Increase your Competitive Advantage using Technology | Pinnacle Blog 1 of 3 http://pinnacleofindiana.com/blog/blog/2014/01/21/increase-your-compet... Pinnacle Blog Latest news, industry updates, helpful business advice, and ways technology can improve your business. Increase your Competitive Advantage using Technology Posted on January 21, 2014 by Butch Whitmire 'linkid', 'linkid.js'); ga('set', 'forceSSL', true); ga('send', We all want to grow our business, right? And for most of us, growing means we need to leverage our competitive 'pageview'); advantage. Competitive advantage occurs when an organization acquires or develops an attribute or combination of attributes that allows it to outperform its competitors. And so it's important to understand exactly what your business' competitive advantage is and how you can wield it to win customers. Information technology can play a significant role in augmenting your competitive advantage, but businesses must ensure that the time, money, and energy they spend on IT is properly placed. When I think of a business' technology and how it relates to supporting competitive advantage, I think of the layers of a pyramid. (And yes, it sort of maps to Maslow's hierarchy for you Psychology buffs). The higher you move on the pyramid, the more likely it is that technology increases your competitive advantage. Table Stakes Layers: The bottom two layers of the pyramid are \"table stakes\" layers. Table stakes are the minimum requirements to be in 7/9/2015 6:37 PM Increase your Competitive Advantage using Technology | Pinnacle Blog 2 of 3 http://pinnacleofindiana.com/blog/blog/2014/01/21/increase-your-compet... business or to enter a market. In poker, table stakes are the minimum bet before you can join the game. You can't come to the table without the table stakes. 1. Infrastructure: At the bottom of the pyramid lies your company's infrastructure: servers, switches, computers, routers, networking, etc. Practically every one of your competitors has a system that is \"enough\" to run their business. So, unless you have something profoundly better or totally different, infrastructure typically does not add to your competitive advantage. 2. Compliancy, Security, Disaster Recovery: These systems are another table stakes layer. It doesn't make you better or different to be compliant, it just allows you to legally play in the game. Security and Disaster Recovery aren't significant competitive advantages, either. Clients expect you to keep the data you have about them secure. They expect your systems to be up and running even in the face of disaster. If you can't do that, you shouldn't be at the table. Competitive Advantages Layers: Your company is unique. The services and products you offer make the businesses and lives of your customers better. Technologies that help you amplify that uniqueness will strengthen your competitive advantage. These technologies are typically software solutions that increase productivity, improve business insight, or mitigate risk. 1. Business Productivity and Communication: Most companies have business productivity and communications software. If you use Microsoft Office, Exchange, Lync or something similar, you use business productivity technology. Since most businesses have this technology, adoption and proficiency is key. Investing in employee training in these technologies can really give you an edge. 2. Line-of Business Applications (LOB): It's likely that you own an application that was designed to support the specific needs of your industry. It could be a \"mission-critical\" system that your business depends on to function. Oddly enough, some studies suggest that on average, 40% of features and functions in software are never used and an additional 20% are rarely used. While it may not make sense for you to use all the bells and whistles within your LOB application, it's possible that your software has some functionality that could give you a competitive advantage if you simply utilized it. When was the last time you spent some focused time re-evaluating the software you already own? There's gold in them thar LOBs! 3. Custom Applications: There's a pretty good chance that the LOB software you are using was developed as a custom application by someone in your industry. Perhaps one of your competitors or a supplier was trying to address the challenges and opportunities facing your industry. Custom applications are the pinnacle of The Technology Competitive Advantage Pyramid because these applications can give you tools and offerings that no one else in your industry has! Businesses who seek to grow should be asking themselves, \"Where is my IT time and energy being spent?\" If most of their resources lie in maintaining the table stakes layers of their technology, it's possible they may be missing out on the significant benefits that Information Technology can bring them. One strategy many businesses are embracing is the outsourcing of table stakes technologies (infrastructure and network support, DR, security, etc.) to Managed Network Services providers. There are some great Managed Network Service providers out there and choosing the right one is key. I will write about some things you should consider before selecting a MNS partner in my next post. Categories: Growing Revenues, Pinnacle Offerings, Technology Adoption, Technology Planning. 7/9/2015 6:37 PM Increase your Competitive Advantage using Technology | Pinnacle Blog 3 of 3 http://pinnacleofindiana.com/blog/blog/2014/01/21/increase-your-compet... Comments are closed. 7/9/2015 6:37 PM Need 1.5 line spacing and 3 pages of answer for the question. Need references other than the links provided in the question. 1. You are the new CIO of The Villages Retirement Community in Florida -Congratulations! This development is the largest retirement community in the world and builds (and sells) some 10 new homes A DAY! This is a VERY big business in a highly competitive market. The President of The Villages (see https://www.thevillages.com/) has just read this article: \"Increase your Competitive Advantage using Technology\" and wants your opinion on a couple points. She knows you are new, but hopes you will review their website as well as the article and provide some ideas along these lines with regard to our sales of homes: Can The Villages build a sustainable competitive advantage on our Transaction Processing systems? Describe exactly what our TPS systems might be and why or why not we can build an advantage. According to this article, can we build systems using cloud computing that will provide sustainable advantages? What would it be? Be very specific and show the President (and professor) a recent real world example that clarify your remarks