How The Ignorance Of Netizens Keep Some Organizations In Business

As a result of software development, I have come to realize that the competitive advantage of a lot of businesses lies in the ignorance of the client regarding other alternatives. It's literally everywhere, the fact that clients don't invest time to look for a better way or a better solution is the reason why some solutions are still in use.

A COMMON WORK PROBLEM AND AN OBVIOUS SOLUTION

I'll give a personal story, I was at a training program once and one of the biggest issues was how to record the screen of the facilitator such that we can follow along with the code he was writing in the event that we miss or forget a couple of steps after the program. We tried several options and the output was unsavoury, we considered paying much more for other solutions just to get that thing to work. Fast-forward to a couple of weeks ago and I needed to record my screen, and I was faced with the unconquered problem of the past. I tried browser extensions but they weren't giving me what I wanted, then a better solution hit me. I suddenly realized that I can use Zoom to set up a meeting (with only me in attendance), share my screen, and record the zoom meeting. It worked perfectly and it was free.

THE PROBLEM WITH PERCEPTION

Another example is how a lot of people still download pdf or document readers when their browsers already have these features, I realized that the reason why netizens still go through all these is because of the issue of niche, marketing, and advertising. Zoom was created and is marketed as a video conferencing tool as such the typical client doesn't look to zoom for screen recording solutions. Browsers were created and marketed to enable people to access the internet easily, as such people don't think to read documents with browsers. The kind of niche a product belongs to, coupled with the way it's marketed can shape public perception about that product, so much so that clients are unable to use the secondary features of that product to solve their problems.

ISSUES AROUND BUSINESS ENCROACHMENT

Lastly, it's quite easy for software solutions to encroach on the market of other businesses, and from the examples above you see why. Zoom was created to help groups of people communicate in real-time but they figured that sometimes, people like to share what is on their screen in order to present, they also know people like to record meetings for documentation purposes and inadvertently created an efficient screen recorder. Browsers are used to download a lot of things on the internet and sometimes it helps to be able to browse through the content of what you downloaded to know if you got exactly what you wanted. They inadvertently created very efficient audio and video players as well as document readers.

THE FLUIDITY OF SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS

Understanding the fluidity of solutions can greatly help in utilizing software solutions, and influencing discussions on what we perceive the competitive tech space to be. An organization that is dominant in one field will most likely dominate other fields with that product. One can't blame Zoom for dominating the screen recording market (if they decide to advertise that feature) because Zoom wasn't created primarily as a screen recorder.