Here's how you can outpace the competition in the ever-changing IT services market.

High efficiency. Consistent execution. Few mistakes. Virtues of a well-run service organization, right? These strengths can be hidden barriers to change. Embracing change often means developing more adaptability, experimentation, and learning. A good place to start is selecting the sweet spot between efficiency and adaptability that supports your competitive strategy. Then, identify the biggest opportunities or gaps, and enlist internal champions to help move the organization toward the sweet spot. Exercise caution in turning to your current stars of consistency to be your champions of change. Few people are excellent at both. Be sure to adjust performance measures, incentives, and work structures to support your new sweet spot.

Um aufkommende Technologien frühzeitig zu erkennen und strategisch darauf zu reagieren, kann die Anwendung eines Technologieradars hilfreich sein. Bei diesem Werkzeug werden in einer grafischen Darstellung Technologien erfasst, die strategische Bedeutung für das Unternehmen haben. Indem zusätzlich Bewertungskriterien integriert werden, kann es eine gute Grundlage für einen strategischen Umgang mit der relevanten Technologielandschaft bilden. Bewertungskritieren können dabei z.B. die Geschäftsrelevanz, der Technologie-Reifegrad oder die Adaptierbarkeit sein. Zudem fördert ein unternehmensweit etabliertes Technologieradar eine Kultur, die offen für Veränderungen und Innovationen ist.

Change, especially in IT, is a constant occurrence, and the allure of the latest gadgets is probably one of the reasons many people are drawn to the industry. However, the frequency of change in IT can actually be a distraction. Absolutely keep your eye on what’s happening in the industry and take note of what your customers are looking for, but make no mistake, customers want experts in their field. This might mean you need to double down and specialize in what you do, which could involve embracing the incremental changes that occur within that product. Even if that isn't quite as exciting as the newest product on the block.

Having a unique market perspective is a powerful competitive edge. Frist, it provides insight and foresight into opportunities and threats—potential triggers for adapting your firm’s services. Second, it helps your firm position itself with expertise in your clients’ field—earning trust as a strategic partner. At the heart of knowing your market is defining your “ideal customer” profiles— target customer groups organized by industry, size, geography, tech stack, and other useful attributes. Dig into the specific needs and challenges shared by customers within each of the groups. Then combine what you learn from each group with what you see externally in the marketplace to form your unique market perspective.

IT exists to provide a service. You absolutely need to understand what your product is offering to its user base and why they need it. Many customers only use a tiny fraction of the service that they purchase, and many people who support this also only understand a fraction of the software’s capabilities. The more you understand what is possible, the more you can educate your customer - which in turn opens up opportunities…

When optimizing operations, one simple—but difficult—factor provides a huge competitive advantage. There are well-established tools and techniques for streamlining operations. What most organizations miss is anchoring optimization to the customer perspective. A central tendency of optimization efforts is *local* optimization. The result is tasks or workflows that appear efficient in isolation but add friction to the customer and cost to the organization. Instead, optimize for customer value creation. Start with the customer perspective and work inward, treating friction like a cost. While it takes time to develop excellence in this approach, practicing it improves the pace at which an organization can bring new value to the market.

Automating a process is essential not only for making your business more efficient, but it also means you can scale more easily and become more profitable. Furthermore, if you understand how to optimize and streamline a process internally, it’s possible that you can offer this knowledge, skill, or service to your clients…

In einem unserer Projekte hatte ein Kollege die Idee, maschinelles Lernen zu nutzen, um den Kundensupport unseres Klienten zu verbessern. Obwohl es zunächst wie ein ambitioniertes Vorhaben klang, da wir zu dem Zeitpunkt noch wenig Know-how in dem Bereich hatten, unterstützten wir die Idee und investierten in die Forschung. Nach einigen Monaten intensiver Arbeit entwickelte unser Team ein System, das Kundenanfragen automatisch analysiert und Lösungsvorschläge generiert. Mittlerweile konnten wir in mehreren Projekten auf diesem Wissen aufbauen und unseren Kunden damit Nutzen stiften. Um über diesen Weg Innovationen hervorbringen zu können, muss allerdings eine entsprechende Kultur bestehen, die Experimente und Kreativität fördert.

No IT service provider will be able to do everything, and those that claim they can will likely fall short in some areas. Partnering with experts in their field can help IT providers offer additional services to their customers. This can not only be profitable for the providers but also position them as a key resource for their customers. For instance, if your IT services specialize in support and security around Microsoft 365, why not partner with a SharePoint or Power Platform developer who can help your customers leverage those services