The emancipation of tech in business
Will necessity drive wider tech adoption?
COVID-19 has affected millions of businesses over the world. There are, of course, the more obvious industries that are directly and brutally hit by the global pandemic, like aviation and hospitality. But, even for businesses that do not depend as directly on the movement of people and goods, the impact of these unprecedented times is acutely felt.
With physical movement grinding to a halt around the world, the companies that are least affected, and in some cases are even successful in this current period, are those that provide both an essential, or at least highly desirable, product or service and that have already pushed their business through digital transformation. By contrast, as everything from supply chain to HR is confronted with disruptions to “normal” standard operating procedures, those businesses that are failing to adapt to new practices are at risk of collapse.
Opportunities for business in this new normal exist, but to leverage these, organisations will need to take the step from survival mode to action mode. And, in a social distancing world, the action is digital.
Until quite recently, the choices available to an organisation wishing to achieve digital transformation have been limited to off-the-shelf tools made exclusively for enterprise-level businesses, or custom-made solutions that are just as prohibitively expensive to small and medium-sized businesses.
But, surely, to give just a couple of examples, a small, artisan chocolatier could benefit from the same solutions for automated client communications, abandoned-cart campaigns, or personalised content that are used by major e-commerce players; and a local grocery store would love to have access to the near real-time insights into potential supply chain issues or changing consumer behaviour that giant supermarket chains use to optimise profits.
In recent years, SAAS providers have realised that smaller businesses would benefit as much from their solutions as large enterprises do. And, not only is there a much larger pool of SMEs to service but, when SAAS providers have more customers using their products, they can significantly reduce the costs of the service. As a result, many of these companies are offering out-of-the-box solutions at prices affordable to small business owners.
In fact, the amount of companies offering solutions has grown by 47% year-on-year since 2016 with a staggering 7,040 different products available on the market as of 2019. It is difficult to think of another industry that can claim that kind of growth.
Still, pre-pandemic, this SAAS revenue was set to hit a ‘mere’ $8 billion in 2020. A nearly insignificant amount when compared to the $140 billion due to be spent on digital ads in the same period, considering it is this technology that helps companies to spend their money more wisely.
As small businesses have gone from being underserved to being spoilt for choice, the challenge today is no longer about finding an affordable solution as much as deciding which solutions to implement. With over 7,000 tools to choose from, many of which are able to neatly integrate with one another, the struggle for most businesses — not just the smaller ones — is how to choose the right solutions in the right combination.
This combination of tools, when set up properly, creates a technology eco-system — increasingly known as a Martech stack — that allows organisations to visualise the impact on the overall result of each step in the value chain. As the configuration of a stack, and the tools and solutions that are required to build it, are unique to each business, every stack is ultimately as unique as a fingerprint.
Just as SAAS providers have realised that the small to medium-sized market is deserving of attention, so too have the consultancies that design and implement Martech stacks, making it affordable all-around to build intelligence into business processes, regardless of a company’s size.
Today, it is within the chocolatier’s and grocery store’s reach to leverage simplified and often free solutions, which, while they do not provide the ultimate power of enterprise solutions, also do not bloat software with functionality that is simply not on most SMEs radar. Instead, they focus on providing the core functionality that allows the business to accelerate growth while providing the scalability that allows the Martech stack to evolve at a pace with the business.
Times are hard and uncertain, and by most accounts will remain so for some time to come. Amid uncertainty, historically, agility and flexibility — the ability to learn in real-time and swiftly respond to rapidly changing circumstance s— are key characteristics of companies that survive, if not thrive. Even for those businesses whose products and services are considered essential or highly desirable. The insights obtained from a well-designed Martech stack allows businesses to build these key characteristics into every fibre of their organisation.
A few companies are fortunate to not be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and even fewer are flourishing. Many are hanging on by a thread, and for some, COVID-19 has caused tremendous personal pain or irreparable damage to their business.
One way or the other, all of us will need to rebuild, in some way, and get ready to embrace our new beginnings. The world will be different and with it our place in it and how we interact with our surroundings. But, from these ashes, we can rise.
Until then, stay safe, be well, and be kind.
