Restrições orçamentárias são um fato da vida para os diretores de informação e eles lidaram no passado, alavancando os recursos digitais para operar com mais eficiência e menor número de funcionários. Hoje, porém, essas restrições orçamentárias são amplificadas pela necessidade de modernizar o ambiente de TI. O dilema em que muitos CIOs se encontram é como, sob essas restrições orçamentárias, pagar por iniciativas vitais de modernização e evitar mais reduções de número de funcionários. Essa nova configuração promove a colaboração ágil de especialistas funcionais e técnicos para que eles possam se alinhar e implementar soluções de negócios, aumentando a velocidade do mercado e a produtividade em duas a quatro vezes. Essas melhorias podem alimentar o orçamento para modernizá -lo enquanto acelera a geração de valor e maximizando a satisfação do cliente/usuário. Com isso em mente, identificamos cinco princípios para fazer com que as organizações de TI baseadas em plataforma funcionem: tomada de decisão semiautônoma, centricidade do cliente e do usuário, recursos avançados de TI e dados, equipes altamente qualificadas e ágil em escala.
The answer, we believe, is to transform the organization and change the ways of working by adopting a platform-based IT organization. This new setup promotes the agile collaboration of functional and technical experts so they can align on and implement business solutions, increasing speed to market and productivity by two to four times. These improvements can fuel the budget to modernize IT while accelerating value generation and maximizing customer/user satisfaction. With this in mind, we have identified five principles to make platform-based IT organizations work: semiautonomous decision making, client and user centricity, advanced IT and data capabilities, highly skilled teams, and agile at scale.
Novos modelos de trabalho
Restrições orçamentárias não são o único desafio que os CIOs enfrentam. Eles têm lutado com uma variedade assustadora de obstáculos relacionados à transformação digital que pesam muito no desempenho da empresa. Agora, o Covid-19 levou esses pontos problemáticos a excruciar novos níveis. (Consulte o Anexo 1.)
The good news is that technology advances are enabling new working models that can help companies address these challenges more effectively. By designing technology and the human organization around each other, a company can bridge the gap between being scalable (the province of technology) and being flexible (the province of humans). Now companies can also use standardized APIs and microservices for open-source collaboration, driving down transaction costs and facilitating innovation. Meanwhile, the advent of bionic learning allows companies to rapidly improve processes and create better outcomes. Machine learning detects patterns in big data, and then humans review them to make sure the numbers make rational sense.
Defining the Platform-Based Organization
One of the best ways to ensure that these new working models function at their full potential and address pain points is to implement a platform-based IT organization. In a nutshell, a platform-based IT organization gathers people with a common interest in a specific functional or technical domain so they can work directly with one another on a dedicated platform for a specific project. A platform-based IT organization is client-centric and fully aligned on business processes and flows.
The platform teams within a platform-based organization have end-to-end ownership (from design to run) and are empowered to make key decisions to deliver business value faster. These teams provide guidance and services to other business and technology teams to improve impact. And they facilitate collaboration across organizations, breaking down silos to share data and expertise.
Within a platform-based IT organization, there are four organizational units (two vertical and two horizontal) that regularly interact with one another: business platforms, technology platforms, communities of practice platforms, and transversal team platforms.
Business platforms are vertically integrated teams of business and technology people with end-to-end (E2E) ownership of a digital solution (front end, data, and back end) across the development life cycle in a distinct domain, such as sales and marketing, supply chain management, data management, or support functions. The E2E ownership encompasses the business flows and process steps, the associated IT services, and the people. The strategic needs of the business guide these platform teams, and the teams are accountable for the success or failure of the digital solutions they pursue. They practice agile ways of working, align on a solution, develop the solution in sprints, and scale up digital processes and engineering. Generally, these teams are allocated budgets incrementally each quarter, driven by business impact.
Business platforms are best suited to managing a fully digitized product or service, such as overseeing an airline’s frequent flyer points. However, these platforms can also work alongside the physical business and improve the business flows there as well. For example, when dealing with the flow of physical goods (for example, specialized product orchestration), the platform can manage the value chain and the delivery of goods, reengineering the processes along with the underlying technology. These platforms can also help manage human talent—for example, by developing maintenance and shift schedules that employees can access and share digitally.
