Leading Solutions capabilities turnaround and realignment – Assess – People & Operating Model

#Consulting begins with #Inquiry and #Assessment. I once read that there is no prescriptive approach to define a Target Operating Model and that there are no commonly agreed principles. So, what I chose to look into apart from the typical People, Processes, Technology/Tools was also to consider Industry segments, Countries, Offerings alignment, Partners and alignment with delivery. At its core though,

“The customer has always driven the Business Operating Model” – Amancio Ortega

From a Solutions and Sales Enablement perspective, apart from fulfilling the end customer requirements, we also have to deal with internal customers such as Business Development, Practices and Sales. At the back-end, the delivery teams must be capable of delivering the proposed solutions at the lowest risk and proposed margins. I talked about Processes and Workflows in my previous article, which are essential elements of consistent execution but it is the Operating Model which enables the team play which enables total alignment of the people to the Mission of the organization.

In order to justify value in favour of a Solutions & Sales Support organization, core #metric and #measure used is #efficiency in addition to win rates and close rates. Whilst the efficiency focus is needed,

- Is the Operating Model that is in place enabling the Solutioning and Sales Enablement teams to totally align with the business objectives of Business development, Sales and Practices? Does it enable team play in favour of common goals?

- In many pursuits however, there is always the need to integrate the solutions from many offerings. What is the Operating Model and alignment of the Solution Integration Executives / Consultants and Pursuit Manager (s)? What are the metrics and measurement criteria?

- I find that there are different capabilities required for Renewals/Defend vs. Add-on revenues from existing accounts vs. new business/logos hunting. The solutioning and sales enablement capabilities needed are also different. What is the extent to which the Operating Model allows for Team formation towards achieving customer success in each type of pursuit? Does it achieve the costs, quality, speed, accessibility, flexibility and adaptability requirements?

- Does the Operating Model allow for ability to react to unexpected pursuits as much as it allows for planned pursuits? Does the Operating Model allow for flexibility to work on “reusable” standard pursuits as well as unusual variations?

- How well does the Operating Model allow for influencing pursuit decisions? Given that a number of Pursuits run in parallel, how well is #Portfolio #Management utilised to manage concurrency and balance capacity against demand. To what extent does the decision making criteria align with budget management considerations?

- To what extent does the Operating model allow for early engagement with customers? What is the alignment with Business development, Sales and Practices to co-create value for a customer as part of a solutions consulting engagement

- Does the Operating Model allow for exploitation of scale such as availability of Solutioning, Sales support and Practice organizations from #Global #Centres?

- Has the organization invested in #global #collaboration capabilities for #Solutions #Consulting, #Deal #shaping with #customers, #solutioning? What is the current maturity? How do I establish #pilots, #transform capabilities and ensure its success and scale?

- Solutioners have to create magic, literally; every customer has a huge range of technologies and complex integration. The Solutioners must not only solution for the legacy to manage the #CMO but also articulate solution for the #FMO across #Enterprise #Architecture, #Programme #Management, #Services, #Operations and what have you. How is the inventory of skills and competencies done and is there a good mapping to potential pursuits demand?

Above all, are there and if there are how good are, the right Systems of #Engagement, Systems of #Records and Systems of #Insights to enable effective decision making with the decisiveness by the leadership?

“There is a way to do it better – find it” – Thomas Edison

To be continued with in the next…….….Key Solutions check

About the Author

The author had first published the article on #LinkedIn on July 21, 2017

Jagadish is a Strategic Board adviser, senior Executive leader with specialisation in reimagining business models; who has been successful at building and/or turnaround Practice advisory, Presales, Sales enablement, Solution consulting capabilities for: - Applications & Enterprise applications- Modernising and Transformation to a secure hybrid Cloud- Service Integration and Management in a multi-cloud environment- Digital workplace solutions- Digital transformation using IoT, IIoT, Big Data, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Drones and Robots- IT Infrastructure services More recently, Jagadish has influenced re-imagining a digitally enabled business model for a leading enterprise#IoT, #IIoT, #Bigdata, #Analytics, #artificialintelligence, #drones, #robots, #RPA, #cloud, #hybridcloud, #sales, #presales, #salesenablement, #strategy, #managementconsulting, #boardadvisor, #nonexecutivedirector, #applications, #digitaltransformation, #mixedreality, #integration, #collaboration, #API, #microservices, #marketplace, #solutionconsulting, #servicemanagement, #governance, #riskmanagement, #cybersecurity, #saas, #CRM, #ERP, #customerexperience, #customersuccess