Are you buying software soon?
IS IT TIME TO Ask different questions before you buy?
We’re very good at asking:
How much does it cost?
What features does it have?
Will it save me time?
Can it integrate with what I’m already using?
Those are sensible questions but perhaps we should also be asking:
Who owns the data I put into it?
Can I export that data in a useful format?
Can I move somewhere else?
What would moving actually cost me?
Am I building an audience I can contact independently?
What happens if the price doubles?
What happens if a feature I depend upon disappears?
What happens if the company is sold?
Which assets belong to my business and which exist only because this platform currently allows me access to them?
Those aren’t technical questions. They’re business-continuity questions.
Portability matters
As technical and digital instances get older and larger I’m becoming increasingly interested in portability and interoperability. These are questions I would also be asking:
Can my information move?
Can different systems work together?
Can I change supplier without rebuilding everything?
Can I export my audience, content, records or knowledge in a form another system can actually use?
Research into digital markets suggests these things matter because switching costs affect competition. When customers can move more easily, suppliers have a stronger incentive to keep earning their business.
That’s important because good digital markets shouldn’t depend entirely on businesses choosing the perfect supplier first time. They should make it possible to change your mind.
This is going to matter even more with AI
We’re entering another enormous period of experimentation.
New applications are appearing constantly.
Some are traditional software products, others are essentially interfaces built around AI models.
Some will become extraordinary businesses, others will disappear.
Today’s businesses are currently making decisions about which of these tools to weave into their operations. I don’t think the answer is to wait. Early adoption can create enormous advantages but early adoption and blind dependency are not the same thing.
My Advice is
Experiment
Use the tools
Learn what’s possible
Pay attention to where the value you’re creating is accumulating
Better buyers create better markets
This is the bit I think gets overlooked. We spend enormous amounts of time talking about better technology.
If our only purchasing criteria are convenience and today’s monthly price, suppliers will optimise for convenience and today’s monthly price. If buyers increasingly demand portability, ownership, transparency, interoperability, accessibility and sensible exit routes, those things become commercially valuable.
Until we become better buyers of technology, I’m not convinced we’ll consistently get better technology to buy.
In the meantime I’m going to suggest something much simpler. Be careful where you plant your business seeds.
Use other people’s land when it makes sense.
Benefit from the passing traffic.
Use their tools.
Grow things.
Just make sure you understand the arrangement and wherever possible, keep enough seeds somewhere you control to be able to plant again.