Digital capability is a measure of success now more than ever before. Consumers crave it. Enterprises need it. COVID-19 has seen our digital engagement skyrocket and the value of a digital-first approach take on new credence.

Forced by the dynamics of a pandemic to fast-track the digitisation of internal processes and customer interactions, businesses are now actively choosing to tread this path. A McKinsey global survey of executives from mid last year asked why their digital adoption was slow before the pandemic. Just over half said that digitisation wasn’t a top business priority. Today, only 14% of executives cite lack of leadership alignment as an impediment to digitisation, while 64% believe their companies must build new digital businesses.

The exponential growth of digital spending provides a glimpse into how vehemently consumers are embracing the digital experience. The 2021 Australia Post eCommerce Industry Report shows that Australians spent a record $50.46 billion online in 2020, a 57% increase on the previous year.

Four in five (82%) Australian households made an online purchase during 2020, up from 75% in 2019. And while online shopping may lose some traction after the pandemic, the report anticipates it will remain significantly higher than pre-COVID levels. Indeed, second-wave lockdowns in NSW, Victoria and South Australia this year continue to reinforce these sustained changes in consumer buying behaviour.

Retail is not the only industry in rapid digital acceleration. Examples of a digital-first approach can be seen in many of the industries that touch our daily lives. From digital wallets and biometric authentication to recommendation engines and remote work technology, this always-connected world is embraced wholeheartedly for the convenience it brings.

Data-informed insights

Critical to digital-first adoption is the use of data and analytics to identify problems, opportunities, and solutions. The insights generated by data analytics have been vital throughout the pandemic and used for a mind-blowing variety of purposes, including contact tracing, emergency response preparedness, health care forecasts, biomedical research, supply chain management, cloud-based data warehouses and more.

You only need to look at the recent COVID-19 state lockdowns to see the make-or-break role that data can have. Insights from mobility data and numerous other data sources have been instrumental in guiding infection-control measures and assisting public health action.

Organisations, too, have become increasingly aware that flying blind without the use of data analytics won’t do them any favours. Remaining competitive in this digital-first world turned on its head by a pandemic is incumbent on driving real-time conclusions from data.

Successful businesses don’t make unsubstantiated assumptions about their customers. They use data analytics to extract insight from the market, build a holistic view of their customers, and think broadly about shaping and personalising their product offerings to match customer preferences and drive continuous engagement.

Digital-first and customer-first

In 2019, Equifax took a sizeable step towards prioritising the digital experience by embarking on an enterprise-wide digital transformation. Our multi-year roadmap for scaling our digital capacity and modernising our processes, technology and infrastructure brings with it greater system reliability, speed, improved insights and customer experiences. Faster and more intuitive access to our unique global data assets, analytic applications, and tools enable informed decision-making, ultimately benefiting consumers.

Our transformational shift began with a complete focus on the customer experience. It’s a journey that will reach full circle once digital technology is integrated into all areas of our operations and systems, driving value and business growth for customers.

Pivotal to this evolution is the use of data fabric architecture, which improves our ability to assist businesses to understand and act on data insights. Data fabric links and weaves together multiple data points across locations that span the cloud and on-premises environments, allowing enterprises to access real-time data regardless of where it is stored. Scalable and fluid, data fabric streamlines data from analytics to production with end-to-end governance built-in. It enables insights to be delivered securely in milliseconds, helping businesses make real-time decisions and solve complex business problems.

Cloud adoption is accelerating

Cloud-based organisations have the substantial benefit of improved security controls and operational resilience, with the ability to scale up and down at an unprecedented pace to meet changing customer needs.

With worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services to grow 21% by year-end, according to research firm Gartner, businesses realise how necessary it is to move mission-critical workloads from on-premises to the cloud. Investment in cloud technologies has been a major impetus for enterprises to test new ideas that would previously have been considered too costly or risky.

While most companies’ cloud efforts consist of lifting and shifting applications to the cloud, the Equifax migration is focused on ‘cloud native’. This means all applications are being designed and coded for use in the cloud, ensuring their maximum potential and enabling continuous improvement and innovation.

Equifax teams will be equipped to deliver unique products and services that are only possible in a cloud environment. And by scaling the analysis of massive data sets into the cloud, it’s possible to accelerate data preparation and make it easier to leverage the intelligence capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

The era of innovation

There are many reasons to innovate but none more so than the imperative that customers aren’t waiting for you. Consumer demand for 24/7 service, real-time information and flexible online solutions continue to strengthen. Enterprises that embrace a digital-first approach have the opportunity to meet or exceed customer expectations by delivering a seamless experience and tailored outcomes.

Until recently, Equifax grappled with the typical technology challenges that all industries face: a labyrinth of IT systems and data exchanges built independently, which, while robust, were difficult to sync together and upgrade. Technology was powered by costly on-premise data centres. The price of innovation was steep, and the opportunity cost was high.

Now, our digital transformation places us in the driver’s seat to address changing dynamics and pain points and deliver an end-to-end customer experience that is both smooth and cost-efficient. Our teams are exploring new, innovative ideas that wouldn’t have been possible before our transformation. New applications with simple and intuitive User Experience (UX) at the forefront are being developed. New solutions with more self-service features and a stronger alignment to a better digital consumer experience are in the pipeline. Frequent tests and iterations ensure these final products and services can be developed and deployed quickly.

Our data-powered solutions take innovation to the next level by enabling customers to define the experiences they need and want. Rather than customers having to identify which individual product or service best matches their use case, we are working to build the foundation for customers to help themselves to the business-ready components that will meet their end goals.

The value proposition of our digital transformation is to give customers the answers they want now, not tomorrow – and herein lies the essence of how digital-first is reimagining the business landscape in this brave new world.

Well progressed into our digital transformation, Equifax is ready to help customers achieve a whole new level of intelligence using data and analytics to build competitive advantage. To find out more about our journey, Go with Equifax or check out our FAQs to answer your questions about our cloud technology, data security, implementation schedule and more.