It’s no secret that today’s business environment is more competitive than ever. In fact, in a recent competitive intelligence study, 90% of business leaders say their industry is now more competitive.

Technology is racing forward, the fallout from COVID is being felt and the world’s economic and geopolitical landscape is in uncharted waters. It’s as important as ever for business leaders to find ways to drive better business outcomes without sacrificing profits.

In order to stay ahead of the curve, you need to be constantly innovating and finding new ways to improve revenue through proactive and strategic thinking.

So it’s no surprise that PwC reported that 68% of Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) are doubling down on digital transformation.

Here are our top digital optimisation tactics that will help you achieve better business outcomes:

1. Increase Revenue

The most important goal of any business is to increase revenue and profits. While the most traditional way to do this is by attempting to increase sales by implementing marketing initiatives, you also need to look at the possibility of improving and increasing your revenue streams.

You can use analytics to optimise price and increase spend, as well as improve customer retention rates and customer lifetime value (CLV).

This is where getting your hands on the right data and understanding it becomes critical.

If you’re struggling with fragmented data, you need to invest in a system that provides a holistic view of every department in your company.

2. Improve Operating Margin

There are several ways to improve your operating margin, which is the amount of profit a company makes after deducting the cost of goods and services sold.

But we will focus on two effective tactics:

• Reducing costs: You need to look at ways to streamline your processes and eliminate wasteful spending. For example, automating time-consuming, routine tasks will lead to saving your team time to focus on value-added work.
• Reducing selling, general, and administrative expenses (SG&A): Using digital channels, you can more easily optimise sales and marketing spend as well as administrative costs.

3. Improve Workforce

It’s a no-brainer that an improved workforce can lead to a better bottom line.

So why do so many organisations struggle with this piece of the puzzle?

The main thing that makes a workforce ineffective is productivity blockers, namely, mundane, manual repetitive tasks and a lack of organised data.

Improving the workforce is more than just increasing headcount or hiring the best talent, although that also has its place.

You need to dedicate resources and attention to improving employee productivity through the use of technology such as artificial intelligence (Al) and robotic process automation (RPA). This is great for taking on more volume without an increase in headcount.

4. Improve Customer Experience

By enhancing customer experience, you can encourage customer loyalty, which will lead to them spending more with you.

The modern way to focus on customer experience is by using digital channels and the Internet of Things (loT)  to provide connected experiences.

This means that you need to design customer experiences that are personalised, contextual, and relevant to the individual customer.

5. Increase Asset Utilisation

We’d encourage you to approach this in 3 key ways:

• Optimising inventory and yield: Use analytics to better forecast and IoT to track inventory.
• Optimising physical assets: Deploy technology to maximise uptime, life, yield, and reduce energy.
• Optimising financial assets and cash: Use the right technological system to better assess risks and improve yield.

In conclusion:

The strategies we’ve outlined are by no means an exhaustive list, but they will give you a good foundation to build on and drive better business outcomes.

Want to learn more? We’ve got two powerful systems that can help your organisation:

• SunSystems: A truly innovative financial management system, designed to improve decision-making, data access, and business performance.
• NetSuite: A comprehensive, market-leading cloud business management suite and ERP, perfect for growing businesses that need to improve productivity, efficiency, and customer experience.

Want to have a free demo? Book a free requirement call with us now.