Do you have an Infinity Stone?

What does Dr. Strange have in common with ARIS? Read this and find out!

Comic book superhero Dr. Strange has sent the Internet wild with speculative theories and questions thanks to one of the most important scenes in this year’s Avengers blockbuster, Infinity War. For those yet to see the film, this post contains spoilers!

Posted by Marie-Elisabeth Heil

The scene I am referring to is where Dr. Strange, who possesses the Time Stone (an Infinity Stone that gives him the ability to traverse time), informs Tony Stark (aka Ironman) that he has analyzed the outcome of 14,000,605 future scenarios in their war against super-villain Thanos. Like many of us do in pressing circumstances, Stark ignores the detail and requests the executive summary: “How many did we win?” To which Dr Strange replies: “One…”

What does this have to do with your business? Well, the power to see many different futures and then follow the path offering the best outcome isn’t just for comic books. Many organizations across the world are already using predictive digital twins to analyze the results of simulated future scenarios. A digital twin, a digital representation of your business operating model from end to end, delivers insights needed to control, analyze and execute processes more efficiently. Discovering which routes offer the best outcome before any commitment is made means that decisions can be de-risked, processes can be optimized, unnecessary costs avoided and plans easily communicated.

Of course the best outcome is not always an easy option, another point that Infinity War highlights well. Dr Strange makes a key decision to surrender the Time Stone to Thanos in exchange for Tony Stark’s life; a decision which ultimately costs him his very existence (and that of half the population of the Universe!). However, we know from his analysis, he must believe this will result in the best overall future outcome. What we don’t yet understand, and will likely be uncovered in the next Avengers movie, was the criteria by which Dr. Strange made his evaluation.

In business, we are often faced with a similar decision where we have to consider the balance between risk, cost, performance and other influencing factors that impact on what we consider to be an optimal result. A predictive enterprise digital twin, built on ARIS, offers a solution to this in the form of scenario planning. By providing a holistic view of enterprise processes, many of these factors can be included, visualized and understood in order to compare outcomes and plan the best way to proceed.

How many scenarios do you consider when making your decisions and by what criteria do you define success? How do you ensure that your business’s future will be more secure than a comic book superhero’s? If you want to see the power of the Time Stone in action and need more insights on how to build your predictive digital twin, visit us on twin.softwareag.com/predictive or for a demo click on the “scenario planning” webinar.