2012 will be another year full of challenges. Enterprises want to know what drivers they can harness to help them address the crisis and keep them moving forward. Anticipation and innovation remain watchwords for successful adjustment to the market. Whatever strategies are adopted, it is essential to focus on the future, consolidate forces and win employee support for transformation projects. In a series of articles published in SolucomINSIGHT (www.solucominsight.fr), its online magazine, Solucom proposes 12 key ideas as a guide for the year ahead.
ANTICIPATION - Anticipate for a successful recovery from the crisis: find the right pace!
The capacity of enterprises to anticipate when managing their priorities, investments and tactical or strategic movements in a period of uncertainty is critical and requires the right operating pace. It is important to know how to slow the machinery down just when necessary, never stopping it but keeping it operational, even if only idling. Slacker periods can also be profitably put to use to implement performance-enhancing measures.
INNOVATION - Goodbye 2011, crisis year. Hello 2012… crisis year!
There is every likelihood that 2012, like 2011, will be a difficult year. Crisis periods are occurring ever more frequently but must never become an obstacle to innovation. Innovation is not an incantation but primarily a state of mind. It is pragmatic and progressive and does not necessarily entail major investments or unrealistic costs. It is also a concrete means of helping an enterprise come more easily through a difficult patch. An appropriate maxim to bear in mind for 2012 is this quote from Titus Livy, “In difficult situations, when hope seems feeble, the boldest plans are the safest”.
COMMITMENT - “Forest precedes Man, desert follows”, Chateaubriand
Although the environment has long been a topic of discussion, it will not be taken seriously without a major cultural shift. In 2012 all IT department activities must focus firmly on green issues. More and more enterprises are treading the path of CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility and the IT industry has adopted a Green IT agenda. Consequently, a variety of mature technological solutions and developments are now available to enterprises to optimise electrical consumption of IT infrastructures, systematise recycling in production cycles and facilitate remote working, thus limiting travel.
NETWORK - Collaborative working for better communication in 2012?
Over the past 20 years collaborative work solutions have entered the workplace. 2012 will see a revival of collaborative working focused on human interactions. Some methodological principles are already emerging to help diagnose the collaborative operation of an enterprise and measure the contribution of this new generation of collaborative tool.
TRANSFORMATION - “There can be no transforming of darkness into light and of apathy into movement without emotions”, Carl Gustav Jung
To continue to exist, an enterprise must know how to change, rethink its structure and acquire efficient, innovative tools. Transformation is a fascinating, long-term adventure. To manage it well demands flexibility and pragmatism along with commitment and the will to do things together… challenges that many people will doubtless have to take up in 2012!
SYNERGY - Between business line and information system: a winning strategy
Nowadays major changes to a business line have an impact on the information system, and vice versa. IT departments must view each project as a potential source of synergy (synergy in the emergence of new services, implementation of projects, and definition and management of major transformations). In this way they will be able to correct the misalignment between information system and business line and be in a position to transform the information system “on demand”.
OPENING UP - The key to growth for large organisations
Opening up is essential if we are to assist and develop our organisations and make them competitive while preserving their resources! 2012 will without doubt be the year of opening up to new business lines, new partners, new uses and new ways of doing things (use of tablets and smartphones, cloud computing). This will drive cost-cutting and promote the emergence of new services.
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP- A key differentiator for enterprises
Customer relationship has gradually been adopting digital technology but enterprises still see it as a potential area for differentiation and innovation. Matters currently under scrutiny include new online services, customer-dedicated websites and links with social networks. In 2012, the “relationship” is both the objective (a more efficient customer relationship to secure greater loyalty) and the means (both through a pragmatic, constructive IT department / business line relationship and through the tools available to customer relationship employees).
PERFORMANCE - Relativistic concept or vehicle of excellence?
Performance improvement programmes are all the fashion in IT departments. The key factor for a successful performance plan is simplicity: a limited area of operation together with accountability for a scientifically valid, measurable overall objective. Simplicity is a vehicle of excellence for customers and all the teams involved.
MOBILITY- 2012, the all-mobile year?
Mobility is part and parcel of our personal and professional lives. The growing success of mobile terminals - with smartphones in the lead - and of their multitude of applications is transforming daily existence. The internet, multimedia and electronic commerce (m-commerce) are now “mobile” and a growing number of commercial, social and financial interactions are conducted using mobile devices. Information, content and connectivity are the same in all places at all times. 2012 therefore looks set - even more so than 2011 - to become the “all-mobile year”, with a double challenge for enterprises.
SIMPLICITY - “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”, Leonardo da Vinci
Apart from the inertia it engenders, complexity is often synonymous with rising costs. Periods of crisis and “budgetary selectivity” are therefore often suitable occasions for enterprises to choose simplicity wherever possible. Paradoxically, simplicity is not the easiest choice to make. It requires a major overhaul of modes of operation and a well-conducted change management process. This will be a good project around which to mobilise your teams in 2012!
COHESION - Collective intelligence: a key factor for cohesion and performance in an enterprise?
As all the signs suggest that 2012 will be a very difficult year, most enterprises, in an attempt to grapple with ecosystems that are both complex and in a permanent state of flux, will try to improve their capacity to understand and act by strengthening intimacy with customers and partners. Ways to achieve this goal include enhancing employee mobilisation and building collective team spirit via the concept of collective intelligence.
About Solucom
Solucom is an independent management and IT consulting firm.
Solucom’s clients are among the top 200 large companies and public bodies. Solucom is able to mobilise and combine the competences of close on 1000 employees on its clients’ behalf.
Our mission statement? To place innovation at the heart of business lines, target and steer value-added-generating transformations, and make the information system a true asset serving corporate strategies.
Solucom is quoted on NYSE Euronext and has been awarded the OSEO Innovation seal of approval as an innovative enterprise.
Discover solucomINSIGHT, the online review by Solucom consultants: www.solucominsight.fr