We have identified 13 key design principles for these business platforms. (See Exhibit 2.)
Technology platforms are vertically integrated IT service teams that develop and operate IT platforms to support the specific technology needs of business platforms. These teams have end-to-end responsibility for tooling, infrastructure, and technology standards. They practice agile ways of working, align on a solution, develop the solution in sprints, and scale up tooling, infrastructure, and tech standards (except in areas where the technical landscape prevents independent deployment in agile teams). These teams are also allocated budgets incrementally each quarter on the basis of business impact.
Para plataformas de tecnologia e plataformas de negócios para trabalhar juntas com sucesso, elas precisam ser baseadas em uma plataforma comum e plataforma digital (DDP). A arquitetura modular do DDP separa dados de sistemas transacionais principais, como o planejamento de recursos corporativos e o gerenciamento de relacionamento com o cliente, cria interfaces mais modulares entre os sistemas e adota infraestrutura em nuvem para velocidade e agilidade. Ele também cria um front end digital mais adaptável; Pode evoluir como cliente, fornecedor e funcionário, precisa de alterações. (Consulte o Anexo 3.)
With a DDP, technology stacks have simple interfaces. Data moves faster and becomes a new source of competitive advantage. Agile teams can work in new, more collaborative ways. Powered by AI and leveraging open-source software and cloud services, the DDP can combine internal and external data in new ways, provide that data as a service to an omnichannel smart business layer, and deliver new digital services to the frontlines every few weeks instead of every 12 to 18 months.
Communities of practice platforms involve horizontally integrated groups of digital experts (for example, product owners, engineering managers and directors, scrum masters) with common interests in specific topics (for example, UI/UX, quality assurance, integration). They build, share, and promote expertise and best practices in their topics across teams. They provide guidance to line managers who might not be experts in the topic, and they can support career development and training. The members of these communities include a sponsor from the leadership team and a community lead, who is usually a senior engineer. Core members are responsible for facilitating events and supporting the lead, while community members have a looser affiliation and participate according to their interest in the topic.
Transversal team platforms involve horizontally integrated teams that ensure governance and help coordinate a range of critical functions across the IT organization. These functions include the following:
- estratégia e planejamento para dados e tecnologia. equipes coordenam o design e a execução da estratégia de dados e dados; Eles também gerenciam o portfólio de tecnologia.
- arquitetura corporativa. Eles desenvolvem diretrizes de arquitetura para atribuições específicas de tecnologia. As diretrizes são aprovadas por um comitê composto pelos líderes de CIO e tecnologia. As diretrizes são aprovadas por um comitê composto pelos líderes de CIO e tecnologia.
- Sourcing and Procurement. They maintain strategic relationships with key technology vendors and establish sourcing and procurement guidelines for technologies and tooling. Guidelines are approved by a committee made up of the CIO and technology leaders.
- segurança cibernética e conformidade. Solicitações de alto nível para as equipes de produto apropriadas. They mitigate digital security risks through governance structures, policies, information security management, and data management.
- Service Desk. They orchestrate service desk operations by automating low-level requests and directing high-level requests to the appropriate product teams.
- Transição de dados e tecnologia. Mas os membros da equipe precisam das habilidades e familiaridade certas com novas e ágeis maneiras de trabalhar. Como esses talentos são escassos, as empresas precisam de uma abordagem sistemática para identificar as habilidades necessárias para obter e para definir os novos empregos que precisam preencher. Essas habilidades devem ser reforçadas. Mas também existem habilidades novas e muito mais raras que as empresas devem procurar, incluindo habilidades de segurança cibernética (por exemplo, secos e gerenciamento de identidade e acesso), talento ágil (por exemplo, mestres scrum) e habilidades de infraestrutura e nuvem (por exemplo, engenharia em nuvem). Mas, dada a rara natureza dessas habilidades e os salários que esses candidatos comandam, as empresas devem aproveitar ao máximo o talento dentro da organização. Ao realizar uma revisão do conhecimento digital que combina autoavaliações e insumos de gerente e comparando os resultados com as competências que a empresa está procurando, uma empresa pode identificar os melhores candidatos a upskilling. As empresas devem adaptar seus programas de upskill e oferecer certificações reconhecidas pelo setor para incentivar a participação. Para incentivar ainda mais o envolvimento dos funcionários, as empresas poderiam ter os funcionários que projetem carreira com um gerente e/ou o departamento de RH. They oversee the implementation of the target culture, organizational structures, ways of working, toolsets, and technologies.
