Application Development Quality

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  • Parent Category Name: Applications
  • Parent Category Link: /applications
Apply quality assurance across your critical development process steps to secure quality to product delivery

Lay the Strategic Foundations of Your Applications Team

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  • Parent Category Name: Architecture & Strategy
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  • As an application leader, you are expected to quickly familiarize yourself with the current state of your applications environment.
  • You need to continuously demonstrate effective leadership to your applications team while defining and delivering a strategy for your applications department that will be accepted by stakeholders.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • The applications department can be viewed as the face of IT. The business often portrays the value of IT through the applications and services they provide and support. IT success can be dominantly driven by the application team’s performance.
  • Conflicting perceptions lead to missed opportunities. Being transparent on how well applications are supporting stakeholders from both business and technical perspectives is critical. This attribute helps validate that technical initiatives are addressing the right business problems or exploiting new value opportunities.

Impact and Result

  • Get to know what needs to be changed quickly. Use Info-Tech’s advice and tools to perform an assessment of your department’s accountabilities and harvest stakeholder input to ensure that your applications operating model and portfolio meets or exceeds expectations and establishes the right solutions to the right problems.
  • Solidify the applications long-term strategy. Adopt best practices to ensure that you are striving towards the right goals and objectives. Not only do you need to clarify both team and stakeholder expectations, but you will ultimately need buy-in from them as you improve the operating model, applications portfolio, governance, and tactical plans. These items will be needed to develop your strategic model and long-term success.
  • Develop an action plan to show movement for improvements. Hit the ground running with an action plan to achieve realistic goals and milestones within an acceptable timeframe. An expectations-driven roadmap will help establish the critical structures that will continue to feed and grow your applications department.

Lay the Strategic Foundations of Your Applications Team Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should develop an applications strategy, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

1. Get to know your team

Understand your applications team.

  • Lay the Strategic Foundations of Your Applications Team – Phase 1: Get to Know Your Team
  • Applications Strategy Template
  • Applications Diagnostic Tool

2. Get to know your stakeholders

Understand your stakeholders.

  • Lay the Strategic Foundations of Your Applications Team – Phase 2: Get to Know Your Stakeholders

3. Develop your applications strategy

Design and plan your applications strategy.

  • Lay the Strategic Foundations of Your Applications Team – Phase 3: Develop Your Applications Strategy
[infographic]

Workshop: Lay the Strategic Foundations of Your Applications Team

Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

1 Get to Know Your Team

The Purpose

Understand the expectations, structure, and dynamics of your applications team.

Review your team’s current capacity.

Gauge the team’s effectiveness to execute their operating model.

Key Benefits Achieved

Clear understanding of the current responsibilities and accountabilities of your teams.

Identification of improvement opportunities based on your team’s performance.

Activities

1.1 Define your team’s role and responsibilities.

1.2 Understand your team’s application and project portfolios.

1.3 Understand your team’s values and expectations.

1.4 Gauge your team’s ability to execute your operating model.

Outputs

Current team structure, RACI chart, and operating model

Application portfolios currently managed by applications team and projects currently committed to

List of current guiding principles and team expectations

Team effectiveness of current operating model

2 Get to Know Your Stakeholders

The Purpose

Understand the expectations of stakeholders.

Review the services stakeholders consume to support their applications.

Gauge stakeholder satisfaction of the services and applications your team provides and supports.

Key Benefits Achieved

Grounded understanding of the drivers and motivators of stakeholders that teams should accommodate.

Identification of improvement opportunities that will increase the value your team delivers to stakeholders.

Activities

2.1 Understand your stakeholders and applications services.

2.2 Define stakeholder expectations.

2.3 Gauge stakeholder satisfaction of applications services and portfolio.

Outputs

Expectations stakeholders have on the applications team and the applications services they use

List of applications expectations

Stakeholder satisfaction of current operating model

3 Develop Your Applications Strategy

The Purpose

Align and consolidate a single set of applications expectations.

Develop key initiatives to alleviate current pain points and exploit existing opportunities to deliver new value.

Create an achievable roadmap that is aligned to organizational priorities and accommodate existing constraints.

Key Benefits Achieved

Applications team and stakeholders are aligned on the core focus of the applications department.

Initiatives to address the high priority issues and opportunities.

Activities

3.1 Define your applications expectations.

3.2 Investigate your diagnostic results.

3.3 Envision your future state.

3.4 Create a tactical plan to achieve your future state.

3.5 Finalize your applications strategy.

Outputs

List of applications expectations that accommodates the team and stakeholder needs

Root causes to issues and opportunities revealed in team and stakeholder assessments

Future-state applications portfolio, operating model, supporting people, process, and technologies, and applications strategic model

Roadmap that lays out initiatives to achieve the future state

Completed applications strategy

Develop a Security Operations Strategy

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  • Parent Category Name: Security Processes & Operations
  • Parent Category Link: /security-processes-and-operations
  • There is an onslaught of security data – generating information in different formats, storing it in different places, and forwarding it to different locations.
  • The organization lacks a dedicated enterprise security team. There is limited resourcing available to begin or mature a security operations center.
  • Many organizations are developing ad hoc security capabilities that result in operational inefficiencies, the misalignment of resources, and the misuse of security technology investments.
  • It is difficult to communicate the value of a security operations program when trying to secure organizational buy-in to gain the appropriate resourcing.
  • There is limited communication between security functions due to a centralized security operations organizational structure.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  1. Security operations is no longer a center, but a process. The need for a physical security hub has evolved into the virtual fusion of prevention, detection, analysis, and response efforts. When all four functions operate as a unified process, your organization will be able to proactively combat changes in the threat landscape.
  2. Functional threat intelligence is a prerequisite for effective security operations – without it, security operations will be inefficient and redundant. Eliminate false positives by contextualizing threat data, aligning intelligence with business objectives, and building processes to satisfy those objectives.
  3. If you are not communicating, you are not secure. Collaboration eliminates siloed decisions by connecting people, processes, and technologies. You leave less room for error, consume fewer resources, and improve operational efficiency with a transparent security operations process.

Impact and Result

  • A unified security operations process actively transforms security events and threat information into actionable intelligence, driving security prevention, detection, analysis, and response processes, addressing the increasing sophistication of cyberthreats, and guiding continuous improvement.
  • This blueprint will walk through the steps of developing a flexible and systematic security operations program relevant to your organization.

Develop a Security Operations Strategy Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should enhance your security operations program, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

1. Assess your current state

Assess current prevention, detection, analysis, and response capabilities.

  • Develop a Security Operations Strategy – Phase 1: Assess Operational Requirements
  • Security Operations Preliminary Maturity Assessment Tool

2. Develop maturity initiatives

Design your optimized state of operations.

  • Develop a Security Operations Strategy – Phase 2: Develop Maturity Initiatives
  • Information Security Requirements Gathering Tool
  • Concept of Operations Maturity Assessment Tool

3. Define operational interdependencies

Identify opportunities for collaboration within your security program.

  • Develop a Security Operations Strategy – Phase 3: Define Operational Interdependencies
  • Security Operations RACI Chart & Program Plan
  • Security Operations Program Cadence Schedule Template
  • Security Operations Collaboration Plan
  • Security Operations Metrics Summary Document
[infographic]

Workshop: Develop a Security Operations Strategy

Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

1 Assess Operational Requirements

The Purpose

Determine current prevention, detection, analysis, and response capabilities, operational inefficiencies, and opportunities for improvement.

Key Benefits Achieved

Determine why you need a sound security operations program.

Understand Info-Tech’s threat collaboration environment.

Evaluate your current security operation’s functions and capabilities.

Activities

1.1 Understand the benefits of refining your security operations program.

1.2 Gauge your current prevention, detection, analysis, and response capabilities.

Outputs

Security Operations Preliminary Maturity Assessment Tool

2 Develop Maturity Initiatives

The Purpose

Begin developing and prioritizing gap initiatives in order to achieve the optimal state of operations.

Key Benefits Achieved

Establish your goals, obligations, scope, and boundaries.

Assess your current state and define a target state.

Develop and prioritize gap initiatives.

Define the cost, effort, alignment, and security benefits of each initiative.

Develop a security strategy operational roadmap.

Activities

2.1 Assess your current security goals, obligations, and scope.

2.2 Design your ideal target state.

2.3 Prioritize gap initiatives.

Outputs

Information Security Strategy Requirements Gathering Tool

Security Operations Maturity Assessment Tool

3 Define Operational Interdependencies

The Purpose

Identify opportunities for collaboration.

Formalize your operational process flows.

Develop a comprehensive and actionable measurement program.

Key Benefits Achieved

Understand the current security operations process flow.

Define the security operations stakeholders and their respective deliverables.

Formalize an internal information-sharing and collaboration plan.

Activities

3.1 Identify opportunities for collaboration.

3.2 Formalize a security operations collaboration plan.

3.3 Define operational roles and responsibilities.

3.4 Develop a comprehensive measurement program.

Outputs

Security Operations RACI & Program Plan Tool

Security Operations Collaboration Plan

Security Operations Cadence Schedule Template

Security Operations Metrics Summary

Further reading

INFO-TECH RESEARCH GROUP

Develop a Security Operations Strategy

Transition from a security operations center to a threat collaboration environment.

Info-Tech Research Group, Inc. is a global leader in providing IT research and advice. Info-Tech’s products and services combine actionable insight and relevant advice with ready-to-use tools and templates that cover the full spectrum of IT concerns.
© 1997-2017 Info-Tech Research Group Inc.

ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

“A reactive security operations program is no longer an option. The increasing sophistication of threats demands a streamlined yet adaptable mitigation and remediation process. Protect your assets by preparing for the inevitable; unify your prevention, detection, analysis, and response efforts and provide assurance to your stakeholders that you are making information security a top priority.”

Phot of Edward Gray, Consulting Analyst, Security, Risk & Compliance, Info-Tech Research Group.

Edward Gray,
Consulting Analyst, Security, Risk & Compliance
Info-Tech Research Group



Our understanding of the problem

This Research Is Designed For:
  • Chief Information Officer (CIO)
  • Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)
  • Chief Operating Officer (COO)
  • Security / IT Management
  • Security Operations Director / Security Operations Center (SOC)
  • Network Operations Director / Network Operations Center (NOC)
  • Systems Administrator
  • Threat Intelligence Staff
  • Security Operations Staff
  • Security Incident Responders
  • Vulnerability Management Staff
  • Patch Management
This Research Will Help You:
  • Enhance your security program by implementing and streamlining next-generation security operations processes.
  • Increase organizational situational awareness through active collaboration between core threat teams, enriching internal security events with external threat intelligence and enhancing security controls.
  • Develop a comprehensive threat analysis and dissemination process: align people, process, and technology to scale security to threats.
  • Identify the appropriate technological and infrastructure-based sourcing decisions.
  • Design a step-by-step security operations implementation process.
  • Pursue continuous improvement: build a measurement program that actively evaluates program effectiveness.
This Research Will Also Assist:
  • Board / Chief Executive Officer
  • Information Owners (Business Directors/VP)
  • Security Governance and Risk Management
  • Fraud Operations
  • Human Resources
  • Legal and Public Relations
This Research Will Help Them
  • Aid decision making by staying abreast of cyberthreats that could impact the business.
  • Increase visibility into the organization’s threat landscape to identify likely targets or identify exposed vulnerabilities.
  • Ensure the business is compliant with regularity, legal, and/or compliance requirements.
  • Understand the value and return on investment of security operations offerings.

Executive summary

Situation

  • Current security practices are disjointed, operating independently with a wide variety of processes and tools to conduct incident response, network defense, and threat analysis. These disparate mitigations leave organizations vulnerable to the increasing number of malicious events.
  • Threat management has become resource intensive, requiring continuous monitoring, collection, and analysis of massive volumes of security event data, while juggling business, compliance, and consumer obligations.

Complication

  • There is an onslaught of security data – generating information in different formats, storing it in different places, and forwarding it to different locations.
  • The organization lacks a dedicated enterprise security team. There is limited resourcing available to begin or mature a security operations center.
  • Many organizations are developing ad hoc security capabilities that result in operational inefficiencies, the misalignment of resources, and the misuse of their security technology investments.
  • It is difficult to communicate the value of a security operations program when trying to secure organizational buy-in to gain the appropriate resourcing.
  • There is limited communication between security functions due to a centralized security operations organizational structure.

Resolution

  • A unified security operations process actively transforms security events and threat information into actionable intelligence, driving security prevention, detection, analysis, and response processes, addressing the increasing sophistication of cyberthreats, and guiding continuous improvement.
  • This blueprint will walk through the steps of developing a flexible and systematic security operations program relevant to your organization.

Info-Tech Insight

  1. Security operations is no longer a center, but a process. The need for a physical security hub has evolved into the virtual fusion of prevention, detection, analysis, and response efforts. When all four functions operate as a unified process, your organization will be able to proactively combat changes in the threat landscape.
  2. Functional threat intelligence is a prerequisite for effective security operations – without it, security operations will be inefficient and redundant. Eliminate false positives by contextualizing threat data, aligning intelligence with business objectives, and building processes to satisfy those objectives.
  3. If you are not communicating, you are not secure. Collaboration eliminates siloed decisions by connecting people, processes, and technologies. You leave less room for error, consume fewer resources, and improve operational efficiency with a transparent security operations process.

Data breaches are resulting in major costs across industries

Horizontal bar chart of 'Per capita cost by industry classification of benchmarked companies', with the highest cost attributed to 'Health', 'Pharmaceutical', 'Financial', 'Energy', and 'Transportation'.

Average data breach costs per compromised record hit an all-time high of $217 (in 2015); $74 is direct cost (e.g. legal fees, technology investment) and $143 is indirect cost (e.g. abnormal customer churn). (Source: Ponemon Institute, “2015 Cost of Data Breach Study: United States”)

'% of systems impacted by a data breach', '1% No Impact', '19% 1-10% impacted', '41% 11-30% impacted', '24% 31-50% impacted', '15% more than 50% impacted
Divider line.
'% of customers lost from a data breach', '61% Lost <20%', '21% Lost 20-40%', '8% Lost 40-60%', '6% Lost 60-80%', '4% Lost 80-100%'.
Divider line.
'% of business opportunity lost from a data breach', '58% Lost <20%', '25% Lost 20-40%', '9% Lost, 40-60%', '5% Lost 60-80%', '4% Lost 80-100%'.
(Source: The Network, “ Cisco 2017 Security Capabilities Benchmark Study”)

Persistent issues

  • Organizational barriers separating prevention, detection, analysis, and response efforts.
    Siloed operations limit collaboration and internal knowledge sharing.
  • Lack of knowledgeable security staff.
    Human capital is transferrable between roles and functions and must be cross-trained to wear multiple hats.
  • Failure to evaluate and improve security operations.
    The effectiveness of operations must be frequently measured and (re)assessed through an iterative system of continuous improvement.
  • Lack of standardization.
    Pre-established use cases and policies outlining tier-1 operational efforts will eliminate ad hoc remediation efforts and streamline operations.
  • Failure to acknowledge the auditor as a customer.
    Many compliance and regulatory obligations require organizations to have comprehensive documentation of their security operations practices.

60% Of organizations say security operation teams have little understanding of each other’s requirements.

40% Of executives report that poor coordination leads to excessive labor and IT operational costs.

38-100% Increase in efficiency after closing operational gaps with collaboration.
(Source: Forbes, “The Game Plan for Closing the SecOps Gap”)

The solution

Bar chart of the 'Benefits of Internal Collaboration' with 'Increased Operational Efficiency' and 'Increased Problem Solving' having the highest percentage.

“Empower a few administrators with the best information to enable fast, automated responses.”
– Ismael Valenzuela, IR/Forensics Technical Practice Manager, Foundstone® Services, Intel Security)

Insufficient security personnel resourcing has been identified as the most prevalent challenge in security operations…

When an emergency security incident strikes, weak collaboration and poor coordination among critical business functions will magnify inefficiencies in the incident response (IR) process, impacting the organization’s ability to minimize damage and downtime.

The solution: optimize your SOC. Info-Tech has seen SOCs with five analysts outperform SOCs with 25 analysts through tools and process optimization.

Sources:
Ponemon. "2016 State of Cybersecurity in Small & Medium-Sized Businesses (SMB).”
Syngress. Designing and Building a Security Operations Center.

Maintain a holistic security operations program

Legacy security operations centers (SOCs) fail to address gaps between data sources, network controls, and human capital. There is limited visibility and collaboration between departments, resulting in siloed decisions that do not support the best interests of the organization.
Venn diagram of 'Next-Gen Security Operations' with four intersecting circles: 'Prevent', 'Detect', 'Analyze', and 'Respond'.

Security operations is part of what Info-Tech calls a threat collaboration environment, where members must actively collaborate to address cyberthreats affecting the organization’s brand, business operations, and technology infrastructure on a daily basis.

Prevent: Defense in depth is the best approach to protect against unknown and unpredictable attacks. Diligent patching and vulnerability management, endpoint protection, and strong human-centric security (amongst other tactics) are essential. Detect: There are two types of companies – those who have been breached and know it and those who have been breached and don’t know it. Ensure that monitoring, logging, and event detection tools are in place and appropriate to your organizational needs
Analyze: Raw data without interpretation cannot improve security and is a waste of time, money, and effort. Establish a tiered operational process that not only enriches data but also provides visibility into your threat landscape. Respond: Organizations can’t rely on an ad hoc response anymore – don’t wait until a state of panic. Formalize your response processes in a detailed incident runbook in order to reduce incident remediation time and effort.

Info-Tech’s security operations blueprint ties together various initiatives

Stock image 1.

Design and Implement a Vulnerability Management Program

Vulnerability Management
Vulnerability management revolves around the identification, prioritization, and remediation of vulnerabilities. Vulnerability management teams hunt to identify which vulnerabilities need patching and remediating.
Deliverables
  • Vulnerability Tracking Tool
  • Vulnerability Scanning Tool RFP Template
  • Penetration Test RFP Template
  • Vulnerability Mitigation Process Template
Stock image 2.

Integrate Threat Intelligence Into Your Security Operations

Threat Intelligence
Threat intelligence addresses the collection, analysis, and dissemination of external threat data. Analysts act as liaisons to their peers, publishing actionable threat alerts, reports, and briefings. Threat intelligence proactively monitors and identifies whether threat indicators are impacting your organization.
  • Maturity Assessment Tool
  • Threat Intelligence RACI Tool
  • Management Plan Template
  • Threat Intelligence Policy Template
  • Alert Template
  • Alert and Briefing Cadence Schedule
Stock image 3.

Develop Foundational Security Operations Processes

Operations
Security operations include the real-time monitoring and analysis of events based on the correlation of internal and external data sources. This also includes incident escalation based on impact. Analysts are constantly tuning and tweaking rules and reporting thresholds to further help identify which indicators are most impactful during the analysis phase of operations.
  • Maturity Assessment Tool
  • Event Prioritization Tool
  • Efficiency Calculator
  • SecOps Policy Template
  • In-House vs. Outsourcing Decision-Making Tool
  • SecOps RACI Tool
  • TCO & ROI Comparison Calculator
Stock image 4.

Develop and Implement a Security Incident Management Program

Incident Response
Effective and efficient management of incidents involves a formal process of analysis, containment, eradication, recovery, and post-incident activities. IR teams coordinate root-cause analysis and incident gathering while facilitating post-incident lessons learned. Incident response can provide valuable threat data that ties specific indicators to threat actors or campaigns.
  • Incident Management Policy
  • Maturity Assessment Tool
  • Incident Management RACI Tool
  • Incident Management Plan
  • Incident Runbook Prioritization Tool
  • Various Incident Management Runbooks

This blueprint will…

…better protect your organization with an interdependent and collaborative security operations program.

Phase 01

Assess your operational requirements.

Phase 02

Optimize and further mature your security operations processes

Phase 3a

Develop the process flow and specific interaction points between functions

Phase 3b

Test your current capabilities with a table top exercise
Briefly assess your current prevention, detection, analysis, and response capabilities.
Highlight operational weak spots that should be addressed before progressing.
Develop a prioritized list of security-focused operational initiatives.
Conduct a holistic analysis of your operational capabilities.
Define the operational interaction points between security-focused operational departments.
Document the results in comprehensive operational interaction agreement.
Test your operational processes with Info-Tech’s security operations table-top exercise.

Info-Tech integrates several best practices to create a best-of-breed security framework

Legend for the 'Information Security Framework' identifying blue best practices as 'In Scope' and white best practices as 'Out of Scope'. Info-Tech's 'Information Security Framework' of best practices with two main categories 'Governance' and 'Management', each with subcategories such as 'Context & Leadership' and 'Prevention', each with a group of best practices color-coded to the associated legend identifying them as 'In Scope' or 'Out of Scope'.

Benefits of a collaborative and integrated operations program

Effective security operations management will help you do the following:

  • Improve efficacy
    Develop structured processes to automate activities and increase process consistency across the security program. Expose operational weak points and transition teams from firefighting to an innovator role.
  • Improve threat protection
    Enhance network controls through the hardening of perimeter defenses, an intelligence-driven analysis process, and a streamlined incident remediation process.
  • Improve visibility and information sharing
    Promote both internal and external information sharing to enable good decision making.
  • Create and clarify accountability and responsibility
    Security operations management practices will set a clear level of accountability throughout the security program and ensure role responsibility for all tasks and processes involved in service delivery.
  • Control security costs
    Security operations management is concerned with delivering promised services in the most efficient way possible. Good security operations management practices will provide insight into current costs across the organization and present opportunities for cost savings.
  • Identify opportunities for continuous improvement
    Increased visibility into current performance levels and the ability to accurately identify opportunities for continuous improvement.

Impact

Short term:

  • Streamlined security operations program development process.
  • Completed comprehensive list of operational gaps and initiatives.
  • Formalized and structured implementation process.
  • Standardized operational use cases that predefine necessary operational protocol.

Long term:

  • Enhanced visibility into immediate threat environment.
  • Improved effectiveness of internal defensive controls.
  • Increased operational collaboration between prevention, detection, analysis, and response efforts.
  • Enhanced security pressure posture.
  • Improved communication with executives about relevant security risks to the business.

Understand the cost of not having a suitable security operations program

A practical approach, justifying the value of security operations, is to identify the assets at risk and calculate the cost to the company should the information assets be compromised (i.e. assess the damage an attacker could do to the business).

Cost Structure Cost Estimation ($) for SMB
(Small and medium-sized business)
Cost Estimation ($) for LE
(Large enterprise)
Security controls Technology investment: software, hardware, facility, maintenance, etc.
Cost of process implementation: incident response, CMBD, problem management, etc.
Cost of resource: salary, training, recruiting, etc.
$0-300K/year $200K-2M/year
Security incidents
(if no security control is in place)
Explicit cost:
  1. Incident response cost:
    • Remediation costs
    • Productivity: (number of employees impacted) × (hours out) × (burdened hourly rate)
    • Extra professional services
    • Equipment rental, travel expenses, etc.
    • Compliance fine
    • Cost of notifying clients
  2. Revenue loss: direct loss, the impact of permanent loss of data, lost future revenues
  3. Financial performance: credit rating, stock price
    Hidden cost:
    • Reputation, customer loyalty, etc.
$15K-650K/year $270K-11M/year

Workshop Overview

Contact your account representative or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

Workshop Day 1 Workshop Day 2 Workshop Day 3 Workshop Day 4 Workshop Day 5
Activities
  • Kick-off and introductions.
  • High-level overview of weekly activities and outcomes.
  • Activity: Define workshop objectives and current state of knowledge.
  • Understand the threat collaboration environment.
  • Understand the benefits of an optimized security operations.
  • Activity: Review preliminary maturity level.
  • Activity: Assess current people, processes, and technology capabilities.
  • Activity: Assess workflow capabilities.
  • Activity: Begin deep-dive into maturity assessment tool.
  • Discuss strategies to enhance the analysis process (ticketing, automation, visualization, use cases, etc.).
  • Activity: Design ideal target state.
  • Activity: Identify security gaps.
  • Build initiatives to bridge the gaps.
  • Activity: Estimate the resources needed.
  • Activity: Prioritize gap initiatives.
  • Activity: Develop dashboarding and visualization metrics.
  • Activity: Plan for a transition with the security roadmap and action plan.
  • Activity: Define and assign tier 1, 2 & 3 SOC roles and responsibilities.
  • Activity: Assign roles and responsibilities for each security operations initiative.
  • Activity: Develop a comprehensive measurement program.
  • Activity: Develop specific runbooks for your top-priority incidents (e.g. ransomware).
    • Detect the incident.
    • Analyze the incident.
    • Contain the incident.
    • Eradicate the root cause.
    • Recover from the incident.
    • Conduct post-incident analysis and communication.
  • Activity:Conduct attack campaign simulation.
  • Finalize main deliverables.
  • Schedule feedback call.
Deliverables
  1. Security Operations Maturity Assessment Tool
  1. Target State and Gap Analysis (Security Operations Maturity Assessment Tool)
  1. Security Operations Role & Process Design
  2. Security Operations RACI Chart
  3. Security Operations Metrics Summary
  4. Security Operations Phishing Process Runbook
  5. Attack Campaign Simulation PowerPoint

All Final Deliverables

Develop a Security Operations Strategy

PHASE 1

Assess Operational Requirements

1

Assess Operational Requirements

2

Develop Maturity Initiatives

3

Define Interdependencies

This step will walk you through the following activities:

  • Determine why you need a sound security operations program.
  • Understand Info-Tech’s threat collaboration environment.
  • Evaluate your current security operation’s functions and capabilities.

Outcomes of this step

  • A defined scope and motive for completing this project.
  • Insight into your current security operations capabilities.
  • A prioritized list of security operations initiatives based on maturity level.

Info-Tech Insight

Security operations is no longer a center, but a process. The need for a physical security hub has evolved into the virtual fusion of prevention, detection, analysis, and response efforts. When all four functions operate as a unified process, your organization will be able to proactively combat changes in the threat landscape.

Warm-up exercise: Why build a security operations program?

Estimated time to completion: 30 minutes

Discussion: Why are we pursuing this project?

What are the objectives for optimizing and developing sound security operations?

Stakeholders Required:

  • Key business executives
  • IT leaders
  • Security operations team members

Resources Required

  • Sticky notes
  • Whiteboard
  • Dry-erase markers
  1. Briefly define the scope of security operations
    What people, processes, and technology fall within the security operations umbrella?
  2. Brainstorm the implications of not acting
    What does the status quo have in store? What are the potential risks?
  3. Define the goals of the project
    Clarify from the outset: what exactly do you want to accomplish from this project?
  4. Prioritize all brainstormed goals
    Classify the goals based on relevant prioritization criteria, e.g. urgency, impact, cost.

Info-Tech Best Practice

Don’t develop a security operations program with the objective of zero incidents. This reliance on prevention results in over-engineered security solutions that cost more than the assets being protected.

Decentralizing the SOC: Security as a function

Before you begin, remember that no two security operation programs are the same. While the end goal may be similar, the threat landscape, risk tolerance, and organizational requirements will differ from any other SOC. Determine what your DNA looks like before you begin to protect it.

Security operations must provide several fundamental functions:
  • Real-time monitoring, detecting, and triaging of data from both internal and external sources.
  • In-depth analysis of indicators and incidents, leveraging malware analysis, correlation and rule tweaking, and forensics and eDiscovery techniques.
  • Network/host scanning and vulnerability patch management.
  • Incident response, remediation, and reporting. Security operations must disseminate appropriate information/intelligence to relevant stakeholders.
  • Comprehensive logging and ticketing capabilities that document and communicate events throughout the threat collaboration environment.
  • Tuning and tweaking of technologies to ingest collected data and enhance the analysis process.
  • Enhance overall organizational situational awareness by reporting on security trends, escalating incidents, and sharing adversary tools, tactics, and procedures.
Venn diagram of 'Security Operations' with four intersecting circles: 'Prevent', 'Detect', 'Analyze', and 'Respond'.
At its core, a security operations program is responsible for the prevention, detection, analysis, and response of security events.

Optimized security operations can seamlessly integrate threat and incident management processes with monitoring and compliance workflows and resources. This integration unlocks efficiency.

Understand the levels of security operations

Take the time to map out what you need and where you should go. Security operations has to be more than just monitoring events – there must be a structured program.

Foundational Arrow with a plus sign pointing right. Operational Arrow with a plus sign pointing right. Strategic
  • Intrusion Detection Management
  • Active Device and Event Monitoring
  • Log Collection and Retention
  • Reporting and Escalation Management
  • Incident Management
  • Audit Compliance
  • Vendor Management
  • Ticketing Processes
  • Packet Capture and Analysis
  • SIEM
  • Firewall
  • Antivirus
  • Patch Management
  • Event Analysis and Incident Triage
  • Security Log Management
  • Vulnerability Management
  • Host Hardening
  • Static Malware Analysis
  • Identity and Access Management
  • Change Management
  • Endpoint Management
  • Business Continuity Management
  • Encryption Management
  • Cloud Security (if applicable)
  • SIEM with Defined Use Cases
  • Big Data Security Analytics
  • Threat Intelligence
  • Network Flow Analysis
  • VPN Anomaly Detection
  • Dynamic Malware Analysis
  • Use-Case Management
  • Feedback and Continuous Improvement Management
  • Visualization and Dashboarding
  • Knowledge Portal Ticket Documentation
  • Advanced Threat Hunting
  • Control and Process Automation
  • eDiscovery and Forensics
  • Risk Management
——Security Operations Capabilities—–›

Understand security operations: Establish a unified threat collaboration environment

Stock image 1.

Design and Implement a Vulnerability Management Program

Security operations is part of what Info-Tech calls a threat collaboration environment, where members must actively collaborate to address threats impacting the organization’s brand, operations, and technology infrastructure.
  • Managing incident escalation and response.
  • Coordinating root-cause analysis and incident gathering.
  • Facilitating post-incident lessons learned.
  • Managing system patching and risk acceptance.
  • Conducting vulnerability assessment and penetration testing.
  • Monitoring in real-time and triaging of events.
  • Escalating events to incident management team.
  • Tuning and tweaking rules and reporting thresholds.
  • Gathering and analyzing external threat data.
  • Liaising with peers, industry, and government.
  • Publishing threat alerts, reports, and briefings.

Info-Tech Best Practice

Ensure that information flows freely throughout the threat collaboration environment – each function should serve to feed and enhance the next.

Stock image 2.

Integrate Threat Intelligence Into Your Security Operations

Stock image 3.

Develop Foundational Security Operations Processes

Stock image 4.

Develop and Implement a Security Incident Management Program

The threat collaboration environment is comprised of three core elements

Info-Tech Insight

The value of a SOC can be achieved with fewer prerequisites than you think. While it is difficult to cut back on process and technology requirements, human capital is transferrable between roles and functions and can be cross-trained to satisfy operational gaps.

Three hexes fitting together with the words 'People', 'Process', and 'Technology'. People. Effective human capital is fundamental to establishing an efficient security operations program, and if enabled correctly, can be the driving factor behind successful process optimization. Ensure you address several critical human capital components:
  • Who is responsible for each respective threat collaboration environment function?
  • What are the required operational roles, responsibilities, and competencies for each employee?
  • Are there formalized training procedures to onboard new employees?
  • Is there an established knowledge transfer and management program?
Processes. Formal and informal mechanisms that bridge security throughout the collaboration environment and organization at large. Ask yourself:
  • Are there defined runbooks that clearly outline critical operational procedures and guidelines?
  • Is there a defined escalation protocol to transfer knowledge and share threats internally?
  • Is there a defined reporting procedure to share intelligence externally?
  • Are there formal and accessible policies for each respective security operations function?
  • Is there a defined measurement program to report on the performance of security operations?
  • Is there a continuous improvement program in place for all security operations functions?
  • Is there a defined operational vendor management program?
Technology. The composition of all infrastructure, systems, controls, and tools that enable processes and people to operate and collaborate more efficiently. Determine:
  • Are the appropriate controls implemented to effectively prevent, detect, analyze, and remediate threats? Is each control documented with an assigned asset owner?
  • Can a solution integrate with existing controls? If so, to what extent?
  • Is there a centralized log aggregation tool such as a SIEM?
  • What is the operational cost to effectively manage each control?
  • Is the control the most up-to-date version? Have the most recent patches and configuration changes been applied? Can it be consolidated with or replaced by another control?

Conduct a preliminary maturity assessment before tackling this project

Stock image 1.

Design and Implement a Vulnerability Management Program

Sample of Info-Tech's Security Operations Preliminary Maturity Assessment

At a high level, assess your organization’s operational maturity in each of the threat collaboration environment functions. Determine whether the foundational processes exist in order to mature and streamline your security operations.

Stock image 2.

Integrate Threat Intelligence Into Your Security Operations

Stock image 3.

Develop Foundational Security Operations Processes

Stock image 4.

Develop and Implement a Security Incident Management Program

Assess the current maturity of your security operations program

Prioritize the component most important to the development of your security operations program.

Screenshot of a table from the Security Operations Preliminary Maturity Assessment presenting the 'Impact Sub-Weightings' of 'People', 'Process', 'Technology', and 'Policy'.
Screenshot of a table from the Security Operations Preliminary Maturity Assessment assessing the 'Current State' and 'Target State' of different 'Security Capabilities'.
Each “security capability” covers a component of the overarching “security function.” Assign a current and target maturity score to each respective security capability. (Note: The CMMI maturity scores are further explained on the following slide.) Document any/all comments for future Info-Tech analyst discussions.

Assign each security capability a reflective and desired maturity score.

Your current and target state maturity will be determined using the capability maturity model integration (CMMI) scale. Ensure that all participants understand the 1-5 scale.
Two-way vertical arrow colored blue at the top and green at the bottom. Ad Hoc
1 Arrow pointing right. Initial/Ad Hoc: Activity is not well defined and is ad hoc, e.g. no formal roles or responsibilities exist, de facto standards are followed on an individual-by-individual basis.
2 Arrow pointing right. Developing: Activity is established and there is moderate adherence to its execution, e.g. while no formal policies have been documented, content management is occurring implicitly or on an individual-by-individual basis.
3 Arrow pointing right. Defined: Activity is formally established, documented, repeatable, and integrated with other phases of the process, e.g. roles and responsibilities have been defined and documented in an accessible policy, however, metrics are not actively monitored and managed.
4 Arrow pointing right. Managed and Measurable: Activity execution is tracked by gathering qualitative and quantitative feedback, e.g. metrics have been established to monitor the effectiveness of tier-1 SOC analysts.
5 Arrow pointing right. Optimized: Qualitative and quantitative feedback is used to continually improve the execution of the activity, e.g. the organization is an industry leader in the respective field; research and development efforts are allocated in order to continuously explore more efficient methods of accomplishing the task at hand.
Optimized

Notes: Info-Tech seldom sees a client achieve a CMMI score of 4 or 5. To achieve a state of optimization there must be a subsequent trade-off elsewhere. As such, we recommend that organizations strive for a CMMI score of 3 or 4.

Ensure that your threat collaboration environment is of a sufficient maturity before progressing

Example report card from the maturity assessment. Functions are color-coded green, yellow, and red. Review the report cards for each of the respective threat collaboration environment functions.
  • A green function indicates that you have exceeded the operational requirements to proceed with the security operations initiative.
  • A yellow function indicates that your maturity score is below the recommended threshold; Info-Tech advises revisiting the attached blueprint. In the instance of a one-off case, the client can proceed with this security operations initiative.
  • A red function indicates that your maturity score is well below the recommended threshold; Info-Tech strongly advises to not proceed with the security operations initiative. Revisit the recommended blueprint and further mature the specific function.

Are you ready to move on to the next phase?

Self-Assessment Questions

  • Have you clearly defined the rationale for refining your security operations program?
  • Have you clearly defined and prioritized the goals and outcomes of optimizing your security operations program?
  • Have you assessed your respective people, process, and technological capabilities?
  • Have you completed the Security Operations Preliminary Maturity Assessment Tool?
  • Were all threat collaboration environment functions of a sufficient maturity level?

If you answered “yes” to the questions, then you are ready to move on to Phase 2: Develop Maturity Initiatives

Develop a Security Operations Strategy

PHASE 2

Develop Maturity Initiatives

1

Assess Operational Requirements

2

Develop Maturity Initiatives

3

Define Interdependencies

This step will walk you through the following activities:

  • Establish your goals, obligations, scope, and boundaries.
  • Assess your current state and define a target state.
  • Develop and prioritize gap initiatives.
  • Define cost, effort, alignment, and security benefit of each initiative.
  • Develop a security strategy operational roadmap.

Outcomes of this step

  • A formalized understanding of your business, customer, and regulatory obligations.
  • A comprehensive current and target state assessment.
  • A succinct and consolidated list of gap initiatives that will collectively achieve your target state.
  • A formally documented set of estimated priority variables (cost, effort, business alignment).
  • A fully prioritized security roadmap that is in alignment with business goals and informed by the organization’s needs and limitations.

Info-Tech Insight

Functional threat intelligence is a prerequisite for effective security operations – without it, security operations will be inefficient and redundant. Eliminate false positives by contextualizing threat data, aligning intelligence with business objectives, and building processes to satisfy those objectives

Align your security operations program with corporate goals and obligations

A common challenge for security leaders is learning to express their initiatives in terms that are meaningful to business executives.

Frame the importance of your security operations program to
align with that of the decision makers’ over-arching strategy.

Oftentimes resourcing and funding is dependent on the
alignment of security initiatives to business objectives.

Corporate goals and objectives can be categorized into three major buckets:
  1. BUSINESS OBLIGATIONS
    The primary goals and functions of the organization at large. Examples include customer retention, growth, innovation, customer experience, etc.
  2. CONSUMER OBLIGATIONS
    The needs and demands of internal and external stakeholders. Examples include ease of use (external), data protection (external), offsite access (internal), etc.
  3. COMPLIANCE OBLIGATIONS
    The requirements of the organization to comply with mandatory and/or voluntary standards. Examples include HIPAA, PIPEDA, ISO 27001, etc.
*Do not approach the above list with a security mindset – take a business perspective and align your security efforts accordingly.

Info-Tech Best Practice

Developing a security operations strategy is a proactive activity that enables you to get in front of any upcoming business projects or industry trends rather than having to respond reactively later on. Consider as many foreseeable variables as possible!

Determine your security operations program scope and boundaries

It is important to define all security-related areas of responsibility. Upon completion you should clearly understand what you are trying to secure.

Ask yourself:
Where does the onus of responsibility stop?

The organizational scope and boundaries and can be categorized into four major buckets:
  1. PHYSICAL SCOPE
    The physical locations that the security operations program is responsible for. Examples include office locations, remote access, clients/vendors, etc.
  2. IT SYSTEMS
    The network systems that must be protected by the security operations program. Examples include fully owned systems, IaaS, PaaS, remotely hosted SaaS, etc.
  3. ORGANIZATIONAL SCOPE
    The business units, departments, or divisions that will be affected by the security operations program. Examples include user groups, departments, subsidiaries, etc.
  4. DATA SCOPE
    The data types that the business handles and the privacy/criticality level of each. Examples include top secret, confidential, private, public, etc.

This also includes what is not within scope. For some outsourced services or locations you may not be responsible for security. For some business departments you may not have control of security processes. Ensure that it is made explicit at the outset, what will be included and what will be excluded from security considerations.

Reference Info-Tech’s security strategy: goals, obligations, and scope activities

Explicitly understanding how security aligns with the core business mission is critical for having a strategic plan and fulfilling the role of business enabler.

Download and complete the information security goals, obligations and scope activities (Section 1.3) within the Info-Tech security strategy research publication. If previously completed, take the time to review your results.

GOALS and OBLIGATIONS
Proceed through each slide and brainstorm the ways that security operations supports business, customer, and compliance needs.

Goals & Obligations
Screenshots of slides from the information security goals, obligations and scope activities (Section 1.3) within the Info-Tech security strategy research publication.

PROGRAM SCOPE & BOUNDARIES
Assess your current organizational environment. Document current IT systems, critical data, physical environments, and departmental divisions.

If a well-defined corporate strategy does not exist, these questions can help pinpoint objectives:

  • What is the message being delivered by the CEO?
  • What are the main themes of investments and projects?
  • What are the senior leaders measured on?
Program Scope & Boundaries
Screenshots of slides from the information security goals, obligations and scope activities (Section 1.3) within the Info-Tech security strategy research publication.

INFO-TECH OPPORTUNITY

For more information on how to complete the goals & obligations activity please reference Section 1.3 of Info-Tech’s Build an Information Security Strategy blueprint.

Complete the Information Security Requirements Gathering Tool

On tab 1. Goals and Obligations:
  • Document all business, customer, and compliance obligations. Ensure that each item is reflective of the over-arching business strategy and is not security focused.
  • In the second column, identify the corresponding security initiative that supports the obligation.
Screenshot from tab 1 of Info-Tech's Information Security Requirements Gathering Tool. Columns are 'Business obligations', 'Security obligations to support the business (optional)', and 'Notes'.
On tab 2. Scope and Boundaries:
  • Record all details for what is in and out of scope from physical, IT, organizational, and data perspectives.
  • Complete the affiliated columns for a comprehensive scope assessment.
  • As a discussion guide, refer to the considerations slides prior to this in phase 1.3.
Screenshot from tab 2 of Info-Tech's Information Security Requirements Gathering Tool. Title is 'Physical Scope', Columns are 'Environment Name', 'Highest data criticality here', 'Is this in scope of the security strategy?', 'Are we accountable for security here?', and 'Notes'.
For the purpose of this security operations initiative please IGNORE the risk tolerance activities on tab 3.

Info-Tech Best Practice

A common challenge for security leaders is expressing their initiatives in terms that are meaningful to business executives. This exercise helps make explicit the link between what the business cares about and what security is trying to do.

Conduct a comprehensive security operations maturity assessment

The following slides will walk you through the process below.

Define your current and target state

Self-assess your current security operations capabilities and determine your intended state.

Create your gap initiatives

Determine the operational processes that must be completed in order to achieve the target state.

Prioritize your initiatives

Define your prioritization criteria (cost, effort, alignment, security benefit) based on your organization

Build a Gantt chart for your upcoming initiatives
The final output will be a Gantt to action your prioritized initiatives

Info-Tech Insight

Progressive improvements provide the most value to IT and your organization. Leaping from pre-foundation to complete optimization is an ineffective goal. Systematic improvements to your security performance delivers value to your organization, each step along the way.

Optimize your security operations workflow

Info-Tech consulted various industry experts and consolidated their optimization advice.

Dashboards: Centralized visibility, threat analytics, and orchestration enable faster threat detection with fewer resources.

Adding more controls to a network never increases resiliency. Identify technological overlaps and eliminate unnecessary costs.

Automation: There is shortfall in human capital in contrast to the required tools and processes. Automate the more trivial processes.

SOCs with 900 employees are just as efficient as those with 35-40. There is an evident tipping point in marginal value.

There are no plug-and-play technological solutions – each is accompanied by a growing pain and an affiliated human capital cost.

Planning: Narrow the scope of operations to focus on protecting assets of value.

Cross-train employees throughout different silos. Enable them to wear multiple hats.

Practice: None of the processes happen in a vacuum. Make the most of tabletop exercises and other training exercises.

Define appropriate use cases and explicitly state threat escalation protocol. Focus on automating the tier-1 analyst role.

Self-assess your current-state capabilities and determine the appropriate target state

1. Review:
The heading in blue is the security domain, light blue is the subdomain and white is the specific control.
2. Determine and Record:
Ask participants to identify your organization’s current maturity level for each control. Next, determine a target maturity level that meets the requirements of the area (requirements should reflect the goals and obligations defined earlier).
3.
In small groups, have participants answer “what is required to achieve the target state?” Not all current/target state gaps will require additional description, explanation, or an associated imitative. You can generate one initiative that may apply to multiple line items.

Screenshot of a table for assessing the current and target states of capabilities.

Info-Tech Best Practice

When customizing your gap initiatives consider your organizational requirements and scope while remaining realistic. Below is an example of lofty vs. realistic initiatives:
Lofty: Perform thorough, manual security analysis. Realistic: Leverage our SIEM platform to perform more automated security analysis through the use of log information.

Consolidate related gap initiatives to simplify and streamline your roadmap

Identify areas of commonality between gap initiative in order to effectively and efficiently implement your new initiatives.

Steps:
  1. After reviewing and documenting initiatives for each security control, begin sorting controls by commonality, where resources can be shared, or similar end goals and actions. Begin by copying all initiatives from tab 2. Current State Assessment into tab 5. Initiative List of the Security Operations Maturity Assessment Tool and then consolidating them.
  2. Initiatives Consolidated Initiatives
    Document data classification and handling in AUP —› Document data classification and handling in AUP Keep urgent or exceptional initiatives separate so they can be addressed appropriately.
    Document removable media in AUP —› Define and document an Acceptable Use Policy Other similar or related initiatives can be consolidated into one item.
    Document BYOD and mobile devices in AUP —›
    Document company assets in Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) —›

  3. Review grouped initiatives and identify specific initiatives should be broken out and defined separately.
  4. Record your consolidated gap initiatives in the Security Operations Maturity Assessment Tool, tab 6. Initiative Prioritization.

Understand your organizational maturity gap

After inputting your current and target scores and defining your gap initiatives in tab 2, review tab 3. Current Maturity and tab 4. Maturity Gap in Info-Tech’s Security Operations Maturity Assessment Tool.

Automatically built charts and tables provide a clear visualization of your current maturity.

Presenting these figures to stakeholders and management can help visually draw attention to high-priority areas and contextualize the gap initiatives for which you will be seeking support.

Screenshot of tabs 3 and 4 from Info-Tech's Security Operations Maturity Assessment Tool. Bar charts titled 'Planning and Direction', 'Vulnerability Management', 'Threat Intelligence', and 'Security Maturity Level Gap Analysis'.

Info-Tech Best Practice

Communicate the value of future security projects to stakeholders by copying relevant charts and tables into an executive stakeholder communication presentation (ask an Info-Tech representative for further information).

Define cost, effort, alignment, and security benefit

Define low, medium, and high resource allocation, and other variables for your gap initiatives in the Concept of Operations Maturity Assessment Tool. These variables include:
  1. Define initial cost. One-time, upfront capital investments. The low cut-off would be a project that can be approved with little to no oversight. Whereas the high cut-off would be a project that requires a major approval or a formal capital investment request. Initial cost covers items such as appliance cost, installation, project based consulting fees, etc.
  2. Define ongoing cost. This includes any annually recurring operating expenses that are new budgetary costs, e.g. licensing or rental costs. Do not account for FTE employee costs. Generally speaking you can take 20-25% of initial cost as ongoing cost for maintenance and service.
  3. Define initial staffing in hours. This is total time in hours required to complete a project. Note: It is not total elapsed time, but dedicated time. Consider time required to research, document, implement, review, set up, fine tune, etc. Consider all staff hours required (2 staff at 8 hours means 16 hours total).
  4. Define ongoing staffing in hours. This is the ongoing average hours per week required to support that initiative. This covers all operations, maintenance, review, and support for the initiative. Some initiatives will have a week time commitment (e.g. perform a vulnerability scan using our tool once a week) versus others that may have monthly, quarterly, or annual time commitments that need to averaged out per week (e.g. perform annual security review requiring 0.4 hours/week (20 hours total based on 50 working weeks per year).
Table relating the four definitions on the left, 'Initial Cost', 'Ongoing Cost (annual)', 'Initial Staffing in Hours', and 'Ongoing Staffing in Hours/Week'. Each row header is a definition and has four sub-rows 'High', 'Medium', 'Low', and 'Zero'.

Info-Tech Best Practice

When considering these parameters, aim to use already existing resource allocations.

For example, if there is a dollar value that would require you to seek approval for an expense, this might be the difference between a medium and a high cost category.

Define cost, effort, alignment, and security benefit

  1. Define Alignment with Business. This variable is meant to capture how well the gap initiative aligns with organizational goals and objectives. For example, something with high alignment usually can be tied to a specific organization initiative and will receive senior management support. You can either:
    • Set low, medium, and high based on levels of support the organization will provide (e.g. High – senior management support, Medium – VP/business unit head support, IT support only)
    • Attribute specific corporate goals or initiatives to the gap initiative (e.g. High – directly supports a customer requirement/key contract requirement; Medium – indirectly support customer requirement/key contract OR enables remote workforce; Low – security best practice).
  2. Define Security Benefit. This variable is meant to capture the relative security benefit or risk reduction being provided by the gap initiative. This can be represented through a variety of factors, such as:
    • Reduces compliance or regulatory risk by meeting a control requirement
    • Reduces availability and operational risk
    • Implements a non-existent control
    • Secures high-criticality data
    • Secures at-risk end users
Table relating the two definitions on the left, 'Alignment with Business', and 'Security Benefit'. Each row header is a definition and has three sub-rows 'High', 'Medium', and 'Low'.

Info-Tech Best Practice

Make sure you consider the value of AND/OR. For either alignment with business or security benefit, the use of AND/OR can become useful thresholds to rank similar importance but different value initiatives.

Example: with alignment with business, an initiative can indirectly support a key compliance requirement OR meet a key corporate goal.

Info-Tech Insight

You cannot do everything – and you probably wouldn’t want to. Make educated decisions about which projects are most important and why.

Apply your variable criteria to your initiatives

Identify easy-win tasks and high-value projects worth fighting for.
Categorize the Initiative
Select the gap initiative type from the down list. Each category (Must, Should, Could, and Won’t) is considered to be an “execution wave.” There is also a specific order of operations within each wave. Based on dependencies and order of importance, you will execute on some “must-do” items before others.
Assign Criteria
For each gap initiative, evaluate it based on your previously defined parameters for each variable.
  • Cost – initial and ongoing
  • Staffing – initial and ongoing
  • Alignment with business
  • Security benefit
Overall Cost/Effort Rating
An automatically generated score between 0 and 12. The higher the score attached to the initiative, the more effort required. The must-do, low-scoring items are quick wins and must be prioritized first.
Screenshot of a table from Info-Tech's Concept of Operations Maturity Assessment Tool with all of the previous table row headers as column headers.

A financial services organization defined its target security state and created an execution plan

CASE STUDY
Industry: Financial Services | Source: Info-Tech Research Group
Framework Components
Security Domains & Accompanied Initiatives
(A portion of completed domains and initiatives)
CSC began by creating over 100 gap initiatives across Info-Tech’s seven security domains.
Current-State Assessment Context & Leadership Compliance, Audit & Review Security Prevention
Gap Initiatives Created 12
Initiatives
14
Initiatives
45
Initiatives
Gap Initiative Prioritization
Planned Initiative(s)* Initial Cost Ongoing Cost Initial Staffing Ongoing Staffing
Document Charter Low - ‹$5K Low - ‹$1K Low - ‹1d Low - ‹2 Hour
Document RACI Low - ‹$5K Low - ‹$1K Low - ‹1d Low - ‹2 Hour
Expand IR processes Medium - $5K-$50K Low - ‹$1K High - ›2w Low - ‹2 Hour
Investigate Threat Intel Low - ‹$5K Low - ‹$1K Medium - 1-10d Low - ‹2 Hour
CSC’s defined low, medium, and high for cost and staffing are specific to the organization.

CSC then consolidated its initiatives to create less than 60 concise tasks.

*Initiatives and variables have been changed or modified to maintain anonymity

Review your prioritized security roadmap

Review the final Gantt chart to review the expected start and end dates for your security initiatives as part of your roadmap.

In the Gantt chart, go through each wave in sequence and determine the planned start date and planned duration for each gap initiative. As you populate the planned start dates, take into consideration the resource constraints or dependencies for each project. Go back and revise the granular execution wave to resolve any conflicts you find.

Screenshot of a 'Gantt Chart for Initiatives', a table with planned and actual start times and durations for each initiative, and beside it a roadmap with the dates from the Gantt chart plugged in.
Review considerations
  • Does this roadmap make sense for our organization?
  • Do we focus too much on one quarter over others?
  • Will the business be going through any significant changes during the upcoming years that will directly impact this project?
This is a living management document
  • You can use the same process on a per-case basis to decide where this new project falls in the priority list, and then add it to your Gantt chart.
  • As you make progress, check items off of the list, and periodically use this chart to retroactively update your progress towards achieving your overall target state.

Consult an Info-Tech Analyst

To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
Onsite workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If a Guided Implementation isn’t enough, we offer low-cost onsite delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to successfully complete your project.
Photo of TJ Minichillo, Senior Director – Security, Risk & Compliance, Info-Tech Research Group. TJ Minichillo
Senior Director – Security, Risk & Compliance
Info-Tech Research Group
Edward Gray, Consulting Analyst – Security, Risk & Compliance, Info-Tech Research Group. Edward Gray
Consulting Analyst – Security, Risk & Compliance
Info-Tech Research Group
Photo of Celine Gravelines, Research Manager – Security, Risk & Compliance, Info-Tech Research Group. Celine Gravelines
Research Manager – Security, Risk & Compliance
Info-Tech Research Group
If you are not communicating, then you are not secure.

Call 1-888-670-8889 or email workshops@infotech.com for more information.

Are you ready to move on to the next phase?

Self-Assessment Questions

  • Have you identified your organization’s corporate goals along with your obligations?
  • Have you defined the scope and boundaries of your security program?
  • Have you determined your organization’s risk tolerance level?
  • Have you considered threat types your organization may face?
  • Are the above answers documented in the Security Requirements Gathering Tool?
  • Have you defined your maturity for both your current and target state?
  • Do you have clearly defined initiatives that would bridge the gap between your current and target state?
  • Are each of the initiatives independent, specific, and relevant to the associated control?
  • Have you indicated any dependencies between your initiatives?
  • Have you consolidated your gap initiatives?
  • Have you defined the parameters for each of the prioritization variables (cost, effort, alignment, and security benefit)?
  • Have you applied prioritization parameters to each consolidated initiative?
  • Have you recorded your final prioritized roadmap in the Gantt chart tab?
  • Have you reviewed your final Gantt chart to ensure it aligns to your security requirements?

If you answered “yes” to the questions, then you are ready to move on to Phase 3: Define Operational Interdependencies

Develop a Security Operations Strategy

PHASE 3

Define Operational Interdependencies

1

Assess Operational Requirements

2

Develop Maturity Initiatives

3

Define Interdependencies

This step will walk you through the following activities:

  • Understand the current security operations process flow.
  • Define the security operations stakeholders and their respective deliverables.
  • Formalize an internal information sharing and collaboration plan.

Outcomes of this step

  • A formalized security operations interaction agreement.
  • A security operations service and product catalog.
  • A structured operations collection plan.

Info-Tech Insight

If you are not communicating, you are not secure. Collaboration eliminates siloed decisions by connecting people, processes, and technologies. You leave less room for error, consume fewer resources, and improve operational efficiency with a transparent security operations process.

Tie everything together with collaboration

If you are not communicating, you are not secure. Collaboration eliminates siloed decisions by connecting people, processes, and technologies. You leave less room for error, consume fewer resources, and improve operational efficiency with a transparent security operations process.

Define Strategic Needs and Requirements Participate in Information Sharing Communicate Clearly
  • Establish a channel to communicate management needs and requirements and define important workflow activities. Focus on operationalizing those components.
  • Establish a feedback loop to ensure your actions satisfied management’s criteria.
  • Consolidate critical security data within a centralized portal that is accessible throughout the threat collaboration environment, reducing the human capital resources required to manage that data.
  • Participate in external information sharing groups such as ISACs. Intelligence collaboration allows organizations to band together to decrease risk and protect one another from threat actors.
  • Disseminate relevant information in clear and succinct alerts, reports, or briefings.
  • Security operations analysts must be able to translate important technical security issues and provide in-depth strategic insights.
  • Define your audience before presenting information; various stakeholders will interpret information differently. You must present it in a format that appeals to their interests.
  • Be transparent in your communications. Holding back information will only serve to alienate groups and hinder critical business decisions.

Info-Tech Best Practice

Simple collaborative activities, such as a biweekly meeting, can unite prevention, detection, analysis, and response teams to help prevent siloed decision making.

Understand the security operations process flow

Process standardization and automation is critical to the effectiveness of security operations.

Process flow for security operations with column headers 'Monitoring', 'Preliminary Analysis (Tier 1)', 'Triage', 'Investigation & Analysis (Tier 2)', 'Response', and 'Advanced Threat Detection (Tier 3)'. All processes begin with elements in the 'Monitoring' column and end up at 'Visualization & Dashboarding'.

Document your security operations’ capabilities and tasks

Table of capabilities and tasks for security operations.
Document your security operations’ functional capabilities and operational tasks to satisfy each capability. What resources will you leverage to complete the specific task/capability? Identify your internal and external collection sources to satisfy the individual requirement. Identify the affiliated product, service, or output generated from the task/capability. Determine your escalation protocol. Who are the stakeholders you will be sharing this information with?
Capabilities

The major responsibilities of a specific function. These are the high-level processes that are expected to be completed by the affiliated employees and/or stakeholders.

Tasks

The specific and granular tasks that need to be completed in order to satisfy a portion of or the entire capability.

Download Info-Tech’s Security Operations RACI Chart & Program Plan.

Convert your results into actionable process flowcharts

Map each functional task or capability into a visual process-flow diagram.

  • The title should reflect the respective capability and product output.
  • List all involved stakeholders (inputs and threat escalation protocol) along the left side.
  • Ensure all relevant security control inputs are documented within the body of the process-flow diagram.
  • Map out the respective processes in order to achieve the desired outcome.
  • Segment each process within its own icon and tie that back to the respective input.
Example of a process flow made with sticky notes.

Title: Output #1 Example of a process flow diagram with columns 'Stakeholders', 'Input Processes', 'Output Processes', and 'Threat Escalation Protocol'. Processes are mapped by which stakeholder and column they fall to.

Download Info-Tech’s Security Operations RACI Chart & Program Plan.

Formalize the opportunities for collaboration within your security operations program

Security Operations Collaboration Plan

Security operations provides a single pane of glass through which the threat collaboration environment can manage its operations.

How to customize

The security operations interaction agreement identifies opportunities for optimization through collaboration and cross-training. The document is composed of several components:

  • Security operations program scope and objectives
  • Operational capabilities and outputs on a per function basis
  • A needs and requirements collection plan
  • Escalation protocol and respective information-sharing guidance (i.e. a detailed cadence schedule)
  • A security operations RACI chart
Sample of Info-Tech's Security Operations Collaboration Plan.

Info-Tech Best Practice

Understand the operational cut-off points. While collaboration is encouraged, understand when the onus shifts to the rest of the threat collaboration environment.

Assign responsibilities for the threat management process

Security Operations RACI Chart & Program Plan

Formally documenting roles and responsibilities helps to hold those accountable and creates awareness as to everyone’s involvement in various tasks.

How to customize
  • Customize the header fields with applicable stakeholders.
  • Identify stakeholders that are:
    • Responsible: The person(s) who does the work to accomplish the activity; they have been tasked with completing the activity and/or getting a decision made.
    • Accountable: The person(s) who is accountable for the completion of the activity. Ideally, this is a single person and is often an executive or program sponsor.
    • Consulted: The person(s) who provides information. This is usually several people, typically called subject matter experts (SMEs).
    • Informed: The person(s) who is updated on progress. These are resources that are affected by the outcome of the activities and need to be kept up to date.
Sample of Info-Tech's Security Operations Collaboration Plan.

Download Info-Tech’s Security Operations RACI Chart & Program Plan.

Identify security operations consumers and their respective needs and requirements

Ensure your security operations program is constantly working toward satisfying a consumer need or requirement.

Internal Consumers External Consumers
  • Business Executives & Management (CIO, CISO, COO):
    • Inform business decisions regarding threats and their association with future financial risk, reputational risk, and continuity of operations.
  • Human Resources:
    • Security operations must directly work with HR to enforce tight device controls, develop processes, and set expectations.
  • Legal:
    • Security operations is responsible to notify the legal department of data breaches and the appropriate course of action.
  • Audit and Compliance:
    • Work with the auditing department to define additional audits or controls that must be measured.
  • Public Relations/Marketing Employees:
    • Employees must be educated on prevalent threats and how to avoid or mitigate them.

Note: Your organization might not be the final target, but it could be a primary path for attackers. If you exist as a third-party partner to another organization, your responsibility in your technology ecosystem extends beyond your own product or service offerings.

  • Third-Party Contractors:
    • Identify relevant threats across industries – security operations is responsible for protecting more than just itself.
  • Commercial Vendors:
    • Identify commercial vendors of control failures and opportunities for operational improvement.
  • Suppliers:
    • Provide or maintain a certain level of security delivery.
    • Meet the same level of security that is expected of business units.
  • All End Users:
    • Be notified of any data breaches and potential violations of privacy.

Info-Tech Best Practice

“In order to support a healthy constituency, network operations and security operations should be viewed as equal partners, rather than one subordinate to the other.” (Mitre world-class CISO)

Define the stakeholders, their respective outputs, and the underlying need

Security Operations Program Service & Product Catalog

Create an informal security operations program service and product catalog. Work your way backwards – map each deliverable to the respective stakeholders and functions.

Action/Output Arrow pointing right. Frequency Arrow pointing right. Stakeholders/Function
Document the key services and outputs produced by the security operations program. For example:
  • Real-time monitoring
  • Event analysis and incident coordination
  • Malware analysis
  • External information sharing
  • Published alerts, reports, and briefings
  • Metrics
Define the frequency for which each deliverable or service is produced or conducted. Leverage this activity to establish a state of accountability within your threat collaboration environment. Identify the stakeholders or groups affiliated with each output. Remember to include potential MSSPs.
  • Vulnerability Management
  • Threat Intelligence
  • Tier 1, 2, and 3 Analysts
  • Incident Response
  • MSSP
  • Network Operations
Remember to include any target-state outputs or services identified in the maturity assessment. Use this exercise as an opportunity to organize your security operations outputs and services.

Info-Tech Best Practice

Develop a central web/knowledge portal that is easily accessible throughout the threat collaboration environment.

Internal information sharing helps to focus operational efforts

Organizations must share information internally and through secure external information sharing and analysis centers (ISACs).

Ensure information is shared in a format that relates to the particular end user. Internal consumers fall into two categories:

  • Strategic Users — Intelligence enables strategic stakeholders to better understand security trends, minimize risk, and make more educated and informed decisions. The strategic intelligence user often lacks technical security knowledge; bridge the communication gap between security and non-technical decision makers by clearly communicating the underlying value and benefits.
  • Operational Users — Operational users integrate information and indicators directly into their daily operations and as a result have more in-depth knowledge of the technical terms. Reports help to identify escalated alerts that are part of a bigger campaign, provide attribution and context to attacks, identify systems that have been compromised, block malicious URLs or malware signatures in firewalls, IDPS systems, and other gateway products, identify patches, reduce the number of incidents, etc.
Collaboration includes the exchange of:
  • Contextualized threat indicators, threat actors, TTPs, and campaigns.
  • Attribution of the attack, motives of the attacker, victim profiles, and frequent exploits.
  • Defensive and mitigation strategies.
  • Best-practice incident response procedures.
  • Technical tools to help normalize threat intelligence formats or decode malicious network traffic.
Collaboration can be achieved through:
  • Manual unstructured exchanges such as alerts, reports, briefings, knowledge portals, or emails.
  • Automated centralized platforms that allow users to privately upload, aggregate, and vet threat intelligence. Current players include commercial, government, and open-source information-sharing and analysis centers.
Isolation prevents businesses from learning from each others’ mistakes and/or successes.

Define the routine of your security operations program in a detailed cadence schedule

Security Operations Program Cadence Schedule Template

Design your meetings around your security operations program’s outputs and capabilities

How to customize

Don’t operate in a silo. Formalize a cadence schedule to develop a state of accountability, share information across the organization, and discuss relevant trends. A detailed cadence schedule should include the following:

  • Activity, output, or topic being discussed.
  • Participants and stakeholders involved.
  • Value and purpose of meeting.
  • Duration and frequency of each meeting.
  • Investment per participant per meeting.
Sample of Info-Tech's Security Operations Program Cadence Schedule Template.

Info-Tech Best Practice

Schedule regular meetings composed of key members from different working groups to discuss concerns, share goals, and communicate operational processes pertaining to their specific roles.

Apply a strategic lens to your security operations program

Frame the importance of optimizing the security operations program to align with that of the decision makers’ overarching strategy.

Strategies
  1. Bridge the communication gap between security and non-technical decision makers. Communicate concisely in business-friendly terms.
  2. Quantify the ROI for the given project.
  3. Educate stakeholders – if stakeholders do not understand what a security operations program encompasses, it will be hard for them to champion the initiative.
  4. Communicate the implications, value, and benefits of a security operations program.
  5. Frame the opportunity as a competitive advantage, e.g. proactive security measures as a client acquisition strategy.
  6. Address the increasing prevalence of threat actors. Use objective data to demonstrate the impact, e.g. through case studies, recent media headlines, or statistics.

Defensive Strategy diagram with columns 'Adversaries', 'Defenses', 'Assets', and priority level.
(Source: iSIGHT, “ Definitive Guide to Threat Intelligence”)

Info-Tech Best Practice

Refrain from using scare tactics such as fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD). While this may be a short-term solution, it limits the longevity of your operations as senior management is not truly invested in the initiative.

Example: Align your strategic needs with that of management.

Identify assets of value, current weak security measures, and potential adversaries. Demonstrate how an optimized security operations program can mitigate those threats.

Develop a comprehensive measurement program to evaluate the effectiveness of your security operations

There are three types of metrics pertaining to security operations:

1) Operations-focused

Operations-focused metrics are typically communicated through a centralized visualization such as a dashboard. These metrics guide operational efforts, identifying operational and control weak points while ensuring the appropriate actions are taken to fix them.

Examples include, but are not limited to:

  • Ticketing metrics (e.g. average ticket resolution rate, ticketing status, number of tickets per queue/analyst).
  • False positive percentage per control.
  • Incident response metrics (e.g. mean time to recovery).
  • CVSS scores per vulnerability.

2) Business-focused

The evaluation of operational success from a business perspective.

Example metrics include:

  • Return on investment.
  • Total cost of ownership (can be segregated by function: prevent, detect, analyze, and respond).
  • Saved costs from mitigated breaches.
  • Security operations budget as a percentage of the IT budget.

3) Initiative-focused

The measurement of security operations project progress. These are frequently represented as time, resource, or cost-based metrics.

Note: Remember to measure end-user feedback. Asking stakeholders about their current expectations via a formal survey is the most effective way to kick-start the continuous improvement process.

Info-Tech Best Practice

Operational metrics have limited value beyond security operations – when communicating to management, focus on metrics that are actionable from a business perspective.

Download Info-Tech’s Security Operations Metrics Summary Document.Sample of Info-Tech's Security Operations Metrics Summary Document.

Identify the triggers for continual improvement

Continual Improvement

  • Audits: Check for performance requirements in order to pass major audits.
  • Assessments: Variances in efficiency or effectiveness of metrics when compared to the industry standard.
  • Process maturity: Opportunity to increase efficiency of services and processes.
  • Management reviews: Routine reviews that reveal gaps.
  • Technology advances: For example, new security architecture/controls have been released.
  • Regulations: Compliance to new or changed regulations.
  • New staff or technology: Disruptive technology or new skills that allow for improvement.

Conduct tabletop exercises with Info-Tech’s onsite workshop

Assess your security operations capabilities

Leverage Info-Tech’s Security Operations Tabletop Exercise to guide simulations to validate your operational procedures.

How to customize
  • Use the templates to document actions and actors.
  • For each new injection, spend three minutes discussing the response as a group. Then spend two minutes documenting each role’s contribution to the response. After the time limit, proceed to the following injection scenario.
  • Review the responses only after completing the entire exercise.
Sample of Info-Tech's Security Operations Tabletop Exercise.

This tabletop exercise is available through an onsite workshop as we can help establish and design a tabletop capability for your organization.

Are you ready to implement your security operations program?

Self-Assessment Questions

  • Is there a formalized security operations collaboration plan?
  • Are all key stakeholders documented and acknowledged?
  • Have you defined your strategic needs and requirements in a formalized collection plan?
  • Is there an established channel for management to communicate needs and requirements to the security operation leaders?
  • Are all program outputs documented and communicated?
  • Is there an accessible, centralized portal or dashboard that actively aggregates and communicates key information?
  • Is there a formalized threat escalation protocol in order to facilitate both internal and external information sharing?
  • Does your organization actively participate in external information sharing through the use of ISACs?
  • Does your organization actively produce reports, alerts, products, etc. that feed into and influence the output of other functions’ operations?
  • Have you assigned program responsibilities in a detailed RACI chart?
  • Is there a structured cadence schedule for key stakeholders to actively communicate and share information?
  • Have you developed a structured measurement program on a per function basis?
  • Now that you have constructed your ideal security operations program strategy, revisit the question “Are you answering all of your objectives?”

If you answered “yes” to the questions, then you are ready to implement your security operations program.

Summary

Insights

  1. Security operations is no longer a center, but a process. The need for a physical security hub has evolved into the virtual fusion of prevention, detection, analysis, and response efforts. When all four functions operate as a unified process, your organization will be able to proactively combat changes in the threat landscape.
  2. Functional threat intelligence is a prerequisite for effective security operations – without it, security operations will be inefficient and redundant. Eliminate false positives by contextualizing threat data, aligning intelligence with business objectives, and building processes to satisfy those objectives
  3. If you are not communicating, then you are not secure. Collaboration eliminates siloed decisions by connecting people, processes, and technologies. You leave less room for error, consume fewer resources, and improve operational efficiency with a transparent security operations process.

Best Practices

  • Have a structured plan of attack. Define your unique threat landscape, as well as business, regulatory, and consumer obligations.
  • Foster both internal and external collaboration.
  • Understand the operational cut-off points. While collaboration is encouraged, understand when the onus shifts to the rest of the threat collaboration environment.
  • Do not bite off more than you can chew. Identify current people, processes, and technologies that satisfy immediate problems and enable future expansion.
  • Leverage threat intelligence to create a predictive and proactive security operations analysis process.
  • Formalize escalation procedures with logic and incident management flow.
  • Don’t develop a security operations program with the objective of zero incidents. This reliance on prevention results in over-engineered security solutions that cost more than the assets being protected.
  • Ensure that information flows freely throughout the threat collaboration environment – each function should serve to feed and enhance the next.
  • Develop a central web/knowledge portal that is easily accessible throughout the threat collaboration environment
Protect your organization with an interdependent and collaborative security operations program.

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Kindervag , John. “SOC 2.0: Three Key Steps toward the Next-generation Security Operations Center.” SearchSecurity. TechTarget, Dec. 2010. Web. 14 Dec. 2016.

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Lambert, P. “ Security Operations Center: Not Just for Huge Enterprises.” TechRepublic, 31 Jan. 2013. Web. 10 Nov. 2016.

Lecky, M. and D. Millier. “Re-Thinking Security Operations.” SecTor Security Education Conference. Toronto, 2014.

Lee, Michael. “Three Elements That Every Advanced Security Operations Center Needs.” CSO | The Resource for Data Security Executives, n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.

Linch, David and Jason Bergstrom. “Building a Culture of Continuous Improvement in an Age of Disruption.” Deloitte LLP, 2014.

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Macgregor, Rob. “Diamonds or chains – cyber security updates.” PwC, n.d. Web. 03 Oct. 2016.

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Marchany, R. “ Building a Security Operations Center.” Virginia Tech, 2015. Web. 8 Nov. 2016.

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Muniz, Joseph and Gary McIntyre. “ Security Operations Center.” Cisco, Nov. 2015. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.

Muniz, Joseph. “5 Steps to Building and Operating an Effective Security Operations Center (SOC).” Cisco, 15 Dec. 2015. Web. 14 Dec. 2016.

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Paganini, Pierluigi. “What Is a SOC ( Security Operations Center)?” Security Affairs, 24 May 2016. Web. 14 Dec. 2016.

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Rothke, Ben. “Designing and Building Security Operations Center.” RSA Conference, 2015. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.

Ruks, Martyn and David Chismon. “Threat Intelligence: Collecting, Analysing, Evaluating.” MWR Infosecurity, 2015. Web. 24 Aug. 2016.

Sadamatsu, Takayoshi. “Practice within Fujitsu of Security Operations Center.” Fujitsu, July 2016. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.

Sanders, Chris. “Three Useful SOC Dashboards.” Chris Sanders, 24 Oct. 2016. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.

SANS Institute. “Incident Handler's Handbook.” 2011. Web.

Schilling, Jeff. “5 Pitfalls to Avoid When Running Your SOC.” Dark Reading, 18 Dec. 2014. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.

Schinagl, Stef, Keith Schoon, and Ronald Paans. “A Framework for Designing a Security Operations Centre (SOC).” 2015 48th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Computer.org, 2015. Web. 20 Nov. 2016.

“Security – Next Gen SOC or SOF.” InfoSecAlways.com, 31 Dec. 2013. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.

“Security Operations Center Dashboard.” Enterprise Dashboard Digest, n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2016.

“Security Operations Center Optimization Services.” AT&T, 2015. Web. 5 Nov. 2016.

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Zimmerman, Carson. “Ten Strategies of a World-Class Cybersecurity Operations Center.” Mitre, 2014. Web. 24 Aug. 2016.

Implement an IT Chargeback System

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  • Parent Category Name: Cost & Budget Management
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  • Business units voraciously consume IT services and don’t understand the actual costs of IT. This is due to lack of IT cost transparency and business stakeholder accountability for consumption of IT services.
  • Business units perceive IT costs as uncompetitive, resulting in shadow IT and a negative perception of IT.
  • Business executives have decided to implement an IT chargeback program and IT must ensure the program succeeds.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

Price IT services so that business consumers find them meaningful, measurable, and manageable:

  • The business must understand what they are being charged for. If they can’t understand the value, you’ve chosen the wrong basis for charge.
  • Business units must be able to control and track their consumption levels, or they will feel powerless to control costs and you’ll never attain real buy-in.

Impact and Result

  • Explain IT costs in ways that matter to the business. Instead of focusing on what IT pays for, discuss the value that IT brings to the business by defining IT services and how they serve business users.
  • Develop a chargeback model that brings transparency to the flow of IT costs through to business value. Demonstrate how a good chargeback model can bring about fair “pay-for-value” and “pay-for-what-you-use” pricing.
  • Communicate IT chargeback openly and manage change effectively. Business owners will want to know how their profit and loss statements will be affected by the new pricing model.

Implement an IT Chargeback System Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should implement an IT chargeback program, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

1. Launch

Make the case for IT chargeback, then assess the financial maturity of the organization and identify a pathway to success. Create a chargeback governance model.

  • Implement IT Chargeback – Phase 1: Launch
  • IT Chargeback Kick-Off Presentation

2. Define

Develop a chargeback model, including identifying user-facing IT services, allocating IT costs to services, and setting up the chargeback program.

  • Implement IT Chargeback – Phase 2: Define
  • IT Chargeback Program Development & Management Tool

3. Implement

Communicate the rollout of the IT chargeback model and establish a process for recovering IT services costs from business units.

  • Implement IT Chargeback – Phase 3: Implement
  • IT Chargeback Communication Plan
  • IT Chargeback Rollout Presentation
  • IT Chargeback Financial Presentation

4. Revise

Gather and analyze feedback from business owners, making necessary modifications to the chargeback model and communicating the implications.

  • Implement IT Chargeback – Phase 4: Revise
  • IT Chargeback Change Communication Template
[infographic]

Workshop: Implement an IT Chargeback System

Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

1 Kick-Off IT Chargeback

The Purpose

Make the case for IT chargeback.

Identify the current and target state of chargeback maturity.

Establish a chargeback governance model.

Key Benefits Achieved

Investigated the benefits and challenges of implementing IT chargeback.

Understanding of the reasons why traditional chargeback approaches fail.

Identified the specific pathway to chargeback success.

Activities

1.1 Investigate the benefits and challenges of implementing IT chargeback

1.2 Educate business owners and executives on IT chargeback

1.3 Identify the current and target state of chargeback maturity

1.4 Establish chargeback governance

Outputs

Defined IT chargeback mandate

IT chargeback kick-off presentation

Chargeback maturity assessment

IT chargeback governance model

2 Develop the Chargeback Model

The Purpose

Develop a chargeback model.

Identify the customers and user-facing services.

Allocate IT costs.

Determine chargeable service units.

Key Benefits Achieved

Identified IT customers.

Identified user-facing services and generated descriptions for them.

Allocated IT costs to IT services.

Identified meaningful, measurable, and manageable chargeback service units.

Activities

2.1 Identify user-facing services and generate descriptions

2.2 Allocate costs to user-facing services

2.3 Determine chargeable service units and pricing

2.4 Track consumption

2.5 Determine service charges

Outputs

High-level service catalog

Chargeback model

3 Communicate IT Chargeback

The Purpose

Communicate the implementation of IT chargeback.

Establish a process for recovering the costs of IT services from business units.

Share the financial results of the charge cycle with business owners.

Key Benefits Achieved

Managed the transition to charging and recovering the costs of IT services from business units.

Communicated the implementation of IT chargeback and shared the financial results with business owners.

Activities

3.1 Create a communication plan

3.2 Deliver a chargeback rollout presentation

3.3 Establish a process for recovering IT costs from business units

3.4 Share the financial results from the charge cycle with business owners

Outputs

IT chargeback communication plan

IT chargeback rollout presentation

IT service cost recovery process

IT chargeback financial presentation

4 Review the Chargeback Model

The Purpose

Gather and analyze feedback from business owners on the chargeback model.

Make necessary modifications to the chargeback model and communicate implications.

Key Benefits Achieved

Gathered business stakeholder feedback on the chargeback model.

Made necessary modifications to the chargeback model to increase satisfaction and accuracy.

Managed changes by communicating the implications to business owners in a structured manner.

Activities

4.1 Address stakeholder pain points and highly disputed costs

4.2 Update the chargeback model

4.3 Communicate the chargeback model changes and implications to business units

Outputs

Revised chargeback model with business feedback, change log, and modifications

Chargeback change communication

Implement a Social Media Program

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  • Parent Category Name: Marketing Solutions
  • Parent Category Link: /marketing-solutions
  • IT is being caught in the middle of various business units, all separately attempting to create, staff, implement, and instrument a social media program.
  • Requests for procuring social media tools and integrating with CRM systems are coming from all directions, with no central authority governing a social media program or coordinating business goals.
  • Public Relations and Corporate Communications groups have been acting as the first level of response to social media channels since the company’s first Twitter account went live, but the volume of inquiries received through social channels has become too great for these groups to continue in a first responder role.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • Social media immaturity is an opportunity for IT leadership. As with so many of the “next new things,” IT has an opportunity to help the business understand social media technologies, trends, and risks, and coordinate efforts to approach social media as a united company.
  • Social media maturity must reach the Social Media Steering Committee stage before major investments in technology can proceed. As with all business initiatives, technology automation decisions cannot be made without respect to organizational and process maturity. Social media strategy stakeholders must join together and form a steering committee to create policies and procedures, govern strategy, develop workflows, and facilitate technology selection processes. IT not only belongs on such a steering committee, but it can also be instrumental in the formation of it.
  • Info-Tech’s research repeatedly indicates that the greatest return from social media investments is in the customer service domain, by reacting to incoming social inquiries and proactively listening to social conversations for product and service inquiry opportunities. This means CRM integration is essential to long-term social media program success.

Impact and Result

  • Assess your organization’s social maturity to know where to begin and where to go in implementation of a social media program.
  • Form a social media steering committee to bring order to chaos among different business units.
  • Develop comprehensive workflows to categorize and prioritize inquiries, and then route them to the appropriate part of the business for resolution.
  • Consider creating one or more physical social media command centers to process large volumes of social inquiries more efficiently and monitor real-time social media metrics to improve critical response times.

Implement a Social Media Program Research & Tools

Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

1. Assess your organization's social maturity

Know where to begin and where to go in implementation of a social media program.

  • Storyboard: Implement a Social Media Program
  • Social Media Maturity Assessment Tool

2. Form a social media steering committee

Bring order to chaos among different business units.

  • Social Media Steering Committee Charter Template
  • Social Media Acceptable Use Policy
  • Blogging and Microblogging Guidelines Template

3. Consider creating one or more physical social media command centers

Process large volumes of social inquiries more efficiently, and monitor real-time social media metrics to improve critical response times.

  • Social Media Representative
  • Social Media Manager
[infographic]

Considerations for a Hub and Spoke Model When Deploying Infrastructure in the Cloud

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  • Parent Category Name: Cloud Strategy
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  • The organization is planning to move resources to cloud or devise a networking strategy for their existing cloud infrastructure to harness value from cloud.
  • The right topology needs to be selected to deploy network level isolation, design the cloud for management efficiencies and provide access to shared services on cloud.
  • A perennial challenge for infrastructure on cloud is planning for governance vs flexibility which is often overlooked.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

Don’t wait until the necessity arises to evaluate your networking in the cloud. Get ahead of the curve and choose the topology that optimizes benefits and supports organizational needs in the present and the future.

Impact and Result

  • Define organizational needs and understand the pros and cons of cloud network topologies to strategize for the networking design.
  • Consider the layered complexities of addressing the governance vs. flexibility spectrum for your domains when designing your networks.

Considerations for a Hub and Spoke Model When Deploying Infrastructure in the Cloud Research & Tools

Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

1. Considerations for a Hub and Spoke Model When Deploying Infrastructure in the Cloud Deck – A document to guide you through designing your network in the cloud.

What cloud networking topology should you use? How do you provide access to shared resources in the cloud or hybrid infrastructure? What sits in the hub and what sits in the spoke?

  • Considerations for a Hub and Spoke Model When Deploying Infrastructure in the Cloud Storyboard
[infographic]

Further reading

Considerations for a Hub and Spoke Model When Deploying Infrastructure in the Cloud

Don't revolve around a legacy design; choose a network design that evolves with the organization.

Analyst Perspective

Cloud adoption among organizations increases gradually across both the number of services used and the amount those services are used. However, network builders tend to overlook the vulnerabilities of network topologies, which leads to complications down the road, especially since the structures of cloud network topologies are not all of the same quality. A network design that suits current needs may not be the best solution for the future state of the organization.

Even if on-prem network strategies were retained for ease of migration, it is important to evaluate and identify the cloud network topology that can not only elevate the performance of your infrastructure in the cloud, but also that can make it easier to manage and provision resources.

An "as the need arises" strategy will not work efficiently since changing network designs will change the way data travels within your network, which will then need to be adopted to existing application architectures. This becomes more complicated as the number of services hosted in the cloud grows.

Keep a network strategy in place early on and start designing your infrastructure accordingly. This gives you more control over your networks and eliminates the need for huge changes to your infrastructure down the road.

This is a picture of Nitin Mukesh

Nitin Mukesh
Senior Research Analyst, Infrastructure and Operations
Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

The organization is planning to move resources to the cloud or devise a networking strategy for their existing cloud infrastructure to harness value from the cloud.

The right topology needs to be selected to deploy network level isolation, design the cloud for management efficiencies, and provide access to shared services in the cloud.

A perennial challenge for infrastructure in the cloud is planning for governance vs. flexibility, which is often overlooked.

Common Obstacles

The choice of migration method may result in retaining existing networking patterns and only making changes when the need arises.

Networking in the cloud is still new, and organizations new to the cloud may not be aware of the cloud network designs they can consider for their business needs.

Info-Tech's Approach

Define organizational needs and understand the pros and cons of cloud network topologies to strategize for the networking design.

Consider the layered complexities of addressing the governance vs. flexibility spectrum for your domains when designing your networks.

Insight Summary

Don't wait until the necessity arises to evaluate your networking in the cloud. Get ahead of the curve and choose the topology that optimizes benefits and supports organizational needs in the present and future.

Your challenge

Selecting the right topology: Many organizations migrate to the cloud retaining a mesh networking topology from their on-prem design, or they choose to implement the mesh design leveraging peering technologies in the cloud without a strategy in place for when business needs change. While there may be many network topologies for on-prem infrastructure, the network design team may not be aware of the best approach in cloud platforms for their requirements, or a cloud networking strategy may even go overlooked during the migration.

Finding the right cloud networking infrastructure for:

  • Management efficiencies
  • Network-level isolation of resources
  • Access to shared services

Deciding between governance and flexibility in networking design: In the hub and spoke model, if a domain is in the hub, the greater the governance over it, and if it sits in the spoke, the higher the flexibility. Having a strategy for the most important domains is key. For example, some security belongs in the hub and some security belongs in the spoke. The tradeoff here is if it sits completely in the spoke, you give it a lot of freedom, but it becomes harder to standardize across the organization.

Mesh network topology

A mesh is a design where virtual private clouds (VPCs) are connected to each other individually creating a mesh network. The network traffic is fast and can be redirected since the nodes in the network are interconnected. There is no hierarchical relationship between the networks, and any two networks can connect with each other directly.

In the cloud, this design can be implemented by setting up peering connections between any two VPCs. These VPCs can also be set up to communicate with each other internally through the cloud service provider's network without having to route the traffic via the internet.

While this topology offers high redundancy, the number of connections grows tremendously as more networks are added, making it harder to scale a network using a mesh topology.

Mesh Network on AWS

This is an image of a Mesh Network on AWS

Source: AWS, 2018

Constraints

The disadvantages of peering VPCs into a mesh quickly arise with:

  • Transitive connections: Transitive connections are not supported in the cloud, unlike with on-prem networking. This means that if there are two networks that need to communicate, a single peering link can be set up between them. However, if there are more than two networks and they all need to communicate, they should all be connected to each other with separate individual connections.
  • Cost of operation: The lack of transitive routing requires many connections to be set up, which adds up to a more expensive topology to operate as the number of networks grows. Cloud providers also usually limit the number of peering networks that can be set up, and this limit can be hit with as few as 100 networks.
  • Management: Mesh tends to be very complicated to set up, owing to the large number of different peering links that need to be established. While this may be manageable for small organizations with small operations, for larger organizations with robust cybersecurity practices that require multiple VPCs to be deployed and interconnected for communications, mesh opens you up to multiple points of failure.
  • Redundancy: With multiple points of failure already being a major drawback of this design, you also cannot have more than one peered connection between any two networks at the same time. This makes designing your networking systems for redundancy that much more challenging.
Number of virtual networks 10 20 50 100
Peering links required
[(n-1)*n]/2
45 190 1225 4950

Proportional relationship of virtual networks to required peering links in a mesh topology

Case study

INDUSTRY: Blockchain
SOURCE: Microsoft

An organization with four members wants to deploy a blockchain in the cloud, with each member running their own virtual network. With only four members on the team, a mesh network can be created in the cloud with each of their networks being connected to each other, adding up to a total of 12 peering connections (four members with three connections each). While the members may all be using different cloud accounts, setting up connections between them will still be possible.

The organization wants to expand to 15 members within the next year, with each new member being connected with their separate virtual networks. Once grown, the organization will have a total of 210 peering connections since each of the virtual networks will then need 14 peering connections. While this may still be possible to deploy, the number of connections makes it harder to manage and would be that much more difficult to deploy if the organization grows to even 30 or 40 members. The new scale of virtual connections calls for an alternative networking strategy that cloud providers offer – the hub and spoke topology.

This is an image of the connections involved in a mesh network with four participants.

Source: Microsoft, 2017

Hub and spoke network topology

In hub and spoke network design, each network is connected to a central network that facilitates intercommunication between the networks. The central network, also called the hub, can be used by multiple workloads/servers/services for hosting services and for managing external connectivity. Other networks connected to the hub through network peering are called spokes and host workloads.

Communications between the workloads/servers/services on spokes pass in or out of the hub where they are inspected and routed. The spokes can also be centrally managed from the hub with IT rules and processes.

A hub and spoke design enable a larger number of virtual networks to be interconnected as each network only needs one peered connection (to the hub) to be able to communicate with any other network in the system.

Hub and Spoke Network on AWS

This is an image of the Hub and Spoke Network on AWS

What hub and spoke networks do better

  1. Ease of connectivity: Hub and spoke decreases the liabilities of scale that come from a growing business by providing a consistent connection that can be scaled easily. As more networks are added to an organization, each will only need to be connected once – to the hub. The number of connections is considerably lower than in a mesh topology and makes it easier to maintain and manage.
  2. Business agility and scalability: It is easier to increase the number of networks than in mesh, making it easier to grow your business into new channels with less time, investment, and risk.
  3. Data collection: With a hub and spoke design, all data flows through the hub – depending on the design, this includes all ingress and egress to and from the system. This makes it an excellent central network to collect all business data.
  4. Network-level isolation: Hub and spoke enables separation of workloads and tiers into different networks. This is particularly useful to ensure an issue affecting a network or a workload does not affect the rest.
  5. Network changes: Changes to a separated network are much easier to carry out knowing the changes made will not affect all the other connected networks. This reduces work-hours significantly when systems or applications need to be altered.
  6. Compliance: Compliance requirements such as SOC 1 and SOC 2 require separate environments for production, development, and testing, which can be done in a hub and spoke model without having to re-create security controls for all networks.

Hub and spoke constraints

While there are plenty of benefits to using this topology, there are still a few notable disadvantages with the design.

Point-to-point peering

The total number of total peered connections required might be lower than mesh, but the cost of running independent projects is cheaper on mesh as point-to-point data transfers are cheaper.

Global access speeds with a monolithic design

With global organizations, implementing a single monolithic hub network for network ingress and egress will slow down access to cloud services that users will require. A distributed network will ramp up the speeds for its users to access these services.

Costs for a resilient design

Connectivity between the spokes can fail if the hub site dies or faces major disruptions. While there are redundancy plans for cloud networks, it will be an additional cost to plan and build an environment for it.

Leverage the hub and spoke strategy for:

Providing access to shared services: Hub and spoke can be used to give workloads that are deployed on different networks access to shared services by placing the shared service in the hub. For example, DNS servers can be placed in the hub network, and production or host networks can be connected to the hub to access it, or if the central network is set up to host Active Directory services, then servers in other networks can act as spokes and have full access to the central VPC to send requests. This is also a great way to separate workloads that do not need to communicate with each other but all need access to the same services.

Adding new locations: An expanding organization that needs to add additional global or domestic locations can leverage hub and spoke to connect new network locations to the main system without the need for multiple connections.

Cost savings: Apart from having fewer connections than mesh that can save costs in the cloud, hub and spoke can also be used to centralize services such as DNS and NAT to be managed in one location rather than having to individually deploy in each network. This can bring down management efforts and costs considerably.

Centralized security: Enterprises can deploy a center of excellence on the hub for security, and the spokes connected to it can leverage a higher level of security and increase resilience. It will also be easier to control and manage network policies and networking resources from the hub.

Network management: Since each spoke is peered only once to the hub, detecting connectivity problems or other network issues is made simpler in hub and spoke than on mesh. A network manager deployed on the cloud can give access to network problems faster than on other topologies.

Hub and spoke – mesh hybrid

The advantages of using a hub and spoke model far exceed those of using a mesh topology in the cloud and go to show why most organizations ultimately end up using the hub and spoke as their networking strategy.

However, organizations, especially large ones, are complex entities, and choosing only one model may not serve all business needs. In such cases, a hybrid approach may be the best strategy. The following slides will demonstrate the advantages and use cases for mesh, however limited they might be.

Where it can be useful:

An organization can have multiple network topologies where system X is a mesh and system Y is a hub and spoke. A shared system Z can be a part of both systems depending on the needs.

An organization can have multiple networks interconnected in a mesh and some of the networks in the mesh can be a hub for a hub-spoke network. For example, a business unit that works on data analysis can deploy their services in a spoke that is connected to a central hub that can host shared services such as Active Directory or NAT. The central hub can then be connected to a regional on-prem network where data and other shared services can be hosted.

Hub and spoke – mesh hybrid network on AWS

This is an image of the Hub and spoke – mesh hybrid network on AWS

Why mesh can still be useful

Benefits Of Mesh

Use Cases For Mesh

Security: Setting up a peering connection between two VPCs comes with the benefit of improving security since the connection can be private between the networks and can isolate public traffic from the internet. The traffic between the networks never has to leave the cloud provider's network, which helps reduce a class of risks.

Reduced network costs: Since the peered networks communicate internally through the cloud's internal networks, the data transfer costs are typically cheaper than over the public internet.

Communication speed: Improved network latency is a key benefit from using mesh because the peered traffic does not have to go over the public internet but rather the internal network. The network traffic between the connections can also be quickly redirected as needed.

Higher flexibility for backend services: Mesh networks can be desirable for back-end services if egress traffic needs to be blocked to the public internet from the deployed services/servers. This also helps avoid having to set up public IP or network address translation (NAT) configurations.

Connecting two or more networks for full access to resources: For example, consider an organization that has separate networks for each department, which don't all need to communicate with each other. Here, a peering network can be set up only between the networks that need to communicate with full or partial access to each other such as finance to HR or accounting to IT.

Specific security or compliance need: Mesh or VPC peering can also come in handy to serve specific security needs or logging needs that require using a network to connect to other networks directly and in private. For example, global organizations that face regulatory requirements of storing or transferring data domestically with private connections.

Systems with very few networks that do not need internet access: Workloads deployed in networks that need to communicate with each other but do not require internet access or network address translation (NAT) can be connected using mesh especially when there are security reasons to keep them from being connected to the main system, e.g. backend services such as testing environments, labs, or sandboxes can leverage this design.

Designing for governance vs. flexibility in hub and spoke

Governance and flexibility in managing resources in the cloud are inversely proportional: The higher the governance, the less freedom you have to innovate.

The complexities of designing an organization's networks grow with the organization as it becomes global and takes on more services and lines of business. Organizations that choose to deploy the hub and spoke model face a dilemma in choosing between governance and flexibility for their networks. Organizations need to find that sweet spot to find the right balance between how much they want to govern their systems, mainly for security- and cost-monitoring, and how much flexibility they want to provide for innovation and other operations, since the two usually tend to have an inverse relationship.

This decision in hub and spoke usually means that the domains chosen for higher governance must be placed in the hub network, and the domains that need more flexibility in a spoke. The key variables in the following slide will help determine the placement of the domain and will depend entirely on the organization's context.

The two networking patterns in the cloud have layered complexities that need to be systematically addressed.

Designing for governance vs. flexibility in hub and spoke

If a network has more flexibility in all or most of these domains, it may be a good candidate for a spoke-heavy design; otherwise, it may be better designed in a hub-centric pattern.

  • Function: The function the domain network is assigned to and the autonomy the function needs to be successful. For example, software R&D usually requires high flexibility to be successful.
  • Regulations: The extent of independence from both internal and external regulatory constraints the domain has. For example, a treasury reporting domain typically has high internal and external regulations to adhere to.
  • Human resources: The freedom a domain has to hire and manage its resources to perform its function. For example, production facilities in a huge organization have the freedom to manage their own resources.
  • Operations: The freedom a domain has to control its operations and manage its own spending to perform its functions. For example, governments usually have different departments and agencies, each with its own budget to perform its functions.
  • Technology: The independence and the ability a domain has to manage its selection and implementation of technology resources in the cloud. For example, you may not want a software testing team to have complete autonomy to deploy resources.

Optimal placement of services between the hub and spoke

Shared services and vendor management

Resources that are shared between multiple projects or departments or even by the entire organization should be hosted on the hub network to simplify sharing these services. For example, e-learning applications that may be used by multiple business units to train their teams, Active Directory accessed by most teams, or even SAAS platforms such as O365 and Salesforce can leverage buying power and drive down the costs for the organization. Shared services should also be standardized across the organization and for that, it needs to have high governance.

Services that are an individual need for a network and have no preexisting relationship with other networks or buying power and scale can be hosted in a spoke network. For example, specialized accounting software used exclusively by the accounting team or design software used by a single team. Although the services are still a part of the wider network, it helps separate duties from the shared services network and provides flexibility to the teams to customize and manage their services to suit their individual needs.

Network egress and interaction

Network connections, be they in the cloud or hybrid-cloud, are used by everyone to either connect to the internet, access cloud services, or access the organization's data center. Since this is a shared service, a centralized networking account must be placed in the hub for greater governance. Interactions between the spokes in a hub and spoke model happens through the hub, and providing internet access to the spokes through the hub can help leverage cost benefits in the cloud. The network account will perform routing duties between the spokes, on-prem assets, and egress out to the internet.

For example, NAT gateways in the cloud that are managed services are usually charged by the hour, and deploying NAT on each spoke can be harder to manage and expensive to maintain. A NAT gateway deployed in a central networking hub can be accessed by all spokes, so centralizing it is a great option.

Note that, in some cases, when using edge locations for data transfers, it may be cost effective to deploy a NAT in the spoke, but such cases usually do not apply to most organizational units.

A centralized network hub can also be useful to configure network policies and network resources while organizational departments can configure non-network resources, which helps separate responsibilities for all the spokes in the system. For example, subnets and routes can be controlled from the central network hub to ensure standardized network policies across the network.

Security

While there needs to be security in the hub and the spokes individually, finding the balance of operation can make the systems more robust. Hub and spoke design can be an effective tool for security when a principal security hub is hosted in the hub network. The central security hub can collect data from the spokes as well as non-spoke sources such as regulatory bodies and threat intelligence providers, and then share the information with the spokes.

Threat information sharing is a major benefit of using this design, and the hub can take actions to analyze and enrich the data before sharing it with spokes. Shared services such as threat intelligence platforms (TIP) can also benefit from being centralized when stationed in the hub. A collective defense approach between the hub and spoke can be very successful in addressing sophisticated threats.

Compliance and regulatory requirements such as HIPAA can also be placed in the hub, and the spokes connected to it can make use of it instead of having to deploy it in each spoke individually.

Cloud metering

The governance vs. flexibility paradigm usually decides the placement of cloud metering, i.e. if the organization wants higher control over cloud costs, it should be in the central hub, whereas if it prioritizes innovation, the spokes should be allowed to control it. Regardless of the placement of the domain, the costs can be monitored from the central hub using cloud-native monitoring tools such as Azure Monitor or any third-party software deployed in the hub.

For ease of governance and since resources are usually shared at a project level, most cloud service providers suggest that an individual metering service be placed in the spokes. The centralized billing system of the organization, however, can make use of scale and reserved instances to drive down the costs that the spokes can take advantage of. For example, billing and access control resources are placed in the lower levels in GCP to enable users to set up projects and perform their tasks. These billing systems in the lower levels are then controlled by a centralized billing system to decide who pays for the resources provisioned.

Don't get stuck with your on-prem network design. Design for the cloud.

  1. Peering VPCs into a mesh design can be an easy way to get onto the cloud, but it should not be your networking strategy for the long run.
  2. Hub and spoke network design offers more benefits than any other network strategy to be adopted only when the need arises. Plan for the design early on and keep a strategy in place to deploy it as early as possible.
  3. Hybrid of mesh and hub and spoke will be very useful in connecting multiple large networks especially when they need to access the same resources without having to route the traffic over the internet.
  4. Governance vs. flexibility should be a key consideration when designing for hub and spoke to leverage the best out of your infrastructure.
  5. Distribute domains across the hub or spokes to leverage costs, security, data collection, and economies of scale, and to foster secure interactions between networks.

Cloud network design strategy

This is an image of the framework for developing a Cloud Network Design Strategy.

Bibliography

Borschel, Brett. "Azure Hub Spoke Virtual Network Design Best Practices." Acendri Solutions, 13 Jan. 2022. Web.
Singh, Garvit. "Amazon Virtual Private Cloud Connectivity Options." AWS, January 2018. Web.
"What Is the Hub and Spoke Information Sharing Model?" Cyware, 16 Aug. 2021. Web.
Youseff, Lamia. "Mesh and Hub-and-Spoke Networks on Azure." Microsoft, Dec. 2017. Web.

Endpoint Management Selection Guide

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  • Parent Category Name: End-User Computing Applications
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Endpoint management solutions are becoming an essential solution: Deploying the right devices and applications to the right user and the need for zero-touch provisioning are indispensable parts of a holistic strategy for improving customer experience. However, selecting the right-sized platform that aligns with your requirements is a big challenge.

Following improvements in end-user computation strategies, selection of the right endpoint management solution is a crucial next step in delivering a concrete business value.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

Investigate vendors’ roadmaps to figure out which of the candidate platforms can fulfill your long-term requirements, without any unnecessary investment in features that are not currently useful for you. Make sure you don’t purchase capabilities that you will never use.

Impact and Result

  • Determine what you require from an endpoint management solution.
  • Review the market space and product offerings, and compare capabilities of key players.
  • Create a use case and use top-level requirements to determine use cases and shortlist vendors.
  • Conduct a formal process for interviewing vendors using Info-Tech’s templates to select the best platform for your requirements.

Endpoint Management Selection Guide Research & Tools

Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

1. Endpoint Management Selection Guide Storyboard – A structured guide to walk you through the endpoint management market.

This storyboard will help you understand endpoint management solution core capabilities and prepare you to select an appropriate tool.

  • Endpoint Management Selection Guide Storyboard

2. UEM Requirements Workbook – A template to help you build your first draft of requirements for UEM selection.

Use this spreadsheet to brainstorm use cases and features to satisfy your requirements. This document will be help you score solutions and narrow down the field to a list of candidates who can meet your requirements.

  • UEM Requirements Workbook
[infographic]

Further reading

Endpoint Management Selection Guide

Streamline your organizational approach to selecting a right-sized endpoint management platform.

Endpoint Management Selection Guide

Streamline your organizational approach toward the selection of a right-sized endpoint management platform.

EXECUTIVE BRIEF

Analyst Perspective

Revolutionize your endpoint management with a proper tool selection approach

The endpoint management market has an ever-expanding and highly competitive landscape. The market has undergone tremendous evolution in past years, from device management to application deployments and security management. The COVID-19 pandemic forced organizations to service employees and end users remotely while making sure corporate data is safe and user satisfaction doesn't get negatively affected. In the meantime, vendors were forced to leverage technology enhancements to satisfy such requirements.

That being said, endpoint management solutions have become more complex, with many options to manage operating systems and run applications for relevant user groups. With the work-from-anywhere model, customer support is even more important than before, as a remote workforce may face more issues than before, or enterprises may want to ensure more compliance with policies.

Moreover, the market has become more complex, with lots of added capabilities. Some features may not be beneficial to corporations, and with a poor market validation, businesses may end up paying for some capabilities that are not useful.

In this blueprint, we help you quickly define your requirements for endpoint management and narrow down a list to find the solutions that fulfill your use cases.

An image of Mahmoud Ramin, PhD

Mahmoud Ramin, PhD
Senior Research Analyst, Infrastructure and Operations
Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

Endpoint management solutions are becoming increasingly essential – deploying the right devices and applications to the right users and zero-touch provisioning are indispensable parts of a holistic strategy for improving customers' experience. However, selecting the right-sized platform that aligns with your requirements is a big challenge.

Following improvements in end-user computation strategies, selection of the right endpoint management solution is a crucial next step in delivering concrete business value.

Common Obstacles

Despite the importance of selecting the right endpoint management platform, many organizations struggle to define an approach to picking the most appropriate vendor and rolling out the solution in an effective and cost-efficient manner. There are many options available, which can cause business and IT leaders to feel lost.

The endpoint management market is evolving quickly, making the selection process tedious. On top of that, IT has a hard time defining their needs and aligning solution features with their requirements.

Info-Tech's Approach

Determine what you require from an endpoint management solution.

Review the market space and product offerings, and compare the capabilities of key players.

Create a use case – use top-level requirements to determine use cases and short-list vendors.

Conduct a formal process for interviewing vendors, using Info-Tech's templates to select the best platform for your requirements.

Info-Tech Insight

Investigate vendors' roadmaps to figure out which of the candidate platforms can fulfill your long-term requirements without any unnecessary investment in features that are not currently useful for you. Make sure you don't purchase capabilities that you will never use.

What are endpoint management platforms?

Our definition: Endpoint management solutions are platforms that enable IT with appropriate provisioning, security, monitoring, and updating endpoints to ensure that they are in good health. Typical examples of endpoints are laptops, computers, wearable devices, tablets, smart phones, servers, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

First, understand differences between mobile management solutions

  • Endpoint management solutions monitor and control the status of endpoints. They help IT manage and control their environment and provide top-notch customer service.
  • These solutions ensure a seamless and efficient problem management, software updates and remediations in a secure environment.
  • Endpoint management solutions have evolved very quickly to satisfy IT and user needs:
  • Mobile Device Management (MDM) helps with controlling features of a device.
  • Enterprise Mobile Management (EMM) controls everything in a device.
  • Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) manages all endpoints.

Endpoint management includes:

  • Device management
  • Device configuration
  • Device monitoring
  • Device security

Info-Tech Insight

As endpoint management encompasses a broad range of solution categories including MDM, EMM, and UEM, look for your real requirements. Don't pay for something that you won't end up using.

As UEM covers all of MDM and EMM capabilities, we overview market trends of UEM in this blueprint to give you an overall view of market in this space.

Your challenge: Endpoint management has evolved significantly over the past few years, which makes software selection overwhelming

An mage showing endpoint management visualzed as positions on an iceberg. at the top is UEM, at the midpoint above the waterline is Enterprise Mobile Management, and below the water is Mobile Device Management.

Additional challenges occur in securing endpoints

A rise in the number of attacks on cloud services creates a need to leverage endpoint management solutions

MarketsandMarkets predicted that global cloud infrastructure services would increase from US$73 billion in 2019 to US$166.6 billion in 2024 (2019).

A study by the Ponemon Institute showed that 68% of respondents believe that security attacks increased over the past 12 months (2020).

The study reveals that over half of IT security professionals who participated in the survey believe that organizations are not very efficient in securing their endpoints, mainly because they're not efficient in detecting attacks.

IT professionals would like to link endpoint management and security platforms to unify visibility and control, to determine potential risks to endpoints, and to manage them in a single solution.

Businesses will continue to be compromised by the vulnerabilities of cloud services, which pose a challenge to organizations trying to maintain control of their data.

Trends in endpoint management have been undergoing a tremendous change

In 2020, about 5.2 million users subscribed to mobile services, and smartphones accounted for 65% of connections. This will increase to 80% by 2025.
Source: Fortune Business Insights, 2021

Info-Tech's methodology for selecting a right-sized endpoint management platform

1. Understand Core Features and Build Your Use Case

2. Discover the Endpoint Management Market Space and Select the Right Vendor

Phase Steps

  1. Define endpoint management platforms
  2. Explore endpoint management trends
  3. Classify table stakes & differentiating capabilities
  4. Streamline the requirements elicitation process for a new endpoint management platform
  1. Discover key players across the vendor landscape
  2. Engage the shortlist and select finalists
  3. Prepare for implementation

Phase Outcomes

  1. Consensus on scope of endpoint management and key endpoint management platform capabilities
  2. Top-level use cases and requirements
  1. Overview of shortlisted vendors
  2. Prioritized list of UEM features

Guided Implementation

What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

Phase 1 Phase 2

Call #1: Understand what an endpoint management platform is and learn how it evolved. Discuss core capabilities and key trends.
Call #2: Build a use case and define features to fulfill the use case.

Call #3: Define your core endpoint management platform requirements.
Call #4: Evaluate the endpoint management platform vendor landscape and shortlist viable options.
Review implementation considerations.

A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

The endpoint management purchase process should be broken into segments:

  1. Endpoint management vendor shortlisting with this buyer's guide
  2. Structured approach to selection
  3. Contract review

Info-Tech's approach

The Info-Tech difference:
Analyze needs

Evaluate solutions

Determine where you need to improve the tools and processes used to support the company.

Determine the best fit for your needs by scoring against features.

Assess existing solution

Features

Determine if your solution can be upgraded or easily updated to meet your needs.

Determine which features will be key to your success

Create a business case for change

Use Cases

A two-part business case will focus on a need to change and use cases and requirements to bring stakeholders onboard.

Create use cases to ensure your needs are met as you evaluate features

Improve existing

High-Level Requirements

Work with Info-Tech's analysts to determine next steps to improve your process and make better use of the features you have available.

Use the high-level requirements to determine use cases and shortlist vendors

Complementary research:

Create a quick business case and requirements document to align stakeholders to your vision with Info-Tech's Rapid Application Selection Framework.
See what your peers are saying about these vendors at SoftwareReviews.com.

Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

DIY Toolkit

“Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”

Guided Implementation

“Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”

Workshop

“We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”

Consulting

“Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

Phase 1

Understand core features and build your business case

Phase 1

Phase 2

Define endpoint management platforms

Explore endpoint management trends

Classify table stakes & differentiating capabilities

Streamline the requirements elicitation process for a new endpoint management platform

Discover key players across the vendor landscape

Engage the shortlist and select finalist

Prepare for implementation

This phase will walk you through the following activity:

Define use cases and core features for meeting business and technical goals

This phase involves the following participants:

  • CIO
  • IT manager
  • Infrastructure & Applications directors
Mobile Device Management

Enterprise Mobile Management

MDM applies security over corporate-owned devices.

What is MDM and what can you do with it?

  1. MDM helps manage and control corporate owned devices.
  2. You can enforce company policies, track, monitor, and lock device remotely by an MDM.
  3. MDM helps with remote wiping of the device when it is lost or stolen.
  4. You can avoid unsecure Wi-Fi connections via MDM.

EMM solutions solve the restrictions arose with BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and COPE (Corporate Owned, Personally Enabled) provisioning models.

  • IT needs to secure corporate-owned data without compromising personal and private data. MDM cannot fulfill this requirement. This led to the development of EMM solutions.
  • EMM tools allow you to manage multiple device platforms through MDM protocols. These tools enforce security settings, allow you to push apps to managed devices, and monitor patch compliance through reporting.

MDM solutions function at the level of corporate devices. Something else was needed to enable personal device management.

Major components of EMM solutions

Mobile Application Management (MAM)

Allows organizations to control individual applications and their associated data. It restricts malicious apps and enables in-depth application management, configuration, and removal.

Containerization

Enables separation of work-related data from private data. It provides encrypted containers on personal devices to separate the data, providing security on personal devices while maintaining users' personal data.

Mobile Content Management (MCM)

Helps remote distribution, control, management, and access to corporate data.

Mobile Security Management (MSM)

Provides application and data security on devices. It enables application analysis and auditing. IT can use MSM to provide strong passwords to applications, restrict unwanted applications, and protect devices from unsecure websites by blacklisting them.

Mobile Expense Management (MEM)

Enables mobile data communication expenses auditing. It can also set data limits and restrict network connections on devices.

Identity Management

Sets role-based access to corporate data. It also controls how different roles can use data, improving application and data security. Multifactor authentication can be enforced through the identity management featured of an EMM solution.

Unified endpoint management: Control all endpoints in a single pane of glass

IT admins used to provide customer service such as installation, upgrades, patches, and account administration via desktop support. IT support is not on physical assistance over end users' desktops anymore.

The rise of BYOD enhanced the need to be able to control sensitive data outside corporate network connection on all endpoints, which was beyond the capability of MDM and EMM solutions.

  • It's now almost impossible for IT to be everywhere to support customers.
  • This created a need to conduct tasks simultaneously from one single place.
  • UEM enables IT to run, manage, and control endpoints from one place, while ensuring that device health and security remain uncompromised.
  • UEM combines features of MDM and EMM while extending EMM's capabilities to all endpoints, including computers, laptops, tablets, phones, printers, wearables, and IoT.

Info-Tech Insight

Organizations once needed to worry about company connectivity assets such as computers and laptops. To manage them, traditional client management tools like Microsoft Configuration Manager would be enough.

With the increase in the work-from-anywhere model, it is very hard to control, manage, and monitor devices that are not connected to a VPN. UEM solutions enable IT to tackle this challenge and have full visibility into and management of any device.

UEM platforms help with saving costs and increasing efficiency

UEM helps corporates save on their investments as it consolidates use-case management in a single console. Businesses don't need to invest in different device and application management solutions.

From the employee perspective, UEM enables them to work on their own devices while enforcing security on their personal data.

  • Security and privacy are very important criteria for organizations. With the rapid growth of the work-from-anywhere model, corporate security is a huge concern for companies.
  • Working from home has forced companies to invest a lot in data security, which has led to high UEM demand. UEM solutions streamline security management by consolidating device management in a single platform.
  • With the fourth-generation industrial revolution, we're experiencing a significant rise in the use of IoT devices. UEM solutions are very critical for managing, configuring, and securing these devices.
  • There will be a huge increase in cyber threats due to automation, IoT, and cloud services. The pandemic has sped up the adoption of such services, forcing businesses to rethink their enterprise mobility strategies. They are now more cautious about security risks and remediations. Businesses need UEM to simplify device management on multiple endpoints.
  • With UEM, IT environment management gets more granular, while giving IT better visibility on devices and applications.

UEM streamlines mundane admin tasks and simplifies user issues.

Even with a COPE or COBO provisioning model, without any IT intervention, users can decide on when to install relevant updates. It also may lead to shadow IT.

Endpoint management, and UEM more specifically, enables IT to enforce administration over user devices, whether they are corporate or personally owned. This is enabled without interfering with private/personal data.

Where it's going: The future state of UEM

Despite the fast evolution of the UEM market, many organizations do not move as fast as technological capabilities. Although over half of all organizations have at least one UEM solution, they may not have a good strategy or policies to maximize the value of technology (Tech Orchard, 2022). As opposed to such organizations, there are others that use UEM to transform their endpoint management strategy and move service management to the next level. That integration between endpoint management and service management is a developing trend (Ivanti, 2021).

  • SaaS tools like Office 365 are built to be used on multiple devices, including multiple computers. Further, the pandemic saw 47% of organizations significantly increase their use of BYOD (Cybersecurity Insiders, 2021).
  • Over 2022, 78% of people worked remotely for at least some amount of time during the week (Tech Orchard, 2022).
  • 84% of organizations believe that cybersecurity threat alarms are becoming very overwhelming, and almost half of companies believe that the best way to tackle this is through consolidating platforms so that everything will be visible and manageable through a single pane of glass (Cybersecurity Insiders, 2022).
  • The UEM market was worth $3.39 billion in 2020. It is expected to reach $53.65 billion by 2030, with an annual growth rate of 31.7% (Datamation, 2022). This demonstrates how dependent IT is becoming on endpoint management solutions.

An image of a donut chart showing the current state of UEM Strategy.

Only 27% of organizations have "fully deployed" UEM "with easy management across all endpoints"
Source: IT Pro Today, 2018.

Endpoint Management Key Trends

  • Commoditization of endpoint management features. Although their focus is the same, some UEM solutions have unique features.
  • New endpoint management paradigms have emerged. Endpoint management has evolved from client management tools (CMT) and MDM into UEM, also known as "modern management" (Ivanti, 2022).
  • One pane of glass for the entire end-user experience. Endpoint management vendors are integrating their solution into their ITSM, ITOM, digital workspace, and security products.
  • AI-powered insights. UEM tools collect data on endpoints and user behavior. Vendors are using their data to differentiate themselves: Products offer threat reports, automated compliance workflows, and user experience insights. The UEM market is ultimately working toward autonomous endpoint management (Microsoft, 2022).
  • Web apps and cloud storage are the new normal. Less data is stored locally. Fewer apps need to be patched on the device. Apps can be accessed on different devices more easily. However, data can more easily be accessed on BYOD and on new operating systems like Chrome OS.
  • Lighter device provisioning tools. Instead of managing thick images, UEM tools use lighter provisioning packages. Once set up, Autopilot and UEM device enrollment should take less time to manage than thick images.
  • UEM controls built around SaaS. Web apps and the cloud allow access from any device, even unmanaged BYOD. UEM tools allow IT to apply the right level of control for the situation – mobile application management, mobile content management, or mobile device management.
  • Work-from-anywhere and 5G result in more devices outside of your firewalls. Cloud-based management tools are not limited by your VPN connection and can scale up more easily than traditional, on-prem tools.

Understand endpoint management table stakes features

Determine high-level use cases to help you narrow down to specific features

Support the organization's operating systems:
Many UEM vendors support the most dominant operating systems, Windows and Mac; however, they are usually stronger in one particular OS than the other. For instance, Intune supports both Windows and Mac, although there are some drawbacks with MacOS management by Intune. Conversely, Jamf is mainly for MacOS and iOS management. Enterprises look to satisfy their end users' needs. The more UEM vendors support different systems, the more likely enterprises will pick them. Although, as mentioned, in some instances, enterprises may need to select more than one option, depending on their requirements.

Support BYOD and remote environments:
With the impact of the pandemic on work model, 60-70% of workforce would like to have more flexibility for working remotely (Ivanti, 2022). BYOD is becoming the default, and SaaS tools like Office 365 are built to be used on multiple devices, including multiple computers. As BYOD can boost productivity (Samsung Insights, 2016), you may be interested in how your prospective UEM solution will enable this capability with remote wipe (corporate wipe capability vs. wiping the whole device), data and device tracking, and user activity auditing.

Understand endpoint management table stakes features

Determine high-level use cases to help you narrow down to specific features

Integration with the enterprise's IT products:
To get everything in a single platform and to generate better metrics and dashboards, vendors provide integrations with ticketing and monitoring solutions. Many large vendors have strong integrations with multiple ITSM and ITAM platforms to streamline incident management, request management, asset management, and patch management.

Support security and compliance policies:
With the significant boost in work-from-anywhere, companies would like to enable endpoint security more than ever. This includes device threat detection, malware detection, anti-phishing, and more. All UEMs provide these, although the big difference between them is how well they enable security and compliance, and how flexible they are when it comes to giving conditional access to certain data.

Provide a fully automated vs manual deployment:
Employees want to get their devices faster, IT wants to deploy devices faster, and businesses want to enable employees faster to get them onboard sooner. UEMs have the capability to provide automated and manual deployment. However, the choice of solution depends on enterprise's infrastructure and policies. Full automation of deployment is very applicable for corporate devices, while it may not be a good option for personally owned devices. Define your user groups and provisioning models, and make sure your candidate vendors satisfy requirements.

Plan a proper UEM selection according to your requirements

  1. Identify IT governance, policy, and process maturity
    Tools cannot compensate for your bad processes. You should improve deploying and provisioning processes before rolling out a UEM. Automation of a bad process only wraps the process in a nicer package – it does not fix the problem.
    Refer to InfoTech's Modernize and Transform Your End-User Computing Strategy for more information on improving endpoint management procedures.
  2. Consider supported operating systems, cloud services, and network infrastructure in your organization
    Most UEMs support all dominant operating systems, but some solutions have stronger capability for managing a certain OS over the other.
  3. Define enterprise security requirements
    Investigate security levels, policies, and requirements to align with the security features you're expecting in a UEM.
  4. Selection and implementation of a UEM depends on use case. Select a vendor that supports your use cases
    Identify use cases specific to your industry.
    For example, UEM use cases in Healthcare:
    • Secure EMR
    • Enforce HIPAA compliance
    • Secure communications
    • Enable shared device deployment

Activity: Define use cases and core features for meeting business and technical goals

1-2 hours

  1. Brainstorm with your colleagues to discuss your challenges with endpoint management.
  2. Identify how these challenges are impacting your ability to meet your goals for managing and controlling endpoints.
  3. Define high-level goals you wish to achieve in the first year and in the longer term.
  4. Identify the use cases that will support your overall goals.
  5. Document use cases in the UEM Requirements Workbook.

Input

  • List of challenges and goals

Output

  • Use cases to be used for determining requirements

Materials

  • Whiteboard/flip charts
  • Laptop to record output

Participants

  • CIO
  • IT manager
  • Infrastructure & Applications directors

Download the UEM Requirements Workbook

Phase 2

Discover the endpoint management market space and select the right vendor

Phase 1

Phase 2

Define endpoint management platforms

Explore endpoint management trends

Classify table stakes & differentiating capabilities

Streamline the requirements elicitation process for a new endpoint management platform

Discover key players across the vendor landscape

Engage the shortlist and select finalist

Prepare for implementation

This phase will walk you through the following activity:
Define top-level features for meeting business and technical goals
This phase involves the following participants:

  • CIO
  • IT manager
  • Infrastructure & Applications directors
  • Project managers

Elicit and prioritize granular requirements for your endpoint management platform

Understanding business needs through requirements gathering is the key to defining everything about what is
being purchased. However, it is an area where people often make critical mistakes.

Risks of poorly scoped requirements

  • Fail to be comprehensive and miss certain areas of scope.
  • Focus on how the solution should work instead of what it must accomplish.
  • Have multiple levels of confusing and inconsistent detail in the requirements.
  • Drill down all the way to system-level detail.
  • Add unnecessary constraints based on what is done today rather than focusing on what is needed for tomorrow.
  • Omit constraints or preferences that buyers think are "obvious."

Best practices

  • Get a clear understanding of what the system needs to do and what it is expected to produce.
  • Test against the principle of MECE – requirements should be "mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive."
  • Explicitly state the obvious and assume nothing.
  • Investigate what is sold on the market and how it is sold. Use language that is consistent with that of the market and focus on key differentiators – not table stakes.
  • Contain the appropriate level of detail – the level should be suitable for procurement and sufficient for differentiating vendors.

Review Info-Tech's blueprint Improve Requirements Gathering to improve your requirements gathering process.

Consider the perspective of each stakeholder to ensure functionality needs are met

Best of breed vs. "good enough" is an important discussion and will feed your success

Costs can be high when customizing an ill-fitting module or creating workarounds to solve business problems, including loss of functionality, productivity, and credibility.

  • Start with use cases to drive the initial discussion, then determine which features are mandatory and which are nice-to-haves. Mandatory features will help determine high success for critical functionality and identify where "good enough" is an acceptable state.
  • Consider the implications of implementation and all use cases of:
    • Buying an all-in-one solution.
    • Integration of multiple best-of-breed solutions.
    • Customizing features that were not built into a solution.
  • Be prepared to shelve a use case for this solution and look to alternatives for integration where mandatory features cannot meet highly specialized needs that are outside of traditional endpoint management solutions.

Pros and Cons

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  • Vendors are ranked by their Composite Score, based on individual feature evaluations, user satisfaction rankings, vendor capability comparisons, and likeliness to recommend the platform.
  • The Emotional Footprint is a powerful indicator of overall user sentiment toward the relationship with the vendor, capturing data across five dimensions.
  • Vendors are ranked by their Customer Experience (CX) Score, which combines the overall Emotional Footprint rating with a measure of the value delivered by the solution.

Speak with category experts to dive deeper into the vendor landscape

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Get to Know the Key Players in the Endpoint Management Landscape

The following slides provide a top-level overview of the popular players you will encounter in the endpoint management shortlisting process in alphabetical order.

A screenshot showing a series of logos for the companies addressed later in this blueprint. It includes: Ciso; Meraki; Citrix; IBM MaaS360; Ivanti; Jamf|Pro; ManageEngine Endpoint Central; Microsoft Endpoint Manager, and VMWARE.

Vendor scores are driven by real-world practitioner reviews via SoftwareReviews. Composite, CX, EF, and NPS scores are pulled from live data as of January 2023.

Secure business units and enhance connection by simplifying the digital workplace

A good option for enterprises that want a single-pane-of-glass UEM that is easy to use, with a modern-looking dashboard, high threat-management capability, and high-quality customer support.

CISCO Meraki

Est. 1984 | CA, USA | NASDAQ: CSCO

8.8

9.1

+92

91%

COMPOSITE SCORE

CX SCORE

EMOTIONAL FOOTPRINT

LIKELINESS TO RECOMMEND

DOWNLOAD REPORT

This is a Screenshot of CISCO Meraki's dashboard.

Screenshot of CISCO Meraki's dashboard. Source: Cisco

Strengths:

Areas to improve:

  • Cisco Meraki offers granular control over what users can and cannot use.
  • The system is user friendly and intuitive, with a variety of features.
  • The anti-malware capability enhances security.
  • Users are very satisfied with being able to control everything in a single platform.
  • System configuration is easy.
  • Vendor relationship is very high with a rate of 96%.
  • System setup is easy, and users don't need much experience for initial configuration of devices.
  • Users are also mostly satisfied with the platform design.
  • Monitoring within the tool is easy.
  • According to SoftwareReviews' survey report, the primary reason for leaving Cisco Meraki and switching over to another vendor is functionality.
  • Regardless of the top-notch offerings and high-quality features, the product is relatively expensive. The quality and price factors make the solution a better fit for large enterprises. However, SoftwareReviews' scorecard for Cisco Meraki shows that small organizations are the most satisfied compared to the medium and large enterprises, with a net promoter score of 81%.

Transform work experience and support every endpoint with a unified view to ensure users are productive

A tool that enables you to access corporate resources on personal devices. It is adaptable to your budget. SoftwareReviews reports that 75% of organizations have received a discount at initial purchase or renewal, which makes it a good candidate if looking for a negotiable option.

Citrix Endpoint Management

Est. 1989 | TX, USA | Private

7.9

8.0

8.0

83%

COMPOSITE SCORE

CX SCORE

EMOTIONAL FOOTPRINT

LIKELINESS TO RECOMMEND

DOWNLOAD REPORT

Screenshot of Citrix Endpoint Management's dashboard.

Screenshot of Citrix Endpoint Management's dashboard. Source: Citrix

Strengths:

Areas to improve:

  • Citrix Endpoint Management is a cloud-centric, easy-to-use UEM with an upgradable interface.
  • The solution simplifies endpoint management and provides real-time visibility and notifications.
  • Citrix allows deployments on different operating systems to meet organizations' infrastructure requirements.
  • The vendor offers different licenses and pricing models, allowing businesses of different sizes to use the tool based on their budgets and requirements.
  • Some users believe that integration with external applications should be improved.
  • Deployment is not very intuitive, making implementation process challenging.
  • User may experience some lagging while opening applications on Citrix. Application is even a bit slower when using a mobile device.

