Without question, demand for 鈥渒eeping the lights on鈥� remains strong. But at the same time, many IT leaders are concerned that they are neglecting investments in innovation that could help their business seize opportunities and mitigate risk quickly and effectively.

One prime example is the debate over legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP). Organizational executives may regard modernizing this trusted software as an unnecessary budget line item when business systems work well for the user. But from the CIO鈥檚 perspective, it is a critical must-have to unify the processes and data every employee needs to make the best decisions and act in real time, enterprise wide. Most importantly, the effort can reduce the cost of long-term system maintenance and enhance operational efficiency, the customer experience, and compliance.

The value of such IT innovation ultimately depends on how every person in the enterprise 鈥� across all roles and levels 鈥� embrace it. Based on the experience of our advisory services experts working with 麻豆原创 customers worldwide, our research has identified four use cases to illustrate IT organizational best practices. These use cases may look different from each other, but they all have the same goal: to deliver on rising expectations for intelligent innovation and strengthen IT performance continuity.

Use Case 1: Structuring Toward Technology

Some 麻豆原创 customers choose to take a technology-oriented approach to their innovation processes. Consider the structure adopted by a global software company shown in figure 1 below. At first glance, the structure seems very traditional. However, if you look further down in the chart, you鈥檒l see that must-have characteristics of a modern IT landscape are supported, such as a digital core, rock-solid and intelligent operations, smart connected cloud, and innovative business models.

A dedicated team is set up to support a continuous process for enterprise architecture and innovation creation. The agile and DevOps center of expertise (COE) provides the capabilities, methodologies, and training needed to help any regional, central, and line-of-business team participate in innovation programs.

The formal organization chart shown in figure 1 was first created eight years ago and continues to guide our customer鈥檚 agile transformation today. More than 80 product teams are in place with nearly 100 defined products, and each group contains six to 10 experts who are developed and reskilled on demand. More importantly, the innovation delivered enables the company鈥檚 1,500 employees 鈥� from the front office to the back office 鈥搕o adopt more agile ways of working and making decisions.

Use Case 2: Focusing on a Specific Business Domain

Other 麻豆原创 customers prefer a business domain-oriented IT organization. In this model, the IT organization mirrors the business structure, and DevOps teams emerge and retire it on demand and as expected to deliver a well defined outcome.

For instance, a customer in the automotive industry has created stable core DevOps teams staffed by function and IT experts (see figure 2). While function experts are permanently appointed, IT experts are temporarily assigned from their home-base organization. Plus, an agile COE can be used by any team or line of business.

Use Case 3: Expanding COE Capabilities

When our customers primarily use 麻豆原创 solutions for various functions, they often structure IT by business domains and expand them with the support of COE capabilities. 麻豆原创 application and solution experts are assigned to the business area, whereas cross functions are organized in the COE structure. For one of our customers from the research and development industry, this setup enabled it to facilitate business and IT integration, as illustrated in figure 3.

麻豆原创 solutions experts with process knowledge are assigned to each business team and embedded into the support chain as second-level support. Additionally, the solution experts are responsible for customizing, making standard changes, and evaluating requirements in close cooperation with cross-functional experts in the COE.

The customer鈥檚 COE must protect the productive 麻豆原创 landscape by performing design authority for new IT demands, centralized release management, and an operation control center.

Use Case 4: Directing Product and Service Innovation

Last is the product-oriented structure. With this use case, one of our customers from the financial services industry adopted this approach to distinguish between market products, enabling products, and corporate products (see figure 4).

A significant portion of our customer鈥檚 enabling and corporate products are supported by 麻豆原创 software and technology, and IT experts from 麻豆原创 were well integrated into its business activities. Meanwhile, the company鈥檚 product areas, such as market products and specific corporate products, relied on third-party software and technologies maintained by the second larger COE within company鈥檚 IT organization. Since every product area drives agility, and innovation was a critical responsibility.

