SMAC: The New Business Paradigm for Enterprises in 2014 & Beyond

Social, Mobility, Analytics, and Cloud (SMAC) are the convergent forces that are driving new business paradigms for enterprises. The 21st century is already witnessing a crumbling of traditional enterprises while competing against new age disruptive organizations. Consumers and enterprises have entered into engaging win-win relationships. As SMAC unfolds, it will create innumerable business opportunities for enterprises in 2014 and beyond.
Winning is a big deal. New age winning enterprises differentiate themselves by introducing interventionist methods that drive new business paradigms. Social, mobility, analytics, and cloud (SMAC) are convergent forces that create a level field to entice and engage customers. The 21st century is already witnessing a crumbling of traditional enterprises while competing against new-age disruptive organizations. Consumers and enterprises have entered into an engaging win-win business relationship. As SMAC unfolds, it will create innumerable business opportunities for enterprises in 2014 and beyond.

Walgreens, the largest drug retailer in the US, has passed the baton of technology into the hands of its customers. Joining the SMAC revolution, Walgreens cloud hosted an award-winning mobile application to improve its customer interaction while at the same time fostering consumer adherence to a medicinal routine. This application brings drug refill by barcode scanning, pill reminders, prescription transfers, health information updates, and pharmacy chat at the customers’ fingertips. The mobile application also allows ordering photo prints from mobile and social platforms. Equipped with features such as in-store map, store locator, store filters, and QR code scanner, the application empowers the lives of consumers with its technologically advanced features. From a retailer standpoint, the collected data helps drive customer profiling, custom pricing and in-store promotions planning to the local store level. In this way, Walgreens has not only empowered today’s connected consumers but also revolutionized the consumer engagement process using innovative mobile technologies. For enterprises like Walgreens, SMAC has created an opportunity for continuous engagement aiding in customer retention and brand loyalty.

The proliferation of the internet has created a launch pad for open source technologies that have diluted the hegemony of proprietary software owned by corporations. On the wheel of technological evolution, open source platforms provided an impetus for launching new age enterprise capabilities thus facilitating the rise of modern day strategic entities offering SMAC services.

This article was originally published in Outsource Magazine January issue. Click here to read.

Click download button to read more.