There are likely to be blueprints for each element: processes, organization, decision making, software applications, locations and so on.
Most typically, an operating model is a living set of documents that are continually changing, like an organization chart.
A business model describes how an organization creates, delivers and captures value and sustains itself in the process.
The section below titled Business/IT dialogue, explores one framework for thinking about the IT implications of different corporate strategies.
Typically work on an operating model starts after some strategic plan has been proposed.
However, probably the most common use of the operating model tool is to get alignment between managers in different functions or divisions about how they are going to work together for the benefit of the whole.
Following this work, Leonard Wrigley[8] and Richard Rumelt[9] developed ways of classifying company structures and comparing their strategies.
They identified four different operating models:[10] The nomenclature evolved, but the categories survive: Some implications of the choice:[12] Operating models have become popular with service organisations, looking to improve processes to deliver greater value to customers and/or beneficiaries.
SOMS stipulates the expertise needed for people creating and working with operating models.