For many CIOs of large, established multinational enterprises that operate across numerous business units and countries, modernising IT systems and enabling workforce mobility can feel like a daunting challenge.
The international healthcare group Bupa recognised the changing landscape of business IT earlier than many organisations. Andrew Easton, Head of Technology Strategy and Architecture, is managing a complex modernisation program where legacy systems and modern technologies must be integrated to meet evolving business needs.
Mobility’s promise of location independence offers Bupa greater flexibility and agility, while creating opportunities to improve customer service and control operating costs. When business processes depend on human decision-making, mobile technologies make it possible for those decisions to happen faster, supported by real-time information available anywhere and at any time. That, in turn, enables more informed and responsive conversations and actions.
Bupa’s enterprise encompasses diverse businesses, cultures and systems, some of which have been in place for many years. Easton likens Bupa’s global IT environment to an “archipelago,” with many distinct islands of technology.
By contrast, organisations founded today naturally design processes, people and applications to take advantage of cloud platforms, smartphone integration and the internet. That modern reality isn’t always available to senior IT leaders such as Easton, who must now reconcile older investments with contemporary expectations.
“We’re arguably in the foothills, looking up and deciding how to make that journey,” he says. “The past affects the future. You’re dealing with technology, experience and processes from the past while trying to integrate solutions for employees and partners who work and get things done differently because of the internet, cloud and mobile.”
Bupa’s IT footprint reflects the fact that many internal applications pre-date the internet, let alone smartphones and tablets. “This is a new internet world,” Easton adds. “But these new devices simply didn’t exist when many of our applications were established.”
The careful process of organisational change involves a thorough review of the company’s application portfolio across each business. Bupa must decide which applications should be mobilised to support a connected workforce and customer base, which can be adapted to run on modern devices, and which should be replaced.
That work is complex because Bupa comprises roughly 14 distinct IT functions serving different commercial and local requirements across its care homes, health insurance, healthcare analytics and healthcare delivery businesses. The difficulty is compounded by variations in lifecycle stage and IT maturity across these units.
“In some of our businesses it can be a very straightforward process; in others we need more time, focus and alternative approaches to navigate the journey,” Easton says. “Being aware of the challenges created by our history and structure — challenges many organisations face — helps us shape pragmatic approaches to modernising the application portfolio without being unduly constrained by the past.”
Andrew Easton will be speaking at Apps World in London on 2–3 October to share his experiences with business mobilisation. For details on attendance, please see the Apps World website.