I recently listened to leading executives from my company’s IT advisory board discuss their top technology issues. These CTOs, CIOs and senior IT executives from a range of midsize-to-large organizations had many concerns. But front and center for almost all of them was the question of how to enable the agile enterprise.
An agile enterprise reacts quickly and efficiently to changes, such as market opportunities or mergers and acquisitions. The ability to react quickly translates to top-line revenue, and the ability to adjust efficiently equals lower costs.
Making an enterprise agile is easier said than done. But here’s a good place to start:
Consider wireless . Many companies with have found that properly deployed wireless infrastructure can help them roll out new offices, support infrequent gatherings such as executive conferences, and more efficiently interact with customers or suppliers. The catch is that proper deployment means taking into consideration security and manageability, both of which can be major headaches for organizations that have gone wireless via ad hoc rollout of wireless switches and routers.
Maintain multiple telecom relationships. Many companies ask me to help them consolidate all telecom services to one provider. Bad idea. A single-carrier strategy is a total-control strategy – as in, the carrier has total control over you. With multiple providers, you take the reins. Let’s say one carrier is providing voice services while another is running your data network – and you suddenly require a new data service to be up and running in weeks. You’re more likely to get it if you ask both your incumbent providers to compete against each other to deliver your services. Now a converged infrastructure might mean that you choose to apportion your carrier relationships differently – perhaps West Coast/East Coast, rather than voice/data. But the more suppliers you have, the faster you can get one to address your needs.
Design in redundancy. I’m not talking about disaster recovery but about flexibility. Well-architected user interfaces invariably provide more than one way to get things done – your network should do the same. Here’s an example: If you can e-mail-enable the cell phones of your telecommuting employees, you’ve provided them with an alternate path for getting e-mail. Not only are you protecting against unexpected outages, but you’ve also provided an alternate way for employees to communicate, which can result in greater efficiency. Remote salespeople, for example, might find it easier to message headquarters directly from the client site – which results in fresher information.
Make sure you’re effectively leveraging virtual networking. Whether it’s a VPN instead of a legacy service, or a box with virtual routing capability rather than a chassis filled with router blades, virtual networking makes it possible to react quickly and effectively to changes.
Bottom line: Agility isn’t something that can be forklifted into a company, but using it as a guiding principle can yield measurable benefits.
