Most people don’t know me as a romantic, but I’ll admit that I have a soft spot in my heart for Valentine’s Day. It embraces the sentiment of a harmonious match, and I always go a bit over the top in mid-February, which my wife truly appreciates.

In the tech industry, we see a similar coupling when we find the right partnership between organizations that offer mutual customers the right solutions for their business.

And in 2019, partnering relationships are taking things to the next level, where experience (X) data and operations (O) data are joined.

The importance of operations data has been recognized for years. This is the analysis and measurement of data such as spend management or supply chain management. This type of information helps businesses forecast effectively and develop strategic plans for the year, while providing a high-level outlook for the next several years. But relying solely on this perspective misses something crucial–the human experience element.

People are at the heart of every business. The visionaries. The dreamers. The inventors. The influencers. And those who represent the face of the business to their customers. It’s the satisfaction of an organization’s employees and customers that can make or break their success.

This is where experience data comes in.

Experience data embodies satisfaction regarding employee, customer, product or brand. This can be evaluated with real-time patterns through direct feedback from customer surveys, social, web, in-app, email and more.

As you review your strategic plans for the year ahead, ask yourself, “Are you partnering with the right provider to combine experience operations for your customers?”

My organization, SAP, recently acquired Qualtrics, a firm that has defined and innovated experience data management. Qualtrics’ business grew during the great recession as organizations needed an accurate pulse on their customers prior to making any big investments in such a volatile market. As a result, businesses were able to close the gap between customers’ expectations and experiences.

Today, we have a plan to marry experience data with operational data (X + O) for a fully integrated suite, empowering organizations with insights and innovations that enable them to become an Intelligent Enterprise. Across our portfolio we will have solutions tailored for every industry and line of business. This will allow our customers to achieve goals faster with less risk through next-gen technologies. Together, SAP and Qualtrics will deliver an end-to-end experience and operational management system.

In 2019, the letters X and O may have taken on new meaning, but don’t forget to KISS–that is, Keep It Simple. My advice is to first take good care of your employees, since they are your strongest brand ambassadors. Then look to continually improve the customer experience, creating happy long-term relationships.

One way to do this is to partner with an organization that can help you and the customer assess data from both an experience and operations standpoint, allowing an integration of intelligent technology into their businesses.

Are you interested in learning about how SAP and its partners service the customer community? Visit https://www.sap.com/partner.html for more information on the SAP PartnerEdge program.

Ira Simon (follow me on Twitter – @IraASimon) is global vice president, Partner & SME Marketing, at SAP. Learn more about partnership opportunities at: http://go.sap.com/partner.html.

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