Modernising Core Systems in the World of Bi-Modal IT

Maybe I am talking to the wrong execs. Maybe it is me and not them. Or maybe, just maybe the power of the marketing machine is overwhelming.
Whatever it is, everyone seems to know what Bi-Modal IT is yet when I talk about Multi- Speed IT, most of the time it seems like a revelation — which of course it is not and are they really that different.
Gartner talks about Mode 1 (existing and predictable services) and Mode 2 (new and exploratory services). This is how most people understand them though if you read a little more, Gartner also makes mention of renovating mode 1 systems though I think that gets lost in the whole concept of two modes of IT.
I prefer the whole concept of Multi-speed IT which is really just a variation (or better understood) application of Bi-Modal.
In Multi-Speed there are three distinct types (I don’t think I can say modes) of services that IT delivers.
The first is the traditional legacy core systems (Mode 1) that are optimised for the power users that are in the systems all day long. Mode 1 systems are generally on-premises, monolithic and have long release and upgrade cycles (think waterfall). They are also generally not very open and as a result you don’t see much changes to them.
The second is really a variation of the first and these are legacy core systems that are more open.
The third is of course new systems (Mode 2) that organisations should look to deliver through the world of Agile and DevOps. These of course have the benefits of quick time to delivery and value that greatly enhances the organisations ability to innovate and rapidly adapt to change.
I love Agile and DevOps and have blogged about them in the past and I will do so in the future though for now I would like to concentrate on systems that exist in-between Mode 1 and 2. Those systems that have been looked upon as legacy with little opportunity to apply Agile and DevOps techniques to, though lend themselves to a Mode 2 approach.
The key to these in-between legacy systems is their openness and their support of modern interfaces that allow for the decoupling of the legacy layer from the engagement and experience layer. If this is the case, they are a great candidate for ‘modernising core systems’.
Catchy phrase though what does this actually mean? Well it means three things; providing self-service through engaging user experiences, automating the heck out of repetitive manual processes and managing workload.
These core systems like financials, payroll, resource management, HR, etc will often rely on manual processes to get things done such as onboarding a new vendor / supplier, maintaining master data, employee moves, relocations, etc.
They also generally require someone who is fairly proficient with the process and the system to accomplish the tasks. Now think of your organisation, do you send an email to a shared mailbox to get something like the above done. Does your organisation use SharePoint to manage these interactions. If the answer to either of these is yes, then I suggest that your employee experience is inconsistent at best. When things go wrong or you have questions do you revert to email? It just keeps going on and on.
More progressive organisations see this as delivering extremely bad employee experience and a real drain on productivity and want to do something about it.
This is where the ServiceNow conversation generally starts as whilst organisations want to automate many of these processes often they are not mature enough. If this is the case, the first part of modernising the core systems is providing a level of thin Case management around the processes so as when something is not going as expected the employees have self-service access to get it fixed.
Many organisations start by using the ServiceNow fully adaptive mobile Service Portal to drive this interaction. This gives employees an easy way to log Cases when things go wrong and to get full visibility of the process. Often times, where the organisation is using ServiceNow’s Machine Learning, the employee has to enter minimalist information to get the case properly categorised and routed to the right person the first time.
Frome those working on the Cases it takes them out of email and into manageable queues of work that are prioritised and have SLA’s associated with them. They can then manage their workload very visually through Visual task Boards and collaborate with those they need help with whilst recording all the information automatically. All of this whilst automating the workflow process and orchestrating through integration across the existing landscape.
Once a company starts tracking this information they can apply analytics and take a business lens to what they are doing. I most often have these conversations with companies that are moving to a shared services model for the delivery of core services.
Where companies have started using ServiceNow to do Case Management a natural progression is automating the many manual processes across core systems. I am working with a large Shared Services company in India that is doing just that and in doing so enabling employees to move from managing 70 transactions a day to 150 a day. This is how you can scale without adding extra staff.
This is why I love Multi-Speed IT and so should you too and it is not that hard to start. Look for those core systems that you run your business on and introduce Case Management instead of emails to manage queries or exceptions to the process. Everybody will be more productive and the experience will be so much better.
Then stop having people interacting with multiple, complex systems by automating the process and give access via a responsive, consumer experience.
I am helping organisations across APJ to modernise core systems and deliver new services using Agile and DevOps methodologies. This is what ServiceNow helps me do — make the world of work, work better for people!