The Enterprise Solution Conundrums

“Houston, we have a Problem” is the iconic phrase delivered by Tom Hanks while portraying astronaut Jim Lovell in Ron Howard’s 1995 classic Apollo 13. The “problem” was that an oxygen tank exploded on the spacecraft’s Command Module en route to the moon, leaving the astronauts in a fight for survival to return to Earth before running out of oxygen. For those unfamiliar with the film or the mission from 1970, although there were many moments where the astronauts endured turmoil to successfully navigate the crisis, one of the most pivotal was when they were forced to fit a square carbon dioxide filter into a round scrubber receptacle to prevent the astronauts from suffocating. Their lives depended on solving the timeless idiom of fitting a square peg into a round hole.

This idiom is also apt for firms transitioning their investment processes to an out-of-the-box (OOTB) enterprise solution. While these platforms are built to support the full investment lifecycle, firms will inevitably encounter requirements that do not align perfectly with standard functionality. When clients encounter these roadblocks to success, they, like the astronauts on Apollo 13, will often feel helpless and adrift trying to successfully navigate what might seem like unsurmountable odds. Although, each client might feel like theirs is a unique case, ultimately the challenges will come down to finding the right balance between process and technology to fit a square investment process peg into a round solution hole.

Alpha believes that successful enterprise transformations are not about forcing the business into the technology, they are about deliberately deciding where to adopt leading practice, where to differentiate, and where to innovate. During these transformations, Alpha has identified four Enterprise Conundrums that prevent straightforward implementations:

Clients that can navigate these conundrums effectively will ultimately be able to shape a solution that will meet the needs of all stakeholders while enabling firms to achieve the massive benefits and scalability offered by OOTB enterprise solutions.