Technology Leaders Stress Ecosystem Impact on Adoption Success

Technology adoption hinges on the effectiveness of ecosystems, according to insights shared by Michael Lewis, Chief Technology Officer at Management Controls. Speaking at the CIO Association of Canada Peer Forum in Ottawa, Lewis reflected on the critical importance of collaborative decision-making among various stakeholders. He emphasized that a single misstep in complex environments can lead to wasted resources and jeopardize the adoption of new technologies.

In his nearly two decades of experience building software for industrial giants and their extensive contractor networks, Lewis outlined how the success of technology extends beyond features. He argued that effective usage requires buy-in from owners, vendors, and front-line users. This alignment is only achievable when Chief Information Officers (CIOs) implement rigorous checkpoints and actively listen for friction before it escalates into failure.

Establishing Effective Checkpoints

Lewis highlighted the necessity of structured feedback mechanisms, even if they slow progress. His team utilizes a quarterly advisory board to mitigate bias and ensure that ideas remain relevant to real-world conditions. He recounted an instance involving a mobile timesheet tool, which appeared robust to internal experts but ultimately failed in customer testing. The advisory board’s decision to reject the tool spared the company from launching a product that would not have performed well in the market.

“The product management team is going and refactoring that idea, right? But without that checkpoint, then we would have spent calories building the solution that wouldn’t have worked well in the market,” Lewis stated. He noted that nearly 40% of his employees had previously worked as customers, making their insights valuable yet potentially misleading if they replaced external validation.

Learning from Failure and Leveraging AI

Lewis openly acknowledged that not all projects succeed. He recounted a costly nine-month evaluation of a reporting tool that was ultimately abandoned when users preferred Power BI over the embedded system. In a candid leadership meeting, he admitted the error, saying, “We’re going to live with this solution for a really long time… unless I come in and tell you guys this and we switch, then we’re going to be living with this pain for years and years and years.”

This experience underscored a vital lesson for CIOs: sunk costs do not justify the continuation of ineffective systems. Lewis leveraged the daily usage of the software by his internal services group as evidence to pivot away from the flawed solution.

Generative AI also played a significant role in enhancing ecosystem design. Lewis described a chatbot that provided vendors with real-time support and allowed authorizers to query contract terms directly, addressing critical gaps in environments where procurement documents were often inaccessible. This tool not only improved accessibility but also minimized friction caused by high turnover rates among contractors.

Initially skeptical about the need for a chatbot, Lewis realized its value when aligned with specific business challenges. “When you understand the business problems you’re trying to solve, it adds a lot more meat to what you’re delivering,” he explained. The chatbot’s effectiveness contributed to the company receiving a CIO 100 award.

Revising Contracting Practices

Lewis and his team also found success in reevaluating traditional contracting practices through the utilization of AI. He discussed a lump-sum project valued at $600,000 for an estimated 10,000 hours of work. Upon reviewing the data, it was revealed that only 4,900 hours had been logged, effectively doubling the hourly rate.

Without concrete evidence, procurement teams struggled to challenge inflated numbers. By employing generative AI to reconcile contract language, workforce data, and market benchmarks, Lewis’s team provided leadership with crucial transparency. “We’ve gone through and figured out that your blended rate should be $61 an hour, not $122.45, and here’s all the by-line item rates that we’re assuming from the market and the skills that we’re mapping,” he explained.

This insight enabled owners to contest inflated rates and assisted vendors in demonstrating compliance with workforce regulations, benefiting both parties during negotiations.

Leadership in Complex Ecosystems

The overarching message from Lewis was clear: the dynamics of ecosystems amplify both risks and rewards. For technology to thrive, multiple groups must be engaged in the process, necessitating CIOs to create mechanisms that identify friction early, embrace failure when it occurs, and ensure that new technologies address actual user challenges.

“When you have an ecosystem-type product where it takes multiple user communities,” Lewis noted, “the importance of these items gets amplified.”

Leaders must recognize that discipline in decision-making is not synonymous with bureaucracy; rather, it serves as a safeguard. Implementing measures such as checkpoints and candid evaluations may slow down processes but ultimately prevent wasted resources and build trust within the system.

As ecosystems increase the stakes of every decision, a feature that suits one group but fails another can lead to systemic breakdowns. Leaders who admit mistakes early on can save their teams years of frustration while reinforcing the principle that evidence should take precedence over ego.

In environments where the cost of failure can escalate rapidly, establishing protections through thorough evaluations and structured feedback is not merely advisable; it is essential for survival.