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How Digital Platforms are disrupting Businesses

Written by Raghu Kaimal on Digilah (Tech Thought Leadership).

The History of Digital Platforms and how it evolved to become what we see now:

The concept of digital platforms as we know them today has undergone a significant evolution over the past few decades. In the 1990s, the internet gave birth to basic digital platforms such as email. However, it is limited in scope and functionality.

With the rise of e-commerce, online marketplaces like eBay emerged, allowing individuals to buy and sell goods online. This marked the first step towards connecting buyers and sellers on a digital platform.

Then came the Social Media Boom, early 2000s witnessed the rise of social media platforms, with MySpace started in 2003. Later, Facebook started in 2004 becoming pioneers in this space. Social media platforms fundamentally changed the way people interacted and shared information online.

The early platforms were focusing on the B2C customers but later we saw many B2B platform flourishing like AWS, Microsoft and so on later part of 2010.

The introduction of mobile app stores, such as Apple’s App Store and Google Play in 2008, transformed how software was distributed and consumed. App stores enabled the creation of a vast ecosystem of mobile applications, further expanding the digital platform landscape.

Companies like Airbnb and Uber disrupted traditional industries by creating digital platforms that allowed individuals to share resources like accommodations and rides in new ways.

The Cloud and SaaS Platforms: Cloud computing platforms, like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, revolutionized the way businesses access and use computing resources. Software as a Service (SaaS) platforms, such as Salesforce and Google Workspace, provided cloud-based software solutions, changing the software delivery model.

How Digital Platforms transformed various Industries:

Digital platforms have had a profound impact on a wide range of industries.

Retail and E-Commerce: Amazon is a prime example of how digital platforms have revolutionized online shopping. It created a vast online marketplace, streamlined supply chains, and personalized the shopping experience.

Social Networking and Communication: Facebook and Instagram have reshaped how people connect, communicate, and share information globally. They’ve also become advertising platforms, transforming the marketing industry.

Hospitality and Travel: Airbnb disrupted the traditional hotel industry by enabling individuals to rent their homes to travelers. This innovative platform changed the way people find accommodations when traveling.

Transportation: Uber and Lyft transformed the transportation industry by providing on-demand ridesharing services. These platforms offered convenience and cost-effectiveness, challenging traditional taxi services.

Entertainment and Media: Netflix is an example of a digital platform that reshaped the entertainment industry. It introduced streaming services, changing how people consume content and impacting traditional cable and broadcast TV.

Finance and Fintech: Digital platforms like PayPal and Square have made online payments and financial transactions easier. Additionally, fintech platforms like Robinhood and Coinbase have democratized investing in stocks and cryptocurrencies.

How Ecosystems Drive Platform Growth and Innovation:

Platform ecosystems are intricate networks of interconnected products, services, and technologies built around a central platform. These ecosystems thrive on collaboration, with various players – individuals, businesses, and developers – creating value for one another and, in turn, for the platform itself.

The significance of platform ecosystems lies in their ability to foster growth, innovation, and sustainability in the digital age.

Network Effects: Ecosystems capitalize on network effects, where the value of the platform increases as more users, developers, and complementary services join.

For example, a larger user base on a social media platform like Facebook attracts more content creators and advertisers, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of growth.

Diverse Services: Ecosystems allow a diverse range of third-party services and apps to integrate with the platform. This diversity expands the platform’s utility and attracts a wider user base.

Consider the Apple App Store, where developers create apps that enhance the functionality of Apple devices, leading to the platform’s growth.

Innovation: Ecosystems foster innovation as third-party developers create new features and functionalities for the platform. These innovations can address user needs that the platform’s parent company may not have anticipated.

For instance, the Android ecosystem benefits from the innovations of app developers who continually expand the capabilities of Android devices.

Monetization: Ecosystems provide revenue opportunities for platform owners and third-party developers. Companies can charge for platform access, take a share of transactions, or offer in-app purchases.

This monetization encourages more stakeholders to participate, further driving growth.

Data Synergy: Ecosystems leverage data synergy, with various components of the ecosystem contributing to data collection and analysis.

This data sharing and utilization enables more precise targeting, personalization, and insights, improving the overall user experience.

