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Drive Digital Transformation With Platform Strategies

Innovate and transform your business models with digital platforms.

  • Enterprise is grappling with the challenges of existing business models and strategies not leading to desired outcomes.
  • Enterprise is struggling to remain competitive.
  • Enterprise wants to understand how to leverage platform strategies and a digital platform.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

To remain competitive enterprises must renew and refresh their business model strategies and design/develop digital platforms – this requires enterprises to:

  • Understand how digital-native enterprises are using platform business models and associated strategies.
  • Understand their core assets and strengths and how these can be leveraged for transformation.
  • Understand the core characteristics and components of a digital platform so that they can design digital platform(s) for their enterprise.
  • Ask if the client’s digital transformation (DX) strategy is aligned with a digital platform enablement strategy.
  • Ask if the enterprise has paid attention to the structure, culture, principles, and practices of platform teams.

Impact and Result

Organizations that implement this project will gain benefits in five ways:

  • Awareness and understanding of various platform strategies.
  • Application of specific platform strategies within the context of the enterprise.
  • Awareness of their existing business mode, core assets, value proposition, and strengths.
  • Alignment between DX themes and platform enablement themes so enterprises can develop roadmaps that gauge successful DX.
  • Design of a digital platform, including characteristics, components, and team characteristics, culture, principles, and practices.

Drive Digital Transformation With Platform Strategies Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should consider the platform business model and a digital platform to remain competitive.

Drive Digital Transformation With Platform Strategies – Executive Brief
Drive Digital Transformation With Platform Strategies – Phases 1-2

1. Set goals for your platform business model

Understand the platform business model and strategies and then set your platform business model goals.

Drive Digital Transformation With Platform Strategies – Phase 1: Set Goals for Your Platform Business Model
Business Platform Playbook

2. Configure digital platform

Define design goals for your digital platform. Align your DX strategy with digital platform capabilities and understand key components of the digital platform.

Drive Digital Transformation With Platform Strategies – Phase 2: Configure Your Digital Platform
Digital Platform Playbook

Member Testimonials

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.

8.5/10

Overall Impact

$3,750

Average $ Saved

4

Average Days Saved

Client

Experience

Impact

$ Saved

Days Saved

Health Canada

Guided Implementation

8/10

$1,000

2

The biggest challenge is being myself prepared for the conversation. Infotech nicely picks up where we leave off from previous call, but it takes t... Read More

Canada Border Services Agency

Workshop

10/10

N/A

10

Best parts - excellent and professional engagement from Ben and company especially given the larger than ideal group size. Artefact that was produc... Read More

Town Of Oakville

Guided Implementation

8/10

$2,000

2

Public Health Services Authority

Guided Implementation

9/10

$10,000

5

MCAP Service Corporation

Guided Implementation

8/10

$2,000

2

Confirmation that the activities we are pursuing are foundational requirements and in alignment with best practices

ISG Central Services Ltd.

Guided Implementation

8/10

N/A

N/A

We really need to speak to a data Scientist but Brian was very knowledgeable about the Innovation process

City Of Chesapeake

Guided Implementation

10/10

$2,512

5

Covid-19 has thrown everyone for a loop so being able to talk through several items helped.

Vinci PLC

Workshop

8/10

$42,750

10

California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

N/A

HONDA NORTH AMERICA INC.

Guided Implementation

10/10

$6,388

2

It was all a positive experience. I worked with Vivek Mehta in discussions around a Platform Strategy, and his experience gave me a way to look at... Read More

City Of Chesapeake

Guided Implementation

10/10

$6,366

5

Arif gave me access to his new report just as it came out on platforms. The idea of platforms opposed to services or applications is the key to th... Read More

Veterans United Home Loans

Workshop

10/10

$123K

120

I think the best moment was when Arif and Adib had the team draw up how a feature gets to production. The team saw the current inefficient process ... Read More

Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications

Guided Implementation

1/10

N/A

N/A

National Interstate Insurance

Guided Implementation

9/10

$95,000

55

Best parts are valuable insight into best practices approach to external facing website design. Worst parts are nonexistence of delivery plan and m... Read More

Load More Testimonials

Workshop: Drive Digital Transformation With Platform Strategies

Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

Module 1: Understand Platform Business Model and Strategies

The Purpose

  • Understand existing business model, value proposition, and key assets.
  • Understand platform business model and strategies.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Understanding the current assets helps with knowing what can be leveraged in the new business model/transformation.
  • Understanding the platform strategies can help the enterprise renew/refresh their business model.

