19th February 2010

The 2^nd Meeting of the Operational Agility Forum, hosted by BT at the iconic BT Tower in January 2010 focused on how to successfully implement business led computing initiatives.

The first meeting of the Operational Agility Forum, held in Henley-on-Thames in July 2009 discussed how agile operations could deliver substantial business benefits including cost savings,  service quality improvements and operational efficiencies, through providing operations teams with an ability to drive operational process improvements and procedural automation themselves. This concept of "self-service", or dynamically configuring existing application assets would only work however, if fully supported by IT.

The forum believed that "Business Led Computing" would enable operations to both support large-scale and long-term strategic IT programs AND keep pace with operational demands driven by continual change within a market-led, customer-responsive service environment.

In this, the 2^nd meeting of the forum, held in London in January 2010, it was concluded by the forum members that Business Led Computing offers compelling economic advantage and addresses a strategic need within business operations. The concept of business operations building their own solutions can generate significant buy-in from operational teams too. It provides opportunities for up-skilling as well as acting to motivate individuals who understand the execution of processes to help design and improve their efficiency, all without increasing core IT budgets. The forum believes that Business Led Computing works best when it complements and extends core IT programs, not replaces them.

In order to roll out an "agility program", all stakeholders need to be involved as early as possible and confidence needs to be built across the team to prove security, data integrity, scalability, auditability, and governance etc.  For example, IT will have valid concerns over the methodology being used, whether there is overlap with core IT programmes, the impact on existing core systems, and how this initiative fits with existing change control procedures. Equally, those responsible for audit and governance may also have requirements relating to procedural compliance and any relevant regulatory demands.

The forum explored what other stakeholders may gain from BLC to balance the freedoms and responsibilities required to delegate control.  For example, for IT the benefits would include - non-intrusive system integration, no new data would be created, improved data quality for existing data, less helpdesk calls, reduced pressure on batch windows, improved process consistency, and transparency in systems support.

It was acknowledged that, whilst the technical solution can facilitate the benefits, a major determinant of the success of any program is based on how effectively it is deployed and managed.  The third meeting of the forum will focus on best practice approach for roll-out an agility program to account for the organisation's culture and internal relationships, as well as technology and processes.

The forum agreed to meet again in July 2010 at the Headquarters of The Co-operative Financial Services in Manchester to further discuss and explore the necessary methodologies and operational procedures to support a business led computing program. The forum will also have the opportunity to see the CFS "agility team" and some of the operational processes in action.

About the Operational Agility Forum

The Operational Agility Forum was established as a platform for Business and IT professionals from multiple industries to meet and discuss the potential benefits for business operations of adopting more agile approaches for efficiently and rapidly responding to business challenges and opportunities. The members share many common challenges including how to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations, how to reduce their reliance on manual processes, to remove errors and inconsistencies in their processes and to ultimately improve their customer's experience. The forum remit is to explore these challenges, share experiences and best practice approaches and to ultimately work towards a template for agile business operations and the necessary IT methodologies and technology needed to support operational agility.

If you are interested in learning more about the Operational Agility Forum then please contact Pat Geary at pat.geary@blueprism.com

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