Biting The Bullet – Delivering Operational Results (Part 2)

In my first post in the series of Key Priorities For The CIO Of Tomorrow, I discussed Increasing Operational Growth.

In this post I will discuss how organisations need to bite the bullet and transform their complex and highly inter connected enterprise architecture to deliver increased operational results.

2. Delivering Operational Results
In today’s world, enterprise technology is typically over complex and inter twined with intricate processes. In a challenging landscape where wholesale replacement is not feasible, changes are bolted on decreasing channel efficiency, driving up operational costs and introducing increased risk of IT failures.

Overall, the complex and inter twined enterprise architecture restricts an organisations ability to breathe and successfully serve its customers, shareholders and the wider economy.

Cross Enterprise Process Efficiencies
A recent Gartner survey identified that :

“Enterprises realise on average only 43% of technology’s business potential”

Furthermore, typical business as usual activity consumes up to 70% IT budget just to maintain the status quo.

Today’s organisations need to exploit new and powerful synergies across the complex enterprise architecture through a process of specialisation.

Transformed Infrastructure
One of the early pioneers in this field were energy companies with vast high voltage infrastructure assets, connecting the length and breadth of the nation.Through a process of specialisation, new synergies were exploited by transforming their infrastructure assets to deliver a new nationwide data network, at minimal incremental cost, by transmitting data over the existing power network.

Similarly large telcos are continuing to transform their infrastructure. In a world where traditional voice calls are declining, telcos are moving from the analogue and cash world to the new digital economy through a process of specialisation. One of the biggest assets owned by the telcos is their billing relationship with the customer. This represents a significant commercial opportunity for telcos to establish new and exciting propositions, such as mobile payments and mobile wallets, potentially disrupting established payment providers.

Japanese telecommunications organization NTT DOCOMO successfully exploited its billing pedigree and created a critical mass of 35m users for its mobile wallet by leveraging existing customer billing relationships.

NTT DOCMO’s mobile wallet, or Osaifu-Keitai as it is known locally, provides identity card, loyalty card, public transport ticketing as well as electronic money by transforming its commercial assets to deliver highly competitive and compelling operational results.

New Operational Opportunities
Only by transforming existing enterprise assets can organisations exploit new synergies and drive new levels of operational results through a process of specialisation. Where power companies and telcos have led, other organisations now need to follow.

In the next blog, I will discuss the third part in the series –Reducing Enterprise Costs.

IAN ALDERTON
Email : ian@IanAlderton.com
Tel : +44 (0) 7702 777770

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