Genpact has signed a strategic five-year partnership with Tropicana Brands Group, a leading chilled beverage company, to transform its global business services and supply chain operations.

Genpact will leverage its domain expertise and digital business platform to implement standardized processes, data analytics, and innovative digital solutions to transform Tropicana Brand Group’s finance and accounting (F&A) operations. 

The efforts are aimed to streamline and automate a wide range of essential F&A operations, encompassing Master Data, Accounts Payable, Expense Management, Order to Cash, General Accounting, Reporting, Customer Supply Chain, Procurement Operations, and others.  As part of the engagement, Genpact will conduct S/4 HANA testing to help deploy new systems while enabling new Global Business Services capabilities. The companies also will implement generative AI to automate and transform the business processes. 

“Tropicana Brands Group is committed to delivering modern enterprise business services that are future-ready and aligned with our growth plans,” said Matt Murray, Head of Corporate Finance, Tropicana Brands Group. “Through partnership with Genpact, we anticipate seamless and connected experiences at every touchpoint. Tropicana Brands Group is committed to fostering new growth through innovative processes, cutting-edge technology, and data analytics.”

“Consumer goods companies looking to modernize and grow need robust, integrated solutions that align processes with operations across the entire value chain,” said Anil Nanduru, Global Business Leader, High Tech and Manufacturing and Consumer and Healthcare, Genpact. “Tropicana Brands Group exemplifies this approach by strategically reengineering its business through the use of advanced digital technologies and data analytics to enhance revenue, profitability, and innovation.”

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A new global study from the IBM Institute for Business Value, reveals a widening gap between shopper demands and the current retail offering.

The third biennial consumer study, “Revolutionize retail with AI everywhere: Customers won’t wait,” surveyed nearly 20,000 global consumers and reveals a dissatisfaction with retail experiences, with only 9% of consumers surveyed saying they are content with in-store and 14% content with online shopping.  

Yet technology could play an important role in enhancing the overall shopping experience, with over half of the respondents indicating they are eager for AI enhancements like virtual assistants (55%) and AI applications (59%) as they shop. Influenced by inflation, six in ten consumers surveyed also say inflation has impacted how they shop, with 62% saying that price is a top reason they switch stores or brands.

“In the face of rapidly shifting consumer expectations and the stark realities of today’s economic picture for households, the retail sector is presented with an ongoing challenge—and an unprecedented opportunity,” said Luq Niazi, Global Managing Director at IBM. 

“We are seeing that today’s consumers, faced with more choices and channels than ever, are increasingly making their purchasing decisions based on the cost and the quality of experiences that retailers provide. The IBM IBV Consumer 2024 Study underscores an opportunity for retailers to integrate AI and other technologies into both digital and physical shopping experiences to meet these changing consumer demands and their economic challenges. Leveraging advances in AI technologies, retailers can forge ahead into a new era of commerce and fulfilment, leading with innovation to create shopping experiences that are intuitive, unified, personalized and efficient.”

Noteworthy findings from the study include:

• In-Store Experience Lacks Luster: Despite a preference for physical stores by 73% of those surveyed, only 9% are satisfied with the in-store experience. Consumers surveyed want greater variety of products available (37%), more information about products (26%), and faster checkout (26%) in stores. Most consumers surveyed (65%) are supplementing their in-store experience by using mobile apps while shopping — demonstrating a trend toward a digitally integrated in-store experience. 
• Online Shopping Shortcomings: Online retail isn’t immune to criticism; two-thirds of consumers surveyed discover new products via the web, yet many have expressed dissatisfaction with their online shopping journey, citing challenges finding the products they want (36%), not enough information about products (33%), and a cumbersome return process (33%).
• Consumers Desire Digital Integration: Consumers surveyed showed a strong interest in using AI technology to enhance various aspects of their shopping. Most consumers (59%) said they would like to use AI applications as they shop and 4 in 5 consumers who haven’t used the technology for shopping reported an interest in trying it. Personalization and targeted offerings are in demand, with 52% of consumers surveyed interested in receiving information, advertisements, and offerings from stores that are relevant to their specific interests. Yet there remains a stark satisfaction gap for current AI assistant users surveyed. Only about one-third of responding consumers who have used virtual assistants are satisfied with the experience and nearly 20% were so disappointed that they don’t want to use virtual assistants again, signaling a mismatch between current tech offerings and shopper expectations.
• Economic Forces at Play: Economic challenges, particularly inflation, are influencing shopping behaviors. Consumers surveyed are seeking flexible payment options, with 55% desiring more varied payment options and 46% reporting they would like to pay for their purchase in installments. As inflation and economic uncertainty pinch pocketbooks, 62% of consumers surveyed also say price is a top reason they would switch stores or brands.

