Target operating model tools: what consultancies use to design and run one

• Start from where the model must live: the run layer, where roles, decision rights and governance live once the model is live. It is the layer most programmes forget, and the one an organisational operating system such as Talkspirit holds.
• There is no single operating model tool: consultancies combine frameworks, modelling software, architecture and process tools, portfolio tools and workshop boards.
• Org and workforce modelling (Orgvue, Ingentis, Nakisa, Functionly) tests structures, costs and spans before the decision.
• Architecture and process tools (SAP LeanIX, ADOIT, Ardoq, SAP Signavio, ARIS) link capabilities, processes and applications to the target model.
• Choose by layer, not by brand: a mid-sized group rarely needs all five; it needs one tool per layer it actually works on, starting with the first.

Consultancies do not design an operating model with one piece of software. They use a toolkit in five layers, and most programmes leave empty the one that matters most once they have gone: the layer where the model runs day to day. This article therefore starts from where the model must live, then moves to frameworks, org modelling, architecture and process, and the transformation portfolio. For each layer, it names the tools consultancies actually use.

What is an operating model, and what does designing it involve?

An operating model describes how an organisation turns its strategy into daily work: its structure, roles, decision rights, processes, locations and systems. A target operating model is the future state of that set, and the rollout plan is the path that gets there.

Designing an operating model therefore means deciding those six elements together, not only redrawing the org chart. Organisation design, structure, roles and reporting lines, is one part; processes, systems and governance are the others. That is why no single software covers it: each layer has its tools.

How we compared

We selected these tools on 24 September 2026 from two sources: the vendors’ own pages, and the answers ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode give to six operating model questions over thirty days. The criteria are the layer the tool covers, what it does in a target operating model programme, vendor country, and published price or “on quote”. Talkspirit publishes this page and appears first in it, in the layer it covers; its limits are written as plainly as the others’.

The five layers of the consultants’ toolkit

1. The run layer: start from where the model must live

We start with the layer most programmes forget, because it decides whether the model survives the consultants’ departure. The other four layers design the model and steer its rollout; this one is where it runs.

Talkspirit (France) is an organisational operating system: roles, circles, accountabilities and decision rights are the structure of the platform itself; governance meetings and decisions are recorded against the roles concerned; goals are broken down by team and role; the structure updates when the organisation changes. Data hosted in France and Switzerland. The roles, circles and governance features that came from Holaspirit are native in Talkspirit. An example at scale: how Arcadie runs 813 roles and 81 autonomous circles in Talkspirit. What Talkspirit does not do: it does not model headcount, costs or spans of control, and it does not replace an architecture repository; that work belongs to layers 3 and 4. On quote, free demonstration.

Peerdom (Switzerland, a venture of the Swiss company Nothing; data stored in Swiss facilities) offers interactive maps of roles and circles, lighter, built for self-organised teams. Free up to 10 members; Peerdom+ at CHF 5 per person per month billed yearly, minimum 10 members; Pro on quote (peerdom.com/pricing, 24/09/2026).

A target operating model that is not held in a live system goes back to being a slide deck within a year. The run layer must hold three things: who holds which role, who decides what, and which rule changed and when. A modelling tool or an architecture repository does not hold them: they describe the organisation; they are not where people work. That is where roles and decision rights live, connected to meetings, projects and communication.

2. Frameworks, before any software

Frameworks come before design tools: McKinsey’s 7-S, Galbraith’s Star Model, the Operating Model Canvas, capability maps, RACI or RAPID matrices. They are methods, not products. They decide what the model must cover and set the shared vocabulary between the leadership and the consultancy. A programme that skips this layer buys tools for a model it has not yet defined.

3. Org and workforce modelling

Orgvue (London, United Kingdom) describes itself as an organisational design and workforce planning platform. It models the organisation and the workforce, analyses activities, capacity and costs, for large accounts. No public price. Sources: orgvue.com, Orgvue press release on Business Wire (5 October 2022), Protiviti partner page, read on 24/09/2026.

