Platform as-a-Service an opportunity for customer experience

In a complex world of digitalisation and mounting customer demands, Platform as-a-Service (PaaS) might prove to be much more effective than Software as-as-Service (SaaS), given the former’s ability to improve response quality. This is according to Marcelo Scalia, Consulting Director at Ekulus Consulting.

Ekulus Consulting is a Victoria-based tech consultancy that specialises in cloud-based customer experience capabilities. The firm has been an Oracle partner for more than a decade now, during which time it has ascended to Gold Partner status.

In discussion with 701, consulting leader Scalia says that in today’s data rich economy, it is key for organisations to translate data driven into an upped customer experience. Typically, businesses have responded to this need by investing (substantially) in data collection and analysis capabilities. However, Scalia points out, the time has come to move further and invest in connecting the dots of various data points and deliver a proper response mechanism for customer demands.

To this end, he believes that PaaS is more appropriate than SaaS, which has driven Ekulus to ramp up its investment in PaaS recently. He highlights how SaaS is a tool that allows for using information that is already available to increase efficiency and accuracy, rather than facilitate creative capabilities.

For companies that wish to reach pinnacle of customer experience, Platform as-a-Service provides a fundament that allows for data to be analysed in order to devise new ways of identifying which consumer demands to respond to and which to let pass.

“With CX, there are SaaS applications available, so they're meant to be packaged standard solutions that you tailor to a degree. But you can really create a unique experience with a PaaS because it allows you to really put a vision in place and work without limits,” states Scalia.

“In general, organisations have grown into complex technology landscapes, so seamless is not an easy thing to do because you've got different organisations working in silos. Putting that together, really bring that data into one place, it gives you seamless and consistency. You can be very responsive but if you don't have the data accessible to respond to that demand, then it slows you down into that experience,” he concluded.