The paths to the Composable Enterprise
Some people will wonder whether Gartner’s neologism refers to the Composable Enterprise or the Compostable Enterprise. But joking aside: the Composable Enterprise describes an organisation that can adapt agilely to the rapid pace of business change (Gartner, Future of Applications: Delivering the Composable Enterprise, February 2020). An absolute necessity and a matter of course, you would think? Yes and no.
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Absolute necessity and a matter of course?
Yes, because even after Covid-19, almost all companies are facing rapid changes from many sides at a rather increasing speed: The digital transformation is on everyone’s lips and is a journey with many stops in between, but without an end point. New technologies will fundamentally change entire markets and ecosystems. And the customers of the new generation no longer want many of the forms of contact with providers that are still established today. Proactive adaptation is therefore imperative.
No, because in reality many companies are not equipped for this speed of change. In addition to silo-like structures in the business or intertwined processes, it is often the existing IT applications that hinder rapid changes and proactive, agile adaptation. This is not an accusation against IT, but a fact in many companies.
So how do you build a functioning Composable Enterprise? At KPS, we see two strategically sensible paths.
Via Instant Platforms immediately to the Composable Enterprise
For all companies, on the other hand, that are facing a fundamental overhaul of their technological base anyway, the evolutionary path is clearly too slow, because it usually takes several years and involves considerable multi-project risks.
There is a real alternative: platform-based transformation, e.g. via KPS Instant Platforms. With Instant Platforms, digital transformations start for the first time on the basis of a through-composed and preconfigured platform that is ready to use and customisable.
The steps to the goal are more platform-oriented:
1. Explore Instant Platform
Discover your Instant Platform
Discovering and exploring the Instant Platform
2. Selection Applications
Choose from Capabilities, Features & Applications
Selection of the appropriate platform capabilities, features & applications
3. Configuration
Put your platform into operation
Configuration, delivery and commissioning of the platform
4. Individualisation
Individualise your applications
Individualisation of customised business capabilities and applications
5. Continuous optimisation
Systematically expand your packaged business capabilities
Continuous optimisation and systematic expansion via new packaged business capabilities
Elkjøp, the largest consumer electronics retailer in Northern Europe
A great example is Elkjøp, the largest consumer electronics retailer in Northern Europe, which is proactively countering the onslaught of global marketplaces in its home markets. With the help of KPS, it is currently converting its entire customer business, B2B and B2C, to a new technology platform that enables a significantly higher level of differentiation, but also efficiency in the mapped business processes.
Step-by-step evolution to the Composable Enterprise
The evolutionary path is most suitable for those companies already operating with state-of-the-art ERP systems and cutting-edge CX environments with MACH architectures (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-based, Headless). These companies can focus on introducing new capabilities for the business at high speed and replacing or retiring outdated applications.
In three steps you can already reach your goal:
Globus department stores’ SB
A great example is from one of our customers in the food retail sector, Globus Warenhaus SB: “Click & Collect” was successfully implemented there within only 2 weeks! Step by step, other business capabilities are now following.
Opportunities with Instant Platforms
Instant Platforms already cover all essential use cases and features of modern business models in E2E processes, consist of the best components and have different equipment options exactly where it makes sense. They are based on state-of-the-art MACH architectures (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-based, Headless) integrated with SAP S/4HANA for ERP and SCM.
Our platform teams help with the exploration, advise on the alignment with the corporate structure and support with the individualisation and realisation of the customer-specific adaptations. In this way, standards are used intelligently, programme runtimes are drastically reduced and the risks of lengthy individual project planning are avoided.
The result: the perfect basis for the Composable Enterprise.
On this foundation, new requirements can also be realised quickly and easily in the future by adding individual business capabilities and applications.
The best way to the Composable Enterprise
The perfect path is designed individually for each company. Markets, people, organisations, processes, application architectures and infrastructures are too different to lump everything together. In our KPS Transformation Design Studio, we present different success patterns for digital transformation and advise our clients on the best way for them to become a Composable Enterprise. To do this, we like to demonstrate our Instant Platforms as a new alternative – platform-based transformation – agile and achievable. This way, management teams can decide which path to Composable Enterprise is best for them.
