Digital transformation is becoming the norm across industries, so technology alone is no longer enough to stand out.

As businesses look to get ahead of the competition, building trust and loyalty with clients is more crucial than ever, according to Piet Bil (pictured), managing director for American Express at IBM.

“A lot of parties will deliver a lot of good technology to the market,” Bil said. “They will deliver a lot of good people. They will have good price points. So what’s the real differentiating factor? Do we really trust these people? And then I think relationship loyalty will really come in play.”

Bil spoke with Dave Vellante, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during the recent IBM Think event. They discussed IBM’s ongoing partnership with American Express and how strategic alignment in managed services can build trust and lead to success. (* Disclosure below.)

Aligning strategies to enable effective transformation

Embracing new technologies like hybrid cloud services has become less of an advantage and more of a necessity. Consequently, businesses need to embrace digital transformation. But transformation itself is insufficient as a means to attract and retain clients, according to Bil. Adopting new tech must serve the end user to be effective, as IBM discovered while working with American Express.

“We tap into how can we … help evolve their business models, their technology, their services to serve their clients better,” Bil explained. “If you don’t understand the client of American Express, we cannot serve American Express as a company.”

If IBM was to be a valuable managed service provider to AmEx, it had to understand its clientele’s needs. By helping AmEx build trust with its customers through new technologies, IBM could establish loyalty with AmEx, Bil explained. End users don’t necessarily know or care who provides the services they use as long as they provide consistent quality. So client satisfaction must be the driving factor behind digital transformation.

“The technology that American Express uses, whether they do it themselves or whether it’s provided by partners like IBM, needs to be seamless. Because … you will not be interested to know who provides you the security on your credit card,” Bil stated. “If I cannot explain what I do to American Express in your terms as an end user of an AmEx credit card, you can argue, where’s the real value at?”

Tech companies like IBM providing managed services must put their clients’ customers first. If companies can align their business strategies, they can design a more effective digital transformation journey, standing out in an increasingly crowded marketplace, Bil concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of IBM Think. (*Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for IBM Think. Neither IBM, the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE