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23/11/2021

Healthcare Plans and Providers Can Serve Patients Faster – Here’s How

Working more closely through a digital bridge can unlock greater efficiencies and get patients the care they need faster.

One of today’s top challenges in healthcare is that providers and health plans alike are bogged down by disconnected systems. Team members using those systems every day find themselves steeped in administrative tasks or cross-referencing information multiple times, leading to decreased productivity and inferior user experiences. Health plans face this challenge regularly when working with new or existing providers, as network management involves many time-consuming administrative processes. It can take health plans anywhere from four weeks to four months to credential a provider, delaying not only their onboarding process but the ability to efficiently and quickly provide care to patients.

When it comes to setting up new provider networks or expanding existing ones, the demand for networks to develop more efficient operations that reduce or eliminate time-consuming processes will continue to grow. Investing in an interoperable platform, or a “digital bridge,” that connects various systems and digitizes manual processes can speed the length of time it takes a provider to onboard into a network and make ongoing communication and collaboration much more seamless. Organizations like EmblemHealth have taken the plunge and are seeing how much better their operations and provider relationships have improved as a result. “Salesforce allows us to provide better customer service interactions in a more cohesive way and predict how we should engage next. [The platform] also delivers critical insights around providing better health and wellness to our members and providing better information to our provider partners,” said Tom MacMillan, CIO at EmblemHealth.

Here are five steps you can take to get started on the path to improving provider network management with a digital bridge made possible with a connected platform.

Step 1: Analyze the network

Step 2: Ramp up recruitment

Step 3: Automate the application process

Step 4: Minimize credentialing and contracting constraints

Step 5: Empower providers

Read More: https://www.salesforce.com/blog/improve-provider-network-management/

Providers can use automated workflows on a health plan's application portal to serve patients and make applying to networks quick and simple.

18/11/2021

How To Improve Customer Focus: 6 Tips and Strategies

This is our step-by-step guide to create a more customer-focused culture in your organization.

In 2007, after delivering close to one billion DVDs into customers’ mailboxes, Netflix realized their customers would prefer something different — inexpensive, simple-to-access entertainment they could watch on demand. Netflix recognized they needed to be more customer-focused, even when it meant disrupting their own business model. What is customer focus? Obsessive knowledge of both what your customers need, and how to deliver it.

For Netflix, it was a smart move. The company’s video streaming service not only proved to be hugely popular, it also changed how we consume television and movies altogether. Rival DVD rental business Blockbuster failed to adapt to meet the changing market. The rest is history.

In an era of changing customer expectations and increased market competition, it’s more important than ever for businesses to have razor-sharp customer focus.

What is customer focus? Why is it important?

What are some examples of a customer-focused organization?

How do you build a customer-focused culture?

These six tips will get you started:
1. Listen to your customers
2. Make space for ideas
3. Break down internal barriers
4. Unlock your data
5. Appoint a customer-focused advocate
6. Create opportunities for learning

Read More: https://www.salesforce.com/blog/customer-focus/

Customer focus requires knowledge of what customers need, and how to deliver it. Use these tips to build a customer-focused business.

16/11/2021

5 New Sales Metrics Every Sales Leader Should Be Thinking About

Businesses are considering sales performance metrics that shift focus to long-term relationships — with both customers and employees.

The pandemic didn’t just disrupt sales. It caused a seismic shift.

Before 2020, sales teams hummed on leads in pipe, one-off sales (digital and in-person), and pipeline velocity. Success metrics, like quotas, reflected these topline goals.

But in the wake of COVID-19, digital adoption soared, pushing widespread remote buying and selling. At the same time, economic strains demanded new revenue streams. So, companies pivoted — hard.

To ensure predictable growth that offered customers digital-first, low-cost entry to products and services, businesses rolled out subscriptions. They also turned their focus to long-term customer success instead of one-off sales, reinvesting in employee retention to ensure there was no gap in customer relationships.

“It was the beginning of a paradigm shift,” said Belal Batrawy, founder of sales company Death to Fluff. “We started moving away from tracking net-new activity and thinking about a longer revenue cycle.” In short, businesses shifted focus to long-term relationships — both with customers and employees.

And to track how successful they are at building these relationships? Well, that requires new sales metrics.

New sales metrics take the spotlight

While topline figures are still important for mapping short-term forecasts, those that measure longer-term value are increasingly top of mind for sales leaders. The most important ones are recurring revenue, customer lifetime value, customer retention, early warning signs, and employee retention.

