to have an innovative, customer-led approach. This means embedding itself in customer needs and ensuring innovation efforts are being actively targeted to solve these issues.

Furthermore, it is critical that this revolution is led by the right people: putting aside competition to work collaboratively with others in the same field is not at the top of the agenda for many CEOs. Finding leaders with the right technical, business and collaboration skills is a challenge, even more so when considering that they must also inspire a collaborative culture across their organization. The businesses that succeed will be the ones able to create solutions that bridge groups with different operational cultures, needs and constraints, all of which will be crucial in the successful development and deployment of these complex applications. Moreover, this bridging expertise must also expand to engineering and support teams, who will need clear guidance about where to land and how to expand with these globalized solutions. 

No matter what part of the solution a firm is offering, the businesses in these projects must have this mix of unique skills. The superiority of an organization’s products, solutions and technologies is not the only success factor. Rather, it is also dependent on the ability to correlate your offering to address the growing demand to build such applications. It goes without saying that an established network of industry contacts also provides a major competitive advantage. The ability to rapidly find and engage with strategic contacts and resources in both existing and new domains is essential to supercharge collaboration.

For those that can get this right, the reward will be great. The time and financial investment spent in developing skills and solutions will pay back many times over in business development, client retention, and recurring revenues.

Embracing failure to learn fast

The new reality of developing these applications is at the cross-section of many technology industry ecosystems, open-source standards, and open application programming interfaces (APIs). To successfully build on this foundation, a strong pre-existing knowledge of these ecosystems and their level of maturity is key to the effective development of these applications. Given that we are currently in the very early stages of this transformation, and still with so many unknowns ahead of us, the ability to drive progress and adapt quickly, all while failing fast and learning constantly, is essential.

This notion of a dynamic approach is especially important when considering the growing trend of abandoning the traditional request for information (RFI) process in favor of prioritizing cultural fit when selecting vendors, partners, and service providers. The need for a new, more human approach to sales is becoming clear. Companies are increasingly looking for partners that deeply understand their unique needs and aspirations when it comes to business development. When considering this within the context of a new breed of enterprise solutions, it becomes even more important: selling complex solutions that require collaboration and joint innovation cannot be done without trust. The right strategy is essential and demands special talent, technical competence, and credibility as a trusted advisor.

Collaboration for innovation

Innovation doesn’t just begin and end with technology; it encompasses people, too. We have all the technologies; the only limitation is a hesitancy to embrace a truly collaborative culture. Today, we are at a turning point in history, a moment where collaboration between the right parties, trust, and a unified focus on the value-add of technology will change the way businesses, governments and educational institutions across the world operate.

The dynamite combination of technology and collaborative working relationships will unlock opportunities on a scale never seen before, empowering organizations worldwide to operate in a more streamlined and efficient way. I urge businesses to act now to ensure they are working with the partners that can support them to realize the benefits that new technologies can bring.

The technologies at play today are paving the way for a more prosperous future, but it is the new breed of hyper-connected solutions that will take us to the next level and open the doors to a brighter future. This is just the beginning.