Commoditisation of ICT erodes possible competitive advantages and leads to fiercer competition. But what can the ICT industry do to combat this?

Speaking at a recent AIIA workshop on ICT commoditisation hosted by AIIA’s NSW Committee, Anni Rowland-Campbell (Convenor of AIIA’s Top 100 special interest group and Marketing Manager Business Development for Fuji Xerox) said that commoditisation was a horizontal markets issue that cut across all markets and technologies.

As forecasts suggest that commoditisation will continue to impact the high-technology industry, with low-cost, high capacity drives defining the competitive battleground, the ICT industry needs to find ways to reduce the price erosion and economies of scale that result.

“AIIA represents companies that are manufacturing technology,” she says. “The reality is that, as technology becomes a commodity, companies get in a cycle where they must continually invest in that technology to put more ‘bells and whistles’ on it,” Rowland-Campbell explains.

“But the ICT industry is also focused on developing services – which also become a commodity, because the customer begins to expects a certain level of service.

"Furthermore, commoditisation is also being applied to the tendering process. For instance, ICT companies must submit tenders for government contracts via the Internet. How do you sell customisation when you have to complete online forms?” Rowland-Campbell asks. “Commoditisation is ‘judging the box’ rather than what’s gone in to the box.”

So what’s the antidote to commoditisation?

“Customisation is the way of the future,” Rowland-Campbell says. “ICT companies must understand the customers’ needs and expectations and alter their products and services accordingly. Technology companies are already doing this. Our customers are saying ‘I want you to build something just for me’.”

Anni Rowland-Campbell will be just one of the speakers at AIIA’s Marketing Forum in Sydney on Friday, 16 September, and will focus on the power of customisation in marketing.

“The traditional marketing ‘push’ is moving towards customer ‘pull’,” she says, arguing that the traditional manufacturing attitude of ‘make it, then flog it’ is a thing of the past.

“What we are now seeing, in our increasingly digital world, is an end-user with access to more information than ever before. At the same time, end users are totally overwhelmed by the amount of communication they receive, so they are putting up boundaries.

“Customers are saying ‘no, I’ll choose how you may interact with me’ – and the end result is a marketing model that is no longer effective.”

How can ICT companies get the end user to ‘opt in’?

“It all comes down to customisation,” Rowland-Campbell says. “Customers are telling us ‘I will opt in if you give me something that is tailored to my needs’. Those providers best able to meet those needs – whether they are supplying cars or government – will be the ones who start winning.”

If you missed AIIA’s Commoditisation Workshop, don’t miss the next Marketing Forum, where NICTA’s Communications Manager, Clare Gill and Microsoft Australia’s Manager of Corporate Communications, Samantha Herron will join Anni Rowland-Campbell. All three experienced speakers will be looking at how ICT companies can cut through the clutter to get their message heard in the marketplace.

Click here to reserve your place at AIIA’s next Marketing Forum in Sydney on 16 September.