Products Or Solutions, Seek Advise To Plan Wise

Are there off-the-shelf products that may be deployed to achieve revenue or inventory cost optimization or should one develop these models in-house?

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Optimization in this day and age invites interest in Technology.  Stakeholders across business look up to their Technology Teams for advise.  Product Or Platform Or Service - questions continue to reel into discussions.  Ownership, Governance, Security, Stability, Commercial Viability . . all aspects must be evaluated before planning a roadmap.  Challenge does not end with answers to these questions.  Organizations operate with differing models.  Models that reflect their taste and reservations in Data and Technology Governance.  While one set of businesses may feel comfortable in leveraging raw transactional data, others tend to live curated information with limited access to raw data.  That brings us to our last leg of "Optimization Challenge" - The Final 100 Meters.

​Concluding on the role of Technology Architectures in our previous viewpoint "Investment In New-age Technology Architecture Prevents A Fall & A Fracture", we delve into the evaluation of Products or Solutions.  Are there ready products that fit any environment and are capable of delivering optimization?  Or should one build these solutions in-house with or without the help of advisors?  Before we discuss these questions in greater detail, let's review the optimization problem and recognize the objective.​

Capability Readiness To Undertake The Revenue Optimization Challenge

Are there available product offerings?  What are their capabilities?

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​Note: Other relevant tools and products exist but we limited our search to most prevalent products.

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Many active players in the market have developed Dynamic Pricing engines that are capable of studying general demand supply factors and then there are others that claim to study the end-customer.  These products are most successful when the problem statement is clearly defined and there are no challenges with availability of data.  Not one product operates in a capacity to match the business acumen or business problem.  Data architecture designs must have the flexibility to deploy these products.  Data cleansing and harmonization are other big questions to resolve.  In essence, the Technology Architecture must be flexible to accommodate off-the-shelf products. 

​Organizations must evaluate their longer term purpose when making this decision to invest in products or solutions.  Often in the act of driving efficiencies, decisions lead to situations that do not serve the business purpose.  Investment of time and effort should be towards the sole objectives of business and not to deviate focus and energies from customer and or business.  Questions that must form part of the evaluation must include:

​1. Is this the primary objective and a key focus of our business and our customers?
​2. Do we need the technology build and the knowledge to reside within the organization?
​3. Do we need the capabilities to be able to deliver optimization challenges in the future?
​4. Do we have the knowledge to put together a transformation roadmap?
​5. Are available products flexible, delivery ready, match our technology stack and capable of replicating our business acumen?​

Why do we need a boutique solution?

With that we reach the end of our four series viewpoint, a 400 meters relay, on dealing with the revenue or cost optimization challenge.  Businesses are disruptive.  Technologies are emerging.  Data is our best friend if we acknowledge and respect.  Investments in a product or a solution will define the future of our business and our customers.  Seek Advise To Plan Wise.