A focus on both goods and services leads to a complete, connected customer experience
Consumer goods companies used to design, produce and ship products for customers to buy through a third-party. Now, many focus on the services side to offer customers a more complete and connected experience. They’re trying to get closer to customers, understand them better and be a top-of-mind brand, not just a manufacturer.
In some cases, that means adding a direct-to-consumer (retail) channel to their existing distribution channels. For others, it means adding services to make the company’s products more relevant and cement lasting relationships with consumers.
In either case, technology plays a key role. A competitive digital consumer goods and services (CG&S) organization today uses disruptive technologies, such as intelligent automation, machine learning and the industrial internet of things, to connect people, processes, things and data. The resulting personalization, workforce empowerment and insight-led decision-making are cornerstones of a successful digital business.
“Fpzsgroup has the know-how, the Microsoft expertise, and the innovative spirit we needed to successfully undertake a project of this magnitude [migration to Office 365] and to deliver a solution with higher benefits and more security than we previously had.”
The benefits we bring to CG&S organizations
We understand the role technology plays in a successful CG&S organization. We can help you:- Integrate retail into your distribution channel
- Make your product go-to-market strategy faster, smarter and more efficient
- Discover new, more meaningful opportunities to engage with retailers, consumers and supply chain vendors
- Use data to create responsive, engaging customer experiences across all channels
- Identify the right tools to empower your workforce to be more flexible, efficient and effective
- Overcome limitations and missed opportunities in your infrastructure with data management and analytics
- Move to platforms and technologies that can accurately fulfill consumer expectations for personalization and engagement
- Unify a strategy for your marketing message and brand strategy
- Shift to technology priorities that encourage innovation and change management so you stay competitive
- Reinforce and strengthen customer loyalty to keep your customers coming back.
AUTOMATION IN CONSUMER GOODS
If current trends continue, the consumer goods leaders of today will not be the leaders of tomorrow. They can win, but only by fully embracing the digital and automation capabilities that are powering the transformation of the industry. Many leaders are delaying fully embracing the journey. They needn’t. Their employees are waiting to start.
20% of market growth between 2011 to 2015 came from digital disrupters who represent only 10% of the market 2
This decade has seen a fundamental shift in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. Historically, growth was driven by economies of scale. In particular, the ability to get on-shelf with large retailers. Big CPGs that were able to build and maintain scale were rewarded.
This growth is shaped by the use of online channels, curating offers, personalizing products, using new digital business models, adding experiences and also catering to increasingly niche interests. These growth vehicles can only be delivered through robust digital and analytical capabilities. Moreover, technology enables more and more value from these growth vehicles all the time. We are now seeing the development of real-time personalized promotions, conversational commerce and lights-out factories. It is truly a new era for the industry.
Many CPG leadership think that using automation to eliminate work and workers will grow the business. In a recent survey, 43 percent of CPG executives said that their top automation driver was to cut costs and increase efficiency, particularly in the back-office. In short, the motivation to automate was not about growth
Instead we advocate that business should be driven by workers enabled by machines. The real value comes from identifying how each human capability can be enhanced by technology. Not by simply seeking opportunities for a new piece of technology to replace human workers. We put those capabilities into four categories: processing, reasoning, moving and perceiving.
All can be enhanced by digitization, the use of big data and analytics, digital enablement, robotic process automation and artificial intelligence (AI).
Technology should be about making human interactions richer and capable of driving more informed decisions.
The Solution
To continue to grow and increase productivity on a worldwide scale, global manufacturer Harry Global wanted to empower its 1,000 employees nationwide to deliver information on any device, anywhere, at any time. A digital workplace based on this vision would increase productivity and innovation, enabling better data-driven decisions.
An obvious first step in achieving this vision was migrating from Microsoft Office 2010 and an aging legacy infrastructure to Microsoft Office 365.
Our consumer goods and services expertise
Some of the world’s leading consumer goods companies rely on our services to innovate, get to market faster and achieve business goals at lower cost.
We offer a complete package of digital solutions, from Digital Marketing to Intelligent Automation and E-commerce.
We can help deliver your digital strategy to reach and engage customers and improve the productivity and performance of employees. We’ll show you new ways to operate that drive growth while controlling costs.
Fpzsgroup is a Microsoft Gold partner. By combining innovative Microsoft technologies and industry best practices in CG&S, we’ll help you create an agile business for the digital age.
Next steps
The current global disruption requires you to make changes – quickly. Fpzsgroup combines the business strategy, agile innovation and deep Microsoft technology expertise to help you rethink, so you can transform faster and smarter.
