The Record - Issue 19: Winter 2020

37 V I EWPO I NT Survive or thrive? J OHN COLGAN : SOLGAR I Organisations across all industries are looking to third-party companies to leverage automation, enable remote work and make more informed decisions W hile the full impact of 2020 is yet to be felt, there have been many tangible impacts on organisations across the globe over the past 12 months. All industries have been scrambling to keep their vital business processes in place, particularly around customer service, sales and marketing. The Covid-19 crisis has accelerated digital transformation, but it’s well documented that higher customer expectations and increased competition were already driving this trend. Healthcare for instance, which has been pushed to its limits during the crisis, has had to imple- ment faster, more intelligent ways of dealing with patients, and in some cases develop totally new systems and solutions. Early in the pandemic we worked with Microsoft to implement a high-volume contact tracing solution for a major European healthcare provider. The solution is fully integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365, giving the organisa- tion a 360-degree view of each contact. It is used extensively by 3,000 remote agents, powering tens of thousands of live and automated interac- tions across voice and SMS each day. Financial services organisations have also had to implement new, more effective ways of dealing with their customers, but in a way that maintains compliance and facilitates remote workforces. The industry, which is known for historically using legacy systems, was particularly under pressure in this ‘new normal’. We’ve been work- ing with customers in banking, insurance and beyond to ensure that the compliance box is ticked for many regulations and that their agents are empowered with the functionality they need to do their job from anywhere. Retail, utilities, manufacturing and educa- tion have all experienced drastic upheavals in the way they operate. As a result, they’ve been re-inventing their sales and service processes, all at a time when demand is also increasing. Aside from the compliance and remote work issues also faced by other industries, we’ve been work- ing with organisations in retail, utilities, manu- facturing and education to help them implement automation to simplify journeys around deliver- ies, sales and purchase confirmations, mass mar- keting and self-service capabilities. By offering our customers all the channels they need, including voice, SMS, video, chat and social, along with functionalities such as cloud contact centres and automation, we’ve been able to help our customers solve their unique chal- lenges. 2020 has demonstrated innovation and resilience at its best, and we’ve no doubt that organisations can thrive as well as survive in the aftermath. Of course, the flexibility, scalability and capability of Solgari will be there to help drive that. John Colgan is the CEO of Solgari “We’ve been able to help our customers solve their unique challenges”