Designing and deciding digital CX route-map & the priority omnichannel service investment to realise it
The issue
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Having delivered the ‘brilliant basics’ part of a CX transformation programme, the bank needed to define a digital CX design to deliver a signature, differentiating experience
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A pressure point was that customers’ expectations of doing their banking anywhere/ anytime/on any device were growing, and the ground had been lost on this to digital challenger banks
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The bank was also in sharp cost control mode so it was critical that digital CX investment choices were well evidenced, validated and focussed
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We had to answer the question: where and how to prioritise omnichannel service investment to deliver a competitive digital CX?
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With many competing candidates for digitising customer service across the existing product portfolio, we had to be clear about what omnichannel improvements would realise greatest value from a CX and commercial perspective
What we did
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Reviewed draft digital strategy and developed investment prioritisation criteria to focus CX and omnichannel service design choices
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Defined design principles to guide the development of Omnichannel capability
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Competitor and cross-sector benchmarking to identify key areas of digital CX differentiation
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Evaluated and ranked CX/service design options against agreed prioritisation criteria and ability to leverage existing IT capability and technology roadmap
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Flesh-out of to-be CX/service design with benefit cases supporting the investment priorities identified
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Produced and validated a sequenced digital CX/omnichannel implementation route map
The results
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Delivered new digital CX/omnichannel design with 10 key touchpoint changes, each with benefits ranging from £3.5M to £9M annually in a fully realised state
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Pragmatic, phased change route map adopted, which drove early cost savings and new customer acquisition uplift by addressing highest priority CX pain points, allowing subsidisation of next phases
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80% of the technology capabilities required to deliver the route map were covered by leverage of existing or planned future (and already budgeted) technology assets and upgrades
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Digital productivity management in infrastructure
The full package: digitising productivity management in infrastructure delivery
Infrastructure owners and construction companies are selecting or developing, and then seeking accelerated implementation and scaling of, their preferred digital productivity management tool(s).
In consideration of the current economic climate, the critical role that Infrastructure investment is set to play in boosting growth has been amplified.
In light of these two factors, it does not feel as though there could be a better time to suggest that if we are going to do the whole ‘digital productivity thing’ in infrastructure and construction… we should do it properly. So, what does ‘doing it properly’ mean? It means that it is time to assess the full spectrum of construction-site productivity management capability areas that can be enhanced through the new or improved application of digital tools. We need the full package.
Unlocking greater efficiencies through digital
Digital enablement has revolutionised productivity and the definition of efficiency norms in other industries. Most notably in Manufacturing industries such as Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) where market leaders such as Unilever have reduced material factory waste by more than 40% by digitally enabling end-to-end quality management. (Source: World Economic Forum, How manufacturing can thrive in a digital world and lead a sustainable revolution, January 2020)
Similarly, by 2025 the digital enablement of Logistics has the potential to reduce global carbon emissions by 11%. (Source: World Economic Forum, Digital Transformation of Industries Demystifying Digital and Securing $100 Trillion for Society and Industry by 2025, January 2016) A powerful endorsement of advanced productivity management tools.
The Agriculture industry presents further evidence. Here, as an example, data gathering and historical analysis data-driven decision-making tools are having a transformative impact on crop productivity.
Productivity management in infrastructure however is often driven by manual cost and performance benchmarking processes. Some efficiency gains have been achieved through the successful adoption of Lean methodologies. But the meaningful use of digital tools that enable higher productivity rates will be key to unlocking much greater efficiencies in the construction phases of infrastructure programmes.
