I had an excellent lunch with my friends at Simplybox (great company, killer idea, well implemented enterprise collaboration- not a client) on Wednesday and we had a sensational discussion on solving problems. They are going through a growth phase and are trying to position their product better based on their customers feedback. We discussed several things, but we ended up talking about the title of this post. As we began to discuss the different things that the product can and should do an idea came to me â€" which I'd like to get your input so I can understand it better and see if I am right or wrong.
Software is not a solution, we all know that. Software is a tool, an aide to solving a problem. The question that always arises is what is the problem we are solving. The best way to look at this is to say that there are two types of problems: pain-points and inefficiencies. Bear with me for some definitions, it is important to distinguish them.
Pain points is what we all think of when we think of using software: a very specific function or process that is not working well and it is either costing more than it should, or not yielding as much as necessary. Taking five days to answer a customer service email, using two weeks to process a database for a marketing campaign, or not being able to score leads â€" these are pain-points, the problems that software is supposed to solve. And, for the most part, it does.
Inefficiencies, on the other hand, are problems that exist within the process but they don't hinder the normal operations of business. For example, if an employee cannot get all the information they need in one screen and instead they need to go to three screens to collect it or if the phone system drops calls once in a while. These issues will not cost us to consistently lose business, and if we improve them it is likely that we won't notice the betterment in the existing processes.
There is one more, rather two, distinctions: buying centers and ROI.
The people who buy these solutions are different within the organization. Inefficiencies are tackled by CIOs and IT. Pain points are tackled by business units and stakeholders (some cross-over, but it does not last long â€" IT does not want to solve pain points, and business units are far from maintaining systems).
Then there is the issue of ROI. It has been debated plenty and I will let you to Google or Bing your way to illumination in the matter. My point is that business units must show ROI for their investments. They have no other way, in a civilized company, to get their funds approved. Some of them try to skirt the issue by going the SaaS way - but CFOs and procurement officers are coming around to that idea, so it won't last too much longer. IT, on the other hand, works on the infrastructure. Their initiatives are not ROI-driven (if you are going to call me stupid and tell me you are in IT and you have to do it, fine - lack of vision is rampant and your management has it), rather driven by the needs of the business to leverage technology and data. They don't prove ROI, they prove need.
This is, to me, the most important part of placing Social Business as a priority in the business. It is a strategy, thus driven by the business side, that leverages technologies (Social Media) to accomplish what needs to be done (customers jobs, co-creation, customer experience, socializing applications - your call).
The strategy part has to prove an ROI and solve a pain point. The technology part needs to prove a need and solve an inefficiency. You cannot sell them together as one, nor can you make a business unit buy Social Media or an IT department buy Social Business. You are no longer moving one project forward, you have to move two â€" with different players and different business models.
You are either going to solve a pain-point or an inefficiency. Or both. However, you need to do it differently.
What problem are you solving? What are you doing to sell the need and the solution? Are you talking to the right people about it?
- January 4, 2010 -- Let's Call a Spade a Spade (and Social Media a Band-Aid)
- November 21, 2009 -- Why Chatter Matters
- October 27, 2009 -- What Social Business means for Cloud Computing
- October 21, 2009 -- The Roadmap to SCRM - Part 2.1 of 5