A Two-Speed Architecture for the Digital Enterprise

In all customer facing businesses, time to market is a key differentiator. The quicker a business is, the more successful it is likely to be. And today, more and more companies, even those not explicitly in technology, need to master technology so they can move quickly enough to survive (Weill and Woerner in MIT Sloan Management Review 56(4):27, 2015 [1]). For new, digitally native businesses, that’s no problem. They’re built for speed. But more established businesses, even successful ones, have for many years delivered technology solutions to their employees and customers on lengthy release schedules that no longer make sense in today’s accelerated environment. Based on our research and client work, we have developed and refined a two-speed architecture that lets more mature companies compete effectively with the upstarts.