The good news, according to a
report issued by Forrester Research last month, is that CIOs are keen to snap up Web 2.0 products such as blogs,
wikis,
podcasts,
RSS, social networking and content
tagging. The not so good news is that a) most would prefer to purchase such products as a suite and b) the vast majority – 91% – would be more interested in buying a suite if it was offered by a major vendor. You know, bigcos like Microsoft and Oracle.
So, why's this not so good news? Seems pretty damn positive to me. Well, in a recent
post,
ReadWriteWeb's John Milan puts it like this: "Every generation there's a company that CIOs can purchase from which is
considered 'safe' — perhaps because it's the best solution; certainly
because everybody else is doing it. However, this is, in the long run,
a self-defeating strategy. If there is no variation, then there is no
advantage. If there is no advantage, then there is no superior profit
margin."
I'll have a go at explaining it myself. Web 2.0 represents a phenomenal way for issuers to differentiate themselves. The amount of creative new products and technologies flying off the production line is astounding, and the companies that integrate them successfully and use them to market their cards could significantly outperform. Problem is, to be different you have to go directly to small vendors rather than large, incumbent ones and most CIOs are concerned, the report points out, about "integration issues, longevity concerns, and the occasional lack of polish".
This is a matter of extreme importance as, in the technology age, CIOs
are the marketers — or certainly play a crucial role in their company's ability to market. Their decisions as to the technologies that will or won't fit increasingly shape people's perceptions of a company, and determine whether or not they choose it over another.
Marketing, in many respects, is dead. People have grown out of messaging, and to some extent brands, it's now about product and service — and how your product and service are different. The best way to differentiate these days is with technology, even if, from time to time, those technologies lack a little polish.