In today's digitally-driven economies, organisations' entire operating models are popping up and disappearing, and being recreated again, almost overnight.
This is a view expressed by Russel Brand, innovation consultant, solution sales and portfolio management of T-Systems in South Africa, who adds that the rise of mobility - weaved into almost every facet of the modern enterprises' architecture - is emerging as a powerful force that is driving this change.
"Coupled with trends like social media, cloud computing and big data, mobility is the catalyst for incredible rates of change in various industries across the globe," explains Brand. "Remember how the structures of music distribution were permanently redrawn over a decade ago? The next wave of industries to be demolished and built again from the ground up, include the likes of private taxis (think of Uber), accommodation (services like AirBNB), tertiary education (The Khan Academy), manufacturing (MakerBot) and resourcing (eLance)."
According to Brand, in just a few short years, these verticals will bear no resemblance to the way they are today. For business leaders, he says, this is a scary thought. Mobility innovations are increasingly blurring the lines between customers, communities, partners, suppliers and competitors - as we learn to work in more flexible ways.
"From an innovation perspective, however, this presents unique opportunities. Some organisations - like those mentioned above - have managed to successfully extend the boundaries of their organisations, leveraging the collective geniuses of many different stakeholders, to achieve innovation and rapid growth," adds Brand. "This, in fact, will become the standard philosophy of business in the future, whatever the industry in which one operates."
In technological terms, it is called a "platform-based approach" to architecting the organisation, states Brand. In contrast to the traditional tower-based approach, platforms are comprised of compatible hardware and software components - intended to reduce development risks, costs and time.
"Network services provide the access layer into other, interoperable, environments. Infrastructure is provisioned 'on the fly'. Applications are fully-hosted and pushed constantly to a range of different devices within the organisation, and outside of its traditional walls."
Brand notes further that a platform-based approach represents a move towards an open innovation model, where the organisation turns its innovation agenda "inside-out" - to face the world. It's a model that relies on tight, interoperable links between different organisations' platforms, coupled with broad usage of cloud-based services.
"Mobility extends the edges of the platform-based enterprise, facilitates collaboration, and pulls various information streams into the nerve centre of the organisation. In fact, the concept of bringing intelligence from the edge is a central tenet of platform-based architecture."
Brand concludes that, ultimately, organisations that are already embracing open innovation (delivered via a platform-based development of ecosystems) will transition into the new digital economy as existing leaders in their fields.
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