Vildana Karalić-Avdić, Infobip’s head of marketing MENA, discusses how their business has adapted to meet the demands of the digital economy, the acceleration of DX since the onset of the pandemic and opinions on the current cybersecurity climate.
Can you outline to us how your company has demonstrated its ability to leverage its technological expertise to help business transform their day-to-day operations to adapt, evolve, and meet the demands of the digital economy?
We are particularly proud of how our full stack of SaaS solutions built around the AI segment has played a pivotal role in pushing businesses forward by elevating how they engage with their clients. After all, the digital economy is about connecting individuals and companies. By empowering businesses and making them more accessible to their client base through our SaaS and CPaaS solutions, we are enabling them to adapt to shifting trends in customer engagement and evolving business operations. Customers today want to communicate with brands and businesses over platforms that are familiar, fast, and reliable. This is where we help businesses meet those demands, by ensuring their end users get the most value in real-time and through their preferred channels.
Digital Transformation has accelerated rapidly since the onset of the pandemic in 2020, but as an IT leader and expert, what are the key principles and processes businesses need to define and determine before embarking on their digital transformation journey?
Let me start with an important step, in my opinion. That is ensuring you have top management buy-in, vision, and willingness to make the switch.
Before embarking on this journey, you need to invest in a growth mindset, an internal culture ready to make the shift. The next step is to assess your internal readiness in terms of mindset and in terms of operations.
The next step is to observe your current growth strategy and evaluate what tweaks are needed to accommodate the transformation. For example, if you want to integrate cloud-based communication solutions, do you have a solid communication strategy? Have you embraced a customer-centric approach?
Lastly, when it is time to make the change, it is crucial to invest in a platform that is easy to manage and seamless to integrate with different channels.
At Infobip, we were also pushed to diversify our portfolio of products & solutions and tailor them further to help businesses and customers stay afloat and thrive during the challenging pandemic times. It all boils down to being agile and ready to embrace the change.
We know that technology is advancing more now than it has ever done so in the past, but what is your vision for the future in terms of the tech trends that are really going to drive change and foster further innovation in the next 3-5 years?
I would say that it will all revolve around effortless experiences & communication. It will come down to creating solutions and technologies that are making people’s lives easier in a nutshell. We are incredibly excited about what’s next on Infobip’s horizon in that sphere. For us, it’s all about frictionless omnichannel solutions that aim to elevate the customer journey and overall experience.
Data-driven solutions are part of the way forward where SaaS and CPaaS play an integral role with the overall aim of further product optimization to enhance the customer experience at every step.
Lastly, we project that more businesses will make the necessary shift to cloud-based contact centers to ensure that clients receive the support they need when they need it, and over the channels they use daily.
We know that cybersecurity is a major challenge in the current IT ecosystem, and we have seen the damage done by a series of ransomware attacks over the last number of months. In your expert opinion, what are the biggest challenges facing businesses in today’s climate?
Maintaining stringent and evolving security measures play an integral role in an organization’s strategy. IT decision-makers need to double their efforts to identify solutions that address their changing business needs and keep ongoing security threats at bay.
When looking for an omnichannel solutions provider, one of the essential determining factors that need to be evaluated is the service provider’s security. Infobip is putting a lot of focus on the security, protection, and privacy of data. We have very strict security and privacy policies & standards in place. This makes it possible for us to provide a truly frictionless experience for the end-user. Therefore, it is important for businesses to look for solutions that are agile and adaptable in terms of growth strategy and meeting security requirements. Technical competency, or lack thereof, is another challenge. Businesses must invest in providing regular training to empower their staff and ensure security measures are being followed.
