3 Enterprise Architecture Trends that Will Define 2021—and Beyond

3 Enterprise Architecture Trends that Will Define 2021—and Beyond

We’ve stepped into 2021 and it seems like the worst is behind us. Yes, in some regions a new, more dangerous strain of the virus has been detected, but overall it seems reasonable to expect things to get better as we move on. After all, a number of vaccines are expected to be released and also most countries have begun prioritized vaccinations already.

So where does this leave organizations, what does the business world look like after this most peculiar of years?

The Pandemic Fast Tracked Digital Transformation

The great challenges that business faced in 2020 meant that a huge amount of digitization took place in a very short span of time. Healthcare providers that didn’t offer telehealth sessions suddenly became really good at it. Banks that didn’t have a Work From Home policy, almost overnight were forced to empower their staff to work from home – day after day, month after month. We saw people in their tens of millions be transplanted out of the office and into their kitchens, living rooms etc. and being asked to continue doing what they were doing before.

This worked and the result is that for all its imperfections, the process of moving work into people’s homes (where this was possible, obviously; there are millions of people more who had to suffer being made redundant or be put on furlough) kept those companies – and as such those industries – going. But now, as we prepare to take the reins of our reality post-Covid-19, organizations need to deal with the technical debt that was accrued over the past 9-10 months.

So whatever worked and upon analysis turns out we should keep – let’s improve. However, the things that served their purpose but are now either a risk, or simply too inefficient – let’s redesign and optimize going forward. This isn’t a crystal-clear process. The changes that the pandemic forced upon us are not going to entirely evaporate. Whether for the better or worse, Covid-19 will leave some lasting signs on the marketplace.

Steps After the Pandemic

Here are some obvious steps that companies need to look at as they adjust to a reshuffled marketplace:

1. Expand the wins and turn them into a permanent feature of your organization. If you’ve added a new business process during 2020 to help address the need for social distancing, it’s likely that many of your customers are by now not only accustomed to it but may indeed prefer it over how they used to go about things. For instance, this may be online banking in the US, online shopping in Germany, or retail supply chains in the UK. Whichever the case, analyze your current landscape and optimize so that your temporary solution doesn’t continue to look and feel ‘temporary’ in 2021 and beyond.
2. Things are looking up in 2021. Time to own your standard operating procedures, your disaster recovery plans, your business continuity plans. In other words, prepare – it pays off! Are you aware of the software applications that are critical to your staying in business? What about technologies, business processes, or security compliance when going ahead with a contingency plan? Project and portfolio management stand out as more relevant than ever. After all, adequate planning means being aware of all these things and accounting for them as you seek to ensure that next time around your company is minimally impacted by these global disruptions.
3. Embracing digital platforms to unlock untapped organizational value should continue and actually accelerate. The period that will follow the pandemic will see a significant economic rebound take place. This means spending and growth, with opportunity abounding in this positive environment. In order to take advantage of it, businesses will need to be able to react swiftly and decisively. Opportunities live in the marketplace for brief time windows, so be sure you’re ready to act! Whether this be a new customer interaction capability online, an entirely new line of business or acquiring one of the countless businesses that have sprouted during the pandemic, established organizations will need the right change capabilities in place. Identifying and then successfully integrating such initiatives with existing processes, technologies etc. is a complex ask. Thinking on your feet as a large enterprise becomes easier, however, when system agility has been adequately nurtured.

Conclusion

Dealing with the post-pandemic reality means being more aware than ever of the necessity to transform. Therefore, it’s key to have the right capabilities in place to support strategic initiatives, ensure business-IT coordination, and afford the all-important agility that’s required to react quickly to marketplace changes. We believe in order to set up these change capabilities properly you need the right platform to anchor it all, as well as the experience and know-how to successfully carry out a large-scale business transformation project. We’re confident HoriZZon is the answer to the first part of that problem. As for the second one, why don’t you get in touch and we can have a productive chat about turning your organization around.