Not just the tech giants and corporates, even public sector and government organizations around the world are leaning toward emerging technologies and are going digital, while planning and implementing their marketing strategies.

We speak to Ganesh Ramakrishnan, Manager, Business Transformation at DSOA (Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority), a 100% government-owned free zone in UAE, on the implementation of disruptive technologies in their digital marketing strategy. After successfully standardizing the technology platforms at DSOA, Ramakrishnan is currently focusing on leading digital innovation ideas and their implementation as well as introducing Deep Learning concepts & Big Data initiatives for predictive analysis, among others. He also tells us about their investment in Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and how chatbots are relevant to them, in order to achieve a seamless customer experience.

Interviewed by Prajwala Hegde

// Tell us something about the disruptive technologies you have implemented in UAE across the free zones and smart cities.

We at Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority have been planning on digital disruption for the past year. We have launched a revamped portal for all free zone stake holders. Customers can apply for services through the portal and using mobile apps. The Portal and App will have chat bots to guide them in the process with behaviour analysis to complete the 300+ types of digitized services offered.

Apart from this, the Bots work on cross-functional behaviour pattern of portal footfalls to create leads for the sales and marketing teams. We are in the process of creating rules for quotations to be sent directly from the CRM platform based on the Bot analysis of customer enquiry. We also expect these initiatives to reduce the footfalls at the DSOA off

// Are you using machine learning in your big data applications? What challenges have you faced while doing so? And what tools are you currently working with?

We are working on the implementation of machine learning and deep learning techniques with the following objectives:

• We need an intuitive interface
• We want to implement the best practices available to reduce an iterative approach
• We need reliable and trusted sources

The opportunity is immense, but building the capability to process, analyse, and make sense of huge volumes of data on-premise was a complex undertaking. From heavy investments in infrastructure to understanding and building the software to make a data-driven system work, we had to work within our limited resources to really capitalize on the current data sources.

We had standardized on the Microsoft Technology Stack and to simplify analysing data, we selected Cortana Intelligence as a platform. DSOA will be launching smarter applications with big data and advanced analytics by bringing together a comprehensive set of technologies including Azure HDInsight, Azure Machine Learning, Power BI and more, to deliver powerful data handling and analysis capabilities. Using the PaaS approach, Cortana Intelligence takes over much of the heavy lifting behind the scene so we can actually benefit by unlocking the insights hidden in the data captured by the Portal, CRM and ERP layers and take intelligent action to improve business results.

// Would something like a chatbot be relevant for you? Explain how.

Chatbot is very relevant to us as we have a myriad number of services requiring different process flows. We cater to a large cross section of society who have made DSOA a community in which to live, work and play. The Chatbots will be developed with intelligence to guide the customers for applying and availing the various services being offered through different government departments. The experience will be seamless with single window clearance.

// How are you keeping yourself informed of emerging technologies? Who would you go to, for implementing them?

We rely on local events, international events and the DSOA Innovation team along with our partners who assist us in implementing solutions.

// What are some of the challenges you foresee in adopting these technologies? Content creation, for instance.

Amalgamating the business logic behind the various services and maturing the Bots is a major challenge. Interacting with social media and relying on Facebook, Instagram etc who keep changing their API (Application Program Interface) is another major challenge. We also realized that we need our own private cloud in future to secure our API and Apps.

// Can you tell us how implementing any of the above technologies can provide companies or marketers with great lead generation?

The Chatbots are a great way of converting portal and Mobile App footfalls into potential leads. We have generated a lot of enquiries from those whom we had targeted as potential customers with the help of promotional offers and managed to convert a majority of them from competition.

The enhanced and suggestive approach of the bot in remembering the profile of the users who started a service with us and helping them convert the service request into revenue has reduced the time taken to complete a service request and repeat customer transactions. Hence, the overall business objectives has been achieved.

// What are the biggest challenges you faced, while implementing any of the emerging digital marketing technologies in DSOA?

The biggest challenges we faced during implementation were in the following areas:

• Timing our innovation move based on maturity of Microsoft Technology.
• Designing of digital transformation strategies for specific target segments based on data analysis
• Enhancing the customer experience and journeys