When companies were forced to change to WFH due to epidemic many companies found out that outsourcing critical services made them vulnerable to abrupt disturbances and business continuity.
Many of the critical services were halted or delayed. Disruptions - major and minor in various forms - cyberattacks, trade wars, extreme weather conditions, epidemics etc., will continue to impact businesses.
To prepare better for services in future Companies can look to distributed computing principles which dynamically rebalance tasks to maximise efficiency. Companies can improve their resilience by breaking up services into modules that can be reallocated across networks based on availability rather than geography.
Any to any architecture
During the internet boom of 1990s companies started shifting the processing of services offshore to achieve back-office efficiencies. This was initially centred around low-cost labour in Asia. But during a crisis or disruption like the one we are facing now, this entire process fails if any one of the steps is disrupted.
By adopting any to any principle which allows teams to collaborate across platforms, tools and locations, companies can create parallel service processing environments that permit service modules to be run and shifted flexibly across teams and locations.
This may sound straightforward it requires companies to shift their processing to multiple, alternate locations with central data centres. This means that live processing capabilities have to replicate across more teams and locations. New systems need to be tested for use across multiple locations, teams. Employees need to be retrained in more than one type of activity to shift resources more nimbly.
Steps to be taken to ensure companies are prepared.
Determine critical processes
First, identify and focus on the processes critical to operate and deliver its core functions over different time frames.
Identify single points of failure
Next, analyse where a single point of failure could disrupt critical process systems. Examine every possibility - men, tools, equipment, location for potential vulnerabilities. Test how they affect the system and processes and where redundancy is required.
Design your network
With all the information available, redesign the processes. Define the minimum operational performance for critical processes. Breakup each process into a series of interconnected modules that optimise resilience and recoverability through any to any connection.
Upgrade workflow and communication tools
Establish common tools across organisations so that workflows can be managed seamlessly across teams and locations. Ensure workflows can be managed and accessed virtually with proper rights globally shared across teams. It includes monitoring and ensuring operational effectiveness of the processes, controls and capabilities.
Establish any to any operations
To fit daily operations companies would require an agile governance model, where process owners are responsible for the process modules including decisions on whether they can work on designated work or shift the work to other teams or locations. Senior managers should oversee the portfolio of activities to ensure alignment and governance of this decision making.
Building efficiency and resilience
Offshored knowledge processing have enabled companies to reach across to more customers than thought possible but ensure that the processing systems are not too rigid especially at times of crisis.
To get over this anomaly, some companies are bringing back the service in-house. But companies must resist this option and build a resilient service processing operation to reap the benefits of offering more services to customers.
Preparing for Disruption With Resilient Services
Pankaj Khanna, Ushir Bhatt, and Tom Ivell •
MITSMR 2020/10
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