The End Of Tech Vendor And SI Methodologies As We Know It…And What’s Next …
In the beginning there was no tech vendor methodology – and anarchy reigned. Many companies implementing big ERP packages like Oracle or SAP were left to the mercy of the SI’s who proceeded to wreck havoc.
In the next stage of evolution the vendors reigned in control and became far more prescriptive about how to implement their products. They came out with names like ASAP – accelerated SAP. There was just enough knowledge in these methods to lull unsuspecting clients into a false sense of security and be exposed to even more SI exploitation as they sought to fill the gaps left open by the vendor methods for partner “value add”
The third generation of the by now well aggravated problem of how to make things work was again led by the SI’s capitalising on the maturing ERP wave they helped instantiate. Looking to the next wave of integration beyond ERP technology they took the “headache” they built away under Outsource and Manage Services for a quantified “expense” over multiple years. The core systems built were offloaded to third party SIs, at huge scale and profit (see Accenture growth and all the others) for upkeep whilst customers focussed on new value added satellite ERP concerns like BI, CRM, SCM etc.
In the fourth generation, the core vendors by this time lost control of their own technologies, as did their customers, and chaos reigned. The clients needed more and more system integration as they brought on more technology both strategic (Eg Salesforce, Workday, Ariba) or tactical point solutions and shadow IT to make sense if it – eg Tableau, departmental Sales Force etc. Again clients and group CIOs never had control of this increasingly out of control jungle landscape.
The rebirth of Enterprise Architecture became a theme but as with EA and Programme methods like Prince 2 , and bodies like PMI, COBIT, ITIL they were all cast for a bygone era of the first technology wave of Information 4.0.
Organisations suffered and had little control themselves having outsourced and lost all means to control in many cases their operations and their technology. Some finding ways round the vendor agenda and SI lock in bought shadow IT that fixed an issue and compounded the problem in aggregate.
We are now at the juncture of the next generation. But it’s a fault line or chasm if you will. Organisations making the wrong choices now will end up with a repeat of the past 5–20 years and will likely disappear from the radar one way or another Inside the next 10 years as the society 5.0 digital world takes hold. Giving their last free cash to an SI in the hope of saviour. They will feel good about the decision until it’s obviously too late to change course.
The realisation however is not enough to prevent potential disaster. This time the client the customer must take back wilfully control of their destiny. They can no longer rely on the vendor or the SI or abdicate responsibility to them – no matter how attractive they wish to make this.
With the advent of Industry 4.0 and then Society 5.0 every company is now a technology company first and its primary businesses second. Unlike in the first four generations companies purchased products and consumed them whilst they focussed on their day jobs … this was very expensive and costly already as it enables the first generation of digital natives like amazon to take hold and a plethora of small upstarts to attack mounting gorilla ware fare market by market drop point by drop point …
To seize back control companies need to rethink their mental models of how to both build and consume enterprise technology for the Society 5.0 age. They need to figure out how they can build and buy to assemble a platform landscape that enables the data driven enterprise in a cost effective agile way. Both dimensions essential as business models are nuanced and their own customers are buying into aspirations experiences and lifecycles.
What do customers need from technology vendors the SIs and bodies of knowledge in this fifth generation of methods and beyond?
A way to build a sustainable technology eco system that gets a client from where they are today to where they need to be – with an agile dynamic data driven people enabled technology platform that is sustainable across economic and functional and operational dimensions.
No one vendor or SI can deliver this. Does this mean the efforts of ITIL COBIT PMI OPEN GROUP PRINCE to modernise is the answer? It helps – but an organisation needs to see technology and data as a competitive weapon. The methods from SIs, myriads of Vendors, and competing bodies are there to be seen for what they are and leveraged / exploited. Not the other way round.
For this enterprises need to take accountability and responsibility use the vendors use the SIs use the bodies of knowledge use partnerships and networks to exploit this for their customers advantage.
They need to retool with the right talent and teams and technology to see them over the digital chasm to Society 5.0. It’s a journey that will be over in 10 years and starts today.
The wrong attitude, mental models, thought processes and collective wisdom and group think today will spell success or failure in Society 5.0 and this time there is no room for failure or excuse to pay to have your control taken away.
A new client side approach is required to handle this new enterprise technology absorption and exploitation that puts the power into the hands of the clients not vendors and SIs.
Tech Vendors for their part will fit into this approach or face demise. Their old methods as they once saw them evolve are useless in this complex modern digital age. SIs for their part will have to find a new way to add value that does not involve exploitation of the vendor or customer.
Consumers are changing, expectations are changing, technology is changing, enterprises are changing, enterprise technology and the whole supporting eco system from people and talent to education and bodies must also change or they will be left behind.
The good news is – it will and is changing. I will post more. The only question is will you be part of it… or be left behind.
First draft…
