Seamless Synergy: How I.T. Delivers Exceptional Customer Experience Through Digital Transformation

There is no denying that we are in the era of The Digital Customer. How businesses conduct themselves is dictated by digital transformation, intense market competition, the prevalence of ever-changing technologies, the proliferation of goods and services, and internet and mobile technology. But to continue to give the customer the flexibility to obtain information in a seamless and customised fashion, we must ensure the fluidity between digital and traditional models. Organisations that provide this flexible, seamless customer experience set the stage for digital transformation and innovation.

That is why the importance of a holistic customer experience cannot be underemphasised. We learn a lot about our customer’s experience by analysing what our customers say on various digital channels, for example. But we also learn a lot through our offline channels; our account managers, customer service representatives, our sales team - those on the ground spending time getting to know our customers' office needs. Both enable us to better understand our customer’s needs regarding office solutions and personify the relationships and trust we build.

Our fully integrated strategy ensures that boundaries between online and offline channels do not exist, as our customers expect a unified experience when moving between both. And with how technology has transformed, we can utilise all that digital has to offer to ensure that our customers are met with the same experience no matter what channel they use.

Tracing the Evolution of Digital Transformation in I.T.

We live in a world where more is possible than ever before. Systems, data and analytics that only a few years back would have been out of reach of all but the largest enterprises have been made available to all. This democratisation of capitalism has enabled organisational self-refection, re-evaluation, growth, and self-actualisation that is truly measured. In the tech world alone, digital transformation has enhanced almost every area of an organisation’s structure, from capability, productivity, and profits to enterprise value growth. And Europe is well-positioned to capture the next wave of digital transformation, with targets set for 90% of E.U. SMEs to reach at least a basic level of digital intensity by 2030 as set out in the Digital Compass – the E.U. Digital Transformation Vision.

I love a good quote – it is a personal weakness. I live in a technical world and spend my life translating double Dutch back to some semblance of plain English. It is not always easy, and that is where quotes and metaphors come to the fore. When I joined Codex three and a half years ago, my first goal was to define an I.T. mission statement. I arrived at the “The purpose of I.T. is to securely enable Codex to be as efficient and effective as possible”. It is a little clunky, but the message is clear, and the eagle-eyed among you will notice the sentiments of Peter Drucker lurking in there. He lived a fascinating career and wrote many wise words, and I believe his sentiment of “anything that can be measured can be improved” is the true essence of what we have worked to achieve in Codex's IT department and throughout the organisation. 

I am lucky we have intelligent and highly educated people at Codex. My exposure to Lean Six Sigma by our fabulous Head of Customer Service, Audrey Jenkins, crystallised and greatly expanded on core concepts I already readily embraced, such as the ITIL concept of Continuous Service Improvement. With this sentiment, this belief in self-reflection, the use of quantitate and qualitative analysis and most importantly, by listening to our customers, an organisation can genuinely grow to form those all-important partnerships with all stakeholders.

Digital Transformation Empowers the Customer’s Experience

When you fixate on the customer experience, be it your internal customers, like those traditionally supported by in-house I.T. functions, or the more literal customer, you put the building blocks for a long-term mutually beneficial relationship in place.

Similarly, when you focus on the ease of use and the flexibility of solutions while meeting the key needs of your customers, you build advocates for yourself and your services, develop loyalty, and build a partnership relationship that makes doing business pleasurable, optimistic, and lasting.

From Customers to Culture: The Experiences Shaping Our Company Values

Since forming our values in 2022, Codex has focused on delivering the best customer experience to leading private and public organisations. In truth, this sentiment has always been an underlying core belief of Codex. It was not only instilled by our founder, Brendan Murphy, 40+ years ago but also embraced and lived by everyone in Codex in the decades since and to this day.

Answering the “how” and the “why” of customer experience, our values frame everything we do. From frontline employees to the traditional functions historically considered “back-of-house” or removed from customer engagements, such as I.T., finance, or H.R., they live by these values daily. As the leader of I.T. in Codex, I greatly emphasise these values. I see them as our guiding stars.

While we may not always be perfect in every aspect of everything we do, I ardently believe that if we embrace the challenge to improve, the belief that tomorrow can be better, as well as the self-belief and discipline to take those steps forward, even if only incremental ones, a sea change can be brought about, that a movement and ultimately a transformational momentum can be delivered.

To quote our first value, Codex places the Customer First.

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Gerard Healy has been Head of IT at Codex for three and a half years. During this time, he has been instrumental in digitally transforming I.T. processes through consolidating key infrastructure, delivering key business applications and reporting frameworks, and enhancing information security and data protection.

Gerard has been shortlisted in the upcoming CIO & IT Leaders Awards for his focused efforts on maximising customer experience through digitisation, automation, system integrations and analytics, enabling Codex to accomplish more, continue to satisfy the needs of its customers, and be the market leader in its key sectors of Office Supplies, Furniture, and Print.

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