Sitting at a stoplight this weekend, I was one lane over from a K Car. I’d say that the K Car had seen its better days, but I’m not sure that any K Car had better days, even new.
Seeing that piece of machinery from a bygone era made me think about how the American automakers completely missed the dawn of a new era. I’m not exactly going out on a limb by stating that those decisions have come to haunt the American auto industry.
It’s easy with hindsight to wonder how the American auto industry could miss such obvious signs that the smaller, more efficient and more reliable Japanese cars represented a strategic threat. But, I’m sure that the automakers had board meetings where it was pointed out that they enjoyed higher profit margins on bigger, less reliable cars – or something like that. So, that’s what they kept making.
So my question is, aren’t we at a point in the technology industry where the behemoth ERP, database, and systems integration providers are continuing to offer overpriced, unreliable systems even though this isn’t in the best interests of their customers?
Isn’t it clear that a cloud-based application like TrackVia, that doesn’t require you to purchase hardware, and that doesn’t require you to pay consultants to implement, is the future?
