Transform to Connected
Bridge the gap between business and IT
This is probably the single most important advice we can offer. If the organization doesn't get this right, then it is bound to produce expensive, dysfunctional IT solutions.
We believe that the first step is to establish a common language one that is based on how the business describes itself and its needs. The communication between business and IT should be in the language of business. It is then the responsibility of IT to understand and translate that communication into a language IT understands.
When the business is able to express their needs in a way they understand, the business development process becomes faster and more accurate.
Make the IT systems independent of each other
Integration between systems has traditionally meant that they are tightly coupled, i.e. dependent on each other. If we want to modify, upgrade or replace one of them, we often need to modify any integrations. The result is that the total IT landscape becomes more rigid.
One of the objectives of the Connected maturity level is to open up the systems and make their data and functionality available to other applications. This means a large increase in connections between IT systems. In the worst case there may be many dependencies with a risk of a completely cemented IT landscape where change is no longer possible.
To keep the organization agile, we must make sure that the IT systems are loosely coupled, i.e. completely independent of each other. We can't continue to use traditional integration methods. We must use integration patterns that open up the systems without making the systems dependent of each other.
With loosely coupled IT systems, the IT department is free to modify, replace or upgrade the IT systems without affecting any other business systems.
Provide the data and functionality in a unified digital platform
When it is time for a system to open up and provide its data and functionality, the digital platform will be the common access point. All systems accessed through the unified digital platform will use the same format, the same authentication methods, the same logging mechanism, etc.
For any client that wants to access information, the process should be easy and the client should be completely ignorant about which IT system actually provides the information.
The digital platform also provides common functionality that makes it easier for IT systems to add data and functionality to the platform. This would include:
- system and user authentication
- caching mechanisms
- identity translations
- an event bus
- etc.
Open up the systems incrementally
Getting to the point where all systems provide their data and functionality is a big task. The strategy that we have seen work over many years is to do this incrementally as the need arises, making the most important data and functionality available first.
Transform to Orchestrated
Orchestrate your processes
Orchestration of a process means that;
- a process is defined in detail
- a computer program supervises that process steps are executed in correct order and that verifies that they finish within a specified time frame.
All processes should be automated, The only time they rely on a person is when a manual task is required, such as a human decision. As soon as the manual task has been completed, the process continues.
Supervise and coordinate your processes
An organization with many customers may have a huge number of parallel processes running at all times. It is absolutely necessary to monitor them, receive and react to alerts and coordinate connected processes.
Embrace the fact that business processes are asynchronous
Traditional IT does things synchronously.
- There is a call made from one process to a second process.
- The receiver executes the request.
- When execution is complete, the receiver sends a result back to the caller.
However, the majority of business processes are asynchronous. An operation might take a long time, so the requesting party must be able to temporally leave that workflow and focus on other things. When the response is eventually available, that original work flow can continue.
IT must adopt and provide simple ways to implement asynchronous processes, work flows, tasks and operations.
Introduce role based applications
In a digital organization, each employee mainly uses role-based applications. Each application is tailored to the employee's specific role and helps the employee prioritize by giving step-by-step instructions.
In contrast, it's still very common today for organizations to have only a handful applications that are capable of doing everything. This forces all employees to use and learn these monolithic systems. The result is bloated systems with a lot of unnecessary functionality. A common culprit guilty of this is CRM systems.
System specific GUI:s are still relevant for advanced tasks that are hard to streamline. Example: The economy department (and only them) will most often use the GUI for their economy system. This is not to be confused with a role-based application. This system will not guide the user, but provides the same generic user interface to be used for all tasks.
Transform to Omniscient
Divide business processes into small, stand-alone work flows
By using small processes that are triggered by business events, it becomes easier to be agile when conditions change. These small work-flows are triggered by events, thereby creating a business environment where things "just work" and new situations can easily be dealt with. This is a corner stone in robust systems.
Create dynamic personalized customer experiences
The digital organization can measure things as they happen and adjust within seconds. For instance, if a digital organization has multiple alternatives for a specific situation, the organization can choose what process best handles that specific situation.
In a traditional organization, the only tool for measuring the performance is historic reports. The reports are analyzed and then solutions are proposed and tested - a process that might take months.
Introduction of machine learning for work flows
Different versions of the same work-flow can be run in parallel with each result measured and analyzed. The best paths are then prioritized.
All work-flows are tested regularly to check if conditions have changed. If conditions have changed the workflow can be adapted accordingly.
Create one single unified role based application for the staff
A single application provides all role-based guidance. It can dynamically adapt to changing conditions.