Unified business looks at the actual business processes and how to optimise them, using all the technology tools available.
What I mean by unified business is the next step after achieving both the unified infrastructure and applications layers that I have covered previously.
The ideal situation is where the responsible managers at any level can actually modify the business process on the fly, giving the organisation the agility to adapt to changing needs. The demand for this type of agility is a common factor among nearly all customers, and it is driven by the overall business environment.
Today, the industry faces what I call hyper-competition. Markets change rapidly and continuously and the winners are those companies that adapt to change more quickly than their competitors.
Getting nimble
Agile systems are the major factor in facing this challenge. Whether businesses are talking about business process optimisation or innovation, the plans will not deliver the desired results unless the systems can support rapid changes in an orderly and well-managed manner.
To get to this point, a company first needs to identify the issues that the business faces. What is necessary for the business to prosper? This is a matter of defining and quantifying what the business needs are.
To give a common example, look at what happens when a car is serviced. The work is done and, typically, the company will phone the owner to check that he/she is happy with the service. Often, however, that information is not being fed back to the right people or retained on the system as part of the customer profile - it is a courtesy call, but the valuable information is not being captured in an efficient and usable way.
The winners are those companies that adapt to change more quickly than their competitors.
Andy Brauer is CTO at Business Connexion.
That is a typical case of what can be called disconnected processes. Individually, the processes and policies are being followed, but the real value of connecting them together and fully utilising the information obtained is either partially or totally lost. The connective intelligence is missing.
This is a problem that is found in all market sectors - and in both private and public sector organisations. It affects service delivery and the decisions customers make on where to place their business. Ultimately, if the company doesn't get it right, it hands the advantage over to competitors.
There are two aspects to mapping business processes and needs. The first is the internal knowledge within the company. The second is the ability to benchmark that against best practices. Never underestimate the constructive input that can be gained from the people who actually use the system - the company's own information workers and managers. But, at a certain point, it is very useful to call in outside consultants to make recommendations on the basis of field-tested solutions that have worked for other businesses.
Sum of parts
A company needs both parts in this process. Internal people know the problems, but don't know the answer. Consultants know the answers, but don't understand the issues without input from inside the business.
Really, this all comes down to a very broad view of business intelligence. To extend that familiar concept and make it a foundation for achieving unified business requires the perspective of looking ahead to future scenarios and having systems and technology in place that are agile enough to deal with those possible scenarios.
It's very important to realise that this is not a solution that can be plugged in or added as some kind of front- or back-end onto the systems that are already in place. If a company wants to get the results that unified business can deliver, it has to look at every process in the business, make sure they all work together and then have the flexibility to change as rapidly as the business needs and market conditions.
This involves everything: the supply chain and inventory; the workflow within the company; the customer-facing activities and whatever CRM solution it has; the ERP and/or ERM solutions - even the HR systems play a role.
If all those systems are running separately with limited or ineffective communication between them, the company does not have a unified business. If they are connected intelligently, enormous value can be unlocked from the information these systems hold, and improve service delivery. That, after all, is the key goal, which is even more important than cost savings. If a company doesn't deliver service to its customers, all the cost savings in the world will not save the business in today's highly competitive markets.
The last point to bear in mind is obvious, but often overlooked. Business is not a static process and any solution needs to be reviewed and improved on an ongoing basis.
If there is a unified business solution in place, the company will have the management tools to review whether its systems are delivering desired results - and the agility to change things for the better. Without unified business, companies will lose out to more agile competitors.
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