FINAL WORD
Simon Bennett , CTO EMEA ,
Rackspace Technology realise that empowering business units and individuals to operate more autonomously must remain – at least partially . The days of rigid command and control structures are gone .
It ’ s all about trust . Placing trust in the staff to make decisions has helped businesses stay up and running in the face of ever-changing circumstances . Further , giving staff more control fosters new ideas and takes these from ideation to execution more quickly . Reward the individuals who thrive on change and have proven their value . Give these ‘ mavericks ’ enough latitude to flourish . At the same time , respect staff members who are more resistant to change . They can be encouraged in smaller ways . A company needs both types of workers .
customer use of your services are essential to making your services better . Improved customer service leads to a higher level of customer satisfaction and loyalty , and ultimately , directly impacts your bottom line . It is a cloud native approach that makes this possible . Think of cloud native as a business differentiator , an approach that can transform your business .
Cloud native means rewriting applications or services to take full advantage of the technology they run upon . By fully utilising the underlying technology , you can design your applications from the start to capture all the associated data around the customer journey , service performance and other key statistics . These insights provide a higher level of understanding of the overall customer experience , which in turn , enables your business to improve the service .
The cost of redeveloping your applications using a cloud native approach may seem like a lofty and expensive goal , however , in the majority of cases , the benefits far outweigh this effort and cost . An agile , well-designed cloud native application , one that is truly scalable , secure and resilient , faster to deploy , easier to maintain and simpler to update on demand , will deliver significantly more business benefit in the end . These attributes will allow you to upsell new functions , deliver higher value services and gain new customers – all at a competitive pace .
In my previous role , I was known as the ‘ thought terrorist ’. I challenged established ideas and ways of doing things . I encouraged the team to look at problems from different angles , to question the norm and to do things better for customers . The establishment must be willing to be challenged , or the best staff will leave . An organisation that can leverage these new ways of working and adopt a corporate culture that empowers staff and embraces risk will be able to compete effectively . Those that embrace risk will likely outperform their peers .
Cloud native as a business differentiator
Empowered businesses and empowered staff require empowered technology . This is where the concept of ‘ cloud native ’ fits in . Business units are going to demand a lot more from technology than just refactoring applications for the cloud . Simply migrating existing services to the cloud is not enough for an organisation to gain a competitive advantage over their peers . Business owners must design applications from the ground up , that provide sources of data about the most important factor – the customer experience . Deeper insights into
Business owners are taking a more holistic look at the cradle-to-grave costs around applications . There are the expected costs for application development and future maintenance and expansion . But more important is the long-term , ongoing value of harnessing customer data and analysing these insights to improve customer service . Ensuring your customers have an excellent experience will be the key to the longevity and growth of your business . This is the true cost of ownership in a post-COVID world .
IoT + 5G + Edge
In 2021 , I believe that someone will create an amazing solution – a ‘ killer app ’ – that , that combines the Internet of Things ( IoT ), 5G and Edge Computing in a manner not thought of so far . There has been a lot of hype around the promise of these three technologies and some great examples of small-scale ‘ neat ’ ideas , but nothing really mind-blowing has emerged yet .
Because of the new corporate culture of risk-taking mentioned above , 2021 may be the year in which the three technologies will be integrated in a revolutionary way . We will all say ‘ if only I ’ d had that idea ’, as it will be obvious in retrospect . Put your thinking caps on . Perhaps it ’ s you who will have the true lightbulb moment . p
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