The past year or so has posed many challenges, both personally and professionally. This has highlighted not only how truly resilient individuals and businesses are, but also how essential this resilience is in maintaining successful business operations. As we return to the workplace, it is evident that this return to an office space does not mean a return to our old ways of working. The string of lockdowns we have experienced must be a learning opportunity. It is possible that businesses may have to unexpectedly operate entirely remotely again and therefore It is imperative for organisations to continue to prioritise the agility of their operations. So, how can this be achieved?
Boston Consulting Group’s ‘The Digital Path to Business Resilience’ suggests that businesses require resilience over six dimensions: protecting and growing the top line, developing agile operations, enabling people, accelerating data and digital platforms, enhancing cyber security, and strengthening financials. Microsoft suggest that by accelerating change in these areas, leaders will be able to operate more productively, working smarter rather than harder, and therefore can achieve more. When approaching these changes, it can be beneficial to prioritise, beginning with immediate security and continuity concerns, then exploring your current ambitions, and finally investing to build sustainable, future-proof operations that tackle all six of these resilience dimensions. Thankfully, organisations can rest easy knowing that there are already tested and reliable strategic technologies (at both SME and enterprise levels) that can help them achieve this business resilience. These technologies fall under four main categories: automation, remote and agile teamwork, security, and cloud migration. For most organisations this means making the move to pay-as-you-go, utility-based, cloud computing, embracing data-powered tools and processes, and cultivating an individually suited plan for co-managed or fully managed services. We saw in the initial move to remote working that the organisations with these technologies in place saw less operational disruption. This is likely due to the ease of integration and unification of cloudbased tools, allowing employees to access all their necessary tools easily and remotely. For example, from within Microsoft 365 users can access the automation and business intelligence capabilities of the Power Platform, support agile teamwork using a SharePoint intranet and Microsoft Teams, all whilst being protected by a suite of security tools. Protecting your organisation from further disruption needn’t be complicated, nor expensive and with business resilience becoming a foundational requirement of daily business operations, now is the time to act. As an award-winning, Microsoft gold partner, our goal is to support organisations in adopting a cloud first, agile approach to their operations. Our team of specialists strive to help build solutions that suit your business needs and budget, engage employees, boost productivity, and drive your business resilience