Here’s the “what” and the “why” of these sales metrics in detail:

1. Recurring revenue

2. Customer lifetime value

3. Customer retention/churn

4. Early warning signs

5. Employee retention/churn

What’s next?

In this new digital normal, customers reign. “The future of selling is not just about hitting numbers,” Unruh said. “It’s about customer success.” To make that success possible while ensuring predictable growth, top talent must be secured and recurring revenue models employed. Equally as important, the right metrics need to be tracked to gauge success.

New tools and skills will help you get there. “We need to start thinking about how to combine all customer engagement data and create [CRM] dashboards that show the full picture of success,” Batrawy said.

The next step for companies should be hiring a RevOps person who’s data science-driven, he argues — someone to find the right tools, to build the right dashboards, to showcase the sales metrics that matter. Only when this data is clear can sales leaders craft strategies that lead to growth.

Read More: https://www.salesforce.com/blog/new-sales-metrics/

Today's sellers need to focus on long-term relationships with new sales metrics, like customer lifetime value and monthly recurring revenue.

10/11/2021

Your Business Needs a Bigger Sustainability Strategy

How can companies turn big climate pledges into real action? The changes required could be bigger than you think.

It has been a watershed year for corporate sustainability promises. Under pressure from consumers, investors, and — quite frankly — the planet, more and more companies are pledging to reduce their carbon emissions to a net of zero by some set date. Even some energy companies that have been among the world’s biggest producers of fossil fuels, such as BP and Shell, have announced similar goals. But there’s a trust gap here: many consumers aren‘t buying it.

Fewer than one-third (32%) of customers view these corporate commitments as meaningful, according to a recent Salesforce survey of nearly 2,400 adults in the U.S. and U.K. Nearly half (47%) said they view the promises as superficial. Against that skepticism, now comes the hard part: turning promises into action.

Becoming sustainable isn’t a single act or even a single initiative. For many companies, it will require a total transformation in how they think and a significant upheaval in how they operate. Interviews with sustainability leaders at companies around the world suggest their efforts will apply to entire business models, and hinge on buy-in from employees at every level.

“The number one mindset shift organizations need to make is to recognize that this is not a siloed agenda, nor is it philanthropy. It’s the only credible growth strategy,” said Anna Lungley, Chief Sustainability Officer at Dentsu, the Japanese advertising giant. “It will require behavioral change. It will require products to come to market. It’s a business transformation agenda.”

The good news: many companies have become more agile during the pandemic, as seen most evidently with the speed of digitization. The same trait can help many become more sustainable.

“Businesses are changing the way they do things at a rate we’ve never seen before,” said Ofer Ben-Dov, sustainability practice lead at Traction on Demand, North America’s largest dedicated Salesforce consulting and application development firm. But Ben-Dov said many clients he works with aren’t sure where to start.

Key tips for sustainability

- Put sustainability under the CFO

- Get employee buy-in

- Use climate initiatives to drive growth

- Influence consumer demand and lifestyle choices

- Measure progress with the right technology

Read More: https://www.salesforce.com/blog/sustainability-strategy/

Sustainability strategy isn't a single initiative. For many companies, it will require a total transformation in how they operate.

04/11/2021

Diwali celebrations across Icon offices - India & Singapore!!!

01/11/2021

Cloud Icon Wishes You A Happy And Safe Diwali!

19/10/2021

What a Cookieless Future Means For Data-Driven Marketing

Check out new data-driven marketing strategies for personalization and measurement as browsers phase out the third-party cookie.

One of the most popular tools online marketers use to learn about customers is disappearing, leaving the industry searching for new ways to fill the data-driven marketing void.

Browsers have begun phasing out cookies — the small identifiers that track user behavior across websites — in response to privacy and regulatory concerns. Apple’s Safari and other browsers already block cookies, and Google is planning similar action in 2023 for its market-dominating Chrome browser. These moves are upending business models for online marketers who have traditionally used cookies to personalize their advertising and measure its effectiveness.

Third-party cookies will be most impacted by these changes. Those are loaded onto websites from third-party servers for advertising and tracking purposes, and aren’t part of the main website a user is visiting.

First-party cookies are still safe. Those are directly tied to the website you visit, and help the browser remember key pieces of information, such as which items you add to shopping carts, your username and password, and language preferences.

