Building a Hyper-Collaborative Enterprise to Deliver … a Hyper-Collaborative Enterprise to Deliver...

Building a Hyper-Collaborative Enterprise to Deliver Business Process Excellence

Changing dynamics in a digital era

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2 TMT intelligence informa © 2016 Ovum. All rights reserved.

The realities of today's digital economy ............... 3

The business challenges facing multinationals ............................................ 3

MNC priorities in the digital world ........................ 4

Collaboration drives corporate excellence ........... 5

Collaboration investment helps business process transformation ........................................ 6

Cloud delivery enables flexibility and frees up resources ............................................... 8

The building blocks for success in collaboration ..................................................... 9

Appendix .............................................................. 9

Contents

© Copyright Ovum 2016. All rights reserved.

The contents of this product are protected by international copyright laws, database rights and other intellectual property rights. The owner of these rights is Informa Telecoms and Media Limited, our affiliates or other third party licensors. All product and company names and logos contained within or appearing on this product are the trademarks, service marks or trading names of their respective owners, including Informa Telecoms and Media Limited. This product may not be copied, reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission of Informa Telecoms and Media Limited.Whilst reasonable efforts have been made to ensure that the information and content of this product was correct as at the date of first publication, neither Informa Telecoms and Media Limited nor any person engaged or employed by Informa Telecoms and Media Limited accepts any liability for any errors, omissions or other inaccuracies. Readers should independently verify any facts and figures as no liability can be accepted in this regard - readers assume full responsibility and risk accordingly for their use of such information and content.Any views and/or opinions expressed in this product by individual authors or contributors are their personal views and/or opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views and/or opinions of Informa Telecoms and Media Limited.

About the authors

Adrian Ho

Adrian Ho is responsible for Ovum’s Asia-Pacific Enterprise practice and is based in Melbourne, Australia. Adrian’s primary focus is on technologies and solutions delivered to multinationals, enterprises, government agencies, and SMEs across the region. This includes WAN services, enterprise mobility solutions, cloud and datacentre services, collaboration and social enterprise, security, and other emerging technologies shaping the ICT industry. Adrian also leads the research agenda and customized advisory services for service providers, vendors, and enterprise technology buyers in the region. He works closely with these various communities to help them understand how these changing technologies can shape their business strategy and transform their ICT infrastructure to be more competitive in the dynamic Asia-Pacific region.

Pauline Trotter

Pauline Trotter is Practice Leader, Workspace Services within Ovum’s Enterprise Services team, bringing together and leading the mobility services and unified communications and collaboration research streams. She specialises in managed mobility services for multinationals and large enterprises and also contributes to Ovum’s research on Internet of Things.

Pauline’s recent research includes a decision matrix for companies looking to select a mobile workspace service provider, a tool tracking service provider deals in IoT and M2M and insight into enterprise trends in mobility.

3TMT intelligence informa© 2016 Ovum. All rights reserved.

The realities of today's digital economyThe world has rapidly embraced the digital economy; business rules are changing and being rewritten at lightning speed. Enterprises have responded quickly by carving out their own digital agendas and strategies to draw upon the huge opportunities created by the changing world. Enterprises are now looking to harness ICT (information and communications technology) and digital solutions to transform their processes and thrive within this new business environment. Significantly, digitalisation has resulted in a permanent shift in consumer buying patterns and engagements. The competitive environment has intensified and shifted – businesses that are slow off the digital block risk being left behind. Multinational corporations (MNCs) are scrambling to respond to this challenge and change and there is a growing realisation that the digital threat to their legacy business is very real and significant. To be a formidable contender or leader in a very disruptive digital world, MNCs realise that combining relentless innovation and improved business process efficiency is the only way to thrive.

One of the fundamental changes that digitalisation has brought about is a rewriting of the rules of collaboration, one of the cornerstones of enterprise ICT investment. There is now a broad realisation that simply equipping every single knowledge worker with collaboration tools is not enough to produce results by itself. Collaboration, to have value or make a significant impact for any business, must have a specific purpose, an outcome that touches directly upon a business process. As such, MNCs are now focusing on injecting collaboration into the heart of high-value business processes like sales, marketing, partner engagement, and the supply chain. Digitalisation is driving collaboration to the next strategic level.

The business challenges facing multinationalsThe main business challenges facing multinationals were identified in a recent Telstra/Ovum survey, as illustrated in Figure 1. The top three challenges are:• Product and service differentiation: Differentiation is increasingly critical and is driving enterprises to

adopt a "rapid innovation" mantra, especially against born-in-the-cloud or digital-native competitors who are setting a fast pace in innovation and are willing to take greater risks. Industries most impacted include financial services, due to the rise of "fintech" (financial technology), hospitality and transportation verticals, due to the disruption caused by "sharing economy" start-ups and the traditional broadcast industry, which is being disrupted by digital media companies like Netflix.

