The challenge of change.
For some reason we have become conditioned to rebel against one of the certainties in life – change. Not all change is bad, but it seems that most of it is equally difficult to manage through. Helping companies transition to a new CRM involves everyone in the company and involves a lot of change. We are constantly focusing on ways to get better at it.
The broad trends surrounding software as a service (Saas) are demanding changes across the entire value chain that spans from service provider to user. This weekend, we attended the regional SMB Nation event in East Brunswick, NJ. There were about 350 IT professionals, small business focused, who were there to hear ways they might grow their business. Many IT professional got their start supporting premise-based servers that sit in small businesses that manage email, centralized storage, and secure the network. The trend away from capital spending and the proliferation of new cloud-based services is leading IT professionals to understand how other cloud services might enhance the solution set that they can now offer their customers.
The role of these IT professionals is in flux. For those who are eager to continue to add value to their customers (as were the attendees this weekend) there is significant opportunity for these folks to evolve into a trusted advisor role, vetting applications and services in order to bring the right set together for each business. That is a bit scary for some, however, because the revenue models are different and in some cases, not fully evolved.
For the businesses they serve, the challenge is similar. Are there ways to leverage the trends around cloud computing to offer customer more value? In most cases, the answer to that is YES. Never before have companies been able to assemble unique services – including their own – to create a complete solution for their customers. Knowing customers is the key – and that starts with tools like Idea2.