There is an entire spectrum of construction site productivity management capability areas that can be enhanced through the application of digital tools. These can be broadly placed into three categories:
- Planning and Collaboration: Ensuring the feasibility of planned activities and improving communications between the site and site-office
- Data gathering: Gathering data on the work accomplished on-site to feed performance/progress metrics
- Data-driven analytics: Collecting historical productivity data on-site to feed data-driven decision making
In pursuit of significant improvement
Organisations tend to focus on the independent application of a discrete digital tool to enable productivity. Most often this means dedicating themselves to a data gathering tool for the purpose of productivity tracking. However, in the pursuit of significant efficiencies it is not sufficient to introduce digitally enabled capability to just one area of the productivity management spectrum. For infrastructure delivery, at the construction site level, a suite of digital tools covering the full range of capabilities (outlined at a high level by the three categories above) is required. Many of the more recently developed tools incorporate data as a service (DaaS) offerings but there is the opportunity to go further. Attributes for productivity information gathered, processed and analysed should adhere to the standards set by data and information frameworks being built by infrastructure owners.
For data generated by any suite of tools, there is the opportunity to actively inform cost and performance benchmarks and subsequently productivity norms for the delivery of work. This applies within the integrated environment for information that programmes, alliances or organisation level data frameworks house.
So how to decide on which digital productivity management tools to work with?
Whether through in-house development or accessing solutions already in play, several factors should be considered, including but certainly not limited to:
- Ease of implementation
- Supply chain buy-in
- Scalability across multiple construction disciplines
Prioritisation frameworks can be designed and applied to rapidly assess an entire landscape of digital productivity management solutions, thoroughly reviewing each through the lenses of standard attributes.
Digital productivity done properly
Individual tools applied in isolation in areas such as productivity tracking can offer benefits. But there is an entire spectrum of on-site productivity management capability that can be enhanced through the application of digital tools. These benefits can be amplified through alignment with the principles for data defined by information frameworks being developed by infrastructure owners. Other industries are demonstrating the scale of productivity benefits available through digital enablement. These are most notable where a complete end-to-end process approach is adopted.
So, if we are going to do the whole ‘digital productivity thing’ in infrastructure and construction… we should do it properly.
The authors
How we can help: Rapid Digital Portfolio Prioritisation
Siloed innovation, functional misalignment and data ‘doing its own thing’ are just a few challenging features of the current congested-frontier of digital transformation.
Applying our bespoke prioritisation framework(s), Curzon Consulting takes 4-6 weeks to rapidly assess an organisation’s entire landscape of digital solutions and initiatives. We thoroughly review each through the lenses of attributes that are orientated around features such as financial benefit, scalability and interoperability.
Get in touch to find out how we can help or arrange a free virtual meeting with award-winning Principal consultant, Edem Eno-Amooquaye.
Want to find out more or meet one of our Infrastructure team? Contact us by email, phone or our web form.
The accelerated adoption of drones in healthcare
We explore how the 2020 coronavirus crisis has accelerated the use of drones in the delivery of healthcare.
Drones in Healthcare
The commercial use of drones has steadily been gaining traction over the last decade.
The global market for medical drones was valued at USD $88.2 million in 2018. It is expected to witness 24.7% CAGR from 2019 to 2025. The UK market is anticipated to see even higher than 25% CAGR from 2019 to 2025. The global circumstances resulting from the coronavirus pandemic are likely to increase demand for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and drive the value of the drone market up even higher than forecast.
Drones have the potential to transform the delivery of healthcare. They have a large spectrum of medical uses that could be particularly valuable during this pandemic:
- Search and Rescue: searching vast areas for people in need of rescue/help in any environment
- Transport/Delivery: rapid delivery of medical supplies to rural areas between hospitals/labs or directly to the person in need
- Medical Care: remote delivery of medical advice/care
Despite wide potential applications in healthcare, the use of drones in practice has been fairly limited. Safety and security concerns have led to tight regulations on airspace. This makes it difficult to phase in drones for practical (rather than recreational) use. Drones have a bad reputation due to their potential abuse in breaching privacy, violating human rights and irresponsible use by hobbyists, particularly at airports. Consequently, only a small proportion of the potentially vast benefits offered by drones in healthcare have been realised.
