Use mobile, cloud for flexible IT infra

For companies looking at aggressive growth organically or inorganically, a 3rd platform (mobility, cloud, big data/analytics, social business and related technologies) can provide a flexible IT infrastructure that can be deployed faster, finds an IDC report. While cloud type of application deployment can provide a flexible and robust way of on-boarding new divisions , mobility increases the distribution reach and provides a technology future proofing for sales teams.

The reports says if implemented appropriately, the 3rd platform along with other 'innovation accelerators' such as IoT can help manufacturing companies perform better in two broad buckets - i) internally by enabling faster decisionmaking, collaboration and productivity, ii) externally by introducing new customer facing business models and revenue streams and for overall product strategy by providing a closed loop for product performance from the field.

For commoditised products such as cement and paint where not much product differentiation is possible, the 3rd Platform along with CRM can provide better customer experience and insights for the sales and marketing teams.

Similarly, for automobile, construction and agriculture equipment type of companies, leveraging IoT can lead to foolproof and disruptive business models , such as product-as-a-service where customers need not buy the equipment but pay only for specific hours of usage.