Scale remote users, enable BYOD, and drive a zero-trust strategy with IBM's modern UEM solution

A perfect option to boost cybersecurity. Remote administration and installation are made very easy and intuitive on the platform. It is very user friendly, making implementation straightforward. It comes with four licensing options: Essential, Deluxe, Premier, and Enterprise. Check IBM's website for information on pricing and offerings.

IBM MaaS360

Est. 1911 | NY, USA | NYSE: IBM

7.7

8.4

+86

76%

COMPOSITE SCORE

CX SCORE

EMOTIONAL FOOTPRINT

LIKELINESS TO RECOMMEND

DOWNLOAD REPORT

Screenshot of IBM MaaS360's dashboard.

Screenshot of IBM MaaS360's dashboard. Source: IBM

Strengths:

Areas to improve:

  • IBM MaaS360 is easy to install and implement.
  • It has different pricing models to fit enterprises' needs.
  • MaaS360 is compatible with different operating systems.
  • Security management is one of the strongest features, making the tool perfect for organizations that want to improve cybersecurity.
  • Vendor support is very effective, and users find knowledge articles very helpful.
  • It has a very intuitive dashboard.
  • The tool can control organizational data, allowing you to apply BYOD policy.
  • AI Advisor with Watson provides AI-driven reporting and insights.
  • Working with iOS may not be as intuitive as other operating systems.
  • Adding or removing users in a user group is not very straightforward.
  • Some capabilities are limited to particular Android or iOS devices.
  • Deploying application packages may be a bit difficult.
  • Hardware deployment may need some manual work and is not fully automated.

Get complete device visibility from asset discovery to lifecycle management and remediation

A powerful tool for patch management with a great user interface. You can automate patching and improve cybersecurity, while having complete visibility into devices. According to SoftwareReviews, 100% of survey participants plan to renew their contract with Ivanti.

Ivanti Neurons

Est. 1985 | CA, USA | Private

8.0

8.0

+81

83%

COMPOSITE SCORE

CX SCORE

EMOTIONAL FOOTPRINT

LIKELINESS TO RECOMMEND

DOWNLOAD REPORT

Screenshot of Ivanti Neurons UEM's dashboard.

Screenshot of Ivanti Neurons UEM's dashboard. Source: Ivanti

Strengths:

Areas to improve:

  • The tool is intuitive and user friendly.
  • It's a powerful security management platform, supporting multiple operating systems.
  • Ivanti Neurons is very strong in patch management and inventory management. It helps a seamless application deployment.
  • Users can install their applications via Ivanti's portal.
  • The user interface is very powerful and easy to use.
  • AI-augmented process management automates protocols, streamlining device management and application updates.
  • Vendor is very efficient in training and provides free webinars.
  • Data integration is very easy. According to SoftwareReviews, it had a satisfaction score for ease of data integration of 86%, which makes Ivanti the top solution for this capability.
  • Data analytics is powerful but complicated.
  • Setup is easy for some teams but not as easy for others, which may cause delays for implementation.
  • Software monitoring is not as good as other competitors.

Improve your end-user productivity and transform enterprise Apple devices

An Apple-focused UEM with a great interface. Jamf can manage and control macOS and iOS, and it is one of the best options for Apple products, according to users' sentiments. However, it may not be a one-stop solution if you want to manage non-Apple products as well. In this case, you can use Jamf in addition to another UEM. Jamf has some integrations with Microsoft, but it may not be sufficient if you want to fully manage Windows endpoints.

Jamf PRO

Est. 2002 | MN, USA | NASDAQ: JAMF

8.8

8.7

+87

95%

COMPOSITE SCORE

CX SCORE

EMOTIONAL FOOTPRINT

LIKELINESS TO RECOMMEND

DOWNLOAD REPORT

Screenshot of Jamf PRO's dashboard.

Screenshot of Jamf PRO's dashboard. Source: Jamf

Strengths:

Areas to improve:

  • Jamf Pro is a unique product with an easy implementation that enables IT with minimum admin intervention.
  • It can create smart groups (based on MDM profile and user group) to automatically assign users to their pertinent apps and updates.
  • It's a very user-friendly tool, conducting device management in fewer steps than other competitors.
  • Reports are totally customizable and dynamic.
  • Notifications are easy to navigate and monitor.
  • Self-service feature enables end users to download their predefined categories of applications in the App Store.
  • It can apply single sign-on integrations to streamline user access to applications.
  • Businesses can personalize the tool with corporate logos.
  • Vendor does great for customer service when problems arise.
  • It is a costly tool relative to other competitors, pushing prospects to consider other products.
  • The learning process may be long and not easy, especially if admins do not script, or it's their first time using a UEM.

Apply automation of traditional desktop management, software deployment, endpoint security, and patch management

A strong choice for patch management, software deployment, asset management, and security management. There is a free version of the tool available to try get an understanding of the platform before purchasing a higher tier of the product.

ManageEngine Endpoint Central

Est. 1996 | India | Private

8.3

8.3

+81

88%

COMPOSITE SCORE

CX SCORE

EMOTIONAL FOOTPRINT

LIKELINESS TO RECOMMEND

DOWNLOAD REPORT

Screenshot of ME Endpoint Central's dashboard.

Screenshot of ME Endpoint Central's dashboard. Source: ManageEngine

Strengths:

Areas to improve:

  • It supports several operating systems including Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS.
  • Endpoint Central provides end-to-end monitoring, asset management, and security in a single platform.
  • Setup is simple and intuitive, and it's easy to learn and configure.
  • The reporting feature is very useful and gives you clear visibility into dashboard.
  • Combined with ME Service Desk Plus, we can call Endpoint Central an all-in-one solution.
  • The tool provides a real-time report on devices and tracks their health status.
  • It has multiple integrations with third-party solutions.
  • Tool does not automate updates, making application updates time-consuming.
  • Sometimes, patches and software deployments fail, and the tool doesn't provide any information on the reason for the failure.
  • There is no single point of contact/account manager for the clients when they have trouble with the tool.
  • Remote connection to Android devices can sometimes get a little tedious.

Get device management and security in a single platform with a combination of Microsoft Intune and Configuration Manager

A solution that combines Intune and ConfigMgr's capabilities into a single endpoint management suite for enrolling, managing, monitoring, and securing endpoints. It's a very cost-effective solution for enterprises in the Microsoft ecosystem, but it also supports other operating systems.

Microsoft Endpoint Manager

Est. 1975 | NM, USA | NASDAQ: MSFT

8.0

8.5

+83

85%

COMPOSITE SCORE

CX SCORE

EMOTIONAL FOOTPRINT

LIKELINESS TO RECOMMEND

DOWNLOAD REPORT

Screenshot of MS Endpoint Manager's dashboard.

Screenshot of MS Endpoint Manager's dashboard. Source: Microsoft

Strengths:

Areas to improve:

  • Licensing for the enterprises that use Windows as their primary operating system is more efficient and cost effective.
  • Endpoint Manager is very customizable, with the ability to assign personas to device groups.
  • Besides Windows, it manages other operating systems, such as Linux, Android, and iOS.
  • It creates endpoint security and compliance policies for BitLocker that streamlines data protection and security. It also provides SSO.
  • It provides very strong documentation and knowledgebase.
  • User interface is not as good as competitors. It's a bit clunky and complex to use.
  • The process of changing configurations on devices can be time consuming.
  • Sometimes there are service outages such as Autopilot failure, which push IT to deploy manually.
  • Location tracking is not very accurate.

Simplify and consolidate endpoint management into a single solution and secure all devices with real-time, "over-the-air" modern management across all use cases

A strong tool for managing and controlling mobile devices. It can access all profiles through Google and Apple, and it integrates with various IT management solutions.

VMware Workspace ONE

Est. 1998 | CA, USA | NYSE: VMW

7.5

7.4

+71

75%

COMPOSITE SCORE

CX SCORE

EMOTIONAL FOOTPRINT

LIKELINESS TO RECOMMEND

DOWNLOAD REPORT

Screenshot of Workspace ONE's dashboard.

Screenshot of Workspace ONE's dashboard. Source: VMware

Strengths:

Areas to improve:

  • Workspace ONE provides lots of information about devices.
  • It provides a large list of integrations.
  • The solution supports various operating systems.
  • The platform has many out-of-the-box features and helps with security management, asset management, and application management.
  • The vendor has a community forum which users find helpful for resolving issues or asking questions about the solution.
  • It is very simple to use and provides SSO capability.
  • Implementation is relatively easy and straightforward.
  • Customization may be tricky and require expertise.
  • The solution can be more user friendly with a better UI.
  • Because of intensive processing, updates to applications take a long time.
  • The tool may sometimes be very sensitive and lock devices.
  • Analytics and reporting may need improvement.

Review your use cases to start your shortlist

Your Info-Tech analysts can help you narrow down the list of vendors that will meet your requirements.

Next steps will include:

  1. Reviewing your requirements
  2. Checking out SoftwareReviews
  3. Shortlisting your vendors
  4. Conducting demos and detailed proposal reviews
  5. Selecting and contracting with a finalist!

Activity: Define high-level features for meeting business and technical goals

Input

  • List of endpoint management use cases
  • List of prioritized features

Output

  • Vendor evaluation
  • Final list of candidate vendors

Materials

  • Whiteboard/flip charts
  • Laptop
  • UEM Requirements Workbook

Participants

  • CIO
  • IT manager
  • Infrastructure & Applications directors
  • Project managers

Activity: Define top-level features for meeting business and technical goals

As there are many solutions in the market that share capabilities, it is imperative to closely evaluate how well they fulfill your endpoint management requirements.
Use the UEM Requirements Workbook to identify your desired endpoint solution features and compare vendor solution functionality based on your desired features.

  1. Refer to the output of the previous activity, the identified use cases in the spreadsheet.
  2. List the features you want in an endpoint solution for your devices that will fulfill these use cases. Record those features in the second column ("Detailed Feature").
  3. Prioritize each feature (must have, should have, nice to have, not required).
  4. Send this list to candidate vendors.
  5. When you finish your investigation, review the spreadsheet to compare the various offerings and pros and cons of each solution.

Info-Tech Insight

The output of this activity can be used for a detailed evaluation of UEM vendors. The next steps will be vendor briefing and having further discussion on technical capabilities and conducting demos of solutions. Info-Tech's blueprint, The Rapid Application Selection Framework, takes you to these next steps.

This is a screenshot showing the high value use cases table from The Rapid Application Selection Framework.

Download the UEM Requirements Workbook

Leverage Info-Tech's research to plan and execute your endpoint management selection and implementation

Use Info-Tech Research Group's blueprints for selection and implementation processes to guide your own planning.

  • Assess
  • Prepare
  • Govern & Course Correct

This is a screenshot of the title pages from INfo-tech's Governance and management of enterprise Software Implementaton; and The Rapid Applicaton Selection Framework.

Ensure your implementation team has a high degree of trust and communication

If external partners are needed, dedicate an internal resource to managing the vendor and partner relationships.

Communication

Teams must have some type of communication strategy. This can be broken into:

  • Regularity: Having a set time each day to communicate progress and a set day to conduct retrospectives.
  • Ceremonies: Injecting awards and continually emphasizing delivery of value can encourage relationship building and constructive motivation.
  • Escalation: Voicing any concerns and having someone responsible for addressing those concerns.

Proximity

Distributed teams create complexity because communication can break down more easily. This can be mitigated by:

  • Location: Placing teams in proximity can close the barrier of geographical distance and time zone differences.
  • Inclusion: Making a deliberate attempt to pull remote team members into discussions and ceremonies.
  • Communication Tools: Having the right technology (e.g. video conference) can help bring teams closer together virtually.

Trust

Members should trust other members are contributing to the project and completing their required tasks on time. Trust can be developed and maintained by:

Accountability: Having frequent quality reviews and feedback sessions. As work becomes more transparent, people become more accountable.

  • Role Clarity: Having a clear definition of what everyone's role is.

Implementation with a partner typically results in higher satisfaction

Align your implementation plans with both the complexity of the solution and internal skill levels

Be clear and realistic in your requirements to the vendor about the level of involvement you need to be successful.

Primary reasons to use a vendor:

  • Lack of skilled resources: For solutions with little configuration change happening after the initial installation, the ramp-up time for an individual to build skills for a single event is not practical.
  • Complexity of solution: Multiple integrations, configurations, modules, and even acquisitions that haven't been fully integrated in the solution you choose can make it difficult to complete the installation and rollout on time and on budget. Troubleshooting becomes even more complex if multiple vendors are involved.
  • Data migration: Decide what information will be valuable to transfer to the new solution and which will not benefit your organization. Data structure and residency can both be factors in the complexity of this exercise.

This is an image of a bar graph showing the Satisfaction Net Promotor Score by Implementation type and Organization Size.

Source: SoftwareReviews, January 2020 to January 2023, N= 20,024 unique reviews

To ensure your SOW is mutually beneficial, download the blueprint Improve Your Statements of Work to Hold Your Vendors Accountable.

Consider running a proof of concept if concerns are expressed about the feasibility of the chosen solution

Proofs of concept (PoCs) can be time consuming, so make good choices on where to spend the effort

Create a PoC charter that will enable a quick evaluation of the defined use cases and functions. These key dimensions should form the PoC.

  1. Objective – Giving an overview of the planned PoC will help to focus and clarify the rest of this section. What must the PoC achieve? Objectives should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time bound. Outline and track key performance indicators.
  2. Key Success Factors – These are conditions that will positively impact the PoC's success.
  3. Scope – High-level statement of scope. More specifically, state what is in scope and what is out of scope.
  4. Project Team – Identify the team's structure, e.g. sponsors, subject matter experts.
  5. Resource Estimation – Identify what resources (time, materials, space, tools, expertise, etc.) will be needed to build and socialize your prototype. How will they be secured?

An image of two screenshots from Info-Tech Research Group showing documentaton used to generate effective proof of concepts.

To create a full proof of concept plan, download the Proof of Concept Template and see the instructions in Phase 3 of the blueprint Exploit Disruptive Infrastructure Technology.

Selecting a right-sized endpoint management platform

This selection guide allows organizations to execute a structured methodology for picking a UEM platform that aligns with their needs. This includes:

  • Identifying and prioritizing key business and technology drivers for an endpoint management selection business case.
  • Defining key use cases and requirements for a right-sized UEM platform.
  • Reviewing a comprehensive market scan of key players in the UEM marketspace.

This formal UEM selection initiative will map out requirements and identify technology capabilities to fill the gap for better endpoint management. It also allows a formal roll-out of a UEM platform that is highly likely to satisfy all stakeholder needs.

If you would like additional support, have our analysts guide you through other phases as part of an Info-Tech Workshop.

Contact your account representative for more information

workshops@infotech.com
1-888-670-8889

Summary of Accomplishment

Knowledge Gained

  • What endpoint management is
  • Historical origins and evolution of endpoint management platforms
  • Current trends and future state of endpoint management platforms

Processes Optimized

  • Identifying use cases
  • Gathering requirements
  • Reviewing market key players and their capabilities
  • Selecting a UEM tool that fulfills your requirements

UEM Solutions Analyzed

  • CISCO Meraki
  • Citrix Endpoint Management
  • IBM MaaS360
  • Ivanti Neurons UEM
  • Jamf Pro
  • ManageEngine Endpoint Central
  • Microsoft Endpoint Manager
  • VMware Workspace ONE

Related Info-Tech Research

Modernize and Transform Your End-User Computing Strategy

This project helps support the workforce of the future by answering the following questions: What types of computing devices, provisioning models, and operating systems should be offered to end users? How will IT support devices? What are the policies and governance surrounding how devices are used? What actions are we taking and when? How do end-user devices support larger corporate priorities and strategies?

Best Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) Software | SoftwareReviews

Compare and evaluate Unified Endpoint Management vendors using the most in-depth and unbiased buyer reports available. Download free comprehensive 40+ page reports to select the best Unified Endpoint Management software for your organization.

The Rapid Application Selection Framework

This blueprint walks you through a process for a fast and efficient selection of your prospective application. You will be enabled to use a data-driven approach to select the right application vendor for your needs, shatter stakeholder expectations with truly rapid application selections, boost collaboration and crush the broken telephone with concise and effective stakeholder meetings, and lock in hard savings.

Bibliography

"BYOD Security Report." Cybersecurity Insiders, 2021. Accessed January 2023.
"Cloud Infrastructure Services Market." MarketsAnd Markets, 2019. Accessed December 2022.
Evans, Alma. "Mastering Mobility Management: MDM Vs. EMM Vs. UEM." Hexnode, 2019. Accessed November 2022.
"Evercore-ISI Quarterly Enterprise Technology Spending Survey." Evercore-ISI, 2022. Accessed January 2023.
"5G Service Revenue to Reach $315 Billion Globally in 2023." Jupiter Research, 2022. Accessed January 2023.
Hein, Daniel. "5 Common Unified Endpoint Management Use Cases You Need to Know." Solutions Review, 2020. Accessed January 2023.
"Mobile Device Management Market Size, Share & COVID-19 Impact Analysis." Fortune Business Insights, 2021. Accessed December 2022.
Ot, Anina. "The Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) Market." Datamation, 14 Apr. 2022. Accessed Jan. 2023.
Poje, Phil. "CEO Corner: 4 Trends in Unified Endpoint Management for 2023." Tech Orchard, 2022. Accessed January 2023.
"The Future of UEM November 2021 Webinar." Ivanti, 2021. Accessed January 2023.
"The Third Annual Study on the State of Endpoint Security Risk." Ponemon Institute, 2020. Accessed December 2022.
"The Ultimate Guide to Unified Endpoint Management (UEM)." MobileIron. Accessed January 2023.
"Trends in Unified Endpoint Management." It Pro Today, 2018. Accessed January 2023.
Turek, Melanie. "Employees Say Smartphones Boost Productivity by 34 Percent: Frost & Sullivan Research." Samsung Insights, 3 Aug. 2016.
"2023 State of Security Report." Cybersecurity Insiders, 2022. Accessed January 2023.
Violino, Bob. "Enterprise Mobility 2022: UEM Adds User Experience, AI, Automation." Computerworld, 2022. Accessed January 2023.
Violino, Bob. "How to Choose the Right UEM Platform." Computerworld, 2021. Accessed January 2023.
Violino, Bob. "UEM Vendor Comparison Chart 2022." Computerworld, 2022. Accessed January 2023.
Wallent, Michael. "5 Endpoint Management Predictions for 2023." Microsoft, 2022. Accessed January 2023.
"What Is the Difference Between MDM, EMM, and UEM?" 42Gears, 2017. Accessed November 2022.

Service Management

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  • Parent Category Name: Service Planning and Architecture
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The challenge

  • We have good, holistic practices, but inconsistent adoption leads to chaotic service delivery and low customer satisfaction.
  • You may have designed your IT services with little structure, formalization, or standardization.
  • That makes the management of these services more difficult and also leads to low business satisfaction.

Continue reading

ChatGPT Beyond the hype. What can it do for you?

Summary of the deck.

ChatGPT is a generative AI tool developed by OpenAI, a non-profit founded by Silicon Valley titans, including Elon Musk and Sam Altman. It is designed to interact with users in a way that mimics human dialogue. The tool became available via a research release on November 30, 2022, and was an immediate hit – within a week; it attracted more than a million users. Functionally, ChatGPT is designed to answer questions, but it is not the first one. The concept has existed for decades. While it is very powerful, it has also attracted criticism. 

IT Operations, strategy

Register to read more …

Document and Maintain Your Disaster Recovery Plan

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  • Parent Category Name: DR and Business Continuity
  • Parent Category Link: /business-continuity
  • Disaster recovery plan (DRP) documentation is often driven by audit or compliance requirements rather than aimed at the team that would need to execute recovery.
  • Between day-to-day IT projects and the difficulty of maintaining 300+ page manuals, DRP documentation is not updated and quickly becomes unreliable.
  • Inefficient publishing strategies result in your DRP not being accessible during disaster or key staff not knowing where to find the latest version.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • DR documentation fails when organizations try to boil the ocean with an all-in-one plan aimed at auditors, business leaders, and IT. It’s too long, too hard to maintain, and ends up being little more than shelf-ware.
  • Using flowcharts, checklists, and diagrams aimed at an IT audience is more concise and effective in a disaster, quicker to create, and easier to maintain.
  • Create your DRP in layers to keep the work manageable. Start with a recovery workflow to ensure a coordinated response, and build out supporting documentation over time.

Impact and Result

  • Create visual and concise DR documentation that strips out unnecessary content and is written for an IT audience – the team that would actually be executing the recovery. Your business leaders can take the same approach to create separate business response plans. Don’t mix the two in an all-in-one plan that is not effective for either audience.
  • Determine a documentation distribution strategy that supports ease of maintenance and accessibility during a disaster.
  • Incorporate DRP maintenance into change management procedures to systematically update and refine the DR documentation. Don’t save up changes for a year-end blitz, which turns document maintenance into an onerous project.

Document and Maintain Your Disaster Recovery Plan Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should adopt a visual-based DRP, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

1. Streamline DRP documentation

Start by documenting your recovery workflow. Create supporting documentation in the form of checklists, flowcharts, topology diagrams, and contact lists. Finally, summarize your DR capabilities in a DRP Summary Document for stakeholders and auditors.

  • Document and Maintain Your Disaster Recovery Plan – Phase 1: Streamline DRP Documentation

2. Select the optimal DRP publishing strategy

Select criteria for assessing DRP tools, and evaluate whether a business continuity management tool, document management solution, wiki site, or manually distributing documentation is best for your DR team.

  • Document and Maintain Your Disaster Recovery Plan – Phase 2: Select the Optimal DRP Publishing Strategy
  • DRP Publishing and Document Management Solution Evaluation Tool
  • BCM Tool – RFP Selection Criteria

3. Keep your DRP relevant through maintenance best practices

Learn how to integrate DRP maintenance into core IT processes, and learn what to look for during testing and during annual reviews of your DRP.

  • Document and Maintain Your Disaster Recovery Plan – Phase 3: Keep Your DRP Relevant Through Maintenance Best Practices
  • Sample Project Intake Form Addendum for Disaster Recovery
  • Sample Change Management Checklist for Disaster Recovery
  • DRP Review Checklist
  • DRP-BCP Review Workflow (Visio)
  • DRP-BCP Review Workflow (PDF)

4. Appendix: XMPL Case Study

Model your DRP after the XMPL case study disaster recovery plan documentation.

  • Document and Maintain Your Disaster Recovery Plan – Appendix: XMPL Case Study
  • XMPL DRP Summary Document
  • XMPL Notification, Assessment, and Declaration Plan
  • XMPL Systems Recovery Playbook
  • XMPL Recovery Workflows (Visio)
  • XMPL Recovery Workflows (PDF)
  • XMPL Data Center and Network Diagrams (Visio)
  • XMPL Data Center and Network Diagrams (PDF)
  • XMPL DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool
  • XMPL DRP Workbook
[infographic]

Workshop: Document and Maintain Your Disaster Recovery Plan

Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

1 Streamline DRP Documentation

The Purpose

Teach your team how to create visual-based documentation.

Key Benefits Achieved

Learn how to create visual-based DR documentation.

Activities

1.1 Conduct a table-top planning exercise.

1.2 Document your high-level incident response plan.

1.3 Identify documentation to include in your playbook.

1.4 Create an initial collection of supplementary documentation.

1.5 Discuss what further documentation is necessary for recovering from a disaster.

1.6 Summarize your DR capabilities for stakeholders.

Outputs

Documented high-level incident response plan

List of documentation action items

Collection of 1-3 draft checklists, flowcharts, topology diagrams, and contact lists

Action items for ensuring that the DRP is executable for both primary and backup DR personnel

DRP Summary Document

2 Select the Optimal DRP Publishing Strategy

The Purpose

Learn the considerations for publishing your DRP.

Key Benefits Achieved

Identify the best strategy for publishing your DRP.

Activities

2.1 Select criteria for assessing DRP tools.

2.2 Evaluate categories for DRP tools.

Outputs

Strategy for publishing DRP

3 Learn How to Keep Your DRP Relevant Through Maintenance Best Practices

The Purpose

Address the common pain point of unmaintained DRPs.

Key Benefits Achieved

Create an approach for maintaining your DRP.

Activities

3.1 Alter your project intake considerations.

3.2 Integrate DR considerations into change management.

3.3 Integrate documentation into performance measurement and performance management.

3.4 Learn best practices for maintaining your DRP.

Outputs

Project Intake Form Addendum Template

Change Management DRP Checklist Template

Further reading

Document and Maintain Your Disaster Recovery Plan

Put your DRP on a diet – keep it fit, trim, and ready for action.

ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

The traditional disaster recovery plan (DRP) “red binder” is dead. It takes too long to create, it’s too hard to maintain, and it’s not usable in a crisis.

“This blueprint outlines the following key tactics to streamline your documentation effort and produce a better result:

  • Write for an IT audience and focus on how to recover. You don’t need 30 pages of fluff describing the purpose of the document.
  • Use flowcharts, checklists, and diagrams over traditional manuals. This drives documentation that is more concise, easier to maintain, and effective in a crisis.
  • Create your DRP in layers to get tangible results faster, starting with a recovery workflow that outlines your DR strategy, and then build out the specific documentation needed to support recovery.”
(Frank Trovato, Research Director, Infrastructure, Info-Tech Research Group)

This project is about DRP documentation after you have clarified your DR strategy; create these necessary inputs first

These artifacts are the cornerstone for any disaster recovery plan.

  • Business Impact Analysis
  • DR Roles and Responsibilities
  • Recovery Workflow

Missing a component? Start here. ➔ Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan

This blueprint walks you through building these inputs.
Our approach saves clients on average US$16,825.22. (Clients self-reported an average saving of US$16,869.21 while completing the Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan blueprint through advisory calls, guided implementations, or workshops (Info-Tech Research Group, 2017, N=129).)

How this blueprint will help you document your DRP

This Research is Designed For:

  • IT managers in charge of disaster recovery planning (DRP) and execution.
  • Organizations seeking to optimize their DRP using best-practice methodology.
  • Business continuity professionals that are involved with disaster recovery.

This Research Will Help You:

  • Divide the process of creating DR documentation into manageable chunks, providing a defined scope for you to work in.
  • Identify an appropriate DRP document management and distribution strategy.
  • Ensure that DR documentation is up to date and accessible.

This Research Will Also Assist:

  • IT managers preparing for a DR audit.
  • IT managers looking to incorporate components of DR into an IT operations document.

This Research Will Help Them:

  • Follow a structured approach in building DR documentation using best practices.
  • Integrate DR into day-to-day IT operations.

Executive summary

Situation

  • DR documentation is often driven by audit or compliance requirements, rather than aimed at the team that would need to execute recovery.
  • Traditional DRPs are text-heavy, 300+ page manuals that are simply not usable in a crisis.
  • Compounding the problem, DR documentation is rarely updated, so it’s just shelf-ware.

Complication

  • DRP is often given lower priority as day-to-day IT projects displace DR documentation efforts.
  • Inefficient publishing strategies result in your DRP not being accessible during disasters or key staff not knowing where to find the latest version.
  • Organizations that create traditional DRPs end up with massive manuals that are difficult to maintain, so they quickly become unreliable.

Resolution

  • Create visual and concise DR documentation that strips out unnecessary content and is written for an IT audience – the team that would actually be executing the recovery. Your business leaders can take the same approach to create separate business response plans – don’t mix the two into an all-in-one plan that is not effective for either audience.
  • Determine a documentation distribution strategy that supports ease of maintenance and accessibility during a disaster.
  • Incorporate DRP maintenance into change management and project intake procedures to systematically update and refine the DR documentation. Don’t save up changes for a year-end blitz, which turns document maintenance into an onerous project.

Info-Tech Insight

  1. DR documentation fails when organizations try to boil the ocean with an all-in-one plan aimed at auditors, business leaders, and IT. It’s too long, too hard to maintain, and ends up being little more than shelf-ware.
  2. Using flowcharts, checklists, and diagrams aimed at an IT audience is more concise and effective in a disaster, quicker to create, and easier to maintain.
  3. Create your DRP in layers to keep the work manageable. Start with a recovery workflow to ensure a coordinated response, and build out supporting documentation over time.

An effective DRP that mitigates a wide range of potential outages is critical to minimizing the impact of downtime

The criticality of having an effective DRP is underestimated.

Cost of Downtime for the Fortune 1000
  • Cost of unplanned apps downtime per year: $1.25B to $2.5B
  • Cost of critical apps failure per hour: $500,000 to $1M
  • Cost of infrastructure failure per hour: $100,000
  • 35% reported to have recovered within 12 hours.
  • 17% of infrastructure failures took more than 24 hours to recover.
  • 13% of application failures took more than 24 hours to recover.
Size of Impact Increasing Across Industries
  • The cost of downtime is rising across the board and not just for organizations that traditionally depend on IT (e.g. e-commerce).
  • Downtime cost increase since 2010:
    • Hospitality: 129% increase
    • Transportation: 108% increase
    • Media organizations: 104% increase
Potential Lost Revenue
A line graph of Potential Lost Revenue with vertical axis 'LOSS ($)' and horizontal axis 'TIME'. The line starts with low losses near the origin where 'Incident Occurs', gradually accelerates to higher losses as time passes, then decelerates before 'All Revenue Lost'. Note: 'Delay in recovery causes exponential revenue loss'.
(Adapted from: Rothstein, Philip Jan. Disaster Recovery Testing: Exercising Your Contingency Plan (2007 Edition).)

The impact of downtime increases significantly over time, not just in terms of lost revenue (as illustrated here) but also goodwill/reputation and health/safety. An effective DR solution and overall resiliency that mitigate a wide range of potential outages are critical to minimizing the impact of downtime.

Without an effective DRP, your organization is gambling on being able to define and implement a recovery strategy during a time of crisis. At the very least, this means extended downtime – potentially weeks – and substantial impact.

Only 38% of those with a full or mostly complete DRP believe their DRPs would be effective in a real crisis

Organizations continue to struggle with creating DRPs, let alone making them actionable.

Why are so many living with either an incomplete or ineffective DRP? For the same reasons that IT documentation in general continues to be a pain point:

  • It is an outdated model of what documentation should be – the traditional manual with detailed (lengthy) descriptions and procedures.
  • Despite the importance of DR, low priority is placed on creating a DRP and the day-to-day SOPs required to support a recovery.
  • There is a lack of effective processes for ensuring documentation stays up to date.
A bar graph documenting percentages of survey responses about the completeness of their DRP. 'Only 20% of survey respondents indicated they have a complete DRP'. 13% said 'No DRP'. 33% said 'Partial DRP'. 34% said 'Mostly Completed'. 20% said 'Full DRP'.
(Source: Info-Tech Research Group, N=165)
A bar graph documenting percentages of survey responses about the level of confidence in their DRP. 'Only 38% of those who have a mostly completed or full DRP actually feel it would be effective in a crisis'. 4% said 'Low'. 58% said 'Unsure'. 38% said 'Confident'.
(Source: Info-Tech Research Group, N=69 (includes only those who indicated DRP is mostly completed or completed))

Improve usability and effectiveness with visual-based and more-concise documentation

Choose flowcharts over process guides, checklists over lengthy procedures, and diagrams over descriptions.

If you need a three-inch binder to hold your DRP, imagine having to flip through it to determine next steps during a crisis.

DR documentation needs to be concise, scannable, and quickly understood to be effective. Visual-based documentation meets these requirements, so it’s no surprise that it also leads to higher DR success.

DR success scores are based on:

  • Meeting recovery time objectives (RTOs).
  • Meeting recovery point objectives (RPOs).
  • IT staff’s confidence in their ability to meet RTOs/RPOs.
A line graph of DR documentation types and their effectiveness. The vertical axis is 'DR Success', from Low to High. The horizontal axis is Documentation Type, from 'Traditional Manual' to 'Primarily flowcharts, checklists, and diagrams'. The line trends up to higher success with visual-based and more-concise documentation.(Source: Info-Tech Research Group, N=95)

“Without question, 300-page DRPs are not effective. I mean, auditors love them because of the detail, but give me a 10-page DRP with contact lists, process flows, diagrams, and recovery checklists that are easy to follow.” (Bernard Jones, MBCI, CBCP, CORP, Manager Disaster Recovery/BCP, ActiveHealth Management)

Maintainability is another argument for visual-based, concise documentation

There are two end goals for your DR documentation: effectiveness and maintainability. Without either, you will not have success during a disaster.

Organizations using a visual-based approach were 30% more likely to find that DR documentation is easy to maintain. “Easy to maintain” leads to a 46% higher rate of DR success.
Two bar graphs documenting survey responses regarding maintenance ease of DR documentation types. The first graph compares Traditional Manual vs Visual-based. For 'Traditional Manual' 72% responded they were Difficult to maintain while 28% responded they were Easy to maintain; for 'Visual-based' 42% responded they were Difficult to maintain while 58% responded they were Easy to maintain. Visual-based DR documentation received 30% more votes for Easy to Maintain. The second graph compares success rates of 'Difficult to Maintain' vs 'Easy to Maintain' DR documentation with Difficult being 31% and Easy being 77%, a 46% difference. 'Source: Info-Tech Research Group, N=96'.

Not only are visual-based disaster recovery plans more effective, but they are also easier to maintain.

Overcome documentation inertia with a tiered model that allows you to eat the elephant one bite at a time

Start with a recovery workflow to at least ensure a coordinated response. Then use that workflow to determine required supporting documentation.

Recovery Workflow: Starting the project with overly detailed documentation can slow down the entire process. Overcome planning inertia by starting with high-level incident response plans in a flowchart format. For examples and additional information, see XMPL Medical’s Recovery Workflows.

Recovery Procedures (Systems Recovery Playbook): For each step in the high-level flowchart, create recovery procedures where necessary using additional flowcharts, checklists, and diagrams as appropriate. Leverage Info-Tech’s Systems Recovery Playbook example as a starting point.

Additional Reference Documentation: Reference existing IT documentation, such as network diagrams and configuration documents, as well as more detailed step-by-step procedures where necessary (e.g. vendor documentation), particularly where needed to support alternate recovery staff who may not be as well versed as the primary system owners.

Info-Tech Insight

Organizations that use flowcharts, checklist, and diagrams over traditional, dense DRP manuals are far more likely to meet their RTOs/RPOs because their documentation is more usable and easier to maintain.

Use a DRP summary document to satisfy executives, auditors, and clients

Stakeholders don’t have time to sift through a pile of paper. Summarize your overall continuity capabilities in one, easy-to-read place.

DRP Summary Document

  • Summarize BIA results
  • Summarize DR strategy (including DR sites)
  • Summarize backup strategy
  • Summarize testing and maintenance plans

Follow Info-Tech’s methodology to make DRP documentation efficient and effective

Phases

Phase 1: Streamline DRP documentation Phase 2: Select the optimal DRP publishing strategy Phase 3: Keep your DRP relevant through maintenance best practices

Phases

1.1

Start with a recovery workflow

2.1

Decide on a publishing strategy

3.1

Incorporate DRP maintenance into core IT processes

1.2

Create supporting DRP documentation

3.2

Conduct an annual focused review

1.3

Write the DRP Summary

Tools and Templates

End-to-End Sample DRP DRP Publishing Evaluation Tool Project In-take/Request Form

Change Management Checklist

Follow XMPL Medical’s journey through DR documentation

CASE STUDY

Industry Healthcare
Source Created by amalgamating data from Info-Tech’s client base

Streamline your documentation and maintenance process by following the approach outlined in XMPL Medical’s journey to an end-to-end DRP.

Outline of the Disaster Recovery Plan

XMPL’s disaster recovery plan includes its business impact analysis and a subset of tier 1 and tier 2 patient care applications.

Its DRP includes incident response flowcharts, system recovery checklists, and a communication plan. Its DRP also references IT operations documentation (e.g. asset management documents, system specs, and system configuration docs), but this material is not published with the example documentation.

Resulting Disaster Recovery Plan

XMPL’s DRP includes actionable documents in the form of high-level disaster response plan flowcharts and system recovery checklists. During an incident, the DR team is able to clearly see the items for which they are responsible.

Disaster Recovery Plan
  • Recovery Workflow
  • Business Impact Analysis
  • DRP Summary
  • System Recovery Checklists
  • Communication, Assessment, and Disaster Declaration Plan

Info-Tech Best Practice

XMPL Medical’s disaster recovery plan illustrates an effective DRP. Model your end-to-end disaster recovery plan after XMPL’s completed templates. The specific data points will differ from organization to organization, but the structure of each document will be similar.

Model your disaster recovery documentation off of our example

CASE STUDY

Industry Healthcare
Source Created by amalgamating data from Info-Tech’s client base

Recovery Workflow:

  • Recovery Workflows (PDF, VSDX)

Recovery Procedures (Systems Recovery Playbook):

  • DR Notification, Assessment, and Disaster Declaration Plan
  • Systems Recovery Playbook
  • Network Topology Diagrams

Additional Reference Documentation:

  • DRP Workbook
  • Business Impact Analysis
  • DRP Summary Document

Use Info-Tech’s DRP Maturity Scorecard to evaluate your progress

Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

DIY Toolkit

Guided Implementation

Workshop

Consulting

"Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful." "Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track." "We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place." "Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project."

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

Document and Maintain Your Disaster Recovery Plan – Project Overview

1. Streamline DRP Documentation 2. Select the Optimal DRP Publishing Strategy 3. Keep Your DRP Relevant
Supporting Tool icon
Best-Practice Toolkit

1.1 Start with a recovery workflow

1.2 Create supporting DRP documentation

1.3 Write the DRP summary

2.1 Create Committee Profiles

3.1 Build Governance Structure Map

3.2 Create Committee Profiles

Guided Implementations
  • Review Info-Tech’s approach to DRP documentation.
  • Create a high-level recovery workflow.
  • Create supporting DRP documentation.
  • Write the DRP summary.
  • Identify criteria for selecting a DRP publishing strategy.
  • Select a DRP publishing strategy.
  • Optional: Select requirements for a BCM tool and issue an RFP.
  • Optional: Review responses to RFP.
  • Learn best practices for integrating DRP maintenance into day-to-day IT processes.
  • Learn best practices for DRP-focused reviews.
Associated Activity icon
Onsite Workshop
Module 1:
Streamline DRP documentation
Module 2:
Select the optimal DRP publishing strategy
Module 3:
Learn best practices for keeping your DRP relevant
Phase 1 Outcome:
  • A complete end-to-end DRP
Phase 2 Outcome:
  • Selection of a publishing and management tool for your DRP documentation
Phase 3 Outcome:
  • Strategy for maintaining your DRP documentation

Workshop Overview Associated Activity icon

Contact your account representative or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

Workshop Day 1 Workshop Day 2 Workshop Day 3 Workshop Day 4 Workshop Day 5
Info-Tech Analysts Finalize Deliverables
Activities
Assess DRP Maturity and Review Current Capabilities

0.1 Assess current DRP maturity through Info-Tech’s Maturity Scorecard.

0.2 Identify the IT systems that support mission-critical business activities, and select 2 or 3 key applications to be the focus of the workshop.

0.3 Identify current recovery strategies for selected applications.

0.4 Identify current DR challenges for selected applications.

Document Your Recovery Workflow

1.1 Create a recovery workflow: review tabletop planning, walk through DR scenarios, identify DR gaps, and determine how to fill them.

Create Supporting Documentation

1.2 Create supporting DRP documentation.

1.3 Write the DRP summary.

Establish a DRP Publishing, Management, and Maintenance Strategy

2.1 Decide on a publishing strategy.

3.1 Incorporate DRP maintenance into core IT.

3.2 Considerations for reviewing your DRP regularly.

Deliverables
  1. Baseline DRP metric (based on DRP Maturity Scorecard)
  1. High-level DRP workflow
  2. DRP gaps and risks identified
  1. Recovery workflow and/or checklist for sample of IT systems
  2. Customized DRP Summary Template
  1. Strategy for selecting a DRP publishing tool
  2. DRP management and maintenance strategy
  3. Workshop summary presentation deck

Workshop Goal: Learn how to document and maintain your DRP.

Use these icons to help direct you as you navigate this research

Use these icons to help guide you through each step of the blueprint and direct you to content related to the recommended activities.

A small monochrome icon of a wrench and screwdriver creating an X.

This icon denotes a slide where a supporting Info-Tech tool or template will help you perform the activity or step associated with the slide. Refer to the supporting tool or template to get the best results and proceed to the next step of the project.

A small monochrome icon depicting a person in front of a blank slide.

This icon denotes a slide with an associated activity. The activity can be performed either as part of your project or with the support of Info-Tech team members, who will come onsite to facilitate a workshop for your organization.


Phase 1: Streamline DRP Documentation

Step 1.1: Start with a recovery workflow

PHASE 1
PHASE 2
PHASE 3
1.1 1.2 1.3 2.1 3.1 3.2
Start with a Recovery Workflow Create Supporting Documentation Write the DRP Summary Select DRP Publishing Strategy Integrate into Core IT Processes Conduct an Annual Focused Review

This step will walk you through the following activities:

  • Review a model DRP.
  • Review your recovery workflow.
  • Identify documentation required to support the recovery workflow.

This step involves the following participants:

  • DRP Owner
  • System SMEs
  • Alternate DR Personnel

Outcomes of this step

  • Understanding the visual-based, concise approach to DR documentation.
  • Creating a recovery workflow that provides a roadmap for coordinating incident response and identifying required supporting documentation.

Info-Tech Insights

A DRP is a collection of procedures and supporting documents that allow an organization to recover its IT services to minimize system downtime for the business.

1.1 — Start with a recovery workflow to ensure a coordinated response and identify required supporting documentation

The recovery workflow clarifies your DR strategy and ensures the DR team is on the same page.

Recovery Workflow

The recovery workflow maps out the incident response plan from event detection, assessment, and declaration to systems recovery and validation.

This documentation includes:

  • Clarifying initial incident response steps.
  • Clarifying the order of systems recovery and which recovery actions can occur concurrently.
  • Estimating actual recovery timeline through each stage of recovery.
Recovery Procedures (Playbook)
Additional Reference Documentation

“We use flowcharts for our declaration procedures. Flowcharts are more effective when you have to explain status and next steps to upper management.” (Assistant Director-IT Operations, Healthcare Industry)

Review business impact analysis (BIA) results to plan your recovery workflow

The BIA defines system criticality from the business’s perspective. Use it to guide system recovery order.

Specifically, review the following from your BIA:

  • The list of tier 1, 2, and 3 applications. This will dictate the recovery order in your recovery workflow.
  • Application dependencies. This will outline what needs to be included as part of an application recovery workflow.
  • The recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO) for each application. This will also guide the recovery, and enable you to identify gaps where the recovery workflow does not meet RTOs and RPOs.

CASE STUDY: The XMPL DRP documentation is based on this Business Impact Analysis Tool.

Haven’t conducted a BIA? Use Info-Tech’s streamlined approach.

Info-Tech’s publication Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan takes a very practical approach to BIA work. Our process gives IT leaders a mechanism to quickly get agreement on system recovery order and DR investment priorities.

Conduct a tabletop planning exercise to determine your recovery workflow

Associated Activity icon 1.1.1 Tabletop Planning Exercise

  1. Define a scenario to drive the tabletop planning exercise:
    • Use a scenario that forces a full failover to your DR environment, so you can capture an end-to-end recovery workflow.
    • Avoid scenarios that impact health and safety such as tornados or a fire. You want to focus on IT recovery.
    • Example scenarios: Burst water pipe that causes data-center-wide damage or a gas leak that forces evacuation and power to be shut down for at least two days.

Note: You may have already completed this exercise as part of Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan.

Info-Tech Insight

Use scenarios to provide context for DR planning, and to test your plans, but don’t create a separate plan for every possibility.

The high-level recovery plan will be the same whether the incident is a fire, flood, or tornado. While there might be some variances and outliers, these scenarios can be addressed by adding decision points and/or separate, supplementary instructions.

Walk through the scenario and capture the recovery workflow

Associated Activity icon 1.1.2 Tabletop Planning Exercise
  1. Capture the following information for tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3 systems:
    1. On white cue cards, record the steps and track start and end times for each step (where 00:00 is when the incident occurred).
    2. On yellow cue cards, document gaps in people, process, and technology requirements to complete the step.
    3. On red cue cards, indicate risks (e.g. no backup person for a key staff member).

Note:

  • Ensure the language is sufficiently genericized (e.g. refer to events, not specifically a burst water pipe).
  • Review isolated failures (e.g. hardware, software). Typically, the recovery procedure documented for individual systems covers the essence of the recovery workflow whether it’s just the one system that failed or it’s part of a site-wide recovery.

Note: You may have already completed this exercise as part of Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan.

Document your current-state recovery workflow based on the results of the tabletop planning

Supporting Tool icon 1.1.2 Incident Response Plan Flowcharts, Tabs 2 and 3

After you finish the tabletop planning exercise, the steps on the set of cue cards define your recovery workflow. Capture this in a flowchart format.

Use the sample DRP to guide your own flowchart. Some notes on the example are:

  • XMPL’s Incident Management to DR flowchart shows the connection between its standard Service Desk processes and DR processes.
  • XMPL’s high-level workflows outline its recovery of tier 1, 2, and 3 systems.
  • Where more detail is required, include links to supporting documentation. In this example, XMPL Medical includes links to its Systems Recovery Playbook.
Preview of an Info-Tech Template depicting a sample flowchart.

This sample flowchart is included in XMPL Recovery Workflows.

Step 1.2: Create Supporting DRP Documentation

PHASE 1
PHASE 2
PHASE 3
1.11.21.32.13.13.2
Start with a Recovery WorkflowCreate Supporting DocumentationWrite the DRP SummarySelect DRP Publishing StrategyIntegrate into Core IT ProcessesConduct an Annual Focused Review

This step will walk you through the following activities:

  • Create checklists for your playbook.
  • Document more complex procedures with flowcharts.
  • Gather and/or write network topology diagrams.
  • Compile a contact list.
  • Ensure there is enough material for backup personnel.

This step involves the following participants:

  • DRP Owner
  • System SMEs
  • Backup DR Personnel

Outcomes of this step

  • Actionable supporting documentation for your disaster recovery plan.
  • Contact list for IT personnel, business personnel, and vendor support.

1.2 — Create supporting documentation for your disaster recovery plan

Now that you have a high-level incident response plan, collect the information you need for executing that plan.

Recovery Workflow

Write your recovery procedures playbook to be effective and usable. Your playbook documentation should include:

  • Supplementary flowcharts
  • Checklists
  • Topology diagrams
  • Contact lists
  • DRP summary

Reference vendors’ technical information in your flowcharts and checklists where appropriate.

Recovery Procedures (Playbook)

Additional Reference Documentation

Info-Tech Insight

Write for your audience. The playbook is for IT; include only the information they need to execute the plan. DRP summaries are for executives and auditors; do not include information intended for IT. Similarly, your disaster recovery plan is not for business units; keep BCP content out of your DRP.

Use checklists to streamline step-by-step procedures

Supporting Tool icon 1.2.1 XMPL Medical’s System Recovery Checklists

Checklists are ideal when staff just need a reminder of what to do, not how to do it.

XMPL Medical used its high-level flowcharts as a roadmap for creating its Systems Recovery Playbook.

  • Since its Playbook is intended for experienced IT staff, the writing style in the checklists is concise. XMPL includes links to reference material to support recovery, especially for alternate staff who might need additional instruction.
  • XMPL includes key parameters (e.g. IP addresses) rather than assume those details would be memorized, especially in a stressful DR scenario.
  • Similarly, include links to other useful resources such as VM templates.
Preview of the Info-Tech Template 'Systems Recovery Playbook'.

Included in the XMPL Systems Recovery Playbook are checklists for recovering XMPL’s virtual desktop infrastructure, mission-critical applications, and core infrastructure components.

Use flowcharts to document processes with concurrent tasks not easily captured in a checklist

Supporting Tool icon 1.2.2 XMPL Medical’s Phone Services Recovery Flowchart

Recovery procedures can consist of flowcharts, checklists, or both, as well as diagrams. The main goal is to be clear and concise.

  • XMPL Medical created a flowchart to capture its phone services recovery procedure to capture concurrent tasks.
  • Additional instructions, where required, could still be captured in a Playbook checklist or other supporting documentation.
  • The flowchart could have also included key settings or other details as appropriate, particularly if the DR team chose to maintain this recovery procedure just in a flowchart format.
Preview of the Info-Tech Template 'Recovery Workflows'.

Included in the XMPL DR documentation is an example flowchart for recovering phone systems. This flowchart is in Recovery Workflows.

Reference this blueprint for more SOP flowchart examples: Create Visual SOP Documents that Drive Process Optimization, Not Just Peace of Mind

Use topology diagrams to capture network layout, integrations, and system information

Supporting Tool icon 1.2.4 XMPL Medical’s Data Center and Network Diagrams

Topology diagrams, key checklists, and configuration settings are often enough for experienced networking staff to carry out their DR tasks.

  • XMPL Medical includes these diagrams with its DRP. Instead of recreating these diagrams, the XMPL Medical DR Manager asked their network team for these diagrams:
    • Primary data center diagram
    • DR site diagram
    • High-level network diagrams
  • Often, organizations already have network topology diagrams for reference purposes.

“Our network engineers came to me and said our standard SOP template didn't work for them. They're now using a lot of diagrams and flowcharts, and that has worked out better for them.” (Assistant Director-IT Operations, Healthcare Industry)

Preview of the Info-Tech Template 'Systems Recovery Playbook'.

You can download a PDF and a VSD version of these Data Center and Network Diagrams from Info-Tech’s website.

Create a list of organizational, IT, and vendor contacts that may be required to assist with recovery

If there is something strange happening to your IT infrastructure, who you gonna call?

Many DR managers have their team on speed dial. However, having the contact info of alternate staff, BCP leads, and vendors can be very helpful during a disaster. XMPL Medical lists the following information in its DRP Workbook:

  • The DR Teams, SMEs critical to disaster recovery, their backups, and key contacts (e.g. BC Management team leads, vendor contacts) that would be involved in:
    • Declaring a disaster.
    • Coordinating a response at an organizational level.
    • Executing recovery.
  • The people that have authority to declare a disaster.
  • Each person’s spending authority.
  • The rules for delegating authority.
  • Primary and alternate staff for each role.
Example list of alternate staff, BCP leads, and vendors.

Confirm with your DR team that you have all of the documentation that you need to recover during a disaster

Associated Activity icon 1.2.7 Group Discussion

DISCUSS: Is there enough information in your DRP for both primary and backup DR personnel?

  • Is it clear who is responsible for each DR task, including notification steps?
  • Have alternate staff for each role been identified?
  • Does the recovery workflow capture all of the high-level steps?
  • Is there enough documentation for alternate staff (e.g. network specs)?

Step 1.3: Write the DRP Summary

PHASE 1
PHASE 2
PHASE 3
1.11.21.32.13.13.2
Start with a Recovery WorkflowCreate Supporting DocumentationWrite the DRP SummarySelect DRP Publishing StrategyIntegrate into Core IT ProcessesConduct an Annual Focused Review

This step will walk you through the following activities:

  • Write a DRP summary document.

This step involves the following participants:

  • DRP Owner

Outcomes of this step

  • High-level outline of your DRP capabilities for stakeholders such as executives, auditors, and clients.

Summarize your DR capabilities using a DRP summary document

Supporting Tool icon 1.3.1 DRP Summary Document

The sample included on Info-Tech’s website is customized for the XMPL Medical Case Study – use the download as a starting point for your own summary document.

DRP Summary Document

XMPL’s DRP Summary is organized into the following categories:

  • DR requirements: This includes a summary of scope, business impact analysis (BIA), risk assessment, and high-level RTOs and achievable RTOs.
  • DR strategy: This includes a summary of XMPL’s recovery procedures, DR site, and backup strategy.
  • Testing and maintenance: This includes a summary of XMPL’s DRP testing and maintenance strategy.

Be transparent about existing business risks in your DRP summary

The DRP summary document is business facing. Include information of which business leaders (and other stakeholders) need to be aware.

  • Discrepancies between desired and achievable RTOs? Organizational leadership needs to know this information. Only then can they assign the resources and budget that IT needs to achieve the desired DR capabilities.
  • What is the DRP’s scope? XMPL Medical lists the IT components that will be recovered during a disaster, and components which will not. For instance, XMPL’s DRP does not recover medical equipment, and XMPL has separate plans for business continuity and emergency response coordination.
Application tier Desired RTO (hh:mm) Desired RPO (hh:mm) Achievable RTO (hh:mm) Achievable RPO (hh:mm)
Tier 1 4:00 1:00 *90:00 1:00
Tier 2 8:00 1:00 *40:00 1:00
Tier 3 48:00 24:00 *96:00 24:00

The above table to is a snippet from the XMPL DR Summary Document (section 2.1.3.2).

In the example, the DR team is unable to recover tier 1, 2, and 3 systems within the desired RTO. As such, they clearly communicate this information in the DRP summary, and include action items to address these gaps.

Phase 2: Select the Optimal DRP Publishing Strategy

Step 2.1: Select a DRP Publishing Strategy

PHASE 1
PHASE 2
PHASE 3
1.11.21.32.13.13.2
Start with a Recovery WorkflowCreate Supporting DocumentationWrite the DRP SummarySelect DRP Publishing StrategyIntegrate into Core IT ProcessesConduct an Annual Focused Review

This step will walk you through the following activities:

  • Select criteria for assessing DRP tools.
  • Evaluate categories for DRP tools.
  • Optional: Write an RFP for a BCM tool.

This step involves the following participants:

  • DRP Owner

Outcomes of this step

  • Identified strategies for publishing your DRP (i.e. making it available to your DR team).

Info-Tech Insights

Diversify your publishing strategy to ensure you can access your DRP in a disaster. For example, if you are using a BCM tool or SharePoint Online as your primary documentation repository, also push the DRP to your DR team’s smartphones as a backup in case the disaster affects internet access.

2.1 — Select a DR publishing and document management strategy that fits your organization

Publishing and document management considerations:

Portability/External Access: Assume your primary site is down and inaccessible. Can you still access your documentation? As shown in this chart, traditional strategies of either keeping a copy at another location (e.g. at the failover site) or with staff (e.g. on a USB drive) still dominate, but these aren’t necessarily the best options.
A bar chart titled 'Portability Strategy Popularity'. 'External Website (wiki site, cloud-based DRP tool, etc.)' scored 16%. 'Failover Site (network drive or redundant SharePoint, etc.)' scored 53%. 'Distribute to Staff (use USB drive, personal email, etc.)' scored 50%. 'Not Accessible Offsite' scored 7%.
Note: Percentages total more than 100% due to respondents using more than one portability strategy.
(Source: Info-Tech Research Group, N=118)
Maintainability/Usability: How easy is it to create, update, and use the documentation? Is it easy to link to other documents as shown in the flowchart and checklist examples? Is there version control? Lack of version control can create a maintenance nightmare as well as issues in a crisis if staff are questioning whether they have the right version.
Cost/Effort: Is the cost and effort appropriate? For example, a large enterprise may need a formal solution (e.g. DRP tools or SharePoint), but the cost might be hard to justify for a smaller company.

Pros and cons of potential strategies

This section will review the following strategies, their pros and cons, and how they meet publishing and document management requirements:

  • DRP tools (e.g. eBRP, Recovery Planner, LDRPS)
  • In-house solutions combining SharePoint and MS Office (or equivalent)
  • Wiki site
  • “Manual” approaches such as storing documents on a USB drive

Avoid 42 hours of downtime due to a non-diversified publishing strategy

CASE STUDY

Industry Municipality
Source Interview

Situation

  • A municipal government has recently completed an end-to-end disaster recovery plan.
  • The team is feeling good about the fact that they were able to identify:
    • Relative criticality of applications.
    • Dependencies for each application.
    • Incident response plans for the current state and desired state.
    • System recovery procedures.

Challenge

  • While the DR plan itself was comprehensive, the team only published the DR onto the government’s network drives.
  • A power generation issue caused power to be shut down, which in turn cascaded into downtime for the network.
  • Once the network was down, their DRP was inaccessible.

Insights

  • Each piece of documentation that was created could have contributed to recovery efforts. However, because they were inaccessible, there was a delayed response to the incident. The result was 42 hours of downtime for end users.
  • Having redundant publishing strategies is just like having redundant IT infrastructure. In the event of downtime, not only do you need to have DR documentation, but you also need to make sure that it is accessible.

Decide on a DR publishing strategy by looking at portability, maintainability, cost, and required effort

Supporting Tool icon 2.1.1 DRP Publishing and Management Evaluation Tool

Use the information included in Step 2.1 to guide your analysis of DRP publishing solutions.

The tool enables you to compare two possible solutions based on these key considerations discussed in this section:

  • Portability/external access
  • Maintainability/usability
  • Cost
  • Effort

The right choice will depend on factors such as current in-house tools, maturity around document management, the size of your IT department, and so on.

For example, a small shop may do very well with the USB drive strategy, whereas a multi-national company will need a more formal strategy to manage consistent DRP distribution.

Preview of Info-Tech's 'DRP Publishing and Management Solution Evaluation Tool'.

The DRP Publishing and Management Solution Evaluation Tool helps you to evaluate the tools included in this section.

Don’t think of a business continuity management (BCM) tool as a silver bullet; know what you’re getting out of it

Portability/External Access:
  • Pros: Typically a SaaS option provides built-in external access with appropriate security and user administration to vary access rights.
  • Cons: Degree of external access is often dependent on the vendor.
Maintainability/Usability:
  • Pros: Built-in templates encourage consistency and guide initial content development by indicating what details need to be captured.
  • Pros: Built-in document management (e.g. version control, metadata support), centralized access/navigation to required documents, and some automation (e.g. update contacts throughout the system).
  • Cons: Not a silver bullet. You still have to do the work to define and capture your processes.
  • Cons: Requires end-user and administrator training.
Cost/Effort:
  • Pros: For large enterprises, the convenience of built-in document management and templates can outweigh the cost.
  • Cons: Expect leading DRP tools to cost $20K or more per year.

About this approach:
BCM tools are solutions that provide templates, tools, and document management to create BC and DR documentation.

Info-Tech Insight

The business case for a BCM tool is built by answering the following questions:

  • Will the BCM tool solve an unmet need?
  • Will the tool be more effective and efficient than an in-house solution?
  • Will the solution provide enhanced capabilities that an in-house solution cannot provide?

If you cannot get a satisfactory answer to each of these questions, then opt for an in-house solution.

“We explored a DRP tool, and it was something we might have used, but it was tens of thousands of pounds per year, so it didn’t stack up financially for us at all.” (Rik Toms, Head of Strategy – IP and IT, Cable and Wireless Communications)

For in-house solutions, leverage tools such as SharePoint to provide document management capabilities

Portability/External Access:
  • Pros: SharePoint is commonly web-enabled and supports external access with appropriate security and user administration.
  • Cons: Must be installed at redundant sites or be cloud-based to be effective in a crisis that takes down your primary data center.
Maintainability/Usability:
  • Pros: Built-in document management (e.g. version control, metadata support) as well as centralized access/navigation to required documents.
  • Pros: No tool learning curve – SharePoint and MS Office would be existing solutions already used on a daily basis.
  • Cons: No built-in automation (e.g. automated updates to contacts throughout the system).
  • Cons: Consistency depends on creating templates and implementing processes for document updates, review, and approval.
Cost/Effort:
  • Pros: Using existing tools, so this is a sunk cost in terms of capex.
  • Cons: Additional effort required to create templates and manage the documentation library.

About this approach:
DRPs and SOPs most often start as MS Office documents, even if there is a DRP tool available. For organizations that elect to bypass a formal DRP tool, and most do, the biggest gap they have to overcome is document management.

Many organizations are turning to SharePoint to meet this need. For those that already have SharePoint in place, it makes sense to further leverage SharePoint for DR documentation and day-to-day SOPs.

For SharePoint to be a practical solution, the documentation must still be accessible if the primary data center is down, e.g. by having redundant SharePoint instances at multiple in-house locations, or using a cloud-based SharePoint solution.

“Just about everything that a DR planning tool does, you can do yourself using homegrown solutions or tools that you're already familiar with such as Word, Excel, and SharePoint.” (Allen Zuk, President and CEO, Sierra Management Consulting)

A healthcare company uses SharePoint as its DRP and SOP documentation management solution

CASE STUDY Healthcare

  • This organization is responsible for 50 medical facilities across three states.
  • It explored DRP tools, but didn’t find the right fit, so it has developed an in-house solution based in SharePoint. While DRP tools have improved, the organization no longer needs that type of solution. Its in-house solution is meeting its needs.
  • It has SharePoint instances at multiple locations to ensure availability if one site is down.

Documentation Strategy

  • Created an IT operations library in SharePoint for DR and SOPs, from basic support to bare-metal restore procedures.
  • SOPs are linked from SharePoint to the virtual help desk for greater accessibility.
  • Where practical, diagrams and flowcharts are used, e.g. DR process flowcharts and network services SOPs dominated by diagrams and flowcharts.

Management Strategy

  • Directors and the CIO have made finishing off SOPs their performance improvement objective for the year. The result is staff have made time to get this work done.
  • Status updates are posted monthly, and documentation is a regular agenda item in leadership meetings.
  • Regular tabletop testing validates documentation and ensures familiarity with procedures, including where to find required information.

Results

  • Dependency on a few key individuals has been reduced. All relevant staff know what they need to do and where to access required documentation.
  • SOPs are enabling DR training as well as day-to-day operations training for new staff.
  • The organization has a high confidence in its ability to recovery from a disaster within established timelines.

Explore using a wiki site as an inexpensive alternative to SharePoint and other content management solutions

Portability/External Access:
  • Pros: Wiki sites can support external access as with any web solution.
  • Cons: Must be installed at redundant sites, hosted, or cloud-based to be effective in a crisis that takes down your primary data center.
Maintainability/Usability:
  • Pros: Built-in document management (version control, metadata support, etc.) as well as centralized access/navigation to required information.
  • Pros: Authorized users can make updates dynamically, depending on how much restriction you have on the site.
  • Cons: No built-in automation (e.g. automated updates to contacts throughout the system).
  • Cons: Consistency depends on creating templates and implementing processes for document updates, review, and approval.
Cost/Effort:
  • Pros: An inexpensive option compared to traditional content management solutions such as SharePoint.
  • Cons: Learning curve if wikis are new to your organization.

About this approach:
Wiki sites are websites where users collaborate to create and edit the content. Wikipedia is an example.

While wiki sites are typically used for collaboration and dynamic content development, the traditional collaborative authoring model can be restricted to provide structure and an approval process.

Several tools are available to create and manage wiki sites (and other collaboration solutions), as outlined in the following research:

Info-Tech Insight

If your organization is not already using wiki sites, this technology can introduce a culture shock. Start slow by using a wiki site within a specific department or for a particular project. Then evaluate how well your staff adapt to this technology as well as its potential effectiveness in your organization. Refer to our collaboration strategy research for additional guidance.

For small IT shops, distributing documentation to key staff (e.g. via a USB drive) can still be effective

Portability/External Access:
  • Pros: Appropriate staff have the documentation with them; there is no need to log into a remote site or access a tool to get at the information.
  • Cons: Relies on staff to be diligent about ensuring they have the latest documentation and keep it with them (not leave it in their desk drawer).
Maintainability/Usability:
  • Pros: With this strategy, MS Office (or equivalent) is used to create and maintain the documentation, so there is no learning curve.
  • Pros: Simple, straightforward methodology – keep the master on a network drive, and download a copy to your USB drive.
  • Cons: No built-in automation (e.g. automated updates to contact information) or document management (e.g. version control).
  • Cons: Consistency depends on creating templates and implementing rigid processes for document updates, review, and approval.
Cost/Effort:
  • Pros: Little to no cost and no tool management required.
  • Cons: “Manual” document management requires strict attention to process for version control, updates, approvals, and distribution.

About this approach:
With this strategy, your ERT and key IT staff keep a copy of your DRP and relevant documentation with them (e.g. on a USB drive). If the primary site experiences a major event, they have ready access to the documentation.

Fifty percent of respondents in our recent survey use this strategy. A common scenario is to use a shared network drive or a solution such as SharePoint as the master centralized repository, but distribute a copy to key staff.

Info-Tech Insight

This approach can have similar disadvantages as using hard copies. Ensuring the USB drives are up to date, and that all staff who might need access have a copy, can become a burdensome process. More often, USB drives are updated periodically, so there is the risk that the information will be out of date or incomplete.

Avoid extensive use of paper copies of DR documentation

DR documents need to be easy to update, accessible from anywhere, and searchable. Paper doesn’t meet these needs.

Portability/External Access:
  • Pros: Does not rely on technology or power.
  • Cons: Requires all staff who might be involved in a DR to have a copy, and to have it with them at all times, to truly have access at any time from anywhere.
Maintainability/Usability:
  • Pros: In terms of usability, again there is no dependence on technology.
  • Cons: Updates need to be printed and distributed to all relevant staff every time there is a change to ensure staff have access to the latest, most accurate documentation if a disaster occurred. You can’t schedule disasters, so information needs to be current all the time.
  • Cons: Navigation to other information is manual – flipping through pages, etc. No searching or hyperlinks.
Cost/Effort:
  • Pros: No technology system to maintain, aside from what you use for printing.
  • Cons: Printing expenses are actually among the highest incurred by organizations, and this adds to it.
  • Cons: Labor intensive due to need to print and physically distribute documentation updates.

About this approach:
Traditionally DRPs are printed and distributed to managers and/or kept in a central location at both the primary site and a secondary site. In addition, wallet cards are distributed that contain key information such as contact numbers.

A wallet card or even a few printed copies of your high-level DRP for general reference can be helpful, but paper is not a practical solution for your overall DR documentation library, particularly when you include SOPs for recovery procedures.

One argument in favor of paper is there is no dependency on power during a crisis. However, in a power outage, staff can use smartphones and potentially laptops (with battery power) to access electronically stored documentation to get through first response steps. In addition, your DR site should have backup power to be an appropriate recovery site.

Optional: Partial list of BCM tool vendors

A partial list of BCM tool vendors, including: Business Protector, catalyst, clearview, ContinuityLogic. Fusion, Logic Manager, Quantivate, RecoveryPlanner.com, MetricStream, SimpleRisk, riskonnect, Strategic BCP - ResilienceONE, RSA, and Sungard Availability Services.

The list is only a partial list of BCM tool vendors. The order in which vendors are presented, and inclusion in this list, does not represent an endorsement.

Optional: Use our list of requirements as a foundation for selecting and reviewing BCM tools

Supporting Tool icon 2.1.2 BCM Tool – RFP Selection Criteria

If a BCM tool is the best option for your environment, expedite the evaluation process with our BCM Tool – RFP Selection Criteria.

Through advisory services, workshops, and consulting engagements, we have created this BCM Tool Requirements List. The featured requirements includes the following categories:

  1. Integrations
  2. Planning and Monitoring
  3. Administration
  4. Architecture
  5. Security
  6. Support and Training
Preview of the Info-Tech template 'BCM Tool – RFP Selection Criteria'.

This BCM Tool – RFP Selection Criteria can be appended to an RFP. You can leverage Info-Tech’s RFP Template if your organization does not have one.

Info-Tech can write full RFPs

As part of a consulting engagement, Info-Tech can write RFPs for BCM tools and provide a customized scoring tool based on your environment’s unique requirements.

Phase 3: Keep Your DRP Relevant Through Maintenance Best Practices

Step 3.1: Integrate DRP maintenance into core IT processes

PHASE 1
PHASE 2
PHASE 3
1.11.21.32.13.13.2
Start with a Recovery WorkflowCreate Supporting DocumentationWrite the DRP SummarySelect DRP Publishing StrategyIntegrate into Core IT ProcessesConduct an Annual Focused Review

This step will walk you through the following activities:

  • Integrate DRP maintenance with Project Management.
  • Integrate DRP considerations into Change Management.
  • Integrate with Performance Management.

This step involves the following participants:

  • DRP Owner
  • Head of Project Management Office
  • Head of Change Advisory Board
  • CIO

Outcomes of this step

  • Updated project intake form.
  • Updated change management practice.
  • Updated performance appraisals.

3.1 — Incorporate DRP maintenance into core IT processes

Focusing on these three processes will help ensure that your plan stays current, accurate, and usable.

The Info-Tech / COBIT5 'IT Management and Governance Framework' with three processes highlighted: 'MEA01 Performance Measurement', 'BAI06 Change Management', and 'BAI01 Project Management'.

Info-Tech Best Practice

Prioritize quick wins that will have large benefits. The advice presented in this section offers easy ways to help keep your DRP up to date. These simple solutions can save a lot of time and effort for your DRP team as opposed to more intricate changes to the processes above.

Assess how new projects impact service criticality and DR requirements upfront during project intake

Icon for process 'BAI01 Project Management'.
Supporting Tool icon 3.1.1 Sample Project Intake Form Addendum

Understand the RTO/RPO requirements and IT impacts for new or enhanced services to ensure appropriate provisioning and overall DRP updates.

  • Have submitters include service continuity requirements. This information can be inserted into your business impact analysis. Use similar language that you use in your own BIA.
    • The submitter should know how critical the resulting project will be. Any items that the submitter doesn’t know, the Project Steering Committee should investigate.
  • Have IT assess the impact on the DRP. The submitter will not know how the DRP will be impacted directly. Ask the project committee to consider how DRP documentation and the DR environment will need to be changed due to the project under consideration.

Note: The goal is not to make DR a roadblock, but rather to ensure project requirements will be met – including availability and DR requirements.

Preview of the Info-Tech template 'Project Intake Form'.

This Project Intake Form asks the submitter to fill out the availability and criticality requirements for the project.

Leverage your change management process to identify required DRP updates as they occur

Icon for process 'BAI06 Change Management'.

Avoid the year-end rush to update your DRP. Keeping it up to date as changes occur saves time in the long run and ensures your plan is accurate when you need it.

  • As part of your change management process, identify potential updates to:
    • System documentation (e.g. configuration settings).
    • Recovery procedures (e.g. if a system has been virtualized, that changes the recovery procedure).
    • Your DR environment (e.g. system configuration updates for standby systems).
  • Keep track of how often a system has changed. Relevant DRP documentation might be due for a deeper review:
    • After a system has been changed ten times (even from routine changes), notify your DRP Manager to flag the relevant DRP documentation for review.
    • As part of formal DRP reviews, pay closer attention to DRP documentation for the flagged systems.
Preview of the Info-Tech template 'Disaster Recovery Change Management'.

This template asks the submitter to fill out the availability and criticality requirements for the project.

For change management best practices beyond DRP considerations, please see Optimize Change Management.

Integrate documentation into performance measurement and performance management

Icon for process 'MEA01 Performance Measurement'.

Documentation is a necessary evil – few like to create it and more immediate tasks take priority. If it isn’t scheduled and prioritized, it won’t happen.

Why documentation is such a challenge

How management can address these challenges

We all know that IT staff typically do not like to write documentation. That’s not why they were hired, and good documentation is not what gets them promoted. Include documentation deliverables in your IT staff’s performance appraisal to stress the importance of ensuring documentation is up to date, especially where it might impact DR success.
Similarly, documentation is secondary to more urgent tasks. Time to write documentation is often not allocated by project managers. Schedule time for developing documentation, just like any other project, or it won’t happen.
Writing manuals is typically a time-intensive task. Focus on what is necessary for another experienced IT professional to execute the recovery. As discussed earlier, often a diagram or checklist is good enough and actually far more usable in a crisis.

“Our directors and our CIO have tied SOP work to performance evaluations, and SOP status is reviewed during management meetings. People have now found time to get this work done.” (Assistant Director – IT Operations, Healthcare Industry)

Step 3.2: Conduct an Annual Focused Review

PHASE 1
PHASE 2
PHASE 3
1.11.21.32.13.13.2
Start with a Recovery WorkflowCreate Supporting DocumentationWrite the DRP SummarySelect DRP Publishing StrategyIntegrate into Core IT ProcessesConduct an Annual Focused Review

This step will walk you through the following activities:

  1. Identify components of your DRP to refresh.
  2. Identify organizational changes requiring further focus.
  3. Test your DRP and identify problems.
  4. Correct problems identified with DRP.

This step involves the following participants:

  • DRP Owner
  • System SMEs
  • Backup DR Personnel

Outcomes of this step

  • An actionable, up-to-date DRP.

Info-Tech Insight

Testing is a waste of time and resources if you do not fix what’s broken. Tabletop testing is effective at uncovering gaps in your DR processes, but if you don’t address those gaps, then your DRP will still be unusable in a disaster.

Set up a safety net to capture changes that slipped through the cracks with a focused review process

Evaluate documentation supporting high-priority systems, as well as documentation supporting IT systems that have been significantly changed.

  • Ideally you’re maintaining documentation as you go along. But you need to have an annual review to catch items that may have slipped through.
  • Don’t review everything. Instead, review:
    • IT systems that have had 10+ changes: small changes and updates can add up over time. Ensure:
      • The plans for these systems are updated for changes (e.g. configuration changes).
      • SMEs and backup personnel are familiar with the changes.
    • Tier 1 / Gold Systems: Ensure that you can still recover tier 1 systems with your existing DRP documentation.
  • Track documentation issues that you discovered with your ticketing system or service desk tool to ensure necessary documentation changes are made.
  1. Annual Focused Review
  2. Tier 1 Systems
  3. Significantly Changed Systems
  4. Organizational Changes

Identify larger changes, both organizational and within IT, that necessitate DRP updates

During your focused review, consider how organizational changes have impacted your DRP.

The COBIT 5 Enablers provide a foundation for this analysis. Consider:

  • Changes in regulatory requirements: Are there new requirements for IT that are not reflected in your DRP? Is the organization required to comply with any additional regulations?
  • Changes to organizational structures, business processes, and how employees work: Can employees still be productive once tier 1 services are restored or have RTOs changed? Has organizational turnover impacted your DRP?
  • SMEs leaving or changing roles: Can IT still execute your DRP? Are there still people for all the key roles?
  • Changes to IT infrastructure and applications: Can the business still access the information they need during a disaster? Is your BIA still accurate? Do new services need to be considered tier 1?

Info-Tech Best Practice

COBIT 5 Enablers
What changes need to be reflected in your DRP?

A cycle visualization titled 'Disaster Recovery Plan'. Starting at 'Changes in Regulatory Requirements', it proceeds clockwise to 'Organizational Structure', 'Changes in Business Processes', and 'How Employees Work', before it returns to DRP. Then 'Changes to Applications', 'Changes to Infrastructure', 'SMEs Leaving or Changing Roles', and then back to the DRP.

Create a plan during your annual focused review to test your DRP throughout the year

Regardless of your documentation approach, training and familiarity with relevant procedures is critical.

  • Start with tabletop exercises and progress to technology-based testing (simulation, parallel, and full-scale testing).
  • Ask staff to reference documentation while testing, even if they do not need to. This practice helps to confirm documentation accuracy and accessibility.
  • Incorporate cross-training in DR testing. This gives important experience to backup personnel and will further validate that documents are complete and accurate.
  • Track any discovered documentation issues with your ticketing system or project tracking tools to ensure necessary documentation changes are made.

Example Test Schedule:

  1. Q1: Tabletop testing shadowed by backup personnel
  2. Q2: Tabletop testing led by backup personnel
  3. Q3: Technology-based testing
  4. Annual Focused Review: Review Results

Reference this blueprint for guidance on DRP testing plans: Reduce Costly Downtime Through DR Testing

Appendix A: XMPL Case Study

Follow XMPL Medical’s journey through DR documentation

CASE STUDY

Industry Healthcare
Source Created by amalgamating data from Info-Tech’s client base

Streamline your documentation and maintenance process by following the approach outlined in XMPL Medical’s journey to an end-to-end DRP.

Outline of the Disaster Recovery Plan

XMPL’s disaster recovery plan includes its business impact analysis and a subset of tier 1 and tier 2 patient care applications.

Its DRP includes incident response flowcharts, system recovery checklists, and a communication plan. Its DRP also references IT operations documentation (e.g. asset management documents, system specs, and system configuration docs), but this material is not published with the example documentation.

Resulting Disaster Recovery Plan

XMPL’s DRP includes actionable documents in the form of high-level disaster response plan flowcharts and system recovery checklists. During an incident, the DR team is able to clearly see the items for which they are responsible.

Disaster Recovery Plan
  • Recovery Workflow
  • Business Impact Analysis
  • DRP Summary
  • System Recovery Checklists
  • Communication, Assessment, and Disaster Declaration Plan

Info-Tech Best Practice

XMPL Medical’s disaster recovery plan illustrates an effective DRP. Model your end-to-end disaster recovery plan after XMPL’s completed templates. The specific data points will differ from organization to organization, but the structure of each document will be similar.

Model your disaster recovery documentation off of our example

CASE STUDY

Industry Healthcare
Source Created by amalgamating data from Info-Tech’s client base

Recovery Workflow:

  • Recovery Workflows (PDF, VSDX)

Recovery Procedures (Systems Recovery Playbook):

  • DR Notification, Assessment, and Disaster Declaration Plan
  • Systems Recovery Playbook
  • Network Topology Diagrams

Additional Reference Documentation:

  • DRP Workbook
  • Business Impact Analysis
  • DRP Summary Document

Use our structure to create your practical disaster recovery plan.

Appendix B: Summary, Next Steps, and Bibliography

Insight breakdown

Use visual-based documentation instead of a traditional DRP manual.

  • Flowcharts, checklists, and diagrams are more concise, easier to maintain, and more effective in a crisis.
  • Write for an IT audience and focus on how to recover. You don’t need 30 pages of fluff describing the purpose of the document.

Create your DRP in layers to keep the work manageable.

  • Start with a recovery workflow to ensure a coordinated response, and build out supporting documentation over time.

Prioritize quick wins to make DRP maintenance easier and more likely to happen.

  • Incorporate DRP maintenance into change management and project intake procedures to systematically update and refine the DR documentation. Don’t save up changes for a year-end blitz, which turns document maintenance into an onerous project.

Summary of accomplishment

Knowledge Gained

  • How to create visual-based DRP documentation
  • How to integrate DRP maintenance into core IT processes

Processes Optimized

  • DRP documentation creation
  • DRP publishing tool selection
  • DRP documentation maintenance

Deliverables Completed

  • DRP documentation
  • Strategy for publishing your DRP
  • Modified project-intake form
  • Change management checklist for DR considerations

Project step summary

Client Project: Document and Maintain Your Disaster Recovery Plan

  • Create a recovery workflow.
  • Create supporting DRP documentation.
  • Write a summary for your DRP.
  • Decide on a publishing strategy.
  • Incorporate DRP maintenance into core IT processes.
  • Conduct an annual focused review.

Info-Tech Insight

This project has the ability to fit the following formats:

  • Onsite workshop by Info-Tech Research Group consulting analysts.
  • Do-it-yourself with your team.
  • Remote delivery (Info-Tech Guided Implementation).

Related Info-Tech research

Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan
Close the gap between your DR capabilities and service continuity requirements.

Reduce Costly Downtime Through DR Testing
Improve the accuracy of your DRP and your team’s ability to efficiently execute recovery procedures through regular DR testing.

Create Visual SOP Documents that Drive Process Optimization, Not Just Peace of Mind
Go beyond satisfying auditors to drive process improvement, consistent IT operations, and effective knowledge transfer.

Prepare for a DRP Audit
Assess your current DRP maturity, identify required improvements, and complete an audit-ready DRP summary document.

Bibliography

A Structured Approach to Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) and the Requirements of ISO 31000. The Association of Insurance and Risk Managers, Alarm: The Public Risk Management Association, and The Institute of Risk Management, 2010.

“APO012: Manage Risk.” COBIT 5: Enabling Processes. ISACA, 2012.

Bird, Lyndon, Ian Charters, Mel Gosling, Tim Janes, James McAlister, and Charlie Maclean-Bristol. Good Practice Guidelines: A Guide to Global Good Practice in Business Continuity. Global ed. Business Continuity Institute, 2013.

COBIT 5: A Business Framework for the Governance and Management of Enterprise IT. ISACA, 2012.

“EDM03: Ensure Risk Optimisation.” COBIT 5: Enabling Processes. ISACA, 2012.

Risk Management. ISO 31000:2009.

Rothstein, Philip Jan. Disaster Recovery Testing: Exercising Your Contingency Plan. Rothstein Associates: 1 Oct. 2007.

Societal Security – Business continuity management systems – Guidance. ISO 22313:2012.

Societal Security – Business continuity management systems – Requirements. ISO 22301:2012.

Understanding and Articulating Risk Appetite. KPMG, 2008.

Master the Secrets of VMware Licensing to Maximize Your Investment

  • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}138|cart{/j2store}
  • member rating overall impact: N/A
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  • Parent Category Name: Licensing
  • Parent Category Link: /licensing
  • A lack of understanding around VMware’s licensing models, bundles, and negotiation tactics makes it difficult to negotiate from a position of strength.
  • Unfriendly commercial practices combined with hyperlink-ridden agreements have left organizations vulnerable to audits and large shortfall payments.
  • Enterprise license agreements (ELAs) come in several purchasing models and do not contain the EULA or various VMware product guide documentation that governs license usage rules and can change monthly.
  • Without a detailed understanding of VMware’s various purchasing models, shelfware often occurs.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • Contracts are typically overweighted with a discount at the expense of contractual T&Cs that can restrict license usage and expose you to unpleasant financial surprises and compliance risk.
  • VMware customers almost always have incomplete price information from which to effectively negotiate a “best in class” ELA.
  • VMware has a large lead in being first to market and it realizes that running dual virtualization stacks is complex, unwieldy, and expensive. To further complicate the issues, most skill sets in the industry are skewed towards VMware.

Impact and Result

  • Negotiate desired terms and conditions at the start of the agreement, and prioritize which use rights may be more important than an additional discount percentage.
  • Gather data points and speak with licensing partners to determine if the deal being offered is in fact as great as VMware says it is.
  • Beware of out-year pricing and ELA optimization reviews that may provide undesirable surprises and more spend than was planned.

Master the Secrets of VMware Licensing to Maximize Your Investment Research & Tools

Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

1. Manage Your VMware Agreements – Use the Info-Tech tools capture your existing licenses and prepare for your renewal bids.

Use Info-Tech’s licensing best practices to avoid shelfware with VMware licensing and remain compliant in case of an audit.

  • Master the Secrets of VMware Licensing to Maximize Your Investment Storyboard

2. Manage your VMware agreements

Use Info-Tech’s licensing best practices to avoid shelfware with VMware licensing and remain compliant in case of an audit.

  • VMware Business as Usual – Install Base SnS Renewal Only Tool
  • VMware ELA RFQ Template

3. Transition to the VMWare Cloud – Use these tools to evaluate your ELA and vShpere requirements and make an informed choice.

Manage your renewals and transition to the cloud subscription model.

  • VPP Transactional Purchase Tool
  • VMware ELA Analysis Tool
  • vSphere Edition 7 Features List

Infographic

Further reading

Master the Secrets of VMware Licensing to Maximize Your Investment

Learn the essential steps to avoid overspending and to maximize negotiation leverage with VMware.

EXECUTIVE BRIEF

Analyst Perspective

Master the Secrets of VMware Licensing to Maximize Your Investment.

The image contains a picture of Scott Bickley.

The mechanics of negotiating a deal with VMware may seem simple at first as the vendor is willing to provide a heavy discount on an enterprise license agreement (ELA). However, come renewal time, when a reduction in spend or shelfware is needed, or to exit the ELA altogether, the process can be exceedingly frustrating as VMware holds the balance of power in the negotiation.

Negotiating a complete agreement with VMware from the start can save you from an immense headache and unforeseen expenditures. Many VMware customers do not realize that the terms and conditions in the Volume Purchasing Program (VPP) and Enterprise Purchasing Program (EPP) agreements limit how and where they are able to use their licenses.

Furthermore, after the renewal is complete, organizations must still worry about the management of various license types, accurate discovery of what has been deployed, visibility into license key assignments, and over and under use of licenses.

Preventive and proactive measures enclosed within this blueprint will help VMware clients mitigate this minefield of challenges.

Scott Bickley
Practice Lead, Vendor Management
Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

Common Obstacles

Info-Tech’s Approach

VMware's dominant position in the virtualization space can create uncertainty to your options in the long term as well as the need to understand:

  • The hybrid cloud model.
  • Hybrid VM security and management.
  • New subscription license model and how it affects renewals.

Make an informed decision with your VMware investments to allow for continued ROI.

There are several hurdles that are presented when considering a VMware ELA:

  • Evolving licensing and purchasing models
  • Understanding potential ROI in the cloud landscape
  • Evolving door of corporate ownership

Overcoming these and other obstacles are key to long-term satisfaction with your VMware infrastructure.

Info-Tech has a two-phase approach:

  • Manage your VMware agreements.
  • Plan a transition to the cloud.

A tactical roadmap approach to VMware ELA and the cloud will ensure long-term success and savings.

Info-Tech Insight

VMware customers almost always have incomplete price information from which to effectively negotiate a “best in class” ELA.

Your challenge

VMware's dominant position in the virtualization space can create uncertainty to your options in the long term driven by:

  • VMware’s dominant market position and ownership of the virtualization market, which is forcing customers to focus on managing capacity demand to ensure a positive ROI on every license.
  • The trend toward a hybrid cloud for many organizations, especially those considering using VMware in public clouds, resulting in confusion regarding licensing and compliance scenarios.

ELAs and EPPs are generally the only way to get a deep discount from VMware.

The image contains a pie chart to demonstrate that 85% have answered yes to being audited by VMware for software license compliance.

Common obstacles

There are several hurdles that are presented when considering a VMware ELA.

  • A lack of understanding around VMware’s licensing models, bundles, and negotiation tactics makes it difficult to negotiate from a position of strength.
  • Unfriendly commercial practices combined with hyperlink-ridden agreements have left organizations vulnerable to audits and large shortfall payments.
  • ELAs come in several purchasing models and do not contain the EULA or various VMware product guide documentation that govern license usage rules and can change monthly.

Competition is a key driver of price

The image contains a screenshot of a bar graph to demonstrate virtualization market share % 2022.

Source: Datanyze

Master the Secrets of VMware Licensing to Maximize your Investment

The image contains a screenshot of the Thought model on Master the secrets of VMware Licensing to Maximize your Investment.

Info-Tech’s methodology for Master the Secrets of VMware Licensing to Maximize Your Investment

1. Manage Your VMware Agreements

2. Transition to the VMware Cloud

Phase Steps

1.1 Establish licensing requirements

1.2 Evaluate licensing options

1.3 Evaluate agreement options

1.4 Purchase and manage licenses

1.5 Understand SnS renewal management

2.1 Understand the VMware subscription model

2.2 Migrate workloads and licenses

2.3 Manage SnS and cloud subscriptions

Phase Outcomes

Understanding of your licensing requirements and what agreement option best fits your needs for now and the future.

Knowledge of VMware’s sales model and how to negotiate the best deal.

Knowledge of the evolving cloud subscription model and how to plan your cloud migration and transition to the new licensing.

Insight summary

Overarching insight

With the introduction of the subscription licensing model, VMware licensing and renewals are becoming more complex and require a deeper understanding of the license program options to best manage renewals and cloud deployments as well as to maximize legacy ROI.

Phase 1 insight

Contracts are typically overweighted with a discount at the expense of contractual T&Cs that can restrict license usage and expose you to unpleasant financial surprises and compliance risk.

Phase 1 insight

VMware has a large lead in being first to market and it realizes running dual virtualization stacks is complex, unwieldy, and expensive. To further complicate the issues, most skill sets in the industry are skewed toward VMware.

Phase 2 insight

VMware has purposefully reduced a focus on the actual license terms and conditions; most customers focus on the transactional purchase or the ELA document, but the rules governing usage are on a website and can be changed by VMware regularly.

Tactical insight

Beware of out-year pricing and ELA optimization reviews that may provide undesirable surprises and more spend than was planned.

Tactical insight

Negotiate desired terms and conditions at the start of the agreement, and prioritize which use rights may be more important than an additional discount percentage.

Blueprint deliverables

Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals:

VMware ELA Analysis Tool

VMware ELA RFQ Template Tool

VPP Transaction Purchase Tool

VMware ELA Analysis Tool

Use this tool as a template for an RFQ with VMware ELA contracts.

Use this tool to analyze cost breakdown and discount based on your volume purchasing program (VPP) level.

The image contains screenshots of the VMware ELA Analysis Tool. The image contains a screenshot of the VMware ELA RFQ template tool. The image contains a screenshot of the VPP Transaction Purchase Tool.

Key deliverable:

VMware Business as Usual SnS Renewal Only Tool

Use this tool to analyze discounts from a multi-year agreement vs. prepay. See how you can get the best discount.

The image contains screenshots of the VMware Business as Usual SnS Renewal Only Tool.

Blueprint Objectives

The aim of this blueprint is to provide a foundational understanding of VMware’s licensing agreement and best practices to manage them.

Why VMware

What to Know

The Future

VMware is the leader in OS virtualization, however, this is a saturated market, which is being pressured by public and hybrid cloud as a competitive force taking market share.

There are few viable alternatives to VMware for virtualization due to vendor lock-in of existing IT infrastructure footprint. It is too difficult and cost prohibitive to make a shift away from VMware even when alternative solutions are available.

ELAs are the preferred method of contracting as it sets the stage for a land-and-expand product strategy; once locked into the ELA model, customers must examine VMware alternatives with preference or risk having Support and Subscription Services (SnS) re-priced at retail.

VMware does not provide a great deal of publicly available information regarding its enterprise license agreement (ELA) options, leaving a knowledge gap that allows the sales team to steer the customer.

VMware is taking countermeasures against increasing competition.

Recent contract terms changed to eliminate perpetual caps on SnS renewals; they are now tied to a single year of discounted SnS, then they go to list price.

Migration of list pricing to a website versus contract, where pricing can now be changed, reducing discount percentage effectiveness.

Increased audits of customers, especially those electing to not renew an ELA.


Examining VMware’s vendor profile

Turbonomics conducted a vendor profile on major vendors, focusing on licensing and compliance. It illustrated the following results:

The image contains a pie graph to demonstrate that the majority of companies say yes to using license enterprise software from VMware.

The image contains a bar graph to demonstrate what license products organizations use of VMware products.

Source: Turbonomics
N-sample size

Case Study

The image contains a logo for ADP.

INDUSTRY: Finance

SOURCE: VMware.com

“We’ll have network engineers, storage engineers, computer engineers, database engineers, and systems engineers all working together as one intact team developing and delivering goals on specific outcomes.” – Vipul Nagrath, CIO, ADP

Improving developer capital management

Constant innovation helped ADP keep ahead of customer needs in the human resources space, but it also brought constant changes to the IT environment. Internally, the company found it was spending too long working on delivering the required infrastructure and system updates. IT staff wanted to improve velocity for refreshes to better match the needs of ADP developers and encourage continued development innovation.

Business needs

  • Improve turnaround time on infrastructure refreshes to better meet developer roadmaps.
  • Establish an IT culture that works at the global scale of ADP and empowers individual team members.
  • Streamline approach toward infrastructure resource delivery to reduce need for manual management.

Impact

  • Infrastructure resource delivery reduced from 100+ days to minutes, improving ADP developer efficiency.
  • VMware Cloud™ on AWS establishes seamless private and public cloud workflows, fostering agility and innovation.
  • Automating IT management redirects resources to R&D, boosting time to market for new services.

Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

DIY Toolkit

Guided Implementation

Workshop

Consulting

“Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.” “Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.” “We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.” “Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

Guided Implementation

What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

Call #1: Discuss scope requirements, objectives, and your specific challenges.

Call #2: Assess the current state.

Determine licensing position.

Call #3: Complete a deployment count, needs analysis, and internal audit.

Call #4: Review findings with analyst:

  • Review licensing options.
  • Review licensing rules.
  • Review contract option types.

Call #5: Select licensing option. Document forecasted costs and benefits.

Call #6: Review final contract:

  • Discuss negotiation points.
  • Plan a roadmap for SAM.

Call #7: Negotiate final contract. Evaluate and develop a roadmap for SAM.

A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

A typical GI is between 2 to 6 calls over the course of 1 to 2 months.

Phase # 1

Manage Your VMware Agreements

Phase 1

Phase 2

1.1 Establish licensing requirements

1.2 Evaluate licensing options

1.3 Evaluate agreement options

1.4 Purchase and manage licenses

2.1 Understand the VMware subscription model

2.2 Migrate workloads and licenses

2.3 Discuss the VMware sales approach

2.4 Manage SnS and cloud subscriptions

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

  • Understanding the VMware licensing model
  • Understanding the license agreement options
  • Understanding the VMware sales approach

This phase will take you thorough:

  • The new VMware subscription movement to the cloud
  • How to prepare and migrate
  • Manage your subscriptions efficiently

1.1 Establish licensing requirements

VMware has greatly improved the features of vSphere over time.

vSphere Main Editions Overview

  • vSphere Standard – Provides the basic features for server consolidation. A support and subscription contract (SnS) is mandatory when purchasing the vSphere Standard.
  • vSphere Enterprise Plus – Provides the full range of vSphere features. A support and subscription contract (SnS) is mandatory when purchasing the Enterprise Plus editions.
  • vSphere Essentials kit – The Essentials kit is an all-in-one solution for small environments with up to three hosts (2 CPUs on each host). Support is optional when purchasing the Essentials kit and is available on a per-incident basis.
  • vSphere Essentials Plus kit – This is similar to the Essentials kit and provides additional features such as vSphere vMotion, vSphere HA, and vSphere replication. A support and subscription contract (SnS) is sold separately, and a minimum of one year of SnS is required.

Review vSphere Edition Features

The image contains a screenshot to review the vSphere Edition Features.

Download the vSphere Edition 7 Features List

1.2 Evaluate licensing options

VMware agreement types

Review purchase options to align with your requirements.

Transactional VPP EPP ELA

Transactional

Entry-level volume license purchasing program

Mid-level purchasing program

Highest-level purchasing program

  • Purchasing in this model is not recommended for business purposes unless very infrequent and low quantities.
  • 250 points minimum
  • Four tiers of discounts
  • Rolling eight-quarter points accumulation period
  • Discounts on license only

Deal size of initial purchase typically is:

  • US$250K MSRP License + SnS (2,500 tokens)
  • Exceptions do exist with purchase volume

Minimum deal size of top-up purchase:

  • US$50K MSRP License + SnS (500 tokens)
  • Initial purchase determines token level
  • Three-year term

Minimum deal size of initial purchase:

  • US$150K-$250K
  • Discounted licenses and SnS through term of contract
  • Single volume license key
  • No final true-up
  • Global deployment rights and consolidation of multiple agreements

1.2.1 The Volume Purchasing Program (VPP)

This is the entry-level purchasing program aimed at small/mid-sized organizations.

How the program works

  • The threshold to be able to purchase from the VPP program is 250 points minimum, equivalent to $25,000.
  • Discounts attained can only be applied to license purchases. They do not apply to service and support/renewals. Discounts range from 4% to 12%.
  • For the large majority of products 1 VPP point = ~$100.
    • Point values will be the same globally.
    • Point ratios may vary over time as SKUs are changed.
    • Points are valid for two years.

Benefits

  • Budget predictability for two years.
  • Simple license purchase process.
  • Receive points on qualifying purchases that accumulate over a rolling eight-quarter period.
  • Online portal for tracking purchases and eligible discounts.
  • Global program where affiliates can purchase from existing contract.

VPP Point & Discount Table

Level

Point Range

Discount

1

250-599

4%

2

600-999

6%

3

1,000-1,749

9%

4

1,750+

12%

Source: VMware Volume Purchasing Program

1.2.2 Activity VPP Transactional Purchase Tool

1-3 hours

Instructions:

  1. Use the tool to analyze the cost breakdown and discount based on your Volume Purchasing Program level.
  2. On tab 1, Enter SnS install base renewal units and or new license details.
  3. Review tab 2 for Purchase summary.

The image contains a screenshot of the VPP Transactional Purchase Tool.

Input Output
  • SnS renewal details
  • New license requirements and pricing
  • Transaction purchase summary
  • Estimated VPP purchase level
Materials Participants
  • Current VMware purchase orders
  • Any SnS renewal requirements
  • Transaction Purchase Tool
  • Procurement
  • Vendor Management
  • Licensing Admin

Download the VPP Transactional Purchase Tool

1.3 Evaluate agreement options

Introduction to EPP and ELA

What to know when using a token/credit-based agreement.

Token/credit-based agreements carry high risk as customers are purchasing a set number of tokens/credits to be redeemed during the ELA term for licenses.

  • Tokens/credits that are not used during the ELA term expire and become worthless.
  • By default in most agreements (negotiation dependent), tokens/credits are tied to pricing maintained by VMware on its website that is subject to change (increase usually), resulting in a reduced value for the tokens/credits.
    • Therefore, it is necessary to negotiate to have current list prices for all products/versions included in the ELA to prevent price increases while in the current ELA term.
  • Token-based agreements may come with a lower overall discount level as VMware is granting more flexibility in terms of the wider product selection offered, vendor cost of overhead to manage the redemption program, currency exchange risks, and more complex revenue recognition headaches.

1.3.1 The Enterprise Purchasing Program (EPP)

This is aimed at mid-tier customers looking for flexibility with deeper discounting.

How the program works

  • Token-based program in which tokens are redeemed for licenses and/or SnS.
    • Tokens can be added at any time to active fund.
    • Token usage is automatically tracked and reported.
  • Minimum order of 2,500 tokens, equivalent to $250,000 (1 token=$100).
    • Exceptions have been made, allowing for lower minimum spends.
  • Restricted to specific regions, not a global agreement.
  • Self-service portal for access to license keys and support entitlements.
  • Deeper discounting than the VMware Volume Purchase Program.
  • EPP initial purchase gets VPP L4 for four years.

Benefits

  • Able to mix and match VMware products, manage licenses, and adjust deployment strategy.
  • Prices are protected for term of the EPP agreement.
  • Number of tokens needed to obtain a product or SnS are negotiated at the start of the contract and fixed for the term.
  • SnS is co-termed to the EPP term.
  • Ability to purchase new products that become available at a future date and are listed on the EPP Eligibility Matrix.

EPP Level & Point Table

Level

Point Range

7

2,500-3,499

8

3,500-4,499

9

4,500-5,999

10

6,000+

Source: VMware Volume Purchasing Program

1.3.2 The ELA is aimed at large global organizations, offering the deepest discounts with operational benefits and flexibility

What is an ELA?

  • The ELA agreement provides the best vehicle for global enterprises to obtain maximum discounts and price-hold protection for a set period of time. Discounts and price holds are removed once an ELA has expired.
  • The ELA minimum spend previously was $500,000. Purchase volume now generally starts at $250K total spend with exceptions and, depending on VMware, it may be possible to attain for $150K in net-new license spend.

Key things to know

  • Customers pay up front for license and SnS rights, but depending on the deployment plans, the value of the licenses is not realized and/or recognized for up to two years after point of purchase.
  • License and SnS is paid up front for a three-year period in most ELAs, although a one- or two-year term can be negotiated.
  • Licenses not deployed in year one should be discounted in value and drive a re-evaluation of the ELA ROI, as even heavily discounted licenses that are not used until year three may not be such a great deal in retrospect.
    • Use a time value of money calculation to arrive at a realistic ROI.
    • Partner with Finance and Accounting to ensure the ROI also clears any Internal Hurdle Rate (IHR).
    • Share and strategically position your IHR with VMware and resellers to ensure they understand the minimum value an ELA deal must bring to the table.
  • Organizational changes, such as merger, acquisition, and divestiture (MAD) activities, may result in the customer paying for license rights that can no longer be used and/or require a renegotiated ELA.

Info-Tech Insight

If a legacy ELA exists that has “deploy or lose” language, engage VMware to recapture any lost license rights as VMware has changed this language effective with 2016 agreements and there is an “appeals” process for affected customers.

1.3.3 Select the best ELA variant to match your specific demand profile and financial needs

The advantages of an ELA are:

  • Maximum discount level + price protection
  • SnS discounted at % of net license fee
  • Sole option for global use territory rights

General disadvantages are:

  • Term lock-in with SnS for three years
  • Pay up front and if defer usage, ROI drops
  • Territory rights priced at a premium versus domestic use rights

Type of ELAs

ELA Type

Description

Pros and Cons

Capped (max quantities)

Used to purchase a specific quantity and type of license.

Pro – Clarity on what will be purchased

Pro – Lower risk of over licensing

Con – Requires accurate forecasting

All you can eat or unlimited

Used to purchase access to specified products that can be deployed in unlimited quantities during the ELA term.

Pro – Acquire large quantity of licenses

Pro – Accurate forecasting not critical

Con – Deployment can easily exceed forecast, leading to high renewal costs

Burn-down

A form of capped ELA purchase that uses prepaid tokens that can be used more flexibly to acquire a variety of licenses or services. This can include the hybrid purchasing program (HPP) credits. However, the percentage redeemable for VMware subscription services may be limited to 10% of the MSRP value of the HPP credit.

Pro – Accurate demand forecast not critical

Pro – Can be used for products and services

Con – Unused tokens or credits are forfeited

True-up

Allows for additional purchases during the ELA term on a determined schedule based on the established ELA pricing.

Pro – Consumption payments matched after initial purchase

Pro – Accurate demand forecast not critical

Con – Potentially requires transaction throughout term

1.4 Purchase and manage licenses

Negotiating ELA terms and conditions

Editable copies of VMware’s license and governance documentation are a requirement to initiate the dialogue and negotiation process over T&Cs.

VMware’s licensing is complex and although documentation is publicly available, it is often hidden on VMware’s website.

Many VMware customers often overlook reviewing the license T&Cs, leaving them open to compliance risks.

It is imperative for customers to understand:

  • Product definition for licensing of each acquired product
  • Products included by bundle
  • Use restrictions:
    • The VMware Product Guide, which includes information about:
      • ELA Order Forms, Amendments, Exhibits, EULA, Support T&Cs, and other policies that add dozens of pages to a contractual agreement.
      • All of these documents are web based and can change monthly; URL links in the contract do not take the user to the actual document but a landing page from which customers must find the applicable documents.
    • Obtain copies of ALL current documents at the time of your order and keep as a reference in the CLM and SAM systems.

Build in time to obtain, review, and negotiate these documents (easily weeks to months).

1.4.1 Negotiating ELA terms and conditions specifics

License and Deployment

  • Review perpetual use rights for all licenses purchased under the ELA (exception being subscription services).
  • Carefully scrutinize contract language for clearly defined deployment rights.
    • Some agreements contain language that terminates the use rights for licenses not deployed by the end of the ELA term.
  • While older contracts would frequently contain clearly defined token values and product prices for the ELA term, VMware has moved away from this process and now refers to URL links for current MSRP pricing.

Use Rights

  • The customer’s legal entities and territories listed in the contract are hard limits on the license usage via the VMware Product Guide definitions. Global use rights are not a standard license grant with VMware license agreement by default. Global rights are usually tied to an ELA.
  • VMware audits most aggressively against violations of territory use rights and will use the non-compliance events to resolve the issue via a commercial transaction.
    • Negotiate for assignment rights with no strings attached in terms of fees or multi-party consent by future affiliates or successors to a surviving entity.
  • Extraordinary Corporate Transaction clause: VMware’s standard language prevents customers from using licenses within the ELA for any third party that becomes part of customer’s business by way of acquisition, merger, consolidation, change of control, reorganization, or other similar transaction.
    • Request VMware to drop this language.
  • Include any required language pertaining to MAD events as default language will not allow for transfer or assignment of license rights.

Checklist of necessary information to negotiate the best deal

Product details that go beyond the sales pitch

  • Product family
  • Unique product SKU for license renewal
  • Part description
  • Current regional or global price list
  • One and three-year proposal for SnS renewals including new license and SnS detail
  • SnS term dates
  • Discount or offered prices for all line items (global pricing is generally ~20% higher than US pricing)

Different support levels (e.g. basic, enterprise, per incident)

  • Standard pricing:
    • Basic Support = 21% of current list price (12x5)
    • Production Support = 25% of current list price (24x7 for severity 1 issues) – defined in VMware Support and Subscription Services T&Cs; non-severity 1 issues are 12x5

Details to ensure the product being purchased matches the business needs

  • Realizing after the fact the product is insufficient with respect to functional requirements or that extra spend is required can be frustrating and extend expected timelines

SnS renewals pricing is based on the (1) year SnS list price

  • This can be bundled for a multi-year discounted SnS rate (can result in 12%+ under VPP)

Governing agreements, VPP program details

  • Have a printed copy of documents that are URL links, which VMware can change, allowing for surprises or unexpected changes in rules

1.4.2 Activity VMware ELA Analysis Tool

2-4 hours

Instructions:

  1. As a group, review the various RFQ responses. Identify top three proposals and start to enter proposal details into the VPP Prepay or ELA tabs of the analysis tool.
  2. Review savings in the ELA Offer Analysis tab.

The image contains screenshots of the VMware ELA Analysis Tool.

Input Output
  • RFQ requirements data
  • RFQ response data
  • Analysis of ELA proposals
  • ELA savings analysis
Materials Participants
  • RFQ response documents
  • ELA Analysis Tool
  • IT Leadership
  • Procurement
  • Vendor Management

Download the VMware ELA Analysis Tool

1.4.3 Negotiating ELA terms and conditions specifics: pricing, renewal, and exit

VMware does not offer price protection on future license consumption by default.

Securing “out years” pricing for SnS or the cost of SnS is critical or it will default to a set percentage (25%) of MSRP, removing the ELA discount.

Typically, the out year is one year; maximum is two years.

Negotiate the “go forward” SnS pricing post-ELA term as part of the ELA negotiations when you have some leverage.

Default after (1) out year is to rise to 25% of current MSRP versus as low as 20% of net license price within the ELA.

Carefully incorporate the desired installed-base licenses that were acquired pre-ELA into the agreement, but ensure unwanted licenses are removed.

Ancillary but binding support policies, online terms and conditions, and other hyperlinked documentation should be negotiated and incorporated as part of the agreement whenever possible.

1.4.4 Find the best reseller partner

Seek out a qualified VMware partner that will work with you and with your interest as a priority:

  1. Resellers, at minimum, should have achieved an enterprise-level rating, as these partners can offer the deepest discounts and have more clout with VMware.
  2. Select your reseller prior to engaging in any RFX acquisition steps. Verify they are enterprise level or higher AND secure their written commitment to maximum pass-through of the discounting provided to them by VMware.
  3. Document and prioritize key T&Cs for your ELA and submit to your sales team along with a requirement and timeline for their formal response. Essentially, this escalates outside of the VMware process and disrupts the status quo. Ideally this will occur in advance of being presented a contract by VMware and be pre-emptive in nature.
  4. If applicable and of benefit or a high priority, seek out a reseller that is willing to finance the VMware upfront payment cost at a low or no interest rate.
  5. It will be important to have ELA-level deals escalated to higher levels of authority to obtain “best in class” discount levels, above and beyond those prescribed in the VMware sales playbook.
  6. VMware’s standard process is to “route” customers through a pre-defined channel and “deal desk” process. Preferred pricing of up to an additional 10% discount is reserved for the first reseller that registers the deal with VMware, with larger discounts reserved for the Enterprise and Premium partners. Additional discounts can be earned if the deal closes within specified time periods (First Deal Registration).

1.4.5 Activity VMware ELA RFQ Template

1-3 hours

Use this tool for as a template for an RFQ with VMware ELA contracts.

  1. For SnS renewals that contain no new licenses, state that the requirement for award consideration is the provisioning of all details for each itemized SnS renewal product code corresponding to all the licenses of your installed base. The details for the renewals are to be placed in Section 1 of the template.
  2. SnS Renewal Options: Info-Tech recommends that you ask for one- and three-year SnS renewal proposals, assuming these terms are realistic for your business requirements. Then compare your SnS BAU costs for these two options against ELA offers to determine the best choice for your renewal.

The image contains a screenshot of the VMware ELA RFQ Template.

Input Output
  • Renewing SnS data
  • Agreement type options
  • Detailed list of required licenses
  • Summary list of SnS requirements
Materials Participants
  • RFQ Template
  • SnS renewal summary
  • New license/subscription details
  • IT Leadership
  • Vendor Management
  • Procurement

Download the VMware ELA RFQ Template

1.4.6 Consider your path forward

Consider your route forward as contract commitments, license compliance, and terms and conditions differ in structure to perpetual models previously used.

  • Are you able to accurately discover VMware licensing within your environment?
  • Is licensing managed for compliance? Are internal audits conducted so you have accurate results?
  • Have the product use rights been examined for terms and conditions such as geographic rights? Some T&Cs may change over time due to hyperlinked references within commercial documents.
  • How are Oracle and SQL being used within your VMware environment? This may affect license compliance with Oracle and Microsoft in virtualized environments.
  • Prepare for the Subscription model; it’s here now and will be the lead discussion with all VMware reps going forward.

Shift to Subscription

  1. With the $64bn takeover by Broadcom, there will be a significant shift and pressure to the subscription model.
  2. Broadcom has significant growth targets for its VMware acquisition that can only be achieved through a strong press to a SaaS model.

Info-Tech Insight

VMware has a license cost calculator and additional licensing documents that can be used to help determine what spend should be.

Phase # 2

Transition to the VMware Cloud

Phase 1

Phase 2

1.1 Establish licensing requirements

1.2 Evaluate licensing options

1.3 Evaluate agreement options

1.4 Purchase and manage licenses

2.1 Understand the VMware subscription model

2.2 Migrate workloads and licenses

2.3 Discuss the VMware sales approach

2.4 Manage SnS and cloud subscriptions

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

  • Understand the VMware licensing model
  • Understand the license agreement options
  • Understand the VMware sales approach

This phase will take you thorough:

  • The new VMware subscription movement to the cloud
  • How to prepare and migrate
  • Manage your subscriptions efficiently

2.1 Understand the VMware subscription model

VMware Cloud Universal

  • VMware Cloud Universal unifies compute, network, and storage capabilities across infrastructures, management, and applications.
  • Take advantage of financial and cloud management flexibility by combining on-premises and SaaS capabilities for automation, operations, log analytics, and network visibility across your infrastructure.
  • Capitalize on VMware knowledge by integrating proven migration methods and plans across your transformation journey such as consumption strategies, business outcome workshops, and more.
  • Determine your eligibility to earn a one-time discount with this exclusive benefit designed to offset the value of your current unamortized VMware on-premises license investments and then reallocate toward your multi-cloud initiatives.

2.2 Migrate workloads and licenses to the cloud

There are several cloud migration options and solutions to consider.

  • VMware Cloud offers solutions that can provide a low-cost path to the cloud that will help accelerate modernization.
  • There are also many third-party solution providers who can be engaged to migrate workloads and other infrastructure to VMware Cloud and into other public cloud providers.
  • VMware Cloud can be deployed on many IaaS providers such as AWS, Azure, Google, Dell, and IBM.

VMware Cloud Assist

  1. Leverage all available transition funding opportunities and any IaaS migration incentives from VMware.
  2. Learn and understand the value and capabilities of VMware vRealize Cloud Universal to help you transition and manage hybrid infrastructure.

2.2.1 Manage your VMware cloud subscriptions

Use VMware vRealize to manage private, public, and local environments.

Combine SaaS and on-premises capabilities for automation, operations, log analytics, network visibility, security, and compliance into one license.

The image contains a screenshot of a diagram to demonstrate VMware cloud subscriptions.

2.3 The VMware sales approach

Understand the pitch before entering the discussion

  1. VMware will present a PowerPoint presentation proposal comparing a Business-as-Usual (BAU) scenario versus the ELA model.
  2. Critical factors to consider if considering the proposed ELA are growth rate projections, deployment schedule, cost of non-ELA products/options, shelf-ware, and non-ELA discounts (e.g. VPP, multi-year, or pre-paid).
  3. Involving VMware’s direct account team along with your reseller in the negotiations can be beneficial. Keep in mind that VMware ultimately decides on the final price in terms of the discount that is passed through. Ensure you have a clear line of sight into how pricing is determined.
  4. Explore reseller incentives and promotional programs that may provide for deeper than normal discount opportunities.

INFO-TECH TIP: Create your own assumptions as inputs into the BAU model and then evaluate the ELA value proposition instead of depending on VMware’s model.

2.4 Manage SnS and cloud subscriptions

The new subscription model is making SnS renewal more complex.

  • Start renewal planning four to six months prior to anniversary.
  • Work closely with your reseller on your SnS renewal options.
  • Request “as is” versus subscription renewal proposal from reseller or VMware with a “savings” component.
  • Consider and review multi-year versus annual renewal; savings will differ.
  • For the Subscription transition renewal model, ensure that credits for legacy licensing is provided.
  • Negotiate cloud transition investments and incentives from VMware.

What information to collect and how to analyze it

  • Negotiating toward preferred terms on SnS is critical, more so than when new license purchases are made, as approximately 75-80% of server virtualization are at x86 workloads, where maintenance revenue is a larger source of revenue for VMware than new license sales.
  • All relevant license and SnS details must be obtained from VMware to include Product Family, Part Description, Product Code (SKU), Regional/Global List Price, SnS Term Dates, and Discount Price for all new licenses.
  • VMware has all costs tied to the US dollar; you must calculate currency conversion into ROI models as VMware does not adjust token values of products across geographies or currency of purchase. The token to dollar value by product SKU is locked for the three-year term. This translates into a variable cost model depending on how local currency fluctuates against the US dollar; time the initial purchase to take this into consideration, if applicable.
  • Products purchased based on MSRP price with each token contains a value of US$100. Under the Hybrid Purchasing Program (HPP) credit values and associated buying power will fluctuate over the term as VMware reserves the right to adjust current list prices. Consider locking in a set product list and pricing versus HPP.
  • Take a structured approach to discover true discounts via the use of a tailored RFQ template and options model to compare and contrast VMware ELA proposals.

Use Info-Tech Research Group’s customized RFQ template to discover true discount levels and model various purchase options for VMware ELA proposals.

The image contains a screenshot of the VMware RFQ Template Tool.

Summary of accomplishment

Knowledge Gained

  • The key pieces of licensing information that should be gathered about the current state of your own organization.
  • An in-depth understanding of the required licenses across all of your products.
  • Clear methodology for selecting the most effective contract type.
  • Development of measurable, relevant metrics to help track future project success and identify areas of strength and weakness within your licensing program.

Processes Optimized

  • Senior leaders in IT now have a clear understanding of the importance of licensing in relation to business objectives.
  • Understanding of the various licensing considerations that need to be made.
  • Contract negotiation.

Related Info-Tech Research

Prepare for Negotiations More Effectively

  • IT budgets are increasing, but many CIOs feel their budgets are inadequate to accomplish what is being asked of them.
  • Eighty percent of organizations don’t have a mature, repeatable, scalable negotiation process.
  • Training dollars on negotiations are often wasted or ineffective.

Price Benchmarking & Negotiation

You need to achieve an objective assessment of vendor pricing in your IT contracts, but you have limited knowledge about:

  • Current price benchmarking on the vendor.
  • Pricing and negotiation intelligence.
  • How to secure a market-competitive price.
  • Vendor pricing tiers, models, and negotiation tactics.

VMware vRealize Cloud Management

VMware vCloud Suite is an integrated offering that brings together VMware’s industry-leading vSphere hypervisor and VMware vRealize Suite multi-vendor hybrid cloud management platform. VMware’s new portable licensing units allow vCloud Suite to build and manage both vSphere-based private clouds and multi-vendor hybrid clouds.

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  • Parent Category Link: /business-continuity
  • The pay-per-use pricing structure of cloud services make it a cheaper DR option, but there are gotchas you need to avoid, ranging from unexpected licensing costs to potential security vulnerabilities.
  • You likely started on the path to cloud DR with consideration of cloud storage for offsite retention of backups. Systems recovery in the cloud can be a real value-add to using cloud as a backup target.
  • Your cloud-based DR environment has to be secure and compliant, but performance also has to be “good enough” to operate the business.
  • Location still matters, and selecting the DR site that optimizes latency tolerance and geo-redundancy can be difficult.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • Keep your systems dormant until disaster strikes. Prepare as much of your environment as possible without tapping into compute resources. Enjoy the low at-rest costs, and leverage the reliability of the cloud in your failover.
  • Avoid failure on the failback! Bringing up your systems in the cloud is a great temporary solution, but an expensive long-term strategy. Make sure you have a plan to get back on premises.
  • Leverage cloud DR as a start for cloud migration. Cloud DR provides a gateway for broader infrastructure lift and shift to cloud IaaS, but this should only be the first phase of a longer-term roadmap that ends in multi-service hybrid cloud.

Impact and Result

  • Calculate the cost of your DR solution with a cloud vendor. Test your systems often to build out more accurate budgets and to define failover and failback action plans to increase confidence in your capabilities.
  • Define “good enough” performance by consulting with the business and setting correct expectations for the recovery state.
  • Dig deeper into the various flavors of cloud-based DR beyond backup and restore, including pilot light, warm standby, and multi-site recovery. Each of these has unique benefits and challenges when done in the cloud.

10 Secrets for Successful Disaster Recovery in the Cloud Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out the 10 secrets for success in cloud-based DR deployment, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

[infographic]

Build a Software Quality Assurance Program

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  • Parent Category Name: Testing, Deployment & QA
  • Parent Category Link: /testing-deployment-and-qa
  • Today’s rapidly scaling and increasingly complex products create mounting pressure on delivery teams to release new systems and changes quickly and with sufficient quality.
  • Many organizations lack the critical capabilities and resources needed to satisfy their growing testing backlog, risking product success.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • Testing is often viewed as a support capability rather than an enabler of business growth. It receives focus and investment only when it becomes a visible problem.
  • The rise in security risks, aggressive performance standards, constantly evolving priorities, and misunderstood quality policies further complicate QA as it drives higher expectations for effective practices.
  • QA starts with good requirements. Tests are only as valuable as the requirements they are validating and verifying. Early QA improves the accuracy of downstream tests and reduces costs of fixing defects late in delivery.
  • Quality is an organization-wide accountability. Upstream work can have extensive ramifications if all roles are not accountable for the decisions they make.
  • Quality must account for both business and technical requirements. Valuable change delivery is cemented in a clear understanding of quality from both business and IT perspectives.

Impact and Result

  • Standardize your definition of a product. Come to an organizational agreement of what attributes define a high-quality product. Accommodate both business and IT perspectives in your definition.
  • Clarify the role of QA throughout your delivery pipeline. Indicate where and how QA is involved throughout product delivery. Instill quality-first thinking in each stage of your pipeline to catch defects and issues early.
  • Structure your test design, planning, execution, and communication practices to better support your quality definition and business and IT environments and priorities. Adopt QA good practices to ensure your tests satisfy your criteria for a high-quality and successful product.

Build a Software Quality Assurance Program Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should build a strong foundation for quality, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

1. Define your QA process

Standardize your product quality definition and your QA roles, processes, and guidelines according to your business and IT priorities.

  • Build a Strong Foundation for Quality – Phase 1: Define Your QA Process
  • Test Strategy Template

2. Adopt QA good practices

Build a solid set of good practices to define your defect tolerances, recognize the appropriate test coverage, and communicate your test results.

  • Build a Strong Foundation for Quality – Phase 2: Adopt QA Good Practices
  • Test Plan Template
  • Test Case Template
[infographic]

Workshop: Build a Software Quality Assurance Program

Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

1 Define Your QA Process

The Purpose

Discuss your quality definition and how quality is interpreted from both business and IT perspectives.

Review your case for strengthening your QA practice.

Review the standardization of QA roles, processes, and guidelines in your organization.

Key Benefits Achieved

Grounded understanding of quality that is accepted across IT and between the business and IT.

Clear QA roles and responsibilities.

A repeatable QA process that is applicable across the delivery pipeline.

Activities

1.1 List your QA objectives and metrics.

1.2 Adopt your foundational QA process.

Outputs

Quality definition and QA objectives and metrics.

QA guiding principles, process, and roles and responsibilities.

2 Adopt QA Good Practices

The Purpose

Discuss the practices to reveal the sufficient degree of test coverage to meet your acceptance criteria, defect tolerance, and quality definition.

Review the technologies and tools to support the execution and reporting of your tests.

Key Benefits Achieved

QA practices aligned to industry good practices supporting your quality definition.

Defect tolerance and acceptance criteria defined against stakeholder priorities.

Identification of test scenarios to meet test coverage expectations.

Activities

2.1 Define your defect tolerance.

2.2 Model and prioritize your tests.

2.3 Develop and execute your QA activities.

2.4 Communicate your QA activities.

Outputs

Defect tolerance levels and courses of action.

List of test cases and scenarios that meet test coverage expectations.

Defined test types, environment and data requirements, and testing toolchain.

Test dashboard and communication flow.

The Rush Trap: Why "Move Fast and Break Things" Breaks Your Business

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Most business leaders think that the best way to beat the competition is to push their development teams harder and demand faster delivery. I've seen the opposite happen many times.

When you prioritize "shipping fast" and "getting to market first," you often end up taking the longest time to succeed, because your team must spend months, sometimes years, addressing the problems caused by your haste. On the surface, things appear to be improving, but internally, they can feel overwhelming. You will notice this impact on your staff.

This is the harsh truth about rushing IT development:

Every Shortcut Creates Two New Problems

Here's what really happens in the codebase when you tell your team to "just get it done fast": you don't do proper input validation and sanitization because you say, "We'll add that later." And then you have to deal with SQL injection attacks and data breaches for months. This wasted time could have been avoided by using simple parameterized queries and validation frameworks.

In 2024, the average cost of a data breach was $4.88 million. 73% of these breaches require more than 200 days to resolve. You only code for the happy flow, but real users submit incorrect data, experience network timeouts, and encounter failures with third-party APIs. 

Your app crashes more than it should because you didn't set up proper error handling, or circuit breakers, or graceful degradation patterns. I know these take time to implement, but what would you rather have? Customers abandoning it?

Businesses lose an average of $5,600 per minute when their systems go down, and e-commerce sites can lose up to $300,000 per hour during busy times. Instead of fixing the root causes of problems, you just patch them up with quick fixes. Instead of proper garbage collection, that memory leak gets a band-aid restart script. Instead of being optimized, the slow database query is cached.

Soon, you will find yourself struggling to keep your building intact.

To keep up with technical debt, companies usually have to spend 23–42% of their total IT budget each year.

You don't do full testing because "writing unit tests takes longer than manual testing." This approach does not include load testing, test-driven development, or integration testing. Your first real test is when you have paying customers in production. Companies that don't test their software properly have 60% more bugs in their products and spend 40% more time fixing them than companies that do.

You start without being able to properly monitor and see what's going on. There are no logging frameworks, no application performance monitoring, and no health checks in place. When things go wrong—and they will—it's difficult to figure out what's amiss. Without proper monitoring, it takes an average of 4.5 hours to find and fix IT problems. With full observability tools, it only takes 45 minutes.

It's easy to see that every shortcut you take today will cause two new problems tomorrow. Each of those problems makes two more. You're going to be in a lot of trouble with technical debt, security holes, and unstable systems soon. All because you were in a hurry to meet some random deadline.

The true cost of rushing in those "move fast and break things" success stories is often overlooked. You don't guarantee a quick time to market when you rush code to market. You're just making sure that failure to market happens quickly. Remember that most Silicon Valley break-movers lose millions, but you never read about those; you only read about the 1 in 350 VC-backed companies that make it. That is a staggering 0.29%. I would not bet on that strategy just yet.

Because code that is rushed doesn't just break once. It breaks all the time. In production. This issue arises when dealing with real customers. At the worst times. Your developers are putting out fires instead of adding new features. Instead of adding the features that the customer asked for, they're fixing race conditions at 2 AM. They're patching vulnerabilities in dependencies rather than creating the next version.

According to research, developers in environments with a lot of technical debt spend 42% of their time on maintenance and bug fixes, while those in well-architected systems spend only 23% of their time on these tasks. Bad code drives up your infrastructure costs by requiring more servers to handle the same load. Your database runs slower because no one took the time to make the right indexes or make the queries run faster. Unoptimized applications typically require 3 to 5 times more infrastructure resources, directly impacting your cloud computing and operational costs.

The costs of getting new customers go up because products that are rushed have higher churn rates. People stop using apps that crash a lot or don't work well. For example, 53% of mobile users will stop using an app if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. It costs 5 to 25 times more to get a new customer than to keep an old one.

In the meantime, what about your competitor who took an extra month to set up proper error handling, security controls, and performance optimization? They're growing smoothly while you're still working on the base.

The Slow Way Is the Quick Way

Let me tell you a myth that is costing you millions: The race isn't about speed unless you're in a real winner-take-all market with huge network effects. It's about lasting.

There is usually room for more than one winner in most markets. Your real job isn't to be the first to market; it's to still be there when the "fast movers" fail because they owe too much money. The businesses that are the biggest in their markets aren't usually the first ones there. They are the ones who took the time to use excellent software engineering practices from the start. They used well-known security frameworks like the OWASP guidelines to make their systems safe, set up the right authentication and authorization patterns, and made sure their APIs were designed with security and resilience in mind from the start.

