Doing digital correctly typically starts with technology. Sure, you need a solid brand, audience, content, data and service strategy or the technology doesn’t matter, but you can have all of those and be stuck with virtually no voice at all if you are missing the tools.
I’ve used all-in-one tools that bring multiple tech elements together in one place. I’ve cobbled together best-in-class tech to take full advantage of each tool’s fullest capabilities.
Back in the day, the all-in-one tools usually were good at one thing and lousy at the others. Great at sending an email but data handling was atrocious, for instance. Back in the day, you had to go as best-in-class as your budget allowed to have success. What about today?
We never went through the massive tech consolidation that would lead to all-in-ones leading the charge. We’re basically in the same place we were, only the sector has expanded so much that the all-in-ones look significantly more robust. However, we also haven’t gotten to a place where even through strong API work, coordinating multiple tools is very efficient (or even possible).
Our answer is a combination of best-in-class and best-in-class partnering. Use the best tools available and then partner with people who use other best-in-class tools at a larger scale. Then, maybe someday, that future consolidation that always seems so imminent will give the tech headache to someone else.
Here’s a supportive opinion on continuing with the best-in-class approach. MORE
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