Unlearning is hard to do. Let me explain. Here is what I need you to do. Do whatever you need to do, DO NOT think about Pink Flying Horses. You will now find that the thought of Pink Flying Horses cannot escape your mind and no matter what you do, you just cannot stop thinking of Pink Flying Horses. Similar to this idea, asking you to not think about something is just going to make it more impossible. However for the sake of moving forward, we do need to take a step back from what we know and really, I mean really UNLEARN a few key things about some key technology areas.
Unlearn Personal Computers are the Thing
In case you did not get the memo, personal computing has long gone. Personal computers along with everything else that we saw as a technological revolution in the mid 80's to the late 2000's is old technology. This includes computers, personal computers, workstations, desktop computers, and whatever other terms we have been using so far. Unlearning all of these would be the first step in moving ahead and honing your mind towards a new technological revolution brought in by portable devices. According to Gartner, the PC market declines over 7 percent in October of 2015 as compared to the previous year.
Computing has now moved into a new space with powerful tablets, phablets or whatever you may call them, and it seems like everyone is making a new one every other day. There are easily over 200 types of tablets and portable devices available at an average electronics store that offers them in all flavors, shapes and sizes. Personal computing has been truly been taken over first of all by portable computing devices and there is more change to come. Let's unlearn the idea of personal computing and look more towards devices that are taking the world by a storm and the opportunities they present.
Unlearn Software needs to be Installed
The traditional way of using software has been installing it from an installation CD. Yes, yes also a USB drive or a download link. All of these form the same type of mechanism of installation. An installation Wizard, Accepting the Terms and clicking on until you have the software installed. Do you see anything changed now with our point about Personal computers? Take a minute and think.
With the way our hardware has changed, so has the way in which our software is being consumed. Traditional ways of software consumption have not changed and paved way for applications that can be installed. These are available in many forms such as proprietary stores such as Apple Store, Android Store and more. Software consumption in this new world of portable devices is also not going to stay in the store model, based on my individual analysis but will move to a new consumption based model that offers a lot more flexibility in using the software or solution. The consumption models that are out in te marketplace today and that will drive the industry tomorrow will offer a higher ease of use, more user focused design and of course more value than anything we are doing today. These models will also be used within organizations, enterprises, educational institutions and more where the need to install software will be a though of tomorrow. So let's unlearn the idea of installing a software and think more about provisioning an application through a self-service user driven model.
Unlearn Technology is Licensed
Software licensing is the key behind driving revenues for software companies. For the end user its a way to have access to key tools they need to utilize certain functionality of a software technology. Licensing has been there since the advent of software itself. A great model that has built giants out of companies that started in garages, college dorms and what not. Traditional software licensing (most of the times) worked on a perpetual model basis. You purchased the license for a software, you can use it as long as you can for an unlimited amount of years. Yes there may be limitations about how many machines you can use that specific license on or how many users can use the same license. Having said that, the core tenants would remain the same. Use it FOREVER. This model has served a great purpose until now, but I strongly believe that its time to Unlearn this model of software licensing.
Newer models that are making headway include the subscription model and the real time consumption models. Both of these being non-perpetual, which means you can only use them until you have a valid subscription to the service. Consider salesforce as a model that uses this licensing technology, or for that matter now Microsoft Office 365 which has moved from a traditional CD Installation (Perpetual) model to a newer recurring revenue (Subscription Model). The way the new recurring revenue model is changing the way we do business is by changing the economics of monetization.
Now, recurring revenue every month is making your financial numbers more sense and giving you the power to have more operational funds available, instead of waiting for those sales to happen, as one example. Moving from the perpetual licensing driven model to the new recurring revenue driven models is fundamental in being part of the new technology driven space. Hence unlearning the old and embracing the new licensing model would definitely help move closer to a new way of operating and succeeding in this Cloud driven world.
Unlearning is a hard process, however f you open your mind to newer ideas, it will be much easier to push aside the space the older information is taking and replacing it with new one. It's like stacking a storage closet, and although technology is progressing at the pace at which it is progressing, we should contemplate newer business models to see what suits our needs. Do you have a thought on what else we should unlearn ? Feel free to comment or send me your thoughts.
About Ian Khan: I am the Author of Cloud Wars, The Internet of Things & the Future of Innovation, Make Me Like You, 21 Steps, Get Ahead . I consider myself a Technology & Business enthusiast, deeply passionate about helping people and businesses simplify their understanding of technology and how it can help derive more value for the betterment of humanity. I work with organizations of all sizes, evangelizing technologies such as Cloud Computing, Internet of Things, Business Intelligence and the Internet. Reach out to me to learn more about Cloud computing technologies, IoT and beyond. More than anything else I am a mentor, a business coach and a friend to many people, all of who bring enormous joy to my life. Visit me at www.iankhan.com to learn more