Systems of Engagement: IT Architecture in Transition
Geoffrey Moore
Author, speaker, advisor, best known for Crossing the Chasm, Zone to Win and The Infinite Staircase. Board Member of nLight, WorkFusion, and Phaidra. Chairman Emeritus Chasm Group & Chasm Institute.
We have been talking for some time now about how enterprise IT is increasingly focusing on Systems of Engagement to complement what has traditionally been a Systems of Record function. Systems of Record came to the fore globally with the rise of client-server ERP systems running on top of the Internet, complemented by the World Wide Web. Systems of Engagement, by contrast, came into being in the consumer space, driven to scale by Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon. In so doing consumer IT as a sector funded massive build-outs in both cloud and mobile computing. Now the enterprise has the opportunity to cash in on both at little to no expense to itself.
But there is a price to pay. Systems of engagement represent a second architecture, one that developed independently from the client-server stack, and enterprise IT leaders now must find a way to interface the two. This has led two different models to come to the fore, each of which I will be presenting at Oktane in November. Here is a brief preview of both.
The Cloud Stack
This model develops a Systems of Engagement architecture that directly parallels the client-server stack showing a one-for-one correspondence between the core services specific to each. Thus, for example, client-server was built up around desktop computing, on premise applications, row-oriented databases, wireline networks, and data centers. By contrast, the cloud stack was built up around mobile computing, SaaS applications, column-oriented databases, wireless networks, and clouds. The two can co-exist, but already it is clear that IT spend is heavily tilted toward the new. This is causing all kinds of growth challenges for industry stalwarts and near infinite opportunity for next-generation disrupters.
User-Centric Architecture
Another way to model the architecture of Systems of Engagement is replace the idea of a stack with a more user-centric model. Think of a series of concentric arcs radiating out from a center point with the user at the core. In this model, the first circle includes content, device, and identity, three domains where the user has controlling rights, not the CIO. That is, “my content, my device, my identity.” The next semicircle includes the technologies that protect the enterprise’s rights — policy rules, security, groups, permissions, etc. That is, “These are our assets and to engage with them you must respect our rules.” The layer after that is the app layer, what allows the user to engage with the enterprise. And every layer beyond that is additional applications and infrastructure to support the app layer. In this model computing is migrating deliberately from humans in service to systems to systems in service to humans, and the goal is to reflect that new orientation directly in the architecture itself.
We’ll be talking about both models at Oktane as we engage with the industry to build out the best representations for how enterprise IT can assemble Systems of Engagement for business use cases. In a prior era much of the responsibility in this area was handled by Microsoft as part of its Windows & Office hegemonies. In the new era of mobile, however, there is no comparable de facto standard at the edge, and CIOs everywhere are scrambling to find a reliable foundation for deploying each new wave of BYO. This gives us lots to talk about, and we hope you will join the conversation.
That’s what I think. What do you think?
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Geoffrey Moore | Escape Velocity | Geoffrey Moore Twitter | Geoffrey Moore YouTube
(Image: jooldesign.co.uk)
Founder and CEO @EnterpriseWeb
11 年Glad to see 'Architecture' being presented as the antidote to increasing Enterprise IT Complexity and the path to Systems of Engagement. Our existing operational systems are too structured and rigid to support our increasingly dynamic business environments. At EnterpriseWeb, we present the Organization as it is, and always has been, a loosely-coupled web of people, information, capabilities and policies. Application resources that can be flexibly organized around work objectives as you suggest with "User-Centric Architecture" - this supports both unstructured "Case Management" work led by people, as well as the Development of 'smart' apps that can bind resources semantically so apps can deliver personalized experiences and be adaptable.
Designer, engineer and management consultant.
11 年I could be wrong but the idea of BYOD reminds me of matrix reporting structures, flat organizations, and 360-degree reviews. With BYOD you're effectively making suppliers and agents out of employees and other individuals. It creates all kinds of "agency problems" that I don't see discussed much. That's why, I think your Cloud Stack model is much more elegant (like the OSI stack) and also more likely to work well for enterprise IT because, unlike consumer services like Apple, Google, and Amazon, where the users are also the customers (buyers), IT organizations contract with a few and serve the many.
Business Development Manager at Aurel Partners (formerly MINT Partners)
11 年Great explanation Geoffrey. The user-centric architecture looks by far the most interesting and fulfilling from the user's perspective. We all feel more naturally motivated when we feel as if we're at the centre, and things come to us as and when required. Take for example the difference between a) scanning numerous online journals whenever you have the time and energy and self-discipline to hunt for news; and b) sending personalised news content by RSS feed to your own Reader. Do you think that between 'The Cloud Stack' and 'User-Centric Architecture', one lends itself more to complex systems and the other to volume operations, - Or do you think that the suitability of one versus the other will depend on other factors? (I'm thinking that the bespokeness of the 'User-Centric Architecture' would lend itself particularly well to the complex system.)
VP Marketing
11 年Thank you for this. Please don't forget to review ServiceNow as part of your analyses. Also, we shouldn't get into all kinds of technical discussions around stack vs user-centric. All focus should be on the latter, of course. The system of engagement in terms of consumerised enterprise IT drives a paradigm shift that is affecting both stewards and end users - IT and business alike, across the global enterprise. Social networks have already proven that it can be done; now the question is how to do it in a way that's both safe and agile.