Moore’s Law and Advancement of Technology: How Does the Steady Pace of Change Affect the Mid-Market?

In today's streaming, machine-learning, big-data-predictive-analytic-collecting, fast paced, demanding society, it goes without saying that the pace of technology continues to advance at a tremendous rate - so much in fact that it is still keeping pace with Moore's Law, which Alphabet's CEO, Sergey Brin referenced in his 2017 Founder's Letter (a quick read and certainly worth checking out).

As a reminder, “Moore's law describes the computing hardware trend that transistors on an integrated circuit will double every two years.”, as described by Webster's Dictionary. Although traditional measures have slowed, Moore’s Law has aptly described many of the advancements in technology that we are familiar with today, such as, better integrated enterprise software, advanced cyber security, improved eCommerce functionality and even automatic sales and marketing tools involving tight email integrations and mobile responsive apps. I haven’t even mentioned social media or cryptocurrencies yet and all of the data being exchanged and collected on these platforms! Technology has enabled our productivity and completely changed how we interact as a society.

Joe Ambrose, Practice Director at Liberty Technology Advisors, Inc. shared his thoughts on the topic, “Although Moore's Law references the speed of change in the technology industry, it can also be a valuable concept when looking at the speed of integration of enterprise software in mid-market manufacturing and distribution companies.”

For most mid-market companies, this can be exciting, yet unsettling and often times referred as “disruptive”. Does it have to be? When you consider operations of a mid-market manufacturer or distributor - a supplier of parts, food & beverage, consumer goods, or any company who processes an order and ships a product. Do these new "disruptive" technologies have a critical role in how the business operates and performs day-to-day? Perhaps.

Jeff Henderson, Federal Account Manager at McAfee / Intel Security also shared his thoughts with us and said, “Cryptocurrencies are very interesting and really a game changer in the exchange of products and services. It’s similar to Uber, Lyft, AirBNB, etc. Meaning that they’re not the next iteration of something (like a faster computer). They’re completely new, not really able to have been predicted years ago and have completely changed established industries forever.” As far as the mid-market is concerned, Jeff said, “I would encourage them to not be afraid of technology advancements, but to carefully consider implementing them.

Perhaps we should be more open to change. Whether we're talking about sales, manufacturing, quality, maintenance, shipping - whatever the case, if you can measure it, you can improve it. That's the beauty of this advancement – especially when you consider IoT, big data and cloud-based storage. Even though there’s a lot of hype around these concepts, this is the very essence of Industry 4.0, which describes this trend of interconnectedness within manufacturing technologies.

Joe continued to explain, “Companies can no longer look at enterprise software as a one-time purchase every 10 years. The trend toward microservices and easier API integration to enterprise software solutions by many niche software providers has dramatically improved the way companies can improve their business processes, better meet the needs of their customers, and provide valuable business data to drive profitability.”

However, that being said, mid-market companies should use caution when considering new technology and how they evaluate it. Understanding who it will affect and how it will integrate to the current infrastructure and most importantly, how to ensure everyone will adopt it.

Let's face it, there’s a ton of great software and apps out there that we can introduce into the workplace, but we must keep in mind that when it comes to streamlining and automating business processes, the way people do business may change. This change can be challenging, so it must be managed in a thoughtful & collaborative manner.

When a growing mid-market company decides to improve their operations, control their costs and create a competitive edge in their market, it’s common to begin evaluating new technology.

When doing so, be certain to consider the following:

• Understand what problem you are trying to solve
• Decide what can be automated – be selective and understand why
• Create a plan and work the plan
• Ensure top - down support (critical for change impact)
• Involve the entire team and get their feedback
• Understand and plan for business process changes. With the introduction of new technology, new automation and functionality may change how you do your work.

By far, some of the biggest challenges often revolves around managing the change properly and holding people accountable.

If an organization lacks qualified resources to aid in the following areas, third party support should be considered:

• Project planning and governance
• Gathering & documenting key business requirements
• Technology / software vendor and implementer evaluation criteria
• Software contract negotiations
• Project & change management
• Post implementation support requirements

At Liberty Technology Advisors, we help companies tackle these challenges every day. We have over 20 years of experience partnering with our clients to help them improve business processes and run at their fullest potential. Call or message us today to learn how we can partner with you to take your company to the next level.

Business. Done Better.