"What are people in our industry doing with the technology?" is one of the most frequently asked questions received during customer visits while showcasing E2.0 technologies. At first glance this question seems straightforward, but under further investigation sheds light on a serious vulnerability that organizations may be unaware they are facing. Enterprise 2.0 technologies offer potential game changing results for businesses and as more organizations that provide services are seen by customers as commodities it becomes critical to offer differentiators to create, retain and develop customer relationships.
If organizations only leverage E2.0 technologies in a "me too" fashion, they are essentially using a bucket to bail water from a leaking ship - as soon as they complete a project, would be benefits are essentially negated due to it only brining them on par with competition. Interestingly, this scenario also provides a great opportunity to zig when others are zagging.
Hyper-connectivity and the Dangerous Black Box
Industries which are typically not viewed as innovative, tend to downplay the importance of leveraging technology outside of their core competency (perhaps manufacturing, etc). Take an traditional insurance provider for example. Have you ever logged into their extranet? Generally once, to setup recurring bill payments
I view them as a Black Box - I get a particular service level from them and am billed on a monthly basis. Beyond this, I have no relationship with their brand and am not aware of services or information that they may provide to differentiate themselves from other providers in their space. They had a touch point with me that could have been leveraged to develop this, but did not.
In full disclosure, I am on one end of a spectrum with regard to communications - I do not like postal mail. I take full advantage of our hyper-connected world and expect companies to have the capability to provide their business in my context. I view postal mail as a nuisance and organizations that attempt to cross sell me through postal mail as the worst offenders (this is just one more envelop I need to open, believing it might be important account information). Is there opportunity in this for the offending organization? Absolutely.
The Cost of Technical Change Paradox
Enterprise 2.0 offers organizations the ability to rapidly, cost effectively implement change. This is especially important when proposed changes can have similar cost, regardless of how innovative or valuable that change might be. The most valuable element in the process of technical change is the goal and overall direction of the project. Unless an organization is dealing with high technology R&D, they are going to implement E2.0 solutions with known tools and best practices - driving down the cost.
Companies are going to spend the same technically regardless of how insightful or innovative a technical project may be. All the more reason to avoid the status quo with E2.0 and look toward opportunities to make innovative, profound use of the technology for your customer base.
Role Models - Looking Beyond an Industry
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Old Spice - Anyone who has not seen the recent series of Old Spice (Procter & Gamble) commercials is missing out. What does this have to do with the E2.0 status quo? Old Spice caught everyone off guard, by brining a massively innovative television and web-based marketing campaign around a brand that was previously the furthest thing from hip. They could have continued along, as a brand that grandfathers used, but took advantage of opening their mind to trying a game changing approach. If they performed a different advertisement campaign they would likely have spent a similar dollar amount on Twitter and YouTube efforts - regardless of the actual content.
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BMW - When BMW designs their automobiles their design team heads to modern art museums to gain insight into design elements that will find their way into their car interiors. Similarly, when designing their six series, the BMW design team looked at the shapes of various classical instruments. Why is this important? Instead of spending time looking Mercedes and Audi, they took a step completely outside of their industry and purposely looked to see what innovation could potentially allow them to gain further differentiation from their competitors. Automobile are fairly abstracted from art museums and instruments, but BMW made a conscious decision to get outside of their industry.
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Apple - Various technology organization periodically debut prototypes of upcoming technology to generate excitement around their brands. One prominent technology company does not. Apple. Apple places complete conviction behind any product regardless of the eventual level of success (think Newton vs iPad). When they make a bet, they stand completely behind it. In order for an organizations online services to be taken seriously it is critical to show a commitment to the initiative, opposed to providing a "new innovative service" that is far from functional and done more as a token gesture that a company is seriously investing into a particular space or idea.
What all of this means to E2.0?
E2 is the agility that lays a foundation for innovation. Technical costs will be similar regardless of the actual innovation included within the idea that the platform is supporting. It makes sense for companies to explore and understand what platforms can be used to support their E2.0 initiatives, as research in and of itself will be time and resource consuming. Given market conditions it is inevitable that these styles of technologies are leveraged by an organization at some point.
With a hyper-connected populous's expectations and reasonable costs associated with E2.0 projects, don't work to meet the status quo. Look at these tools as an opportunity to rapidly innovate and change customer and partner perceptions of your organization.
#enterprise2.0 #innovation