Communications Ecosystem and the Coupling Effect
Skype had started off as a small firm somewhere in Europe and in a short span has revolutionized the telecommunications industry. Today it has registered a record 25 million concurrent users. The innovation was disruptive, and it made all voice revenue forecasts of traditional firms look like mere numbers. This type of innovation is now becoming increasingly common in the digital space and it does not include just voice calls, but has rather become a unified system of digital services and new media.
What do these trends mean for the future of business? More so, what does it mean for other businesses and industries? Is it just about the low cost being offered to the corporate customers with a gamut of new features and technologies? How do these corporate customers use the innovations in the communications industry to rebuild their business models and serve their end customers?
The future of business is changing; the startup ecosystem gives us a glaring fact that business models were never more innovative than they are now. Firms have sprouted out of nowhere in all sectors which channelize these innovations in communication to fill white spaces and critical gaps.
To make the argument clearer, I'd like to take the example of healthcare industry. It's not a secret anymore that the United States population has one of the largest percentages of aging people, and that research reports have been shouting out loud about the enormous potential of the healthcare industry to serve this multi million target segment in the US alone. The stakeholder circle becomes very large in this case. The movable medical care is developing fast with the information and the service aptly being supported by the communications industry. Remote service and technology is going to make up the most part of the 50-60 billion dollar medical care in the US. Wireless technologies and products like biosensors are becoming the necessity of the future, with low cost coupled with premium quality of services being the prime differentiator. Doctors and hospitals are increasingly monitoring, diagnosing and curing patients who sit far away on the other side of the globe. There are many economic and social benefits but along with it comes a host of new barriers as well. Vast chunks of data, interoperability issues, technology infrastructure, regulatory policies and information sharing patterns are some of them. This space is being filled up by top outsourcing firms, who set up the platform and design the systems for more seamless integration between communications and healthcare.
As it becomes apparent, innovations in one space hold critical value for all other spaces as well. In this case, communications is rebuilding the business model of the healthcare sector, and these business models are in turn being serviced by technology, outsourcing and consulting firms. The whole circle represents an input from a single industry, processed by multiple firms in multiple industries and the output is value creation for all stakeholders in this chain as well as economic and social benefits for the society at large.
How do these trends in communication help shake up the business of other industries?
Continue reading "Communications Ecosystem and the Coupling Effect" »
