Future success depends on businesses integrating advanced digital technologies to gain actionable insights from data. The concept of digitalization is based in simplification, but the process of adopting digital technology itself is not simple. The options available are almost infinite, causing one industry expert to advise executives to contract a digital consultant to help make sense of the market.

“The technology is exciting,” said Christian Pedersen (pictured), chief product officer of IFS. “But if it doesn’t relate to any business vision you have … then I think it becomes dangerous.”

Pedersen spoke with Dave Vellante (@dvellante) and Paul Gillin (@pgillin), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the IFS World Conference in Boston, Massachusetts (see the full interview with transcript here). (* Disclosure below.)

IFS’ customer-centric culture lures talent from the competition

The intersection of business and technology has been the focus of Pedersen’s career. “My passion has always been what we can do for businesses to innovate, to differentiate, to do new things. I’m really a strong believer in the promise of software,” he said.

A move from SAP SE to IFS was driven by Pedersen’s desire to focus more closely on customer needs. “[IFS provides] the perfect environment to realize the dream of providing value to customers, outcomes for customers, and leveraging tech in the process of doing that,” he stated.

Employees demand easy-to-use interfaces

As customer demands drive companies to become more and more software-driven, open APIs become critical to provide a link between the company and its data, according to Pedersen. IFS’ response is simple: “No product will be announced or shipped without API enablement,” Pedersen stated.

Open APIs are used by customers to access IFS model data and processes to create value from data — and by IFS internally to drive innovation and improve user experience on its products.

Alongside increased customer demands, companies are facing increased expectations from employees who grew up browsing the web and expect the same level of intuition in their workplace tools. “The systems have to be intuitive and immersive,” Pedersen stated.

IFS’ customer service platform Aurena is a response to these workforce demands. Offering an engaging and fully customizable interface, the platform adapts to the way employees want to work — on a desktop, laptop, or a mobile device for out-of-office connectivity. And the Aurena bot recognizes natural language — enabling voice or text commands for situations when logging into the full platform is unnecessary.

IFS is bringing the Aurena experience to other products across its line, in what Pedersen describes as a natural extension of the benefits of Aurena. “We’re just evolving what we have,” he said. “A good experience is a good user experience.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the IFS World Conference. (* Disclosure: IFS AB sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither IFS nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE