Leadership in Product Development, Technology Strategy and Information ManagementWelcome to Midior
Midior: Industries
 
SOFTWARE & WEB 2.0

Case Study

MIDIOR's roots are in the high technology sector where the landscape is characterized by accelerating product lifecycles and increasingly complex technology and delivery channels. MIDIOR has an extensive track record working with software clients to help them achieve greater return from their investments in technology and new products.

The dynamics of how software vendors interact with their customers and what the customer perceives as a product are undergoing dramatic changes. The traditional model of software licensing, with follow-on releases to add functionality and fix bugs, has given way to a more fluid experience of the product. The traditional GUI (graphical user interface) has given way to a definition of user experience where issues around application deployment play an increasingly important role. If, for example, bandwidth slows performance or a firewall blocks use of the application, a user may perceive the product or service to be deficient. Now, the process for defining the product and gathering user requirements is very different from the previous generations of software.

MIDIOR helps clients master the rules for success in this new world of Web 2.0 and Software as a Service (SaaS) where applications have moved to the Internet and global deployment is a given. Decisions about cost components, service levels, management tools, security, and data integrity take on new dimensions when the lines between product and platform are blurred. Choices about product definition and what you show the customer, as opposed to the underlying technology, take on new importance.

Our experience shows that many software companies that are extremely successful with their first product, have a hard time following up and sustaining that success. The vision that drives the first version of a new product rapidly gets diluted in follow-on releases. And it is often difficult to justify these incremental release efforts when measured on an ROI (return on investment) basis. That is, successful firms experience rapid growth only to get bogged down maintaining last year's product. Inevitably, the next innovative competitor comes along with a different way to do things and the cycle repeats itself.

The questions we hear most often from clients are, "how can we have more successful products without growing the R&D budget? How can we stretch the resources we have maintaining our existing products to support a successful new product initiative? And how can we create a custom experience for our customer without having thousands of product permutations?” With MIDIOR’s tools and frameworks and an unrelenting focus on people and teams, we help our clients change their organizational view to successfully address these issues.

Case Study