How Composable is Your Business?

The question is, how can you prepare? By its very nature, disruption is unexpected. The answer could lie in composability, as this post will explore…

Broadly speaking, composability is a principle of system design that refers to how things are structured. Composable systems are made up of components which can be assembled or ‘composed’ in different ways to suit changing requirements.

In business terms, this means creating an organization that’s made from interchangeable building blocks. Doing so means that assets can easily be recomposed whenever needed.

As a very simple example, consider the difference between a business with a call centre versus one with a versatile customer service team. If customer expectations shift towards webchat, the call centre staff and technology could become redundant. On the other hand, a versatile team would have the technology and skills to simply move with customer demand.

It’s not just about composable staff or technology either. Entire businesses can become composable and better prepared for change. Think of the restaurants that became takeaways, breweries that produced hand sanitizers or manufacturers that became mask wholesalers in the pandemic.

The positive impact of composability is clear. Businesses that are highly composable perform better. Gartner’s CIO and Technology Executive Survey found a correlation between businesses’ composability scores and their overall performance relative to peers. In other words, the more composable a business, the further ahead of their competitors they perform.

More specifically, 63% of chief innovation officers (CIOs) at highly composable organizations reported superior business performance compared to competitors. They also expected their revenue to grow by 7.7% on average, compared to 3.4% for low-composability organizations – more than double the increase.

There are three main areas of composability – thinking, architecture and technologies. Firstly, business leaders need to think in terms of composability to recognize how conditions can change and how teams can be reformed to pre-empt those new conditions.

In terms of architecture, organizations should be structured for uncertainty and continuous change. Moving away from the traditional focus of stability and short-term efficiency, modern businesses must be adaptable with systems, processes and workers serving multiple potential purposes.

Finally, there’s technology. Rather than being siloed and rigid, infrastructure needs to support quick integration of new systems and partners. The technology itself should support data sharing, facilitate collaboration and promote consistency across organizations.

Of course, it’s not an overnight change. Modular components often take longer to design and deploy. But they’re much easier to adapt and redeploy when needed. By gradually embracing these three areas of composability, organizations will become more agile, responsive to change, and future-proof.

If composable technology is high on your list of priorities, Aura is the transformation partner you need. We work with organizations across the globe to design and deploy solutions that are adaptable, integrated and tailored to their requirements.

Whether you want to leverage your current infrastructure or embark on a full-scale revolution, you’ll get support for multiple vendors across the globe – all in one place.