Mark Thomason, IDC, on new a type of IT – a SaaS-based digital business platform
Digital transformation initiatives to date have targeted operational effectiveness and bringing together disparate customer channels. While yielding short-term gains, digital transformation has not helped with growing revenue, making companies more relevant to their customers, or in removing the risk of disruption. While emerging technologies remove certain barriers to market entry established ina pre-digital age, an organization's business model — how it makes money including the products and services offered to customers — remains unchanged. Additionally, companies are failing to capitalize on partner ecosystems to drive innovation that better meets their customers' needs. Most still prefer to work in a linear value chain and maintain a closed garden business.
This paper explains some of the challenges that companies now face as they transform to become a digital business and engage with partner ecosystems to meet customer expectations. It shows why a new type of IT — digital business platform (DBP) — enables business models that deliver value in the domain of where customer problems reside. This means moving from product silos and becoming "the destination" customers go to for answers. The paper also explains the required capabilities for managing complexity within a frictionless partner model while optimizing time to market and risk.
