PegaWorld iNspire 2021: The transformative power of tech

Yesterday, thousands of people around the globe logged on to PegaWorld iNspire 2021 for an insider’s look at the strategic initiatives powering transformative results at some of the world’s biggest brands. PegaWorld iNspire took viewers beyond their screens, with real-time discussions and demos that went outside the norm for a virtual event, including keynote speakers who creatively took us iNside the iNnovators’ world.

Alan Trefler, Hayden Stafford, and clients Wells Fargo, Pfizer, and StepChange Debt Charity inspired the audience with their inside take on the revolutionary thinking that’s changing the way work gets done. We’ve recapped the highlights below, but be sure to check out all the replays from PegaWorld iNspire 2021.

Alan Trefler, Pega’s founder and CEO, kicked off the virtual event issuing a challenge to attendees to “break from the old, monolithic ways of thinking,” because the urgency to take new approaches to thinking and working has never been more pressing than right now.

The way we live and work is more distributed and entangled than ever before and is driving a greater need to simplify operations and experiences. Technology can be part of the solution, but if not used strategically, can also exacerbate the complexity. That’s why the right architecture is critical at enterprise scale. A business architecture organized around the heart of your business – your customers and outcomes – gives you the flexibility you need to connect your channels, systems, and data and become truly customer-centric. It uses centralized artificial intelligence and automation capabilities to power smart processes, robotics, and process orchestration that guides work from end to end, start to finish, even on distributed, cloud-based systems.

“Last year has reinforced that the world moves too fast and change comes too quickly to slow our innovation,” remarked Alan. That’s why the agility and scalability of model-driven, low-code architectures are so important, and why Pega’s technology continues to prove revolutionary.

As Pega’s President of Global Client Engagement, Hayden Stafford is constantly in touch with leaders from the largest organizations around the world. He knows what real success looks like and the level of transformation it takes to get there. As Hayden reminded us, “transforming the world’s biggest enterprises is a team effort.” That’s why Pega partners with organizations equally committed to helping our clients achieve exceptional results, and why Pega introduced a new partner program to recognize and reward Pega partners who are investing in helping our customers crush complexity with Pega

What makes PegaWorld iNspire such an exciting event are the real stories told directly by our clients. We were privileged to hear this year from clients Wells Fargo, StepChange Debt Charity, and Pfizer who shared details on how they are using technology to retain customers, cut costs, engage with empathy, and improve the user experience for customers and employees.

How do you personalize interactions with more than 65 million customers? As Giles Richardson, Head of Personalization at Wells Fargo, explained it, there are two important elements for each customer journey: the message (what you say to customers); and the experience (the action you’d have them do). Wells Fargo is making every interaction count by identifying the top three channels to connect on, the 20 to 30 conversations they want to build, and then using adaptive models to help determine if a customer might be interested in a particular conversation. The result: With every interaction, the message becomes more personalized to each customer. And they are doing this at scale, with more than four billion customer interactions each year.

Speaking of scale, the COVID-19 pandemic had an enormous impact on people’s lives. This is especially true in the U.K., where job losses last year are estimated at over 800,000. StepChange Debt Charity’s chief executive, Phil Andrew, explained how job insecurity translated into financial hardship, increasing from 3 million to between 6 and 9 million the number of people in the U.K. with problem debt. Luckily, StepChange had already begun their digital transformation to a mobile-centric platform. And with more people reaching out for advice and help, they were able to extend their capabilities to add self-service and telephony tools at a crucial time. By using a center-out approach, StepChange is better able to capture customer data and toggle service between channels, creating a frictionless and consistent service experience for their customers. These new digital capabilities weren’t only good for their customers but improved the experience for agents, as well. With less time needed for system updates, StepChange agents can devote more attention to their most important work – helping people get their finances and their lives back on track.

Pfizer’s story of using intelligent automation capabilities to reduce or eliminate manual tasks is timely. In a year when biopharmaceutical businesses were under pressure to deliver effective medicines and treatments as swiftly and safely as possible, adapting to this new pace of change was critical. According to Erin Petty, Portfolio Director of Global Product Development at Pfizer, intelligent automation is helping them simplify processes and get work done more efficiently. Using Pega’s low-code platform, Pfizer modernized their aging, legacy, end-to-end portfolio management tool, which is essential for managing enterprise project master data at all stages of the drug development process. By integrating with source systems, they were able to improve the data quality and accuracy essential for predictive analytics and decision making. They also improved registration, tracking, and performance management of the R&D project pipeline – realizing a 650% increase in system performance. And Pfizer now has the capabilities in place to scale up and across systems, data, and department as their ecosystem of technologies changes.