What is your digital ecosystem ambition?
Born out of the digital era,
the modern customer demands a personalized experience,
continuous innovation,
a seamlessly integrated customer journey
and digitally connected products to meet daily needs.
Evolving in parallel have been traditional business models
and partnerships,
from rigid value chains to a network of partners
and contributors.
Customer expectations of digital technologies
have proven to be the catalyst,
driving companies to partner across different industries
and regions in order to build new products and services,
forming what we refer to as a digital ecosystem.
In essence, everything is becoming smart,
from homes and phones to factories and supply chains.
Ambitious organizations need to understand
how digital ecosystems are impacting their industry
and if they are prepared to participate
to gain a competitive advantage.
Let's look at partnerships in the automotive industry.
An automaker who traditionally had only a few partners
through a joint venture,
today has a fluid network of alliances,
collaborations and joint ventures
with as many as 40 or more partners
across many different industries and countries
to provide connected cars.
Within these ecosystems,
there are three different roles with distinct objectives
that a participant could occupy;
orchestrator, partner or contributor.
The orchestrator is the primary customer contact point,
integrating the product and services
to fulfill the customer's need.
A partner within the ecosystem
will provide part of the integrated offering.
Many companies will occupy the partner role
offering their services through digital ecosystems
that others orchestrate.
A typical contributor provides solutions
that can be scaled across different ecosystems
and easily be integrated by orchestrators and partners.
Finally, it's important to note
that any role an organization has in one digital ecosystem
may be different in another.
For example, an insurance company can act as a contributor
in one digital ecosystem but orchestrate another.