To gain advantage, IT leaders should turn competitors into collaborators

State of healthcare

By way of illustration, let’s focus on the healthcare space, where technology has changed the rules of engagement. This industry is often generally categorized into providers — hospitals and centers that employ doctors and treat patients — and payers — companies that sell health insurance or ancillary services. In the US, the 2020 pandemic was a catalyst for both payers and providers to reinvent themselves, and they began to offer digital health products such as virtual health, remote patient monitoring, mental-health services, virtual clinical trials, and much more.

These tech-based products and services are offered through apps as part of existing services, or new add-on subscription services, available to patients or members. They also have a direct impact on pleasing patients and members, either as new sources of revenue from services they hadn’t sold in the past, or as key differentiators in existing revenue.

As barriers got torn down, companies began to target ambitious revenue growth in these emerging areas, and similar trends emerged in other industries. In financial services, retail banks moved more services online, but also expanded their scope, becoming financial advisors to their clients, and helping them with financial wellness. In communications and media, the speed of convergence is dizzying, with tech companies becoming creators, media companies selling their own TV sets, and mobile phone providers sharing network space and capital costs.