GITEX Global: Interview with Moussalam Dalati, GM, Liferay Middle East

What is Liferay showcasing at GITEX Global this year? What are your objectives and expectations from the show?

At this year’s show, we will exhibit the complete digital experience from understanding the customer with data to delivering value with commerce, and its capabilities within a suite of connected applications built fast with full security on a single platform that enables a comprehensive view of the customer and the interactions. We aim to identify opportunities that accelerate implementation of innovative solutions in the digital transformation matrix of driving future smart economies. We complement digital transformation initiatives led by many vendors such as Microsoft, Software AG, Red Hat amongst others for better experiences for our combined customers.

Tell us about DXP – its expansion and its growing business trends.

In the near future, Digital Experience Platforms (DXP) are expected to be the foundation of customer centric approaches across organisations. With a very fast-growing customer and partner base in the Middle East for Liferay, we are certain of the heightened interest in DXP in the region, given the pressing need for organisations to become more imaginative and innovative to stay ahead of competition as technology advancements continue to accelerate. Some of key drivers of DXP’s growth are:

• An optimised customer centric digital capability that has become imperative and vital to drive market growth and therefore customer experience is now top of any company’s agenda.
• DXPs also enable a seamless and optimised experience through multiple devices that promote cross-selling and upselling in some industries and banking and retail.
• With growing multi-crowd environments, DXPs have the ability to offer increased flexibility and capacity to face issues and foster an environment of innovation that’s not necessarily vendor dependent.
• With data protection on the rise, DXP’s play a major role in preventing data breach and protecting customers’ data, providing greater privacy and more control over the information being shared at the backend and by the visitors.
• Pandemic led learnings for an imminent need to transform from physical to digital

Importantly, DXP enables organisations to enhance, personalise a full-service customer experience across the life of a customer journey. Shift in segmented services to consolidated experiences have been made possible such as UAE Invest in Dubai that interlinks all the necessary departments that approve and issue a business license. In addition to the government leading the agenda, this is now a priority even by Telco, Insurance, Banking, Retail and more.

Tell us in brief about the market challenges, developments and opportunities lined up for the region.

Rapidly evolving DXPs also require deep assembling with the company’s legacy processes and systems which must be carried out in tandem for an enhanced customer experience. This is not always understood by companies and therefore are not able to unlock its full potential for business growth by only creating a frontal layer as it doesn’t provide a homogenous experience. Lack of trained and experienced workforce to manage DXPs and other solutions becomes an additional challenge for a company with huge legacy issues. To address this issue, Liferay also offers global training programs to help close the skills gap and create new opportunities with Liferay’s DXP and the extended suite. This is done via online videos and hands-on exercises exclusively from Liferay University.

Having said, with rapid digitisation of the country and the region, it continues to fuel the adoption of DXPs and is expected to grow at a steady pace. The global digital experience platform market is anticipated to register a CAGR of 12.07 per cent over the forecast period 2020 to 2025. Furthermore, the ‘quick time to market’ deployment capability and a substantial reduction of investments in physical infrastructure makes it lucrative for companies to invest in. Companies are also investing in training their staff adequately in bringing them up to speed for customer experiences in a ‘Smart World’.

Additionally, industry forecast indicates a growing preference for the cloud-based DXPs due to multiple benefits such as reduction in IT costs, ease of multiple application management and more.

What further progress is required to unlock full potential of emerging technologies and develop robust capabilities?

In a world where technology is empowering customers to create highly personalised experiences and as end users are becoming more and more comfortable and capable with technology, it is high time for organisations to stop approaching customer experience strategies and digital experiences with an ‘inside out’ approach. In order to get this maturity, an ‘outside in’ approach using a customer’s perspective to build digital strategies will yield the desired success.

Companies will have to also build in and provide for assembling capabilities for emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) for chat boxes, big data, and Machine Learning (ML) for upgradation in the future to constantly accommodate changing tastes and create an innovative environment for the customer. This will facilitate a homogenous framework and consistency of digital experience across multiple applications and devices.