How Design Thinking and User-Centered Design Build Trust—Lessons from Designing Tucson Medical Center’s Digital Front Door

Posted on January 23, 2025 by Hieu (Sam) To, Manager, UX/UI Design

Design thinking is about empathy—putting yourself in another person’s shoes to solve a problem they are facing. User-centered design is about, well, useability. It narrows in on the part of that solution that is tied to a digital or online experience, whether that’s a product, an application, or a website. The two concepts go hand-in-hand, and as Kopius went about building Tucson Medical Center’s (TMC Health) digital front door, both were at the forefront of our thinking. 

The reason? Trust.

It’s important for people to be able to trust their health care system and its providers. And we wanted to send that message loud and clear in every digital interaction. Empathy and useability were the keys.

Key Strategies for Overcoming Complexity

Healthcare can be complicated, overwhelming—even scary. A digital front door, which is an online portal or platform where a health care system, its staff, patients, and even their families or other caregivers, can easily interact and access the information, should be designed to make it less so. Design thinking and user-centered design drove every aspect of our approach to building the new site, which we did using the Payload content management system.

Among the many strategies we used, three stand out. First, every decision we made was centered on the user journey, which was a bit tricky, since there was more than one user. Second, we made access to critical information as straightforward as possible. And third, we used visual branding to simplify and guide users.

While these are particularly critical in a health care setting, they are truly universal and applicable when developing any digital product or solution.

1. Prioritize the User Journey—Even on the Backend

When developing any digital product, the user journey should always be your top priority. But in TMC Health’s case, they needed to welcome both new and established patients, and their journeys are very different. For example, new patients are often looking for educational and marketing materials about what the health system offers while returning patients need to quickly find specific services and providers, schedule appointments, etc. We had to create pathways for both.

Digging deeper, we realized those aren’t the only two user personas that matter. TMC Health’s team uses the site to upload and manage content. They had their own user journey that had to be addressed. Not only did we need to structure the backend so they could work efficiently, but we also needed to build guardrails so that they uploaded new content, they didn’t make changes that would impact the user experience.

Websites often must address the needs of more than one user persona, both on the front end and the back. You may not be able to tackle everything at once. That was the case with the TMC Health project, so we took a phased approach. First, we addressed the established patient journey, then the needs of new patients.

2. Make Sure Important Information is Just Two Clicks Away

TMC Health’s previous website grew to include more than 1,300 pages of content. It was a maze to navigate. Our challenge was to simplify it so people could find what they needed with minimal effort. We started by conducting a content audit and inventory, then we built a restructured site map with improved hierarchy that prioritized important information. We also condensed content and sunset out of date information. In the end, we were able to get those 1,300 down to about 400, so that no critical information was more than two clicks away.

Next, we turned our attention to TMC’s internal users. To make sure they could add necessary content without overwhelming the site or patients using it, we developed content writing guidelines tailored for healthcare that focus on clarity, accessibility, and relevance. Then, we streamlined the back end to make it simpler for content writers to manage and update information across the network and reduce the need for training. We also added formatting and character count limits in the CMS to ensure new content was concise and is easy to skim.

While finding the information you need fast is critical when your health is on the line, it’s true on any website. Many companies, especially in the business world, overcomplicate their sites—they want potential customers to spend time on it. But I would caution to pick your moments. Customers come to your site for many reasons—sometimes they need information fast, and other times they’re there to learn. Prioritize accordingly.

3. Use Visual Branding to Create Cohesiveness—and Differentiation

TMC Health is comprised of 10 clinics and facilities. On their previous site, these were all visually branded the same. Typically, consistent branding is a best practice, but in this case, it created confusion for users. Our challenge was to find a way to create alignment with the primary TMC Health brand structure while making it easy for people to quickly differentiate between locations. We solved this by developing an overarching color scheme and using different but visually related colors for each location. Importantly, though, we kept the page layout consistent so users could quickly find or navigate to the information they needed.

This situation isn’t exclusive to healthcare—large corporations with multiple lines of business often face similar challenges. The big takeaway here is that color can provide cohesiveness, but in a situation where everything else is consistent, it can be a differentiator that helps the user—in this case a patient—quickly understand that they are in the right place.

Design Thinking: Empathy Builds Trust

Patient care begins at the digital front door. It’s a healthcare system’s first opportunity to build trust and demonstrate the level of care people can expect throughout their healthcare journey, from routine family care to urgent help in an emergency. A digital front door built on a solid foundation of design thinking and that prioritizes the user journey, can make a real difference in moments that matter, perhaps even saving lives.

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At Kopius, we harness the power of people, data and emerging technologies to build innovative solutions that help our customers navigate continual change and solve formidable challenges. To accelerate our customers’ success, we’ve designed a JumpStart program to prioritize digital transformation together.

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Increase Innovation with Kopius' JumpStart Program

Introducing Kopius Labs—Innovate and Scale Quickly and Cost Effectively with Our Blended Talent Teams

Posted on November 5, 2024 by Diego Anfossi, Vice President of Delivery, and Matias Mazzucchelli, Managing Director

Everywhere you go, emerging technology like generative AI (GenAI) is top of mind. Organizations are wisely racing to incorporate it into their workflows to gain insights and efficiencies that will drive customer value and give them a competitive edge. But many of the fundamental challenges that faced IT and development teams prior to the advent of GenAI remain, and chief among them are simply bandwidth and budget. In fact, in the Skillsoft 2023-2024 IT Skills and Salary Report, more than 5,700 respondents identified resource and budget constraints as the number one challenge their organizations face. 

At Kopius, we hear this from our clients every day. Your senior team members are so bogged down with day-to-day responsibilities, they don’t have the time to address emergent business needs, much less innovate. But adding headcount is both time-consuming and costly. It takes time and effort to find the right people with the right skills. You don’t always have the budget for full-time staff, or you may only need extra help for a short period of time.

At Kopius, we are excited to introduce Kopius Labs, a new resourcing solution designed to meet you where you are, so you can quickly and cost effectively stand up a team for a pressing, usually short-term project.

Your Team, Your Way—Flexible and Cost-Effective Blended Talent Teams

If you’ve worked with Kopius before, you know our team of inspired realists is our superpower. What you might not realize is how much work we put in behind the scenes to identify the best talent. And we don’t stop there—we also provide continuing education to make sure they’re always at the top of their game. Our near shore, LatAm-based teams are a blend of experts in a broad range of technologies and principles, people with solid, mid-level experience, emerging talent fresh out of Kopius Academy, our certification program, and everything in between.

If you have a small project or short-term need, we can quickly and cost effectively stand-up a Kopius Lab—a team of people with blended levels of expertise, some who are between longer term projects, to close the gap.

Kopius Labs is a win-win for both you and our team members. You benefit from rapidly advancing design thinking, accelerated feature development, and groundbreaking R&D work, and our teams gain rewarding opportunities and valuable experience working on cutting edge projects. All of this is delivered through a cost-effective, blended team structure, ensuring high-impact results without the expense of high-priced resources.

Just tell us what problem you’re trying to solve, and we’ll spin up a custom Kopius Lab to resource it.

Kopius Labs—A Right-Sized Resource Solution

At Kopius, we’re still focused on digital leadership: developing digital products and custom applications powered by technology, data, and IoT. And we still deliver services through all our usual resourcing approaches: future-state workshops, end-to-end project delivery, managed services, and with embedded team members. Now, with the addition of Kopius Labs, we can help our customers quickly fill technical gaps between those larger scale and longer-term projects.

