FEATURE: DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY
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Krishna Subramanian, COO
at Komprise, discusses
the benefits disruptive
technology can bring to
a business as more and
more companies adapt
to Digital Transformation.
She also talks about the
transformative effects
of AI and ML in data
management and how
this will allow businesses
to become more agile,
adaptable and efficient.
companies like Netflix have in deploying this
technology. However, that doesn’t mean
that these more traditional organisations
cannot adapt. If anything, the success of
startup businesses like Uber and Airbnb
reinforce the message that businesses need
to adapt and transform to new architectures
and swiftly, if they are to remain competitive
– but this needs to be balanced with the cost
of business disruption.
The vast majority of organisations need
technology which is transformational
without causing business disruption.
Disruptive technology cannot be adopted
wholly for its own sake, or because an
organisation believes it can reinvent
itself and become an Uber overnight – it
can’t. The best disruptive technology is
transformational, but not destructive, to
adopt. It enables a business to transform to
a newer, simpler, better way of doing things,
without requiring the company to disrupt
users and take a hit on productivity, service
and sales.
n the wake of the success of companies
like Netflix, Uber and Airbnb, the
superficial attraction of ‘disruptive
technology’ can seem extremely alluring
for many businesses. But what is disruptive
technology? And how disruptive should it be? There are technologies that enable
organisations to create new and more
efficient ways to work, but without
interrupting the overall business. For
example; Amazon, Facebook, Google and
Apple are all a testament to the power of
successfully innovating, without invasive
IT projects. Take the Apple iPhone, for
example – you can still use it as a phone
and make calls exactly as you did with prior
mobile phones, so it did not disrupt the
core user experience.
This type of business is clearly effective
at deploying technology to disrupt
settled markets, but that doesn’t mean
the technology in itself is disruptive.
Many businesses with well-established IT
infrastructures and architectures do not
have the flexibility and agility that newer However, it added so many smartphone
capabilities that were previously not
associated with a phone. So, the iPhone
fundamentally disrupted and transformed
the user experience without disrupting
productivity. This is a great example of
disruptive technology that transforms.
I
Disruptive technology
doesn’t only disrupt,
it transforms
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