Companies that have good security practices have 76% fewer security incidents and save an average of $1.76 million for every breach they avoid. They wrote code for failure scenarios using patterns like retry logic with exponential backoff, circuit breakers to stop failures from spreading, and bulkhead isolation to keep problems from spreading.

They set up full logging and monitoring so they could find problems before customers did. Systems that are built well and have the right resilience patterns are up 99.9% of the time, while systems that are built quickly are up 95% to 98% of the time. While you may believe that 95% to 98% uptime is an acceptable figure to agree to, take a moment to consider what that actually translates to in terms of downtime for your availability metrics. Remember that you should only calculate the times you really want to be available. This is due to the fact that any unavailability during your downtime is not taken into account. But failures do not take your opening hours into consideration. 

Successful companies used domain-driven design to get the business requirements right, made complete API documentation, and built automated testing suites that found regressions before deployment. Companies that do a lot of testing deliver features 2.5 times faster and with 50% fewer bugs after deployment.

They made sure that their environments were always the same by using infrastructure as code, setting up the right CI/CD pipelines with automated security scanning and regression testing, and planning for horizontal scaling from the start.

Companies that have mature DevOps practices deploy 208 times more often and have lead times that are 106 times faster, all while being more reliable.

What This Means for Your Process of Development

The truth is that your development schedule isn't about meeting deadlines. The purpose is to create systems that function effectively when real people use them in real-life situations with actual data and at a large scale. If your code crashes under load because you didn't use the right caching strategies or database connection pooling, it doesn't matter how fast it is to market.

If you neglect to conduct security code reviews and utilize static analysis tools, the likelihood of hacking increases significantly.

Think about the return on investment: putting in an extra 20–30% up front for the right architecture, security, and testing usually cuts the total cost of ownership by 60–80% over the life of the application.

The first "delay" of 2 to 4 weeks for proper engineering practices saves 6 to 12 months of fixing technical debt later on.

You have a simple choice: either take the time to follow excellent software engineering practices now, or spend the next two years telling customers why your system is down again while your competitors take your market share. The companies that last and eventually take over choose quality engineering over random speed. I leave it up to your imagination as to what multi-trillion-dollar company immediately comes to mind.

I am always up for a conversation.

Maintain an Organized Portfolio

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  • Parent Category Name: Portfolio Management
  • Parent Category Link: /portfolio-management
  • All too often, the portfolio of programs and projects looks more like a random heap than a strategically organized and balanced collection of investments that will drive the business forward.
  • Portfolio managers know that with the right kind of information and the right level of process maturity they can get better results through the portfolio; however, organizations often assume (falsely) that the required level of maturity is out of reach from their current state and perpetually delay improvements.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • The information needed to define clear and usable criteria for organizing the portfolio of programs and projects already exists. Portfolio managers only need to identify the sources of that information and institute processes for regularly reviewing that information in order to define those criteria.
  • Once a portfolio manager has a clear idea of the goals and constraints that shape what ought to be included (or removed) from the portfolio and once these have been translated into clear and usable portfolio criteria, basic portfolio management processes can be instituted to ensure that these criteria are used consistently throughout the various stages of the project lifecycle.
  • Portfolio management frameworks and processes do not need to be built from scratch. Well-known frameworks – such as the one outlined in COBIT 5 APO05 – can be instituted in a way that will allow even low-maturity organizations to start organizing their portfolio.
  • Organizations do not need to grow into portfolio management frameworks to get the benefits of an organized portfolio; instead, they can grow within such frameworks.

Impact and Result

  • An organized portfolio will ensure that the projects and programs included in it are strategically aligned and can actually be executed within the finite constraints of budgetary and human resource capacity.
  • Portfolio managers are better empowered to make decisions about which projects should be included in the portfolio (and when) and are better empowered to make the very tough decisions about which projects should be removed from the portfolio (i.e. cancelled).
  • Building and maturing a portfolio management framework will more fully integrate the PMO into the broader IT management and governance frameworks, making it a more integral part of strategic decisions and a better business partner in the long run.

Maintain an Organized Portfolio Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should maintain an organized portfolio of programs and projects, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

1. Assess the current state of the portfolio and PPM processes

Analyze the current mix of programs and projects in your portfolio and assess the maturity of your current PPM processes.

  • Maintain an Organized Portfolio – Phase 1: Assess the Current State of the Portfolio and PPM Processes
  • Project Portfolio Organizer
  • COBIT APO05 (Manage Portfolio) Alignment Workbook

2. Enhance portfolio organization through improved PPM criteria and processes

Enhance and optimize your portfolio management processes to ensure portfolio criteria are clearly defined and consistently applied across the project lifecycle when making decisions about which projects to include or remove from the portfolio.

  • Maintain an Organized Portfolio – Phase 2: Enhance Portfolio Organization Through Improved PPM Criteria and Processes
  • Portfolio Management Standard Operating Procedures

3. Implement improved portfolio management practices

Implement your portfolio management improvement initiatives to ensure long-term sustainable adoption of new PPM practices.

  • Maintain an Organized Portfolio – Phase 3: Implement Improved Portfolio Management Practices
  • Portfolio Management Improvement Roadmap Tool
[infographic]

Workshop: Maintain an Organized Portfolio

Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

1 Assess Portfolio Mix and Portfolio Process Current State

The Purpose

Analyze the current mix of the portfolio to determine how to better organize it according to organizational goals and constraints.

Assess which PPM processes need to be enhanced to better organize the portfolio.

Key Benefits Achieved

An analysis of the existing portfolio of projects (highlighting areas of concern).

An analysis of the maturity of current PPM processes and their ability to support the maintenance of an organized portfolio.

Activities

1.1 Pre-work: Prepare a complete project list.

1.2 Define existing portfolio categories, criteria, and targets.

1.3 Analyze the current portfolio mix.

1.4 Identify areas of concern with current portfolio mix.

1.5 Review the six COBIT sub-processes for portfolio management (APO05.01-06).

1.6 Assess the degree to which these sub-processes have been currently achieved at the organization.

1.7 Assess the degree to which portfolio-supporting IT governance and management processes exist.

1.8 Perform a gap analysis.

Outputs

Analysis of the current portfolio mix

Assessment of COBIT alignment and gap analysis.

2 Define Portfolio Target Mix, Criteria, and Roadmap

The Purpose

Define clear and usable portfolio criteria.

Record/design portfolio management processes that will support the consistent use of portfolio criteria at all stages of the project lifecycle.

Key Benefits Achieved

Clearly defined and usable portfolio criteria.

A portfolio management framework that supports the consistent use of the portfolio criteria across all stages of the project lifecycle.

Activities

2.1 Identify determinants of the portfolio mix, criteria, and constraints.

2.2 Define the target mix, portfolio criteria, and portfolio metrics.

2.3 Identify sources of funding and resourcing.

2.4 Review and record the portfolio criteria based upon the goals and constraints.

2.5 Create a PPM improvement roadmap.

Outputs

Portfolio criteria

Portfolio metrics for intake, monitoring, closure, termination, reprioritization, and benefits tracking

Portfolio Management Improvement Roadmap

3 Design Improved Portfolio Sub-Processes

The Purpose

Ensure that the portfolio criteria are used to guide decision making at each stage of the project lifecycle when making decisions about which projects to include or remove from the portfolio.

Key Benefits Achieved

Processes that support decision making based upon the portfolio criteria.

Processes that ensure the portfolio remains consistently organized according to the portfolio criteria.

Activities

3.1 Ensure that the metrics used for each sub-process are based upon the standard portfolio criteria.

3.2 Establish the roles, accountabilities, and responsibilities for each sub-process needing improvement.

3.3 Outline the workflow for each sub-process needing improvement.

Outputs

A RACI chart for each sub-process

A workflow for each sub-process

4 Change Impact Analysis and Stakeholder Engagement Plan

The Purpose

Ensure that the portfolio management improvement initiatives are sustainably adopted in the long term.

Key Benefits Achieved

Stakeholder engagement.

Sustainable long-term adoption of the improved portfolio management practices.

Activities

4.1 Conduct a change impact analysis.

4.2 Create a stakeholder engagement plan.

Outputs

Change Impact Analysis

Stakeholder Engagement Plan

Completed Portfolio Management SOP

Prepare for Negotiations More Effectively

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  • Parent Category Name: Vendor Management
  • Parent Category Link: /vendor-management
  • IT budgets are increasing, but many CIOs feel their budgets are inadequate to accomplish what is being asked of them.
  • Eighty percent of organizations don’t have a mature, repeatable, scalable negotiation process.
  • Training dollars on negotiations are often wasted or ineffective.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • Negotiations are about allocating risk and money – how much risk is a party willing to accept at what price point?
  • Using a cross-functional/cross-insight team structure for negotiation preparation yields better results.
  • Soft skills aren’t enough and theatrical negotiation tactics aren’t effective.

Impact and Result

A good negotiation process can help:

  • Maximize budget dollars.
  • Improve vendor performance.
  • Enhance relationships internally and externally.

Prepare for Negotiations More Effectively Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should create and follow a scalable process for preparing to negotiate with vendors, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

1. Before

Throughout this phase, the 12 steps for negotiation preparation are identified and reviewed.

  • Prepare for Negotiations More Effectively – Phase 1: Before
  • Before Negotiating Tool
[infographic]

Workshop: Prepare for Negotiations More Effectively

Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

1 12 Steps to Better Negotiation Preparation

The Purpose

Improve negotiation preparation.

Understand how to use the Info-Tech Before Negotiating Tool.

Key Benefits Achieved

A scalable framework for negotiation preparation will be created.

The Before Negotiating Tool will be configured for the customer’s environment.

Activities

1.1 Establish specific negotiation goals and ranges.

1.2 Identify and assess alternatives to a negotiated agreement.

1.3 Identify and evaluate assumptions made by the parties.

1.4 Conduct research.

1.5 Identify and evaluate relationship issues.

1.6 Identify and leverage the team structure.

1.7 Identify and address leverage issues.

1.8 Evaluate timeline considerations.

1.9 Create a strategy.

1.10 Draft a negotiation agenda.

1.11 Draft and answer questions.

1.12 Rehearse (informal and formal).

Outputs

Sample negotiation goals and ranges will be generated via a case study to demonstrate the concepts and how to use the Before Negotiating Tool (this will apply to each Planned Activity)

Sample alternatives will be generated

Sample assumptions will be generated

Sample research will be generated

Sample relationship issues will be generated

Sample teams will be generated

Sample leverage items will be generated

Sample timeline issues will be generated

A sample strategy will be generated

A sample negotiation agenda will be generated

Sample questions and answers will be generated

Sample rehearsals will be conducted

Identify Opportunities to Mature the Security Architecture

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  • Parent Category Name: Secure Cloud & Network Architecture
  • Parent Category Link: /secure-cloud-network-architecture
  • Organizations do not have a solid grasp on the complexity of their infrastructure and are unaware of the overall risk to their infrastructure posed by inadequate security.
  • Organizations do not understand how to properly create and deliver value propositions of technical security solutions.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • The security architecture is a living, breathing thing based on the risk profile of your organization.
  • Compliance and risk mitigation create an intertwined relationship between the business and your security architecture. The security architecture roadmap must be regularly assessed and continuously maintained to ensure security controls align with organizational objectives.

Impact and Result

  • A right-sized security architecture can be created by assessing the complexity of the IT department, the operations currently underway for security, and the perceived value of a security architecture within the organization. This will bring about a deeper understanding of the organizational infrastructure.
  • Developing a security architecture should also result in a list of opportunities (i.e. initiatives) that an organization can integrate into a roadmap. These initiatives will seek to improve security operations and strengthen the IT department’s understanding of security’s role within the organization.
  • A better understanding of the infrastructure will help to save time on determining the correct technologies required from vendors and therefore cut down on the amount of vendor noise.
  • Creating a defensible roadmap will assist with justifying future security spend.

Identify Opportunities to Mature the Security Architecture Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should develop a right-sized security architecture, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

1. Identify the organization’s ideal security architecture

Complete three unique assessments to define the ideal security architecture maturity for your organization.

  • Identify Opportunities to Mature the Security Architecture – Phase 1: Identify the Organization's Ideal Security Architecture
  • Security Architecture Recommendation Tool
  • None

2. Create a security program roadmap

Use the results of the assessments from Phase 1 of this research to create a roadmap for improving the security program.

  • Identify Opportunities to Mature the Security Architecture – Phase 2: Create a Security Program Roadmap
[infographic]

Change Management's Role in Incident Prevention: standard changes

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During peak business hours, I witnessed a straightforward database field addition bring down a whole e-commerce platform. It was meant to be standard procedure, the type of “standard change” that is automatically approved because we have performed it innumerable times.

Adding a field to the end of a table and having applications retrieve data by field name instead of position made the change itself textbook low-impact. There is no need to alter the application or the functional flow. This could have been problematic in the past if you added a field in the middle of the list and it affected the values of other fields, but adding it at the end? That ought to have been impenetrable.

However, it wasn't.

Before I tell you what went wrong, let me explain why this is important to all of the IT professionals who are reading this.

Over the past three decades, industry data has repeatedly supported what this incident taught me: our presumptions about “safe” changes are frequently our greatest weakness. Upon reviewing the ITIL research, I was not surprised to learn that failed changes, many of which were categorized as “standard” or “low-risk,” are responsible for about 80% of unplanned outages.

When you look more closely, the numbers become even more concerning. Since I've been following the Ponemon Institute's work for years, I wasn't surprised to learn that companies with well-established change management procedures have 65% fewer unscheduled outages. The paradox surprised me: many of these “mature” procedures still operate under the premise that safety correlates with repetition.

What I had been observing in the field for decades was confirmed when Gartner released their research showing that standard changes are responsible for almost 40% of change-related incidents. The very changes we consider safe enough to avoid thorough review subtly create some of our greatest risks. IBM's analysis supports the pattern I've seen in innumerable organizations: standard changes cause three times as much business disruption due to their volume and our decreased vigilance around them, whereas emergency changes receive all the attention and scrutiny.

Aberdeen Group data indicates that the average cost of an unplanned outage has increased to $300,000 per hour, with change-related failures accounting for the largest category of preventable incidents. This data makes the financial reality stark.

What precisely went wrong with the addition of that database field that caused our e-commerce platform to crash?

We were unaware that the addition of this one field would cause the database to surpass an internal threshold, necessitating a thorough examination of its execution strategy. In its algorithmic wisdom, the database engine determined that the table structure had changed enough to necessitate rebuilding its access and retrieval mechanisms. Our applications relied on high-speed requests, and the new execution plan was terribly unoptimized for them.

Instead of completing quotes or purchases, customers were spending minutes viewing error pages. All applications began to time out while they awaited data that just wasn't showing up in the anticipated amounts of time. Thousands of transactions were impacted by a single extra field that should have been invisible to the application layer.

The field addition itself was not the primary cause. We assumed that since we had made similar adjustments dozens of times previously, this one would also act in the same way. Without taking into account the hidden complexities of database optimization thresholds, we had categorized it as a standard change based on superficial similarities.

My approach to standard changes was completely altered by this experience, and it is now even more applicable in DevOps-driven environments. Many organizations use pipeline deployments, which produce a standard change at runtime. It's great for speed and reliability, but it can easily fall into the same trap.

However, I have witnessed pipeline deployments result in significant incidents for non-code-related reasons. Due to timing, resource contention, or environmental differences that weren't noticeable in earlier runs, a deployment that performed flawlessly in development and staging abruptly fails in production. Although the automation boosts our confidence, it may also reveal blind spots.

Over the course of thirty years, I have come to the unsettling realization that there is no such thing as a truly routine change in complex systems. Every modification takes place in a slightly different setting, with varying environmental factors, data states, and system loads. What we refer to as “standard changes” are actually merely modifications with comparable processes rather than risk profiles.

For this reason, I support contextual change management. We must consider the system state, timing, dependencies, and cumulative effect of recent changes rather than just categorizing them based on their technical features. After three other changes have changed the system's behavior patterns, a change made at two in the morning on a Sunday with little system load is actually different from the same change made during peak business hours.

Effective change advisory boards must therefore go beyond assessing individual changes separately. I've worked with organizations where the change board carefully considered and approved each modification on its own merits, only to find that the cumulative effect of seemingly unrelated changes led to unexpected interactions and stress on the system. The most developed change management procedures I've come across mandate that their advisory boards take a step back and look at the whole change portfolio over a specified period of time. They inquire whether we are altering the database too frequently during a single maintenance window. Could there be unanticipated interactions between these three different application updates? What is the total resource impact of this week's approved changes?

It's the distinction between forest management and tree management. While each change may seem logical individually, when combined, they can create situations beyond the scope of any single change assessment.

Having worked in this field for thirty years, I've come to the conclusion that our greatest confidences frequently conceal our greatest vulnerabilities. Our primary blind spots frequently arise from the changes we've made a hundred times before, the procedures we've automated and standardized, and the adjustments we've labeled as “routine.”

Whether we should slow down our deployment pipelines or stop using standard changes is not the question. In the current competitive environment, speed and efficiency are crucial. The issue is whether we are posing the appropriate queries before carrying them out. Are we taking into account not only what the change accomplishes but also when it occurs, what else is changing at the same time, and how our systems actually look right now?

I've discovered that the phrase “we've done this before” is more dangerous in IT operations than “what could go wrong?” Because, despite what we may believe, we never actually perform the same action twice in complex systems.

Here is what I would like you to think about: which everyday modifications are subtly putting your surroundings at risk? Which procedures have you standardized or automated to the extent that you no longer challenge their presumptions? Most importantly, when was the last time your change advisory board examined your changes as a cohesive portfolio of system modifications rather than as discrete items on a checklist?

Remember that simple addition to a database field the next time you're tempted to accept a standard change. The most unexpected outcomes can occasionally result from the most routine adjustments.

I'm always up for a conversation if you want to talk about your difficulties with change management.

There should never be only one.

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Today, we're talking about a concept that’s both incredibly simple and dangerously overlooked: the single point of failure, or SPOF for short.

Imagine you’ve built an impenetrable fortress. It has high walls, a deep moat, and strong gates. But the entire fortress can only be accessed through a single wooden bridge. That bridge is your single point of failure. If it collapses or is destroyed, your magnificent fortress is completely cut off. It doesn't matter how strong the rest of it is; that one weak link renders the entire system useless.

In your work, your team, and your processes and technology, these single bridges are everywhere. A SPOF is any part of a system that, if it stops working, will cause the entire system to shut down. It’s the one critical component, the one indispensable person, or the one vital process that everything else depends on.

When you identify and fix these weak points you aren't being pessimistic; you're fixing the very foundation of something that can withstand shocks and surprises. It’s about creating truly resilient systems and teams, not just seemingly strong ones. So, let’s explore where these risks hide and what you can do about them.

When People Become the Problem

For those of you who know me, saying something like this feels at odds with who I am. And yet, it's one of the most common and riskiest areas in any organization. Human single points of failure don't happen because of malicious intent. They typically grow out of good intentions, hard work, and necessity. But the result is the same: a fragile system completely dependent on an individual.

The Rise of the Hero

We all know a colleague like this. The “hero” is the one person who has all the answers. When a critical system goes down at 3 AM, they're the only one who can fix it. They understand the labyrinthine codebase nobody else dares to touch. They have the historical context for every major decision made in the last decade. On the surface, this person is invaluable. Management loves them because they solve problems. The team relies on them because they’re a walking encyclopedia.

But here’s the inconvenient truth: your hero is your biggest liability.

This isn’t their fault. They likely became the hero by stepping up when no one else would or could. The hero may actually feel like they are the only ones qualified to handle the issue because “management” does not take the necessary actions to train other people. Or “management” places other priorities. Be aware, this is a perception thing. The manager is very likely to be very concerned about the well-being of their employee. (I'm taking "black companies", akin to black sites, out of the equation for a moment and concentrating on generally healthy workplaces.) The hero will likely feel a strong bond to their environment. Also, every hero is different. There is a single point of failure, but not a single type of person. Every person has a different driver.

I watched a YouTube video by a famous entrepreneur the other day. And she said something that triggered a response in me, because it sows the seeds of the hero. She said, Would you rather have an employee who just fixes it, handles it, and deals with it? Or an employee that talks about it? Obviously, the large majority will take the person behind door number 1. I would too. But then you need to step up as a manager, as an owner, as an executive, and enforce knowledge sharing.

If you channel all critical knowledge and capabilities through one person, if you let this person become your go-to specialist for everything, you've created a massive SPOF. What happens when your hero gets sick, takes a well deserved two week vacation to a place with no internet, or leaves the company for a new opportunity? The system grinds to a halt. A minor issue becomes a major crisis because the only person who can fix it is unavailable.

This overreliance doesn't just create a risk; it stifles growth. Other team members don't get the opportunity to learn and develop new skills because the hero is always there to swoop in and save the day. The answer? I guess that depends on your situation and what your ability is to keep this person happy without alienating the rest of the team. The answer may lie in the options discussed later in the article around KPIs.

The Knowledge Hoarders

A step beyond the individual hero is the team that acts as a collective SPOF. This is the team that “protects” its know how. They might use complex, undocumented tools, speak in a language of acronyms only they understand, or resist any attempts to standardize their processes. They've built a silo around their work, making themselves indispensable as a unit.

Unlike the hero, this often comes from a place of perceived self preservation. If they are the only ones who understand how something works, their jobs are secure, right? But this behavior is incredibly damaging to the organization's resilience. Not to mention that it is just plain wrong. The team becomes inundated with requests for new features, but also for help in solving incidents. The result in numerous instances is that the team succeeds in neither. Next the manager is called to the senior management because the business is complaining that things don't progress as expected. 

This team thus has become a bottleneck. Any other team that needs to interact with their system is completely at their mercy. Progress slows to a crawl, dependent on their availability and willingness to cooperate. Preservation has turned into survival.  

The real root cause at the heart of both the hero and the knowledge hoarding team is a failure of knowledge management. When information isn't shared, documented, and made accessible, you are actively choosing to create single points of failure. We'll dive deeper into building a robust knowledge sharing culture in a future article, but for now, recognize that knowledge kept in one person's or team's head is a disaster waiting to happen.

When Your Technology is a House of Cards

People aren't the only source of fragility. The way you build and manage your technology stacks can easily create critical SPOFs that leave you vulnerable. These are often less obvious at first, but they can cause dangerous failures when they finally break.

The Danger of the Single Node

Let's start with the most straightforward technical SPOF: the single node setup. Imagine you have a critical application like maybe your company's main website or an internal database. If you run that entire application on one single server (a single “node”), you've created a classic SPOF.

It’s like a restaurant with only one chef. If that chef goes home, the kitchen closes. It doesn't matter how many waiters or tables you have. If that single server experiences a hardware failure, a software crash, or even just needs to be rebooted for an update, your entire service goes offline. There is no failover. The service is simply down until that one machine is fixed, patched or rebooted.

You need to set up your systems so that when one node goes down, the other takes over. This is not just something for large enterprises. SMEs must do the same. I've had numerous calls from business owners who did something to their web server or system and now “it doesn't work!” Not only are they down, now they have to call me and I then must arrange for subject matter experts to fix it immediately. Typically at a cost much larger than if they had set up their system with active, warm or even cold standbys. 

The Mystery of Closed Technologies

Another major risk comes from an overreliance on closed, proprietary technologies. This happens when you build a core part of your business on a piece of software or hardware that you don't control and can't inspect. It’s a “black box.” You know what it’s supposed to do, but you have no idea how it does it, and you can’t fix it if it breaks. When something goes wrong, you are completely at the mercy of the company that created it. You have to submit a support ticket and wait.

This is actually relatable to the next chapter, please follow along and take the advice there.

The Trap of Vendor Lock In

Closely related to closed technology is the concept of vendor lock-in. This is a subtle but powerful SPOF. It happens when you become so deeply integrated with a single vendor's ecosystem that the cost and effort of switching to a competitor are impossibly high. Your vendor effectively becomes a strategic single point of failure. Your ability to innovate, control costs, and pivot your strategy is now tied to the decisions of another company.

This may even run afoul of legal standards. In Europe, we have the DORA and NIS2 regulations. DORA specifically mandates that companies have exit plans for their systems, starting with their critical and important functions. Functions refers to business services, to be clear. 

But we get there so easily. The native functions of AWS, Azure and Google Cloud, just to name a few, are very enticing to use. They offer convenience, low code, and performance on tap. It's just that, once you integrate deeply with them, you are taken, hook, line, and sinker. And then you have people like me, or worse, your regulator, who demands “What is your exit plan?”

Your Resilience Playbook: Practical Steps to Eliminate SPOFs

Identifying your single points of failure is the first step. The real work is in systematically eliminating them. This isn't about a single, massive project; it's about building new habits and principles into your daily work. Here's a playbook I think you can start using today.

Mitigate People-Based Risks

The cure for depending on one person is to create a culture where knowledge is fluid and shared by default. Your goal is to move from individual heroics to collective resilience.

  • Mandate real vacations. This might sound strange, but one of the best ways to reveal and fix a “hero” problem is to make sure your hero takes a real, disconnected vacation. This isn't a punishment; it's a benefit to them and a necessary stress test for the team. It forces others to step up and document their processes in preparation. The first time will be painful, but it gets easier each time as the team builds its own knowledge.

  • Adopt the “teach, don't just do” rule. Coach your senior experts to see their role as multipliers. When someone asks them a question, their first instinct should be to show, not just to do. This can be a five minute screen sharing session, grabbing a colleague to pair program on a fix, or taking ten minutes to write down the answer in a shared knowledge base so it never has to be asked again.

    Many companies have knowledge sharing solutions in place. Take a moment to actually use them. Prepare for when new people come into the company. Have a place where they can get into the groove and learn the heart beat of the company. There is a reason why the Madonna song is so captivating to so many people. Getting into the groove elevates you. And the same thing happens in your company. 

  • Rotate responsibilities and run "game days". Actively move people around. Let a developer handle support tickets for a week to understand common customer issues. Have your infrastructure expert sit with the product team. Also, create “game days” where you simulate a crisis. For example: "Okay team, our lead developer is 'on vacation' today. Let's practice a full deployment without them.” This makes learning safe and proactive.

  • Celebrate team success, not individual firefighting. Shift your praise and recognition. Instead of publicly thanking a single person for working all night to resolve a problem, celebrate the team that built a system so resilient it didn't break in the first place. Reward the team that wrote excellent documentation that allowed a junior member to solve a complex issue. Culture follows what you celebrate. At the same time, if the team does not pony up, definitely praise the person and follow up with the team to fix this.

  • Host internal demos and tech talks. Create a regular, informal forum where people can share what they're working on. This could be a “brown bag lunch” session or a Friday afternoon demo. It demystifies what other teams are doing, breaks down silos, and encourages people to ask questions in a low pressure environment.

  • Remunerate sharing. Make sharing knowledge a bonus-eligible key performance indicator. The more sharing an expert does, with their peers acknowledging this, the more the expert earns. You can easily incorporate this into your peer feedback system. 

  • Run DRP exercises without your top engineers: This is taking a leap of faith, and I would never recommend this until all of the above are in place and proven. 

Building Resilient Technical Systems

The core principle here is to assume failure will happen and to design for it. A resilient system isn't one where parts never fail, but one where the system as a whole keeps working even when they do.

  • Embrace the rule of three. This is a simple but powerful guideline. For critical data, aim to have three copies on two different types of media, with one copy stored off-site (or in a different cloud region). For critical services, aim for at least three instances running in different availability zones. This simple rule protects you from a wide range of common failures.

  • Automate everything you can. Every manual process is a potential SPOF. It relies on a person remembering a series of steps perfectly, often under pressure. Automate your testing, your deployments, your server setup, and your backup procedures. Scripts are consistent and repeatable; tired humans at 3 AM are not.

  • Use health checks and smart monitoring. It's not enough to have a backup server; you need to know that it's healthy and ready to take over. Implement automated health checks that constantly monitor your primary and redundant systems. Your monitoring should alert you the moment a backup component fails, not just when the primary one does.

  • Practice chaos engineering. Don't wait for a real failure to test your resilience. Intentionally introduce failures in a controlled environment. This is known as chaos engineering. Start small. What happens if you turn off a non-critical service during work hours? Does the system handle it gracefully? Does the team know how to respond? This turns a potential crisis into a planned, educational drill.

Avoiding Technology and Vendor Traps

Your resilience also depends on the choices you make about the technology and partners you rely on. The goal is to maintain control over your destiny.

  • Build abstraction layers. Instead of having your application code talk directly to a specific vendor's service, create an intermediary layer that you control. This “abstraction layer” acts as a buffer. If you ever need to switch vendors, you only have to update your abstraction layer, not your entire application. It’s more work up front but gives you immense flexibility later.

  • Make “ease of exit” a key requirement. When you evaluate a new technology or vendor, make portability a primary concern. Ask tough questions: How do we get our data out? What is the process for migrating to a competitor? Is the technology based on open standards? Run a small proof of concept to test how hard it would be to leave before you commit fully.

  • Consider a multi-vendor strategy. For your most critical dependencies, like cloud hosting, avoid going all in on a single provider if you can. Using services from two or more vendors is an advanced strategy, but it provides the ultimate protection against a massive, platform wide outage or unfavorable changes in pricing or terms.

It's a journey, not a destination

You will never be “ready.” Building resilience by eliminating single points of failure isn't a one time project you can check off a list. It’s a continuous process. New SPOFs will emerge as your systems evolve, people change roles, and your business grows.

The key is to make this thinking a part of your culture. Make “What's the bus factor for this project?” a regular question in your planning meetings. Make redundancy and documentation a non negotiable requirement for new systems. By constantly looking for the one thing that can bring everything down, you can build teams and technology that don't just survive shocks—they eat them for breakfast.

Info-Tech Quarterly Research Agenda Outcomes Q2-Q3 2023

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At Info-Tech, we take pride in our research and have established the most rigorous publication standards in the industry. However, we understand that engaging with all our analysts to gauge the future may not always be possible. Hence, we have curated some compelling recently published research along with forthcoming research insights to assist you in navigating the next quarter.

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Info-Tech Quarterly Research Agenda Outcomes Q2/Q3 2023 Research & Tools

Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

1. Info-Tech Quarterly Research Agenda Q3 2023 Deck – An overview of our Research Agenda Outcome for Q2 and Q3 of 2023.

A guide to our top research published to date for 2023 (Q2/Q3).

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Further reading

Featured Research Projects 2023 (Q2/Q3)

“Here are my selections for the top research projects of the last quarter.”

Photo of Gord Harrison, Head of Research & Advisory, Info-Tech Research Group.

Gord Harrison
Head of Research & Advisory
Info-Tech Research Group

CIO

01
Build Your Generative AI Roadmap

Generative AI is here, and it's time to find its best uses – systematically and responsibly.

02
CIO Priorities 2023

Engage cross-functional leadership to seize opportunity while protecting the organization from volatility.

03
Build an IT Risk Taxonomy

If integrated risk is your destination, your IT risk taxonomy is the road to get you there.

04
Navigate the Digital ID Ecosystem to Enhance Customer Experience

Beyond the hype: How it can help you become more customer-focused?

05
Effective IT Communications

Generative AI is here, and it's time to find its best uses – systematically and responsibly.

06
Develop a Targeted Flexible Work Program for IT

Select flexible work options that balance organizational and employee needs to drive engagement and improve attraction and retention.

07
Effectively Manage CxO Relations

Make relationship management a daily habit with a personalized action plan.

08
Establish High-Value IT Performance Dashboards and Metrics

Spend less time struggling with visuals and more time communicating about what matters to your executives.

Applications

09
Build Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook

Your implementation doesn't start with technology but with an effective plan that the team can align on.

10
Develop Your Value-First Business Process Automation Strategy

As you scale your business automations, focus on what matters most.

11
Manage Requirements in an Agile Environment

Agile and requirements management are complementary, not competitors.

Security

12
Assess Your Cybersecurity Insurance Policy

Adapt to changes in the cyber insurance market.

13
Design and Implement a Business-Aligned Security Program

Focus first on business value.

Infrastructure & Operations

14
Automate IT Asset Data Collection

Acquire and use discovery tools wisely to populate, update, and validate the data in your ITAM database.

Industry | Retail

15
Leveraging AI to Create Meaningful Insights and Visibility in Retail

AI prominence across the enterprise value chain.

Industry | Education

16
Understand the Implications of Generative AI in Education

Bans aren't the answer, but what is?

Industry | Wholesale

17
Wholesale Industry Business Reference Architecture

Business capability maps, value streams, and strategy maps for the wholesale industry.

Industry | Retail Banking

18
Mainframe Modernization for Retail Banking

A strategy for modernizing mainframe systems to meet the needs of modern retail banking.

Industry | Utilities

19
Data Analytics Use Cases for Utilities

Building upon the collective wisdom for the art of the possible.

Build Your Generative AI Roadmap

Generative AI is here, and it's time to find its best uses – systematically and responsibly.

CIO
Strategy & Governance

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Bill Wong
Principal Research Director

Download this research or book an analyst call on this topic

Sample of the 'Build Your Generative AI Roadmap' research.

Sample of the 'Build Your Generative AI Roadmap' research.

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CIO Priorities 2023

Engage cross-functional leadership to seize opportunity while protecting the organization from volatility.

CIO
Strategy & Governance

Photo of Brian Jackson, Principal Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group.

Brian Jackson
Principal Research Director

Download this report or book an analyst call on this topic

Sample of the 'CIO Priorities 2023' report.

Sample of the 'CIO Priorities 2023' report.

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Build an IT Risk Taxonomy

If integrated risk is your destination, your IT risk taxonomy is the road to get you there.

CIO
Strategy & Governance

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Donna Bales
Principal Research Director

Download this research or book an analyst call on this topic

Sample of the 'Build an IT Risk Taxonomy' research.

Sample of the 'Build an IT Risk Taxonomy' research.

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Navigate the Digital ID Ecosystem to Enhance Customer Experience

Beyond the hype: How it can help you become more customer-focused?

CIO
Strategy & Governance

Photo of Manish Jain, Principal Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group.

Manish Jain
Principal Research Director

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Sample of the 'Navigate the Digital ID Ecosystem to Enhance Customer Experience' research.

Sample of the 'Navigate the Digital ID Ecosystem to Enhance Customer Experience' research.

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Effective IT Communications

Empower IT employees to communicate well with any stakeholder across the organization.

CIO
People & Leadership

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Brittany Lutes
Research Director

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Diana MacPherson
Senior Research Analyst

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Effective IT Communications' research.

Sample of the 'Effective IT Communications' research.

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Develop a Targeted Flexible Work Program for IT

Select flexible work options that balance organizational and employee needs to drive engagement and improve attraction and retention.

CIO
People & Leadership

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Jane Kouptsova
Research Director

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Sample of the 'Develop a Targeted Flexible Work Program for IT' research.

Sample of the 'Develop a Targeted Flexible Work Program for IT' research.

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Effectively Manage CxO Relations

Make relationship management a daily habit with a personalized action plan.

CIO
Value & Performance

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Mike Tweedle
Practice Lead

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Sample of the 'Effectively Manage CxO Relations' research.

Sample of the 'Effectively Manage CxO Relations' research.

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Establish High-Value IT Performance Dashboards and Metrics

Spend less time struggling with visuals and more time communicating about what matters to your executives.

CIO
Value & Performance

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Diana MacPherson
Senior Research Analyst

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Sample of the 'Establish High-Value IT Performance Dashboards and Metrics' research.

Sample of the 'Establish High-Value IT Performance Dashboards and Metrics' research.

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Build Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook

Your implementation doesn't start with technology but with an effective plan that the team can align on.

Applications
Business Processes

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Ricardo de Oliveira
Research Director

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Sample of the 'Build Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook' research.

Sample of the 'Build Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook' research.

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Develop Your Value-First Business Process Automation Strategy

As you scale your business automations, focus on what matters most.

Applications
Business Processes

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Andrew Kum-Seun
Research Director

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Sample of the 'Develop Your Value-First Business Process Automation Strategy' research.

Sample of the 'Develop Your Value-First Business Process Automation Strategy' research.

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Manage Requirements in an Agile Environment

Agile and requirements management are complementary, not competitors.

Applications
Application Development

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Vincent Mirabelli
Principal Research Director

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Sample of the 'Manage Requirements in an Agile Environment' research.

Sample of the 'Manage Requirements in an Agile Environment' research.

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Assess Your Cybersecurity Insurance Policy

Adapt to changes in the cyber insurance market.

Security
Security Risk, Strategy & Governance

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Logan Rohde
Senior Research Analyst

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Sample of the 'Assess Your Cybersecurity Insurance Policy' research.

Sample of the 'Assess Your Cybersecurity Insurance Policy' research.

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Design and Implement a Business-Aligned Security Program

Focus first on business value.

Security
Security Risk, Strategy & Governance

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Michel Hébert
Research Director

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Sample of the 'Design and Implement a Business-Aligned Security Program' research.

Sample of the 'Design and Implement a Business-Aligned Security Program' research.

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Automate IT Asset Data Collection

Acquire and use discovery tools wisely to populate, update, and validate the data in your ITAM database.

Infrastructure & Operations
I&O Process Management

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Andrew Sharp
Research Director

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Sample of the 'Automate IT Asset Data Collection' research.

Sample of the 'Automate IT Asset Data Collection' research.

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Leveraging AI to Create Meaningful Insights and Visibility in Retail

AI prominence across the enterprise value chain.

Industry Coverage
Retail

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Rahul Jaiswal
Principal Research Director

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Sample of the 'Leveraging AI to Create Meaningful Insights and Visibility in Retail' research.

Sample of the 'Leveraging AI to Create Meaningful Insights and Visibility in Retail' research.

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Understand the Implications of Generative AI in Education

Bans aren't the answer, but what is?

Industry Coverage
Education

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Mark Maby
Research Director

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Sample of the 'Understand the Implications of Generative AI in Education' research.

Sample of the 'Understand the Implications of Generative AI in Education' research.

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Wholesale Industry Business Reference Architecture

Business capability maps, value streams, and strategy maps for the wholesale industry.

Industry Coverage
Wholesale

Photo of Rahul Jaiswal, Principal Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group.

Rahul Jaiswal
Principal Research Director

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Sample of the 'Wholesale Industry Business Reference Architecture' research.

Sample of the 'Wholesale Industry Business Reference Architecture' research.

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Mainframe Modernization for Retail Banking

A strategy for modernizing mainframe systems to meet the needs of modern retail banking.

Industry Coverage
Retail Banking

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David Tomljenovic
Principal Research Director

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Sample of the 'Mainframe Modernization for Retail Banking' research.

Sample of the 'Mainframe Modernization for Retail Banking' research.

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Data Analytics Use Cases for Utilities

Building upon the collective wisdom for the art of the possible.

Industry Coverage
Utilities

Photo of Jing Wu, Principal Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group.

Jing Wu
Principal Research Director

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Sample of the 'Data Analytics Use Cases for Utilities' research.

Sample of the 'Data Analytics Use Cases for Utilities' research.

Sneak Peaks: Research coming in next quarter!

“Next quarter we have a big lineup of reports and some great new research!”

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Gord Harrison
Head of Research & Advisory
Info-Tech Research Group

  1. Build MLOps and Engineering for AI and ML

    Enabling you to develop your Engineering and ML Operations to support your current & planned use cases for AI and ML.
  2. Leverage Gen AI to Improve Your Test Automation Strategy

    Enabling you to embed Gen AI to assist your team during testing broader than Gen AI compiling code.
  3. Make Your IT Financial Data Accessible, Reliable, and Usable

    This project will provide a recipe for bringing IT's financial data to a usable state through a series of discovery, standardization, and policy-setting actions.
  4. Implement Integrated AI Governance

    Enabling you to implement best-practice governance principles when implementing Gen AI.
  5. Develop Exponential IT Capabilities

    Enabling you to understand and develop your strategic Exponential IT capabilities.
  6. Build Your AI Strategy and Roadmap

    This project will provide step-by-step guidance in development of your AI strategy with an AI strategy exemplar.
  7. Priorities for Data Leaders in 2024 and Beyond

    This report will detail the top five challenges expected in the upcoming year and how you as the CDAO can tackle them.
  8. Deploy AIOps More Effectively

    This research is designed to assess the process maturity of your IT operations and help identify pain pains and opportunities for AI deployment within your IT operations.
  9. Design Your Edge Computing Architecture

    This research will provide deployment guidelines and roadmap to address your edge computing needs.
  10. Manage Change in the AI-Enabled Enterprise

    Managing change is complex with the disruptive nature of emerging tech like AI. This research will assist you from an organizational change perspective.
  11. Assess the Security and Privacy Impacts of Your AI Vendors

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Establish an Effective IT Steering Committee

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  • Parent Category Name: IT Governance, Risk & Compliance
  • Parent Category Link: /it-governance-risk-and-compliance
  • Unfortunately, when CIOs implement IT steering committees, they often lack the appropriate structure and processes to be effective.
  • Due to the high profile of the IT steering committee membership, CIOs need to get this right – or their reputation is at risk.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • 88% of IT steering committees fail. The organizations that succeed have clearly defined responsibilities that are based on business needs.
  • Without a documented process your committee can’t execute on its responsibilities. Clearly define the flow of information to make your committee actionable.
  • Limit your headaches by holding your IT steering committee accountable for defining project prioritization criteria.

Impact and Result

Leverage Info-Tech’s process and deliverables to see dramatic improvements in your business satisfaction through an effective IT steering committee. This blueprint will provide three core customizable deliverables that you can use to launch or optimize your IT steering committee:

  • IT Steering Committee Charter: Use this template in combination with this blueprint to form a highly tailored committee.
  • IT Steering Committee Stakeholder Presentation: Build understanding around the goals and purpose of the IT steering committee, and generate support from your leadership team.
  • IT Steering Committee Project Prioritization Tool: Engage your IT steering committee participants in defining project prioritization criteria. Track project prioritization and assess your portfolio.

Establish an Effective IT Steering Committee Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should establish an IT steering committee, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the ways we can support you in completing this project.

Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

1. Build the steering committee charter

Build your IT steering committee charter using results from the stakeholder survey.

  • Establish an Effective IT Steering Committee – Phase 1: Build the Steering Committee Charter
  • IT Steering Committee Stakeholder Survey
  • IT Steering Committee Charter

2. Define IT steering commitee processes

Define your high level steering committee processes using SIPOC, and select your steering committee metrics.

  • Establish an Effective IT Steering Committee – Phase 2: Define ITSC Processes

3. Build the stakeholder presentation

Customize Info-Tech’s stakeholder presentation template to gain buy-in from your key IT steering committee stakeholders.

  • Establish an Effective IT Steering Committee – Phase 3: Build the Stakeholder Presentation
  • IT Steering Committee Stakeholder Presentation

4. Define the prioritization criteria

Build the new project intake and prioritization process for your new IT steering committee.

  • Establish an Effective IT Steering Committee – Phase 4: Define the Prioritization Criteria
  • IT Steering Committee Project Prioritization Tool
  • IT Project Intake Form
[infographic]

Workshop: Establish an Effective IT Steering Committee

Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

1 Build the IT Steering Committee

The Purpose

Lay the foundation for your IT steering committee (ITSC) by surveying your stakeholders and identifying the opportunities and threats to implementing your ITSC.

Key Benefits Achieved

 An understanding of the business environment affecting your future ITSC and identification of strategies for engaging with stakeholders

Activities

1.1 Launch stakeholder survey for business leaders.

1.2 Analyze results with an Info-Tech advisor.

1.3 Identify opportunities and threats to successful IT steering committee implementation.

1.4 Develop the fit-for-purpose approach.

Outputs

Report on business leader governance priorities and awareness

Refined workshop agenda

2 Define the ITSC Goals

The Purpose

Define the goals and roles of your IT steering committee.

Plan the responsibilities of your future committee members.

Key Benefits Achieved

 Groundwork for completing the steering committee charter

Activities

2.1 Review the role of the IT steering committee.

2.2 Identify IT steering committee goals and objectives.

2.3 Conduct a SWOT analysis on the five governance areas

2.4 Define the key responsibilities of the ITSC.

2.5 Define ITSC participation.

Outputs

IT steering committee key responsibilities and participants identified

IT steering committee priorities identified

3 Define the ITSC Charter

The Purpose

Document the information required to create an effective ITSC Charter.

Create the procedures required for your IT steering committee.

Key Benefits Achieved

Clearly defined roles and responsibilities for your steering committee

Completed IT Steering Committee Charter document

Activities

3.1 Build IT steering committee participant RACI.

3.2 Define your responsibility cadence and agendas.

3.3 Develop IT steering committee procedures.

3.4 Define your IT steering committee purpose statement and goals.

Outputs

IT steering committee charter: procedures, agenda, and RACI

Defined purpose statement and goals

4 Define the ITSC Process

The Purpose

Define and test your IT steering committee processes.

Get buy-in from your key stakeholders through your stakeholder presentation.

Key Benefits Achieved

Stakeholder understanding of the purpose and procedures of IT steering committee membership

Activities

4.1 Define your high-level IT steering committee processes.

4.2 Conduct scenario testing on key processes, establish ITSC metrics.

4.3 Build your ITSC stakeholder presentation.

4.4 Manage potential objections.

Outputs

IT steering committee SIPOC maps

Refined stakeholder presentation

5 Define Project Prioritization Criteria

The Purpose

Key Benefits Achieved

Activities

5.1 Create prioritization criteria

5.2 Customize the project prioritization tool

5.3 Pilot test the tool

5.4 Define action plan and next steps

Outputs

IT Steering Committee Project Prioritization Tool

Action plan

Further reading

Establish an Effective IT Steering Committee

Have the right people making the right decisions to drive IT success.

Our understanding of the problem

This Research Is Designed For:

  • CIOs
  • IT Leaders

This Research Will Also Assist:

  • Business Partners

This Research Will Help You:

  • Structure an IT steering committee with the appropriate membership and responsibilities
  • Define appropriate cadence around business involvement in IT decision making
  • Define your IT steering committee processes, metrics, and timelines
  • Obtain buy-in for IT steering committee participations
  • Define the project prioritization criteria

This Research Will Help Them:

  • Understand the importance of IT governance and their role
  • Identify and build the investment prioritization criteria

Executive Summary

Situation

  • An effective IT steering committee (ITSC) is one of the top predictors of value generated by IT, yet only 11% of CIOs believe their committees are effective.
  • An effective steering committee ensures that the right people are involved in critical decision making to drive organizational value.

Complication

  • Unfortunately, when CIOs do implement IT steering committees, they often lack the appropriate structure and processes to be effective.
  • Due to the high profile of the IT steering committee membership, CIOs need to get this right – or their reputation is at risk.

Resolution

Leverage Info-Tech’s process and deliverables to see dramatic improvements in your business satisfaction through an effective IT steering committee. This blueprint will provide three core customizable deliverables that you can use to launch or optimize your IT steering committee. These include:

  1. IT Steering Committee Charter: Customizable charter complete with example purpose, goals, responsibilities, procedures, RACI, and processes. Use this template in combination with this blueprint to get a highly tailored committee.
  2. IT Stakeholder Presentation: Use our customizable presentation guide to build understanding around the goals and purpose of the IT steering committee and generate support from your leadership team.
  3. IT Steering Committee Project Prioritization Tool: Engage your IT steering committee participants in defining the project prioritization criteria. Use our template to track project prioritization and assess your portfolio.

Info-Tech Insight

  1. 88% of IT steering committees fail. The organizations that succeed have clearly defined responsibilities that are based on business needs.
  2. Without a documented process your committee can’t execute on its responsibilities. Clearly define the flow of information to make your committee actionable.
  3. Limit your headaches by holding your IT steering committee accountable for defining project prioritization criteria.

IT Steering Committee

Effective IT governance critical in driving business satisfaction with IT. Yet 88% of CIOs believe that their governance structure and processes are not effective. The IT steering committee (ITSC) is the heart of the governance body and brings together critical organizational stakeholders to enable effective decision making (Info-Tech Research Group Webinar Survey).

IT STEERING COMMITTEES HAVE 3 PRIMARY OBJECTIVES – TO IMPROVE:

  1. Alignment: IT steering committees drive IT and business strategy alignment by having business partners jointly accountable for the prioritization and selection of projects and investments within the context of IT capacity.
  2. Accountability: The ITSC facilitates the involvement and commitment of executive management through clearly defined roles and accountabilities for IT decisions in five critical areas: investments, projects, risk, services, and data.
  3. Value Generation: The ITSC is responsible for the ongoing evaluation of IT value and performance of IT services. The committee should define these standards and approve remediation plans when there is non-achievement.

"Everyone needs good IT, but no one wants to talk about it. Most CFOs would rather spend time with their in-laws than in an IT steering-committee meeting. But companies with good governance consistently outperform companies with bad. Which group do you want to be in?"

– Martha Heller, President, Heller Search Associates

An effective IT steering committee improves IT and business alignment and increases support for IT across the organization

CEOs’ PERCEPTION OF IT AND BUSINESS ALIGNMENT

67% of CIOs/CEOs are misaligned on the target role for IT.

47% of CEOs believe that business goals are going unsupported by IT.

64% of CEOs believe that improvement is required around IT’s understanding of business goals.

28% of business leaders are supporters of their IT departments.

A well devised IT steering committee ensures that core business partners are involved in critical decision making and that decisions are based on business goals – not who shouts the loudest. Leading to faster decision-making time, and better-quality decisions and outcomes.

Source: Info-Tech CIO/CEO Alignment data

Despite the benefits, 9 out of 10 steering committees are unsuccessful

WHY DO IT STEERING COMMITTEES FAIL?

  1. A lack of appetite for an IT steering committee from business partners
  2. An effective ITSC requires participation from core members of the organization’s leadership team. The challenge is that most business partners don’t understand the benefits of an ITSC and the responsibilities aren’t tailored to participants’ needs or interests. It’s the CIOs responsibility to make this case to stakeholders and right-size the committee responsibilities and membership.
  3. IT steering committees are given inappropriate responsibilities
  4. The IT steering committee is fundamentally about decision making; it’s not a working committee. CIOs struggle with clarifying these responsibilities on two fronts: either the responsibilities are too vague and there is no clear way to execute on them within a meeting, or responsibilities are too tactical and require knowledge that participants do not have. Responsibilities should determine who is on the ITSC, not the other way around.
  5. Lack of process around execution
  6. An ITSC is only valuable if members are able to successfully execute on the responsibilities. Without well defined processes it becomes nearly impossible for the ITSC to be actionable. As a result, participants lack the information they need to make critical decisions, agendas are unmet, and meetings are seen as a waste of time.

GOVERNANCE and ITSC and IT Management

Organizations often blur the line between governance and management, resulting in the business having say over the wrong things. Understand the differences and make sure both groups understand their role.

The ITSC is the most senior body within the IT governance structure, involving key business executives and focusing on critical strategic decisions impacting the whole organization.

Within a holistic governance structure, organizations may have additional committees that evaluate, direct, and monitor key decisions at a more tactical level and report into the ITSC.

These committees require specialized knowledge and are implemented to meet specific organizational needs. Those operational committees may spark a tactical task force to act on specific needs.

IT management is responsible for executing on, running, and monitoring strategic activities as determined by IT governance.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STRATEGIC, TACTICAL, AND OPERATIONAL GROUPS

Strategic IT Steering Committee
Tactical

Project Governance Service Governance

Risk Governance Information Governance

IT Management
Operational Risk Task Force

This blueprint focuses exclusively on building the IT steering committee. For more information on IT governance see Info-Tech’s blueprint Tailor an IT Governance Plan to Fit Organizational Needs.

  1. Governance of the IT Portfolio & Investments: ensures that funding and resources are systematically allocated to the priority projects that deliver value
  2. Governance of Projects: ensures that IT projects deliver the expected value, and that the PM methodology is measured and effective.
  3. Governance of Risks: ensures the organization’s ability to assess and deliver IT projects and services with acceptable risk.
  4. Governance of Services: ensures that IT delivers the required services at the acceptable performance levels.
  5. Governance of Information and Data: ensures the appropriate classification and retention of data based on business need.

If these symptoms resonate with you, it might be time to invest in building an IT steering committee

SIGNS YOU MAY NEED TO BUILD AN IT STEERING COMMITTEE

As CIO I find that there is a lack of alignment between business and IT strategies.
I’ve noticed that projects are thrown over the fence by stakeholders and IT is expected to comply.
I’ve noticed that IT projects are not meeting target project metrics.
I’ve struggled with a lack of accountability for decision making, especially by the business.
I’ve noticed that the business does not understand the full cost of initiatives and projects.
I don’t have the authority to say “no” when business requests come our way.
We lack a standardized approach for prioritizing projects.
IT has a bad reputation within the organization, and I need a way to improve relationships.
Business partners are unaware of how decisions are made around IT risks.
Business partners don’t understand the full scope of IT responsibilities.
There are no SLAs in place and no way to measure stakeholder satisfaction with IT.

Info-Tech’s approach to implementing an IT steering committee

Info-Tech’s IT steering committee development blueprint will provide you with the required tools, templates, and deliverables to implement a right-sized committee that’s effective the first time.

  • Measure your business partner level of awareness and interest in the five IT governance areas, and target specific responsibilities for your steering committee based on need.
  • Customize Info-Tech’s IT Steering Committee Charter Template to define and document the steering committee purpose, responsibilities, participation, and cadence.
  • Build critical steering committee processes to enable information to flow into and out of the committee to ensure that the committee is able to execute on responsibilities.
  • Customize Info-Tech’s IT Steering Committee Stakeholder Presentation template to make your first meeting a breeze, providing stakeholders with the information they need, with less than two hours of preparation time.
  • Leverage our workshop guide and prioritization tools to facilitate a meeting with IT steering committee members to define the prioritization criteria for projects and investments and roll out a streamlined process.

Info-Tech’s Four-Phase Process

Key Deliverables:
1 2 3 4
Build the Steering Committee Charter Define ITSC Processes Build the Stakeholder Presentation Define the Prioritization Criteria
  • IT Steering Committee Stakeholder Survey
  • IT Steering Committee Charter
    • Purpose
    • Responsibilities
    • RACI
    • Procedures
  • IT Steering Committee SIPOC (Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, Customers)
  • Defined process frequency
  • Defined governance metrics
  • IT Steering Committee Stakeholder Presentation template
    • Introduction
    • Survey outcomes
    • Responsibilities
    • Next steps
    • ITSC goals
  • IT project prioritization facilitation guide
  • IT Steering Committee Project Prioritization Tool
  • Project Intake Form

Leverage both COBIT and Info-Tech-defined metrics to evaluate the success of your program or project

COBIT METRICS Alignment
  • Percent of enterprise strategic goals and requirements supported by strategic goals.
  • Level of stakeholder satisfaction with scope of the planned portfolio of programs and services.
Accountability
  • Percent of executive management roles with clearly defined accountabilities for IT decisions.
  • Rate of execution of executive IT-related decisions.
Value Generation
  • Level of stakeholder satisfaction and perceived value.
  • Number of business disruptions due to IT service incidents.
INFO-TECH METRICS Survey Metrics:
  • Percent of business leaders who believe they understand how decisions are made in the five governance areas.
  • Percentage of business leaders who believe decision making involved the right people.
Value of Customizable Deliverables:
  • Estimated time to build IT steering committee charter independently X cost of employee
  • Estimated time to build and generate customer stakeholder survey and generate reports X cost of employee
  • # of project interruptions due to new or unplanned projects

CASE STUDY

Industry: Consumer Goods

Source: Interview

Situation

A newly hired CIO at a large consumer goods company inherited an IT department with low maturity from her predecessor. Satisfaction with IT was very low across all business units, and IT faced a lot of capacity constraints. The business saw IT as a bottleneck or red tape in terms of getting their projects approved and completed.

The previous CIO had established a steering committee for a short time, but it had a poorly established charter that did not involve all of the business units. Also the role and responsibilities of the steering committee were not clearly defined. This led the committee to be bogged down in politics.

Due to the previous issues, the business was wary of being involved in a new steering committee. In order to establish a new steering committee, the new CIO needed to navigate the bad reputation of the previous CIO.

Solution

The CIO established a new steering committee engaging senior members of each business unit. The roles of the committee members were clearly established in the new steering committee charter and business stakeholders were informed of the changes through presentations.

The importance of the committee was demonstrated through the new intake and prioritization process for projects. Business stakeholders were impressed with the new process and its transparency and IT was no longer seen as a bottleneck.

Results

  • Satisfaction with IT increased by 12% after establishing the committee and IT was no longer seen as red tape for completing projects
  • IT received approval to hire two more staff members to increase capacity
  • IT was able to augment service levels, allowing them to reinvest in innovative projects
  • Project prioritization process was streamlined

Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

DIY Toolkit

“Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”

Guided Implementation

“Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”

Workshop

“We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”

Consulting

“Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

Establish an Effective IT Steering Committee

Build the Steering Committee Charter Define ITSC Processes Build the Stakeholder Presentation Define the Prioritization Criteria
Best-Practice Toolkit

1.1 Survey Your Steering Committee Stakeholders

1.2 Build Your ITSC Charter

2.1 Build a SIPOC

2.2 Define Your ITSC Process

3.1 Customize the Stakeholder Presentation

4.1 Establish your Prioritization Criteria

4.2 Customize the Project Prioritization Tool

4.3 Pilot Test Your New Prioritization Criteria

Guided Implementations
  • Launch your stakeholder survey
  • Analyze the results of the survey
  • Build your new ITSC charter
  • Review your completed charter
  • Build and review your SIPOC
  • Review your high-level steering committee processes
  • Customize the presentation
  • Build a script for the presentation
  • Practice the presentation
  • Review and select prioritization criteria
  • Review the Project Prioritization Tool
  • Review the results of the tool pilot test
Onsite Workshop

Module 1:

Build a New ITSC Charter

Module 2:

Design Steering Committee Processes

Module 3:

Present the New Steering Committee to Stakeholders

Module 4:

Establish Project Prioritization Criteria

Phase 1 Results:
  • Customized ITSC charter

Phase 2 Results:

  • Completed SIPOC and steering committee processes
Phase 3 Results:
  • Customized presentation deck and script
Phase 4 Results:
  • Customized project prioritization tool

Workshop overview

Contact your account representative or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

Workshop Day 1 Workshop Day 2 Workshop Day 3 Workshop Day 4 Workshop Day 5
Activities

Build the IT Steering Committee

1.1 Launch stakeholder survey for business leaders

1.2 Analyze results with an Info-Tech Advisor

1.3 Identify opportunities and threats to successful IT steering committee implementation.

1.4 Develop the fit-for-purpose approach

Define the ITSC Goals

2.1 Review the role of the IT steering committee

2.2 Identify IT steering committee goals and objectives

2.3 Conduct a SWOT analysis on the five governance areas

2.4 Define the key responsibilities of the ITSC 2.5 Define ITSC participation

Define the ITSC Charter

3.1 Build IT steering committee participant RACI

3.2 Define your responsibility cadence and agendas

3.3 Develop IT steering committee procedures

3.4 Define your IT steering committee purpose statement and goals

Define the ITSC Process

4.1 Define your high-level IT steering committee processes

4.2 Conduct scenario testing on key processes, establish ITSC metrics

4.3 Build your ITSC stakeholder presentation

4.4 Manage potential objections

Define Project Prioritization Criteria

5.1 Create prioritization criteria

5.2 Customize the Project Prioritization Tool

5.3 Pilot test the tool

5.4 Define action plan and next steps

Deliverables
  1. Report on business leader governance priorities and awareness
  2. Refined workshop agenda
  1. IT steering committee priorities identified
  2. IT steering committee key responsibilities and participants identified
  1. IT steering committee charter: procedures, agenda, and RACI
  2. Defined purpose statement and goals
  1. IT steering committee SIPOC maps
  2. Refined stakeholder presentation
  1. Project Prioritization Tool
  2. Action plan

Phase 1

Build the IT Steering Committee Charter

Phase 1 outline

Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

Guided Implementation 1: Formalize the Security Policy Program

Proposed Time to Completion: 1-2 weeks

Select Your ITSC Members

Start with an analyst kick-off call:

  • Launch your stakeholder survey

Then complete these activities…

  • Tailor the survey questions
  • Identify participants and tailor email templates

With these tools & templates:

  • ITSC Stakeholder Survey
  • ITSC Charter Template

Review Stakeholder Survey Results

Review findings with analyst:

  • Review the results of the Stakeholder Survey

Then complete these activities…

  • Customize the ITSC Charter Template

With these tools & templates:

  • ITSC Charter Template

Finalize the ITSC Charter

Finalize phase deliverable:

  • Review the finalized ITSC charter with an Info-Tech analyst

Then complete these activities…

  • Finalize any changes to the ITSC Charter
  • Present it to ITSC Members

With these tools & templates:

  • ITSC Charter Template

Build the IT Steering Committee Charter

This step will walk you through the following activities:

  • Launch and analyze the stakeholder survey
  • Define your ITSC goals and purpose statement
  • Determine ITSC responsibilities and participants
  • Determine ITSC procedures

This step involves the following participants:

  • CIO
  • IT Steering Committee
  • IT Leadership Team
  • PMO

Key Insight:

Be exclusive with your IT steering committee membership. Determine committee participation based on committee responsibilities. Select only those who are key decision makers for the activities the committee is responsible for and, wherever possible, keep membership to 5-8 people.

Tailor Info-Tech’s IT Steering Committee Charter Template to define terms of reference for the ITSC

1.1

A charter is the organizational mandate that outlines the purpose, scope, and authority of the ITSC. Without a charter, the steering committee’s value, scope, and success criteria are unclear to participants, resulting in unrealistic stakeholder expectations and poor organizational acceptance.

Start by reviewing Info-Tech’s template. Throughout this section we will help you to tailor its contents.

Committee Purpose: The rationale, benefits of, and overall function of the committee.

Responsibilities: What tasks/decisions the accountable committee is making.

Participation: Who is on the committee

RACI: Who is accountable, responsible, consulted, and informed regarding each responsibility.

Committee Procedures and Agendas: Includes how the committee will be organized and how the committee will interact and communicate with business units.

A screenshot of Info-Tech's <em data-verified=IT Steering Committee Charter Template.">

IT Steering Committee Charter

Take a data-driven approach to build your IT steering committee based on business priorities

1.2

Leverage Info-Tech’s IT Steering Committee Stakeholder Surveyand reports to quickly identify business priorities and level of understanding of how decisions are made around the five governance areas.

Use these insights to drive the IT steering committee responsibilities, participation, and communication strategy.

The Stakeholder Survey consists of 17 questions on:

  • Priority governance areas
  • Desired level of involvement in decision making in the five governance areas
  • Knowledge of how decisions are made
  • Five open-ended questions on improvement opportunities

To simplify your data collection and reporting, Info-Tech can launch a web-based survey, compile the report data and assist in the data interpretation through one of our guided implementations.

Also included is a Word document with recommended questions, if you prefer to manage the survey logistics internally.

A screenshot of Info-Tech's first page of the <em data-verified=IT Steering Committee Stakeholder Survey "> A screenshot of Info-Tech's survey.

Leverage governance reports to define responsibilities and participants, and in your presentation to stakeholders

1.3

A screenshot is displayed. It advises that 72% of stakeholders do <strong data-verified= understand how decisions around IT services are made (quality, availability, etc.). Two graphs are included in the screenshot. One of the bar graphs shows the satisfaction with the quality of decisions and transparency around IT services. The other bar graph displays IT decisions around service delivery and quality that involve the right people.">

OVERALL PRIORITIES

You get:

  • A clear breakdown of stakeholders’ level of understanding on how IT decisions are made in the five governance areas
  • Stakeholder perceptions on the level of IT and business involvement in decision making
  • Identification of priority areas

So you can:

  • Get an overall pulse check for understanding
  • Make the case for changes in decision-making accountability
  • Identify which areas the IT steering committee should focus on
A screenshot is displayed. It advises that 80% of stakeholders do <strong data-verified=not understand how decisions around IT investments or project and service resourcing are made. Two bar graphs are displayed. One of the bar graphs shows the satisfaction with the quality of decisions made around IT investments. The other graph display IT decisions around spending priorities involving the right people.">

GOVERNANCE AREA REPORTS

You get:

  • Satisfaction score for decision quality in each governance area
  • Breakdown of decision-making accountability effectiveness
  • Identified level of understanding around decision making
  • Open-ended comments

So you can:

  • Identify the highest priority areas to change.
  • To validate changes in decision-making accountability
  • To understand business perspectives on decision making.

Conduct a SWOT analysis of the five governance areas

1.4

  1. Hold a meeting with your IT leadership team to conduct a SWOT analysis on each of the five governance areas. Start by printing off the following five slides to provide participants with examples of the role of governance and the symptoms of poor governance in each area.
  2. In groups of 1-2 people, have each group complete a SWOT analysis for one of the governance areas. For each consider:
  • Strengths: What is currently working well in this area?
  • Weaknesses: What could you improve? What are some of the challenges you’re experiencing?
  • Opportunities: What are some organizational trends that you can leverage? Consider whether your strengths or weaknesses that could create opportunities?
  • Threats: What are some key obstacles across people, process, and technology?
  • Have each team or individual rotate until each person has contributed to each SWOT. Add comments from the stakeholder survey to the SWOT.
  • As a group rank each of the five areas in terms of importance for a phase one IT steering committee implementation, and highlight the top 10 challenges, and the top 10 opportunities you see for improvement.
  • Document the top 10 lists for use in the stakeholder presentation.
  • INPUT

    • Survey outcomes
    • Governance overview handouts

    OUTPUT

    • SWOT analysis
    • Ranked 5 areas
    • Top 10 challenges and opportunities identified.

    Materials

    • Governance handouts
    • Flip chart paper, pens

    Participants

    • IT leadership team

    Governance of RISK

    Governance of risk establishes the risk framework, establishes policies and standards, and monitors risks.

    Governance of risk ensures that IT is mitigating all relevant risks associated with IT investments, projects, and services.

    GOVERNANCE ROLES:

    1. Defines responsibility and accountability for IT risk identification and mitigation.
    2. Ensures the consideration of all elements of IT risk, including value, change, availability, security, project, and recovery
    3. Enables senior management to make better IT decisions based on the evaluation of the risks involved
    4. Facilitates the identification and analysis of IT risk and ensures the organization’s informed response to that risk.

    Symptoms of poor governance of risk

    • Opportunities for value creation are missed by not considering or assessing IT risk, or by completely avoiding all risk.
    • No formal risk management process or accountabilities exist.
    • There is no business continuity strategy.
    • Frequent security breaches occur.
    • System downtime occurs due to failed IT changes.

    Governance of PPM

    Governance of the IT portfolio achieves optimum ROI through prioritization, funding, and resourcing.

    PPM practices create value if they maximize the throughput of high-value IT projects at the lowest possible cost. They destroy value when they foster needlessly sophisticated and costly processes.

    GOVERNANCE ROLES:

    1. Ensures that the projects that deliver greater business value get a higher priority.
    2. Provides adequate funding for the priority projects and ensures adequate resourcing and funding balanced across the entire portfolio of projects.
    3. Makes the business and IT jointly accountable for setting project priorities.
    4. Evaluate, direct, and monitor IT value metrics and endorse the IT strategy and monitor progress.

    Symptoms of poor governance of PPM/investments

    • The IT investment mix is determined solely by Finance and IT.
    • It is difficult to get important projects approved.
    • Projects are started then halted, and resources are moved to other projects.
    • Senior management has no idea what projects are in the backlog.
    • Projects are approved without a valid business case.

    Governance of PROJECTS

    Governance of projects improves the quality and speed of decision making for project issues.

    Don’t confuse project governance and management. Governance makes the decisions regarding allocation of funding and resources and reviews the overall project portfolio metrics and process methodology.

    Management ensures the project deliverables are completed within the constraints of time, budget, scope, and quality.

    GOVERNANCE ROLES:

    1. Monitors and evaluates the project management process and critical project methodology metrics.
    2. Ensures review and mitigation of project issue and that management is aware of projects in crisis.
    3. Ensures that projects beginning to show characteristics of failure cannot proceed until issues are resolved.
    4. Endorses the project risk criteria, and monitors major risks to project completion.
    5. Approves the launch and execution of projects.

    Symptoms of poor governance of projects

    • Projects frequently fail or get cancelled.
    • Project risks and issues are not identified or addressed.
    • There is no formal project management process.
    • There is no senior stakeholder responsible for making project decisions.
    • There is no formal project reporting.

    Governance of SERVICES

    Governance of services ensures delivery of a highly reliable set of IT services.

    Effective governance of services enables the business to achieve the organization’s goals and strategies through the provision of reliable and cost-effective services.

    GOVERNANCE ROLES:

    1. Ensures the satisfactory performance of those services critical to achieving business objectives.
    2. Monitors and directs changes in service levels.
    3. Ensures operational and performance objectives for IT services are met.
    4. Approves policy and standards on the service portfolio.

    Symptoms of poor governance of service

    • There is a misalignment of business needs and expectations with IT capability.
    • No metrics are reported for IT services.
    • The business is unaware of the IT services available to them.
    • There is no accountability for service level performance.
    • There is no continuous improvement plan for IT services.
    • IT services or systems are frequently unavailable.
    • Business satisfaction with IT scores are low.

    Governance of INFORMATION

    Governance of information ensures the proper handling of data and information.

    Effective governance of information ensures the appropriate classification, retention, confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data in line with the needs of the business.

    GOVERNANCE ROLES:

    1. Ensures the information lifecycle owner and process are defined and endorse by business leadership.
    2. Ensures the controlled access to a comprehensive information management system.
    3. Ensures knowledge, information, and data are gathered, analyzed, stored, shared, used, and maintained.
    4. Ensures that external regulations are identified and met.

    Symptoms of poor governance of information

    • There is a lack of clarity around data ownership, and data quality standards.
    • There is insufficient understanding of what knowledge, information, and data are needed by the organization.
    • There is too much effort spent on knowledge capture as opposed to knowledge transfer and re-use.
    • There is too much focus on storing and sharing knowledge and information that is not up to date or relevant.
    • Personnel see information management as interfering with their work.

    Identify the responsibilities of the IT steering committee

    1.5

    1. With your IT leadership team, review the typical responsibilities of the IT steering committee on the following slide.
    2. Print off the following slide, and in your teams of 1-2 have each group identify which responsibilities they believe the IT steering committee should have, brainstorm any additional responsibilities, and document their reasoning.
    3. Note: The bolded responsibilities are the ones that are most common to IT steering committees, and greyed out responsibilities are typical of a larger governance structure. Depending on their level of importance to your organization, you may choose to include the responsibility.

    4. Have each team present to the larger group, track the similarities and differences between each of the groups, and come to consensus on the list of responsibilities.
    5. Complete a sanity check – review your swot analysis and survey results. Do the responsibilities you’ve identified resolve the critical challenges or weaknesses?
    6. As a group, consider the responsibilities and consider whether you can reasonably implement those in one year, or if there are any that will need to wait until year two of the IT steering committee.
    7. Modify the list of responsibilities in Info-Tech’s IT Steering Committee Charter by deleting the responsibilities you do not need and adding any that you identified in the process.

    INPUT

    • SWOT analysis
    • Survey reports

    OUTPUT

    • Defined ITSC responsibilities documented in the ITSC Charter

    Materials

    • Responsibilities handout
    • Voting dots

    Participants

    • IT leadership team

    Typical IT steering committee and governance responsibilities

    The bolded responsibilities are those that are most common to IT steering committees, and responsibilities listed in grey are typical of a larger governance structure.

    INVESTMENTS / PPM

    • Establish the target investment mix
    • Evaluate and select programs/projects to fund
    • Monitor IT value metrics
    • Endorse the IT budget
    • Monitor and report on program/project outcomes
    • Direct the governance optimization
    • Endorse the IT strategy

    PROJECTS

    • Monitor project management metrics
    • Approve launch of projects
    • Review major obstacles to project completion
    • Monitor a standard approach to project management
    • Monitor and direct project risk
    • Monitor requirements gathering process effectiveness
    • Review feasibility studies and formulate alternative solutions for high risk/high investment projects

    SERVICE

    • Monitor stakeholder satisfaction with services
    • Monitor service metrics
    • Approve plans for new or changed service requirements
    • Monitor and direct changes in service levels
    • Endorse the enterprise architecture
    • Approve policy and standards on the service portfolio
    • Monitor performance and capacity

    RISK

    • Monitor risk management metrics
    • Review the prioritized list of risks
    • Monitor changes in external regulations
    • Maintain risk profiles
    • Approve the risk management emergency action process
    • Maintain a mitigation plan to minimize risk impact and likelihood
    • Evaluate risk management
    • Direct risk management

    INFORMATION / DATA

    • Define information lifecycle process ownership
    • Monitor information lifecycle metrics
    • Define and monitor information risk
    • Approve classification categories of information
    • Approve information lifecycle process
    • Set policies on retirement of information

    Determine committee membership based on the committee’s responsibilities

    • One of the biggest benefits to an IT steering committee is it involves key leadership from the various lines of business across the organization.
    • However, in most cases, more people get involved than is required, and all the committee ends up accomplishing is a lot of theorizing. Participants should be selected based on the identified responsibilities of the IT steering committee.
    • If the responsibilities don’t match the participants, this will negatively impact committee effectiveness as leaders become disengaged in the process and don’t feel like it applies to them or accomplishes the desired goals. Once participants begin dissenting, it’s significantly more difficult to get results.
    • Be careful! When you have more than one individual in a specific role, select only the people whose attendance is absolutely critical. Don’t let your governance collapse under committee overload!

    LIKELY PARTICIPANT EXAMPLES:

    MUNICIPALITY

    • City Manager
    • CIO/IT Leader
    • CCO
    • CFO
    • Division Heads

    EDUCATION

    • Provost
    • Vice Provost
    • VP Academic
    • VP Research
    • VP Public Affairs
    • VP Operations
    • VP Development
    • Etc.

    HEALTHCARE

    • President/CEO
    • CAO
    • EVP/ EDOs
    • VPs
    • CIO
    • CMO

    PRIVATE ORGANIZATIONS

    • CEO
    • CFO
    • COO
    • VP Marketing
    • VP Sales
    • VP HR
    • VP Product Development
    • VP Engineering
    • Etc.

    Identify committee participants and responsibility cadence

    1.6

    1. In a meeting with your IT leadership team, review the list of committee responsibilities and document them on a whiteboard.
    2. For each responsibility, identify the individuals whom you would want to be either responsible or accountable for that decision.
    3. Repeat this until you’ve completed the exercise for each responsibility.
    4. Group the responsibilities with the same participants and highlight groupings with less than four participants. Consider the responsibility and determine whether you need to change the wording to make it more applicable or if you should remove the responsibility.
    5. Review the grouping, the responsibilities within them, and their participants, and assess how frequently you would like to meet about them – annually, quarterly, or monthly. (Note: suggested frequency can be found in the IT Steering Committee Charter.)
    6. Subdivide the responsibilities for the groupings to determine your annual, quarterly, and monthly meeting schedule.
    7. Validate that one steering committee is all that is needed, or divide the responsibilities into multiple committees.
    8. Document the committee participants in the IT Steering Committee Charter and remove any unneeded responsibilities identified in the previous exercise.

    INPUT

    • List of responsibilities

    OUTPUT

    • ITSC participants list
    • Meeting schedule

    Materials

    • Whiteboard
    • Markers

    Participants

    • IT leadership team

    Committees can only be effective if they have clear and documented authority

    It is not enough to participate in committee meetings; there needs to be a clear understanding of who is accountable, responsible, consulted, and informed about matters brought to the attention of the committee.

    Each committee responsibility should have one person who is accountable, and at least one person who is responsible. This is the best way to ensure that committee work gets done.

    An authority matrix is often used within organizations to indicate roles and responsibilities in relation to processes and activities. Using the RACI model as an example, there is only one person accountable for an activity, although several people may be responsible for executing parts of the activity. In this model, accountable means end-to-end accountability for the process.

    RESPONSIBLE: The one responsible for getting the job done.

    ACCOUNTABLE: Only one person can be accountable for each task.

    CONSULTED: Involvement through input of knowledge and information.

    INFORMED: Receiving information about process execution and quality.

    A chart is depicted to show an example of the authority matrix using the RACI model.

    Define IT steering committee participant RACI for each of the responsibilities

    1.7

    1. Use the table provided in the IT Steering Committee Charter and edit he list of responsibilities to reflect the chosen responsibilities of your ITSC.
    2. Along the top of the chart list the participant names, and in the right hand column of the table document the agreed upon timing from the previous exercise.
    3. For each of the responsibilities identify whether participants are Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, or Informed by denoting an R, A, C, I, or N/A in the table. Use N/A if this is a responsibility that the participant has no involvement in.
    4. Review your finalized RACI chart. If there are participants who are only consulted or informed about the majority of responsibilities, consider removing them from the IT steering committee. You only want the decision makers on the committee.

    INPUT

    • Responsibilities
    • Participants

    OUTPUT

    • RACI documented in the ITSC Charter

    Materials

    • ITSC RACI template
    • Projector

    Participants

    • IT leadership

    Building the agenda may seem trivial, but it is key for running effective meetings

    49% of people consider unfocused meetings as the biggest workplace time waster.*

    63% of the time meetings do not have prepared agendas.*

    80% Reduction of time spent in meetings by following a detailed agenda and starting on time.*

    *(Source: http://visual.ly/fail-plan-plan-fail).

    EFFECTIVE MEETING AGENDAS:

    1. Have clearly defined meeting objectives.
    2. Effectively time-boxed based on priority items.
    3. Defined at least two weeks prior to the meetings.
    4. Evaluated regularly – are not static.
    5. Leave time at the end for new business, thus minimizing interruptions.

    BUILDING A CONSENT AGENDA

    A consent agenda is a tool to free up time at meetings by combining previously discussed or simple items into a single item. Items that can be added to the consent agenda are those that are routine, noncontroversial, or provided for information’s sake only. It is expected that participants read this information and, if it is not pulled out, that they are in agreement with the details.

    Members have the option to pull items out of the consent agenda for discussion if they have questions. Otherwise these are given no time on the agenda.

    Define the IT steering committee meeting agendas and procedures

    1.8

    Agendas

    1. Review the listed responsibilities, participants, and timing as identified in a previous exercise.
    2. Annual meeting: Identify if all of the responsibilities will be included in the annual meeting agenda (likely all governance responsibilities).
    3. Quarterly Meeting Agenda: Remove the meeting responsibilities from the annual meeting agenda that are not required and create a list of responsibilities for the quarterly meetings.
    4. Monthly Meeting Agenda: Remove all responsibilities from the list that are only annual or quarterly and compile a list of monthly meeting responsibilities.
    5. Review each responsibility, and estimate the amount of time each task will take within the meeting. We recommend giving yourself at least an extra 10-20% more time for each agenda item for your first meeting. It’s better to have more time than to run out.
    6. Complete the Agenda Template in the IT Steering Committee Charter.

    Procedures:

    1. Review the list of IT steering committee procedures, and replace the grey text with the information appropriate for your organization.

    INPUT

    • Responsibility cadence

    OUTPUT

    • ITSC annual, quarterly, monthly meeting agendas & procedures

    Materials

    • ITSC Charter

    Participants

    • IT leadership team

    Draft your IT steering committee purpose statement and goals

    1.9

    1. In a meeting with your IT leadership team – and considering the defined responsibilities, participants, and opportunities and threats identified – review the example goal statement in the IT Steering Committee Charter, and first identify whether any of these statements apply to your organization. Select the statements that apply and collaboratively make any changes needed.
    2. Define unique goal statements by considering the following questions:
      1. What three things would you realistically list for the ITSC to achieve.
      2. If you were to accomplish three things in the next year, what would those be?
    3. Document those goals in the IT Steering Committee Charter.
    4. With those goal statements in mind, consider the overall purpose of the committee. The purpose statement should be a reflection of what the committee does, why it does it, and the goals.
    5. Have each individual review the example purpose statement, and draft what they think a good purpose statement would be.
    6. Present each statement, and work together to determine a best of breed statement.
    7. Document this in the IT Steering Committee Charter.

    INPUT

    • Responsibilities, participants, top 10 lists of challenges and opportunities.

    OUTPUT

    • ITSC goals and purpose statement

    Materials

    • ITSC Charter

    Participants

    • IT leadership team

    CASE STUDY

    "Clearly defined Committee Charter allows CIO to escape the bad reputation of previous committee."

    Industry: Consumer Goods

    Source: Interview

    CHALLENGE

    The new CIO at a large consumer goods company had difficulty generating interest in creating a new IT steering committee. The previous CIO had created a steering committee that was poorly organized and did not involve all of the pertinent members. This led to a committee focused on politics that would often devolve into gossip. Also, many members were dissatisfied with the irregular meetings that would often go over their allotted time.

    In order to create a new committee, the new CIO needed to dispel the misgivings of the business leadership.

    SOLUTION

    The new CIO decided to build the new steering committee from the ground up in a systematic way.

    She collected information from relevant stakeholders about what they know/how they feel about IT and used this information to build a detailed charter.

    Using this info she outlined the new steering committee charter and included in it the:

    1. Purpose
    2. Responsibilities
    3. RACI Chart
    4. Procedures

    OUTCOME

    The new steering committee included all the key members of business units, and each member was clear on their roles in the meetings. Meetings were streamlined and effective. The adjustments in the charter and the improvement in meeting quality played a role in improving the satisfaction scores of business leaders with IT by 21%.

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

    The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

    1.1

    A screenshot of activity 1.1 is displayed. 1.1 is about surveying your ITSC stakeholders.

    Survey your ITSC stakeholders

    Prior to the workshop, Info-Tech’s advisors will work with you to launch the IT Steering Committee Stakeholder Survey to understand business priorities and level of understanding of how decisions are made. Using this data, we will create the IT steering committee responsibilities, participation, and communication strategy.

    1.7

    A screenshot of activity 1.7 is displayed. 1.7 is about defining a participant RACI for each of the responsibilities.

    Define a participant RACI for each of the responsibilities

    The analyst will facilitate several exercises to help you and your stakeholders create an authority matrix. The output will be defined responsibilities and authorities for members.

    Phase 2

    Build the IT Steering Committee Process

    Phase 2 outline

    Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation 2: Define your ITSC Processes
    Proposed Time to Completion: 2 weeks

    Review SIPOCs and Process Creation

    Start with an analyst kick-off call:

    • Review the purpose of the SIPOC and how to build one

    Then complete these activities…

    • Build a draft SIPOC for your organization

    With these tools & templates:

    Phase 2 of the Establish an Effective IT Steering Committee blueprint

    Finalize the SIPOC

    Review Draft SIPOC:

    • Review and make changes to the SIPOC
    • Discuss potential metrics

    Then complete these activities…

    • Test survey link
    • Info-Tech launches survey

    With these tools & templates:

    Phase 2 of the Establish an Effective IT Steering Committee blueprint

    Finalize Metrics

    Finalize phase deliverable:

    • Finalize metrics

    Then complete these activities…

    • Establish ITSC metric triggers

    With these tools & templates:

    Phase 2 of the Establish an Effective IT Steering Committee blueprint

    Build the IT Steering Committee Process

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Define high-level steering committee processes using SIPOC
    • Select steering committee metrics

    This step involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • IT Steering Committee
    • IT Leadership Team
    • PMO

    Key Insight:

    Building high-level IT steering committee processes brings your committee to life. Having a clear process will ensure that you have the right information from the right sources so that committees can operate and deliver the appropriate output to the customers who need it.

    Build your high-level IT steering committee processes to enable committee functionality

    The IT steering committee is only valuable if members are able to successfully execute on responsibilities.

    One of the most common mistakes organizations make is that they build their committee charters and launch into their first meeting. Without defined inputs and outputs, a committee does not have the needed information to be able to effectively execute on responsibilities and is unable to meet its stated goals.

    The arrows in this picture represent the flow of information between the IT steering committee, other committees, and IT management.

    Building high-level processes will define how that information flows within and between committees and will enable more rapid decision making. Participants will have the information they need to be confident in their decisions.

    Strategic IT Steering Committee
    Tactical

    Project Governance Service Governance

    Risk Governance Information Governance

    IT Management
    Operational Risk Task Force

    Define the high-level process for each of the IT steering committee responsibilities

    Info-Tech recommends using SIPOC as a way of defining how the IT steering committee will operate.

    Derived from the core methodologies of Six Sigma process management, SIPOC – a model of Suppliers, Inputs, Processes, Outputs, Customers – is one of several tools that organizations can use to build high level processes. SIPOC is especially effective when determining process scope and boundaries and to gain consensus on a process.

    By doing so you’ll ensure that:

    1. Information and documentation required to complete each responsibility is identified.
    2. That the results of committee meetings are distributed to those customers who need the information.
    3. Inputs and outputs are identified and that there is defined accountability for providing these.

    Remember: Your IT steering committee is not a working committee. Enable effective decision making by ensuring participants have the necessary information and appropriate recommendations from key stakeholders to make decisions.

    Supplier Input
    Who provides the inputs to the governance responsibility. The documented information, data, or policy required to effectively respond to the responsibility.
    Process
    In this case this represents the IT steering committee responsibility defined in terms of the activity the ITSC is performing.
    Output Customer
    The outcome of the meeting: can be approval, rejection, recommendation, request for additional information, endorsement, etc. Receiver of the outputs from the committee responsibility.

    Define your SIPOC model for each of the IT steering committee responsibilities

    2.1

    1. In a meeting with your IT leadership, draw the SIPOC model on a whiteboard or flip-chart paper. Either review the examples on the following slides or start from scratch.
    2. If you are adjusting the following slides, consider the templates you already have which would be appropriate inputs and make adjustments as needed.

    For atypical responsibilities:

    1. Start with the governance responsibility and identify what specifically it is that the IT steering committee is doing with regards to that responsibility. Write that in the center of the model.
    2. As a group, consider what information or documentation would be required by the participants to effectively execute on the responsibility.
    3. Identify which individual will supply each piece of documentation. This person will be accountable for this moving forward.
    4. Outputs: Once the committee has met about the responsibility, what information or documentation will be produced. List all of those documents.
    5. Identify the individuals who need to receive the outputs of the information.
    6. Repeat this for all of the responsibilities.
    7. Once complete, document the SIPOC models in the IT Steering Committee Charter.

    INPUT

    • List of responsibilities
    • Example SIPOCs

    OUTPUT

    • SIPOC model for all responsibilities.

    Materials

    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    • ITSC Charter

    Participants

    • IT leadership team

    SIPOC examples for typical ITSC responsibilities

    SIPOC: Establish the target investment mix
    Supplier Input
    CIO
    • Target investment mix and rationale
    Process
    Responsibility: The IT steering committee shall review and approve the target investment mix.
    Output Customer
    • Approval of target investment mix
    • Rejection of target investment mix
    • Request for additional information
    • CFO
    • CIO
    • IT leadership
    SIPOC: Endorse the IT budget
    Supplier Input
    CIO
    • Recommendations

    See Info-Tech’s blueprint IT Budget Presentation

    Process

    Responsibility: Review the proposed IT budget as defined by the CIO and CFO.

    Output Customer
    • Signed endorsement of the IT budget
    • Request for additional information
    • Recommendation for changes to the IT budget.
    • CFO
    • CIO
    • IT leadership

    SIPOC examples for typical ITSC responsibilities

    SIPOC: Monitor IT value metrics
    Supplier Input
    CIO
    • IT value dashboard
    • Key metric takeaways
    • Recommendations
    CIO Business Vision
    Process

    Responsibility: Review recommendations and either accept or reject recommendations. Refine go-forward metrics.

    Output Customer
    • Launch corrective task force
    • Accept recommendations
    • Define target metrics
    • CEO
    • CFO
    • Business executives
    • CIO
    • IT leadership
    SIPOC: Evaluate and select programs/projects to fund
    Supplier Input
    PMO
    • Recommended project list
    • Project intake documents
    • Prioritization criteria
    • Capacity metrics
    • IT budget

    See Info-Tech’s blueprint

    Grow Your Own PPM Solution
    Process

    Responsibility: The ITSC will approve the list of projects to fund based on defined prioritization criteria – in line with capacity and IT budget.

    It is also responsible for identifying the prioritization criteria in line with organizational priorities.

    Output Customer
    • Approved project list
    • Request for additional information
    • Recommendation for increased resources
    • PMO
    • CIO
    • Project sponsors

    SIPOC examples for typical ITSC responsibilities

    SIPOC: Endorse the IT strategy
    Supplier Input
    CIO
    • IT strategy presentation

    See Info-Tech’s blueprint

    IT Strategy and Roadmap
    Process

    Responsibility: Review, understand, and endorse the IT strategy.

    Output Customer
    • Signed endorsement of the IT strategy
    • Recommendations for adjustments
    • CEO
    • CFO
    • Business executives
    • IT leadership
    SIPOC: Monitor project management metrics
    Supplier Input
    PMO
    • Project metrics report with recommendations
    Process

    Responsibility: Review recommendations around PM metrics and define target metrics. Endorse current effectiveness levels or determine corrective action.

    Output Customer
    • Accept project metrics performance
    • Accept recommendations
    • Launch corrective task force
    • Define target metrics
    • PMO
    • Business executives
    • IT leadership

    SIPOC examples for typical ITSC responsibilities

    SIPOC: Approve launch of planned and unplanned project
    Supplier Input
    CIO
    • Project list and recommendations
    • Resourcing report
    • Project intake document

    See Info-Tech’s Blueprint:

    Grow Your Own PPM Solution
    Process

    Responsibility: Review the list of projects and approve the launch or reprioritization of projects.

    Output Customer
    • Approved launch of projects
    • Recommendations for changes to project list
    • CFO
    • CIO
    • IT leadership
    SIPOC: Monitor stakeholder satisfaction with services and other service metrics
    Supplier Input
    Service Manager
    • Service metrics report with recommendations
    Info-Tech End User Satisfaction Report
    Process

    Responsibility: Review recommendations around service metrics and define target metrics. Endorse current effectiveness levels or determine corrective action.

    Output Customer
    • Accept service level performance
    • Accept recommendations
    • Launch corrective task force
    • Define target metrics
    • Service manager
    • Business executives
    • IT leadership

    SIPOC examples for typical ITSC responsibilities

    SIPOC: Approve plans for new or changed service requirements
    Supplier Input
    Service Manager
    • Service change request
    • Project request and change plan
    Process

    Responsibility: Review IT recommendations, approve changes, and communicate those to staff.

    Output Customer
    • Approved service changes
    • Rejected service changes
    • Service manager
    • Organizational staff
    SIPOC: Monitor risk management metrics
    Supplier Input
    CIO
    • Risk metrics report with recommendations
    Process

    Responsibility: Review recommendations around risk metrics and define target metrics. Endorse current effectiveness levels or determine corrective action.

    Output Customer
    • Accept risk register and mitigation strategy
    • Launch corrective task force to address risks
    • Risk manager
    • Business executives
    • IT leadership

    SIPOC examples for typical ITSC responsibilities

    SIPOC: Review the prioritized list of risks
    Supplier Input
    Risk Manager
    • Risk register
    • Mitigation strategies
    See Info-Tech’s risk management research to build a holistic risk strategy.
    Process

    Responsibility: Accept the risk registrar and define any additional action required.

    Output Customer
    • Accept risk register and mitigation strategy
    • Launch corrective task force to address risks
    • Risk manager
    • IT leadership
    • CRO
    SIPOC: Define information lifecycle process ownership
    Supplier Input
    CIO
    • List of risk owner options with recommendations
    See Info-Tech’s related blueprint: Information Lifecycle Management
    Process

    Responsibility: Define responsibility and accountability for information lifecycle ownership.

    Output Customer
    • Defined information lifecycle owner
    • Organization wide.

    SIPOC examples for typical ITSC responsibilities

    SIPOC: Monitor information lifecycle metrics
    Supplier Input
    Information lifecycle owner
    • Information metrics report with recommendations
    Process

    Responsibility: Review recommendations around information management metrics and define target metrics. Endorse current effectiveness levels or determine corrective action.

    Output Customer
    • Accept information management performance
    • Accept recommendations
    • Launch corrective task force to address challenges
    • Define target metrics
    • IT leadership

    Define which metrics you will report to the IT steering committee

    2.2

    1. Consider your IT steering committee goals and the five IT governance areas.
    2. For each governance area, identify which metrics you are currently tracking and determine whether these metrics are valuable to IT, to the business, or both. For metrics that are valuable to business stakeholders determine whether you have an identified target metric.

    New Metrics:

    1. For each of the five IT governance areas review your SWOT analysis and document your key opportunities and weaknesses.
    2. For each, brainstorm hypotheses around why the opportunity was weak or was a success. For each hypothesis identify if there are any clear ways to measure and test the hypothesis.
    3. Review the list of metrics and select 5-7 metrics to track for each prioritized governance area.

    INPUT

    • List of responsibilities
    • Example SIPOCs

    OUTPUT

    • SIPOC model for all responsibilities

    Materials

    • Whiteboard
    • Markers

    Participants

    • IT leadership team

    IT steering committee metric triggers to consider

    RISK

    • Risk profile % increase
    • # of actionable risks outstanding
    • # of issues arising not identified prior
    • # of security breaches

    SERVICE

    • Number of business disruptions due to IT service incidents
    • Number of service requests by department
    • Number of service requests that are actually projects
    • Causes of tickets overall and by department
    • Percentage of duration attributed to waiting for client response

    PROJECTS

    • Projects completed within budget
    • Percentage of projects delivered on time
    • Project completion rate
    • IT completed assigned portion to scope
    • Project status and trend dashboard

    INFORMATION / DATA

    • % of data properly classified
    • # of incidents locating data
    • # of report requests by complexity
    • # of open data sets

    PPM /INVESTMENTS

    • CIO Business Vision (an Info-Tech diagnostic survey that helps align IT strategy with business goals)
    • Level of stakeholder satisfaction and perceived value
    • Percentage of ON vs. OFF cycle projects by area/silo
    • Realized benefit to business units based on investment mix
    • Percent of enterprise strategic goals and requirements supported by strategic goals
    • Target vs. actual budget
    • Reasons for off-cycle projects causing delays to planned projects

    CASE STUDY

    Industry: Consumer Goods

    Source: Interview

    "IT steering committee’s reputation greatly improved by clearly defining its process."

    CHALLENGE

    One of the major failings of the previous steering committee was its poorly drafted procedures. Members of the committee were unclear on the overall process and the meeting schedule was not well established.

    This led to low attendance at the meetings and ineffective meetings overall. Since the meeting procedures weren’t well understood, some members of the leadership team took advantage of this to get their projects pushed through.

    SOLUTION

    The first step the new CIO took was to clearly outline the meeting procedures in her new steering committee charter. The meeting agenda, meeting goals, length of time, and outcomes were outlined, and the stakeholders signed off on their participation.

    She also gave the participants a SIPOC, which helped members who were unfamiliar with the process a high-level overview. It also reacquainted previous members with the process and outlined changes to the previous, out-of-date processes.

    OUTCOME

    The participation rate in the committee meetings improved from the previous rate of approximately 40% to 90%. The committee members were much more satisfied with the new process and felt like their contributions were appreciated more than before.

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    An image of an Info-Tech analyst is depicted.

    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

    The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

    2.1

    A screenshot of activity 2.1 is depicted. Activity 2.1 is about defining a SIPOC for each of the ITSC responsibilities.

    Define a SIPOC for each of the ITSC responsibilities

    Create SIPOCs for each of the governance responsibilities with the help of an Info-Tech advisor.

    2.2

    A screenshot of activity 2.2 is depicted. Activity 2.2 is about establishing the reporting metrics for the ITSC.

    Establish the reporting metrics for the ITSC

    The analyst will facilitate several exercises to help you and your stakeholders define the reporting metrics for the ITSC.

    Phase 3

    Build the Stakeholder Presentation

    Phase 3 outline

    Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation 3: Build the Stakeholder Presentation
    Proposed Time to Completion: 1 week

    Customize the Presentation

    Start with an analyst kick-off call:

    • Review the IT Steering Committee Stakeholder Presentation with an analyst

    Then complete these activities…

    • Schedule the first meeting and invite the ITSC members
    • Customize the presentation template

    With these tools & templates:

    IT Steering Committee Stakeholder Presentation


    Review and Practice the Presentation

    Review findings with analyst:

    • Review the changes made to the template
    • Practice the presentation and create a script

    Then complete these activities…

    • Hold the ITSC meeting

    With these tools & templates:

    • IT Steering Committee Stakeholder Presentation
    Review the First ITSC Meeting

    Finalize phase deliverable:

    • Review the outcomes of the first ITSC meeting and plan out the next steps

    Then complete these activities…

    • Review the discussion and plan next steps

    With these tools & templates:

    Establish an Effective IT Steering Committee blueprint

    Build the Stakeholder Presentation

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Organizing the first ITSC meeting
    • Customizing an ITSC stakeholder presentation
    • Determine ITSC responsibilities and participants
    • Determine ITSC procedures

    This step involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • IT Steering Committee
    • IT Leadership Team
    • PMO

    Key Insight:

    Stakeholder engagement will be critical to your ITSC success, don't just focus on what is changing. Ensure stakeholders know why you are engaging them and how it will help them in their role.

    Hold a kick-off meeting with your IT steering committee members to explain the process, responsibilities, and goals

    3.1

    Don’t take on too much in your first IT steering committee meeting. Many participants may not have participated in an IT steering committee before, or some may have had poor experiences in the past.

    Use this meeting to explain the role of the IT steering committee and why you are implementing one, and help participants to understand their role in the process.

    Quickly customize Info-Tech’s IT Steering Committee Stakeholder Presentation template to explain the goals and benefits of the IT steering committee, and use your own data to make the case for governance.

    At the end of the meeting, ask committee members to sign the committee charter to signify their agreement to participate in the IT steering committee.

    A screenshot of IT Steering Committee: Meeting 1 is depicted. A screenshot of the IT Steering Committee Challenges and Opportunities for the organization.

    Tailor the IT Steering Committee Stakeholder Presentation template: slides 1-5

    3.2 Estimated Time: 10 minutes

    Review the IT Steering Committee Stakeholder Presentation template. This document should be presented at the first IT steering committee meeting by the assigned Committee Chair.

    Customization Options

    Overall: Decide if you would like to change the presentation template. You can change the color scheme easily by copying the slides in the presentation deck and pasting them into your company’s standard template. Once you’ve pasted them in, scan through the slides and make any additional changes needed to formatting.

    Slide 2-3: Review the text on each of the slides and see if any wording should be changed to better suite your organization.

    Slide 4: Review your list of the top 10 challenges and opportunities as defined in section 2 of this blueprint. Document those in the appropriate sections. (Note: be careful that the language is business-facing; challenges and opportunities should be professionally worded.)

    Slide 5: Review the language on slide 5 to make any necessary changes to suite your organization. Changes here should be minimal.

    INPUT

    • Top 10 list
    • Survey report
    • ITSC Charter

    OUTPUT

    • Ready-to-present presentation for defined stakeholders

    Materials

    • IT Steering Committee Stakeholder Presentation

    Participants

    • IT Steering Committee Chair/CIO

    Tailor the IT Steering Committee Stakeholder Presentation template: slides 6-10

    3.2 Estimated Time: 10 minutes

    Customization Options

    Slide 6: The goal of this slide is to document and share the names of the participants on the IT steering committee. Document the names in the right-hand side based on your IT Steering Committee Charter.

    Slides 7-9:

    • Review the agenda items as listed in your IT Steering Committee Charter. Document the annual, quarterly, and monthly meeting responsibilities on the left-hand side of slides 7-9.
    • Meeting Participants: For each slide, list the members who are required for that meeting.
    • Document the key required reading materials as identified in the SIPOC charts under “inputs.”
    • Document the key meeting outcomes as identified in the SIPOC chart under “outputs.”

    Slide 10: Review and understand the rollout timeline. Make any changes needed to the timeline.

    INPUT

    • Top 10 list
    • Survey report
    • ITSC Charter

    OUTPUT

    • Ready-to-present presentation for defined stakeholders

    Materials

    • IT Steering Committee Stakeholder Presentation

    Participants

    • IT Steering Committee Chair/CIO

    Present the information to the IT leadership team to increase your comfort with the material

    3.3 Estimated Time: 1-2 hours

    1. Once you have finished customizing the IT Steering Committee Stakeholder Presentation, practice presenting the material by meeting with your IT leadership team. This will help you become more comfortable with the dialog and anticipate any questions that might arise.
    2. The ITSC chair will present the meeting deck, and all parties should discuss what they think went well and opportunities for improvement.
    3. Each business relationship manager should document the needed changes in preparation for their first meeting.

    INPUT

    • IT Steering Committee Stakeholder Presentation - Meeting 1

    Participants

    • IT leadership team

    Schedule your first meeting of the IT steering committee

    3.4

    By this point, you should have customized the meeting presentation deck and be ready to meet with your IT steering committee participants.

    The meeting should be one hour in duration and completed in person.

    Before holding the meeting, identify who you think is going to be most supportive and who will be least. Consider meeting with those individuals independently prior to the group meeting to elicit support or minimize negative impacts on the meeting.

    Customize this calendar invite script to invite business partners to participate in the meeting.

    Hello [Name],

    As you may have heard, we recently went through an exercise to develop an IT steering committee. I’d like to take some time to discuss the results of this work with you, and discuss ways in which we can work together in the future to better enable corporate goals.

    The goals of the meeting are:

    1. Discuss the benefits of an IT steering committee
    2. Review the results of the organizational survey
    3. Introduce you to our new IT steering committee

    I look forward to starting this discussion with you and working with you more closely in the future.

    Warm regards,

    CASE STUDY

    Industry:Consumer Goods

    Source: Interview

    "CIO gains buy-in from the company by presenting the new committee to its stakeholders."

    CHALLENGE

    Communication was one of the biggest steering committee challenges that the new CIO inherited.

    Members were resistant to joining/rejoining the committee because of its previous failures. When the new CIO was building the steering committee, she surveyed the members on their knowledge of IT as well as what they felt their role in the committee entailed.

    She found that member understanding was lacking and that their knowledge surrounding their roles was very inconsistent.

    SOLUTION

    The CIO dedicated their first steering committee meeting to presenting the results of that survey to align member knowledge.

    She outlined the new charter and discussed the roles of each member, the goals of the committee, and the overarching process.

    OUTCOME

    Members of the new committee were now aligned in terms of the steering committee’s goals. Taking time to thoroughly outline the procedures during the first meeting led to much higher member engagement. It also built accountability within the committee since all members were present and all members had the same level of knowledge surrounding the roles of the ITSC.

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

    The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

    3.1

    A screenshot of Activity 3.1 is depicted. Activity 3.1 is about creating a presentation for ITSC stakeholders to be presented at the first ITSC meeting.

    Create a presentation for ITSC stakeholders to be presented at the first ITSC meeting

    Work with an Info-Tech advisor to customize our IT Steering Committee Stakeholder Presentation template. Use this presentation to gain stakeholder buy-in by making the case for an ITSC.

    Phase 4

    Define the Prioritization Criteria

    Phase 4 outline

    Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation : Define the Prioritization Criteria
    Proposed Time to Completion: 4 weeks

    Discuss Prioritization Criteria

    Start with an analyst kick-off call:

    • Review sample project prioritization criteria and discuss criteria unique to your organization

    Then complete these activities...

    • Select the criteria that would be most effective for your organization
    • Input these into the tool

    With these tools & templates:

    IT Steering Committee Project Prioritization Tool

    Customize the IT Steering Committee Project Prioritization Tool

    Review findings with analyst:

    • Review changes made to the tool
    • Finalize criteria weighting

    Then complete these activities…

    • Pilot test the tool using projects from the previous year

    With these tools & templates:

    IT Steering Committee Project Prioritization Tool

    Review Results of the Pilot Test

    Finalize phase deliverable:

    • Review the results of the pilot test
    • Make changes to the tool

    Then complete these activities…

    • Input your current project portfolio into the prioritization tool

    With these tools & templates:

    IT Steering Committee Project Prioritization Tool

    Define the Project Prioritization Criteria

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Selecting the appropriate project prioritization criteria for your organization
    • Developing weightings for the prioritization criteria
    • Filling in Info-Tech’s IT Steering Committee Project Prioritization Tool

    This step involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • IT Steering Committee
    • IT Leadership Team
    • PMO

    Key Insight:

    The steering committee sets and agrees to principles that guide prioritization decisions. The agreed upon principles will affect business unit expectations and justify the deferral of requests that are low priority. In some cases, we have seen the number of requests drop substantially because business units are reluctant to propose initiatives that do not fit high prioritization criteria.

    Understand the role of the IT steering committee in project prioritization

    One of the key roles of the IT steering committee is to review and prioritize the portfolio of IT projects.

    What is the prioritization based on? Info-Tech recommends selecting four broad criteria with two dimensions under each to evaluate the value of the projects. The criteria are aligned with how the project generates value for the organization and the execution of the project.

    What is the role of the steering committee in prioritizing projects? The steering committee is responsible for reviewing project criteria scores and making decisions about where projects rank on the priority list. Planning, resourcing, and project management are the responsibility of the PMO or the project owner.

    Info-Tech’s Sample Criteria

    Value

    Strategic Alignment: How much a project supports the strategic goals of the organization.

    Customer Satisfaction: The impact of the project on customers and how visible a project will be with customers.

    Operational Alignment: Whether the project will address operational issues or compliance.

    Execution

    Financial: Predicted ROI and cost containment strategies.

    Risk: Involved with not completing projects and strategies to mitigate it.

    Feasibility: How easy the project is to complete and whether staffing resources exist.

    Use Info-Tech’s IT Steering Committee Project Prioritization Tool to catalog and prioritize your project portfolio

    4.1

    • Use Info-Tech’s IT Steering Committee Project Prioritization Tool in conjunction with the following activities to catalog and prioritize all of the current IT projects in your portfolio.
    • Assign weightings to your selected criteria to prioritize projects based on objective scores assigned during the intake process and adjust these weightings on an annual basis to align with changing organizational priorities and goals.
    • Use this tool at steering committee meetings to streamline the prioritization process and create alignment with the PMO and project managers.
    • Monitor ongoing project status and build a communication channel between the PMO and project managers and the IT steering committee.
    • Adjusting the titles in the Settings tab will automatically adjust the titles in the Project Data tab.
    • Note: To customize titles in the document you must unprotect the content under the View tab. Be sure to change the content back to protected after making the changes.
    A screenshot of Info-Tech's IT Steering Committee Project Prioritization Tool is depicted. The first page of the tool is shown. A screenshot of Info-Tech's IT Steering Committee Project Prioritization Tool is depicted. The page depicted is on the Intake and Prioritization Tool Settings.

    Establish project prioritization criteria and build the matrix

    4.2 Estimated Time: 1 hour

    1. During the second steering committee meeting, discuss the criteria you will be basing your project prioritization scoring on.
    2. Review Info-Tech’s prioritization criteria matrix, located in the Prioritization Criteria List tab of the IT Steering Committee Project Prioritization Tool, to gain ideas for what criteria would best suit your organization.
    3. Write these main criteria on the whiteboard and brainstorm criteria that are more specific for your organization; include these on the list as well.
    4. Discuss the criteria. Eliminate criteria that won’t contribute strongly to the prioritization process and vote on the remaining. Select four main criteria from the list.
    5. After selecting the four main criteria, write these on the whiteboard and brainstorm the dimensions that fall under the criteria. These should be more specific/measurable aspects of the criteria. These will be the statements that values are assigned to for prioritizing projects so they should be clear. Use the Prioritization Criteria List in the tool to help generate ideas.
    6. After creating the dimensions, determine what the scoring statements will be. These are the statements that will be used to determine the score out of 10 that the different dimensions will receive.
    7. Adjust the Settings and Project Data tabs in the IT Steering Committee Project Prioritization Tool to reflect your selections.
    8. Edit Info-Tech’s IT Project Intake Form or the intake form that you currently use to contain these criteria and scoring parameters.

    INPUT

    • Group input
    • IT Steering Committee Project Prioritization Tool

    OUTPUT

    • Project prioritization criteria to be used for current and future projects

    Materials

    • Whiteboard and markers

    Participants

    • IT steering committee
    • CIO
    • IT leadership

    Adjust prioritization criteria weightings to reflect organizational needs

    4.3 Estimated Time: 1 hour

    1. In the second steering committee meeting, after deciding what the project prioritization criteria will be, you need to determine how much weight (the importance) each criteria will receive.
    2. Use the four agreed upon criteria with two dimensions each, determined in the previous activity.
    3. Perform a $100 test to assign proportions to each of the criteria dimensions.
      1. Divide the committee into pairs.
      2. Tell each pair that they have $100 divide among the 4 major criteria based on how important they feel the criteria is.
      3. After dividing the initial $100, ask them to divide the amount they allocated to each criteria into the two sub-dimensions.
      4. Next, ask them to present their reasoning for the allocations to the rest of the committee.
      5. Discuss the weighting allotments and vote on the best one (or combination).
      6. Input the weightings in the Settings tab of the IT Steering Committee Project Prioritization Tool and document the discussion.
    4. After customizing the chart establish the owner of the document. This person should be a member of the PMO or the most suitable IT leader if a PMO doesn’t exist.
    5. Only perform this adjustment annually or if a major strategic change happens within the organization.

    INPUT

    • Group discussion

    OUTPUT

    • Agreed upon criteria weighting
    • Complete prioritization tool

    Materials

    • IT Steering Committee Project Prioritization Tool
    • Whiteboard and sticky notes

    Participants

    • IT steering committee
    • IT leadership

    Document the prioritization criteria weightings in Info-Tech’s IT Steering Committee Project Prioritization Tool.

    Configure the prioritization tool to align your portfolio with business strategy

    4.4 Estimated Time: 60 minutes

    Download Info-Tech’s Project Intake and Prioritization Tool.

    A screenshot of Info-Tech's Project Intake and Prioritization Tool.

    Rank: Project ranking will dynamically update relative to your portfolio capacity (established in Settings tab) and the Size, Scoring Progress, Remove from Ranking, and Overall Score columns. The projects in green represent top priorities based on these inputs, while yellow projects warrant additional consideration should capacity permit.

    Scoring Progress: You will be able to determine some items on the scorecard earlier in the scoring progress (such as strategic and operational alignment). As you fill in scoring columns on the Project Data tab, the Scoring Progress column will dynamically update to track progress.

    The Overall Score will update automatically as you complete the scoring columns (refer to Activity 4.2).

    Days in Backlog: This column will help with backlog management, automatically tracking the number of days since an item was added to the list based on day added and current date.

    Validate your new prioritization criteria using previous projects

    4.5 Estimated Time: 2 hours

    1. After deciding on the prioritization criteria, you need to test their validity.
    2. Look at the portfolio of projects that were completed in the previous year.
    3. Go through each project and score it according to the criteria that were determined in the previous exercise.
    4. Enter the scores and appropriate weighting (according to goals/strategy of the previous year) into the IT Steering Committee Project Prioritization Tool.
    5. Look at the prioritization given to the projects in reference to how they were previously prioritized.
    6. Adjust the criteria and weighting to either align the new prioritization criteria with previous criteria or to align with desired outcomes.
    7. After scoring the old projects, pilot test the tool with upcoming projects.

    INPUT

    • Information on previous year’s projects
    • Group discussion

    OUTPUT

    • Pilot tested project prioritization criteria

    Materials

    • IT Steering Committee Project Prioritization Tool

    Participants

    • IT steering committee
    • IT leadership
    • PMO

    Pilot the scorecard to validate criteria and weightings

    4.6 Estimated Time: 60 minutes

    1. Pilot your criteria and weightings in the IT Steering Committee Project Prioritization Tool using project data from one or two projects currently going through approval process.
    2. For most projects, you will be able to determine strategic and operational alignment early in the scoring process, while the feasibility and financial requirements will come later during business case development. Score each column as you can. The tool will automatically track your progress in the Scoring Progress column on the Project Data tab.

    Projects that are scored but not prioritized will populate the portfolio backlog. Items in the backlog will need to be rescored periodically, as circumstances can change, impacting scores. Factors necessitating rescoring can include:

    • Assumptions in business case have changed.
    • Organizational change – e.g. a new CEO or a change in strategic objectives.
    • Major emergencies or disruptions – e.g. a security breach.

    Score projects using the Project Data tab in Info-Tech’s IT Steering Committee Project Prioritization Tool

    A screenshot of Info-Tech's <em data-verified=IT Steering Committee Project Prioritization Tool is depicted. The Data Tab is shown.">

    Use Info-Tech’s IT Project Intake Form to streamline the project prioritization and approval process

    4.7

    • Use Info-Tech’s IT Project Intake Form template to streamline the project intake and prioritization process.
    • Customize the chart on page 2 to include the prioritization criteria that were selected during this phase of the blueprint.
    • Including the prioritization criteria at the project intake phase will free up a lot of time for the steering committee. It will be their job to verify that the criteria scores are accurate.
    A screenshot of Info-Tech's IT Project Intake Form is depicted.

    After prioritizing and selecting your projects, determine how they will be resourced

    Consult these Info-Tech blueprints on project portfolio management to create effective portfolio project management resourcing processes.

    A Screenshot of Info-Tech's Create Project Management Success Blueprint is depicted. Create Project Management Success A Screenshot of Info-Tech's Develop a Project Portfolio Management Strategy Blueprint is depicted. Develop a Project Portfolio Management Strategy

    CASE STUDY

    Industry: Consumer Goods

    Source: Interview

    "Clear project intake and prioritization criteria allow for the new committee to make objective priority decisions."

    CHALLENGE

    One of the biggest problems that the previous steering committee at the company had was that their project intake and prioritization process was not consistent. Projects were being prioritized based on politics and managers taking advantage of the system.

    The procedure was not formalized so there were no objective criteria on which to weigh the value of proposed projects. In addition to poor meeting attendance, this led to the overall process being very inconsistent.

    SOLUTION

    The new CIO, with consultation from the newly formed committee, drafted a set of criteria that focused on the value and execution of their project portfolio. These criteria were included on their intake forms to streamline the rating process.

    All of the project scores are now reviewed by the steering committee, and they are able to facilitate the prioritization process more easily.

    The objective criteria process also helped to prevent managers from taking advantage of the prioritization process to push self-serving projects through.

    OUTCOME

    This was seen as a contributor to the increase in satisfaction scores for IT, which improved by 12% overall.

    The new streamlined process helped to reduce capacity constraints on IT, and it alerted the company to the need for more IT employees to help reduce these constraints further. The IT department was given permission to hire two new additional staff members.

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

    The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

    4.1

    A screenshot of activity 4.1 is depicted. Activity 4.1 was about defining your prioritization criteria and customize our <em data-verified=IT Steering Committee Project Prioritization Tool.">

    Define your prioritization criteria and customize our IT Steering Committee Project Prioritization Tool

    With the help of Info-Tech advisors, create criteria for determining a project’s priority. Customize the tool to reflect the criteria and their weighting. Run pilot tests of the tool to verify the criteria and enter your current project portfolio.

    Research contributors and experts

    • Andy Lomasky, Manager, Technology & Management Consulting, McGladrey LLP
    • Angie Embree, CIO, Best Friends Animal Society
    • Corinne Bell, CTO and Director of IT Services, Landmark College
    • John Hanskenecht, Director of Technology, University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy
    • Lori Baker, CIO, Village of Northbrook
    • Lynne Allard, IT Supervisor, Nipissing Parry Sound Catholic School Board
    • Norman Allen, Senior IT Manager, Baker Tilly
    • Paul Martinello, VP, IT Services, Cambridge and North Dumfries Hydro Inc.
    • Renee Martinez, IT Director/CIO, City of Santa Fe
    • Sam Wong, Director, IT, Seneca College
    • Suzanne Barnes, Director, Information Systems, Pathfinder International
    • Walt Joyce, CTO, Peoples Bank

    Appendices

    GOVERNANCE & ITSC & IT Management

    Organizations often blur the line between governance and management, resulting in the business having say over the wrong things. Understand the differences and make sure both groups understand their role.

    The ITSC is the most senior body within the IT governance structure, involving key business executives and focusing on critical strategic decisions impacting the whole organization.

    Within a holistic governance structure, organizations may have additional committees that evaluate, direct, and monitor key decisions at a more tactical level and report into the ITSC.

    These committees require specialized knowledge and are implemented to meet specific organizational needs. Those operational committees may spark a tactical task force to act on specific needs.

    IT management is responsible for executing on, running, and monitoring strategic activities as determined by IT governance.

    Strategic IT Steering Committee
    Tactical

    Project Governance Service Governance

    Risk Governance Information Governance

    IT Management
    Operational Risk Task Force

    This blueprint focuses exclusively on building the IT Steering committee. For more information on IT governance see Info-Tech’s related blueprint: Tailor an IT Governance Plan to Fit Organizational Needs.

    IT steering committees play an important role in IT governance

    By bucketing responsibilities into these areas, you’ll be able to account for most key IT decisions and help the business to understand their role in governance, fostering ownership and joint accountability.

    The five governance areas are:

    Governance of the IT Portfolio and Investments: Ensures that funding and resources are systematically allocated to the priority projects that deliver value.

    Governance of Projects: Ensures that IT projects deliver the expected value, and that the PM methodology is measured and effective.

    Governance of Risks: Ensures the organization’s ability to assess and deliver IT projects and services with acceptable risk.

    Governance of Services: Ensures that IT delivers the required services at the acceptable performance levels.

    Governance of Information and Data: Ensures the appropriate classification and retention of data based on business need.

    A survey of stakeholders identified a need for increased stakeholder involvement and transparency in decision making

    A bar graph is depicted. The title is: I understand how decisions are made in the following areas. The areas include risk, services, projects, portfolio, and information. A circle graph is depicted. The title is: Do IT decisions involve the right people?

    Overall, survey respondents indicated a lack of understanding about how decisions are made around risk, services, projects, and investments, and that business involvement in decision making was too minimal.

    Satisfaction with decision quality around investments and PPM are uneven and largely not well understood

    72% of stakeholders do not understand how decisions around IT services are made (quality, availability, etc.).

    A bar graph is depicted. The title is: How satisfied are you with the quality of decisions and transparency around IT services? A bar graph is depicted. Title of the graph: IT decisions around service delivery and quality involve the right people?

    Overall, services were ranked #1 in importance of the 5 areas

    62% of stakeholders do not understand how decisions around IT services are made (quality, availability, etc.).

    A bar graph is depicted. The title is: How satisfied are you with the quality of decisions and transparency around IT services? A bar graph is depicted. Title of the graph: IT decisions around service delivery and quality involve the right people?

    Projects ranked as one of the areas with which participants are most satisfied with the quality of decisions

    70% of stakeholders do not understand how decisions around projects selection, success, and changes are made.

    A bar graph is depicted. The title is: How satisfied are you with the quality of decisions and transparency around IT services? A bar graph is depicted. The title is: IT decisions around project changes, delays, and metrics involve the right people?

    Stakeholders are largely unaware of how decisions around risk are made and believe business participation needs to increase

    78% of stakeholders do not understand how decisions around risk are made

    A bar graph is depicted. The title is: How satisfied are you with the quality of decisions made around risk? A bar graph is depicted. The title is: IT decisions around acceptable risk involve the right people?

    The majority of stakeholders believe that they are aware of how decisions around information are made

    67% of stakeholders believe they do understand how decisions around information (data) retention and classification are made.

    A bar graph is depicted. The title is: How satisfied are you with the quality of decisions around information governance? A bar graph is depicted. The title is: IT decisions around information retention and classification involve the right people?

    Essentials of Vendor Management for Small Business

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    • Parent Category Name: Vendor Management
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    • Each year, SMB IT organizations spend more money “outsourcing” tasks, activities, applications, functions, and other items.
    • Many SMBs lack the affordability of implementing a sophisticated vendor management initiative or office.
    • The increased spend and associated outsourcing leads to less control, and more risk for IT organizations. Managing this becomes a higher priority for IT, but many IT organizations are ill-equipped to do this proactively.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Vendor management is not “plug and play” – each organization’s vendor management initiative (VMI) needs to fit its culture, environment, and goals. There are commonalities among vendor management initiatives, but the key is to adapt vendor management principles to fit your needs, not the other way around.
    • All vendors are not of equal importance to an organization. Internal resources are a scarce commodity and should be deployed so that they provide the best return on the organization’s investment. Classifying or segmenting your vendors allows you to focus your efforts on the most important vendors first, allowing your VMI to have the greatest impact possible.
    • Having a solid foundation is critical to the VMI’s ongoing success. Whether you will be creating a formal vendor management office or using vendor management techniques, tools, and templates “informally”, starting with the basics is essential. Make sure you understand why the VMI exists and what it hopes to achieve, what is in and out of scope for the VMI, what strengths the VMI can leverage and the obstacles it will have to address, and how it will work with other areas within your organization.

    Impact and Result

    • Build and implement a vendor management initiative tailored to your environment.
    • Create a solid foundation to sustain your vendor management initiative as it evolves and matures.
    • Leverage vendor management-specific tools and templates to manage vendors more proactively and improve communication.
    • Concentrate your vendor management resources on the right vendors.
    • Build a roadmap and project plan for your vendor management journey to ensure you reach your destination.
    • Build collaborative relationships with critical vendors.

    Essentials of Vendor Management for Small Business Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read this Executive Brief to understand how changes in the vendor landscape and customer reliance on vendors have made a vendor management initiative indispensible.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Plan

    This phase helps you organize your VMI and document internal processes, relationships, roles, and responsibilities. The main outcomes from this phase are organizational documents, a baseline VMI maturity level, and a desired future state for the VMI.

    • Essentials of Vendor Management for Small Business – Phase 1: Plan
    • Phase 1 Small Business Tools and Templates Compendium

    2. Build

    This phase helps you configure and create the tools and templates that will help you run the VMI. The main outcomes from this phase are a clear understanding of which vendors are important to you, the tools to manage the vendor relationships, and an implementation plan.

    • Essentials of Vendor Management for Small Business – Phase 2: Build
    • Phase 2 Small Business Vendor Classification Tool
    • Phase 2 Small Business Risk Assessment Tool
    • Phase 2 Small Business Tools and Templates Compendium

    3. Run

    This phase helps you begin operating the VMI. The main outcomes from this phase are guidance and the steps required to implement your VMI.

    • Essentials of Vendor Management for Small Business – Phase 3: Run

    4. Review

    This phase helps the VMI identify what it should stop doing, start doing, and continue doing as it improves and matures. The main outcomes from this phase are ways to advance the VMI and maintain internal alignment.

    • Essentials of Vendor Management for Small Business – Phase 4: Review
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Essentials of Vendor Management for Small Business

    Create and implement a vendor management framework to begin obtaining measurable results in 90 days.


    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Analyst Perspective

    Vendor Management Challenge

    Small businesses are often challenged by the growth and complexity of their vendor ecosystem, including the degree to which the vendors control them. Vendors are increasing, obtaining more and more budget dollars, while funding for staff or headcount is decreasing as a result of cloud-based applications and an increase in our reliance on Managed Service Providers. Initiating a vendor management initiative (VMI) vs. creating a fully staffed vendor management office will get you started on the path of proactively controlling your vendors instead of consistently operating in a reactionary mode. This blueprint is designed with that very thought: to assist small businesses in creating the essentials of a vendor management initiative.

    This is a picture of Steve Jeffery

    Steve Jeffery
    Principal Research Director, Vendor Management
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Each year, IT organizations "outsource" tasks, activities, functions, and other items. During 2021:

    • Spend on as-a-service providers increased 38% over 2020.*
    • Spend on managed service providers increased 16% over 2020.*
    • IT service providers increased their merger and acquisition numbers by 47% over 2020.*

    This leads to more spend, less control, and more risk for IT organizations. Managing this becomes a higher priority for IT, but many IT organizations are ill-equipped to do this proactively.

    Common Obstacles

    As new contracts are negotiated and existing contracts are renegotiated or renewed, there is a perception that the contracts will yield certain results, output, performance, solutions, or outcomes. The hope is that these will provide a measurable expected value to IT and the organization. Oftentimes, much of the expected value is never realized. Many organizations don't have a VMI to help:

    • Ensure at least the expected value is achieved.
    • Improve on the expected value through performance management.
    • Significantly increase the expected value through a proactive VMI.

    Info-Tech's Approach

    Vendor Management is a proactive, cross-functional lifecycle. It can be broken down into four phases:

    • Plan
    • Build
    • Run
    • Review

    The Info-Tech process addresses all four phases and provides a step-by-step approach to configure and operate your VMI. The content in this blueprint helps you quickly establish your VMI and sets a solid foundation for its growth and maturity.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Vendor management is not a one-size-fits-all initiative. It must be configured:

    • For your environment, culture, and goals.
    • To leverage the strengths of your organization and personnel.
    • To focus your energy and resources on your critical vendors.

    Executive Summary

    Your challenge

    Spend on managed service providers and as-a-service providers continues to increase. In addition, IT services vendors continue to be active in the mergers and acquisitions arena. This increases the need for a VMI to help with the changing IT vendor landscape.

    38%

    2021

    16%

    2021

    47%

    2021

    Spend on as-a-service providers

    Spend on managed services providers

    IT services merger & acquisition growth (transactions)

    Source: Information Services Group, Inc., 2022.

