M.I.A. at the OMMA Behavioral conference

I went last week to the OMMA Behavioral conference in San Francisco. The conference was memorable primarily for three things: something vendors didn’t address, something that was only mentioned in passing, and something that happened to my car in the parking garage.

Something vendors didn’t address – ROI M.I.A.

The topic of the ROI of BT was conspicuously missing in action during vendor’s on stage conversations. Most potential corporate customers do not share the tech industries inherent love for the next big thing, especially if the next big thing is expensive, time consuming, hard to use, or simply not one of the things that wake them up at three in the morning. There is a lot of inbred enthusiasm at conferences about the wonders of what we are doing. After all, we are wonderful, so what we are doing must be wonderful! Case closed. Why doesn’t the rest of the world just get it?

Well, one of the main reasons they don’t “get it” or “buy it” is tech companies do a lousy job demonstrating an ROI and focusing on ROI. By not presenting the ROI the customer will receive, BT companies allow price to become more important than ROI. The lack of ROI, complete with specific case study examples, increases the odds that new technology will be placed in the “nice to have/maybe someday when we get around to it after we put out all our never ending fires” category.

Next time: Something that was only mentioned in passing, and something that happened to my car in the parking garage