COVID-19 impact on drones in healthcare
The coronavirus crisis has acted as a catalyst for the adoption and acceptance of drones in healthcare. There are two main reasons for this:
- The need to deliver medical care/supplies quickly is more urgent
- Social distancing and quarantine measures have made remotely operated systems particularly valuable
As a result of coronavirus, how has drone use changed or adoption accelerated? We’ve included some examples below.
Dutch company Avy manufactures wing drones for use in urban healthcare logistics, rural delivery of supplies, and first response emergency services. Avy responded to the pandemic by exploring the use of wing drones to transport COVID-19 samples from small municipalities to labs in larger cities. This would help contain the virus and minimise risk of the virus spreading.
We spoke to Patrique Zaman, Founder of Avy, about the healthcare challenges that Avy is trying to overcome.
This is an example of a drone company, Manna Aero, that changed their focus from food delivery to medicine delivery during the pandemic.
The Irish start-up launched their drone delivery service earlier this year, with the aim of moving road-based food delivery into the skies. Manna Aero’s trial delivery of takeaways to college students in mid-March had to be halted due to the coronavirus lockdown, but this did not deter them from switching focus to help in the crisis. The company has instead been working with the Irish Health Service Executive to deliver medicines and other essential supplies such as break and milk to vulnerable people in the rural town of Moneygall. Local GPs write prescriptions after a video consultation, which the drones deliver directly to homes. This represents a first in Ireland. Manna Aero is equipped to handle up to 100 deliveries a day, and hopes to bring trials to the UK soon.
The UK’s lockdown in 2020 triggered the government to grant permission for a UAV to deliver medical supplies across the Solent to a hospital on the Isle of Wight. This is part of a UK government project to develop a system allowing manned and unmanned aircraft to operate in the same airspace.
The UAV, developed by the University of Southampton and funded by the start-up Windracers, was given permission to fly as part of the British government’s Covid-19 response. It has a range of 1,000km and can carry up to 100kg.
Compared to the more traditional ferry, this novel approach allows faster, more frequent, and more reliable delivery of medical supplies.
The Covid-19 response has triggered a partnership between the drone delivery provider Skyports and Thales to trial the delivery of medical supplies.
The two-week pilot is backed by NHS Highland, and Argyll and Bute Council, with drones supplied by unmanned aircraft-maker Wingcopter. The delivery service will be based in Oban. It aims to ensure that isolated communities on the Isle of Mull (16km away) have access to COVID-19 tests and sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE).
This trial is a crucial milestone for unmanned aviation in the UK. It was granted as an exception to current rules by the Civil Aviation Authority.
Zipline is a US drone company that delivers supplies to rural communities in Rwanda and Ghana. In order to support the Covid-19 response in Africa, Zipline changed its focus to using drones to provide clinics with PPE and coronavirus test samples. The lightweight drones deliver to clinics up to 85km away. There are plans to use the drones to deliver supplies directly to the elderly and vulnerable who need to self-isolate.
Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo thinks that drone deliveries could play a vital role both during the current crisis and in the coming months and years.
The Chinese government has been proactive in piloting ways to incorporate drones into their response to the coronavirus.
Drones originally designed to spray pesticides have been adapted to spray disinfecting chemicals in public spaces. Testing the use of drones to deliver of medical samples began in February, with over 20 flights per day at peak operation in Zhejiang Province. Consumer delivery of essential items has also been trialled, with e-commerce company JD developing a drone team to deliver to Anxin’s semi-isolated islands.
Future outlook
The unprecedented circumstances brought about by Covid-19 have kick-started the use of drones in new and exciting ways, but we are only scratching the surface of their full potential.
To progress, we need to learn from this pandemic and make changes that will ultimately lead to a better healthcare experience. Rather than relying on experimentation, we should pre-plan how drones can be used during disease outbreaks and make appropriate investments. Drones need to be integrated into planned health responses. In addition, coordination between the public and private sector will be crucial to overcome regulation by civil aviation authorities.
