About The Playbook
Korio is a group of professionals who came together to help companies re-platform and become agile and fast. We prefer to work with established companies in the mid-market who might be struggling with the transformation to digital. Collectively, we have gone through dozens of transformations. We have witnessed successes and failures.
Based on what we have learned, we have become quite opinionated on what works and what doesn't. This short post is part of a larger Playbook that we have assembled based on what we have learned.
For details on each on our approach to business archtecture, explore the links below.
As we learn more from our clients and if we think that the learning is: A) actionable, B) validated and C) doesn't state the obvious, then we will add it to our Playbook.
Remember, everything we propose can be done incrementally and with very little lead-time. If you want to adopt the plays in a more gradual manner, go ahead but consider setting each up as an experiment: have a hypothesis, measure the impact and act on what you learn.
The Play: Ecosystem Or Modular Provider, Pick One
Ecosystems matter for consumers in the digital context. Your prospects gravitate to ecosystems when they think about engaging with your category or industry. Are you positioned to be the Ecosystem, or one of its Modules? Both can work, but you should try to pick one. Having said that, in some industries, there may be an opportunity to play both roles.
An Ecosystem is the "go-to" destination for your prospects. If you are the first site they think of when they need a service or product in your category, then you may have a shot at being an ecosystem. A good, mature ecosystem will provide access to other providers in allied categories. These other, more specialized, businesses that the ecosystem aggregates for their prospects and customers are called Modular Providers.
The most obvious ecosystems in the digital landscape are Amazon, Google (Google Search) and Apple (iTunes App Store). These are the dominant players at the top of the digital ecosystem food chain. For most of us, we might work to be an ecosystem in a more specialized space.
While it is possible to be both, most successful digital players will pick one.
How
- If you are in a commanding position in a category that might be hard to navigate for prospects and customers, consider establishing an ecosystem. Your digital platform will connect them to the best services and products associated with their broader need. You may be in a position to monetize these referrals but, minimally, you must keep your stable of modular providers current.
- If you plan to establish an Ecosystem, your technology must be easy to plug into via APIs.
- Ecosystems must have "standards" that all providers must live up to. Aggregators of services that lack consistent standards tend to struggle.
- Ecosystem providers must be good at and invest in relationships. In IT/Digital, they must be ready to assign staff to managing the technical aspects of the ecosystem.
- If being a Modular Provider is more suited to your positioning, make sure you understand the Ecosystem landscape in your category.
- As a Modular Provider you must be capable of building resilient integrations with one or multiple ecosystems. Having your own API will likely not be good enough because you need to integrate into an Ecosystem that likely will dictate your system will interface with theirs. Have a team at the ready that understands partner integration best-practices.
For details on each on our approach to business archtecture, explore the links below.
Why Bother
- If you don't think you can be successful as either an Ecosystem or Modular Provider, then you are going to be entirely dependent on outbound marketing and sales, which can be expensive.
- Even if your efforts to take on either of these two roles doesn't pan out directly, the indirect benefits of having a platform and Business Architecture that can plug into partners can give you a significant advantage.
What To Avoid
- Ignoring the Ecosystem concept: It's a thing. It may not be dominant in your industry at this time, but it is likely coming. Also, the simple act of trying to understand the Ecosystem landscape in your category tends to be very instructive.
The Fallback
Invest in being easy to "package up and plug-in". From the digital side, this means having a clean set of APIs or integration capabilities.