Here are just a few ways Kopius Labs can help:

Managing Daily Operations
Every company has operational upkeep—tasks you must do to keep things running smoothly. But it shouldn’t keep your senior team members from contributing where you need them most. Kopius can spin up a Lab to handle the everyday so you can use your team more effectively.
Addressing Emergent Needs
No matter how well you plan, something unexpected always comes up. Need to quickly ramp up your technical resources to handle an ad hoc project or augment your team during busy season?
Kopius can spin up a Lab so you can scale your team quickly.
Experimenting and Innovating
Sometimes, you just need to understand if something is the right approach for your company. Looking to explore a new idea, test something quickly, or whip up a quick proof of concept? Kopius, can spin up a Lab to make sure you’re headed in the right direction.

Kopius Labs is all about scale, flexibility, and speed—at a competitive price, of course.

Innovate and Scale—Quickly and Cost Effectively—with Kopius Labs!

At Kopius, we harness the power of people, data and emerging technologies to build innovative solutions that help our customers navigate continual change and solve formidable challenges. To accelerate our customers’ success, we’ve designed Kopius Labs so you can innovate and scale quickly and cost effectively

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Introducing AI-fueled CodeOps, Your Development Velocity Accelerator Solution

Posted on November 5, 2024 by Rob Carek, Vice President, Client Solutions

There is so much intellectual consideration given to the application development lifecycle. 

Methodologies like Agile, DevOps, and DevSecOps, which are designed to drive more value by getting new features and enhancements to market faster, with fewer issues, are evidence of this. But very few people think about managing the code lifecycle, at least not beyond a single product. We often just accept the limitations and inefficiencies around code development.

AI-fueled CodeOps is here to change that.

CodeOps is designed to relieve developers of repetitive coding so they can focus on higher level work and accelerate the velocity at which they can get new features and enhancements to market.

Repetitive Coding—and Testing—Is Inefficient

Companies typically align development teams to a single product, and those teams rarely branch outside their own area of focus. The approach has both advantages and disadvantages. On the upside, developers have greater context for their work. They know their products and can build on code they created. The downside, especially for companies with multiple products, is that developers waste large amounts of time writing code that does things that already exist within other products. They’re writing code to do the same thing again and again.

It’s wildly inefficient.

And it’s just not developing code—it’s testing it, too. You develop the code, you develop the test code, you identify and address issues, you release, you fix bugs. The inefficiencies grow exponentially, especially across multiple products. You can see how this might open the company to greater exposure from a security standpoint, as well.

But what if you could find similarities between requirements, develop code to address them, and use it everywhere those requirements exist? What impact would it have on your company, customers, and development teams?

CodeOps Accelerates Velocity—and Value—at Scale

Enter CodeOps.

CodeOps is a methodology that prioritizes reuse of existing code wherever possible. Organizations can use it to reduce development time and get new products, features, and enhancements faster and more securely by reusing, repurposing, or building on code they already have. It entails adopting new ways of thinking, putting new practices and processes in place, and using technology like GenAI to match requirements with reusable, modular pieces of code stored in a code library, so new code is written only when it’s not in the library and/or is truly unique to a single product.

The obvious gains are consistency, efficiency, and security. Products are more structurally similar, and developers aren’t spending hours recoding the same thing dozens of times—or testing it. You already know it works. If your organization uses DevSecOps practices, you know security was a primary consideration in its development. And if there is an issue, once a patch is deployed, it is fixed everywhere it is in use.

But CodeOps is more than just an efficiency play. By using code from the library, even as a starting point, developers can put more time and effort into coding things that are going to have a big impact on your products—things that drive value to your customers and create value for your company. And from a developer’s perspective, that is more interesting, rewarding, and desirable work.

As with agile, DevOps, and DevSecOps, CodeOps requires cultural and process changes. Developers must adopt new ways of working, but they also must be willing to trust the code.

Ignite CodeOps Adoption with an External Catalyst

All the major code platforms—Jira, GitHub, Azure DevOps, Slack—are actively exploring how to integrate CodeOps into their solutions, and third-party tools are emerging, as well. They are all nascent, with some working better than others, which makes it difficult to determine which one will best serve you in the long run. In addition, adopting CodeOps is more than just bolting on a technology solution. Like Agile and DevOps before it, CodeOps requires a cultural shift. Developers must adopt a new mindset and new ways of working. And they must learn to trust the existing code modules enough to incorporate and build on them.

These technical, organizational, and cultural barriers make it challenging to figure out how to get started, especially when your teams have so much to do. Sometimes, it takes an external catalyst to make CodeOps real. At Kopius, we’ve developed a solution to help organizations adopt CodeOps without having to tackle the organization and cultural transformation or make a long-term commitment to a platform that is still figuring out its approach.

First, we use GenAI to intelligently review your backlog and identify commonalities in new requests. Next, we aggregate those requests and develop requirements to address them. Then, we develop code to cover the bulk of those commonalities and validate it with your developers to get their feedback and buy in. The code is stored in the code library and pushed to the right code repositories. Then, when you’re ready to tackle one of those new requests in a sprint, your developers simply pull the relevant code from the repository and use it as-is or as a starting point. As additional new requests come in, the process is repeated.

Companies gain the advantages that come with looking at code across their entire portfolio and maintaining it by feature and functionality, without disrupting existing development processes.

It’s a smart point of entry for any organization wanting to get started with CodeOps today.

CodeOps: A GenAI Approach to Working Smarter, Not Harder

Ultimately, CodeOps solves a fundamental problem that many organizations have—writing the same requirements and code for multiple products. It’s a hard challenge to overcome because the organizational constructs inherent in development teams lend themselves to a product-by-product approach.

But with a little help from GenAI and an external catalyst like Kopius developers can work smarter, not harder and accelerate the velocity at which they can deliver value.

JumpStart Your Technology Project—and Stay on Track—with Kopius!

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GenAI Is Coming for Coding in the Best Possible Way

Posted on October 28, 2024 by Kopius Editorial Board with Rob Carek

Rob Carek Explains Why CodeOps is a Win for Businesses, Customers, and Developers

Across the enterprise, in every industry vertical and every operational and functional area, organizations are racing to take advantage of Generative AI (GenAI). It’s already in use in 65% of organizations, according to a McKinsey Global Survey. For software companies, much of the focus has been on using GenAI to generate code. But the approach has challenges. Depending on the tool developers use, the code accuracy rate is only between 31% and 65%, according to a Bilkent University study. The general consensus is it’s buggy and poses hidden security risks.

But software companies and developers now have another meaningful approach to GenAI at their disposal—CodeOps. GenAI fueled CodeOps is an approach that now enables developers to reuse internally owned, fully approved, modular coding building blocks—systematically. And it’s driving a transformational shift that creates business and customer value, unburdens developers of mundane and repetitive coding, and enables them to innovate.

We sat down with Rob Carek, Vice President of Client Solutions at Kopius, to introduce you to CodeOps.

Tell me about CodeOps. What is it and what problem does it solve?

