Everything is a Solution, No Such thing as a Point Product

Everything is a solution or there is no such thing as a point product.   Here, I don’t use the term “solution” in marketing spin lingo.  I’m not calling a “white paper” an “e-book”.   The point is that every product fits in to a larger context and it must be designed with that in mind.

Take soap as an example.  Just a bar of soap.  Is that an exception to this rule?  Consider this scenario; a company was formed to create some super organic, environmentally friendly bath soap.  To further differentiate their product the decided to sell it in a nine inch long bars complete with ultra hip packaging.  Sound cool right, a sure winner in certain market segments.   Eco-conscious consumers purchased it, felt good about the buying experience.  Then, they took it home, unwrapped the cool packaging carefully, to recycle of course and brought it into their bath tub and/or shower.  After enjoying the ethereal qualities of the aroma they tried to place it on their tub.  What happened?  They spend many minutes trying to find a place where a nine inch bar would fit.  Guess what?  They couldn't.   The majority of bathrooms in the U.S. are designed for a roughly 4 bar of soap.  How many people bought a second bar? Not many since the nine inch bar didn't fit it the overall system. 

So, if a simple bar of soap fits in to a larger system or solution space consider how a technology product does.   I’ll expand more on this in future post and in my upcoming book on Strategic Technology Marketing.

The Value of the Network is Not Zero!

The cloud vendors have taken over the narrative and created the impression that it's all about the cloud (C) and the end points devices (D).  If there's 100 units of intelligence to allocate, the cloud vendors have made the discussion C + D = 100.  And in their mind, C >> D, meaning most of the intelligence is in the cloud and the devices should be as dumb (and cheap) as possible.  What's missing?

The Network (N) is missing.  With the prevalent narrative N = 0 by definition.

The network equipment vendors have failed to counter this argument and have let the N=0 mentality proliferate.

The proper equation is C + N + D = 100

Without arguing what the absolute values of the variables are, it is clear that N > 0.

For "the cloud" to be successful, the industry has to solve this equation and ensure that N is greater than 0.  A dumb cheap network benefits nobody.