Business differentiation using technology
- April 22, 2018
- Posted by: TripleDe
- Category: Consulting
The business world has been subjected to rapid changes over the past years along with the economic ups and downs and disruptive innovations that taking place in all major areas. The uncertainty in the business environments and ever-changing factors in the ecosystem demand the business techniques be amended to meet the challenges.
It is in this economical and marketing scenario, the process of differentiation is relevant as it distinguishes the products and services of a business from that of their competitors. For a business to survive, it should be compared and contrasted in the market with a clear and unique superiority of its products or services. It is important to heed the fact that the existing mode of business fails to prove beneficial necessitating transition. But on the other hand, with just one wrong shift the overall business can be degraded. Therefore, a detailed and accurate analysis of the ongoing changes is required.
The importance of transformation and the process of differentiation should be accepted by the enterprises as the first stage. Successful use of new ideas is vital for a company to be able to improve its operations, sell new and improved products and services, increase its productivity and, most significantly, boost its competitiveness. As the next step, business needs to ‘embrace technology’ which will clearly reduce the stress of running an organization and produce visible results to an unforeseen extent.
As the pace, scale, and impact of technological innovation and disruption is increasing, technology has become a primary influence on business strategy, strategic decisions, and value-creation models. The boundaries between business and technology functions are blurring and technology priorities are changing, causing many companies to rethink the position of technology and reconsider conventional operating models and organizational structures.
Below are some thoughts for determining which technology is right for an enterprise:
1. To what extent the technology will meet the current business requirements?
- Does technology provide features that meet major business needs?
- How friendly are the technology’s user-interface and user-experience?
- How safe and secure is the data on technology?
2. To what extent the technology will meet future needs?
- How flexible is the solution to evolve as the organization and business needs evolve?
- How well does the technology operate with other technologies in the organization?
- How much innovation is going into improving the technology and its adoption?
- How strong and connected are the ecosystem of users and partners around the technology?
3. To what extent does the technology work within the budget?
- How much will it cost –directly and indirectly–to setup this technology?
- How much to pay each year to license this technology?
- What will it take and what will it cost to maintain this technology?
New technologies have created opportunities and challenges, fundamentally transforming customer experiences, business models and the work environment. Additionally, sophisticated technology has become more accessible to a wider audience, enabling a thriving digital culture that can provide competitive advantages across all business functions.
In the current ever-changing and multi-faceted business environment, technology can not only help to improve business efficiency but can also offer cost-effective means to innovate products and services and enhance the customer experience. The key is to adopt the right technology and partners, while actively planning for transition and implementation.