Unbundling of the value chain in finance – The Adoption! Part2

First off, it took a while to find the time to do this post. I doubt i have that fan base where people might have queued up after my last post but just incase you where there, apologies for such a  late posting :-)

So now that you know what is it that your new digital organization needs to sell, It has granular product base and may be some way to exploit it, like APIs but why should people use it?

This brings me my next topic, which is the platform. In this new world order if adoption of your hard grinded and fine grained products is to be adopted there has to be a reason, before we dwell into what those reasons are lets look at ‘what constitutes a platform?’.

What is a platform?

The platform is the infrastructure or engine where linkages between customers happens. For the world of finance it is the digital manifestation of the two sided network.

Rings a bell? The is because it is similar to a cards network, where you have few merchants chasing down tons of card holders. A card network as most of you remember is the function of feet on street sales team acquiring merchants and an incentivization program for individuals to get a card issued.

In other words if your new product base is to be adopted by the market, you need to work to provide the prospective user with a reason to do so. Sort of an opportunity where they should be able to get their cards issued and have place where they can swipe them.

Interestingly the more granular your product will be less likely it is to be adopted by end consumer directly. There now needs to be intermediaries which will rope in the end consumer by converting your products in to finished goods ranging from micro services to enterprise products. So as opposed to finding the reason to bring in the end consumers you will need to think about the reasons that will attract these intermediaries to your platform.

Essentially you need to bring in developers who can source your products and create new use cases indirectly promoting the digital platform where all of this can happen but in a controlled environment. That last bit easier said then done.

So building APIs and granular tools is not enough. You now need to create a platform where these API and tools can be exploited to create something new by 3rd parties for the end customer.

I hope i have been successful in articulating the reason as it is intertwined with the platform.

Platform Adoption

The platforms of today are easier to develop but harder to train for profit. A balanced level of control will be required to ensure that it promotes creativity, innovation, adoption and still works for you commercially in the final analysis.

So it is now obvious that having the platform alone will not work, there needs to be a method to this madness that your new organization is about to unleash.

One of the most sought after approaches for increasing platform adoption is “Tipping” . (the other approach is coring but lets leave that for another day)

Tipping across markets

The idea is to work across adjacent markets absorbing their features and creating and eco-system where multiple industry problems can be solved. With respect to our particular case we will need to:

• We will need to work seriously on licensing to protect platform revenues.
• The platform will have to be introduced as a brand. If you already have a physical brand that can be leveraged but for people to adopt your digital platform it will require a new initiative.
• To rope in the developers they will need to be subsidized across partner industries.
• You will need to listen to conversation happening on the platform and in the market so that you can absorb cross industry features.
• Unlike the green field days of the industry you will need to work with your competition create a larger eco system.
• This entire process is going to be extremely tensive, the goals of the platform will not always align with the rest of the organization. You will need to work on how much stress can the stake holders bears without killing the creative process.

These are just pointers but if trajectory could be set that would broad yield such results it should create the reasons for your platform adoption as oppose to sitting on an island of excellence without any serious user base.