IT Strategy & Governance: 1- Name two significant barriers to IT conversion that

Question

IT Strategy & Governance:
1- Name two significant barriers to IT conversion that exist and provide real world examples in which each of the barriers were overcome for a project’s success or in which they were not overcome and the projects were impaired or failed as a result.

2- Find a company that you believe or can prove is not delivering IT value successfully. Evaluate which principle(s) you believe they are not following (with references for why you believe that to be the case) and propose how you improve the situation (with actionable specifics).

Explanation / Answer

1. Two significant barriers to IT conversion are:

i) Too Expensive.

ii) Not needed urgently.

i) Too Expensive.

This is the most common reason for lack of conversion. Obviously no one wants to lose money. If people don’t value a product at how much a company is charging for it, they’re going to find it too expensive. Many times people choose an alternative simply because it is cheaper.

There are many ways to combat this. One of the best ways is probably to prove that their product is worth the cost. Show customers that it’s 10 times worth the cost, or 20 times, or even a 100 times.

Let’s take an example from RJ Metrics, an analytics tool for e-commerce sites. Their pricing starts from $750/month and doubles thereafter. That’s a lot of money, especially when there are free alternatives like Google Analytics and Piwik.

So how does RJ Metrics justify the cost to potential customers? They prove to you that using their tool can increase your revenues dramatically. Have a look at the case studies on their site to see how they’ve helped some of their clients.

Using RJ Metrics, a deals site called NoMoreRack managed to do more in sales in the last two months of 2013 than in the entire year of 2012. An extra $100 million in revenue for $750/month? That’s a no-brainer.

ii) Not urgently needed.

Your product may be cheap, it may be simple and it may work very well. Still, people will ask, “Do I really need it right now?”

Let's consider the example of AppSumo. They have an info-product (read, online course) called ‘How To Make a $1,000 a Month Business,’ where they teach you to create a business that makes $1000+ a month in the first month. For AppSumo’s course, this is probably the biggest objection they need to defeat. They target wantrepreneurs, people who are afraid of starting something new. Their prospective buyers are thinking, “Maybe I should get a real job first, or wait till I’ve earned some money before trying my own business.”

Convincing people they need your product right now is tough, especially if your product is available anywhere. The solution to this is to introduce scarcity and time-sensitive deals.

AppSumo convinces people to take action now by saying there are only a certain number of seats left. Do they really have seats? No way, it’s an info-product. It’s not like they made only a 100 copies of it. You make it once and it can be accessed from anywhere by a million different people.

Yet this works. AppSumo actually closes the sign-up for their course because they know that introducing scarcity will urge people to act faster. Get it now or wait till next year to become rich is essentially what they are saying.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse I
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.