It is obvious that drones have a big role to play in the delivery of healthcare. The route to unlocking their true potential will offer exciting and rewarding opportunities in the future.
How Curzon can help
Curzon Consulting help with strategy and digital transformation. We have experience working in collaboration with companies to embed technology into their organisation. Curzon can:
- Conduct feasibility studies
- Build a business case and commercial offering
- Design the most appropriate operating model and integration plan
- Conduct a technical requirement assessment
Get in touch to find out how we can help or arrange a free virtual meeting with our Healthcare partner, Chetan Trivedi.
The authors
We can help you to improve patient outcomes with digital strategy, transformation and patient experience.
Contact us for more information or submit a request for proposal to our healthcare consulting team
Digitalisation in building supplies
The global COVID-19 pandemic is changing customer behaviour across the UK. We explore the digitalisation adopted by many building supplies companies to meet new customer expectations.
Muhammad Ali, Curzon Consulting Principal, discusses the impact of coronavirus on customer expectations and digitalisation with David Young, Group CEO of The Bradfords Group. Bradfords is a leading independent Builders Merchants in the UK.
Watch the highlights of our conversation:
Changing customer expectations
Navigating supply and demand challenges brought about by COVID-19
David explains the challenges that the pandemic has created in the building supplies industry.
Initially, Bradfords’ shops remained open to support essential projects and self-employed customers. In March, the morning after the UK lockdown was announced, Bradfords experienced extraordinary levels of demand. They realised that although Bradfords had a number of social distancing measures in place, they wanted to create a new process to safely meet the rapid change in customer demand. They opened back up the next morning with a brand new process – to order either via phone and collect, or order through the website.
This generated “unprecedented demand on the phones”, increasing from around 1,500 calls per day to 15,000. Consequently, both trade and retail customers looked to other channels such as the website. David explains
“we started seeing a big uptick in our trade customers using our portal and then transacting online, and also retail customers”.
However this surge in online demand came with a new set of supply chain challenges. Therefore, to ensure that Bradfords could continue to supply products for essential products and key projects they:
- Temporarily closed their business to the retail customer base
- Rationalised their product range
Furthermore, showcasing fewer products created a better website user experience which in turn generated an increase in sales. In fact, the eCommerce sales are still increasing, even now Bradfords have reopened their shops and yard to customers.
Are these changes in customer behaviour expected to continue?
In the short to medium term, this changing end user behaviour is expected to continue. Trends include:
- Customers increasingly plan ahead
- Customers continue to buy online
- An increase in retail customers
- A spread of footfall across the day, rather than a concentration of customers in the morning
“What COVID-19 has forced customers to do is plan ahead” David Young explains. Due to extended lead times and the click & collect service, Bradfords have seen their customers become much more planned. This change in behaviour is also helping operations “it helps us manage our workloads and forecasting stock levels”.
Building a strong ecommerce offering
The growing focus on ecommerce in building products is mirrored in the wider UK retail market and high street. Companies like Bradfords have been “through a long journey on ecommerce” and now find themselves well positioned to generate new sales through this channel. This represents a shift in focus for the building materials industry. A renewed focus on driving sales through the website highlights the importance of understanding insights from data. David recognises that good data is an important investment and Bradfords work closely with suppliers to ensure they are capturing data.
Overall, the pandemic has led to a renewed focus on digital strategy.
“I think the pandemic has really forced people and businesses to really look at their digital platforms”.
What does the future of trade counter operations look like?
Digitalisation in building supplies merchants during coronavirus has caused a spread in footfall across the day in shops. David forsees that click and collect will become a bigger part of building merchant life, likely as a separate service. Offering click and collect on light and heavy side products, such as forklifts, will require companies to restructure the way they operate. Key considerations are:
- Resource to ensure they can offer customers quick turnaround time
- Speed and efficiency of processes
- Omni channel offering
- Flexibility around opening hours – digitalisation opens up a 24 hour service
- Product ranges
The ability to react quickly to meet changing demand is key, both within the business and across the supply chain. Indeed, David recognises the importance of planning ahead and sees the importance of builders merchants becoming “much more productive in the future”.
