bredemarket

Identity Orchestration, Integration, and Vendor Count

If you come from the musical world rather than the technology world, then “orchestration” suggests a collection of instruments, such as the Bucharest Symphony Orchestra (CC BY-SA 4.0 for those keeping score).

But in the technology world, “orchestration” knits different applications together. As far as I’m concerned, the most notable example is identity orchestration, the topic of a recent Biometric Update post by Chris Burt.

Different apps, different identity systems

I won’t go into Chris Burt’s identity orchestration examples from Ping Identity and Strata Identity, but I’d like to delve into a Productiv survey cited by IBM.

“According to one report, the average business department uses 87 different SaaS apps.These apps often have their own identity systems, which might not readily integrate with one another. As a result, many organizations deal with fragmented identity landscapes and awkward user experiences.”

It’s tough enough to get a bunch of different apps to work together. It’s even tougher when each of those apps has its own identity system, which may be incompatible with the identity systems from the other apps.

You can’t get all your SaaS apps from one vendor

How do some SaaS vendors approach the problem?

By telling you to buy a single multi-functional solution from them.

The only problem is that for medium and large organizations, no single vendor can provide ALL the functionality the organization needs.

So you STILL have to stitch things together.

Because identity orchestration, unlike musical orchestration, is not under the direct control of a single conductor.

Mickey Mouse and Leopold Stokowski. From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxNZg1WyeVI.

A (Non-Existent) Stake in the (Existent) Ground

For those who use the term…

What the heck IS a so-called “digital landscape?”

The word “landscape” suggests a physical environment, not a digital environment. Merriam-Webster specifically cites “natural inland scenery,” which even rules out the shoreline, much less a bunch of smartphone apps or SDKs jumbled together.

And how does a DIGITAL landscape evolve, rapidly or otherwise?

Now I’m not suggesting that you AVOID references to the “rapidly evolving digital landscape.” After all, if aspiring influencers and thought leaders use the term, your content needs to sound exactly like theirs. And this applies whether your thought leader is a person or an AI bot. Trust me on this.

Or perhaps you shouldn’t take my advice. Maybe the overuse of hack phrases is NOT a best-of-breed approach.

So why did I write this…

Because a particular respectable vendor began a Facebook post with the words “In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape.”

And it shook me.

Was this a one-time slip up, or are readers EXPECTING companies to talk like this?

(Digital landscape image AI-generated by Google Gemini)

Various 1950s Chevys

Various 1950s Chevys at the Route 66 Cruisin’ Reunion on Saturday, September 21, 2024. The original Instagram reel is here.

And if your Inland Empire business needs help with B2B written content, find out how Bredemarket can drive content results.

Route 66 Cruisin’ Reunion.

Who Is IN With IDEMIA?

Unlike the other rumors over the last few years, this is official.

From IDEMIA:

“IN Groupe and IDEMIA Group have entered into exclusive negotiations regarding the acquisition of IDEMIA Smart Identity, one of the three divisions of IDEMIA Group.”

But discussions are one thing, and government approvals are another. By the way, IN Groupe’s sole shareholder is the French state…

Plus IDEMIA, like Motorola before it, will have to figure out how the, um, bifurcated components will work with each other. After all, IDEMIA Smart Identity is intertwined with the other parts of IDEMIA.

Again, from IDEMIA:

“IDEMIA Smart Identity, a division of IDEMIA Group, is a leader in physical and digital identity solutions. We have fostered longstanding relationships with governments across the globe, based on the shared understanding that a secured legal identity enables citizens to access their fundamental rights in the physical and digital worlds.”

Regardless, this process will take some time.

And what will Advent International eventually do with the other parts of IDEMIA? That will take even more time to figure out.

I Don’t Create Content in a Flash

I don’t create content THAT quickly.

But I do prioritize iterative action.

(Just don’t look at my draft 0.5.)

Original video on Instagram.

Flash!

Doing Case Studies the Wrong Way…and Loving It

One of Bredemarket’s services is case study writing—I wrote a dozen case studies for one client alone.

But what is a case study? Here’s how HubSpot defines the purpose of a case study:

“In marketing, case studies are used as social proof — to provide buyers with the context to determine whether they’re making a good choice.”

