December 13, 2021

In the News: Innovation Nation
This article was published in the Daily Tribune on November 20, 2021. Photos from the same page.

Digital transformation proponent Stratpoint sees embracing innovation as the key to making it big during the post-pandemic frontier that essentially involves digital transformation.

Stratpoint Technologies chief executive officer (CEO) Mary Rose de la Cruz said the company wanted to act as a catalyst to digitalization through mobile applications for e-commerce, malls, payment services, insurance, knowledge management and health monitoring.

“Businesses today have no choice. They need to evolve and use technology. The competition is now global, and the barriers to entry have disappeared. Stratpoint, with our 20 years of experience in digital transformation, can help businesses thrive in this new environment,” she said in a Daily Tribune interview.

 

Novel challenges

De la Cruz noted that the Covid-19 contagion has radically changed the way business is conducted.

“But those who adapt readily were the first to stem the adverse effects of prolonged lockdowns and restricted travel on businesses. One of the hardest hit sector was the retail industry.”

“Along with the challenges came opportunities, though the retail sector felt the effects of the pandemic most profoundly, it was also the sector to quickly adapt digital technologies thereby, easing the impact of the crisis,” she stressed.

Since March 2020, digital technologies became the refuge of both businesses and households who were forced to isolate themselves in accordance with strict government quarantine rules.

In the purchase of consumer products, such as food, groceries, gadgets, apparel, and even consumer durables, businesses turned to the virtual avenue as most stores are closed. Amid the pandemic, many more online businesses have sprung.

Last year, the Department of Trade and Industry recorded 88,000 online companies that sought registration to operate.

In the retail space, visits to malls, restaurants and movie theaters dropped 80 percent, according to a recent report by the World Bank and the National Economic and Development Authority.

 

Seize the day

The Stratpoint CEO relayed that any form of business can take advantage of technology to scale their business will have a bigger chance of success.

For example, businesses that sell their products on social media can attend to inquiries and support requests from their customers 24/7 against those which have yet to exploit the power of the internet.

“They do not need round-the-clock manpower to do so. Run by artificial intelligence (AI), chatbots can now handle natural conversations through chat. When deployed via social, websites, or apps, they facilitate the buying process whenever and wherever the customers require,” according to De la Cruz.

Business operations, on the other hand, can make use of augmented intelligence, a type of machine learning technology that reduces human interaction.

One of its applications in retail is to read and understand the context of documents such as receipts and invoices to speed up transactions.

AI also enables businesses to gain a more significant share of sales through ultra-personalization and product recommendations.

This is similar to upselling customers through product displays in line with the cashier — only this time, they are served not with the generic low-ticket items like candies and magazines, but with products that they are highly likely to get based on their purchase history, preferences, and profile.

The recommendations may be provided within an application, via personalized ads, or to their emails, extending the experience beyond their online shopping session.

“This is what Stratpoint does. We enable digital transformation, delivering enterprise-grade solutions globally for more than 20 years. We specialize in agile software development, cloud, data, AI, and emerging technologies,” she said.

Beyond software development, the company also design and build cloud infrastructure that will host entire platforms to ensure that the applications perform fast, stay on, and run securely for their customers’ users.