Changing relationships across the supply chain
Will digitalisation disrupt the value chain? Does it change the relationship between manufacturer, distributor and end user?
David sees this as an evolution rather than disruption:
“I think the relationship between the merchant, and the supplier will change dramatically. You know data is so important and historically I’ve found that data within our supply chain is very poor… a lot of manufacturers just don’t hold the level of data needed in this new world…
I think there’s a big wakeup call coming”.
Merchants need to be mindful of potential risks, particularly if they:
- Are slow to react to digital customer demand and develop their eCommerce platforms
- Don’t react quickly – “actually some of the suppliers will vertically integrate and sell direct and cut us out.”
This evolution also presents a number of opportunities for building supplies merchants to:
- Work with suppliers that are invested in data and technology
- Build stronger vendor relationships
- Attract a new demographic of customer
- Understand the many payment platforms and react accordingly
In summary, digitalisation across building supplies gives businesses the opportunity to adopt digital, improve customer experience and improve supply chain relationships.
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Touchless Travel: automation in airports post COVID-19
Automation in airports may enable touchless travel. The global COVID-19 pandemic has caused widespread disruption around the world and brought with it a lot of uncertainty. The response from many healthcare systems and technology companies highlights the increased adoption of digital tools and innovative solutions.
Curzon Consulting Partner Chetan Trivedi interviews innovators in the UK healthcare sector. In his latest conversation, Chetan explores automation in airports post COVID-19.
Bob Kwik, Director Europe at Elenium Automation, a passenger experience company focused on improving the journey using automation and technology.
The company is also working with hospitals to roll-out self-service triage solutions. Etihad Airways recently announced that it plans to partner with Elenium Automation to trial new technology which allows self-service devices at airports. The technology will be used to help identify travellers with medical conditions, potentially including the early stages of COVID-19. Etihad will initially trial the monitoring technology at its hub airport in Abu Dhabi in May and June 2020.
Get in touch to discuss how digital strategy and transformation can be applied in your organisation.
Contact us for more information or submit a request for proposal to our healthcare consulting team
Virtual Care: delivering healthcare in the new reality
The global COVID-19 pandemic has caused widespread disruption around the world and brought with it a lot of uncertainty. The response from many healthcare systems is showing the increased adoption of digital tools and innovative solutions.
Whilst Virtual Care services are nothing new, the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed Virtual Care solutions like Telehealth to the top of the healthcare agenda. In order to deal with increased demand for healthcare services, governments around the world have pushed through regulatory changes to allow the widespread use of Virtual Care models. These Virtual Care platforms are an indispensable tool in an environment where health systems try to keep up supply (clinical assessments and triage) with demand (patients).
In a post COVID-19 world, care delivery models around the world will be transformed and there will be widespread adoption of Virtual Care models in virtually every healthcare setting. This is part of a wider digital transformation agenda in healthcare. Care that used to take place exclusively in physical settings (e.g Doctor’s office) can now take place digitally. Every healthcare organisation (payors, hospitals, life sciences, pharma, medical devices etc.) across the entire value chain (prevention, primary care, secondary care, tertiary care, social care, palliative care, etc.) are exploring a variety of virtual care models, many of which are enabled by telehealth technology.
Hospitals are already using Virtual Care to improve accessibility, availability and affordability of care. As demands for healthcare services increase, driven by an aging population requiring more complex care, Virtual Care offers a smart way to leverage finite healthcare resources.
Virtual Care and digital healthcare enable a model of care that is more affordable and integrated into patients’ lives. Consumer behaviour is also shifting. As Dr. Eric Topol describes in his book titled “The Patient Will See You Now”, patients seek to access healthcare on their own terms (time and place).