In short, case studies are wonderful buyer-facing content.

Normally.

One of my clients needed four case studies…that would NEVER be seen by a potential or actual buyer. They would ONLY be seen by internal staff.

Did I say “you’re doing it wrong”?

Definitely not.

After all, if case studies motivate external audiences, why not use them to motivate internal audiences?

(Suitcase image CC BY 4.0)

Go-to-Market Partners

The next paragraph is inaccurate.

Go-to-market initiatives have ONLY two audiences: the external prospects who are the hungry people (hopefully) wanting the product, and the internal staff in the company who deliver the product.

You know who I forgot? The partners.

Such as the very important partner for MorphoTrak’s Morpho Cloud back in 2015:

“Morpho worked with Microsoft Corporation to develop a cloud service for Morpho’s flagship Biometric Identification Solution (MorphoBIS). Morpho Cloud is hosted on Microsoft Azure Government, the cloud platform with a contractual commitment to support several U.S. government standards for data security, including the FBI’s CJIS Security Policy. Backed by the Microsoft Azure Government platform, Morpho Cloud complies with the stringent security standards for storage, transmission, monitoring, and recovery of digital information.”

When Names Infringe (Biometric Products Coming to America)

Then there was the time I was performing U.S. go-to-market activities for a global identity/biometric offering.

The product marketing launch went great…

…until the home office received a communication from a competitor.

A competitor with a previously existing product with a name VERY similar to that of our subsequently launched solution.

Oops.

We definitely made a mistake by not thoroughly checking the name.

Of course, with the way that some companies want to imitate the things their competitors do, I’m sure some firms perform this intentionally, rather than accidentally.

(McDowell’s 2017 West Hollywood pop-up image from Buzzfeed, https://www.buzzfeed.com/morganshanahan/we-went-to-a-real-life-mcdowells-from-coming-to-america-and)

Too Many Dollar Trees?

Are there/will there be too many Dollar Trees in or near Ontario, California?

This used to be my Alpha Beta, a grocery store chain acquired by Kroger and Albertsons.

Then it became a 99 Cents Only Store. (Actually a 99.99 Cents Only Store, but close enough.) And we know what happened there.

Now this location, on Mountain Avenue near D St. in Ontario, California, is slated to become a Dollar Tree. (Actually a Dollar Twenty Five Tree, but close enough.)

Just like the former 99 Cents Only Store on Euclid near Francis, which has already reopened as a Dollar Tree.

And just like the three Dollar Trees within a two mile radius in Ontario, Upland, and Montclair.

Maybe it’s just me, but I doubt all of them will survive. The dollar store market hasn’t gotten appreciably better.

Mountain and D, Ontario, California.

More on Go-to-Market Tiers

In my post “Seven Essential Product Marketing Strategy and Process Documents, the August 30, 2024 Iteration,” I alluded to the fact that not all go-to-market efforts are the same.

You can’t just slap a few things together in three days and say your go-to-market is complete. You need a plan on how you will go to market, including the different tiers of go-to-market efforts (you won’t spend four months planning materials for your 5.0.11 software release)…

Unless you’re in very unusual circumstances, your go-to-market efforts will encompass variable efforts.

Two tier

In its simplest form, you will have two tiers. For example, Holly Watson of Amazon Web Services distinguishes between “launches” and “releases.”

Release to me relates to the update of an existing product vs. a net-new addition to a solution offering. It’s common to have multiple releases a quarter vs. large launches 1-2x per year.

Three tier

You can get fancier.

Stepped pyramids in Teotihuacan, Mexico. By Juan Carlos Fonseca Mata – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=91032399.

My former product marketing team devised a three-tier system, in which the top tier encompassed a full-blown effort and the bottom tier just had some release notes, a bit of internal education, and maybe a blog post.

Defined tiers

But as I said on August 30, you need to define the tiers beforehand. Don’t just shoot from the lip and say you want a blog post, a press release, and a brochure…oh, and maybe a cool infographic! Yeah!

Establish your tiers.

Establish the content for each tier.

Execute.

And repeat.