Modern software development processes are wildly inefficient. A fundamental challenge, at least for companies with more than one product or application, is that there’s no practical way to reuse code. So, if you have a suite of 20 products, and every single one of them has a similar feature, your development teams have built that feature 20 different times—and they do it differently, every single time. In theory, a human could pour over requirements and search code repositories to find commonalities and reuse existing code, but that’s just not practical—it would be far more work than just rebuilding it.

But with the advent of GenAI, code reuse is NOW an addressable problem.

CodeOps is a code reuse strategy, and GenAI is not only the enabler, but also the accelerator. The idea is that companies can now develop reusable, modular code and store it in a library or repository. Then, GenAI can be used to search for existing code to use or build on instead of developing everything from scratch.

What are the big benefits of CodeOps?

There are four big benefits that I see: efficiency, innovation, faster time to market, and security. From an efficiency standpoint, since existing code is being repurposed, companies can save a ton of development and testing time. And when you think about how that is amplified across a whole suite of products—well, the gains are almost exponential. And all the time they save, they can spend innovating—building new features and enhancements that are unique to a given product and require original code. It’s the more challenging and interesting part of a developer’s job and where they really want to spend their time, so there’s a human benefit. It also means that things that really move the needle get to market and in customers’ hands sooner.

From a security standpoint, anything in the library is proven code—you know it meets organizational security and compliance standards. But, again, the impact really comes at scale. If you push a patch, everything updates, every vulnerability is closed wherever the code is in use.

Is CodeOps compatible with DevOps and DevSecOps?

Absolutely. The goal of DevOps is to break down silos between development and operations so new products, features, and enhancements get to market faster, more efficiently, and with fewer issues. DevSecOps prioritizes security at every step of the process. But both practices are focused on code development at the product or team level. CodeOps addresses a need at the organizational level, across multiple products. By reusing code wherever possible, CodeOps amplifies DevOps and DevSecOps outcomes—new things get to market even faster, even more efficiently, and with even fewer issues.

How can organizations get started with CodeOps?

Many of the major code platforms are starting to explore CodeOps and looking for ways to integrate it into their solutions, but it’s still very early days. I anticipate the first place they will start is using LLMs to identify commonalities in requirements. That doesn’t account for developing code that fulfills those requirements, and it’s going to be a long while before we see integrated, searchable code libraries. But that doesn’t mean you have to wait until they figure it out to get started.

At Kopius, we’ve developed a solution companies can use to adopt CodeOps today. We use GenAI to look at your backlog and identify commonalities in new requests and aggregate them. Then, we develop requirements and develop code to address them and validate it. The code is pushed to your code repository so when you’re ready to work those requests into a sprint, your developers can access it. It’s a more organic way to build a library of existing, pre-approved code that doesn’t require your teams to operate any differently than they do now.

What will it take to get developers to adopt CodeOps?

Modern development practices are simply not designed for content reuse at scale—there’s no precedent for it. And culturally, developers will look at someone else’s code and think, “I wouldn’t have done it that way.” So, like DevOps, getting developers to adopt CodeOps is going to take cultural change. Kopius’ solution takes that into consideration. It’s a hybrid human / technology approach that builds trust and buy-in by actively engaging developers in reviewing requirements and code and providing feedback. That way, they’ve contributed to it and have more confidence in it.

And as I mentioned earlier, CodeOps frees developers from the repetitive and mundane—things that are table stakes, so they have more time for developing things that are truly innovative. It’s a win-win.

What’s the single, most important thing companies should know about GenAI-fueled CodeOps?

GenAI-fueled CodeOps isn’t just an incremental improvement. It’s a truly transformational shift that will enable organizations to develop code at speed and scale, drive value into customers’ hands at speed, and free developers from the burden of repetitive, mundane work so they can focus on innovating.

Ultimately, GenAI-fueled CodeOps makes the most of what both technology and humans bring to the table—and rapidly scales it.

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Two Smart Strategies for When Timeline and Budget Don’t Line Up with Project Deliverables

Posted on October 8, 2024 by Marc Pollard

Delivery Challenges Blog Series

Every technology project starts with an outcome—a business goal that needs to be achieved. But to achieve that goal, you need to define a set of deliverables, establish a timeline, and determine a budget. Rarely do the timeline and budget line up with the work that needs to be done. There are seldom enough dollars to put the number of people on the project necessary to bring the deliverables to life within the timeline. This is often because of how challenging it is to fully scope a project up front. No matter how thorough you are, new requirements come to light, resulting in scope creep.

Many companies will lean into project management to make everything come together. Smart—a solid PMO practice is the foundation on which all successful technology projects are built.

But you can’t always project manage your way out of this type of problem. That said, there are some things you can do.

Two Key Approaches to Use When Time and Budget are Out of Sync with Project Scope

One of the most complex technology consulting programs I’ve worked on was for a new company in the healthcare space. The budget was a swag from an investor’s presentation deck and was completely out of alignment with the six-month timeline for standing up ERP manufacturing system, provider and patient registration and management portals, and an ecommerce app. Rescoping the project wasn’t an option—if every compliance parameter wasn’t met within the given timeframe, the client would have to wait an entire year to reapply with the organization that had program oversight. In the end, we met the timeline, stayed on budget, and our client was awarded the contract they were after.

We used two key approaches to make it happen. First, we brought all the right stakeholders to the table early to develop standard operating procedures (SOPs). And second, we used those SOPs, as well as compliance guidelines, to build and validate wireframes before standing up MVPs. Then we validated those before coding the actual apps.

Engage the Hive Mind

At the beginning of the initiative, we brought all the key stakeholders together for a series of workshops—one for each app we had to deliver. Every department that had a say was represented—product, engineering, sales, marketing, manufacturing, and legal. Not only did we have a binder on hand detailing hundreds of pages of compliance regulations, but we also had someone on hand who knew them inside and out. Collectively, we walked through every aspect of each app, developing standard operating procedures, strawmen, and requirements.

This hive mind approach meant we could problem solve, make decisions and come to agreements at speed and minimized our chances of going down the wrong path.

My Take

When timeline and budget aren’t in line with the work that needs to be done, you can’t afford to make mistakes. Get the people who hold the answers to your questions in a room and map out your requirements. At Kopius, we call these JumpStarts, and they may take a few days or a few weeks. Then, continue to check in with the same stakeholders at every critical juncture to validate your work.

“Measure once. Cut twice.”

For me, the project management equivalent of “measure once, cut twice,” is wireframes first, MVP second, coding third. And at each of these stages, you need to bring your stakeholders together to validate your work. For the healthcare project, once we had a thorough list of requirements, our UI/UX developed wireframes that we validated with the same group of stakeholders we initially brought to the table. This allowed us to identify and work through any potential issues up front. Then, once the wireframes were validated, we stood up MVPs for each app so stakeholders could walk through the basics of each process and validate it. Only then did we dive deep into coding all the features and functionality for the first release.

My Take

When timeline and budget aren’t in line with the work that needs to be done, the inclination can be to jump right into coding. A better approach is to double down on validating your path forward through JumpStart workshops and wireframing. This will minimize errors—and added time and costs—in the long run.

Expect the Unexpected

No matter how thorough you are in developing your requirements, there are going to be some “ahas” along the way. You have to expect the unexpected and remain flexible. But being flexible doesn’t mean saying yes to everything. Scope creep can derail a project from both a timeline and budget standpoint. For this project, we managed that by getting everyone to agree to a light phase one for each application, then planned to iterate, releasing new features every two weeks after launch.

