Don’t Get Buried by Brick & Mortar!

Do you know what used to mean “Solid,” “Trustworthy” and “Long-lasting?” Brick and Mortar. Businesses in the 20th century and earlier were all about brick and mortar and a solid foundation one could trust. Today it usually means something completely different: “Old,” “Stodgy,” “Obsolete,” “Slow.” Descriptions like that mean a business is likely to be disrupted by a company with better business processes.

Many consumers today have never even seen the inside of a bank or an insurance company. They probably have never shopped in a store that was founded before they were born. Most likely they’ve never known a time without the Internet. These consumers don’t care about brick and mortar. They care about cheap, fast, efficient and easy. They’re not scared to use a credit card online. They expect a great experience and they expect fast service.

The old processes that companies used to use don’t cut it in today’s world. They no longer provide a competitive advantage. In many cases, they actually put you at a disadvantage. Imagine being forced to use Internet Explorer 10 – or even Internet Explorer 6 – for security reasons, because that was the only version vetted by your IT department! Or imagine that you bought some software and then take a year to test and install it. Don’t laugh! Stories like these are everywhere, and guarantee you will remain years behind your fast moving competitors. Nimble, agile companies won’t be facing problems that have already been solved, and they will have access to the most up-to-date functionality while you slog through your year of testing. When was the last time you went to buy some technology and wanted last year’s model?

Another issue that traditional companies have is a desire to have on premises solutions. They want to control and monitor everything in-house. It feels safe. Comfortable. Unfortunately, it isn’t.  First of all, hosting on premises leads to large infrastructure and IT costs. Has your company ever had to find a new place for old hardware? Does it consider how much it costs to research, buy, maintain and then dispose of hardware, only to replace it again? Does this type of process sound like one of your business’s core competencies? Maybe if you’re a cloud provider… And then consider security.  Most experts these days feel the cloud is safer than on premises and indeed, nearly all security breaches happen to companies hosting on premises. Equifax for one…

So what does this all mean and where does it lead? If some of the unfortunate descriptions above sound like your company, you need digital transformation. You need to document, understand, improve and automate your processes and move up in the business maturity model. Get rid of non-core competencies where you can and entrust them to companies that make them their core competencies. Do you want to blow the doors off your competitors next year or do you want to be a year behind, running and maintaining old software on old hardware? If it’s the latter, prepare for disruption! If it’s the former, iGrafx has the tools and knowledge to help you.