As IT commoditises and the distinctions between software and services continue to blur, what distinguishes the next generation IT firm is design: specifically, user experience design.

Cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) crucially relies on a low-touch sell, where economics do not allow the luxury of the high-touch sell of its predecessor of high-margin IT services and custom or packaged applications software for on-premise computing.

In a low-touch sell, SaaS (and mobile) apps must be intuitive and instantly appealing. With the annual subscription and pay-as-you-go pricing models in the cloud, user adoption becomes crucial to converting and retaining customers with the low-touch sell. This is wholly dependent upon user experience design, in the quest for achieving sufficient levels of user adoption and renewals with SaaS and mobile apps. 

Design-led IT moves the model for outsourcing IT and software development from a Do It Cheaper to a Do It Better approach, where the thinking must shift from the logic of the left-sided brain to the creativity of the right-sided brain.

This means that next generation IT firms providing outsourcing services to create SaaS and mobile apps in the cloud must think act more like a Web designer - and less like a traditional tech architect or software developer.    

What matters to a SaaS player is a low-touch sell and a high percentage of renewals for annual subscription or pay-as-you-go fees. This can only be accomplished if user adoption is high - which is totally dependent upon applying a design-led approach to creating SaaS and mobile apps. 

As we commoditise and consumerise IT and the Web, every player - both providers and consumers of technology - must counter this pressure by becoming a Polymath - a Greek word, meaning being good at many things. 

Placing design at the centre of creating SaaS and mobile apps means that next generation IT services firm must introduce new skills into the mix. 

As Vinnie Mirchandani, the author of the The New Polymath argues, tech innovators must become good at many things. A Polymath in the creative and tech industries must broaden its core competencies and create a higher value added from a fusion of these new skills.