Michael Johnson was once called the fastest man in the world. The track superstar had an unorthodox style of running with a stiff upright position accompanied by short strides, unlike other runners who ran with their bodies bent forward accompanied by long strides. It’s a unique running style which led to Johnson winning four Olympic gold medals and eight gold medals at the World Championships including setting a world record time of 43.18 secs for the 400 metres in 1999. His world record would stand for 17 years till the Rio Olympics.
The high jump sport witnessed a new phenomenon at the 1968 Mexico Olympics. An unknown name in high jump, “Dick Fosbury” participated in the event. As he approached the bar, instead of raising his legs to jump over the bar, he turned his back to the bar, performed a back flip, then curved and leaped backwards over the bar. He went on to win the gold medal at the event and his innovative leaping style was given the name “Fosbury Flop”. This style is adopted by almost all high jumpers today.
Johnson and Fosbury did not change the rules of the game. But they became game changers by thinking differently, introducing a new style and paved the way for other athletes to adopt their style to excel.
In the Hitech world, Gartner introduced the bimodal concept in 2014, which has made enterprises to think differently and have a new strategical approach. The bimodal IT concept encourages enterprises to run two separate modes of IT delivery simultaneously to answer the proliferating challenges of IT and digital transformation.
- Mode one is traditional IT that focuses on efficiency, stability, safety and accuracy
- Mode two is new age IT that focuses on innovation, speed and agility to drive business transformation
Almost all new age products are on mobile platforms. Gartner’s CIO report 2016 revealed that “40 percent of enterprises have already put bimodal IT into practice, with the remainder planning to introduce it within the next three years”.
Just like IT, the world of outsourced tech support also is changing. There are companies that still buy traditional tech support and there are firms that are transitioning to new age tech support. Tech support will have to move towards “Bimodal tech support” to handle this market and buyer mix. Enterprise leaders will have to contain support costs, while ensuring that they maintain an optimum mix of both traditional and new age product support. Only a right mix will ensure that the product will be a success or failure.
Companies are looking for new age tech support on mobile and self-help channels. Some enterprises are opting for a cloud based tech support platform to support their customers. The new age customers are more comfortable getting on online chat and using social or self-help portals. Automation and analytics will play a crucial role in serving the customers and they are the key drivers for bimodal tech support.
The motto of the tech support game is always to support the customer. And to be a game changer in the tech support game, bimodal tech support is the answer.
What is your tech support game plan?
