Experts pinpoint user experience for digital success
SUCHIT LEESA-NGUANSUK
User centricity and user experience, data analytics, digital leadership and talent are key success factors driving business transformation in the digital disruption era, say leading tech and executive management experts.
"Thailand has a strong internet user base, with 45 million internet users and 234 minutes spent online per day," said Ariya Banomyong, managing director of Line Thailand. "However, the internet has not been used for business so much."
Speaking at a seminar entitled "Shaking business foundations: The effect of digital trends", held by the Thailand Management Association (TMA), Mr Ariya said business needs to focus on a more usercentric approach.
Currently there are 2.2-2.6 million mobile applications globally. In AsiaPacific, each user on average installs 32 mobile apps, but only five apps are active.
For those reasons, user interface and user experience are vital.
In the digital disruption era, traditional businesses are threatened by such upstart players as Alibaba, Line and Grab.
Mr Ariya foresees that e-commerce, fintech, payment and logistics will deliver a significant impact on the business sector.
"Banks are quite proactive to digital disruption, while transformation in fintech, retail and SMEs has been not clear yet," he said.
In the platform game, businesses have to find strategic partners to make a complete ecosystem and draw users with "stickiness".
"Data is gold, as it enables businesses to understand customers and their behaviours, so the businesses need to find employees who have data analytics capabilities," Mr Ariya said. "Meanwhile, the government has to build data analytics skills at the education level."
Line has developed products and services that users love, he said, and once a business gains massive users, revenue will inevitably be generated, ensuring success for the company.
"Businesses need to move fast and think big, understand technology based on data utilisation, and develop services based on users' pain points," Mr Ariya said.
Chonlak Mahasuvirachai, digital business lead at SCG Cement Building Materials, said SCG has switched focus from products to customers, while also turning employees into entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurialism is the way to secure potential digital talent, which leads to innovative services. SCG incubates such talent to let them run their own projects.
"It's more like we have them own their business without leaving the company," Ms Chonlak said.
Veerasak Kritsanapraphan, assistant chief information officer of Bangkok Hospital, said the group has a vision to provide more personalised medicine by using data analytics.
"Digital transformation is part of business transformation, and it's about making fundamental changes," he said.
Mr Veerasak said that to execute business transformation, organisations need to have a sense of urgency for digital transformation.
"They have to deeply understand customers and stakeholders' pain points, then start a project with a small, multidiscipline team," he said.
The group recently created Mobile Health Passport, a mobile app that enables customers to book annual checkups. The system applies data analytics and artificial intelligence to track health and predict disease risk.
"We can sell the this service without pricing competition," Mr Veerasak said.
Kanokphan Srivanapirom, senior vicepresident for people development at Total Access Communication Plc (DTAC), said digital has disrupted telecom.
DTAC has prepared for the changes since 2015 and set a vision to become the No.1 digital brand in Thailand by 2020.
The company must digitise every business function, including sales, marketing and human resources.
"To develop new products, we have to learn and test user experience and use big data to understand customers at every touchpoint," Ms Kanokphan said.
Bangkok Post ฉบับวันที่ 30 มีนาคม พ.ศ. 2561
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