Looking Ahead: The GenAI Approach

Like many technology companies, Kopius is actively integrating generative AI (GenAI) into our processes, and I’m working on a set of custom GPTs that I believe can make a difference when time and budget are out of sync with requested deliverables. By entering business and technical requirements into it—maybe even a transcript from a discovery session—and asking it to generate common use cases that serve as starting points for designing application features, we can streamline the work involved in building new apps. The prompt engineering requires a lot of up-front effort, but once that initial lift is done, we’ll be able to use it again and again.

Undoubtedly GenAI will deliver thousands of small efficiencies like this, but it’s only part of the equation. The time / budget / scope challenge is an inherent part of software development, and solving it is always going to take a multi-faceted approach.

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A Guide to Digital Front Doors in Healthcare

Posted on July 30, 2024 by Kopius

As the healthcare field rapidly evolves, the digital front door has become a valuable strategy for leveraging technology to deliver a better patient experience while reducing costs. A digital front door encompasses a conglomeration of features, from online appointment scheduling to telehealth visits, all selected to create cohesive, engaging, and high-value interactions.

What Is a Digital Front Door in Healthcare?

In healthcare, the definition of a digital front door encompasses a strategy for engaging with patients through user-friendly digital technology. It often uses technology the patients already have, like a smartphone and app, that unifies the patient experience and connects patients to care across the continuum. In short, a digital front door connects and scales the virtual care journey to give patients what they need, when they need it.

This idea started with traditional patient portals, and the digital front door has evolved to include a more overarching approach centered around patient-centered care and accessibility. Data-driven, highly personalized customer brands like Amazon and Apple are expanding into the healthcare sphere, so staying competitive with consumer-oriented experiences will be nothing short of crucial.

Take appointment scheduling, for example. Surveys show that 67% of patients prefer booking appointments online, and an overwhelming 95% of them are either “somewhat” or “much more” likely to choose a service provider offering online booking. Unsurprisingly, online appointment scheduling is one of the most prominent elements of digital front doors in healthcare.

Some providers use one robust application or portal to meet a virtual front door strategy, although you can do it with multiple systems. Features you might have in a digital front door solution include:

Self-scheduling and care coordination.
Bill pay and payment plans.
Provider communications.
Appointment reminders.
Telehealth.
Virtual forms, such as intake and consent management.
Virtual check-in and pre-registration.
Kiosks for in-office check-in.
Data collection and analytics.

How Does a Digital Front Door Enhance the Patient Experience?

One of the primary goals of digital front doors is to improve the patient experience, which comes with various benefits for patients and providers, like improved clinical outcomes, adherence, and loyalty. With the industry’s shift to value-based programs, designing a great experience throughout the patient journey can also support increased revenue while reducing costs through efficient care delivery.

Using a digital front door helps improve experiences in many areas, such as:

Improving accessibility with flexible, personalized tools.
Supporting providers in delivering more attentive, effective, and efficient care.
Empowering customers to actively manage their health.
Meeting customers where they’re at with appropriate digital technology and options.
Boosting patient loyalty through easy-to-use, convenient, and engaging programs.
Reducing wait times with self-serve resources and streamlined care delivery.

These benefits often overlap and build upon each other. For example, when patients use self-service tools to check in early or submit forms, they reduce wait times in the office and help providers work more efficiently.

Patient Portals vs. Digital Front Doors

While patient portals are often a central element to digital front doors, they shouldn’t reflect your entire strategy. These systems do a great job of putting digital tools in one easy-to-access space. However, they often lack user-friendly designs. Many providers use portals offered by the company that built their electronic health record (EHR). EHRs are complex, unwieldy, and designed for providers. Translating the information into a consumer-friendly program proves challenging.

Similarly, portals may not offer tools to help providers in nonclinical aspects of care. A comprehensive digital front door strategy drives digital innovation through insights, like collecting information on how patients interact with you and how those interactions affect their care journeys. It also provides a more personalized, patient-centric approach. For example, you might offer educational resources for a patient with a new diagnosis, or you could prompt someone to activate reminders after they missed a payment.

Although patient portals are highly valuable, digital front doors address their shortcomings to create more cohesive and user-friendly experiences.

How Data Analytics Drive Healthcare Digital Front Doors

Data analytics is a cornerstone of digital front doors in healthcare. It can help you personalize care and make technology decisions based on real-world data about your patients and services.

Say you collect surveys from patients about their preferred payment methods. You find that many people pay larger sums with credit cards because they don’t have the funds available. With this new insight, you add payment plans to your online portal, helping more people afford care and offering a better experience, simultaneously boosting accessibility and satisfaction.

Leveraging data analytics solutions can help you identify new opportunities of all kinds and measure the efficacy of your digital front door strategy.

6 Tips for Implementing a Digital Front Door

Implementing a virtual front door requires thoughtful planning and consideration for various aspects of your practice. Consider these digital front door implementation tips to boost your chances of success.

1. Craft a Robust Digital Front Door Strategy

Malia Jacobson, healthcare content strategist at Valence, suggests you start by identifying your overarching goals. “When embarking on a digital effort in healthcare, it’s important to start by understanding which changes you need to see in the organization. Are you pursuing improved patient satisfaction scores? Physician satisfaction? ED/Urgent Care wait times? Quality and safety scores? Each area targeted for improvement may influence priorities differently.”

Many healthcare providers are developing digital solutions to address patient satisfaction, reduce service demand, and reduce administrative overhead. In addition to standard features of a digital front door experience, providers should consider designing for experiences such as:

Self-service: Provide tools for bill pay, self-scheduling, care coordination, and finding providers to offer streamlined and convenient access.
Provider messaging and patient outreach: Improve access, loyalty, and engagement.
Information and imaging libraries: Support patient and provider education.
Practice management: Capacity and census management, forecasting, and discharge planning streamline operations.
Insights-driven capabilities: Capabilities like infectious disease tracking, forecasting, and population health initiatives support proactive planning and informed decision-making.
Premium privacy and security: Safeguard patient data and meet compliance requirements.
Adoption-focused activities: Gamification and push notifications help increase awareness and usage of the program.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation features: Features like chatbots reduce clinical burden and improve patient flow.
Support for healthcare information exchange: Stay in compliance with Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standards and best practices.

As you ideate your digital products and strategy, it’s important to understand how these features interplay as part of a big-picture roadmap with a rollout timeline and strategy. You don’t have to release everything at once to be successful, and adding features as the platform develops and collects user feedback will future-proof the effort.

2. Keep Your Users Front and Center

“While a digital front door is a technology solution, it’s ultimately about humanizing the patient experience,” says Sam To, designer at Valence.

In the case of a digital front door, the users may be patients, families of patients, or healthcare providers. In nearly all scenarios, people value products that are easy to use and simple to set up and that follow a logical progression. This is especially true in a healthcare situation, which may be hypercharged by personal and situational stressors.

Equitable design should be at the forefront of design decisions because the healthcare organization needs to design for a wide array of users and needs. Fully understanding equitable design is critical to any digital front door strategy.

The design phase of the digital front door project should include user interviews, feedback sessions, prototyping, and more. Giving the UX/UI design team access to users early in the process can help to identify the best-case rollout strategy, reveal opportunities to differentiate from competitors, and deliver precisely the right content to users when they need it — all leading to better patient satisfaction scores.