    Executive Summary

    Common obstacles

    When organizations execute, renew, or renegotiate a contract, there is an "expected value" associated with that contract. Without a robust VMI, most of the expected value will never be realized. With a robust VMI, the realized value significantly exceeds the expected value during the contract term.

    A contract's realized value with and without a vendor management initiative

    This is an image of a bar graph showing the difference in value between those with and without a VMI, with and for those with a VMI, with Vendor Collaboration and with Vendor Performance Management. The data for those with a VMI have substantially more value.

    Source: Based on findings from Geller & Company, 2003.

    Executive Summary

    Info-Tech's approach

    A sound, cyclical approach to vendor management will help you create a VMI that meets your needs and stays in alignment with your organization as they both change (i.e. mature and grow).

    This is an image of the 4 Step Vendor Management Process. The four steps are: 1. Plan; 2. Build; 3. Run; 4. Review.

    Info-Tech's methodology for creating and operating your vmi

    Phase 1 - Plan Phase 2 - Build Phase 3 - Run Phase 4 - Review
    Phase Steps

    1.1 Mission Statement and Goals

    1.2 Scope

    1.3 Strengths and Obstacles

    1.4 Roles and Responsibilities

    2.1 Classification Model

    2.2 Risk Assessment Tool

    2.3 Scorecards and Feedback

    2.4 Business Alignment Meeting Agenda

    2.5 Relationship Alignment Document

    2.6 Vendor Orientation

    2.7 3-Year Roadmap

    2.8 90-Day Plan

    2.9 Quick Wins2.10 Reports

    3.1 Classify Vendors

    3.2 Compile Scorecards

    3.3 Conduct Business Alignment Meetings

    3.4 Work the 90-Day Plan

    3.5 Manage the 3-Year Roadmap

    3.6 Develop/Improve Vendor Relationships

    4.1 Incorporate Leading Practices

    4.2 Leverage Lessons Learned

    4.3 Maintain Internal Alignment

    Phase Outcomes This phase helps you organize your VMI and document internal processes, relationships, roles, and responsibilities. The main outcomes from this phase are organizational documents, a baseline VMI maturity level, and a desired future state for the VMI. This phase helps you configure and create the tools and templates that will help you run the VMI. The main outcomes from this phase are a clear understanding of which vendors are important to you, the tools to manage the vendor relationships, and an implementation plan. This phase helps you begin operating the VMI. The main outcomes from this phase are guidance and the steps required to implement your VMI. This phase helps the VMI identify what it should stop doing, start doing, and continue doing as it improves and matures. The main outcomes from this phase are ways to advance the VMI and maintain internal alignment.

    Insight Summary

    Insight 1

    Vendor management is not "plug and play" – each organization's vendor management initiative (VMI) needs to fit its culture, environment, and goals. While there are commonalities and leading practices associated with vendor management, your initiative won't look exactly like another organization's. The key is to adapt vendor management principles to fit your needs.

    Insight 2

    All vendors are not of equal importance to your organization. Internal resources are a scarce commodity and should be deployed so that they provide the best return on the organization's investment. Classifying or segmenting your vendors allows you to focus your efforts on the most important vendors first, allowing your VMI to have the greatest impact possible.

    Insight 3

    Having a solid foundation is critical to the VMI's ongoing success. Whether you will be creating a formal vendor management office or using vendor management techniques, tools, and templates "informally", starting with the basics is essential. Make sure you understand why the VMI exists and what it hopes to achieve, what is in and out of scope for the VMI, what strengths the VMI can leverage and the obstacles it will have to address, and how it will work with other areas within your organization.

    Blueprint benefits

    IT benefits

    • Identify and manage risk proactively.
    • Reduce costs and maximize value.
    • Increase visibility with your critical vendors.
    • Improve vendor performance.
    • Create a collaborative environment with key vendors.
    • Segment vendors to allocate resources more effectively and more efficiently.

    Business benefits

    • Improve vendor accountability.
    • Increase collaboration between departments.
    • Improve working relationships with your vendors.
    • Create a feedback loop to address vendor/customer issues before they get out of hand or are more costly to resolve.
    • Increase access to meaningful data and information regarding important vendors.

    Phase 1 - Plan

    Phase 1

    Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4

    1.1 Mission Statement and Goals

    1.2 Scope

    1.3 Strengths and Obstacles

    1.4 Roles and Responsibilities

    2.1 Classification Model

    2.2 Risk Assessment Tool

    2.3 Scorecards and Feedback

    2.4 Business Alignment Meeting Agenda

    2.5 Relationship Alignment Document

    2.6 Vendor Orientation

    2.7 3-Year Roadmap

    2.8 90-Day Plan

    2.9 Quick Wins

    2.10 Reports

    3.1 Classify Vendors

    3.2 Compile Scorecards

    3.3 Conduct Business Alignment Meetings

    3.4 Work the 90-Day Plan

    3.5 Manage the 3-Year Roadmap

    3.6 Develop/Improve Vendor Relationships

    4.1 Incorporate Leading Practices

    4.2 Leverage Lessons Learned

    4.3 Maintain Internal Alignment

    This phase will walk you through the following activity:

    • Organizing your VMI and document internal processes, relationships, roles, and responsibilities. The main outcomes from this phase are organizational documents, and a desired future state for the VMI.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives
    • Procurement/Sourcing
    • IT
    • Others as needed

    Vendor Management Initiative Basics for the Small/Medium Businesses

    Phase 1 – Plan

    Get Organized

    Phase 1 – Plan focuses on getting organized. Foundational elements (Mission Statement, Goals, Scope, Strengths and Obstacles, Roles and Responsibilities, and Process Mapping) will help you define your VMI. These and the other elements of this Phase will follow you throughout the process of starting up your VMI and running it.

    Spending time up front to ensure that everyone is on the same page will help avoid headaches down the road. The tendency is to skimp (or even skip) on these steps to get to "the good stuff." To a certain extent, the process provided here is like building a house. You wouldn't start building your dream home without having a solid blueprint. The same is true with vendor management. Leveraging vendor management tools and techniques without the proper foundation may provide some benefit in the short term, but in the long term it will ultimately be a house of cards waiting to collapse.

    Step 1.1 – Mission statement and goals

    Identify why the VMI exists and what it will achieve

    Whether you are starting your vendor management journey or are already down the path, it is important to know why the vendor management initiative exists and what it hopes to achieve. The easiest way to document this is with a written declaration in the form of a Mission Statement and Goals. Although this is the easiest way to proceed, it is far from easy.

    The Mission Statement should identify at a high level the nature of the services provided by the VMI, who it will serve, and some of the expected outcomes or achievements. The Mission Statement should be no longer than one or two sentences.

    The complement to the Mission Statement is the list of goals for the VMI. Your goals should not be a reassertion of your Mission Statement in bullet format. At this stage it may not be possible to make them SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable/Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound/Time-Based), but consider making them as SMART as possible. Without some of the SMART parameters attached, your goals are more like dreams and wishes. At a minimum, you should be able to determine the level of success achieved for each of the VMI goals.

    Although the VMI's Mission Statement will stay static over time (other than for significant changes to the VMI or organization as a whole), the goals should be reevaluated periodically using a SMART filter, and adjusted as needed.

    1.1.1 – Mission statement and goals

    20 – 40 Minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and use a brainstorming activity to list, on a whiteboard or flip chart, the reasons why the VMI will exist.
    2. Review external mission statements for inspiration.
    3. Review internal mission statements from other areas to ensure consistency.
    4. Draft and document your Mission Statement in the Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 1.1 Mission Statement and Goals.
    5. Continue brainstorming and identify the high-level goals for the VMI.
    6. Review the list of goals and make them as SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable/Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound/Time-Based) as possible.
    7. Document your goals in the Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium– Tab 1.1 Mission Statement and Goals.
    8. Obtain signoff on the Mission Statement and goals from stakeholders and executives as required.

    Input

    • Brainstorming results
    • Mission statements from other internal and external sources

    Output

    • Completed Mission Statement and Goals

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 1.1 Mission Statement and Goals

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Download the Info-Tech Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Step 1.2 – Scope

    Determine what is in scope and out of scope for the VMI

    Regardless of where your VMI resides or how it operates, it will be working with other areas within your organization. Some of the activities performed by the VMI will be new and not currently handled by other groups or individuals internally; at the same time, some of the activities performed by the VMI may be currently handled by other groups or individuals internally. In addition, executives, stakeholders, and other internal personnel may have expectations or make assumptions about the VMI. As a result, there can be a lot of confusion about what the VMI does and doesn't do, and the answers cannot always be found in the VMI's Mission Statement and Goals.

    One component of helping others understand the VMI landscape is formalizing the VMI Scope. The Scope will define boundaries for the VMI. The intent is not to fence itself off and keep others out but provide guidance on where the VMI's territory begins and ends. Ultimately, this will help clarify the VMI's roles and responsibilities, improve workflow, and reduce errant assumptions.

    When drafting your VMI scoping document, make sure you look at both sides of the equation (similar to what you would do when following best practices for a statement of work). Identify what is in scope and what is out of scope. Be specific when describing the individual components of the VMI Scope, and make sure executives and stakeholders are onboard with the final version.

    1.2.1 – Scope

    20 - 40 Minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and use a brainstorming activity to list, on a whiteboard or flip chart, the activities and functions in scope and out of scope for the VMI.
      1. Be specific to avoid ambiguity and improve clarity.
      2. Go back and forth between in scope and out of scope as needed; it is not necessary to list all the in-scope items and then turn your attention to the out-of-scope items.
    2. Review the lists to make sure there is enough specificity. An item may be in scope or out of scope, but not both.
    3. Use the Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 1.2 Scope to document the results.
    4. Obtain signoff on the Scope from stakeholders and executives as required.

    Input

    • Brainstorming results
    • Mission Statement and Goals

    Output

    • Completed list of items in and out of scope for the VMI

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 1.2 Scope

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Download the Info-Tech Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Step 1.3 – Strengths and obstacles

    Pinpoint the VMI's strengths and obstacles

    A SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) is a valuable tool, but it is overkill for your VMI at this point. However, using a modified and simplified form of this tool (strengths and obstacles) will yield significant results and benefit the VMI as it grows and matures.

    Your output will be two lists: the strengths associated with the VMI and the obstacles the VMI is facing. For example, strengths could include items such as smart people working within the VMI and executive support. Obstacles could include items such as limited headcount and training required for VMI staff.

    The goals are 1) to harness the strengths to help the VMI be successful and 2) to understand the impact of the obstacles and plan accordingly. The output can also be used to enlighten executives and stakeholders about the challenges associated with their directives or requests (e.g. human bandwidth may not be sufficient to accomplish some of the vendor management activities and there is a moratorium on hiring until the next budget year).

    For each strength identified, determine how you will or can leverage it when things are going well or when the VMI is in a bind. For each obstacle, list the potential impact on the VMI (e.g. scope, growth rate, and number of vendors that can actively be part of the VMI).

    As you do your brainstorming, be as specific as possible and validate your lists with stakeholders and executives as needed.

    1.3.1 – Strengths and obstacles

    20 - 40 Minutes

    Meet with the participants and use a brainstorming activity to list, on a whiteboard or flip chart, the VMI's strengths and obstacles.

    Be specific to avoid ambiguity and improve clarity.

    Go back and forth between strengths and obstacles as needed; it is not necessary to list all the strengths first and then all the obstacles.

    It is possible for an item to be a strength and an obstacle; when this happens, add details to distinguish the situations.

    Review the lists to make sure there is enough specificity.

    Determine how you will leverage each strength and how you will manage each obstacle.

    Use the Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 1.3 Strengths and Obstacles to document the results.

    Obtain signoff on the strengths and obstacles from stakeholders and executives as required.

    Input

    • Brainstorming
    • Mission Statement and Goals
    • Scope

    Output

    • Completed list of items impacting the VMI's ability to be successful: strengths the VMI can leverage and obstacles the VMI must manage

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 1.3 Strengths and Obstacles

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Download the Info-Tech Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Step 1.4 – Roles and responsibilities

    Obtain consensus on who is responsible for what

    One crucial success factor for VMIs is gaining and maintaining internal alignment. There are many moving parts to an organization, and a VMI must be clear on the various roles and responsibilities related to the relevant processes. Some of this information can be found in the VMI's Scope referenced in Step 1.2, but additional information is required to avoid stepping on each other's toes; many of the processes require internal departments to work together. (For example, obtaining requirements for a request for proposal takes more than one person or department). While it is not necessary to get too granular, it is imperative that you have a clear understanding of how the VMI activities will fit within the larger vendor management lifecycle (which is comprised of many sub processes) and who will be doing what.

    As we have learned through our workshops and guided implementations, a traditional RACI* or RASCI* Chart does not work well for this purpose. These charts are not intuitive, and they lack the specificity required to be effective. For vendor management purposes, a higher-level view and a slightly different approach provide much better results.

    This step will lead your through the creation of an OIC* Chart to determine vendor management lifecycle roles and responsibilities. Afterward, you'll be able to say, "Oh, I see clearly who is involved in each part of the process and what their role is."

    *RACI – Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed

    *RASCI – Responsible, Accountable, Support, Consulted, Informed

    *OIC – Owner, Informed, Contributor

    This is an image of a table, where the row headings are: Role 1-5, and the Column Headings are: Step 1-5.

    Step 1.4 – Roles and responsibilities (cont'd)

    Obtain consensus on who is responsible for what

    To start, define the vendor management lifecycle steps or process applicable to your VMI. Next, determine who participates in the vendor management lifecycle. There is no need to get too granular – think along the lines of departments, subdepartments, divisions, agencies, or however you categorize internal operational units. Avoid naming individuals other than by title; this typically happens when a person oversees a large group (e.g. the CIO [chief information officer] or the CPO [chief procurement officer]). Be thorough, but don't let the chart get out of hand. For each role and step of the lifecycle, ask whether the entry is necessary; does it add value to the clarity of understanding the responsibilities associated with the vendor management lifecycle? Consider two examples, one for roles and one for lifecycle steps. 1) Is IT sufficient or do you need IT Operations and IT Development? 2) Is "negotiate contract documents" sufficient or do you need negotiate the contract and negotiate the renewal? The answer will depend on your culture and environment but be wary of creating a spreadsheet that requires an 85-inch monitor to view it.

    After defining the roles (departments, divisions, agencies) and the vendor management lifecycle steps or process, assign one of three letters to each box in your chart:

    • O – Owner – who owns the process; they may also contribute to it.
    • I – Informed – who is informed about the progress or results of the process.
    • C – Contributor – who contributes or works on the process; it can be tangible or intangible contributions.

    This activity can be started by the VMI or done as a group with representatives from each of the named roles. If the VMI starts the activity, the resulting chart should be validated by the each of the named roles.

    1.4.1 – Roles and responsibilities

    1 – 6 hours

    1. Meet with the participants and configure the OIC Chart in the Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 1.4 OIC Chart.
      1. Review the steps or activities across the top of the chart and modify as needed.
      2. Review the roles listed along the left side of the chart and modify as needed.
    2. For each activity or step across the top of the chart, assign each role a letter – O for owner of that activity or step, I for informed, or C for contributor. Use only one letter per cell.
    3. Work your way across the chart. Every cell should have an entry or be left blank if it is not applicable.
    4. Review the results and validate that every activity or step has an O assigned to it; there must be an owner for every activity or step.
    5. Obtain signoff on the OIC Chart from stakeholders and executives as required.

    Input

    • A list of activities or steps to complete a project starting with requirements gathering and ending with ongoing risk management.
    • A list of internal areas (departments, divisions, agencies, etc.) and stakeholders that contribute to completing a project.

    Output

    • Completed OCI chart indicating roles and responsibilities for the VMI and other internal areas.

    Materials

    • Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 1.4 OIC Chart

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Procurement/Sourcing
    • IT
    • Representatives from other areas as needed
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Download the Info-Tech Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Phase 2 - Build

    Create and configure tools, templates, and processes

    Phase 1

    Phase 2Phase 3Phase 4

    1.1 Mission Statement and Goals

    1.2 Scope

    1.3 Strengths and Obstacles

    1.4 Roles and Responsibilities

    2.1 Classification Model

    2.2 Risk Assessment Tool

    2.3 Scorecards and Feedback

    2.4 Business Alignment Meeting Agenda

    2.5 Relationship Alignment Document

    2.6 Vendor Orientation

    2.7 3-Year Roadmap

    2.8 90-Day Plan

    2.9 Quick Wins

    2.10 Reports

    3.1 Classify Vendors

    3.2 Compile Scorecards

    3.3 Conduct Business Alignment Meetings

    3.4 Work the 90-Day Plan

    3.5 Manage the 3-Year Roadmap

    3.6 Develop/Improve Vendor Relationships

    4.1 Incorporate Leading Practices

    4.2 Leverage Lessons Learned

    4.3 Maintain Internal Alignment

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Configuring and creating the tools and templates that will help you run the VMI. The main outcomes from this phase are a clear understanding of which vendors are important to you, the tools to manage the vendor relationships, and an implementation plan.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives
    • Human Resources
    • Legal
    • Others as needed

    Vendor Management Initiative Basics for the Small/Medium Businesses

    Phase 2 – Build

    Create and configure tools, templates, and processes

    Phase 2 – Build focuses on creating and configuring the tools and templates that will help you run your VMI. Vendor management is not a plug and play environment, and unless noted otherwise, the tools and templates included with this blueprint require your input and thought. The tools and templates must work in concert with your culture, values, and goals. That will require teamwork, insights, contemplation, and deliberation.

    During this Phase you'll leverage the various templates and tools included with this blueprint and adapt them for your specific needs and use. In some instances, you'll be starting with mostly a blank slate; while in others, only a small modification may be required to make it fit your circumstances. However, it is possible that a document or spreadsheet may need heavy customization to fit your situation. As you create your VMI, use the included materials for inspiration and guidance purposes rather than as absolute dictates.

    Step 2.1 – Classification model

    Configure the COST vendor classification tool

    One of the functions of a VMI is to allocate the appropriate level of vendor management resources to each vendor since not all vendors are of equal importance to your organization. While some people may be able intuitively to sort their vendors into vendor management categories, a more objective, consistent, and reliable model works best. Info-Tech's COST model helps you assign your vendors to the appropriate vendor management category so that you can focus your vendor management resources where they will do the most good.

    COST is an acronym for Commodity, Operational, Strategic, and Tactical. Your vendors will occupy one of these vendor management categories, and each category helps you determine the nature of the resources allocated to that vendor, the characteristics of the relationship desired by the VMI, and the governance level used.

    The easiest way to think of the COST model is as a 2 x 2 matrix or graph. The model should be configured for your environment so that the criteria used for determining a vendor's classification align with what is important to you and your organization. However, at this point in your VMI's maturation, a simple approach works best. The Classification Model included with this blueprint requires minimal configuration to get your started, and that is discussed on the activity slide associated with this Step 2.1.

    This is an image of the COST Vendor Classification Tool.

    Step 2.1 – Classification model (cont'd)

    Configure the COST vendor classification tool

    Common characteristics by vendor management category

    Operational

    Strategic
    • Low to moderate risk and criticality; moderate to high spend and switching costs
    • Product or service used by more than one area
    • Price is a key negotiation point
    • Product or service is valued by the organization
    • Quality or the perception of quality is a differentiator (i.e. brand awareness)
    • Moderate to high risk and criticality; moderate to high spend and switching costs
    • Few competitors and differentiated products and services
    • Product or service significantly advances the organization's vision, mission, and success
    • Well-established in their core industry

    Commodity

    Tactical
    • Low risk and criticality; low spend and switching costs
    • Product or service is readily available from many sources
    • Market has many competitors and options
    • Relationship is transactional
    • Price is the main differentiator
    • Moderate to high risk and criticality; low to moderate spend and switching costs
    • Vendor offerings align with or support one or more strategic objectives
    • Often IT vendors "outside" of IT (i.e. controlled and paid for by other areas)
    • Often niche or new vendors

    Source: Compiled in part from Guth, Stephen. "Vendor Relationship Management Getting What You Paid for (And More)." 2015.

    2.1.1 – Classification model

    15 – 30 Minutes

    1. Meet with the participants to configure the spend ranges in Phase 2 Vendor Classification Tool – Tab 1. Configuration for your environment.
    2. Collect your vendors and their annual spend to sort by largest to lowest.
    3. Update cells F14-J14 in the Classification Model based on your actual data.
      1. Cell F14 – Set the boundary at a point between the spend for your 10th and 11th ranked vendors. For example, if the 10th vendor by spend is $1,009, 850 and the 11th vendor by spend is $980,763, the range for F14 would be $1,000,00+.
      2. Cell G14 – Set the bottom of the range at a point between the spend for your 30th and 31st ranked vendors; the top of the range will be $1 less than the bottom of the range specified in F14.
      3. Cell H14 – Set the bottom of the range slightly below the spend for your 50th ranked vendor; the top of the range will be $1 less than the bottom of the range specified in G14.
      4. Cells I14 and J14 – Divide the remaining range in half and split it between the two cells; for J14 the range will be $0 to $1 less than the bottom range in I14.
    4. Ignore the other variables at this time.

    Input

    • Phase 1 List of Vendors by Annual Spend

    Output

    • Configured Vendor Classification Tool

    Materials

    • Phase 2 Vendor Classification Tool – Tab 1. Configuration

    Participants

    • VMI team

    Download the Info-Tech Phase 2 Vendor Classification Tool

    Step 2.2 – Risk assessment tool

    Identify risks to measure, monitor, and report on

    One of the typical drivers of a VMI is risk management. Organizations want to get a better handle on the various risks their vendors pose. Vendor risks originate from many areas: financial, performance, security, legal, and others. However, security risk is the high-profile risk, and the one organizations often focus on almost exclusively, which leaves the organization vulnerable in other areas.

    Risk management is a program, not a project; there is no completion date. A proactive approach works best and requires continual monitoring, identification, and assessment. Reacting to risks after they occur can be costly and have other detrimental effects on the organization. Any risk that adversely affects IT will adversely affect the entire organization.

    While the VMI won't necessarily be quantifying or calculating the risk directly, it generally is the aggregator of risk information across the risk categories, which it then includes in its reporting function (see Steps 2.12 and 3.8).

    At a minimum, your risk management strategy should involve:

    • Identifying the risks you want to measure and monitor.
    • Identifying your risk appetite (the amount of risk you are willing to live with).
    • Measuring, monitoring, and reporting on the applicable risks.
    • Developing and deploying a risk management plan to minimize potential risk impact.

    Vendor risk is a fact of life, but you do have options for how to handle it. Be proactive and thoughtful in your approach, and focus your resources on what is important.

    2.2.1 – Risk assessment tool

    30 - 90 Minutes

    1. Meet with the participants to configure the risk indicators in Phase 2 Vendor Risk Assessment Tool – Tab 1. Set parameters for your environment.
    2. Review the risk categories and determine which ones you will be measuring and monitoring.
    3. Review the risk indicators under each risk category and determine whether the indicator is acceptable as written, is acceptable with modifications, should be replaced, or should be deleted.
    4. Make the necessary changes to the risk indicators; these changes will cascade to each of the vendor tabs. Limit the number of risk indicators to no more than seven per risk category.
    5. Gain input and approval as needed from sponsors, stakeholders, and executives as required.

    Input

    • Scope
    • OIC Chart
    • Process Maps
    • Brainstorming

    Output

    • Configured Vendor Risk Assessment Tool

    Materials

    • Phase 2 Vendor Risk Assessment Tool – Tab 1. Set Parameters

    Participants

    • VMI team

    Download the Info-Tech Phase 2 Vendor Classification Tool

    Step 2.3 – Scorecards and feedback

    Design a two-way feedback loop with your vendors

    A vendor management scorecard is a great tool for measuring, monitoring, and improving relationship alignment. In addition, it is perfect for improving communication between you and the vendor.

    Conceptually, a scorecard is similar to a school report card. At the end of a learning cycle, you receive feedback on how well you do in each of your classes. For vendor management, the scorecard is also used to provide periodic feedback, but there are some nuances and additional benefits and objectives when compared to a report card.

    Although scorecards can be used in a variety of ways, the focus here will be on vendor management scorecards – contract management, project management, and other types of scorecards will not be included in the materials covered in this Step 2.3 or in Step 3.4.

    This image contains a table with the score for objectives A-D. The scores are: A4, B3, C5, D4.

    Step 2.3 – Scorecards and feedback (cont'd)

    Design a two-way feedback loop with your vendors

    Anatomy

    The Info-Tech scorecard includes five areas:

    • Measurement categories. Measurement categories help organize the scorecard. Limit the number of measurement categories to three to five; this allows the parties to stay focused on what's important. Too many measurement categories make it difficult for the vendor to understand the expectations.
    • Criteria. The criteria describe what is being measured. Create criteria with sufficient detail to allow the reviewers to fully understand what is being measured and to evaluate it. Criteria can be objective or subjective. Use three to five criteria per measurement category.
    • Measurement category weights. Not all your measurement categories may be of equal importance to you; this area allows you to give greater weight to a measurement category when compiling the overall score.
    • Rating. Reviewers will be asked to assign a score to each criteria using a 1 to 5 scale.
    • Comments. A good scorecard will include a place for reviewers to provide additional information regarding the rating, or other items that are relevant to the scorecard.

    An overall score is calculated based on the rating for each criteria and the measurement category weights.

    Step 2.3 – Scorecards and feedback (cont'd)

    Design a two-way feedback loop with your vendors

    Goals and objectives

    Scorecards can be used for a variety of reasons. Some of the common ones are:

    • Improving vendor performance.
    • Conveying expectations to the vendor.
    • Identifying and recognizing top vendors.
    • Increasing alignment between the parties.
    • Improving communication with the vendor.
    • Comparing vendors across the same criteria.
    • Measuring items not included in contract metrics.
    • Identifying vendors for "strategic alliance" consideration.
    • Helping the organization achieve specific goals and objectives.

    Identifying and resolving issues before they impact performance or the relationship.

    Identifying your scorecard drivers first will help you craft a suitable scorecard.

    Step 2.3 – Scorecards and feedback (cont'd)

    Design a two-way feedback loop with your vendors

    Info-Tech recommends starting with simple scorecards to allow you and the vendors to acclimate to the new process and information. As you build your scorecards, keep in mind that internal personnel will be scoring the vendors and the vendors will be reviewing the scorecard. Make your scorecard easy for your personnel to fill out, and containing meaningful content to drive the vendor in the right direction. You can always make the scorecard more complex in the future.

    Our recommendation of five categories is provided below. Choose three to five of the categories that help you accomplish your scorecard goals and objectives:

    1. Timeliness – Responses, resolutions, fixes, submissions, completions, milestones, deliverables, invoices, etc.
    2. Cost – Total cost of ownership, value, price stability, price increases/decreases, pricing models, etc.
    3. Quality – Accuracy, completeness, mean time to failure, bugs, number of failures, etc.
    4. Personnel – Skilled, experienced, knowledgeable, certified, friendly, trustworthy, flexible, accommodating, etc.
    5. Risk – Adequate contractual protections, security breaches, lawsuits, finances, audit findings, etc.

    Some criteria may be applicable in more than one category. The categories above should cover at least 80% of the items that are important to your organization. The general criteria listed for each category is not an exhaustive list, but most things break down into time, money, quality, people, and risk issues.

    Step 2.3 – Scorecards and feedback (cont'd)

    Design a two-way feedback loop with your vendors

    Additional Considerations

    • Even a good rating system can be confusing. Make sure you provide some examples or a way for reviewers to discern the differences between a 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Don't assume your "rating key" will be intuitive.
    • When assigning weights, don't go lower than 10% for any measurement category. If the weight is too low, it won't be relevant enough to have an impact on the total score. If it doesn't "move the needle", don't include it.
    • Final sign-off on the scorecard template should occur outside the VMI. The heavy lifting can be done by the VMI to create it, but the scorecard is for the benefit of the organization overall, and those impacted by the vendors specifically. You may end up playing arbiter or referee, but the scorecard is not the exclusive property of the VMI. Try to reach consensus on your final template whenever possible.
    • You should notice improved ratings and total scores over time for your vendors. One explanation for this is the Pygmalion Effect: "The Pygmalion [E]ffect describes situations where someone's high expectations improves our behavior and therefore our performance in a given area. It suggests that we do better when more is expected of us."* Convey your expectations and let the vendors' competitive juices take over.
    • While creating your scorecard and materials to explain the process to internal personnel, identify those pieces that will help you explain it to your vendors during vendor orientation (see Steps 2.6 and 3.4). Leveraging pre-existing materials is a great shortcut.

    *Source: The Decision Lab, n.d.

    Step 2.3 – Scorecards and feedback (cont'd)

    Design a two-way feedback loop with your vendors

    Vendor Feedback

    After you've built your scorecard, turn your attention to the second half of the equation – feedback from the vendor. A communication loop cannot be successful without dialogue flowing both ways. While this can happen with just a scorecard, a mechanism specifically geared toward the vendor providing you with feedback improves communication, alignment, and satisfaction.

    You may be tempted to create a formal scorecard for the vendor to use; avoid that temptation until later in your maturity or development of the VMI. You'll be implementing a lot of new processes, deploying new tools and templates, and getting people to work together in new ways. Work on those things first.

    For now, implement an informal process for obtaining information from the vendor. Start by identifying information that you will find useful – information that will allow you to improve overall, to reduce waste or time, to improve processes, to identify gaps in skills. Incorporate these items into your business alignment meetings (see Steps 2.4 and 3.5). Create three to five good questions to ask the vendor and include these in the business alignment meeting agenda. The goal is to get meaningful feedback, and that starts with asking good questions.

    Keep it simple at first. When the time is right, you can build a more formal feedback form or scorecard. Don't be in a rush; as long as the informal method works, keep using it.

    2.3.1 – Scorecards and feedback

    30 – 60 Minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and brainstorm ideas for your scorecard measurement categories:
      1. What makes a vendor valuable to your organization?
      2. What differentiates a "good" vendor from a "bad" vendor?
      3. What items would you like to measure and provide feedback on to the vendor to improve performance, the relationship, risk, and other areas?
    2. Select three, but no more than five, of the following measure categories: timeliness, cost, quality, personnel, and risk.
    3. Within each measurement category, list two or three criteria that you want to measure and track for your vendors. Choose items that are as universal as possible rather than being applicable to one vendor or one vendor type.
    4. Assign a weight to each measurement category, ensuring that the total weight is 100% for all measurement categories.
    5. Document your results as you go in Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.3 Scorecard.

    Input

    • Brainstorming

    Output

    • Configured Scorecard template

    Materials

    • Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.3 Scorecard

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Download the Info-Tech Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    2.3.2 – Scorecards and feedback

    15 to 30 Minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and brainstorm ideas for feedback to seek from your vendors during your business alignment meetings. During the brainstorming, identify questions to ask the vendor about your organization that will:
      1. Help you improve the relationship.
      2. Help you improve your processes or performance.
      3. Help you improve ongoing communication.
      4. Help you evaluate your personnel.
    2. Identify the top five questions you want to include in your business alignment meeting agenda. (Note: you may need to refine the actual questions from the brainstorming activity before they are ready to include in your business alignment meeting agenda.)
    3. Document both your brainstorming activity and your final results in Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.3 Feedback. The brainstorming questions can be used in the future as your VMI matures and your feedback transforms from informal to formal. The results will be used in Steps 2.4 and 3.5.

    Input

    • Brainstorming

    Output

    • Feedback questions to include with the business alignment meeting agenda

    Materials

    • Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.3 Feedback

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Download the Info-Tech Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Step 2.4 – Business alignment meeting agenda

    Craft an agenda that meets the needs of the VMI

    A business alignment meeting (BAM) is a multi-faceted tool to ensure the customer and the vendor stay focused on what is important to the customer at a high level. BAMs are not traditional operational meetings where the parties get into the details of the contracts, deal with installation problems, address project management issues, or discuss specific cost overruns. The focus of the BAM is the scorecard (see Step 2.3), but other topics are discussed, and other purposes are served. For example:

    • You can use the BAM to develop the relationship with the vendor's leadership team so that if escalation is ever needed, your organization is more than just a name on a spreadsheet or customer list.
    • You can learn about innovations the vendor is working on (without the meeting turning into a sales call).
    • You can address high-level performance trends and request corrective action as needed.
    • You can clarify your expectations.
    • You can educate the vendor about your industry, culture, and organization.
    • You can learn more about the vendor.

    As you build your BAM Agenda, someone in your organization may say, "Oh, that's just a quarterly business review (QBR) or top-to-top meeting." In most instances, an existing QBRs or top-to-top meeting is not the same as a BAM. Using the term QBR or top-to-top meeting instead of BAM can lead to confusion internally. The VMI may say to the business unit, procurement, or another department, "We're going to start running some QBRs for our strategic vendors." The typical response is, "There's no need; we already run QBRs/top-to-top meetings with our important vendors." This may be accompanied by an invitation to join their meeting, where you may be an afterthought, have no influence, and get five minutes at the end to talk about your agenda items. Keep your BAM separate so that it meets your needs.

    Step 2.4 – Business alignment meeting agenda (cont'd)

    Craft an agenda that meets the needs of the VMI

    As previously noted, using the term BAM more accurately depicts the nature of the VMI meeting and prevents confusion internally with other meetings already occurring. In addition, hosting the BAM yourself rather than piggybacking onto another meeting ensures that the VMI's needs are met. The VMI will set and control the BAM agenda and determine the invite list for internal personnel and vendor personnel. As you may have figured out by now, having the right customer and vendor personnel attend will be essential.

    BAMs are conducted at the vendor level, not the contract level. As a result, the frequency of the BAMs will depend on the vendor's classification category (see Steps 2.1 and 3.1). General frequency guidelines are provided below, but they can be modified to meet your goals:

    • Commodity vendors – Not applicable
    • Operational vendors – Biannually or annually
    • Strategic vendors – Quarterly
    • Tactical vendors – Quarterly or biannually

    BAMs can help you achieve some additional benefits not previously mentioned:

    • Foster a collaborative relationship with the vendor.
    • Avoid erroneous assumptions by the parties.
    • Capture and provide a record of the relationship (and other items) over time.

    Step 2.4 – Business alignment meeting agenda (cont'd)

    Craft an agenda that meets the needs of the VMI

    As with any meeting, building the proper agenda will be one of the keys to an effective and efficient meeting. A high-level BAM agenda with sample topics is set out below:

    BAM Agenda

    • Opening remarks
      • Welcome and introductions
      • Review of previous minutes
    • Active discussion
      • Review of open issues
      • Scorecard and feedback
      • Current status of projects to ensure situational awareness by the vendor
      • Roadmap/strategy/future projects
      • Accomplishments
    • Closing remarks
      • Reinforce positives (good behavior, results, and performance, value added, and expectations exceeded)
      • Recap
    • Adjourn

    2.4.1 – Business alignment meeting agenda

    20 – 45 Minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and review the sample agenda in Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.4 BAM Agenda.
    2. Using the sample agenda as inspiration and brainstorming activities as needed, create a BAM agenda tailored to your needs.
      1. Select the items from the sample agenda applicable to your situation.
      2. Add any items required based on your brainstorming.
      3. Add the feedback questions identified during Activity 2.3.2 and documented in Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.3 Feedback.
    3. Gain input and approval from sponsors, stakeholders, and executives as required or appropriate.
    4. Document the final BAM agenda in Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium –Tab 2.4 BAM Agenda.

    Input

    • Brainstorming
    • Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.3 Feedback

    Output

    • Configured BAM agenda

    Materials

    • Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab2 .4 BAM Agenda

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Download the Info-Tech Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Step 2.5 – Relationship alignment document

    Draft a document to convey important VMI information to your vendors

    Throughout this blueprint, alignment is mentioned directly (e.g. business alignment meetings [Steps 2.4 and 3.3]) or indirectly implied. Ensuring you and your vendors are on the same page, have clear and transparent communication, and understand each other's expectations is critical to fostering strong relationships. One component of gaining and maintaining alignment with your vendors is the Relationship Alignment Document (RAD). Depending upon the Scope of your VMI and what your organization already has in place, your RAD will fill in the gaps on various topics.

    Early in the VMI's maturation, the easiest approach is to develop a short document (1 one page) or a pamphlet (i.e. the classic trifold) describing the rules of engagement when doing business with your organization. The RAD can convey expectations, policies, guidelines, and other items. The scope of the document will depend on:

    1. What you believe is important for the vendors to understand.
    2. Any other similar information already provided to the vendors.

    The first step to drafting a RAD is to identify what information vendors need to know to stay on your good side. You may want vendors to know about your gift policy (e.g. employees may not accept vendor gifts above a nominal value, such as a pen or mousepad). Next, compare your list of what vendors need to know and determine if the content is covered in other vendor-facing documents such as a vendor code of conduct or your website's vendor portal. Lastly, create your RAD to bridge the gap between what you want and what is already in place. In some instances, you may want to include items from other documents to reemphasize them with the vendor community.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The RAD can be used with all vendors regardless of classification category. It can be sent directly to the vendors or given to them during vendor orientation (see Step 3.3)

    2.5.1 – Relationship alignment document

    1 to 4 Hours

    1. Meet with the participants and review the RAD sample and checklist in Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.5 Relationship Alignment Doc.
    2. Determine:
      1. Whether you will create one RAD for all vendors or one RAD for strategic vendors and another RAD for tactical and operational vendors; whether you will create a RAD for commodity vendors.
      2. The concepts you want to include in your RAD(s).
      3. The format for your RAD(s) – traditional, pamphlet, or other.
      4. Whether signoff or acknowledgement will be required by the vendors.
    3. Draft your RAD(s) and work with other internal areas, such as Marketing to create a consistent brand for the RADS, and Legal to ensure consistent use and preservation of trademarks or other intellectual property rights and other legal issues.
    4. Review other vendor-facing documents (e.g. supplier code of conduct, onsite safety and security protocols) for consistencies between them and the RAD(s).
    5. Obtain signoff on the RAD(s) from stakeholders, sponsors, executives, Legal, Marketing, and others as needed.

    Input

    • Brainstorming
    • Vendor-facing documents, policies, and procedures

    Output

    • Completed Relationship Alignment Document(s)

    Materials

    • Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.5 Relationship Alignment Doc

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Marketing, as needed
    • Legal, as needed

    Download the Info-Tech Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Step 2.6 – Vendor orientation

    Create a VMI awareness process to build bridges with your vendors

    Your organization is unique. It may have many similarities with other organizations, but your culture, risk tolerance, mission, vision, and goals, finances, employees, and "customers" (those that depend on you) make it different. The same is true of your VMI. It may have similar principles, objectives, and processes to other organizations' VMIs, but yours is still unique. As a result, your vendors may not fully understand your organization and what vendor management means to you.

    Vendor orientation is another means to helping you gain and maintain alignment with your important vendors, educate them on what is important to you, and provide closure when/if the relationship with the vendor ends. Vendor orientation is comprised of three components, each with a different function:

    • Orientation
    • Reorientation
    • Debrief

    Vendor orientation focuses on the vendor management pieces of the puzzle (e.g. the scorecard process) rather than the operational pieces (e.g. setting up a new vendor in the system to ensure invoices are processed smoothly).

    Step 2.6 – Vendor orientation (cont'd)

    Create a VMI awareness process to build bridges with your vendors

    Reorientation

    • Reorientation is either identical or similar to orientation, depending upon the circumstances. Reorientation occurs for several reasons, and each reason will impact the nature and detail of the reorientation content. Reorientation occurs whenever:
    • There is a significant change in the vendor's products or services.
    • The vendor has been through a merger, acquisition, or divestiture.
    • A significant contract renewal/renegotiation has recently occurred.
    • Sufficient time has passed from orientation; commonly 2 to 3 years.
    • The vendor has been placed in a "performance improvement plan" or "relationship improvement plan" protocol.
    • Significant turnover has occurred within your organization (executives, key stakeholders, and/or VMI personnel).
    • Substantial turnover has occurred at the vendor at the executive or account management level.
    • The vendor has changed vendor classification categories after the most current classification.
    • As the name implies, the goal is to refamiliarize the vendor with your current VMI situation, governances, protocols, and expectations. The drivers for reorientation will help you determine the reorientation's scope, scale, and frequency.

    Step 2.6 – Vendor orientation (cont'd)

    Create a VMI awareness process to build bridges with your vendors

    Debrief

    To continue the analogy from orientation, debrief is like an exit interview for an employee when their employment is terminated. In this case, debrief occurs when the vendor is no longer an active vendor with your organization - all contracts have terminated or expired, and no new business with the vendor is anticipated within the next three months.

    Similar to orientation and reorientation, debrief activities will be based on the vendor's classification category within the COST model. Strategic vendors don't go away very often; usually, they transition to operational or tactical vendors first. However, if a strategic vendor is no longer providing products or services to you, dig a little deeper into their experiences and allocate extra time for the debrief meeting.

    The debrief should provide you with feedback on the vendor's experience with your organization and their participation in your VMI. Additionally, it can provide closure for both parties since the relationship is ending. Be careful that the debrief does not turn into a finger-pointing meeting or therapy session for the vendor. It should be professional and productive; if it is going off the rails, terminate the meeting before more damage can occur.

    End the debrief on a high note if possible. Thank the vendor, highlight its key contributions, and single out any personnel who went above and beyond. You never know when you will be doing business with this vendor again – don't burn bridges!

    Step 2.6 – Vendor orientation (cont'd)

    Create a VMI awareness process to build bridges with your vendors

    As you create your vendor orientation materials, focus on the message you want to convey.

    • For orientation and reorientation:
      • What is important to you that vendors need to know?
      • What will help the vendors understand more about your organization and your VMI?
      • What and how are you different from other organizations overall, and in your "industry"?
      • What will help them understand your expectations?
      • What will help them be more successful?
      • What will help you build the relationship?
    • For debrief:
      • What information or feedback do you want to obtain?
      • What information or feedback to you want to give?

    The level of detail you provide strategic vendors during orientation and reorientation may be different from the information you provide tactical and operational vendors. Commodity vendors are not typically involved in the vendor orientation process. The orientation meetings can be conducted on a one-to-one basis for strategic vendors and a one-to-many basis for operational and tactical vendors; reorientation and debrief are best conducted on a one-to-one basis. Lastly, face-to-face or video meetings work best for vendor orientation; voice-only meetings, recorded videos, or distributing only written materials seldom hit their mark or achieve the desired results.

    Step 2.7 – Three-year roadmap

    Plot your path at a high level

    1. The VMI exists in many planes concurrently:
    2. It operates both tactically and strategically.

    It focuses on different timelines or horizons (e.g., the past, the present, and the future). Creating a three-year roadmap facilitates the VMI's ability to function effectively across these multiple landscapes.

    The VMI roadmap will be influenced by many factors. The work product from Phase 1 – Plan, input from executives, stakeholders, and internal clients, and the direction of the organization are great sources of information as you begin to build your roadmap.

    To start, identify what you would like to accomplish in year 1. This is arguably the easiest year to complete: budgets are set (or you have a good idea what the budget will look like), personnel decisions have been made, resources have been allocated, and other issues impacting the VMI are known with a higher degree of certainty than any other year. This does not mean things won't change during the first year of the VMI, but expectations are usually lower, and the short event horizon makes things more predictable during the year-1 ramp-up period.

    Years 2 and 3 are more tenuous, but the process is the same: identify what you would like to accomplish or roll out in each year. Typically, the VMI maintains the year-1 plan into subsequent years and adds to the scope or maturity. For example, you may start year 1 with BAMs and scorecards for three of your strategic vendors; during year 2, you may increase that to five vendors; and during year 3, you may increase that to nine vendors. Or, you may not conduct any market research during year 1, waiting to add it to your roadmap in year 2 or 3 as you mature.

    Breaking things down by year helps you identify what is important and the timing associated with your priorities. A conservative approach is recommended. It is easy to overcommit, but the results can be disastrous and painful.

    2.7.1 – Three-year roadmap

    45 – 90 Minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and decide how to coordinate year 1 of your three-year roadmap with your existing fiscal year or reporting year. Year 1 may be shorter or longer than a calendar year.
    2. Review the VMI activities listed in Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.7 Three-year roadmap. Use brainstorming and your prior work product from Phase 1 and Phase 2 to identify additional items for the roadmap and add them at the bottom of the spreadsheet.
    3. Starting with the first activity, determine when that activity will begin and put an X in the corresponding column; if the activity is not applicable, leave it blank or insert N/A.
    4. Go back to the top of the list and add information as needed.
      1. For any year-1 or year-2 activities, add an X in the corresponding columns if the activity will be expanded/continued in subsequent periods (e.g., if a Year 2 activity will continue in year 3, put an X in year 3 as well).
      2. Use the comments column to provide clarifying remarks or additional insights related to your plans or "X's". For example, "Scorecards begin in year 1 with three vendors and will roll out to five vendors in year 2 and nine vendors in year 3."
    5. Obtain signoff from stakeholders, sponsors, and executives as needed.

    Input

    • Phase 1 work product
    • Steps 2.1 – 2.6 work product
    • Brainstorming

    Output

    • High level three-year roadmap for the VMI

    Materials

    • Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.7 Three-Year Roadmap

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Download the Info-Tech Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Step 2.8 – 90-day plan

    Pave your short-term path with a series of detailed quarterly plans

    Now that you have prepared a three-year roadmap, it's time to take the most significant elements from the first year and create action plans for each three-month period. Your first 90-day plan may be longer or shorter if you want to sync to your fiscal or calendar quarters. Aligning with your fiscal year can make it easier for tracking and reporting purposes; however, the more critical item is to make sure you have a rolling series of four 90-day plans to keep you focused on the important activities and tasks throughout the year.

    The 90-day plan is a simple project plan that will help you measure, monitor, and report your progress. Use the Info-Tech tool to help you track:

    Activities.

    • Tasks comprising each activity.
    • Who will be performing the tasks.
    • An estimate of the time required per person per task.
    • An estimate of the total time to achieve the activity.
    • A due date for the activity.
    • A priority of the activity.

    The first 90-day plan will have the greatest level of detail and should be as thorough as possible; the remaining three 90-day plans will each have less detail for now. As you approach the middle of the first 90-day plan, start adding details to the next 90-day plan; toward the end of the first quarter add a high-level 90-day plan to the end of the chain. Continue repeating this cycle each quarter and consult the three-year roadmap and the leadership team, as necessary.

    2.8.1 – 90-day plan

    45 – 90 Minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and decide how to coordinate the first "90-day" plan with your existing fiscal year or reporting cycles. Your first plan may be shorter or longer than 90 days.
    2. Looking at the year-1 section of the three-year roadmap, identify the activities that will be started during the next 90 days.
    3. Using the Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.8 90-Day Plan, enter the following information into the spreadsheet for each activity to be accomplished during the next 90 days:
      1. Activity description.
      2. Tasks required to complete the activity (be specific and descriptive).
      3. The people who will be performing each task.
      4. The estimated number of hours required to complete each task.
      5. The start date and due date for each task or the activity.
    4. Validate the tasks are a complete list for each activity and the people performing the tasks have adequate time to complete the tasks by the due date(s).
    5. Assign a priority to each Activity.

    Input

    • Three-Year Roadmap
    • Phase 1 work product
    • Steps 2.1 – 2.7 work product
    • Brainstorming

    Output

    • Detailed plan for the VMI for the next quarter or "90" days

    Materials

    • Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.8 90-Day Plan

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Download the Info-Tech Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Step 2.9 – Quick wins

    Identify potential short-term successes to gain momentum and show value immediately

    As the final step in the timeline trilogy, you are ready to identify some quick wins for the VMI. Using the first 90-day plan and a brainstorming activity, create a list of things you can do in 15 to 30 days that add value to your initiative and build momentum.

    As you evaluate your list of potential candidates, look for things that:

    • Are achievable within the stated timeline.
    • Don't require a lot of effort.
    • Involve stopping a certain process, activity, or task; this is sometimes known as a "stop doing stupid stuff" approach.
    • Will reduce or eliminate inefficiencies; this is sometimes known as the war on waste.
    • Have a moderate to high impact or bolster the VMI's reputation.

    As you look for quick wins, you may find that everything you identify does not meet the criteria. That's okay; don't force the issue. Return your focus to the 90-day plan and three-year roadmap and update those documents if the brainstorming activity associated with Step 2.9 identified anything new.

    2.9.1 – Quick wins

    15 - 30 Minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and review the three-year roadmap and 90-day plan. Determine if any item on either document can be completed:
      1. Quickly (30 days or less).
      2. With minimal effort.
      3. To provide or show moderate to high levels of value or provide the VMI with momentum.
    2. Brainstorm to identify any other items that meet the criteria in step 1 above.
    3. Compile a comprehensive list of these items and select up to five to pursue.
    4. Document the list in the Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.9 Quick Wins.
    5. Manage the quick wins list and share the results with the VMI team and applicable stakeholders and executives.

    Input

    • Three-Year Roadmap
    • 90-Day Plan
    • Brainstorming

    Output

    • A list of activities that require low levels of effort to achieve moderate to high levels of value in a short period

    Materials

    • Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.9 Quick Wins

    Participants

    • VMI team

    Download the Info-Tech Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Step 2.10 – Reports

    Construct your reports to resonate with your audience

    Issuing reports is a critical piece of the VMI since the VMI is a conduit of information for the organization. It may be aggregating risk data from internal areas, conducting vendor research, compiling performance data, reviewing market intelligence, or obtaining relevant statistics, feedback, comments, facts, and figures from other sources. Holding onto this information minimizes the impact a VMI can have on the organization; however, the VMI's internal clients, stakeholders, and executives can drown in raw data and ignore it completely if it is not transformed into meaningful, easily-digested information.

    Before building a report, think about your intended audience:

    • What information are they looking for? What will help them understand the big picture?
    • What level of detail is appropriate, keeping in mind the audience may not be like-minded?
    • What items are universal to all the readers and what items are of interest to one or two readers?
    • How easy or hard will it be to collect the data? Who will be providing it, and how time consuming will it be?
    • How accurate, valid, and timely will the data be?
    • How frequently will each report need to be issued?

    Step 2.10 – Reports (cont'd)

    Construct your reports to resonate with your audience

    Use the following guidelines to create reports that will resonate with your audience:

    • Value information over data, but sometimes data does have a place in your report.
    • Use pictures, graphics, and other representations more than words, but words are often necessary in small, concise doses.
    • Segregate your report by user; for example, general information up top, CIO information below that on the right, CFO information to the left of CIO information, etc.
    • Send a draft report to the internal audience and seek feedback, keeping in mind you won't be able to cater to or please everyone.

    2.10.1 – Reports

    15 – 45 Minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and review the applicable work product from Phase 1 and Phase 2; identify qualitative and quantitative items the VMI measures, monitors, tracks, or aggregates.
    2. Determine which items will be reported and to whom (by category):
      1. Internally to personnel within the VMI.
      2. Internally to personnel outside the VMI.
      3. Externally to vendors.
    3. Within each category above, determine your intended audiences/recipients. For example, you may have a different list of recipients for a risk report than you do a scorecard summary report. This will help you identify the number of reports required.
    4. Create a draft structure for each report based on the audience and the information being conveyed. Determine the frequency of each report and person responsible for creating for each report.
    5. Document your final choices in Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.10 Reports.

    Input

    • Brainstorming
    • Phase 1 work product
    • Steps 2.1 – 2.11 work product

    Output

    • A list of reports used by the VMI
    • For each report
      • The conceptual content
      • A list of who will receive or have access
      • A creation/distribution frequency

    Materials

    • Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.10 Reports

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Download the Info-Tech Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Phase 3 - Run

    Implement your processes and leverage your tools and templates

    Phase 1

    Phase 2Phase 3Phase 4

    1.1 Mission Statement and Goals

    1.2 Scope

    1.3 Strengths and Obstacles

    1.4 Roles and Responsibilities

    2.1 Classification Model

    2.2 Risk Assessment Tool

    2.3 Scorecards and Feedback

    2.4 Business Alignment Meeting Agenda

    2.5 Relationship Alignment Document

    2.6 Vendor Orientation

    2.7 3-Year Roadmap

    2.8 90-Day Plan

    2.9 Quick Wins

    2.10 Reports

    3.1 Classify Vendors

    3.2 Compile Scorecards

    3.3 Conduct Business Alignment Meetings

    3.4 Work the 90-Day Plan

    3.5 Manage the 3-Year Roadmap

    3.6 Develop/Improve Vendor Relationships

    4.1 Incorporate Leading Practices

    4.2 Leverage Lessons Learned

    4.3 Maintain Internal Alignment

    This phase will walk you through the following activity:

    • Beginning to operate the VMI. The main outcomes from this phase are guidance and the steps required to initiate your VMI.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives
    • Others as needed

    Vendor Management Initiative Basics for the Small/Medium Businesses

    Phase 3 – Run

    Implement your processes and leverage your tools and templates

    All the hard work invested in Phase 1 – Plan and Phase 2 – Build begins to pay off in Phase 3 – Run. It's time to stand up your VMI and ensure that the proper level of resources is devoted to your vendors and the VMI itself. There's more hard work ahead, but the foundational elements are in place. This doesn't mean there won't be adjustments and modifications along the way, but you are ready to use the tools and templates in the real world; you are ready to begin reaping the fruits of your labor.

    Phase 3 – Run guides you through the process of collecting data, monitoring trends, issuing reports, and conducting effective meetings to:

    • Manage risk better.
    • Improve vendor performance.
    • Improve vendor relationships.
    • Identify areas where the parties can improve.
    • Improve communication between the parties.
    • Increase the value proposition with your vendors.

    Step 3.1 – Classify vendors

    Begin classifying your top 25 vendors by spend

    Step 3.1 sets the table for many of the subsequent steps in Phase 3 – Run. The results of your classification process will determine which vendors go through the scorecarding process (Step 3.2); which vendors participate in BAMs (Step 3.3), and which vendors you will devote relationship-building resources to (Step 3.6).

    As you begin classifying your vendors, Info-Tech recommends using an iterative approach initially to validate the results from the classification model you configured in Step 2.1.

    1. Identify your top 25 vendors by spend.
    2. Run your top 10 vendors by spend through the classification model and review the results.
      1. If the results are what you expected and do not contain any significant surprises, go to 3. on the next page.
      2. If the results are not what you expected or do contain significant surprises, look at the configuration page of the tool (Tab 1) and adjust the weights or the spend categories slightly. Be cautious in your evaluation of the results before modifying the configuration page - some legitimate results are unexpected, or are surprises based on bias. If you modify the weighting, review the new results and repeat your evaluation. If you modify the spend categories, review the answers on the vendor tabs to ensure that the answers are still accurate; review the new results and repeat your evaluation.

    Step 3.1 – Classify vendors (cont'd)

    Review your results and adjust the classification tool as needed

    1. Run your top 11-through-25 vendors by spend through the classification model and review the results. Identify any unexpected results. Determine if further configuration makes sense and repeat the process outlined in 2.b., previous page, as necessary. If no further modifications are required, continue to 4., below.
    2. Share the preliminary results with the leadership team, executives, and stakeholders to obtain their approval or adjustments to the results.
      1. They may have questions and want to understand the process before approving the results.
      2. They may request that you move a vendor from one quadrant to another based on your organization's roadmap, the vendor's roadmap, or other information not available to you.
    3. Identify the vendors that will be part of the VMI at this stage – how many and which ones. Based on this number and the VMI's scope (Step 1.2), make sure you have the resources necessary to accommodate the number of vendors participating in the VMI. Proceed cautiously and gradually increase the number of vendors participating in the VMI.

    Step 3.1 – Classify vendors (cont'd)

    Finalize the results and update VMI tools and templates

    1. Update the vendor inventory tool (Step 1.7) to indicate the current classification status for the top 25 vendors by spend. Once your vendors have been classified, you can sort the vendor inventory tool by classification status to see all the vendors in that category at once.
    2. Review your three-year roadmap (Step 2.9) and 90-day plans (Step 2.6) to determine if any modifications are needed to the activities and timelines.

    Additional classification considerations:

    • You should only have a few vendors that fit in the strategic category. As a rough guideline, no more than 5% to 10% of your IT vendors should end up in the strategic category. If you have many vendors, even 5% may be too many. the classification model is an objective start to the classification process, but common sense must prevail over the "math" at the end of the day.
    • At this point, there is no need to go beyond the top 25 by spend. Most VMIs starting out can't handle more than three to five strategic vendors initially. Allow the VMI to run a pilot program with a small sample size, work out any bugs, make adjustments, and then ramp up the VMI's rollout in waves. Vendors can be added quarterly, biannually, or annually, depending upon the desired goals and available resources.

    Step 3.1 – Classify vendors (cont'd)

    Align your vendor strategy to your classification results

    As your VMI matures, additional vendors will be part of the VMI. Review the table below and incorporate the applicable strategies into your deployment of vendor management principles over time. Stay true to your mission, goals, and scope, and remember that not all your vendors are of equal importance.

    Operational

    Strategic
    • Focus on spend containment
    • Concentrate on lowering total cost of ownership
    • Invest moderately in cultivating the relationship
    • Conduct BAMs biannually or annually
    • Compile scorecards quarterly or biannually
    • Identify areas for performance and cost improvement
    • Focus on value, collaboration, and alignment
    • Review market intelligence for the vendor's industry
    • Invest significantly in cultivating the relationship
    • Initiate executive-to-executive relationships
    • Conduct BAMs quarterly
    • Compile scorecards quarterly
    • Understand how the vendors view your organization

    Commodity

    Tactical
    • Investigate vendor rationalization and consolidation
    • Negotiate for the best-possible price
    • Leverage competition during negotiations
    • Streamline the purchasing and payment process
    • Allocate minimal VMI resources
    • Assign the lowest priority for vendor management metrics
    • Conduct risk assessments biannually or annually
    • Cultivate a collaborative relationship based on future growth plans or potential with the vendor
    • Conduct BAMs quarterly or biannually
    • Compile scorecards quarterly
    • Identify areas of performance improvement
    • Leverage innovation and creative problem solving

    Step 3.1 – Classify vendors (cont'd)

    Be careful when using the word "partner" with your strategic and other vendors

    For decades, vendors have used the term "partner" to refer to the relationship they have with their clients and customers. This is often an emotional ploy used by the vendors to get the upper hand. To fully understand the terms "partner" and "partnership", let's evaluate them through two more objective, less cynical lenses.

    If you were to talk to your in-house or outside legal counsel, you may be told that partners share in profits and losses, and they have a fiduciary obligation to each other. Unless there is a joint venture between the parties, you are unlikely to have a partnership with a vendor from this perspective.

    What about a "business" partnership — one that doesn't involve sharing profits and losses? What would that look like? Here are some indicators of a business partnership (or preferably a strategic alliance):

    • Trust and transparent communication exist.
    • You have input into the vendor's roadmap for products and services.
    • The vendor is aligned with your desired outcomes and helps you achieve success.
    • You and the vendor are accountable for actions and inactions, with both parties being at risk.
    • There is parity in the peer-to-peer relationships between the organizations (e.g. C-Level to C-Level).
    • The vendor provides transparency in pricing models and proactively suggests ways for you to reduce costs.
    • You and the vendor work together to make each party better, providing constructive feedback on a regular basis.
    • The vendor provides innovative suggestions for you to improve your processes, performance, the bottom line, etc.
    • Negotiations are not one-sided; they are meaningful and productive, resulting in an equitable distribution of money and risk.

    Step 3.1 – Classify vendors (cont'd)

    Understand the implications and how to leverage the words "partner" and "partnership"

    By now you might be thinking, "What's all the fuss? Why does it matter?" At Info-Tech, we've seen firsthand how referring to the vendor as a partner can have the following impact:

    • Confidences are disclosed unnecessarily.
    • Negotiation opportunities and leverage are lost.
    • Vendors no longer have to earn the customer's business.
    • Vendor accountability is missing due to shared responsibilities.
    • Competent skilled vendor resources are assigned to other accounts.
    • Value erodes over time since contracts are renewed without being competitively sourced.
    • One-sided relationships are established, and false assurances are provided at the highest levels within the customer organization.

    Proceed with caution when using partner or partnership with your vendors. Understand how your organization benefits from using these terms and mitigate the negatives outlined above by raising awareness internally to ensure people understand the psychology behind the terms. Finally, use the term to your advantage when warranted by referring to the vendor as a partner when you want or need something that the vendor is reluctant to provide. Bottom line: be strategic in how you refer to vendors and know the risks.

    Step 3.2 – Compile scorecards

    Begin scoring your top vendors

    The scorecard process typically is owned and operated by the VMI, but the actual rating of the criteria within the measurement categories is conducted by those with day-to-day interactions with the vendors, those using or impacted by the services and products provided by the vendors, and those with the skills to research other information on the scorecard (e.g. risk). Chances are one person will not be able to complete an entire scorecard by themselves. As a result, the scorecard process is a team sport comprised of sub-teams where necessary.

    The VMI will compile the scores, calculate the final results, and aggregate all the comments into one scorecard. There are two common ways to approach this task:

    1. Send out the scorecard template to those who will be scoring the vendor and ask them to return it when completed, providing them with a due date a few days before you need it; you'll need time to compile, calculate, and aggregate.
    2. Invite those who will be scoring the vendor to a meeting and let the contributors use that time to score the vendors; make VMI team members available to answer questions and facilitate the process.

    Step 3.2 – Compile scorecards (cont'd)

    Gather input from stakeholders and others impacted by the vendors

    Since multiple people will be involved in the scorecarding process or have information to contribute, the VMI will have to work with the reviewers to ensure he right mix of data is provided. For example:

    • If you are tracking lawsuits filed by or against the vendor, one person from Legal may be able to provide that, but they may not be able to evaluate any other criteria on the scorecard.
    • If you are tracking salesperson competencies, multiple people from multiple areas may have valuable insights.
    • If you are tracking deliverable timeliness, several project managers may want to contribute across several projects.

    Where one person is contributing exclusively to limited criteria, make it easy for them to identify the criteria they are to evaluate. When multiple people from the same functional area will provide insights, they can contribute individually (and the VMI will average their responses) or they can respond collectively after reaching consensus as a group.

    After the VMI has compiled, calculated, and aggregated, share the results with executives, impacted stakeholders, and others who will be attending the BAM for that vendor. Depending upon the comments provided by internal personnel, you may need to create a sanitized version of the scorecard for the vendor.

    Make sure your process timeline has a buffer built in. You'll be sending the final scorecard to the vendor three to five days before the BAM, and you'll need some time to assemble the results. The scorecarding process can be perceived as a low-priority activity for people outside of the VMI, and other "priorities" will arise for them. Without a timeline buffer, the VMI may find itself behind schedule and unprepared, due to things beyond its control.

    Step 3.3 – Conduct business alignment meetings

    Determine which vendors will participate and how long the meetings will last

    At their core, BAMs aren't that different from any other meeting. The basics of running a meeting still apply, but there are a few nuances that apply to BAMs. Set out below are leading practices for conducing your BAMs; adapt them to meet your needs and suit your environment.

    Who

    Initially, BAMs are conducted with the strategic vendors in your pilot program. Over time you'll add vendors until all your strategic vendors are meeting with you quarterly. After that, roll out the BAMs to those tactical and operational vendors located close to the strategic quadrant in the classification model (Steps 2.1 and 3.1) and as VMI resources allow. It may take several years before you are holding regular BAMs with all your strategic, tactical, and operational vendors.

    Duration

    Keep the length of your meetings reasonable. The first few with a vendor may need to be 60 to 90 minutes long. After that, you should be able to trim them to 45 minutes to 60 minutes. The BAM does not have to fill the entire time. When you are done, you are done.

    Step 3.3 – Conduct business alignment meetings (cont'd)

    Identify who will be invited and send out invitations

    Invitations

    Set up a recurring meeting whenever possible. Changes will be inevitable but keeping the timeline regular works to your advantage. Also, the vendors included in your initial BAMs won't change for twelve months. For the first BAM with a vendor, provide adequate notice; four weeks is usually sufficient, but calendars will fill up quickly for the main attendees from the vendor. Treat the meeting as significant and make sure your invitation reflects this. A simple meeting request will often be rejected, treated as optional, or ignored completely by the vendor's leadership team (and maybe yours as well!).

    Invitees

    Internal invitees should include those with a vested interest in the vendor's performance and the relationship. Other functional areas may be invited based on need or interest. Be careful the attendee list doesn't get too big. Based on this, internal BAM attendees often include representatives from IT, Sourcing/Procurement, and the applicable business units. At times, Finance and Legal are included.

    From the vendor's side, strive to have decision makers and key leaders attend. The salesperson/account manager is often included for continuity, but a director or vice president of sales will have more insights and influence. The project manager is not needed at this meeting due to the nature of the meeting and its agenda; however, a director or vice president from the product or service delivery area is a good choice. Bottom line: get as high into the vendor's organization as possible whenever possible; look at the types of contracts you have with that vendor to provide guidance on the type of people to invite.

    Step 3.3 – Conduct business alignment meetings (cont'd)

    Prepare for the Meetings and Maintain Control

    Preparation

    Send the scorecard and agenda to the vendor five days prior to the BAM. The vendor should provide you with any information you require for the meeting five days prior, as well.

    Decide who will run the meeting. Some customers like to lead, and others let the vendor present. How you craft the agenda and your preferences will dictate who runs the show.

    Make sure the vendor knows what materials they should bring to the meeting or have access to. This will relate to the agenda and any specific requests listed under the discussion points. You don't want the vendor to be caught off guard and unable to discuss a matter of importance to you.

    Running the BAM

    Regardless of which party leads, make sure you manage the agenda to stay on topic. This is your meeting – not the vendor's, not IT's, not Procurement's or Sourcing's. Don't let anyone hijack it.

    Make sure someone is taking notes. If you are running this virtually, consider recording the meeting. Check with your legal department first for any concerns, notices, or prohibitions that may impact your recording the session.

    Remember, this is not a sales call, and it is not a social activity. Innovation discussions are allowed and encouraged, but that can quickly devolve into a sales presentation. People can be friendly toward one another, but the relationship building should not overwhelm the other purposes.

    Step 3.3 – Conduct business alignment meetings (cont'd)

    Follow these additional guidelines to maximize your meetings

    More leading practices

    • Remind everyone that the conversation may include items covered by various confidentiality provisions or agreements.
    • Publish the meeting minutes on a timely basis (within 48 hours).
    • Focus on the bigger picture by looking at trends over time; get into the details only when warranted.
    • Meet internally immediately beforehand to prepare – don't go in cold. Review the agenda and the roles and responsibilities for the attendees.
    • Physical meetings are better than virtual meetings, but travel constraints, budgets, and pandemics may not allow for physical meetings.

    Final thoughts

    • When performance or the relationship is suffering, be constructive in your feedback and conversations rather than trying to assign blame; lead with the carrot rather than the stick.
    • Look for collaborative solutions whenever possible and avoid referencing the contract if possible. Communicate your willingness to help resolve outstanding issues.
    • Use inclusive language and avoid language that puts the vendor on the defensive.
    • Make sure that your meetings are not focused exclusively on the negative, but don't paint a rosy picture where one doesn't exist.
    • A vendor that is doing well should be commended. This is an important part of relationship building.

    Step 3.4 – Work the 90-day plan

    Monitor your progress and share your results

    Having a 90-day plan is a good start, but assuming the tasks on the plan will be accomplished magically or without any oversight can lead to failure. While it won't take a lot of time to work the plan, following a few basic guidelines will help ensure the 90-day plan gets results and wasn't created in vain.

    1. Measure and track your progress against the initial/current 90-day plan at least weekly; with a short timeline, any delay can have a huge impact.
    2. If adjustments are needed to any elements of the plan, understand the cause and the impact of those adjustments before making them.
    3. Make adjustments ONLY when warranted. The temptation will be to push activities and tasks further out on the timeline (or to the next 90-day plan!) when there is any sort of hiccup along the way, especially when personnel outside the VMI are involved. Hold true to the timeline whenever possible; once you start slipping, it often becomes a habit.
    4. Report on progress every week and hold people accountable for their assignments and contributions.
    5. Take the 90-day plan seriously and treat it as you would any significant project. This is part of the VMI's branding and image.

    Step 3.5 – Manage the three-year roadmap

    Keep an eye on the future since it will feed the present

    The three-year roadmap is a great planning tool, but it is not 100% reliable. There are inherent flaws and challenges. Essentially, the roadmap is a set of three "crystal balls" attempting to tell you what the future holds. The vision for year 1 may be clear, but for each subsequent year, the crystal ball becomes foggier. In addition, the timeline is constantly changing; before you know it, tomorrow becomes today and year 2 becomes year 1.

    To help navigate through the roadmap and maximize its potential, follow these principles:

    • Manage each year of the roadmap differently.
      • Review the year-1 map each quarter to update your 90-day plans (See steps 2.10 and 3.4).
      • Review the year-2 map every six months to determine if any changes are necessary. As you cycle through this, your vantage point of year 2 will be 6 months or 12 months away from the beginning of year 2, and time moves quickly.
      • Review the year-3 map annually, and determine what needs to be added, changed, or deleted. Each time you review year 3, it will be a "new" year 3 that needs to be built.
    • Analyze the impact on the proposed modifications from two perspectives: 1) What is the impact if a requested modification is made? 2) What is the impact if a requested modification is not made?
    • Validate all modifications with leadership and stakeholders before updating the three-year roadmap to ensure internal alignment.

    Step 3.6 – Develop/improve vendor relationships

    Drive better performance through better relationships

    One of the key components of a VMI is relationship management. Good relationships with your vendors provide many benefits for both parties, but they don't happen by accident. Do not assume the relationship will be good or is good merely because your organization is buying products and services from a vendor.

    In many respects, the VMI should mirror a vendor's sales organization by establishing relationships at multiple levels within the vendor organizations, not just with the salesperson or account manager. Building and maintaining relationships is hard work, but the return on investment makes it worthwhile.

    Business relationships are comprised of many components, not all of which must be present to have a great relationship. However, there are some essential components. Whether you are trying to develop, improve, or maintain a relationship with a vendor, make sure you are conscious of the following:

    • Focusing your energies on strategic vendors first and then tactical and operational vendors.
    • Being transparent and honest in your communications.
    • Continuously building trust by being responsive and honoring commitments (timely).
    • Creating a collaborative environment and build upon common ground.
    • Thanking the vendor when appropriate.
    • Resolving disputes early, avoiding the "blame game", and being objective when there are disagreements.

    Phase 4 - Review

    Keep your VMI up to date and running smoothly

    Phase 1

    Phase 2Phase 3Phase 4

    1.1 Mission Statement and Goals

    1.2 Scope

    1.3 Strengths and Obstacles

    1.4 Roles and Responsibilities

    2.1 Classification Model

    2.2 Risk Assessment Tool

    2.3 Scorecards and Feedback

    2.4 Business Alignment Meeting Agenda

    2.5 Relationship Alignment Document

    2.6 Vendor Orientation

    2.7 3-Year Roadmap

    2.8 90-Day Plan

    2.9 Quick Wins

    2.10 Reports

    3.1 Classify Vendors

    3.2 Compile Scorecards

    3.3 Conduct Business Alignment Meetings

    3.4 Work the 90-Day Plan

    3.5 Manage the 3-Year Roadmap

    3.6 Develop/Improve Vendor Relationships

    4.1 Incorporate Leading Practices

    4.2 Leverage Lessons Learned

    4.3 Maintain Internal Alignment

    This phase will walk you through the following activity:

    • Helping the VMI identify what it should stop doing, start doing, and continue doing as it improves and matures. The main outcomes from this phase are ways to advance the VMI and maintain internal alignment.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives
    • Others as needed

    Vendor Management Initiative Basics for the Small/Medium Businesses

    Phase 4 – Review

    Keep your VMI up to date and running smoothly

    As the adage says, "The only thing constant in life is change." This is particularly true for your VMI. It will continue to mature, people inside and outside of the VMI will change, resources will expand or contract from year to year, your vendor base will change. As a result, your VMI needs the equivalent of a physical every year. In place of bloodwork, x-rays, and the other paces your physician may put you through, you'll assess compliance with your policies and procedures, incorporate leading practices, leverage lessons learned, maintain internal alignment, and update governances.

    Be thorough in your actions during this Phase to get the most out of it. It requires more than the equivalent of gauging a person's health by taking their temperature, measuring their blood pressure, and determining their body mass index. Keeping your VMI up-to-date and running smoothly takes hard work.

    Some of the items presented in this Phase require an annual review; others may require quarterly review or timely review (i.e. when things are top of mind and current). For example, collecting lessons learned should happen on a timely basis rather than annually, and classifying your vendors should occur annually rather than every time a new vendor enters the fold.

    Ultimately, the goal is to improve over time and stay aligned with other areas internally. This won't happen by accident. Being proactive in the review of your VMI further reinforces the nature of the VMI itself – proactive vendor management, not reactive!

    Step 4.1 – Incorporate leading practices

    Identify and evaluate what external VMIs are doing

    The VMI's world is constantly shifting and evolving. Some changes will take place slowly, while others will occur quickly. Think about how quickly the cloud environment has changed over the past five years versus the 15 years before that; or think about issues that have popped up and instantly altered the landscape (we're looking at you COVID and ransomware). As a result, the VMI needs to keep pace, and one of the best ways to do that is to incorporate leading practices.

    At a high level, a leading practice is a way of doing something that is better at producing a particular outcome or result or performing a task or activity than other ways of proceeding. The leading practice can be based on methodologies, tools, processes, procedures, and other items. Leading practices change periodically due to innovation, new ways of thinking, research, and other factors. Consequently, a leading practice is to identify and evaluate leading practices each year.

    Step 4.1 – Incorporate leading practices (cont'd)

    Update your VMI based on your research

    • A simple approach for incorporating leading practices into your regular review process is set out below:
    • Research:
      • What other VMIs in your industry are doing.
      • What other VMIs outside your industry are doing.
      • Vendor management in general.
    • Based on your results, list specific leading practices others are doing that would improve your VMI (be specific – e.g. other VMIs are incorporating risk into their classification process).
    • Evaluate your list to determine which of these potential changes fit or could be modified to fit your culture and environment.
    • Recommend the proposed changes to leadership (with a short business case or explanation/justification, as needed) and gain approval.

    Remember: Leading practices or best practices may not be what is best for you. In some instances, you will have to modify them to fit in your culture and environment; in other instances, you will elect not to implement them at all (in any form).

    Step 4.2 – Leverage lessons learned

    Tap into the collective wisdom and experience of your team members

    There are many ways to keep your VMI running smoothly, and creating a lessons learned library is a great complement to the other ways covered in this Phase 4 - Review. By tapping into the collective wisdom of the team and creating a safe feedback loop, the VMI gains the following benefits:

    • Documented institutional wisdom and knowledge normally found only in the team members' brains.
    • The ability for one team member to gain insights and avoid mistakes without having to duplicate the events leading to the insights or mistakes.
    • Improved methodologies, tools, processes, procedures, skills, and relationships.

    Many of the processes raised in this Phase can be performed annually, but a lessons learned library works best when the information is deposited in a timely manner. How you choose to set up your lessons learned process will depend on the tools you select and your culture. You may want to have regular input meetings to share the lessons as they are being deposited, or you may require team members to deposit lessons learned on a regular basis (within a week after they happen, monthly, or quarterly). Waiting too long can lead to vague or lost memories and specifics; timeliness of the deposits is a crucial element.

    Step 4.2 – Leverage lessons learned (cont'd)

    Create a library to share valuable information across the team

    Lessons learned are not confined to identifying mistakes or dissecting bad outcomes. You want to reinforce good outcomes, as well. When an opportunity for a lessons-learned deposit arises, identify the following basic elements:

    • A brief description of the situation and outcome.
    • What went well (if anything) and why did it go well?
    • What didn't go well (if anything) and why didn't it go well?
    • What would/could you do differently next time?
    • A synopsis of the lesson(s) learned.

    Info-Tech Insights

    The lessons learned library needs to be maintained. Irrelevant material needs to be culled periodically, and older or duplicate material may need to be archived.

    the lessons learned process should be blameless. The goal is to share insightful information, not to reward or punish people based on outcomes or results.

    Step 4.3 – Maintain internal alignment

    Review the plans of other internal areas to stay in sync

    Maintaining internal alignment is essential for the ongoing success of the VMI. Over time, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that the VMI does not operate in a vacuum; it is an integral component of a larger organization whose parts must work well together to function optimally. Focusing annually on the VMI's alignment within the enterprise helps reduce any breakdowns that could derail the organization.

    To ensure internal alignment:

    • Review the key components of the applicable materials from Phase 1 - Plan and Phase 2 - Build with the appropriate members of the leadership team (e.g. executives, sponsors, and stakeholders). Not every item from those Phases and Steps needs to be reviewed but err on the side of caution for the first set of alignment discussions, and be prepared to review each item. You can gauge the audience's interest on each topic and move quickly when necessary or dive deeper when needed. Identify potential changes required to maintain alignment.
    • Review the strategic plans (e.g. 1-, 3-, and 5- year plans) for various portions of the organization if you have access to them or gather insights if you don't have access.
      • If the VMI is under the IT umbrella, review the strategic plans for IT and its departments.
      • Review the strategic plans for the areas the VMI works with (e.g. Procurement, Business Units).
      • The organization itself.
    • Create and vet a list of modifications to the VMI and obtain approval.
    • Develop a plan for making the necessary changes.

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Problem solved

    Vendor management is a broad, often overwhelming, comprehensive spectrum that encompasses many disciplines. By now, you should have a great idea of what vendor management can or will look like in your organization. Focus on the basics first: Why does the VMI exist and what does it hope to achieve? What is it's scope? What are the strengths you can leverage, and what obstacles must you manage? How will the VMI work with others? From there, the spectrum of vendor management will begin to clarify and narrow.

    Leverage the tools and templates from this blueprint and adapt them to your needs. They will help you concentrate your energies in the right areas and on the right vendors to maximize the return on your organization's investment in the VMI of time, money, personnel, and other resources. You may have to lead by example internally and with your vendors at first, but they will eventually join you on your path if you stay true to your course.

    At the heart of a good VMI is the relationship component. Don't overlook its value in helping you achieve your vendor management goals. The VMI does not operate in a vacuum, and relationships (internal and external) will be critical.

    Lastly, seek continual improvement from the VMI and from your vendors. Both parties should be held accountable, and both parties should work together to get better. Be proactive in your efforts, and you, the VMI, and the organization will be rewarded.

    If you would like additional support, have our analysts guide you through other phases as part of an Info-Tech Workshop

    Contact your account representative for more information

    workshops@infotech.com
    1-888-670-8889

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    Bibliography

    Slide 5 – ISG Index 4Q 2021, Information Services Group, Inc., 2022.

    Slide 6 – ISG Index 4Q 2021, Information Services Group, Inc., 2022.

    Slide 7 – Geller & Company. "World-Class Procurement — Increasing Profitability and Quality." Spend Matters. 2003. Web. Accessed 4 Mar. 2019.

    Slide 26 – Guth, Stephen. The Vendor Management Office: Unleashing the Power of Strategic Sourcing. Lulu.com, 2007. Print. Protiviti. Enterprise Risk Management. Web. 16 Feb. 2017.

    Slide 34 – "Why Do We Perform Better When Someone Has High Expectations of Us?" The Decision Lab. Accessed January 31, 2022.

    Slide 56 - Top 10 Tips for Creating Compelling Reports," October 11, 2019, Design Eclectic. Accessed March 29, 2022.

    Slide 56 – "Six Tips for Making a Quality Report Appealing and Easy To Skim," Agency for Health Research and Quality. Accessed March 29, 2022.

    Slide 56 –Tucker, Davis. Marketing Reporting: Tips to Create Compelling Reports, March 28, 2020, 60 Second Marketer. Accessed March 29, 2022.

    Improve Security Governance With a Security Steering Committee

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    • Parent Category Name: Governance, Risk & Compliance
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    • Security is still seen as an IT problem rather than a business risk, resulting in security governance being relegated to the existing IT steering committee.
    • Security is also often positioned in the organization where they are not privy to the details of the organization’s overall strategy. Security leaders struggle to get the full enterprise picture.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Work to separate the Information Security Steering Committee (ISSC) from the IT Steering Committee (ITSC). Security transcends the boundaries of IT and needs an independent, eclectic approach to make strategic decisions.
    • Be the lawyer, not the cop. Ground your communications in business terminology to facilitate a solution that makes sense to the entire organization.
    • Develop and stick to the agenda. Continued engagement from business stakeholders requires sticking to a strategic level-focused agenda. Dilution of purpose will lead to dilution in attendance.

    Impact and Result

    • Define a clear scope of purpose and responsibilities for the ISSC to gain buy-in and consensus for security governance receiving independent agenda time from the broader IT organization.
    • Model the information flows necessary to provide the steering committee with the intelligence to make strategic decisions for the enterprise.
    • Determine membership and responsibilities that shift with the evolving security landscape to ensure participation reflects interested parties and that money being spent on security mitigates risk across the enterprise.
    • Create clear presentation material and strategically oriented meeting agendas to drive continued participation from business stakeholders and executive management.

    Improve Security Governance With a Security Steering Committee Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out how to improve your security governance with a security steering committee, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the ways we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Define committee purpose and responsibilities

    Identify the purpose of your committee, determine the capabilities of the committee, and define roles and responsibilities.

    • Improve Security Governance With a Security Steering Committee – Phase 1: Define Committee Purpose and Responsibilities
    • Information Security Steering Committee Charter

    2. Determine information flows, membership & accountabilities

    Determine how information will flow and the process behind that.

    • Improve Security Governance With a Security Steering Committee – Phase 2: Determine Information Flows, Membership & Accountabilities

    3. Operate the Information Security Steering Committee

    Define your meeting agendas and the procedures to support those meetings. Hold your kick-off meeting. Identify metrics to measure the committee’s success.

    • Improve Security Governance With a Security Steering Committee – Phase 3: Operate the Information Security Steering Committee
    • Security Metrics Summary Document
    • Information Security Steering Committee Stakeholder Presentation
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Improve Security Governance With a Security Steering Committee

    Build an inclusive committee to enable holistic strategic decision making.

    ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

    "Having your security organization’s steering committee subsumed under the IT steering committee is an anachronistic framework for today’s security challenges. Conflicts in perspective and interest prevent holistic solutions from being reached while the two permanently share a center stage.

    At the end of the day, security is about existential risks to the business, not just information technology risk. This focus requires its own set of business considerations, information requirements, and delegated authorities. Without an objective and independent security governance body, organizations are doomed to miss the enterprise-wide nature of their security problems."

    – Daniel Black, Research Manager, Security Practice, Info-Tech Research Group

    Our understanding of the problem

    This Research Is Designed For:

    • CIOs
    • CISOs
    • IT/Security Leaders

    This Research Will Help You:

    • Develop an effective information security steering committee (ISSC) that ensures the right people are involved in critical decision making.
    • Ensure that business and IT strategic direction are incorporated into security decisions.

    This Research Will Also Assist:

    • Information Security Steering Committee (ISSC) members

    This Research Will Help Them:

    • Formalize roles and responsibilities.
    • Define effective security metrics.
    • Develop a communication plan to engage executive management in the organization’s security planning.

    Executive summary

    Situation

    • Successful information security governance requires a venue to address security concerns with participation from across the entire business.
    • Without access to requisite details of the organization – where we are going, what we are trying to do, how the business expects to use its technology – security can not govern its strategic direction.

    Complication

    • Security is still seen as an IT problem rather than a business risk, resulting in security governance being relegated to the existing IT steering committee.
    • Security is also often positioned in the organization where they are not privy to the details of the organization’s overall strategy. Security leaders struggle to get the full enterprise picture.

    Resolution

    • Define a clear scope of purpose and responsibilities for the Information Security Steering Committee to gain buy-in and consensus for security governance receiving independent agenda time from the broader IT organization.
    • Model the information flows necessary to provide the steering committee with the intelligence to make strategic decisions for the enterprise.
    • Determine membership and responsibilities that shift with the evolving security landscape to ensure participation reflects interested parties and that money being spent on security mitigates risk across the enterprise.
    • Create security metrics that are aligned with committee members’ operational goals to incentivize participation.
    • Create clear presentation material and strategically oriented meeting agendas to drive continued participation from business stakeholders and executive management.

    Info-Tech Insight

    1. Work to separate the ISSC from the IT Steering Committee (ITSC). Security transcends the boundaries of IT and needs an independent, eclectic approach to make strategic decisions.
    2. Be the lawyer, not the cop. Ground your communications in business terminology to facilitate a solution that make sense to the entire organization.
    3. Develop and stick to the agenda. Continued engagement from business stakeholders requires sticking to a strategic level-focused agenda. Dilution of purpose will lead to dilution in attendance.

    Empower your security team to act strategically with an ISSC

    Establishing an Information Security Steering Committee (ISSC)

    Even though security is a vital consideration of any IT governance program, information security has increasingly become an important component of the business, moving beyond the boundaries of just the IT department.

    This requires security to have its own form of steering, beyond the existing IT Steering Committee, that ensures continual alignment of the organization’s security strategy with both IT and business strategy.

    An ISSC should have three primary objectives:

    • Direct Strategic Planning The ISSC formalizes organizational commitments to strategic planning, bringing visibility to key issues and facilitating the integration of security controls that align with IT and business strategy.
    • Institute Clear Accountability The ISSC facilitates the involvement and commitment of executive management through clearly defined roles and accountabilities for security decisions, ensuring consistency in participation as the organization’s strategies evolve.
    • Optimize Security Resourcing The ISSC maximizes security by monitoring the implementation of the security strategic plan, making recommendations on prioritization of effort, and securing necessary resources through the planning and budgeting processes, as necessary.

    What does the typical ISSC do?

    Ensuring proper governance over your security program is a complex task that requires ongoing care and feeding from executive management to succeed.

    Your ISSC should aim to provide the following core governance functions for your security program:

    1. Define Clarity of Intent and Direction How does the organization’s security strategy support the attainment of the business and IT strategies? The ISSC should clearly define and communicate strategic linkage and provide direction for aligning security initiatives with desired outcomes.
    2. Establish Clear Lines of Authority Security programs contain many important elements that need to be coordinated. There needs to be clear and unambiguous authority, accountability, and responsibility defined for each element so lines of reporting/escalation are clear and conflicting objectives can be mediated.
    3. Provide Unbiased Oversight The ISSC should vet the organization’s systematic monitoring processes to make certain there is adherence to defined risk tolerance levels and ensure that monitoring is appropriately independent from the personnel responsible for implementing and managing the security program.
    4. Optimize Security Value Delivery Optimized value delivery occurs when strategic objectives for security are achieved and the organization’s acceptable risk posture is attained at the lowest possible cost. This requires constant attention to ensure controls are commensurate with any changes in risk level or appetite.

    Formalize the most important governance functions for your organization

    Creation of an ISSC is deemed the most important governance and oversight practice that a CISO can implement, based on polling of IT security leaders analyzing the evolving role of the CISO.

    Relatedly, other key governance practices reported – status updates, upstream communications, and executive-level sponsorship – are within the scope of what organizations traditionally formalize when establishing their ISSC.

    Vertical bar chart highlighting the most important governance functions according to respondents. The y axis is labelled 'Percentage of Respondents' with the values 0%-60%, and the x axis is labelled 'Governance and Oversight Practices'. Bars are organized from highest percentage to lowest with 'Creation of cross-functional committee to oversee security strategy' at 56%, 'Regularly scheduled reporting on the state of security to stakeholders' at 55%, 'Upstream communication channel from security leadership to CEO' at 46%, and 'Creation of program charter approved by executive-level sponsor' at 37%. Source: Ponemon Institute, 2017; N=184 organizations; 660 respondents.

    Despite the clear benefits of an ISSC, organizations are still falling short

    83% of organizations have not established formal steering committees to evaluate the business impact and risks associated with security decisions. (Source: 2017 State of Cybersecurity Metrics Report)

    70% of organizations have delegated cybersecurity oversight to other existing committees, providing security limited agenda time. (Source: PwC 2017 Annual Corporate Director Survey)

    "This is a group of risk managers an institution would bring together to deal with a response anyway. Having them in place to do preventive discussions and formulate policy to mitigate the liability sets and understand compliance obligations is just powerful." (Kirk Bailey, CISO, University of Washington)

    Prevent the missteps that make 9 out of 10 steering committees unsuccessful

    Why Do Steering Committees Fail?

    1. A lack of appetite for a steering committee from business partners. An effective ISSC requires participation from core members of the organization’s leadership team. The challenge is that most business partners don’t understand the benefits of an ISSC and the responsibilities aren’t tailored to participants’ needs or interests. It’s the CISO’s (or senior IT/security leader’s) responsibility to make this case to stakeholders and right-size the committee responsibilities and membership.
    2. ISSC committees are given inappropriate responsibilities. The steering committee is fundamentally about decision making; it’s not a working committee. Security leadership typically struggles with clarifying these responsibilities on two fronts: either the responsibilities are too vague and there is no clear way to execute on them within a meeting or responsibilities are too tactical and require knowledge that participants do not have. Responsibilities should determine who is on the ISSC, not the other way around.
    3. Lack of process around execution. An ISSC is only valuable if members are able to successfully execute on its mandate. Without well-defined processes it becomes nearly impossible for the ISSC to be actionable. As a result, participants lack the information they need to make critical decisions, agendas are unmet, and meetings are seen as a waste of time.

    Use these icons to help direct you as you navigate this research

    Use these icons to help guide you through each step of the blueprint and direct you to content related to the recommended activities.

    A small monochrome icon of a wrench and screwdriver creating an X.

    This icon denotes a slide where a supporting Info-Tech tool or template will help you perform the activity or step associated with the slide. Refer to the supporting tool or template to get the best results and proceed to the next step of the project.

    A small monochrome icon depicting a person in front of a blank slide.

    This icon denotes a slide with an associated activity. The activity can be performed either as part of your project or with the support of Info-Tech team members, who will come onsite to facilitate a workshop for your organization.

    Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

    DIY Toolkit

    Guided Implementation

    Workshop

    Consulting

    "Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful." "Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track." "We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place." "Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project."

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Improve Security Governance With a Security Steering Committee – project overview

    1. Define Committee Purpose and Responsibilities

    2. Determine Information Flows, Membership & Accountabilities

    3. Operate the Information Security Steering Committee

    Supporting Tool icon

    Best-Practice Toolkit

    1.1 Tailor Info-Tech’s Information Security Steering Committee Charter Template to define terms of reference for the ISSC

    1.2 Conduct a SWOT analysis of your information security governance capabilities

    1.3 Identify the responsibilities and duties of the ISSC

    1.4 Draft the committee purpose statement of your ISSC

    2.1 Define your SIPOC model for each of the ISSC responsibilities

    2.2 Identify committee participants and responsibility cadence

    2.3 Define ISSC participant RACI for each of the responsibilities

    3.1 Define the ISSC meeting agendas and procedures

    3.2 Define which metrics you will report to the ISSC

    3.3 Hold a kick-off meeting with your ISSC members to explain the process, responsibilities, and goals

    3.4 Tailor the Information Security Steering Committee Stakeholder Presentation template

    3.5 Present the information to the security leadership team

    3.6 Schedule your first meeting of the ISSC

    Guided Implementations

    • Identify the responsibilities and duties of the ISSC.
    • Draft the committee purpose of the ISSC.
    • Determine SIPOC modeling of information flows.
    • Determine accountabilities and responsibilities.
    • Set operational standards.
    • Determine effectiveness metrics.
    • Steering committee best practices.
    Associated Activity icon

    Onsite Workshop

    This blueprint can be combined with other content for onsite engagements, but is not a standalone workshop.
    Phase 1 Outcome:
    • Determine the purpose and responsibilities of your information security steering committee.
    Phase 2 Outcome:
    • Determine membership, accountabilities, and information flows to enable operational excellence.
    Phase 3 Outcome:
    • Define agendas and standard procedures to operate your committee.
    • Design an impactful stakeholder presentation.

    Improve Security Governance With a Security Steering Committee

    PHASE 1

    Define Committee Purpose and Responsibilities

    Phase 1: Define Committee Purpose and Responsibilities

    ACTIVITIES:

    • 1.1 Tailor Info-Tech’s Information Security Steering Committee Charter Template to define terms of reference for the ISSC
    • 1.2 Conduct a SWOT analysis of your information security governance capabilities
    • 1.3 Identify the responsibilities and duties of the ISSC
    • 1.4 Draft the committee purpose statement for your ISSC

    OUTCOMES:

    • Conduct an analysis of your current information security governance capabilities and identify opportunities and weaknesses.
    • Define a clear scope of purpose and responsibilities for your ISSC.
    • Begin to customize your ISSC charter.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Balance vision with direction. Purpose and responsibilities should be defined so that they encompass your mission and objectives to the enterprise in clear terms, but provide enough detail that you can translate the charter into operational plans for the security team.

    Tailor Info-Tech’s Information Security Steering Committee Charter Template to define terms of reference for the ISSC

    Supporting Tool icon 1.1

    A charter is the organizational mandate that outlines the purpose, scope, and authority of the ISSC. Without a charter, the steering committee’s value, scope, and success criteria are unclear to participants, resulting in unrealistic stakeholder expectations and poor organizational acceptance.

    Start by reviewing Info-Tech’s template. Throughout the next two sections we will help you to tailor its contents.

    • Committee Purpose: The rationale, benefits of, and overall function of the committee.
    • Organization and Membership: Who is on the committee and how is participation measured against organizational need.
    • Responsibilities and Duties: What tasks/decisions the accountable committee is making.
    • RACI: Who is accountable, responsible, consulted, and informed regarding each responsibility.
    • Committee Procedures and Agendas: Includes how the committee will be organized and how the committee will interact and communicate with interested parties.
    Sample of the Info-Tech deliverable 'Information Security Steering Committee Charter Template'.

    Download the Information Security Steering Committee Charter to customize your organization’s charter

    Conduct a SWOT analysis of your information security governance capabilities

    Associated Activity icon 1.2

    INPUT: Survey outcomes, Governance overview handouts

    OUTPUT: SWOT analysis, Top identified challenges and opportunities

    1. Hold a meeting with your IT leadership team to conduct a SWOT analysis on your current information security governance capabilities.
    2. In small groups, or individually, have each group complete a SWOT analysis for one of the governance areas. For each consider:
      • Strengths: What is currently working well in this area?
      • Weaknesses: What could you improve? What are some of the challenges you’re experiencing?
      • Opportunities: What are some organizational trends that you can leverage? Consider whether your strengths or weaknesses could create opportunities.
      • Threats: What are some key obstacles across people, process, and technology?
    3. Have each team or individual rotate until each person has contributed to each SWOT. Add comments from the stakeholder survey to the SWOT.
    4. As a group, rank the inputs from each group and highlight the top five challenges and the top five opportunities you see for improvement.

    Identify the responsibilities and duties of the ISSC

    Associated Activity icon 1.3

    INPUT: SWOT analysis, Survey reports

    OUTPUT: Defined ISSC responsibilities

    1. With your security leadership team, review the typical responsibilities of the ISSC on the following slides (also included in the templated text of the charter linked below).
    2. Print off the following two slides, and in small teams or individually, identify which responsibilities the ISSC should have in your organization, brainstorm any additional responsibilities, and document reasoning.
    3. Have each team present to the larger group, track the similarities and differences between each of the groups, and come to consensus on the list of categories and responsibilities.
    4. Complete a sanity check: review your SWOT analysis. Do the responsibilities you’ve identified resolve the critical challenges or weaknesses?
    5. As a group, consider the responsibilities and whether you can reasonably implement those in one year or if there are any that will need to wait until year two of the committee.

    Add or modify responsibilities in Info-Tech’s Information Security Steering Committee Charter.

    Typical ISSC responsibilities and duties

    Use the following list of responsibilities to customize the list of responsibilities your ISSC may take on. These should link directly to the Responsibilities and Duties section of your ISSC charter.

    Strategic Oversight

    • Provide oversight and ensure alignment between information security strategy and company objectives.
    • Assess the adequacy of resources and funding to sustain and advance successful security programs and practices for identifying, assessing, and mitigating cybersecurity risks across all business functions.
    • Review controls to prevent, detect, and respond to cyber-attacks or information or data breaches involving company electronic information, intellectual property, data, or connected devices.
    • Review the company’s cyberinsurance policies to ensure appropriate coverage.
    • Provide recommendations, based on security best practices, for significant technology investments.

    Policy Governance

    • Review company policies pertaining to information security and cyberthreats, taking into account the potential for external threats, internal threats, and threats arising from transactions with trusted third parties and vendors.
    • Review privacy and information security policies and standards and the ramifications of updates to policies and standards.
    • Establish standards and procedures for escalating significant security incidents to the ISSC, board, other steering committees, government agencies, and law enforcement, as appropriate.

    Typical ISSC responsibilities and duties (continued)

    Use the following list of responsibilities to customize the list of responsibilities your ISSC may take on. These should link directly to the Responsibilities and Duties section of your ISSC charter.

    Risk Governance

    • Review and approve the company’s information risk governance structure and key risk management processes and capabilities.
    • Assess the company’s high-risk information assets and coordinate planning to address information privacy and security needs.
    • Provide input to executive management regarding the enterprise’s information risk appetite and tolerance.
    • Review the company’s cyber-response preparedness, incident response plans, and disaster recovery capabilities as applicable to the organization’s information security strategy.
    • Promote an open discussion regarding information risk and integrate information risk management into the enterprise’s objectives.

    Monitoring & Reporting

    • Receive periodic reports and coordinate with management on the metrics used to measure, monitor, and manage cyber and IT risks posed to the company and to review periodic reports on selected risk topics as the Committee deems appropriate.
    • Review reports provided by the IT organization regarding the status of and plans for the security of the company’s data stored on internal resources and with third-party providers.
    • Monitor and evaluate the quality and effectiveness of the company’s technology security, capabilities for disaster recovery, data protection, cyberthreat detection and cyber incident response, and management of technology-related compliance risks.

    Review the organization’s security strategy to solidify understanding of the ISSC’s purpose

    The ISSC should consistently evolve to reflect the strategic purpose of the security program. If you completed Info-Tech’s Security Strategy methodology, review the results to inform the scope of your committee. If you have not completed Info-Tech’s methodology, determining these details should be achieved through iterative stakeholder consultations.

    Strategy Components

    ISSC Considerations

    Security Pressure Analysis

    Review the ten security domains and your organization’s pressure levels to review the requisite maturity level of your security program. Consider how this may impact the focus of your ISSC.

    Security Drivers/Obligations

    Review how your security program supports the attainment of the organization’s business objectives. By what means should the ISSC support these objectives? This should inform the rationale, benefits, and overall function of the committee.

    Security Strategy Scope and Boundaries

    Consider the scope and boundaries of your security program to reflect on what the program is responsible for securing. Is this reflected adequately in the language of the committee’s purpose? Should components be added or redacted?

    Draft the committee purpose statement of your ISSC

    Associated Activity icon 1.4

    INPUT: SWOT Analysis, Security Strategy

    OUTPUT: ISSC Committee Purpose

    1. In a meeting with your IT leadership team – and considering the organization’s security strategy, defined responsibilities, and opportunities and threats identified – review the example goal statement in the Information Security Steering Committee Charter, and identify whether any of these statements apply to your organization. Select the statements that apply and collaboratively make any changes needed.
    2. Define unique goal statements by considering the following questions:
      • What three things would you realistically list for the ISSC to achieve?
      • If you were to accomplish three things in the next year, what would those be?
    3. With those goal statements in mind, consider the overall purpose of the committee. The purpose statement should be a reflection of what the committee does, why, and the goals.
    4. Have each individual review the example purpose statement and draft what they think a good purpose statement would be.
    5. Present each statement, and work together to determine a best-of-breed statement.

    Alter the Committee Purpose section in the Information Security Steering Committee Charter.

    IT Talent Trends 2022

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    • member rating overall impact: 8.0/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve.
    • member rating average days saved: Read what our members are saying
    • Parent Category Name: People & Leadership
    • Parent Category Link: /people-and-leadership

    Business and IT leaders aiming to build and keep successful teams in 2022 must:

    • Optimize IT in the face of a competitive labor market.
    • Build or maintain a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
    • Manage the monumental shift to the new normal of remote work.
    • Weather the Great Resignation and come out on top.
    • Correctly assess development areas for their teams.
    • Justify investing in IT talent.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • If 2021 was about beginning to act on employee needs, 2022 will be about strategically examining each trend to ensure that the organization's promises to take action are more than lip service.
    • Employees have always been able to see through disingenuous attempts to engage them, but in 2022 the stakes are higher due to increased talent mobility.

    Impact and Result

    This report includes:

    • A concise, executive-ready trend report.
    • Data and insights from IT organizations from around the world.
    • Steps to take for each of the trends depending on your current maturity level.
    • Examples and case studies.
    • Links to in-depth Info-Tech research and tools.

    IT Talent Trends 2022 Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. IT Talent Trends Report for 2022 – A report to help you incorporate new ways of working into your business to build and keep the best team.

    Discover Info-Tech’s 2022 talent trends for IT leaders, which will provide insight into taking a strategic approach to navigate the post-pandemic IT talent landscape.

    • IT Talent Trends Report for 2022

    Infographic

    Further reading

    IT Talent Trends 2022

    The last two years have been a great experiment … but it’s not over yet.

    Incorporate new ways of working into your business to build and keep the best team.

    Over the past two years, organizations have ventured into unprecedented ways of working and supporting their employees, as they tried to maintain productivity through the pandemic. This experiment has made lasting changes to both business models and employee expectations, and these effects will continue to be seen long after we return to a “new normal.”

    While the pandemic forced us to work differently for the past two years, looking forward, successful organizations will incorporate new ways of working into their business models – beyond simply having a remote work policy.

    How we work, source roles, and develop talent continue to evolve as we navigate a different world with employees being more vocal in their desires, and leaders continue to play a key role.

    The IT talent market will never be the same, and organizations must reevaluate their employee experience from the bottom up to successfully weather the shift to the new normal.

    IT Talent Trends 2022

    Strategic Recruiting Finds Good Talent

    Finding talent in a strained talent market requires a marketing approach. Posting a job description isn’t enough.

    The (Not So) Great Resignation

    IT is faring better than other functions; however, specific industries need to pay attention.

    Grow Your DEI Practices Into Meaningful Actions

    Good intentions are not enough.

    Remote Work Is Here – Can Your Culture Adapt?

    The Great Experiment is over. Are leaders equipped to capitalize on its promises?

    Management Skills Drive Success in a Remote World

    Despite the need for remote team management training, it is still not happening.

    The pandemic has clarified employees’ needs and amplified their voices

    If 2021 was about beginning to act on employee needs, 2022 will be about strategically examining each trend to ensure that the actions taken by the organization are more than lip service.

    Employees have always been able to see through disingenuous attempts to engage them, but in 2022 the stakes are higher due to increased talent mobility.

    Trends that were just starting to come into focus last year have established themselves as critical determinants of the employee experience in 2022.

    2021

    DEI: A Top Talent ObjectiveRemote Work Is Here to StayUncertainty Unlocks PerformanceA Shift in Skills PrioritiesA Greater Emphasis on Wellbeing
    Arrow pointing down.Joiner pointing down.Joiner pointing down.

    2022

    Strategic Recruiting Finds Good Talent

    Finding talent in a strained talent market requires a marketing approach. Posting a job description isn’t enough.

    The (Not So) Great Resignation

    IT is faring better than other functions; however, specific industries need to pay attention.

    Grow Your DEI Practices Into Meaningful Actions

    Good intentions are not enough.

    Remote Work Is Here – Can Your Culture Adapt?

    The Great Experiment is over. Are leaders equipped to capitalize on its promises?

    Management Skills Drive Success in a Remote World

    Despite the need for remote team management training, it is still not happening.

    What employees are looking for is changing

    Superficial elements of traditional office culture were stripped away by the quick shift to a remote environment, giving employees the opportunity to reevaluate what truly matters to them in a job.

    The biggest change from 2019 (pre-pandemic) to today is increases in the importance of culture, flexible/remote work, and work-life balance.

    Organizations that fail to keep up with this shift in priorities will see the greatest difficulty in hiring and retaining staff.

    As an employee, which of the following would be important to you when considering a potential employer?

    2019 2021
    Flexible Work Pie graph representing response percentages from employees regarding importance of these factors. Flexible Work: 2019, Very 46%, Somewhat 49%, Not at All 5%.
    n=275
    Arrow pointing right. Pie graph representing response percentages from employees regarding importance of these factors. Flexible Work: 2021, Very 76%, Somewhat 21%, Not at All 2%.
    n=206
    Work-Life Balance Pie graph representing response percentages from employees regarding importance of these factors. Work-Life Balance: 2019, Very 67%, Somewhat 30%, Not at All 3%.
    n=277
    Arrow pointing right. Pie graph representing response percentages from employees regarding importance of these factors. Work-Life Balance: 2021, Very 80%, Somewhat 18%, Not at All 1%.
    n=206
    Culture Pie graph representing response percentages from employees regarding importance of these factors. Culture: 2019, Very 68%, Somewhat 31%, Not at All 1%.
    n=277
    Arrow pointing right. Pie graph representing response percentages from employees regarding importance of these factors. Culture: 2021, Very 81%, Somewhat 19%, Not at All 0%.
    n=206
    Source: Info-Tech Talent Trends Survey data collected in 2019 and 2021 Purple Very Important
    Blue Somewhat Important
    Green Not at All Important

    IT’s top talent priorities in 2022

    IT’s top Talent priorities reflect a post-pandemic focus on optimizing talent to fulfill strategic objectives: Top challenges for IT departments, by average rank, with 1 being the top priority.

    Important

    In the 2022 IT Talent Trends Survey, IT departments’ top priorities continue to be learning and innovation in support of organizational objectives. —› Enabling leaning and development within IT
    —› Enabling departmental innovation
    5.01
    5.54
    With employees being clearer and more vocal about their needs than ever before, employee experience has risen to the forefront of IT’s concern as a key enabler of strategic objectives. —› Providing a great employee experience for IT 5.66
    Supporting departmental change 6.01
    With organizations finally on the way to financial stability post pandemic, recruiting is a major focus. —› Recruiting (e.g. quickly filling vacant roles in IT with quality external talent) 6.18
    However, IT’s key efforts are threatened by critical omissions: Fostering a positive employee relations climate in the department 6.32
    Despite a focus on learning and development, leadership skills are not yet a top focus. —› Developing the organization's IT leaders 6.33
    Rapidly moving internal IT employees to staff strategic priorities 6.96
    Facilitating data-driven people decisions within IT 7.12
    Controlling departmental labor costs and maximizing the value of the labor spend 7.13
    Despite the need to provide a great employee experience, the focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion is low. —› Fostering an environment of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the department 7.31
    Despite prioritizing recruiting, IT departments see candidate experience as a last priority, either not focusing on it or relegating it to HR. —› Providing a great candidate experience for IT candidates 8.43
    (n=227)

    IT Talent Trends 2022

    Look beneath the surface of the trends to navigate them successfully

    Above Ground
    Focusing on what you see 'Above the line" won't solve the problem.

    Talent isn't a checklist.

    Strategic Recruiting Finds Good Talent

    Finding talent in a strained talent market requires a marketing approach. Posting a job description isn't enough.
    • The number of job openings increased to 11.4 million on the last business day of October, up from 10.6 million in September (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Dec. 2021)

    The (Not So) Great Resignation

    IT is faring better than other functions; however, specific industries need to pay attention.
    • In September, in the US, 4.4 million people left their jobs. That number dropped to 4.2 million in October. (US Labor Stats, Dec. 2021)
    • 30% of workers will likely switch jobs if they have to return to the office full time. (McKinsey, Dec. 2021)

    Grow Your DEI Practices Into Meaningful Actions

    Good intentions are not enough.
    • 95% of organizations are focusing on DEI. (2022 HR Trends Report)
    • 48% of IT departments have delivered training on DEI over the past year.

    Remote Work is Here. Can Your Culture Adapt?

    The Great Experiment is over. Are you equipped to capitalize on its promises?
    • 85% of organizations saw the same or higher productivity during the pandemic.
    • 91% of organizations are continuing remote work.

    Management Skills Drive Success in a Remote World

    Despite the need for remote team management training, it is still not happening.
    • 72% of IT departments report high effectiveness at managing remote staff.
    • Learning and development is IT's top priority.
    Cross-section of the Earth and various plants with their root systems, highlighting the world above ground and below.
    Beneath the Surface
    For each trend, a strategic approach to get "under the line" will help form your response.

    Talent needs a holistic approach, as under the line everything is connected. If you are experiencing challenges in one area, analyzing data (e.g. engagement, exit surveys, effectiveness of DEI program and leader training) can help drive overall experience.

    • 100% of job seekers cite culture as somewhat to very important.
    • Only 40% of employers advertise culture in job postings.
    • 70% of IT departments state voluntary turnover is less than 10%
    • Top reasons for resignation are salary, development, and opportunity for innovative work.
    • Resignation rates were higher in fields that had experienced extreme stress due to the pandemic (HBR, Dec. 2021)
    • Senior leadership is overestimating their own commitment to DEI.
    • Most IT departments are not driving their own DEI initiatives.
    • Without effectively measuring DEI practices, organizations will see 1.6x more turnover. (2022 HR Trends Report)
    • Senior leadership is not open to remote work in 23% of organizations.
    • Without leadership support, employees will not buy into remote work initiatives.
    • A remote work policy will not bring organizational benefits without employee buy-in.
    • 75% of senior managers believe remote team management is highly effective, but only 60% of frontline staff agree.
    • Training focuses on technical skills, to the exclusion of soft skills, including management and leadership.
    Solutions
    Recommendations depending on your department's maturity level.
    Attention is required for candidate experience underpinned by a realistic employee value proposition. Gather and review existing data (e.g. early retirements, demographics) to understand your turnover rate. Use employee engagement tools to gauge employee sentiment among impacted groups and build out an engagement strategy to meet those needs. Conduct a cultural assessment to reveal hidden biases that may stand in the way of remote work efficacy. Provide management training on performance management and development coaching.

    Logo for Info-Tech.Logo for ITRG.

    This report is based on organizations just like yours

    Survey timeline = October 2021
    Total respondents = 245 IT professionals

    Geospatial map of survey responses shaded in accordance with the percentages listed below.
    01 United States 45% 08 Middle East 2%
    02 Canada 23% 09 Other (Asia) 2%
    03 Africa 8% 10 Germany 1%
    04 Great Britain 6% 11 India 1%
    05 Latin America, South America or Caribbean 4% 12 Netherlands 1%
    06 Other (Europe) 4% 13 New Zealand 1%
    07 Australia 2% (N-245)

    A bar chart titled 'Please estimate your organization's revenue in US$ (Use operating budget if you are a public-sector organization)' measuring survey responses. '$0 - less than 1M, 7%', '$1M - less than 5M, 4%', '$5M - less than 10M, 4%', '$10M - less than 25M, 6%', '$25M - less than 50M, 5%', '$50M - less than 100M, 13%', '$100M - less than 500M, 24%', '$500M - less than 1B, 9%', '1B - less than 5B, 22%', '$5B+, 8%'. (n=191)

    This report is based on organizations just like yours

    Industry

    Bar chart measuring percentage of survey respondents by industry. The largest percentages are from 'Government', 'Manufacturing', 'Media, information, Telecom & Technology', and 'Financial Services (including banking & insurance)'.

    Info-Tech IT Maturity Model

    Stacked bar chart measuring percentage of survey respondents by IT maturity level. Innovator is 7.11%, Business Partner is 16.44%, Trusted Operator is 24.89%, Firefighter is 39.11%, and Unstable is 12.44%.
    (n=225)

    Innovator – Transforms the Business
    Reliable Technology Innovation

    Business Partner – Expands the Business
    Effective Execution Projects, Strategic Use of Analytics and Customer Technology

    Trusted Operator – Optimizes Business
    Effective Fulfillment of Work Orders, Functional Business Applications, and Reliable Data Quality

    Firefighter – Supports the Business
    Reliable Infrastructure and IT Service Desk

    Unstable – Struggles to Support
    Inability to Provide Reliable Business Services

    This report is based on people just like you

    Which of the following ethnicities (ethnicity refers to a group with a shared or common identity, culture, and/or language) do you identify with? Select all that apply. What gender do you identify most with?
    A pie chart measuring percentage of survey respondents by ethnicity. Answers are 'White (e.g. European, North America), 59%', 'Asian (e.g. Japan, India, Philippines, Uzbekistan), 12%', 'Black (e.g. Africa, Caribbean, North America), 12%', 'Latin/Hispanic (e.g. Cuba, Guatemala, Spain, Brazil), 7%', 'Middle Eastern (e.g. Lebanon, Libya, Iran), 4%', 'Indigenous (e.g. First Nations, Inuit, Metis, Maori), 3%', 'Indo-Caribbean (e.g. Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana, St. Vincent), 3%'.
    (N=245)
    A pie chart measuring percentage of survey respondents by gender. Answers are 'Male, 67%', 'Female, 24%', 'Prefer not to answer, 5%', 'No Specification, 4%', 'Intersex, 0%'.
    (n=228)

    This report is based on people just like you

    What is your sub-department of IT? Which title best describes your position?
    Bar chart measuring percentage of survey respondents by sub-department. The top three answers are 'Senior Leadership', 'Infrastructure and Operations', and 'Application Development'.
    (n=227)
    Bar chart measuring percentage of survey respondents by title. The top four answers are 'Director-level, 29%', 'Manager, 22%', 'C-Level Officer, 18%', and 'VP-level, 11%.'
    (N=245)

    IT Talent Trends 2022

    Each trend is introduced with key questions you can ask yourself to see how your department fares in that area.

    The report is based on statistics from a survey of 245 of your peers.

    It includes recommendations of next steps and a key metric to track your success.

    It lists Info-Tech resources that you, as a member, can leverage to begin your journey to improve talent management in your department.

    Strategic Recruiting Finds Good Talent

    Finding talent in a strained talent market requires a marketing approach. Posting a job description isn’t enough.

    The (Not So) Great Resignation

    IT is faring better than other functions; however, specific industries need to pay attention.

    Grow Your DEI Practices Into Meaningful Actions

    Good intentions are not enough.

    Remote Work Is Here – Can Your Culture Adapt?

    The Great Experiment is over. Are leaders equipped to capitalize on its promises?

    Management Skills Drive Success in a Remote World

    Despite the need for remote team management training, it is still not happening.

    The report is based on data gathered from Info-Tech Research Group’s 2022 IT Talent Trends Survey. The data was gathered in September and October of 2021.

    Strategic Recruiting Finds Good Talent

    Trend 1 | The Battle to Find and Keep Talent

    As the economy has stabilized, more jobs have become available, creating a job seeker’s market. This is a clear sign of confidence in the economy, however fragile, as new waves of the pandemic continue.

    Info-Tech Point of View

    Recruiting tactics are an outcome of a well-defined candidate experience and employee value proposition.

    Introduction

    Cross-section of a plant and its roots, above and below ground. During our interviews, members that focused on sharing their culture with a strong employee value proposition were more likely to be successful in hiring their first-choice candidates.
    Questions to ask yourself
    • Do you have a well-articulated employee value proposition?
    • Are you using your job postings to market your company culture?
    • Have you explored multiple channels for posting jobs to increase your talent pool of candidates?

    47% of respondents are hiring external talent to fill existing gaps, with 40% using external training programs to upgrade current employees. (Info-Tech IT Talent Trends 2022 Survey)

    In October, the available jobs (in the USA) unexpectedly rose to 11 million, higher than the 10.4 million experts predicted. (CNN Business, 2021)

    Where has all the talent gone?

    IT faces multiple challenges when recruiting for specialized talent

    Talent scarcity is focused in areas with specialized skill sets such as security and architecture that are dynamic and evolving faster than other skill sets.

    “It depends on what field you work in,” said ADP chief economist Nela Richardson. “There were labor shortages in those fields pre-pandemic and two years forward, there is even more demand for people with those skills” (CNBC, 19 Nov. 2021).

    37% of IT departments are outsourcing roles to fill internal skill shortages. (Info-Tech Talent Trends 2022 Survey)

    Roles Difficult to Fill

    Horizontal bar chart measuring percentage of survey responses about which roles are most difficult to fill. In order from most difficult to least they are 'Security (n=177)', 'Enterprise Architecture (n=172)', 'Senior Leadership (n=169)', 'Data & Business Intelligence (n=171)', 'Applications Development (n=177)', 'Infrastructure & Operations (n=181)', 'Business Relationship Management (n=149)', 'Project Management (n=175)', 'Vendor Management (n=133)', 'Service Desk (n=184)'.(Info-Tech Talent Trends 2022 Survey)

    Case Study: Using culture to drive your talent pool

    This case study is happening in real time. Please check back to learn more as Goddard continues to recruit for the position.

    Recruiting at NASA

    Goddard Space Center is the largest of NASA’s space centers with approximately 11,000 employees. It is currently recruiting for a senior technical role for commercial launches. The position requires consulting and working with external partners and vendors.

    NASA is a highly desirable employer due to its strong culture of inclusivity, belonging, teamwork, learning, and growth. Its culture is anchored by a compelling vision, “For the betterment of Humankind,” and amplified by a strong leadership team that actively lives their mission and vision daily.

    Firsthand lists NASA as #1 on the 50 most prestigious internships for 2022.

    Rural location and no flexible work options add to the complexity of recruiting

    The position is in a rural area of Eastern Shore Virginia with a population of approximately 60,000 people, which translates to a small pool of candidates. Any hire from outside the area will be expected to relocate as the senior technician must be onsite to support launches twice a month. Financial relocation support is not offered and the position is a two-year assignment with the option of extension that could eventually become permanent.

    Photo of Steve Thornton, Acting Division Chief, Solutions Division, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA.

    “Looking for a Talent Unicorn; a qualified, experienced candidate with both leadership skills and deep technical expertise that can grow and learn with emerging technologies.”

    Steve Thornton
    Acting Division Chief, Solutions Division,
    Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA

    Case Study: Using culture to drive your talent pool

    A good brand overcomes challenges

    Culture takes the lead in NASA's job postings, which attract a high number of candidates. Postings begin with a link to a short video on working at NASA, its history, and how it lives its vision. The video highlights NASA's diversity of perspectives, career development, and learning opportunities.

    NASA's company brand and employer brand are tightly intertwined, providing a consistent view of the organization.

    The employer vision is presented in the best place to reach NASA's ideal candidate: usajobs.gov, the official website of the United States Government and the “go-to” for government job listings. NASA also extends its postings to other generic job sites as well as LinkedIn and professional associations.

    Photo of Robert Leahy, Chief Information Officer, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA.

    Interview with Robert Leahy
    Chief Information Officer
    Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA

    “Making sure we have the tools and mechanisms are two hiring challenges we are going to face in the future as how we work evolves and our work environment changes. What will we need to consider with our job announcements and the criteria for selecting employees?”

    Liteshia Dennis,
    Office Chief, Headquarter IT Office, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA

    The ability to attract and secure candidates requires a strategy

    Despite prioritizing recruiting, IT departments see candidate experience as THE last Priority, either not focusing on it or relegating it to HR

    Candidate experience is listed as one of the bottom IT challenges, but without a positive experience, securing the talent you want will be difficult.

    Candidate experience starts with articulating your unique culture, benefits, and opportunities for development and innovative work as well as outlining flexible working options within an employer brand. Defining an employee value proposition is key to marketing your roles to potential employees.

    81% of respondents' rate culture as very important when considering a potential employer. (Info-Tech IT Talent Trends 2022 Survey)

    Tactics Used in Job Postings to Position the Organization Favorably as a Potential Employer

    Horizontal bar chart measuring percentage of survey responses about tactics used in job postings. The top tactics are 'Culture, 40%', 'Benefits, 40%', 'Opportunity for Innovative Work, 30%', and 'Professional Development, 30%'.(Info-Tech IT Talent Trends 2022 Survey)

    Case Study: Increasing talent pool at Info-Tech Research Group

    Strong sales leads to growth in operation capacity

    Info-Tech Research Group is an IT research & advisory firm helping IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. Our actionable tools and analyst guidance ensure IT organizations achieve measurable results.

    The business has grown rapidly over the last couple of years, creating a need to recruit additional talent who were highly skilled in technical applications and approaches.

    In response, approval was given to expand headcount within Research for fiscal year 2022 and to establish a plan for continual expansion as revenue continues to grow.

    Looking for deep technical expertise with a passion for helping our members

    Hiring for our research department requires talent who are typically subject matter experts within their own respective IT domains and interested in and capable of developing research and advising clients through calls and workshops.

    This combination of skills, experience, and interest can be challenging to find, especially in an IT labor market that is more competitive than ever.

    Photo of Tracy-Lynn Reid, Practice Lead.

    Interview with Practice Lead Tracy-Lynn Reid

    Focus on Candidate Experience increases successful hire rate

    The senior leadership team established a project to focus on recruiting for net-new and open roles. A dedicated resource was assigned and used guidance from our research to enhance our hiring process to reduce time to hire and expand our candidate pool. Senior leaders stayed actively involved to provide feedback.

    The hiring process was improved by including panel interviews with interview protocols and a rubric to evaluate all candidates equitably.

    The initial screening conversation now includes a discussion on benefits, including remote and flexible work offerings, learning and development budget, support for post-secondary education, and our Buy-a-Book program.

    As a result, about 70% of the approved net-new headcount was hired within 12 weeks, with recruitment ongoing.

    Sustain and Grow the Maturity of Innovation in Your Enterprise

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    • Parent Category Name: Innovation
    • Parent Category Link: /innovation
    • Customers are not waiting – they are insisting on change now. The recent litany of business failures and the ongoing demand for improved services means that “not in my backyard” will mean no backyard.
    • Positive innovation is about achieving tomorrow’s success today, where everyone is a leader and ideas and people can flourish – in every sector.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Many innovation programs are not delivering value at a time when change is constant and is impacting both public and private sector organizations.
    • Organizations are not well-positioned in terms of leadership skills to advance their innovation programs.
    • Unlock your innovation potential by looking at your innovation projects on both a macro and micro level.
    • Innovation capacity is directly linked with creativity; allow your employees' creativity to flourish using Info-Tech’s positive innovation techniques.
    • Innovations need to be re-harvested each year in order to maximize your return on investment.

    Impact and Result

    • From an opportunity perspective, create an effective innovation program that spawns more innovations, realizes benefits from existing assets not fully being leveraged, and lays the groundwork for enhanced products and services.
    • This complementary toolkit and method (to existing blueprints/research) guides you to assess the “aspiration level” of innovations and the innovation program, assess the resources/capabilities that an entity has to date employed in its innovation program, and position IT for success to achieve the strategic objectives of the enterprise.

    Sustain and Grow the Maturity of Innovation in Your Enterprise Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should formalize processes to improve your innovation program, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Scope and define

    Understand your current innovation capabilities and create a mandate for the future of your innovation program.

    • Sustain and Grow the Maturity of Innovation in Your Enterprise – Phase 1: Scope and Define
    • Innovation Program Mandate and Terms of Reference Template
    • Innovation Program Overview Presentation Template
    • Innovation Assessment Tool

    2. Assess and aspire

    Assess opportunities for your innovation program on a personnel and project level, and provide direction on how to improve along these dimensions.

    • Sustain and Grow the Maturity of Innovation in Your Enterprise – Phase 2: Assess and Aspire
    • Appreciative Inquiry Questionnaire

    3. Implement and inspire

    Formalize the innovation improvements you identified earlier in the blueprint by mapping them to your IT strategy.

    • Sustain and Grow the Maturity of Innovation in Your Enterprise – Phase 3: Implement and Inspire
    • Innovation Planning Tool
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Sustain and Grow the Maturity of Innovation in Your Enterprise

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Pre-Work

    The Purpose

    Gather data that will be analyzed in the workshop.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Information gathered with which analysis can be performed.

    Activities

    1.1 Do an inventory of innovations/prototypes underway.

    1.2 High-level overview of all existing project charters, and documentation of innovation program.

    1.3 Poll working group or key stakeholders in regards to scope of innovation program.

    Outputs

    Up-to-date inventory of innovations/prototypes

    Document review of innovation program and its results to date

    Draft scope of the innovation program and understanding of the timelines

    2 Scope and Define

    The Purpose

    Scope the innovation program and gain buy-in from major stakeholders.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Buy-in from IT steering committee for innovation program improvements.

    Activities

    2.1 Establish or re-affirm values for the program.

    2.2 Run an initial assessment of the organization’s innovation potential (macro level).

    2.3 Set/reaffirm scope and budget for the program.

    2.4 Define or refine goals and outcomes for the program.

    2.5 Confirm/re-confirm risk tolerance of organization.

    2.6 Update/document innovation program.

    2.7 Create presentation to gain support from the IT steering committee.

    Outputs

    Innovation program and terms of reference

    Presentation on organization innovation program for IT steering committee

    3 Assess and Aspire

    The Purpose

    Analyze the current performance of the innovation program and identify areas for improvement.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Identify actionable items that can be undertaken in order to improve the performance of the innovation program.

