In a landscape saturated with digital solutions, the competitive advantage may not lie in implementing technology, but in knowing how to choose and sustain the right tools.
By Simone Justinio
The problem for companies today is not a lack of technology. It's an excess of it.
There have never been so many solutions available, and at the same time, it has never been so difficult to choose the right ones.
Platforms, tools, clouds, data solutions, artificial intelligence, automation. Every week a new promise of digital transformation emerges. For companies pressured for efficiency and innovation, abundance has become a problem. Amid so many options, making the wrong decision can mean wasted millions in investments, projects that don't scale, and operations that are more complex than before.
It's not uncommon to find companies with dozens of contracted tools, but less than half are actually used to their full capacity or even integrated into the rest of the ecosystem. The result we see in the market is a pattern: the greater the number of solutions, the greater the operational complexity and cost, but the lower the value generation.
It is in this context that a traditional model in the sector begins to exceed its intended purpose: consulting.
For decades, consulting firms have been fundamental in diagnosing problems and recommending technological solutions. But the current environment demands something more. It's not enough to suggest a tool or support an implementation. The real challenge today is navigating an increasingly fragmented, accelerated, and dynamic technological ecosystem.
That's why curation is starting to gain ground, taking on a responsibility that goes beyond recommendation. It means understanding the problem before the technology, selecting solutions with discernment, supporting the choice, and following the complete journey of adoption and evolution of these tools.
In other words, the Curation begins with the customer's pain points, not the technology available on the market.. Instead of starting with the question "which tool should we use?", the questioning shifts to "what problem do we need to solve?". Only then is it possible to identify which platforms truly make sense. The new digital transformation isn't about implementing more technology. It's about making better choices about what truly makes sense.
This mindset completely alters the relationship between companies and technology. Today, many organizations accumulate systems, platforms, and licenses that are the result of decisions made under pressure, influenced by technological hype or the promise of quick gains. The result is a complex, expensive, and difficult-to-sustain digital environment. A real tangle, in which the ultimate goal is to arrive at a solution that is far from being discovered.
Not surprisingly, the complexity of this scenario is also beginning to appear in market statistics. According to Gartner, up to 80% of data governance and analytics initiatives are expected to fail by 2027. This is because many companies still treat technology separately and disconnected from business results.
Curation emerges precisely as a resource to help clarify this scenario. By filtering solutions, monitoring implementations, and supporting the evolution of platforms over time, it reduces risks and creates something that executives increasingly value: predictability in decision-making.
When applied correctly, this approach generates impacts that go beyond technology. It reduces rework, accelerates decisions, and decreases the number of unexpected operational crises. In practice, this means more stability for the business and fewer sleepless nights for leaders responsible for critical systems. It can even lead to career advancement or more time with family, because that solution solves the problems in their area. All this thanks to curation, done by people, by a trained team, by a sharp team – because technology is made of people – who will know exactly that: cure a pain point.
There is also a maturity dimension to this relationship. As companies evolve in their use of specific platforms, the curation work follows this process. This may involve adjustments to the technological architecture, the adoption of new complementary tools, or even anticipating problems before they affect operations.
This movement gains even more relevance as corporate decisions increasingly depend on data and algorithms. Gartner projections indicate that by 2027, half of business decisions could be augmented or automated by AI-based systems, which shows us that it is necessary to ensure the quality and governance of the data that feeds these technologies.
Over time, the customer gains autonomy, improves their response time, and begins to make technological decisions that positively impact the business – and revenue – with greater confidence.
For companies operating in this market, assuming this role also requires a significant shift in positioning. For a long time, much of the technology sector operated behind the scenes of major transformations. Today, those who want to play a leading role need to show that they don't just deliver projects, but rather that they make a difference to the business. This also involves more sophisticated B2B marketing strategies capable of translating technology into concrete value for executives and boards of directors.
Another crucial factor in curation is the constant focus on global innovation. Outside of Brazil, the pace at which new platforms and technological models emerge is accelerated, and many trends that gain traction in other markets take time to reach the radar of Brazilian companies. Curation requires a keen eye and constant vigilance over what is emerging abroad, as well as the discernment to separate real innovation from hype.
In a market where new tools emerge almost daily, perhaps the competitive advantage lies no longer in the ability to implement tools, but rather in curating cutting-edge technologies to deliver maximum value to clients. And that value may lie in something far rarer: the ability to choose well and The ability to sustain these choices over time becomes the true competitive advantage.
Simone Justinio is the Marketing Director of Delfia, curation of digital journeys.
Notice: The opinion presented in this article is the responsibility of its author and not of ABES - Brazilian Association of Software Companies