Hospitals and health systems that take a proactive approach towards Virtual Care will be well-positioned to meet patient demands in the future.
Definitions
Virtual care is comprised of four categories:
Real-time interaction with the most appropriate clinical team to support patient requiring immediate advice. Post virtual triage, a follow face-to-face consultation with the most appropriate clinician team (doctor, nurse, pharmacist, etc.) can take place.
Modern information and communication technologies, data such as bio-signals or medical images can be acquired from the patient and then stored or sent to the specialist when needed. The field of Pathology, Radiology, and Dermatology are those using such services already. For example, with a shortage of Radiologists in certain countries, scans can be read and reported on by specialists remotely. If Artificial Intelligence (AI) is layered on top, certain scans can be read by AI to act as a “second pair of eyes” to human reads.
Uses a range of technological devices in order to remotely monitor clinical signs and health of a patient. Remote monitoring is extensively used in the management of chronic diseases such as asthma, diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular disease.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 6 in 10 adult Americans live with at least one chronic disease and 4 in 10 adults live with two or more chronic diseases. Among the benefits of virtual care include greater patient satisfaction, more frequent monitoring, and cost effectiveness.
There is a strong tendency that patients are involving more in monitoring their own health through the use of smartphone applications and wearable devices designed to help them track and improve various health indicators.
According to Statista, there are 3.2 billion smart phone users out of a total population of 7.7 billion people around the world. This information and these devices can be also used by policymakers, practitioners, and leaders in the medical and health care industry in order to identify and act on health trends, inform treatment decisions, and even provide outgoing communication to the public.
Such solutions can also deliver basic care to parts of the population living in remote locations. For example, nutrition advice can be provided remotely to pregnant women and/or mothers with young children in small villages with virtually no access to care, but may have access to mobile technology.
“Use” cases
By increasing access points and redistributing expertise where it’s needed, Virtual Care can address disparities and improve outcomes. Virtual Care platforms can be used to provide a range of services such as, but not limited to:
Primary Care
- Chronic care management, recording vital signs through home-monitoring systems and sending alerts to clinicians when readings fall out of the normal range.
- Pharmacy services, including medication review and prescription verification, for patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, etc.
- Diagnostic screening for diabetes-related eye disease, increasing the number of diabetes patients who receive eye exams to help prevent blindness.
- Sleep disorders, monitoring patients with sleep apnoea for sleep patterns, body positions and breathing.
- Tele-psychiatry, assisting patients in need of behavioural health services.
- Tele-physiotherapy, assisting patients with physiotherapy sessions remotely.
Acute/Hyper-Acute
- Tele-stroke services, creating access to the limited supply of stroke neurologists and targeted use of therapies that preserve brain function and save lives. Tele-stroke services can also help facilitate a “hub and spoke” model, where a hyper-acuity stroke unit can provide remote support to a stroke centre.
- Tele-ICU tools, providing 24-hour intensive support to deliver optimal local care to the most acute patients. ICU beds can all be monitored from one, central control room anywhere in the world.
- Pre & Post Op Consultations, ensuring more efficient use of resources across the health system where a physical exam on the day is not required. For example, a patient scheduled for a cardiac ablation procedure can be consulted remotely prior to the procedure, once certain tests have been performed in advance.
- Post-surgical recovery, allowing patients to self-manage recovery process with support from clinical teams as needed remotely. Sophisticated solutions can also include apps to capture progressive pain scores, wound images, etc. so that clinical teams can monitor recovery remotely.