• Expanding into new markets and geographies: MNCs are always looking into expanding into new markets and geographies. Some of the top new investment destinations globally are China, Indonesia, Turkey, Mexico, India, and Philippines. These countries have some of the brightest long-term prospects given their economic growth, the rise of the middle class and the fact that they are under-penetrated markets.

• Improving and maintaining profit margins: Many markets have become highly competitive and are being constantly disrupted, placing huge pressure on pricing and margins. "Doing more for less" is a prevailing theme globally as MNCs are laser focused on squeezing more productivity out of existing assets and processes.

Collaboration excellence has become the new differentiator in a real-time digital economy, enabling innovation, speed-to-market, and accelerated decision-making. MNCs have realised that to achieve continued innovation to deliver sustainable product and service differentiation will require their global employees to make informed decisions to collaborate better. Global expansion also underlines the importance of agility and the need to focus on improving business processes to ensure healthy profit margins. Better collaboration through the MNC's entire ecosystem of partners, suppliers, and customers can deliver vast, far-reaching improvements across many business processes.


MNC priorities in the digital worldThe digital world offers new challenges and opportunities and, for many MNCs, business priorities evolve with these new opportunities. A digital economy lowers the barriers to entry in most markets and industries and this, coupled with changing demographics, has disrupted the status quo. The following are the top three business priorities for MNCs:• Being more operationally efficient and productive: This was cited by 29% of MNC respondents in a

survey conducted by Ovum and Telstra (see Figure 2). Staying nimble in a competitive world will allow MNCs to respond better to change. Operational excellence has long been a prevailing theme for many large organisations.

• Talent management: With the increased emphasis on innovation among MNCs, attracting and retaining talent has become a priority. This is especially true in areas that are critical to a company's competitive advantage and innovation needs, such as R&D, data scientists, and senior managers with global and specific country-level experience and certain IT and operational functions.

• Leveraging ICT: MNCs understand that ICT can be a strategic weapon in achieving corporate objectives and goals, as long as the investments are aligned with business processes. This is where the benefits of ICT investments can be fully maximised.

33%Product/service

differentiation

28%Expanding intonew markets andgeographies

26%Improvingprofit margins

21%Changing consumptionand buying patterns

20%Increased government

regulation

17%Economic conditions

in major markets

Businesschallenges

Figure 1: Top business challenges for multinational corporations (MNCs)

Source: Ovum/Telstra MNC Survey 2015/2016; N = 800 MNCs


Collaboration drives corporate excellenceThere has been a fundamental shift in the way MNCs view collaboration. In the past, investments in collaboration tools were largely driven by the need to lower the cost of communications and to facilitate communications within a global workforce. In a real-time digital economy, collaboration excellence becomes strategic because it can deliver improvements in business processes, innovation, and customer engagement. This is the single biggest fundamental shift in the dynamics of this industry. The "new expectations" of what collaboration can achieve for MNCs are shown in Figure 3 and include:• Faster speed-to-market for new products and services: A digital economy is a real-time economy.

Product and service development timeframes need to be radically shortened. This has become the top priority for MNCs in their collaboration journey as they realise that collaboration and engagement with the wider ecosystem beyond the enterprise, including partners, suppliers, and customers, becomes ever more important. In a real-time, highly connected economy, decision-making processes need to be swift and employees need to be empowered with the tools and intelligence to make and execute on those decisions. This will often lead to improved speed-to-market of new products and services, enabling enterprises to be more competitive.

• Better global collaboration leads to improvement in business process: Operational efficiency and productivity was rated as the top business priority by global MNCs. Improving global collaboration can go a long way to driving improvement in a whole range of business processes as employees can now collaborate in real time to respond to a changing environment.

Businesspriorities

29%Operational efficiency

and productivity

24%Talent retentionto drive innovation

19%Leverage ICT

18%Market expansioninto new geographies

17%Invest in sales and

marketing for new logos

16%Better customer

engagements

Figure 2: MNCs’ top business priorities for 2016



• Improvement in innovation: Innovation has become a huge focal point for MNCs, and was ranked as the third most important factor in MNCs' collaboration journey. Many are setting up and cultivating innovation cells in their efforts to boost their product development. One of the permanent features of innovation is that it always requires intensive collaboration between individuals from across the organisation. Cross-collaboration is always in motion, involving individuals and various teams across the business, from conceptualisation of ideas to product development, up to service launch.

