Evolving the business of business

Business leaders today live in interesting times. In domestic markets or abroad, businesses are still pursuant to this agreement tremendous pressure. Clients, suppliers and shareholders expect ever faster service in ever broader geographies. Continued economic uncertainty makes it more important than ever to be able to bring new products to market quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively.

Companies are to sum up transforming business infrastructure to align it against operational goals - making it scalable to support future growth, agile and high performance to deliver business applications quickly and reliably, flexible to accommodate operational fluctuation, and in the extreme efficient, to maximise return on investment.

The end result is likely to be a future where business is dramatically different, with the new standard being based on collaborative business ecosystems, joint ventures, partnerships, outsourced models and fragmentation. And what is increasingly clear is that those organisations that invest in research today will be ahead of the game tomorrow.

Competition is increasingly fragmented. It is difficult to know how to differentiate yourself from competitors when the competition cannot be obviously defined, or partly, even located. Determining how and where business effort should be focused is increasingly complex, particularly as emerging market expansion brings increased complexity in terms of regulatory and other requirements.

Fluid business constructs that enable organizations to make the most of opportunities as they arise are increasingly driven by research. Global, IP-enabled networks enable collaboration between employees, clients, partners and other stakeholders, and are the foundation on which companies can build new constructs that can streamline business processes, enhance decision making, improve productivity and enrich customer service.

But these constructs as well need to consider operational flexibility. Cloud computing gives enterprises flexible access to large amounts of scalable computing power, with the freedom to adjust capacity as required, supporting the natural cycles of their business.

The cloud is not the only option

The cloud is not the only option. With scarce capex, selective outsourcing is another increasingly popular business model. The incoming generation of employees shares and manages information in a different way to that of most employers, expecting their experience of information consumption and collaboration in the workplace to mirror the always-on communications environment of their personal space.

This is, of necessity, leading to a consumerisation of innovation in the workplace. Today's employee is used to accessing information in multiple formats, on multiple smart devices, from any location, on demand. With immersive video communication research, mobile devices and social networking tools increasingly filtering into the office environment, the demand for big bandwidth is tremendous. It means high capacity networks and always-available applications are becoming critical business enablers.

The key issues faced

One of the key issues faced by many business leaders is understanding what is already possible and what this means for their business both today and tomorrow.

Business leaders are already looking to integrate consumer-driven IT approaches into the workplace and make it work for their organisation, and mobile information access is now an absolute standard in business research. Mobile device management and content delivery systems will play a crucial role in the workplace of the future transforming the office intranet into trusted social workspaces.

Perhaps the most important 'already possible' research is cloud computing - which is driving a fundamental shift towards an 'Everything as a Service' delivery model, a world in which cloud-based, converged solutions are delivered with built-in security via managed and professional services over global IP networks. This new computing model has the potential to transform enterprise operations. Flexible access to large amounts of scalable computing power gives enterprises the freedom to access resources on demand to support natural business cycles.

Real impact on business operations

We are already seeing several other key trends begin to make a real impact on business operations. For instance, High IQ networks, video, the network and Machine-to-Machine communications.

Innovation can bring significant rewards, particularly if framed in support of business strategy. By looking afresh at the business of business, we can build new innovation infrastructures that will help make the business environment of the future more fluid, more agile, and ultimately, more successful.

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