The People in the Platforms
The platform’s modular architecture allows autonomous teams to work at greater speed to create business value. But team members need the right skills and familiarity with new, agile ways of working. Because these talents are in short supply, companies need a systematic approach for identifying the skills they need to source and for defining the new jobs they need to fill.
Some skills, such as coding and data science, might already exist within the organization. These skills should be reinforced. But there are also new, much rarer skills that companies must seek out, including cybersecurity skills (for example, SecOps and identity and access management), agile talent (for instance, scrum masters), and infrastructure and cloud skills (for example, cloud engineering).
In some cases, hiring from outside the company is the best, most expedient option. But, given the rare nature of these skills and the salaries these candidates command, companies should make the most of the talent within the organization. By undertaking a digital knowledge review that combines self-assessments and manager input, and then comparing the results with the competencies the company is looking for, a company can identify the best candidates for upskilling. Companies should tailor their upskilling programs and offer industry-recognized certifications to encourage participation. To further encourage employee engagement, companies could have employees codesign career paths with a manager and/or the HR department.
Cinco princípios para novas maneiras de funcionar
A organização precisa da confiança para permitir que essas equipes de plataforma trabalhem livremente em todo o seu potencial e não as mancam aplicando regras antigas. Identificamos cinco princípios que ajudarão as empresas a consolidar novas maneiras de trabalhar e a fazer o esquema baseado em plataforma funcionar. Capacite as equipes da plataforma a tomar certas decisões importantes de maneira rápida e independente, mantendo os padrões e políticas em toda a empresa para garantir a governança e a escalabilidade. Por exemplo, as equipes da plataforma podem decidir quais ferramentas aproveitar durante o desenvolvimento, desde que as ferramentas sejam nativas em nuvem e permitam serviços de API.
- Semiautonomous Decision Making. Empower platform teams to make certain key decisions quickly and independently, while retaining companywide standards and policies to ensure governance and scalability. For example, platform teams can decide which tools to leverage during development, provided that the tools are cloud-native and allow for API services.
- Centricidade do cliente e do usuário. Recursos. Habilidades e comportamentos dos funcionários. Design an IT organization that mirrors the business organization (for example, the IT supply chain platform interacting with supply chain business entities).
- Advanced IT and Data Capabilities. Leverage and mutualize state-of-the-art IT and data capabilities to enhance decision making across the enterprise (in areas such as architecture, infrastructure, portfolio management, and governance) on the basis of broadly established definitions, metrics, and artifacts.
- Highly Skilled Teams. Platforms require a drastic change in employee skills and behaviors. Companies Precisa Avide suas necessidades de talentos e desenvolva um plano de recrutamento à medida que eles aumentam os funcionários atuais.
- Agile em escala. Incentive maneiras ágeis de trabalhar (com novas funções, responsabilidades e direitos de decisão, por exemplo) dentro e através da organização, a fim de escalar rapidamente e se ajustar rapidamente às mudanças no mercado. Garanta a colaboração em toda a organização, criando equipes interdisciplinares (de TI e negócios) que entregam iterativamente, com loops de feedback do negócio para maximizar a velocidade e a relevância.
The intertwining of technology and people that is at the heart of the platform-based organization is also fundamental to becoming a BIONIC COMPANY . Uma empresa biônica projeta a tecnologia e a organização humana umas nas outras para transformar operações e alcançar resultados como novas ofertas, novos modelos de negócios e experiências e relacionamentos personalizados para clientes. Acreditamos que a companhia do futuro será Bionic. (Consulte Anexo 4.)
