| | DECEMBER 20218VANTAGE POINTDIGITAL TRANSFORMATION LEADING THE PACK... WINNERS DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY BY Prakash Dharmani, Global CIO, EPL"T here is no alternative to digital transformation. Visionary companies will carve out new strate-gic options for themselves -- those that don't adapt, will fail." Jeff Bezos, AmazonThe above quote from the founder of Amazon illustrates the importance of Digital transformation (DX) in today's context. A study done by MIT predicts that 40 percent of the businesses that don't adopt new technologies will get wiped out in the next 10 years. The global COVID-19 lockdown has had unprecedented impacts on our personal and professional lives and whether we like it or not this pandemic is proving the above prophecy right. If you closely observe and analyse the annual results of companies which had adopted Digital technologies long back, they have not only survived but actually thrived. They have turned this adversity into opportunity.And for others across the globe, this chaotic situation is forcing them to rethink their business strategies. In fact Covid-19 has been responsible for fast tracking Global Digital Transformation (DX) initiatives.There are several ways to create differentiators in a competitive and a dynamic market, but above all, the establishment of Digital Enterprise' holds immense promise in bringing about the next wave of product innovation and business process transformation. The combination of next-generation technologies are slated to change the very basis of engagement across businesses. As our customers and their customers increasingly turn to digital technologies, organizations that make the most of this opportunity will be at the forefront of the industry. Similarly vendors are delivering new database and analytics solutions that can handle massive data volumes and deliver insights across the enterprise in real-time or near-real-time. Thus, in the near future, 'digital' and 'business' will be nearly synonymous for the manufacturing industry.One could think what kind of IT platform classic B2B manufacturing organisation like ours (EPL Ltd) must have deployed. You will be pleasantly surprised to know that when it comes to implementing technology be it core manufacturing or IT, EPL is actually a bit ahead of the curve. Our IT mission is to `SPRINT' which broadly stands for Simplify, Predictive, Robust, Innovative, Nimble and Transform. We have started our DX journey by adopting best practices of categorizing DX initiatives broadly into three areas i.e. a) customer experience, b) operational excellence and c) Enterprise wide solutions. Let me take you through some of the DX solutions which have been implemented and planned for the future.CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE:We have implemented an eACT tool which stands for Art Work Collaboration wherein the complete process of capturing customer's requirement of artwork and approval process has been digitized. During the ongoing pandemic where it has become very difficult for customers to do on site proofing this tool has become a blessing in disguise as it is enabling online proofing and bromide approvals. Earlier we were using a host of applications to manage the process which has now become a single application thereby minimizing Artwork errors to very large extent, reduced TAT for complete process and brought in transparency at both at customer end and within organisation. Currently we are in the process of evaluating solutions to capture 360° view of customers and further simplifying the ordering process.
< Page 7 | Page 9 >