Abraham Lincoln said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself.” Today, most dominant companies in many sectors are those that have defined “our” future basing their business model entirely in software. We have examples like iTunes Apple, for music, Nexflix to videos or Amazon for books. The telco’s fastest growing Skype and HR recruitment is Linkedln . The software is also devouring the value chains of companies in the physical world.
Companies in all sectors, from financial services, healthcare, logistic, retail, oil, etc. are being transformed due to software. Companies and organizations today have the opportunity to revolutionize their business models and services by setting the software as a strategic asset.
The company strategy aims to improve and innovate the services they provide to their customers, giving value to its owners or shareholders and engage and motivate their employees. To achieve these strategic objectives is necessary to develop new applications, improve operations, guide the processes to new technologies and accelerate project management. Obviously, this must be integrated within a framework of risk management.
There is also great saving opportunity thanks to improved efficiency. It is estimated that only 1% improvement in efficiency in the sector of fossil fuels could save more than 90 billion dollars over 15 years.
Having a data center defined by software allows have the agility to the organization of ICT operate at the speed that requires a business. But to redefine our business in the new model is also required redesigning applications incorporating based on SaaS (“Software as a Service”) components and PaaS (“Platform as a Service “). These new applications, research firms Gartner and IDC are defined as “the third platform.”
The second platform refers to the client-server architecture, where the software comes bundled so that it is only must customize it to their own needs. But the key point is that such solutions are designed mainly for business. Compared to the first platform, based on large mainframes, software is more economical, easy to use and need little training. This allowed the development of a mass market for software
A combination of factors is energetically promoting the adoption of the third platform. Applications designed primarily for consumers or customers and then to the company, not vice versa as is the case of the second platform applications. The expectations of consumers are easily accessible, low cost, simplicity of use, and most transparent pricing model.
Imagine you have a car accident, and that the insurance company has provided a application geolocates us by GPS, so that the company can send a “drone” in a few minutes to conduct testing to generate the part photos, and immediately make us get a crane and possibly a replacement vehicle. This is the kind of services that users will demand in the near future.
This paradigm shift will also affect those who control budgets ICT company. Currently the organization of ICT company responsible for managing the technology budget. But in times of change, when disruptive technologies or new business opportunities without precedent appear, is the business who directly takes control of decisions affecting maximize return on investments, contain costs and optimize acquisition costs.
Currently over 70% of the budget of Information Technology (IT) organizations assign each year, is intended to maintain existing technology infrastructure and less than 30% to elements of innovation. Each year more resources are directed to keep the infrastructure in order to meet the growing needs of enterprise computing.
The new company defined by software due to its nature, it is possible to spend more than 50 % of the budget for innovation, something that placed in clear advantage to companies that have matured and advanced more in the definition of software over its competitors. Or does anyone still remembers Blockbuster?