1. Introduction to Digital Platforms
Indo-European Conference on Business Analytics & Digital
Platforms, 15 December 2012
K.B.C. Saxena
Fortune Institute of International Business
New Delhi
December 2012

2. The Platform Concept
• The building blocks that act as a foundation upon
which an array of firms, sometimes called a business
ecosystem, can develop complementary products,
technologies or services.
• Examples:
1. PDAs: Palm, Psion, Newton
2. Multimedia: Adobe/Flash, Google-Apple/HTML5
Introduction to Digital Platforms 2

3. Platform Types
• Product Platforms: Reconfigurable building blocks, like
Cordys’ Business Operating System, that do not involve
innovation by any other party.
• Industry Platforms: (a) Provides a common foundation as
part of a “technology system” whose components come from
different companies often called “complementors”. (b) Has
relatively little value to users without these complementary
products or services. (c) “network effects”, i.e. demand side
economies of scale such that the value to existing consumers
rises as new consumers adopt the platform. They influence
user willingness to pay, user adoption, and thus a platform’s
value.
Introduction to Digital Platforms 3

4. Building a Digitized Platform for
Business Success
• Digitized platform for a business is a coherent set of
standardized business processes along with
supporting infrastructure, applications and data,
intended to ensure the quality and predictability of
core transactions.
• It provides the foundation for doing business in a
digital economy.
• Enterprise architecture provides the blueprint for
the digitized platform, and therefore makes it a
critical business capability.
Introduction to Digital Platforms 4

5. Operating Model
• The necessary level of business process integration
and standardisation for delivering goods and services
to customers.
• Process Integration enables end-to-end processing
and a single face to customer, but it forces a
common understanding of data across diverse
business units.
• Process standardisation creates efficiencies across
business units but limits opportunities to customise
services.
Introduction to Digital Platforms 5

6. Types of Operating Models
Introduction to Digital Platforms 6
Business Process Standardisation
BusinessProcess
Integraation
Low
Low
High
High
Coordination Unification
Diversification Replication

7. Enterprise Architecture
• The organising logic for business processes and IT
infrastructure, reflecting the integration and
standardisation requirements of the company’s
operating model.
• It provides a long-term view of a company’s
processes, systems and technologies so that
individual projects can build capabilities – not just
fulfill immediate needs.
Introduction to Digital Platforms 7

8. Maturity Stages of Architecture
1. Business silos: where companies look to maximise
individual business unit needs or functional needs.
2. Standardised technology: providing IT efficiencies
through technology standardisation and, in most cases,
increased centralisation of technology management.
3. Optimised core: which provides companywide data and
process standardisation as appropriate for the operating
model.
4. Business modularity: where companies manage and
reuse loosely coupled IT-enabled business process
components to preserve global standards while enabling
local standards.
Introduction to Digital Platforms 8

9. Reaching Customers through Digital
Platforms
1. Integrate social media intelligence into traditional customer
insight.
2. Develop an online customer advisory community.
3. Develop an online idea forum or crowdsourcing engine.
4. Mobile engagement.
5. Embed digital experience into the physical space.
6. Develop branded content.
7. Engage customers in a dialogue.
8. Incorporate mobile payment systems.
9. Enhance the second screen experience.
10. Implement new near real-time customer service channels.
Introduction to Digital Platforms 9

10. Reaching Customers through Digital
Platforms
1. Integrate social media intelligence into traditional customer
insight.
2. Develop an online customer advisory community.
3. Develop an online idea forum or crowdsourcing engine.
4. Mobile engagement.
5. Embed digital experience into the physical space.
6. Develop branded content.
7. Engage customers in a dialogue.
8. Incorporate mobile payment systems.
9. Enhance the second screen experience.
10. Implement new near real-time customer service channels.
Introduction to Digital Platforms 9