As
enterprise executives increasingly focus on digital technologies and changing
market influences, they feel unprecedented pressure to adapt or risk being left
behind. Rapidly evolving technologies are driving fundamental change in business
operations in reaction to radical alterations in the ways of doing business.
New,
digital start-ups can abruptly shift markets to drive larger established firms
out of business. Examples like Netflix vs. Blockbuster Video come to mind.
Familiar, well-established modes of competing and conducting business no longer
work or serve to maintain competitive advantage.
Driven
by consumer experiences with mobile, gaming, and shopping, user expectations
rapidly bleed over from personal to business interactions. These irrevocably
alter client/customer purchasing behaviors, expectations and relationships; impacting
internal, as well external enterprise operating ecosystems and cultures.
One
result is the flattening of traditional hierarchies as nimble project teams
replace rigid departmental functions. Also, market globalization lowering the
barriers to entry (to markets for many services), forces enterprises to deal
with numerous agile, adaptive and continuously evolving competitors. Customers
expect highly responsive services tailored to meet their individual needs. This
drives the necessity of product creation and delivery models that adapt to meet
these new demands.
To
survive, enterprises must transform themselves to be able to rapidly adapt to
changes (whether to costs, pricing, technology, etc.) in their environment. They
must learn to compete as providers of consumer-like digital services. Doing so can
involve redesigning the work-place to simplify processes, modify workflows,
etc. In short, they must become a digital enterprise.
What does it mean to be a digital enterprise?
A digital
enterprise is a provider of digital services, able to rapidly create new
services in response to changing user demands. A digital service provides an
optimized, exceptional experience, whether delivered to internal (employee) or
external (partner, client or customer) consumers.
A
digital service is personalized, automated, scalable, and self-service, responsive
to and controlled by the customer (like a mobile phone app). The service is
self-contained, able to automatically perform at every step from initial access
thru to delivery. It includes a path for help with access to self-service remedial
support along the way if needed.
Digital
enterprise operations must function at the speed of business change. The digital enterprise depends upon the fully
integrated, coordinated efforts of IT and business. For a digital enterprise to
compete, they must be able to continuously function at a scale and speed that
matches the rate of change demanded by users. This requires
technology integrated into an agile infrastructure
robust enough to support the continuous delivery of new services.
The process of reinvention is not new. Every business aspect has been
changing and evolving since trade began. What is new is the scale of the change,
the speed at which it is occurring and the shortened cycle at which the process
repeats itself.
Transforming
to a digital enterprise includes reorganizing operations. Products, processes,
procedures and the workplace itself have to become completely service oriented and user-driven. The
organization has to support rapid design and delivery to satisfy user demands
for:
1. Intuitive
solutions – that provide an exceptional, optimized, personalized, self-service
experience to consumers (whether employee, partner, client or customer);
2. High-speed
innovation – ongoing and consistent development, leveraging expertise,
technology, partnerships and the latest processes; such as agile software
development.
3. Standardized solutions
– that are consistently delivered across infrastructure modes whether mainframe,
mobile, virtual or cloud (private, public or hybrid).
The goal is
to provide the best possible user experience, automatically optimized in
real-time even as changes occur. This requires the ability to rapidly integrate
continuously evolving elements into an environment that is increasingly
automated, adaptive and virtualized.
Digital transformation
is a continuous process. Therefore, an appropriate architecture for management and
control of operational processes and structures during and post-digital transformation
is needed. BMC designed Digital Enterprise Management to be that architecture.
Digital Enterprise
Management- Architecting the Digital Enterprise
An architecture for successful transformation must
facilitate the ongoing integration of leading edge technology. Integration is
critical, as much existing invested capital (physical and intellectual) remains
too valuable to ongoing operations to be discarded. A good example is mainframe
code, reliably delivering services for decades. Critical to operations. Too
valuable to discard. Far too expensive (and risky) to replace. Old and new must
be blended for smooth operations. While point-in-time, one-off approaches can
work, the better, more reliable solution lies in a well-defined architecture
designed for long term management of digital services, infrastructure,
processes and policy.
BMC’s
Digital Enterprise Management (DEM) provides IT an architecture and suite of
solutions designed to facilitate seamless, optimized digital transformation. It
enables on-going improvement thru continuous innovation. It defines a structured
approach to managing and optimizing technology, processes, and policy. It is for
environments operating in real-time, with infrastructure ranging from mainframe
to mobile to cloud and beyond. To accomplish this, DEM’s architecture and
associated solutions/services focus on four disciplines and a shared foundation:
- Digital Service Management – blends modern digital services design with ITSM principles & platforms to reinvent how business gets done and enable breakthroughs in human productivity.
- Digital Enterprise Automation – an integrated and strategic approach to automation, enabling business to accelerate the delivery of digital services while improving quality and control.
- Digital Service Assurance – integrates data from multiple external sources, including social human sentiment to allow businesses to take action quickly based on customer online posts and complaints.
- Digital Infrastructure Optimization – helps businesses avoid wasted capacity and licensing across a business’ entire technology portfolio.
Analytics,
Orchestration, and Policy provide a common foundation for configuration data,
automation, orchestration, analytics, and policy, enabling businesses to share
a single, real-time view of their infrastructure across teams and processes. See
Figure 1 below.
Figure
1 Digital Enterprise
Management: Four Disciplines and the Foundation
Courtesy BMC Software
This is a high
level outline of Digital Enterprise Management from BMC. Services and products
exist with more coming. The latest details are available from BMC and at their
website http://www.bmc.com/dem .
Conclusion/Next Steps
Competing in
the global marketplace as a digital enterprise promises to be a challenging, exhilarating,
and rewarding experience. The actual process of transformation to a digital
enterprise contains more potential pitfalls than business as usual.
The dynamic
nature of the enterprise, and today’s marketplace prevents a one-size-fits-all
solution. Nor does a complete solution suite exist today. The complete path forward
will be realized only with time and experience. As understanding grows, more
complete solutions will develop. Therefore, successfully navigating the path
through the initial transformation and preparing for what lays ahead requires
careful planning and, for most, the help of a trusted, knowledgeable partner.
Einstein is
quoted as saying that if he had one hour to save the world, he would spend
fifty-five minutes defining the problem, and only five minutes finding the
solution. BMC has taken the time needed to clearly define the problem. They
have a track record of success along with accumulated expertise. They combined
all of that to develop Digital Enterprise Management with the services and
products necessary for its implementation.
They recognize
the path to a digital enterprise is truly a journey not a destination. We
believe BMC has the knowledge, insight and expertise to be an excellent partner
for any enterprise embarking on that journey. We recommend a visit to http://www.bmc.com/dem so you can see for yourself the benefits
of their solutions.
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