As organisations focus on digital transformation, the role of enterprise software providers is shifting to advisory and consultative relationships focused on business outcomes.
SAS is reshaping its customer-facing structure in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region under the leadership of Riad Gydien, senior vice-president of Europe, Middle East and Africa. Brands must rethink their customer ecosystems to keep pace with empowered consumers and evolving technologies, according to Experience 2030: The Future of Customer Experience, a research study conducted by Futurum Research and sponsored by SAS.
Gydien is realigning the region around a customer-centric vision, from sales to deployment, training and value creation. The strategy includes a new customer experience practice under a single leader, which coordinates all customer touchpoints. SAS will be rolling out a similar approach in other regions.
“The key to success for our customers lies in alignment of technology, education, support and services from SAS as well as our partner network,” says Gydien. “This will provide a seamless and exceptional customer experience.”
Dave Macdonald, executive vice-president and chief sales officer for SAS, says: “Data-led innovation is changing the world, and we are at the forefront, helping customers deploy analytics that lead to better decisions across the enterprise.
“Our calling is to support our customers through their digital transformation, and their success is truly a passion for Riad. He is focused on helping organizations apply the most advanced analytics, AI and machine learning techniques to solve their most critical business challenges.”
As organisations progress in their digital transformation journeys, they increasingly realize that their investments must focus on value creation, not simply on the data and technology itself. For instance, data science teams were once evaluated on the number of algorithms or models they could create. Now, their impact is measured by the business outcomes these programs support.
“Our customers are facing some incredible challenges: the explosive growth of data, the need to drive near-real-time decisions at massive scale, a multitude of rapidly emerging technologies and a seemingly insurmountable skills gap,” says Gydien. “If organisations are to remain relevant, they must develop the ability to sense, understand and respond to changing market conditions and customer expectations with both speed and agility.”