Adoption Challenges
There are some barriers to expanding access to care through Virtual Care. The eight most significant barriers are:
- The lack of leadership and organisational commitment to develop an overarching strategy and integrate care delivery within the clinical pathway (e.g. pre and post op consultation)
- Inadequate clinical engagement and readiness without consideration of user (clinicians and patients) experience and workflows
- Restrictions on how Virtual Care services are reimbursed
- Licensure laws and regulations that limit the ability to provide Virtual Care services across multiple jurisdictions (i.e. from one state to another within the US)
- The lack of “connectivity” or adequate internet services in some areas to support Virtual Care
- Decentralised departmental solutions and pilot programs without governance structure and dedicated management and potentially competing propositions
- The high cost of technologies and infrastructure and a lack of funding
- Evolving measures of success and key performance indicators hampering scaled platforms
As a result of COVID-19, many of these hurdles are being taken down rapidly to help drive quicker adoption of Virtual Care services.
Key Success Factors
How do hospitals and health systems begin to harness the benefits of Virtual Care?
Virtual Care is not about technology. Technology is simply an enabler! It starts with culture—and culture starts with the Board and Executive Management team. The governing board and senior management can ignite cultural change with a vision statement that embraces virtual care as an extension of what the hospital or health system already does, rather than as something new or different.
Successful hospital and health system Virtual Care programs require discerning technology choices and critical vendor selection. Success also demands uncomfortable cultural changes and the right executive to create a comprehensive virtual care delivery system for patients.
We can help your organisation develop a business case for virtual care. We can help you redesign clinical pathways so that virtual care is not a standalone model, but is truly integrated into the delivery of patient care along the entire pathway.
Contact us for more information or submit a request for proposal to our healthcare consulting team
Digital transformation across UK infrastructure
Curzon Consulting have partnered with Victoria Trukhanovich to deliver an MBA research project at Cass Business School, on the topic of digital transformation.
Over a series of articles we will explore existing challenges, business requirements, relevant technologies and strategy that needs to be applied by infrastructure organisations in order to design and perform transformative digital change successfully.
In this introductory piece we present a summary of findings on the current state of digital adoption across the infrastructure industry, including the transport, utilities and construction sectors.
Using digital transformation to address challenges
The challenges that companies operating physical infrastructure face include:
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- aging assets
- frequent incidents of underperformance
- capacity congestion
- inefficient capital and maintenance programmes,
- strong regulations
- dissatisfied customers
Digital transformation is increasingly viewed as an enabler to address these issues, providing opportunities for infrastructure companies to achieve significant gains in areas of system resilience, capacity utilisation, asset productivity, process efficiency and customer engagement.
Lagging digital maturity
Yet, the digital maturity of infrastructure companies lags behind that of many other industries. Although level of maturity varies across and within sectors, the majority of infrastructure companies have not started to implement digital technologies on a wide scale and digital activities are fragmented. Due to a number of legacy factors, infrastructure companies often lack the capacity to build a clear digital vision and drive technological change throughout the organisation.
Empirical evidence from digital transformation projects, conducted by Curzon Consulting with UK transport infrastructure network owners, water and sewerage companies and airport operators, reveals the common challenge of an inconsistent approach to digital integration. Companies often run innovative, technology-enabled initiatives on a project-by-project basis without systematically integrating technologies in line with strategic objectives.
The digital transformation strategy challenge
A dispersed digital agenda was thus found to be the most pressing challenge for companies to solve in order to assert direction within the transformation process and consolidate digital initiatives around achieving clear business objectives.
This study asks how infrastructure companies should go about developing an effective digital transformation strategy. The urgency of addressing this challenge is exacerbated for companies in competitive markets as digital leaders and emerging start-ups are well positioned to identify adjacent niches and secure dominant shares quickly.
The role of technology
To offer a summary of digital strategy recommendations, we seek to:
- assess the potential of critical digital technologies to deliver industry objectives
- identify key capabilities enabled by technological advancements
- examine the evolutionary timeline of digital transformation
- analyse organisational functions affected and value outcomes generated
Developing a framework for successful digital transformation delivery
Once developed and agreed at the corporate level a digital strategy framework can be used by infrastructure companies to evolve from an ‘adapting- enterprise systems’ approach into a smart network operator approach. Although each digital transformation programme will have a degree of uniqueness, the framework developed within this study offers a high-level plan for successful development and delivery of digital change in infrastructure sectors.
