PLATFORM ADOPTION: HOW DECISIONS ARE MADE

When you are selling a technology product, you are selling a platform. Or at least, the customer views it as a platform adoption decision. Our research on adoption and Win/Loss analyses over several enterprise technology categories leads us to the following top three decision factors that get top billing in the decision process.

1. Strategic risk: People are staking their reputations and their jobs, particularly in this market climate, and are very averse to putting this on this line. Yet our analysis on deal losses reveals how passive the losing vendor has been in addressing this. The vendor lost the deal due to perception of risk, yet did very little in the sales cycle to address this issue. Strategic risk will be subject of a future column, however, what amazes us most in our research is the gap between the level of comfort desired by the buyer on this and the level provides, even by large well established players. 
2. Scalability: You have heard this before but scalability and extensibility continue to be top contenders here. Cloud based offerings score well here, given the subscription licensing models being implemented today. The pay as you go effect makes it easy to implement and facilitates favorable accounting treatments.
3. Technology roadmap: An important factor, again a major reason for design loss. Many vendors are going for the “socket-win” today. An often cited reason for design loss is not being able to convey the full story on how the platform is expected to evolve. Cloud vendors, in particular are vulnerable to this, believing that their agile development story will satisfy their prospective buyer. That you will continue to evolve the service based on customer feedback and bug fixes is a given. What will the offering look like 18 months from now? What is the proposed roadmap and what on the roadmap will excite the prospect, and especially, their C-level management.

Interestingly, security is missing in the top three listed above. When asked why, the common response is that security is a given and that it therefore need not be a top criterion. Prospective buyers expect to be satisfied with your security. This a major shift from five years ago when security was often cited as a main adoption concern.
Please contact us at insights@siliconvalleyrg.com if you are interested in conducting your own Win/Loss analysis or learning more about our insights.