BLUEROCK DIGITAL LAB

 

A New Dynamic of Advice and Delivery

• Digital psychology, technology and channels have re-defined how brands relate to consumers. It is also re-defining the form and the role of the external adviser
• The two major sources of digital advice available to organisations to date have been agency or consultancy based. The former offering creativity without a proper understanding of the powerful influencing dynamics and regulations within Financial Services; the latter offering experience but within analytical and ponderous processes rather than through rapid market testing
• Seeing this, Bluerock have created The Digital Lab. This delivers prototyping environments that allow organisations to use real customers and their data to test the capacity of digital to improve their bottom line and illustrates how a successful digital organisation thinks and acts
• The very nature of a fast /fail approach such as this is that it will include failure so the Digital lab offers a structured approach to ensure operational and reputational risk is minimised and any decision to change or close down an approach/offer is elegantly managed to protect brand and customer relationships.

The ‘Lost' Promise of Digital

For many Financial Services C suite Executives the promise of digital has never really delivered. Whilst new technology implementations are dubbed ‘digital' enhancements the real ‘game changing' impacts in customer engagement and activities experienced in other industries have to date escaped Financial Services organisations. Why is this? The digital revolution so successfully exploited in other industries is founded on a recognition that the consumer behaviours and attitudes have changed significantly. The demand now is for an equal voice; an influence; an adult to adult relationship with brands; a desire to interact and for brands to be useful. All of which run contrary to the way Financial Services companies have traditionally approached their customer base.

The shift to this new relationship and the associated impacts on the operating model would demand a significant and costly transformation for organisations but the all-important evidence that will encourage and convince the C- suite to sanction such a shift in approach, focus, process and areas for investment has not to date been available. Currently without this convincing evidence only tactical and incremental digital activities are sanctioned in the hope that they provide the required evidence. BUT THEY DON'T. To compound the issue further the vast majority of IT projects that are enhancing the existing value chain are now termed as digital developments. This allows organisations to content themselves that some digital enhancements are being delivered even if they are not the game changers they had anticipated.

The result of this is that whilst Financial Services Executives still have a belief that digital can provide more substantive benefits in growth, cost reduction and a re-definition of the value chain they still require evidence before committing thus disillusionment and frustration with digital grows.

To break this impasse we have created The Digital Lab. Working on the basis that customer engagement and sales are the lifeblood of any business, The Digital Lab provides organisations with a quick to deliver microcosm of what a digitally-led version of their customer engagement model might look, feel and operate like. This test environment uses real customers, real data, and real results to learn and understand what digital can deliver and what it's success would demand of the organisation as a whole. It is a risk managed, safe test environment which yields the evidence that C-level executives rightly demand before sanctioning major transformations. We provide the skills, processes, creativity, experience and technology to:

• agree the corporate ambition
• identify the target consumers
• establish the approach
• design the content
• develop the contact plan
• apply the analytics
• build the platforms (website, app etc.) 
• run the test and learn environment

...that delivers a fast fail, real world, model to test their digital propositions and ideas.

This solution environment can be up and running in a matter of weeks with empirical learning results becoming available from day 1.

 

See also: Cards & Payments, Banking, Life & Pensions, Wealth Management, Asset Management, Our Impact