The Next Big Challenge for Tech Leaders: Simplification
By Milan Shetti, CEO Rocket Software
When you consider the breadth and depth of technology available in the marketplace today, chances are simplicity is not the first thing that comes to mind. The discourse around modernization has become overcomplicated, but customers—whether on the B2B or B2C front—have come to expect simplicity in how they interact with products and services. In today’s environment of constant disruption and change, they need straightforward, direct solutions and answers to their problems. As a result, tech leaders must invest in simplification, not overcomplication, to be winners in the marketplace.
However, making things simple is no easy feat. It requires a lot of heavy lifting behind the scenes. Consider the public cloud—from AWS to Google to Azure, the work has been done behind the scenes to get servers and storage configured so that when a customer needs a service, it’s as simple as pushing a button.
Operating in the cloud is an experience, not a destination, and making that experience simple is critical. When customers have a convenient, easy experience that includes governance and security, they can approach a new technology or modernization journey without fears about privacy and compliance.
The pandemic assured us that supply chain failure of any kind is extremely dangerous. And we’ve seen recently what can result from failure of technology that’s heavily relied upon. Consider the recent hours-long AWS outage that disrupted its retail business and had popular websites and services like Disney+, Ticketmaster, Roomba vacuums and Amazon’s Ring security cameras knocked out. These services are extremely convenient—and that means customers and users flock to them. However, that’s also when governance and privacy become an issue.
Balancing ease-of-use and governance
Many of the technologies the world’s biggest organizations rely on to keep their operations up and running don’t offer ease-of-use. We have an opportunity, in the B2B software industry, to marry the world class governance and privacy we’ve baked into our offerings with simplicity. Sure, achieving this is easier said than done, but by rethinking who might be able to manage and configure solutions, we can bring some of the convenience the B2C market offers into our world.
If it seems like Star Wars’ R2-D2 is best suited to use the solutions your company offers, think instead about what needs to be done so that a child or someone who is not tech savvy could run the products. Especially with changes in the workforce, the person using a given solution is bound to change. Given this, in order to build B2B solutions with staying power, we must forget about who will use them today and pivot to building tools that are simple enough out of the box that they don’t require manuals and documentation at all.
At the end of the day, simplification of technology and increased convenience is not sufficient—governance and privacy are just as important. The big winners in B2B software will be those who can combine governance and privacy—which can never be sacrificed—with simplicity and a straightforward customer experience.
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To learn more about how Rocket Software is bringing together world-class governance with great customer experiences, visit our website.