3. Ensure System Interoperability and Integration

Healthcare organizations often use a wide array of technologies and programs. Your digital front door must connect with relevant systems. For instance, some businesses offer “online scheduling” by having the user submit a form. Then, the provider calls the patient to schedule the appointment. By seamlessly connecting an online tool with your scheduling system, you can provide a much better experience with real-time availability and no time commitment from your team.

Some programs offer easy integrations, while others require clever workarounds. However it happens, integration and interoperability are essential for creating cohesive experiences, achieving efficiency, and maximizing the value of your systems.

4. Get the Right Stakeholders Involved

Yuri Brigance, Valence’s director of software engineering, says, “This is more than a digital shift — the shift to a digital front door requires a culture shift within the organization.”

Experience has taught us that having the right people in the room can make all the difference in the success or failure of a major initiative, especially considering the role that change management plays here. People don’t resist change — they resist being changed. You must engage stakeholders from all impacted groups, from frontline workers to back-office operations. This engagement improves requirements documentation, roadmap planning, and buy-in as the work rolls out.

5. Uphold Security and Patient Privacy

Of course, all digital technology in the healthcare field demands top-notch security. However complex your system is, security and privacy help foster trust, maintain a good reputation, and ensure compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and FHIR.

While connecting people and systems, include robust data security compliance practices, such as risk assessments, monitoring, reporting, and training.

6. Use KPIs and Feedback to Measure Success

Key performance indicators (KPIs) and feedback from patients and providers allow you to measure your success after launching a digital front door and long after implementation. Incorporate a data strategy to collect and evaluate this information. Identify metrics relevant to your goals, decide how you’ll collect data, and regularly revisit KPIs to continuously improve upon your strategy.

Get Started on Your Digital Front Door Solution

Building a digital front door requires much more than buying a new software system. This comprehensive strategy requires careful analysis and expert development for your organization’s unique characteristics. With an effective strategy, a digital front door can transform your approach to patient engagement, driving innovation, increasing revenue, and boosting patient satisfaction.

At Kopius, we’ve designed a program to JumpStart your customer, technology, and data success.

Our JumpStart program fast-tracks business results and platform solutions. Connect with us today to enhance your customer satisfaction through a data-driven approach, drive innovation through emerging technologies, and achieve competitive advantage.

Add our brainpower to your operation by contacting our team to JumpStart your business.

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What is Digital Transformation?

Posted on May 21, 2024 by Brian Lamilla

Any business that wants to stay afloat must be ready to adapt or risk falling behind. In the fast-paced age of technology, this evolution often comes in the form of digital transformation. This digital-first strategy guides organizations toward improving processes and delivering more value to customers. It combines new technologies with cultural shifts that promote innovation and continuous adaptation. Regardless of your industry, digital transformation is paving the way forward as a necessity for modern businesses.

What Does Digital Transformation Mean?

To define digital transformation, we have to look at how businesses use their resources. A digital transformation strategy uses technologies to fundamentally change how a business operates and provides value. It may involve a range of goals, like adapting to evolving market conditions or improving your ability to meet customer demands. Whatever the goal, a digital transformation solution calls for foundational change at all levels.

Yet, digital transformation is about more than replacing outdated processes with newer technology — although that step is critical. It’s also about challenging “the way it’s always been” and driving the company toward a more agile mindset with openness to experimentation and innovation. Employees may need to accept the possibility of failure, and companies must embrace new practices before their competitors have already implemented them. Digital transformation rethinks tried-and-true practices and seeks out new methods of continual improvement.

This acceptance of new ideas illustrates the need for both cultural and technological development, hallmarks of a successful digital transformation process.

Another crucial aspect is the lack of a clearly defined endpoint. With a focus on innovation, digital transformation doesn’t end when new software is implemented or your efficiency goals are met. It’s more of a journey about building and maintaining an agile culture. Organizations look for ways to continuously improve the customer experience and operational processes.

Why Is Digital Transformation Important?

Digital transformation is nothing short of crucial for today’s businesses. Technology will continue to evolve, and businesses that embrace transformation will be positioned to use it to meet their goals instead of playing catchup or resisting change.

Even if you don’t feel like you need to change, digital transformation has become a question of resiliency. Adaptation ensures you have the resources and mindset to weather storms and market variations — because your competitors are likely already there.

Even after the initial transformation, you should be able to adopt new technologies as they appear and use them to help meet your business goals. Since we don’t know what the future holds, this agile approach allows organizations to keep pace with uncertainty and innovation, improving customer experiences and operational results with changes that span all parts of the company.

An agile culture is all about being flexible and responsive… this flexibility is key in digital transformation, where things move fast and being able to pivot and tweak things based on real-time feedback can make a huge difference.

Alex Arroyo, Project Manager at Kopius

Before tackling a transformation, businesses must understand digital transformation models accurately to implement a strategy that matches their organization. These tactics depend on knowing how digital transformation will apply to a specific business, such as its intended goals and company culture.

The Benefits of Digital Transformation

Although digital transformation is a necessity, it also has many advantages for its users, such as:

Higher efficiency: Digital technologies facilitate better productivity or reduced labor demands. Automation and artificial intelligence (AI), for instance, are rapidly gaining popularity across business strategies, eliminating manual processes, intelligently solving problems, and allowing skilled employees to focus on more important tasks. Digital transformation technologies are especially good at eliminating repetitive tasks, so your team members can work at the tops of their pay grades.
Opportunity for innovation: Embracing digital transformation allows you to get ahead of the competition and solidify yourself as a leader in your industry. It supports agility and responsive practices, so you can jump on new technologies, trends, and ideas that help you stand out. For some businesses, a head start makes all the difference in outperforming competitors.
Improved customer and employee experiences: Both customers and employees expect smooth, seamless resources. Customers want consistent, positive experiences at each touchpoint, while employees want the right tools to help them work their best. These demands are a significant driver for digital transformation strategies and the sophisticated features that come with them.
Improved communication: Successful digital transformation depends on everyone being on the same page. Many digital strategies provide resources for increasing visibility, transparency, and communication between employees, so this element is a significant part of any digital transformation strategy.
Risk mitigation: While a more experimental mindset comes with some risk, the digital transformation process can minimize it by providing a more agile position. Digital-first businesses can respond to volatility and disruptions with business models that can pivot as needed.

Keys to a Successful Digital Transformation

Although the goals and nature of digital transformation will vary by company, the following key elements stand out as necessary parts of the equation.

1. Digital Strategies That Empower Workers

Unsurprisingly, digital transformation calls for best-in-class digital tools. These resources should make information accessible across departments, providing cross-functional digital technologies that support efficiency, the customer experience, and other aspects of your transformation goals. Aligning digital strategies with your unique needs can be daunting, so invest special time and energy in finding appropriate resources.

2. New Operational Procedures to Incorporate Digital Technology

Your long-standing operational procedures are likely inappropriate for your new processes. Remember that digital transformation requires fundamental shifts, so new operational procedures will guide workers through the new systems while reflecting these fresh ways of thinking.

3. Engaged and Tech-Savvy Leaders

Digital transformation depends on engaged leaders at all levels being fully invested in the new approach. They should understand the aim of digital transformation and embody the movement during regular communications and activities. These leaders must also have the appropriate technical skills to fully grasp how to integrate new tech and processes into their workflows. Leaders can include executives, supervisors, and even workers chosen to champion the cause.

