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Tag: challenging
Challenging year for U.S. pork exports to Columbia, but improving
2020-09-29 15:09:00| National Hog Farmer
Several retail and foodservice operators turned to USMEF for assistance in upgrading their online presence and delivery services.
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columbia
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A new IT leadership strategy for economically challenging times
2020-09-14 20:56:51| The Webmail Blog
A new IT leadership strategy for economically challenging times nellmarie.colman Mon, 09/14/2020 - 13:56 The current economic downturn is unlike anything Ive experienced driven by a pandemic thats causing a dramatically altered business and employment landscape. The last time there was a pandemic of this magnitude was in 1918-1919. And there hasnt been such economic dislocation in the U.S. since the 1930s. This time, theyre combined. While challenging, the opportunity to lead and prosper is still present. For example, in recent past downturns (1990-1991, 2001-2003, and 2007-2009), organizations had to adopt new skills, technologies and methodologies sometimes just to stay afloat. As a result, they emerged with a higher level of performance and innovation and a renewed focus on execution and cost. Challenges present opportunity. But we have a way to go. Ive heard people say that COVID-19 and the economy have caused 2025 to arrive five years earlier, as businesses have quickly pivoted to digital solutions, remote work and the cloud. While Id agree, Id also add that many businesses and governments still have a long way to go: In the U.S., state unemployment systems couldnt take the shock of the dramatically increased load. Some were even left scrambling to find COBOL programmers! Other agencies struggled to make the changes necessary to implement the $2 trillion COVID economic relief package. Travel-related businesses were challenged to create new customer experiences overnight. And restaurants likewise had to quickly support curbside strategies, if not reinvent themselves altogether. Those who got it right have thrived, while others have been forced to close their doors. Its inexcusable that businesses still make you dial through four layers of phone menus or complex internet paths, just to get an answer or talk to someone if you ever get that far. This is one area where data improvement and integration and AI processing could make a business really shine. Many businesses have recently discovered they have too much IT on-premises, rather than in a cloud configuration. Or they have IT thats idle or in standby as extra capacity, just in case. This creates inflexibility and makes it difficult to re-provision IT to serve different applications or new data sources. Its time to take the lead What does a business need to do to lead in these times? Focus on the basics and not only get them right but improve upon them. These three transformative goals are paramount to leading today: Deliver superior customer experiences. The customer experience you deliver today could become the most critical factor in your survival. Customers will remember those companies that came through for them and those that didnt. Become a cloud native enabled organization. The smartest organizations wont simply seek to get through this period and return to whatever their version of normal was. The technology and operational changes theyve implemented will shape a new future. Align your culture, cloud strategy and business goals to become agile and resilient. As you develop your cloud strategy, its vital to keep your business goals at the center. But its just as important to consider your organizations unique cultural characteristics because without support from employees, your business cannot move forward. Get started with some practical first steps Achieving these goals takes work. But were seeing businesses that are well on their way because theyve taken several key actions: Shift your thinking toward cloud native. Being cloud native doesnt mean you need to be fully migrated to the public cloud. Its more about a mindset shift, away from cloud as my data center and toward cloud as my business differentiator. Its the best way to enable rapid change, scale and resilience. Power exceptional customer experiences with data and cloud applications. All businesses experience process bottlenecks and error-prone choke points. These bear assessing to understand why and how IT in general and, more specifically, integration of applications and data across your value chain, might alleviate these pain points. Secure your environments. With the sudden rush to the cloud in response to COVID-19, many businesses have lost focus on security best practices. But you cant afford to be passive. Take an active approach to securing your digital presence. Dont give up. To make the most of your technology investments and avoid waste, take advantage of new multicloud technologies, innovation and methodologies, so you can stay in the lead. Choose solutions that empower your business units to operate and innovate on their terms while providing IT with increased agility, flexibility and capability and optimized cost savings. Aramex: A success story Lets take a look at Aramex, a leading global provider of logistics and transportation solutions in the United Arab Emirates. Being nimble is always key in this business, but never as much as now. Aramex was facing market disruption from new players who were taking an agile, cloud native approach to business. The turmoil driven by the pandemic and economy only accelerated these pressure points. Aramex responded with a large enterprise digital transformation program. Its goal was to move its entire technology infrastructure and applications from on-premises data centers to Amazon Web Services (AWS) to increase agility, security and speed of innovation. Some key parts to this transformation included: Remote working practices Cloud native strategies to drive agility and accelerate innovation Optimized economics focusing investments that would differentiate the business Aramex brought in Rackspace Technology to accelerate this transformation, reduce risk and supplement its team. Through our broad range of advisory, implementation and managed services, we were able to migrate Aramexs infrastructure, modernize its applications and help it become a cloud native enabled organization. As a result, Aramex has already seen 30%-40% growth in its ecommerce volumes during the COVID-19 pandemic and was easily able to accommodate such growth. Aramex continues to work with Rackspace Technology to maximize the full value of being a cloud native enabled organization, delivering new applications and innovation that drive its business forward. Get expert guidance along the way You can make the most of these challenging times by making
Tags: times
strategy
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challenging
E&P Executive Q&A: New API Upstream VP Talks Todays Challenging Energy Sector
2020-08-06 11:30:00| OGI
Lem Smith, who was named as vice president of upstream policy for API in May, discusses the oil and gas associations role amid the current energy climate.