    Activities

    3.1 Assess your level of innovation per innovation project (micro level).

    3.2 Update the risk tolerance level of the program.

    3.3 Determine if your blend of innovation projects is ideal.

    3.4 Re-prioritize your innovation projects (if needed).

    3.5 Plan update to IT steering committee.

    3.6 Assess positive innovation assessment of team.

    3.7 Opportunity analysis of innovation program and team.

    Outputs

    Positive innovation assessment

    Re-prioritized innovation projects

    Updated presentation for IT steering committee

    4 Implement and Inspire

    The Purpose

    Formalize the innovation program by tying it into the IT strategy.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A formalized innovation program that is closely tied to the IT strategy.

    Activities

    4.1 Update business context in terms of impact on IT implications.

    4.2 Update IT strategy in terms of impact and benefits of innovation program.

    4.3 Update/create innovation program implementation plan.

    4.4 Plan update for IT steering committee.

    Outputs

    Updated business context

    Updated IT strategy

    Innovation implementation plan, including roadmap

    Updated presentation given to IT steering committee

    Applications Priorities 2023

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    • Parent Category Name: Architecture & Strategy
    • Parent Category Link: /architecture-and-strategy
    • Economic, social, and regulatory conditions have changed livelihoods, businesses, and marketplaces. Modern tools and technologies have acted as lifelines by minimizing operating and delivery costs, and in the process, establishing a strong foundation for growth and maturity.
    • These tools and technologies must meet the top business goals of CXOs: ensure service continuity, improve customer experience, and make data-driven decisions.
    • While today’s business applications are good and well received, there is still room for improvement. The average business application satisfaction score among IT leadership was 72% (n=1582, CIO Business Vision).

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Applications are critical components in any business strategic plan. They can directly influence an organization’s internal and external brand and reputation, such as their uniqueness, competitiveness and innovativeness in the industry
    • Business leaders are continuously looking for innovative ways to better position their application portfolio to satisfy their goals and objectives, i.e., application priorities. Given the scope and costs often involved, these priorities must be carefully crafted to clearly state achievable business outcomes that satisfies the different needs very different customers, stakeholders, and users.
    • Unfortunately, expectations on your applications team have increased while the gap between how stakeholders and applications teams perceive effectiveness remains wide. This points to a need to clarify the requirements to deliver valuable and quality applications and address the pressures challenging your teams.

    Impact and Result

    Learn and explore the technology and practice initiatives in this report to determine which initiatives should be prioritized in your application strategy and align to your business organizational objectives:

    • Optimize the effectiveness of the IT organization.
    • Boost the productivity of the enterprise.
    • Enable business growth through technology.

    Applications Priorities 2023 Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Applications Priorities Report 2023 – A report that introduces and describes five opportunities to prioritize in your 2023 application strategy.

    In this report, we explore five priorities for emerging and leading-edge technologies and practices that can improve on capabilities needed to meet the ambitions of your organization.

    • Applications Priorities 2023 Report

    Infographic

    Further reading

    Applications Priorities 2023

    Applications are the engine of the business: keep them relevant and modern

    What we are facing today is transforming the ways in which we work, live, and relate to one another. Applications teams and portfolios MUST change to meet this reality.

    Economic, social, and regulatory conditions have changed livelihoods, businesses, and marketplaces. Modern tools and technologies have acted as lifelines by minimizing operating and delivery costs, and in the process, establishing a strong foundation for growth and maturity.

    As organizations continue to strengthen business continuity, disaster recovery, and system resilience, activities to simply "keep the lights on" are not enough. Be pragmatic in the prioritization and planning of your applications initiatives, and use your technologies as a foundation for your growth.

    Your applications must meet the top business goals of your CXOs

    • Ensure service continuity
    • Improve customer experience
    • Make data-driven decisions
    • Maximize stakeholder value
    • Manage risk

    Source: CEO-CIO Alignment Diagnostics, August 2021 to July 2022, n=568.

    Select and align your applications priorities to your business goals and objectives

    Applications are critical components in any business strategic plan. They can directly influence an organization's internal and external brand and reputation, such as their:

    • Uniqueness, competitiveness, and innovativeness in the industry.
    • Ability to be dynamic, flexible, and responsive to changing expectations, business conditions, and technologies.

    Therefore, business leaders are continuously looking for innovative ways to better position their application portfolios to satisfy their goals and objectives, i.e. applications priorities. Given the scope and costs often involved, these priorities must be carefully crafted to clearly state achievable business outcomes that satisfy
    the different needs of very different customers, stakeholders, and users.

    Today's business applications are good but leave room for improvement

    72%
    Average business application satisfaction score among IT leadership in 1582 organizations.

    Source: CIO Business Vision, August 2021 to July 2022, N=190.

    Five Applications Priorities for 2023

    In this report, we explore five priorities for emerging and leading-edge technologies and practices that can improve on capabilities needed to meet the Ambitions of your organization.

    this is an image of the Five Applications Priorities for which will be addressed in this blueprint.

    Strengthen your foundations to better support your applications priorities

    These key capabilities are imperative to the success of your applications strategy.

    KPI and Metrics

    Easily attainable and insightful measurements to gauge the progress of meeting strategic objectives and goals (KPIs), and the performance of individual teams, practices and processes (metrics).

    BUSINESS ALIGNMENT

    Gain an accurate understanding and interpretation of stakeholder, end-user, and customer expectations and priorities. These define the success of business products and services considering the priorities of individual business units and teams.

    EFFICIENT DELIVERY & SUPPORT PRACTICE

    Software delivery and support roles, processes, and tools are collaborative, well equipped and resourced, and optimized to meet changing stakeholder expectations.

    Data Management & Governance

    Ensuring data is continuously reliable and trustworthy. Data structure and integrations are defined, governed, and monitored.

    Product & Service Ownership

    Complete inventory and rationalization of the product and service portfolio, prioritized backlogs, roadmaps, and clear product and service ownership with good governance. This helps ensure this portfolio is optimized to meet its goals and objectives.

    Strengthen your foundations to better support your applications priorities (cont'd)

    These key capabilities are imperative to the success of your applications strategy.

    Organizational Change Management

    Manage the adoption of new and modified processes and technologies considering reputational, human, and operational concerns.

    IT Operational Management

    Continuous monitoring and upkeep of products and services to assure business continuity, and system reliability, robustness and disaster recovery.

    Architectural Framework

    A set of principles and standards that guides the consistent, sustainable and scalable growth of enterprise technologies. Changes to the architecture are made in collaboration with affected parties, such as security and infrastructure.

    Application Security

    The measures, controls, and tactics at the application layer that prevent vulnerabilities against external and internal threats and ensure compliance to industry and regulatory security frameworks and standards.

    There are many factors that can stand in your team's way

    Expectations on your applications team have increased, while the gap between how stakeholders and applications teams perceive effectiveness remains wide. This points to a need to clarify the requirements to deliver valuable and quality applications and address the pressures challenging your teams.

    1. Attracting and retaining talent
    2. Maximizing the return on technology
    3. Confidently shifting to digital
    4. Addressing competing priorities
    5. Fostering a collaborative culture
    6. Creating high-throughput teams

    CIOs agree that at least some improvement is needed across key IT activities

    A bar graph is depicted which shows the proportion of CIOs who believe that some, or significant improvement is necessary for the following categories: Measure IT Project Success; Align IT Budget; Align IT Project Approval Process; Measure Stakeholder Satisfaction With IT; Define and Align IT Strategy; Understand Business Goals

    Source: CEO-CIO Alignment Diagnostics, August 2021 to July 2022, n=568.

    Pressure Point 1:
    Attracting and Retaining Talent

    Recent environmental pressures impacted traditional working arrangements and showed more workplace flexibility is often possible. At the same time, many employees' expectations about how, when, and where they choose to work have also evolved. Recruitment and retention are reflections of different sides of the same employee value proposition coin. Organizations that fail to reinvent their approach to attracting and retaining talent by focusing on candidate and employee experience risk turnover, vacancies, and lost opportunities that can negatively impact the bottom line.

    Address the underlying challenges

    • Lack of employee empowerment and few opportunities for learning and development.
    • Poor coworker and manager relationships.
    • Compensation and benefits are inadequate to maintain desired quality of life.
    • Unproductive work environment and conflicting balance of work and life.
    • Unsatisfactory employee experience, including lack of employee recognition
      and transparency of organizational change.

    While workplace flexibility comes with many benefits, longer work hours jeopardize wellbeing.
    62% of organizations reported increased working hours, while 80% reported an increase in flexibility.
    Source: McLean & Company, 2022; n=394.

    Be strategic in how you fill and train key IT skills and capabilities

    • Cybersecurity
    • Big Data/Analytics
    • Technical Architecture
    • DevOps
    • Development
    • Cloud

    Source: Harvey Nash Group, 2021; n=2120.

    Pressure Point 2:
    Maximizing the Return of Technology

    Recent environmental pressures impacted traditional working arrangements and showed more workplace flexibility is often possible. At the same time, many employees' expectations about how, when, and where they choose to work have also evolved. Recruitment and retention are reflections of different sides of the same employee value proposition coin. Organizations that fail to reinvent their approach to attracting and retaining talent by focusing on candidate and employee experience risk turnover, vacancies, and lost opportunities that can negatively impact the bottom line.

    Address the underlying challenges

    • Inability to analyze, propose, justify, and communicate modernization solutions in language the stakeholders understand and in a way that shows they clearly support business priorities and KPIs and mitigate risks.
    • Little interest in documenting and rationalizing products and services through business-IT collaboration.
    • Lack of internal knowledge of the system and loss of vendor support.
    • Undefined, siloed product and service ownership and governance, preventing solutions from working together to collectively deliver more value.
    • Little stakeholder appetite to invest in activities beyond "keeping the lights on."

    Only 64% of applications were identified as effective by end users.
    Effective applications are identified as at least highly important and have high feature and usability satisfaction.
    Source: Application Portfolio Assessment, August 2021 to July 2022; N=315.

    "Regardless of the many definitions of modernization floating around, the one characteristic that we should be striving for is to ensure our applications do an outstanding job of supporting the users and the business in the most effective and efficient manner possible."
    Source: looksoftware.

    Pressure Point 3:
    Confidently Shifting to Digital

    "Going digital" reshapes how the business operates and drives value by optimizing how digital and traditional technologies and tactics work together. This shift often presents significant business and technical risks to business processes, enterprise data, applications, and systems which stakeholders and teams are not aware of or prepared to accommodate.

    Address the underlying challenges

    • Differing perspectives on digital can lead to disjointed transformation initiatives, oversold benefits, and a lack of synergy among digital technologies and processes.
    • Organizations have difficulty adapting to new technologies or rethinking current business models, processes, and ways of working because of the potential human, ethical, and reputational impacts and restrictions from legacy systems.
    • Management lacks a framework to evaluate how their organization manages and governs business value delivery.
    • IT is not equipped or resourced to address these rapidly changing business, customer, and technology needs.
    • The wrong tools and technologies were chosen to support the shift to digital.

    The shift to digital processes is starting, but slowly.
    62% of respondents indicated that 1-20% of their processes were digitized during the past year.
    Source: Tech Trends and Priorities 2023; N=500

    Resistance to change and time/budget constraints are top barriers preventing companies from modernizing their applications.
    Source: Konveyor, 2022; n=600.

    Pressure Point 4:
    Addressing Competing Priorities

    Enterprise products and services are not used, operated, or branded in isolation. The various parties involved may have competing priorities, which often leads to disagreements on when certain business and technology changes should be made and how resources, budget, and other assets should be allocated. Without a broader product vision, portfolio vision, and roadmap, the various dependent or related products and services will not deliver the same level of value as if they were managed collectively.

    Address the underlying challenges

    • Undefined product and service ownership and governance, including escalation procedures when consensus cannot be reached.
    • Lack of a unified and grounded set of value and quality definitions, guiding principles, prioritization standards, and broad visibility across portfolios, business capabilities, and business functions.
    • Distrust between business units and IT teams, which leads to the scaling of unmanaged applications and fragmented changes and projects.
    • Decisions are based on opinions and experiences without supporting data.

    55% of CXOs stated some improvement is necessary in activities to understand business goals.
    Source: CEO-CIO Alignment Diagnostics, August 2021 to July 2022; n=568.

    CXOs are moderately satisfied with IT's performance as a business partner (average score of 69% among all CXOs). This sentiment is similarly felt among CIOs (64%).
    Source: CEO-CIO Alignment Diagnostics, August 2021 to July 2022; n=568.

    Pressure Point 5:
    Fostering a Collaborative Culture

    Culture impacts business results, including bottom-line revenue and productivity metrics. Leaders appreciate the impact culture can have on applications initiatives and wish to leverage this. How culture translates from an abstract concept to something that is measurable and actionable is not straightforward. Executives need to clarify how the desired culture will help achieve their applications strategy and need to focus on the items that will have the most impact.

    Address the underlying challenges

    • Broad changes do not consider the unique subcultures, personalities, and behaviors of the various teams and individuals in the organization.
    • Leaders mandate cultural changes without alleviating critical barriers and do not embody the principles of the target state.
    • Bureaucracy and politics restrict changes and encourage the status quo.
    • Industry standards, technologies, and frameworks do not support or cannot be tailored to fit the desired culture.
    • Some teams are deliberately excluded from the scoping, planning, and execution of key product and service delivery and management activities.

    Agile does not solve team culture challenges.
    43% of organizations cited organizational culture as a significant barrier to adopting and scaling Agile practices.
    Source: Digital.ai, 2021.

    "Providing a great employee experience" as the second priority (after recruiting) highlights the emphasis organizations are placing on helping employees adjust after having been forced to change the way work gets done.
    Source: McLean & Company, 2022; N=826.

    Use your applications priorities to help address your pressure points

    Success can be dependent on your ability to navigate around or alleviate your pressure points. Design and market your applications priorities to bring attention to your pressure points and position them as key risk factors to their success.

    Applications Priorities
    Digital Experience (DX) Intelligent Automation Proactive Application Management Multisource Systems Digital Organization as a Platform
    Attracting and Retaining Talent Enhance the employee experience Be transparent and support role changes Shift focus from maintenance to innovation Enable business-managed applications Promote and showcase achievements and successes
    Maximizing the Return on Technology Modernize or extend the use of existing investments Automate applications across multiple business functions Improve the reliability of mission-critical applications Enhance the functionality of existing applications Increase visibility of underused applications
    Confidently Shifting to Digital Prioritize DX in your shift to digital Select the capabilities that will benefit most from automation Prepare applications to support digital tools and technologies Use best-of-breed tools to meet specific digital needs Bring all applications up to a common digital standard
    Addressing Competing Priorities Ground your digital vision, goals, and objectives Recognize and evaluate the architectural impact Rationalize the health of the applications Agree on a common philosophy on system composition Map to a holistic platform vision, goals, and objectives
    Fostering a Collaborative Culture Involve all perspectives in defining and delivering DX Involve the end user in the delivery and testing of the automated process Include the technical perspective in the viability of future applications plans Discuss how applications can work together better in an ecosystem Ensure the platform is configured to meet the individual needs of the users
    Creating High-Throughput Teams Establish delivery principles centered on DX Remove manual, error-prone, and mundane tasks Simplify applications to ease delivery and maintenance Alleviate delivery bottlenecks and issues Abstract the enterprise system to expedite delivery

    Digital Experience (DX)

    PRIORITY 1

    • Deliver Valuable User, Customer, Employee, and Brand Experiences

    Delivering valuable digital experiences requires the adoption of good management, governance, and operational practices to accommodate stakeholder, employee, customer, and end-user expectations of digital experiences (e.g. product management, automation, and iterative delivery). Technologies are chosen based on what best enables, delivers, and supports these expectations.

    Introduction

    Digital transformation is not just about new tools and technologies. It is also about delivering a valuable digital experience

    What is digital experience (DX)?

    Digital experience (DX) refers to the interaction between a user and an organization through digital products and services. Digital products and services are tools, systems, devices, and resources that gather, store, and process data; are continuously modernized; and embody eight key attributes that are described on the following slide. DX is broken down into four distinct perspectives*:

    • Customer Experience – The immediate perceptions of transactions and interactions experienced through a customer's journey in the use of the organization's digital
      products and services.
    • End-User Experience – Users' emotions, beliefs, and physical and psychological responses
      that occur before, during, or after interacting with a digital product or service.
    • Brand Experience – The broader perceptions, emotions, thoughts, feelings and actions the public associate with the organization's brand and reputation or its products and services. Brand experience evolves over time as customers continuously engage with the brand.
    • Employee Experience – The satisfaction and experience of an employee through their journey with the organization, from recruitment and hiring to their departure. How an employee embodies and promotes the organization brand and culture can affect their performance, trust, respect, and drive to innovate and optimize.
    Digital Products and Services
    Customer Experience Brand Experience Employee Experience End-User Experience

    Digital products and services have a common set of attributes

    Digital transformation is not just about new tools and technologies. It is also about delivering a valuable digital experience

    • Digital products and services must keep pace with changing business and end-user needs as well as tightly supporting your maturing business model with continuous modernization. Focus your continuous modernization on the key characteristics that drive business value.
    • Fit for purpose: Functionalities are designed and implemented for the purpose of satisfying the end user's needs and solving their problems.
    • User-centric: End users see the product as rewarding, engaging, intuitive, and emotionally satisfying. They want to come back to it.
    • Adaptable: The product can be quickly tailored to meet changing end-user and technology needs with reusable and customizable components.
    • Accessible: The product is available on demand and on the end user's preferred interface.
      End users have a seamless experience across all devices.
    • Private and secured: The end user's activity and data are protected from unauthorized access.
    • Informative and insightful: The product delivers consumable, accurate, and trustworthy real-time data that is important to the end user.
    • Seamless application connection: The product facilitates direct interactions with one or more other products through an uninterrupted user experience.
    • Relationship and network building: The product enables and promotes the connection and interaction of people.

    The Business Value cycle of continuous modernization.

    Signals

    DX is critical for business growth and maturity, but the organization may not be ready

    A good DX has become a key differentiator that gives organizations an advantage over their competition and peers. Shifts in working environments; employee, customer, and stakeholder expectations; and the advancements in modern technologies have raised the importance of adopting and transitioning to digital processes and tools to stay relevant and responsive to changing business and technology conditions.

    Applications teams are critical to ensuring the successful delivery and operation of these digital processes and tools. However, they are often under-resourced and challenged to meet their DX goals.

    • 7% of both business and IT respondents think IT has the resources needed to keep up with digital transformation initiatives and meet deadlines (Cyara, 2021).
    • 43% of respondents said that the core barrier to digital transformation is a lack of skilled resources (Creatio, 2021).
    A circle graph is shown with 91% of the circle coloured in dark blue, with the number 91% in the centre.

    of organizations stated that at least 1% of processes were shifted from being manually completed to digitally completed in the last year. 29% of organizations stated at least 21% were shifted.

    Source: Tech Trends and Priorities 2023; N=500.

    A circle graph is shown with 98% of the circle coloured in dark blue, with the number 98% in the centre.

    of organizations recognized digital transformation is important for competitive advantage. 94% stated it is important to enhance customer experience, and 91% stated it will have a positive impact on revenue.

    Source: Cyara, 2021.

    Drivers

    Brand and reputation

    Customers are swayed by the innovations and advancements in digital technologies and expect your applications team to deliver and support them. Your leaders recognize the importance of these expectations and are integrating them into their business strategy and brand (how the organization presents itself to its customers, employees and the public). They hope that their actions will improve and shape the company's reputation (public perception of the company) as effective, customer-focused, and forward-thinking.

    Worker productivity

    As you evolve and adopt more complex tools and technology, your stakeholders will expect more from business units and IT teams. Unfortunately, teams employing manual processes and legacy systems will struggle to meet these expectations. Digital products and services promote the simplification of complex operations and applications and help the business and your teams better align operational practices with strategic goals and deliver valuable DX.

    Organization modernization

    Legacy processes, systems, and ways of working are no longer suitable for meeting the strategic digital objectives and DX needs stakeholders expect. They drive up operational costs without increased benefits, impede business growth and innovation, and consume scarce budgets that could be used for other priorities. Shifting to digital tools and technologies will bring these challenges to light and demonstrate how modernization is an integral part of DX success.

    Benefits & Risks

    Benefits

    • Flexibility & Satisfaction
    • Adoption
    • Reliability

    Employees and customers can choose how they want to access, modify, and consume digital products and services. They can be tailored to meet the specific functional needs, behaviors, and habits of the end user.

    The customer, end user, brand, and employee drive selection, design, and delivery of digital products and services. Even the most advanced technologies will fail if key roles do not see the value in their use.

    Digital products and services are delivered with technical quality built into them, ensuring they meet the industry, regulatory, and company standards throughout their lifespan and in various conditions.

    Risks

    • Legacy & Lore
    • Bureaucracy & Politics
    • Process Inefficiencies
    • No Quality Standards

    Some stakeholders may not be willing to change due to their familiarity and comfort of business practices.

    Competing and conflicting priorities of strategic products and services undermine digital transformation and broader modernization efforts.

    Business processes are often burdened by wasteful activities. Digital products and services are only as valuable as the processes they support.

    The performance and support of your digital products and services are hampered due to unmanageable technical debt because of a deliberate decision to bypass or omit quality good practices.

    Address your pressure points to fully realize the benefits of this priority

    Success can be dependent on your ability to address your pressure points.

    Attracting and Retaining Talent

    Enhance the employee experience.

    Design the digital processes, tools, and technologies to meet the individual needs of the employee.

    Maximizing the Return on Technology

    Modernize or extend the use of existing investments.

    Drive higher adoption of applications and higher user value and productivity by implementing digital capabilities to the applications that will gain the most.

    Confidently Shifting to Digital

    Prioritize DX in your shift to digital. Include DX as part of your definition of success.

    Your products and services are not valuable if users, customers, and employees do not use them.

    Addressing Competing Priorities

    Ground your digital vision, goals, and objectives

    Establish clear ownership of DX and digital products and services with a cross-functional prioritization framework.

    Fostering a Collaborative Culture

    Involve all perspectives in defining and delivering DX.

    Maintain a committee of owners, stakeholders, and delivery teams to ensure consensus and discuss how to address cross-functional opportunities and risks.

    Creating High-Throughput Teams

    Establish delivery principles centered on DX.

    Enforce guiding principles to streamline and simplify DX delivery, such as plug-and-play architecture and quality standards.

    Recommendations

    Build a digital business strategy

    A digital business strategy clearly articulates the goals and ambitions of the business to adopt digital practices, tools, and technologies. This document:

    • Looks for ways to transform the business by identifying what technologies to embrace, what processes to automate, and what new business models to create.
    • Unifies digital possibilities with your customer experiences.
    • Establishes accountability with the executive leadership.
    • States the importance of cross-functional participation from senior management across the organization.

    Related Research:

    Learn, understand, and empathize with your users, employees, and customers

    • To create a better product, solution, or service, understanding those who use it, their needs, and their context is critical.
    • A great experience design practice can help you balance those goals so that they are in harmony with those of your users.
    • IT leaders must find ways to understand the needs of the business and develop empathy on a much deeper level. This empathy is the foundation for a thriving business partnership.

    Related Research:

    Recommendations

    Center product and service delivery decisions and activities on DX and quality

    User, customer, employee, and brand are integral perspectives on the software development lifecycle (SDLC) and the management and governance practices supporting digital products and services. It ensures quality standards and controls are consistently upheld while maintaining alignment with various needs and priorities. The goal is to come to a consensus on a universal definition and approach to embed quality and DX-thinking throughout the delivery process.

    Related Research:

    Instill collaborative delivery practices

    Today's rapidly scaling and increasingly complex digital products and services create mounting pressure on delivery teams to release new features and changes quickly and with sufficient quality. This pressure is further compounded by the competing priorities of individual stakeholders and the nuances among different personas of digital products and services.

    A collaborative delivery practice sets the activities, channels, and relationships needed to deliver a valuable and quality product or service with cross-functional awareness, accountability, and agreement.

    Related Research:

    Recommendations

    Continuously monitor and modernize your digital products and services

    Today's modern digital products and services are tomorrow's shelfware. They gradually lose their value, and the supporting technologies will become obsolete. Modernization is a continuous need.

    Data-driven insights help decision makers decide which products and services to retire, upgrade, retrain on, or maintain to meet the demands of the business.

    Enhancements focusing on critical business capabilities strengthen the case for investment and build trust with all stakeholders.

    Related Research:

    CASE STUDY
    Mastercard in Asia

    Focus on the customer journey

    Chief Marketing Officer M.V. Rajamannar (Raja) wanted to change Mastercard's iconic "Priceless" ad campaign (with the slogan "There are some things money can't buy. For everything else there's Mastercard."). The main reasons were that the campaign relied on one-way communication and targeted end customers, even though Mastercard doesn't issue cards directly to customers; partner banks do. To drive the change in campaign, Raja and his team created a digital engine that leveraged digital and social media. Digital engine is a seven-step process based on insights gleaned from data and real-time optimization.

    1. Emotional spark: Using data to understand customers' passion points, Mastercard builds videos and creatives to ignite an emotional spark and give customers a reason to engage. For example, weeks before New Year's Eve, Mastercard produced a video with Hugh Jackman to encourage customers to submit a story about someone who deeply mattered to them. The authors of the winning story would be flown to reunite with those both distant and dear.
    2. Engagement: Mastercard targets the right audience with a spark video through social media to encourage customers to share their stories.
    3. Offers: To help its partner banks and merchants in driving their business, the company identifies the best offers to match consumers' interests. In the above campaign, Mastercard's Asia-Pacific team found that Singapore was a favorite destination for Indian customers, so they partnered with Singapore's Resorts World Sentosa with an attractive offer.
    4. Real-time optimization: Mastercard optimizes, in real time, a portfolio of several offers through A/B testing and other analysis.
    5. Amplification: Real-time testing provides confidence to Mastercard about the potential success of these offers and encourages its bank and merchant partners to co-market and co-fund these campaigns.
    6. Network effects: A few weeks after consumers submitted their stories about distant loved ones, Mastercard selected winners, produced videos of them surprising their friends and families, and used these videos in social media to encourage sharing.
    7. Incremental transactions: These programs translate into incremental business for banks who issue cards, for merchants where customers spend money, and for Mastercard, which gets a portion of every transaction.

    Source: Harvard Business Review Press

    CASE STUDY
    Mastercard in Asia (cont'd)

    Focus on the customer journey

    1. Emotional Spark
      Drives genuine personal stories
    2. Engagement
      Through Facebook
      and social media
    3. Offers
      From merchants
      and Mastercard assets
    4. Optimization
      Real-time testing of offers and themes
    5. Amplification
      Paid and organic programmatic buying
    6. Network Effects
      Sharing and
      mass engagement
    7. Incremental Transactions
      Win-win for all parties

    CASE STUDY
    Mastercard in Asia (cont'd)

    The Mastercard case highlights important lessons on how to engage customers:

    • Have a broad message. Brands need to connect with consumers over how they live and spend their time. Organizations need to go beyond the brand or product message to become more relevant to consumers' lives. Dove soap was very successful in creating a conversation among consumers with its "Real Beauty" campaign, which focused not on the brand or even the product category, but on how women and society view beauty.
    • Shift from storytelling to story making. To break through the clutter of advertising, companies need to move from storytelling to story making. A broader message that is emotionally engaging allows for a two-way conversation.
    • Be consistent with the brand value. The brand needs to stand for something, and the content should be relevant to and consistent with the image of the brand. Pepsi announced an award of $20 million in grants to individuals, businesses, and nonprofits that promote a new idea to make a positive impact on community. A large number of submissions were about social causes that had nothing to do with Pepsi, and some, like reducing obesity, were in conflict with Pepsi's product.
    • Create engagement that drives business. Too much entertainment in ads may engage customers but detract from both communicating the brand message and increasing sales. Simply measuring the number of video views provides only a partial picture of a program's success.

    Intelligent Automation

    PRIORITY 2

    • Extend Automation Practices with AI and ML

    AI and ML are rapidly growing. Organizations see the value of machines intelligently executing high-performance and dynamic tasks such as driving cars and detecting fraud. Senior leaders see AI and ML as opportunities to extend their business process automation investments.

    Introduction

    Intelligent automation is the next step in your business process automation journey

    What is intelligent automation (IA)?

    Intelligent automation (IA) is the combination of traditional automation technologies, such as business process management (BPM) and robotic process automation (RPA), with AI and ML. The goal is to further streamline and scale decision making across various business processes by:

    • Removing human interactions.
    • Addressing decisions that involve complex variables.
    • Automatically adapting processes to changing conditions.
    • Bridging disparate automation technologies into an integrated end-to-end value delivery pipeline.

    "For IA to succeed, employees must be involved in the transformation journey so they can experience firsthand the benefits of a new way of working and creating business value," (Cognizant).

    What is the difference between IA and hyperautomation?

    "Hyperautomation is the act of automating everything in an organization that can be automated. The intent is to streamline processes across an organization using intelligent automation, which includes AI, RPA and other technologies, to run without human intervention. … Hyperautomation is a business-driven, disciplined approach that organizations use to rapidly identify, vet, and automate as many business and IT processes as possible" (IBM, 2021).

    Note that hyperautomation often enables IA, but teams solely adopting IA do not need to abide to its automation-first principles.

    IA is a combination of various tools and technologies

    What tools and technologies are involved in IA?

    • Artificial intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML) – AI systems perform tasks mimicking human intelligence such as learning from experience and problem solving. AI is making its own decisions without human intervention. Machine learning systems learn from experience and without explicit instructions. They learn patterns from data then analyze and make predictions based on past behavior and the patterns learned. AI is a combination of technologies and can include machine learning.
    • Intelligent Business Process Management System (iBPMS) – Combination of BPM tools with AI and other intelligence capabilities.
    • Robotic Process Automation (RPA) – Robots leveraging an application's UI rather than programmatic access. Automate rules-based, repetitive tasks performed by human workers with AI/ML.
    • Process Mining & Discovery – Process mining involves reading system event logs and application transactions and applying algorithmic analysis to automatically identify and map inferred business processes. Process discovery involves unintrusive virtual agents that sit on a user's desktop and record and monitor how they interact with applications to perform tasks and processes. Algorithms are then used to map and analyze the processes.
    • Intelligent Document Processing – The conversion of physical or unstructured documents into a structured, digital format that can be used in automation solutions. Optical character recognition (OCR) and natural language processing (NPL) are common tools used to enable this capability.
    • Advanced Analytics – The gathering, synthesis, transformation, and delivery of insightful and consumable information that supports data-driven decision making. Data is queried from various disparate sources and can take on a variety of structured and unstructured formats.

    The cycle of IA technologies

    Signals

    Process automation is an executive priority and requires organizational buy-in

    Stakeholders recognize the importance of business process automation and AI and are looking for ways to deliver more value using these technologies.

    • 90% of executives stated automating business workflows post-COVID-19 will ensure business continuity (Kofax, 2022).
    • 88% of executives stated they need to fast-track their end-to-end digital transformation (Kofax, 2022).

    However, the advertised benefits to vendors of enabling these desired automations may not be easily achievable because of:

    • Manual and undocumented business processes.
    • Fragmented and inaccessible systems.
    • Poor data quality, insights, and security.
    • The lack of process governance and management practice.
    A circle graph is shown with 49% of the circle coloured in dark blue, with the number 49% in the centre.

    of CXOs stated staff sufficiency, skill and engagement issues as a minor IT pain point compared to 51% of CIOs stated this issue as a major pain point.

    Source: CEO-CIO Alignment Diagnostics, August 2021 to July 2022; n=568.

    A circle graph is shown with 36% of the circle coloured in dark blue, with the number 36% in the centre.

    of organizations have already invested in AI or machine learning.

    Source: Tech Trends and Priorities 2023; N=662

    Drivers

    Quality & throughput

    Products and services delivered through an undefined and manual process risk the creation of preventable and catchable defects, security flaws and holes, missing information, and other quality issues. IA solutions consistently reinforce quality standards the same way across all products and services while tailoring outputs to meet an individual's specific needs. Success is dependent on the accurate interpretation and application of quality standards and the user's expectations.

    Worker productivity

    IA removes the tedious, routine, and mundane tasks that distract and restrict employees from doing more valuable, impactful, and cognitively focused activities. Practical insights can also be generated through IA tools that help employees make data-driven decisions, evaluate problems from different angles, and improve the usability and value of the products and services they produce.

    Good process management practices

    Automation magnifies existing inefficiencies of a business process management practice, such as unclear and outdated process documentation and incorrect assumptions. IA reinforces the importance of good business process optimization practices, such as removing waste and inefficiencies in a thoughtful way, choosing the most appropriate automation solution, and configuring the process in the right way to maximize the solution's value.

    Benefits & Risks

    Benefits

    • Documentation
    • Hands-Off
    • Reusability

    All business processes must be mapped and documented to be automated, including business rules, data entities, applications, and control points.

    IA can be configured and orchestrated to automatically execute when certain business, process, or technology conditions are met in an unattended or attended manner.

    IA is applicable in use cases beyond traditional business processes, such as automated testing, quality control, audit, website scraping, integration platform, customer service, and data transfer.

    Risks

    • Data Quality & Bias
    • Ethics
    • Recovery & Security
    • Management

    The accuracy and relevance of the decisions IA makes are dependent on the overall quality of the data
    used to train it.

    Some decisions can have significant reputational, moral, and ethical impacts if made incorrectly.
    The question is whether it is appropriate for a non-human to make that decision.

    IA is composed of technologies that can be compromised or fail. Without the proper monitoring, controls,
    and recovery protocols, impacted IA will generate significant business and IT costs and can potentially harm customers, employees, and the organization.

    Low- and no-code capabilities ease and streamline IA development, which makes it susceptible to becoming unmanageable. Discipline is needed to ensure IA owners are aware of the size and health of the IA portfolio.

    Address your pressure points to fully realize the benefits of this priority

    Success can be dependent on your ability to address your pressure points.

    Attracting and Retaining Talent

    Be transparent and support role changes.

    Plan to address the human sentiment with automation (e.g. job security) and the transition of the role to other activities.

    Maximizing the Return on Technology

    Automate applications across multiple business functions.

    Recognize the value opportunities of improving and automating the integration of cross-functional processes.

    Confidently Shifting to Digital

    Maximize the learning of automation fit.

    Select the right capabilities to demonstrate the value of IA while using lessons learned to establish the appropriate support.

    Addressing Competing Priorities

    Recognize automation opportunities with capability maps.

    Use a capability diagram to align strategic IA objectives with tactical and technical IA initiatives.

    Fostering a Collaborative Culture

    Involve the user in the delivery process.

    Maximize automation adoption by ensuring the user finds value in its use before deployment.

    Creating High-Throughput Teams

    Remove manual, error-prone, and mundane tasks.

    Look for ways to improve team throughput by removing wasteful activities, enforcing quality, and automating away tasks driving down productivity.

    Recommendations

    Build your business process automation playbook and practice

    Formalize your business process automation practice with a good toolkit and a repeatable set of tactics and techniques.

    • Clarify the problem being solved with IA.
    • Optimate your processes. Apply good practices to first optimize (opti-) and then automate (-mate) key business processes.
    • Deliver minimum viable automations (MVAs). Maximize the learning of automation solutions and business operational changes through small, strategic automation use cases.

    Related Research:

    Explore the various IA tooling options

    Each IA tool will address a different problem. Which tool to choose is dependent on a variety of factors, such as functional suitability, technology suitability, delivery and support capabilities, alignment to strategic business goals, and the value it is designed to deliver.

    Related Research:

    Recommendations

    Introduce AI and ML thoughtfully and with a plan

    Despite the many promises of AI, organizations are struggling to fully realize its potential. The reasons boil down to a lack of understanding of when these technologies should and shouldn't be used, as well as a fear of the unknown. The plan to adopt AI should include:

    • Understanding of what AI really means in practice.
    • Identifying specific applications of AI in the business.
    • Understanding the type of AI applicable for the situation.

    Related Research:

    Mitigate AI and ML bias

    Biases can be introduced into an IA system at any stage of the development process, from the data you collect, to the way you collect it, to which algorithms are used and what assumptions were made. In most cases, AI and ML bias is a is a social, political, and business problem.

    While bias may not be intentional nor completely prevented or eliminated, early detection, good design, and other proactive preventative steps can be taken to minimize its scope and impact.

    Related Research:

    CASE STUDY
    University Hospitals

    Challenge

    University Hospitals Cleveland (UH) faces the same challenge that every major hospital confronts regarding how to deliver increasingly complex, high-quality healthcare to a diverse population efficiently and economically. In 2017, UH embarked on a value improvement program aiming to improve quality while saving $400 million over a five-year period.

    In emergency department (ED) and inpatient units, leaders found anticipating demand difficult, and consequently units were often over-staffed when demand was low and under-staffed when demand was high. Hospital leaders were uncertain about how to reallocate resources based on capacity needs.

    Solution

    UH turned to Hospital IQ's Census Solution to proactively manage capacity, staff, and flow in the ED and inpatient areas.

    By applying AI, ML, and external data (e.g. weather forecasts) to the hospital's own data (including EMR data and hospital policies), the solution helped UH make two-day census forecasts that managers used to determine whether to open or close in-patient beds and, when necessary, divert low-acuity patients to other hospitals in the system to handle predicted patient volume.

    Source: University Hospitals

    Results

    ED boarding hours have declined by 10% and the hospital has seen a 50% reduction in the number of patients who leave the hospital without
    being seen.

    UH also predicts in advance patients ready for discharge and identifies roadblocks, reducing the average length of stay by 15%. UH is able to better manage staff, reducing overtime and cutting overall labor costs.

    The hospital has also increased staff satisfaction and improved patient safety by closing specific units on weekends and increasing the number of rooms that can be sterilized.

    Proactive Application Management

    PRIORITY 3

    • Strengthen Applications to Prevent and Minimize the Impact of Future Issues

    Application management is often viewed as a support function rather than an enabler of business growth. Focus and investments are only placed on application management when it becomes a problem. The lack of governance and practice accountability leaves this practice in a chaotic state: politics take over, resources are not strategically allocated, and customers are frustrated. As a result, application management is often reactive and brushed aside for new development.

    Introduction

    What is application management?

    Application management ensures valuable software is successfully delivered and is maintained for continuous and sustainable business operations. It contains a repeatable set of activities needed to rationalize and roadmap products and services while balancing priorities of new features and maintenance tasks.

    Unfortunately, application management is commonly perceived as a practice that solely addresses issues, updates, and incidents. However, application management teams are also tasked with new value delivery that was not part of the original release.

    Why is an effective application maintenance (reactive) practice not good enough?

    Application maintenance is the "process of modifying a software system or its components after delivery to correct faults, improve performance or other attributes, or adapt to a changed environment or business process," (IEEE, 1998). While it is critical to quickly fix defects and issues when they occur, reactively addressing them is more expensive than discovering them early and employing the practices to prevent them.

    Even if an application is working well, its framework, architecture, and technology may not be compatible with the possible upcoming changes stakeholders and vendors may want to undertake. Applications may not be problems now, but they soon can be.

    What motivates proactive application changes?

    This image shows the motivations for proactive application changes, sorted by external and internal sources.

    Proactive application management must be disciplined and applied strategically

    Proactive application management practices are critical to maintaining business continuity. They require continuous review and modification so that applications are resilient and can address current and future scenarios. Depending on the value of the application, its criticality to business operations, and its susceptibility to technology change, a more proactive management approach may be warranted. Stakeholders can then better manage resources and budget according to the needs of specific products.

    Reactive Management

    Run-to-Failure

    Fix and enhance the product when it breaks. In most cases, a plan is in place ahead of a failure, so that the problem can be addressed without significant disruption and costs.

    Preventive

    Regularly inspect and optimize the product to reduce the likelihood that it will fail in the future. Schedule inspections based on a specific timeframe or usage threshold.

    Predictive

    Predict failures before they happen using performance and usage data to alert teams when products are at risk of failure according to specified conditions.

    Reliability and Risk Based

    Analyze all possible failure scenarios for each component of the product and create tailored delivery plans to improve the stability, reliability, and value of each product.

    Proactive Management

    Signals

    Applications begin to degrade as soon as they are used

    Today's applications are tomorrow's shelfware. They gradually lose their value, stability, robustness, and compatibility with other enterprise technologies. The longer these applications are left unattended or simply "keeping the lights on," the more risks they will bring to the application portfolio, such as:

    • Discovery and exploitation of security flaws and gaps.
    • Increasing the lock-in to specific vendor technologies.
    • Inconsistent application performance across various workloads.

    These impacts are further compounded by the continuous work done on a system burdened with technical debt. Technical debt describes the result of avoided costs that, over time, cause ongoing business impacts. Left unaddressed, technical debt can become an existential threat that risks your organization's ability to effectively compete and serve its customers. Unfortunately, most organizations have a significant, growing, unmanageable technical debt portfolio.

    A circle graph is shown with 60% of the circle coloured in dark green, with the number 60% in the centre.

    of respondents stated they saw an increase in perceived change in technical debt during the past three years. A quarter of respondents indicated that it stayed the same.

    Source: McKinsey Digital, 2020.

    US
    $4.35
    Million

    is the average cost of a data breach in 2022. This figure represents a 2.6% increase from last year. The average cost has climbed 12.7% since 2020.

    Source: IBM, 2022; N=537.

    Drivers

    Technical debt

    Historical decisions to meet business demands by deferring key quality, architectural, or other software delivery activities often lead to inefficient and incomplete code, fragile legacy systems, broken processes, data quality problems, and the other contributors to technical debt. The impacts for this challenge is further heightened if organizations are not actively refactoring and updating their applications behind the scenes. Proactive application management is intended to raise awareness of application fragility and prioritize comprehensive refactoring activities alongside new feature development.

    Long-term application value

    Applications are designed, developed, and tested against a specific set of parameters which may become less relevant over time as the business matures, technology changes, and user behaviors and interactions shift. Continuous monitoring of the application system, regular stakeholder and user feedback, and active technology trend research and vendor engagement will reveal tasks to prepare an application for future value opportunities or stability and resilience concerns.

    Security and resiliency

    Innovative approaches to infiltrating and compromising applications are becoming prevailing stakeholder concerns. The loopholes and gaps in existing application security protocols, control points, and end-user training are exploited to gain the trust of unsuspecting users and systems. Proactive application management enforces continuous security reviews to determine whether applications are at risk. The goal is to prevent an incident from happening by hardening or complementing measures already in place.

    Benefits & Risks

    Benefits

    • Consistent Performance
    • Robustness
    • Operating Costs

    Users expect the same level of performance and experience from their applications in all scenarios. A proactive approach ensures the configurations meet the current needs of users and dependent technologies.

    Proactively managed applications are resilient to the latest security concerns and upcoming trends.

    Continuous improvements to the underlying architecture, codebase, and interfaces can minimize the cost to maintain and operate the application, such as the transition to a loosely coupled architecture and the standardization of REST APIs.

    Risks

    • Stakeholder Buy-In
    • Delayed Feature Releases
    • Team Capacity
    • Discipline

    Stakeholders may not see the association between the application's value and its technical quality.

    Updates and enhancements are system changes much like any application function. Depending
    on the priority of these changes, new functions may be pushed off to a future release cycle.

    Applications teams require dedicated capacity to proactively manage applications, but they are often occupied meeting other stakeholder demands.

    Overinvesting in certain application management activities (such as refactoring, re-architecture, and redesign) can create more challenges. Knowing how much to do is important.

    Address your pressure points to fully realize the benefits of this priority

    Success can be dependent on your ability to address your pressure points.

    Attracting and Retaining Talent

    Shift focus from maintenance to innovation.

    Work on the most pressing and critical requests first, with a prioritization framework reflecting cross-functional priorities.

    Maximizing the Return on Technology

    Improve the reliability of mission-critical applications.

    Regularly verify and validate applications are up to date with the latest patches and fixes and comply with industry good practices and regulations.

    Confidently Shifting to Digital

    Prepare applications to support digital tools and technologies.

    Focus enhancements on the key components required to support the integration, performance, and security needs of digital.

    Addressing Competing Priorities

    Rationalize the health of the applications.

    Use data-driven, compelling insights to justify the direction and prioritization of applications initiatives.

    Fostering a Collaborative Culture

    Include the technical perspective in the viability of future applications plans.

    Demonstrate how poorly maintained applications impede the team's ability to deliver confidently and quickly.

    Creating High-Throughput Teams

    Simplify applications to ease delivery and maintenance.

    Refactor away application complexities and align the application portfolio to a common quality standard to reduce the effort to deliver and test changes.

    Recommendations

    Reinforce your application maintenance practice

    Maintenance is often viewed as a support function rather than an enabler of business growth. Focus and investments are only placed on maintenance when it becomes a problem.

    • Justify the necessity of streamlined maintenance.
    • Strengthen triaging and prioritization practices.
    • Establish and govern a repeatable process.

    Ensure product issues, incidents, defects, and change requests are promptly handled to minimize business and IT risks.

    Related Research:

    Build an application management practice

    Apply the appropriate management approaches to maintain business continuity and balance priorities and commitments among maintenance and new development requests.

    This practice serves as the foundation for creating exceptional customer experience by emphasizing cross-functional accountability for business value and product and service quality.

    Related Research:

    Recommendations

    Manage your technical debt

    Technical debt is a type of technical risk, which in turn is business risk. It's up to the business to decide whether to accept technical debt or mitigate it. Create a compelling argument to stakeholders as to why technical debt should be a business priority rather than just an IT one.

    • Define and identify your technical debt.
    • Conduct a business impact analysis.
    • Identify opportunities to better manage technical debt.

    Related Research:

    Gauge your application's health

    Application portfolio management is nearly impossible to perform without an honest and thorough understanding of your portfolio's alignment to business capabilities, business value, total cost of ownership, end-user reception and satisfaction, and technical health.

    Develop data-driven insights to help you decide which applications to retire, upgrade, retrain on, or maintain to meet the demands of the business.

    Related Research:

    Recommendations

    Adopt site reliability engineering (SRE) and DevOps practices

    Site reliability engineering (SRE) is an operational model for running online services more reliably by a team of dedicated reliability-focused engineers.

    DevOps, an operational philosophy promoting development and operations collaboration, can bring the critical insights to make application management practices through SRE more valuable.

    Related Research:

    CASE STUDY
    Government Agency

    Goal

    A government agency needed to implement a disciplined, sustainable application delivery, planning, and management process so their product delivery team could deliver features and changes faster with higher quality. The goal was to ensure change requests, fixes, and new features would relieve requester frustrations, reduce regression issues, and allow work to be done on agreeable and achievable priorities organization-wide. The new model needed to increase practice efficiency and visibility in order to better manage technical debt and focus on value-added solutions.

    Solution

    This organization recognized a number of key challenges that were inhibiting its team's ability to meet its goals:

    • The product backlog had become too long and unmanageable.
    • Delivery resources were not properly allocated to meet the skills and capabilities needed to successfully meet commitments.
    • Quality wasn't defined or enforced, which generated mounting technical debt.
    • There was a lack of clear metrics and defined roles and responsibilities.
    • The business had unrealistic and unachievable expectations.

    Source: Info-Tech Workshop

    Key practices implemented

    • Schedule quarterly business satisfaction surveys.
    • Structure and facilitate regular change advisory board meetings.
    • Define and enforce product quality standards.
    • Standardize a streamlined process with defined roles.
    • Configure management tools to better handle requests.

    Multisource Systems

    PRIORITY 4

    • Manage an Ecosystem Composed of In-House and Outsourced Systems

    Various market and company factors are motivating a review on resource and system sourcing strategies. The right sourcing model provides key skills, resources, and capabilities to meet innovation, time to market, financial, and quality goals of the business. However, organizations struggle with how best to support sourcing partners and to allocate the right number of resources to maximize success.

    Introduction

    A multisource system is an ecosystem of integrated internally and externally developed applications, data, and infrastructure. These technologies can be custom developed, heavily configured vendor solutions, or they may be commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions. These systems can also be developed, supported, and managed by internal staff, in partnership with outsourced contractors, or be completely outsourced. Multisource systems should be configured and orchestrated in a way that maximizes the delivery of specific value drivers for the targeted audience.

    Successfully selecting a sourcing approach is not a simple RFP exercise to choose the lowest cost

    Defining and executing a sourcing approach can be a significant investment and risk because of the close interactions third-party services and partners will have with internal staff, enterprise applications and business capabilities. A careful selection and design is necessary.

    The selection of a sourcing partner is not simple. It involves the detailed inspection and examination of different candidates and matching their fit to the broader vision of the multisource system. In cases where control is critical, technology stack and resource sourcing consolidation to a few vendors and partners is preferred. In other cases, where worker productivity and system flexibility are highly prioritized, a plug-and-play best-of-breed approach is preferred.

    Typical factors involved in sourcing decisions.

    Sourcing needs to be driven by your department and system strategies

    How does the department want to be perceived?

    The image that your applications department and teams want to reflect is frequently dependent on the applications they deliver and support, the resources they are composed of, and the capabilities they provide.

    Therefore, choosing the right sourcing approach should be driven by understanding who the teams are and want to be (e.g. internal builder, an integrator, a plug-in player), what they can or want to do (e.g. custom-develop or implement), and what they can deliver or support (e.g. cloud or on-premises) must be established.

    What value is the system delivering?

    Well-integrated systems are the lifeblood of your organization. They provide the capabilities needed to deliver value to customers, employees, and stakeholders. However, underlying system components may not be sourced under a unified strategy, which can lead to duplicate vendor services and high operational costs.

    The right sourcing approach ensures your partners address key capabilities in your system's delivery and support, and that they are positioned to maximize the value of critical and high-impact components.

    Signals

    Business demand may outpace what vendors can support or offer

    Outsourcing and shifting to a buy-over-build applications strategy are common quick fixes to dealing with capacity and skills gaps. However, these quick fixes often become long-term implementations that are not accounted for in the sourcing selection process. Current application and resource sourcing strategies must be reviewed to ensure that vendor arrangements meet the current and upcoming demands and challenges of the business, customers, and enterprise technologies, such as:

    • Pressure from stakeholders to lower operating costs while maintaining or increasing quality and throughput.
    • Technology lock-in that addresses short-term needs but inhibits long-term growth and maturity.
    • Team capacity and talent acquisition not meeting the needs of the business.
    A circle graph is shown with 42% of the circle coloured in dark brown, with the number 42% in the centre.

    of respondents stated they outsourced software development fully or partly in the last 12 months (2021).

    Source: Coding Sans, 2021.

    A circle graph is shown with 65% of the circle coloured in dark brown, with the number 65% in the centre.

    of respondents stated they were at least somewhat satisfied with the result of outsourcing software development.

    Source: Coding Sans, 2021.

    Drivers

    Business-managed applications

    Employees are implementing and building applications without consulting, notifying, or heeding the advice of IT. IT is often ill-equipped and under-resourced to fight against shadow IT. Instead, organizations are shifting the mindset of "fight shadow IT" to "embrace business-managed applications," using good practices in managing multisource systems. A multisource approach strikes the right balance between user empowerment and centralized control with the solutions and architecture that can best enable it.

    Unique problems to solve

    Point solutions offer features to address unique use cases in uncommon technology environments. However, point solutions are often deployed in siloes with limited integration or overlap with other solutions. The right sourcing strategy accommodates the fragmented nature of point solutions into a broader enterprise system strategy, whether that be:

    • Multisource best of breed – integrate various technologies that provide subsets of the features needed for supporting business functions.
    • Multisource custom – integrate systems built in-house with technologies developed by external organizations.
    • Vendor add-ons and integrations – enhance an existing vendor's offering by using their system add-ons as upgrades, new add-ons, or integrations.

    Vendor services

    Some vendor services in a multisource environment may be redundant, conflicting, or incompatible. Given that multisource systems are regularly changing, it is difficult to identify what services are affected, what would be needed to fill the gap of the removed solution, or which redundant services should be removed.

    A multisource approach motivates the continuous rationalization of your vendor services and partners to determine the right mixture of in-house and outsourced resources, capabilities, and technologies.

    Benefits & Risks

    Benefits

    • Business-Focused Solution
    • Flexibility
    • Cost Optimization

    Multisource systems can be designed to support an employee's ability to select the tools they want and need.

    The environment is architected in a loosely coupled approach to allow applications to be easily added, removed, and modified with minimized impact to other integrated applications.

    Rather than investing in large solutions upfront, applications are adopted when they are needed and are removed when little value is gained. Disciplined application portfolio management is necessary to see the full value of this benefit.

    Risks

    • Manageable Sprawl
    • Policy Adherence
    • Integration & Compatibility

    The increased number and diversity of applications in multisource system environments can overwhelm system managers who do not have an effective application portfolio management practice.

    Fragmented application implementations risk inconsistent adherence to security and other quality policies, especially in situations where IT is not involved.

    Application integration can quickly become tangled, untraceable, and unmanageable because of varying team and vendor preferences for specific integration technologies and techniques.

    Address your pressure points to fully realize the benefits of this priority

    Success can be dependent on your ability to address your pressure points.

    Attracting and Retaining Talent

    Enable business-managed applications.

    Create the integrations to enable the easy connection of desired tools to enterprise systems with the appropriate guardrails.

    Maximizing the Return on Technology

    Enhance the functionality of existing applications.

    Complement current application capability gaps with data, features, and services from third-party applications.

    Confidently Shifting to Digital

    Use best-of-breed tools to meet specific digital needs.

    Select the best tools to meet the unique and special functional needs of the digital vision.

    Addressing Competing Priorities

    Agree on a common philosophy on system composition.

    Establish an owner of the multisource system to guide how the system should mature as the organization grows.

    Fostering a Collaborative Culture

    Discuss how applications can work together better in an ecosystem.

    Build committees to discuss how applications can better support each other and drive more value.

    Creating High-Throughput Teams

    Alleviate delivery bottlenecks and issues.

    Leverage third-party sources to fill skills and capacity gaps until a long-term solution can be implemented.

    Recommendations

    Define the goals of your applications department and product vision

    Understanding the applications team's purpose and image is critical in determining how the system they are managing and the skills and capacities they need should be sourced.

    Changing and conflicting definitions of value and goals make it challenging to convey an agreeable strategy of the multisource system. An achievable vision and practical tactics ensure all parties in the multisource system are moving in the same direction.

    Related Research:

    Develop a sourcing partner strategy

    Almost half of all sourcing initiatives do not realize projected savings, and the biggest reason is the choice of partner (Zhang et al., 2018). Making the wrong choice means inferior products, higher costs and the loss of both clients and reputation.

    Choosing the right sourcing partner involves understanding current skills and capacities, finding the right matching partner based on a desired profile, and managing a good working relationship that sees short-term gains and supports long-term goals.

    Related Research:

    Recommendations

    Strengthen enterprise integration practices

    Integration strategies that are focused solely on technology are likely to complicate rather than simplify because little consideration is given on how other systems and processes will be impacted. Enterprise integration needs to bring together business process, applications, and data – in that order.

    Kick-start the process of identifying opportunities for improvement by mapping how applications and data are coordinated to support business activities.

    Related Research:

    Manage your solution architecture and application portfolio

    Haphazardly implementing and integrating applications can generate significant security, performance, and data risks. A well-thought-through solution architecture is essential in laying the architecture quality principles and roadmap on how the multisource system can grow and evolve in a sustainable and maintainable way.

    Good application portfolio management complements the solution architecture as it indicates when low-value and unused applications should be removed to reduce system complexity.

    Related Research:

    Recommendations

    Embrace business-managed applications

    Multisource systems bring a unique opportunity to support the business and end users' desire to implement and develop their own applications. However, traditional models of managing applications may not accommodate the specific IT governance and management practices required to operate business-managed applications:

    • A collaborative and trusting business-IT relationship is key.
    • The role of IT must be reimagined.
    • Business must be accountable for its decisions.

    Related Research:

    CASE STUDY
    Cognizant

    Situation

    • Strives to be primarily an industry-aligned organization that delivers multiple service lines in multiple geographies.
    • Cognizant seeks to carefully consider client culture to create a one-team environment.
    • Value proposition is a consultative approach bringing thought leadership and mutually adding value to the relationship vs. the more traditional order-taker development partner.
    • Wants to share in solution development to facilitate shared successes. Geographic alignment drives knowledge of the client and their challenges, not just about time zone and supportability.
    • Offers one of the largest offshore capabilities in the world, supported by local and nearshore resources to drive local knowledge.
    • Today's clients don't typically want a black box, they are sophisticated and want transparency around the process and solution, to have a partner.
    • Clients do want to know where the work is being delivered from, how it's being done.

    Source: interview with Jay MacIsaac, Cognizant.

    Approach

    • Best relationship comes where teams operate as one.
    • Clients are seeking value, not a development black box.
    • Clients want to have a partner they can engage with, not just an order taker.
    • Want to build a one-team culture with shared goals and deliver business value.
    • Seek a partner that will add to their thinking not echo it.

    Results

    • Cognizant is continuing to deliver double-digit growth and continues to strive for top quartile performance.
    • Growth in the client base has seen the company grow to over 340,000 associates worldwide.

    Digital Organization as a Platform

    PRIORITY 5

    • Create a Common Digital Interface to Access All Products and Services

    A digital platform enables organizations to leverage a flexible, reliable, and scalable foundation to create a valuable DX, ease delivery and management efforts, maximize existing investments, and motivate the broader shift to digital. This approach provides a standard to architect, integrate, configure, and modernize the applications that compose the platform.

    Introduction

    What is digital organization as a platform (DOaaP)?

    Digital organization as a platform (DOaaP) is a collection of integrated digital services, products, applications, and infrastructure that is used as a vehicle to meet and exceed an organization's digital strategies. It often serves as an accessible "place for exchanges of information, goods, or services to occur between producers and consumers as well as the community that interacts
    with said platform" (Watts, 2020).

    DOaaP involves a strategy that paves the way for organizations to be digital. It helps organizations use their assets (e.g. data, processes, products, services) in the most effective ways and become more open to cooperative delivery, usage, and management. This opens opportunities for innovation and cross-department collaborations.

    How is DOaaP described?

    1. Open and Collaborative
      • Open organization: open data, open APIs, transparency, and user participation.
      • Collaboration, co-creation, crowdsourcing, and innovation
    2. Accessible and Connected
      • Digital inclusion
      • Channel ubiquity
      • Integrity and interoperability
      • Digital marketplace
    3. Digital and Programmable
      • Digital identity
      • Policies and processes as code
      • Digital products and services
      • Enabling digital platforms

    Digital organizations follow a common set of principles and practices

    Customer-centricity

    Digital organizations are driven by customer focus, meeting and exceeding customer expectations. It must design its services with a "digital first" principle, providing access through every expected channel and including seamless integration and interoperability with various departments, partners, and third-party services. It also means creating trust in its ability to provide secure services and to keep privacy and ethics as core pillars.

    Leadership, management, and strategies

    Digital leadership brings customer focus to the enterprise and its structures and organizes efficient networks and ecosystems. Accomplishing this means getting rid of silos and a siloed mentality and aligning on a digital vision to design policies and services that are efficient, cost-effective, and provide maximum benefit to the user. Asset sharing, co-creation, and being open and transparent become cornerstones of a digital organization.

    Infrastructure

    Providing digital services across demographics and geographies requires infrastructure, and that in turn requires long-term vision, smart investments, and partnerships with various source partners to create the necessary foundational infrastructure upon which to build digital services.

    Digitization and automation

    Automation and digitization of processes and services, as well as creating digital-first products, lead to increased efficiency and reach of the organization across demographics and geographies. Moreover, by taking a digital-first approach, digital organizations future-proof their services and demonstrate their commitment to stakeholders.

    Enabling platforms

    DOaaP embraces open standards, designing and developing organizational platforms and ecosystems with a cloud-first mindset and sound API strategies. Developer experience must also take center stage, providing the necessary tools and embracing Agile and DevOps practices and culture become prerequisites. Cybersecurity and privacy are central to the digital platform; hence they must be part of the design and development principles and practices.

    Signals

    The business expects support for digital products and services

    Digital transformation continues to be a high-priority initiative for many organizations, and they see DOaaP as an effective way to enable and exploit digital capabilities. However, DOaaP unleashes new strategies, opportunities, and challenges that are elusive or unfamiliar to business leaders. Barriers in current business operating models may limit DOaaP success, such as:

    • Department and functional silos
    • Dispersed, fragmented and poor-quality data
    • Ill-equipped and under-skilled resources to support DOaaP adoption
    • System fragmentation and redundancies
    • Inconsistent integration tactics employed across systems
    • Disjointed user experience leading to low engagement and adoption

    DOaaP is not just about technology, and it is not the sole responsibility of either IT or business. It is the collective responsibility of the organization.

    A circle graph is shown with 47% of the circle coloured in dark blue, with the number 47% in the centre.

    of organizations plan to unlock new value through digital. 50% of organizations are planning major transformation over the next three years.

    Source: Nash Squared, 2022.

    A circle graph is shown with 70% of the circle coloured in dark blue, with the number 70% in the centre.

    of organizations are undertaking digital expansion projects focused on scaling their business with technology. This result is up from 57% in 2021.

    Source: F5 Inc, 2022.

    Drivers

    Unified brand and experience

    Users should have the same experience and perception of a brand no matter what product or service they use. However, fragmented implementation of digital technologies and inconsistent application of design standards makes it difficult to meet this expectation. DOaaP embraces a single design and DX standard for all digital products and services, which creates a consistent perception of your organization's brand and reputation irrespective of what products and services are being used and how they are accessed.

    Accessibility

    Rapid advancement of end-user devices and changes to end-user behaviors and expectations often outpace an organization's ability to meet these requirements. This can make certain organization products and services difficult to find, access and leverage. DOaaP creates an intuitive and searchable interface to all products and services and enables the strategic combination of technologies to collectively deliver more value.

    Justification for modernization

    Many opportunities are left off the table when legacy systems are abstracted away rather than modernized. However, legacy systems may not justify the investment in modernization because their individual value is outweighed by the cost. A DOaaP initiative motivates decision makers to look at the entire system (i.e. modern and legacy) to determine which components need to be brought up to a minimum digital state. The conversation has now changed. Legacy systems should be modernized to increase the collective benefit of the entire DOaaP.

    Benefits & Risks

    Benefits

    • Look & Feel
    • User Adoption
    • Shift to Digital

    A single, modern, customizable interface enables a common look and feel no matter what and how the platform is being accessed.

    Organizations can motivate and encourage the adoption and use of all products and services through the platform and increase the adoption of underused technologies.

    DOaaP motivates and supports the modernization of data, processes, and systems to meet the goals and objectives outlined in the broader digital transformation strategy.

    Risks

    • Data Quality
    • System Stability
    • Ability to Modernize
    • Business Model Change

    Each system may have a different definition of commonly used entities (e.g. customer), which can cause data quality issues when information is shared among these systems.

    DOaaP can stress the performance of underlying systems due to the limitations of some systems to handle increased traffic.

    Some systems cannot be modernized due to cost constraints, business continuity risks, vendor lock-in, legacy and lore, or other blocking factors.

    Limited appetite to make the necessary changes to business operations in order to maximize the value of DOaaP technologies.

    Address your pressure points to fully realize the benefits of this priority

    Success can be dependent on your ability to address your pressure points.

    Attracting and Retaining Talent Promote and showcase achievements and successes. Share the valuable and innovative work of your teams across the organization and with the public.
    Maximizing the Return on Technology Increase visibility of underused applications. Promote the adoption and use of all products and services through the platform and use the lessons learned to justify removal, updates or modernizations.
    Confidently Shifting to Digital Bring all applications up to a common digital standard. Define the baseline digital state all applications, data, and processes must be in to maximize the value of the platform.
    Addressing Competing Priorities Map to a holistic platform vision, goals and objectives. Work with relevant stakeholders, teams and end users to agree on a common directive considering all impacted perspectives.
    Fostering a Collaborative Culture Ensure the platform is configured to meet the individual needs of the users. Tailor the interface and capabilities of the platform to address users' functional and personal concerns.
    Creating High-Throughput Teams Abstract the enterprise system to expedite delivery. Use the platform to standardize application system access to simplify platform changes and quicken development and testing.

    Recommendations

    Define your platform vision

    Organizations realize that a digital model is the way to provide more effective services to their customers and end users in a cost-effective, innovative, and engaging fashion. DOaaP is a way to help support this transition.

    However, various platform stakeholders will have different interpretations of and preferences for what this platform is intended to solve, what benefits it is supposed to deliver, and what capabilities it will deliver. A grounded vision is imperative to steer the roadmap and initiatives.

    Related Research:

    Assess and modernize your applications

    Certain applications may not sufficiently support the compatibility, flexibility, and efficiency requirements of DOaaP. While workaround technologies and tactics can be employed to overcome these application challenges, the full value of the DOaaP may not be realized.

    Reviewing the current state of the application portfolio will indicate the functional and value limitations of what DOaaP can provide and an indication of the scope of investment needed to bring applications up to a minimum state.

    Related Research:

    Recommendations

    Understand and evaluate end-user needs

    Technology has reached a point where it's no longer difficult for teams to build functional and valuable digital platforms. Rather, the difficulty lies in creating an interface and platform that people want to use and use frequently.

    While it is important to increase the access and promotion of all products and services, orchestrating and configuring them in a way to deliver a satisfying experience is even more important. Applications teams must first learn about and empathize with the needs of end users.

    Related Research:

    Architect your platform

    Formalizing and constructing DOaaP just for the sake of doing so often results in an initiative that is lengthy and costly and ends up being considered a failure.

    The build and optimization of the platform must be predicated on a thorough understanding of the DOaaP's goals, objectives, and priorities and the business capabilities and process they are meant to support and enable. The appropriate architecture and delivery practices can then be defined and employed.

    Related Research:

    CASE STUDY
    e-Estonia

    Situation

    The digital strategy of Estonia resulted in e-Estonia, with the vision of "creating a society with more transparency, trust, and efficiency." Estonia has addressed the challenge by creating structures, organizations, and a culture of innovation, and then using the speed and efficiency of digital infrastructure, apps, and services. This strategy can reduce or eliminate bureaucracy through transparency and automation.

    Estonia embarked on its journey to making digital a priority in 1994-1996, focusing on a committed investment in infrastructure and digital literacy. With that infrastructure in place, they started providing digital services like an e-banking service (1996), e-tax and mobile parking (2002), and then went full steam ahead with a digital information interoperability platform in 2001, digital identity in 2002, e-health in 2008, and e-prescription in 2010. The government is now strategizing for AI.

    Results

    This image contains the results of the e-Estonia case study results

    Source: e-Estonia

    Practices employed

    The e-Estonia digital government model serves as a reference for governments across the world; this is acknowledged by the various awards it has received, like #2 in "internet freedom," awarded by Freedom House in 2019; #1 on the "digital health index," awarded by the Bertelsmann Foundation in 2019; and #1 on "start-up friendliness," awarded by Index Venture in 2018.

    References

    "15th State of Agile Report." Digital.ai, 2021. Web.
    "2022 HR Trends Report." McLean & Company, 2022.
    "2022: State of Application Strategy Report." F5 Inc, 2022.
    "Are Executives Wearing Rose-Colored Glasses Around Digital Transformation?" Cyara, 2021. Web.
    "Cost of a Data Breach Report 2022." IBM, 2022. Web.
    Dalal, Vishal, et al. "Tech Debt: Reclaiming Tech Equity." McKinsey Digital, Oct. 2020. Web.
    "Differentiating Between Intelligent Automation and Hyperautomation." IBM, 15 October 2021. Web.
    "Digital Leadership Report 2021." Harvey Nash Group, 2021.
    "Digital Leadership Report 2022: The State of Digital." Nash Squared, 2022. Web.
    Gupta, Sunil. "Driving Digital Strategy: A Guide to Reimagining Your Business." Harvard Business Review Press, 2018. Web.
    Haff, Gordon. "State of Application Modernization Report 2022." Konveyor, 2022. Web.
    "IEEE Standard for Software Maintenance: IEEE Std 1219-1998." IEEE Standard for Software Maintenance, 1998. Accessed Dec. 2015.
    "Intelligent Automation." Cognizant, n.d. Web.
    "Kofax 2022: Intelligent Automation Benchmark Study". Kofax, 2021. Web.
    McCann, Leah. "Barco's Virtual Classroom at UCL: A Case Study for the Future of All University Classrooms?" rAVe, 2 July 2020, Web.
    "Proactive Staffing and Patient Prioritization to Decompress ED and Reduce Length of Stay." University Hospitals, 2018. Web.
    "Secrets of Successful Modernization." looksoftware, 2013. Web.
    "State of Software Development." Coding Sans, 2021. Web.
    "The State of Low-Code/No-Code." Creatio, 2021. Web.
    "We Have Built a Digital Society and We Can Show You How." e-Estonia. n.d. Web.
    Zanna. "The 5 Types of Experience Series (1): Brand Experience Is Your Compass." Accelerate in Experience, 9 February 2020. Web.
    Zhang, Y. et al. "Effects of Risks on the Performance of Business Process Outsourcing Projects: The Moderating Roles of Knowledge Management Capabilities." International Journal of Project Management, 2018, vol. 36 no. 4, 627-639.

    Research Contributors and Experts

    This is a picture of Chris Harrington

    Chris Harrington
    Chief Technology Officer
    Carolinas Telco Federal Credit Union

    Chris Harrington is Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Carolinas Telco Federal Credit Union. Harrington is a proven leader with over 20 years of experience developing and leading information technology and cybersecurity strategies and teams in the financial industry space.

    This is a picture of Benjamin Palacio

    Benjamin Palacio
    Senior Information Technology Analyst County of Placer

    Benjamin Palacio has been working in the application development space since 2007 with a strong focus on system integrations. He has seamlessly integrated applications data across multiple states into a single reporting solution for management teams to evaluate, and he has codeveloped applications to manage billions in federal funding. He is also a CSAC-credentialed IT Executive (CA, USA).

    This is a picture of Scott Rutherford

    Scott Rutherford
    Executive Vice President, Technology
    LGM Financial Services Inc.

    Scott heads the Technology division of LGM Financial Services Inc., a leading provider of warranty and financing products to automotive OEMs and dealerships in Canada. His responsibilities include strategy and execution of data and analytics, applications, and technology operations.

    This is a picture of Robert Willatts

    Robert Willatts
    IT Manager, Enterprise Business Solutions and Project Services
    Town of Newmarket

    Robert is passionate about technology, innovation, and Smart City Initiatives. He makes customer satisfaction as the top priority in every one of his responsibilities and accountabilities as an IT manager, such as developing business applications, implementing and maintaining enterprise applications, and implementing technical solutions. Robert encourages communication, collaboration, and engagement as he leads and guides IT in the Town of Newmarket.

    This is a picture of Randeep Grewal

    Randeep Grewal
    Vice President, Enterprise Applications
    Red Hat

    Randeep has over 25 years of experience in enterprise applications, advanced analytics, enterprise data management, and consulting services, having worked at numerous blue-chip companies. In his most recent role, he is the Vice President of Enterprise Applications at Red Hat. Reporting to the CIO, he is responsible for Red Hat's core business applications with a focus on enterprise transformation, application architecture, engineering, and operational excellence. He previously led the evolution of Red Hat into a data-led company by maturing the enterprise data and analytics function to include data lake, streaming data, data governance, and operationalization of analytics for decision support.

    Prior to Red Hat, Randeep was the director of global services strategy at Lenovo, where he led the strategy using market data to grow Lenovo's services business by over $400 million in three years. Prior to Lenovo, Randeep was the director of advanced analytics at Alliance One and helped build an enterprise data and analytics function. His earlier work includes seven years at SAS, helping SAS become a leader in business analytics, and at KPMG consulting, where he managed services engagements at Fortune 100 companies.

    Develop an IT Asset Management Strategy

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    • Parent Category Name: Asset Management
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    You have a mandate to create an accurate and actionable database of the IT assets in your environment, but:

    • The data you have is often incomplete or wrong.
    • Processes are broken or non-existent.
    • Your tools aren’t up to the task of tracking ever more hardware, software, and relevant metadata.
    • The role of stakeholders outside the core ITAM team isn’t well defined or understood.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    ITAM is a foundational IT service that provides accurate, accessible, actionable data on IT assets. But there’s no value in data for data’s sake. Enable collaboration between IT asset managers, business leaders, and IT leaders to develop an ITAM strategy that maximizes the value they can deliver as service providers.

    Impact and Result

    • Develop an approach and strategy for ITAM that is sustainable and aligned with your business priorities.
    • Clarify the structure for the ITAM program, including scope, responsibility and accountability, centralization vs. decentralization, outsourcing vs. insourcing, and more.
    • Create a practical roadmap to guide improvement.
    • Summarize your strategy and approach using Info-Tech’s templates for review with stakeholders.

    Develop an IT Asset Management Strategy Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Develop an IT Asset Management Strategy – A methodology to create a business-aligned, coherent, and durable approach to ITAM.

    This two-phase, step-by-step methodology will guide you through the activities to build a business-aligned, coherent, and durable approach to ITAM. Review the executive brief at the start of the slide deck for an overview of the methodology and the value it can provide to your organization.

    • Develop an IT Asset Management Strategy – Phases 1-2

    2. ITAM Strategy Template – A presentation-ready repository for the work done as you define your ITAM approach.

    Use this template to document your IT asset management strategy and approach.

    • ITAM Strategy Template

    3. IT Asset Estimations Tracker – A rough-and-ready inventory exercise to help you evaluate the work ahead of you.

    Use this tool to estimate key data points related to your IT asset estate, as well as your confidence in your estimates.

    • IT Asset Estimations Tracker

    Infographic

    Workshop: Develop an IT Asset Management Strategy

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Identify ITAM Priorities & Goals, Maturity, Metrics and KPIs

    The Purpose

    Align key stakeholders to the potential strategic value of the IT asset management practice.

    Ensure the ITAM practice is focused on business-aligned goals.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Define a business-aligned direction and expected outcomes for your ITAM program.

    Activities

    1.1 Brainstorm ITAM opportunities and challenges.

    1.2 Conduct an executive alignment working session.

    1.3 Set ITAM priorities, goals and tactics.

    1.4 Identify target and current state ITAM maturity.

    Outputs

    ITAM opportunities and challenges

    Align executive priorities with ITAM opportunities.

    ITAM metrics and KPIs

    ITAM maturity

    2 Identify Your Approach to Support ITAM Priorities and Goals

    The Purpose

    Translate goals into specific and coherent actions to enable your ITAM practice to deliver business value.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A business-aligned approach to ITAM, encompassing scope, structure, tools, audits, budgets, documentation and more.

    A high-level roadmap to achieve your vision for the ITAM practice.

    Activities

    2.1 Define ITAM scope.

    2.2 Acquire ITAM services (outsourcing and contracting).

    2.3 Centralize or decentralize ITAM capabilities.

    2.4 Create a RACI for the ITAM practice.

    2.5 Align ITAM with other service management practices.

    2.6 Evaluate ITAM tools and integrations.

    2.7 Create a plan for internal and external audits.

    2.8 Improve your budget processes.

    2.9 Establish a documentation framework.

    2.10 Create a roadmap and communication plan.

    Outputs

    Your ITAM approach

    ITAM roadmap and communication plan

    Further reading

    Develop an IT Asset Management Strategy

    Define your business-aligned approach to ITAM.

    Table of Contents

    4 Analyst Perspective

    5 Executive Summary

    17 Phase 1: Establish Business-Aligned ITAM Goals and Priorities

    59 Phase 2: Support ITAM Goals and Priorities

    116 Bibliography

    Develop an IT Asset Management Strategy

    Define your business-aligned approach to ITAM.

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Analyst Perspective

    Track hardware and software. Seems easy, right?

    It’s often taken for granted that IT can easily and accurately provide definitive answers to questions like “how many laptops do we have at Site 1?” or “do we have the right number of SQL licenses?” or “how much do we need to budget for device replacements next year?” After all, don’t we know what we have?

    IT can’t easily provide these answers because to do so you must track hardware and software throughout its lifecycle – which is not easy. And unfortunately, you often need to respond to these questions on very short notice because of an audit or to support a budgeting exercise.

    IT Asset Management (ITAM) is the solution. It’s not a new solution – the discipline has been around for decades. But the key to success is to deploy the practice in a way that is sustainable, right-sized, and maximizes value.

    Use our practical methodology to develop and document your approach to ITAM that is aligned with the goals of your organization.

    Photo of Andrew Sharp, Research Director, Infrastructure & Operations Practice, Info-Tech Research Group.

    Andrew Sharp
    Research Director
    Infrastructure & Operations Practice
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Realize the value of asset management

    Cost optimization, application rationalization and reduction of technical debt are all considered valuable to right-size spending and improve service outcomes. Without access to accurate data, these activities require significant investments of time and effort, starting with creation of point-in-time inventories, which lengthens the timeline to reaching project value and may still not be accurate.

    Cost optimization and reduction of technical debt should be part of your culture and technical roadmap rather than one-off projects. Why? Access to accurate information enables the organization to quickly make decisions and pivot plans as needed. Through asset management, ongoing harvest and redeployment of assets improves utilization-to-spend ratios. We would never see any organization saying, “We’ve closed our year end books, let’s fire the accountants,” but often see this valuable service relegated to the back burner. Similar to the philosophy that “the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago and the next best time is now,” the sooner you can start to collect, validate, and analyze data, the sooner you will find value in it.

    Photo of Sandi Conrad, Principal Research Director, Infrastructure & Operations Practice, Info-Tech Research Group.

    Sandi Conrad
    Principal Research Director
    Infrastructure & Operations Practice
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    You have a mandate to create an accurate and actionable database of the IT assets in your environment, but:

    • The data you have is often incomplete or wrong.
    • Processes are broken or non-existent.
    • Your tools aren’t up to the task of tracking ever more hardware, software, and relevant metadata.
    • The role of stakeholders outside the core ITAM team isn’t well defined or understood.
    Common Obstacles

    It is challenging to make needed changes because:

    • There’s cultural resistance to asset tracking, it’s seen as busywork that doesn’t clearly create value.
    • Decentralized IT teams aren’t generating the data required to track hardware and licenses.
    • ITAM can’t direct needed tool improvements because the admins don’t report to ITAM.
    • It’s hard to find time to improve processes given the day-to-day demands on your time.
    Info-Tech’s Approach
    • Develop an approach and strategy for ITAM that is sustainable and aligned with your business priorities.
    • Clarify the structure for the ITAM program, including scope, responsibility and accountability, centralization vs. decentralization, outsourcing vs. insourcing, and more.
    • Create a practical roadmap to guide improvement.
    • Summarize your strategy and approach using Info-Tech’s templates for review with stakeholders.

    Info-Tech Insight

    ITAM is a foundational IT service that provides accurate, accessible, actionable data on IT assets. But there’s no value in data for data’s sake. Enable collaboration between IT asset managers, business leaders, and IT leaders to develop an ITAM strategy that maximizes the value they can deliver as service providers.

    Unlock business value with IT asset management

    • IT asset management (ITAM) is the practice of maintaining accurate, accessible, and actionable data on the assets within the organization’s IT estate. Each IT asset will have a record that tracks it across its lifecycle from purchase to disposal.
    • ITAM’s value is realized through other processes and practice areas that can leverage ITAM data to manage risk, improve IT services, and control costs.
    • Develop an approach to ITAM that maximizes the value delivered to the business and IT. ITAM succeeds when its partners succeed at delivering business value, and it fails when it doesn’t show value to those partners.

    This blueprint will help you develop your approach for the management of IT hardware and software, including cloud services. Leverage other Info-Tech methodologies to dive directly into developing hardware asset management procedures, software asset management procedures, or to implement configuration management best practices.

    Info-Tech Members report significant savings from implementing our hardware and software asset management frameworks. In order to maximize value from the process-focused methodologies below, develop your ITAM strategy first.

    Implement Hardware Asset Management (Based on Info-Tech Measured Value Surveys results from clients working through these blueprints, as of February 2022.)

    9.6/10

    $23k

    32

    Overall Impact Average $ Saved Average Days Saved
    Implement Software Asset Management (Based on Info-Tech Measured Value Surveys results from clients working through these blueprints, as of February 2022.)

    9.0/10

    $12k

    5

    Overall Impact Average $ Saved Average Days Saved

    ITAM provides both early and ongoing value

    ITAM isn’t one-and-done. Properly supported, your ITAM practice will deliver up-front value that will help demonstrate the value ongoing ITAM can offer through the maintenance of an accurate, accessible, and actionable ITAM database.

    Example: Software Savings from ITAM



    This chart shows the money saved between the first quote and the final price for software and maintenance by a five-person ITAM team. Over a year and a half, they saved their organization a total of $7.5 million from a first quote total of $21 million over that period.

    This is a perfect example of the direct value that ITAM can provide on an ongoing basis to the organization, when properly supported and integrated with IT and the business.

    Examples of up-front value delivered in the first year of the ITAM practice:

    • Save money by reviewing and renegotiating critical, high-spend, and undermanaged software and service contracts.
    • Redeploy or dispose of clearly unused hardware and software.
    • Develop and enforce standards for basic hardware and software.
    • Improve ITAM data quality and build trust in the results.

    Examples of long-term value from ongoing governance, management, and operational ITAM activities:

    • Optimize spend: Reallocate unused hardware and software, end unneeded service agreements, and manage renewals and audits.
    • Reduce risk: Provide comprehensive asset data for security controls development and incident management; manage equipment disposal.
    • Improve IT service: Support incident, problem, request, and change management with ITAM data. Develop new solutions with an understanding of what you have already.

    Common obstacles

    The rulebook is available, but hard to follow
    • ITAM takes a village, but stakeholders aren’t aware of their role. ITAM processes rely on technicians to update asset records, vendors to supply asset data, administrators to manage tools, leadership to provide direction and support, and more.
    • Constant change in the IT and business environment undermines the accuracy of ITAM records (e.g. licensing and contract changes, technology changes that break discovery tools, personnel and organizational changes).
    • Improvement efforts are overwhelmed by day-to-day activities. One study found that 83% of SAM teams’ time is consumed by audit-related activities. (Flexera State of ITAM Report 2022) A lack of improvement becomes a vicious cycle when stakeholders who don’t see the value of ITAM decline to dedicate resources for improvement.
    • Stakeholders expect ITAM tools to be a cure-all, but even at their best, they can’t provide needed answers without some level of configuration, manual input, and supervision.
    • There’s often a struggle to connect ITAM to value. For example, respondents to Info-Tech’s Management & Governance Diagnostic consistently rank ITAM as less important than other processes that ITAM directly supports (e.g. budget management and budget optimization). (Info-Tech MGD Diagnostic (n=972 unique organizations))
    ITAM is a mature discipline with well-established standards, certifications, and tools, but we still struggle with it.
    • Only 28% of SAM teams track IaaS and PaaS spend, and only 35% of SAM teams track SaaS usage.
    • Increasing SAM maturity is a challenge for 76% of organizations.
    • 10% of organizations surveyed have spent more than $5 million in the last three years in audit penalties and true-ups.
    • Half of all of organizations lack a viable SAM tool.
    • Seventy percent of SAM teams have a shortfall of qualified resources.
    • (Flexera State of ITAM Report 2022)

    Info-Tech's IT Asset Management Framework (ITAM)

    Adopt, manage, and mature activities to enable business value thorugh actionable, accessible, and accurate ITAM data

    Logo for Info-Tech Research Group. Enable Business Value Logo for #iTRG.
    Business-Aligned Spend
    Optimization and Transparency
    Facilitate IT Services
    and Products
    Actionable, Accessible,
    and Accurate Data
    Context-Aware Risk Management
    and Security Controls

    Plan & Govern

    Business Goals, Risks, and Structure
    • ITAM Goals & Priorities
    • Roles, Accountability, Responsibilities
    • Scope
    Ongoing Management Commitment
    • Resourcing & Funding
    • Policies & Enforcement
    • Continuous Improvement
    Culture
    • ITAM Education, Awareness & Training
    • Organizational Change Management
    Section title 'Operate' with a cycle surrounding key components of Operate: 'Data Collection & Validation', 'Tool Administration', 'License Management', and 'Lease Management'. The cycle consists of 'Request', 'Procure', 'Receive', 'Deploy', 'Manage', 'Retire & Dispose', and back to 'Request'.

    Build & Manage

    Tools & Data
    • ITAM Tool Selection & Deployment
    • Configuration Management Synchronization
    • IT Service Management Integration
    Process
    • Process Management
    • Data & Process Audits
    • Document Management
    People, Policies, and Providers
    • Stakeholder Management
    • Technology Standardization
    • Vendor & Contract Management

    Info-Tech Insight

    ITAM is a foundational IT service that provides actionable, accessible, and accurate data on IT assets. But there's no value in data for data's sake. Use this methodology to enable collaboration between ITAM, the business, and IT to develop an approach to ITAM that maximizes the value the ITAM team can deliver as service providers.

    Key deliverable

    IT asset management requires ongoing practice – you can’t just implement it and walk away.

    Our methodology will help you build a business-aligned strategy and approach for your ITAM practice with the following outputs:

    • Business-aligned ITAM priorities, opportunities, and goals.
    • Current and target state ITAM maturity.
    • Metrics and KPIs.
    • Roles, responsibilities, and accountability.
    • Insourcing, outsourcing, and (de)centralization.
    • Tools and technology.
    • A documentation framework.
    • Initiatives, a roadmap, and a communication plan.
    Each step of this blueprint is designed to help you create your IT asset management strategy:
    Sample of Info-Tech's key deliverable 'IT Asset Management' blueprint.

    Info-Tech’s methodology to develop an IT asset management strategy

    1. Establish business-aligned ITAM goals and priorities 2. Identify your approach to support ITAM priorities and goals
    Phase Steps
    • 1.1 Define ITAM and brainstorm opportunities and challenges.
    • Executive Alignment Working Session:
    • 1.2 Review organizational priorities, strategy, and key initiatives.
    • 1.3 Align executive priorities with ITAM opportunities and priorities.
    • 1.4 Identify business-aligned ITAM goals and target maturity.
    • 1.5 Write mission and vision statements.
    • 1.6 Define ITAM metrics and KPIs.
    • 2.1 Define ITAM scope.
    • 2.2 Acquire ITAM services (outsourcing and contracting).
    • 2.3 Centralize or decentralize ITAM capabilities.
    • 2.4 Create a RACI for the ITAM practice.
    • 2.5 Align ITAM with other service management practices.
    • 2.6 Evaluate ITAM tools and integrations.
    • 2.7 Create a plan for internal and external audits.
    • 2.8 Improve your budget processes.
    • 2.9 Establish a documentation framework.
    • 2.10 Create a roadmap and communication plan.
    Phase Outcomes Defined, business-aligned goals and priorities for ITAM. Establish an approach to achieving ITAM goals and priorities including scope, structure, tools, service management integrations, documentation, and more.
    Project Outcomes Develop an approach and strategy for ITAM that is sustainable and aligned with your business priorities.

    Insight Summary

    There’s no value in data for data’s sake

    ITAM is a foundational IT service that provides accurate, accessible, actionable data on IT assets. Enable collaboration between IT asset managers, business leaders, and IT leaders to develop an approach to ITAM that maximizes the value they can deliver as service providers.

    Service provider to a service provider

    ITAM is often viewed (when it’s viewed at all) as a low-value administrative task that doesn’t directly drive business value. This can make it challenging to build a case for funding and resources.

    Your ITAM strategy is a critical component to help you define how ITAM can best deliver value to your organization, and to stop creating data for the sake of data or just to fight the next fire.

    Collaboration over order-taking

    To align ITAM practices to deliver organizational value, you need a very clear understanding of the organization’s goals – both in the moment and as they change over time.

    Ensure your ITAM team has clear line of sight to business strategy, objectives, and decision-makers, so you can continue to deliver value as priorities change

    Embrace dotted lines

    ITAM teams rely heavily on staff, systems, and data beyond their direct area of control. Identify how you will influence key stakeholders, including technicians, administrators, and business partners.

    Help them understand how ITAM success relies on their support, and highlight how their contributions have created organizational value to encourage ongoing support.

    Project benefits

    Benefits for IT
    • Set a foundation and direction for an ITAM practice that will allow IT to manage risk, optimize spend, and enhance services in line with business requirements.
    • Establish accountability and responsibility for essential ITAM activities. Decide where to centralize or decentralize accountability and authority. Identify where outsourcing could add value.
    • Create a roadmap with concrete, practical next steps to develop an effective, right-sized ITAM practice.
    Stock image of a trophy. Benefits for the business
    • Plan and control technology spend with confidence based on trustworthy ITAM data.
    • Enhance IT’s ability to rapidly and effectively support new priorities and launch new projects. Effective ITAM can support more streamlined procurement, deployment, and management of assets.
    • Implement security controls that reflect your total technology footprint. Reduce the risk that a forgotten device or unmanaged software turns your organization into the next Colonial Pipeline.

    Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

    DIY Toolkit

    Guided Implementation

    Workshop

    Consulting

    "Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful." "Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track." "We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place." "Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project."

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Guided Implementation

    A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

    A typical GI around 12 calls over the course of 6 months.

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    Call #1: Scope requirements, objectives, and your specific challenges.

    Call #2: Review business priorities.

    Call #3: Identify ITAM goals & target maturity.

    Call #4: Identify metrics and KPIs. Call #5: Define ITAM scope.

    Call #6: Acquire ITAM services.

    Call #7: ITAM structure and RACI.

    Call #8: ITAM and service management.

    Tools and integrations.

    Call #10: Internal and external audits.

    Call #11: Budgets & documentation

    Call #12: Roadmap, comms plan. Wrap-up.

    Phase 1 Phase 2

    Workshop Overview

    Contact your account representative for more information.
    workshops@infotech.com1-888-670-8889
    Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5
    Identify ITAM priorities & goals, maturity, metrics and KPIs
    Identify your approach to support ITAM priorities and goals
    Next Steps and wrap-Up (offsite)
    Activities

    1.1 Define ITAM.

    1.2 Brainstorm ITAM opportunities and challenges.

    Conduct an executive alignment working session:

    1.3 Review organizational priorities, strategy, and key initiatives.

    1.4 Align executive priorities with ITAM opportunities.

    1.5 Set ITAM priorities.

    2.1 Translate opportunities into ITAM goals and tactics.

    2.2 Identify target and current state ITAM maturity.

    2.3 Create mission and vision statements.

    2.4 Identify key ITAM metrics and KPIs.

    3.1 Define ITAM scope.

    3.2 Acquire ITAM services (outsourcing and contracting)

    3.3 Centralize or decentralize ITAM capabilities.

    3.4 Create a RACI for the ITAM practice.

    3.5 Align ITAM with other service management practices.

    3.6 Evaluate ITAM tools and integrations.

    4.1 Create a plan for internal and external audits.

    4.2 Improve your budget processes.

    4.3 Establish a documentation framework and identify documentation gaps.

    4.4 Create a roadmap and communication plan.

    5.1 Complete in-progress deliverables from previous four days.

    5.2 Set up review time for workshop deliverables and to discuss next steps.

    Deliverables
    1. ITAM opportunities and challenges.
    2. Align executive priorities with ITAM opportunities.
    3. Set ITAM priorities.
    1. ITAM goals and tactics.
    2. Current and target ITAM maturity.
    3. Mission and vision statements.
    4. ITAM metrics and KPIs.
    1. Decisions that will shape your ITAM approach, including:
      1. What’s in scope (hardware, software, and cloud services).
      2. Where to centralize, decentralize, or outsource ITAM activities.
      3. Accountability, responsibility, and structure for ITAM activities.
      4. Service management alignment, tooling gaps, audit plans, budget processes, and required documentation.
    2. A roadmap and communication plan.
    1. Your completed ITAM strategy template.
    Develop an IT Asset Management Strategy

    Phase 1:

    Establish business-aligned ITAM goals and priorities

    Phase 1

    1.1 Define ITAM and brainstorm opportunities and challenges.

    Executive Alignment Working Session:

    1.2 Review organizational priorities, strategy, and key initiatives.

    1.3 Align executive priorities with ITAM opportunities & priorities.

    1.4 Identify business-aligned ITAM goals and target maturity.

    1.5 Write mission and vision statements.

    1.6 Define ITAM metrics and KPIs.

    Phase 2

    2.1 Define ITAM scope.

    2.2 Acquire ITAM services (outsourcing and contracting).

    2.3 Centralize or decentralize ITAM capabilities.

    2.4 Create a RACI for the ITAM practice.

    2.5 Align ITAM with other service management practices.

    2.6 Evaluate ITAM tools and integrations.

    2.7 Create a plan for internal and external audits.

    2.8 Improve your budget processes.

    2.9 Establish a documentation framework.

    2.10 Create a roadmap and communication plan.

    Phase Outcomes:

    Defined, business-aligned goals, priorities, and KPIs for ITAM. A concise vision and mission statement. The direction you need to establish a practical, right-sized, effective approach to ITAM for your organization.

    Before you get started

    Set yourself up for success with these three steps:
    • This methodology and the related slides are intended to be executed via intensive, collaborative working sessions using the rest of this slide deck.
    • Ensure the working sessions are a success by working through these steps before you start work on your IT asset management strategy.

    1. Identify participants

    Review recommended roles and identify who should participate in the development of your ITAM strategy.

    2. Estimate assets managed today

    Work through an initial assessment to establish ease of access to ITAM data and your level of trust in the data available to you.

    3. Create a working folder

    Create a repository to house your notes and any work in progress, including your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template.

    0.1 Identify participants

    30 minutes

    Output: List of key roles for the strategy exercises outlined in this methodology

    Participants: Project sponsor, Lead facilitator, ITAM manager and SMEs

    This methodology relies on having the right stakeholders in the room to identify ITAM goals, challenges, roles, structure, and more. On each activity slide in this deck, you’ll see an outline of the recommended participants. Use the table below to translate the recommended roles into specific people in your organization. Note that some people may fill multiple roles.

    Role Expectations People
    Project Sponsor Accountable for the overall success of the methodology. Ideally, participates in all exercises in this methodology. May be the asset manager or whoever they report to. Jake Long
    Lead Facilitator Leads, schedules, and manages all working sessions. Guides discussions and ensures activity outputs are completed. Owns and understands the methodology. Has a working knowledge of ITAM. Robert Loblaw
    Asset Manager(s) SME for the ITAM practice. Provides strategic direction to mature ITAM practices in line with organizational goals. Supports the facilitator. Eve Maldonado
    ITAM Team Hands-on ITAM professionals and SMEs. Includes the asset manager. Provide input on tactical ITAM opportunities and challenges. Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent
    IT Leaders & Managers Leaders of key stakeholder groups from across the IT department – the CIO and direct reports. Provide input on what IT needs from ITAM, and the role their teams should play in ITAM activities. May include delegates, particularly those familiar with day-to-day processes relevant to a particular discussion or exercise. Marcelina Hardy, Edmund Broughton
    ITAM Business Partners Non-IT business stakeholders for ITAM. This could include procurement, vendor management, accounting, and others. Zhang Jin, Effie Lamont
    Business Executives Organizational leaders and executives (CFO, COO, CEO, and others) or their delegates. Will participate in a mini-workshop to identify organizational goals and initiatives that can present opportunities for the ITAM practice. Jermaine Mandar, Miranda Kosuth

    0.2 Estimate asset numbers

    1 hour

    Output: Estimates of quantity and spend related to IT assets, Confidence/margin of error on estimates

    Participants: IT asset manager, ITAM team

    What do you know about your current IT environment, and how confident are you in that knowledge?

    This exercise will help you evaluate the size of the challenge ahead in terms of the raw number of assets in your environment, the spend on those assets, and the level of trust your organization has in the ITAM data.

    It is also a baseline snapshot your ability to relay key ITAM metrics quickly and confidently, so you can measure progress (in terms of greater confidence) over time.

    1. Download the estimation tracker below. Add any additional line items that are particularly important to the organization.
    2. Time-box this exercise to an hour. Use your own knowledge and existing data repositories to identify count/spend for each line item, then add a margin of error to your guess. Larger margins of error on larger counts will typically indicate larger risks.
    3. Track any assumptions, data sources used, or SMEs consulted in the comments.

    Download the IT Asset Estimation Tracker

    “Any time there is doubt about the data and it doesn’t get explained or fixed, then a new spreadsheet is born. Data validation and maintenance is critical to avoid the hidden costs of having bad data”

    Allison Kinnaird,
    Operations Practice Lead,
    Info-Tech Research Group

    0.3 Create a working folder

    15 minutes

    Output: A repository for templates and work in progress

    Participants: Lead facilitator

    Create a central repository for collaboration – it seems like an obvious step, but it’s one that gets forgotten about
    1. Download a copy of the ITAM Strategy Template.
      1. This will be the repository for all the work you do in the activities listed in this blueprint; take a moment to read it through and familiarize yourself with the contents.
    2. House the template in a shared repository that can house other related work in progress. Share this folder with participants so they can check in on your progress.
    3. You’ll see this callout box: Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template as you work through activities in this blueprint. Copy the output to the appropriate slide in the ITAM Strategy Template.
    Stock image of a computer screen with a tiny person putting likes on things.

    Collect action items as you go

    Don’t wait until the end to write down your good ideas.
    • The last exercise in this methodology is to gather everything you’ve learned and build a roadmap to improve the ITAM practice.
    • The output of the exercises will inform the roadmap, as they will highlight areas with opportunities for improvement.
    • Write them down as you work through the exercises, or you risk forgetting valuable ideas.
    • Keep an “idea space” – a whiteboard with sticky notes or a shared document – to which any of your participants can post an idea for improvement and that you can review and consolidate later.
    • Encourage participants to add their ideas at any time during the exercises.
    Pad of sticky notes, the top of which reads 'Good ideas go here!'

    Step 1.1: Brainstorm ITAM opportunities and challenges

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers
    • ITAM business partners

    Outcomes

    • Rally the working group around a collection of ideas that, when taken together, create a vision for the future ITAM practice.
    • Identify your organization’s current ITAM challenges.

    “ITAM is a cultural shift more than a technology shift.” (Rory Canavan, SAM Charter)

    What is an IT Asset?

    Any piece of technology can be considered an asset, but it doesn’t mean you need to track everything. Image of three people building a computer from the inside.
    Icon of a power button.

    According to the ISO 19770 standard on ITAM, an IT Asset is “[an] item, thing, or entity that can be used to acquire, process, store and distribute digital information and has potential or actual value to an organization.”
    These are all things that IT is expected to support and manage, or that have the potential to directly impact services that IT supports and manages.

    Icon of a half-full battery.

    IT assets are distinct from capital assets. Some IT assets will also be capital assets, but not all will be. And not all capital assets are IT assets, either.

    Icon of a microphone.

    IT assets are typically tracked by IT, not by finance or accounting.
    IT needs more from their IT asset tracking system than the typical finance department can deliver.
    This can include end-user devices, software, IT infrastructure, cloud-based resources, third-party managed IT services, Internet-of-Things devices, embedded electronics, SCADA equipment, “smart” devices, and more.

    Icon of a fingerprint.

    It’s important to track IT assets in a way that enables IT to deliver value to the business – and an important part of this is understanding what not to track. This list should be aligned to the needs of your organization.

    What is IT asset management?

    • IT asset management is the practice of maintaining accurate, accessible, and actionable data on IT hardware, software, and cloud assets from procurement to disposal.
    • Trustworthy data maintained by an IT asset management practice will help your business meet its goals by managing risk, controlling costs, and enabling IT services and products.
    • ITAM tends to focus on the asset itself – its technical, financial, contractual, lifecycle, and ownership attributes – rather than its interactions or connections to other IT assets, which tends to be part of configuration management.

    What IT Asset Management is NOT:

    Configuration Management: Configuration management databases (CMDBs) often draw from the same data pool as ITAM (many configuration items are assets, and vice versa), but they focus on the interaction, interconnection, and interoperation of configuration items within the IT estate.

    In practice, many configuration items will be IT assets (or parts of assets) and vice versa. Configuration and asset teams should work closely together as they develop different but complementary views of the IT environment. Use Info-Tech’s methodology to harness configuration management superpowers.

    Organizational Data Management: Leverage a different Info-Tech methodology to develop a digital and data asset management program within Info-Tech’s DAM framework.

    “Asset management’s job is not to save the organization money, it’s not to push back on software audits.

    It’s to keep the asset database as up-to-date and as trustworthy as possible. That’s it.” (Jeremy Boerger, Consultant & Author)

    “You can’t make any real decisions on CMDB data that’s only 60% accurate.

    You start extrapolating that out, you’re going to get into big problems.” (Mike Austin, Founder & CEO, MetrixData 360)

    What is an ITAM strategy?

    Our strategy document will outline a coherent, sustainable, business-aligned approach to ITAM.

    No single approach to ITAM fits all organizations. Nor will the same approach fit the same organization at different times. A world-leading research university, a state government, and a global manufacturer all have very different goals and priorities that will be best supported by different approaches to ITAM.

    This methodology will walk you through these critical decisions that will define your approach to ITAM:

    • Business-aligned priorities, opportunities, and goals: What pressing opportunities and challenges do we face as an organization? What opportunities does this create that ITAM can seize?
    • Current and future state maturity, challenges: What is the state of the practice today? Where do we need to improve to meet our goals? What challenges stand in the way of improvement?
    • Responsibility, accountability, sourcing and (de)centralization: Who does what? Who is accountable? Where is there value to outsourcing? What authority will be centralized or decentralized?
    • Tools, policies, and procedures: What technology do we need? What’s our documentation framework?
    • Initiatives, KPIs, communication plan, and roadmap: What do we need to do, in what order, to build the ITAM practice to where we need it to be? How long do we expect this to take? How will we measure success?

    “A good strategy has coherence, coordinating actions, policies, and resources so as to accomplish an important end. Most organizations, most of the time, don’t have this.

    Instead, they have multiple goals and initiatives that symbolize progress, but no coherent approach to accomplish that progress other than ‘spend more and try harder.’” (Good Strategy, Bad Strategy, Richard Rumelt)

    Enable business value with IT asset management

    If you’ve never experienced a mature ITAM program before, it is almost certainly more rewarding than you’d expect once it’s functioning as intended.

    Each of the below activities can benefit from accessible, actionable, and accurate ITAM data.

    • Which of the activities, practices, and initiatives below have value to your organization?
    • Which could benefit most from ITAM data?
    Manage Risk: Effective ITAM practices provide data and processes that help mitigate the likelihood and impact of potentially damaging IT risks.

    ITAM supports the following practices that help manage organizational risk:

    • Security Controls Development
    • Security Incident Response
    • Security Audit Reports
    • Regulatory Compliance Reports
    • IT Risk Management
    • Technical Debt Management
    • M&A Due Diligence
    Optimize Spend: Asset data is essential to maintaining oversight of IT spend, ensuring that scarce resources are allocated where they can have the most impact.

    ITAM supports these activities that help optimize spend:

    • Vendor Management & Negotiations
    • IT Budget Management & Variance Analysis
    • Asset Utilization Analysis
    • FinOps & Cloud Spend Optimization
    • Showback & Chargeback
    • Software Audit Defense
    • Application Rationalization
    • Contract Consolidation
    • License and Device Reallocation
    Improve IT Services: Asset data can help inform solutions development and can be used by service teams to enhance and improve IT service practices.

    Use ITAM to facilitate these IT services and initiatives:

    • Solution and Enterprise Architecture
    • Service Level Management
    • Technology Procurement
    • Technology Refresh Projects
    • Incident & Problem Management
    • Request Management
    • Change Management
    • Green IT

    1.1 Brainstorm ideas to create a vision for the ITAM practice

    30 minutes

    Input: Stakeholders with a vision of what ITAM could provide, if resourced and funded adequately

    Output: A collection of ideas that, when taken together, create a vision for the future ITAM practice

    Materials: ITAM strategy template, Whiteboard or virtual whiteboard

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers, ITAM business partners

    It can be easy to lose sight of long-term goals when you’re stuck in firefighting mode. Let’s get the working group into a forward-looking mindset with this exercise.

    Think about what ITAM could deliver with unlimited time, money, and technology.

    1. Provide three sticky notes to each participant.
    2. Add the headings to a whiteboard, or use a blank slide as a digital whiteboard
    3. On each sticky note, ask participants to outline a single idea as follows:
      1. We could: [idea]
      2. Which would help: [stakeholder]
      3. Because: [outcome]
    4. Ask participants to present their sticky notes and post them to the whiteboard. Ask later participants to group similar ideas together.

    As you hear your peers describe what they hope and expect to achieve with ITAM, a shared vision of what ITAM could be will start to emerge.

    1.1 Identify structural ITAM challenges

    30 minutes

    Input: The list of common challenges on the next slide, Your estimated visibility into IT assets from the previous exercise, The experience and knowledge of your participants

    Output: Identify current ITAM challenges

    Materials: Your working copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers, ITAM business partners

    What’s standing in the way today of delivering the ITAM practices you want to achieve?

    Review the list of common challenges on the next slide as a group.

    1. Delete any challenges that don’t apply to your organization.
    2. Modify any challenges as required to reflect your organization.
    3. Add further challenges that aren’t on the list, as required.
    4. Highlight challenges that are particularly painful.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    “The problem – the reason why asset management initiatives keep falling on their face – is that people attack asset management as a problem to solve, instead of a practice and epistemological construct.” (Jeremy Boerger, Consultant & Author)

    1.1 Identify structural ITAM challenges

    Review and update the list of common challenges below to reflect your own organization.

    • Leadership and executives don’t understand the value of asset management and don’t fund or resource it.
    • Tools aren’t fit for purpose, don’t scale, or are broken.
    • There’s a cultural tendency to focus on tools over processes.
    • ITAM data is fragmented across multiple repositories.
    • ITAM data is widely viewed as untrustworthy.
    • Stakeholders respond to vendor audits before consulting ITAM, which leads to confusion and risks penalties.
    • No time for improvement; we’re always fighting fires.
    • We don’t audit our own ITAM data for accuracy.
    • End-user equipment is shared, re-assigned, or disposed without notifying or involving IT.
    • No dedicated resources.
    • Lack of clarity on roles and responsibilities.
    • Technicians don’t track assets consistently; ITAM is seen as administrative busywork.
    • Many ITAM tasks are manual and prone to error.
    • Inconsistent organizational policies and procedures.
    • We try to manage too many hardware types/software titles.
    • IT is not involved in the procurement process.
    • Request and procurement is seen as slow and excessively bureaucratic.
    • Hardware/software standards don’t exist or aren’t enforced.
    • Extensive rogue purchases/shadow IT are challenging to manage via ITAM tools and processes.
    What Else?

    Copy results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Step 1.2: Review organizational priorities, strategy, initiatives

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers
    • Business executives or their delegates

    Outcomes

    • Review organizational priorities and strategy.
    • Identify key initiatives.

    Enter the executives

    Deliver on leadership priorities

    • Your business’ major transformative projects and executive priorities might seem far removed from hardware and software tracking. Why would we start with business strategy and executive priorities as we’re setting goals for the ITAM program?
    • While business executives have (likely) no interest in how software and hardware is tracked, they are accountable for the outcomes ITAM can enable. They are the most likely to understand why and how ITAM can deliver value to the organization.
    • ITAM succeeds by enabling its stakeholders to achieve business outcomes. The next three activities are designed to help you identify how you can enable your stakeholders, and what outcomes are most important from their point of view. Specifically:
      • What are the business’ planned transformational initiatives?
      • What are your highest priority goals?
      • What should the priorities of the ITAM practice be?
    • The answers to these questions will shape your approach to ITAM. Direct input from your leadership and executives – or their delegates – will help ensure you’re setting a solid foundation for your ITAM practice.

    “What outcomes does the organization want from IT asset management? Often, senior managers have a clear vision for the organization and where IT needs to go, and the struggle is to communicate that down.” (Kylie Fowler, ITAM Intelligence)

    Stock image of many hands with different puzzle pieces.

    Executive Alignment Session Overview

    ITAM Strategy Working Sessions

    • Discover & Brainstorm
    • Executive Alignment Working Session
      • 1.2 Review organizational strategy, priorities, and key initiatives
      • 1.3 Align executive priorities with ITAM opportunities, set ITAM priorities
    • ITAM Practice Maturity, Vision & Mission, Metrics & KPIs
    • Scope, Outsourcing, (De)Centralization, RACI
    • Service Management Integration
    • ITAM Tools
    • Audits, Budgets, Documents
    • Roadmap & Comms Plan

    A note to the lead facilitator and project sponsor:
    Consider working through these exercises by yourself ahead of time. As you do so, you’ll develop your own ideas about where these discussions may go, which will help you guide the discussion and provide examples to participants.

    1.2 Review organizational strategy and priorities

    30 minutes

    Input: Organizational strategy documents

    Output: A list of prioritized organizational goals, An initial assessment of how ITAM can support these goals

    Materials: The diagram in the next slide, and/or a whiteboard, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: Asset manager, IT leadership, Business executives or delegates

    Welcome your group to the working session and outline the next few exercises using the previous slide.

    Ask the most senior leader present to provide a summary of the following:

    1. What is the vision for the organization?
    2. What are our priorities and what must we absolutely get right?
    3. What do we expect the organization to look like in three years?

    The facilitator or a dedicated note-taker should record key points on a whiteboard or flipchart paper.

    1.2 Identify transformational initiatives

    30 minutes

    Input: Organizational strategy documents

    Output: A list of prioritized organizational goals, An initial assessment of how ITAM can support these goals

    Materials: The diagram in the next slide, and/or a whiteboard, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: Asset manager, IT leadership, Business executives or delegates

    Ask the most senior leader present to provide a summary of the following: What transformative business and IT initiatives are planned? When will they begin and end?

    Using one box per initiative, draw the initiatives in a timeline like the one below.

    Sample timeline for ITAM initiatives.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Step 1.3: Set business-aligned ITAM priorities

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers
    • Business executives

    Outcomes

    • Connect executive priorities to ITAM opportunities.
    • Set business-aligned priorities for the ITAM practice.

    1.3 Align executive priorities with ITAM opportunities

    45 minutes

    Input: Organizational strategy documents

    Output: A list of prioritized organizational goals, An initial assessment of how ITAM can support these goals

    Materials: The diagram in the next slide, and/or a whiteboard, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: Asset manager, IT leaders and managers, Business executives or delegates

    In this exercise, we’ll use the table on the next slide to identify the top priorities of key business and IT stakeholders and connect them to opportunities for the ITAM practice.

    1. Ask your leadership or executive delegates – what are their goals? What are they trying to accomplish? List roles and related goals in the table.
    2. Brainstorm opportunities for IT asset management to support listed goals:
      1. Can ITAM provide an enhanced level of service, access, or insight?
      2. Can ITAM address an existing issue or mitigate an existing risk?

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    1.3 Align executive priorities with ITAM opportunities (example)

    ITAM is for the… Who wants to… Which presents these ITAM opportunities
    CEO Deliver transformative business initiatives Acquire the right tech at the right time to support transformational initiatives.
    Establish a data-driven culture of stewardship Improve data to increase IT spend transparency.
    COO Improve organizational efficiency Increase asset use.
    Consolidate major software contracts to drive discounts.
    CFO Accurately forecast spending Track and anticipate IT asset spending.
    Control spending Improve data to increase IT spend transparency.
    Consolidate major software contracts to drive discounts.
    CIO Demonstrate IT value Use data to tell a story about value delivered by IT assets.
    Govern IT use Improve data to increase IT spend transparency.
    CISO Manage IT security and compliance risks Identify abandoned or out-of-spec IT assets.
    Provide IT asset data to support controls development.
    Respond to security incidents Support security incident teams with IT asset data.
    Apps Leader Build, integrate, and support applications Identify opportunities to retire applications with redundant functionality.
    Connect applications to relevant licensing and support agreements.
    IT Infra Leader Build and support IT infrastructure. Provide input on opportunities to standardize hardware and software.
    Provide IT asset data to technicians supporting end users.

    1.3 Categorize ITAM opportunities

    10-15 minutes

    Input: The outputs from the previous exercise

    Output: Executive priorities, sorted into the three categories at the right

    Materials: The table in this slide, The outputs from the previous exercise

    Participants: Lead facilitator

    Give your participants a quick break. Quickly sort the identified ITAM opportunities into the three main categories below as best you can.

    We’ll use this table as context for the next exercise.

    Example: Optimize Spend Enhance IT Services Manage Risk
    ITAM Opportunities
    • Improve data to increase IT spend transparency.
    • Consolidate major software contracts to drive discounts.
    • Increase asset utilization.
    • Identify opportunities to retire applications with redundant functionality
    • Acquire the right tech at the right time to support transformational initiatives.
    • Provide IT asset data to technicians supporting end users.
    • Identify abandoned or out-of-spec IT assets.
    • Provide IT asset data to support controls development.
    • Support security incident teams with IT asset data.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    1.3 Set ITAM priorities

    30 minutes

    Input: Organizational strategy documents

    Output: A list of prioritized organizational goals, An initial assessment of how ITAM can support these goals

    Materials: Whiteboard, The template on the next slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: Asset manager, IT leaders and managers, Business executives or delegates

    The objective of this exercise is to prioritize the outcomes your organization wants to achieve from its ITAM practice, given the context from the previous exercises.

    Review the image below. The three points of the triangle are the three core goals of ITAM: Enhance IT Service, Manage Risk, and Optimize Spend. This exercise was first developed by Kylie Fowler of ITAM Intelligence. It is an essential exercise to understand ITAM priorities and the tradeoffs associated with those priorities. These priorities aren’t set in stone and should be revisited periodically as technology and business priorities change.

    Draw the diagram on the next slide on a whiteboard. Have the most senior leader in the room place the dot on the triangle – the closer it is to any one of the goals, the more important that goal is to the organization. Note: The center of the triangle is off limits! It’s very rarely possible to deliver on all three at once.
    Track notes on what’s being prioritized – and why – in the template on the next slide.
    Triangle with the points labelled 'Enhance IT Service', 'Manage Risk', and 'Optimize Spend'.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    1.3 Set ITAM Priorities

    The priorities of the ITAM practice are to:
    • Optimize Spend
    • Manage Risk
    Why?
    • We believe there is significant opportunity right now to rationalize spend by consolidating key software contracts.
    • Major acquisitions are anticipated in the near future. Effective ITAM processes are expected to mitigate acquisition risk by supporting due diligence and streamlined integration of acquired organizations.
    • Ransomware and supply chain security threats have increased demands for a comprehensive accounting of IT assets to support security controls development and security incident response.
    (Update this section with notes from your discussion.)
    Triangle with the points labelled 'Enhance IT Service', 'Manage Risk', and 'Optimize Spend'. There is a dot close to the 'Optimize Spend' corner, a legend labelling the dot as 'Our Target', and a note reading 'Move this dot to reflect your priorities'.

    Step 1.4: Identify ITAM goals, target maturity

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers

    Outcomes

    • Connect executive priorities to ITAM opportunities.
    • Set business-aligned priorities for the ITAM practice.

    “ITAM is really no different from the other ITIL practices: to succeed, you’ll need some ratio of time, treasure, and talent… and you can make up for less of one with more of the other two.” (Jeremy Boerger, Consultant and Author)

    1.4 Identify near- and medium-term goals

    15-30 minutes

    Input: Organizational strategy documents

    Output: A list of prioritized organizational goals, An initial assessment of how ITAM can support these goals

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers

    Narrow down the list of opportunities to identify specific goals for the ITAM practice.

    1. Use one color to highlight opportunities you will seize in the next year.
    2. Use a second color to highlight opportunities you plan to address in the next three years.
    3. Leave blank anything you don’t intend to address in this timeframe.

    The highlighted opportunities are your near- and medium-term objectives.

    Optimize Spend Enhance IT Services Manage Risk
    Priority Critical Normal High
    ITAM Opportunities
    • Improve data to increase IT spend transparency.
    • Increase asset utilization.
    • Consolidate major software contracts to drive discounts.
    • Identify opportunities to retire applications with redundant functionality
    • Acquire the right tech at the right time to support transformational initiatives.
    • Provide IT asset data to technicians supporting end users.
    • Identify abandoned or out-of-spec IT assets.
    • Provide IT asset data to support controls development.
    • Support security incident teams with IT asset data.

    1.4 Connect ITAM goals to tactics

    30 minutes

    Input: Organizational strategy documents

    Output: A list of prioritized organizational goals, An initial assessment of how ITAM can support these goals

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers

    Let’s dig down a little deeper. Connect the list of opportunities from earlier to specific ITAM tactics that allow the team to seize those opportunities.

    Add another row to the earlier table for ITAM tactics. Brainstorm tactics with your participants (e.g. sticky notes on a whiteboard) and align them with the priorities they’ll support.

    Optimize SpendEnhance IT ServicesManage Risk
    PriorityCriticalNormalHigh
    ITAM Opportunities
    • Improve data to increase IT spend transparency.
    • Increase asset utilization.
    • Consolidate major software contracts to drive discounts.
    • Identify opportunities to retire applications with redundant functionality
    • Acquire the right tech at the right time to support transformational initiatives.
    • Provide IT asset data to technicians supporting end users.
    • Identify abandoned or out-of-spec IT assets.
    • Provide IT asset data to support controls development.
    • Support security incident teams with IT asset data.
    ITAM Tactics to Seize Opportunities
    • Review and improve hardware budgeting exercises.
    • Reallocate unused licenses, hardware.
    • Ensure ELP reports are up to date.
    • Validate software usage.
    • Data to support software renewal negotiations.
    • Use info from ITAM for more efficient adds, moves, changes.
    • Integrate asset records with the ticket intake system, so that when someone calls the service desk, the list of their assigned equipment is immediately available.
    • Find and retire abandoned devices or services with access to the organization’s network.
    • Report on lost/stolen devices.
    • Develop reliable disposal processes.
    • Report on unpatched devices/software.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    1.4 Identify current and target state

    20 minutes

    Input: Organizational strategy documents

    Output: A list of prioritized organizational goals, An initial assessment of how ITAM can support these goals

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers

    We’ll use this exercise to identify the current and one-year target state of ITAM using Info-Tech’s ITAM maturity framework.

    1. Review the maturity framework on the next slide as a group.
    2. In one color, highlight statements that reflect your organization today. Summarize your current state. Are you in firefighter mode? Between “firefighter” and “trusted operator”?
    3. In a second color, highlight statements that reflect where you want to be one year from today, taking into consideration the goals and tactics identified in the last exercise.
    4. During a break, copy the highlighted statements to the table on the slide after next, then add this final slide to your working copy of the ITAM Strategy Template.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Establish current and target ITAM maturity

    IT maturity ladder with five color-coded levels. Innovator – Optimized Asset Management
    • All items from Business & Technology Partner, plus:
    • Business and IT stakeholders collaborate regularly with the ITAM team to identify new opportunities to leverage or deploy ITAM practices and data to mitigate risks, optimize spend, and improve service. The ITAM program scales with the business.
    Business & Technology Partner – Proactive Asset Management
    • All items from Trusted Operator, plus:
    • The ITAM data is integral to decisions related to budget, project planning, IT architecture, contract renewal, and vendor management. Software and cloud assets are reviewed as frequently as required to manage costs. ITAM data consumers have self-serve access to ITAM data.
    • Continuous improvement practices strengthen ITAM efficiency and effectiveness.
    • ITAM processes, standards, and related policies are regularly reviewed and updated. ITAM teams work closely with SMEs for key tools/systems integrated with ITAM (e.g. AD, ITSM, monitoring tools) to maximize the value and reliability of integrations.
    Trusted Operator – Controls Assets
    • ITAM data for deployed hardware and software is regularly audited for accuracy.
    • Sufficient staff and skills to support asset tracking, including a dedicated IT asset management role. Teams responsible for ITAM data collection cooperate effectively. Policies and procedures are documented and enforced. Key licenses and contracts are available to the ITAM team. Discovery, tracking, and analysis tools support most important use cases.
    Firefighter – Reactive Asset Tracking
    • Data is often untrustworthy, may be fragmented across multiple repositories, and typically requires significant effort to translate or validate before use.
    • Insufficient staff, fragmented or incomplete policies or documentation. Data tracking processes are extremely highly manual. Effective cooperation for ITAM data collection is challenging.
    • ITAM tools are in place, but additional configuration or tooling is needed.
    Unreliable - Struggles to Support
    • No data, or data is typically unusable.
    • No allocated staff, no cooperation between parties responsible for ITAM data collection.
    • No related policies or documentation.
    • Tools are non-existent or not fit-for-purpose.

    Current and target ITAM maturity

    Today:
    Firefighter
    • Data is often untrustworthy, is fragmented across multiple repositories, and typically requires significant effort to translate or validate before use.
    • Insufficient staff, fragmented or incomplete policies or documentation.
    • Tools are non-existent.
    In One Year:
    Trusted Operator
    • ITAM data for deployed hardware and software is regularly audited for accuracy.
    • Sufficient staff and skills to support asset tracking, including a dedicated IT asset management role.
    • Teams responsible for ITAM data collection cooperate effectively.
    • Discovery, tracking, and analysis tools support most important use cases.
    IT maturity ladder with five color-coded levels.

    Innovator – Optimized Asset Management

    Business & Technology Partner – Proactive Asset Management

    Trusted Operator – Controls Assets

    Firefighter – Reactive Asset Tracking

    Unreliable - Struggles to Support

    Step 1.5: Write mission and vision statements

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers

    Outcomes

    • Write a mission statement that encapsulates the purpose and intentions of the ITAM practice today.
    • Write a vision statement that describes what the ITAM practice aspires to become and achieve.

    Write vision and mission statements

    Create two statements to summarize the role of the ITAM practice today – and where you want it to be in the future.

    Create two short, compelling statements that encapsulate:
    • The vision for what we want the ITAM practice to be in the future; and
    • The mission – the purpose and intentions – of the ITAM practice today.

    Why bother creating mission and vision statements? After all, isn’t it just rehashing or re-writing all the work we’ve just done? Isn’t that (at best) a waste of time?

    There are a few very important reasons to create mission and vision statements:

    • Create a compass that can guide work today and your roadmap for the future.
    • Focus on the few things you must do, rather than the many things you could do.
    • Concisely communicate a compelling vision for the ITAM practice to a larger audience who (let’s face it) probably won’t read the entire ITAM Strategy deck.

    “Brevity is the soul of wit.” (Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2)

    “Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.” (Mark Twain)

    1.5 Write an ITAM vision statement

    30 minutes

    Input: Organizational strategy documents

    Output: A list of prioritized organizational goals, An initial assessment of how ITAM can support these goals

    Materials: A whiteboard, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT Leaders and managers

    Your vision statement describes the ITAM practice as it will be in the far future. It is a target to aspire to, beyond your ability to achieve in the near or medium term.

    Examples of ITAM vision statements:

    Develop the single accurate view of IT assets, available to anyone who needs it.

    Indispensable data brokers that support strategic decisions on the IT environment.

    Provide sticky notes to participants. Write out the three questions below on a whiteboard side by side. Have participants write their answers to the questions and post them below the appropriate question. Give everyone 10 minutes to write and post their ideas.

    1. What’s the desired future state of the ITAM practice?
    2. What needs to be done to achieved this desired state?
    3. How do we want ITAM to be perceived in this desired state?

    Review the answers and combine them into one focused vision statement. Use the 20x20 rule: take no more than 20 minutes and use no more than 20 words. If you’re not finished after 20 minutes, the ITAM manager should make any final edits offline.

    Document your vision statement in your ITAM Strategy Template.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    1.5 Write an ITAM mission statement

    30 minutes

    Input: Organizational strategy documents

    Output: A list of prioritized organizational goals, An initial assessment of how ITAM can support these goals

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers

    Your ITAM mission statement is an expression of what your IT asset management function brings to your organization today. It should be presented in straightforward language that is compelling, easy to understand, and sharply focused.

    Examples of ITAM mission statements:

    Maintain accurate, actionable, accessible on data on all IT assets.

    Support IT and the business with centralized and integrated asset data.

    Provide sticky notes to participants. Write out the questions below on a whiteboard side by side. Have participants write their answers to the questions and post them below the appropriate question. Give everyone 10 minutes to write and post their ideas.

    1. What is our role as the asset management team?
    2. How do we support the IT and business strategies?
    3. What does our asset management function offer that no one else can?

    Review the answers and combine them into one focused vision statement. Use the 20x20 rule: take no more than 20 minutes and use no more than 20 words. If you’re not finished after 20 minutes, the ITAM manager should make any final edits offline.

    Document your vision statement in your ITAM Strategy Template.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Step 1.6: Define ITAM metrics and KPIs

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers

    Outcomes

    • Identify metrics, data, or reports that may be of interest to different consumers of ITAM data.
    • Identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) for the ITAM practice, based on the goals and priorities established earlier.

    Navigate a universe of ITAM metrics

    When you have the data, how will you use it?

    • There’s a dizzying array of potential metrics you can develop and track across your ITAM environment.
    • Different stakeholders will need different data feeds, metrics, reports, and dashboards.
    • Different measures will be useful at different times. You will often need to filter or slice the data in different ways (by department, timeframe, equipment type, etc.)
    • We’ll use the next few exercises to identify the types of metrics that may be useful to different stakeholders and the KPIs to measure progress towards ITAM goals and priorities.

