Committed to help firms deliver connected customer experiences: Adobe

Mumbai, April 28 (IANS) The world is witnessing the arrival of enterprise software wave that is making fundamental changes to how businesses deliver customer experiences, and software giant Adobe says it is helping companies deliver that connected customer experiences globally, including in India.

Unveiling its report titled “Best of the Best India 2016” at the “Adobe Symposium 2016,” here on Thursday, the company explored how transformative digital strategies are helping brands to stay ahead in India’s competitive market and simultaneously win domestic and global customers in the country’s “mobile-first” market landscape.

“Adobe platforms are the powerful enablers helping companies deliver personalised, compelling and connected customer experiences at each relationship touchpoint from websites and social networks to mobile apps and all the way through to real-life transactions and interaction,” said Paul Robson, president of Adobe Asia Pacific region.

Umang Bedi, managing director of Adobe, South Asia said digital natives in India are forcing businesses to offer compelling customer experiences across platforms and devices.

“This trend is accelerated by the government’s focus on strengthening the nation’s digital roadmap, driving a wave of digital transformation across India. The convergence is opening up enormous opportunities for brands and making it imperative for marketers to create a consistent consumer journey to win brand loyalists,” Bedi added.

The event also hosted interactive sessions with top digital adopters who spoke about the transformational impact on customer experience and how to capture a bigger pie not only in India but globally.

Speakers from companies like Flipkart, IDFC Bank, MakeMyTrip, Royal Bank of Scotland, SpiceJet Ltd and Taj Group threw light on explained how their companies benefitted -- strategically and structurally - after they shifted to the digital world in delivering a compelling customer experience.

The "Best of the Best India 2016" index highlighted the growing gap between countries, industries and companies who have embraced digital experience at the core of their strategy and those who lag.

Report author Tamara Gaffney, principal analyst at Adobe Digital Index (ADI), said the companies with a digital mindset are reaping the rewards of their transformation. “A leading digital mindset goes way beyond having a nice website or a new mobile app," Gaffney said.

"Leaders in this space have put digital experience at the centre of how they engage with customers. Their advanced digital strategies are helping them offer a rich, compelling and consistent customer experience, so they are staying ahead of the curve and driving better business results,” Gaffney added.

The report found that volume in smartphone traffic is growing in India across all industry sectors, including media and entertainment, retail, travel and hospitality, finance and technology.

However, it grew fastest in banking and finance sector with 101.9 percent year-on-year growth. This was followed by technology sector at 90.8 percent and media and entertainment at nearly70 percent.

According to the report, mobile optimisation is helping consumers complete their digital needs faster by reducing their overall online time. This is posing a challenge for brands to get it right the first time by driving innovative and personalised online engagements.

"Mobile and app usage has exploded and organisations are investing time and resources heavily to define mobile strategies that enable them to transform their business," the report added.

Companies and users demand immediate benefit from the mobile experience and if app developers cannot innovate or deploy quickly, users delete the apps or stop using them.

To ease this, Adobe launched Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Mobile in February that is helping companies simplify the process of building and managing visually appealing enterprise applications that are as easy to use as consumer apps.