So what has changed – a technology “Perfect Storm”
Last time I talked about how Operations departments are typically working without the tools they need to efficiently do what they need to do. In fact, it actually hasn’t been technically or economically feasible until recently for anyone other than the largest, most heavily funded Operations groups to have the kind of tools they need. To expand on the “Impossible until now” idea we must identify that not one but rather a series of technical trends are coming together to provide organizations with incredible tools to get their jobs done more effectively. Indeed, an interesting set of technologies and trends have coalesced into the perfect storm to produce technology, business and market conditions poised to bring the rise of the Operations Visibility Platform. As these technologies continue to intersect with each other, and as savvy technology providers begin forging these technologies into solutions, we will see more and more industries adopt an OVP to greatly improve the way they do business. What are these trends? Let us share with you:
- The advent of low cost communications everywhere (catalyzed by wireless technologies and services…you’ve seen the AT&T Wireless commercials where they’re at the fountain of youth and “Found the Internet”).
- The continued influx in the market of a wide variety of new cost-effective and very smart hardware devices and gadgets that help identify, track, locate, monitor and even control physical assets within an organization. (Think wireless sensors, RFID tags, cellular enable GPS devices – even phones with GPS, low-cost networking devices, etc.)
- The acceptance of the Internet and the World Wide Web as a legitimate communications platform for business. (Everybody uses the internet now for almost anything from shopping to making a phone call to wiring funds, to watching TV, reading the news…did we mention emails?)
- The acceptance of the Software-as-a-Service solution delivery models. What do we mean…delivering enterprise business software through your internet browser for a monthly fee. Think Salesforce.com, Google, Ebay, Amazon and many others.
As these technologies and trends advance and continue to intersect, they can be brought together to provide industry with solutions that help them “Know Now” and do so cost-effectively. Operations teams will be able to really “Do more with Less” because they will be able to optimize their resources to respond to real-time events, real-time inventory events, logistic events, equipment and maintenance events, facilities events, and personnel events. They will be able to finally do this with one system or One Tool that encompasses their entire operations instead of many tools that don’t talk to each other. We are one company that provides an “Operations Visibility Platform” or OVP. Industry will eventually see many others enter the market as well. I’m sure of it.
Next, we will be back to discuss the kinds of specific business problems that “Operations Visibility Platforms” can help solve.
Yesterday, I introduced the term Operations Visibility Platform or OVP. Let me explain why I think this is a burgeoning software category. When I talk about what we do at Pedigree to prospective customers and interested parties, I like to first go into my own little story of the acceptance curve of the various software solutions that have seemed to penetrate all industries over the past 20 years or so. ERP and Back-office for accounting & finance, CRM for sales, marketing and customer support, IT with network management systems etc, etc. Who has gotten the short end of the stick? Well let’s ask who ALWAYS gets the short end of the stick. One word: OPERATIONS.
Poor Operations, always under the gun, always asked to do more with less, burning the candle at both ends, always responsive, subject to harsh time constraints, putting out fires, solving problems on the fly, working with a multitude of tools to try and do their job instead of the one size fits all solutions that every other department has gotten over the years. ..…so what DOESN’T operations accomplish to ensure successful delivery of the goods and services of ANY organization?
Well operations people…you finally get yours. But first I would like to plead innocence on behalf of your employers for being the last to get the systems and tools you need. See it’s not their fault. Truth is, it hasn’t really been possible until right about now. In reality is has been either technically impossible or far too expensive to provide you with the right system to encompass everything you guys/gals do in a day. Why? Because of out of all the departments in a typical organization, Operations is primarily concerned with real-time events and how to respond to issues as they come about. Whether it is replenishing customer inventories, optimizing logistics, fixing equipment and product problems, managing facilities, ensuring people are going where they need to go and doing what they need to get done, Operations gets it done – but often with no appropriate tools or information to do it efficiently.
Next time I’ll talk about what has changed in the technology landscape to change this situation.
Welcome to our new company blog. We are excited to get it off the ground and intend on keeping it updated frequently. First of all let me begin by saying this:
The intent of this blog is to be a valued source of information for our hopefully many readers into the business values, solutions and trends associated with technologies that aid organizations by providing them with real-time operational knowledge or “visibility” through the tracking, locating and monitoring (and control) of their operational assets and products that make their organization run.
Some technical pundits are calling these technologies and business trends visibility solutions. We agree, and in fact, we’re ushering in a whole new genre of software, and we’re calling it an Operations Visibility Platform or OVP for short.
Additionally, we intend to give our readers “Perspective Visibility” (I.E Our Perspective) into these visibility solutions. Hopefully you will find our content informative, useful and fun to read. You might be asking yourself, “Don’t you guys provide solutions like this how could you be an objective source of information about them?” So my answer is this: We are a Software-as-a-Service company with HEAVY emphasis on the “Service”. Fundamentally “Service” has to do with getting the client/customer exactly what they want, need and request. That is a big change for the software industry in general. We take the service side of “Software-as-a-Service” seriously. So please stay tuned for valuable information that will hopefully help you improve your operational efficiency, and ultimately, your bottom line.