التكنولوجيا وأخبارها بوابة الإمارات لتكنولوجيا المعلومات والإتصالات
A five-phase strategic and systematic approach to strengthen the resilience of
organizations’ current business models is key to business continuity during the coronavirus
pandemic, according to Gartner, Inc.
“Companies tend to have traditional business continuity strategies and plans that focus on
the continuity of the resources and processes but omit the business model,” said Daniel
Sun, research vice president at Gartner. “However, the business model itself can be a threat
to continuity of operations in external events, such as the global outbreak of COVID-19.”
CIOs can play a key role in the process of raising current business model resilience to
ensure ongoing operations, since digital technologies and capabilities can influence every
aspect of business models.
Phase 1 — Define the business model:Facing the contingency of COVID-19 outbreaks,
companies should first focus on their core customers that are essential to their continuity of operations, and then refer to a process of defining their current business models by
asking questions focused on their customers, value propositions, capabilities and financial
models.
Although CIOs do not normally lead the process of defining business models, they should
proactively engage with senior business leaders to run through 10 key questions regarding
current business models. This is foundational for CIOs to actively participate in modifying
current business models.
Phase 2 — Identify uncertainties:This step can be carried out through a strength,
weakness, opportunity and threat (SWOT) analysis, or by brainstorming. Given the wide
range of uncertainties and threats, this step can benefit from a heterogeneous group
ofparticipantswith diverse backgrounds and interests, particularly where IT is normally
involved. Companies should focus on the risks that the uncertainty poses to the
components of the business model.
“CIOs should participate in, or coordinate, the brainstorming sessions to identify any
uncertainties from COVID-19 outbreaks,” said Mr. Sun. “CIOs can share some of IT’s
potential uncertainties and threats, such as issues with IT infrastructure, applications and
software systems.”
Phase 3 — Assess the impact:Multidisciplinary members should form a project team to
assess, or even quantify, the impact of the identified uncertainties. CIOs can provide the potential impacts from an IT perspective.
Phase 4 — Design changes:At this point in the process, the emphasis is to develop tentative strategies rather than estimate their feasibility. Selecting and executing changes will follow in the next phase. CIOs and IT should leverage digital technologies and capabilities to facilitate the designed changes.
Phase 5 — Execute changes:The decision on which changes to execute is principally a decision for senior leadership teams. The strategies for changes defined in Phase 4 provide essential input for this decision process. Senior leadership teams should select the strategies they feel most compelling to implement, which is often based on both economic calculations andintuition.
“Once senior leadership teams select the business and IT change initiatives, CIOs should apply an agile approach in executing the initiatives. For example, they can form an agile
(product) team of multidisciplinary team members, enabling the alignment between
business and IT and ensuring delivery speed and quality,” said Mr. Sun. “In crises such as
the COVID-19 outbreak, agility, speed and quality are crucial for enabling thecontinuity of operations.”
Gartner clients can learn more in the report “React to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Outbreak via Raising Business Model Resilience.”Additional analysis on the actions CIOs
and IT leaders should take to remain resilient during coronavirus business disruptions is
available in the Gartner webinar “How Your Business Can Respond to Coronavirus (COVID-19).”
Learn more about how to lead organizations through the disruption of coronavirus in the Gartner coronavirus resource center, a collection of complimentary Gartner research and
webinars to help organizations respond, manage and prepare for the rapid spread and
global impact of COVID-19.