4. Strong Communication and Collaboration

Any business attempting digital transformation must go all-in. A “halfway” approach is inadequate, so communicating the goals and ideals driving the transformation is critical. You’ll also need to discuss the details, showing team members how these new resources contribute to modernizing the organization. Dive into how the culture shifts support the company’s long-term goals and dedication to the digital approach.

Why Digital Transformations Fail

Despite its importance, the vast majority of digital transformations fail, often due to one of these common pitfalls:

Poor communication: We mentioned earlier that good communication is key to a successful transformation program, and many of the attempts that don’t succeed involve poor communication. Early on, leaders should identify what “digital” means to them. In one organization, it might mean going paperless, while another might use it to implement agile processes. With so much ambiguity, strong communication is crucial from the highest levels — they should define what the transformation means for the business and how it should happen.
Inadequate measurement: Like many business strategies, qualitative and quantitative measurements should guide the process. You may already use key performance indicators (KPIs). Continue to use them, and evaluate which ones are most relevant to the digital transformation and create new ones if needed. If your goal, for instance, is to improve the customer experience through a new tech support system, you might pay special attention to your net promoter score. If you’re prioritizing efficiency, ticket resolution speed may be more relevant.
Culture misalignment: People often equate digital transformation with implementing high-tech tools, but businesses must stress the mindset shift, too. The transformation should include a focus on agility and responsiveness, with ideas that change alongside digital technology. Cultural changes must occur across the organization to help foster innovation and new ideas appropriate for a modern workplace. Many businesses that fail digital transformation do so because they don’t emphasize the cultural change it entails.

Digital Transformation Strategies

Depending on your goals, your digital transformation solution can take on many different forms. Some popular strategies for digital transformation models might focus on:

Business processes: This kind of digital transformation adjusts the day-to-day workflow and how workers access information. It might involve heavily automating manual processes and gathering reliable and data-driven insights that can guide business decisions. Revising business processes can help you minimize costs, improve product quality, and boost efficiency with faster and more informed procedures.
Industry domains: If your brand is traditionally limited to one market, you might look to a digital transformation model to help you expand your offerings. A fitness store, for example, could use digital strategies to create a fitness app and sell virtual workouts to appeal to customers and build their brand image. Expanding the boundaries of the brand is a task that often falls to digital transformation.
Business models: A transformation that affects the entire business model can be drastic but necessary. This approach adapts your current model to a new digital environment, whether that’s an environment you’re creating anew or one that just hasn’t been working well with your old processes. It might call for trying out new ways of operating, even those that no one else in the industry has done yet. In some cases, nailing this transformation disrupts entire industries.
Culture: Adapting to the digital world is difficult for some people and businesses. A cultural transformation focuses on aligning a company’s culture with the forward-thinking ideas of a digital-first organization. It requires extensive education and training, new onboarding processes, and activities and processes that support collaboration. This type of transformation gives your team the necessary resources to integrate digital technology into every aspect of the workday and maximize its benefits.
The cloud: A cloud transformation is about moving systems into cloud environments. You may only need it for a few applications or services, or you might move everything. A cloud-based infrastructure helps improve data access and storage, flexibility, and scalability. It offers a more centralized and visible system and can grow alongside your business.

Of course, the lines between these styles of transformation aren’t hard and fast. They often blur and overlap, so identifying what digital transformation strategy is right for your goals and needs can help improve your chances of success.

Digital Transformation Examples

The digital strategies available in different industries often affect the nature of digital transformation and its necessity. Here are a few of the ways that businesses in certain fields or departments might address digital transformation.

1. Health Care

The health care field has seen a dramatic technological transformation. From online check-ins to telehealth appointments, physicians now use digital technology to improve experiences and outcomes across all specialties. At Kaiser Permanente, for instance, about a third of ambulatory care visits in 2022 happened through phone or video calls. Supporting this level of virtual care requires a major shift in infrastructure and mindset.

A health care organization might use digital transformation to better use and integrate new technologies and support clinicians in effectively using these new strategies in their workflow. With capable, easy-to-use systems, health care businesses often improve outcomes and the patient experience while helping providers work more efficiently.

2. Customer Support

As AI and self-service platforms have improved, many businesses with customer support systems have revamped how their customers get help. With digital transformation, a company might reduce the demands on its slow, labor-intensive call center in favor of a support portal for customers to use on their own. Customers might start a return request, track their order, or search through frequent technical issues to troubleshoot the problem in an online knowledge base. The new system can add efficiency while improving the customer experience.

3. Sales and Accounting

Sales and accounting rely on many processes that digital strategies can speed up and refine. A digital transformation in these fields often entails programs that can automate calculations and communications. For example, using traditional spreadsheets for sales tracking would likely lead to errors and slow processes. Moving to a cloud-based system, such as a customer relationship management (CRM) platform, offers efficiency and simplicity. Representatives can easily track interactions, generate quotes, and communicate with clients without time-consuming paperwork.

Get Started With Your Digital Transformation

Digital transformation is a necessity for organizations of all types, offering the agility and modern resources required to compete in today’s business environment. Still, it involves a dedicated, concerted effort with the right kind of talent guiding the charge. You need everything from software engineers to data scientists and brand strategists. At Kopius, Inc., we’ll help you assemble the right team and solidify a successful program with our digital transformation services.

We offer dual-shore digital expertise with end-to-end capabilities to support speedy, effective digital transformations. From our lean, agile roadmaps to our data and analytical services, we provide flexible yet streamlined strategies tailored to your organization’s unique demands. Reach out to us today to discuss your needs and start on the path to digital transformation!

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Data Mesh: Understanding Its Applications, Opportunities, and Constraints

Posted on December 22, 2023 by Brian Lamilla

Data has experienced a metamorphosis in its perceived value and management within the corporate sphere. Previously underestimated and frequently discarded, data was often relegated to basic reports or neglected due to a lack of understanding and governance. This limited vision, combined with emerging technologies, led to an overwhelming influx of data, and nowhere for it to go. There was little to no governance or understanding of what data they had, or how long they had it.

In the early 2000s, enterprises primarily used siloed databases, isolated data sets with limited accessibility. The 2010s saw the rise of Data Warehouses, which brought together disparate datasets but often led to bottlenecks. Data Lakes emerged as a solution to store vast quantities of raw data and quickly became swamps without adequate governance. Monolithic IT and data engineering groups would struggle to document, catalog, and secure the growing stockpile of data. Product owners and teams that would want, or need access to data would have to request access and wait. Sometimes those requests would end up in a backlog and forgotten about.

In this new dawn of data awareness, the Data Mesh emerges as a revolutionary concept, enabling organizations to efficiently manage, process, and gain insights from their data. As organizations realize data’s pivotal role in digital transformation, it becomes imperative to shift from legacy architectures to more adaptive solutions, making Data Mesh an attractive option.

The Basics of a Data Mesh

The importance of personalized customer experiences should not be understated. More than ever, consumers are faced with endless options. To stand out from competitors, businesses must use data and customer behavior insights to curate tailored and dynamic customer journeys that both delight and command their audience. Analyze purchasing history, demographics, web activity, and other data to understand your customer, as well as their likes and dislikes. Use these insights to design customized customer experiences that increase conversion, retention, and ultimately, satisfaction.

