If your company has developed a core product or service, you should consider building a technology platform to enable other businesses to build on top of it. Building a technology platform can help you increase revenue, reduce costs, and streamline development. In addition, building a technology platform will help your team build better products, too. Let’s explore three ways to build better technology platforms. Here are three strategies to consider:
First, build a platform that serves as a backbone for other businesses. Building a platform that serves other businesses is a great way to differentiate yourself in an increasingly competitive marketplace. It allows others to build on top of your platform and create value that benefits both businesses and users. A technology platform can also serve as the backbone of a new business, allowing it to leverage the power of a community of people and companies.
Second, define the platform’s interface. A modern technology platform will include many different components. Some are individual platforms and others are products designed to serve specific functionality. Regardless of the platform’s architecture, it’s essential to design a user-friendly interface and implement feedback loops. For public-facing products, analytics will help the platform team understand user behavior. Other platforms will rely on user interviews, surveys, and one-on-one relationships.
Third, consider the costs of building a platform. Whether the costs are a cost savings or a revenue stream, the business case for building a platform is important. The build costs can be quite high, so consider the costs when determining the cost of the platform. Building a platform is often more complex than building a product, so it’s essential to ensure that the cost and time spent developing the platform is worth the added investment.
Building a platform offers a host of benefits. Apart from cost savings, it also improves security and rigor of the platform infrastructure. Companies that have built their own platforms have a leg up over companies without a technology platform. However, building a platform will not be without its ups and downs. Building a platform requires expertise and human resources. So, it’s important to build a platform that’s reliable and secure.
A platform’s boundaries should be defined in terms of how it works. These boundaries will vary, and some will be more clear than others. Platform services with a clearly defined interface will have natural boundaries, while those with fuzzier boundaries may create questions around how the platform responds to alerts. Clearly defined boundaries can reduce support burdens on the platform team. If the platform’s boundaries are ambiguous, the team should develop documentation for the platform.
Having access to valuable data assets is a crucial component of a technology platform. With the growing influx of Big Data, legacy ERP systems simply cannot keep up. Modern solutions offer speed and data accuracy. Traditional databases and data warehouses cannot keep up with the influx of data. In-memory databases are a great solution to this problem. But they were costly to develop until recent technological developments made them affordable for large systems. In addition, modern data management requires better security. Building a better technology platform ensures that data assets remain safe and secure, and it can control user access and metadata management.