Effective transition to the state of being a digital-champion also requires a company to make important early decisions often targeted at legacy factors that would otherwise inhibit change. Those decisions include establishing a strong leadership position, engaging an appropriately skilled workforce, removing silo-based barriers, instituting cultural change in the corporate mindset and addressing ways of working throughout the organisation.
This article marks the first in our Digital Change for Infrastructure series.
This article marks the first in our Digital Change for Infrastructure series.
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Digital forum: "AI at scale"
Event: "AI at Scale"2 October 2019
Join us for a Digital forum on “AI at Scale”, hosted by our Nextcontinent partner Eurogroup. We will hear from industry leaders on what it takes to successfully deploy Artificial Intelligence solutions at scale to address real business challenges.
Event details:
Date: 2 October 2019
Time: 6pm-8pm
Location: The Den, 14 Bedford Square, Fitzrovia, London WC1B 3JA
Spaces are limited, so RSVP below or email events@curzonconsulting.com to reserve your place
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Blockchain in healthcare: a use case
Curzon Healthcare lead Chetan Trivedi explores how Blockchain in healthcare will revolutionise the billing and payment process. This will result in the complete disintermediation of a vast administrative layer within the healthcare Provider and Payer (private insurer or public commissioner) organisation.
Consequently, Healthcare Providers and Payers will see a huge benefit through a more streamlined process of handling claims and processing payments. The process will also include various steps like checking patient insurance eligibility and coding claims.
Illustrative smart billing and payment process
The example shown below is based on an insured patient, but the process would be similar for the public sector.
1. Upfront
- Insurer and Provider enter into a Smart Contract on Ethereum blockchain
- The smart contract would be self-executing with the terms of the agreement directly written into code
- The smart contract would exist on a distributed and decentralised blockchain network
- Smart contract would permit trusted transactions and agreements to be carried out between Insurer and Provider without the need for manual intervention (Provider and Insurer), central authority, legal system, or external enforcement mechanism
- Each transaction would be completely traceable, transparent, and irreversible
- Automated invoice and subsequent payment would be triggered (i.e. self-billing) inline with pre-agreed protocols and care pathway (incorporated into the Smart Contract)
- Micropayments are triggered after each care package has been completed
- Penalties are built into the Smart Contract and are assessed automatically if Provider fails to meet quality metrics (e.g. readmission rates, infection rates, revision rates, etc.) or poor outcomes (e.g. PROM, Oxford scores)
2. Ongoing
- Patient experiences symptoms (e.g. increase pain, reduce mobility etc.)
- Patient visits GP (Physician) or contacts Insurer directly (based on policy guidelines)
- Patient accesses Insurer policy automatically using Private Key
- Insurer automatically routes referral to Orthopaedic Consultant or Provider inline with policy
- Patient commences journey through care pathway (e.g. pre-op, op, post-op, discharge, follow up, etc.) and is treated by the Provider against a pre-agreed set of protocols (consultation, imaging, pathology, implant, physiotherapy, etc.) with the Insurer
- Provider feeds data into Electronic Patient Records (EPR). Standard data linked to specific non identifiable Patient Public Key and is published automatically onto the Blockchain via API
- Insurer automatically validates treatment against pre-agreed care pathway and protocols and automatically triggers payment (see Payment Triggers to left)
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Chairman's Masterclass: "Smart Infrastructure - Improving People's Lives"
Event: "Smart Infrastructure - Improving People's Lives"
12 June 2019
On 12 June 2019 we are joined by Dr Paul Golby CBE, Chairman of National Air Traffic Service, Chairman of Costain Group plc and a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology.
Dr Golby will be discussing how infrastructure organisations can deploy innovative technology to improve people’s lives.
Smart Infrastructure is the latest event in our Chairman’s Masterclass Dinner series, providing UK business leaders with insight for over a decade.
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