All the pieces are in place this tme, and customers are getting more discerning.
This time around for cloud computing is the charm, as businesses are adopting the cloud in droves. Providers of cloud computing services need to understand their customers and markets better to compete effectively.
My first experience with cloud computing was back in 1997 when I joined a company called Interliant. Offering a hosted version of Lotus Notes and Domino server starting with R4, we solved problems like mobile connectivity to Notes mail, the routing of Internet mail, and server administration. The company published the first catalog of hosted applications in June of 1999 with appsonline.com. At the time, little marketing research was needed to determine the needs of the marketplace; business people needed to be connected to their email when they traveled, and administering Lotus Notes was a task that required specialized expertise and skill sets that spawned user groups in most metro areas in the US.
In the intervening 17 years, cloud computing has grown in fits and starts. Frequently limited by connection bandwidth, the lack of browser standardization and cost, companies small and large have struggled with the cost benefit equation in considering cloud based computing options (including storage, collaboration and mobile applications). This time around, the pieces seem to all be in place, and the companies lining up to deliver these services are multiplying.
Expectations are increasing as quickly as the number of competitors
Business customers will now have to decide which cloud computing services are best for them, and they will be looking for benefits that are are more specific than the typical benefits associated with outsourcing (savings on internal IT resources, increased data safety, etc.). Today businesses want to know why and how a particular cloud computing option is best for their business compared to others. This will require effective primary research to query business decision makers on what they perceive to be the most important benefits they can receive from storage and collaboration solutions, as well as specific application services.
Consider 10 years ago when Salesforce.com had only 5 years of tenure, and consumers had precious few options to consider. Moving from client-server based models and home grown applications was a challenge based on limited customization options and fear of the unknown. Now, considering a CRM tool is as much about which industry you are in and how you would like to automate your marketing as it is about a place to put customer records. To win in these engagements, cloud computing providers need proof of their superiority, and nothing speaks louder than independent research.
Decisions are based on more than just published satisfaction metrics.
Choosing a cloud computing provider is not only about satisfaction levels. While satisfaction with a cloud computing service provider is important, potential customers also want to know why any given platform or solution is better for them specifically, and how it is saving their clients money, or increasing their revenue, profit and or market share. Understanding these specifics from the cloud computing company's customer base is the mission of primary marketing research.
Cloud computing companies can benefit from several types of primary research:
- Needs based segmentation research: determining groups of customers who have similar needs and share simiar attitudes regarding the benefits they perceive available through cloud computing solutions.
- Messaging and positioning market research: the testing of narratives which will optimize further exploration of a company's services by potential customers.
- Voice of the customer market research: Communication of specific iterative needs as asll as determining customer loyalty metrics and their drivers
- Service design market research: the use of choice-based trade off methods such as conjoint methodologies to enable service design
Companies using Cloud Computing are Setting the Pace
According to a study of 802 enterprises by IBM conducted earlier this year, researchers at the IBM Center for Applied Insights found that those adopters of cloud computing made better decisions, and were 170% more likely to use the nalytics available through these platforms to better understand their envir
onments. Strategic reinvention was also mentioned in the research, with these users of cloud-based services being 136% more likely to use cloud-enabled services to reinvent their relationships with their customers. In addition, users of cloud enabled services were 79% more likely to tap into and leverage expertise available to them in their environments.
Creating a reproducable method for higher levels of market and target audience intimacy will not only yield higher lead volumes, but it will also increase lead conversion rates, increase customer loyalty and minimize margin erosion that comes with increased competition and better informed customers.
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