Turbo-charging digital transformation through platforms
When thinking about building a platform, it’s essential to know that they’re usually made up of some combination of technology working together in harmony to create something of value. They’re commonly used to collect data and feed it through an ecosystem, whose various parts will manipulate it (cleaning or adding to the data) until a useful result is produced.
This blog explores how a digital platform can advance your digital transformation objectives.
Why do you need one?
Platforms can be used in all sorts of different ways. We think of the sales journeys and customer journeys first and foremost as they are the ones that make us money. But platforms are also crucial for other outward-facing endeavours like we see with online brand promotion and reputation management, social media marketing and SEO or ad acquisition – these can be huge for a business!
As an employer, you can combine your HR efforts into a single point of contact using technology to empower internal staff or external suppliers in a way that helps you function more efficiently. For example, suppose you need the supplier to update their list of items automatically without bothering you about it. In that case, this is possible through proprietary platforms and apps that can be developed in-house.
Technologies are more powerful together
Enterprise-level PaaS (Platform-as-as-Service) is accessible and beneficial for businesses of all sizes. It lets you access massive computing power, data translation and augmentation services with ease of access. This can be helpful even to small projects if you need something quickly (like a developer environment or a marketing tool).
Combining two core elements can really create an unforgettable experience – just look at Airbnb. Its digital platform perfectly aligns travellers with homeowners by bringing together service providers and customers. To underscore the importance of a digital platform, take a look at this World Development Report 2019 that compares Airbnb with the traditional service it competes against on a level playing field.
As you can see, there’s plenty of potential for your business to benefit from the right platform. According to management consulting company McKinsey: “Companies with platforms had an annual boost in earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of 1.4% compared with the 0.3% gains of non-players.” We have first-hand experience with this type of growth – just look at our case studies.
Should you own your platform?
If you want to build a business on a platform, it’s in your best interests to hire your own developers and designers and develop that solution internally. Too often, companies create business-critical software systems but fail to understand how to maintain and document them. Developers leave the equation and the owners end up with tools they don’t know how to operate, extend or maintain. It’s vital to own your product end-to-end as a whole instead of just implementing it as part of your business model only.
However, this isn’t as easy as it looks – it costs time, money and human resources. A more practical option for owning your business platform is to partner with a well-resourced team such as Koola Digital. As a product owner, you make all the critical decisions that affect your business platform and we carry them out.
Start your journey with Koola Digital
The digital landscape is where we excel. We help our clients discover their brand potential and meet their digital transformation needs by developing high-performance websites, apps, e-commerce platforms and a world of other digital platform possibilities – and we can do the same for you.
Download this brochure to learn more about what we do.