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Only 8% of customers used a chatbot during their most recent customer service experience, according to a survey by Gartner. Of those, just 25% said they would use that chatbot again in the future.

Despite customer service and support leaders’ growing focus on chatbots, customer use of them remains low, suggesting they don’t consistently help customers accomplish their goals.

A Gartner survey of 497 B2B and B2C customers from December 2022 through February 2023 found the ability of a chatbot to move the customer’s issue forward was the top driver of adoption, explaining 18% of the variance in customers’ likelihood to use their chatbot again.

“While many customer service and support leaders look to chatbots as the future of the function, customers clearly need some convincing,” said Michael Rendelman, Senior Specialist, Research, in the Gartner Customer Service and Support practice. “To improve chatbot adoption, the key is to focus on improving the chatbot’s ability to move customers’ issues forward.”

Chatbots Resolve 58% of Returns and Cancellations, but Only 17% of Billing Disputes

Resolution rates vary greatly by issue type: Just 17% of billing disputes are resolved by customers who used a chatbot at some stage in their journey (see Figure 1), while resolution rates for customers making a return or cancellation were as high as 58%. 

While service organizations have a deep understanding of the capabilities and limitations of their chatbots, and what issues are a good match for chatbots to resolve, customers do not. The survey found customers are just 2% more likely to use a chatbot for a return/cancellation than use it for a billing dispute, despite a significant difference in resolution rates between the two.

“Chatbots aren’t effective for all issue types,” said Rendelman. “As generative AI makes them more advanced, customer confusion about what chatbots can and can’t do is likely to get worse. It’s up to service and support leaders to guide customers to chatbots when it’s appropriate for their issue and to other channels when another channel is more appropriate.”

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When Shweta Srivastava joined JK Cement in the last September as Head of IT Applications, she had quite a task at hand – to oversee the company’s application landscape which encompasses various go-to-market applications. This might seem like a fairly uncomplicated responsibility, but beneath it all, what it really means is that Shweta is responsible for keeping JK Cement’s key stakeholders happy. The brand has a large ecosystem of internal users, partners, distributors and the ever-growing network of influencers like painters, masons among others. And delivering the right experience and value to all these stakeholders through different applications was certainly a tall order. 

Thus begins Shweta’s journey with low-code, no-code (LCNC) platforms that have been transforming the application development arena. 

Shweta says that LCNC’s visual modelling elements, drag-and-drop interfaces, and pre-constructed templates make it possible for teams to quickly spin up applications that align perfectly with the business requirements. 

In this exclusive interview with CIO Dimension, Shweta shares some profound insights derived from her hands-on experience with LCNC tools. 

Watch the full video here: 

While LCNC tools give an edge, they do come with their own challenges, says Shweta. “The general perception is that citizen developers can just drag and drop a few things and the application is ready in no time. But, such developers are typically biased with the outcome that is attached with their immediate requirements. For LCNC initiatives to be successful and sustainable, we need to follow certain best practices, see how efficiently one can create application objects and use it for multiple applications.” 

Scalability is an important factor while working with LCNC tools. You don’t want to make something so closed loop that it cannot be scaled further, she adds. 

Shweta also touches upon aspects like API security, shadow IT in LCNC environments and how those can be effectively addressed. She strongly advocates for the synergistic blend of digital technologies and the human touch in crafting optimal customer experiences. 

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