    ITAM Metrics

    • Quantity
      e.g. # of devices or licenses
    • Cost
      e.g. average laptop cost
    • Compliance
      e.g. effective license position reports
    • Progress
      e.g. ITAM roadmap items completed
    • Quality
      e.g. ITAM data accuracy rate
    • Time
      e.g. time to procure/ deploy

    Drill down by:

    • Vendor
    • Date
    • Dept.
    • Product
    • Location
    • Cost Center

    Develop different metrics for different teams

    A few examples:

    • CIOs — CIOs need asset data to govern technology use, align to business needs, and demonstrate IT value. What do we need to budget for hardware and software in the next year? Where can we find money to support urgent new initiatives? How many devices and software titles do we manage compared to last year? How has IT helped the business achieve key goals?
    • Asset Managers — Asset managers require data to help them oversee ITAM processes, technology, and staff, and to manage the fleet of IT assets they’re expected to track. What’s the accuracy rate of ITAM data? What’s the state of integrations between ITAM and other systems and processes? How many renewals are coming up in the next 90 days? How many laptops are in stock?
    • IT Leaders — IT managers need data that can support their teams and help them manage the technology within their mandate. What technology needs to be reviewed or retired? What do we actually manage?
    • Technicians — Service desk technicians need real-time access to data on IT assets to support service requests and incident management – for example, easy access to the list of equipment assigned to a particular user or installed in a particular location.
    • Business Managers and Executives — Business managers and executives need concise, readable dashboards to support business decisions about business use of IT assets. What’s our overall asset spend? What’s our forecasted spend? Where could we reallocate spend?

    1.6 Identify useful ITAM metrics and reports

    60 minutes

    Input: Organizational strategy documents

    Output: A list of prioritized organizational goals, An initial assessment of how ITAM can support these goals

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers

    Use this exercise to identify as many potentially useful ITAM metrics and reports as possible, and narrow them down to a few high-priority metrics. Leverage the list of example metrics on the next slide for your own exercise. If you have more than six participants, consider splitting into two or more groups, and divide the table between groups to minimize overlap.

    1. List potential consumers of ITAM data in the column on the left.
    2. What type of information do we think this role needs? What questions about IT assets do we get on a regular basis from this role or team?
    3. Review and consolidate the list as a group. Discuss and highlight any metrics the group thinks are a particularly high priority for tracking.
    Role Compliance Quality Quantity Cost Time Progress
    IT Asset Manager Owned devices not discovered in last 60 days Discrepancies between discovery data and ITAM DB records # of corporate-owned devices Spend on hardware (recent and future/ planned) Average time, maximum time to deploy end-user devices Number of ITAM roadmap items in progress
    Service Desk

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Examples of ITAM metrics

    Compliance Quality Quantity Cost Time/Duration/Age Progress
    Owned devices not discovered in last 60 days Discrepancies between discovery data and ITAM DB records # of corporate-owned devices Spend on hardware (recent and future/planned) Average time, maximum time to deploy end-user devices Number of ITAM roadmap items in progress or completed
    Disposed devices without certificate of destruction Breakage rates (in and out of warranty) by vendor # of devices running software title X, # of licenses for software title X Spend on software (recent and future/planned) Average time, maximum time to deploy end user software Number of integrations between ITAM DB and other sources
    Discrepancies between licenses and install count, by software title RMAs by vendor, model, equipment type Number of requests by equipment model or software title Spend on cloud (recent and future/planned) Average & total time spent on software audit responses Number of records in ITAM database
    Compliance reports (e.g. tied to regulatory compliance or grant funding) Tickets by equipment type or software title Licenses issued from license pool in the last 30 days Value of licenses issued from license pool in the last 30 days (cost avoidance) Devices by age Software titles with an up-to-date ELP report
    Reports on lost and stolen devices, including last assigned, date reported stolen, actions taken User device satisfaction scores, CSAT scores Number of devices retired or donated in last year Number of IT-managed capital assets Number of hardware/software request tickets beyond time-to-fulfil targets Number of devices audited (by ITAM team via self-audit)
    Number of OS versions, unpatched systems Number of devices due for refresh in the next year Spend saved by harvesting unused software Number of software titles, software vendors managed by ITAM team
    Audit accuracy rate Equipment in stock Cost savings from negotiations
    # of users assigned more than one device Number of non-standard devices or requests Dollars charged during audit or true-up

    Differentiate between metrics and KPIs

    Key performance indicators (KPIs) are metrics with targets aligned to goals.

    Targets could include one or more of:

    • Target state (e.g. completed)
    • Target magnitude (e.g. number, percent, rate, dollar amount)
    • Target direction (e.g. trending up or down)

    You may track many metrics, but you should have only a few KPIs (typically 2-3 per objective).

    A breached KPI should be a trigger to investigate and remediate the root cause of the problem, to ensure progress towards goals and priorities can continue.

    Which KPIs you track will change over the life of the practice, as ITAM goals and priorities shift. For example, KPIs may initially track progress towards maturing ITAM practices. Once you’ve reached target maturity, KPIs may shift to track whether the key service targets are being met.

    1.6 Identify ITAM KPIs

    20 minutes

    Input: Organizational strategy documents

    Output: A list of prioritized organizational goals, An initial assessment of how ITAM can support these goals

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers

    Good KPIs are a more objective measure of whether you’re succeeding in meeting the identified priorities for the ITAM practice.

    Identify metrics that can measure progress or success against the priorities and goals set earlier. Aim for around three metrics per goal. Identify targets for the metric you think are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timebound). Track your work using the example table below.

    Goal Metric Target
    Consolidate major software contracts to drive discounts Amount spent on top 10 software contracts Decrease by 10% by next year
    Customer satisfaction scores with enterprise software Satisfaction is equal to or better than last year
    Value of licenses issued from license pool 30% greater than last year
    Identify abandoned or out-of-spec IT assets # of security incidents involving undiscovered assets Zero
    % devices with “Deployed” status in ITAM DB but not discovered for 30+ days ‹1% of all records in ITAM DB
    Provide IT asset data to technicians for service calls Customer satisfaction scores Satisfaction is equal to or better than last year
    % of end-user devices meeting minimum standards 97%

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Develop an IT Asset Management Strategy

    Phase 2:

    Identify your approach to support ITAM priorities and goals

    Phase 1

    1.1 Define ITAM and brainstorm opportunities and challenges.

    Executive Alignment Working Session:

    1.2 Review organizational priorities, strategy, and key initiatives.

    1.3 Align executive priorities with ITAM opportunities & priorities.

    1.4 Identify business-aligned ITAM goals and target maturity.

    1.5 Write mission and vision statements.

    1.6 Define ITAM metrics and KPIs.

    Phase 2

    2.1 Define ITAM scope.

    2.2 Acquire ITAM services (outsourcing and contracting).

    2.3 Centralize or decentralize ITAM capabilities.

    2.4 Create a RACI for the ITAM practice.

    2.5 Align ITAM with other service management practices.

    2.6 Evaluate ITAM tools and integrations.

    2.7 Create a plan for internal and external audits.

    2.8 Improve your budget processes.

    2.9 Establish a documentation framework.

    2.10 Create a roadmap and communication plan.

    Phase Outcomes:

    Establish an approach to achieving ITAM goals and priorities, including scope, structure, tools, service management integrations, documentation, and more.

    Create a roadmap that enables you to realize your approach.

    Step 2.1: Define ITAM Scope

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers
    • ITAM business partners

    Outcomes

    • Establish what types of equipment and software you’ll track through the ITAM practice.
    • Establish which areas of the business will be in scope of the ITAM practice.

    Determine ITAM Scope

    Focus on what’s most important and then document it so everyone understands where they can provide the most value.

    Not all categories of assets require the same level of tracking, and some equipment and software should be excluded from the ITAM practice entirely.

    In some organizations, portions of the environment won’t be tracked by the asset management team at all. For example, some organizations will choose to delegate tracking multi-function printers (MFPs) or proprietary IoT devices to the department or vendor that manages them.

    Due to resourcing or technical limitations, you may decide that certain equipment or software is out of scope for the moment.

    What do other organizations typically track in detail?
    • Installs and entitlements for major software contracts that represent significant spend and/or are highly critical to business goals.
    • Equipment managed directly by IT that needs to be refreshed on a regular cycle:
      • End-user devices such as laptops, desktops, and tablets.
      • Server, network, and telecoms devices.
    • High value equipment that is not regularly refreshed may also be tracked, but in less detail – for example, you may not refresh large screen TVs, but you may need to track date of purchase, deployed location, vendor, and model for insurance or warranty purposes.

    2.1 Establish scope for ITAM

    45 minutes

    Input: Organizational strategy documents

    Output: ITAM scope, in terms of types of assets tracked and not tracked

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers, ITAM business partners

    Establish the hardware and software that are within the scope of the ITAM program by updating the tables below to reflect your own environment. The “out of scope” category will include asset types that may be of value to track in the future but for which the capability or need don’t exist today.

    Hardware Software Out of Scope
    • End-user devices housing data or with a dollar value of more than $300, which will be replaced through lifecycle refresh.
    • Infrastructure devices, including network, telecom, video conferencing, servers and more
    • End-user software purchased under contract
    • Best efforts on single license purchases
    • Infrastructure software, including solutions used by IT to manage the infrastructure
    • Enterprise applications
    • Cloud (SaaS, IaaS, PaaS)
    • Departmental applications
    • Open-source applications
    • In-house developed applications
    • Freeware & shareware
    • IoT devices

    The following locations will be included in the ITAM program: All North and South America offices and retail locations.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Step 2.2: Acquire ITAM Services

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers
    • ITAM business partners

    Outcomes

    • Define the type of work that may be more effectively or efficiently delivered by an outsourcer or contractor.

    “We would like our clients to come to us with an idea of where they want to get to. Why are you doing this? Is it for savings? Because you want to manage your security attack surface? Are there digital initiatives you want to move forward? What is the end goal?” (Mike Austin, MetrixData 360)

    Effectively acquire ITAM services

    Allow your team to focus on strategic, value-add activities by acquiring services that free them from commodity tasks.
    • When determining which asset capabilities and activities are best kept in-house and which ones are better handled by a supplier, it is imperative to keep the value to the business in mind.
    • Activities/capabilities that are challenging to standardize and are critical to enabling business goals are better kept in-house.
    • Activities/capabilities that are (or should be) standardized and automated are ideal candidates for outsourcing.
    • Outsourcing can be effective and successful with a narrow scope of engagement and an alignment to business outcomes.
    • Organizations that heavily weigh cost reduction as a significant driver for outsourcing are far less likely to realize the value they expected to receive.
    Business Enablement
    • Supports business-aligned ITAM opportunities & priorities
    • Highly specialized
    • Offers competitive advantages
    Map with axes 'Business Enablement' and 'Vendor's Performance Advantage' for determining whether or not to outsource.
    Vendor’s Performance Advantage
    • Talent or access to skills
    • Economies of scale
    • Access to technology
    • Does not require deep knowledge of your business

    Decide what to outsource

    It’s rarely all or nothing.

    Ask yourself:
    • How important is this activity or capability to ITAM, IT, and business priorities and goals?
    • Is it a non-commodity IT service that can improve customer satisfaction?
    • Is it a critical service to the business and the specialized knowledge must remain in-house?
    • Does the function require access to talent or skills not currently available in-house, and is cost-prohibitive to obtain?
    • Are there economies of scale that can help us meet growing demand?
    • Does the vendor provide access to best-of-breed tools and solutions that can handle the integration, management, maintenance and support of the complete system?

    You may ultimately choose to engage a single vendor or a combination of multiple vendors who can best meet your ITAM needs.

    Establishing effective vendor management processes, where you can maximize the amount of service you receive while relying on the vendor’s expertise and ability to scale, can help you make your asset management practice a net cost-saver.

    ITAM activities and capabilities
    • Contract review
    • Software audit management
    • Asset tagging
    • Asset disposal and recycling
    • Initial ITAM record creation
    • End-user device imaging
    • End-user device deployment
    • End-user software provisioning
    • End-user image management
    • ITAM database administration
    • ELP report creation
    • ITAM process management
    • ITAM report generation
    ITAM-adjacent activities and capabilities
    • Tier 1 support/service desk
    • Deskside/field support
    • Tier 3 support
    • IT Procurement
    • Device management/managed IT services
    • Budget development
    • Applications development, maintenance
    • Infrastructure hosting (e.g. cloud or colocation)
    • Infrastructure management and support
    • Discovery/monitoring tools management and support

    2.2 Identify outsourcing opportunities

    1-2 hours

    Input: Understanding of current ITAM processes and challenges

    Output: Understanding of potential outsourcing opportunities

    Materials: The table in this slide, and insight in previous slides, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers, ITAM business partners

    At a high level, discuss which functions of ITAM are good candidates for outsourcing.

    Start with the previous slide for examples of outsourcing activities or capabilities directly related to or adjacent to the ITAM practice. Categorize these activities as follows:

    Outsource Potentially Outsource Insource
    • Asset disposal/recycling
    • ELP report creation
    • ITAM process management

    Go through the list of activities to potentially or definitely outsource and confirm:

    1. Will outsourcing solve a resourcing need for an existing process, or can you deliver this adequately in-house?
    2. Will outsourcing improve the effectiveness and efficiency of current processes? Will it deliver more effective service channels or improved levels of reliability and performance consistency?
    3. Will outsourcing provide or enable enhanced service capabilities that your IT customers could use, and which you cannot deliver in-house due to lack of scale or capacity?

    Answering “no” to more than one of these questions suggests a need to further review options to ensure the goals are aligned with the potential value of the service offerings available.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Step 2.3: Centralize or decentralize ITAM capabilities

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers
    • ITAM business partners

    Outcomes

    • Outline where the team(s) responsible for ITAM sit across the organization, who they report to, and who they need to work with across IT and the business.

    Align ITAM with IT’s structure

    ITAM’s structure will typically align with the larger business and IT structure. The wrong structure will undermine your ability to meet ITAM goals and lead to frustration, missed work, inefficiency, and loss of value.

    Which of the four archetypes below reflects the structure you need?

    1. Centralized — ITAM is entirely centralized in a single function, which reports into a central IT department.
    2. Decentralized — Local IT groups are responsible and accountable for ITAM. They may coordinate informally but do not report to any central team.
    3. Hybrid-Shared Services — Local IT can opt in to shared services but must follow centrally set ITAM practices to do so, usually with support from a shared ITAM function.
    4. Hybrid-Federated — Local IT departments are free to develop their own approach to ITAM outside of core, centrally set requirements.

    Centralized ITAM

    Total coordination, control, and oversight

    • ITAM accountability, policies, tools, standards, and expertise – in this model, they’re all concentrated in a single, specialized IT asset management practice. Accountability, authority, and oversight are concentrated in the central function as well.
    • A central ITAM team will benefit from knowledge sharing and task specialization opportunities. They are a visible single point of contact for ITAM-related questions
    • The central ITAM team will coordinate ITAM activities across the organization to optimize spend, manage risk, and enhance service. Any local IT teams are supported by and directly answerable to the central ITAM team for ITAM activities.
    • There is a single, centrally managed ITAM database. Wherever possible, this database should be integrated with other tools to support cross-solution automation (e.g. integrate AD to automatically reflect user identity changes in the ITAM database).
    • This model drives cross-organization coordination and oversight, but it may not be responsive to specific and nuanced local requirements.
    Example: Centralized
    Example of a Centralized ITAM.

    Solid line. Direct reporting relationship

    Dotted line. Dotted line working or reporting relationship

    Decentralized ITAM

    Maximize choice

    • ITAM accountability and oversight are entirely devolved to local or regional IT and/or ITAM organizations, which are free to set their own priorities, goals, policies, and standards. This model maximizes the authority of local groups to build practices that meet local requirements.
    • It may be challenging to resource and mature local practices. ITAM maturity will vary from one local organization to the next.
    • It is more likely that ITAM managers are a part-time role, and sometimes even a non-IT role. Local ITAM teams or coordinators may coordinate and share knowledge informally, but specialization can be challenging to build or leverage effectively across the organization.
    • There is likely no central ITAM tool. Local tools may be acquired, implemented, and integrated by local IT departments to suit their own needs, which can make it very difficult to report on assets organization-wide – for example, to establish compliance on an enterprise software contract.
    Example: Decentralized


    Example of a Decentralized ITAM.

    Solid line. Direct reporting relationship

    Dotted line. Dotted line working or reporting relationship

    Blue dotted line. Informal working relationships, knowledge sharing

    Hybrid: Federation

    Centralization with a light touch

    • A middle ground between centralized and decentralized ITAM, this model balances centralized decision making, specialization, and governance with local autonomy.
    • A central team will define organization-wide ITAM goals, develop capabilities, policies, and standards, and monitor compliance by local and central teams. All local teams must comply with centrally defined requirements, but they can also develop further capabilities to meet local goals.
    • For example, there will typically be a central ITAM database that must be used for at least a subset of assets, but other teams may build their own databases for day-to-day operations and export data to the central database as required.
    • There are often overlapping responsibilities in this model. A strong collaborative relationship between central and local ITAM teams is especially important here, particularly after major changes to requirements, processes, tools, or staffing when issues and breakdowns are more likely.
    Example: Federation


    Example of a Federation ITAM.

    Solid line. Direct reporting relationship

    Purple solid line. Oversight/governance

    Dotted line. Dotted line working or reporting relationship

    Hybrid: Shared Services

    Optional centralization

    • A special case of federated ITAM that balances central control and local autonomy, but with more power given to local IT to opt out of centralized shared services that come with centralized ITAM requirements.
    • ITAM requirements set by the shared services team will support management, allocation, and may have showback or chargeback implications. Following the ITAM requirements is a condition of service. If a local organization chooses to stop using shared services, they are (naturally) no longer required to adhere to the shared services ITAM requirements.
    • As with the federated model, local teams may develop further capabilities to meet local goals.
    Example: Shared Services


    Example of a Shared Services ITAM.

    Solid line. Direct reporting relationship

    Dotted line. Dotted line working relationship

    Blue dotted line. Informal working relationships, knowledge sharing

    Structure data collection & analysis

    Consider the implications of structure on data.

    Why centralize?
    • There is a need to build reports that aggregate data on assets organization-wide, rather than just assets within a local environment.
    • Decentralized ITAM tracking isn’t producing accurate or usable data, even for local purposes.
    • Tracking tools have overlapping functionality. There’s an opportunity to rationalize spend, management and support for ITAM tools.
    • Contract centralization can optimize spend and manage risks, but only with the data required to manage those contracts.
    Why decentralize?
    • Tracking and reporting on local assets is sufficient to meet ITAM goals; there is limited or no need to track assets organization-wide.
    • Local teams have the skills to track and maintain asset data; subsidiaries have appropriate budgets and tools to support ITAM tracking.
    • Decentralized ITSM/ITAM tools are in place, populated, and accurate.
    • The effort to consolidate tools and processes may outweigh the benefits to data centralization.
    • Lots of variability in types of assets and the environment is stable.
    Requirements for success:
    • A centralized IT asset management solution is implemented and managed.
    • Local teams must understand the why and how of centralized data tracking and be held accountable for assigned responsibilities.
    • The asset tool should offer both centralized and localized views of the data.
    Requirements for success:
    • Guidelines and expectations for reporting to centralized asset management team will be well defined and supported.
    • Local asset managers will have opportunity to collaborate with others in the role for knowledge transfer and asset trading, where appropriate.

    Structure budget and contract management

    Contract consolidation creates economies of scale for vendor management and license pooling that strengthen your negotiating position with vendors and optimize spend.

    Why centralize?
    • Budgeting, governance, and accountability are already centralized. Centralized ITAM practices can support the existing governance practices.
    • Centralizing contract management and negotiation can optimize spend and/or deliver access to better service.
    • Centralize management for contracts that cover most of the organization, are highly complex, involve large spend and/or higher risk, and will benefit from specialization of asset staff.
    Why decentralize?
    • Budgeting, governance, and accountability rest with local organizations.
    • There may be increased need for high levels of customer responsiveness and support.
    • Decentralize contract management for contracts used only by local groups (e.g. a few divisions, a few specialized functions), and that are smaller, low risk, and come with standard terms and conditions.
    Requirements for success:
    • A centralized IT asset management solution is implemented and managed.
    • Contract terms must be harmonized across the organization.
    • Centralized fulfillment is as streamlined as possible. For example, software contracts should include the right to install at any time and pay through a true-up process.
    Requirements for success:
    • Any expectations for harmonization with the centralized asset management team will be well defined and supported.
    • Local asset managers can collaborate with other local ITAM leads to support knowledge transfer, asset swapping, etc.

    Structure technology management

    Are there opportunities to centralize or decentralize support functions?

    Why centralize?
    • Standard technologies are deployed organization-wide.
    • There are opportunities to improve service and optimize costs by consolidating knowledge, service contracts, and support functions.
    • Centralizing data on product supply allows for easier harvest and redeployment of assets by a central support team.
    • A stable, central support function can better support localized needs during seasonal staffing changes, mergers and acquisitions.
    Why decentralize?
    • Technology is unique to a local subset of users or customers.
    • Minimal opportunity for savings or better support by consolidating knowledge, service contracts, or support functions.
    • Refresh standards are set at a local level; new tech adoption may be impeded by a reliance on older technologies, local budget shortfalls, or other constraints.
    • Hardware may need to be managed locally if shipping costs and times can’t reasonably be met by a distant central support team.
    Requirements for success:
    • Ensure required processes, technologies, skills, and knowledge are in place to enable centralized support.
    • Keep a central calendar of contract renewals, including reminders to start work on the renewal no less than 90 days prior. Prioritize contracts with high dollar value or high risk.
    • The central asset management solution should be configured to provide data that can enable the central support team.
    Requirements for success:
    • Ensure required processes, technologies, skills, and knowledge are in place to enable decentralized support.
    • Decentralized support teams must understand and adhere to ITAM activities that are part of support work (e.g. data entry, data audits).
    • The central asset management solution should be configured to provide data that can enable the central support team, or decentralized asset solutions must be funded, and teams trained on their use.

    2.3 Review ITAM Structure

    1-2 hours

    Input: Understanding of current organizational structure, Understanding of challenges and opportunities related to the current structure

    Output: A list of prioritized organizational goals, An initial assessment of how ITAM can support these goals

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers, ITAM business partners

    Outline the current model for your organization and identify opportunities to centralize or decentralize ITAM-related activities.

    1. What model best describes how ITAM should be structured in your organization? Modify the slide outlining structure as a group to outline your own organization, as required.
    2. In the table below, outline opportunities to centralize or decentralize data tracking, budget and contract management, and technology management activities.
    Centralize Decentralize
    Data collection & analysis
    • Make better use of central ITAM database.
    • Support local IT departments building runbooks for data tracking during lifecycle activities (create templates, examples)
    Budget and contract management
    • Centralize Microsoft contracts.
    • Create a runbook to onboard new companies to MSFT contracts.
    • Create tools and data views to support local department budget exercises.
    Technology management
    • Ensure all end-user devices are visible to centrally managed InTune, ConfigMgr.
    • Enable direct shipping from vendor to local sites.
    • Establish disposal/pickup at local sites.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Step 2.4: Create a RACI

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers
    • ITAM business partners

    Outcomes

    • Review the role of the IT asset manager.
    • Identify who’s responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed for key ITAM activities.

    Empower your asset manager

    The asset manager is the critical ITAM role. Ensure they’re positioned to succeed.

    There’s too much change in the technology and business environment to expect ITAM to be “a problem to solve.” It is a practice that requires care and feeding through regular iteration to achieve success. At the helm of this practice is your asset manager, whose approach and past experience will have a significant impact on how you approach ITAM.

    The asset manager role requires a variety of skills, knowledge, and abilities including:

    • Operations, process, and practice management.
    • An ability to communicate, influence, negotiate, and facilitate.
    • Organizational knowledge and relationship management.
    • Contract and license agreement analysis, attention to detail.
    • Natural curiosity and a willingness to learn.
    • A strong understanding of technologies in use by the organization, and how they fit into the asset management program.
    Where the asset manager sits in the organization will also have an impact on their focus and priorities. When the asset manager reports into a service team, their focus will often reflect their team’s focus: end-user devices and software, customer satisfaction, request fulfillment. Asset teams that report into a leadership or governance function will be more likely to focus on organization-wide assets, governance, budget management, and compliance.

    “Where your asset manager sits, and what past experience they have, is going to influence how they do asset management.” (Jeremy Boerger, Consultant & Author)

    “It can be annoying at times, but a good IT asset manager will poke their nose into activities that do not obviously concern them, such as programme and project approval boards and technical design committees. Their aim is to identify and mitigate ITAM risks BEFORE the technology is deployed as well as to ensure that projects and solutions ‘bake in’ the necessary processes and tools that ensure IT assets can be managed effectively throughout their lifecycle.” (Kylie Fowler, ITAM by Design, 2017)

    IT asset managers must have a range of skills and knowledge

    • ITAM Operations, Process, and Practice Management
      The asset manager is typically responsible for managing and improving the ITAM practice and related processes and tools. The asset manager may administer the ITAM tool, develop reports and dashboards, evaluate and implement new technologies or services to improve ITAM maturity, and more.
    • Organizational Knowledge
      An effective IT asset manager has a good understanding of your organization and its strategy, products, stakeholders, and culture.
    • Technology & Product Awareness
      An IT asset manager must learn about new and changing technologies and products adopted by the organization (e.g. IoT, cloud) and develop recommendations on how to track and manage them via the ITAM practice.
    A book surrounded by icons corresponding to the bullet points.
    • People Management
      Asset managers often manage a team directly and have dotted-line reports across IT and the business.
    • Communication
      Important in any role, but particularly critical where learning, listening, negotiation, and persuasion are so critical.
    • Finance & Budgeting
      A foundational knowledge of financial planning and budgeting practices is often helpful, where the asset manager is asked to contribute to these activities.
    • Contract Review & Analysis
      Analyze new and existing contracts to evaluate changes, identify compliance requirements, and optimize spend.

    Assign ITAM responsibilities and accountabilities

    Align authority and accountability.
    • A RACI exercise will help you discuss and document accountability and responsibility for critical ITAM activities.
    • When responsibility and accountability are not currently well documented, it’s often useful to invite a representative of the roles identified to participate in this alignment exercise. The discussion can uncover contrasting views on responsibility and governance, which can help you build a stronger management and governance model.
    • The RACI chart can help you identify who should be involved when making changes to a given activity. Clarify the variety of responsibilities assigned to each key role.
    • In the future, you may need to define roles in more detail as you change your hardware and software asset management procedures.

    R

    Responsible: The person who actually gets the job done.

    Different roles may be responsible for different aspects of the activity relevant to their role.

    A

    Accountable: The one role accountable for the activity (in terms completion, quality, cost, etc.)

    Must have sufficient authority to be held accountable; responsible roles are often accountable to this role.

    C

    Consulted: Must have the opportunity to provide meaningful input at certain points in the activity.

    Typically, subject matter experts or stakeholders. The more people you must consult, the more overhead and time you’ll add to a process.

    I

    Informed: Receives information regarding the task, but has no requirement to provide feedback.

    Information might relate to process execution, changes, or quality.

    2.4 Conduct a RACI Exercise

    1-2 hours

    Input: An understanding of key roles and activities in ITAM practices, An understanding of your organization, High-level structure of your ITAM program

    Output: A RACI diagram for IT asset management

    Materials: The table in the next slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers, ITAM business partners

    Let’s face it – RACI exercises can be dry. We’ve found that the approach below is more collaborative, engaging, and effective compared to filling out the table as a large group.

    1. Create a shared working copy of the RACI charts on the following slides (e.g. write it out on a whiteboard or provide a link to this document and work directly in it).
    2. Review the list of template roles and activities as a group. Add, change, or remove roles and activities from the table as needed.
    3. Divide into small groups. Assign each group a set of roles, and have them define whether that role is accountable, responsible, consulted, or informed for each activity in the chart. Refer to the previous slide for context on RACI. Give everyone 15 minutes to update their section of the chart.
    4. Come back together as a large group to review the chart. First, check for accountability – there should generally be just one role accountable for each activity. Then, have each small group walk through their section, and encourage participants to ask questions. Is there at least one role responsible for each task, and what are they responsible for? Does everyone listed as consulted or informed really need to be? Make any necessary adjustments.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Define ITAM governance activities

    RACI Chart for ITAM governance activities. In the first column is a list of governance activities, and the row headers are positions within a company. Fields are marked with an R, A, C, or I.

    Document asset management responsibilities and accountabilities

    RACI Chart for ITAM asset management responsibilities and accountabilities. In the first column is a list of responsibilities and accountabilities, and the row headers are positions within a company. Fields are marked with an R, A, C, or I.

    Step 2.5: Align ITAM with other Service Management Practices

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers

    Outcomes

    • Establish shared and separate responsibilities for asset and configuration management.
    • Identify how ITAM can support other practices, and how other practices can support ITAM.

    Asset vs. Configuration

    Asset and configuration management look at the same world through different lenses.
    • IT asset management tends to focus on each IT asset in its own right: assignment or ownership, its lifecycle, and related financial obligations and entitlements.
    • Configuration management is focused on configuration items (CIs) that must be managed to deliver a service and the relationships and integrations to other CIs.
    • ITAM and configuration management teams and practices should work closely together. Though asset and configuration management focus on different outcomes, they tend use overlapping tools and data sets. Each practice, when working effectively, can strengthen the other.
    • Many objects will exist in both the CMDB and AMDB, and the data on those shared objects will need to be kept in sync.
    Asset and Configuration Management: An Example

    Configuration Management Database (CMDB)

    A database of uniquely identified configuration items (CIs). Each CI record may include information on:
    Service Attributes

    Supported Service(s)
    Service Description, Criticality, SLAs
    Service Owners
    Data Criticality/Sensitivity

    CI Relationships

    Physical Connections
    Logical Connections
    Dependencies

    Arrow connector.

    Discovery, Normalization, Dependency Mapping, Business Rules*

    Manual Data Entry

    Arrow connector.
    This shared information could be attached to asset records, CI records, or both, and it should be synchronized between the two databases where it’s tracked in both.
    Hardware Information

    Serial, Model and Specs
    Network Address
    Physical Location

    Software Installations

    Hypervisor & OS
    Middleware & Software
    Software Configurations

    Arrow connector.

    Asset Management Database (AMDB)

    A database of uniquely identified IT assets. Each asset record may include information on:
    Procurement/Purchasing

    Purchase Request/Purchase Order
    Invoice and Cost
    Cost Center
    Vendor
    Contracts and MSAs
    Support/Maintenance/Warranties

    Asset Attributes

    Model, Title, Product Info, License Key
    Assigned User
    Lifecycle Status
    Last ITAM Audit Date
    Certificate of Disposal

    Arrows connecting multiple fields.

    IT Security Systems

    Vulnerability Management
    Threat Management
    SIEM
    Endpoint Protection

    IT Service Management (ITSM) System

    Change Tickets
    Request Tickets
    Incident Tickets
    Problem Tickets
    Project Tickets
    Knowledgebase

    Financial System/ERP

    General Ledger
    Accounts Payable
    Accounts Receivable
    Enterprise Assets
    Enterprise Contract Database

    (*Discovery, dependency mapping, and data normalization are often features or modules of configuration management, asset management, or IT service management tools.)

    2.5 Integrate ITAM and configuration practices

    45 minutes

    Input: Knowledge of the organization’s configuration management processes

    Output: Define how ITAM and configuration management will support one another

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers, Configuration manager

    Work through the table below to identify how you will collaborate and synchronize data across ITAM and configuration management practices and tools.

    What are the goals (if any currently exist) for the configuration management practice? Connect configuration items to services to support service management.
    How will configuration and asset management teams collaborate? Weekly status updates. As-needed working sessions.
    Shared visibility on each others’ Kanban tracker.
    Create tickets to raise and track issues that require collaboration or attention from the other team.
    How can config leverage ITAM? Connect CIs to financial, contractual, and ownership data.
    How can ITAM leverage config? Connect assets to services, changes, incidents.
    What key fields will be primarily tracked/managed by ITAM? Serial number, unique ID, user, location, PO number, …
    What key fields will be primarily tracked/managed by configuration management? Supported service(s), dependencies, service description, service criticality, network address…

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    ITAM supports service management

    Decoupling asset management from other service management practices can result in lost value. Establish how asset management can support other service management practices – and how those practices can support ITAM.

    Incident Management

    What broke?
    Was it under warranty?
    Is there a service contract?
    Was it licensed?
    Who was it assigned to?
    Is it end-of-life?

    ITAM
    Practice

    Request Management

    What can this user request or purchase?
    What are standard hardware and software offerings?
    What does the requester already have?
    Are there items in inventory to fulfil the request?
    Did we save money by reissuing equipment?
    Is this a standard request?
    What assets are being requested regularly?

    What IT assets are related to the known issue?
    What models and vendors are related to the issue?
    Are the assets covered by a service contract?
    Are other tickets related to this asset?
    What end-of-life assets have been tied to incidents recently?

    Problem Management

    What assets are related to the change?
    Is the software properly licensed?
    Has old equipment been properly retired and disposed?
    Have software licenses been returned to the pool?
    Is the vendor support on the change part of a service contract?

    Change Enablement

    2.5. Connect with other IT service practices

    45 minutes

    Input: Knowledge of existing organizational IT service management processes

    Output: Define how ITAM will help other service management processes, and how other service management processes will help ITAM

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers, Service leads

    Complete the table below to establish what ITAM can provide to other service management practices, and what other practices can provide to ITAM.

    Practice ITAM will help Will help ITAM
    Incident Management Provide context on assets involved in an incident (e.g. ownership, service contracts). Track when assets are involved in incidents (via incident tickets).
    Request Management Oversee request & procurement processes. Help develop asset standards. Enter new assets in ITAM database.
    Problem Management Collect information on assets related to known issues. Report back on models/titles that are generating known issues.
    Change Enablement Provide context on assets for change review. Ensure EOL assets are retired and licenses are returned during changes.
    Capacity Management Identify ownership, location for assets at capacity. Identify upcoming refreshes or purchases.
    Availability Management Connect uptime and reliability to assets. Identify assets that are causing availability issues.
    Monitoring and Event Management Provide context to events with asset data. Notify asset of unrecognized software and hardware.
    Financial Management Establish current and predict future spending. Identify upcoming purchases, renewals.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Step 2.6: Evaluate ITAM tools and integrations

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers

    Outcomes

    • Create a list of the ITAM tools currently in use, how they’re used, and their current limitations.
    • Identify new tools that could provide value to the ITAM practice, and what needs to be done to acquire and implement them.

    “Everything is connected. Nothing is also connected.” (Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency)

    Establish current strengths and gaps in your ITAM toolset

    ITAM data quality relies on tools and integrations that are managed by individuals or teams who don’t report directly to the ITAM function.

    Without direct line of sight into tools management, the ITAM team must influence rather than direct improvement initiatives that are in some cases critical to the performance of the ITAM function. To more effectively influence improvement efforts, you must explicitly identify what you need, why you need it, from which tools, and from which stakeholders.

    Data Sources
    Procurement Tools
    Discovery Tools
    Active Directory
    Purchase Documents
    Spreadsheets
    Input To Asset System(s) of Record
    ITAM Database
    ITSM Tool
    CMDB
    Output To Asset Data Consumption
    ITFM Tools
    Security Tools
    TEM Tools
    Accounting Tools
    Spreadsheets
    “Active Directory plays a huge role in audit defense and self-assessment, but no-one really goes out there and looks at Active Directory.

    I was talking to one organization that has 1,600,000 AD records for 100,000 employees.” (Mike Austin, Founder, MetrixData 360)

    2.6 Evaluate ITAM existing technologies

    30 minutes

    Input: Knowledge of existing ITAM tools

    Output: A list of prioritized organizational goals, An initial assessment of how ITAM can support these goals

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers

    Identify the use, limitations, and next steps for existing ITAM tools, including those not directly managed by the ITAM team.

    1. What tools do we have today?
    2. What are they used for? What are their limitations?
    3. Who manages them?
    4. What actions could we take to maximize the value of the tools?
    Existing Tool Use Constraints Owner Proposed Action?
    ITAM Module
    • Track HW/SW
    • Connect assets to incident, request
    • Currently used for end-user devices only
    • Not all divisions have access
    • SAM capabilities are limited
    ITAM Team/Service Management
    • Add license for additional read/write access
    • Start tracking infra in this tool
    Active Directory
    • Store user IDs, organizational data
    Major data quality issues IT Operations
    • Work with AD team to identify issues creating data issues

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    2.6 Identify potential new tools

    30 minutes

    Input: Knowledge of tooling gaps, An understanding of available tools that could remediate gaps

    Output: New tools that can improve ITAM capabilities, including expected value and proposed next steps

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers

    Identify tools that are required to support the identified goals of the ITAM practice.

    1. What types of tools do we need that we don’t have?
    2. What could these tools help us do?
    3. What needs to be done next to investigate or acquire the appropriate tool?
    New Tool Expected Value Proposed Next Steps
    SAM tool
    • Automatically calculate licensing entitlements from contract data.
    • Automatically calculate licensing requirements from discovery data.
    • Support gap analyses.
    • Further develop software requirements.
    • Identify vendors in the space and create a shortlist.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Step 2.7: Create a plan for internal and external audits

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers
    • ITAM business partners

    Outcomes

    • Establish your approach to internal data audits.
    • Create a high-level response plan for external audits.

    Validate ITAM data via internal audits

    Data audits provide assurance that the records in the ITAM database are as accurate as possible. Consider these three approaches:

    Compare Tool Records

    Audit your data by comparing records in the ITAM system to other discovery sources.

    • Ideally, use three separate data sources (e.g. ITAM database, discovery tool, security tool). Use a common field, such as the host name, to compare across fields. (To learn more about discovery tool analysis, see Jeremy Boerger’s book, Rethinking IT Asset Management.)
    • Run reports to compare records and identify discrepancies. This could include assets missing from one system or metadata differences such as different users or installed software.
    • Over time, discrepancies between tools should be well understood and accepted; otherwise, they should be addressed and remediated.
    IT-led Audit

    Conduct a hands-on investigation led by ITAM staff and IT technicians.

    • In-person audits require significant effort and resources. Each audit should be scoped and planned ahead of time to focus on known problem areas.
    • Provide the audit team with exact instructions on what needs to be verified and recorded. Depending on the experience and attention to detail of the audit team, you may need to conduct spot checks to ensure you’re catching any issues in the audit process itself.
    • Automation should be used wherever possible (e.g. through barcodes, scanners, and tables for quick access to ITAM records).
    User-led audit

    Have users validate the IT assets assigned to them.

    • Even more than IT-led audits: don’t use this approach too frequently; keep the scope as narrow as possible and the process as simple as possible.
    • Ensure users have all the information and tools they’ll need readily available to complete this task, or the result will be ineffective and will only frustrate your users.
    • Consider a process integrated with your ITSM tool: once a year, when a user logs in to the portal, they will be asked to enter the asset code for their laptop (and provided with instructions on where to find that code). Investigate discrepancies between assignments and ITAM records.

    2.7 Set an approach to internal data audits

    30 minutes

    Input: An understanding of current data audit capabilities and needs

    Output: An outline of how you’ll approach data audits, including frequency, scope, required resources

    Materials: Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team

    Review the three internal data audit approaches outlined on the previous slide, and identify which of the three approaches you’ll use. For each approach, complete the fields in the table below.

    Audit Approach How often? What scope? Who’s involved? Comments
    Compare tool records Monthly Compare ITAM DB, Intune/ConfigMgr, and Vulnerability Scanner Data; focus on end-user devices to start Asset manager will lead at first.
    Work with tool admins to pull data and generate reports.
    IT-led audit Annual End-user devices at a subset of locations Asset manager will work with ITSM admins to generate reports. In-person audit to be conducted by local techs.
    User-led audit Annual Assigned personal devices (start with a pilot group) Asset coordinator to develop procedure with ITSM admin. Run pilot with power users first.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Prepare for and respond to external audits and true-ups

    Are you ready when software vendors come knocking?

    • Vendor audits are expensive.
    • If you’re out of compliance, you will at minimum be required to pay the missing license fees. At their discretion, vendors may choose to add punitive fees and require you to cover the hourly cost of their audit teams. If you choose not to pay, the vendor could secure an injunction to cut off your service, which in many cases will be far more costly than the fines. And this is aside from the intangible costs of the disruption to your business and damaged relationships between IT, ITAM, your business, and other partners.
    • Having a plan to respond to an audit is critical to reducing audit risk. Preparation will help you coordinate your audit response, ensure the audit happens on the most favorable possible terms, and even prevent some audits from happening in the first place.
    • The best defense, as they say, is a good offense. Good ITAM and SAM processes will allow you to track acquisition, allocation, and disposal of software licenses; understand your licensing position; and ensure you remain compliant whenever possible. The vendor has no reason to audit you when there’s nothing to find.
    • Know when and where your audit risk is greatest, so you can focus your resources where they can deliver the most value.
    “If software audits are a big part of your asset operations, you have problems. You can reduce the time spent on audits and eliminate some audits by having a proactive ITAM practice.” (Sandi Conrad, Principal Research Director)

    Info-Tech Insight

    Audit defense starts long before you get audited. For an in-depth review of your audit approach, see Info-Tech’s Prepare and Defend Against a Software Audit.

    Identify areas of higher audit risk

    Watch for these warning signs
    • Your organization is visibly fighting fires. Signs of disorder may signal to vendors that there are opportunities to exploit via an audit. Past audit failures make future audits more likely.
    • You are looking for ways to decrease spend. Vendors may counter attempts to true-down licensing by launching an audit to try to find unlicensed software that provides them leverage to negotiate maintained or even increased spending.
    • Your license/contract terms with the vendor are particularly complex or highly customized. Very complex terms may make it harder to validate your own compliance, which may present opportunities to the vendor in an audit.
    • The vendor has earned a reputation for being particularly aggressive with audits. Some vendors include audits as a standard component of their business model to drive revenue. This may include acquiring smaller vendors or software titles that may not have been audit-driven in the past, and running audits on their new customer base.

    “The reality is, software vendors prey on confusion and complication. Where there’s confusion, there’s opportunity.” (Mike Austin, Founder, MetrixData 360)

    Develop an audit response plan

    You will be on the clock once the vendor sends you an audit request. Have a plan ready to go.
    • Don’t panic: Resist knee-jerk reactions. Follow the plan.
    • Form an audit response team and centralize your response: This team should be led by a member of the ITAM group, and it should include IT leadership, software SMEs, representatives from affected business areas, vendor management, contract management, and legal. You may also need to bring on a contractor with deep expertise with the vendor in question to supplement your internal capabilities. Establish clearly who will be the point of contact with the vendor during the audit.
    • Clarify the scope of the audit: Clearly establish what the audit will cover – what products, subsidiaries, contracts, time periods, geographic regions, etc. Manage the auditors to prevent scope creep.
    • Establish who covers audit costs: Vendors may demand the auditee cover the hourly cost of their audit team if you’re significantly out of compliance. Consider asking the vendor to pay for your team’s time if you’re found to be compliant.
    • Know your contract: Vendors’ contracts change over time, and it’s no guarantee that even your vendor’s licensing experts will be aware of the rights you have in your contract. You must know your entitlements to negotiate effectively.
    1. Bring the audit request received to the attention of ITAM and IT leadership. Assemble the response team.
    2. Acknowledge receipt of audit notice.
    3. Negotiate timing and scope of the audit.
    4. Direct staff not to remove or acquire licenses for software under audit without directly involving the ITAM team first.
    5. Gather installation data and documentation to establish current entitlements, including original contract, current contract, addendums, receipts, invoices.
    6. Compare entitlements to installed software.
    7. Investigate any anomalies (e.g. unexpected or non-compliant software).
    8. Review results with the audit response team.

    2.7 Clarify your vendor audit response plan

    1 hour

    Input: Organizational knowledge on your current audit response procedures

    Output: Audit response team membership, High-level audit checklist, A list of things to start, stop, and continue doing as part of the audit response

    Materials: Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers, ITAM business partners

    1. Who’s on the audit response team, and what’s their role? Who will lead the team? Who will be the point of contact with the auditor?
    2. What are the high-level steps in our audit response workflow? Use the example checklist below as a starting point.
    3. What do we need to start, stop, and continue doing in response to audit requests?

    Example Audit Checklist

    • Bring the audit request received to the attention of ITAM and IT leadership. Assemble the response team.
    • Acknowledge receipt of audit notice.
    • Negotiate timing and scope of the audit.
    • Direct staff not to remove or acquire licenses for software under audit without directly involving the ITAM team first.
    • Gather installation data and documentation to establish current entitlements, including original contract, current contract, addendums, receipts, invoices.
    • Compare entitlements to installed software.
    • Investigate any anomalies (e.g. unexpected or non-compliant software).
    • Review results with the audit response team.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Step 2.8: Improve budget processes

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers
    • ITAM business partners

    Outcomes

    • Identify what you need to start, stop, and continue to do to support budgeting processes.

    Improve budgeting and forecasting

    Insert ITAM into budgeting processes to deliver significant value.

    Some examples of what ITAM can bring to the budgeting table:
    • Trustworthy data on deployed assets and spending obligations tied to those assets.
    • Projections of hardware due for replacement in terms of quantity and spend.
    • Knowledge of IT hardware and software contract terms and pricing.
    • Lists of unused or underused hardware and software that could be redeployed to avoid spend.
    • Comparisons of spend year-over-year.

    Being part of the budgeting process positions ITAM for success in other ways:

    • Helps demonstrate the strategic value of the ITAM practice.
    • Provides insight into business and IT strategic projects and priorities for the year.
    • Strengthens relationships with key stakeholders, and positions the ITAM team as trusted partners.

    “Knowing what you have [IT assets] is foundational to budgeting, managing, and optimizing IT spend.” (Dave Kish, Info-Tech, Practice Lead, IT Financial Management)

    Stock image of a calculator.

    2.8 Build better budgets

    20 minutes

    Input: Context on IT budgeting processes

    Output: A list of things to start, stop, and continue doing as part of budgeting exercises

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers, ITAM business partners

    What should we start, stop, and continue doing to support organizational budgeting exercises?

    Start Stop Continue
    • Creating buckets of spend and allocating assets to those buckets.
    • Zero-based review on IaaS instances quarterly.
    • Develop dashboards plugged into asset data for department heads to view allocated assets and spend.
    • Create value reports to demonstrate hard savings as well as cost avoidance.
    • Waiting for business leaders to come to us for help (start reaching out with reports proactively, three months before budget cycle).
    • % increases on IT budgets without further review.
    • Monthly variance budget analysis.
    • What-if analysis for asset spend based on expected headcount increases.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Step 2.9: Establish a documentation framework

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team

    Outcomes

    • Identify key documentation and gaps in your documentation.
    • Establish where documentation should be stored, who should own it, who should have access, and what should trigger a review.

    Create ITAM documentation

    ITAM documentation will typically support governance or operations.

    Long-term planning and governance
    • ITAM policy and/or related policies (procurement policy, security awareness policy, acceptable use policy, etc.)
    • ITAM strategy document
    • ITAM roadmap or burndown list
    • Job descriptions
    • Functional requirements documents for ITAM tools

    Operational documentation

    • ITAM SOPs (hardware, software) and workflows
    • Detailed work instructions/knowledgebase articles
    • ITAM data/records
    • Contracts, purchase orders, invoices, MSAs, SOWs, etc.
    • Effective Licensing Position (ELP) reports
    • Training and communication materials
    • Tool and integration documentation
    • Asset management governance, operations, and tools typically generate a lot of documentation.
    • Don’t create documentation for the sake of documentation. Prioritize building and maintaining documentation that addresses major risks or presents opportunities to improve the consistency and reliability of key processes.
    • Maximize the value of ITAM documentation by ensuring it is as current, accessible, and usable as it needs to be.
    • Clearly identify where documentation is stored and who should have access to it.
    • Identify who is accountable for the creation and maintenance of key documentation, and establish triggers for reviews, updates, and changes.

    Consider ITAM policies

    Create policies that can and will be monitored and enforced.
    • Certain requirements of the ITAM practice may need to be backed up by corporate policies: formal statements of organizational expectations that must be recognized by staff, and which will lead to sanctions/penalties if breached.
    • Some organizations will choose to create one or more ITAM-specific policies. Others will include ITAM-related statements in other existing policies, such as acceptable use policies, security training and awareness policies, procurement policies, configuration policies, e-waste policies, and more.
    • Ensure that you are prepared to monitor compliance with policies and evenly enforce breaches of policy. Failing to consistently enforce your policies exposes you and your organization to claims of negligence or discriminatory conduct.
    • For a template for ITAM-specific policies, see Info-Tech’s policy templates for Hardware Asset Management and Software Asset Management.

    2.9 Establish documentation gaps

    15-30 minutes

    Input: An understanding of existing documentation gaps and risks

    Output: Documentation gaps, Identified owners, repositories, access rights, and review/update protocols

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, Optional: IT managers, ITAM business partners

    Discuss and record the following:

    • What planning/governance, operational, and tooling documentation do we still need to create? Who is accountable for the creation and maintenance of these documents?
    • Where will the documentation be stored? Who can access these documents?
    • What will trigger reviews or changes to the documents?
    Need to Create Owner Stored in Accessible by Trigger for review
    Hardware asset management SOP ITAM manager ITAM SharePoint site › Operating procedures folder
    • All IT staff
    • Annual review
    • As-needed for major tooling changes that require a documentation update

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Step 2.10: Create a roadmap and communication plan

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers

    Outcomes

    • A timeline of key ITAM initiatives.
    • Improvement ideas aligned to key initiatives.
    • A communication plan tailored to key stakeholders.
    • Your ITAM Strategy document.

    “Understand that this is a journey. This is not a 90-day project. And in some organizations, these journeys could be three or five years long.” (Mike Austin, MetrixData 360)

    2.10 Identify key ITAM initiatives

    30-45 minutes

    Input: Organizational strategy documents

    Output: A roadmap that outlines next steps

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers, Project sponsor

    1. Identify key initiatives that are critical to improving practice maturity and meeting business goals.
    2. There should only be a handful of really key initiatives. This is the work that will have the greatest impact on your ability to deliver value. Too many initiatives muddy the narrative and can distract from what really matters.
    3. Plot the target start and end dates for each initiative in the business and IT transformation timeline you created in Phase 1.
    4. Review the chart and consider – what new capabilities should the ITAM practice have once the identified initiatives are complete? What transformational initiatives will you be better positioned to support?

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Transformation Timeline

    Example transformation timeline with row headers 'Business Inititiaves', 'IT Initiatives', and 'ITAM Initiatives'. Each initiative is laid out along the timeline appropriately.

    2.10 Align improvement ideas to initiatives

    45 minutes

    Input: Key initiatives, Ideas for ITAM improvement collected over the course of previous exercises

    Output: Concrete action items to support each initiative

    Materials: The table in the next slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers, Project sponsor

    As you’ve been working through the previous exercises, you have been tracking ideas for improvement – now we’ll align them to your roadmap.

    1. Review the list of ideas for improvement you’ve produced over the working sessions. Consolidate the list – are there any ideas that overlap or complement each other? Record any new ideas. Frame each idea as an action item – something you can actually do.
    2. Connect the action items to initiatives. It may be that not every action item becomes part of a key initiative. (Don’t lose ideas that aren’t part of key initiatives – track them in a separate burndown list or backlog.)
    3. Identify a target completion date and owner for each action item that’s part of an initiative.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Example ITAM initiatives

    Initiative 1: Develop hardware/software standards
    Task Target Completion Owner
    Laptop standards Q1-2023 ITAM manager
    Identify/eliminate contracts for unused software using scan tool Q2-2023 ITAM manager
    Review O365 license levels and standard service Q3-2023 ITAM manager

    Initiative 2: Improve ITAM data quality
    Task Target Completion Owner
    Implement scan agent on all field laptops Q3-2023 Desktop engineer
    Conduct in person audit on identified data discrepancies Q1-2024 ITAM team
    Develop and run user-led audit Q1-2024 Asset manager

    Initiative 3: Acquire & implement a new ITAM tool
    Task Target Completion Owner
    Select an ITAM tool Q3-2023 ITAM manager
    Implement ITAM tool, incl. existing data migration Q1-2024 ITAM manager
    Training on new tool Q1-2024 ITAM manager
    Build KPIs, executive dashboards in new tool Q2-2024 Data analyst
    Develop user-led audit functionality in new tool Q3-2024 ITAM coordinator

    2.10 Create a communication plan

    45 minutes

    Input: Proposed ITAM initiatives, Stakeholder priorities and goals, and an understanding of how ITAM can help them meet those goals

    Output: A high-level communication plan to communicate the benefits and impact of proposed changes to the ITAM program

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: IT asset manager, Project sponsor

    Develop clear, consistent, and targeted messages to key ITAM stakeholders.

    1. Modify the list of stakeholders in the first column.
    2. What benefits should those stakeholders realize from ITAM? What impact may the proposed improvements have on them? Refer back to exercises from Phase 1, where you identified key stakeholders, their priorities, and how ITAM could help them.
    3. Identify communication channels (in-person, email, all-hands meeting, etc.) and timing – when you’ll distribute the message. You may choose to use more than one channel, and you may need to convey the message more than once.
    Group ITAM Benefits Impact Channel(s) Timing
    CFO
    • More accurate IT spend predictions
    • Better equipment utilization and value for money
    • Sponsor integration project between ITAM DB and financial system
    • Support procurement procedures review
    Face-to-face – based on their availability Within the next month
    CIO
    • Better oversight into IT spend
    • Data to help demonstrate IT value
    • Resources required to support tool and ITAM process improvements
    Standing bi-monthly 1:1 meetings Review strategy at next meeting
    IT Managers
    Field Techs

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    2.10 Put the final touches on your ITAM Strategy

    30 minutes

    Input: Proposed ITAM initiatives, Stakeholder priorities and goals, and an understanding of how ITAM can help them meet those goals

    Output: A high-level communication plan to communicate the benefits and impact of proposed changes to the ITAM program

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: IT asset manager, Project sponsor

    You’re almost done! Do a final check of your work before you send a copy to your participants.

    1. Summarize in three points the key findings from the activities you’ve worked through. What have you learned? What are your priorities? What key message do you need to get across? Add these to the appropriate slide near the start of the ITAM Strategy Template.
    2. What are your immediate next steps? Summarize no more than five and add them to the appropriate slide near the start of the ITAM Strategy Template.
      1. Are you asking for something? Approval for ITAM initiatives? Funding? Resources? Clearly identify the ask as part of your next steps.
    3. Are the KPIs identified in Phase 1 still valid? Will they help you monitor for success in the initiatives you’ve identified in Phase 2? Make any adjustments you think are required to the KPIs to reflect the additional completed work.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Research Contributors and Experts

    Kylie Fowler
    Principal Consultant
    ITAM Intelligence

    Kylie is an experienced ITAM/FinOps consultant with a track record of creating superior IT asset management frameworks that enable large companies to optimize IT costs while maintaining governance and control.

    She has operated as an independent consultant since 2009, enabling organizations including Sainsbury's and DirectLine Insurance to leverage the benefits of IT asset management and FinOps to achieve critical business objectives. Recent key projects include defining an end-to-end SAM strategy, target operating model, policies and processes which when implemented provided a 300% ROI.

    She is passionate about supporting businesses of all sizes to drive continuous improvement, reduce risk, and achieve return on investment through the development of creative asset management and FinOps solutions.

    Rory Canavan
    Owner and Principal Consultant
    SAM Charter

    Rory is the founder, owner, and principal consultant of SAM Charter, an internationally recognized consultancy in enterprise-wide Software & IT Asset Management. As an industry leader, SAM Charter is uniquely poised to ensure your IT & SAM systems are aligned to your business requirements.

    With a technical background in business and systems analysis, Rory has a wide range of first-hand experience advising numerous companies and organizations on the best practices and principles pertaining to software asset management. This experience has been gained in both military and civil organizations, including the Royal Navy, Compaq, HP, the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST), and several software vendors.

    Research Contributors and Experts

    Jeremy Boerger
    Founder, Boerger Consulting
    Author of Rethinking IT Asset Management

    Jeremy started his career in ITAM fighting the Y2K bug at the turn of the 21st century. Since then, he has helped companies in manufacturing, healthcare, banking, and service industries build and rehabilitate hardware and software asset management practices.

    These experiences prompted him to create the Pragmatic ITAM method, which directly addresses and permanently resolves the fundamental flaws in current ITAM and SAM implementations.

    In 2016, he founded Boerger Consulting, LLC to help business leaders and decision makers fully realize the promises a properly functioning ITAM can deliver. In his off time, you will find him in Cincinnati, Ohio, with his wife and family.

    Mike Austin
    Founder and CEO
    MetrixData 360

    Mike Austin leads the delivery team at MetrixData 360. Mike brings more than 15 years of Microsoft licensing experience to his clients’ projects. He assists companies, from Fortune 500 to organizations with as few as 500 employees, with negotiations of Microsoft Enterprise Agreements (EA), Premier Support Contracts, and Select Agreements. In addition to helping negotiate contracts, he helps clients build and implement software asset management processes.

    Previously, Mike was employed by Microsoft for more than 8 years as a member of the global sales team. With Microsoft, Mike successfully negotiated more than a billion dollars in new and renewal EAs. Mike has also negotiated legal terms and conditions for all software agreements, developed Microsoft’s best practices for global account management, and was awarded Microsoft’s Gold Star Award in 2003 and Circle of Excellence in 2008 for his contributions.

    Bibliography

    “Asset Management.” SFIA v8. Accessed 17 March 2022.

    Boerger, Jeremy. Rethinking IT Asset Management. Business Expert Press, 2021.

    Canavan, Rory. “C-Suite Cheat Sheet.” SAM Charter, 2021. Accessed 17 March 2022.

    Fisher, Matt. “Metrics to Measure SAM Success.” Snow Software, 26 May 2015. Accessed 17 March 2022.

    Flexera (2021). “State of ITAM Report.” Flexera, 2021. Accessed 17 March 2022.

    Fowler, Kylie. “ITAM by design.” BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, 2017. Accessed 17 March 2022.

    Fowler, Kylie. “Ch-ch-ch-changes… Is It Time for an ITAM Transformation?” ITAM Intelligence, 2021. Web. Accessed 17 March 2022.

    Fowler, Kylie. “Do you really need an ITAM policy?” ITAM Accelerate, 15 Oct. 2021. Accessed 17 March 2022.

    Hayes, Chris. “How to establish a successful, long-term ITAM program.” Anglepoint, Sept. 2021. Accessed 17 March 2022.

    ISO/IEC 19770-1-2017. IT Asset Management Systems – Requirements. Third edition. ISO, Dec 2017.

    Joret, Stephane. “IT Asset Management: ITIL® 4 Practice Guide”. Axelos, 2020.

    Jouravlev, Roman. “IT Service Financial Management: ITIL® 4 Practice Guide”. Axelos, 2020.

    Pagnozzi, Maurice, Edwin Davis, Sam Raco. “ITAM Vs. ITSM: Why They Should Be Separate.” KPMG, 2020. Accessed 17 March 2022.

    Rumelt, Richard. Good Strategy, Bad Strategy. Profile Books, 2013.

    Stone, Michael et al. “NIST SP 1800-5 IT Asset Management.” Sept, 2018. Accessed 17 March 2022.

    Increase Grant Application Success

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    • Parent Category Name: Cost & Budget Management
    • Parent Category Link: /cost-and-budget-management
    • Writing grants has not been prioritized by the organization.
    • Your organization is unable to start, finish, and/or continue priority projects or initiatives as it does not have sufficient funds.
    • Grants are applied to in an ad hoc manner by employees who do not have sufficient time and resources to dedicate to the process.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    There are three critical components to the grant application process:

    • Being strategic about the grant opportunities your organization chooses to pursue.
    • Dedicating sufficient time and resources to writing a competitive grant application.
    • Ensuring your organization will be able to adhere to the grant parameters if awarded the funding.

    Impact and Result

    • By leveraging Info-Tech’s methodology, your organization will strategically select, write, and submit competitive grant applications, securing additional funding sources to support the organization and the communities you serve.
    • This research can enhance the grant writing capabilities of the organization and ensure that every grant chosen aligns with your organizational priorities.
    • This blueprint will drive consensus on which grant applications should be prioritized by the organization, ensuring resourcing, feasibility, and significance are considered.

    Increase Grant Application Success Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should enhance your organization's grant application lifecycle and how you can increase the number of grants your organization is awarded. Review Info-Tech’s methodology and understand the four ways Info-Tech can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Identify Opportunities

    Identify grant funding opportunities that align with your organization's priorities. Ensure the programs, services, projects, and initiatives that align with these priorities can be financially supported by grant funding.

    • Increase Grant Application Success – Phase 1: Identify Opportunities
    • Grant Identification and Prioritization Tool for Organizations

    2. Grant Prioritization

    Prioritize applying for the grant opportunities that your organization identified. Be sure to consider the feasibility of implementing the project or initiative if your organization is awarded the grant.

    • Increase Grant Application Success – Phase 2: Grant Prioritization

    3. Write the Grant Application

    Write a competitive grant application that has been strategically developed and actively critiqued by various internal and external reviewers.

    • Increase Grant Application Success – Phase 3: Write the Grant Application
    • Grant Writing Checklist

    4. Submit the Grant Application

    Submit an exemplary grant application that meets the guidelines and expectations of the granting agency prior to the due date.

    • Increase Grant Application Success – Phase 4: Submit the Grant Application
    • Grant Follow-up Email Template

    Infographic

    Workshop: Increase Grant Application Success

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Determine Your Organization's Priorities

    The Purpose

    Determine the key priorities of your organization and identify grant funding opportunities that align with those priorities.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Prevents duplicate grant applications from being submitted

    Ensures the grant and the organization's priorities are aligned

    Increases the success rate of grant applications

    Activities

    1.1 Discuss grant funding opportunities and their importance to the organization.

    1.2 Identify organizational priorities.

    Outputs

    An understanding of why grants are important to your organization

    A list of priorities being pursued by your organization

    2 Prioritize Grant Funding Opportunities

    The Purpose

    Identify potential grant funding opportunities that align with the projects/initiatives the organization would like to pursue. Prioritize these funding opportunities and identify which should take precedent based on resourcing, importance, likelihood of success, and feasibility.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Generate a list of potential funding opportunities that can be revisited when resources allow

    Obtain consensus from your working group on which grants should be pursued based on how they have been prioritized

    Activities

    2.1 Develop a list of potential grant funding opportunities.

    2.2 Define the resource capacity your organization has to support the granting writing process.

    2.3 Discuss and prioritize grant opportunities

    Outputs

    A list of potential grant funding opportunities

    Realistic expectations of your organization's capacity to undertake the grant writing lifecycle

    Notes and priorities from your discussion on grant opportunities

    3 Sketch a Grant Application

    The Purpose

    Take the grant that was given top priority in the last section and sketch out a draft of what that application will look like. Think critically about the sketch and determine if there are opportunities to further clarify and demonstrate the goals of the grant application.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A sketch ready to be developed into a grant application

    A critique of the sketch to ensure that the application will be well understood by the reviewers of your submission

    Activities

    3.1 Sketch the grant application.

    3.2 Perform a SWOT analysis of the grant sketch.

    Outputs

    A sketched version of the grant application ready to be drafted

    A SWOT analysis that critically examines the sketch and offers opportunities to enhance the application

    4 Prepare to Submit the Grant Application

    The Purpose

    Have the grant application actively critiqued by various internal and external individuals. This will increase the grant application's quality and generate understanding of the application submission and post-submission process.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A list of individuals (internal and external) that can potentially review the application prior to submission

    Preparation for the submission process

    An understanding of why the opportunity to learn how to improve future grant applications is so important

    Activities

    4.1 Identify potential individuals who will review the draft of your grant application.

    4.2 Discuss next steps around the grant submission.

    4.3 Review grant writing best practices.

    Outputs

    A list of potential individuals who can be asked to review and critique the grant application

    An understanding of what the next steps in the process will be

    Knowledge of grant writing best practices

    Build a Data Architecture Roadmap

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    • Parent Category Name: Data Management
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    • Data architecture involves many moving pieces requiring coordination to provide greatest value from data.
    • Data architects are at the center of this turmoil and must be able to translate high-level business requirements into specific instructions for data workers using complex data models.
    • Data architects must account for the constantly growing data and application complexity, more demanding needs from the business, an ever-increasing number of data sources, and a growing need to integrate components to ensure that performance isn’t compromised.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Data architecture needs to evolve with the changing business landscape. There are four common business drivers that put most pressure on archaic architectures. As a result, the organization’s architecture must be flexible and responsive to changing business needs.
    • Data architecture is not just about models. Viewing data architecture as just technical data modeling can lead to structurally unsound data that does not serve the business.
    • Data is used differently across the layers of an organization’s data architecture, and the capabilities needed to optimize use of data change with it. Architecting and managing data from source to warehousing to presentation requires different tactics for optimal use.

    Impact and Result

    • Have a framework in place to identify the appropriate solution for the challenge at hand. Our three-phase practical approach will help you build a custom and modernized data architecture.
      • Identify and prioritize the business drivers in which data architecture changes would create the largest overall benefit, and determine the corresponding data architecture tiers that need to be addressed.
      • Discover the best-practice trends, measure your current state, and define the targets for your data architecture tactics.
      • Build a cohesive and personalized roadmap for restructuring your data architecture. Manage your decisions and resulting changes.

    Build a Data Architecture Roadmap Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why your organization should optimize its data architecture as it evolves with the drivers of the business to get the most from its data.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Prioritize your data architecture with business-driven tactics

    Identify the business drivers that necessitate data architecture improvements, then create a tactical plan for optimization.

    • Build a Business-Aligned Data Architecture Optimization Strategy – Phase 1: Prioritize Your Data Architecture With Business-Driven Tactics
    • Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool
    • Data Architecture Optimization Template

    2. Personalize your tactics to optimize your data architecture

    Analyze how you stack up to Info-Tech’s data architecture capability model to uncover your tactical plan, and discover groundbreaking data architecture trends and how you can fit them into your action plan.

    • Build a Business-Aligned Data Architecture Optimization Strategy – Phase 2: Personalize Your Tactics to Optimize Your Data Architecture
    • Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool
    • Data Architecture Trends Presentation

    3. Create your tactical data architecture roadmap

    Optimize your data architecture by following tactical initiatives and managing the resulting change brought on by those optimization activities.

    • Build a Business-Aligned Data Architecture Optimization Strategy – Phase 3: Create Your Tactical Data Architecture Roadmap
    • Data Architecture Decision Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Build a Data Architecture Roadmap

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Identify the Drivers of the Business for Optimizing Data Architecture

    The Purpose

    Explain approach and value proposition.

    Review the common business drivers and how the organization is driving a need to optimize data architecture.

    Understand Info-Tech’s five-tier data architecture model.

    Determine the pattern of tactics that apply to the organization for optimization.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understanding of the current data architecture landscape.

    Priorities for tactical initiatives in the data architecture practice are identified.

    Target state for the data quality practice is defined.

    Activities

    1.1 Explain approach and value proposition.

    1.2 Review the common business drivers and how the organization is driving a need to optimize data architecture.

    1.3 Understand Info-Tech’s five-tier data architecture model.

    1.4 Determine the pattern of tactics that apply to the organization for optimization.

    Outputs

    Five-tier logical data architecture model

    Data architecture tactic plan

    2 Determine Your Tactics For Optimizing Data Architecture

    The Purpose

    Define improvement initiatives.

    Define a data architecture improvement strategy and roadmap.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Gaps, inefficiencies, and opportunities in the data architecture practice are identified.

    Activities

    2.1 Create business unit prioritization roadmap.

    2.2 Develop subject area project scope.

    2.3 Subject area 1: data lineage analysis, root cause analysis, impact assessment, business analysis

    Outputs

    Business unit prioritization roadmap

    Subject area scope

    Data lineage diagram

    3 Create a Strategy for Data Quality Project 2

    The Purpose

    Define improvement initiatives.

    Define a data quality improvement strategy and roadmap.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Improvement initiatives are defined.

    Improvement initiatives are evaluated and prioritized to develop an improvement strategy.

    A roadmap is defined to depict when and how to tackle the improvement initiatives.

    Activities

    3.1 Create business unit prioritization roadmap.

    3.2 Develop subject area project scope.

    3.3 Subject area 1: data lineage analysis, root cause analysis, impact assessment, business analysis.

    Outputs

    Business unit prioritization roadmap

    Subject area scope

    Data lineage diagram

    Further reading

    Build a Data Architecture Roadmap

    Optimizing data architecture requires a plan, not just a data model.

    ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

    Integral to an insight-driven enterprise is a modern and business-driven data environment.

    “As business and data landscapes change, an organization’s data architecture needs to be able to keep pace with these changes. It needs to be responsive so as to not only ensure the organization continues to operate efficiently but that it supports the overall strategic direction of the organization.

    In the dynamic marketplace of today, organizations are constantly juggling disruptive forces and are finding the need to be more proactive rather than reactive. As such, organizations are finding their data to be a source of competitive advantage where the data architecture has to be able to not only support the increasing amount, sources, and rate at which organizations are capturing and collecting data but also be able to meet and deliver on changing business needs.

    Data architecture optimization should, therefore, aid in breaking down data silos and creating a more shared and all-encompassing data environment for better empowering the business.” (Crystal Singh, Director, Research, Data and Information Practice, Info-Tech Research Group)

    Our understanding of the problem

    This Research Is Designed For:
    • Data architects or their equivalent, looking to optimize and improve the efficiency of the capture, movement and storage of data for a variety of business drivers.
    • Enterprise architects looking to improve the backbone of the holistic approach of their organization’s structure.
    This Research Will Help You:
    • Identify the business drivers that are impacted and improved by best-practice data architecture.
    • Optimize your data architecture using tactical practices to address the pressing issues of the business to drive modernization.
    • Align the organization’s data architecture with the grander enterprise architecture.
    This Research Will Also Assist:
    • CIOs concerned with costs, benefits, and the overall structure of their organizations data flow.
    • Database administrators tasked with overseeing crucial elements of the data architecture.
    This Research Will Help Them:
    • Get a handle on the current situation of data within the organization.
    • Understand how data architecture affects the operations of the data sources within the enterprise.

    Executive summary

    Situation

    • The data architecture of a modern organization involves many moving pieces requiring coordination to provide greatest value from data.
    • Data architects are at the center of this turmoil and must be able to translate high-level business requirements into specific instructions for data workers using complex data models.

    Complication

    • Data architects must account for the constantly growing data and application complexity, and more demanding needs from the business.
    • There is an ever-increasing number of data sources and a growing need to integrate components to ensure that performance isn’t compromised.
    • There isn’t always a clearly defined data architect role, yet the responsibilities must be filled to get maximum value from data.

    Resolution

    • To deal with these challenges, a data architect must have a framework in place to identify the appropriate solution for the challenge at hand.
      • Identify and prioritize the business drivers in which data architecture changes would create the largest overall benefit, and determine the corresponding data architecture tiers that need to be addressed to customize your solution.
      • Discover the best practice trends, measure your current state, and define the targets for your data architecture tactics.
      • Build a cohesive and personalized roadmap for restructuring your data architecture. Manage your decisions and resulting changes.

    Info-Tech Insight

    1. Data architecture is not just about models. Viewing data architecture as just technical data modeling can lead to a data environment that does not aptly serve or support the business. Identify the priorities of your business and adapt your data architecture to those needs.
    2. Changes to data architecture are typically driven by four common business driver patterns. Use these as a shortcut to understand how to evolve your data architecture.
    3. Data is used differently across the layers of an organization’s data architecture; therefore, the capabilities needed to optimize the use of data change with it. Architecting and managing data from source to warehousing to presentation requires different tactics for optimal use.

    Your data is the foundation of your organization’s knowledge and ability to make decisions

    Data should be at the foundation of your organization’s evolution.

    The transformational insights that executives are constantly seeking to leverage can be uncovered with a data practice that makes high quality, trustworthy information readily available to the business users who need it.

    50% Organizations that embrace data are 50% more likely to launch products and services ahead of their competitors. (Nesta, 2016)

    Whether hoping to gain a better understanding of your business or trying to become an innovator in your industry, any organization can get value from its data regardless of where you are in your journey to becoming a data-driven enterprise:

    Business Monitoring
    • Data reporting
    • Uncover inefficiencies
    • Monitor progress
    • Track inventory levels
    Business Insights
    • Data analytics
    • Expose patterns
    • Predict future trends
    Business Optimization
    • Data-based apps
    • Build apps to automate actions based on insights
    Business Transformation
    • Monetary value of data
    • Create new revenue streams
    (Journey to Data Driven Enterprise, 2015)

    As organizations seek to become more data driven, it is imperative to better manage data for its effective use

    Here comes the zettabyte era.

    A zettabyte is a billion terabytes. Organizations today need to measure their data size in zettabytes, a challenge that is only compounded by the speed at which the data is expected to move.

    Arriving at the understanding that data can be the driving force of your organization is just the first step. The reality is that the true hurdles to overcome are in facing the challenges of today’s data landscape.

    Challenges of The Modern Data Landscape
    Data at rest Data movement
    Greater amounts Different types Uncertain quality Faster rates Higher complexity

    “The data environment is very chaotic nowadays. Legacy applications, data sprawl – organizations are grappling with what their data landscape looks like. Where are our data assets that we need to use?” (Andrew Johnston, Independent Consultant)

    Solution

    Well-defined and structured data management practices are the best way to mitigate the limitations that derive from these challenges and leverage the most possible value from your data.

    Refer to Info-Tech’s capstone Create a Plan For Establishing a Business-Aligned Data Management Practice blueprint to understand data quality in the context of data disciplines and methods for improving your data management capabilities.

    Data architecture is an integral aspect of data management

    Data Architecture

    The set of rules, policies, standards, and models that govern and define the type of data collected and how it is used, stored, managed, and integrated within the organization and its database systems.

    In general, the primary objective of data architecture is the standardization of data for the benefit of the organization.

    54% of leading “analytics-driven” enterprises site data architecture as a required skill for data analytics initiatives. (Maynard 2015)

    MYTH

    Data architecture is purely a model of the technical requirements of your data systems.

    REALITY

    Data architecture is largely dependent on a human element. It can be viewed as “the bridge between defining strategy and its implementation”. (Erwin 2016)

    Functions

    A strong data architecture should:

    • Define, visualize, and communicate data strategy to various stakeholders.
    • Craft a data delivery environment.
    • Ensure high data quality.
    • Provide a roadmap for continuous improvement.

    Business value

    A strong data architecture will help you:

    • Align data processes with business strategy and the overall holistic enterprise architecture.
    • Enable efficient flow of data with a stronger focus on quality and accessibility.
    • Reduce the total cost of data ownership.

    Data architects must maintain a comprehensive view of the organization’s rapidly proliferating data

    The data architect:
    • Acts as a “translator” between the business and data workers to communicate data and technology requirements.
    • Facilitates the creation of the data strategy.
    • Manages the enterprise data model.
    • Has a greater knowledge of operational and analytical data use cases.
    • Recommends data management policies and standards, and maintains data management artifacts.
    • Reviews project solution architectures and identifies cross impacts across the data lifecycle.
    • Is a hands-on expert in data management and warehousing technologies.
    • Is not necessarily it’s own designated position, but a role that can be completed by a variety of IT professionals.

    Data architects bridge the gap between strategic and technical requirements:

    Visualization centering the 'Data Architect' as the bridge between 'Data Workers', 'Business', and 'Data & Applications'.

    “Fundamentally, the role of a data architect is to understand the data in an organization at a reasonable level of abstraction.” (Andrew Johnston, Independent Consultant)

    Many are experiencing the pains of poor data architecture, but leading organizations are proactively tackling these issues

    Outdated and archaic systems and processes limit the ability to access data in a timely and efficient manner, ultimately diminishing the value your data should bring.

    59%

    of firms believe their legacy storage systems require too much processing to meet today’s business needs. (Attivio, Survey Big Data decision Makers, 2016)

    48%

    of companies experience pains from being reliant on “manual methods and trial and error when preparing data.” (Attivio, Survey Big Data decision Makers, 2016)

    44%
    +
    22%

    44% of firms said preparing data was their top hurdle for analytics, with 22% citing problems in accessing data. (Data Virtualization blog, Data Movement Killed the BI Star, 2016)

    Intuitive organizations who have recognized these shortcomings have already begun the transition to modernized and optimized systems and processes.

    28%

    of survey respondents say they plan to replace “data management and architecture because it cannot handle the requirements of big data.” (Informatica, Digital Transformation: Is Your Data Management Ready, 2016)

    50%

    Of enterprises plan to replace their data warehouse systems and analytical tools in the next few years. (TDWI, End of the Data Warehouse as we know it, 2017)

    Leading organizations are attacking data architecture problems … you will be left behind if you do not start now!

    Once on your path to redesigning your data architecture, neglecting the strategic elements may leave you ineffective

    Focusing on only data models without the required data architecture guidance can cause harmful symptoms in your IT department, which will lead to organization-wide problems.

    IT Symptoms Due to Ineffective Data Architecture

    Poor Data Quality

    • Inconsistent, duplicate, missing, incomplete, incorrect, unstandardized, out of date, and mistake-riddled data can plague your systems.

    Poor Accessibility

    • Delays in accessing data.
    • Limits on who can access data.
    • Limited access to data remotely.

    Strategic Disconnect

    • Disconnect between owner and consumer of data.
    • Solutions address narrow scope problems.
    • System barriers between departments.
    Leads to Poor Organizational Conditions

    Inaccurate Insights

    • Inconsistent and/or erroneous operational and management reports.
    • Ineffective cross-departmental use of analytics.

    Ineffective Decision Making

    • Slow flow of information to executive decision makers.
    • Inconsistent interpretation of data or reports.

    Inefficient Operations

    • Limits to automated functionality.
    • Increased divisions within organization.
    • Regulatory compliance violations.
    You need a solution that will prevent the pains.

    Follow Info-Tech’s methodology to optimize data architecture to meet the business needs

    The following is a summary of Info-Tech’s methodology:

    1

    1. Prioritize your core business objectives and identify your business driver.
    2. Learn how business drivers apply to specific tiers of Info-Tech’s five-tier data architecture model.
    3. Determine the appropriate tactical pattern that addresses your most important requirements.
    Visualization of the process described on the left: Business drivers applying to Info-Tech's five-tier data architecture, then determining tactical patterns, and eventually setting targets of your desired optimized state.

    2

    1. Select the areas of the five-tier architecture to focus on.
    2. Measure current state.
    3. Set the targets of your desired optimized state.

    3

    1. Roadmap your tactics.
    2. Manage and communicate change.
    A roadmap leading to communication.

    Info-Tech will get you to your optimized state faster by focusing on the important business issues

    First Things First

    1. Info-Tech’s methodology helps you to prioritize and establish the core strategic objectives behind your goal of modernizing data architecture. This will narrow your focus to the appropriate areas of your current data systems and processes that require the most attention.

    Info-Tech has identified these four common drivers that lead to the need to optimize your data architecture.

    • Becoming More Data Driven
    • Regulations and Compliance
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • New Functionality or Business Rule

    These different core objectives underline the motivation to optimize data architecture, and will determine your overall approach.

    Use the five-tier architecture to provide a consumable view of your data architecture

    Every organization’s data system requires a unique design and an assortment of applications and storage units to fit their business needs. Therefore, it is difficult to paint a picture of an ideal model that has universal applications. However, when data architecture is broken down in terms of layers or tiers, there exists a general structure that is seen in all data systems.

    Info-Tech's Five Tier Data Architecture. The five tiers being 'Sources' which includes 'Apps', 'Excel and other documents', and 'Access database(s)'; 'Integration and Translation' the 'Movement and transformation of data'; 'Warehousing' which includes 'Data Lakes & Warehouse(s) (Raw Data)'; 'Analytics' which includes 'Data Marts', 'Data Cube', 'Flat Files', and 'BI Tools'; and 'Presentation' which includes 'Reports' and 'Dashboards'.

    Thinking of your data systems and processes in this framework will allow you to see how different elements of the architecture relate to specific business operations.

    1. This blueprint will demonstrate how the business driver behind your redesign requires you to address specific layers of the five-tier data architecture.
    1. Once you’ve aligned your business driver to the appropriate data tiers, this blueprint will provide you with the best practice tactics you should apply to achieve an optimized data architecture.

    Use the five-tier architecture to prioritize tactics to improve your data architecture in line with your pattern

    Info-Tech’s Data Architecture Capability Model
    Info-Tech’s Data Architecture Capability Model featuring the five-tier architecture listing 'Core Capabilities' and 'Advanced Capabilities' within each tier, and a list of 'Cross Capabilities' which apply to all tiers.
    1. Based on your business driver, the relevant data tiers, and your organization’s own specific requirements you will need to establish the appropriate data architecture capabilities.
    2. This blueprint will help you measure how you are currently performing in these capabilities…
    3. And help you define and set targets so you can reach your optimized state.
    1. Once completed, these steps will be provided with the information you will need to create a comprehensive roadmap.
    2. Lastly, this blueprint will provide you with the tools to communicate this plan across your organization and offer change management guidelines to ensure successful adoption.
    Info-Tech Insight

    Optimizing data architecture requires a tactical approach, not a passive approach.

    The demanding task of optimization requires the ability to heavily prioritize. After you have identified why, determine how using our pre-built roadmap to address the four common drivers.

    Do not forget: data architecture is not a standalone concept; it fits into the more holistic design of enterprise architecture

    Data Architecture in Alignment

    Data architecture can not be designed to simply address the focus of data specialists or even the IT department.

    It must act as a key component in the all encompassing enterprise architecture and reflect the strategy and design of the entire business.

    Data architecture collaborates with application architecture in the delivery of effective information systems, and informs technology architecture on data related infrastructure requirements/considerations

    Please refer to the following blueprints to see the full picture of enterprise architecture:

    A diagram titled 'Enterprise Architecture' with multiple forms of architecture interacting with each other. At the top is 'Business Architecture' which feeds into 'Data Architecture' and 'Application Architecture' which feed into each other, and influence 'Infrastructure Architecture' and 'Security Architecture'.
    Adapted from TOGAF
    Refer to Phase C of TOGAF and Bizbok for references to the components of business architecture that are used in data architecture.

    Info-Tech’s data architecture optimization methodology helped a monetary authority fulfill strict regulatory pressures

    CASE STUDY

    Industry: Financial
    Source: Info-Tech Consulting
    Symbol for 'Monetary Authority Case Study'. Look for this symbol as you walk through the blueprint for details on how Info-Tech Consulting assisted this monetary authority.

    Situation: Strong external pressures required the monetary authority to update and optimize its data architecture.

    The monetary authority is responsible for oversight of the financial situation of a country that takes in revenue from foreign incorporation. Due to increased pressure from international regulatory bodies, the monetary authority became responsible for generating multiple different types of beneficial ownership reports based on corporation ownership data within 24 hours of a request.

    A stale and inefficient data architecture prevented the monetary authority from fulfilling external pressures.

    Normally, the process to generate and provide beneficial ownership reports took a week or more. This was due to multiple points of stale data architecture, including a dependence on outdated legacy systems and a broken process for gathering the required data from a mix of paper and electronic sources.

    Provide a structured approach to solving the problem

    Info-Tech helped the monetary authority identify the business need that resulted from regulatory pressures, the challenges that needed to be overcome, and actionable tactics for addressing the needs.

    Info-Tech’s methodology was followed to optimize the areas of data architecture that address the business driver.

    • External Requirements
    • Business Driver
        Diagnose Data Architecture Problems
      • Outdated architecture (paper, legacy systems)
      • Stale data from other agencies
      • Incomplete data
          Data Architecture Optimization Tactics
        1. Optimized Source Databases
        2. Improved Integration
        3. Data Warehouse Optimization
        4. Data Marts for Reports
        5. Report Delivery Efficiency

    As you walk through this blueprint, watch for additional case studies that walk through the details of how Info-Tech helped this monetary authority.

    This blueprint’s three-step process will help you optimize data architecture in your organization

    Phase 1
    Prioritize Your Data Architecture With Business-Driven Tactics
    Phase 2
    Personalize Your Tactics to Optimize Your Data Architecture
    Phase 3
    Create Your Tactical Data Architecture Roadmap
    Step 1: Identify Your Business Driver for Optimizing Data Architecture
    • Learn about what data architecture is and how it must evolve with the drivers of the business.
    • Determine the business driver that your organization is currently experiencing.
    • Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool

    Step 2: Determine Actionable Tactics to Optimize Data Architecture
    • Create your data architecture optimization plan to determine the high-level tactics you need to follow.
    • Data Architecture Optimization Template

    Step 1: Measure Your Data Architecture Capabilities
    • Determine where you currently stand in the data architecture capabilities across the five-tier data architecture.
    • Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool

    Step 2: Set a Target for Data Architecture Capabilities
    • Identify your targets for the data architecture capabilities.
    • Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool

    Step 3: Identify the Tactics that Apply to Your Organization
    • Understand the trends in the field of data architecture and how they can help to optimize your environment.
    • Data Architecture Trends Presentation

    Step 1: Personalize Your Data Architecture Roadmap
    • Personalize the tactics across the tiers that apply to you to build your personalized roadmap.
    • Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool

    Step 2: Manage Your Data Architecture Decisions and the Resulting Changes
    • Document the changes in the organization’s data architecture.
    • Data architecture involves change management – learn how data architects should support change management in the organization.
    • Data Architecture Decision Template

    Use these icons to help direct you as you navigate this research

    Use these icons to help guide you through each step of the blueprint and direct you to content related to the recommended activities.

    A small monochrome icon of a wrench and screwdriver creating an X.

    This icon denotes a slide where a supporting Info-Tech tool or template will help you perform the activity or step associated with the slide. Refer to the supporting tool or template to get the best results and proceed to the next step of the project.

    A small monochrome icon depicting a person in front of a blank slide.

    This icon denotes a slide with an associated activity. The activity can be performed either as part of your project or with the support of Info-Tech team members, who will come onsite to facilitate a workshop for your organization.

    Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

    DIY Toolkit

    Guided Implementation

    Workshop

    Consulting

    "Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful." "Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track." "We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place." "Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project."

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Build a Business-Aligned Data Architecture Optimization Strategy – project overview

    PHASE 1
    Prioritize Your Data Architecture With Business-Driven Tactics
    PHASE 2
    Personalize Your Tactics to Optimize Your Data Architecture
    PHASE 3
    Create Your Tactical Data Architecture Roadmap
    Supporting Tool icon

    Best-Practice Toolkit

    1.1 Identify Your Business Driver for Optimizing Data Architecture

    1.2 Determine Actionable Tactics to Optimize Data Architecture

    2.1 Measure Your Data Architecture Capabilities

    2.2 Set a Target for Data Architecture Capabilities

    2.3 Identify the Tactics that Apply to Your Organization

    3.1 Personalize Your Data Architecture Roadmap

    3.2 Manage Your Data Architecture Decisions and the Resulting Changes

    Guided Implementations

    • Understand what data architecture is, how it aligns with enterprise architecture, and how data architects support the needs of the business.
    • Identify the business drivers that necessitate the optimization of the organization’s data architecture.
    • Create a tactical plan to optimize data architecture across Info-Tech’s five-tier logical data architecture model.
    • Understand Info-Tech’s tactical data architecture capability model and measure the current state of these capabilities at the organization.
    • Determine the target state of data architecture capabilities.
    • Understand the trends in the field of data architecture and identify how they can fit into your environment.
    • Use the results of the data architecture capability gap assessment to determine the priority of activities to populate your personalized data architecture optimization roadmap.
    • Understand how to manage change as a data architect or equivalent.
    Associated Activity icon

    Onsite Workshop

    Module 1:
    Identify the Drivers of the Business for Optimizing Data Architecture
    Module 2:
    Create a Tactical Plan for Optimizing Data Architecture
    Module 3:
    Create a Personalized Roadmap for Data Architecture Activities

    Workshop overview

    Contact your account representative or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Preparation

    Workshop Day 1

    Workshop Day 2

    Workshop Day 3

    Workshop Day 4

    Workshop Day 5

    Organize and Plan Workshop Identify the Drivers of the Business for Optimizing Data Architecture Determine the Tactics For Optimizing Data Architecture Create Your Roadmap of Optimization Activities Create Your Personalized Roadmap Create a Plan for Change Management

    Morning Activities

    • Finalize workshop itinerary and scope.
    • Identify workshop participants.
    • Gather strategic documentation.
    • Engage necessary stakeholders.
    • Book interviews.
    • 1.1 Explain approach and value proposition.
    • 1.2 Review the common business drivers and how the organization is driving a need to optimize data architecture.
    • 2.1 Create your data architecture optimization plan.
    • 2.2 Interview key business stakeholders for input on business drivers for data architecture.
    • 3.1 Align with the enterprise architecture by interviewing the enterprise architect for input on the data architecture optimization roadmap.
    • 4.1 As a group, determine the roadmap activities that are applicable to your organization and brainstorm applicable initiatives.
    • 5.1 Use the Data Architecture Decision Documentation Template to document key decisions and updates.

    Afternoon Activities

    • 1.3 Understand Info-Tech’s Five-Tier Data Architecture.
    • 1.4 Determine the pattern of tactics that apply to the organization for optimization.
    • 2.3 With input from the business and enterprise architect, determine the current data architecture capabilities.
    • 3.3 With input from the business and enterprise architect, determine the target data architecture capabilities.
    • 4.2 Determine the timing and effort of the roadmap activities.
    • 5.2 Review best practices for change management.
    • 5.3 Present roadmap and findings to the business stakeholders and enterprise architect.

    Deliverables

    • Workshop Itinerary
    • Workshop Participant List
    1. Five-Tier Logical Data Architecture Model
    2. Data Architecture Tactic Plan
    1. Five-Tier Data Architecture Capability Model
    1. Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap
    1. Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap
    1. Data Architecture Decision Template

    Build a Business-Aligned Data Architecture Optimization Strategy

    PHASE 1

    Prioritize Your Data Architecture With Business-Driven Tactics

    Phase 1 outline

    Associated Activity icon Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation 1: Prioritize Your Data Architecture With Business-Driven Tactics

    Proposed Time to Completion: 2 weeks
    Step 1.1: Identify Your Business Driver for Optimizing Data Architecture Step 1.2: Determine Actionable Tactics to Optimize Data Architecture
    Start with an analyst kick-off call:
    • Understand what data architecture is, what it is not, and how it fits into the broader enterprise architecture program.
    • Determine the drivers that fuel the need for data architecture optimization.
    Review findings with analyst:
    • Understand the Five-Tier Data Architecture Model and how the drivers of the business inform your priorities across this logical model of data architecture.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Complete the Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Create a tactical data architecture optimization plan based on the business driver input.
    With these tools & templates:
    • Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool
    With these tools & templates:
    • Data Architecture Optimization Template

    Phase 1 Results & Insights

    • Data Architecture is not just about data models. The approach that Phase 1 guides you through will help to not only plan where you need to focus your efforts as a data architect (or equivalent) but also give you guidance in how you should go about optimizing the holistic data architecture environment based on the drivers of the business.

    Phase 1 will help you create a strategy to optimize your data architecture using actionable tactics

    In this phase, you will determine your focus for optimizing your data architecture based on the business drivers that are commonly felt by most organizations.

    1. Identify the business drivers that necessitate data architecture optimization efforts.
    2. Understand Info-Tech’s Five-Tier Data Architecture, a logical architecture model that will help you prioritize tactics for optimizing your data architecture environment.
    3. Identify tactics for optimizing the organization’s data architecture across the five tiers.

    “To stay competitive, we need to become more data-driven. Compliance pressures are becoming more demanding. We need to add a new functionality.”

    Info-Tech’s Five-Tier Data Architecture:

    1. Data Sources
    2. Data Integration and Translation
    3. Data Warehousing
    4. Data Analytics
    5. Data Presentation

    Tactical plan for Data Architecture Optimization

    Phase 1, Step 1: Identify Your Business Driver for Optimizing Data Architecture

    PHASE 1

    1.1 1.2
    Identify Your Business Driver for Optimizing Data Architecture Determine Actionable Tactics to Optimize Data Architecture

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Understand how data architecture fits into the organization’s larger enterprise architecture.
    • Understand what data architecture is and how it should be driven by the business.
    • Identify the driver that is creating a need for data architecture optimization.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Data Architect
    • Enterprise Architect

    Outcomes of this step

    • A starting point for the many responsibilities of the data architect role. Balancing business and technical requirements can be challenging, and to do so you need to first understand what is driving the need for data architecture improvements.
    • Holistic understanding of the organization’s architecture environment, including enterprise, application, data, and technology architectures and how they interact.

    Data architecture involves planning, communication, and understanding of technology

    Data Architecture

    A description of the structure and interaction of the enterprise’s major types and sources of data, logical data assets, physical data assets, and data management resources (TOGAF 9).

    The subject area of data management that defines the data needs of the enterprise and designs the master blueprints to meet those needs (DAMA DMBOK, 2009).

    IBM (2007) defines data architecture as the design of systems and applications that facilitate data availability and distribution across the enterprise.

    Definitions vary slightly across major architecture and management frameworks.

    However, there is a general consensus that data architecture provides organizations with:

    • Alignment
    • Planning
    • Road mapping
    • Change management
    • A guide for the organization’s data management program

    Data architecture must be based on business goals and objectives; developed within the technical strategies, constraints, and opportunities of the organization in support of providing a foundation for data management.

    Current Data Management
    • Alignment
    • Planning
    • Road mapping
    Goal for Data Management

    Info-Tech Insight

    Data Architecture is not just data models. Data architects must understand the needs of the business, as well as the existing people and processes that already exist in the organization to effectively perform their job.

    Review how data architecture fits into the broader architectural context

    A flow diagram starting with 'Business Processes/Activities' to 'Business Architecture' which through a process of 'Integration' flows to 'Data Architecture' and 'Application Architecture', the latter of which also flows into to the former, and they both flow into 'Technology Architecture' which includes 'Infrastructure' and 'Security'.

    Each layer of architecture informs the next. In other words, each layer has components that execute processes and offer services to the next layer. For example, data architecture can be broken down into more granular activities and processes that inform how the organization’s technology architecture should be arranged.

    Data does not exist on its own. It is informed by business architecture and used by other architectural domains to deliver systems, IT services, and to support business processes. As you build your practice, you must consider how data fits within the broader architectural framework.

    The Zachman Framework is a widely used EA framework; within it, data is identified as the first domain.

    The framework aims to standardize artifacts (work-products) within each architectural domain, provides a cohesive view of the scope of EA and clearly delineates data components. Use the framework to ensure that your target DA practice is aligned to other domains within the EA framework.

    'The Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture: The Enterprise Ontology', a complicated framework with top and bottom column headers and left and right row headers. Along the top are 'Classification Names': 'What', 'How', 'Where', 'Who', 'When', and 'Why'. Along the bottom are 'Enterprise Names': 'Inventory Sets', 'Process Flows', 'Distribution Networks', 'Responsibility Assignments', 'Timing Cycles', and 'Motivation Intentions'. Along the left are 'Audience Perspectives': 'Executive Perspective', 'Business Mgmt. Perspective', 'Architect Perspective', 'Engineer Perspective', 'Technician Perspective', and 'Enterprise Perspective'. Along the right are 'Model Names': 'Scope Contexts', 'Business Concepts', 'System Logic', 'Technology Physics', 'Tool Components', and 'Operations Instances'.
    (Source: Zachman International)

    Data architects operate in alignment with the other various architecture groups

    Data architects operate in alignment with the other various architecture groups, with coordination from the enterprise architect.

    Enterprise Architect
    The enterprise architect provides thought leadership and direction to domain architects.

    They also maintain architectural standards across all the architectural domains and serve as a lead project solution architect on the most critical assignments.

    • Business Architect
      A business subject matter expert who works with the line-of-business team to assist in business planning through capability-based planning.
    • Security Architect
      Plays a pivotal role in formulating the security strategy of the organization, working with the business and CISO/security manager. Recommends and maintains security standards, policies, and best practices.
    • Infrastructure Architect
      Recommends and maintains standards across the compute, storage, and network layers of the organization. Reviews project solution architectures to ensure compliance with infrastructure standards, regulations, and target state blueprints.
    • Application Architect
      Manages the business effectiveness, satisfaction, and maintainability of the application portfolio. Conduct application architecture assessments to document expected quality attribute standards, identify hotspots, and recommend best practices.
    • Data Architect
      Facilitates the creation of data strategy and has a greater understanding of operational and analytical data use cases. Manages the enterprise data model which includes all the three layers of modelling - conceptual, logical, and physical. Recommends data management policies and standards, and maintains data management artefacts. Reviews project solution architectures and identifies cross impacts across the data lifecycle.

    As a data architect, you must maintain balance between the technical and the business requirements

    The data architect role is integral to connecting the long-term goals of the business with how the organization plans to manage its data for optimal use.

    Data architects need to have a deep experience in data management, data warehousing, and analytics technologies. At a high level, the data architect plans and implements an organization’s data, reporting, and analytics roadmap.

    Some of the role’s primary duties and responsibilities include:

    1. Data modeling
    2. Reviewing existing data architecture
    3. Benchmark and improve database performance
    4. Fine tune database and SQL queries
    5. Lead on ETL activities
    6. Validate data integrity across all platforms
    7. Manage underlying framework for data presentation layer
    8. Ensure compliance with proper reporting to bureaus and partners
    9. Advise management on data solutions

    Data architects bridge the gap between strategic and technical requirements:

    Visualization centering the 'Data Architect' as the bridge between 'Data Workers', 'Business', and 'Data & Applications'.

    “Fundamentally, the role of a data architect is to understand the data in an organization at a reasonable level of abstraction.” (Andrew Johnston, Independent Consultant)

    Info-Tech Insight

    The data architect role is not always clear cut. Many organizations do not have a dedicated data architect resource, and may not need one. However, the duties and responsibilities of the data architect must be carried out to some degree by a combination of resources as appropriate to the organization’s size and environment.

    Understand the role of a data architect to ensure that essential responsibilities are covered in the organization

    A database administrator (DBA) is not a data architect, and data architecture is not something you buy from an enterprise application vendor.

    Data Architect Role Description

    • The data architect must develop (along with the business) a short-term and long-term vision for the enterprise’s data architecture.
    • They must be able to create processes for governing the identification, collection, and use of accurate and valid metadata, as well as for tracking data quality, completeness, and redundancy.
    • They need to create strategies for data security, backup, disaster recovery, business continuity, and archiving, and ensure regulatory compliance.

    Skills Necessary

    • Hands-on experience with data architecting and management, data mining, and large-scale data modeling.
    • Strong understanding of relational and non-relational data structures, theories, principles, and practices.
    • Strong familiarity with metadata management.
    • Knowledge of data privacy practices and laws.

    Define Policies, Processes, and Priorities

    • Policies
      • Boundaries of the data architecture.
      • Data architecture standards.
      • Data architecture security.
      • Responsibility of ownership for the data architecture and data repositories.
      • Responsibility for data architecture governance.
    • Processes
      • Data architecture communication.
      • Data architecture change management.
      • Data architecture governance.
      • Policy compliance monitoring.
    • Priorities
      • Align architecture efforts with business priorities.
      • Close technology gaps to meet service level agreements (SLAs).
      • Determine impacts on current or future projects.

    See Info-Tech’s Data Architect job description for a comprehensive description of the data architect role.

    Leverage data architecture frameworks to understand how the role fits into the greater Enterprise Architecture framework

    Enterprise data architectures are available from industry consortiums such as The Open Group (TOGAF®), and open source initiatives such as MIKE2.0.

    Logo for The Open Group.

    The Open Group TOGAF enterprise architecture model is a detailed framework of models, methods, and supporting tools to create an enterprise-level architecture.

    • TOGAF was first developed in 1995 and was based on the Technical Architecture Framework for Information Management (TAFIM) developed by the US Department of Defense.
    • TOGAF includes application, data, and infrastructure architecture domains providing enterprise-level, product-neutral architecture principles, policies, methods, and models.
    • As a member of The Open Group, it is possible to participate in ongoing TOGAF development initiatives.

    The wide adoption of TOGAF has resulted in the mapping of it to several other industry standards including CoBIT and ITIL.

    Logo for MIKE2.0.

    MIKE2.0 (Method for an Integrated Knowledge Environment), is an open source method for enterprise information management providing a framework for information development.

    • SAFE (Strategic Architecture for the Federated Enterprise) provides the technology solution framework for MIKE2.0
    • SAFE includes application, presentation, information, data, Infrastructure, and metadata architecture domains.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    If an enterprise-level IT architecture is your goal, TOGAF is likely a better model. However, if you are an information and knowledge-based business then MIKE2.0 may be more relevant to your business.

    The data architect must identify what drives the need for data from the business to create a business-driven architecture

    As the business landscape evolves, new needs arise. An organization may undergo new compliance requirements, or look to improve their customer intimacy, which could require a new functionality from an application and its associated database.

    There are four common scenarios that lead to an organization’s need to optimize its data architecture and these scenarios all present unique challenges for a data architect:

    1. Becoming More Data Driven As organizations are looking to get more out of their data, there is a push for more accurate and timely data from applications. Data-driven decision making requires verifiable data from trustworthy sources. Result: Replace decisions made on gut or intuition with real and empirical data - make more informed and data-driven decisions.
    2. New Functionality or Business Rule In order to succeed as business landscapes change, organizations find themselves innovating on products or services and the way they do things. Changes in business rules, product or service offering, and new functionalities can subsequently demand more from the existing data architecture. Result: Prepare yourself to successfully launch new business initiatives with an architecture that supports business needs.
    3. Mergers and Acquisitions If an organization has recently acquired, been acquired, or is merging with another, the technological implications require careful planning to ensure a seamless fit. Application consolidation, retirement, data transfer, and integration points are crucial. Result: Leverage opportunities to incorporate and consolidate new synergistic assets to realize the ROI.
    4. Risk and Compliance Data in highly regulated organizations needs to be kept safe and secure. Architectural decisions around data impact the level of compliance within the organization. Result: Avoid the fear of data audits, regulatory violations, and privacy breaches.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    These are not the only reasons why data architects need to optimize the organization’s data architecture. These are only four of the most common scenarios, however, other business needs can be addressed using the same concept as these four common scenarios.

    Use the Data Architecture Driver tool to identify your focus for data architecture

    Supporting Tool icon 1.1 Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool

    Follow Info-Tech’s process of first analyzing the needs of the business, then determining how best to architect your data based on these drivers. Data architecture needs to be able to rapidly evolve to support the strategic goals of the business, and the Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool will help you to prioritize your efforts to best do this.

    Tab 2. Driver Identification

    Objective: Objectively assess the most pressing business drivers.

    Screenshot of the Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool, tab 2.

    Tab 3. Tactic Pattern Plan, Section 1

    Purpose: Review your business drivers that require architectural changes in your environment.

    Screenshot of the Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool, tab 3, section 1.

    Tab 3. Tactic Pattern Plan, Section 2

    Purpose: Determine a list of tactics that will help you address the business drivers.

    Screenshot of the Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool, tab 3, section 2.

    Step
    • Evaluate business drivers to determine the data architecture optimization priorities and tactics.
    Step
    • Understand how each business driver relates to data architecture and how each driver gives rise to a specific pattern across the five-tier data architecture.
    Step
    • Review the list of high-level tactics presented to optimize your data architecture across the five tier architecture.

    Identify the drivers for improving your data architecture

    Associated Activity icon 1.1.1 1 hour

    INPUT: Data Architecture Driver tool assessment prompts.

    OUTPUT: Identified business driver that applies to your organization.

    Materials: Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool

    Participants: Data architect, Enterprise architect

    Instructions

    In Tab 2. Driver Identification of the Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool, assess the degree to which the organization is feeling the pains of the four most common business drivers:

    1. Is there a present or growing need for the business to be making data-driven decisions?
    2. Does the business want to explore a new functionality and hence require a new application?
    3. Is your organization acquiring or merging with another entity?
    4. Is your organization’s regulatory environment quick to change and require stricter reporting?

    Data architecture improvements need to be driven by business need.

    Screenshot of the Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool, tab 2 Driver Identification.
    Tab 2. Driver Identification

    “As a data architect, you have to understand the functional requirements, the non-functional requirements, then you need to make a solution for those requirements. There can be multiple solutions and multiple purposes. (Andrew Johnston, Independent Consultant)

    Interview the business to get clarity on business objectives and drivers

    Associated Activity icon 1.1.2 1 hour per interview

    INPUT: Sample questions targeting the activities, challenges, and opportunities of each business unit

    OUTPUT: Sample questions targeting the activities, challenges, and opportunities of each business unit

    Materials: Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool

    Participants: Data architect, Business representatives, IT representatives

    Identify 2-3 business units that demonstrate enthusiasm for or a positive outlook on improving how organizational data can help them in their role and as a unit.

    Conducting a deep-dive interview process with these key stakeholders will help further identify high-level goals for the data architecture strategy within each business unit. This process will help to secure their support throughout the implementation process by giving them a sense of ownership.

    Key Interview Questions:

    1. What are your primary activities? What do you do?
    2. What challenges do you have when completing your activities?
    3. How is poor data impacting your job?
    4. If [your selected domain]’s data is improved, what business issues would this help solve?

    Request background information and documentation from stakeholders regarding the following:

    • What current data management policies and processes exist (that you know of)?
    • Who are the data owners and end users?
    • Where are the data sources within the department stored?
    • Who has access to these data sources?
    • Are there existing or ongoing data issues within those data sources?

    Interview the enterprise architect to get input on the drivers of the business

    Associated Activity icon 1.1.3 2 hours

    INPUT: Data Architecture Driver tool assessment prompts.

    OUTPUT: Identified business driver that applies to your organization.

    Materials: Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool

    Participants: Data architect, Enterprise architect

    Data architecture improvements need to be driven by business need.

    Instructions

    As you work through Tab 2. Driver Identification of the Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool, consult with the enterprise architect or equivalent to assist you in rating the importance of each of the symptoms of the business drivers. This will help you provide greater value to the business and more aligned objectives.

    Screenshot of the Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool, tab 2 Driver Identification.
    Tab 2. Driver Identification

    Once you know what that need is, go to Step 2.

    Phase 1, Step 2: Establish Actionable Tactics to Optimize Data Architecture

    PHASE 1

    1.11.2
    Identify Your Business Driver for Optimizing Data ArchitectureDetermine Actionable Tactics to Optimize Data Architecture

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Understand Info-Tech’s five-tier data architecture to begin focusing your architectural optimization.
    • Create your Data Architecture Optimization Template to plan your improvement tactics.
    • Prioritize your tactics based on the five-tier architecture to plan optimization.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Data Architect
    • Enterprise Architect
    • DBAs

    Outcomes of this step

    • A tactical and prioritized plan for optimizing the organization’s data architecture according to the needs of the business.

    To plan a business-driven architecture, data architects need to keep the organization’s big picture in mind

    Remember… Architecting an organization involves alignment, planning, road mapping, design, and change management functions.

    Data architects must be heavily involved with:

    • Understanding the short- and long-term visions of the business to develop a vision for the organization’s data architecture.
    • Creating processes for governing the identification, collection, and use of accurate and valid data, as well as for tracking data quality, completeness, and redundancy.
    • They need to create strategies for data security, backup, disaster recovery, business continuity, and archiving, and ensure regulatory compliance.

    To do this, you need a framework. A framework provides you with the holistic view of the organization’s data environment that you can use to design short- and long-term tactics for improving the use of data for the needs of the business.

    Use Info-Tech’s five-tier data architecture to model your environment in a logical, consumable fashion.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    The more complicated an environment is, the more need there is for a framework. Being able to pick a starting point and prioritize tasks is one of the most difficult, yet most essential, aspects of any architect’s role.

    The five tiers of an organization’s data architecture support the use of data throughout its lifecycle

    Info-Tech’s five-tier data architecture model summarizes an organization’s data environment at a logical level. Data flows from left to right, but can also flow from the presentation layer back to the warehousing layer for repatriation of data.

    Info-Tech's Five Tier Data Architecture. The five tiers being 'Sources' which includes 'App1 ', 'App2', 'Excel and other documents', 'Access database(s)', 'IOT devices', and 'External data feed(s) & social media'; 'Integration and Translation' which includes 'Solutions: SOA, Point to Point, Manual Loading, ESB , ETL, ODS, Data Hub' and 'Functions: Scrambling Masking Encryption, Tokenizing, Aggregation, Transformation, Migration, Modeling'; 'Warehousing' which includes 'Data Lakes & Warehouse(s) (Raw Data)', 'EIM, ECM, DAM', and 'Data Lakes & Warehouse(s) (Derived Data)'; 'Analytics' which includes 'Data Marts', 'Data Cube', 'Flat Files', 'BI Tools', and the 'Protected Zone: Data Marts - BDG Class Ref. MDM'; and 'Presentation' which includes 'Formulas', 'Thought Models', 'Reports', 'Dashboards', 'Presentations', and 'Derived Data (from analytics activities)'.

    Use the Data Architecture Optimization Template to build your improvement roadmap

    Supporting Tool icon 1.2 Data Architecture Optimization Template

    Download the Data Architecture Optimization Template.

    Overview

    Use this template to support your team in creating a tactical strategy for optimizing your data architecture across the five tiers of the organization’s architecture. This template can be used to document your organization’s most pressing business driver, the reasons for optimizing data architecture according to that driver, and the tactics that will be employed to address the shortcomings in the architecture.

    Sample of Info-Tech’s Data Architecture Optimization Template. Info-Tech’s Data Architecture Optimization Template Table of Contents
    1. Build Your Current Data Architecture Logical Model Use this section to document the current data architecture situation, which will provide context for your plan to optimize your data architecture.
    2. Optimization Plan Use this section to document the tactics that will be employed to optimize the current data architecture according to the tactic pattern identified by the business driver.

    Fill out as you go

    As you read about the details of the five-tier data architecture model in the following slides, start building your current logical data architecture model by filling out the sections that correspond to the various tiers. For example, if you identified that the most pressing business driver is becoming compliant with regulations, document the sources of data required for compliance, as well as the warehousing strategy currently being employed. This will help you to understand the organization’s data architecture at a logical level.

    Tier 1 represents all of the sources of your organization’s data

    Tier 1 of Info-Tech's Five Tier Data Architecture, 'Sources', which includes 'App1 ', 'App2', 'Excel and other documents', 'Access database(s)', 'IOT devices', and 'External data feed(s) & social media'.
    –› Data to integration layer

    Tier 1 is where the data enters the organization.

    All applications, data documents such as MS Excel spreadsheets, documents with table entries, manual extractions from other document types, user-level databases including MS Access and MySQL, other data sources, data feeds, big datasets, etc. reside here.

    This tier typically holds the siloed data that is so often not available across the enterprise because the data is held within department-level applications or systems. This is also the layer where transactions and operational activities occur and where data is first created or ingested.

    There are any number of business activities from transactions through business processes that require data to flow from one system to another, so it is often at this layer we see data created more than once, data corruption occurs, manual re-keying of data from system to system, and spaghetti-like point-to-point connections are built that are often fragile. This is usually the single most problematic area within an enterprise’s data environment. Application- or operational-level (siloed) reporting often occurs at this level.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    An optimized Tier 1 has the following attributes:

    • Rationalized applications
    • Operationalized database administration
    • Databases governed, monitored, and maintained to ensure optimal performance

    Tier 2 represents the movement of data

    Tier 2 of Info-Tech's Five Tier Data Architecture, 'Integration and Translation', which includes 'Solutions: SOA, Point to Point, Manual Loading, ESB , ETL, ODS, Data Hub' and 'Functions: Scrambling Masking Encryption, Tokenizing, Aggregation, Transformation, Migration, Modeling'.
    –› Data to Warehouse Environment

    Find out more

    For more information on data integration, see Info-Tech’s Optimize the Organization’s Data Integration Practices blueprint.

    Tier 2 is where integration, transformation, and aggregation occur.

    Regardless of how you integrate your systems and data stores, whether via ETL, ESB, SOA, data hub, ODS, point-to-point, etc., the goal of this layer is to move data at differing speeds for one of two main purposes:

    1) To move data from originating systems to downstream systems to support integrated business processes. This ensures the data is pristine through the process and improves trustworthiness of outcomes and speed to task and process completion.

    2) To move data to Tier 3 - The Data Warehouse Architecture, where data rests for other purposes. This movement of data in its purest form means we move raw data to storage locations in an overall data warehouse environment reflecting any security, compliance and other standards in our choices for how to store.

    Also, this is where data is transformed for unique business purpose that will also be moved to a place of rest or a place of specific use. Data masking, scrambling, aggregation, cleansing and matching, and other data related blending tasks occur at this layer.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    An optimized Tier 2 has the following attributes:

    • Business data glossary is leveraged
    • ETL is governed
    • ETL team is empowered
    • Data matching is facilitated
    • Canonical data model is present

    Tier 3 is where data comes together from all sources to be stored in a central warehouse environment

    Tier 3 is where data rests in long-term storage.

    This is where data rests (long-term storage) and also where an enterprise’s information, documents, digital assets, and any other content types are stored. This is also where derived and contrived data creations are stored for re-use, and where formulas, thought models, heuristics, algorithms, report styles, templates, dashboard styles, and presentations-layer widgets are all stored in the enterprise information management system.

    At this layer there may be many technologies and many layers of security to reflect data domains, classifications, retention, compliance, and other data needs. This is also the layer where data lakes exist as well as traditional relational databases, enterprise database systems, enterprise content management systems, and simple user-level databases.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    An optimized Tier 3 has the following attributes:

    • Data warehouse is governed
    • Data warehouse operations and planning
    • Data library is comprehensive
    • Four Rosetta Stones of data are in place: BDG, data classification, reference data, master data.
    Data from integration layer –›
    Tier 3 of Info-Tech's Five Tier Data Architecture, 'Data Warehouse Environment' which includes 'Data Lakes & Warehouse(s) (Raw Data)', 'EIM, ECM, DAM'.
    –› Analytics

    Find out more

    For more information on Data Warehousing, see Info-Tech’s Build an Extensible Data Warehouse Foundation and Drive Business Innovation With a Modernized Data Warehouse Environment blueprints.

    Tier 4 is where knowledge and insight is born

    Tier 4 represents data being used for a purpose.

    This is where you build fit-for-purpose data sets (marts, cubes, flat files) that may now draw from all enterprise data and information sources as held in Tier 3. This is the first place where enterprise views of all data may be effectively done and with trust that golden records from systems of record are being used properly.

    This is also the layer where BI tools get their greatest use for performing analysis. Unlike Tier 3 where data is at rest, this tier is where data moves back into action. Data is brought together in unique combinations to support reporting, and analytics. It is here that the following enterprise analytic views are crafted:
    Exploratory, Inferential, Causal, Comparative, Statistical, Descriptive, Diagnostic, Hypothesis, Predictive, Decisional, Directional, Prescriptive

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    An optimized Tier 4 has the following attributes:

    • Reporting meets business needs
    • Data mart operations are in place
    • Governance of data marts, cubes, and BI tools in place
    Warehouse Environment –›
    Tier 4 of Info-Tech's Five Tier Data Architecture, 'Analytics', which includes 'Data Marts', 'Data Cube', 'Flat Files', and 'BI Tools'.
    –› Presentation

    Find out more

    For more information on BI tools and strategy, see Info-Tech’s Select and Implement a Business Intelligence and Analytics Solution and Build a Next Generation BI with a Game-Changing BI Strategy blueprints.

    The presentation layer, Tier 5, is where data becomes presentable information

    Tier 5 represents data in knowledge form.

    This is where the data and information combine in information insight mapping methods (presentations, templates, etc.). We craft and create new ways to slice and dice data in Tier 4 to be shown and shared in Tier 5.

    Templates for presenting insights are extremely valuable to an enterprise, both for their initial use, and for the ability to build deeper, more insightful analytics. Re-use of these also enables maximum speed for sharing, consuming the outputs, and collective understanding of these deeper meanings that is a critical asset to any enterprise. These derived datasets and the thought models, presentation styles, templates, and other derived and contrived assets should be repatriated into the derived data repositories and the enterprise information management systems respectively as shown in Tier 3.

    Find out more

    For more information on enterprise content management and metadata, see Info-Tech’s Develop an ECM Strategy and Break Open Your DAM With Intuitive Metadata blueprints.

    Tier 5 of Info-Tech's Five Tier Data Architecture, 'Presentation', which includes 'Formulas', 'Thought Models', 'Reports', 'Dashboards', 'Presentations', and 'Derived Data (from analytics activities)'. The 'Repatriation of data' feeds the derived data back into Warehousing.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    An optimized Tier 5 has the following attributes:

    • Metadata creation is supervised
    • Metadata is organized
    • Metadata is governed
    • Content management capabilities are present

    Info-Tech Insight

    Repatriation of data and information is an essential activity for all organizations to manage organizational knowledge. This is the activity where information, knowledge, and insights that are stored in content form are moved back to the warehousing layer for long-term storage. Because of this, it is crucial to have an effective ECM strategy as well as the means to find information quickly and efficiently. This is where metadata and taxonomy come in.

    As a data architect, you must prioritize your focus according to business need

    Determine your focus.

    Now that you have an understanding of the drivers requiring data architecture optimization, as well as the current data architecture situation at your organization, it is time to determine the actions that will be taken to address the driver.

    1. Business driver

    Screenshot of Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool, Tab 2. Tactic Pattern Plan.
    Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool, Tab 2. Tactic Pattern Plan

    3. Documented tactic plan

    Data Architecture Optimization Template

    2. Tactics across the five tiers

    Another screenshot of Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool, Tab 2. Tactic Pattern Plan.

    The next four slides provide an overview of the priorities that accompany the four most common business drivers that require updates to a stale data architecture.

    Business driver #1: Adding a new functionality to an application can have wide impacts on data architecture

    Does the business wants to add a new application or supplement an existing application with a new functionality?

    Whether the business wants to gain better customer intimacy, achieve operational excellence, or needs to change its compliance and reporting strategy, the need for collecting new data through a new application or a new functionality within an existing application can arise. This business driver has the following attributes:

    • Often operational oriented and application driven.
    • An application is changed through an application version upgrade, migration to cloud, or application customization, or as a result of application rationalization or changes in the way that application data is generated.
    • However, not all new functionalities trigger this scenario. Non-data-related changes, such as a new interface, new workflows, or any other application functionality changes that do not involve data, will not have data architecture impacts.
    Stock photo of someone using a smartphone with apps.
    Modified icon for Tools & Templates. When this business driver arises, data architects should focus on optimizing architecture at the source tier and the integration of the new functionality. Tactics for this business driver should address the following pattern:
    Tiers 1 and 2 highlighted.

    Business driver #2: Organizations today are looking to become more data driven

    Does the business wants to better leverage its data?

    An organization can want to use its data for multiple reasons. Whether these reasons include improving customer experience or operational excellence, the data architect must ensure that the organization’s data aggregation environment, reporting and analytics, and presentation layer are assessed and optimized for serving the needs of the business.

    “Data-drivenness is about building tools, abilities, and, most crucially, a culture that acts on data.” (Carl Anderson, Creating a Data-Driven Organization)

    Tactics for this business driver should address the following pattern:
    Tiers 3, 4, and 5 highlighted.
    Modified icon for Tools & Templates. When this business driver arises, data architects should focus on optimizing architecture at the source tier and the integration of the new functionality.
    Stock photo of someone sitting at multiple computers with analytics screens open.
    • This scenario is typically project driven and analytical oriented.
    • The business is looking to leverage data and information by processing data through BI tools and self-service.
    • Example: The organization wants to include new third-party data, and needs to build a new data mart to provide a slice of data for analysis.

    Business driver #3: Risk and compliance demands can put pressure on outdated architectures

    Is there increasing pressure on the business to maintain compliance requirements as per regulations?

    An organization can want to use its data for multiple reasons. Whether these reasons include improving customer experience or operational excellence, the data architect must ensure that the organization’s data aggregation environment, reporting and analytics, and presentation layer are assessed and optimized for serving the needs of the business.

    There are different types of requirements:
    • Can be data-element driven. For example, PII, PHI are requirements around data elements that are associated with personal and health information.
    • Can be process driven. For example, some requirements restrict data read/write to certain groups.
    Stock photo of someone pulling a block out of a Jenga tower.
    Modified icon for Tools & Templates. When this business driver arises, data architects should focus on optimizing architecture where data is stored: at the sources, the warehouse environment, and analytics layer. Tactics for this business driver should address the following pattern:
    Tiers 1, 3, and 4 highlighted.

    Business driver #4: Mergers and acquisitions can require a restructuring of the organization’s data architecture

    Is the organization looking to acquire or merge with another organization or line of business?

    There are three scenarios that encompass the mergers and acquisitions business driver for data architecture:

    1. The organization acquires/merges with another organization and wants to integrate the data.
    2. The organization acquires/merges a subset of an organization (a line of business, for example) and wants to integrate the data.
    3. The organization acquires another organization for competitive purposes, and does not need to integrate the data.
    Regardless of what scenario your organization falls into, you must go through the same process of identifying the requirements for the new data:
    1. Understand what data you are getting.
      The business may acquire another organization for the data, for the technology, and/or for algorithms (for example). If the goal is to integrate the new data, you must understand if the data is unstructured, structured, how much data, etc.
    2. Plan for the integration of the new data into your environment.
      Do you have the expertise in-house to integrate the data? Database structures and systems are often mismatched (for example, acquired company could have an Oracle database whereas you are an SAP shop) and this may require expertise from the acquired company or a third party.
    3. Integrate the new data.
      Often, the extraction of the new data is the easy part. Transforming and loading the data is the difficult and costly part.
    “As a data architect, you must do due diligence of the acquired firm. What are the workflows, what are the data sources, what data is useful, what is useless, what is the value of the data, and what are the risks of embedding the data?” (Anonymous Mergers and Acquisitions Consultant)
    Modified icon for Tools & Templates. When this business driver arises, data architects should focus on optimizing architecture at the source tier, the warehousing layer, and analytics. Tiers 1, 3, and 4 highlighted.

    Determine your tier priority pattern and the tactics that you should address based on the business drivers

    Associated Activity icon 1.2.1 30 minutes

    INPUT: Business driver assessment

    OUTPUT: Tactic pattern and tactic plan

    Materials: Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool, Data Architecture Optimization Template

    Participants: Data architect, Enterprise architect

    Instructions
    1. After you have assessed the organization’s business driver on Tab 1. Driver Identification, move to Tab 2. Tactic Pattern Plan.
    2. Here, you will find a summary of the business driver that applies to you, as well as the tier priority pattern that will help you to focus your efforts for data architecture.
    3. Document the Tier Priority Pattern and associated tactics in Section 2. Optimization Plan of the Data Architecture Optimization Plan.
    Screenshot of Data Architecture Driver Tool.
    Data Architecture Driver Tool
    Arrow pointing right. Sample of Data Architecture Optimization Template
    Data Architecture Optimization Template

    Info-Tech Insight

    Our approach will help you to get to the solution of the organization’s data architecture problems as quickly as possible. However, keep in mind that you should still address the other tiers of your data architecture even if they are not part of the pattern we identified. For example, if you need to become more data driven, don’t completely ignore the sources and the integration of data. However, to deliver the most and quickest value, focus on tiers 3, 4, and 5.

    This phase helped you to create a tactical plan to optimize your data architecture according to business priorities

    Phase 1 is all about focus.

    Data architects and those responsible for updating an organization’s data architecture have a wide-open playing field with which to take their efforts. Being able to narrow down your focus and generate an actionable plan will help you provide more value to the organization quickly and get the most out of your data.

      Phase 1
      • Business Drivers
        • Tactic Pattern
          • Tactical Plan

    Now that you have your prioritized tactical plan, move to Phase 2. This phase will help you map these priorities to the essential capabilities and measure where you stack up in these capabilities. This is an essential step in creating your data architecture roadmap and plan for coming years to modernize the organization’s data architecture.

    To identify what the monetary authority needed from its data architecture, Info-Tech helped determine the business driver

    CASE STUDY

    Industry: Financial
    Source: Info-Tech Consulting
    Symbol for 'Monetary Authority Case Study'.

    Part 1

    Prior to receiving new external requirements, the monetary Authority body had been operating with an inefficient system. Outdated legacy systems, reports in paper form, incomplete reports, and stale data from other agencies resulted in slow data access. The new requirements demanded speeding up this process.

    Diagram comparing the 'Original Reporting' requirement of 'Up to 7 days' vs the 'New Requirement' of 'As soon as 1 hour'. The steps of reporting in that time are 'Report Request', 'Gather Data', and 'Make Report'.

    Although the organization understood it needed changes, it first needed to establish what were the business objectives, and which areas of their architecture they would need to focus on.

    The business driver in this case was compliance requirements, which directed attention to the sources, aggregation, and insights tiers.

    Tiers 1, 3, and 4 highlighted.

    Looking at the how the different tiers relate to certain business operations, the organization uncovered the best practise tactics to achieving an optimized data architecture.

    1. Source Tactics: 3. Warehousing Tactics: 4. Analytics Tactics:
    • Identify data sources
    • Ensure data quality
    • Properly catalogue data
    • Properly index data
    • Provide the means for data accessibility
    • Allow for data reduction/space for report building

    Once the business driver had been established, the organization was able to identify the specific areas it would eventually need to evaluate and remedy as needed.