Activities

Outputs

1.1

Document the current business model along with value proposition and key assets (that provide competitive advantage).

  • Documentation of current business model along with value proposition and key assets (that provide competitive advantage).
1.2

Transformation narrative.

1.3

Platform model canvas.

1.4

Document the platform strategies in the context of the enterprise.

  • Documentation of the selected platform strategies.

Module 2: Planning for Platform Business Model

The Purpose

  • Understand transformation approaches.
  • Understand various layers of platforms.
  • Ask fundamental and evolutionary questions about the platform.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Understanding of the transformational model so that the enterprise can realize the differences.
  • Understanding of the organization’s strengths and weaknesses for a DX.
  • Extraction of strategic themes to plan and develop a digital platform roadmap.

Activities

Outputs

2.1

Discuss and document decision about DX approach and next steps.

  • Documented decision about DX approach and next steps.
2.2

Discuss and document high-level strategic themes for platform business model and associated roadmap.

  • Documented high-level strategic themes for platform business model and associated roadmap.

Module 3: Digital Platform Strategy

The Purpose

  • Understand the design goals for the digital platform.
  • Understand gaps between the platform’s capabilities and the DX strategy.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Design goals set for the digital platform that are visible to all stakeholders.
  • Gap analysis performed between enterprise’s digital strategy and platform capabilities; this helps understand the current situation and thus informs strategies and roadmaps.

Activities

Outputs

3.1

Discuss and document design goals for digital platform.

  • Documented design goals for digital platform.
3.2

Discuss DX themes and platform capabilities – document the gaps.

  • Documented DX themes and platform capabilities.
3.3

Discuss gaps and strategies along with timelines.

  • DX themes and platform capabilities map.

Module 4: Digital Platform Design: Key Components

The Purpose

  • Understanding of key components of a digital platform, including technology and teams.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Understanding of the key components of a digital platform and designing the platform.
  • Understanding of the team structure, culture, and practices needed for successful platform engineering teams.

Activities

Outputs

4.1

Confirmation and discussion on existing UX/UI and API strategies.

4.2

Understanding of microservices architecture and filling of microservices canvas.

  • Filled microservices canvas.
4.3

Real-time stream processing data pipeline and tool map.

  • Documented real-time stream processing data pipeline and tool map.
4.4

High-level architectural view.

  • Documented high-level architectural view.
4.5

Discussion on platform engineering teams, including culture, structure, principles, and practices.

Unlock This Blueprint

About Info-Tech

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We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

MEMBER RATING

8.5/10
Overall Impact

$3,750
Average $ Saved

4
Average Days Saved

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve.

Read what our members are saying

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

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Speak With An Analyst

Get the help you need in this 2-phase advisory process. You'll receive 8 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.

Guided Implementation 1: Set goals for your platform business model
  • Call 1: Discuss the platform model and importance of platforms.
  • Call 2: Discuss various platform strategies.
  • Call 3: Discuss transformation approaches.
  • Call 4: Discuss key foundational and evolutionary questions for the platform business model.

Guided Implementation 2: Configure your digital platform
  • Call 1: Discuss design goals for enterprise digital platform.
  • Call 2: Discuss DX themes and platform capabilities and alignment between DX initiatives and platform enablement.
  • Call 3: Discuss digital platform components – understand the gaps.
  • Call 4: Discuss culture, structure, principles, and practices of successful platform engineering teams.

Author

Arif Mustafa

Contributors

  • Ikram Ul-Haq, Sr. Developer/Analyst, OCP CPAS Systems, a Xerox Company
  • Joakim Sunden, Consultant, Speaker, Coach, Teacher, Crisp, ex-Spotify, author of Kanban in Action
  • Rajan Mahadevan, Chief Technology Officer, WendiHealth
  • Jimmy Janlen, Agile Coach, Casumo, ex-Spotify
  • Zack Dawood, Sr. Director Product Engineering, CGI
  • 11 anonymous contributors

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