Tag: Brownfield

Dealing with Organizational Change Inherent in Driving Today’s Application Services | Sherpas in Blue Shirts

In my two previous blog posts, I pointed out two factors driving demand for application services today, and that they result in greenfield and brownfield opportunities. The third factor in the app demand profile is what we at Everest Group refer to as “vanishing scope.” The objective here is to use new technologies to change the value equation (through speed or cost savings), and it can present greenfield or brownfield opportunities. Of the three, this third factor designates application services that require the most change inside an organization.

Something very significant is happening in the vanishing-scope space: We’re seeing really slow, incremental adoptions of these technology-enabled initiatives even though the potential for change is dramatic. Although people see how new technologies and approaches clearly can drive big impacts, the initiatives fail to get traction – thus the vanishing scope designation.

Because they seek to change the status quo, executives must recognize that there will be passive-aggressive resistance. There is a very different set of emotions and issues to deal with in passive-aggressive behaviors. And people tend to blame the technology for failure.

In the successful examples of successfully driving big change that we know of, the executives had to drive through that resistance and turn it around. Executives need to define the intended performance breakthrough in a very clear way and engage the organization to embrace that vision and change.

In all three factors in the demand profile driving application services today, disruptive technologies enable both greenfield and brownfield opportunities. But these new, innovative technologies often require end-to-end orientation. The opportunities for growth and for changing the way services are delivered require a different way of organizing people, ensuring and empowering the right talent and aligning them with the breakthrough performance objectives.

Brownfield Opportunities in Demand Profile for Application Services | Sherpas in Blue Shirts

In my previous blog post, I discussed greenfield opportunities, an exciting area of demand for application services. Among the three factors in the demand profile for app services today, another factor is the desire to change the way services are delivered. For these “brownfield” opportunities, the approach to app demands is very different from the greenfield opportunities.

Services are already being delivered in the brownfield opportunities, but new technologies or approaches allow reshaping the way they’re delivered. Technologies and approaches in this space include agile, DevOps, automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) or cognitive computing. They allow organizations to reconceive the existing way they do business and do it differently and better.

There are very significant app demand opportunities in the brownfield space, and the outcomes are potentially very significant. JP Morgan, for example, achieved a 700 percent improvement in software developer productivity, a 59-day reduction in time to market, and 45 percent savings in infrastructure cost.

However, unlike the greenfield demand, brownfield opportunities face an existing ecosystem and existing way of doing business. Changing the way a company does business is very difficult. There is a lot of entrenched behavior in organizations, plus incumbent vendors have to be dislodged. So the brownfield space includes moving people’s cheese and reallocating resources, which can be quite painful to do.

In my next post, I’ll discuss the third factor driving demand for application services today and how all three factors are changing organizations and app services in fundamental ways.

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