Today’s software is expensive. Once a solution is implemented to do what we originally envisioned, it is often somewhat forgotten, steadily diminishing the solution’s value to an enterprise. How can a business increase the value of its software purchases, decrease its spending, and, consequently, simplify its architecture?
The most typical start of the overbuying and underutilization cycle is a purchase driven by a limited understanding of the organizations’ needs and software capabilities. This reality manifests itself in not asking open-ended questions and, thus, not exploring the capabilities that lie beyond the original scope which could be limited or, should we say, overly focused.
Once deployed, further integration and training fall behind. As the software capabilities increase over time, the organization falls behind, often hopelessly, taking advantage of the full potential that a solution can offer.
Some software purchase decisions have a symbolic component to them – at times, complex, highly capable purchases are viewed as status symbols. The organizations are not equipped to take full advantage of their capabilities and lack the internal knowledge, resources, and management resolve.
To address this curse of underutilized software solutions, complex businesses need to start viewing themselves as a framework of interconnected processes that need to be cataloged and represented by dynamic models. This approach would make it very simple – after all the complex work has been completed – to map the organization’s needs to the solution’s functions. A technology partner should be able to inject their digital knowledge into this mapping process which should lead to the discovery of new or more efficient processes or brand-new ways of engaging with the organization’s stakeholders.
From the start, Stratuspeer has been honing its ability to build effective organizational models which then are translated into efficient, effective, and dynamic solutions exploiting every possible bit of value in the underlying software packages. The ongoing process of mapping and matching the organization’s needs and evolving software capability is the more reliable path to avoid underutilization and increase, rather than watch it decline, the solution’s ROI.