First things first, what’s the hype about the Hype Cycle?
Let’s pause and think for a moment about e-commerce. It’s a continuously expanding area, in terms of infrastructure, compliance, buyer preferences, purchasing behavior as well as engagement throughout the product/ service lifecycle. Organizations across industries, sizes and geographies employ e-commerce as a key way (for some, the only way) to drive revenue growth.
So the pressure on both technology vendors and end-users around embracing new technology is quite high. Whoever owns e-commerce in your organization needs to think about the next thing to consider, try and adopt – this is where a hype cycle comes handy.
The Hype Cycle is basically an analysis of emerging new technologies –their evolution, how they gain acceptance from early adopters, progress through various ups and downs before gaining mass adoption.
According to Gartner themselves, Hype Cycles provide a graphic representation of the maturity and adoption of technologies and applications, and how they are potentially relevant to solving real business problems and exploiting new opportunities. They basically answer questions like: what’s new and hot out there, what can help solve my problem, what can help me do A, Y, Z faster, with less resources, etc.
Gartner continues to explain how hype cycles help buyers @ end-user companies:
- Separate hype from the real drivers of a technology’s commercial promise
- Reduce the risk of technology investment decisions
- Compare their understanding of a technology’s business value with the objectivity of experienced IT analysts
Who’s on the rise?
Gartner considers as “on the rise” technologies and applications such as Augmented Reality (Metaio is an example of vendor to consider in the area), Web Real-Time Communications (with transformational impact) or Subscription Management for E-Commerce, an emerging technology where Avangate is also mentioned.
With subscriptions management a hot area today, Gartner looks at its business impact (build vs. buy), taking into account criteria such as go to market speed, range of subscription management capabilities, resources, ability to focus on core competencies, business model.
Subscription management on its own is clearly not enough. Organizations need to go beyond just subscriptions and look at integrations with other systems, starting with ERPs, CRMs etc.
What’s your take on subscription management? Do you see it as an emerging area? Something you’re considering for taking your digital products to market, whether B2B or B2C?
