The age-old story of finding the right one never gets old, does it? Along with our rights to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness,” it seems a human condition to chase the seemingly unattainable dream of the perfect partner. In fact, there is a two billion dollar industry built on the dating game, according to IBISWorld, and business is booming. With the invasion of the Internet, geolocaton-enabled mobile apps and social networking, people can now have their pick of not only their potential partners but also which app they use to locate them. To name just a few, popular choices include Match, eHarmony, Skout, Grindr, Tinder, OkCupid, MeetMoi, PlentyofFish, Badoo, etc. However, no matter how many apps you have or how accessible you make them, finding a match is not as easy as a click of a mouse or a tap on your phone.
This struggle is not only reserved for our personal relationships, unfortunately. Businesses have long struggled to capitalize on the partnerships with their technology and service providers, most of which are brought on to lower costs for the enterprise. The proposition seemed simple: Offshoring and outsourcing non-core IT competencies equaled cost savings, but the reality is far from simple. The industry rate of project failure ranges from 37% to 75%, depending on the research study you look at. The relationship between you and your IT service providers is not as straightforward as you might think. Balancing the different goals of your enterprise, the technology provider, consultant and integrator is a complex juggling act—one that requires a business transformation on your end.
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According to Andrew Razeghi of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, “The greatest mistake you can make now is to mortgage your future by failing to innovate.” With increasing pressure from the C-suite to create innovation and the growing services-led technology market, organizations are driven by the business case to embrace transformation. According to Forrester Research, “The gap between business priorities and IT delivery capabilities will be filled by a variety of technology services providers, from traditional IT services outsourcing incumbents to upstarts with cloud- and software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based business models.”
Certainly, the onus of project failure is up for heated debate. In an incendiary post in 2009 by Forrester, the blame was mostly left at the door of the buyer. I know, I know, insert your outrage here. While I won’t argue the merits of that particular argument, I will assert that any kind of business transformation begins, well, with the business. In Forrester’s “The Services Sourcing Playbook,” they emphasize, “Identifying the most relevant business-technology requirements, selecting the right services provider, investing in governance, and managing services providers for innovation thus becomes some of the most important decisions that [you] can make.”
In this issue, DOCUMENT is pleased to present our annual HOT Companies, our special profile of the leading technology and service providers serving the document management market. The process of finding the right partner might not be easy, but I challenge you to transform how you think of your partners, how they fit into your corporate culture and how you can lead the way in finding project success.
Until next time,
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