Companies have more options than ever before for adding new customers and earning their loyalty. Connected devices, and the social, mobile, analytics, and cloud (SMAC) technologies that power them, create huge amounts of data.

This information serves as a digital footprint around consumers, organizations, processes, and products. Cognizant, a global leader in business and technology services, refers to this data as a “Code Halo.” Understanding, managing, and responding to it is key to not only meeting customer needs, but also anticipating them.

Ben Pring co-leads Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work and shared with us the following new list of best practices for how to leverage modern technology to build better, and lasting, customer connections:

1. Build around a customer platform

Make your customer information central to everything you do. Customer platforms give you a common data model by bringing together the best of customer relationship management (CRM), managed cloud infrastructure, APIs, integration services, rapid visual development, and more. 

2. Develop a next-gen IT architecture

The IT architecture of old will not keep up with the pace of today’s connected environment. SMAC technologies are needed to adapt. Platform as a Service (PaaS) can free IT teams from “keeping the lights on,” by providing the necessary infrastructure. As a result, their new focus can be building apps.

3. Focus on developing apps fast

Avoid slow development and missing the mark by delivering solutions that are too late to be useful. The next generation of PaaS platforms provide drag and drop tools, app logic, workflow, and integration. Teams can not only build apps faster, but also easily get end users involved in the process to be sure the final result meets their needs. 

4. Transform business processes

An app-centric model that leverages SMAC technologies to unlock back office data changes the way work is done by giving employees better information. The result is not only improved job performance, but also the ability to quickly adapt to changing business conditions.

5. Improve employee engagement

Employees already use applications powered by SMAC technologies in their personal lives and respond to having similar tools at work. Easy-to-use and intuitive apps help them to be more productive. They can also collaborate across teams from anywhere. 

6. Rethink product development 

There are new ways for product developers to meet and anticipate the needs of customers. Crowdsourcing, collaboration tools, feedback, and iterative design can all offer insights that result in better products and services.

7. Reinvent the customer journey

Companies have begun to realize that they need to either offer great experiences across the entire customer journey, or lose customers to a competitor who does. SMAC technologies enable companies to understand customers and serve them better with engaging applications.

Get further insights on this topic by attending the Dreamforce 2014 breakout session, “Apps for the Connected World: Supercharge Customer Data with Code Haloes.” Learn how your company can dominate its sector by managing the information that surrounds people, organizations, processes, and products - a "Code Halo" - to build new business and operating models.

Click here for more information and to reserve your spot.

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