Data Utilization on Digital Platforms and its concerns

Data is at the heart of platform revelation. Digital platforms, in their various forms, rely on vast amounts of data to function efficiently, provide personalized experiences, and create value.

The collection, utilization, and analysis of data have become integral to the success of these platforms, shaping their operations, and influencing decisions.

Here’s an exploration of the role of data in platform revelation:

Personalization: User data allows platforms to offer personalized content, recommendations, and advertisements, enhancing user experiences.

Analytics: Data analytics provide insights into user behavior, trends, and performance metrics, helping platforms optimize their services.

Monetization: Platforms often monetize user data by selling it to advertisers or using it for targeted advertising.

Privacy Concerns: Collecting and utilizing user data raises privacy issues. Users may be unaware of the extent of data collection or how their data is used.

Data Security: Data breaches and cyberattacks can expose sensitive user information, leading to security and identity theft risks.

Data Ownership: Determining who owns user data and how it can be used is a contentious issue. Users, platforms, and third parties may have different interests.

Algorithmic Bias: Data-driven platforms can inadvertently perpetuate bias if algorithms are trained on biased data, resulting in unfair outcomes.

Regulatory Compliance: Data usage is subject to evolving laws and regulations, such as GDPR in Europe and CCPA in California. Platforms must comply with these rules.

Future Trends and Developments in Digital Platforms

The digital platform landscape is poised for significant evolution in the coming decade. Several key trends and emerging technologies will shape the future of these platforms and how they influence various industries and aspects of our lives.

GenAI Supporting the Sales and Marketing function:  GenAI helps create content in text, audio, video formats, Customer service automation, Sales enhancement though co-pilot which will help buys with rich content and sales support.

AI-Driven Recommendations: Artificial intelligence and machine learning will continue to power highly personalized content, product recommendations, and user experiences.

Context-Aware Platforms: Platforms will increasingly consider the user’s context, location, and preferences to deliver contextually relevant content and services.

AR and VR Integration: Digital platforms will integrate augmented and virtual reality technologies to offer immersive experiences for gaming, shopping, education, and more.

Social VR: Social media platforms may expand into the metaverse, enabling users to interact in virtual spaces.

Edge Computing: Edge computing will enhance platform responsiveness and support real-time processing for applications like autonomous vehicles and IoT.

Green Computing: Platforms will emphasize eco-friendly practices and data center sustainability to reduce their carbon footprint.

Sustainability Reporting: Users will demand greater transparency regarding a platform’s environmental impact.

The Importance of Platform Revelation in the Digital Era

In the digital age, understanding and appreciating the concept of platform revelation is more crucial than ever. It is the key to unlocking the profound impact that digital platforms have on our lives, economies, and societies. Recognizing the significance of platform revelation is not just a matter of staying informed; it’s a means to actively engage with the rapidly evolving landscape of digital platforms.

Here’s why it matters:

Empowerment Through Knowledge: Understanding how digital platforms work empowers individuals to make informed choices.

It allows users to protect their data privacy, control their online presence, and maximize the benefits these platforms offer.

Economic Transformation: Digital platforms are reshaping industries, creating new economic opportunities, and altering the nature of work.

For entrepreneurs and businesses, platform revelation is essential for staying competitive and adapting to changing market dynamics.

Societal Impact: Social media platforms influence public discourse, while e-commerce and service platforms impact how we consume and interact.

Recognizing the power of platforms enables citizens to engage thoughtfully in societal discussions and debates.

Ethical Considerations: As digital platforms collect data, influence opinions, and shape our online experiences, understanding their ethical implications is paramount.

It enables us to advocate for responsible platform practices and hold companies accountable.

Future Readiness: The digital platform landscape is dynamic and continually evolving.

Staying informed about trends, innovations, and challenges prepares individuals and organizations for what lies ahead.

Most searched questions

What is impact of digitalization on businesses?

What is green computing?

Most searched queries

SaaS(Software as a Service)

Augmented reality

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Digi Tech Decision Making Tech

Innovating on a Budget: Exploring Cloud Cost Optimization for Agile Businesses

cloud

Written by Adora Nwodo on  Digilah (Tech Thought Leadership).

