Towards the Dynamic Enterprise

One of the biggest challenges businesses face is latency: the time it takes between problem and solution, or question and answer. Indeed, Gartner estimates that human latency slows an extraordinary percentage – 85% – of business processes. Companies that solve their business latency issues will be well ahead of the game.

Often, latency is due to difficulties in connecting the right person with the right knowledge or skills, at the right moment with the right device. When you consider that only 20% of a company’s information is held in structured systems, while the remaining 80% is stored exclusively in peoples’ heads, it becomes apparent that the issue is not about having the answer, but finding and accessing it quickly. Real-time information gathering, decision making, and results define the dynamic enterprises that will gain a significant market advantage.

Leaping the firewall

Part of the solution to latency exists already and comes from a familiar source. Just as we witnessed the new business generation driving companies to adopt IP applications such as voice over IP, email anywhere, and instant messaging, we are now seeing a new wave of applications driving user behavior and enterprise needs. Facebook, Blogger and Wikipedia-type applications within businesses are proliferating as employees demand and employers see the benefits of more responsive tools that are better adapted to user expectations. Andrew McAfee of Harvard Business Review has dubbed this “Enterprise 2.0.”

Enterprises that grasp the potential of these web-based technologies and collaborative business models, drawing together networks, users, processes and knowledge will simplify their communications, accelerate business processes and fundamentally improve business performance.

Priority shifts

Surveyed by Gartner during 2007, chief information officers (CIOs) of large corporations confirmed that the evolution towards the dynamic enterprise is real. Whereas several years ago, their prime concerns were “inwardly focused” – data protection, ERPs, reliable infrastructure, cost-control, today, CIOs say that their concerns have shifted toward how best to integrate IT assets into enterprise business processes. In the near future, Gartner predicts CIOs’ priorities will shift a step further toward attracting and growing the customer base by expanding the use of information.

From tactical player to dynamic enterprise

Becoming a dynamic enterprise requires a transformation that is in line with business objectives. The transformation involves clearly defined investment choices to interconnect the core assets of the company. Already, we have seen that when a CIO integrates employees, infrastructure and business processes, the company benefits. It gains better customer service, better business control and operational efficiencies. Clearly differentiating their business even further, by solving the problem of business latency, requires the addition of the final element – connected knowledge. When and how to unite all these elements is best defined by the dynamic communications framework.

1. Foundation – the Network

The first element within the framework and the first step in the evolution towards the dynamic enterprise involves establishing a sound network. The network is a secure, manageable, always-on foundation supporting the timely delivery of services, authenticated access to business applications, and appropriate information transfer. Ultimately, this will enable the types of exchange, mobility and collaboration that will drive transformation.

2. Bringing a user-focus

Appropriate service delivery is the next stage of transformation. Users have different needs driven by their roles: an executive’s role is not the same as that of a sales representative. Logically, the services and tools they need to work effectively and efficiently differ too. By basing the services and devices available to the employee on individual needs or profiles, solutions become personalized, and enterprises see gains in employee productivity, job satisfaction and overall company performance results.

3. Business process integration

The third stage in the evolution is arguably the most preoccupying for CIOs today, and it involves integrating information and communications technology into business processes. This stage is known in the industry as communications-enabled business processes. The most agile companies are tying their business-critical processes to information and communications systems, making their organizations more responsive. Aligning technological platforms and services to basic business processes, like employee on-boarding, opening accounts, compliance, opens the door to greater efficiency, productivity gains, and better ROI. Applied strategically, the right combination of IT and applications will ultimately mean faster detection of critical events and improved response times.

4. Real-time access to knowledge

The final step in interconnecting a company’s core assets, crucial to the vision of the dynamic enterprise, involves connecting people’s knowledge and, most importantly, doing it in real time. Backed with these capabilities, the value of communications between employees, customers and partners is enhanced significantly, speeding execution, reducing error and improving service delivery.

More than simply accessing ERP or CRM data, timely collaboration among people capitalizes on connected knowledge: whether that knowledge is possessed by the 20-year industry veteran with immeasurable experience or the new recruit in customer-service. The result is the difference between a deal lost or won, a satisfied or frustrated customer, getting to market before or after a competitor, success or failure.