Ingentis org.manager (Nuremberg, Germany) generates org charts from HR data, runs what-if scenarios and analyses spans of control; connectors to SAP, Workday, Oracle and ADP. Strong in DACH. No public price.

Nakisa Org Design (Nakisa Inc., head office in Montreal, European office in Frankfurt; contact page read on 24/09/2026) covers strategic and operational org design, with scenarios written back to SAP HCM, SuccessFactors, Workday and Oracle. No public price.

Functionly offers interactive org design, scenarios and headcount forecasting; a free trial of 22 days was published on 24/09/2026.

These four tools answer the same question: which structure, at what cost, with which spans of control. Orgvue, Functionly and Ingentis also appear in our org chart software comparison, from the representation angle; here they are described from the modelling angle.

4. Enterprise architecture and process

SAP LeanIX holds enterprise architecture, capabilities and transformation roadmaps; priced by number of applications with unlimited users (vendor page, 24/09/2026). Named first in Benelux answers.

ADOIT by BOC Group (BOC Products & Services AG, head office in Vienna, Austria; legal notice read on 24/09/2026) covers enterprise architecture and capability-based planning; free Community Edition for one user, paid plan from EUR 1,195 a month for 5 seats (vendor page, 24/09/2026).

Ardoq (Ardoq AS, Norway) models enterprise architecture as a graph and plans change. No public price.

SAP Signavio or ARIS provide process modelling, process mining and process governance, to translate the target model into end-to-end processes. No public price.

BusinessOptix (United Kingdom and United States) designs and visualises the target operating model aligned with processes. No public price.

5. Transformation portfolio

ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management and Planview track a programme’s initiatives: milestones, budgets, dependencies, expected benefits. They steer the transformation, not the organisation. Useful when dozens of initiatives run in parallel, useless for saying who decides what once the programme is over.

The consultancies’ own platforms

McKinsey OrgLab and BCG OrgBuilder are org design software built by the consultancies, used in their engagements and also licensed to clients. BCG OrgBuilder is presented as BCG X’s patented software platform, used in more than 3,000 projects since 2010, with a demo offered to clients (bcg.com, 24/09/2026). McKinsey OrgLab is a McKinsey application to design a new structure and track it by cost, spans and layers (mckinsey.com OrgSolutions page, read through its indexed text on 24/09/2026). The point to take away: even the consultancies’ tools stop at the design.

Design tools produce a target picture. The operating model only exists once it runs.

How to choose, for a mid-sized European group

One tool per layer you actually work on, starting from the problem. A mid-sized group rarely needs all five layers; it needs the right one, and almost always the first.

• Roles and decisions are still unclear after the reorganisation: layer 1, run (Talkspirit, Peerdom). The most frequent case six months after a programme ends, and the least equipped.
• You are redesigning a few thousand positions with their costs: layer 3, modelling (Orgvue, Ingentis, Nakisa, Functionly).
• You are realigning the IT and process landscape: layer 4, architecture and process (SAP LeanIX, ADOIT, Ardoq, Signavio or ARIS, BusinessOptix).
• You are steering many initiatives in parallel: layer 5, portfolio (ServiceNow SPM, Planview).

For layer 1, our governance and role clarity solution describes the practice, the Structure module the tool, and the Goals module the breakdown of goals by team and role. On the choice of model itself, see our governance models.

What we have learnt from more than 900 organisations

The transformation programmes we see succeed are not the ones with the best target model. They are the ones whose model is still right a year later, because it is held where people work: a role changes hands and the map knows it; a decision is taken in a meeting and recorded against the role that carries it; a team splits and its goals are redistributed. The rest, modelling, architecture, portfolio, did its job upstream.

That is the conviction behind Talkspirit: Performance Starts With Clarity.

Not a tool. Your Organisation’s Operating System.