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A digital transformation is a daunting prospect. But with a platform-based IT organization, supported by a DDP architecture, the transformation can occur in manageable chunks, steadily and incrementally, using “speed boats.” A speed boat is a means of deploying part of the new organization or way of working in an accelerated, agile manner. These deployments require relatively low effort, have limited operational impact or dependencies on the rest of the organization, have high value and visibility for business and IT stakeholders, and can be launched in a standalone way, separate from the rest of the transformation.
In our experience, platform-based deployments significantly improve the customer experience and P&L. The benefits include better business and IT collaboration for improved product development; agile product launch cycles that speed time to market by two to four times; less overhead and more built-in mechanisms for continuous improvement, which boost productivity two to four times; the digitization of operations and customer experience, which improves the cost-income ratio by 10% to 15%; and a more agile work environment that appeals to high-performing employees and aids recruitment.
For example, BCG worked with a large industrial goods company that responded to the COVID-19 business disruption by creating digital end-to-end (E2E) processes. It wanted to improve customer centricity, create integrated offerings, speed development, and boost efficiency. To those ends, we helped build a platform-based operating model on three pillars:
- Technology. Descrevemos uma nova arquitetura de destino baseada em DDP para criar uma jornada perfeita para o cliente E2E. Avaliamos a maturidade tecnológica e como as mudanças na arquitetura de tecnologia podem resolver pontos problemáticos.
- Pessoas. Realizamos uma pesquisa da força de trabalho com 3.200 funcionários internos e externos de TI. Baselinamos os papéis, habilidades e atividades para mais de 1.850 equivalentes em tempo integral e, em seguida, estabelecemos metas para alocar a força de trabalho para atividades e habilidades específicas. Projetamos e planejamos a transição e criamos um manual detalhado para "levantar" a plataforma. O novo modelo operacional permitiu que a empresa desacoplasse dados e aplicativos (possibilitando o desenvolvimento de aplicativos de forma independente) e identificar os principais recursos para aproveitar as plataformas para desbloquear o valor (tanto reutilizando os recursos quanto escalando -os em toda a empresa). A produtividade aumentou de 25% a 50%, o tempo para o mercado acelerou de 2-3 anos para 3-12 meses, a automação de DevOps reduziu as atividades de provisão em 90% (melhorando a agilidade) e o custo diminuiu de 20% a 30% entre a redução de custo e a inovação necessária. Mas existem maneiras de gerenciar essa tensão. A abordagem baseada em plataforma que descrevemos neste artigo cria agilidade e sucesso, facilitando a colaboração de especialistas funcionais e técnicos para que eles possam se alinhar e implementar soluções de negócios. Ao se casar com o poder e a escalabilidade da tecnologia (através da arquitetura DDP) com conhecimento humano, flexibilidade e criatividade, a abordagem da plataforma leva as organizações mais próximas de ser o tipo de empresas biônicas que serão donas do futuro. Karim Chaabouni
- Organization and Ways of Working. We designed and planned the transition and created a detailed playbook to “stand up” the platform.
By setting up its platform-based operating model so quickly, the company accelerated its transformation toward being a bionic company. The new operating model allowed the business to decouple data and applications (making it possible to develop applications independently) and identify key capabilities to leverage across platforms to unlock value (both by reusing the capabilities and by scaling them across the enterprise).
The company’s results have been dramatic across the board. Productivity increased 25% to 50%, time to market accelerated from 2-3 years to 3-12 months, the automation of DevOps reduced provision activities by 90% (thus improving agility), and IT run cost declined 20% to 30%.
CIOs will continue to struggle to find a good balance between cost reduction and the innovation needed to foster value generation. But there are ways to manage this tension. The platform-based approach we describe in this article creates agility and success by facilitating the collaboration of functional and technical experts so they can align on and implement business solutions. By marrying the power and scalability of technology (through the DDP architecture) with human expertise, flexibility, and creativity, the platform approach takes organizations closer to being the kind of bionic companies that will own the future.
