How customer experience is driving digital transformation in PE

Sean Epstein, Senior Vice President and Global Head of SAP Private Equity & Mergers and Acquisition Programs, and Marc Noë, a Managing Director in the EY Digital practice, join Winna Brown to discuss how customer experience is driving digital transformation in private equity.

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“Digital” drives enhanced experiences for customers. And while many people talk about digital in terms of technologies, the most important (and difficult) aspect of digital is adopting new ways of working in areas such as product orientation, design thinking and customer experience.

Finding the right technology fit across the PE portfolio can be daunting, but the pandemic is inspiring PE firms to question the more fundamental processes of buying, making and selling:

• How can digital help us identify synergies in procurement across the portfolio so we can leverage our aggregate buying power to drive cost reductions?
• How can digital help us reimagine our sourcing and manufacturing so we can continue making products with fewer workers?
• How can digital better connect us with the experiences, desires and needs of our customers in a post-pandemic shopping environment?
• What are my peers doing that is driving superior performance and which digital technologies, investments and best practices will help me get there?

Experience-led transformation impacts PE-backed companies from three key perspectives:

• Customer: customer experience and feedback changes business fundamentals and KPIs by informing how a company innovates, develops, markets and sells its products.
• Employee: employee experience and feedback surfaces valuable business learnings about what is working and not working “on the ground."
• Firm: scalable customer and employee feedback loops and the resulting KPIs serve as an ongoing barometer throughout the business lifecycle that is especially illuminative and relevant during due diligence.

Top tips for PE-backed companies that want to enhance their customer experience include:  

• Rather than ask, “what do we need to do to digitalize our business?” ask, “what do we need to do to make us easier to do business with?”
• Launch and learn, speed is of the essence. You may fail but you will learn from the experience.
• CIOs need a seat at the table alongside all the other business leaders.
• It’s hard to attract and retain top talent, so don’t “sleep” on your talent.