So what are the ramifications for data-driven marketing?
We asked marketers across various industries how they think these changes will affect their marketing measurement strategies. Here’s what they had to say.

First-party data will become more important
For too long, marketers have relied on third parties to tell them who their customers are. Marketers now realize that they need a personal approach, which involves collecting as much first-party data as possible. This can include emails, phone numbers, addresses, purchase history, and cookies with customer consent.

“With the planned phase out of third-party cookies, first-party data has become more important than ever,” said Allison Urffer, senior marketing and research analyst at Geisinger, a hospital and healthcare company. “But some of the same challenges, like siloed data, still exist.”

Geisinger uses Datorama to join various sources to understand cross-channel marketing performance. “Using first-party data in Datorama gives us the tools necessary to develop relevant landing page personalization, more targeted segmenting and messaging, and the creation of engaging lead-nurturing journeys,” Urffer said. “These data-informed tactics help connect Geisinger directly to the consumer in a way that allows the consumer to feel known, heard, and valued.”

New methods of measurement will prevail
The way we measure marketing effectiveness has changed. Old practices like multi-touch attribution are no longer viable in a cookie-less world.

For example, Hughes Federal Credit Union, a Salesforce customer, has explored other ways of measuring advertising impact.

HFCU continues to use first-party data when reaching existing members with new offers. It is also relying more heavily on vendors that are aggregating data based not on pixels or cookies, but on alternate sources such as device IDs, IP addresses, and specific geographic locations.

The HFCU team then compares the data before and after each campaign and ties account openings (their first-party data) to vendors’ data in order to create matches between new accounts and specific ads shown to devices or geographic locations.

Transparency is imperative in data-driven marketing
Calls for data transparency have increased and nearly three-quarters of marketers say their key stakeholders can’t access the right data and insights.

“Transparency is imperative to not only grow our business, but to give our clients the best experience possible,” said Christy LeRoy, Director of Analytics and Research at Digital Hyve. LeRoy said the company now spends an average of 25% less time each week writing reports, freeing at least six hours each week for higher priority tasks, including strategy.

“This transparency, more importantly, has benefited our clients,” LeRoy said “Clients are able to access campaign results in real time, arming them with the information to make strategic decisions alongside Digital Hyve. This improves both our businesses and grows our partnerships.”

Opting in is the new requirement
With Apple’s upcoming App Tracking Transparency feature, consumers have the ability to dictate which apps get access to their data for ad-targeting purposes. As consumers start to opt out of data sharing, marketers may need to change their measurement and targeting strategies.

We caught up with Asha Gourinath of Grab, a superapp based in Southeast Asia, to discuss how this opt-in approach will shift Grab’s marketing measurement strategy.

“While it might make measuring success harder, it just emphasizes our need to lean into a tailored measurement strategy,” said Gourinath, who leads digital marketing and CRM at Grab. “And that’s why we see Datorama as such an important part of our stack – it gives us transparency into our marketing impact that was previously unattainable.”

Read More: https://www.salesforce.com/blog/cookieless-data-driven-marketing/

Check out new data-driven marketing strategies for personalization and measurement as browsers phase out the third-party cookie.

15/10/2021

Icon Elite Club Event

Mr. Debanjan Banerjee, CIO Pernod Ricard India is our esteemed guest for the evening and he will be sharing with us some valuable thoughts and learnings from his experiences.

Date: Friday, 22nd October 2021

Time: 6:30 PM IST (9:00 PM SGT)

11/10/2021

How Retailers Can Win (Again!) With Livestreaming and New Digital Channels

Here's how stores of all sizes can develop an omnichannel commerce strategy.

