B2B / B2G high-tech companies are “engineering companies”. They are therefore generally both spontaneously interested in and comfortable with new technologies in general and information and communication technologies in particular. This is why they have been quick to face up to the challenges of “digital transformation”, if one forgives the use of the word “digital”, which is etymologically incorrect but more common in companies than the term “digital”.
The challenge of the “digital transformation” of B2B / B2G high-tech companies
They have dealt with it:
- At the rate allowed by their financial means
- Depending on the company, in areas where the use of digital technologies was most beneficial or profitable
- Like all companies, not without difficulties in the context of a global “digital transformation” that is still ongoing and presents real cultural and organisational challenges.
B2B / B2G companies are also facing the challenge of digital transformation, in different ways and in different dimensions:
- The first dimension is the use of digital as a tool to improve their internal efficiency and productivity.
- The second dimension is the use of digital as a tool for innovation in their own technologies and products.
- The third dimension is the adoption of certain practices from the world of technology start-ups.
- The fourth dimension, some aspects of which are related to the previous point, is whether or not they use some of the techniques and practices of digital marketing.
Being familiar with technology, high-tech B2B/B2G companies quickly saw the value of digital and communications for their own internal efficiency and productivity:
- Dematerialisation of internal documents
- Travel expense management
- Employee database
- E-mail directories
CAD/CAM were early steps. More recently, collaborative working and distance learning, accelerated by travel restrictions during the Covid 19 epidemic, were rapidly adopted or initiated.
Digital as a tool for innovation in products and offers
The value of digital was also seen very quickly as a tool for innovation in their own products, services and offerings when these were suitable. Much more quickly than in B2C where they appeared timidly because of the unfavourable cost/price ratio, these technologies were then generally adopted very quickly in the B2B/B2G high-tech sector as soon as companies saw an interest in innovating in their own products or services.
Some examples of digital technologies that have been adopted very quickly and sometimes for a long time, as soon as they could be used to innovate:
- Collaborative work still between sometimes distant teams for the design
- IT in general and IT security in particular
- Databases for products and components
- Big Data
- Decision support
- Supercomputers
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning
- Virtual reality
- Internet of Things
- Simulation…
This movement towards digital has been all the stronger as concerns about services and SAAS have increased everywhere, requiring the implementation of more and more service platforms, databases and data processing, and secure data management in the cloud.
The future may be quantum or bio-inspired computers, but any future technology that enables innovation in B2B/B2G high-tech products, services and offerings will be immediately adopted as soon as it is reliable enough.
The contribution of technology start-ups
The practices of technology startups, particularly those in IT, have also been used as a model for high-tech B2B/B2G.
Accustomed to long and sequential product development, test and learn, grow fast, fail fast, MVP (Minimum Viable Products), agile development for example were not part of the basic DNA of established B2B/B2G high-tech companies. Most companies then adopted these practices whenever relevant. This is not always the case, but it has been particularly beneficial in terms of development time for software activities, certain services or products that can support frequent incremental improvements after their market launch.
Digital marketing or webmarketing
The last dimension concerns the use of digital marketing or webmarketing techniques. These techniques were born in the B2C sector, which is a very large consumer, and are transposed with a certain amount of caution to the world of high-tech B2B/B2G, which often looks at tools such as commercial emailing, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), SEM (Search Engine Marketing), SMO (Social Media Optimization), affiliation, display advertising, SMS/MMS, partnerships, competitions, etc., not to mention Metavers, the evolution of adtech and programmatic advertising purchases or brand safety. … not to mention Metavers, the evolution of adtech and programmatic ad buying or “brand safety”.
The caution of high-tech B2B / B2G companies with regard to web marketing
B2B/B2G high-tech companies look at all web marketing techniques with curiosity but also with some caution
There are three reasons for this cautious attitude towards web marketing.
Different markets
First of all, and often rightly so, because the markets are not the same: a market of ten million individual consumers is not the same as a market of ten customers. It is therefore necessary to distinguish between digital marketing techniques that are profitably adaptable from the general public and those that are not.
- Because a large part of the consumer value of its products is image value, the B2C world relies heavily on mass communication transposed to the web. It uses it intensively because it is a question of survival, just as technology is for the high-tech world.
- It follows that certain digital marketing tools and techniques, relevant for B2C communication and promotion, are clearly not relevant in the B2B/B2G high-tech world. For example, it remains to be demonstrated on a case-by-case basis that communicating on Facebook is useful for communicating with only a few customers or on a defensive market. In contrast, the professional network LinkedIn or videos on youtube have proven to be useful tools for a basic but massive level of communication in technology.
Different marketing orientations
Secondly, because the high-tech B2B/B2G world of engineers tends to consider that its marketing must be oriented differently from that of B2C, more strategic than operational, if we put it that way.
The latter is itself seen as having to be more oriented towards targeted promotional actions adapted to the technological world (user groups, demonstrations, major trade shows, etc.) than towards pure communication.
Underestimated communication in the technological world
Finally, this time often wrongly, because the technological world generally underestimates the importance of communication, even if this point is now clearly improving. On the one hand, the success of companies such as Apple in consumer high-tech is a source of concern, and on the other hand, the unfamiliar techniques, the sometimes abstruse vocabulary and the consumer profiles of web marketing specialists inspire distrust.
The fact remains that budgets and staffing levels are not the same as in B2C, which is normal, but they are often still clearly insufficient, as is the number of real specialists. There are therefore still avenues to be explored in this area.
In conclusion
What can we conclude about digital in the technological world?
- It is widely used as a tool for internal efficiency and productivity
- That it is also widely and rapidly used whenever it enables innovation in products, services and offerings.
- That the digital practices of technology startups are profitably transforming some of the previous practices of established companies, particularly but not only in software development,
- That digital marketing practices, now well established and in constant progress in B2C, are progressively diffusing into B2B/B2G high-tech for those that are relevant, but that technology companies should pay more attention and resources to them and better evaluate them, particularly with regard to their communication actions.
