Envisioning Technology Platform of the Digital Era

What Is a Technology Platform? Powering Innovation, Scalability & Business Growth

With global organizations investing in technology, innovative ideas were actualized resulting in increased computational power of systems. Businesses across the world leverage it to break the structural limitations of the business applications to monitor, and assess the quality, streamline communication, speed up analysis, and improve the processes. As a result, organizations have increased operational efficiencies, improved customer experiences, and gained better returns on investments. With the advent of new-age technology platforms that are quick to evolve and adapt, legacy solutions are no longer viable to support the new and emerging business needs. 

So, what is a technology platform? There are numerous components and layers of a business application among which the technology platform becomes the very foundation on which all the other layers such as analytics, database, and data management are embedded and built. The underlying platform enhances the application software to speed up business processes. They have come to be widely used for more than a decade but with the cloud making integration and expansion simpler than ever, the capabilities of the technology platforms have risen exponentially. It can easily integrate intelligent tech such as Artificial Intelligence modules, Machine learning capabilities, and the Internet of Things (IoT) making them an essential backbone for all businesses today. 

Why do you need a modern technology platform? 

The modern technology platform allows expansion, provides scalability and offers seamless integration and easy extension all of which help to transform the business and thus usher into the digitalization era which offers a crucial competitive advantage.

Data management and workload management support derived from modern platforms are undeniable to reduce redundancy and manual intervention. Any integrations with process-specific applications (i.e., logistics, tax, payrolls, finance) are simple and with minimal downtime.

A facelift offered by modern UI/UX is the most important factor as users demand simple and easy-to-use interfaces. It also offers real-time interaction with mobile workers and secures all business data from intrusion and threats. But there are other changes to how businesses operate and how they must be transformed to be at a level that prepares them for challenges even before they arise. Let’s look at a few of the changes those businesses are anticipating. 

• Decision-making assisted by insights from analytics 
• Low-code and no-code tools to build applications for professionals and laymen
• Customizable experience to adjust per workforce requirements 
• Simple components that require less maintenance and are easy to develop 
• Latest databases to support ever-increasing data and workloads

Cloud and Technology Platform Amalgamation 

When cloud capabilities are integrated with digitalized and improved technology platforms, they offer a wide range of advantages that businesses seek. A cloud-enabled platform is quick to rise to the business needs and ensure you have the power of off-premise to reallocate your crucial resources and revenue. When the business prepares to reach a wider clientele with more products and comprehensive service offerings, they are bound to receive exponentially growing data hence scalability must be on the go which is exactly what a cloud platform can offer. Your Big Data must be secure and accessible without having to worry about running out of storage.

Hosted and maintained by the vendor, the business owners will have little to no cost of maintenance and can be modified to adjust to the data influx. With highly elastic and performance capabilities, business owners can take full advantage of the platform while securing and ensuring data integrity at all levels and build a solution compliant with local regulations without affecting the processes themselves. 

The ideal components of the technology platform of the digital era 

From business requirements to process-wise efficiencies to user experience, weighing in on various expectations in the emerging marketplace, an ideal technology platform must constitute a few components that can boost operations and provide ease and bring in increased ROI. They are vital in an evolving and ever-growing global technological market landscape. 

User Interface/User Experience (UI/UX) 

Creating a face for the platform, the UI/UX defines how users interact with the system to accomplish their tasks. Therefore, the developers must be wary of how users of the current generation prefer to interact, include required visual cues, adapt the latest design elements, use simple shortcuts, and move to unconventional experience models if required. A personalized and customizable user experience that offers intuitiveness and user-friendliness could prove key to boosting productivity. 

Insights

Business owners want to stay in control of the information and therefore they want to access it in real-time without any hindrances as part of their enterprise application offering. Companies can build the required infrastructure to gather such data but to be able to visualize and interact with it, they will need an advanced system integration or specific module that seamlessly uses all the data points and turn them into insight worthy. 

Business Applications 

The applications lend the system the capability to function spanning across the enterprise or a specific process depending on how the owners choose to implement it. However, with AI/ML and automation capabilities at hand, the way the functions are handled has been redefined. In a nutshell, most organizations prefer their redundant tasks to be handled by bots or systems that can take care of them in the backend and trigger a notification for manual intervention if needed.

However, different applications built to serve the same purpose can be very different based on how they are structured which affects their capabilities in the long run as well as the short run. Software providers who prepare their systems for the challenges of today must factor in the roadblocks that could emerge as needs change. If the system cannot be updated to suit those needs, it will be rendered unfit, especially in a world where the gap between technological generations is shrinking. Businesses are also seeking low code platforms and prefer predictive systems over reactive ones to save time and resources that could be used for more challenging tasks.

Integration 

A well-integrated system offers the freedom to move across multiple modules of systems making the business operations flexible while remaining transparent yet secure as ever. Different industries have varying needs. With the adaptability of modern technology platforms, companies can choose to retain the modules of their choice while disintegrating those that do not support their functions by structuring the ERP as they see fit.

Database 

Data management and its storage have always been important as they retain the entire business knowledge and assets. Traditionally, companies used to have their own data storage locked and maintained internally. However, with the exploding volume of data that we are witnessing today, having a fixed storage that can’t be scaled up or down is no longer feasible. Cloud storage is now financially viable and offers flexibility much-needed for the growing amount of data. Secured data access, improved control over data, well-structured governing policy and other considerations must all be weighed before deciding on what suits the organization best.

Deployment  

The front end of the intended platform must be open to all currently available deployment options. It should be capable of cloud, on-premise, and hybrid hosting to suit the needs of the business. While the cloud is a preferred option thanks to its functionality, customer requirements can vary based on business types and compliance issues. Vendors offering data management often also provide cloud deployment of their resources for programs similar to storing data. This helps you instantly increase your computing capability just as you’d need for storage keeping the deployment stable at all times.  

                                  Fig. 1 – Components pivotal to comprehending the Technology Platform of the Digital-era 

The technology platform of the digital era that we intended to envision here should comprehend the requirements thus far and support them for a single source. If needed, it should also be ready to supersede all of them. Businesses should not have to worry about building, deploying, or managing this platform. A truly modern technology platform would allow absolute independence for the companies who can thereby focus on managing their business-critical activities to strengthen. The technology provider should consider the existing challenges and come up with design elements that can surpass them while also providing the expected benefits.

How did you envision your ideal technology platform? If you need to further understand the components of a technology platform or how their integration will actually benefit you, feel free to reach out to us. We’d be happy to assist you.

About Us  

Exalogic Consulting is a leading SAP partner in the MENA region with extensive experience in assisting organizations with implementing SAP solutions and modules while consulting to understand the business needs and building the necessary architecture and roadmap for implementing solutions that align with client priorities.