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Uncover hidden causes of slow adoption rates for more accurate opportunity assessment
Why does the adoption rate of many new enterprise technologies fall short of expectations? The answer is often simple: The market isn’t ready. It may have an interest in the technologies and understand the potential benefits but practical realities prevent the market from buying. Understanding these barriers will lead to a more accurate market opportunity assessment, and improved adoption rates.
Read MoreWhat’s really in the glass?
When making any business decision–from rebranding to evaluating a new market opportunity–it is easy to view the glass as half full. The challenge is to understand what is really in the glass. Even with the best intentions it can be difficult to step back and evaluate the situation with an objective eye.
Read MoreMarketing to the evolving IT organization
Two recent articles in CIO Magazine feature companies (Yum Restaurants, Quintiles Transnational) in which IT departments are taking on new roles in order to more effectively serve their organizations. With a focus on what’s new and noteworthy, these articles profile departments that are leading their peers in reorganizing and redefining how they provide value. Such a shift has important implications for the value propositions, messages, and creative aimed at this audience.
Read MoreUnderstanding irrationality in B2B decision making
B2B technology vendors often overestimate the degree to which their markets make rational decisions. They forget the human element in business decisions to their detriment.
Read MoreFinding the right message for B2B decision makers
New research from McKinsey & Company reveals a gap between the messaging themes that B2B companies communicate and the attributes most valued by B2B buyers. While most B2B companies emphasis themes like corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and global reach their target audience is most influenced by messages about honest and open dialogue, responsible supply chain management, and specialist expertise. In addition to this gap, the research also shows a lack of differentiation among B2B brand messages: Most B2B companies are communicating the same themes.
Read MoreEntering new B2B technology markets and the planning fallacy
When B2B technology vendors enter new markets they often find that their success falls short of their expectations. Some of this is due to their go-to-market strategy, competitor actions and unpredictable market changes. However, many technology vendors fall victim to the planning fallacy – the tendency for individuals and organizations to under estimate challenges and to over estimate their chances of success. A useful for tool for mitigating the planning fallacy is reference class comparison.
Read MoreRelevant messaging in a changing IT outsourcing landscape
IT organizations are becoming more mature users of outsourced services and delivery models. Isurus’ research across multiple technology categories shows a shift in how IT evaluates outsourcing options and its use of various models (offshore vs. domestic, in-house vs. outsourced, on-premise vs. offsite hosting, etc.), and these trends are also evident in research conducted by CIO Magazine, Forrester, and others.
Read MoreImproving innovation through better questions
Dwayne Spradlin, President and CEO of InnoCentive, recently contributed an interesting article in the Harvard Business Review that identified asking the right questions and defining the problem as critical elements of successful innovation: “When developing new products, processes, or even businesses, most companies aren’t sufficiently rigorous in defining the problems they’re attempting to solve and articulating why those issues are important. Without that rigor, organizations miss opportunities, waste resources, and end up pursuing innovation initiatives that aren’t aligned with their strategies.”
Read MoreDistinguishing the Next Big Thing from the Next Big Sell
A recent article in the MIT Sloan Management Review provides practical guidelines to help IT buyers make better decisions about which new innovations to adopt. The article points out the risks of being persuaded to invest in new technology by the hype that surrounds it, only to be disappointed by the lack of business value it provides. They advise IT buyers to assess where and how quickly the technology is being adopted, the pace and success of implementations, and value achieved by other companies that have implemented it.
Read MoreWhat type of innovation is your customer buying?
In a recent opinion column Clayton M. Christensen, author of The Innovators Dilemma, identifies three types of innovation that drive capital markets: Empowering innovations, sustaining innovations, and efficiency innovations. Mr. Christensen’s hypothesis is that all three innovation types are needed for a robust, fully functioning economy.
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