The Customer Rules
the Cloud
By Kevin Derman, GM for Cloud and
Hosting Businesses at First Distribution
I
t’s no longer a secret that what the IDC coined “The
Third Platform” is landing up being one of the most
powerful business enablers of the decade.
In fact, some say it’s comparable to the disruptive
effects of the industrial revolution. The technologies of
Cloud, Big Data Analytics, Mobility and Social Business are like the Four Horsemen of Progress, pulling
technology in directions only limited by our imagination.
Small companies have the ability to create game changing
products and business models, previously the exclusive domain of only the larger companies who had both the human
skill resources as well as the computing power to develop
these game changing elements.
This is one of the reasons why we see so many smaller
companies being snapped up by the giants – it’s a world
where agility is a competitive advantage for development,
but there is no doubt that cash is still king and these products still end up being owned by larger companies in
the end.
However, as powerful as the technology is, when one looks
carefully at what is creating this rapid pace of change, it
is (perhaps surprisingly) not only the
technology. I would even go so far as
to say that the most disruptive element
in this new world is not the technology,
but rather the customer. While you
ponder the reality of this, think about
the following scenarios.
Many have said that Uber has disrupted the taxi transport business. While
the technology behind Uber certainly
is cool, it’s actually the customers’
behaviour that has made the concept
a success.
On a recent trip to the States and
Canada for a conference, I was able
to observe my own and others behaviour when it came to
choosing transport. I found myself choosing Uber wherever
possible, even preferring to wait 5-8 minutes for my Uber
when a taxi was available. My reasoning for this was that
I did not have to carry cash, worry about what the correct
amount to tip was, and hassle about requesting a receipt.
I would take secret delight in bypassing the line of people
waiting for a taxi as my Uber would pull in.
Ultimately, it’s about a feeling of control and that’s exactly
what Uber does - it provides the customer with a feeling of
control. This control is what customers want; it’s what all
humans want.
06 | www.firstdistribution.co.za
The control aspect comes from seeing where your Uber is
en-route to picking you up, to rating your ride. Having the
ability to reward or punish if the service is not up to scratch
is a powerful consumer feeling when compared to getting
into a taxi and being at their mercy for the ride. It’s also
important to note that Uber does not always compete with
taxis. In Toronto one can order an Uber X, Uber Black and
an Uber Taxi.
With this service, taxi drivers sign up as Uber drivers and
everything works in the exact same way as a normal Uber. I
used this service during peak time where queues of people
waited their turn for a taxi and could not help but grin as
‘my’ taxi pulled ahead of the others, and again I bypassed
the line as the taxi driver asked for me by name.
Another great example of technology and customer disruption is Alibaba or AliExpress. This service is now the world
largest e-tailer and while it seems on the surface that the
technology is driving the adopt