Collaboration investment helps business process transformationThe way in which MNCs measure the success of their collaboration journey has changed over the years. In the past, successful technical implementation and measurable cost savings were the main benchmarks used. However, collaboration excellence is increasingly the defining attribute of a world-class, innovative organisation. MNCs need their workforces to perform smarter, faster, and more productively. Achieving these goals requires embedding collaborative technologies deep into business processes and incentivising collaborative behaviours. MNCs are identifying which processes are hindering in productivity and the process changes that need to be enforced. Some MNCs have adopted the "we are all in this together" mantra, creating environments that encourage their employees to "think outside the box" to innovate together. Some of the top business processes most positively impacted by collaboration are shown in Figure 4. They include:• Partner relationships are strengthened: This was rated as the business process most improved by

collaboration, cited by 35% of MNCs in the recent Ovum/Telstra survey. A robust partner ecosystem is one of the fundamental elements needed to be competitive in almost all industries. Ecosystems can strengthen channels to market, enable co-creation of new services and products, drive innovation, and enhance customer engagement. An example of how collaboration tools can strengthen partner

Criticalbenefits of

collaboration

Improve speed-to-market of newer products andservices

Better global collaboration

Improvement in innovation

Reduce communication/travel cost

Increase speed to internal and external expertise

37%

29%

25%21%

20%

Figure 3: Critical benefits of MNCs’ collaboration journey



relationships include MNCs building social collaboration platforms that allow their marketing teams to share ideas with external partners, such as creative and PR agencies and consulting firms, to create a digital marketing B2C outreach strategy. Building campaigns like this requires considerable cooperation between internal marketing staff, global teams, and external partners. A collaboration and communication platform enables coordination, where marketers and partners communicate and access marketing materials, brainstorm ideas, and share outputs quickly.

• Supply chain improvements bring efficiency: The scale and complexity of supply chains present several challenges for many MNCs. Relationships with suppliers and other partners are constantly changing, and logistics are fluid. Ultimately, a supply chain with hundreds of interconnected parts means many places where MNCs must strive to optimise performance and decrease costs. MNCs have implemented collaboration platforms that allow their employees and external partners to oversee planning, design, manufacture, and delivery of customer orders, and ensure the quality of products and solutions. They are also able to carefully measure supply chain metrics, such as on-time shipments and percentage of perfect orders to track the performance of the global supply chain. In analysing these metrics, MNCs can identify several opportunities to improve supply chain operations with additional investments in analytic tools.

• Sales improvements translate to improved revenue performance: Nothing could be more compelling for any MNC than to invest in improved sales processes. MNCs are reporting impressive improvements in sales execution following investment in collaboration tools, with their salesforce able to share documents online, have improved access to specialists, and use video to interact with internal stakeholders and customers. This has shortened sales cycles and improved relationships with prospects and clients who appreciate faster responses and a more engaging relationship. This is one area where MNCs can easily measure improved performance and justify return on investment (ROI).

Partner relationships

35%Research &development

22%

Supply chain

30%

Sales

29%Contact centers

26%

Marketing

25%

Businessprocesses

most impactedby collaboration

Figure 4: Business processes most impacted by collaboration investments



Cloud delivery enables flexibility and frees up resourcesIt is a fair assumption that the penetration of collaboration tools is reasonably high among MNCs. However, MNCs still face a lot of serious challenges in their collaboration journey that are preventing them from making further, significant investments in the technology. The obstacles slowing down further adoption include the lack of a dedicated team within the organisation with the skills necessary to maximise the benefits of improved business processes. Without a dedicated team, implementing an enterprise-wide strategy can also be complex and daunting for many enterprises, as collaboration increasingly needs to be deeply embedded within business processes to maximise its full potential. It is not surprising that some MNCs are turning towards a cloud delivery model with unified communications-as-a-service (UCaaS) to mitigate these challenges. Figure 5 shows that on average, an estimated 14–40% of new investments in collaboration over the next 12 months will be delivered via the cloud. Ovum expects this move to accelerate over the next few years as more MNCs become comfortable with the cloud delivery model. MNCs recognise a number of potential benefits of cloud delivery, including:• Capex-friendly model: Cloud delivery makes economic sense for many MNCs facing pressures on

margins. Cloud allows the MNC to leverage the service provider's infrastructure to provision the service. There is usually a strong support structure around the service, meaning that fewer internal IT resources will now be required to manage collaboration. Moreover, upgrades are automated and thus the system is always up-to-date.

• Access to expertise and innovation: By partnering with industry-leading service providers, MNCs will now have access to expertise to help them develop a strategic vision for collaboration and embed collaboration within business processes. An increasing number of service providers have the requisite experience that MNCs can leverage to maximise the potential of collaboration.

• Better allocation of resources: Collaboration allows the MNC to deploy its resources to other strategic initiatives such as the deployment of emerging technologies, support for rapid expansion, modernisation, and digital initiatives. ICT priorities are constantly changing and MNCs need to have the agility to deploy limited resources to meet their changing priorities.