Patrick Deloy is Managing Director at Isobar, a Dentsu Aegis Network company and Platinum Salesforce partner, and Chief Growth Officer at Dentsu Commerce. He leads the commerce practice from Hong Kong.
The retail industry has faced unparalleled challenges and transformation in 2020. Millions of businesses closed their doors due to the effects of stay-at-home orders. As the demand for online shopping surged, retailers with strong ecommerce channels were able to keep trading. Others weren’t so lucky. Even now, with most stores able to reopen, many brands are struggling to survive as shoppers continue to stay away.
And it’s not just the big brands that suffer. Neighborhood retailers have been hit the hardest due to their reliance on foot traffic. According to a recent study, businesses with fewer than 20 employees were most likely to have closed already or are likely to close by December 2020. Of these, retail businesses were the hardest hit.
Retailers who have managed to weather the storm have needed to redesign the entire shopping experience around new health regulations and evolving customer expectations. We’ve seen many examples of innovative retailers not only surviving but thriving, as they quickly pivot their business around new engagement strategies. One example is CarMax, who was able to create a retail-like digital experience where customers could shop online or via the CarMax app. We saw similar adaptability from the shoe brand TOMS that used social listening to understand their customers were looking for solutions to help people in need. This information inspired them to create the Global Giving Fund, a program where they donate $1 for every $3 they make to partners directly addressing COVID-19 relief efforts — ultimately generating over $2M in donations.
In this new retailing environment, stores of all sizes are under pressure to digitally innovate to compete online. With the online shift expected to be permanent, the race is on for retailers to develop an omnichannel commerce strategy and start exploring popular new channels, like livestreaming, that can help them rebuild customer engagement, loyalty, and brand advocacy.
To do this effectively, they need an innovation roadmap built on an evolved brand narrative, the right digital channels and strategies, and the data to support meaningful personalization.

1. Uncover your new brand potential
2. Look to new channels and strategies to target your customers more effectively
3. Lean into new engagement tactics and personalization
4. Engage everywhere by connecting commerce and personalization

Read More: https://www.salesforce.com/blog/new-digital-channels-retail/

Stores of all sizes are under pressure to digitally innovate and compete online. Here's how retailers can develop an omnichannel commerce strategy and start exploring popular new channels.

04/10/2021

4 Ways To Take Your Digital Experience From Good To Great

Nearly all companies have a digital presence, and many are quite good. But in 2021, good doesn't cut it.

A great digital experience is about the little things: The streaming service that lets you “skip intro” during a weekend binge, the bank that approves your credit card application from an app, the website that serves up just-for-you content. These are the things that make our interactions with a brand easy and more efficient, and what keeps us loyal.

The digital experience is a make or break for brands. We have all abandoned sites because they were too hard to navigate, took too long to load, or required too many steps to perform a simple task. Yet despite massive technological advancements, sub-par experiences are still pervasive.

What’s the difference between digital experience and customer experience?

The 4 principles of great data-driven digital experiences

1) Walk in your customer’s virtual shoes
2) Connect the dots across your digital ecosystem
3) Make every digital interaction personal
4) Stay fast and flexible

Read More: - https://www.salesforce.com/blog/building-great-digital-experiences/

'Good' digital experiences aren't good enough for today's savvy consumers. They need to be great. But how do you go from good to great?

20/09/2021

84% of Marketers Say Customer Expectations Are Changing Their Digital Strategy

With insights from more than 8,200 marketers, this year's State of Marketing Report reveals the biggest priorities and challenges that will shape the future of marketing strategy in 2021 and beyond.

Digital transformation isn’t just a buzzworthy phrase — it has quickly become the reality for marketing organizations around the world.
Eighty-four percent of marketers surveyed in our latest State of Marketing report said customer expectations are changing their digital strategies. As that transformation continues, they also indicated their jobs have become more important. Seventy-seven percent of marketers surveyed said they feel their work adds more value than it did a year ago.
This year’s State of Marketing report, now in its seventh edition, is our largest-ever pulse check on global marketing trends, with insights from more than 8,200 respondents across 37 countries. Representative of marketing roles from the event marketer to the CMO, this survey taps into what has inspired and challenged marketers over the past year, and what they’re expecting in the times ahead.
For instance, working from anywhere is here to stay. Eighty-two percent of marketers say their company is adopting new policies around remote work. Despite the harsh challenges of the past year, marketers have found innovative ways to connect with their customers — and each other. Yet 69% of marketers still say collaboration is tougher than before the pandemic. How do marketers grapple with our new reality as we emerge from one year of transformation into the next?
Read on for five key takeaways from the report.

1. Collaboration is now a top priority and challenge
2. Innovation and resilience help marketers deliver on customer demands in digital
3. More data doesn’t mean better data or smarter data decisions
4. Account-based marketing soars — with caveats
5. Marketers need relevant training to prepare for the future

Read More: https://www.salesforce.com/blog/future-of-marketing-strategy/

Five important takeaways about the future of marketing strategy from this year's State of Marketing Report.