Demanding on-demand
I’ve gotten some comments on the last several rich media postings, and the conversation always moves into the specifics of what people are doing now, and what they plan to do in the near future in terms of how they handle product-centric information, regardless of media type.
People are intrigued by the concept of integrating full-motion video with text, or 3D images with Flash, but the conversation often runs into a delivery method filter.
A number of large companies with reputations for being otherwise innovative in terms of their products are hard-wired to the notion that the application that manages all the rich media content needs to be rack-mounted, behind the firewall, supported by IT, blah, blah, blah. A very 90s view of how technology should be deployed.
Considering that most product information for large corporations is produced by teams that operate all over the world, how could they not adopt an on-demand model? In the old world, ten people working on a document would work sequentially (make my edits, attach the document to a e-mail, on to the next person in the chain, etc). In the on-demand version, all ten people are working simultaneously on the same document (which can include all the cool rich media input), everyone sees what the others are doing, as a result they all arrive at the end-point at the same time and in a much shorter period of time.
On-demand delivery of a rich media content management system can also increase consistency in terms of how a company communicates with their customers. Everyone agrees on the need for a corporation to deliver a consistent customer experience. What information is available at the point of contact and how effectively it’s delivered define that customer experience. If all customer touchpoints have the same, constantly updated and integrated information source this synchs up Training, Field Services Support, Customer Support, Sales, Marketing, Engineering, etc.
On-Demand makes this model possible. Six key reasons to look at this:
– End-users get a steady stream of upgrades, delivered invisibly
– No more being held hostage to the whims of IT
– Expand or contract usage as needed, no more shelfware
– WAY lower cost of ownership, like 75% lower
– The entire industry is moving in this direction, whether they realize it or not
– Deployment time is measured in days, not months
The bottom line is that the entire market is already moving in this direction and it’s a huge upgrade no matter how you look at it. This will also allow companies to focus on their core competencies rather than on infrastructure interactions.