In today’s business landscape, staying competitive and driving technological innovation requires businesses to adapt quickly and optimize costs.

The cloud has revolutionized operations by offering advantages like scalable resources, operational efficiency, and global accessibility.

However, effectively leveraging cloud environments within budget limitations can be challenging, especially for agile businesses with limited financial resources.

This article provides multiple strategies for businesses to optimize their cloud costs. By implementing these strategies, businesses can encourage innovation, facilitate expansion, and achieve cost optimization.

To optimize cloud costs, businesses must first understand the cloud cost landscape. Infrastructure, compute resources, storage, networking, and additional services like databases, AI/ML, and analytics are typically part of cloud costs.

Cloud service providers offer different pricing models, including pay-as-you-go and reserved instances, each with its own cost implications. Businesses can make informed decisions and devise cost-cutting strategies by understanding these elements.

They can evaluate pricing options, customize resource usage, and balance innovation and cost optimization without sacrificing performance.

Cloud Cost Optimization Techniques

This section explores three cloud cost optimization techniques that businesses can use to reduce cloud costs and increase financial efficiency.

Rightsizing Cloud Resources for Efficiency

Businesses often struggle with the challenge of inefficiently provisioning cloud resources, leading to unnecessary expenses. To tackle this, rightsizing optimizes resource allocation to strike the right balance between performance and cost.

This involves closely monitoring resource usage and analyzing metrics such as CPU usage, memory utilization, and network traffic.

By understanding the connection between resource allocation and workload requirements, businesses can make informed decisions to ensure optimal performance.

Automation tools play a crucial role in the rightsizing process, enabling businesses to dynamically allocate or deallocate resources based on real-time demand.

These tools automate tasks like scheduling non-production resource start and stop times, allowing businesses to pay only for the actual hours of usage.

Adopting Cloud Cost Management Tools

Cloud service providers offer cost-management tools that enable businesses to effectively monitor, analyse, and control their cloud spending.

These tools provide insights into various aspects of cloud costs, helping businesses identify cost drivers, evaluate resource utilization, and track cost trends.

By leveraging the data provided by these tools, businesses can pinpoint areas where cost-cutting efforts can have the most impact and prioritize their cost-cutting strategies accordingly.

Cost management tools also enable businesses to track cost trends over time, offering historical cost data and visualizations of cost patterns and fluctuations.

This allows businesses to identify cost variations, seasonal patterns, and unexpected cost spikes, empowering them to proactively plan and optimize their cloud spending for better cost management.

Examples of cloud cost management tools include Densify, CloudZero, and Apptio Cloudability.

Leveraging Server less Architecture

Server less computing has transformed cloud cost optimization by shifting from infrastructure management to code execution. 

This change eliminates the need for continuous provisioning, management, and scaling of server resources, resulting in significant cost savings.

The pay-per-use pricing model of server less platforms ensures businesses only pay for the resources consumed during function execution, eliminating idle capacity and wasteful spending. 

Additionally, server less architectures enable agile businesses to accelerate application development and deployment. 

With modular server less functions, developers can focus on specific features or functions, leading to shorter development cycles and a faster time-to-market. 

This agility allows businesses to seize opportunities and drive innovation while staying within budget constraints.

Conclusion

Innovating on a budget is a challenge that many agile businesses face.  These businesses, however, can achieve a delicate balance between innovation and financial caution by investigating cloud cost optimization solutions.

Understanding the cloud cost landscape, rightsizing resources, adopting cost management tools, and leveraging server less computing can help drive innovation while controlling expenses.

Most searched questions

What is cloud computing?

What are the cloud tools which can be used to reduce the cloud costs?

Most searched queries

Cloud services

Cloud resources.

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AI Tech Art Tech

How Technology can help India’s Traditional Craftspeople

How Technology can help India’s Traditional Craftspeople

Written by : Suki Iyer on  Digilah (Tech Thought Leadership)

A recent conversation with a friend got me thinking of the intersection between technology, design, the preservation and flourishing of traditional handicrafts, and communities. 

The Indian handicraft industry is a highly labor intensive one, with more than 7 million artisans, a majority of whom are women and largely underprivileged.

