Until recently, customer experience, long a key focus for business leaders across most industries, was not on CIOs’ “to-do” list. In the customer experience age, however, this has rapidly changed, with CX not only on CIOs’ plate but is their chief focus.
The journey of today’s customer features a series of interactions, or contact points, with a product or service provider. While in the past it would not necessarily have been the case, today almost every one of these interactions — from marketing and advertising all the way through to purchase, customer service and technical support — is digitally enabled.
But digital goes far beyond that. Happy (and less-than-happy) customers can and do report their experiences online, on personal blogs, social media platforms, and review sites. These mini-reports, often numbering in the thousands, go a long way to making up the mind of would-be customers.
As literally every stage of the customer journey is now digital, companies are now giving the CIO, as tech lead, the reins in CX initiatives. IT, once a rear-office unit, is part of the way through an evolution to being a true source of both innovation and revenue. CIOs are proving to be key to this evolution, a bridge between the technological and business worlds, which up until recently were islands to one another.
2020 is coming fast. As the boundaries of what technology can enable and unlock expand, dynamic CIOs are thinking both strategically and holistically, and are working to transform IT into an innovation and revenue powerhouse. Security, however, remains a critical factor, one that keeps innovation without intelligence in check. Today’s CIO must work both sides: setting IT free while ensuring airtight data security; this is the new normal.
According to the newest edition of ITWC’s CanadianCIO Census, an annual survey undertaken by ITWC’s digital media property CanadianCIO, CIOs appear to be thriving in this new business landscape.
On August 21st, ITWC CIO Jim Love and a special Outsystems guest will discuss the key findings of the 2019 CanadianCIO survey report in “The CIO as Business Linchpin in the Customer Experience Age.” In this session, Love and guest will explore the growing influence of CIOs at the executive level, ongoing concerns and priorities, and the outlook for the CIO role in an increasingly customer-centric world.
Register now for “The CIO as Business Linchpin in the Customer Experience Age”