IP telephony – IP PBX

IP telephony – Microsoft Lync Enterprise Voice

Instant messaging and presence

Desktop video-conferencing platform

Room based video-conferencing platform

Team workspace solution

Premise-basedmanaged internally

Premise-based andmanaged by a

third-party service provider

Hosted/private/public cloud

71%

63%

44%

38%

49%

43%

14%

7%

34%

30%

38%

17%

15%

30%

22%

32%

14%

40%

Figure 5: Movement to a cloud model



The building blocks for success in collaborationCollaboration technologies have been available for many years and are now widely adopted by MNCs globally. The next evolution of collaboration will be the embedding of technologies into the way work is performed so that using them becomes a natural and accepted part of the job. It is also important for MNCs to set corporate or departmental objectives in collaboration in ways that they can measure success. Some of the building blocks that can be used by MNCs looking for new direction in their collaboration journey include:• Shape the collaborative behaviours that drive business outcomes: Just making collaboration

technologies available to everyone in the company is not enough. It is critical that there is a management-level initiative that leads by example and encourages and incentivises collaborative behaviour across the enterprise. This must include knowledge sharing, ideation activities, and open, collaborative discussion on key subject matters. This will lead to greater buy-in across the company, overall participation and usage, and, ultimately, to the desired business outcomes.

• Identify clear objectives and goals from the beginning: It is always difficult to measure or work toward success if there are no specific goals and objectives. If driving improved partner engagement or supply chain efficiency are the top priorities, identify the employees who are closely linked to these objectives and work through how collaboration tools can enhance their activities. Integrate collaboration first with these business processes accordingly. It is important to have concrete metrics to measure output and improvements.

• Collaboration technologies are evolving and going mobile: Collaboration tools are evolving very quickly with newer solutions incorporating cognitive and artificial intelligence capabilities. Collaboration is also increasingly going mobile, reflecting the growing mobile workforce. The effort required to select the right approach and service provider partner should not be underestimated – a large part of the success of any implementation will depend on the technology framework that has been put in place. This process should not be rushed and should be undertaken with proper due diligence. It is essential to work with partners that have a strong track record in this area and are industry leaders.

• Create an environment that encourages collaboration: There are many ways to do this, from simple workgroups to more structured corporate initiatives, but the fundamental principle is to allow employees to "think freely and collaboratively" across the enterprise, free of restrictions. This usually generates a stream of creative new ideas and innovation that can improve business processes or lead to the creation of new services and products.

• Cloud delivery should be explored: A cloud delivery model might not be the option of choice for some MNCs for a variety of reasons, including governance, reliability, and security. However, most MNCs should explore the viability of UCaaS, especially if there are skills or resource shortages internally and there is a drive towards an asset-light ICT infrastructure. The adoption of UCaaS can also give a fast-expanding MNC the agility it requires and prevent technology from becoming a bottleneck to expansion. The skill sets available internally must also evolve to reflect the changing delivery model.

• Adapt collaboration strategy to future ways of working: A collaboration strategy should take account of the workplace of the future, which will look very different to that of today, driven by the rapid adoption of new technology and a new generation of people entering the workforce. Collaboration tools must meet the expectations of the future workforce, which will be extremely mobile and virtual. Flawless mobile collaboration will be the expectation and MNCs will need to plan for the security and governance implications of this.

AppendixMethodologyThe Telstra/Ovum MNC survey was carried out between July and December of 2015. It covered three geographies, including 800 MNCs operating in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific that had an annual revenue of more than US$150m.

ABOUT OVUMOvum is a leading global technology research and advisory firm. Through its 180 analysts worldwide it offers expert analysis and strategic insight across the IT, telecoms, and media industries. Founded in 1985, Ovum has one of the most experienced analyst teams in the industry and is a respected source of guidance for technology business leaders, CIOs, vendors, service providers, and regulators looking for comprehensive, accurate and insightful market data, research and consulting. With 23 offices across six continents, Ovum offers a truly global perspective on technology and media markets and provides thousands of clients with insight including workflow tools, forecasts, surveys, market assessments, technology audits and opinion. In 2012, Ovum was jointly named Global Analyst Firm of the Year by the IIAR.

For more details on Ovum and how we can help your company identify future trends and opportunities, please contact us at [email protected] or visit www.ovum.com. To hear more from our analyst team join our Analyst Community group on LinkedIn www.ovum.com/linkedin and follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/OvumTelecoms.

ABOUT TELSTRATelstra is Australia’s leading telecommunications and information services company providing top-tier international customers with holistic and end-to-end solutions including managed network services, global connectivity, data, voice, satellite solutions, collaboration and cloud. We have licenses internationally and facilitate access to more than 2,000 PoPs in 230 countries and territories.

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