This industry, which is traditionally a major source of revenue generation in rural India, has been in decline (though there have been several efforts to support it), and has been hit hard by the pandemic as well. 

What are the glaring gaps in the market for traditional craft? (specific to India, but this could apply to the world as well). To my mind the key gaps are in design, and in business building capacities. 

Local artisans lack the ability to meet the needs of new markets and are forced to find low unskilled employment in urban industries. One of the major factors contributing to this is that artisans are not trained to contemporize their designs. 

In this article, I’d like to focus on design and the role technology can play in meeting the current gaps. 

While some work has been done on modernizing design, a lot of craft continues to center around traditional design, often not appealing to modern sensibilities, and thus not being able to build the foundation of a sustainable business. How can technology help? For example, AI techniques have been leveraged for emulating creativity and imagination – for image generation, style-transfer, image-to-image translation; for pattern generation, and color-transfer etc.  

An interesting study (Raviprakash et al., May 2019) describes how AI techniques can be used to contemporize design, while keeping the underlying technique unchanged. It generated colored motifs and patterns that can be manufactured into physical products. This study experimented with using AI on the popular IKAT weave. Unlike other dyeing techniques, in IKAT the yarn is dyed BEFORE it is woven. This is what gives it its unique shading effect. This property was harnessed by the researchers to create a contemporary design. 

A picture containing text Description automatically generated

The researchers first used a black motif using an AI technique trained on a set of 1000 paintings from a famous European painter, Piet Mondrian, and their gray-scale counterparts. The simplicity of these paintings along with the use of only primitive colors made them an ideal choice for our approach, since the model is able to learn primitive colorization of a motif from a relatively small training dataset. 

The model used a generator which colorizes the input and a discriminator that learns to distinguish between the real paintings and the colorized images. The discriminator’s output determines the loss of the generator, which the generator tries to minimize, effectively colorizing images to make them indistinguishable from real paintings. 

These motifs were re-colored with colors of an inspiration image using a statistical approach of global color transformation, and the design was post-processed to a grid that could be readily used for dyeing, as each cell is of a single color. 

Products manufactured with designs generated using the above approach are found to be much more visually appealing than their traditional counterparts in the present market. Local artisans used these designs to manufacture and sell products successfully. A person painting a picture Description automatically generated with medium confidence

There are several such examples of how technology can modernize craft without compromising on the underlying uniqueness of a particular craft technique. 

Investments need to be made in building such design capacity amongst artisans so they can once again take their place as valued centers of their communities. 

Suki Iyer

Most searched question

How can we preserve our culture and tradition?

What can be done to help folk arts and crafts survive via technology in India?

Most searched queries

New Craft Technology

Handicrafts selling websites in India


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HR Tech

Leadership in a digital world

Written by Holly Carmichael on Digilah (Tech Thought Leadership)

The future success and effectiveness of leaders and senior executives will depend on how well they respond to the increasingly important role of digitisation through their business models. Regardless of the sector or size of their organisations, leaders must place technology, not as a function of the business, but right at the heart of it.  

This is a topic we discuss frequently within Criticaleye’s global membership Community of leaders and, encouragingly, almost all have digital transformation high on the agenda.

The relationship between digitisation and sustainability is also top of mind for C-suite executives. The pandemic may have been the tipping point for many on ESG(Environment, Social and Governance) issues, but senior teams are now seeing a convergence between digitial innovation and the focus on creating organisations which are sustainable and responding to climate change.  

Digitisation is revolutionising the business landscape, but what does this mean for the capabilities and leadership styles of executives at the top of organisations? One thing is clear, senior executives have had to adapt quickly. Leading innovation and digital transformation requires flexibility, agile thinking and a mindset that is open to learning from others.

Digital capability

Speed of change is forcing a lot to happen all at once. Technology is now integrated across the whole business. It is not a separate function anymore, such as where the responsibility for ‘technology’ was typically siloed.

The question often arises about the need for technology expertise at the top table. Of course, having an experienced CTO or digital evangelist is important, but building a top team which really understands what new technology can do and will bring to the organisation and customers should be the focus. Our Members generally agree that leaders need to empower teams and technology experts across the organisation, as well as playing a key role in how digital transformation is organised and communicated.

