Technology Is Just Part of the Equation

Overview

Suppliers scramble to react, deliver, and get in front of key technology trends in an effort to provide the toolsets their customers need to stay competitive.  Often, many suppliers use many of those technologies for that same purpose.  ARC Advisory Group had numerous discussions with technology suppliers about their digital transformation platforms, their apps, the connectivity, and the focus on solutions to customer problems.  Many talk about “eating their own dog food” (using their own products) to validate their offerings.  This is all well and good, but the technology is secondary.

Companies are finally beginning to understand that they need to focus on their most pressing business problems, instead of just buying the newest shiny technology. Industry leaders realize that transformation is an exercise in gaining the biggest competitive advantage they can achieve.  Those leaders understand that technology isn’t going to provide that edge on its own.  Technology is just an enabler.

Convergence of Technology  

Digital technology began with small isolated flashes of brilliance.  Both its scope and associated capability were small.  Industry witnessed the maturing of digital technologies over the last fifty years.  Generally, the scope increased as computing power increased, memory became more capable and compact, and networking technology became faster and more robust. More importantly, we watched $5,000 10 MB hard drives become $50 1 TB storage devices. That is, cost dropped inversely.  But computing technology is only one part of the equation for successful competitiveness.

In 1973, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) initiated a research program to investigate techniques and technologies for interlinking packet networks of various kinds. The objective was to develop communication protocols that would allow networked computers to communicate transparently across multiple, linked-packet networks. Initially called the Internetting project, the system of networks that emerged from the research became known as the “Internet.” The system of protocols developed over the course of this research effort became known as the TCP/IP Protocol Suite.  The Internet has become ubiquitous, connecting mobile phones, tablets, mainframes, and personal computers. Today, it has reached into washing machines, refrigerators, traffic lights, and even individual sensors.

The combination of digital computing technology and the Internet led to the advent of cloud computing.  Cloud computing makes incredibly powerful computing resources available quickly and ubiquitously to end users while minimizing the cost and management complexity associated with traditional software architectures.  This allows software-based solutions to provide new levels of geographic reach, flexibility, and number-crunching prowess. Analytics that existed only in the academic libraries of theses came to life and became practical for business use with the availability of the massive computational capabilities and data storage.

Hype and Scramble

In the mid-2000s, ARC Advisory Group noticed this intersection of technology and began writing about the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).  This  branch of the Internet of Things (IoT) connects the entire gamut, from sensors, smartphones, and smart machines and appliances to compressors and airplanes.  Not surprisingly the industrial media became awash with talk of IoT.  Organizations formed.  Standards were pursued.  The European Union adopted Industrie 4.0 to codify, nurture, and fund Industrial IoT. 

Over time, this has morphed (more or less) into digital transformation.  Business journals began to hype up the need.  Even the C-Suite woke up to the buzz.  Suddenly, directives were coming down from “on high” to “do something.”  New positions were created to head up digital transformation initiatives.  Pilot programs were initiated, throwing technology at specific challenges. Suppliers scrambled to fill the technology need for their customers as well as themselves. Startups also popped up to fill the niche. 

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Keywords: Technology, Digital Transformation, Competition, Culture, Workforce, ARC Advisory Group.