This weekend, the lives of numerous college football stars will change with the annual National Football League (NFL) draft. Held to provide teams with fresh talent towards their run at the Super Bowl, the draft offers all teams the chance to improve at their chances of winning the Super Bowl.
Beyond the pomp and circumstance that will undoubtedly turn everyday college students into multi-millionaires, sports analysts on this day will also be discussing the qualities that allow a player to be labeled as ‘elite’, including running speed, arm strength, personality, and amicability. Unfortunately, even with these characteristics, not every player drafted into the NFL will succeed and depending on draft position, may cost the team more years of futility.
Thankfully organizational IT does not carry the same implications into the marketplace. While important to any organization’s innovation priorities, choosing to focus on a few key components can lead to better outcomes as opposed to dipping one’s toes in everything. Furthermore, the emergence of solutions based in the cloud also lowers risk in technology investments where an organization can move on if ROI is a low – a freedom unavailable to fledging NFL teams with poor draft decisions.
So what’s in a name for a modern solution that will take your organization to the next level? While sports fans will look to ESPN for their insights, we looked to our friends at research firm Forrester in their top emerging technologies guide for 2017-2021. Here’s what they found were attractive innovations that spurred interest:
- An Obsession for the Customer: Organizations might have the resources, but at the end of the day, the customer is king. Whether the product delivers user insights, accelerates results, or connects one platform to another, the best solution creates and continues to offer value.
- Competitive Advantage: In the NFL, great quarterbacks emerge only several times a generation and offer their organizations the opportunity to compete for a championship on a consistent basis. No franchise exudes this better than the New England Patriots, who have won 5 championships in 7 tries in the past 17 years with coach Bill Belicheck and quarterback Tom Brady. Similarly for the emerging enterprise, the ability to create or leverage a sustainable competitive advantage in a very crowded market can net similar results. In these cases, companies aren’t competing to win Super Bowls, but rather the opportunity to transform their industry and the world.
- Immediate Impact: Players are drafted for two reasons in the NFL. One reason is for immediate impact in week one, and the other is for the player to be trained into the game. Technological innovations are treated similarly, with some innovations being instant game changers while others still require time and effort to develop.
What do you think? Do these insights mesh with the trends you are seeing in the industry? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned as we continue to look at how the future will come into view.
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Are you looking for new ways to invigorate your organization’s IT? Reach out to us at sales@perficient.com for a discussion on how you can accelerate innovation and download our thought leadership including our hybrid cloud guide below at www.perficient.com/insights for even more insights.