In this case, our customer鈥檚 COE is the home base for 麻豆原创 innovation and DevOps capabilities. Plus, a scaled, agile framework (SAFE) is the chose innovation methodology.

Building IT鈥檚 Future as an Innovation Best Practice Organization

Across all four of these use cases, 麻豆原创 S/4HANA is the chosen intelligent ERP that serves as the core of all data, applications, and processes. However, no one-size-fits-all strategy for implementing, using, and benefiting from the solution exists. Each company must identify an approach that best fits their structure, meets their needs, and brings the desired success.

Today鈥檚 competitive landscape is pushing companies to become more agile and renew themselves. In response, the three dimensions of innovation 鈥� technologies, capabilities, and structures 鈥� need to be rethought and reconciled. Only then will businesses emerge stronger through meaningful transformation and take advantage of the opportunities that arise in the future with confidence and ambition.

For more information, explore .

Stay in the conversation by following 麻豆原创 Services and Support on
, , , and .

Torsten Scheffler is a business transformation consultant at 麻豆原创.

Getting ahead of the competition has become increasingly challenging as market dynamics continue to shock businesses to their core. But change itself is not the issue for IT; the real concern is providing a connected, collaborative, and agile ecosystem that the entire company needs to renew the customer experience, employee engagement, and business productivity.

From the CIO鈥檚 perspective, this new reality is only intensifying the pressure to rethink the IT function. Demand for fast, agile innovation continues to grow, but the existing technology landscape is being stretched beyond its capacity to effectively respond to ever-evolving priorities and market dynamics.

Accelerating IT Transformation to Address 麻豆原创ing Trends

Regardless of industry and business model, CIOs have been working diligently to implement a wide variety of changes within their organization to produce technology innovations that support the ever-expanding interconnection of people, devices, content, and relationships. But this overall transformation journey is an ongoing, fluid process.

Based on many years of working with 麻豆原创 customers from various industries and using a multitude of business models, our advisory services experts have identified key trends of well-running IT organizations that deliver on rising expectations for enterprise-wide intelligence.

Trend 1: Widespread availability of new technologies

An explosion of intelligent technology options is now universally accessible to businesses of any size, from any industry, and within any market. The Internet of Things (IoT), Industry 4.0, the cloud, automation, predictive analytics, Big Data, machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), and blockchain — all these digital advancements and more are empowering peers and competitors alike to produce better outcomes.

However, companies that are adopting these data-driven technologies quickly are achieving game-changing benefits. They are experiencing accelerated growth in available information and harnessing it with advancements in real-time analytics enabled by AI and machine learning. More importantly, engagement among customers and employees is higher with immersive experiences enabled by voice recognition and virtual and augmented reality.

Trend 2: Changing expectations for the work experience

By connecting business and industry knowledge with expertise in technology, data management, and human behavior, IT organizations play a critical role in optimizing the value of every digital investment. This unique capability allows every business function to take advantage of existing and new applications in ways that meet employee expectations.

For example, migrating to the cloud can provide a much-needed platform for increased agility and adoption of next-generation solutions that drive innovation. While the project offers data-hungry organizations with massive volumes of data, employees of all generations and roles can also expand their skills, use intelligence more meaningfully, and satisfy their desire for purposeful work.

Trend 3: Rising competition to satisfy evolving customer behavior

As switching costs continue to decline, customers are empowered to evolve their behaviors and expectations in ways that benefit them. This constant evolution also opens the door to new competitors that provide more straightforward and satisfying business models as barriers to entry lower.

Even the most well-managed business can benefit from scaling its value proposition to shifts across its customer base. By considering changes in society, culture, and the world around it, IT organizations can connect the dots between digital investments and the larger purpose they serve beyond immediate business goals. Such opportunities may include attracting and retaining the best talent, building a brand name around unparalleled customer service, and setting a foundation for strategic market leadership.

