How to navigate the complexities and land change effectively
Composable architecture or MACH technologies offer numerous advantages such as – reducing the time to market, providing greater flexibility and enabling you to quickly respond to changing customer needs. However, it can also introduce a host of new challenges for IT and business teams including:
- Ensuring a unified delivery when there are lots of different vendors
- Successfully managing multiple suppliers so that all the interdependencies are transparent
- Understanding how the solution will be managed longer term
- How to ensure the business teams are ready to take on this change and recognise the benefits it brings
If these concerns are familiar, then Lean Tree can help. Our supplier management approach enables us to deliver success at every part of the journey and to ensure we work hand in hand with your organisation. We approach any new implementation with 3 simple stages, Advise, Deliver and Embed.
ADVISE – laying the groundwork for future success through:
- Establishing clear ownership – we identify key decision-makers and establish clear lines of communication
- Building governance – we define the governance model, ensuring roles and responsibilities are clear amongst the proposed vendors
- Reviewing the organisational support structure – we review how the business and IT need to be structured to maximise the value from your new solution, acknowledging that people already have a day job!
DELIVER – our focus on delivery ensures for a successful implementation by:
- Providing an independent approach – we create a trusted team that has no stakes in the game except delivering the project for you. No marking your own homework.
- Establishing a Governance model – we continue to develop the governance model to ensure there is an agreed and strong communication plan, allowing for cross-vendor dependencies to be visible and actionable.
- Working as One Team – Having so many specialist vendors as part of your deliverables can create a number of challenges. Our focus is to foster an environment where all parties work with complete openness and transparency. This is done through a strong governance model and clear open communication across all levels.
- Clear Unified Delivery Plan – From delivery of the first line of code through to successfully completing hypercare we create a clear plan that can be understood at all levels of the organisation. This brings clarity, measurement against milestones, clear status reporting as well as a clear path that is needed to get to a completion and rollout date.
EMBED – we support organisations to create lasting change by:
- Creating a support structure – With technological change comes the need to efficiently and reliably support it. Determining the source of problems amongst a backdrop of many vendors and minimising the time required to identify the issue and resolve it. Without a well-defined structure, the implementation process can be compromised, so it is essential to consider these aspects from the outset rather than treating them as an afterthought.
- Focusing on Continuous Delivery – After implementing your new composable solution, how do you guarantee ongoing success and swiftly capitalise on its benefits? We establish a process that facilitates seamless transition into continuous delivery, while also ensuring there are clear roles and responsibilities within a robust product structure, ensuring transparent and cohesive ownership.
- Embedding change for the long term – Executing change is challenging, but even more daunting is bringing the business on this transformative journey and ensuring they are ready to use these new tools to drive real value for the business. Change is not something that can be approached hastily, it requires a long-term perspective and a deep understanding of how the transformation will impact the organisation in future. Success will depend on how effectively the business has been brought along on this journey.
- Setting the teams up for success –Building a structure that is adaptable to the new architecture is crucial when undertaking any degree of change. Recognising shifts in people’s roles, responsibilities and their daily activities guarantees the realisation of true value. Implementing a new solution will affect an individual’s daily responsibilities, so you need to prepare for this. We prioritise openness and transparency throughout this process, developing a sense of inclusion and participation in the journey.
Lean Tree’s independent approach is different to other suppliers. Our only interest and commitment to our clients is to ensure successful delivery across all systems, solutions, integrations and landing the change effectively with the business, enabling the benefits to be realised sooner.
If any of the challenges mentioned in this article resonate with you and you want to understand more about how we can help, then please get in touch at [email protected] and we will arrange a call with one of our Supplier Management experts.
