Like the saying, “It takes a village to raise a child,” it takes an ecosystem to grow a company in today’s marketplace. According to recent research from McKinsey & Company, to thrive in the current business environment organizations should operate as a radically flattened structure with an ecosystem approach to growth.
The methodology comes in response to new expectations: 89% of Gen Z and millennials expect online experiences no matter the type of organization they’re dealing with. Businesses today must remain nimble, constantly adapting to the changing digital needs of customers, if they want to remain relevant and grow. This agility requires consistent interaction among all stakeholders as well as open lines of communication with a community of partners that may be outside the company’s traditional boundaries.
A good example of a company that embraces the ecosystem is Tesla. In 2014, the auto manufacturer encouraged other companies to use its intellectual property by making its patents open source. Considered to be a radical decision at the time, the move took an ecosystem approach to growth by putting itself at the center of a growing number of partners that offer services for electric vehicles, such as charging stations. Future-focused organizations look at partners as being extensions of themselves rather than competitors or suppliers.
Whether an organization’s ecosystem includes external partners or previously siloed internal teams, facilitating this new business model requires companies to leverage data-rich technology platforms, such as Jira Align. The dynamic cloud-based platform supports growth and innovation by helping companies align overall business objectives to everyday workflows to achieve new goals.
Transparency is key
One pitfall to innovation and growth is a lack of transparency. Jira Align empowers all team members—from software developers to C-suite executives—by making work visible and sharable for increased context and alignment. Workflows can be aligned to strategy and linked to execution, driving shared insights and outcomes that map to the organization’s overarching goals.
People, workflows and time are separate hierarchies that cut across the organization. Keeping workflows open and visible means they can be trackable, measurable and collaborative. A user can leverage the context filtering feature to find the information needed to complete their roles, such as the current status of an initiative and the next step. Users can also set up an organization's top-level strategy and track progress against objectives as well as across plans in the entire portfolio. Jira Align can even help organizations avoid employee fatigue and burnout thanks to great visibility into work processes and features designed to provide variety in workloads, match workflows to preferred schedules and automate tedious tracking tasks.
Pivoting plans with better intel
Jira Align users can also manage backlog, developing strategies and refining plans automatically to meet current or future requirements. For example, once a roadmap has been generated, teams can pivot and execute on the new plan, ensuring there are no obstacles in the way of completing the committed work.
Jira Align’s analytics offer real-time information at the program, portfolio and enterprise level that can aid agile methods. Decision-makers can gain insights on how the organization is meeting its larger strategic goals, such as adhering to business goals and delivering on objectives. Such up-to-date information allows leaders to take the right action at the right level and at the right time.
Reports also help organizations answer important questions about strategy, such as: Are teams aligned with our business goals? Should the organization continue to invest in this initiative? Which initiatives are at risk? What roadblocks is the business likely to encounter? And can teams deliver on time and on budget?”
In the end, a shared platform provides enterprise-level transformation capabilities by aggregating the work across teams. The right tool provides greater visibility, alignment, collaboration and measurement, creating a flattened organization with a data-rich ecosystem that can thrive in today’s market.
To learn more about how Contegix can help your organization adopt Jira Align to meet the demands of today’s marketplace, visit our Atlassian Solutions page.