If the current pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that businesses must prioritize speed, flexibility, and agility. These things all help businesses be resilient in the face of upheavals. Looking around, it is clear that organizations that have invested in flexible and agile models have adapted to current situations the best, beating out the competition and making lasting roots in the industry.
Most businesses have to respond to sudden crises or upheavals in 2 ways: immediate, need-of-the-hour, and a more carefully thought-out long-term plan.
So, how should businesses become more agile and respond quickly?
IT is the key to delivering appropriate outcomes in the fastest and easiest way possible. The IT leaders of any business will plan on how to navigate the business during the pandemic, how to go about reopening the workplace, and how to plan a strategy for future upheavals.
Here are some things you need to consider and plan for improved delivery methods during changing outcomes and crises.
Does Your Business Model Need a Makeover?
When the stakes are high, survival doesn’t mean hanging on by a thread. It isn’t enough to just adapt to the situation at present. Your business needs to weather the storms that pop up unexpectedly in the future. To do so, it needs a resilient and flexible operating model. This might go beyond just delivery models.
When renovating your business model to be absolutely future-proof, digital transformation is your primary toolkit. Moreover, it is the space in which the business and IT aspects of the organization intersect. The two areas or departments need to collaborate: business leaders will decide on the outcomes and models they want, while IT plays a major role in putting the plans to action.
You need to assess why you need a new delivery model. Analyzing what is wrong with the old will open the door to shaping what you need your business model to deliver. From there, you can work on what you expect the new model to do. Do you want to break out into a new market? Has your target audience changed? Perhaps you want to take advantage of new opportunities in the future, or you simply want to give your shrinking profit margins a boost.
But the long-term goal is pretty simple: an operating model that is agile, quick, and intuitive. However, you still need to keep tabs on your business model and tweak things depending on external conditions. For this reason, you will need a solid governance program that keeps an eye on things.
While you work on a new business model, there are things you can adjust to get favorable outcomes in the present.
Alternative Delivery Models for Fluctuating Outcomes
To start with, companies have to gauge the strategic outcomes of the business. How has the pandemic affected customers, their needs for products/ services, and their relationship with the business as a whole? At the same time, is it safe enough to reopen workplaces and bring employees back? Does the business require additional channels of delivery for the same products/services to make them more appealing to the customers?
Can the business carry out things like testing and social distancing that will keep workers safe? Also, businesses need to assess whether employees are ready to risk their health to work outside and check up on those vulnerabilities like health problems, sick family, as well as mental health issues
The new normal is a very real thing, and individuals must adapt to it as well. This includes workplace processes, delivery models, and operations as well. There may be a need to retrain employees so that the workplace can be up to date with processes revolving around API-led approaches and using real-time data for quicker responses. This will set the stage so that businesses can truly accomplish agility and correctly adapt to the needs of the market.
Furthermore, your business should maximize the value of its data by an API network model that allows you to build once and reuse it repeatedly. For the most speed and efficiency, automate the decision-making process, especially when the work involves repetition.
Employees will also require a greater degree of freedom and flexibility, especially when navigating their way through these new and unsure conditions. While the current pandemic has proved that remote work can be done and done well; working in a post-pandemic world still needs a lot of adapting to changing circumstances.
Besides changing business processes and operations, they also need to focus on employee well-being as well. Providing them with flexibility and fulfillment will help them achieve more for the company and remain motivated during times of crisis.
Final Thoughts
Over the past few months, the business has gone through several phases. Many of them have reopened in full capacity. Others have flourished in a work-from-home model. No matter how they work, all these organizations have one thing in common: they have adapted their processes, outcomes, and delivery models to mesh with current conditions. IT leaders are in a unique position to lead their enterprises through these troubling times and come out stronger than before. With the right delivery model, your business can rise above the ranks while navigating through uncharted territories.
