Information technology has made incredible leaps forward for business processes bringing efficiency, leverage of information, B2B transactions, management, reporting and much, much more.
Consider this, however: maybe we’re still on a plateau where the current IT toolbox is only appearing to meet most businesses’ needs.
Unfulfilled need drives innovation. The more desperate the need, the greater the desire to innovate. I believe that only this kind of desire brings about adoption from a sea of bubbling IT and business process innovations happening all around us.
I believe that the current fiscal climate will indeed expose unfulfilled needs even in already well-run businesses.
As a product designer/developer, I tend to focus on product innovations. However, I see many parallels between product innovation and business process innovation.
In my recent article, Thoughts On Early Adoption, I listed the three Ts of an early adopter:
The Toy. Playing with our new toy just for the purpose of discovering everything it does.
The Tool. Integrating our gadget into our everyday life.
The Trash. Discarding the gadget in favour of something better.
Those businesses that are prepared to play with innovations around new IT and business process technologies, and that are willing to dump the ones that don’t work, will be the leaders.
We can either wait and see or jump in with a passion!
Robert Rath – http://www.innovation-mentor.com
The current economic climate may well cause many businesses to reevaluate their spending on the technology, and instead look at process/people based innovations.
Sometimes, the magic IT box actually gets in the way!