Selecting Technology Partners for Your Digital Business Platform

While you will probably not be able to buy a complete and integrated Digital Business Platform (DBP) from one vendor, you can now identify some key technology partners that can help you get started. If you have created a logical (conceptual) architecture, like I suggested in an earlier post, you can start selecting technology partners and seeing how they map together in the physical world through proof of concept projects (POCs). It's a bit like putting together a puzzle even if the pieces come from one cornerstone vendor. Keep in mind, selecting technology partners is only one important step in your digital transformation journey and the business drivers and resulting business models are crucial.

Here are my candidates for the five logical digital architectural areas I outlined in my previous post. My goal here is to help folks with a jump start identification and evaluation of the digital players that could become giants in the digital vendor arena.

http://jimsinur.blogspot.com/2015/10/creating-digital-business-platform.html

See the following chart for my key picks based on listening to the vendors or listening to clients that have successfully implemented incremental benefits while transforming to a more complete digital organization. These vendors were selected for their ability to help clients become agile and deal with shifting needs and targets. I selected the vendors based on early success or significant investment in research and development. Some potential partners have made acquisitions and are in the process of integrating them or providing services that do so. Keep in mind that if you pick multiple vendors, you will have to do some integration or outsource that integration to one of the vendors or a service provider.

I have categorized my winning picks into two categories.  One is a "Key Vendor", marked in red, that has proven to scale and have a reputation in the architectural area they surround in the diagram. The other is a "Kewl Vendor", marked in / blue, that has interesting successes in the area they surround, but not to a large extent yet. Keep in mind this is my first cut and it is early in digital transformation efforts.

* Note the Internet of Things is a mix of machine to machine, machine to software & machine to human vendors. Right now robotic management is included here. 

Net; Net:

While it is important to map your business transformation to digital before you pick your technology partner(s), there is a certain interplay and iteration that occurs between what the business wants at the moment and what the technology can do at the moment for your specific situation. Keep in mind that this is the first version of this chart and it will change over time.

Additional Reading:

Digital Definition: http://jimsinur.blogspot.com/2015/10/what-is-digital-business.html
Logical Digital:     http://jimsinur.blogspot.com/2015/10/creating-digital-business-platform.html
Digital Processes:  http://jimsinur.blogspot.com/2015/10/intelligent-process-management-in-your.htmlmo
Bimodal Business http://jimsinur.blogspot.com/2015/10/bimodal-it-supports-bimodal-business-in.html
Algoritmic Bus:    http://jimsinur.blogspot.com/2015/10/bimodal-it-supports-bimodal-business-in.html