CommunicationsMatch
Agency Technology: Thinking Website When You Should be Thinking Business Platform?
Technology is at an inflection point. In a new article for CommPRO.biz about agency technology, I argue we need to shift the paradigm from thinking about building websites to building business platforms. Read the full article here: Agency Technology: Are You Thinking Website or Business Platform?
Today most firms build (or rebuild) websites and then buy or integrate third-party applications to provide the functionality a modern agency needs. But as anyone who has used these technology-driven tools knows, integration, usability, and cost are often an issue.
With an order of magnitude drop in development costs that powered the growth of technology startups over the last decade, ground-up built, fit-for-purpose technology platforms, in which content management, client relationship management, enterprise resource management, email marketing tools, and digital metrics are seemlessly integrated, are now in the reach of smaller agencies and even individual professionals.
Our new partnership with RexSoft to provide technology development and support services to the industry is built around this evolution.
By leveraging code it has built, RexSoft has developed RXCore™ CMS, CRM, and ERP technology modules which can be incorporated into website builds at relatively low cost. This creates new opportunities to build technology with simpler interfaces, greater flexibility and control, along with the potential for long-term cost savings versus integrating multiple third-party applications.
This is a game changer.
The democratization of the ability to build and evolve technology will encourage creative ways of thinking about its use to engage with and market to clients.
Bill Gates’ famous quote about technology is applicable here. “We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don't let yourself be lulled into inaction.”
The point is, while we should not overstate the changes that this will lead to over the next two years, over the next decade this will underpin changes for agencies and professionals in the industry that are hard to imagine today.
Simon Erskine Locke is the founder & CEO of CommunicationsMatchTM . CommunicationsMatch offers communications & PR agency search tools and resources that help companies find, shortlist, and engage communications, digital marketing and branding agencies, consultants and freelancers by industry and communications expertise, location and size. Prior to founding CommunicationsMatch, Locke held senior corporate communications roles at Prudential Financial, Morgan Stanley, and Deutsche Bank and founded communications consultancies.