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Humans and technology have a love story as old as time. Maybe it stems from a spirit of exploration and discovery or perhaps just out of the desire to be more efficient or productive. Whatever the reason, as a human race, the desire to invent and innovate is part of our DNA.
While the catalyst for the creation of disruptive technology is born from this innate curiosity, oftentimes innovation and technological advances are spurred on by monumental moments in time that impact our global society.
Take, for example, the pandemic. I would argue that every one of us — at least for a time during the pandemic — fundamentally and completely changed the way we functioned and engaged in the world. Work and going to school happened from our homes. Doctors visited via telemedicine. Shopping was almost exclusively online in order to limit our interactions with other humans. Graduation celebrations. Birthdays. Events. The list goes on.
All leaned into technology to replace what could not otherwise be done in person. Digital experiences were no longer just nice-to-haves. In many cases (and seemingly overnight) they became a necessity. In-person engagement had to be replaced with an omnichannel digital experience.
And as we’ve come out of the pandemic, we find the world has forever changed. End users now expect digital experience to serve a replacement for or an extension of our in-person engagement. A strong digital experience — one that is truly omnichannel and personal — can have a huge impact on customer and employee satisfaction and loyalty; revenue generation and overall competitive advantage.
If your digital experience is not on point — if it is not the very best it can be — it will impact your business. Khalid Saleh, CEO and co-founder of consulting firm Invesp says companies with strong omnichannel customer engagement strategies retain, on average, 89% of their customers compared to 33% for those with weak strategies. And Aberdeen Research states that companies with effective omnichannel customer engagement strategies achieve an average of 9.5% year-over-year increase in annual revenue.
Creating a digital strategy that ensures a seamless, intuitive and engaging experience across multiple channels and devices requires you to have the right people in the room. And that means developers must have a seat at the table.
Developers are no longer just the folks who sit in a dark room and write code. Modern developers are the inventors and explorers of our time, building and creating the very experiences our global society demands.
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Omnichannel development requires an understanding of different devices, technology stacks and how they work together. Developers bear the responsibility of bringing a digital experience vision to life — one that is engaging, interactive and provides a seamless experience from websites to applications on all kinds of devices. Let’s explore some of the key areas where they provide immense strategic value.
Developing for an Omnichannel Experience
It’s not enough for you to have similar features and functionality across multiple channels. As end-users become more sophisticated and rely more heavily on technology, they expect their engagement to be seamless from device to device or channel to channel. This often means developing for different operating systems, which can sometimes mean a completely different code base. Understanding all of the possible touchpoints for the customer or end user means the developer can recommend the best tech stack and ensure the best experience across all channels for the end-user, the maintainers and even the development teams.
Ensuring Your Digital Experience Is Future-proof
It’s no secret that technology changes at a rapid pace. How do you ensure your digital experience isn’t outdated before it is even pushed to production? Developers who understand the technology landscape can and will recommend an architecture that is scalable, dependent and future-proof not just for the digital experience itself, but for the teams building it. As an example, a digital experience platform built on a modern .NET backend that has a decoupled or hybrid/headless front end ensures that the teams building the digital experiences are able to leverage the best technology for the job without having to reskill their workforce in order to conform technology preferences dictated by a monolithic system. Leveraging their knowledge of the technology coupled with the requirements for the digital experience will ensure your system is ready for whatever comes next.
Developing for the Cloud
Customer-focused content and experiences are the key competitive differentiators for modern businesses, so the infrastructure they’re built is critical. The most effective digital experiences demand platform architecture that fosters agility, performance and scalability. Developers who build with a cloud-native and cloud-first mindset enable businesses and organizations to deliver digital content and experiences without having to set up and maintain a complex infrastructure with an elastic scaling environment.
Connected Systems and Integration Requirements
Integrating other systems and digital channels in your digital experience allows you to do things like collect customer insights and leverage advanced analytics and optimization features to improve marketing programs and address specific customer needs. Whether you want to connect event-driven integrations or out-of-the-box connectors to enterprise systems like HubSpot or Eloqua, developers have the know-how to ensure the integrations and connected systems are built-in — not an afterthought.
Personalization and AI
AI has been around for a very long time, but recent advances in generative AI have opened up even more opportunities for better personalization, more compelling and engaging humanized interactions and stronger analytics and insight. AI usage for content analytics and conversion-based rules result in better audience analysis and help improve relevance of digital experiences and targeting. Because there is so much hype around the technology — and let’s be honest, not all AI tools are created equal — developers can provide insight that rises above the noise and implement the right AI and AI tools for the job.
Our love affair with technology is not going anywhere. Humankind is constantly pushing the boundaries of what is possible. Developers are the modern-day explorers, driving innovation through discovery, experimentation and know-how. Their role is vital in the success of any digital experience. Ensuring they have a seat at the table will allow you to quickly see your personalized, scalable, omnichannel vision come to life.
Progress gives developers the tools they need to do their best work. Learn more at progress.com.
