Stop buying technology. Start purchasing a problem-solving solution

Supply Chain Management Review (SCMR) editor Brian Straight’s Straight Talk newsletter of October 27, 2024, brought up a subject that really hits home with me, and one that was very relevant as I was in the early stages of helping a company select (for subsequent implementation) a new ERP (enterprise resource management) software system.

According to Brian’s newsletter, a 2021 newsletter by Forbes author Blake Foreman cited that 70% of digital transformations fail. One reason is apparently that technology companies are selling technology without the assurance that their customers can benefit from it.

When I started my consulting business in January 1996 (don’t do the math, that was 29+ years ago), I decided that I would be a truly independent consultant, ensuring that, among other services, I would help my clients select and implement the software and technology that would solve their business problems and benefit them, not me. I decided not to resell any software or hardware because I did not want to be in a position of recommending software or hardware that I knew would not be the right solution to a business problem but that I was contractually bound to represent.

One cannot place all of the blame on the technology reseller for only selling certain technology; there has to be a “buyer beware” type of consideration here. Why are customer companies purchasing technology that is not a good fit for fixing their business problems, or will not solve their operations issues? After all, software (technology) should be viewed as a tool to get a business task done and done better than it is being performed currently. If the tool you are considering cannot do that, why are you thinking about buying it? This requires analysis, due diligence, and putting pride, politics, and departmental turf battles aside.      

If your company is a software or hardware reseller, my suggestion would be to frame your proposition to one of how what your company is selling will cure business ills, rather than pushing the technology aspect. Yes, the technology factor will—and should—arise in the product evaluation and can be a competitive edge. But first and foremost, you’ve got to showcase how your company’s product will solve the various business problems it is designed to do.  

Technology projects are implemented in phases that everyone knows and accepts. It helps to ensure overall project success by ensuring that the stakeholders acclimate to the technology, that issues are worked out, and that the technology can be implemented on a common-sense foundation of data, transactions, and business procedures. As phase or stage ownership by the stakeholders is achieved this will help to alleviate project fatigue because there are successes along the way and project completion can be checked off. 

But until the perspective changes whereby companies stop buying technology and start purchasing business solutions there will continue to be excessively high rates of project failures.  Resellers can help by reframing their product marketing, which will help to distinguish themselves from their competitors.

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