The question I’m often asked is, why should I use Three for Five Technology versus a global system integrator or another large outsourcer? The reason is that we are the number one integration partner. Ultimately, that means we’re specialists, whereas large outsourcers and system integrators, because they cover so much ground, are generalists by nature. Specialists versus generalists—what does that mean? Large outsourcers are built for scale, whereas we are built more for innovation. Depending on what drives you, one or the other might be best for you depending on your needs. Scale forces you to break things down into components, to make everything into a component that can be handed off to a low-skilled, inexpensive person somewhere else in the world who can implement it. If you get that right, you can achieve a lot of scale at a relatively low price. However, some problems don’t work like that. Integration, for example, by its very definition, involves multiple systems interacting. If you have a component-level view, you’re going to miss a lot of things because what you need is systems-level thinking, not component-level thinking.
For some technical challenges, that generalist, scale-focused, componentizing approach doesn’t work. You need systems thinking. If you think too much in components, you’re just thinking about what this component functionally needs to do. But in the real world, you also need to consider the nonfunctional aspects. How do I make things reliable? How do I ensure performance? How do I secure it? How do I make it recover from failure? How do I make it operationally supportable? How do I upgrade something while it’s in use, considering that it runs 24/7 and can’t be taken down? These are the reasons specialists should be your preferred option. Large outsourcers have thousands of clients, and you’re just one of them. They try to provide good service, but they’re fairly dispassionate because you’re one of many—one of thousands. For us, you’re one of tens, so we’re much more invested in you because you’re a more significant part of our business than being one of thousands or tens of thousands. If you’re one of tens of thousands, you get a standardized service.
With us, you get a flexible service tailored more to your needs. So, do you want to go to a restaurant with a good chef, or do you want to go to McDonald’s? The choice is up to you.
