Moving disruptive techs centre-stage

Here is an interesting move aimed at trying to help businesses from both the vendor and customer communities learn about new, potentially disruptive technologies. It is a very American, indeed Silicon Valley way of doing things, so it might not work elsewhere. But then again, it could be worth the try.

Trace3 Partners , a Silicon Valley company that specialises in reducing complexity within an IT infrastructure, has launched a technology innovation program that brings together Trace3 clients, venture capitalists and technology entrepreneurs in a way that benefits all parties and accelerates successful adoption of disruptive technology in the enterprise.

“This program radically changes the nature of our client relationships by giving them early access to the next game-changing, disruptive technologies and entrepreneurs who may wind up being very successful long term partners”

The program is intended to empower CIOs to transform their business by giving them access to the latest disruptive technology developments in the areas of big data, cloud, virtualisation, security, and converged infrastructure. The company also connects CIOs into the top VC partners and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley to create high level discussions that just might shape how future technology and business strategies are formed.

Trace3 has formed partnerships with VCs such as Greylock Partners and Andreessen Horowitz to aid in the knowledge sharing, research, vetting, and integration of what they collectively see as game-changing solutions. The idea is tohelp CIOs embrace these new ideas to drive strategic growth initiatives and business transformation, rather than just operational efficiency.

There is, of course, a potential downside to such a process, which is that businesses become so bound up with the notion of innovation for innovation’s sake that they start to miss the point of what they are innovating for.

For example, Mike Benson, CIO of Trace3 partner, DIRECTV, is quoted as saying: “At DIRECTV we ask ourselves this question: ‘How do we win the race to innovate when the finish line keeps moving?’

It is possible to infer from this that the real answer is to know when it is appropriate for any business to stop trying to win a race it should not be running for the sake of the race. If the business has used some innovation and started to make a significant margin on the investment, and that further investments lead into an unknown not only for the business itself, but also its customer base, then maybe it has innovated enough for a while.

Benson did point at a tangible upside of the process, however. “Trace3 has given DIRECTV the opportunity to form these VC partnerships that allow us to identify high potential, high risk, growth startup companies that will provide innovation to DIRECTV,” he said.

Asheem Chandna, Investment Partner at Greylock Partners, said, “Trace3 has designed a refreshingly innovative program. The briefings provide a valuable feedback loop for us as investors, while enabling our portfolio companies to gather insights from real users. These insights can help shape product development and ultimately speed the pace of adoption in the marketplace.”

VCs receive feedback from real end users on the technologies in their investment portfolio, and entrepreneurs are able to collect end-user feedback to help further develop, refine and take to market a range of disruptive technologies.