When discussing data architecture concepts, the terms “legacy” or “traditional” imply centralized data management concepts, characterized by monolithic architectures developed and maintained by a data engineering organization within the company. Business units outside of IT would often feel left in the dark, waiting for the data team to address their specific needs and leading to inefficiencies.

First coined in 2019, the Data Mesh paradigm is a decentralized, self-service approach to data architecture. There are four central principles that Data Mesh is based on: Domain ownership, treating data as a product, self-service infrastructure, and federated computational governance.

With Data Mesh, teams (Domains) are empowered to own and manage their data (Product). This requires stewardship at the team level to effectively manage their own resources to ingest, persist and serve data to their end users. Data stewards are responsible for the quality, reliability, security, and accessibility of the data. Data stewards bridge the gap between decentralized teams and enterprise-level governance and oversight.

While teams enjoy autonomy, chaos would ensue without a federated governance approach. This ensures standards, policies and best practices are followed across all product owners and data stewards.

Implementing a Data Mesh requires significant investment in both infrastructure and enhancing teams with the resources and expertise required to manage their own resources. It requires a fundamental change in companies’ mindset of how they treat data.

While a Lakehouse would aim to combine the best of Data Lakes and Data Warehouses, Data Mesh ventures further by decentralizing ownership and control of data. While Data Fabric focuses on seamless data access and integration across disparate sources, Data Mesh emphasizes domain-based ownership. On the other hand, event-driven architectures prioritize real-time data flow and reactions, which can be complementary to Data Mesh.

When and Where to Implement Data Mesh

Large Organizations with Data Rich Domains: With large organizations, departments often deal with a deluge of data. From Human Resources to Sales, each team has their own requirements for how their data is used, stored, and accessed. As teams consume more data, time to market and development efficiency suffer in centralized architectures. External resources and time constraints are often the biggest issue. By implementing Data Mesh, teams can work independently and take control of their data, increasing efficiency and quality. As a result, teams can optimize and enrich their product offering and cut costs by streamlining ELT/ETL processes and workflows.

With direct control over their data, teams can tune and tailor their data solutions to better meet customer needs.

Complex Ecosystem: Organizations, especially those operating in dynamic environments with intricate interdependencies, often face challenges in centralized data structures. In such architectures, there’s limited control over resource allocation, utilization, and management, which can hinder teams from maximizing the potential of their data. Centralized approaches can curtail innovation due to rigid schemas, inflexible data pipelines, and lack of domain-specific customization. Data Mesh offers organizations the flexibility to adapt to evolving data needs and utilize domain-specific expertise to curate, process, and consume data tailored to their unique requirements.

Rapidly growing data environments: Today’s digital age sees organizations collecting data at an unprecedented scale. The sheer volume of data can be overwhelming with the influx of IoT devices, vendor integrations, user interactions, and digital transactions. Centralized teams often grapple with scaling issues, processing delays, and the challenge of timely data delivery. Data Mesh addresses this by distributing the data responsibility across different domains or teams. Multiple decentralized units handle the influx as data inflow increases, ensuring timely processing and reducing system downtime. The result is a more resilient data infrastructure ready to meet both current demands and future needs.

When Not to Implement Data Mesh

Small to Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs): While Data Mesh presents numerous advantages, it may not be suitable for all organizations or projects. Smaller organizations typically handle lower data volumes and may not possess the resources needed to manage their data independently. In these cases, a centralized data architecture would be more suitable to minimize complications in design and maintenance with fewer resources to manage them.

Mature and Stable Centralized Architectures: Organizations usually only turn to new solutions when they are experiencing problems. If a well-established centralized architecture is performing and fitting the needs of the company, there isn’t a need necessarily for Data Mesh adoption. Introducing a fundamental change in how data is managed is an expensive and disruptive undertaking. Building new infrastructure and expanding team capabilities changing organizational culture takes time.

Short-term Projects: Implementing a Data Mesh requires significant time and resource investment. The benefits of a Data Mesh won’t be seen when building or designing a limited lifespan project or proof of concept. If a project’s duration doesn’t justify the investment of a Data Mesh or the scope doesn’t require domain-specific data solutions, then the benefits of a Data Mesh aren’t utilized. Traditional data architectures are usually more appropriate for these applications and don’t need the oversight/governance that a Data Mesh requires.

Opportunities Offered by Data Mesh

Scalability: Data Mesh enables organizations to scale their data processing capabilities more effectively by enabling teams to control how and when their data is processed, optimizing resource use and costs, and ensuring they remain agile amidst expanding data sources and consumer bases.

Enhanced Data Ownership: Treating data as a product rather than a byproduct or a secondary asset is revolutionary. By doing so, Data Mesh promotes a culture with a clear sense of ownership and accountability. Domains or teams that “own” their data are more inclined to ensure its quality, accuracy, and relevance. This fosters an environment where data isn’t just accumulated but is curated, refined, and optimized for its intended purpose. Over time, this leads to more prosperous, more valuable data sets that genuinely serve the organization’s needs.

Speed and Innovation: Decentralization is synonymous with autonomy. When teams have the tools and the mandate to manage their data, they are not bogged down by cross-team dependencies or bureaucratic delays. They can innovate, experiment, and iterate at a faster pace, resulting in expanded data collection and richer data sets. This agility accelerates data product development, enabling organizations to adapt to changing needs quickly, capitalize on new opportunities, and stay ahead of the curve in the competitive market.

Improved Alignment with Modern Architectures: Decentralization isn’t just a trend in data management; it’s a broader shift seen in modern organizational architectures, especially with the rise of microservices. Data Mesh naturally aligns with these contemporary structures, creating a cohesive environment where data and services coexist harmoniously. This alignment reduces friction, simplifies integrations, and ensures that the entire organizational machinery, services, and data operate in a unified, streamlined manner.

Enhanced Collaboration: As domains take ownership of their data, there’s an inclination to collaborate with other domains. This cross-functional collaboration fosters knowledge sharing, best practices, and a unified approach to data challenges, driving more holistic insights.

Constraints and Challenges

Cultural Shift: Teams may not want to own their own data or have the experience to take on the responsibility. Training initiatives, workshops, and even hiring external experts might be necessary to bridge these skill gaps.

Increased Complexity: Developing an environment that supports a Data Mesh architecture is not without its challenges. As the Data Mesh model expands, managing the growing number of interconnected resources and solving integration issues to ensure smooth communication between various domains can be a considerable obstacle. Planning appropriately to support teams with access, training and management of a Data Mesh is critical to its evolution and success. This includes well defined requirements for APIs, data exchange, and interface protocols.

Cost Implications: Transitioning to a Data Mesh could entail substantial upfront costs, including hiring additional resources, training personnel, investing in new infrastructure, and possibly overhauling existing systems.

Governance: Data Governance has become a hot topic as data architectures grow and mature. Ensuring a consistent view of data across all domains can be challenging, especially when multiple teams update or alter their datasets independently. Tools to manage integrity, security and compliance are a requirement in a Data Mesh architecture. The need for teams to have autonomy in a decentralized environment is balanced with a flexible but controlled governance model that is the foundation for federated governance. This can be a challenge when initially designing the model based on team requirements, but it’s an important step to take as early as possible when building a data platform.

