Technology Record - Issue 22: Autumn 2021

108 www. t e c h n o l o g y r e c o r d . c om T he pandemic has made us introspect. It has compelled many of us to discover new abilities within ourselves and define new paths for our futures. We have learnt to look at things differently. Enterprises had the same epiphanies, as they faced a complete business shutdown. In a letter to employees of Microsoft, Satya Nadella wrote: “It is in times of great dis- ruption and uncertainty that our ability to stay grounded in our sense of purpose and remain true to our identity is of the utmost importance.” It was a time for companies to rediscover them- selves and channel unused abilities to accom- plish their broader goals. This is the core of a purpose-driven enterprise. The most important aspect of a purpose-driven approach is the ability to envision a multi-horizon journey using the cloud, which will achieve a complete transformation of the enterprise. Three key elements – which form our ‘three-horizon strategy’ – are: building the digital core, inno- vating business models, and transforming and growing around purpose-led ecosystems. Many organisations crafted their purpose statements around servicing the ecosystem to help face the disarray. The most successful ones were those that were agile, intelligent and working in the cloud. This is where we see our customers, TCS and Microsoft Azure coming together and gaining success. Early adopters of Azure are leading the way in being agile and purpose-driven enterprises. A three-horizon journey is achieved through a multi-faceted cloud transformation and appli- cation and data modernisation programme that is designed to build an enterprise’s digital core, innovate its business model, and transform it into a purpose-led ecosystem. The fundamental ingredient of a successful path to Azure or any other public cloud is a robust cloud strategy which addresses: the abil- ity and intention to use the cloud as a unifying digital fabric that can transform each aspect of an enterprise, the business innovation needed to fully embrace the cloud and its digital capabil- ities, and striking the balance between rapidly moving to cloud and taking the time to innovate. Over the last few years many enterprises have started these initiatives and we now have a robust set of successes and best practices to learn from. Walgreens Boots Alliance has begun a three-horizon cloud journey focusing on IT transformation and workplace modernisation. At the second stage – innovating business models – the business planned to transform its retail operations, and with the third, it intended to implement a new vision for the future of healthcare. This strategy was implemented into A purpose-driven approach Enterprises worldwide can use TCS’s three-horizon strategy to digitally transform business operations with cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure S I DDHAR THA GUP TA : TATA CONS U LTANC Y S E R V I C E S V I EWPO I NT “For enterprises seeking to transform themselves using the power of the cloud, now is the time to design their three-horizon journey”