In a recent piece for the Forbes Technology Council, “Three ways digital transformation is changing how we do business," I explored what businesses need to know about a customer-first models.

According to research from Experian and Forrester Consulting, 81% of executives believe traditional business models will disappear in the next five years due to digital transformation. To my mind, these are three ways to change current ways of doing business:

1. Adapting to the simplicity of new models
2. Understanding a customer's context is the key to relevant experiences
3. Automating meaningful decisions at scale

Businesses can leverage technological advances in process optimisation, automation, data analysis and cognitive science to put customers first and truly understand and address their needs. In order to stand out from the competition, businesses must optimise their decisions based on what is best for the customer. This means creating an easy to use website or platform, suggesting relevant products, and making instant decisions based on the data they have.

As businesses work to create the best possible experiences for customers, this begs the question of how the data gathered will be protected. It is critical that businesses not only collect data from reputable sources, but protect consumers' by putting multi-layered security measures in place.

If interested in the topic of digital transformation and business readiness, you can find the full Forbes article here.

Birger Thorburn
Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Decision Analytics, Experian