Maintaining relevance and driving conversations with customers remains critical to the challenges of business in an increasingly digitised world. To achieve this and ensure longevity, Cassie Lessing, managing director, Strato IT Group, a mobile business solutions provider, says that while innovation remains imperative, automation is becoming a significant part of digitisation too.
 
“Innovative automation is how you will disrupt your business before your competitors do it. The level and rate of technology change is on the increase with new digital platforms and solutions being launched almost daily. To maintain relevance is becoming harder without fully exploring the power of mobility and developing a transformational digitisation strategy,” says Lessing.
 
He says that ‘end-to-end’ applications and platforms will play a role in supporting the transformation of business further into the digitisation age: “Since launching our ePod application, STRATOPOD, three years ago, we have seen a marked increase in the need for integrated business solution platforms.

In the case of StratoPOD, the requirement has specifically been focused on data level system integration, the benefits of which are becoming more apparent to larger companies with a supply chain or significant logistics services.”
 
“With the StratoPOD ePod App tightly integrated into our customers back-office systems we have witnessed a major reduction in the administrative activities of all participants in the supply chain. Related savings has typically funded the implementation of StratoPOD within the first year,” says Lessing.
 
With an increasing move away from customising proprietary software, an integrated approach holds significant benefit for business. Additional client specific functionality can be rapidly deployed using modern cloud and mobile based technologies without customising proprietary software. A seamless enterprise integration platform facilitates business process optimisation bringing together the advantages of a robust proprietary back-office ERP system and the agility of cloud-based applications. Data level integration facilitates automation of business processes which drastically reduces administration activities, freeing staff to focus on more value adding activities.
 
“The drive for seamless and consistent engagement is ever-critical. By using innovative automation in a digital context, businesses will leapfrog traditional approaches and reap the rewards as customers respond to this digitised way of doing business,” says Lessing.