It’s not the tech, it’s the timing

For those of us in the technology consulting game, we think we’re pretty clever at predicting the next big technology trend. But with the proliferation of information over the Internet, it’s not that difficult to see potentially beneficial technologies coming over the horizon. We can all see network virtualisation, Internet-connected sensor networks, artificial intelligence, etc coming.

The challenge is actually picking the right timing for introducing them. Too early and nobody is ready to buy – death by cashflow. Too late and others have already established a customer base – death by competition.

The technology consultants that stand apart from the rest are the ones who not only know that a technology is going to change the world, but also know WHEN it will change the world and HOW to bring it into reality.

We’ve talked recently about utilising exponential tech like AI in OSS and the picture below tells some of the story in relation to WHEN
Exponential curve opportunity cost
Incremental improvements to the status quo initially keep up with trying to bring a new, exponential technology into being. But over time, the gap progressively increases, as does the opportunity cost of staying with incremental change. Some aspects of the OSS industry has been guilty of trying to make incremental improvement to the platforms that they’ve invested so much time into.

What the graph suggests is to embark on investigations / trials / proofs-of-concept in incremental new tech so that in-house tribal knowledge is developed in readiness for when the time is right to introduce it to customers.

If this article was helpful, subscribe to the Passionate About OSS Blog to get each new post sent directly to your inbox. 100% free of charge and free of spam.

Our Solutions

Share:

Most Recent Articles

No telco wants to buy an OSS/BSS

When you’re a senior exec in a telco and you’ve been made responsible for allocating resources, it’s unlikely that you ever think, “gee, we really

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.