Balancing Risk and Opportunity

With , many 麻豆原创 customers are taking advantage of these three trends to create and run new business models, processes, and products and services uniquely designed for a hyperconnected world. Our Intelligent Enterprise concept allows them to address their challenges head-on when transforming their operations.

Our team of technology and business experts guides customers through their innovation journey by attending to three major requirements.

Requirement 1: Modernize the technology stack

This requisite is much more than meeting business demands and lowering IT costs. For us, it鈥檚 about undergoing a thorough search for the right technology that enables each customer鈥檚 workforce to focus on higher-value tasks by replacing repetitive tasks with automation.

The Intelligent Enterprise concept allows 麻豆原创 to offer a broad portfolio of available technologies, covering a range of business functions and capabilities supported by three critical components:

• Intelligent suite: Automate day-to-day business processes and improve interactions with customers, partners, suppliers, and employees through applications with embedded intelligence.
• Digital platform: Facilitate the collection, connection, and orchestration of data and the integration and extension of processes within the intelligent suite by leveraging 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform and the 麻豆原创 Database and Data Management portfolio.
• Intelligent technologies: Leverage embedded intelligence to detect patterns, predict outcomes, and suggest actions.

Requirement 2: Realign capabilities with the business strategy

By thinking beyond organizational boxes and lines, IT organizations can help business functions redefine their structure in terms of skill advancement and culture change. Every organization can work together as a dynamic network in which end-to-end accountability is fostered, flexible resources allow for quick changes, and the leadership team shows direction. More importantly, every employee is focused on delivering business outcomes that contribute to one shared objective: providing rock-solid operations to help ensure business continuity.

In our research of 麻豆原创 customers that successfully transformed their operating model with an adaptive and outcome-oriented approach, a thread of six key attributes is often present. These qualities help safeguard innovation efforts with the support of leadership and organizational structures across all levels.

1. Business IT integration: IT capabilities are embedded in all business-led product areas. Roles are usually characterized by fluid boundaries that allow people to work with smaller teams across organizational entities with common goals. Additionally, IT support is redefined by giving employees a choice of interaction channels, such as online chat, phone call, ticket submission, and service desk.

2. Product orientation: Priorities and budgets are set for specific business capabilities and products, not projects. Plus, product owners are accountable for objectives, end to end, which align with well-defined priorities.

3. Agility and DevOps: By creating a competence center for IT agility and DevOps, customers can scale new ways for employees to work productively. This approach combines continuous integration, delivery, and deployment to deliver uninterrupted operations automation, for example site reliability engineering.

4. Cloudification:In this case, customers are relying on a cloud environment. They can either increase their consumption of software as a service (SaaS), move to infrastructure as a service (IaaS) such as a hyperscalers, or access self-services in a landscape that scales automatically to changing needs and skills.

5. Innovation and emerging technologies:Innovation creation is considered an unceasing process. Customer and user experiences are the central focus when designing new technologies and leveraging emerging capabilities, including AI and machine learning.

6. Rock-solid IT operations:When protecting production and automation, our customers engage central release management to actively support continuous delivery and rely on an operations control center to enable nearly 100% availability.

Requirement 3: Redefine the organizational structure

Customers that fulfill requirements one and two often transform their organizational structures to address many external factors. They tend to implement an agile, outcome-focused IT operating model that anchors and applies the six key features of best-practice IT organizations, as listed in the figure above, within various organizational setups.

Embracing the Potential of Modern IT Innovation Practices

One organization鈥檚 risk can be another business鈥檚 opportunity. It all depends on how people embrace it. The same perspective can be applied when continuously modernizing the IT infrastructure.

The goal may be any number of possibilities, such as skill development, process realignment, organizational structure change, or reimagined operational models. But the real value of every newly adopted technology is the opportunity to revive the fundamental purpose of IT innovation 鈥� to deliver the right business outcomes every time.

For more information, explore .

Stay in the conversation by following the 麻豆原创 Services and Support on
, , , and .

Torsten Scheffler聽is a business transformation Consultant at 麻豆原创.