When you hear the words “business software” and “reporting,” binders full of spreadsheets, charts, and footnotes could come to your mind. There are conference rooms that are filled with executives slogging through slide presentations. What’s missing from these images is the opportunity to create value for the business.
This is changing thanks to a handful of digital technologies that are shaping the future of reporting. Machine learning and cognitive tools will take on a lot of the repetitive work involved in gathering data, constructing reports, and then disseminating them. This frees up human workers to do more exciting work.
Utilization-based pricing is a different way to make it easier for teams to gain the benefits of data they already have more effectively. This model allows companies to better align the value of data to their expenditures by reducing the cost of accessing it.
To compete in the Age of Connected Work, software companies must reconsider the fundamentals that guide the way they design, build, distribute and sell their products. In the new era, the winners will redefine what is meant by a product-driven company in the most literal sense of the word. They’ll make use of their products to boost the acquisition of customers, retention and expansion. This will require a new strategy-driven focus and the desire to expand their “as-a-service” offerings beyond membership rates. It will also require the incorporation of PLG principles into how they design, construct and distribute their products. To stay ahead, companies will have to build an entire technology ecosystem that provides the strategy, stewardship, architecture and oversight required to make data an asset.