Complexity Management, Can We Make It Simple?

Businesses in every vertical and in every nation are on the road to digital transformation, this much we know to be true. Looking deeper, we can also state with some certainty that the road to digital transformation is a multifaceted and convoluted one that’s not without its tortuous pain points and difficulties.

Coping with dense convolutions

But what does this really mean? What is complexity in tangible technical terms? What do the dense convolutions of the new cloud-powered mobile-enabled analytics-compliant ‘IT stack’ really manifest themselves as – and, crucially, how do we cope?

To take a popular example, consider your average enterprise-level Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) suite. These powerhouse software tools will typically feature functions, subsections and all manner of compartmentalised gears designed to carry out specific jobs for specific use cases.

The great thing about software like this is its breadth and its power – in the hands of the right staff members these technologies can help provide real business value and actionable goals and targets. The bad thing about software like this is its breadth and its power, which presents firms with complexities that are appreciated by only a small minority of employees, so the opportunity to create user-friendly processes and change optimising functionality is consequently reduced.

What does complexity look like?

So what does this complexity look like in the real world? It could simply be a question of a multiplicity of screens and user interface controls. At a deeper level, it could be a question of the complexity in the underlying business logic being used by the software in hand. Either way, the question of using it, updating it and changing is a complex thing.

Many firms will look to Business Process Management (BPM) as a means of handling complexity. Used carefully and judiciously, a BPM tool can help create processes that every user in the organisation can access and operate, and, crucially, which connect with any other system in the business.

Although BPM is not the only answer to complexity, this definition from bmp.com is quite definitive, “Business Process Management (BPM) is a discipline involving any combination of modeling, automation, execution, control, measurement and optimisation of business activity flows, in support of enterprise goals, spanning systems, employees, customers and partners within and beyond the enterprise boundaries.”

But we need to look wider

Unfortunately, BPM is not the only answer to complexity management. Fortunately, the IT trade is fervently developing complexity management streams in answer to the growing need for multidimensional business transformation activities.

As a guiding proviso when considering options for complexity management, we need to keep in mind the need to provide improved customer satisfaction, faster inventory turnover and ultimately, higher revenues and margins. These are the reasons we are in business and today we know that we exist inside the ‘customer experience’ (CX) economy – so the actions we take to combat complexity must translate to improved operations, otherwise they are simply not worth doing in the first place.

As organisations now start to regard themselves as software-centric businesses they will also come to think of themselves as ‘complex adaptive systems’ – and this reality demands that a whole new set of management ideas now apply.

As business complexity management is brought online and its impact is felt across any firm, we can see new transparency in business processes along the value chain. We can also see new transparency in all costs, so that we start to build a more sustainable infrastructure in terms of both our technology tools and the physical CapEx and OpEx assets of the business. Complexity is complex yes, but there are some simple answers.

About the author:

Adrian Bridgwater is a freelance technology journalist with a specialist focus on the development and management of enterprise software applications and services. He has spent the last twenty years in a variety of technology-focused media roles and as such is fully conversant with the wider technology. 

Source: BVE

About Prof Janek Ratnatunga 1129 Articles
Professor Janek Ratnatunga is CEO of the Institute of Certified Management Accountants. He has held appointments at the University of Melbourne, Monash University and the Australian National University in Australia; and the Universities of Washington, Richmond and Rhode Island in the USA. Prior to his academic career he worked with KPMG.
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