Readying for Recovery: A Pragmatic Approach to Organisational Change

Controlling costs and rethinking business processes for future success

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

European organisations are operating in dynamic and demanding business environments that are changing fast. Decision makers are simultaneously seeking to cut costs, maximise efficiencies and prepare for growth as they move into a new era following on from the global financial crisis. To achieve these goals, Datamonitor proposes that organisations adopt a pragmatic approach to the various external and internal changes they face, in order to yield real-world financial results today and be positioned for growth in the future.

This means that organisations must rethink core business processes in order to adapt to and thrive from the current macro- and microeconomic conditions. They must realign their operations in order to accommodate these changes and tackle issues that are common across various industry sectors.

The role of technology innovation in supporting this pragmatic approach to organisational change should not be overlooked. Technology integration and scalability, remote delivery, managed services and the management of data records should feature prominently in any successful operational strategy.

In order to be positioned for growth once the economic recovery takes hold, organisations should take a pragmatic approach to operational change via agile and cost-effective IT systems and business processes, rather than embarking on a ‘forklift’ upgrade. This will be achieved by assessing and measuring current systems and being aware of how changes can impact them. Specifically, by:

•  ensuring any new investments in technology can integrate seamlessly with systems already in place;
  

• personalising the use of technology to maximise end-user benefit; and

• automating as much of the IT upgrade and maintenance work as possible to free up the time of IT staff. Reducing users’ downtime will also focus more time on core revenue-generating or service-delivery aspects of their roles.