Don’t Let Legacy Technology Be Your Legacy

Estimated read time: 3–4 mins

The Cutting (and in some cases Bleeding) Edge Needs To Become The New Status Quo

There was a time, and for a very long time, in fact for far too long of a time, you could bank your career on choosing the safe choice [insert status quo legacy technology provider here], and keep progressing, or at the very least, keep your job.

Now, the risk is playing it too safe, clinging to the lone hope that your dated legacy systems will bring you to a false promised land.

“Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is practical.” Howard Schultz, Starbucks

Adapting to change, being nimble and obsessively figuring out how to delight an increasingly technology-crazed customer and employee base is how high-growth, coveted brands think of normal.

The Proof Is In, Well…Really Successful Companies That Take Big Chances

You don’t have to look far to find one of the best stories; one of incredible success, increasing market share and powerful customer loyalty than Amazon. You can read more on that here: Behind Amazon’s success is an extreme tolerance for failure.

Amazon makes a good reference point, because for one, it’s so well known, and two, it topped Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies 2017 list “because it has continued to be nimble even as it has achieved enviable scale.”

Sales have reached over $100 billion, and that was back in 2015, while the stock is up more than 300% over the past five years.

Fast Company highlights three initiatives that drive Amazon today:

1. Prime, the company’s rapidly proliferating $99-per-year membership program, where members spend an average 4x more per year than non-members
2. A move into the physical world with brick-and-mortar stores, something the company has long resisted
3. A restless rethinking of logistics, epitomized by a new fulfillment center an hour outside Seattle that features high-tech robots working alongside human workers like a factory of the future

“Our mobile-first, on-demand world finds its roots in Amazon’s founding idea: that digital commerce will radically reshape our marketplace.” Fast Company

Easier said than executed, but for large enterprise brands, there is a repeatable blueprint that can be interwoven into your own business DNA:

• Build an “exclusive” club that rewards loyalty
• As the lines between physical and digital become further blurred, set your brand up for multi-channel capabilities through technology that supports it now and is adaptable to what’s coming next
• Never rest or stop improving the logistics behind the scenes that reduce the friction points for your customers and employees, while marrying the powerful partnership of humans working alongside bots

Keeping it simple

Building out your tech stack alone is reserved for just a few, so choosing a partner that understands where the future is heading, how to bridge to that future now and implement at scale quickly without disrupting operations becomes crucial.

At a recent Peer Exchange conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, Tom Scott, Managing Director for Customer Service Group of Sky, laid out the WIN, WIN, WIN results of embracing change management (which admittedly can be scary) in the journey to “believe in better,” which I find fitting to close with when evaluating investments in tech:

“The era of ‘voice is king’ is over. Consumers dropped phone calls for messaging in their personal lives, so we’re doing the same in care.” Tom Scott, Managing Director, Customer Service Group

1. WIN for customers by providing a channel they prefer to communicate with your brand in
2. WIN for the brand by deflecting expensive costs of analog to digital
3. WIN for their customer care agents by giving them an enhanced work environment to excel in

I sit on the Enterprise team with award-winning global messaging and bots platform, LivePerson (NASDAQ: LPSN). I work strategically with large enterprise brands to implement a best-of-breed technology stack that will transform the customer care conversation from analog phone calls to digital messaging, leveraging bots, AI and a proven operational blueprint. Follow me on Twitter @BrandonTechExec and read more about LivePerson news here.