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech Workshop Associated Activity icon

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    Photo of an Info-Tech analyst.
    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analyst will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech's historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

    The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

    1.1.1

    Sample of activity 1.1.1 'Identify the drivers for improving your data architecture'. Identify the business driver that will set the direction of your data architecture optimization plan.

    In this activity, the facilitator will guide the team in identifying the business driver that is creating the need to improve the organization’s data architecture. Data architecture needs to adapt to the changing needs of the business, so this is the most important step of any data architecture improvements.

    1.2.1

    Sample of activity 1.2.1 'Determine your tier priority pattern and the tactics that you should address based on the business drivers'. Determine the tactics that you will use to optimize data architecture.

    In this activity, the facilitator will help the team create a tactical plan for optimizing the organization’s data architecture across the five tiers of the logical model. This plan can then be followed when addressing the business needs.

    Build a Business-Aligned Data Architecture Optimization Strategy

    PHASE 2

    Personalize Your Tactics to Optimize Your Data Architecture

    Phase 2 will determine your tactics that you should implement to optimize your data architecture

    Business Drivers
    Each business driver requires focus on specific tiers and their corresponding capabilities, which in turn correspond to tactics necessary to achieve your goal.
    New Functionality Risk and Compliance Mergers and Acquisitions Become More Data Driven
    Tiers 1. Data Sources 2. Integration 3. Warehousing 4. Insights 5. Presentation
    Capabilities Current Capabilities
    Target Capabilities
    Example Tactics Leverage indexes, partitions, views, and clusters to optimize performance.

    Cleanse data source.

    Leverage integration technology.

    Identify matching approach priorities.

    Establish governing principles.

    Install performance enhancing technologies.

    Establish star schema and snowflake principles.

    Share data via data mart.

    Build metadata architecture:
    • Data lineage
    • Sharing
    • Taxonomy
    • Automatic vs. manual creation

    Phase 2 outline

    Associated Activity icon Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation 2: Personalize Your Tactics to Optimize Your Data Architecture

    Proposed Time to Completion: 2 weeks
    Step 2.1: Measure Your Data Architecture Capabilities Step 2.2: Set a Target for Data Architecture Capabilities Step 2.3: Identify the Tactics That Apply to Your Organization
    Start with an analyst kick-off call:
    • Understand Info-Tech’s data architecture capability model to begin identifying where to develop tactics for optimizing your data architecture.
    Review findings with analyst:
    • Understand Info-Tech’s data architecture capability model to begin identifying where to develop tactics for optimizing your data architecture.
    Finalize phase deliverable:
    • Learn about the trends in data architecture that can be leveraged to develop tactics.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Measure your current state across the tiers of the capability model that will help address your business driver.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Measure your target state for the capabilities that will address your business driver.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Review the tactical roadmap that was created with guidance from the capability gap analysis.
    With these tools & templates:
    • Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool
    With these tools & templates:
    • Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool
    With these tools & templates:
    • Data Architecture Trends Presentation Template

    Phase 2 Results & Insights

    • Data architecture is not just data models. Understand the essential capabilities that your organization needs from its data architecture to develop a tactical plan for optimizing data architecture across its people, processes, and technology.

    Phase 2, Step 1: Measure Your Data Architecture Capabilities

    PHASE 2

    2.1 2.2 2.3
    Measure Your Data Architecture Capabilities Set a Target for Data Architecture Capabilities Identify the Tactics That Apply to Your Organization

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • As you walk through the data architecture capability model, measure your current state in each of the relevant capabilities.
    • Distinguish between essential and nice-to-have capabilities for your organization.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Data Architect

    Outcomes of this step

    • A framework for generating a tactical plan for data architecture optimization.
    • Knowledge of the various trends in the data architecture field that can be incorporated into your plan.

    To personalize your tactical strategy, you must measure up your base data architecture capabilities

    What is a capability?

    Capabilities represent a mixture of people, technology, and processes. The focus of capability design is on the outcome and the effective use of resources to produce a differentiating capability or an essential supporting capability.

    To personalize your tactics, you have to understand what the essential capabilities are across the five tiers of an organization’s data architecture. Then, assess where you currently stand in these capabilities and where you need to go in order to build your optimization plan.

    'Capability' as a mixture of 'People', 'Technology', 'Process', and 'Assets'.

    Info-Tech’s data architecture capability model can be laid over the five-tier data architecture to understand the essential and advanced capabilities that an organization should have, and to build your tactical strategy for optimizing the organization’s data architecture across the tiers.

    Use Info-Tech’s data architecture capability model as a resource to assess and plan your personalized tactics

    Info-Tech’s data architecture capability model can be laid over the five-tier data architecture to understand the essential and advanced capabilities that an organization should have, and to build your tactical strategy for optimizing the organization’s data architecture across the tiers.

    Info-Tech’s Data Architecture Capability Model featuring the five-tier architecture listing 'Core Capabilities' and 'Advanced Capabilities' within each tier, and a list of 'Cross Capabilities' which apply to all tiers.

    Use the Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool to create a tailored plan of action

    Supporting Tool icon 2.1.1 Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool

    Instructions

    Use the Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool as your central tool to develop a tactical plan of action to optimize the organization’s data architecture.

    This tool contains the following sections:

    1. Business Driver Input
    2. Capability Assessment
    3. Capability Gap Analysis
    4. Tactical Roadmap
    5. Metrics
    6. Initiative Roadmap

    INFO-TECH DELIVERABLE

    Sample of the Info-Tech deliverable Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool.

    Benefits of using this tool:

    • Comprehensive documentation of data architecture capabilities present in leading organizations.
    • Generates an accurate architecture roadmap for your organization that is developed in alignment with the broader enterprise architecture and related architectural domains.

    To create a plan for your data architecture priorities, you must first understand where you currently stand

    Now that you understand the business problem that you are trying to solve, it is time to take action in solving the problem.

    The organization likely has some of the capabilities that are needed to solve the problem, but also a need to improve other capabilities. To narrow down the capabilities that you should focus on, first select the business driver that was identified in Phase 1 in Tab 1. Business Driver Input of the Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool. This will customize the roadmap tool to deselect the capabilities that are likely to be less relevant to your organization.

    For Example: If you identified your business driver as “becoming more data-driven”, you will want to focus on measuring and building out the capabilities within Tiers 3, 4, and 5 of the capability model.

    Data Architecture Capability Model
    Info-Tech’s Data Architecture Capability Model with tiers 3, 4, and 5 highlighted.

    Note

    If you want to assess your organization for all of the capabilities across the data architecture capability model, select “Comprehensive Data Architecture Assessment” in Tab 1. Business Driver Input of the Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool.

    Determine your current state across the related architecture tiers

    Associated Activity icon 2.1.2 1 hour

    INPUT: Current data architecture capabilities.

    OUTPUT: An idea of where you currently stand in the capabilities.

    Materials: Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool

    Participants: Data architect, Enterprise architect, Business representatives

    Use the Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool to evaluate the baseline and target capabilities of your practice in terms of how data architecture is approached and executed.

    Instructions
    1. Invite the appropriate stakeholders to participate in this exercise.
    2. On Tab 2. Practice Components, assess the current and target states of each capability on a scale of 1–5.
    3. Note: “Ad hoc” implies a capability is completed, but randomly, informally, and without a standardized method.
      These results will set the baseline against which you will monitor performance progress and keep track of improvements over time.
    To assess data architecture maturity, Info-Tech uses the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) program for rating capabilities on a scale of 1 to 5:

    1 = Initial/Ad hoc

    2 = Developing

    3 = Defined

    4 = Managed and Measurable

    5 = Optimized

    Info-Tech Insight

    Focus on Early Alignment. Assessing capabilities within specific people’s job functions can naturally result in disagreement or debate, especially between business and IT people. Objectively facilitate any debate and only finalize capability assessments when there is full alignment. Remind everyone that data architecture should ultimately serve business needs wherever possible.

    Phase 2, Step 2: Set a Target for Data Architecture Capabilities

    PHASE 2

    2.12.22.3
    Measure Your Data Architecture CapabilitiesSet a Target for Data Architecture CapabilitiesIdentify the Tactics That Apply to Your Organization

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Determine your target state in each of the relevant capabilities.
    • Distinguish between essential and nice-to-have capabilities for your organization.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Data Architect

    Outcomes of this step

    • A holistic understanding of where the organization’s data architecture currently sits, where it needs to go, and where the biggest gaps lie.

    To create a plan for your data architecture priorities, you must also understand where you need to get to in the future

    Keep the goal in mind by documenting target state objectives. This will help to measure the highest priority gaps in the organization’s data architecture capabilities.

    Example driver = Becoming more data driven Arrow pointing right. Info-Tech’s Data Architecture Capability Model with tiers 3, 4, and 5 highlighted. Arrow pointing right. Current Capabilities Arrow pointing right. Target Capabilities
    Gaps and Priorities
    Stock photo of a hand placing four shelves arranged as stairs. On the first step is a mini-cut-out of a person walking.

    Determine your future state across the relevant tiers of the data architecture capability model

    Associated Activity icon 2.2.1 2 hours

    INPUT: Current state of data architecture capabilities.

    OUTPUT: Target state of data architecture capabilities.

    Materials: Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool

    Participants: Data architect

    The future of data architecture is now.

    Determine the state of data architecture capabilities that the organization needs to reach to address the drivers of the business.

    For example: If you identified your business driver as “becoming more data driven”, you will want to focus on the capabilities within Tiers 3, 4, and 5 of the capability model.

    Driver = Becoming more data driven Arrow pointing right. Info-Tech’s Data Architecture Capability Model with tiers 3, 4, and 5 highlighted. Arrow pointing right. Target Capabilities

    Identify where gaps in your data architecture capabilities lie

    Associated Activity icon 2.2.2 1 hour

    INPUT: Current and target states of data architecture capabilities.

    OUTPUT: Holistic understanding of where you need to improve data architecture capabilities.

    Materials: Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool

    Participants: Data architect

    Visualization of gap assessment of data quality practice capabilities

    To enable deeper analysis on the results of your capability assessment, Tab 4. Capability Gap Analysis in the Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool creates visualizations of the gaps identified in each of your practice capabilities and related data management practices. These diagrams serve as analysis summaries.

    Gap Assessment of Data Source Capabilities

    Sample of the Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool, tab 4. Capability Gap Analysis.

    Use Tab 3. Data Quality Practice Scorecard to enhance your data quality project.

    1. Enhance your gap analyses by forming a relative comparison of total gaps in key practice capability areas, which will help in determining priorities.
    2. Put these up on display to improve discussion in the gap analyses and prioritization sessions.
    3. Improve the clarity and flow of your strategy template, final presentations, and summary documents by copying and pasting the gap assessment diagrams.

    Phase 2, Step 3: Identify the Tactics That Apply to Your Organization

    PHASE 2

    2.12.22.3
    Measure Your Data Architecture CapabilitiesSet a Target for Data Architecture CapabilitiesIdentify the Tactics That Apply to Your Organization

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Before making your personal tactic plan, identify the trends in data architecture that can benefit your organization.
    • Understand Info-Tech’s data architecture capability model.
    • Initiate the Data Architecture Roadmap Tool to begin creating a roadmap for your optimization plan.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Data Architect

    Outcomes of this step

    • A framework for generating a tactical plan for data architecture optimization.
    • Knowledge of the various trends in the data architecture field that can be incorporated into your plan.

    Capitalize on trends in data architecture before you determine the tactics that apply to you

    Stop here. Before you begin to plan for optimization of the organization’s data environment, get a sense of the sustainability and scalability of the direction of the organization’s data architecture evolution.

    Practically any trend in data architecture is driven by an attempt to solve one or more the common challenges of today’s tumultuous data landscape, otherwise known as “big data.” Data is being produced in outrageous amounts, at very high speeds, and in a growing number of types and structures.

    To meet these demands, which are not slowing down, you must keep ahead of the curve. Consider the internal and external catalysts that might fuel your organization’s need to modernize its data architecture:

    Big Data

    Data Storage

    Advanced analytics

    Unstructured data

    Integration

    Hadoop ecosystem

    The discussion about big data is no longer about what it is, but how do businesses of all types operationalize it.

    Is your organization currently capturing and leveraging big data?

    Are they looking to do so in the near future?

    The cloud

    The cloud offers economical solutions to many aspects of data architecture.

    Have you dealt with issues of lack of storage space or difficulties with scalability?

    Do you need remote access to data and tools?

    Real-time architecture

    Advanced analytics (machine learning, natural language processing) often require data in real-time. Consider Lambda and Kappa architectures.

    Has your data flow prevented you from automation, advanced analytics, or embracing the world of IoT?

    Graph databases

    Self-service data access allows more than just technical users to participate in analytics. NoSQL can uncover buried relationships in your data.

    Has your organization struggled to make sense of different types of unstructured data?

    Is ETL enough?

    What SQL is to NoSQL, ETL is to NoETL. Integration techniques are being created to address the high variety and high velocity of data.

    Have your data scientists wasted too much time and resources in the ETL stage?

    Read the Data Architecture Trends Presentation to understand the current cutting edge topics in data architecture

    Supporting Tool icon 2.1 Data Architecture Trends Presentation

    The speed at which new technology is changing is making it difficult for IT professionals to keep pace with best practices, let alone cutting edge technologies.

    The Info-Tech Data Architecture Trends Presentation provides a glance at some of the more significant innovations in technology that are driving today’s advanced data architectures.

    This presentation also explains how these trends relate to either the data challenges you may be facing, or the specific business drivers you are hoping to bring to your organization.

    Sample of the Data Architecture Trends Presentation.
    Data Architecture Trends Presentation

    Gaps between your current and future capabilities will help you to determine the tactics that apply to you

    Now that you know where the organization currently stands, follow these steps to begin prioritizing the initiatives:

    1. What are you trying to accomplish? Determine target states that are framed in quantifiable objectives that can be clearly communicated. The more specific the objectives are the better.
    2. Evaluate the “delta,” or difference between where the organization currently stands and where it needs to go. This will be expressed in terms of gap closure strategies, and will help clarify the initiatives that will populate the road map.
    3. Determine the relative business value of each initiative, as well as the relative complexities of successfully implementing them. These scores should be created with stakeholder input, and then plotted in an effort/transition quadrant map to determine where the quickest and most valuable wins lie.
    Current State Gap Closure Strategies Target State Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap
    • Organization objectives
    • Functional needs
    • Current operating models
    • Technology assets
    Initiatives involving:
    • Organizational changes
    • Functional changes
    • Technology changes
    • Process changes
    • Performance objectives (revenue growth, customer intimacy, growth of organization)
    • Operating model improvements
    • Prioritized, simplified, and compelling vision of how the organization will optimize data architecture

    (Source: “How to Build a Roadmap”)

    Info-Tech Insight

    Optimizing data architecture requires a tactical approach, not a passive approach. The demanding task of optimization requires the ability to heavily prioritize. After you have identified why, determine how using our pre-built roadmap to address the four common drivers.

    Each of the layers of an organization’s data architecture have associated challenges to optimization

    Stop! Before you begin, recognize these “gotchas” that can present roadblocks to creating an effective data architecture environment.

    Before diving headfirst into creating your tactical data architecture plan, documenting the challenges associated with each aspect of the organization’s data architecture can help to identify where you need to focus your energy in optimizing each tier. The following table presents the common challenges across the five tiers:

    Source Tier

    Integration Tier

    Warehousing Tier

    Analytics Tier

    Presentation Tier

    Inconsistent data models Performance issues Scalability of the data warehouse Data currency, flexibility Model interoperability
    Data quality measures: data accuracy, timeliness, accessibility, relevance Duplicated data Infrastructure needed to support volume of data No business context for using the data in the correct manner No business context for using the data in the correct manner
    Free-form field and data values beyond data domain Tokenization and other required data transformations Performance
    Volume
    Greedy consumers can cripple performance
    Insufficient infrastructure
    Inefficiencies in building the data mart Report proliferation/chaos (“kitchen sink dashboards”)
    Reporting out of source systems DB model inefficiencies
    Manual errors;
    Application usability
    Elasticity

    Create metrics before you plan to optimize your data architecture

    Associated Activity icon 2.2.3 1 hour

    INPUT: Tactics that will be used to optimize data architecture.

    OUTPUT: Metrics that can be used to measure optimization success.

    Materials: Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool

    Participants: Data architect

    Metrics will help you to track your optimization efforts and ensure that they are providing value to the organization.

    There are two types of metrics that are useful for data architects to track and measure: program metrics and project metrics. Program metrics represent the activities that the data architecture program, which is the sum of multiple projects, should help to improve. Project metrics are the more granular metrics that track each project.

    Program Metrics

    • TCO of IT
      • Costs associated with applications, databases, data maintenance
      • Should decrease with better data architecture (rationalized apps, operationalized databases)
    • Cost savings:
      • Retiring a legacy system and associated databases
      • Consolidated licensing
      • Introducing shared services
    • Data systems under maintenance (maintenance burden)
    • End-user data requests fulfilled
    • Improvement of time of delivery of reports and insights

    Project Metrics

    • Percent of projects in alignment with EA
    • Percent of projects compliant with the EA governance process (architectural due diligence rate)
    • Reducing time to market for launching new products
      • Reducing human error rates
      • Speeding up order delivery
      • Reducing IT costs
      • Reducing severity and frequency of security incidents

    Use Tab 6. Metrics of the Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool to document and track metrics associated with your optimization tactics.

    Use Info-Tech’s resources to build your data architecture capabilities

    The following resources from Info-Tech can be used to improve the capabilities that were identified as having a gap. Read more about the details of the five-tier architecture in the blueprints below:

    Data Governance

    Data architecture depends on effective data governance. Use our blueprint, Enable Shared Insights With an Effective Data Governance Engine to get more out of your architecture.

    Data Quality

    The key to maintaining high data quality is a proactive approach that requires you to establish and update strategies for preventing, detecting, and correcting errors. Find out more on how to improve data quality with Info-Tech’s blueprint, Restore Trust in Your Data Using a Business-Aligned Data Quality Management Approach.

    Master Data Management

    When you start your data governance program, you will quickly realize that you need an effective MDM strategy for managing your critical data assets. Use our blueprint, Develop a Master Data Management Strategy and Roadmap to Better Monetize Data to get started with MDM.

    Data Warehouse

    The key to maintaining high data quality is a proactive approach that requires you to establish and update strategies for preventing, detecting, and correcting errors. Find out more on how to improve data quality with Info-Tech’s blueprint, Drive Business Innovation With a Modernized Data Warehouse Environment.

    With the optimal tactics identified, the monetary authority uncovered areas needing improvement

    CASE STUDY

    Industry: Financial
    Source: Info-Tech Consulting
    Symbol for 'Monetary Authority Case Study'.

    Part 2

    After establishing the appropriate tactics based on its business driver, the monetary authority was able to identify its shortcomings and adopt resolutions to remedy the issues.

    Best Practice Tactic Current State Solution
    Tier 1 - Data Sources Identify data sources Data coming from a number of locations. Create data model for old and new systems.
    Ensure data quality Internal data scanned from paper and incomplete. Data cleansing and update governance and business rules for migration to new system.
    External sources providing conflicting data.
    Tier 3 - Data Warehousing Data catalogue Data aggregated incompletely. Built proper business data glossary for searchability.
    Indexing Data warehouse performance sub-optimal. Architected data warehouse for appropriate use (star schema).
    Tier 4 - Data Analytics Data accessibility Relevant data buried in warehouse. Build data marts for access.
    Data reduction Accurate report building could not be performed in current storage. Built interim solution sandbox, spin up SQL database.

    Establishing these solutions provided the organization with necessary information to build their roadmap and move towards implementing an optimized data architecture.

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech Workshop Associated Activity icon

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    Photo of a Info-Tech analyst.
    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analyst will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech's historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

    The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

    2.1.1 – 2.2.2

    Sample of activities 2.1.1 and 2.2.2, the first being 'Determine your current state across the related architecture tiers'. Evaluate your current capabilities and design your target data quality practice from two angles

    In this assessment and planning activity, the team will evaluate the current and target capabilities for your data architecture’s ability to meet business needs based on the essential capabilities across the five tiers of an organization’s architectural environment.

    2.2.3

    Sample of activity 2.2.3 'Create metrics before you plan to optimize your data architecture'. Create metrics to track the success of your optimization plan.

    The Info-Tech facilitator will guide you through the process of creating program and project metrics to track as you optimize your data architecture. This will help to ensure that the tactics are helping to improve crucial business attributes.

    Build a Business-Aligned Data Architecture Optimization Strategy

    PHASE 3

    Create Your Tactical Data Architecture Roadmap

    Phase 3 outline

    Associated Activity icon Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation 3: Create Your Tactical Data Architecture Roadmap

    Proposed Time to Completion: 2 weeks
    Step 3.1: Personalize Your Data Architecture RoadmapStep 3.2: Manage Your Data Architecture Decisions and the Resulting Changes
    Start with an analyst kick-off call:
    • Review the tactical plan that addresses the business drivers by optimizing your data architecture in the relevant focus areas.
    Review findings with analyst:
    • Discuss and review the roadmap of optimization activities, including dependencies, timing, and ownership of activities.
    • Understand how change management is an integral aspect of any data architecture optimization plan.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Create your detailed data architecture initiative roadmap.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Create your Data Architecture Decision Template to document the changes that are going to be made to optimize your data architecture environment.
    • Review how change management fits into the data architecture improvement program.
    With these tools & templates:
    • Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool
    With these tools & templates:
    • Data Architecture Decision Template

    Phase 3 Results & Insights

    • Phase 3 will help you to build a personalized roadmap and plan for optimizing data architecture in your organization. In carrying out this roadmap, changes will, by necessity, occur. Therefore, an integral aspect of a data architect’s role is change management. Use the resources included in Phase 3 to smoothen the change management process.

    Phase 3, Step 1: Personalize Your Data Architecture Roadmap

    PHASE 3

    3.1 3.2
    Personalize Your Data Architecture Roadmap Manage Your Data Architecture Decisions and the Resulting Changes

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Determine the timing, effort, and ownership of the recommended optimization initiatives.
    • Brainstorm initiatives that are not yet on the roadmap but apply to you.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Data Architect
    • DBAs
    • Enterprise Architect

    Outcomes of this step

    • A roadmap of specific initiatives that map to the tactical plan for optimizing your organization’s data architecture.
    • A plan for communicating high-level business objectives to data workers to address the issues of the business.

    Now that you have tactical priorities, identify the actionable steps that will lead you to an optimized data architecture

    Phase 1 and 2 helped you to identify tactics that address some of the most common business drivers. Phase 3 will bring you through the process of practically planning what those tactics look like in your organization’s environment and create a roadmap to plan how you will generate business value through optimization of your data architecture environment.

    Diagram of the three phases and the goals of each one. The first phase says 'Identify your data architecture business driver' and highlights 'Business Driver 3' out of four to focus on in Phase 2. Phase 2 says 'Optimization tactics across the five-tier logical data architecture' and identifies four of six 'Tactics' to use in Phase 3. Phase 3 is a 'Practical Roadmap of Initiatives' and utilizes a timeline of initiatives in which to apply the chosen tactics.

    Use the Data Architecture Tactic Roadmap Tool to personalize your roadmap

    Supporting Tool icon 3.1.1 Data Architecture Tactic Roadmap Tool
    Generating Your Roadmap
    1. On Tab 5. Tactic and Initiative Planning, you will find a list of tactics that correspond to every capability that applies to your chosen driver and where there is a gap. In addition, each tactic has a sequence of “Suggested Initiatives,” which represent the best-practice steps that you should take to optimize your data architecture according to your priorities and gaps.
    2. Customize this list of initiatives according to your needs.
    3. The Gantt chart is generated in Tab 7. Initiative Roadmap, and can be used to organize your plan and ensure that all of the essential aspects of optimizing data architecture are addressed.
    4. The roadmap can be used as an “executive brief” roadmap and as a communication tool for the business.
    Screenshot of the Data Architecture Tactic Roadmap Tool, Tab 5. Tactic and Initiative Planning.
    Tab 5. Tactic and Initiative Planning

    Screenshot of the Data Architecture Tactic Roadmap Tool, Tab 7. Initiative Roadmap.
    Tab 7. Initiative Roadmap

    Determine the details of your data architecture optimization activities

    Associated Activity icon 3.1.2 1 hour

    INPUT: Timing of initiatives for optimizing data architecture.

    OUTPUT: Optimization roadmap

    Materials: Data Architecture Tactic Roadmap Tool

    Participants: Data architect, Enterprise Architect

    Instructions

    1. With the list of suggested activities in place on Tab 5. Tactic and Initiative Planning, select whether or not the initiatives will be included in the roadmap. By default, all of the initiatives are set to “Yes.”
    2. Plan the sequence, starting time, and length of each initiative, as well as the assigned responsibility of the initiative in Tab 5. Tactic and Initiative Planning of the Data Architecture Tactic Roadmap Tool.
    3. The tool will a generate a Gantt chart based on the start and length of your initiatives.
    4. The Gantt chart is generated in Tab 7. Initiative Roadmap.
    Screenshot of the Data Architecture Tactic Roadmap Tool, Tab 5. Tactic and Initiative Planning. Tab 5. Tactic and Initiative Planning Screenshot of the Data Architecture Tactic Roadmap Tool, Tab 7. Initiative Roadmap. Tab 7. Initiative Roadmap

    Info-Tech Insight

    The activities that populate the roadmap can be taken as best practice activities. If you want an actionable, comprehensive, and prescriptive plan for optimizing your data architecture, fill in the timing of the activities and print the roadmap. This can serve as a rapid communication tool for your data architecture plan to the business and other architects.

    Optimizing data architecture relies on communication between the business and data workers

    Remember: Data architects bridge the gap between strategic and technical requirements of data.

    Visualization centering the 'Data Architect' as the bridge between 'Data Workers', 'Business', and 'Data & Applications'.

    Therefore, as you plan the data and its interactions with applications, it is imperative that you communicate the plan and its implications to the business and the data workers. Stock photo of coworkers communicating.
    Also remember: In Phase 1, you built your tactical data architecture optimization plan.
    Sample 1 of the Data Architecture Optimization Template. Sample 2 of the Data Architecture Optimization Template.
    Use this document to communicate your plan for data architecture optimization to both the business and the data workers. Socialize this document as a representation of your organization’s current data architecture as well as where it is headed in the future.

    Communicate your data architecture optimization plan to the business for approval

    Associated Activity icon 3.1.3 2 hours

    INPUT: Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap

    OUTPUT: Communication plan

    Materials: Data Architecture Optimization Template

    Participants: Data Architect, Business representatives, IT representatives

    Instructions

    Begin by presenting your plan and roadmap to the business units who participated in business interviews in activity 1.1.3 of Phase 1.

    If you receive feedback that suggests that you should make revisions to the plan, consult Info-Tech Research Group for suggestions on how to improve the plan.

    If you gain approval for the plan, communicate it to DBAs and other data workers.

    Iterative optimization and communication plan:
    Visualization of the Iterative optimization and communication plan. 'Start here' at 'Communicate Plan and Roadmap to the Business', and then continue in a cycle of 'Receive Approval or Suggested Modifications', 'Get Advice for Improvements to the Plan', 'Revise Plan', and back to the initial step until you receive 'Approval', then 'Present to Data Workers'.

    With a roadmap in place, the monetary authority followed a tactical and practical plan to repair outdated data architecture

    CASE STUDY

    Industry: Financial
    Source: Info-Tech Consulting
    Symbol for 'Monetary Authority Case Study'.

    Part 3

    After establishing the appropriate tactics based on its business driver, the monetary authority was able to identify its shortcomings and adopt resolutions to remedy the issues.

    Challenge

    A monetary authority was placed under new requirements where it would need to produce 6 different report types on its clients to a regulatory body within a window potentially as short as 1 hour.

    With its current capabilities, it could complete such a task in roughly 7 days.

    The organization’s data architecture was comprised of legacy systems that had poor searchability. Moreover, the data it worked with was scanned from paper, regularly incomplete and often inconsistent.

    Solution

    The solution first required the organization to establish the business driver behind the need to optimize its architecture. In this case, it would be compliance requirements.

    With Info-Tech’s methodology, the organization focused on three tiers: data sources, warehousing, and analytics.

    Several solutions were developed to address the appropriate lacking capabilities. Firstly, the creation of a data model for old and new systems. The implementation of governance principles and business rules for migration of any data. Additionally, proper indexing techniques and business data glossary were established. Lastly, data marts and sandboxes were designed for data accessibility and to enable a space for proper report building.

    Results

    With the solutions established, the monetary authority was given information it needed to build a comprehensive roadmap, and is currently undergoing the implementation of the plan to ensure it will experience its desired outcome – an optimized data architecture built with the capacity to handle external compliance requirements.

    Phase 3, Step 2: Manage Your Data Architecture Decisions and the Resulting Changes

    PHASE 3

    3.13.2
    Personalize Your Data Architecture RoadmapManage Your Data Architecture Decisions and the Resulting Changes

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • With a plan in place, document the major architectural decisions that have been and will be made to optimize data architecture.
    • Create a plan for change and release management, an essential function of the data architect role.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Data Architect
    • Enterprise Architect

    Outcomes of this step

    • Resources for documenting and managing the inevitable change associated with updates to the organization’s data architecture environment.

    To implement data architecture changes, you must plan to accommodate the issues that come with change

    Once you have a plan in place, one the most challenging aspects of improving an organization is yet to come…overcoming change!

    “When managing change, the job of the data architect is to avoid unnecessary change and to encapsulate necessary change.

    You must provide motivation for simplifying change, making it manageable for the whole organization.” (Andrew Johnston, Independent Consultant)

    Stock photo of multiple hands placing app/website design elements on a piece of paper.

    Create roadmap

    Arrow pointing down.

    Communicate roadmap

    Arrow pointing down.

    Implement roadmap

    Arrow pointing down.

    Change management

    Use the Data Architecture Decision Template when architectural changes are made

    Supporting Tool icon 3.2 Data Architecture Decision Template
    Document the architectural decisions made to provide context around changes made to the organization’s data environment.

    The goal of this Data Architecture Decision Template is to provide data architects with a template for managing the changes that accompany major architectural decisions. As you work through the Build a Business-Aligned Data Architecture Optimization Strategy blueprint, you will create a plan for tactical initiatives that address the drivers of the business to optimize your data architecture. This plan will bring about changes to the organization’s data architecture that need change management considerations.

    Document any major changes to the organization’s data architecture that are required to evolve with the organization’s drivers. This will ensure that major architectural changes are documented, tracked, and that the context around the decision is maintained.

    “Environment is very chaotic nowadays – legacy apps, sprawl, ERPs, a huge mix and orgs are grappling with what our data landscape look like? Where are our data assets that we need to use?” (Andrew Johnston, Independent Consultant)

    Sample of the Data Architecture Decision Template.

    Use Info-Tech’s Data Architecture Decision Template to document any major changes in the organization’s data architecture.

    Leverage Info-Tech’s resources to smooth change management

    As changes to the architectural environment occur, data architects must stay ahead of the curve and plan the change management considerations that come with major architectural decisions.

    “When managing change, the job of the data architect is to avoid unnecessary change and to encapsulate necessary change.

    You must provide motivation for simplifying change, making it manageable for the whole organization.” (Andrew Johnston, Independent Consultant)

    See Info-Tech’s resources on change management to smooth changes:
    Banner for the blueprint set 'Optimize Change Management' with subtitle 'Turn and face the change with a right-sized change management process'.
    Sample of the Optimize Change Management blueprint.

    Change Management Blueprint

    Sample of the Change Management Roadmap Tool.

    Change Management Roadmap Tool

    Use Info-Tech’s resources for effective release management

    As changes to the architectural environment occur, data architects must stay ahead of the curve and plan the release management considerations around new hardware and software releases or updates.

    Release management is a process that encompasses the planning, design, build, configuration, and testing of hardware and software releases to create a defined set of release components (ITIL). Release activities can include the distribution of the release and supporting documentation directly to end users. See Info-Tech’s resources on Release Management to smooth changes:

    Banner for the blueprint set 'Take a Holistic View to Optimize Release Management' with subtitle 'Build trust by right-sizing your process using appropriate governance'.
    Samples of the Release Management blueprint.

    Release Management Blueprint

    Sample of the Release Management Process Standard Template.

    Release Management Process Standard Template

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech Workshop Associated Activity icon

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    Photo of a Info-Tech analyst.
    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analyst will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech's historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

    The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

    3.1.1

    Sample of activity 3.1.2 'Determine the timing of your data architecture optimization activities'. Create your personalized roadmap of activities.

    In this activity, the facilitator will guide the team in evaluating practice gaps highlighted by the assessment, and compare these gaps at face value so general priorities can be documented. The same categories as in 3.1.1 are considered.

    3.1.3

    Sample of activity 3.1.3 'Communicate your Data Architecture Optimization Plan to the business for approval'. Communicate your data architecture optimization plan.

    The facilitator will help you to identify the optimal medium and timing for communicating your plan for optimizing your data architecture.

    Insight breakdown

    Insight 1

    • Data architecture needs to evolve along with the changing business landscape. There are four common business drivers that put most pressure on archaic architectures. As a result, the organization’s architecture must be flexible and responsive to changing business needs.

    Insight 2

    • Data architecture is not just about models.
      Viewing data architecture as just technical data modeling can lead to structurally unsound data that does not serve the business.

    Insight 3

    • Data is used differently across the layers of an organization’s data architecture, and the capabilities needed to optimize use of data change with it. Architecting and managing data from source to warehousing to presentation requires different tactics for optimal use.

    Summary of accomplishment

    Knowledge Gained

    • An understanding of what data architecture is, how data architects can provide value to the organization, and how data architecture fits into the larger enterprise architecture picture.
    • The capabilities required for optimization of the organization’s data architecture across the five tiers of the logical data architecture model.

    Processes Optimized

    • Prioritization and planning of data architect responsibilities across the five tiers of the five-tier logical data architecture model.
    • Roadmapping of tactics that address the most common business drivers of the organization.
    • Architectural change management.

    Deliverables Completed

    • Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool
    • Data Architecture Optimization Template
    • Data Architecture Trends Presentation
    • Data Architecture Roadmap Tool
    • Data Architecture Decision Template

    Research contributors and experts

    Photo of Ron Huizenga, Senior Product Manager, Embarcadero Technologies, Inc. Ron Huizenga, Senior Product Manager
    Embarcadero Technologies, Inc.

    Ron Huizenga has over 30 years of experience as an IT executive and consultant in enterprise data architecture, governance, business process reengineering and improvement, program/project management, software development, and business management. His experience spans multiple industries including manufacturing, supply chain, pipelines, natural resources, retail, healthcare, insurance, and transportation.

    Photo of Andrew Johnston, Architect, Independent Consultant. Andrew Johnston, Architect Independent Consultant

    An independent consultant with a unique combination of managerial, commercial, and technical skills, Andrew specializes in the development of strategies and technical architectures that allow businesses to get the maximum benefit from their IT resources. He has been described by clients as a "broad spectrum" architect, summarizing his ability to engage in many problems at many levels.

    Research contributors

    Internal Contributors
    Logo for Info-Tech Research Group.
    • Steven J. Wilson, Senior Director, Research & Advisory Services
    • Daniel Ko, Research Manager
    • Bernie Gilles, Senior Director, Research & Advisory Services
    External Contributors
    Logo for Embarcadero.
    Logo for Questa Computing. Logo for Geha.
    • Ron Huizenga, Embercardo Technologies
    • Andrew Johnston, Independent Consultant
    • Darrell Enslinger, Government Employees Health Association
    • Anonymous Contributors

    Bibliography

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    Anadiotis, George. “Streaming hot: Real-time big data architecture matters.” ZDNet. Jan, 2017. Web. 25 Apr 2017. [http://www.zdnet.com/article/streaming-hot-real-time-big-data-architecture-matters/]

    Aston, Dan. “The Economic value of Enterprise Architecture and How to Show It.” Erwin. Aug, 2016. Web. 20 Apr 2017. [http://erwin.com/blog/economic-value-enterprise-architecture-show/]

    Baer, Tony. “2017 Trends to Watch: Big Data.” Ovum. Nov, 2016. Web. 25 Apr 2017.

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    Capsenta. “NoETL.” Capsenta. Web. 25 Apr 2017. [https://capsenta.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Capsenta-Booklet.pdf]

    Connolly, Shaun. “Implementing the Blueprint for Enterprise Hadoop” Hortonworks. Apr, 2014. Web. 25 Apr 2017. https://hortonworks.com/blog/implementing-the-blue...

    Forbes. “Cloud 2.0: Companies Move From Cloud-First To Cloud-Only.” Forbes. Apr, 2017. Web. 25 Apr 2017. [https://www.forbes.com/sites/vmware/2017/04/07/cloud-2-0-companies-move-from-cloud-first-to-cloud-only/#5cd9d94a4d5e]

    Forgeat, Julien. “Lambda and Kappa.” Ericsson. Nov 2015. Web 25 Apr 2017. [https://www.ericsson.com/research-blog/data-knowledge/data-processing-architectures-lambda-and-kappa/]

    Grimes, Seth. “Is It Time For NoETL?” InformationWeek. Mar, 2010. Web. 25 Apr 2017. [http://www.informationweek.com/software/information-management/is-it-time-for-noetl/d/d-id/1087813]

    Gupta, Manav. et al. “How IB‹ leads in building big data analytics solutions in the cloud.” IBM. Feb, 2016. Web. 25 Apr 2017. [https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/cloud/library/cl-ibm-leads-building-big-data-analytics-solutions-cloud-trs/index.html#N102DE]

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    Maynard, Steven. “Analytics: Don’t Forget The Human Element” Forbes. 2015. Web. 20 Apr. 2017. [http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/EY-Forbes-Insights-Data-and-Analytics-Impact-Index-2015/$FILE/EY-Forbes-Insights-Data-and-Analytics-Impact-Index-2015.pdf]

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    Diagnose and Optimize Your Lead Gen Engine

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}567|cart{/j2store}
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    • Parent Category Name: Marketing Solutions
    • Parent Category Link: /marketing-solutions

    88% of marketing professionals are unsatisfied with their ability to convert leads (Convince & Convert), but poor lead conversion is just a symptom of much deeper problems.

    Globally, B2B SaaS marketers without a well-running lead gen engine will experience:

    • A low volume of quality leads from their website.
    • A low conversion rate from their website visitors.
    • A long lead conversion time compared to competitors.
    • A low volume of organic website visitors.

    If treated without a root cause analysis, these symptoms often result in higher-than-average marketing spend and wasted resources. Without an accurate lead gen engine diagnostic tool and a strategy to fix the misfires, marketers will continue to waste valuable time and resources.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    The lead gen engine is foundational in building profitable long-term customer relationships. It is the process through which marketers build awareness, trust, and loyalty. Without the ability to continually diagnose lead gen engine flaws, marketers will fail to optimize new customer relationship creation and long-term satisfaction and loyalty.

    Impact and Result

    With a targeted set of diagnostic tools and an optimization strategy, you will:

    • Uncover the critical weakness in your lead generation engine.
    • Develop a best-in-class lead gen engine optimization strategy that builds relationships, creates awareness, and establishes trust and loyalty with prospects.
    • Build profitable long-term customer relationships.

    Organizations who activate the findings from their lead generation diagnostic and optimization strategy will decrease the time and budget spent on lead generation by 25% to 50%. They will quickly uncover inefficiencies in their lead gen engine and develop a proven lead generation optimization strategy based on the diagnostic findings.

    Diagnose and Optimize Your Lead Gen Engine Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Diagnose and Optimize Your Lead Gen Engine Deck – A deck to help you diagnose what’s not working in your lead gen engine so that you can remedy issues and get back on track, building new customer relationships and driving loyalty.

    Organizations who activate the findings from their lead generation diagnostic and optimization strategy will decrease the time and budget spent on lead generation by 25% to 50%. They will quickly uncover inefficiencies in their lead gen engine and develop a proven lead generation optimization strategy based on the diagnostic findings.

    • Diagnose and Optimize Your Lead Gen Engine Storyboard

    2. Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Tool – An easy-to-use diagnostic tool that will help you pinpoint weakness within your lead gen engine.

    The diagnostic tool allows digital marketers to quickly and easily diagnose weakness within your lead gen engine.

    • Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Tool

    3. Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template – A step-by-step document that walks you through how to properly optimize the performance of your lead gen engine.

    Develop a best-in-class lead gen engine optimization strategy that builds relationships, creates awareness, and establishes trust and loyalty with prospects.

    • Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

    Infographic

    Further reading

    Diagnose and Optimize Your Lead Gen Engine

    Quickly and easily pinpoint any weakness in your lead gen engine so that you stop wasting money and effort on ineffective advertising and marketing.

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Analyst Perspective

    Quickly and easily pinpoint any weakness in your lead gen engine so that you stop wasting money and effort on ineffective advertising and marketing.

    The image contains a photo of Terra Higginson.

    Senior digital marketing leaders are accountable for building relationships, creating awareness, and developing trust and loyalty with website visitors, thereby delivering high-quality, high-value leads that Sales can easily convert to wins. Unfortunately, many marketing leaders report that their website visitors are low-quality and either disengage quickly or, when they engage further with lead gen engine components, they just don’t convert. These marketing leaders urgently need to diagnose what’s not working in three key areas in their lead gen engine to quickly remedy the issue and get back on track, building new customer relationships and driving loyalty. This blueprint will provide you with a tool to quickly and easily diagnose weakness within your lead gen engine. You can use the results to create a strategy that builds relationships, creates awareness, and establishes trust and loyalty with prospects.

    Terra Higginson

    Marketing Research Director

    SoftwareReviews

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Globally, business-to-business (B2B) software-as-a-service (SaaS) marketers without a well-running lead gen engine will experience:

    • A low volume of quality leads from their website.
    • A low conversion rate from their website visitors.
    • A long lead conversion time compared to competitors.
    • A low volume of organic website visitors.

    88% of marketing professionals are unsatisfied with their ability to convert leads (Convince & Convert), but poor lead conversion is just a symptom of a much larger problem with the lead gen engine. Without an accurate lead gen engine diagnostic tool and a strategy to fix the leaks, marketers will continue to waste valuable time and resources.

    Common Obstacles

    Even though lead generation is a critical element of marketing success, marketers struggle to fix the problems with their lead gen engine due to:

    • A lack of resources.
    • A lack of budget.
    • A lack of experience in implementing effective lead generation strategies.

    Most marketers spend too much on acquiring leads and not enough on converting and keeping them. For every $92 spent acquiring customers, only $1 is spent converting them (Econsultancy, cited in Outgrow). Marketers are increasingly under pressure to deliver high-quality leads to sales but work under tight budgets with inadequate or inexperienced staff who don’t understand the importance of optimizing the lead generation process.

    SoftwareReviews’ Approach

    With a targeted set of diagnostic tools and an optimization strategy, you will:

    • Uncover the critical weakness in your lead generation engine.
    • Develop a best-in-class lead gen engine optimization strategy that builds relationships, creates awareness, and establishes trust and loyalty with prospects.
    • Build profitable long-term customer relationships.

    Organizations who activate the findings from their lead generation diagnostic and optimization strategy will decrease the time and budget spent on lead generation by 25% to 50%. They will quickly uncover inefficiencies in their lead gen engine and develop a proven lead generation optimization strategy based on the diagnostic findings.

    SoftwareReviews Insight

    The lead gen engine is foundational in building profitable long-term customer relationships. It is the process through which marketers build awareness, trust, and loyalty. Without the ability to continually diagnose lead gen engine flaws, marketers will fail to optimize new customer relationship creation and long-term satisfaction and loyalty.

    Your Challenge

    88% of marketing professionals are unsatisfied with their ability to convert leads, but poor lead conversion is just a symptom of much deeper problems.

    Globally, B2B SaaS marketers without a well-running lead gen engine will experience:

    • A low volume of organic website visitors.
    • A low volume of quality leads from their website.
    • A low conversion rate from their website visitors.
    • A longer lead conversion time than competitors in the same space.

    If treated without a root-cause analysis, these symptoms often result in higher-than-average marketing spend and wasted resources. Without an accurate lead gen engine diagnostic tool and a strategy to fix the misfires, marketers will continue to waste valuable time and resources.

    88% of marketers are unsatisfied with lead conversion (Convince & Convert).

    The image contains a diagram that demonstrates a flowchart of the areas where visitors fail to convert. It incorporates observations, benchmarks, and uses a flowchart to diagnose the root causes.

    Benchmarks

    Compare your lead gen engine metrics to industry benchmarks.

    For every 10,000 people that visit your website, 210 will become leads.

    For every 210 leads, 101 will become marketing qualified leads (MQLs).

    For every 101 MQLs, 47 will become sales qualified leads (SQLs).

    For every 47 SQLs, 23 will become opportunities.

    For every 23 opportunities, nine will become customers.

    .9% to 2.1%

    36% to 48%

    28% to 46%

    39% to 48%

    32% to 40%

    Leads Benchmark

    MQL Benchmark

    SQL Benchmark

    Opportunity Benchmark

    Closing Benchmark

    The percentage of website visitors that convert to leads.

    The percentage of leads that convert to marketing qualified leads.

    The percentage of MQLs that convert to sales qualified leads.

    The percentage of SQLs that convert to opportunities.

    The percentage of opportunities that are closed.

    Midmarket B2B SaaS Industry

    Source: “B2B SaaS Marketing KPIs,” First Page Sage, 2021

    Common obstacles

    Why do most organizations improperly diagnose a misfiring lead gen engine?

    Lack of Clear Starting Point

    The lead gen engine is complex, with many moving parts, and marketers and marketing ops are often overwhelmed about where to begin diagnosis.

    Lack of Benchmarks

    Marketers often call out metrics such as increasing website visitors, contact-to-lead conversions, numbers of qualified leads delivered to Sales, etc., without a proven benchmark to compare their results against.

    Lack of Alignment Between Marketing and Sales

    Definitions of a contact, a marketing qualified lead, a sales qualified lead, and a marketing influenced win often vary.

    Lack of Measurement Tools

    Integration gaps between the website, marketing automation, sales enablement, and analytics exist within some 70% of enterprises. The elements of the marketing (and sales) tech stack change constantly. It’s hard to keep up.

    Lack of Understanding of Marketing ROI

    This drives many marketers to push the “more” button – more assets, more emails, more ad spend – without first focusing on optimization and effectiveness.

    Lack of Resources

    Marketers have an endless list of to-dos that drive them to produce daily results. Especially among software startups and mid-sized companies, there are just not enough staff with the right skills to diagnose and fix today’s sophisticated lead gen engines.

    Implications of poor diagnostics

    Without proper lead gen engine diagnostics, marketing performs poorly

    • The lead gen engine builds relationships and trust. When a broken lead gen engine goes unoptimized, customer relationships are at risk.
    • When the lead gen engine isn’t working well, customer acquisition costs rise as more expensive sales resources are charged with prospect qualification.
    • Without a well-functioning lead gen engine, marketers lack the foundation they need to create awareness among prospects – growth suffers.
    • Marketers will throw money at content or ads to generate more leads without any real understanding of engine leakage and misfires – your cost per lead climbs and reduces marketing profitability.

    Most marketers are spending too much on acquiring leads and not enough on converting and keeping them. For every $92 spent acquiring customers, only $1 is spent converting them.

    Source: Econsultancy, cited in Outgrow

    Lead gen engine optimization increases the efficiency of your marketing efforts and has a 223% ROI.

    Source: WordStream

    Benefits of lead gen engine diagnostics

    Diagnosing your lead gen engine delivers key benefits:

    • Pinpoint weakness quickly. A quick and accurate lead gen engine diagnostic tool saves Marketing 50% of the effort spent uncovering the reason for low conversion and low-quality leads.
    • Optimize more easily. Marketing executives will save 70% of the time spent creating a lead gen optimization marketing strategy based upon the diagnostic findings.
    • Maximize marketing ROI. Build toward and maintain the golden 3:1 LTV:CAC (lifetime value to customer acquisition cost) ratio for B2B SaaS marketing.
    • Stop wasting money on ineffective advertising and marketing. Up to 75% of your marketing budget is being inefficiently spent if you are running on a broken lead gen engine.

    “It’s much easier to double your business by doubling your conversion rate than by doubling your traffic. Correct targeting and testing methods can increase conversion rates up to 300 percent.” – Jeff Eisenberg, IterateStudio

    Source: Lift Division

    True benefits of fixing the lead gen engine

    These numbers add up to a significant increase in marketing influenced wins.

    175%
    Buyer Personas Increase Revenue
    Source: Illumin8

    202%
    Personalized CTAs Increase Conversions
    Source: HubSpot

    50%
    Lead Magnets Increase Conversions
    Source: ClickyDrip

    79%
    Lead Scoring Increases Conversions
    Source: Bloominari

    50%
    Lead Nurturing Increases Conversions
    Source: KevinTPayne.com

    80%
    Personalized Landing Pages Increase Conversions
    Source: HubSpot

    Who benefits from an optimized lead gen engine?

    This Research Is Designed for:

    • Senior digital marketing leaders who are:
      • Looking to increase conversions.
      • Looking to increase the quality of leads.
      • Looking to increase the value of leads.

    This Research Will Help You:

    • Diagnose issues with your lead gen engine.
    • Create a lead gen optimization strategy and a roadmap.

    This Research Will Also Assist:

    • Digital marketing leaders and product marketing leaders who are:
      • Looking to decrease the effort needed by Sales to close leads.
      • Looking to increase leadership’s faith in Marketing’s ability to generate high-quality leads and conversions.

    This Research Will Help Them:

    • Align the Sales and Marketing teams.
    • Receive the necessary buy-in from management to increase marketing spend and headcount.
    • Avoid product failure.
    The image contains a screenshot of the thought model that is titled: Diagnose and Optimize your Lead Gen Engine. The image contains the screenshot of the previous image shown on Where Lead Gen Engines Fails, and includes new information. The flowchart connects to a box that says: STOP, Your engine is broken. It then explains phase 1, the diagnostic, and then phase 2 Optimization strategy.

    SoftwareReviews’ approach

    1. Diagnose Misfires in the Lead Gen Engine
    2. Identifying any areas of weakness within your lead gen engine is a fundamental first step in improving conversions, ROI, and lead quality.

    3. Create a Lead Gen Optimization Strategy
    4. Optimize your lead gen strategy with an easily customizable template that will provide your roadmap for future growth.

    The SoftwareReviews Methodology to Diagnose and Optimize Your Lead Gen Engine

    1. Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic

    2. Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy

    Phase Steps

    1. Select lead gen engine optimization steering committee & working team
    2. Gather baseline metrics
    3. Run the lead gen engine diagnostic
    4. Identify low-scoring areas & prioritize lead gen engine fixes
    1. Define the roadmap
    2. Create lead gen engine optimization strategy
    3. Present strategy to steering committee

    Phase Outcomes

    • Identify weakness within the lead gen engine.
    • Prioritize the most important fixes within the lead gen engine.
    • Create a best-in-class lead gen engine optimization strategy and roadmap that builds relationships, creates awareness, and develops trust and loyalty with website visitors.
    • Increase leadership’s faith in Marketing’s ability to generate high-quality leads and conversions.

    Insight Summary

    The lead gen engine is the foundation of marketing

    The lead gen engine is critical to building relationships. It is the foundation upon which marketers build awareness, trust, and loyalty.

    Misalignment between Sales and Marketing is costly

    Digital marketing leaders need to ensure agreement with Sales on the definition of a marketing qualified lead (MQL), as it is the most essential element of stakeholder alignment.

    Prioritization is necessary for today’s marketer

    By prioritizing the fixes within the lead gen engine that have the highest impact, a marketing leader will be able to focus their optimization efforts in the right place.

    Stop, your engine is broken

    Any advertising or effort expended while running marketing on a broken lead gen engine is time and money wasted. It is only once the lead gen engine is fixed that marketers will see the true results of their efforts.

    Tactical insight

    Without a well-functioning lead gen engine, marketers risk wasting valuable time and money because they aren’t creating relationships with prospects that will increase the quality of leads, conversion rate, and lifetime value.

    Tactical insight

    The foundational lead relationship must be built at the marketing level, or else Sales will be entirely responsible for creating these relationships with low-quality leads, risking product failure.

    Blueprint Deliverable:

    Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals:

    Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic

    An efficient and easy-to-use diagnostic tool that uncovers weakness in your lead gen engine.

    The image contains a screenshot of the Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic is shown.

    Key Deliverable:

    Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

    The image contains a screenshot of the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy.

    A comprehensive strategy for optimizing conversions and increasing the quality of leads.

    SoftwareReviews Offers Various Levels of Support to Meet Your Needs

    Included within Advisory Membership:

    DIY Toolkit

    “Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”

    Guided Implementation

    “Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”

    Optional add-ons:

    Workshop

    “We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”

    Consulting

    “Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on lead gen engine diagnostics look like?

    Diagnose Your Lead Gen Engine

    Call #1: Scope requirements, objectives, and specific challenges with your lead gen engine.

    Call #2: Gather baseline metrics and discuss the steering committee and working team.

    Call #3: Review results from baseline metrics and answer questions.

    Call #4: Discuss the lead gen engine diagnostic tool and your steering committee.

    Call #5: Review results from the diagnostic tool and answer questions.

    Develop Your Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy

    Call #6: Identify components to include in the lead gen engine optimization strategy.

    Call #7: Discuss the roadmap for continued optimization.

    Call #8: Review final lead gen engine optimization strategy.

    Call #9: (optional) Follow-up quarterly to check in on progress and answer questions.

    A Guided Implementation (GI) is series of calls with a SoftwareReviews Advisory analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization. For guidance on marketing applications, we can arrange a discussion with an Info-Tech analyst. Your engagement managers will work with you to schedule analyst calls.

    Workshop Overview

    Day 1

    Day 2

    Activities

    Complete Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic

    1.1 Identify the previously selected lead gen engine steering committee and working team.

    1.2 Share the baseline metrics that were gathered in preparation for the workshop.

    1.3 Run the lead gen engine diagnostic.

    1.4 Identify low-scoring areas and prioritize lead gen engine fixes.

    Create Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy

    2.1 Define the roadmap.

    2.2 Create a lead gen engine optimization strategy.

    2.3 Present the strategy to the steering committee.

    Deliverables

    1. Lead gen engine diagnostic scorecard

    1. Lead gen engine optimization strategy

    Contact your account representative for more information.

    workshops@infotech.com1-888-670-8889

    Phase 1

    Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    1.1 Select lead gen engine steering committee & working team

    1.2 Gather baseline metrics

    1.3 Run the lead gen engine diagnostic

    1.4 Identify & prioritize low-scoring areas

    2.1 Define the roadmap

    2.2 Create lead gen engine optimization strategy

    2.3 Present strategy to steering committee

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    The diagnostic tool will allow you to quickly and easily identify the areas of weakness in the lead gen engine by answering some simple questions. The steps include:

    • Select the lead gen engine optimization committee and team.
    • Gather baseline metrics.
    • Run the lead gen engine diagnostic.
    • Identify and prioritize low-scoring areas.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Marketing lead
    • Lead gen engine steering committee

    Step 1.1

    Identify Lead Gen Engine Optimization Steering Committee & Working Team

    Activities

    1.1.1 Identify the lead gen engine optimization steering committee and document in the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

    1.1.2 Identify the lead gen engine optimization working team document in the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    Identify the lead gen engine optimization steering committee.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Marketing director
    • Leadership

    Outcomes of this step

    An understanding of who will be responsible and who will be accountable for accomplishing the lead gen engine diagnostic and optimization strategy.

    1.1.1 Identify the lead gen engine optimization steering committee

    1-2 hours

    1. The marketing lead should meet with leadership to determine who will make up the steering committee for the lead gen engine optimization.
    2. Document the steering committee members in the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template slide entitled “The Steering Committee.”

    Input

    Output

    • Stakeholders and leaders across the various functions outlined on the next slide
    • List of the lead gen engine optimization strategy steering committee members

    Materials

    Participants

    • Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template
    • Marketing director
    • Executive leadership

    Download the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

    Lead gen engine optimization steering committee

    Consider the skills and knowledge required for the diagnostic and the implementation of the strategy. Constructing a cross-functional steering committee will be essential for the optimization of the lead gen engine. At least one stakeholder from each relevant department should be included in the steering committee.

    Required Skills/Knowledge

    Suggested Functions

    • Target Buyer
    • Product Roadmap
    • Brand
    • Competitors
    • Campaigns/Lead Gen
    • Sales Enablement
    • Media/Analysts
    • Customer Satisfaction
    • Data Analytics
    • Ad Campaigns
    • Competitive Intelligence
    • Product Marketing
    • Product Management
    • Creative Director
    • Competitive Intelligence
    • Field Marketing
    • Sales
    • PR/AR/Corporate Comms
    • Customer Success
    • Analytics Executive
    • Campaign Manager

    For small and mid-sized businesses (SMB), because employees wear many different hats, assign people that have the requisite skills and knowledge, not the role title.

    The image contains examples of small and mid-sized businesses, and the different employee recommendations.

    1.1.2 Identify the lead gen engine optimization working team

    1-2 hours

    1. The marketing director should meet with leadership to determine who will make up the working team for the lead gen engine optimization.
    2. Finalize selection of team members and fill out the slide entitled “The Working Team” in the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template.

    Input

    Output

    • Executives and analysts responsible for execution of tasks across Marketing, Product, Sales, and IT
    • The lead gen engine optimization working team

    Materials

    Participants

    • The Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template
    • Marketing director
    • Executive leadership

    Download the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

    Lead gen engine working team

    Consider the working skills required for the diagnostic and implementation of the strategy and assign the working team.

    Required Skills/Knowledge

    Suggested Titles

    • SEO
    • Inbound Marketing
    • Paid Advertising
    • Website Development
    • Content Creation
    • Lead Scoring
    • Landing Pages
    • A/B Testing
    • Email Campaigns
    • Marketing and Sales Automation
    • SEO Analyst
    • Content Marketing Manager
    • Product Marketing Manager
    • Website Manager
    • Website Developer
    • Sales Manager
    • PR
    • Customer Success Manager
    • Analytics Executive
    • Campaign Manager

    Step 1.2

    Gather Baseline Metrics

    Activities

    1.2.1 Gather baseline metrics and document in the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    Gather baseline metrics.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Marketing director
    • Analytics lead

    Outcomes of this step

    Understand and document baseline marketing metrics.

    1.2.1 Gather baseline metrics and document in the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

    1-2 hours

    1. Use the example on the next slide to learn about the B2B SaaS industry-standard baseline metrics.
    2. Meet with the analytics lead to analyze and record the data within the “Baseline Metrics” slide of the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template. The baseline metrics will include:
      • Unique monthly website visitors
      • Visitor to lead conversion rate
      • Lead to MQL conversion rate
      • Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
      • Lifetime customer value to customer acquisition cost (LTV to CAC) ratio
      • Campaign ROI

    Recording the baseline data allows you to measure the impact your lead gen engine optimization strategy has over the baseline.

    Input

    Output
    • Marketing and analytics data
    • Documentation of baseline marketing metrics

    Materials

    Participants

    • The lead gen engine optimization strategy
    • Marketing director
    • Analytics lead

    B2B SaaS baseline metrics

    Industry standard metrics for B2B SaaS in 2022

    Unique Monthly Visitors

    Industry standard is 5% to 10% growth month over month.

    Visitor to Lead Conversion

    Industry standard is between 0.9% to 2.1%.

    Lead to MQL Conversion

    Industry standard is between 36% to 48%.

    CAC

    Industry standard is a cost of $400 to $850 per customer acquired.

    LTV to CAC Ratio

    Industry standard is an LTV:CAC ratio between 3 to 6.

    Campaign ROI

    Email: 201%

    Pay-Per-Click (PPC): 36%

    LinkedIn Ads: 94%

    Source: “B2B SaaS Marketing KPIs,” First Page Sage, 2021

    Update the Lead Gen Optimization Strategy Template with your company’s baseline metrics.

    Download the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

    Step 1.3

    Run the Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic

    Activities

    1.3.1 Gather steering committee and working team to complete the Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Tool

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    Gather the steering committee and answer the questions within the Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Tool.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Lead gen engine optimization working team
    • Lead gen engine optimization steering committee

    Outcomes of this step

    Lead gen engine diagnostic and scorecard

    1.3.1 Gather the committee and team to complete the Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Tool

    2-3 hours

    1. Schedule a two-hour meeting with the steering committee and working team to complete the Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Tool. To ensure the alignment of all departments and the quality of results, all steering committee members must participate.
    2. Answer the questions within the tool and then review your company’s results in the Results tab.

    Input

    Output

    • Marketing and analytics data
    • Diagnostic scorecard for the lead gen engine

    Materials

    Participants

    • Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Tool
    • Marketing director
    • Analytics lead

    Download the Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Tool

    Step 1.4

    Identify & Prioritize Low-Scoring Areas

    Activities

    1.4.1 Identify and prioritize low-scoring areas from the diagnostic scorecard

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    Identify and prioritize the low-scoring areas from the diagnostic scorecard.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Marketing director

    Outcomes of this step

    A prioritized list of the lead gen engine problems to include in the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

    1.4.1 Identify and prioritize low-scoring areas from the diagnostic scorecard

    1 hour

    1. Transfer the results from the Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Scorecard Results tab to the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template slide entitled “Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Scorecard.”
      • Results between 0 and 2 should be listed as high-priority fixes on the “Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Scorecard” slide. You will use these areas for your strategy.
      • Results between 2 and 3 should be listed as medium-priority fixes on “Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Scorecard” slide. You will use these areas for your strategy.
      • Results between 3 and 4 are within the industry standard and will require no fixes or only small adjustments.

    Input

    Output

    • Marketing and analytics data
    • Documentation of baseline marketing metrics

    Materials

    Participants

    • Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template
    • Marketing director
    • Analytics lead

    Download the Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Tool

    Phase 2

    Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    1.1 Select lead gen engine steering committee & working team

    1.2 Gather baseline metrics

    1.3 Run the lead gen engine diagnostic

    1.4 Identify & prioritize low-scoring areas

    2.1 Define the roadmap

    2.2 Create lead gen engine optimization strategy

    2.3 Present strategy to steering committee

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    Create a best-in-class lead gen optimization strategy and roadmap based on the weaknesses found in the diagnostic tool. The steps include:

    • Define the roadmap.
    • Create a lead gen engine optimization strategy.
    • Present the strategy to the steering committee.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Marketing director

    Step 2.1

    Define the Roadmap

    Activities

    2.1.1 Create the roadmap for the lead gen optimization strategy

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    Create the optimization roadmap for your lead gen engine strategy.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Marketing director

    Outcomes of this step

    Strategy roadmap

    2.1.1 Create the roadmap for the lead gen optimization strategy

    1 hour

    1. Copy the results from "The Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Scorecard" slide to the "Value, Resources & Roadmap Matrix" slide in the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template. Adjust the Roadmap Quarter column after evaluating the internal resources of your company and expected value generated.
    2. Using these results, create your strategy roadmap by updating the slide entitled “The Strategy Roadmap” in the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template.

    Input

    Output

    • Diagnostic scorecard
    • Strategy roadmap

    Materials

    Participants

    • Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template
    • Marketing Director

    Download the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

    Step 2.2

    Create the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy

    Activities

    2.2.1 Customize your lead gen engine optimization strategy using the template

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    Create a lead gen engine optimization strategy based on the results of your diagnostic scorecard.

    This step involves the following participants:

    Marketing director

    Outcomes of this step

    A leadership-facing lead gen optimization strategy

    2.2.1 Customize your lead gen engine optimization strategy using the template

    2-3 hours

    Review the strategy template:

    1. Use "The Strategy Roadmap" slide to organize the remaining slides from the Q1, Q2, and Q3 sections.
      1. Fixes listed in "The Strategy Roadmap" under Q1 should be placed within the Q1 section.
      2. Fixes listed in "The Strategy Roadmap" under Q2 should be placed within the Q2 section.
      3. Fixes listed in "The Strategy Roadmap" under Q3 should be placed within the Q3 section.

    Input

    Output

    • The strategy roadmap
    • Your new lead gen engine optimization strategy

    Materials

    Participants

    • Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template
    • Marketing director

    Download the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

    Step 2.3

    Present the strategy to the steering committee

    Activities

    2.3.1 Present the findings of the diagnostic and the lead gen optimization strategy to the steering committee.

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    Get executive buy-in on the lead gen engine optimization strategy.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Marketing director
    • Steering committee

    Outcomes of this step

    • Buy-in from leadership on the strategy

    2.3.1 Present findings of diagnostic and lead gen optimization strategy to steering committee

    1-2 hours

    1. Schedule a presentation to present the findings of the diagnostic, the lead gen engine optimization strategy, and the roadmap to the steering committee.
    InputOutput
    • Your company’s lead gen engine optimization strategy
    • Official outline of strategy and buy-in from executive leadership

    Materials

    Participants

    • Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template
    • Marketing director
    • Executive leadership
    • Steering committee

    Download the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

    Related SoftwareReviews Research

    Create a Buyer Persona and Journey

    Make it easier to market, sell, and achieve product-market fit with deeper buyer understanding.

    • Reduce time and treasure wasted chasing the wrong prospects.
    • Improve product-market fit.
    • Increase open and click-through rates in your lead gen engine.
    • Perform more effective sales discovery and increase eventual win rates.

    Optimize Lead Generation With Lead Scoring

    In today’s competitive environment, optimizing Sales’ resources by giving them qualified leads is key to B2B marketing success.

    • Lead scoring is a must-have capability for high-tech marketers.
    • Without lead scoring, marketers will see increased costs of lead generation and decreased SQL-to-opportunity conversion rates.
    • Lead scoring increases sales productivity and shortens sales cycles.

    Build a More Effective Go-to-Market Strategy

    Creating a compelling go-to-market strategy and keeping it current is a critical software company function – as important as financial strategy, sales operations, and even corporate business development – given its huge impact on the many drivers of sustainable growth.

    • Align stakeholders on a common vision and execution plan.
    • Build a foundation of buyer and competitive understanding.
    • Deliver a team-aligned launch plan that enables commercial success.

    Bibliography

    “11 Lead Magnet Statistics That Might Surprise You.” ClickyDrip, 28 Dec. 2020. Accessed April 2022.

    “45 Conversion Rate Optimization Statistics Every Marketer Should Know.” Outgrow, n.d. Accessed April 2022.

    Bailyn, Evan. “B2B SaaS Funnel Conversion Benchmarks.” First Page Sage, 24 Feb. 2021. Accessed April 2022.

    Bailyn, Evan. “B2B SaaS Marketing KPIs: Behind the Numbers.” First Page Sage, 1 Sept. 2021. Accessed April 2022.

    Conversion Optimization.” Lift Division, n.d. Accessed April 2022.

    Corson, Sean. “LTV:CAC Ratio [2022 Guide] | Benchmarks, Formula, Tactics.” Daasity, 3 Nov. 2021. Accessed April 2022.

    Dudley, Carrie. “What are personas?” Illumin8, 26 Jan. 2018. Accessed April 2022.

    Godin, Seth. “Permission Marketing.” Accenture, Oct. 2009. Accessed April 2022.

    Lebo, T. “Lead Conversion Statistics All B2B Marketers Need to Know.” Convince & Convert, n.d. Accessed April 2022.

    Lister, Mary. “33 CRO & Landing Page Optimization Stats to Fuel Your Strategy.” WordStream, 24 Nov. 2021. [Accessed April 2022].

    Nacach, Jamie. “How to Determine How Much Money to Spend on Lead Generation Software Per Month.” Bloominari, 18 Sept. 2018. Accessed April 2022.

    Needle, Flori. “11 Stats That Make a Case for Landing Pages.” HubSpot, 10 June 2021. Accessed April 2022.

    Payne, Kevin. “10 Effective Lead Nurturing Tactics to Boost Your Sales.” Kevintpayne.com, n.d. Accessed April 2022.

    Tam, Edwin. “ROI in Marketing: Lifetime Value (LTV) & Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC).” Construct Digital, 19 Jan. 2016. Accessed April 2022.

    Strengthen the SSDLC for Enterprise Mobile Applications

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}283|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: N/A
    • member rating average dollars saved: N/A
    • member rating average days saved: N/A
    • Parent Category Name: Mobile Development
    • Parent Category Link: /mobile-development
    • CEOs see mobile for employees as their top mandate for upcoming technology innovation initiatives, making security a key competency for development.
    • Unsecure mobile applications can cause your employees to question the mobile applications’ integrity for handling sensitive data, limiting uptake.
    • Secure mobile development tends to be an afterthought, where vulnerabilities are tested for post-production rather than during the build process.
    • Developers lack the expertise, processes, and proper tools to effectively enhance applications for mobile security.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Organizations currently react to security issues. Info-Tech recommends a proactive approach to ensure a secure software development life cycle (SSDLC) end-to-end.
    • Organizations currently lack the secure development practices to provide highly secure mobile applications that end users can trust.
    • Enable your developers with five key secure development techniques from Info-Tech’s development toolkit.

    Impact and Result

    • Embed secure development techniques into your SDLC.
    • Create a repeatable process for your developers to continually evaluate and optimize mobile application security for new threats and corresponding mitigation steps.
    • Build capabilities within your team based on Info-Tech’s framework by supporting ongoing security improvements through monitoring and metric analysis.

    Strengthen the SSDLC for Enterprise Mobile Applications Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should adopt secure development techniques for mobile application development, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Assess secure mobile development processes

    Determine the current security landscape of mobile application development.

    • Strengthen the SSDLC for Enterprise Mobile Applications – Phase 1: Assess Secure Mobile Development Practices
    • Systems Architecture Template
    • Mobile Application High-Level Design Requirements Template

    2. Implement and test secure mobile techniques

    Incorporate the various secure development techniques into current development practices.

    • Strengthen the SSDLC for Enterprise Mobile Applications – Phase 2: Implement and Test Secure Mobile Techniques

    3. Monitor and support secure mobile applications

    Create a roadmap for mobile optimization initiatives.

    • Strengthen the SSDLC for Enterprise Mobile Applications – Phase 3: Monitor and Support Secure Mobile Applications
    • Mobile Optimization Roadmap
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Strengthen the SSDLC for Enterprise Mobile Applications

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Assess Your Secure Mobile Development Practices

    The Purpose

    Identification of the triggers of your secure mobile development initiatives.

    Assessment of the security vulnerabilities in your mobile applications from an end-user perspective.

    Identification of the execution of your mobile environment.

    Assessment of the mobile threats and vulnerabilities to your systems architecture.

    Prioritization of your mobile threats.

    Creation of your risk register.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Key opportunity areas where a secure development optimization initiative can provide tangible benefits.

    Identification of security requirements.

    Prioritized list of security threats.

    Initial mobile security risk register created. 

    Activities

    1.1 Establish the triggers of your secure mobile development initiatives.

    1.2 Assess the security vulnerabilities in your mobile applications from an end-user perspective.

    1.3 Understand the execution of your mobile environment with a systems architecture.

    1.4 Assess the mobile threats and vulnerabilities to your systems architecture.

    1.5 Prioritize your mobile threats.

    1.6 Begin building your risk register.

    Outputs

    Mobile Application High-Level Design Requirements Document

    Systems Architecture Diagram

    2 Implement and Test Your Secure Mobile Techniques

    The Purpose

    Discovery of secure development techniques to apply to current development practices.

    Discovery of new user stories from applying secure development techniques.

    Discovery of new test cases from applying secure development techniques.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Areas within your code that can be optimized for improving mobile application security.

    New user stories created in relation to mitigation steps.

    New test cases created in relation to mitigation steps.

    Activities

    2.1 Gauge the state of your secure mobile development practices.

    2.2 Identify the appropriate techniques to fill gaps.

    2.3 Develop user stories from security development gaps identified.

    2.4 Develop test cases from user story gaps identified.

    Outputs

    Mobile Application High-Level Design Requirements Document

    3 Monitor and Support Your Secure Mobile Applications

    The Purpose

    Identification of key metrics used to measure mobile application security issues.

    Identification of secure mobile application and development process optimization initiatives.

    Identification of enablers and blockers of your mobile security optimization.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Metrics for measuring application security.

    Modified triaging process for addressing security issues.

    Initiatives for development optimization.

    Enablers and blockers identified for mobile security optimization initiatives.

    Process for developing your mobile optimization roadmap.

    Activities

    3.1 List the metrics that would be gathered to assess the success of your mobile security optimization.

    3.2 Adjust and modify your triaging process to enhance handling of security issues.

    3.3 Brainstorm secure mobile application and development process optimization initiatives.

    3.4 Identify the enablers and blockers of your mobile security optimization.

    3.5 Define your mobile security optimization roadmap.

    Outputs

    Mobile Optimization Roadmap

    Assess Infrastructure Readiness for Digital Transformation

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}300|cart{/j2store}
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    • Parent Category Name: Strategy and Organizational Design
    • Parent Category Link: /strategy-and-organizational-design

    There are many challenges for I&O when it comes to digital transformation, including:

    • Legacy infrastructure technical debt
    • Skills and talent in the IT team
    • A culture that resists change
    • Fear of job loss

    These and many more will hinder your progress, which demonstrates the need to invest in modernizing your infrastructure, investing in training and hiring talent, and cultivating a culture that supports digital transformation.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    By using the framework of culture, competencies, collaboration and capabilities, organizations can create dimensions in their I&O structure in order to shift from traditional infrastructure management to becoming a strategic enabler, driving agility, innovation, and operational excellence though the effective integration of people, process, and technology.

    Impact and Result

    By driving a customer-centric approach, delivering a successful transformation can be tailored to the business goals and drive adoption and engagement. Refining your roadmap through data and analytics will drive this change. Use third-party expertise to guide your transformation and help build that vision of the future.

    Assess Infrastructure Readiness for Digital Transformation Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Assess Infrastructure Readiness for Digital Transformation – Unlock the full potential of your infrastructure with a digital transformation strategy and clear the barriers for success.

  • Be customer centric as opposed to being technology driven.
  • Understanding business needs and pain points is key to delivering solutions.
  • Approach infrastructure digital transformation in iterations and look at this as a journey.
    • Assess Infrastructure Readiness for Digital Transformation Storyboard
    • I&O Digital Transformation Maturity Assessment Tool

    Infographic

    Further reading

    Assess Infrastructure Readiness for Digital Transformation

    Unlock the full potential of your infrastructure with a digital transformation strategy and clear the barriers to success.

    Analyst Perspective

    It’s not just about the technology!

    Many businesses fail in their endeavors to complete a digital transformation, but the reasons are complex, and there are many ways to fail, whether it is people, process, or technology. In fact, according to many surveys, 70% of digital transformations fail, and it’s mainly down to strategy – or the lack thereof.

    A lot of organizations think of digital transformation as just an investment in technology, with no vision of what they are trying to achieve or transform. So, out of the gate, many organizations fail to undergo a meaningful transformation, change their business model, or bring about a culture of digital transformation needed to be seriously competitive in their given market.

    When it comes to I&O leaders who have been given a mandate to drive digital transformation projects, they still must align to the vision and mission of the organization; they must still train and hire staff that will be experts in their field; they must still drive process improvements and align the right technology to meet the needs of a digital transformation.

    John Donovan

    John Donovan

    Principal Research Director, I&O
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Insight summary

    Overarching insight

    Digital transformation requires I&O teams to shift from traditional infrastructure management to becoming a strategic enabler, driving agility, innovation, and operational excellence through effective integration of people, process, and technology.

    Insight 1

    Collaboration is a key component of I&O – Promote strong collaboration between I&O and other business functions. When doing a digital transformation, it is clear that this is a cross-functional effort. Business leaders and IT teams need to align their objectives, prioritize initiatives, and ensure that you are seamlessly integrating technologies with the new business functions.

    Insight 2

    Embrace agility and adaptability as core principles – As the digital landscape continues to evolve, it is paramount that I&O leaders are agile and adaptable to changing business needs, adopting new technology and implementing new innovative solutions. The culture of continuous improvement and openness to experimentation and learning will assist the I&O leaders in their journey.

    Insight 3

    Future-proof your infrastructure and operations – By anticipating emerging technologies and trends, you can proactively plan and organize your team for future needs. By investing in scalable, flexible infrastructure such as cloud services, automation, AI technologies, and continuously upskilling the IT staff, you can stay relevant and forward-looking in the digital space.

    Tactical insight

    An IT infrastructure maturity assessment is a foundational step in the journey of digital transformation. The demand will be on performance, resilience, and scalability. IT infrastructure must be able to support innovation and rapid deployment of services.

    Tactical insight

    Having a clear strategy, with leadership commitment along with hiring and training the right people, monitoring and measuring your progress, and ensuring it is a business-led journey will increase your chances of success.

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    There are a lot of challenges for I&O when it comes to digital transformation, including:

    • Legacy infrastructure technical debt.
    • Skills and talent in the IT team.
    • A culture that resists change.
    • Fear of job loss.

    These and many more will hinder your progress, which demonstrates the need to invest in modernizing your infrastructure, investing in training and hiring talent, and cultivating a culture that supports digital transformation.

    Common Obstacles

    Many obstacles to digital transformation begin with non-I&O activities, including:

    • Lack of a clear vision and strategy.
    • Siloed organizational structure.
    • Lack of governance and data management.
    • Limited budget and resources.

    By addressing these obstacles, I&O will have a better chance of a successful transformation and delivering the full potential of digital technologies.

    Info-Tech's Approach

    Building a culture of innovation by developing clear goals and creating a vision will be key.

    • Be customer centric as opposed to being technology driven.
    • Understand the business needs and pain points in order to effectively deliver solutions.
    • Approach infrastructure digital transformation in iterations and look at it as a journey.

    By completing the Info-Tech digital readiness questionnaire, you will see where you are in terms of maturity and areas you need to concentrate on.

    Info-Tech Insight

    By driving a customer-centric approach, delivering a successful transformation can be tailored to the business goals and drive adoption and engagement. Refining your roadmap through data and analytics will drive this change. Use third-party expertise to guide your transformation and help build that vision of the future.

    The cost of digital transformation

    The challenges that stand in the way of your success, and what is needed to reverse the risk

    What CIOs are saying about their challenges

    26% of those CIOs surveyed cite resistance to change, with entrenched viewpoints demonstrating a real need for a cultural shift to enhance the digital transformation journey.

    Source: Prophet, 2019.

    70% of digital transformation projects fall short of their objectives – even when their leadership is aligned, often with serious consequences.

    Source: BCG, 2020.

    Having a clear strategy and commitment from leadership, hiring and training the right people, monitoring and measuring your progress, and ensuring it is a business-led journey will increase your chances of success.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Cultural change, business alignment, skills training, and setting a clear strategy with KPIs to demonstrate success are all key to being successful in your digital journey.

    Small and medium-sized enterprises

    What business owners and CEOs are saying about their digital transformation

    57% of small business owners feel they must improve their IT infrastructure to optimize their operations.

    Source: SMB Story, 2023.

    64% of CEOs believe driving digital transformation at a rapid pace is critical to attracting and retaining talent and customers.

    Source: KPMG, 2022.

    Info-Tech Insight

    An IT infrastructure maturity assessment is a foundational step in the journey of digital transformation. The demand will be on performance, resilience, and scalability. IT infrastructure must be able to support innovation and rapid deployments.

    Get Started With IT Project Portfolio Management

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    • Parent Category Name: Portfolio Management
    • Parent Category Link: /portfolio-management
    • Most companies are struggling to get their project work done. This is due in part to the fact that many prescribed remedies are confusing, disruptive, costly, or ineffective.
    • While struggling to find a solution, within the organization, project requests never stop and all projects continue to all be treated the same. Resources are requested for multiple projects without any visibility into their project capacity. Projects lack proper handoffs from closure to ongoing operational work. And the benefits are never tracked.
    • If you have too many projects, limited resources, ineffective communications, or low post-project adoption, keep reading. Perhaps you should spend a bit more on project, portfolio, and organizational change management.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Successful project outcomes are not built by rigorous project processes: Projects may be the problem, but project management rigor is not the solution.
    • Don’t fall into the common trap of thinking high-rigor project management should be every organization’s end goal.
    • Instead, understand that it is better to spend time assessing the portfolio to determine what projects should be prioritized.

    Impact and Result

    Begin by establishing a few foundational practices that will work to drive project throughput.

    • Capacity Estimation: Understand what your capacity is to do projects by determining how much time is allocated to doing other things.
    • Book of Record: Establish a basic but sustainable book of record so there is an official list of projects in flight and those waiting in a backlog or funnel.
    • Simple Project Management Processes: Align the rigor of your project management process with what is required, not what is prescribed by the PMP designation.
    • Impact Assessment: Address the impact of change at the beginning of the project and prepare stakeholders with the right level of communication.

    Get Started With IT Project Portfolio Management Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Begin by establishing a few foundational practices that will work to drive project throughput. Most project management problems are resolved with portfolio level solutions. This blueprint will address the eco-system of project, portfolio, and organizational change management.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Project portfolio management

    Estimate project capacity, determine what needs to be tracked on an ongoing basis, and determine what criteria is necessary for prioritizing projects.

    • Project Portfolio Supply-Demand Analysis Tool
    • Project Value Scorecard Development Tool
    • Project Portfolio Book of Record

    2. Project management

    Develop a process to inform the portfolio of the project status, create a plan that can be maintained throughout the project lifecycle, and manage the scope through a change request process.

    • Light Project Change Request Form Template

    3. Organizational change management

    Perform a change impact assessment and identify the obvious and non-obvious stakeholders to develop a message canvas accordingly.

    • Organizational Change Management Triage Tool

    4. Develop an action plan

    Develop a roadmap for how to move from the current state to the target state.

    • PPM Wireframe
    • Project Portfolio Management Foundations Stakeholder Communication Deck
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Get Started With IT Project Portfolio Management

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Project Portfolio Management

    The Purpose

    Establish the current state of the portfolio.

    Organize the portfolio requirements.

    Determine how projects are prioritized.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understand project capacity supply-demand.

    Build a portfolio book of record.

    Create a project value scorecard.

    Activities

    1.1 Conduct capacity supply-demand estimation.

    1.2 Determine requirements for portfolio book of record.

    1.3 Develop project value criteria.

    Outputs

    Clear project capacity

    Draft portfolio book of record

    Project value scorecard

    2 Project Management

    The Purpose

    Feed the portfolio with the project status.

    Plan the project work with a sustainable level of granularity.

    Manage the project as conditions change.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Develop a process to inform the portfolio of the project status.

    Create a plan that can be maintained throughout the project lifecycle and manage the scope through a change request process.

    Activities

    2.1 Determine necessary reporting metrics.

    2.2 Create a work structure breakdown.

    2.3 Document your project change request process.

    Outputs

    Feed the portfolio with the project status

    Plan the project work with a sustainable level of granularity

    Manage the project as conditions change

    3 Organizational Change Management

    The Purpose

    Discuss change accountability.

    Complete a change impact assessment.

    Create a communication plan for stakeholders.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Complete a change impact assessment.

    Identify the obvious and non-obvious stakeholders and develop a message canvas accordingly.

    Activities

    3.1 Discuss change accountability.

    3.2 Complete a change impact assessment.

    3.3 Create a communication plan for stakeholders.

    Outputs

    Assign accountability for the change

    Assess the change impact

    Communicate the change

    4 Develop an Action Plan

    The Purpose

    Summarize current state.

    Determine target state.

    Create a roadmap.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Develop a roadmap for how to move from the current state to the target state.

    Activities

    4.1 Summarize current state and target state.

    4.2 Create a roadmap.

    Outputs

    Stakeholder Communication Deck

    MS Project Wireframe

    Understand Common IT Contract Provisions to Negotiate More Effectively

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    • Parent Category Name: Vendor Management
    • Parent Category Link: /vendor-management
    • Contract reviews are tedious, and reviewers may lack the skills and experience to effectively complete the process.
    • Vendors have a repository of contract terms and conditions that are road-tested and often biased in their favor.
    • Vendors change their contracts frequently through hyperlinked documents without notifying customers, and the onus is on you to stay compliant.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Focus on the terms and conditions, not just the price. Too often, organizations focus on the price contained within their contracts, neglecting to address core terms and conditions that can end up costing multiples of the initial price.
    • Lawyers can’t ensure you get the best business deal. Lawyers tend to look at general terms and conditions for legal risk and may not understand IT-specific components and business needs.

    Impact and Result

    • Align contract language to meet IT and business needs.
    • Communicate more effectively with Legal and the vendors.
    • Identify and reduce contractual and performance risk.
    • Understand the relationship between contract provisions.
    • Negotiate more effectively.

    Understand Common IT Contract Provisions to Negotiate More Effectively Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should employ a systematic process for reviewing contracts, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Assess contract terms and conditions

    Review and assess your IT contracts for vendor-biased terms and conditions, and gain tips for getting vendors to take on their fair share of risk and become more accountable.

    • Contract Review Tool
    • Contract Playbook
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Understand Common IT Contract Provisions to Negotiate More Effectively

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Assess Contract Terms and Conditions

    The Purpose

    Understand IT contract clauses, improve risk identification, and be more effective at negotiating contract terms.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Increased awareness of how contract provisions relate to each other.

    Demystification of legalese and legal concepts.

    Increased ability to seek assistance from internal parties (e.g. Legal, Risk, and Procurement).

    Activities

    1.1 Review the Contract Review Tool.

    1.2 Review the Contract Playbook template.

    1.3 Review 35 contract provisions and reinforce key learnings with exercises (spread across three days)

    Outputs

    Partial completion of the template

    Exercise results and debrief

    Optimize the Mentoring Program to Build a High-Performing Learning Organization

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    • Parent Category Name: Employee Development
    • Parent Category Link: /train-and-develop
    • Many organizations have introduced mentoring programs without clearly defining and communicating the purpose and goals around having a program; they simply jumped on the mentoring bandwagon.
    • As a result, these programs have little impact. They don’t add value for mentors, mentees, or the organization.
    • It can be difficult to design a program that is well-suited to your organization, will be adopted by employees, and will drive the results you are looking for.
    • In particular, it is difficult to successfully match mentors and mentees so both derive maximum value from the endeavor.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • As workforce composition shifts, there is a need for mentoring programs to move beyond the traditional senior–junior format option; organizational culture and goals will dictate the best approach.
    • An organization’s mentoring program doesn’t need to be restricted to one format; individual preferences and goals should also factor in. Be open to choosing format on a case-by-case basis.
    • Be sure to gain upper management buy-in and support early to ensure mentoring becomes a valued part of your organization.
    • Ensure that goal setting, communication, ongoing support for participants, and evaluation all play a role in your mentoring program.

    Impact and Result

    • Mentoring can have a significant positive impact on mentor, mentee, and organization.
    • Mentees gain guidance and advice on their career path and skill development. Mentors often experience re-engagement with their job and the satisfaction of helping another person.
    • Mentoring participants benefit from obtaining different perspectives of both the business and work-related problems. Participation in a mentoring program has been linked to greater access to promotions, pay raises, and increased job satisfaction.
    • Mentoring can have a number of positive outcomes for the organization, including breaking down silos, transferring institutional knowledge, accelerating leadership skills, fostering open communication and dialogue, and resolving conflict.

    Optimize the Mentoring Program to Build a High-Performing Learning Organization Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Align the mentoring program with the organizational culture and goals

    Build a best-fit program that creates a learning culture.

    • Storyboard: Optimize the Mentoring Program to Build a High Performing Learning Organization

    2. Assess the organizational culture and current mentoring program

    Align mentoring practices with culture to improve the appropriateness and effectiveness of the program.

    • Mentoring Program Diagnostic

    3. Align mentoring practices with culture to improve the appropriateness and effectiveness of the program.

    Track project progress and have all program details defined in a central location.

    • Mentoring Project Plan Template
    • Peer Mentoring Guidelines
    • Mentoring Program Guidelines

    4. Gather feedback from the mentoring program participants

    Evaluate the success of the program.

    • Mentoring Project Feedback Surveys Template

    5. Get mentoring agreements in place

    Improve your mentoring capabilities.

    • Mentee Preparation Checklist
    • Mentoring Agreement Template
    [infographic]

    Create an IT View of the Service Catalog

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    • Parent Category Name: Service Management
    • Parent Category Link: /service-management
    • Organizations often don’t understand which technical services affect user-facing services.
    • Organizations lack clarity around ownership of responsibilities for service delivery.
    • Organizations are vulnerable to change-related incidents when they don’t have insight into service dependencies and their business impact.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Even IT professionals underestimate the effort and the complexity of technical components required to deliver a service.
    • Info-Tech’s methodology promotes service orientation among technical teams by highlighting how their work affects the value of user-facing services.
    • CIOs can use the technical part of the catalog as a tool to articulate the value, dependencies, and constraints of services to business leaders.

    Impact and Result

    • Extend the user-facing service catalog to document the people, processes, and technology required to deliver user-facing services.
    • Bring transparency to how services are delivered to better articulate IT’s capabilities and strengthen IT-business alignment.
    • Increase IT’s ability to assess the impact of changes, make informed decisions, and mitigate change-related risks.
    • Respond to incidents and problems in the IT environment with more agility due to reduced diagnosis time for issues.

    Create an IT View of the Service Catalog Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should build the technical components of your service catalog, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Launch the project

    Build a strong foundation for the project to increase the chances of success.

    • Create an IT View of the Service Catalog – Phase 1: Launch the Project
    • Service Catalog Extension Project Charter
    • Service Catalog Extension Training Deck

    2. Identify service-specific technologies

    Identify which technologies are specific to certain services.

    • Create an IT View of the Service Catalog – Phase 2: Identify Service-Specific Technology
    • IT Service Catalog

    3. Identify underpinning technologies

    Determine which technologies underpin the existence of user-facing services.

    • Create an IT View of the Service Catalog – Phase 3: Identify Underpinning Services

    4. Map the people and processes to the technologies they support

    Document the roles and responsibilities required to deliver each user-facing service.

    • Create an IT View of the Service Catalog – Phase 4: Determine People & Process
    • Service Definitions: Visual Representations
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Create an IT View of the Service Catalog

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Launch the Project

    The Purpose

    Build a foundation to kick off the project.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A carefully selected team of project participants.

    Identified stakeholders and metrics.

    Activities

    1.1 Create a communication plan

    1.2 Complete the training deck

    Outputs

    Project charter

    Understanding of the process used to complete the definitions

    2 Identify Service-Specific Technologies and Underpinning Technologies

    The Purpose

    Determine the technologies that support the user-facing services.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understanding of what is required to run a service.

    Activities

    2.1 Determine service-specific technology categories

    2.2 Identify service-specific technologies

    2.3 Determine underpinning technologies

    Outputs

    Logical buckets of service-specific technologies makes it easier to identify them

    Identified technologies

    Identified underpinning services and technologies

    3 Identify People and Processes

    The Purpose

    Discover the roles and responsibilities required to deliver each user-facing service.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understanding of what is required to deliver each user-facing service.

    Activities

    3.1 Determine roles required to deliver services based on organizational structure

    3.2 Document the services

    Outputs

    Mapped responsibilities to each user-facing service

    Completed service definition visuals

    4 Complete the Service Definition Chart and Visual Diagrams

    The Purpose

    Create a central hub (database) of all the technical components required to deliver a service.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Single source of information where IT can see what is required to deliver each service.

    Ability to leverage the extended catalog to benefit the organization.

    Activities

    4.1 Document all the previous steps in the service definition chart and visual diagrams

    4.2 Review service definition with team and subject matter experts

    Outputs

    Completed service definition visual diagrams and completed catalog

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    Build a Vendor Security Assessment Service

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    • Parent Category Name: Threat Intelligence & Incident Response
    • Parent Category Link: /threat-intelligence-incident-response
    • Vendor security risk management is a growing concern for many organizations. Whether suppliers or business partners, we often trust them with our most sensitive data and processes.
    • More and more regulations require vendor security risk management, and regulator expectations in this area are growing.
    • However, traditional approaches to vendor security assessments are seen by business partners and vendors as too onerous and are unsustainable for information security departments.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • An efficient and effective assessment process can only be achieved when all stakeholders are participating.
    • Security assessments are time-consuming for both you and your vendors. Maximize the returns on your effort with a risk-based approach.
    • Effective vendor security risk management is an end-to-end process that includes assessment, risk mitigation, and periodic re-assessments.

    Impact and Result

    • Develop an end-to-end security risk management process that includes assessments, risk treatment through contracts and monitoring, and periodic re-assessments.
    • Base your vendor assessments on the actual risks to your organization to ensure that your vendors are committed to the process and you have the internal resources to fully evaluate assessment results.
    • Understand your stakeholder needs and goals to foster support for vendor security risk management efforts.

    Build a Vendor Security Assessment Service Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should build a vendor security assessment service, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the three ways we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Define governance and process

    Determine your business requirements and build your process to meet them.

    • Build a Vendor Security Assessment Service – Phase 1: Define Governance and Process
    • Vendor Security Policy Template
    • Vendor Security Process Template
    • Vendor Security Process Diagram (Visio)
    • Vendor Security Process Diagram (PDF)

    2. Develop assessment methodology

    Develop the specific procedures and tools required to assess vendor risk.

    • Build a Vendor Security Assessment Service – Phase 2: Develop Assessment Methodology
    • Service Risk Assessment Questionnaire
    • Vendor Security Questionnaire
    • Vendor Security Assessment Inventory

    3. Deploy and monitor process

    Implement the process and develop metrics to measure effectiveness.

    • Build a Vendor Security Assessment Service – Phase 3: Deploy and Monitor Process
    • Vendor Security Requirements Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Build a Vendor Security Assessment Service

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Define Governance and Process

    The Purpose

    Understand business and compliance requirements.

    Identify roles and responsibilities.

    Define the process.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understanding of key goals for process outcomes.

    Documented service that leverages existing processes.

    Activities

    1.1 Review current processes and pain points.

    1.2 Identify key stakeholders.

    1.3 Define policy.

    1.4 Develop process.

    Outputs

    RACI Matrix

    Vendor Security Policy

    Defined process

    2 Define Methodology

    The Purpose

    Determine methodology for assessing procurement risk.

    Develop procedures for performing vendor security assessments.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Standardized, repeatable methodologies for supply chain security risk assessment.

    Activities

    2.1 Identify organizational security risk tolerance.

    2.2 Develop risk treatment action plans.

    2.3 Define schedule for re-assessments.

    2.4 Develop methodology for assessing service risk.

    Outputs

    Security risk tolerance statement

    Risk treatment matrix

    Service Risk Questionnaire

    3 Continue Methodology

    The Purpose

    Develop procedures for performing vendor security assessments.

    Establish vendor inventory.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Standardized, repeatable methodologies for supply chain security risk assessment.

    Activities

    3.1 Develop vendor security questionnaire.

    3.2 Define procedures for vendor security assessments.

    3.3 Customize the vendor security inventory.

    Outputs

    Vendor security questionnaire

    Vendor security inventory

    4 Deploy Process

    The Purpose

    Define risk treatment actions.

    Deploy the process.

    Monitor the process.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understanding of how to treat different risks according to the risk tolerance.

    Defined implementation strategy.

    Activities

    4.1 Define risk treatment action plans.

    4.2 Develop implementation strategy.

    4.3 Identify process metrics.

    Outputs

    Vendor security requirements

    Understanding of required implementation plans

    Metrics inventory

    Manage Your Chromebooks and MacBooks

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    • Parent Category Name: End-User Computing Devices
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    Windows is no longer the only option. MacBooks and Chromebooks are justified, but now you have to manage them.

    • If you have modernized your end-user computing strategy, you may have Windows 10 devices as well as MacBooks.
    • Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and desktop as a service (DaaS) are becoming popular. Chromebooks may be ideal as a low-cost interface into DaaS for your employees.
    • Managing Chromebooks can be particularly challenging as they grow in popularity in the education sector.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Managing end-user devices may be accomplished with a variety of solutions, but many of those solutions advocate integration with a Microsoft-friendly solution to take advantage of features such as conditional access, security functionality, and data governance.

    Impact and Result

    • Many solutions are available to manage end-user devices, and they come with a long list of options and features. Clarify your needs and define your requirements before you purchase another endpoint management tool. Don’t purchase capabilities that you may never use.
    • Use the associated Endpoint Management Selection Tool spreadsheet to identify your desired endpoint solution features and compare vendor solution functionality based on your desired features.

    Manage Your Chromebooks and MacBooks Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Manage Your Chromebooks and MacBooks deck – MacBooks and Chromebooks are growing in popularity in enterprise and education environments, and now you have to manage them.

    Explore options, guidance and some best practices related to the management of Chromebooks and MacBooks in the enterprise environment and educational institutions. Our guidance will help you understand features and options available in a variety of solutions. We also provide guidance on selecting the best endpoint management solution for your own environment.

    • Manage Your Chromebooks and MacBooks Storyboard

    2. Endpoint Management Selection Tool – Select the best endpoint management tool for your environment. Build a table to compare endpoint management offerings in relation to the features and options desired by your organization.

    This tool will help you determine the features and options you want or need in an endpoint management solution.

    • Endpoint Management Selection Tool
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Manage Your Chromebooks and MacBooks

    Financial constraints, strategy, and your user base dictate the need for Chromebooks and MacBooks – now you have to manage them in your environment.

    Analyst Perspective

    Managing MacBooks and Chromebooks is similar to managing Windows devices in many ways and different in others. The tools have many common features, yet they struggle to achieve the same goals.

    Until recently, Windows devices dominated the workplace globally. Computing devices were also rare in many industries such as education. Administrators and administrative staff may have used Windows-based devices, but Chromebooks were not yet in use. Most universities and colleges were Windows-based in offices with some flavor of Unix in other areas, and Apple devices were gaining some popularity in certain circles.

    That is a stark contrast compared to today, where Chromebooks dominate the classrooms and MacBooks and Chromebooks are making significant inroads into the enterprise environment. MacBooks are also a common sight on many university campuses. There is no doubt that while Windows may still be the dominant player, it is far from the only one in town.

    Now that Chromebooks and MacBooks are a notable, if not significant, part of the education and enterprise environments, they must be afforded the same considerations as Windows devices in those environments when it comes to management. The good news is that there is no lack of available solutions for managing these devices, and the endpoint management landscape is continually evolving and improving.

    This is a picture of P.J. Ryan, Research Director, Infrastructure & Operations, Info-Tech Research Group

    P.J. Ryan
    Research Director, Infrastructure & Operations
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    • You modernized your end-user computing strategy and now have Windows 10 devices as well as MacBooks.
    • Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and desktop as a service (DaaS) are becoming popular. Chromebooks would be ideal as a low-cost interface into DaaS for your employees.
    • You are responsible for the management of all the new Chromebooks in your educational district.
    • Windows is no longer the only option. MacBooks and Chromebooks are justified, but now you have to manage them.

    Common Obstacles

    • Endpoint management solutions typically do a great job at managing one category of devices, like Windows or MacBooks, but they struggle to fully manage alternative endpoints.
    • Multiple solutions to manage multiple devices will result in multiple dashboards. A single view would be better.
    • One solution may not fit all, but multiple solutions is not desirable either, especially if you have Windows devices, MacBooks, and Chromebooks.

    Info-Tech's Approach

    • Use the tools at your disposal first – don't needlessly spend money if you don't have to. Many solutions can already manage other types of devices to some degree.
    • Use the integration capabilities of endpoint management tools. Many of them can integrate with each other to give you a single interface to manage multiple types of devices while taking advantage of additional functionality.
    • Don't purchase capabilities you will never use. Using 80% of a less expensive tool is economically smarter than using 10% of a more expensive tool.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Managing end-user devices may be accomplished with a variety of solutions, but many of those solutions advocate integration with a Microsoft-friendly solution to take advantage of features such as conditional access, security functionality, and data governance.

    Insight Summary

    Insight 1

    Google Admin Console is necessary to manage Chromebooks, but it can be paired with other tools. Implementation partnerships provide solutions to track the device lifecycle, track the repair lifecycle, sync with Google Admin Console as well as PowerSchool to provide a more complete picture of the user and device, and facilitate reminders to return the device, pay fees if necessary, pick up a device when a repair is complete, and more.

    Insight 2

    The Google Admin Console allows admins to follow an organizational unit (OU) structure very similar to what they may have used in Microsoft's Active Directory environment. This familiarity makes the task of administering Chromebooks easier for admins.

    Insight 3

    Chromebook management goes beyond securing and manipulating the device. Controls to protect the students while online, such as Safe Search and Safe Browsing, should also be implemented.

    Insight 4

    Most companies choose to use a dedicated MacBook management tool. Many unified endpoint management (UEM) tools can manage MacBooks to some extent, but admins tend to agree that a MacBook-focused endpoint management tool is best for MacBooks while a Windows-based endpoint management tool is best for Windows devices.

    Insight 5

    Some MacBook management solutions advocate integration with Windows UEM solutions to take advantage of Microsoft features such as conditional access, security functionality, and data governance. This approach can also be applied to Chromebooks.

    Chromebooks

    Chromebooks had a respectable share of the education market before 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic turbocharged the penetration of Chromebooks in the education industry.

    Chromebooks are also catching the attention of some decision makers in the enterprise environment.

    "In 2018, Chromebooks represented an incredible 60 percent of all laptop or tablet devices in K-12 -- up from zero percent when the first Chromebook launched during the summer break in 2011."
    – "Will Chromebooks Rule the Enterprise?" Computerworld

    "Chromebooks were the best performing PC products in Q3 2020, with shipment volume increasing to a record-high 9.4 million units, up a whopping 122% year-on-year."
    – Android Police

    "Until the pandemic, Chrome OS' success was largely limited to U.S. schools. Demand in 2020 appears to have expanded beyond that small but critical part of the U.S. PC market."
    – Geekwire

    "In addition to running a huge number of Chrome Extensions and Apps at once, Chromebooks also run Android, Linux and Windows apps."
    – "Will Chromebooks Rule the Enterprise?" Computerworld

    Managing Chromebooks

    Start with the Google Admin Console (GAC)

    GAC is necessary to initially manage Chrome OS devices.

    GAC gives you a centralized console that will allow you to:

    • Create organizational units
    • Add your Chromebook devices
    • Add users
    • Assign users to devices
    • Create groups
    • Create and assign policies
    • Plus more

    GAC can facilitate device management with features such as:

    • Control admin permissions
    • Encryption and update settings
    • App deployment, screen timeout settings
    • Perform a device wipe if required
    • Audit user activity on a device
    • Plus more

    Device and user addition, group and organizational unit creation and administration, applying policies to devices and users – does all this remind you of your Active Directory environment?

    GAC lets you administer users and devices with a similar approach.

    Managing Chromebooks

    Use Active Directory to manage Chromebooks.

    • Enable Active Directory (AD) management from within GAC and you will be able to integrate your Chromebook devices with your AD environment.
    • Devices will be visible in both the GAC and AD environment.
    • Use Windows Group Policy to manage devices and to push policies to users and devices.
    • Users can use their AD username and password to sign into Chromebook devices.
    • GAC can still be used for devices that are not synced with AD.

    Chromebooks can also be managed through these approved partners:

    • Cisco Meraki
    • Citrix XenMobile
    • IBM MaaS360
    • ManageEngine Mobile Device Manager Plus
    • VMware Workspace ONE

    Source: Google

    You must be running the Chrome Enterprise Upgrade and have any licenses required by the approved partner to take advantage of this management option. The partner admin policies supersede GAC.

    If you stop using the approved partner admin console to manage your devices, the polices and settings in GAC will immediately take over the devices.

    Microsoft still has the market share when it comes to device sales, and many administrators are already familiar with Microsoft's Active Directory. Google took advantage of that familiarity when it designed the Google Admin Console structure for users, groups, and organizational units.

    Chromebook Deployment

    Chromebook deployment becomes a challenge when device quantities grow. The enrollment process can be time consuming, and every device must be enrolled before it can be used by an employee or a student. Many admins enlist their full IT teams to assist in the short term. Some vendor partners may assist with distribution options if staffing levels permit. Recent developments from Google have opened additional options for device enrollment beyond the manual enrollment approach.

    Enrolling Chromebooks comes down to one of two approaches:

    1. Manually enrolling one device at a time
      • Users can assist by entering some identifying details during the enrollment if permitted.
      • Some third-party solutions exist, such as USB drives to reduce repetitive keystrokes or hubs to facilitate manually enrolling multiple Chromebooks simultaneously.
    2. Google's Chrome Enterprise Upgrade or the Chrome Education Upgrade
      • This allows you to let your users enroll devices after they accept the end-user license agreement.
      • You can take advantage of Google's vendor partner program and use a zero-touch deployment method where the Chromebook devices automatically receive the assigned policies, apps, and settings as soon as the device is powered on and an authorized user signs in.
      • The Enterprise Upgrade and the Education Upgrade do come with an annual cost per device, which is currently less than US$50.
      • The Enterprise and Education Upgrades come with other features as well, such as enhanced security.

    Chromebooks are automatically assigned to the top-level organizational unit (OU) when enrolled. Devices can be manually moved to another OU, but admins can also create enrollment policies to place newly enrolled devices in a specific OU or have the device locate itself in the same OU as the user.

    Chromebooks in Education

    GAC is also used with Education-licensed devices

    Most of the settings and features previously mentioned are also available for Education-licensed devices and users. Enterprise-specific features will not be available to Education licenses. (Active Directory integration with Education licenses, for example, is accomplished using a different approach)

    • Groups, policies, administrative controls, app deployment and management, adding devices and users, creating organizational units, and more features are all available to Education Admins to use.

    Education device policies and settings tend to focus more on protecting the students with controls such as:

    • Disable incognito mode
    • Disable location tracking
    • Disable external storage devices
    • Browser based protections such as Safe Search or Safe Browsing
    • URL blocking
    • Video input disable for websites
    • App installation prevention, auto re-install, and app blocking
    • Forced re-enrollment to your domain after a device is wiped
    • Disable Guest Mode
    • Restrict who can sign in
    • Audit user activity on a device

    When a student takes home a Chromebook assigned to them, that Chromebook may be the only computer in the household. Administrative polices and settings must take into account the fact that the device may have multiple users accessing many different sites and applications when the device is outside of the school environment.

    Chromebook Management Extended

    An online search for Chromebook management solutions will reveal several software solutions that augment the capabilities of the Google Admin Console. Many of these solutions are focused on the education sector and classroom and student options, although the features would be beneficial to enterprises and educational organizations alike.

    These solutions assist or augment Chromebook management with features such as:

    • Ability to sync with Google Admin Console
    • Ability to sync with student information systems, such as PowerSchool
    • Financial management, purchase details, and chargeback
    • Asset lifecycle management
    • 1:1 Chromebook distribution management
    • Repair programs and repair process management
    • Check-out/loan program management
    • Device distribution/allocation management, including barcode reader integration
    • Simple learning material distribution to the classroom for teachers
    • Facilitate GAC bulk operations
    • Manage inventory of non-IT assets such as projectors, TVs, and other educational assets
    • Plus more

    "There are many components to managing Chromebooks. Schools need to know which student has which device, which school has which device, and costs relating to repairs. Chromebook Management Software … facilitates these processes."
    – VIZOR

    MacBooks

    • MacBooks are gaining popularity in the Enterprise world.
    • Some admins claim MacBooks are less expensive in the long run over Windows-based PCs.
    • Users claim less issues when using a MacBook, and overall, companies report increased retention rates when users are using MacBooks.

    "Macs now make up 23% of endpoints in enterprises."
    – ComputerWeekly.com

    "When given the choice, no less than 72% of employees choose Macs over PCs."
    – "5 Reasons Mac is a must," Jamf

    "IBM says it is 3X more expensive to manage PCs than Macs."
    – Computerworld

    "74% of those who previously used a PC for work experienced fewer issues now that they use a Mac"
    – "Global Survey: Mac in the Enterprise," Jamf

    "When enterprise moves to Mac, staff retention rates improve by 20%. That's quite a boost! "
    – "5 Reasons Mac is a must," Jamf

    Managing MacBooks

    Can your existing UEM keep up?

    Many Windows unified endpoint management (UEM) tools can manage MacBooks, but most companies choose to use a dedicated MacBook management tool.

    • UEM tools that are primarily Windows focused do not typically go deep enough into the management capabilities of non-Windows devices.
    • Admins have noted limitations when it comes to using Windows UEM tools, and reasons they prefer a dedicated MacBook management solution include:
      • Easier to use
      • Faster response times when deploying settings and policies
      • Better control over notification settings and lock screen settings.
      • Easier Apple Business Manager (ABM) integration and provisioning.
    • Note that not every UEM will have the same limitations or advantages. Functionality is different between vendor products.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Most Windows UEM tools are constantly improving, and it is only a matter of time before they rival many of the dedicated MacBook management tools out there.

    Admins tend to agree that a Windows UEM is best for Windows while an Apple-based UEM is best for Apple devices.

    Managing MacBooks

    The market for "MacBook-first" management solutions includes a variety of players of varying ages such as:

    • Jamf
    • Kandji
    • Mosyle
    • SimpleMDM
    • Others

    MacBook-focused management tools can provide features such as:

    • Encryption and update settings
    • App deployment and lifecycle management
    • Remote device wipe, scan, shutdown, restart, and lock
    • Zero touch deployment and support
    • Location tracking
    • Browser content filtering
    • Enable, hide/block, or disable built-in features
    • Configure Wi-Fi, VPN, and certificate-based settings
    • Centralized dashboard with device and app listings as well as individual details
    • Data restrictions
    • Plus more

    Unified endpoint management (UEM) solutions that can provide MacBook management to some degree include (but are not limited to):

    • Intune
    • Ivanti
    • Endpoint Central
    • WorkspaceOne

    Dedicated solutions advocate integration with UEM solutions to take advantage of conditional access, security functionality, and data governance features.

    Jamf and Microsoft entered into a collaboration several years ago with the intention of making the MacBook management process easier and more secure.

    Microsoft Intune and Jamf Pro: Better together to manage and secure Macs
    Microsoft Conditional Access with Jamf Pro ensures that company data is only accessed by trusted users, on trusted devices, using trusted apps. Jamf extends this Enterprise Mobile + Security (EMS) functionality to Mac, iPhone and iPad.
    – "Microsoft Intune and Jamf Pro," Jamf

    Endpoint Management Selection Tool
    Activity

    There are many solutions available to manage end-user devices, and they come with a long list of options and features. Clarify your needs and define your requirements before you purchase another endpoint management tool. Don't purchase capabilities that you may never use.

    Use the Endpoint Management Selection Tool to identify your desired endpoint solution features and compare vendor solution functionality based on your desired features.

    1. List out the desired features you want in an endpoint solution for your devices and record those features in the first column. Use the features provided, or add your own and edit or delete the existing ones if necessary.
    2. List your selected endpoint management solution vendors in each of the columns in place of "Vendor 1," "Vendor 2," etc.
    3. Fill out the spreadsheet by changing the corresponding desired feature cell under each vendor to a "yes" or "no" based on your findings while investigating each vendor solution.
    4. When you have finished your investigation, review your spreadsheet to compare the various offerings and pros and cons of each vendor.
    5. Select your endpoint management solution.

    Endpoint Management Selection Tool

    In the first column, list out the desired features you want in an endpoint solution for your devices. Use the features provided if desired, or add your own and edit or delete the existing ones if necessary. As you look into various endpoint management solution vendors, list them in the columns in place of "Vendor 1," "Vendor 2," etc. Use the "Desired Feature" list as a checklist and change the values to "yes" or "no" in the corresponding box under the vendors' names. When complete, you will be able to look at all the features and compare vendors in a single table.

    Desired Feature Vendor 1 Vendor 2 Vendor 3
    Organizational unit creation Yes No Yes
    Group creation Yes Yes Yes
    Ability to assign users to devices No Yes Yes
    Control of administrative permissions Yes Yes Yes
    Conditional access No Yes Yes
    Security policies enforced Yes No Yes
    Asset management No Yes No
    Single sign-on Yes Yes Yes
    Auto-deployment No Yes No
    Repair lifecycle tracking No Yes No
    Application deployment Yes Yes No
    Device tracking Yes Yes Yes
    Ability to enable encryption Yes No Yes
    Device wipe Yes No Yes
    Ability to enable/disable device tracking No No Yes
    User activity audit No No No

    Related Info-Tech Research

    this is a screenshot from Info-Tech's Modernize and Transform Your End-User Computing Strategy.

    Modernize and Transform Your End-User Computing Strategy
    This project helps support the workforce of the future by answering the following questions: What types of computing devices, provisioning models, and operating systems should be offered to end users? How will IT support devices? What are the policies and governance surrounding how devices are used? What actions are we taking and when? How do end-user devices support larger corporate priorities and strategies?

    Best Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) Software 2022 | SoftwareReviews
    Compare and evaluate unified endpoint management vendors using the most in-depth and unbiased buyer reports available. Download free comprehensive 40+ page reports to select the best unified endpoint management software for your organization.

    Best Enterprise Mobile Management (EMM) Software 2022 | (softwarereviews.com)
    Compare and evaluate enterprise mobile management vendors using the most in-depth and unbiased buyer reports available. Download free comprehensive 40+ page reports to select the best enterprise mobile management software for your organization.

    Bibliography

    Bridge, Tom. "Macs in the enterprise – what you need to know". Computerweekly.com, TechTarget. 27 May 2022. Accessed 12 Aug. 2022.
    Copley-Woods, Haddayr. "5 reasons Mac is a must in the enterprise". Jamf.com, Jamf. 28 June 2022. Accessed 16 Aug. 2022.
    Duke, Kent. "Chromebook sales skyrocketed in Q3 2020 with online education fueling demand." androidpolice.com, Android Police. 16 Nov 2020. Accessed 10 Aug. 2022.
    Elgin, Mike. "Will Chromebooks Rule the Enterprise? (5 Reasons They May)". Computerworld.com, Computerworld. 30 Aug 2019. Accessed 10 Aug. 2022.
    Evans, Jonny. "IBM says it is 3X more expensive to manage PCs than Macs". Computerworld.com, Computerworld. 19 Oct 2016. Accessed 23 Aug. 2022.
    "Global Survey: Mac in the Enterprise". Jamf.com, Jamf. Accessed 16 Aug. 2022.
    "How to Manage Chromebooks Like a Pro." Vizor.cloud, VIZOR. Accessed 10 Aug. 2022.
    "Manage Chrome OS Devices with EMM Console". support.google.com, Google. Accessed 16 Aug. 2022.
    Protalinski, Emil. "Chromebooks outsold Macs worldwide in 2020, cutting into Windows market share". Geekwire.com, Geekwire. 16 Feb 2021. Accessed 22 Aug. 2022.
    Smith, Sean. "Microsoft Intune and Jamf Pro: Better together to manage and secure Macs". Jamf.com, Jamf. 20 April 2022. Accessed 16 Aug. 2022.

    Map Technical Skills for a Changing Infrastructure & Operations Organization

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    • Parent Category Name: Strategy and Organizational Design
    • Parent Category Link: /strategy-and-organizational-design
    • Infrastructure & Operations is changing rapidly. It’s a constant challenge to find the right skills to support the next new technology while at the same time maintaining the skills in house that allow you to support your existing platforms.
    • A lack of clarity around required skills makes finding the right skills difficult, and it’s not clear whether you should train, hire, contract, or outsource to address gaps.
    • You need to keep up with changes and new strategy while continuing to support your existing environment.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Take a strategic approach to acquiring skills – looking only as far as the needs of the next project will lead to a constant skills shortage with no plan for it to be addressed.
    • Begin by identifying your future state. Identify needed skills in the organization to support planned projects and initiatives, and to mitigate skills-related risks.

    Impact and Result

    • Leverage your infrastructure roadmap and cloud strategy to identify needed skills in your future state environment.
    • Decide how you’ll acquire needed skills based on the characteristics of need for each skill.
    • Communicate the change and create a plan of action for the skills transformation.

    Map Technical Skills for a Changing Infrastructure & Operations Organization Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should map technical skills for a changing Infrastructure & Operations organization, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Identify skills needs for the future state environment

    Identify what skills are needed based on where the organization is going.

    • Map Technical Skills for a Changing Infrastructure & Operations Organization – Phase 1: Identify Skills Needs for Your Future State Environment
    • Future State Playbook
    • IT/Cloud Solutions Architect
    • IT/Cloud Engineer
    • IT/Cloud Administrator
    • IT/Cloud Demand Billing & Accounting Analyst

    2. Acquire needed skills

    Ground skills acquisition decisions in the characteristics of need.

    • Map Technical Skills for a Changing Infrastructure & Operations Organization – Phase 2: Acquire Needed Skills
    • Technical Skills Map

    3. Maximize the value of the skills map

    Get stakeholder buy-in; leverage the skills map in other processes.

    • Map Technical Skills for a Changing Infrastructure & Operations Organization – Phase 3: Maximize the Value of Your Skills Map
    • Technical Skills Map Communication Deck Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Map Technical Skills for a Changing Infrastructure & Operations Organization

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Review Initiatives and Skills-Related Risks

    The Purpose

    Identify process and skills changes required by the future state of your environment.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Set foundation for alignment between strategy-defined technology initiatives and needed skills.

    Activities

    1.1 Review the list of initiatives and projects with the group.

    1.2 Identify how key support, operational, and deployment processes will change through planned initiatives.

    1.3 Identify skills-related risks and pain points.

    Outputs

    Future State Playbook

    2 Identify Needed Skills and Roles

    The Purpose

    Identify process and skills changes required by the future state of your environment.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Set foundation for alignment between strategy-defined technology initiatives and needed skills.

    Activities

    2.1 Identify skills required to support the new environment.

    2.2 Map required skills to roles.

    Outputs

    IT/Cloud Architect Role Description

    IT/Cloud Engineer Role Description

    IT/Cloud Administrator Role Description

    3 Create a Plan to Acquire Needed Skills

    The Purpose

    Create a skills acquisition strategy based on the characteristics of need.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Optimal skills acquisition strategy defined.

    Activities

    3.1 Modify impact scoring scale for key skills decision factors.

    3.2 Apply impact scoring scales to needed skills

    3.3 Decide whether to train, hire, contract, or outsource to acquire needed skills.

    Outputs

    Technical Skills Map

    4 Develop a Communication Plan

    The Purpose

    Create an effective communication plan for different stakeholders across the organization.

    Identify opportunities to leverage the skills map elsewhere.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Create a concise, clear, consistent, and relevant change message for stakeholders across the organization.

    Activities

    4.1 Review skills decisions and decide how you will acquire skills in each role.

    4.2 Update roles descriptions.

    4.3 Create a change message.

    4.4 Identify opportunities to leverage the skills map in other processes.

    Outputs

    Technical Skills Map Communication Deck

    Optimize IT Change Management

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}409|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.5/10 Overall Impact
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    • Parent Category Name: Operations Management
    • Parent Category Link: /i-and-o-process-management
    • Infrastructure managers and change managers need to re-evaluate their change management processes due to slow change turnaround time, too many unauthorized changes, too many incidents and outages because of poorly managed changes, or difficulty evaluating and prioritizing changes.
    • IT system owners often resist change management because they see it as slow and bureaucratic.
    • Infrastructure changes are often seen as different from application changes, and two (or more) processes may exist.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • ITIL provides a usable framework for change management, but full process rigor is not appropriate for every change request.
    • You need to design a process that is flexible enough to meet the demand for change, and strict enough to protect the live environment from change-related incidents.
    • A mature change management process will minimize review and approval activity. Counterintuitively, with experience in implementing changes, risk levels decline to a point where most changes are “pre-approved.”

    Impact and Result

    • Create a unified change management process that reduces risk. The process should be balanced in its approach toward deploying changes while also maintaining throughput of innovation and enhancements.
    • Categorize changes based on an industry-standard risk model with objective measures of impact and likelihood.
    • Establish and empower a change manager and change advisory board with the authority to manage, approve, and prioritize changes.
    • Integrate a configuration management database with the change management process to identify dependencies.

    Optimize IT Change Management Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should optimize change management, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    • Optimize IT Change Management – Phases 1-4

    1. Define change management

    Assess the maturity of your existing change management practice and define the scope of change management for your organization.

    • Change Management Maturity Assessment Tool
    • Change Management Risk Assessment Tool

    2. Establish roles and workflows

    Build your change management team and standardized process workflows for each change type.

    • Change Manager
    • Change Management Process Library – Visio
    • Change Management Process Library – PDF
    • Change Management Standard Operating Procedure

    3. Define the RFC and post-implementation activities

    Bookend your change management practice by standardizing change intake, implementation, and post-implementation activities.

    • Request for Change Form Template
    • Change Management Pre-Implementation Checklist
    • Change Management Post-Implementation Checklist

    4. Measure, manage, and maintain

    Form an implementation plan for the project, including a metrics evaluation, change calendar inputs, communications plan, and roadmap.

    • Change Management Metrics Tool
    • Change Management Communications Plan
    • Change Management Roadmap Tool
    • Optimize IT Change Management Improvement Initiative: Project Summary Template

    [infographic]

    Workshop: Optimize IT Change Management

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Define Change Management

    The Purpose

    Discuss the existing challenges and maturity of your change management practice.

    Build definitions of change categories and the scope of change management.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understand the starting point and scope of change management.

    Understand the context of change request versus other requests such as service requests, projects, and operational tasks.

    Activities

    1.1 Outline strengths and challenges

    1.2 Conduct a maturity assessment

    1.3 Build a categorization scheme

    1.4 Build a risk assessment matrix

    Outputs

    Change Management Maturity Assessment Tool

    Change Management Risk Assessment Tool

    2 Establish Roles and Workflows

    The Purpose

    Define roles and responsibilities for the change management team.

    Develop a standardized change management practice for approved changes, including process workflows.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Built the team to support your new change management practice.

    Develop a formalized and right-sized change management practice for each change category. This will ensure all changes follow the correct process and core activities to confirm changes are completed successfully.

    Activities

    2.1 Define the change manager role

    2.2 Outline the membership and protocol for the Change Advisory Board (CAB)

    2.3 Build workflows for normal, emergency, and pre-approved changes

    Outputs

    Change Manager Job Description

    Change Management Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)

    Change Management Process Library

    3 Define the RFC and Post-Implementation Activities

    The Purpose

    Create a new change intake process, including a new request for change (RFC) form.

    Develop post-implementation review activities to be completed for every IT change.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Bookend your change management practice by standardizing change intake, implementation, and post-implementation activities.

    Activities

    3.1 Define the RFC template

    3.2 Determine post-implementation activities

    3.3 Build your change calendar protocol

    Outputs

    Request for Change Form Template

    Change Management Post-Implementation Checklist

    Project Summary Template

    4 Measure, Manage, and Maintain

    The Purpose

    Develop a plan and project roadmap for reaching your target for your change management program maturity.

    Develop a communications plan to ensure the successful adoption of the new program.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A plan and project roadmap for reaching target change management program maturity.

    A communications plan ready for implementation.

    Activities

    4.1 Identify metrics and reports

    4.2 Build a communications plan

    4.3 Build your implementation roadmap

    Outputs

    Change Management Metrics Tool

    Change Management Communications Plan

    Change Management Roadmap Tool

    Further reading

    Optimize IT Change Management

    Right-size IT change management practice to protect the live environment.

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Analyst Perspective

    Balance risk and efficiency to optimize IT change management.

    Change management (change enablement, change control) is a balance of efficiency and risk. That is, pushing changes out in a timely manner while minimizing the risk of deployment. On the one hand, organizations can attempt to avoid all risk and drown the process in rubber stamps, red tape, and bureaucracy. On the other hand, organizations can ignore process and push out changes as quickly as possible, which will likely lead to change related incidents and debilitating outages.

    Right-sizing the process does not mean adopting every recommendation from best-practice frameworks. It means balancing the efficiency of change request fulfillment with minimizing risk to your organization. Furthermore, creating a process that encourages adherence is key to avoid change implementers from skirting your process altogether.

    Benedict Chang, Research Analyst, Infrastructure and Operations, Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Infrastructure and application change occurs constantly and is driven by changing business needs, requests for new functionality, operational releases and patches, and resolution of incidents or problems detected by the service desk.

    IT managers need to follow a standard change management process to ensure that rogue changes are never deployed while the organization remains responsive to demand.

    Common Obstacles

    IT system owners often resist change management because they see it as slow and bureaucratic.

    At the same time, an increasingly interlinked technical environment may cause issues to appear in unexpected places. Configuration management systems are often not kept up-to-date and do not catch the potential linkages.

    Infrastructure changes are often seen as “different” from application changes and two (or more) processes may exist.

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    Info-Tech’s approach will help you:

    • Create a unified change management practice that balances risk and throughput of innovation.
    • Categorize changes based on an industry-standard risk model with objective measures of impact and likelihood.
    • Establish and empower a Change Manager and Change Advisory Board (CAB) with the authority to manage, approve, and prioritize changes.

    Balance Risk and Efficiency to Optimize IT Change Management

    Two goals of change management are to protect the live environment and deploying changes in a timely manner. These two may seem to sometimes be at odds against each other, but assessing risk at multiple points of a change’s lifecycle can help you achieve both.

    Your challenge

    This research is designed to help organizations who need to:

    • Build a right-sized change management practice that encourages adherence and balances efficiency and risk.
    • Integrate the change management practice with project management, service desk processes, configuration management, and other areas of IT and the business.
    • Communicate the benefits and impact of change management to all the stakeholders affected by the process.

    Change management is heavily reliant on organizational culture

    Having a right-sized process is not enough. You need to build and communicate the process to gather adherence. The process is useless if stakeholders are not aware of it or do not follow it.