Tags: energy
executive
sector
api
Ryanair swings to loss in 'challenging' pandemic
2020-07-27 07:51:42| BBC News | Business | UK Edition
The airline made a loss of 185m in the April-to-June period, when most of its flights were grounded.
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challenging
swings
pandemic
Creating great customer experiences, in a new challenging era
2020-07-26 22:52:58| The Webmail Blog
Creating great customer experiences, in a new challenging era nellmarie.colman Sun, 07/26/2020 - 15:52 Its always critical to treat your customers with the respect they deserve. But in these challenging times, you can respond in ways that really set your business apart. With some effort, you can improve your customer experience and show your customers, in tangible ways, that youre committed to achieving the best results possible for them. Your business has something to gain from improving your customer experience as well. In fact, 36% of companies that excel in customer experience report they exceed their top business goal by a significant margin. By comparison, only 12% of mainstream companies achieve that outcome. Through more than a decade of working with customers as a system and network administrator and now as a technical onboarding manager, Ive identified five keys to creating a great customer experience. You can start today to put them into practice, for yourself and your teams: 1. Listen to your customers This is where the were in it together sentiment comes to life. You have to really listen to your customers and get to know their needs. Come alongside and learn about their struggles and the goals they want to achieve. Remember that youre not in this for yourself; youre in it for them. Work closely with your customers to make sure theyre on track to achieve their desired outcomes. 2. Build a great team Every day, surround yourself with people who can come together to reach common goals. Im thankful that every person I work with from the brilliant engineers and architects, to the sales team, project managers and customer success managers is passionate about delivering the best customer experience possible. From jumping on calls at 5 a.m. or 11 p.m. or helping on weekends to make sure were doing right by our customers its that team spirit that can keep everyone moving forward and making a real difference. 3. Stay one step ahead As the first point of contact with customers, technical onboarding managers and project managers need, more than ever, to stay one step ahead. Be aware of possible issues that might come up and when something does, bring it to everyones attention early so you can present alternatives quickly. 4. Save your customers money Customers are especially sensitive to budget changes right now. This is a challenge we must overcome by keeping projects on track and on time, and by setting the appropriate expectations with stakeholders. Transparency is key here. Always look for solutions that are free-of-charge or that will incur the absolute minimum price increase possible for your customer. 5. Weigh the real cost Especially in this difficult economic climate, try to be flexible with those customers who are struggling financially. Its usually worth it to lose a little short-term revenue in order to keep your customer from going elsewhere and losing their business altogether. By listening to customers and giving them the help they need, your actions will speak louder than words. At Rackspace, weve been focused on creating great customer experiences for over 20 years. We even coined it Fanatical Experience. Every day, we combine our obsession for customer success with our passion for technology. Get to know us. Creating great customer experiences, in a new challenging eraShow your customers youre committed to their success. Start here, with the five keys to creating great customer experiences. Focus on whats next for your business/solutionsGet started Cloud InsightsRodrigo Garcia PereiraCreating great customer experiences, in a new challenging eraJuly 31, 2020
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customer
era
creating