A common mistake here is use of the word “platform.” People in tech say it so much that they think they have one just because they said it, but it often is improperly used as a synonym for “system” or “application.” A true platform offers APIs that allow customers to build something new of their own on top of it. Android is a platform. Alibaba is a platform. AWS is a platform. Salesforce is a platform. Your mission-critical system might be important to your customers, and wonderful, but if people can’t make new applications of their own on top of your system without talking to you, it’s not a
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