This service helps an organization define a range of profitable options for the future operating model of their people, process and technology
Service overview
The Cogentes Future State Visioning service helps organizations define a range of desirable operating models, for people, process and technology, that organizations can work toward realizing within a defined number of quarters. This service is not tied to defining where a business is today. Rather, it answers the question:
“What are the range of options we should be considering for the operating model of this company given projected business conditions, the market we’re in, the requirements of customers, and our business objectives as defined in the long-range plan, particularly profitability goals?”
This service provides concrete definitions of what could be different in the future for all three areas of the operating model:
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People – the range of skill-sets that will be needed to support business processes and technology infrastructure and how the relationships should be structured between business and IT staff.
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Process – the key business processes that will be critical to supporting customers and the mission of the organization.
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Technology – the technology infrastructure that will be best-suited to supporting mission-critical business processes, delivered in a set of architecture diagrams.
The value of this service
Executives at many businesses are uncertain about whether or not they can actually execute against the technology component of their business strategy. Goals can be set, but without a realistic appraisal of their achievability, they lack the viability necessary to be effective for long-term planning. This service provides an objective, practical, and enlightening analysis from outside experts with no vested interest in a given department or the existing political climate. Our analysis examines how realistic the long-range plan is and makes recommendations about how the plan should be changed to become achievable. This service defines a practical vision for where a company’s operating model can be within a defined range of desirable and profitable options.
The Cogentes Future State Visioning service promotes unity of purpose and buy-in to the business vision and strategy from the key players who will be responsible to execute the plan. This service educates executives about the range of possibilities that are available for their operating model, given projected business conditions and objectives. This information, therefore, becomes invaluable to the strategic planning process.
This service also substantially improves the probability that a business will achieve one of several desirable operating models in the future. It provides direction, intentionality, and a foundation for planning and investing. There are many unknowns in business that cannot be predicted. This service does not address those. It addresses instead the unknowns that arise from uncertainty about the efficacy of a strategic plan. It eliminates the “knowable unknowns”, preparing a company to move forward.
This service offers a compass for quarterly, or some other interval, check-ins that will show progress toward a clearly defined set of goals. Most importantly, this service offers executives the confidence that they will realize their business strategy and that their people, process, and technology will be ready for the future.
Our approach
To deliver this service, Cogentes engages in a four-stage process:
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Discovery
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Synthesis
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Findings
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Recommendations.
In the Discovery phase, Cogentes consultants will:
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Confirm business requirements to begin with a current state assessment or future state visioning engagement.
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Conduct an initial kick-off meeting with the executive team and ask for a commitment to this process and access to documentation, resources, and people.
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Interview the executive team to gain an understanding of where the business is trying to go. Consultants will examine in detail the business plan and long-term strategic objectives and to a lesser degree the current operating model as the executives understand it.
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Interview key operations staff to understand how critical business processes are likely to change over the next several quarters.
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Interview key Human Resources staff to understand how “people” requirements are likely to change in the next several quarters.
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Interview key finance staff to understand where the business is likely to make investments over the next several quarters.
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Interview key IT staff and understand their vision for how the organization’s IT function is likely to change in the next several quarters.
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Assess an organization’s openness to change.
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Analyze the history of failed attempts at change and look for root causes of those failures.
In the synthesis phase, Cogentes consultants examine all data gathered to that point in the engagement and begin to develop the range of operating models we believe will support the strategic objectives of the business. We compare our proposed operating model with industry trends, practices and benchmarks to project how our client’s environment will compare to other companies.
In the findings phase, we develop a range of operating models into specific systems with defined parameters for people, process, and technology. We include architecture diagrams for the technology environments and definitions of the human resources necessary to support the technology environment and business processes.
In the recommendations phase we provide our best estimate of the parameters of the operating model our clients should pursue.
Our deliverables
The deliverables from this service include:
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A Microsoft Word document that contains our Discovery, Synthesis, Findings and Recommendations.
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A PowerPoint document that is used to present the key findings and recommendations of this service.
