does the company have to consider the cost of opex and capex, it must also ensure that digital is embedded in the company culture.

Fortunately, the short-term pain is offset by tangible benefits across departments. For the marketing and sales department, there is the obvious opportunity to improve loyalty and client engagement, but digitalisation also facilitates shorter times-to-market and the ability to develop into new markets.

For the IT department, benefits include shorter development cycles, a reduction in infrastructure costs and the implementation of high-performance reporting tools. For the customer service department, the ability is unlocked to increase the online presence of the business, better reputation management, and seamless navigation between channels that delivers a wealth of customer data to be harnessed for business advantage.

Selecting the right partner for this digital service journey is critical. The best service providers seek to act as a digital coach, assisting companies to enrich their customer experience in the most cost effective and efficient way possible.

The new demands that consumers place on businesses to be digitally integrated is not a future trend, but rather a present reality. Businesses that have not yet embarked on the journey of fully digitalising their processes and models risk the future profitability and competitiveness of their organisations.