“The Age of the Customer” – We’re Believers.

As tech geeks ourselves, we love a good tech trend report. And a recent Forrester article – The Top Technology Trends To Watch: 2016 To 2018 – did not disappoint. The big takeaway, according to Forrester, “The Age of the Customer” has changed the classic technology investment cycle. For example, technology management’s spend will grow about 5% in North America in 2016. This is a decent pace. However, spend on business technology — the things that let firms win, serve, and retain customers — will be double that!”

Why does this resonate with Acuant? Well, for us, it’s always been our goal is to build products and solutions specific to our industries and client needs – and it’s much more than credential management. It’s more than capturing, validating and converting physical data into electronically usable data. It’s more than kickstarting processes, reducing errors and saving time and productivity. It’s really about providing the best customer experience. And Acuant makes that easy. In seconds, a service can extract information from an ID and other documents. That information can then be automatically populated into internal and external systems for verification, cross-referencing, and customer management to help you provide superior transactional services.

For example, hospitality should be all about hosting your guest, not bogging them down with admin-intensive processes. Whether it’s a solution to expedite the check-in process or collecting

ID or passport information for regulatory and billing information, all of this can be achieved in no time at all. And consider the healthcare industry. By automating many manual tasks associated with managing patients, the patient experience is enhanced. Acuant solutions are capable of reading and processing

almost all health insurance cards in seconds, thereby reducing work overhead, cutting costs and ultimately, putting the attention back on the patient. The automotive industry? When it comes to purchasing, renting, or vehicle services, the ability to identify a customer quickly and to process documentation effectively, results in improved customer satisfaction and loyalty. A powerful customer database enables marketing efforts that attract retail sales, expedite the sales process, and increase service business.

And as Forrester summarize, “Our dawning phase trends (1 and 2) might seem oddly placed given the hype around big data / advanced analytics and the Internet of Things (IoT). But we see visionaries going beyond the ordinary. They know big data isn’t about the data; it is about using insight to drive your business actions. And the IoT isn’t about devices; it’s about the new relationships you create with your customers.”