Greater than the sum of our parts: Connected Knowledge

By maximizing the availability and accessibility of the knowledge of its employees, vendors and partners, the dynamic enterprise takes an additional step toward minimizing latency within its operations, the time between a problem and its solution. The result: faster, better decision making and a quicker path to innovation.

Not only does connecting knowledge counter latency, it also means reduced costs, improved efficiency, better customer service and greater dynamism. If it could be condensed into an adage, it might go, “Knowledge is power, but Connected Knowledge is more power.”

To understand why this is, it’s worth considering the forms that knowledge can take. Knowledge management experts identify two broad categories:

• Explicit knowledge is information that is structured and stored in databases. Experts estimate that around 20% of an organization’s knowledge falls into this category.

• Tacit knowledge – which makes up the other 80% – is often less tangible or structured, and certainly less accessible. Whether found in people’s heads, or in a PowerPoint presentation located on a laptop, or stored on servers, tacit knowledge is more often out of reach just when it is needed. It is often impossible to know what knowledge exists on a particular subject, or to know who possesses it.

Connected knowledge is about making information – be it explicit or tacit – accessible anywhere, any time and via any device. This is why Connected Knowledge is such a key element of the dynamic enterprise vision and Enterprise 2.0.

Benefits of the new business generation

The Millennials, defined by a McKinsey study as people born from 1981 to 2001, are driving a shift in the way that communications technologies are being used. This hyper-connected generation expects to be able to use the same tools at the workplace that they use in their daily lives: cell phones, virtual presence indicators, online social networks, and so on. Certainly, those companies that cater to such expectations will see benefits in terms of recruitment and staff retention. But the benefits go beyond keeping staff happy.

First and foremost, the advantages are about making information available and accessible to others more simply. And with the integration of always-on communications and collaboration tools into business processes, enterprises are improving service delivery and business results.

So how do you connect your employees, partners and customers in a way that facilitates the sharing of knowledge and drives business results? As we’ve discussed, it starts with matching a user’s profile with a specific set of solutions to deliver the right access to information and services to maximize performance and efficiency. The dynamic enterprise will also consider those business processes already integrated and those that can still be integrated to improve business efficiency. To this end, an open-standards approach allows companies to freely plug their business process management applications into the overall dynamic communications framework.

Crucial throughout is the notion of presence. Regardless of the information available in databases or 2.0 applications, sometimes there is no replacement for the direct input of a subject matter expert. Presence indicators allow a user who needs an immediate response to determine the best way to contact that expert.

And where we’re heading next is a blurring of the boundary between the enterprise network and the service provider network. Combining presence and localization information from a cellular network with that provided by the enterprise’s own communications architecture will give a person’s real-time availability no matter where they are.

Bringing it all together: Connecting knowledge to save lives

Connected knowledge is clearly a decisive factor in the transformation of the dynamic enterprise. Integrating a company’s network, people, process and knowledge tackles latency issues head on, creating a business that is more responsive and truly dynamic. The net result is improved efficiency, reduced costs, better decisions, loyal employees and ultimately, competitive advantage.

Perhaps the best illustration of the power of connected knowledge comes from the healthcare sector. For example, one leading provider is deploying an end-to-end solution to connect emergency medical services (EMS) with critical medical knowledge and resources back in the hospital.

Super-fast, high-bandwidth wireless IP communications and SIP-based collaboration applications allow EMS teams to exchange important files (photos, live video, medical imaging, etc.), arrange treatment over mobile VoIP, and save crucial minutes in the early treatment of patients. Armed with information received from the point of care, staff in the hospital can make better decisions and help direct not only the right medical resources, but also fire services, police, hazardous materials teams and more. Intelligent call routing, presence and location information helps find the required medical specialist immediately to enable first responders’ direct access to experts – effectively allowing real-time collaboration amongst the best healthcare professionals.

In any situation, connecting knowledge in real-time and from any location translates to better resource management, reduced time to action and cost savings. In healthcare, it also translates to saved lives.

Achieving the Vision

When enterprises connect their people, processes, network and knowledge, they produce, innovate and perform. The dynamic enterprise is uniquely positioned to create and capture new opportunities. They are able to manage interactions and data for productivity, extract value from their collective knowledge for performance and innovation, and ensure flexibility for continuity and growth throughout market shifts.