Skillset: Evolving with the Data Mesh Paradigm

With an evolved mindset, the Data Mesh paradigm demands expertise that may not have previously been cultivated within traditional data teams. This transition from central data lakes to domain-oriented data products introduces complexities requiring a deep understanding of the data and the specific use cases it serves, both internally and externally. Skills such as collaboration, domain-specific knowledge translation, and data stewardship become vital. As data responsibility becomes decentralized, each team member’s role becomes more critical in ensuring data integrity, relevance, and security. As data solutions evolve, teams must adopt a mindset of perpetual learning, keeping pace with the latest methodologies, tools, and best practices related to managing their data effectively.

Embracing the Data Mesh

In the evolving landscape of data management, the Data Mesh presents a promising alternative to traditional architectures. It’s a journey of empowerment, efficiency, and decentralization. The burgeoning community support for Data Mesh, evident from the increasing number of case studies, forums, and tools developed around it, underscores its pivotal role in the future of data management. However, its success hinges on an organization’s readiness to embrace the cultural and operational shifts it demands. As with all significant transformations, due diligence, meticulous planning, and an understanding of the underlying principles are crucial for its fruitful adoption. Embracing the Data Mesh is more than just a technological shift; it’s a paradigm transformation. Organizations willing to make this leap will find themselves not just keeping up with the rapid pace of data evolution but leading the charge in innovative, data-driven solutions.

JumpStart Data Success

Innovating technology is crucial, or your business will be left behind. Our expertise in technology and business helps our clients deliver tangible outcomes and accelerate growth. At Kopius, we’ve designed a program to JumpStart your customer, technology, and data success.

Kopius has an expert emerging tech team. We bring this expertise to your JumpStart program and help uncover innovative ideas and technologies supporting your business goals. We bring fresh perspectives while focusing on your current operations to ensure the greatest success.Partner with Kopius and JumpStart your future success.

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Digital Transformation Trends that Future-Proof Your Business

Posted on September 21, 2023 by Kopius

The core of future-proofing your business lies in the incorporation of cutting-edge technological trends and strategic digitization of your business operations. Combining new, transformative solutions with tried-and-true business methods is not only a practical approach but an essential one when competing in this digital age. Using the latest digital transformation trends as your guide, start envisioning the journey of future-proofing your business in order to unlock the opportunities of tomorrow.

#1 Personalization

#2 Artificial Intelligence

AI is everywhere. From autonomous vehicles and smart homes to digital assistants and chatbots, artificial intelligence is being used in a wide array of applications to improve, simplify, and speed up the tasks of everyday life. For businesses, AI and machine learning have the power to extract and decipher large amounts of data that can help predict trends and forecasts, deliver interactive personalized customer experiences, and streamline operational processes. Companies that lean on AI-driven decisions are propelled into a world of efficiency, precision, automation, and competitiveness.

#3 Sustainability

Enterprises, particularly those in the manufacturing industry, face increasing pressure to act more responsibly and consider environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) goals when making business decisions. Digital transformations are one way to support internal sustainable development because they lead to reduced waste, optimized resource use, and improved transparency. With sustainability in mind, businesses can build their data and technology infrastructures to reduce impact. For example, companies can switch to more energy-efficient hardware or decrease electricity consumption by migrating to the cloud.

#4 Cloud Migration

More and more companies are migrating their data from on-premises to the cloud. In fact, by 2027, it is estimated that 50% of all enterprises will use cloud services¹. What is the reason behind this massive transition? Cost saving is one of the biggest factors. Leveraging cloud storage platforms eliminates the need for expensive data centers and server hardware, thereby reducing major infrastructure expenditures. And while navigating a cloud migration project can seem challenging, many turn to cloud computing partners to lead the data migration and ensure a painless shift.

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A Step-By-Step Guide to Customer Experience Personalization

Posted on August 6, 2023 by Kopius

Winning the interest and loyalty of customers means more than just offering a superior product or service. The secret lies in a powerful strategy called personalization – a dynamic approach that tailors the customer experience to meet individual needs and preferences. As businesses across industries strive to create lasting connections with their customers and meet their evolving expectations, the importance of personalization in the customer experience should not be overstated. Read on to explore the compelling case for customer personalization and a step-by-step guide on how your business can embark on this journey to elevate the customer experience.

Let’s face it, generic offerings are outdated. Today, customers yearn for something more; they want an experience that resonates with their unique tastes. Personalization is the magic ingredient that taps into this desire. By tailoring products, services, and interactions to individual preferences, businesses create a sense of connection that fosters lasting loyalty. And beyond that, research from McKinsey found that companies who implemented a personalization strategy generated 40% more revenue than their counterparts who placed less emphasis on this approach. All signs point to tailored customer journeys.

Data lies at the heart of personalization, offering insights into customer behaviors. More than ever, companies have access to a wealth of customer information, such as past purchases and browsing habits, that act as the building blocks to these insights. Leveraging advanced analytics and artificial intelligence, businesses can uncover valuable patterns and trends, guiding them to craft personalized experiences for their customers.

Building a successful personalization strategy requires thoughtful consideration and calculated execution. If you are just getting started, follow these steps to build an improved and tailored customer experience that will drive remarkable results for your business:

Step 1: Gather as Much Customer Data as Possible.

At the core of every successful personalization strategy lies a deep understanding of your customers. To lay this solid foundation, start by gathering valuable data from multiple touchpoints along their journey, including website interactions, purchase history, and customer feedback. Take advantage of powerful tools like customer relationship management (CRM) software, website analytics, and social media insights to gain a holistic view of your customers’ preferences, behaviors, and pain points.

Step 2: Divide Your Customers Into Audience Segments.

With an abundance of data at your fingertips, it is time to move on to segmentation. Divide your customers into distinct groups based on shared traits like demographics, purchase behavior, and interests. Audience segmentation empowers you to personalize your messaging or offerings, address individual customer needs with accuracy, and create a sense of relevance.

Step 3: Get Personal With Your Messaging.

Now that you have completed the segmentation process, it’s time to get personal! Start by creating interesting content with tailored product recommendations, and design exclusive offers that cater specifically to the unique preferences of each of your audience segments. By doing so, you will create truly personalized experiences that captivate your audience and leave an impression.

Step 4: Automate Dynamic Content Delivery.

Offer real-time digital experiences that resonate with your customers’ interests and past interactions. Embracing innovative technologies like artificial intelligence allows you to analyze customer data, predict behavior, and implement an effective personalization strategy that delivers tailored experiences on the fly. AI-powered chatbots take personalized support a step further, offering instant assistance to resolve customer concerns and boost overall customer satisfaction levels.

Step 5: Track Your Personalization Campaigns.

Monitor the impact of your personalization strategy on customer engagement, satisfaction, and business performance. Evaluate key metrics like conversion rates and customer retention to assess their effectiveness. Utilize any insights gained to identify areas for improvement and modify your approach accordingly.

The possibilities for designing a personalized digital experience are limitless. AI-powered chatbots provide real-time personalized support, making customers feel valued and cared for. Dynamic content delivery ensures website experiences are based on individual preferences. Personalization will enrich the customer journey, increasing engagement and conversion rates. If you are ready to deliver personalized experiences, Kopius is here to help. Let’s team up to create extraordinary customer experiences for your business!

JumpStart Success with Kopius

At Kopius, we’ve designed a program to JumpStart your customer, technology, and data success.

Add our brainpower to your operation by contacting our team to JumpStart your business.