Internally, the use of digital solutions to facilitate remote-team management, ensure wellness, and improve productivity is getting to be an increasingly important agenda item. This is not just to do with automation. It’s about the ability to have real-time data which makes a huge difference when employees are going through uncertainty and rapid change.

Leading digital organisations

The past two years have demonstrated what is possible when organisations are forced to make big decisions quickly. Along with more strategic challenges, such as pivoting business models, leaders have had to revisit their softer skills and ask themselves whether they have a leadership style that is fit for the future. Leaders need to be creative and work differently.

When it comes to technology adoption, these new leadership skills are also coming to the fore. Previously considered ‘soft skills’, we’ve seen a lot more focus from leaders on developing their capabilities in this area. Now more than ever, senior executives need the ability to be open, authentic, agile, collaborative and innovative.

Few executives have emerged from the last two years unchanged. It’s clear that some have acclimatised to the new world – and adapted their own styles accordingly – but they are going to be tested harder, their leadership skills will be under greater scrutiny, so they should take time to reflect on their approach.

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Digi Tech

“Technology and Digital – A Double-Edged Sword”!!

Written by Christina Min Shyan Tan on Digilah (Tech Thought Leadership)

Just like any tools, they can be a double-edged sword.

During this Covid period, businesses are affected, ranging from sales, operations, finance to cybersecurity, as most businesses now have to rely more heavily on digital technology.

Christina Min Shyan Tan at her desk doing business

In my business of sales coaching, training and consultancy, Digital and Tech have the following :

The Pros, The Positiveness

Borderless outreach

Now I can work across borders seamlessly, reaching out to global participants and customers via virtual meetings and webinars, compared to my original plans of only focusing the local market for a start.

Through digital networking and connections, I have managed to reach out to more than 10,000 contact points across multiple countries and new industries within months, which would definitely be impossible with traditional approaches.

High productivity

With virtual meetings, travelling time is virtually eliminated. This allows back-to-back meetings for optimal time efficiency in a forever time-scarce fast paced business environment. I have managed to save a few hours of travelling time a day and double my meeting output weekly.

I am also able to attend live and recorded business webinars and e-networking sessions off business hours.

With productivity applications being easily accessible, my virtual work productivity has also increased with tech adoption from my customers’ end too.

Increased marketing avenues

My business has not been spared from the impact of the pandemic. I have been working on improving on my resourcefulness and creativity to use multiple lead generation streams.

I capitalise on eCommerce in my business operations and eMarketing in my business development. These include optimising LinkedIn and other platforms for business growth and collaboration, building strong branding and digital presence, turning eConnections to physical connections for business wins.

Sales cycles have also been largely shortened due to more effective communication, information sharing and social proofs in the digital space.

The Cons, The Challenges

Reduction in social interactions

Digital and tech allow multimedia communication via text, email, phone calls and virtual meetings. The constraints of regulations have also pushed us into increased virtual interactions inevitably, reducing (if not replacing) face-to-face socialising which is critical for business networking.

The human touch and connection have weakened with also increased skill sets required to harness strong customer engagements and relationships.

Fatigue on eyes, mind and body

While the digital and tech space drive higher productivity, it also results in screen fatigue.

In my case, I meet customers, hold webinars and conduct coaching and training sessions virtually. I hold 2-full-day intensive workshops consecutively. These inevitably strain my eyes and cause body aches with limited physical movement and prolonged sitting.

Having to focus on multiple participants and engaging them virtually needs extra effort, although if done well, will still not hamper business outcome.

Distractions

The avalanche of digital information across media and platforms can cause information overload. News, social media, professional articles, virtual events and webinars come streaming in and popping up on screen, thanks to the power of data analytics and artificial intelligence.

With the push of relevant information online, they can also be my source of distractions, enticing me to read them. If I am not disciplined and practise discernment and prioritisation, this may result in time-consuming distractions despite their relevance.

Nevertheless, overall “DIGITAL AND TECH JOURNEY” has enabled me to work better despite some downsides.

Ensure that Digital and Tech is our powerful servant instead of a bad master. Control them instead of letting them run our lives.

May we capitalise on Digital and Tech to grow both our people and business.