Building your own MLM technology platform is possible, but does it make sense?
IDG recently surveyed hundreds of CIOs and uncovered the fact that 67 percent of them are increasing their budgets for cloud computing and Platform as a Service (PaaS) solutions. Cloud computing and cybersecurity were the largest budget increases they anticipated in the next year. This brings up an uncomfortable question many MLM business leaders face: can a commercial cloud platform answer all, or even most, of your unique technology needs? Or should you build your own technology platform?
It’s complicated.
Veteran information technology leaders
developed their expertise in the networked, on-site ecosystem dominated
by hardware and software vendor giants like IBM, Microsoft, Oracle,
PeopleSoft, and more. Cloud innovators, such as Workday, Salesforce,
Google, Amazon, Slack and others, came in, offered cost-effective and
easily deployable cloud platforms. Along with the platform, they
introduced customizable and mobile solutions accessed and managed from a
web browser, and changed the face of computing forever.
Recent trends show that the on-premise
monopoly of the past has learned the disruptive lessons from these brash
cloud startups. Both Oracle and Microsoft have been alerting customers
that, if you read between the lines, their innovation roadmaps are
focused on the cloud. Although their standalone applications will be
maintained and supported, their customers are being encouraged to move
completely to the cloud, or choose one of two other options: deploy a
hybrid approach, or miss out on major new features and technology
advances.
This computing transformation to the cloud is accelerating.
BetterCloud’s study, “State of the
SaaS-Powered Workplace,” indicated that most companies are estimating
that by 2020 their IT infrastructure will be pure cloud.
Widespread adoption of PaaS and cloud
computing is not an accident but rather, the product of the wholesale
benefits and competitive advantages cloud computing can deliver to both
startups and enterprises.
Continuous integration and development
is now the norm, and keeping up with the velocity of technology
modernization, driven by customer expectations, can only be met with
specialization.
In other words, let developers and
commercial cloud vendors focus on the infrastructure and application
development, and let business experts focus on their core competencies.
Which brings up the truth about uniqueness:
Every company is unique, even within the same industry. The ability to execute on a strategy and more-than-adequately answer customer and market demands is what makes market leaders of these unique companies. This typically means flexibly building technology solutions, and continuously modernizing. If you want to build your MLM platform, know that the expectations from partners, distributors and customers are relentless and always high. The development never ends. Maintenance, support, troubleshooting and meeting security and regulatory commitments require a dedicated team of experts or trusted development partners. That’s very hard to get right—and very resource intensive, but it is possible. Answering these needs using one of the cloud platforms out there is also possible. Only you can determine your “uniqueness” in this regard.
Interested in learning about a “buy it” solution? Request a demo from DirectScale to see how our platform helps you grow and adapts to your needs.