The Path to a Future-Ready IT Operating Model
Embracing Change: Guidance for Technology Leaders on Adopting a Future-Ready IT Operating Model
The future of IT is here: Are you ready?
It’s time to embrace the future. Technology leaders are well-aware that the landscape of information technology (IT) is evolving at an unprecedented rate. Public cloud, everything-as-a-service (XaaS), artificial intelligence (AI), and other advancements are making new demands on, and creating new opportunities for, IT leaders—and their teams.
Here KPMG LLP believes IT can be THE driving force behind a company’s success, empowering the creation of innovative, resilient, sustainable, and data-driven organizations. But a reimagining of the role of IT and its underpinning operating model is required—and fast. To better understand the emerging landscape for IT, we carried out in-depth research into key forces of change. Our resulting report, The future of IT[1], identifies six prevailing trends:
The transition to XaaS can bring significant benefits—but also presents IT functions with new risks and costs.
To progress from enabling processes to delivering insights, IT leaders need to rewire data architecture and expand capabilities.
Combining technology and humans, supported by a strong resilient culture, can reduce vulnerabilities to service disruption and cyber threats.
Through creative approaches to recruitment and personal development, organizations can overcome talent gaps and foster exciting and fulfilling workplaces.
IT is now well-positioned as a transformative business partner, but it should accelerate the velocity of its innovation to maintain prominence.
IT is uniquely positioned to lead sustainable and ethical business practices across organizations, enhancing overall performance and resilience.
To navigate this dynamic environment effectively, you must adopt an operating model that is not only robust and scalable but more broadly “future-ready.” To illustrate, KPMG developed what it calls the “Future-Ready IT Operating Model.”
The imperative for a future-ready IT operating model
Adopting a Future-ready IT operating model is a strategic imperative for IT leaders tasked with leading their organizations through an era of rapid technological change and digital disruption. Implementing a future-ready IT operating model can help bridge the gap between current capabilities and future requirements. It helps ensure alignment of IT operations with broader business goals, supports flexible methodologies, and fosters a culture of continuous improvement and innovation within an organization.
Our KPMG Future-Ready IT Operating Model enables clients to anticipate and respond to the future proactively. It offers a comprehensive, adaptable, and forward-looking framework that empowers organizations to thrive in a dynamic and competitive environment, keeping them at the forefront of technological innovation and operational excellence.
Is your IT function Future-Ready?
Central to our Future-Ready Model is our proprietary IT capability model. These capabilities are organized, defined, and designed based on global experience contributing to and applying leading frameworks like Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), the Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF), and Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe).
KPMG offers clients an IT maturity assessment to find areas of strength and opportunity in how clients manage IT and how well-prepared they are for the Future of IT. Taken in context with a broader evaluation of the enterprise and external factors, including industry and technology trends, KPMG uses this assessment to help clients improve IT where it matters most.
What does future-ready IT look like for your enterprise?
The future-ready IT maturity assessment allows us to identify critical areas for enhancement. But what does success look like? The answer lies in the KPMG “Future-Ready IT Operating Model.”
Our Future-Ready Model spans across all IT operating model layers, including governance, service delivery models, performance insights, technology tooling, and organization. It represents a synthesis of leading practices observed, refined, and adapted through diverse real-world applications. We manage our Future-Ready Model like a “product”—constantly updating it with insights from a global field of more than 1,200 IT operating model specialists. It brings to the forefront a wealth of cross-sector, multinational operational experience, helping ensure that it is both thorough and adaptable.
Each component of the model reflects successful implementations across a spectrum of technological landscapes and organizational contexts. Whether it involves agile transformation programs, risk and compliance management, vendor collaborations, or resiliency improvements, our Future-Ready Model embodies established strategies and practices that have been validated through extensive client engagements.
Six steps to successful adoption of the Future-Ready Operating Model
KPMG has developed an adaptable but step-by-step approach to help you prepare your IT operating model for the future of IT:
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Are you future-ready?
Let’s find out. KPMG welcomes the opportunity to help you evaluate the future-readiness of your IT organization. A one- to three-month process, depending on scope of engagement, our readiness assessments are available in rapid and detailed versions. Whichever way you choose to engage, you’ll receive valuable and actionable insights about how to bring your organization into the future.
And that’s just the beginning. KPMG can be your strategic adviser to help you design, implement, and sustain your future-ready model. With a deep bench of subject matter professionals and a wealth of global experience, KPMG provides the guidance, tools, and insights needed to help navigate the complexities of IT transformation. Our role extends beyond the initial implementation. Regular engagements and continuous support can help you keep the operating model aligned with your organization’s strategic goals. This ongoing collaboration can help your organization adapt to emerging challenges and seize new opportunities effectively.
Footnotes:
1KPMG LLP, The future of IT: Discover the strategies to advance the IT function and prepare organizations to thrive in a cloud and AI-enabled era, 2024.
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