    Increase the Effectiveness of Change Management in Your Organization

    The image is a bar graph, with the segments labelled 1 and 2. The y-axis lists numbers 1-10. Segment 1 is at 6.2, and segment 2 is at 8.6.

    Of the eight infrastructure & operations processes measured in Info-Tech’s IT Management and Governance Diagnostic (MGD) program, change management has the second largest gap between importance and effectiveness of these processes.

    Source: Info-Tech 2020; n=5,108 IT professionals from 620 organizations

    Common obstacles

    These barriers make this challenge difficult to address for many organizations:

    • Gaining buy-in can be a challenge no matter how well the process is built.
    • The complexity of the IT environment and culture of tacit knowledge for configuration makes it difficult to assess cross-dependencies of changes.
    • Each silo or department may have their own change management workflows that they follow internally. This can make it difficult to create a unified process that works well for everyone.

    “Why should I fill out an RFC when it only takes five minutes to push through my change?”

    “We’ve been doing this for years. Why do we need more bureaucracy?”

    “We don’t need change management if we’re Agile.”

    “We don’t have the right tools to even start change management.”

    “Why do I have to attend a CAB meeting when I don’t care what other departments are doing?”

    Info-Tech’s approach

    Build change management by implementing assessments and stage gates around appropriate levels of the change lifecycle.

    The image is a circle, comprised of arrows, with each arrow pointing to the next, forming a cycle. Each arrow is labelled, as follows: Improve; Request; Assess; Plan; Approve; Implement

    The Info-Tech difference:

    1. Create a unified change management process that balances risk and throughput of innovation.
    2. Categorize changes based on an industry-standard risk model with objective measures of impact and likelihood.
    3. Establish and empower a Change Manager and Change Advisory Board (CAB) with the authority to manage, approve, and prioritize changes.

    IT change is constant and is driven by:

    Change Management:

    1. Operations - Operational releases, maintenance, vendor-driven updates, and security updates can all be key drivers of change. Example: ITSM version update
      • Major Release
      • Maintenance Release
      • Security Patch
    2. Business - Business-driven changes may include requests from other business departments that require IT’s support. Examples: New ERP or HRIS implementation
      • New Application
      • New Version
    3. Service desk → Incident & Problem - Some incident and problem tickets require a change to facilitate resolution of the incident. Examples: Outage necessitating update of an app (emergency change), a user request for new functionality to be added to an existing app
      • Workaround
      • Fix
    4. Configuration Management Database (CMDB) ↔ Asset Management - In addition to software and hardware asset dependencies, a configuration management database (CMDB) is used to keep a record of changes and is queried to assess change requests.
      • Hardware
      • Software

    Insight summary

    “The scope of change management is defined by each organization…the purpose of change management is to maximize the number of successful service and product changes by ensuring that the risk have been properly assessed, authorizing changes to process, and managing the change schedule.” – ALEXOS Limited, ITIL 4

    Build a unified change management process balancing risk and change throughput.

    Building a unified process that oversees all changes to the technical environment doesn’t have to be burdensome to be effective. However, the process is a necessary starting point to identifying cross dependencies and avoiding change collisions and change-related incidents.

    Use an objective framework for estimating risk

    Simply asking, “What is the risk?” will result in subjective responses that will likely minimize the perceived risk. The level of due diligence should align to the criticality of the systems or departments potentially impacted by the proposed changes.

    Integrate your change process with your IT service management system

    Change management in isolation will provide some stability, but maturing the process through service integrations will enable data-driven decisions, decrease bureaucracy, and enable faster and more stable throughput.

    Change management and DevOps can work together effectively

    Change and DevOps tend to be at odds, but the framework does not have to change. Lower risk changes in DevOps are prime candidates for the pre-approved category. Much of the responsibility traditionally assigned to the CAB can be diffused throughout the software development lifecycle.

    Change management and DevOps can coexist

    Shift the responsibility and rigor to earlier in the process.

    • If you are implementing change management in a DevOps environment, ensure you have a strong DevOps lifecycle. You may wish to refer to Info-Tech’s research Implementing DevOps Practices That Work.
    • Consider starting in this blueprint by visiting Appendix II to frame your approach to change management. Follow the blueprint while paying attention to the DevOps Callouts.

    DEVOPS CALLOUTS

    Look for these DevOps callouts throughout this storyboard to guide you along the implementation.

    The image is a horizontal figure eight, with 7 arrows, each pointing into the next. They are labelled are follows: Plan; Create; Verify; Package; Release; Configure; Monitor. At the centre of the circles are the words Dev and Ops.

    Successful change management will provide benefits to both the business and IT

    Respond to business requests faster while reducing the number of change-related disruptions.

    IT Benefits

    • Fewer change-related incidents and outages
    • Faster change turnaround time
    • Higher rate of change success
    • Less change rework
    • Fewer service desk calls related to poorly communicated changes

    Business Benefits

    • Fewer service disruptions
    • Faster response to requests for new and enhanced functionalities
    • Higher rate of benefits realization when changes are implemented
    • Lower cost per change
    • Fewer “surprise” changes disrupting productivity

    IT satisfaction with change management will drive business satisfaction with IT. Once the process is working efficiently, staff will be more motivated to adhere to the process, reducing the number of unauthorized changes. As fewer changes bypass proper evaluation and testing, service disruptions will decrease and business satisfaction will increase.

    Change management improves core benefits to the business: the four Cs

    Most organizations have at least some form of change control in place, but formalizing change management leads to the four Cs of business benefits:

    Control

    Change management brings daily control over the IT environment, allowing you to review every relatively new change, eliminate changes that would have likely failed, and review all changes to improve the IT environment.

    Collaboration

    Change management planning brings increased communication and collaboration across groups by coordinating changes with business activities. The CAB brings a more formalized and centralized communication method for IT.

    Consistency

    Request for change templates and a structured process result in implementation, test, and backout plans being more consistent. Implementing processes for pre-approved changes also ensures these frequent changes are executed consistently and efficiently.

    Confidence

    Change management processes will give your organization more confidence through more accurate planning, improved execution of changes, less failure, and more control over the IT environment. This also leads to greater protection against audits.

    You likely need to improve change management more than any other infrastructure & operations process

    The image shows a vertical bar graph. Each segment of the graph is labelled for an infrastructure/operations process. Each segment has two bars one for effectiveness, and another for importance. The first segment, Change Management, is highlighted, with its Effectiveness at a 6.2 and Importance at 8.6

    Source: Info-Tech 2020; n=5,108 IT Professionals from 620 organizations

    Of the eight infrastructure and operations processes measured in Info-Tech’s IT Management and Governance Diagnostic (MGD) program, change management consistently has the second largest gap between importance and effectiveness of these processes.

    Executives and directors recognize the importance of change management but feel theirs is currently ineffective

    Info-Tech’s IT Management and Governance Diagnostic (MGD) program assesses the importance and effectiveness of core IT processes. Since its inception, the MGD has consistently identified change management as an area for immediate improvement.

    The image is a vertical bar graph, with four segments, each having 2 bars, one for Effectiveness and the other for Importance. The four segments are (with Effectiveness and Importance ratings in brackets, respectively): Frontline (6.5/8.6); Manager (6.6/8.9); Director (6.4/8.8); and Executive (6.1/8.8)

    Source: Info-Tech 2020; n=5,108 IT Professionals from 620 organizations

    Importance Scores

    No importance: 1.0-6.9

    Limited importance: 7.0-7.9

    Significant importance: 8.0-8.9

    Critical importance: 9.0-10.0

    Effectiveness Scores

    Not in place: n/a

    Not effective: 0.0-4.9

    Somewhat Ineffective: 5.0-5.9

    Somewhat effective: 6.0-6.9

    Very effective: 7.0-10.0

    There are several common misconceptions about change management

    Which of these have you heard in your organization?

     Reality
    “It’s just a small change; this will only take five minutes to do.” Even a small change can cause a business outage. That small fix could impact a large system connected to the one being fixed.
    “Ad hoc is faster; too many processes slow things down.” Ad hoc might be faster in some cases, but it carries far greater risk. Following defined processes keeps systems stable and risk-averse.
    “Change management is all about speed.” Change management is about managing risk. It gives the illusion of speed by reducing downtime and unplanned work.
    “Change management will limit our capacity to change.” Change management allows for a better alignment of process (release management) with governance (change management).

    Overcome perceived challenges to implementing change management to reap measurable reward

    Before: Informal Change Management

    Change Approval:

    • Changes do not pass through a formal review process before implementation.
    • 10% of released changes are approved.
    • Implementation challenge: Staff will resist having to submit formal change requests and assessments, frustrated at the prospect of having to wait longer to have changes approved.

    Change Prioritization

    • Changes are not prioritized according to urgency, risk, and impact.
    • 60% of changes are urgent.
    • Implementation challenge: Influential stakeholders accustomed to having changes approved and deployed might resist having to submit changes to a standard cost-benefit analysis.

    Change Deployment

    • Changes often negatively impact user productivity.
    • 25% of changes are realized as planned.
    • Implementation challenge: Engaging the business so that formal change freeze periods and regular maintenance windows can be established.

    After: Right-Sized Change Management

    Change Approval

    • All changes pass through a formal review process. Once a change is repeatable and well-tested, it can be pre-approved to save time. Almost no unauthorized changes are deployed.
    • 95% of changes are approved.
    • KPI: Decrease in change-related incidents

    Change Prioritization

    • The CAB prioritizes changes so that the business is satisfied with the speed of change deployment.
    • 35% of changes are urgent.
    • KPI: Decrease in change turnaround time.

    Change deployment

    • Users are always aware of impending changes and changes don’t interrupt critical business activities.
    • Over 80% of changes are realized as planned
    • KPI: Decrease in the number of failed deployments.

    Info-Tech’s methodology for change management optimization focuses on building standardized processes

     1. Define Change Management2. Establish Roles and Workflows3. Define the RFC and Post-Implementation Activities4. Measure, Manage, and Maintain
    Phase Steps

    1.1 Assess Maturity

    1.2 Categorize Changes and Build Your Risk Assessment

    2.1 Determine Roles and Responsibilities

    2.2 Build Core Workflows

    3.1 Design the RFC

    3.2 Establish Post-Implementation Activities

    4.1 Identify Metrics and Build the Change Calendar

    4.2 Implement the Project

      Change Management Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) Change Management Project Summary Template
    Phase Deliverables
    • Change Management Maturity Assessment Tool
    • Change Management Risk Assessment Tool
    • Change Manager Job Description
    • Change Management Process Library
    • Request for Change (RFC) Form Template
    • Change Management Pre-Implementation Checklist
    • Change Management Post-Implementation Checklist
    • Change Management Metrics Tool
    • Change Management
    • Communications Plan
    • Change Management Roadmap Tool

    Blueprint deliverables

    Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals:

    Change Management Process Library

    Document your normal, pre-approved, and emergency change lifecycles with the core process workflows .

    Change Management Risk Assessment Tool

    Test Drive your impact and likelihood assessment questionnaires with the Change Management Risk Assessment Tool.

    Project Summary Template

    Summarize your efforts in the Optimize IT Change Management Improvement Initiative: Project Summary Template.

    Change Management Roadmap Tool

    Record your action items and roadmap your steps to a mature change management process.

    Key Deliverable:

    Change Management SOP

    Document and formalize your process starting with the change management standard operating procedure (SOP).

    These case studies illustrate the value of various phases of this project

    Define Change Management

    Establish Roles and Workflows

    Define RFC and Post-Implementation Activities

    Measure, Manage, and Maintain

    A major technology company implemented change management to improve productivity by 40%. This case study illustrates the full scope of the project.

    A large technology firm experienced a critical outage due to poor change management practices. This case study illustrates the scope of change management definition and strategy.

    Ignorance of change management process led to a technology giant experiencing a critical cloud outage. This case study illustrates the scope of the process phase.

    A manufacturing company created a makeshift CMDB in the absence of a CMDB to implement change management. This case study illustrates the scope of change intake.

    A financial institution tracked and recorded metrics to aid in the success of their change management program. This case study illustrates the scope of the implementation phase.

    Working through this project with Info-Tech can save you time and money

    Engaging in a Guided Implementation doesn’t just offer valuable project advice, it also results in significant cost savings.

    Guided ImplementationMeasured Vale
    Phase 1: Define Change Management
    • We estimate Phase 1 activities will take 2 FTEs 10 days to complete on their own, but the time saved by using Info-Tech’s methodology will cut that time in half, thereby saving $3,100 (2 FTEs * 5 days * $80,000/year).

    Phase 2: Establish Roles and Workflows

    • We estimate Phase 2 will take 2 FTEs 10 days to complete on their own, but the time saved by using Info-Tech’s methodology will cut that time in half, thereby saving $3,100 (2 FTEs * 5 days * $80,000/year).
    Phase 3: Define the RFC and Post-Implementation Activities
    • We estimate Phase 3 will take 2 FTEs 10 days to complete on their own, but the time saved by using Info-Tech’s methodology will cut that time in half, thereby saving $3,100 (2 FTEs * 5 days * $80,000/year).

    Phase 4: Measure, Manage, and Maintain

    • We estimate Phase 4 will take 2 FTEs 5 days to complete on their own, but the time saved by using Info-Tech’s methodology will cut that time in half, thereby saving $1,500 (2 FTEs * 2.5 days * $80,000/year).
    Total Savings $10,800

    Case Study

    Industry: Technology

    Source: Daniel Grove, Intel

    Intel implemented a robust change management program and experienced a 40% improvement in change efficiency.

    Founded in 1968, the world’s largest microchip and semiconductor company employs over 100,000 people. Intel manufactures processors for major players in the PC market including Apple, Lenovo, HP, and Dell.

    ITIL Change Management Implementation

    With close to 4,000 changes occurring each week, managing Intel’s environment is a formidable task. Before implementing change management within the organization, over 35% of all unscheduled downtime was due to errors resulting from change and release management. Processes were ad hoc or scattered across the organization and no standards were in place.

    Results

    After a robust implementation of change management, Intel experienced a number of improvements including automated approvals, the implementation of a formal change calendar, and an automated RFC form. As a result, Intel improved change productivity by 40% within the first year of the program’s implementation.

    Define Change Management

    Establish Roles and Workflows

    Define RFC and Post-Implementation Activities

    Measure, Manage, and Maintain

    Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

    DIY Toolkit

    "Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful."

    Guided Implementation

    "Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track."

    Workshop

    "We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place."

    Consulting

    "Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project."

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks are used throughout all four options.

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    A Guided Implementation (GI) is series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

    A typical GI is between 8 to 12 calls over the course of 4 to 6 months.

    Define Change Management

    • Call #1: Introduce change concepts.
    • Call #2: Assess current maturity.
    • Call #3: Identify target-state capabilities.

    Establish Roles and Workflows

    • Call #4: Review roles and responsibilities.
    • Call #5: Review core change processes.

    Define RFC and Post- Implementation Activities

    • Call #6: Define change intake process.
    • Call #7: Create pre-implementation and post-implementation checklists.

    Measure, Manage, and Maintain

    • Call #8: Review metrics.
    • Call #9: Create roadmap.

    Workshop Overview

    Contact your account representative for more information.
    workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889

     Day 1Day 2Day 3Day 4Day 5
    Activities

    Define Change Management

    1.1 Outline Strengths and Challenges

    1.2 Conduct a Maturity Assessment

    1.3 Build a Change Categorization Scheme

    1.4 Build Your Risk Assessment

    Establish Roles and Workflows

    2.1 Define the Change Manager Role

    2.2 Outline CAB Protocol and membership

    2.3 Build Normal Change Process

    2.4 Build Emergency Change Process

    2.5 Build Pre-Approved Change Process

    Define the RFC and Post-Implementation Activities

    3.1 Create an RFC Template

    3.2 Determine Post-Implementation Activities

    3.3 Build a Change Calendar Protocol

    Measure, Manage, and Maintain

    4.1 Identify Metrics and Reports

    4.2 Create Communications Plan

    4.3 Build an Implementation Roadmap

    Next Steps and Wrap-Up (offsite)

    5.1 Complete in-progress deliverables from previous four days

    5.2 Set up review time for workshop deliverables and to discuss next steps

    Deliverables
    1. Maturity Assessment
    2. Risk Assessment
    1. Change Manager Job Description
    2. Change Management Process Library
    1. Request for Change (RFC) Form Template
    2. Pre-Implementation Checklist
    3. Post-Implementation Checklist
    1. Metrics Tool
    2. Communications Plan
    3. Project Roadmap
    1. Change Management Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)
    2. Workshop Summary Deck

    Phase 1

    Define Change Management

    Define Change Management

    1.1 Assess Maturity

    1.2 Categorize Changes and Build Your Risk Assessment

    Establish Roles and Workflows

    2.1 Determine Roles and Responsibilities

    2.2 Build Core Workflows

    Define the RFC and Post-Implementation Activities

    3.1 Design the RFC

    3.2 Establish Post-Implementation Activities

    Measure, Manage, and Maintain

    4.1 Identify Metrics and Build the Change Calendar

    4.2 Implement the Project

    This phase will guide you through the following steps:

    • Assess Maturity
    • Categorize Changes and Build Your Risk Assessment

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • IT Managers
    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board

    Step 1.1

    Assess Maturity

    Activities

    1.1.1 Outline the Organization’s Strengths and Challenges

    1.1.2 Complete a Maturity Assessment

    This step involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • IT Managers
    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board

    Outcomes of this step

    • An understanding of maturity change management processes and frameworks
    • Identification of existing change management challenges and potential causes
    • A framework for assessing change management maturity and an assessment of your existing change management processes

    Define Change Management

    Step 1.1: Assess Maturity → Step 1.2: Categorize Changes and Build Your Risk Assessment

    Change management is often confused with release management, but they are distinct processes

    Change

    • Change management looks at software changes as well as hardware, database, integration, and network changes, with the focus on stability of the entire IT ecosystem for business continuity.
    • Change management provides a holistic view of the IT environment, including dependencies, to ensure nothing is negatively affected by changes.
    • Change documentation is more focused on process, ensuring dependencies are mapped, rollout plans exist, and the business is not at risk.

    Release

    • Release and deployment are the detailed plans that bundle patches, upgrades, and new features into deployment packages, with the intent to change them flawlessly into a production environment.
    • Release management is one of many actions performed under change management’s governance.
    • Release documentation includes technical specifications such as change schedule, package details, change checklist, configuration details, test plan, and rollout and rollback plans.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Ensure the Release Manager is present as part of your CAB. They can explain any change content or dependencies, communicate business approval, and advise the service desk of any defects.

    Integrate change management with other IT processes

    As seen in the context diagram, change management interacts closely with many other IT processes including release management and configuration management (seen below). Ensure you delineate when these interactions occur (e.g. RFC updates and CMDB queries) and which process owns each task.

    The image is a chart mapping the interactions between Change Management and Configuration Management (CMDB).

    Avoid the challenges of poor change management

    1. Deployments
      • Too frequent: The need for frequent deployments results in reduced availability of critical business applications.
      • Failed deployments or rework is required: Deployments are not successful and have to be backed out of and then reworked to resolve issues with the installation.
      • High manual effort: A lack of automation results in high resource costs for deployments. Human error is likely, which adds to the risk of a failed deployment.
    2. Incidents
      • Too many unauthorized changes: If the process is perceived as cumbersome and ineffective, people will bypass it or abuse the emergency designation to get their changes deployed faster.
      • Changes cause incidents: When new releases are deployed, they create problems with related systems or applications.
    3. End Users
      • Low user satisfaction: Poor communication and training result in surprised and unhappy users and support staff.

    “With no controls in place, IT gets the blame for embarrassing outages. Too much control, and IT is seen as a roadblock to innovation.” – Anonymous, VP IT of a federal credit union

    1.1.1 Outline the Organization’s Strengths and Challenges

    Input

    • Current change documentation (workflows, SOP, change policy, etc.)
    • Organizational chart(s)

    Output

    • List of strengths and challenges for change management

    Materials

    Participants

    • CIO
    • IT Managers
    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board
    1. As group, discuss and outline the change management challenges facing the organization. These may be challenges caused by poor change management processes or by a lack of process.
    2. Use the pain points found on the previous slide to help guide the discussion.
    3. As a group, also outline the strengths of change management and the strengths of the current organization. Use these strengths as a guide to know what practices to continue and what strengths you can leverage to improve the change management process.
    4. Record the activity results in the Project Summary Template.

    Download the Optimize IT Change Management Improvement Initiative: Project Summary Template

    Assess current change management maturity to create a plan for improvement

     ChaosReactiveControlled

    Proactive

    Optimized
    Change Requests No defined processes for submitting changes Low process adherence and no RFC form RFC form is centralized and a point of contact for changes exists RFCs are reviewed for scope and completion RFCs trend analysis and proactive change exists
    Change Review Little to no change risk assessment Risk assessment exists for each RFC RFC form is centralized and a point of contact for changes exists Change calendar exists and is maintained System and component dependencies exist (CMDB)
    Change Approval No formal approval process exists Approval process exists but is not widely followed Unauthorized changes are minimal or nonexistent Change advisory board (CAB) is established and formalized Trend analysis exists increasing pre-approved changes
    Post-Deployment No post-deployment change review exists Process exists but is not widely followed Reduction of change-related incidents Stakeholder satisfaction is gathered and reviewed Lessons learned are propagated and actioned
    Process Governance Roles & responsibilities are ad hoc Roles, policies & procedures are defined & documented Roles, policies & procedures are defined & documented KPIs are tracked, reported on, and reviewed KPIs are proactively managed for improvement

    Info-Tech Insight

    Reaching an optimized level is not feasible for every organization. You may be able to run a very good change management process at the Proactive or even Controlled stage. Pay special attention to keeping your goals attainable.

    1.1.2 Complete a Maturity Assessment

    Input

    • Current change documentation (workflows, SOP, change policy, etc.)

    Output

    • Assessment of current maturity level and goals to improve change management

    Materials

    Participants

    • Change Manager
    • Service Desk Manager
    • Operations (optional)
    1. Use Info-Tech’s Change Management Maturity Assessment Tool to assess the maturity and completeness of your change process.
    2. Significant gaps revealed in this assessment should be the focal points of your discussion when investigating root causes and brainstorming remediation activities:
      1. For each activity of each process area of change management, determine the degree of completeness of your current process.
      2. Review your maturity assessment results and discuss as a group potential reasons why you arrived at your maturity level. Identify areas where you should focus your initial attention for improvement.
      3. Regularly review the maturity of your change management practices by completing this maturity assessment tool periodically to identify other areas to optimize.

    Download the Change Management Maturity Assessment Tool

    Case Study

    Even Google isn’t immune to change-related outages. Plan ahead and communicate to help avoid change-related incidents

    Industry: Technology

    Source: The Register

    As part of a routine maintenance procedure, Google engineers moved App Engine applications between data centers in the Central US to balance out traffic.

    Unfortunately, at the same time that applications were being rerouted, a software update was in progress on the traffic routers, which triggered a restart. This temporarily diminished router capacity, knocking out a sizeable portion of Google Cloud.

    The server drain resulted in a huge spike in startup requests, and the routers simply couldn’t handle the traffic.

    As a result, 21% of Google App Engine applications hosted in the Central US experienced error rates in excess of 10%, while an additional 16% of applications experienced latency, albeit at a lower rate.

    Solution

    Thankfully, engineers were actively monitoring the implementation of the change and were able to spring into action to halt the problem.

    The change was rolled back after 11 minutes, but the configuration error still needed to be fixed. After about two hours, the change failure was resolved and the Google Cloud was fully functional.

    One takeaway for the engineering team was to closely monitor how changes are scheduled. Ultimately, this was the result of miscommunication and a lack of transparency between change teams.

    Step 1.2

    Categorize Changes and Build Your Risk Assessment

    Activities

    1.2.1 Define What Constitutes a Change

    1.2.2 Build a Change Categorization Scheme

    1.2.3 Build a Classification Scheme to Assess Impact

    1.2.4 Build a Classification Scheme to Define Likelihood

    1.2.5 Evaluate and Adjust Your Risk Assessment Scheme

    Define Change Management

    Step 1.1: Assess Maturity → Step 1.2: Categorize Changes and Build Your Risk Assessment

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Infrastructure/Applications Manager
    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board

    Outcomes of this step

    • A clear definition of what constitutes a change in your organization
    • A defined categorization scheme to classify types of changes
    • A risk assessment matrix and tool for evaluating and prioritizing change requests according to impact and likelihood of risk

    Change must be managed to mitigate risk to the infrastructure

    Change management is the gatekeeper protecting your live environment.

    Successfully managed changes will optimize risk exposure, severity of impact, and disruption. This will result in the bottom-line business benefits of removal of risk, early realization of benefits, and savings of money and time.

    • IT change is constant; change requests will be made both proactively and reactively to upgrade systems, acquire new functionality, and to prevent or resolve incidents.
    • Every change to the infrastructure must pass through the change management process before being deployed to ensure that it has been properly assessed and tested, and to check that a backout /rollback plan is in place.
    • It will be less expensive to invest in a rigorous change management process than to resolve incidents, service disruptions, and outages caused by the deployment of a bad change.
    • Change management is what gives you control and visibility regarding what is introduced to the live environment, preventing incidents that threaten business continuity.

    80%

    In organizations without formal change management processes, about 80% (The Visible Ops Handbook) of IT service outage problems are caused by updates and changes to systems, applications, and infrastructure. It’s crucial to track and systematically manage change to fully understand and predict the risks and potential impact of the change.

    Attributes of a change

    Differentiate changes from other IT requests

    Is this in the production environment of a business process?

    The core business of the enterprise or supporting functions may be affected.

    Does the task affect an enterprise managed system?

    If it’s for a local application, it’s a service request

    How many users are impacted?

    It should usually impact more than a single user (in most cases).

    Is there a configuration, or code, or workflow, or UI/UX change?

    Any impact on a business process is a change; adding a user or a recipient to a report or mailing list is not a change.

    Does the underlying service currently exist?

    If it’s a new service, then it’s better described as a project.

    Is this done/requested by IT?

    It needs to be within the scope of IT for the change management process to apply.

    Will this take longer than one week?

    As a general rule, if it takes longer than 40 hours of work to complete, it’s likely a project.

    Defining what constitutes a change

    Every change request will initiate the change management process; don’t waste time reviewing requests that are out of scope.

    ChangeService Request (User)Operational Task (Backend)
    • Fixing defects in code
    • Changing configuration of an enterprise system
    • Adding new software or hardware components
    • Switching an application to another VM
    • Standardized request
    • New PC
    • Permissions request
    • Change password
    • Add user
    • Purchases
    • Change the backup tape
    • Delete temporary files
    • Maintain database (one that is well defined, repeatable, and predictable)
    • Run utilities to repair a database

    Do not treat every IT request as a change!

    • Many organizations make the mistake of calling a standard service request or operational task a “change.”
    • Every change request will initiate the change management process; don’t waste time reviewing requests that are out of scope.
    • While the overuse of RFCs for out-of-scope requests is better than a lack of process, this will slow the process and delay the approval of more critical changes.
    • Requiring an RFC for something that should be considered day-to-day work will also discourage people from adhering to the process, because the RFC will be seen as meaningless paperwork.

     

    1.2.1 Define What Constitutes a Change

    Input

    • List of examples of each category of the chart

    Output

    • Definitions for each category to be used at change intake

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/flip charts (or shared screen if working remotely)
    • Service catalog (if applicable)
    • Sticky notes
    • Markers/pens
    • Change Management SOP

    Participants

    • Infrastructure Manager
    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board
    1. As a group, brainstorm examples of changes, projects, service requests (user), operational tasks (backend), and releases. You may add additional categories as needed (e.g. incidents).
    2. Have each participant write the examples on sticky notes and populate the following chart on the whiteboard/flip chart.
    3. Use the examples to draw lines and define what defines each category.
      • What makes a change distinct from a project?
      • What makes a change distinct from a service request?
      • What makes a change distinct from an operational task?
      • When do the category workflows cross over with other categories? (For example, when does a project interact with change management?)
    4. Record the definitions of requests and results in section 2.3 of the Change Management Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).
    ChangeProjectService Request (User)Operational Task (Backend)Release
    Changing Configuration ERP upgrade Add new user Delete temp files Software release

    Download the Change Management Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).

    Each RFC should define resources needed to effect the change

    In addition to assigning a category to each RFC based on risk assessment, each RFC should also be assigned a priority based on the impact of the change on the IT organization, in terms of the resources needed to effect the change.

    Categories include

    Normal

    Emergency

    Pre-Approved

    The majority of changes will be pre-approved or normal changes. Definitions of each category are provided on the next slide.

    Info-Tech uses the term pre-approved rather than the ITIL terminology of standard to more accurately define the type of change represented by this category.

    A potential fourth change category of expedited may be employed if you are having issues with process adherence or if you experience changes driven from outside change management’s control (e.g. from the CIO, director, judiciary, etc.) See Appendix I for more details.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Do not rush to designate changes as pre-approved. You may have a good idea of which changes may be considered pre-approved, but make sure they are in fact low-risk and well-documented before moving them over from the normal category.

    The category of the change determines the process it follows

     Pre-ApprovedNormalEmergency
    Definition
    • Tasks are well-known, documented, and proven
    • Budgetary approval is preordained or within control of change requester
    • Risk is low and understood
    • There’s a low probability of failure
    • All changes that are not pre-approved or emergency will be classified as normal
    • Further categorized by priority/risk
    • The change is being requested to resolve a current or imminent critical/severity-1 incident that threatens business continuity
    • Associated with a critical incident or problem ticket
    Trigger
    • The same change is built and changed repeatedly using the same install procedures and resulting in the same low-risk outcome
    • Upgrade or new functionality that will capture a business benefit
    • A fix to a current problem
    • A current or imminent critical incident that will impact business continuity
    • Urgency to implement the change must be established, as well as lack of any alternative or workaround
    Workflow
    • Pre-established
    • Repeatable with same sequence of actions, with minimal judgment or decision points
    • Dependent on the change
    • Different workflows depending on prioritization
    • Dependent on the change
    Approval
    • Change Manager (does not need to be reviewed by CAB)
    • CAB
    • Approval from the Emergency Change Advisory Board (E-CAB) is sufficient to proceed with the change
    • A retroactive RFC must be created and approved by the CAB

    Pay close attention to defining your pre-approved changes. They are going to be critical for running a smooth change management practice in a DevOps Environment

    1.2.2 Build a Change Categorization Scheme

    Input

    • List of examples of each change category

    Output

    • Definitions for each change category

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/flip charts (or shared screen if working remotely)
    • Service catalog (if applicable)
    • Sticky notes
    • Markers
    • Change Management SOP

    Participants

    • Infrastructure Manager
    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board
    1. Discuss the change categories on the previous slide and modify the types of descriptions to suit your organization.
    2. Once the change categories or types are defined, identify several examples of change requests that would fall under each category.
    3. Types of normal changes will be further defined in the next activity and can be left blank for now.
    4. Examples are provided below. Capture your definitions in section 4 of your Change Management SOP.
    Pre-Approved (AKA Standard)NormalEmergency
    • Microsoft patch management/deployment
    • Windows update
    • Minor form changes
    • Service pack updates on non-critical systems
    • Advance label status on orders
    • Change log retention period/storage
    • Change backup frequency

    Major

    • Active directory server upgrade
    • New ERP

    Medium

    • Network upgrade
    • High availability implementation

    Minor

    • Ticket system go-live
    • UPS replacement
    • Cognos update
    • Any change other than a pre-approved change
    • Needed to resolve a major outage in a Tier 1 system

    Assess the risk for each normal change based on impact (severity) and likelihood (probability)

    Create a change assessment risk matrix to standardize risk assessment for new changes. Formalizing this assessment should be one of the first priorities of change management.

    The following slides guide you through the steps of formalizing a risk assessment according to impact and likelihood:

    1. Define a risk matrix: Risk matrices can either be a 3x3 matrix (Minor, Medium, or High Risk as shown on the next slide) or a 4x4 matrix (Minor, Medium, High, or Critical Risk).
    2. Build an impact assessment: Enable consistent measurement of impact for each change by incorporating a standardized questionnaire for each RFC.
    3. Build a likelihood assessment: Enable the consistent measurement of impact for each change by incorporating a standardized questionnaire for each RFC.
    4. Test drive your risk assessment and make necessary adjustments: Measure your newly formed risk assessment questionnaires against historical changes to test its accuracy.

    Consider risk

    1. Risk should be the primary consideration in classifying a normal change as Low, Medium, High. The extent of governance required, as well as minimum timeline to implement the change, will follow from the risk assessment.
    2. The business benefit often matches the impact level of the risk – a change that will provide a significant benefit to a large number of users may likely carry an equally major downside if deviations occur.

    Info-Tech Insight

    All changes entail an additional level of risk. Risk is a function of impact and likelihood. Risk may be reduced, accepted, or neutralized through following best practices around training, testing, backout planning, redundancy, timing and sequencing of changes, etc.

    Create a risk matrix to assign a risk rating to each RFC

    Every normal RFC should be assigned a risk rating.

    How is risk rating determined?

    • Priority should be based on the business consequences of implementing or denying the change.
    • Risk rating is assigned using the impact of the risk and likelihood/probability that the event may occur.

    Who determines priority?

    • Priority should be decided with the change requester and with the CAB, if necessary.
    • Don’t let the change requester decide priority alone, as they will usually assign it a higher priority than is justified. Use a repeatable, standardized framework to assess each request.

    How is risk rating used?

    • Risk rating is used to determine which changes should be discussed and assessed first.
    • Time frames and escalation processes should be defined for each risk level.

    RFCs need to clearly identify the risk level of the proposed change. This can be done through statement of impact and likelihood (low/medium/high) or through pertinent questions linked with business rules to assess the risk.

    Risk always has a negative impact, but the size of the impact can vary considerably in terms of cost, number of people or sites affected, and severity of the impact. Impact questions tend to be more objective and quantifiable than likelihood questions.

    Risk Matrix

    Risk Matrix. Impact vs. Likelihood. Low impact, Low Likelihood and Medium Impact, Medium Likelihood are minor risks. High Likelihood, Low Impact; Medium Likelihood, Medium Impact; and Low Likelihood, High Impact are Medium Risk. High Impact, High Likelihood; High Impact, Medium Likelihood; and Medium Impact, High Likelihood are Major risk.

    1.2.3 Build a Classification Scheme to Assess Impact

    Input

    • Current risk assessment (if available)

    Output

    • Tailored impact assessment

    Materials

    Participants

    • CIO
    • Infrastructure Manager
    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board
    1. Define a set of questions to measure risk impact.
    2. For each question, assign a weight that should be placed on that factor.
    3. Define criteria for each question that would categorize the risk as high, medium, or low.
    4. Capture your results in section 4.3.1 of your Change Management SOP.
    Impact
    Weight Question High Medium Low
    15% # of people affected 36+ 11-35 <10
    20% # of sites affected 4+ 2-3 1
    15% Duration of recovery (minutes of business time) 180+ 30-18 <3
    20% Systems affected Mission critical Important Informational
    30% External customer impact Loss of customer Service interruption None

    1.2.4 Build a Classification Scheme to Define Likelihood

    Input

    • Current risk assessment (if available)

    Output

    • Tailored likelihood assessment

    Materials

    Participants

    • CIO
    • Infrastructure Manager
    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board
    1. Define a set of questions to measure risk likelihood.
    2. For each question, assign a weight that should be placed on that factor.
    3. Define criteria for each question that would categorize the risk as high, medium, or low.
    4. Capture your results in section 4.3.2 of your Change Management SOP.
    LIKELIHOOD
    Weight Question High Medium Low
    25% Has this change been tested? No   Yes
    10% Have all the relevant groups (companies, departments, executives) vetted the change? No Partial Yes
    5% Has this change been documented? No   Yes
    15% How long is the change window? When can we implement? Specified day/time Partial Per IT choice
    20% Do we have trained and experienced staff available to implement this change? If only external consultants are available, the rating will be “medium” at best. No   Yes
    25% Has an implementation plan been developed? No   Yes

    1.2.5 Evaluate and Adjust Your Risk Assessment Scheme

    Input

    • Impact and likelihood assessments from previous two activities

    Output

    • Vetted risk assessment

    Materials

    Participants

    • CIO
    • Infrastructure Manager
    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board
    1. Draw your risk matrix on a whiteboard or flip chart.
    2. As a group, identify up to 10 examples of requests for changes that would apply within your organization. Depending on the number of people participating, each person could identify one or two changes and write them on sticky notes.
    3. Take turns bringing your sticky notes up to the risk matrix and placing each where it belongs, according to the assessment criteria you defined.
    4. After each participant has taken a turn, discuss each change as a group and adjust the placement of any changes, if needed. Update the risk assessment weightings or questions, if needed.

    Download the Change Management Rick Assessment Tool.

    #

    Change Example

    Impact

    Likelihood

    Risk

    1

    ERP change

    High

    Medium

    Major

    2

    Ticket system go-live

    Medium

    Low

    Minor

    3

    UPS replacement

    Medium

    Low

    Minor

    4

    Network upgrade

    Medium

    Medium

    Medium

    5

    AD upgrade

    Medium

    Low

    Minor

    6

    High availability implementation

    Low

    Medium

    Minor

    7

    Key-card implementation

    Low

    High

    Medium

    8

    Anti-virus update

    Low

    Low

    Minor

    9

    Website

    Low

    Medium

    Minor

     

    Case Study

    A CMDB is not a prerequisite of change management. Don’t let the absence of a configuration management database (CMDB) prevent you from implementing change management.

    Industry: Manufacturing

    Source: Anonymous Info-Tech member

    Challenge

    The company was planning to implement a CMDB; however, full implementation was still one year away and subject to budget constraints.

    Without a CMDB, it would be difficult to understand the interdependencies between systems and therefore be able to provide notifications to potentially affected user groups prior to implementing technical changes.

    This could have derailed the change management project.

    Solution

    An Excel template was set up as a stopgap measure until the full implementation of the CMDB. The template included all identified dependencies between systems, along with a “dependency tier” for each IT service.

    Tier 1: The dependent system would not operate if the upstream system change resulted in an outage.

    Tier 2: The dependent system would suffer severe degradation of performance and/or features.

    Tier 3: The dependent system would see minor performance degradation or minor feature unavailability.

    Results

    As a stopgap measure, the solution worked well. When changes ran the risk of degrading downstream dependent systems, the impacted business system owner’s authorization was sought and end users were informed in advance.

    The primary takeaway was that a system to manage configuration linkages and system dependencies was key.

    While a CMDB is ideal for this use case, IT organizations shouldn’t let the lack of such a system stop progress on change management.

    Case Study (part 1 of 4)

    Intel used a maturity assessment to kick-start its new change management program.

    Industry: Technology

    Source: Daniel Grove, Intel

    Challenge

    Founded in 1968, the world’s largest microchip and semiconductor company employs over 100,000 people. Intel manufactures processors for major players in the PC market including Apple, Lenovo, HP, and Dell.

    Intel IT supports over 65,000 servers, 3.2 petabytes of data, over 70,000 PCs, and 2.6 million emails per day.

    Intel’s change management program is responsible for over 4,000 changes each week.

    Solution

    Due to the sheer volume of change management activities present at Intel, over 35% of unscheduled outages were the result of changes.

    Ineffective change management was identified as the top contributor of incidents with unscheduled downtime.

    One of the major issues highlighted was a lack of process ownership. The change management process at Intel was very fragmented, and that needed to change.

    Results

    Daniel Grove, Senior Release & Change Manager at Intel, identified that clarifying tasks for the Change Manager and the CAB would improve process efficiency by reducing decision lag time. Roles and responsibilities were reworked and clarified.

    Intel conducted a maturity assessment of the overall change management process to identify key areas for improvement.

    Phase 2

    Establish Roles and Workflows

    For running change management in DevOps environment, see Appendix II.

    Define Change Management

    1.1 Assess Maturity

    1.2 Categorize Changes and Build Your Risk Assessment

    Establish Roles and Workflows

    2.1 Determine Roles and Responsibilities

    2.2 Build Core Workflows

    Define RFC and Post-Implementation Activities

    3.1 Design the RFC

    3.2 Establish Post-Implementation Activities

    Measure, Manage, and Maintain

    4.1 Identify Metrics and Build the Change Calendar

    4.2 Implement the Project

    This phase will guide you through the following steps:

    • Determine Roles and Responsibilities
    • Build Core Workflows

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • IT Managers
    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board

    Step 2.1

    Determine Roles and Responsibilities

    Activities

    2.1.1 Capture Roles and Responsibilities Using a RACI Chart

    2.1.2 Determine Your Change Manager’s Responsibilities

    2.1.3 Define the Authority and Responsibilities of Your CAB

    2.1.4 Determine an E-CAB Protocol for Your Organization

    Establish Roles and Workflows

    Step 2.1: Determine Roles and Responsibilities → Step 2.2: Build Core Workflows

    This step involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • IT Managers
    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board

    Outcomes of this step

    • Clearly defined responsibilities to form the job description for a Change Manager
    • Clearly defined roles and responsibilities for the change management team, including the business system owner, technical SME, and CAB members
    • Defined responsibilities and authority of the CAB
    • Protocol for an emergency CAB (E-CAB) meeting

    Identify roles and responsibilities for your change management team

    Business System Owner

    • Provides downtime window(s)
    • Advises on need for change (prior to creation of RFC)
    • Validates change (through UAT or other validation as necessary)
    • Provides approval for expedited changes (needs to be at executive level)

    Technical Subject Matter Expert (SME)

    • Advises on proposed changes prior to RFC submission
    • Reviews draft RFC for technical soundness
    • Assesses backout/rollback plan
    • Checks if knowledgebase has been consulted for prior lessons learned
    • Participates in the PIR, if necessary
    • Ensures that the service desk is trained on the change

    CAB

    • Approves/rejects RFCs for normal changes
    • Reviews lessons learned from PIRs
    • Decides on the scope of change management
    • Reviews metrics and decides on remedial actions
    • Considers changes to be added to list of pre-approved changes
    • Communicates to organization about upcoming changes

    Change Manager

    • Reviews RFCs for completeness
    • Ensures RFCs brought to the CAB have a high chance of approval
    • Chairs CAB meetings, including scheduling, agenda preparation, reporting, and follow-ups
    • Manages post-implementation reviews and reporting
    • Organizes internal communications (within IT)

    2.1.1 Capture Roles and Responsibilities Using a RACI Chart

    Input

    • Current SOP

    Output

    • Documented roles and responsibilities in change management in a RACI chart

    Materials

    Participants

    • CIO
    • IT Managers
    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board
    1. As a group, work through developing a RACI chart to determine the roles and responsibilities of individuals involved in the change management practice based on the following criteria:
      • Responsible (performs the work)
      • Accountable (ensures the work is done)
      • Consulted (two-way communication)
      • Informed (one-way communication)
    2. Record your results in slide 14 of the Project Summary Template and section 3.1 of your Change Management SOP.
    Change Management TasksOriginatorSystem OwnerChange ManagerCAB MemberTechnical SMEService DeskCIO/ VP ITE-CAB Member
    Review the RFC C C A C R C R  
    Validate changes C C A C R C R  
    Assess test plan A C R R C   I  
    Approve the RFC I C A R C   I  
    Create communications plan R I A     I I  
    Deploy communications plan I I A I   R    
    Review metrics   C A R   C I  
    Perform a post implementation review   C R A     I  
    Review lessons learned from PIR activities     R A   C    

    Designate a Change Manager to own the process, change templates, and tools

    The Change Manager will be the point of contact for all process questions related to change management.

    • The Change Manager needs the authority to reject change requests, regardless of the seniority of the requester.
    • The Change Manager needs the authority to enforce compliance to a standard process.
    • The Change Manager needs enough cross-functional subject-matter expertise to accurately evaluate the impact of change from both an IT and business perspective.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Some organizations will not be able to assign a dedicated Change Manager, but they must still task an individual with change review authority and with ownership of the risk assessment and other key parts of the process.

    Responsibilities

    1. The Change Manager is your first stop for change approval. Both the change management and release and deployment management processes rely on the Change Manager to function.
    2. Every single change that is applied to the live environment, from a single patch to a major change, must originate with a request for change (RFC), which is then approved by the Change Manager to proceed to the CAB for full approval.
    3. Change templates and tools, such as the change calendar, list of preapproved changes, and risk assessment template are controlled by the Change Manager.
    4. The Change Manager also needs to have ownership over gathering metrics and reports surrounding deployed changes. A skilled Change Manager needs to have an aptitude for applying metrics for continual improvement activities.

    2.1.2 Document Your Change Manager’s Responsibilities

    Input

    • Current Change Manager job description (if available)

    Output

    • Change Manager job description and list of responsibilities

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/flip charts (or shared screen if working remotely)
    • Markers/pens
    • Info-Tech’s Change Manager Job Description
    • Change Management SOP

    Participants

    • CIO
    • IT Managers
    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board

    1.Using the previous slide, Info-Tech’s Change Manager Job Description, and the examples below, brainstorm responsibilities for the Change Manager.

    2.Record the responsibilities in Section 3.2 of your Change Management SOP.

    Example:

    Change Manager: James Corey

    Responsibilities

    1. Own the process, tools, and templates.
    2. Control the Change Management SOP.
    3. Provide standard RFC forms.
    4. Distribute RFCs for CAB review.
    5. Receive all initial RFCs and check them for completion.
    6. Approve initial RFCs.
    7. Approve pre-approved changes.
    8. Approve the conversion of normal changes to pre-approved changes.
    9. Assemble the Emergency CAB (E-CAB) when emergency change requests are received.
    10. Approve submission of RFCs for CAB review.
    11. Chair the CAB:
      • Set the CAB agenda and distribute it at least 24 hours before the meeting.
      • Ensure the agenda is adhered to.
      • Make the final approval/prioritization decision regarding a change if the CAB is deadlocked and cannot come to an agreement.
      • Distribute CAB meeting minutes to all members and relevant stakeholders.

    Download the Change Manager Job Description

    Create a Change Advisory Board (CAB) to provide process governance

    The primary functions of the CAB are to:

    1. Protect the live environment from poorly assessed, tested, and implemented changes.
      • CAB approval is required for all normal and emergency changes.
      • If a change results in an incident or outage, the CAB is effectively responsible; it’s the responsibility of the CAB to assess and accept the potential impact of every change.
    2. Prioritize changes in a way that fairly reflects change impact and urgency.
      • Change requests will originate from multiple stakeholders, some of whom have competing interests.
      • It’s up to the CAB to prioritize these requests effectively so that business need is balanced with any potential risk to the infrastructure.
      • The CAB should seek to reduce the number of emergency/expedited changes.
    3. Schedule deployments in a way that minimizes conflict and disruption.
      • The CAB uses a change calendar populated with project work, upcoming organizational initiatives, and change freeze periods. They will schedule changes around these blocks to avoid disrupting user productivity.
      • The CAB should work closely with the release and deployment management teams to coordinate change/release scheduling.

    See what responsibilities in the CAB’s process are already performed by the DevOps lifecycle (e.g. authorization, deconfliction etc.). Do not duplicate efforts.

    Use diverse representation from the business to form an effective CAB

    The CAB needs insight into all areas of the business to avoid approving a high-risk change.

    Based on the core responsibilities you have defined, the CAB needs to be composed of a diverse set of individuals who provide quality:

    • Change need assessments – identifying the value and purpose of a proposed change.
    • Change risk assessments – confirmation of the technical impact and likelihood assessments that lead to a risk score, based on the inputs in RFC.
    • Change scheduling – offer a variety of perspectives and responsibilities and will be able to identify potential scheduling conflicts.
     CAB RepresentationValue Added
    Business Members
    • CIO
    • Business Relationship Manager
    • Service Level Manager
    • Business Analyst
    • Identify change blackout periods, change impact, and business urgency.
    • Assess impact on fiduciary, legal, and/or audit requirements.
    • Determine acceptable business risk.
    IT Operations Members
    • Managers representing all IT functions
    • IT Directors
    • Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
    • Identify dependencies and downstream impacts.
    • Identify possible conflicts with pre-existing OLAs and SLAs.
    CAB Attendees
    • Specific SMEs, tech specialists, and business and vendor reps relevant to a particular change
    • Only attend meetings when invited by the Change Manager
    • Provide detailed information and expertise related to their particular subject areas.
    • Speak to requirements, change impact, and cost.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Form a core CAB (members attend every week) and an optional CAB (members who attend only when a change impacts them or when they can provide value in discussions about a change). This way, members can have their voice heard without spending every week in a meeting where they do not contribute.

    2.1.3 Define the Authority and Responsibilities of Your CAB

    Input

    • Current SOP or CAB charter (if available)

    Output

    • Documented list of CAB authorities and responsibilities

    Materials

    Participants

    • CIO
    • IT Managers
    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board

    1.Using the previous slide and the examples below, list the authorities and responsibilities of your CAB.

    2.Record the responsibilities in section 3.3.2 of your Change Management SOP and the Project Summary Template.

    Example:

    CAP AuthorityCAP Responsibilities
    • Final authority over the deployment of all normal and emergency changes.
    • Authority to absorb the risk of a change.
    • Authority to set the change calendar:
      • Maintenance windows.
      • Change freeze periods.
      • Project work.
      • Authority to delay changes.
    • Evaluate all normal and emergency changes.
    • Verify all normal change test, backout, and implementation plans.
    • Verify all normal change test results.
    • Approve all normal and emergency changes.
    • Prioritize all normal changes.
    • Schedule all normal and emergency changes.
    • Review failed change deployments.

    Establish an emergency CAB (E-CAB) protocol

    • When an emergency change request is received, you will not be able to wait until the regularly scheduled CAB meeting.
    • As a group, decide who will sit on the E-CAB and what their protocol will be when assessing and approving emergency changes.

    Change owner conferences with E-CAB (best efforts to reach them) through email or messaging.

    E-CAB members and business system owners are provided with change details. No decision is made without feedback from at least one E-CAB member.

    If business continuity is being affected, the Change Manager has authority to approve change.

    Full documentation of the change (a retroactive RFC) is done after the change and is then reviewed by the CAB.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Members of the E-CAB should be a subset of the CAB who are typically quick to respond to their messages, even at odd hours of the night.

    2.1.4 Determine an E-CAB Protocol for Your Organization

    Input

    • Current SOP or CAB charter (if available)

    Output

    • E-CAB protocol

    Materials

    Participants

    • CIO
    • IT Managers
    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board
    1. Gather the members of the E-CAB and other necessary representatives from the change management team.
    2. Determine the order of operations for the E-CAB in the event that an emergency change is needed.
    3. Consult the example emergency protocol below. Determine what roles and responsibilities are involved at each stage of the emergency change’s implementation.
    4. Document the E-CAB protocol in section 3.4 of your Change Management SOP.

    Example

    Assemble E-CAB

    Assess Change

    Test (if Applicable)

    Deploy Change

    Create Retroactive RFC

    Review With CAB

    Step 2.2

    Build Core Workflows

    Activities

    2.2.1 Build a CMDB-lite as a Reference for Requested Changes

    2.2.2 Create a Normal Change Process

    2.2.3 Create a Pre-Approved Change Process

    2.2.4 Create an Emergency Change Process

    Establish Roles and Workflows

    Step 2.1: Determine Roles and Responsibilities → Step 2.2: Build Core Workflows

    This step involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • IT Managers
    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board

    Outcomes of this step

    • Emergency change workflow
    • Normal process workflow
    • Pre-approved change workflow

    Establishing Workflows: Change Management Lifecycle

    Improve

    • A post-implementation review assesses the value of the actual change measured against the proposed change in terms of benefits, costs, and impact.
    • Results recorded in the change log.
    • Accountability: Change Manager Change Implementer

    Request

    • A change request (RFC) can be submitted via paper form, phone, email, or web portal.
    • Accountability: Change requester/Initiator

    Assess

    • The request is screened to ensure it meets an agreed-upon set of business criteria.
    • Changes are assessed on:
      • Impact of change
      • Risks or interdependencies
      • Resourcing and costs
    • Accountability: Change Manager

    Plan

    • Tasks are assigned, planned, and executed.
    • Change schedule is consulted and necessary resources are identified.
    • Accountability: Change Manager

    Approve

    • Approved requests are sent to the most efficient channel based on risk, urgency, and complexity.
    • Change is sent to CAB members for final review and approval
    • Accountability: Change Manager
      • Change Advisory Board

    Implement

    • Approved changes are deployed.
    • A rollback plan is created to mitigate risk.
    • Accountability: Change Manager Change Implementer

    Establishing workflows: employ a SIPOC model for process definition

    A good SIPOC (supplier, input, process, output, customer) model helps establish the boundaries of each process step and provides a concise definition of the expected outcomes and required inputs. It’s a useful and recommended next step for every workflow diagram.

    For change management, employ a SIPOC model to outline your CAB process:

    Supplier

    • Who or what organization provides the inputs to the process? The supplier can be internal or external.

    Input

    • What goes into the process step? This can be a document, data, information, or a decision.

    Process

    • Activities that occur in the process step that’s being analyzed.

    Output

    • What does the process step produce? This can be a document, data, information, or a decision.

    Customer

    • Who or what organization(s) takes the output of the process? The customer can be internal or external.

    Optional Fields

    Metrics

    • Top-level indicators that usually relate to the input and output, e.g. turnaround time, risk matrix completeness.

    Controls

    • Checkpoints to ensure process step quality.

    Dependencies

    • Other process steps that require the output.

    RACI

    • Those who are Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, or Informed (RACI) about the input, output, and/or process.

    Establish change workflows: assess requested changes to identify impact and dependencies

    An effective change assessment workflow is a holistic process that leaves no stone unturned in an effort to mitigate risk before any change reaches the approval stage. The four crucial areas of risk in a change workflow are:

    Dependencies

    Identify all components of the change.

    Ask how changes will affect:

    • Services on the same infrastructure?
    • Applications?
    • Infrastructure/app architecture?
    • Security?
    • Ability to support critical systems?

    Business Impact

    Frame the change from a business point of view to identify potential disruptions to business activities.

    Your assessment should cover:

    • Business processes
    • User productivity
    • Customer service
    • BCPs

    SLA Impact

    Each new change can impact the level of service available.

    Examine the impact on:

    • Availability of critical systems
    • Infrastructure and app performance
    • Infrastructure and app capacity
    • Existing disaster recovery plans and procedures

    Required Resources

    Once risk has been assessed, resources need to be identified to ensure the change can be executed.

    These include:

    • People (SMEs, tech support, work effort/duration)
    • System time for scheduled implementation
    • Hardware or software (new or existing, as well as tools)

    Establishing workflows: pinpoint dependencies to identify the need for additional changes

    An assessment of each change and a query of the CMDB needs to be performed as part of the change planning process to mitigate outage risk.

    • A version upgrade on one piece of software may require another component to be upgraded as well. For example, an upgrade to the database management system requires that an application that uses the database be upgraded or modified.
    • The sequence of the release must also be determined, as certain components may need to be upgraded before others. For example, if you upgrade the Exchange Server, a Windows update must be installed prior to the Exchange upgrade.
    • If you do not have a CMDB, consider building a CMDB-lite, which consists of a listing of systems, primary users, SMEs, business owners, and system dependencies (see next slide).

    Services Impacted

    • Have affected services been identified?
    • Have supporting services been identified?
    • Has someone checked the CMDB to ensure all dependencies have been accounted for?
    • Have we referenced the service catalog so the business approves what they’re authorizing?

    Technical Teams Impacted

    • Who will support the change throughout testing and implementation?
    • Will additional support be needed?
    • Do we need outside support from eternal suppliers?
    • Has someone checked the contract to ensure any additional costs have been approved?

    Build a dependency matrix to avoid change related collisions (optional)

    A CMDB-lite does not replace a CMDB but can be a valuable tool to leverage when requesting changes if you do not currently have configuration management. Consider the following inputs when building your own CMDB-lite.

    • System
      • To build a CMDB-lite, start with the top 10 systems in your environment that experience changes. This list can always be populated iteratively.
    • Primary Users
      • Listing the primary users will give a change requester a first glance at the impact of the change.
      • You can also use this information when looking at the change communication and training after the change is implemented.
    • SME/Backup
      • These are the staff that will likely build and implement the change. The backup is listed in case the primary is on holiday.
    • Business System Owner
      • The owner of the system is one of the people needed to sign off on the change. Having their support from the beginning of a change is necessary to build and implement it successfully.
    • Tier 1 Dependency
      • If the primary system experiences and outage, Tier 1 dependency functionality is also lost. To request a change, include the business system owner signoffs of the Tier 1 dependencies of the primary system.
    • Tier 2 Dependency
      • If the primary system experiences an outage, Tier 2 dependency functionality is lost, but there is an available workaround. As with Tier 1, this information can help you build a backout plan in case there is a change-related collision.
    • Tier 3 Dependency
      • Tier 3 functionality is not lost if the primary system experiences an outage, but nice-to-haves such as aesthetics are affected.

    2.2.1 Build a CMDB-lite as a Reference for Requested Changes

    Input

    • Current system ownership documentation

    Output

    • Documented reference for change requests (CMDB-lite)

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/flip charts (or shared screen if working remotely)
    • Sticky notes
    • Markers/pens

    Participants

    • CIO
    • IT Managers
    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board
    1. Start with a list of your top 10-15 systems/services with the highest volume of changes.
    2. Using a whiteboard, flip chart, or shared screen, complete the table below by filling the corresponding Primary Users, SMEs, Business System Owner, and Dependencies as shown below. It may help to use sticky notes.
    3. Iteratively populate the table as you notice gaps with incoming changes.
    SystemPrimary UsersSMEBackup SME(s)Business System OwnerTier 1 Dependency (system functionality is down)Tier 2 (impaired functionality/ workaround available)Tier 3 Dependency (nice to have)
    Email Enterprise Naomi Amos James
    • ITSMs
    • Scan-to-email
    • Reporting
     
    • Lots
    Conferencing Tool Enterprise Alex Shed James
    • Videoconferencing
    • Conference rooms (can use Facebook messenger instead in worst case scenario)
    • IM
    ITSM (Service Now) Enterprise (Intl.) Anderson TBD Mike
    • Work orders
    • Dashboards
    • Purchasing
     
    ITSM (Manage Engine) North America Bobbie Joseph Mike
    • Work orders
    • Dashboards
    • Purchasing
     

    Establishing workflows: create standards for change approvals to improve efficiency

    • Not all changes are created equal, and not all changes require the same degree of approval. As part of the change management process, it’s important to define who is the authority for each type of change.
    • Failure to do so can create bureaucratic bottlenecks if each change is held to an unnecessary high level of scrutiny, or unplanned outages may occur due to changes circumventing the formal approval process.
    • A balance must be met and defined to ensure the process is not bypassed or bottlenecked.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Define a list pre-approved changes and automate them (if possible) using your ITSM solution. This will save valuable time for more important changes in the queue.

    Example:

    Change CategoryChange Authority
    Pre-approved change Department head/manager
    Emergency change E-CAB
    Normal change – low and medium risk CAB
    Normal change – high risk CAB and CIO (for visibility)

    Example process: Normal Change – Change Initiation

    Change initiation allows for assurance that the request is in scope for change management and acts as a filter for out-of-scope changes to be redirected to the proper workflow. Initiation also assesses who may be assigned to the change and the proper category of the change, and results in an RFC to be populated before the change reaches the build and test phase.

    The image is a horizontal flow chart, depicting an example of a change process.

    The change trigger assessment is critical in the DevOps lifecycle. This can take a more formal role of a technical review board (TRB) or, with enough maturity, may be automated. Responsibilities such as deconfliction, dependency identification, calendar query, and authorization identification can be done early in the lifecycle to decrease or eliminate the burden on CAB.

    For the full process, refer to the Change Management Process Library.

    Example process: Normal Change – Technical Build and Test

    The technical build and test stage includes all technical prerequisites and testing needed for a change to pass before proceeding to approval and implementation. In addition to a technical review, a solution consisting of the implementation, rollback, communications, and training plan are also built and included in the RFC before passing it to the CAB.

    The image is a flowchart, showing the process for change during the technical build and test stage.

    For the full process, refer to the Change Management Process Library.

    Example process: Normal Change – Change Approval (CAB)

    Change approval can start with the Change Manager reviewing all incoming RFCs to filter them for completeness and check them for red flags before passing them to the CAB. This saves the CAB from discussing incomplete changes and allows the Change Manager to set a CAB agenda before the CAB meeting. If need be, change approval can also set vendor communications necessary for changes, as well as the final implementation date of the change. The CAB and Change Manager may follow up with the appropriate parties notifying them of the approval decision (accepted, rescheduled, or rejected).

    The image shows a flowchart illustrating the process for change approval.

    For the full process, refer to the Change Management Process Library.

    Example process: Normal Change – Change Implementation

    Changes should not end at implementation. Ensure you define post-implementation activities (documentation, communication, training etc.) and a post-implementation review in case the change does not go according to plan.

    The image is a flowchart, illustrating the work process for change implementation and post-implementation review.

    For the full process, refer to the Change Management Process Library.

    2.2.2 Create a Normal Change Process

    Input

    • Current SOP/workflow library

    Output

    • Normal change process

    Materials

    Participants

    • CIO
    • IT Managers
    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board
    1. Gather representatives from the change management team.
    2. Using the examples shown on the previous few slides, work as a group to determine the workflow for a normal change, with particular attention to the following sub-processes:
      1. Request
      2. Assessment
      3. Plan
      4. Approve
      5. Implementation and Post-Implementation Activities
    3. Optionally, you may create variations of the workflow for minor, medium, and major changes (e.g. there will be fewer authorizations for minor changes).
    4. For further documentation, you may choose to run the SIPOC activity for your CAB as outlined on this slide.
    5. Document the resulting workflows in the Change Management Process Library and section 11 of your Change Management SOP.

    Download the Change Management Process Library.

    Identify and convert low-risk normal changes to pre-approved once the process is established

    As your process matures, begin creating a list of normal changes that might qualify for pre-approval. The most potential for value in gains from change management comes from re-engineering and automating of high-volume changes. Pre-approved changes should save you time without threatening the live environment.

    IT should flag changes they would like pre-approved:

    • Once your change management process is firmly established, hold a meeting with all staff that make change requests and build changes.
    • Run a training session detailing the traits of pre-approved changes and ask these individuals to identify changes that might qualify.
    • These changes should be submitted to the Change Manager and reviewed, with the help of the CAB, to decide whether or not they qualify for pre-approval.

    Pre-approved changes are not exempt from due diligence:

    • Once a change is designated as pre-approved, the deployment team should create and compile all relevant documentation:
      • An RFC detailing the change, dependencies, risk, and impact.
      • Detailed procedures and required resources.
      • Implementation and backout plan.
      • Test results.
    • When templating the RFC for pre-approved changes, aim to write the documentation as if another SME were to implement it. This reduces confusion, especially if there’s staff turnover.
    • The CAB must approve, sign off, and keep a record of all documents.
    • Pre-approved changes must still be documented and recorded in the CMDB and change log after each deployment.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    At the beginning of a change management process, there should be few active pre-approved changes. However, prior to launch, you may have IT flag changes for conversion.

    Example process: Pre-Approved Change Process

    The image shows two horizontal flow charts, the first labelled Pre-Approval of Recurring RFC, and the second labelled Implementation of Child RFC.

    For the full process, refer to the Change Management Process Library.

    Review the pre-approved change list regularly to ensure the list of changes are still low-risk and repeatable.

    IT environments change. Don’t be caught by surprise.

    • Changes which were once low-risk and repeatable may cause unforeseen incidents if they are not reviewed regularly.
    • Dependencies change as the IT environment changes. Ensure that the changes on the pre-approved change list are still low-risk and repeatable, and that the documentation is up to date.
    • If dependencies have changed, then move the change back to the normal category for reassessment. It may be redesignated as a pre-approved change once the documentation is updated.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Other reasons for moving a pre-approved change back to the normal category is if the change led to an incident during implementation or if there was an issue during implementation.

    Seek new pre-approved change submissions. → Re-evaluate the pre-approved change list every 4-6 months.

    The image shows a horizontal flow chart, depicting the process for a pre-approved change list review.

    For the full process, refer to the Change Management Process Library.

    2.2.3 Create a Pre-Approved Change Process

    Input

    • Current SOP/workflow library

    Output

    • Pre-approved change process

    Materials

    Participants

    • CIO
    • IT Managers
    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board
    1. Gather representatives from the change management team.
    2. Using the examples shown on the previous few slides, work as a group to determine the workflow for a pre-approved change, with particular attention to the following sub-processes:
      1. Request
      2. Assessment
      3. Plan
      4. Approve
    3. Document the process of a converting a normal change to pre-approved. Include the steps from flagging a low-risk change to creating the related RFC template.
    4. Document the resulting workflows in the Change Management Process Library and sections 4.2 and 13 of your Change Management SOP.

    Reserve the emergency designation for real emergencies

    • Emergency changes have one of the following triggers:
      • A critical incident is impacting user productivity.
      • An imminent critical incident will impact user productivity.
    • Unless a critical incident is being resolved or prevented, the change should be categorized as normal.
    • An emergency change differs from a normal change in the following key aspects:
      • An emergency change is required to recover from a major outage – there must be a validated service desk critical incident ticket.
      • An urgent business requirement is not an “emergency.”
      • An RFC is created after the change is implemented and the outage is over.
      • A review by the full CAB occurs after the change is implemented.
      • The first responder and/or the person implementing the change may not be the subject matter expert for that system.
    • In all cases, an RFC must be created and the change must be reviewed by the full CAB. The review should occur within two business days of the event.
    Sample ChangeQuick CheckEmergency?
    Install the latest critical patches from the vendor. Are the patches required to resolve or prevent an imminent critical incident? No
    A virus or worm invades the network and a patch is needed to eliminate the threat. Is the patch required to resolve or prevent an imminent critical incident? Yes

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Change requesters should be made aware that senior management will be informed if an emergency RFC is submitted inappropriately. Emergency requests trigger urgent CAB meetings, are riskier to deploy, and delay other changes waiting in the queue.

    Example process: Emergency Change Process

    The image is a flowchart depicting the process for an emergency change process

    When building your emergency change process, have your E-CAB protocol from activity 2.1.4 handy.

    • Focus on the following requirements for an emergency process:
      • E-CAB protocol and scope: Does the SME need authorization first before working on the change or can the SME proceed if no E-CAB members respond?
      • Documentation and communication to stakeholders and CAB after the emergency change is completed.
      • Input from incident management.

    For the full process, refer to the Change Management Process Library.

    2.2.4 Create an Emergency Change Process

    Input

    • Current SOP/workflow library

    Output

    • Emergency change process

    Materials

    Participants

    • CIO
    • IT Managers
    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board
    1. Gather representatives from the change management team.
    2. Using the examples shown on the previous few slides, work as a group to determine the workflow for an emergency change, with particular attention to the following sub-processes:
      1. Request
      2. Assessment
      3. Plan
      4. Approve
    3. Ensure that the E-CAB protocol from activity 2.1.4 is considered when building your process.
    4. Document the resulting workflows in the Change Management Process Library and section 12 of your Change Management SOP.

    Case Study (part 2 of 4)

    Intel implemented a robust change management process.

    Industry: Technology

    Source: Daniel Grove, Intel

    Challenge

    Founded in 1968, the world’s largest microchip and semiconductor company employs over 100,000 people. Intel manufactures processors for major players in the PC market including Apple, Lenovo, HP, and Dell.

    Intel IT supports over 65,000 servers, 3.2 petabytes of data, over 70,000 PCs, and 2.6 million emails per day.

    Intel’s change management program is responsible for over 4,000 changes each week.

    Solution

    Intel identified 37 different change processes and 25 change management systems of record with little integration.

    Software and infrastructure groups were also very siloed, and this no doubt contributed to the high number of changes that caused outages.

    The task was simple: standards needed to be put in place and communication had to improve.

    Results

    Once process ownership was assigned and the role of the Change Manager and CAB clarified, it was a simple task to streamline and simplify processes among groups.

    Intel designed a new, unified change management workflow that all groups would adopt.

    Automation was also brought into play to improve how RFCs were generated and submitted.

    Phase 3

    Define the RFC and Post-Implementation Activities

    Define Change Management

    1.1 Assess Maturity

    1.2 Categorize Changes and Build Your Risk Assessment

    Establish Roles and Workflows

    2.1 Determine Roles and Responsibilities

    2.2 Build Core Workflows

    Define the RFC and Post-Implementation Activities

    3.1 Design the RFC

    3.2 Establish Post-Implementation Activities

    Measure, Manage, and Maintain

    4.1 Identify Metrics and Build the Change Calendar

    4.2 Implement the Project

    This phase will guide you through the following activities:

    • Design the RFC
    • Establish Post-Implementation Activities

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • IT Director
    • Infrastructure Manager
    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board

    Step 3.1

    Design the RFC

    Activities

    3.1.1 Evaluate Your Existing RFC Process

    3.1.2 Build the RFC Form

    Define the RFC and Post-Implementation Activities

    Step 3.1: Design the RFC

    Step 3.2: Establish Post-Implementation Activities

    This step involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • IT Managers
    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board

    Outcomes of this step

    • A full RFC template and process that compliments the workflows for the three change categories

    A request for change (RFC) should be submitted for every non-standard change

    An RFC should be submitted through the formal change management practice for every change that is not a standard, pre-approved change (a change which does not require submission to the change management practice).

    • The RFC should contain all the information required to approve a change. Some information will be recorded when the change request is first initiated, but not everything will be known at that time.
    • Further information can be added as the change progresses through its lifecycle.
    • The level of detail that goes into the RFC will vary depending on the type of change, the size, and the likely impact of the change.
    • Other details of the change may be recorded in other documents and referenced in the RFC.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Keep the RFC form simple, especially when first implementing change management, to encourage the adoption of and compliance with the process.

    RFCs should contain the following information, at a minimum:

    1. Contact information for requester
    2. Description of change
    3. References to external documentation
    4. Items to be changed, reason for the change, and impact of both implementing and not implementing the change
    5. Change type and category
    6. Priority and risk assessment
    7. Predicted time frame, resources, and cost
    8. Backout or remediation plan
    9. Proposed approvers
    10. Scheduled implementation time
    11. Communications plan and post-implementation review

    3.1.1 Evaluate Your Existing RFC Process

    Input

    • Current RFC form or stock ITSM RFC
    • Current SOP (if available)

    Output

    • List of changes to the current RFC form and RFC process

    Materials

    Participants

    • IT Director
    • Infrastructure Manager
    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board
    1. If the organization is already using an RFC form, review it as a group now and discuss its contents:
      • Does this RFC provide adequate information for the Change Manager and/or CAB to review?
      • Should any additional fields be added?
    2. Show the participants Info-Tech’s Request for Change Form Template and compare it to the one the organization is currently using.
    3. As a group, finalize an RFC table of contents that will be used to formalize a new or improved RFC.
    4. Decide which fields should be filled out by the requester before the initial RFC is submitted to the Change Manager:
      • Many sections of the RFC are relevant for change assessment and review. What information does the Change Manager need when they first receive a request?
      • The Change Manager needs enough information to ensure that the change is in scope and has been properly categorized.
    5. Decide how the RFC form should be submitted and reviewed; this can be documented in section 5 of your Change Management SOP.

    Download the Request for Change Form Template.

    Design the RFC to encourage process buy-in

    • When building the RFC, split the form up into sections that follow the normal workflow (e.g. Intake, Assessment and Build, Approval, Implementation/PIR). This way the form walks the requester through what needs to be filled and when.
    • Revisit the form periodically and solicit feedback to continually improve the user experience. If there’s information missing on the RFC that the CAB would like to know, add the fields. If there are sections that are not used or not needed for documentation, remove them.
    • Make sure the user experience surrounding your RFC form is a top priority – make it accessible, otherwise change requesters simply will not use it.
    • Take advantage of your ITSM’s dropdown lists, automated notifications, CMDB integrations, and auto-generated fields to ease the process of filling the RFC

    Draft:

    • Change requester
    • Requested date of deployment
    • Change risk: low/medium/high
    • Risk assessment
    • Description of change
    • Reason for change
    • Change components

    Technical Build:

    • Assess change:
      • Dependencies
      • Business impact
      • SLA impact
      • Required resources
      • Query the CMS
    • Plan and test changes:
      • Test plan
      • Test results
      • Implementation plan
      • Backout plan
      • Backout plan test results

    CAB:

    • Approve and schedule changes:
      • Final CAB review
      • Communications plan

    Complete:

    • Deploy changes:
      • Post-implementation review

    Designing your RFC: RFC draft

    • Change requester – link your change module to the active directory to pull the change requester’s contact information automatically to save time.
    • A requested date of deployment gives approvers information on timeline and can be used to query the change calendar for possible conflicts
    • Information about risk assessment based on impact and likelihood questionnaires are quick to fill out but provide a lot of information to the CAB. The risk assessment may not be complete at the draft stage but can be updated as the change is built. Ensure this field is up-to- date before it reaches CAB.
    • If you have a technical review stage where changes are directed to the proper workflow and resourcing is assessed, the description, reason, and change components are high-level descriptors of the change that will aid in discovery and lining the change up with the business vision (viability from both a technical and business standpoint).
    • Change requester
    • Requested date of deployment
    • Change Risk: low/medium/high
    • Risk assessment
    • Description of change
    • Reason for change
    • Change components

    Use the RFC to point to documentation already gathered in the DevOps lifecycle to cut down on unnecessary manual work while maintaining compliance.

    Designing your RFC: technical build

    • Dependencies and CMDB query, along with the proposed implementation date, are included to aid in calendar deconfliction and change scheduling. If there’s a conflict, it’s easier to reschedule the proposed change early in the lifecycle.
    • Business, SLA impact, and required resources can be tracked to provide the CAB with information on the business resources required. This can also be used to prioritize the change if conflicts arise.
    • Implementation, test, and backout plans must be included and assessed to increase the probability that a change will be implemented without failure. It’s also useful in the case of PIRs to determine root causes of change-related incidents.
    • Assess change:
      • Dependencies
      • Business impact
      • SLA impact
      • Required resources
      • Query the CMS
    • Plan and test changes:
      • Test plan
      • Test results
      • Implementation plan
      • Backout plan
      • Backout plan test results

    Designing your RFC: approval and deployment

    • Documenting approval, rejection, and rescheduling gives the change requester the go-ahead to proceed with the change, rationale on why it was prioritized lower than another change (rescheduled), or rationale on rejection.
    • Communications plans for appropriate stakeholders can also be modified and forwarded to the communications team (e.g. service desk or business system owners) before deployment.
    • Post-implementation activities and reviews can be conducted if need be before a change is closed. The PIR, if filled out, should then be appended to any subsequent changes of the same nature to avoid making the same mistake twice.
    • Approve and schedule changes:
      • Final CAB review
      • Communications plan
    • Deploy changes:
      • Post-implementation review

    Standardize the request for change protocol

    1. Submission Standards
      • Electronic submission will make it easier for CAB members to review the documentation.
      • As the change goes through the assessment, plan, and test phase, new documentation (assessments, backout plans, test results, etc.) can be attached to the digital RFC for review by CAB members prior to the CAB meeting.
      • Change management software won’t be necessary to facilitate the RFC submission and review; a content repository system, such as SharePoint, will suffice.
    2. Designate the first control point
      • All RFCs should be submitted to a single point of contact.
      • Ideally, the Change Manager or Technical Review Board should fill this role.
      • Whoever is tasked with this role needs the subject matter expertise to ensure that the change has been categorized correctly, to reject out-of-scope requests, or to ask that missing information be provided before the RFC moves through the full change management practice.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Technical and SME contacts should be noted in each RFC so they can be easily consulted during the RFC review.

    3.1.2 Build the RFC Form

    Input

    • Current RFC form or stock ITSM RFC
    • Current SOP (if available)

    Output

    • List of changes to the current RFC and RFC process

    Materials

    Participants

    • IT Director
    • Infrastructure Manager
    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board
    1. Use Info-Tech’s Request for Change Form Template as a basis for your RFC form.
    2. Use this template to standardize your change request process and ensure that the appropriate information is documented effectively each time a request is made. The change requester and Change Manager should consolidate all information associated with a given change request in this form. This form will be submitted by the change requester and reviewed by the Change Manager.

    Case Study (part 3 of 4)

    Intel implemented automated RFC form generation.

    Industry: Technology

    Source: Daniel Grove, Intel

    Challenge

    Founded in 1968, the world’s largest microchip and semiconductor company employs over 100,000 people. Intel manufactures processors for major players in the PC market including Apple, Lenovo, HP, and Dell.

    Intel IT supports over 65,000 servers, 3.2 petabytes of data, over 70,000 PCs, and 2.6 million emails per day.

    Intel’s change management program is responsible for over 4,000 changes each week.

    Solution

    One of the crucial factors that was impacting Intel’s change management efficiency was a cumbersome RFC process.

    A lack of RFC usage was contributing to increased ad hoc changes being put through the CAB, and rescheduled changes were quite high.

    Additionally, ad hoc changes were also contributing heavily to unscheduled downtime within the organization.

    Results

    Intel designed and implemented an automated RFC form generator to encourage end users to increase RFC usage.

    As we’ve seen with RFC form design, the UX/UI of the form needs to be top notch, otherwise end users will simply circumvent the process. This will contribute to the problems you are seeking to correct.

    Thanks to increased RFC usage, Intel decreased emergency changes by 50% and reduced change-caused unscheduled downtime by 82%.

    Step 3.2

    Establish Post-Implementation Activities

    Activities

    3.2.1 Determine When the CAB Would Reject Tested Changes

    3.2.2 Create a Post-Implementation Activity Checklist

    Define the RFC and Post-Implementation Activities

    Step 3.1: Design RFC

    Step 3.2: Establish Post-Implementation Activities

    This step involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • IT Managers
    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board

    Outcomes of this step

    • A formalized post-implementation process for continual improvement

    Why would the CAB reject a change that has been properly assessed and tested?

    Possible reasons the CAB would reject a change include:

    • The product being changed is approaching its end of life.
    • The change is too costly.
    • The timing of the change conflicts with other changes.
    • There could be compliance issues.
    • The change is actually a project.
    • The risk is too high.
    • There could be regulatory issues.
    • The peripherals (test, backout, communication, and training plans) are incomplete.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Many reasons for rejection (listed above) can be caught early on in the process during the technical review or change build portion of the change. The earlier you catch these reasons for rejection, the less wasted effort there will be per change.

    Sample RFCReason for CAP Rejection
    There was a request for an update to a system that a legacy application depends on and only a specific area of the business was aware of the dependency. The CAB rejects it due to the downstream impact.
    There was a request for an update to a non-supported application, and the vendor was asking for a premium support contract that is very costly. It’s too expensive to implement, despite the need for it. The CAB will wait for an upgrade to a new application.
    There was a request to update application functionality to a beta release. The risk outweighs the business benefits.

    Determine When the CAB Would Reject Tested Changes

    Input

    • Current SOP (if available)

    Output

    • List of reasons to reject tested changes

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/flip charts (or shared screen if working remotely)
    • Projector
    • Markers/pens
    • Laptop with ITSM admin access
    • Project Summary Template

    Participants

    • IT Director
    • Infrastructure Manager
    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board

    Avoid hand-offs to ensure a smooth implementation process

    The implementation phase is the final checkpoint before releasing the new change into your live environment. Once the final checks have been made to the change, it’s paramount that teams work together to transition the change effectively rather than doing an abrupt hand-off. This could cause a potential outage.

    1.

    • Deployment resources identified, allocated, and scheduled
    • Documentation complete
    • Support team trained
    • Users trained
    • Business sign-off
    • Target systems identified and ready to receive changes
    • Target systems available for installation maintenance window scheduled
    • Technical checks:
      • Disk space available
      • Pre-requisites met
      • Components/Services to be updated are stopped
      • All users disconnected
    • Download Info-Tech’sChange Management Pre-Implementation Checklist

    Implement change →

    2.

    1. Verification – once the change has been implemented, verify that all requirements are fulfilled.
    2. Review – ensure that all affected systems and applications are operating as predicted. Update change log.
    3. Transition – a crucial phase of implementation that’s often overlooked. Once the change implementation is complete from a technical point of view, it’s imperative that the team involved with the change inform and train the group responsible for managing the new change.

    Create a backout plan to reduce the risk of a failed change

    Every change process needs to plan for the potential for failure and how to address it effectively. Change management’s solution to this problem is a backout plan.

    A backout plan needs to contain a record of the steps that need to be taken to restore the live environment back to its previous state and maintain business continuity. A good backout plan asks the following questions:

    1. How will failure be determined? Who will make the determination to back out of a change be made and when?
    2. Do we fix on fail or do we rollback to the previous configuration?
    3. Is the service desk aware of the impending change? Do they have proper training?

    Notify the Service Desk

    • Notify the Service Desk about backout plan initiation.

    Disable Access

    • Disable user access to affected system(s).

    Conduct Checks

    • Conduct checks to all affected components.

    Enable User Access

    • Enable user access to affected systems.

    Notify the Service Desk

    • Notify the service desk that the backout plan was successful.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    As part of the backout plan, consider the turnback point in the change window. That is, the point within the change window where you still have time to fully back out of the change.

    Ensure the following post-implementation review activities are completed

    Service Catalog

    Update the service catalog with new information as a result of the implemented change.

    CMDB

    Update new dependencies present as a result of the new change.

    Asset DB

    Add notes about any assets newly affected by changes.

    Architecture Map

    Update your map based on the new change.

    Technical Documentation

    Update your technical documentation to reflect the changes present because of the new change.

    Training Documentation

    Update your training documentation to reflect any information about how users interact with the change.

    Use a post-implementation review process to promote continual improvement

    The post-implementation review (PIR) is the most neglected change management activity.

    • All changes should be reviewed to understand the reason behind them, appropriateness, and recommendations for next steps.
    • The Change Manager manages the completion of information PIRs and invites RFC originators to present their findings and document the lessons learned.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Review PIR reports at CAB meetings to highlight the root causes of issues, action items to close identified gaps, and back-up documentation required. Attach the PIR report to the relevant RFC to prevent similar changes from facing the same issues in the future.

    1. Why do a post-implementation review?
      • Changes that don’t fail but don’t perform well are rarely reviewed.
      • Changes may fail subtly and still need review.
      • Changes that cause serious failures (i.e. unplanned downtime) receive analysis that is unnecessarily in-depth.
    2. What are the benefits?
      • A proactive, post-implementation review actually uses less resources than reactionary change reviews.
      • Root-cause analysis of failed changes, no matter what the impact.
      • Insight into changes that took longer than projected.
      • Identification of previously unidentified risks affecting changes.

    Determine the strategy for your PIR to establish a standardized process

    Capture the details of your PIR process in a table similar to the one below.

    Frequency Part of weekly review (IT team meeting)
    Participants
    • Change Manager
    • Originator
    • SME/supervisor/impacted team(s)

    Categories under review

    Current deviations and action items from previous PIR:

    • Complete
    • Partially complete
    • Complete, late
    • Change failed, rollback succeeded
    • Change failed, rollback failed
    • Major deviation from implementation plan
    Output
    • Root cause or failure or deviation
    • External factors
    • Remediation focus areas
    • Remediation timeline (follow-up at appropriate time)
    Controls
    • Reviewed at next CAB meeting
    • RFC close is dependent on completion of PIR
    • Share with the rest of the technical team
    • Lessons learned stored in the knowledgebase and attached to RFC for easy search of past issues.

    3.2.2 Create a Post-Implementation Activity Checklist

    Input

    • Current SOP (if available)

    Output

    • List of reasons to reject tested changes

    Materials

    Participants

    • CIO
    • IT Managers
    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board
    1. Gather representatives from the change management team.
    2. Brainstorm duties to perform following the deployment of a change. Below is a sample list:
      • Example:
        • Was the deployment successful?
          • If no, was the backout plan executed successfully?
        • List change-related incidents
        • Change assessment
          • Missed dependencies
          • Inaccurate business impact
          • Incorrect SLA impact
          • Inaccurate resources
            • Time
            • Staff
            • Hardware
        • System testing
        • Integration testing
        • User acceptance testing
        • No backout plan
        • Backout plan failure
        • Deployment issues
    3. Record your results in the Change Management Post-Implementation Checklist.

    Download the Change Management Post-Implementation Checklist

    Case Study

    Microsoft used post-implementation review activities to mitigate the risk of a critical Azure outage.

    Industry: Technology

    Source: Jason Zander, Microsoft

    Challenge

    In November 2014, Microsoft deployed a change intended to improve Azure storage performance by reducing CPU footprint of the Azure Table Front-Ends.

    The deployment method was an incremental approach called “flighting,” where software and configuration deployments are deployed incrementally to Azure infrastructure in small batches.

    Unfortunately, this software deployment caused a service interruption in multiple regions.

    Solution

    Before the software was deployed, Microsoft engineers followed proper protocol by testing the proposed update. All test results pointed to a successful implementation.

    Unfortunately, engineers pushed the change out to the entire infrastructure instead of adhering to the traditional flighting protocol.

    Additionally, the configuration switch was incorrectly enabled for the Azure Blob storage Front-Ends.

    A combination of the two mistakes exposed a bug that caused the outage.

    Results

    Thankfully, Microsoft had a backout plan. Within 30 minutes, the change was rolled back on a global scale.

    It was determined that policy enforcement was not integrated across the deployment system. An update to the system shifted the process of policy enforcement from human-based decisions and protocol to automation via the deployment platform.

    Defined PIR activities enabled Microsoft to take swift action against the outage and mitigate the risk of a serious outage.

    Phase 4

    Measure, Manage, and Maintain

    Define Change Management

    1.1 Assess Maturity

    1.2 Categorize Changes and Build Risk Assessment

    Establish Roles and Workflows

    2.1 Determine Roles and Responsibilities

    2.2 Build Core Workflows

    Define RFC and Post-Implementation Activities

    3.1 Design RFC

    3.2 Establish post-implementation activities

    Measure, Manage, and Maintain

    4.1 Identify Metrics and Build the Change Calendar

    4.2 Implement the Project

    This phase will guide you through the following activities:

    • Identify Metrics and Build the Change Calendar
    • Implement the Project

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • CIO/IT Director
    • IT Managers
    • Change Manager

    Step 4.1

    Identify Metrics and Build the Change Calendar

    Activities

    4.1.1 Create an Outline for Your Change Calendar

    4.1.2 Determine Metrics, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and Critical Success Factors (CSFs)

    4.1.3 Track and Record Metrics Using the Change Management Metrics Tool

    Measure, Manage, and Maintain

    Step 4.1: Identify Metrics and Build the Change Calendar

    Step 4.2: Implement the Project

    This step involves the following participants:

    • CIO/IT Director
    • IT Managers
    • Change Manager

    Outcomes of this step

    • Clear definitions of change calendar content
    • Guidelines for change calendar scheduling
    • Defined metrics to measure the success of change management with associated reports, KPIs, and CSFs

    Enforce a standard method of prioritizing and scheduling changes

    The impact of not deploying the change and the benefit of deploying it should determine its priority.

    Risk of Not Deploying

    • What is the urgency of the change?
    • What is the risk to the organization if the change is not deployed right away?
    • Will there be any lost productivity, service disruptions, or missed critical business opportunities?
      • Timing
        • Does the proposed timing work with the approved changes already on the change schedule?
        • Has the change been clash checked so there are no potential conflicts over services or resources?
      • Once prioritized, a final deployment date should be set by the CAB. Check the change calendar first to avoid conflicts.

    Positive Impact of Deployment

    • What benefits will be realized once the change is deployed?
    • How significant is the opportunity that triggered the change?
    • Will the change lead to a positive business outcome (e.g. increased sales)?

    “The one who has more clout or authority is usually the one who gets changes scheduled in the time frame they desire, but you should really be evaluating the impact to the organization. We looked at the risk to the business of not doing the change, and that’s a good way of determining the criticality and urgency of that change.” – Joseph Sgandurra, Director, Service Delivery, Navantis

    Info-Tech Insight

    Avoid a culture where powerful stakeholders are able to push change deployment on an ad hoc basis. Give the CAB the full authority to make approval decisions based on urgency, impact, cost, and availability of resources.

    Develop a change schedule to formalize the planning process

    A change calendar will help the CAB schedule changes more effectively and increase visibility into upcoming changes across the organization.

    1. Establish change windows in a consistent change schedule:
      • Compile a list of business units that would benefit from a change.
      • Look for conflicts in the change schedule.
      • Avoid scheduling two or more major business units in a day.
      • Consider clients when building your change windows and change schedule.
    2. Gain commitments from key participants:
      • These individuals can confirm if there are any unusual or cyclical business requirements that will impact the schedule.
    3. Properly control your change calendar to improve change efficiency:
      • Look at the proposed start and end times: Are they sensible? Does the implementation window leave time for anything going wrong or needing to roll back the change?
      • Special considerations: Are there special circumstances that need to be considered? Ask the business if you don’t know.
      • The key principle is to have a sufficient window available for implementing changes so you only need to set up calendar freezes for sound business or technical reasons.

    Our mantra is to put it on the calendar. Even if it’s a preapproved change and doesn’t need a vote, having it on the calendar helps with visibility. The calendar is the one-stop shop for scheduling and identifying change dependencies.“ – Wil Clark, Director of Service and Performance Management, University of North Texas Systems

    Provide clear definitions of what goes on the change calendar and who’s responsible

    Roles

    • The Change Manager will be responsible for creating and maintaining a change calendar.
    • Only the Change Manager can physically alter the calendar by adding a new change after the CAB has agreed upon a deployment date.
    • All other CAB members, IT support staff, and other impacted stakeholders should have access to the calendar on a read-only basis to prevent people from making unauthorized changes to deployment dates.

    Inputs

    • Freeze periods for individual business departments/applications (e.g. finance month-end periods, HR payroll cycle, etc. – all to be investigated).
    • Maintenance windows and planned outage periods.
    • Project schedules, and upcoming major/medium changes.
    • Holidays.
    • Business hours (some departments work 9-5, others work different hours or in different time zones, and user acceptance testing may require business users to be available).

    Guidelines

    • Business-defined freeze periods are the top priority.
    • No major or medium normal changes should occur during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day.
    • Vendor SLA support hours are the preferred time for implementing changes.
    • The vacation calendar for IT will be considered for major changes.
    • Change priority: High > Medium > Low.
    • Minor changes and preapproved changes have the same priority and will be decided on a case-by-case basis.

    The change calendar is a critical pre-requisite to change management in DevOps. Use the calendar to be proactive with proposed implementation dates and deconfliction before the change is finished.

    4.1.1 Create Guidelines for Your Change Calendar

    Input

    • Current change calendar guidelines

    Output

    • Change calendar inputs and schedule checklist

    Materials

    Participants

    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board
    • Service Desk Manager
    • Operations (optional)
    1. Gather representatives from the change management team.
      • Example:
        • The change calendar/schedule includes:
          • Approved and scheduled normal changes.
          • Scheduled project work.
          • Scheduled maintenance windows.
          • Change freeze periods with affected users noted:
            • Daily/weekly freeze periods.
            • Monthly freeze periods.
            • Annual freeze periods.
            • Other critical business events.
    2. Create a checklist to run through before each change is scheduled:
      • Check the schedule and assess resource availability:
        • Will user productivity be impacted?
        • Are there available resources (people and systems) to implement the change?
        • Is the vendor available? Is there a significant cost attached to pushing change deployment before the regularly scheduled refresh?
        • Are there dependencies? Does the deployment of one change depend on the earlier deployment of another?
    3. Record your results in your Project Summary Template.

    Start measuring the success of your change management project using three key metrics

    Number of change-related incidents that occur each month

    • Each month, record the number of incidents that can be directly linked to a change. This can be done using an ITSM tool or manually by service desk staff.
    • This is a key success metric: if you are not tracking change-related incidents yet, start doing so as soon as possible. This is the metric that the CIO and business stakeholders will be most interested in because it impacts users directly.

    Number of unauthorized changes applied each month

    • Each month, record the number of changes applied without approval. This is the best way to measure adherence to the process.
    • If this number decreases, it demonstrates a reduction in risk, as more changes are formally assessed and approved before being deployed.

    Percentage of emergency changes

    • Each month, compare the number of emergency change requests to the total number of change requests.
    • Change requesters often designate changes as emergencies as a way of bypassing the process.
    • A reduction in emergency changes demonstrates that your process is operating smoothly and reduces the risk of deploying changes that have not been properly tested.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Start simple. Metrics can be difficult to tackle if you’re starting from scratch. While implementing your change management practice, use these three metrics as a starting point, since they correlate well with the success of change management overall. The following few slides provide more insight into creating metrics for your change process.

    If you want more insight into your change process, measure the progress of each step in change management with metrics

    Improve

    • Number of repeat failures (i.e. making the same mistake twice)
    • Number of changes converted to pre-approved
    • Number of changes converted from pre-approved back to normal

    Request

    • What percentage of change requests have errors or lack appropriate support?
    • What percentage of change requests are actually projects, service requests, or operational tasks?
    • What percentage of changes have been requested before (i.e. documented)?

    Assess

    • What percentage of change requests are out of scope?
    • What percentage of changes have been requested before (i.e. documented)?
    • What are the percentages of changes by category (normal, pre-approved, emergency)?

    Plan

    • What percentage of change requests are reviewed by the CAB that should have been pre-approved or emergency (i.e. what percentage of changes are in the wrong category)?

    Approve

    • Number of changes broken down by department (business unit/IT department to be used in making core/optional CAB membership more efficient)
    • Number of workflows that can be automated

    Implement

    • Number of changes completed on schedule
    • Number of changes rolled back
    • What percentage of changes caused an incident?

    Use metrics to inform project KPIs and CSFs

    Leverage the metrics from the last slide and convert them to data communicable to IT, management, and leadership

    • To provide value, metrics and measurements must be actionable. What actions can be taken as a result of the data being presented?
    • If the metrics are not actionable, there is no value and you should question the use of the metric.
    • Data points in isolation are mostly meaningless to inform action. Observe trends in your metrics to inform your decisions.
    • Using a framework to develop measurements and metrics provides a defined methodology that enables a mapping of base measurements through CSFs.
    • Establishing the relationship increases the value that measurements provide.

    Purposely use SDLC and change lifecycle metrics to find bottlenecks and automation candidates.

    Metrics:

    Metrics are easily measured datapoints that can be pulled from your change management tool. Examples: Number of changes implemented, number of changes without incident.

    KPIs:

    Key Performance Indicators are metrics presented in a way that is easily digestible by stakeholders in IT. Examples: Change efficiency, quality of changes.

    CSFs:

    Critical Success Factors are measures of the business success of change management taken by correlating the CSF with multiple KPIs. Examples: consistent and efficient change management process, a change process mapped to business needs

    List in-scope metrics and reports and align them to benefits

    Metric/Report (by team)Benefit
    Total number of RFCs and percentages by category (pre-approved, normal, emergency, escalated support, expedited)
    • Understand change management activity
    • Tracking maturity growth
    • Identifying “hot spots”
    Pre-approved change list (and additions/removals from the list) Workload and process streamlining (i.e. reduce “red tape” wherever possible)
    Average time between RFC lifecycle stages (by service/application) Advance planning for proposed changes
    Number of changes by service/application/hardware class
    • Identifying weaknesses in the architecture
    • Vendor-specific TCO calculations
    Change triggers Business- vs. IT-initiated change
    Number of RFCs by lifecycle stage Workload planning
    List of incidents related to changes Visible failures of the CM process
    Percentage of RFCs with a tested backout/validation plan Completeness of change planning
    List of expedited changes Spotlighting poor planning and reducing the need for this category going forward (“The Hall of Shame”)
    CAB approval rate Change coordinator alignment with CAB priorities – low approval rate indicates need to tighten gatekeeping by the change coordinator
    Calendar of changes Planning

    4.1.2 Determine Metrics, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and Critical Success Factors (CSFs)

    Input

    • Current metrics

    Output

    • List of trackable metrics, KPIs and CSFs

    Materials

    Participants

    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board
    • Service Desk Manager
    • Operations (optional)
    1. Draw three tables for metrics, KPIs, and CSFs.
    2. Starting with the CSF table, fill in all relevant CSFs that your group wishes to track and measure.
    3. Next, work to determine relevant KPIs correlated with the CSFs and metrics needed to measure the KPIs. Use the tables included below (taken from section 14 of the Change Management SOP) to guide the process.
    4. Record the results in the tables in section 14 of your Change Management SOP.
    5. Decide on where and when to review the metrics to discuss your change management strategy. Designate and owner and record in the RACI and Communications section of your Change Management SOP.
    Ref #Metric

    M1

    Number of changes implemented for a time period
    M2 Number of changes successfully implemented for a time period
    M3 Number of changes implemented causing incidents
    M4 Number of accepted known errors when change is implemented
    M5 Total days for a change build (specific to each change)
    M6 Number of changes rescheduled
    M7 Number of training questions received following a change
    Ref#KPIProduct
    K1 Successful changes for a period of time (approach 100%) M2 / M1 x 100%
    K2 Changes causing incidents (approach 0%) M3 / M1 x 100%
    K3 Average days to implement a change ΣM5 / M1
    K4 Change efficiency (approach 100%) [1 - (M6 / M1)] x 100%
    K5 Quality of changes being implemented (approach 100%) [1 - (M4 / M1)] x 100%
    K6 Change training efficiency (approach 100%) [1 - (M7 / M1)] x 100%
    Ref#CSFIndicator
    C1 Successful change management process producing quality changes K1, K5
    C2 Consistent efficient change process K4, K6
    C3 Change process maps to business needs K5, K6

    Measure changes in selected metrics to evaluate success

    Once you have implemented a standardized change management practice, your team’s goal should be to improve the process, year over year.

    • After a process change has been implemented, it’s important to regularly monitor and evaluate the CSFs, KPIs, and metrics you chose to evaluate. Examine whether the process change you implemented has actually resolved the issue or achieved the goal of the critical success factor.
    • Establish a schedule for regularly reviewing the key metrics. Assess changes in those metrics and determine progress toward reaching objectives.
    • In addition to reviewing CSFs, KPIs, and metrics, check in with the release management team and end users to measure their perceptions of the change management process once an appropriate amount of time has passed.
    • Ensure that metrics are telling the whole story and that reporting is honest in order to be informative.

    Outcomes of standardizing change management should include:

    1. Improved efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of changes.
    2. Changes and processes are more aligned with the business needs and strategy.
    3. Improved maturity of change processes.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Make sure you’re measuring the right things and considering all sources of information. It’s very easy to put yourself in a position where you’re congratulating yourselves for improving on a specific metric such as number of releases per month, but satisfaction remains low.

    4.1.3 Track and Record Metrics Using the Change Management Metrics Tool

    Input

    • Current metrics

    Output

    • List of trackable metrics, KPIs and CSFs to be observed over the length of a year

    Materials

    Participants

    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board
    • Service Desk Manager
    • Operations (optional)

    Tracking the progress of metrics is paramount to the success of any change management process. Use Info-Tech’s Change Management Metrics Tool to record metrics and track your progress. This tool is intended to be a substitute for organizations who do not have the capability to track change-related metrics in their ITSM tool.

    1. Input metrics from the previous activity to track over the course of a year.
    2. To record your metrics, open the tool and go to tab 2. The tool is currently primed to record and track five metrics. If you need more than that, you can edit the list in the hidden calculations tab.
    3. To see the progress of your metrics, move to tab 3 to view a dashboard of all metrics in the tool.

    Download the Change Management Metrics Tool

    Case Study

    A federal credit union was able to track maturity growth through the proper use of metrics.

    Industry: Federal Credit Union (anonymous)

    Source: Info-Tech Workshop

    Challenge

    At this federal credit union, the VP of IT wanted a tight set of metrics to engage with the business, communicate within IT, enable performance management of staff, and provide visibility into workload demands, among other requirements.

    The organization was suffering from “metrics fatigue,” with multiple reports being generated from all groups within IT, to the point that weekly/monthly reports were being seen as spam.

    Solution

    Stakeholders were provided with an overview of change management benefits and were asked to identify one key attribute that would be useful to their specific needs.

    Metrics were designed around the stakeholder needs, piloted with each stakeholder group, fine-tuned, and rolled out.

    Some metrics could not be automated off-the-shelf and were rolled out in a manual fashion. These metrics were subsequently automated and finally made available through a dashboard.

    Results

    The business received clear guidance regarding estimated times to implement changes across different elements of the environment.

    The IT managers were able to plan team workloads with visibility into upstream change activity.

    Architects were able to identify vendors and systems that were the leading source of instability.

    The VP of IT was able to track the maturity growth of the change management process and proactively engage with the business on identified hot spots.

    Step 4.2

    Implement the Project

    Activities

    4.2.1 Use a Communications Plan to Gain End User Buy-In

    4.2.2 Create a Project Roadmap to Track Your Implementation Progress

    Measure, Manage, and Maintain

    Step 4.1: Identify Metrics and Build the Change Calendar

    Step 3.2: Implement the Project

    This step involves the following participants:

    • CIO/IT Director
    • IT Managers
    • Change Manager

    Outcomes of this step

    • A communications plan for key messages to communicate to relevant stakeholders and audiences
    • A roadmap with assigned action items to implement change management

    Success of the new process will depend on introducing change and gaining acceptance

    Change management provides value by promptly evaluating and delivering changes required by the business and by minimizing disruption and rework caused by failed changes. Communication of your new change management process is key. If people do not understand the what and why, it will fail to provide the desired value.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Gather feedback from end users about the new process: if the process is too bureaucratic, end users are more likely to circumvent it.

    Main Challenges with Communication

    • Many people fail before they even start because they are buried in a mess created before they arrived – either because of a failed attempt to get change management implemented or due to a complicated system that has always existed.
    • Many systems are maintained because “that’s the way it’s always been done.”
    • Organizations don’t know where to start; they think change management is too complex a process.
    • Each group needs to follow the same procedure – groups often have their own processes, but if they don’t agree with one another, this could cause an outage.

    Educate affected stakeholders to prepare for organizational change

    An organizational change management plan should be part of your change management project.

    • Educate stakeholders about:
      • The process change (describe it in a way that the user can understand and is clear and concise).
        • IT changes will be handled in a standardized and repeatable fashion to minimize change-related incidents.
      • Who is impacted?
        • All users.
      • How are they impacted?
        • All change requests will be made using a standard form and will not be deployed until formal approval is received.
      • Change messaging.
        • How to communicate the change (benefits).
      • Learning and development – training your users on the change.
        • Develop and deliver training session on the Change Management SOP to familiarize users with this new method of handling IT change.

    Host a lunch-and-learn session

    • For the initial deployment, host a lunch-and-learn session to educate the business on the change management practice. Relevant stakeholders of affected departments should host it and cover the following topics:
    • What is change management (change management/change control)?
    • The value of change management.
    • What the Change Management SOP looks like.
    • Who is involved in the change management process (the CAB, etc.)?
    • What constitutes a pre-approved change and an emergency change?
    • An overview of the process, including how to avoid unauthorized changes.
    • Who should they contact in case of questions?

    Communicate the new process to all affected stakeholders

    Do not surprise users or support staff with changes. This will result in lost productivity and low satisfaction with IT services.

    • User groups and the business need to be given sufficient notice of an impending change.
    • This will allow them to make appropriate plans to accept the change, minimizing the impact of the change on productivity.
    • A communications plan will be documented in the RFC while the release is being built and tested.
    • It’s the responsibility of the change team to execute on the communications plan.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The success of change communication can be measured by monitoring the number of service desk tickets related to a change that was not communicated to users.

    Communication is crucial to the integration and overall implementation of your change management initiative. An effective communications plan will:

    • Gain support from management at the project proposal phase.
    • Create end-user buy-in once the program is set to launch.
    • Maintain the presence of the program throughout the business.
    • Instill ownership throughout the business from top-level management to new hires.

    Create your communications plan to anticipate challenges, remove obstacles, and ensure buy-in

    Management

    Technicians

    Business Stakeholders

    Provide separate communications to key stakeholder groups

    Why? What problems are you trying to solve?

    What? What processes will it affect (that will affect me)?

    Who? Who will be affected? Who do I go to if I have issues with the new process?

    When? When will this be happening? When will it affect me?

    How? How will these changes manifest themselves?

    Goal? What is the final goal? How will it benefit me?

    Info-Tech Insight

    Pay close attention to the medium of communication. For example, stakeholders on their feet all day would not be as receptive to an email communication compared to those who primarily work in front of a computer. Put yourself into various stakeholders’ shoes to craft a tailored communication of change management.

    4.2.1 Use a Communications Plan to Gain End User Buy-In

    Input

    • List of stakeholder groups for change management

    Output

    • Tailored communications plans for various stakeholder groups

    Materials

    Participants

    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board
    • Service Desk Manager
    • Operations (optional)
    1. Using Info-Tech’s Change Management Communications Plan, identify key audiences or stakeholder groups that will be affected by the new change management practice.
    2. For each group requiring a communications plan, identify the following:
      • The benefits for that group of individuals.
      • The impact the change will have on them.
      • The best communication method(s) for them.
      • The time frame of the communication.
    3. Complete this information in a table like the one below:
    GroupBenefitsImpactMethodTimeline
    IT Standardized change process All changes must be reviewed and approved Poster campaign 6 months
    End Users Decreased wait time for changes Formal process for RFCs Lunch-and-learn sessions 3 months
    Business Reduced outages Increased involvement in planning and approvals Monthly reports 1 year
    1. Discuss the communications plan:
      • Will this plan ensure that users are given adequate opportunities to accept the changes being deployed?
      • Is the message appropriate for each audience? Is the format appropriate for each audience?
      • Does the communication include training where necessary to help users adopt any new functions/workflows being introduced?

    Download the Change Management Communications Plan

    Present your SOP to key stakeholders and obtain their approval

    Now that you have completed your Change Management SOP, the final step is to get sign-off from senior management to begin the rollout process.

    Know your audience:

    • Determine the service management stakeholders who will be included in the audience for your presentation.
    • You want your presentation to be succinct and hard hitting. Management’s time is tight and they will lose interest if you drag out the delivery.
    • Briefly speak about the need for more formal change management and emphasize the benefits of implementing a more formal process with a SOP.
    • Present your current state assessment results to provide context before presenting the SOP itself.
    • As with any other foundational activity, be prepared with some quick wins to gain executive attention.
    • Be prepared to review with both technical and less technical stakeholders.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The support of senior executive stakeholders is critical to the success of your SOP rollout. Try to wow them with project benefits and make sure they know about the risks/pain points.

    Download the Change Management Project Summary Template

    4.2.2 Create a Project Roadmap to Track Your Implementation Progress

    Input

    • List of implementation tasks

    Output

    • Roadmap and timeline for change management implementation

    Materials

    Participants

    • Change Manager
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board
    • Service Desk Manager
    • Operations (optional)
    1. Info-Tech’s Change Management Roadmap Tool helps you identify and prioritize tasks that need to be completed for the change management implementation project.
    2. Use this tool to identify each action item that will need to be completed as part of the change management initiative. Chart each action item, assign an owner, define the duration, and set a completion date.
    3. Use the resulting rocket diagram as a guide to task completion as you work toward your future state.

    Download the Change Management Roadmap Tool

    Case Study (part 4 of 4)

    Intel implemented a robust change management process.

    Industry: Technology

    Source: Daniel Grove, Intel

    Challenge

    Founded in 1968, the world’s largest microchip and semiconductor company employs over 100,000 people. Intel manufactures processors for major players in the PC market including Apple, Lenovo, HP, and Dell.

    Intel IT supports over 65,000 servers, 3.2 petabytes of data, over 70,000 PCs, and 2.6 million emails per day.

    Intel’s change management program is responsible for over 4,000 changes each week.

    Solution

    Intel had its new change management program in place and the early milestones planned, but one key challenge with any new project is communication.

    The company also needed to navigate the simplification of a previously complex process; end users could be familiar with any of the 37 different change processes or 25 different change management systems of record.

    Top-level buy-in was another concern.

    Results

    Intel first communicated the process changes by publishing the vision and strategy for the project with top management sponsorship.

    The CIO published all of the new change policies, which were supported by the Change Governance Council.

    Intel cited the reason for success as the designation of a Policy and Guidance Council – a group designed to own communication and enforcement of the new policies and processes put in place.

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Problem Solved

    You now have an outline of your new change management process. The hard work starts now for an effective implementation. Make use of the communications plan to socialize the new process with stakeholders and the roadmap to stay on track.

    Remember as you are starting your implementation to keep your documents flexible and treat them as “living documents.” You will likely need to tweak and refine the processware and templates several times to continually improve the process. Furthermore, don’t shy away from seeking feedback from your stakeholders to gain buy-in.

    Lastly, keep an eye on your progress with objective, data-driven metrics. Leverage the trends in your data to drive your decisions. Be sure to revisit the maturity assessment not only to measure and visualize your progress, but to gain insight into your next steps.

    If you would like additional support, have our analysts guide you through other phases as part of an Info-Tech workshop.

    Contact your account representative for more information.

    workshops@infotech.com

    1-888-670-8889

    Additional Support

    If you would like additional support, have our analysts guide you through other phases as part of an Info-Tech workshop.

    To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.

    Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic office in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.

    Contact your account representative for more information.

    workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889

    The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

    1.1.2 Complete a Change Management Maturity Assessment

    Run through the change management maturity assessment with tailored commentary for each action item outlining context and best practices.

    2.2.1 Plot the Process for a Normal Change

    Build a normal change process using Info-Tech’s Change Management Process Library template with an analyst helping you to right size the process for your organization.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Standardize the Service Desk

    Improve customer service by driving consistency in your support approach and meeting SLAs.

    Stabilize Release and Deployment Management

    Maintain both speed and control while improving the quality of deployments and releases within the infrastructure team.

    Incident and Problem Management

    Don’t let persistent problems govern your department.

    Select Bibliography

    AXELOS Limited. ITIL Foundation: ITIL 4th edition. TSO, 2019, pp. 118–120.

    Behr, Kevin and George Spafford. The Visible Ops Handbook: Implementing ITIL in 4 Practical and Auditable Steps. IT Revolution Press. 2013.

    BMC. “ITIL Change Management.” BMC Software Canada, 22 December 2016.

    Brown, Vance. “Change Management: The Greatest ROI of ITIL.” Cherwell Service Management.

    Cisco. “Change Management: Best Practices.” Cisco, 10 March 2008.

    Grove, Daniel. “Case Study ITIL Change Management Intel Corporation.” PowerShow, 2005.

    ISACA. “COBIT 5: Enabling Processes.” ISACA, 2012.

    Jantti, M. and M. Kainulainen. “Exploring an IT Service Change Management Process: A Case Study.” ICDS 2011: The Fifth International Conference on Digital Society, 23 Feb. 2011.

    Murphy, Vawns. “How to Assess Changes.” The ITSM Review, 29 Jan. 2016.

    Nyo, Isabel. “Best Practices for Change Management in the Age of DevOps.” Atlassian Engineering, 12 May 2021.

    Phillips, Katherine W., Katie A. Liljenquist, and Margaret A. Neale. “Better Decisions Through Diversity.” Kellogg Insight, 1 Oct. 2010.

    Pink Elephant. “Best Practices for Change Management.” Pink Elephant, 2005.

    Sharwood, Simon. “Google broke its own cloud by doing two updates at once.” The Register, 24 Aug. 2016.

    SolarWinds. “How to Eliminate the No: 1 Cause of Network Downtime.” SolarWinds Tech Tips, 25 Apr. 2014.

    The Stationery Office. “ITIL Service Transition: 2011.” The Stationary Office, 29 July 2011.

    UCISA. “ITIL – A Guide to Change Management.” UCISA.

    Zander, Jason. “Final Root Cause Analysis and Improvement Areas: Nov 18 Azure Storage Service Interruption.” Microsoft Azure: Blog and Updates, 17 Dec. 2014.

    Appendix I: Expedited Changes

    Employ the expedited change to promote process adherence

    In many organizations, there are changes which may not fit into the three prescribed categories. The reason behind why the expedited category may be needed generally falls between two possibilities:

    1. External drivers dictate changes via mandates which may not fall within the normal change cycle. A CIO, judge, state/provincial mandate, or request from shared services pushes a change that does not fall within a normal change cycle. However, there is no imminent outage (therefore it is not an emergency). In this case, an expedited change can proceed. Communicate to the change requester that IT and the change build team will still do their best to implement the change without issue, but any extra risk of implementing this expedited change (compared to an normal change) will be absorbed by the change requester.
    2. The change requester did not prepare for the change adequately. This is common if a new change process is being established (and stakeholders are still adapting to the process). Change requesters or the change build team may request the change to be done by a certain date that does not fall within the normal change cycle, or they simply did not give the CAB enough time to vet the change. In this case, you may use the expedited category as a metric (or a “Hall of Shame” example). If you identify a department or individual that frequently request expedited changes, use the expedited category as a means to educate them about the normal change to discourage the behavior moving forward.

    Two possible ways to build an expedited change category”

    1. Build the category similar to an emergency change. In this case, one difference would be the time allotted to fully obtain authorization of the change from the E-CAB and business owner before implementing the change (as opposed to the emergency change workflow).
    2. Have the expedited change reflect the normal change workflow. In this case, all the same steps of the normal change workflow are followed except for expedited timelines between processes. This may include holding an impromptu CAB meeting to authorize the change.

    Example process: Expedited Change Process

    The image is a flowchart, showing the process for Expedited Change.

    For the full process, refer to the Change Management Process Library.

    Appendix II: Optimize IT Change Management in a DevOps Environment

    Change Management cannot be ignored because you are DevOps or Agile

    But it can be right-sized.

    The core tenets of change management still apply no matter the type of development environment an organization has. Changes in any environment carry risk of degrading functionality, and must therefore be vetted. However, the amount of work and rigor put into different stages of the change life cycle can be altered depending on the maturity of the development workflows. The following are several stage gates for change management that MUST be considered if you are a DevOps or Agile shop:

    • Intake assessment (separation of changes from projects, service requests, operational tasks)
      • Within a DevOps or Agile environment, many of the application changes will come directly from the SDLC and projects going live. It does not mean a change must go through CAB, but leveraging the pre-approved category allows for an organization to stick to development lifecycles without being heavily bogged down by change bureaucracy.
    • Technical review
      • Leveraging automation, release contingencies, and the current SDLC documentation to decrease change risk allows for various changes to be designated as pre-approved.
    • Authorization
      • Define the authorization and dependencies of a change early in the lifecycle to gain authorization and necessary signoffs.
    • Documentation/communication
      • Documentation and communication are post-implementation activities that cannot be ignored. If documentation is required throughout the SDLC, then design the RFC to point to the correct documentation instead of duplicating information.

    "Understand that process is hard and finding a solution that fits every need can be tricky. With this change management process we do not try to solve every corner case so much as create a framework by which best judgement can be used to ensure maximum availability of our platforms and services while still complying with our regulatory requirements and making positive changes that will delight our customers.“ -IT Director, Information Cybersecurity Organization

    Five principals for implementing change in DevOps

    Follow these best practices to make sure your requirements are solid:

    People

    The core differences between an Agile or DevOps transition and a traditional approach are the restructuring and the team behind it. As a result, the stakeholders of change management must be onboard for the process to work. This is the most difficult problem to solve if it’s an issue, but open avenues of feedback for a process build is a start.

    DevOps Lifecycles

    • Plan the dev lifecycle so people can’t skirt it. Ensure the process has automated checks so that it’s more work to skirt the system than it is to follow it. Make the right process the process of least resistance.
    • Plan changes from the start to ensure that cross-dependencies are identified early and that the proposed implementation date is deconflicted and visible to other change requesters and change stakeholders.

    Automation

    Automation comes in many forms and is well documented in many development workflows. Having automated signoffs for QA/security checks and stakeholders/cross dependency owner sign offs may not fully replace the CAB but can ease the burden on discussions before implementation.

    Contingencies

    Canary releases, phased releases, dark releases, and toggles are all options you can employ to reduce risk during a release. Furthermore, building in contingencies to the test/rollback plan decreases the risk of the change by decreasing the factor of likelihood.

    Continually Improve

    Building change from the ground up doesn’t meant the process has to be fully fledged before launch. Iterative improvements are possible before achieving an optimal state. Having the proper metrics on the pain points and bottlenecks in the process can identify areas for automation and improvement.

    Increasing the proportion of pre-approved changes

    Leverage the traditional change infrastructure to deploy changes quickly while keeping your risk low.

    • To designate a change as a pre-approved change it must have a low risk rating (based on impact and likelihood). Fortunately, many of the changes within the Agile framework are designed to be small and lower risk (at least within application development). Putting in the work ahead of time to document these changes, template RFCs, and document the dependencies for various changes allows for a shift in the proportion of pre-approved changes.
    • The designation of pre-approved changes is an ongoing process. This is not an overnight initiative. Measure the proportion of changes by category as a metric, setting goals and interim goals to shift the change proportion to a desired ratio.

    The image is a bar graph, with each bar having 3 colour-coded sections: Emergency, Normal, and Pre-Approved. The first bar is before, where the largest change category is Normal. The second bar is after, and the largest change category is Pre-Approved.

    Turn your CAB into a virtual one

    • The CAB does not have to fully disappear in a DevOps environment. If the SDLC is built in a way that authorizes changes through peer reviews and automated checks, by the time it’s deployed, the job of the CAB should have already been completed. Then the authorization stage-gate (traditionally, the CAB) shifts to earlier in the process, reducing the need for an actual CAB meeting. However, the change must still be communicated and documented, even if it’s a pre-approved change.
    • As the proportion of changes shifts from a high degree of normal changes to a high degree of pre-approved changes, the need for CAB meetings should decrease even further. As an end-state, you may reserve actual CAB meetings for high-profile changes (as defined by risk).
    • Lastly, change management does not disappear as a process. Periodic reviews of change management metrics and the pre-approved change list must still be completed.

    Threat Preparedness Using MITRE ATT&CK®

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}252|cart{/j2store}
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    • Parent Category Name: Security Strategy & Budgeting
    • Parent Category Link: /security-strategy-and-budgeting
    • To effectively protect your business interests, you need to be able to address what the most pressing vulnerabilities in your network are. Which attack vectors should you model first? How do you adequately understand your threat vectors when attacks continually change and adapt?
    • Security can often be asked the world but given a minimal budget with which to accomplish it.
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    • Adequately modeling any and every possible scenario is ineffective and haphazard at best. Hoping that you have chosen the most pressing attack vectors to model will not work in the modern day of threat tactics.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Precision is critical to being able to successfully defend against threats.
      • Traditional threat modeling such as STRIDE or PASTA is based on a spray-and-pray approach to identifying your next potential threat vector. Instead, take a structured risk-based approach to understanding both an attacker’s tactics and how they may be used against your enterprise. Threat preparedness requires precision, not guesswork.
    • Knowing is half the battle.
      • You may be doing better than you think. Undoubtedly, there is a large surface area to cover with threat modeling. By preparing beforehand, you can separate what’s important from what’s not and identify which attack vectors are the most pressing for your business.
    • Be realistic and measured.
      • Do not try to remediate everything. Some attack vectors and approaches are nearly impossible to account for. Take control of the areas that have reasonable mitigation methods and act on those.
    • Identify blind spots.
      • Understand what is out there and how other enterprises are being attacked and breached. See how you stack up to the myriad of attack tactics that have been used in real-life breaches and how prepared you are. Know what you’re ready for and what you’re not ready for.
    • Analyze the most pressing vectors.
      • Prioritize the attack vectors that are relevant to you. If an attack vector is an area of concern for your business, start there. Do not cover the entire tactics list if certain areas are not relevant.
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      • For each relevant tactic and techniques, there are actionable detection and mitigation methods to add to your list of remediation efforts.

    Impact and Result

    Using the MITRE ATT&CK® framework, Info-Tech’s approach helps you understand your preparedness and effective detection and mitigation actions.

    • Learn about potential attack vectors and the techniques that hostile actors will use to breach and maintain a presence on your network.
    • Analyze your current protocols versus the impact of an attack technique on your network.
    • Discover detection and mitigation actions.
    • Create a prioritized series of security considerations, with basic actionable remediation items. Plan your next threat model by knowing what you’re vulnerable to.
    • Ensure business data cannot be leaked or stolen.
    • Maintain privacy of data and other information.
    • Secure the network connection points.
    • Mitigate risks with the appropriate services.

    This blueprint and associated tool are scalable for all types of organizations within various industry sectors, allowing them to know what types of risk they are facing and what security services are recommended to mitigate those risks.

    Threat Preparedness Using MITRE ATT&CK® Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why threat preparedness is a crucial first step in defending your network against any attack type. Review Info-Tech’s methodology and understand the ways we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Attack tactics and techniques

    Review a breakdown of each of the various attack vectors and their techniques for additional context and insight into the most prevalent attack tactics.

    • Threat Preparedness Using MITRE ATT&CK® – Phase 1: Attack Tactics and Techniques

    2. Threat Preparedness Workbook mapping

    Map your current security protocols against the impacts of various techniques on your network to determine your risk preparedness.

    • Threat Preparedness Using MITRE ATT&CK® – Phase 2: Threat Preparedness Workbook Mapping
    • Enterprise Threat Preparedness Workbook

    3. Execute remediation and detective measures

    Use your prioritized attack vectors to plan your next threat modeling session with confidence that the most pressing security concerns are being addressed with substantive remediation actions.

    • Threat Preparedness Using MITRE ATT&CK® – Phase 3: Execute Remediation and Detective Measures
    [infographic]

    Master the MSA for Your Managed Services Providers

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    • Parent Category Name: Vendor Management
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    • Master Services Agreements and Service Level Agreements are tedious, and reviewers may lack the skills and experience to effectively complete the process.
    • Managed services providers have a repository of contract terms and conditions that are road-tested and prepackaged, and which are often biased in their favor.
    • With many different pricing options, it is difficult to choose the services you need.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Manage your managed services providers. Added value is realized when managed service providers are in tune with your IT strategies, goals, and mission.
    • Negotiate an agreement that is beneficial to both parties. The most successful partnerships are a win-win agreement.
    • Lawyers can’t ensure you get the best business deal. They tend to look at general terms and conditions and may overlook IT-specific components.

    Impact and Result

    • Understanding managed services providers, including their roles and pricing models, will give you valuable insight into negotiating the best deal for your organization.
    • Info-Tech’s contract review methodology will help you navigate the complex process of managed services provider contract evaluation and review all the key details to maximize the benefits to your organization.
    • This blueprint provides guidance on catching vendor-biased terms and conditions, and suggests tips for getting managed services providers to take on their fair share of responsibilities.

    Master the MSA for Your Managed Services Providers Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should master the MSA for your MSPs, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Review terms and conditions for your MSP contract

    Use Info-Tech’s MSA Contract Review Tool to locate and track improvement areas in your MSAs.

    • Master the MSA for Your Managed Services Providers – Phase 1: Review Terms and Conditions of Your MSP Contract
    • MSA Contract Review Tool
    [infographic]

    Exit Plans: Escape from the black hole

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    In early April, I already wrote about exit plans and how they are the latest burning platform.

    As of the end of May 2025, we have both Microsoft and Google reassuring European clients about their sovereign cloud solutions. There are even air-gapped options for military applications. These messages come as a result of the trade war between the US and the rest of the world.

    There is also the other, more mundane example of over-reliance on a single vendor: the Bloomberg-terminal outage of May 21st, 2025. That global outage severely disrupted financial markets. It caused traders to lose access to real-time data, analytics, and pricing information for approximately 90 minutes. This widespread system failure delayed critical government bond auctions in the UK, Portugal, Sweden, and the EU.

    It serves as a reminder of the heavy reliance on the Bloomberg Terminal, which is considered an industry standard despite its high annual cost. While some Bloomberg services like instant messaging remained functional, allowing limited communication among traders, the core disruption led to significant frustration and slowed down trading activities.

    You want to think about this for a moment. Bloomberg is, just like Google and Microsoft are, cornerstones in their respective industries. MS, Google, and Amazon even in many more industries. 

    So the issue goes beyond the “panic of the day.” Every day, there will be some announcement that sends markets reeling and companies fearing. Granted, the period we go through today can have grave consequences, but at the same time, it may be over in the coming months or years.

    Contractual cover

    Let's take a step back and see if we can locate the larger issue at stake. I dare to say that the underlying issue is trust. We are losing trust in one another at a fast pace. Not between business partners, meaning companies who are, in a transaction or relationship, are more or less equal. Regardless of their geolocation, people are keen to do business together in a predictable, mutually beneficial way. And as long as that situation is stable, there is little need, beyond compliance and normal sound practices, to start to distrust each other.

    Trouble brews when other factors come into play. I want to focus on two of them in this article.

    1. Market power
    2. Government interference

    Market Power

    The past few years have seen a large increase in power of the cloud computing platforms. The pandemic of 2019 through to 2023 changed our way of working and gave a big boost to these platforms. Of course, they were already establishing their dominance in the early 2010s.

    Amazon launched SQS in 2004 with S3 (storage)  and EC2 (compute) in 2006. Azure launched in 2008 as a PaaS platform for .NET developers, and became really available in 2010. Since then, it grew into the IaaS (infrastructure as a service) platform we know today. Google's Cloud Platform (GCP) launched in 2008 and added components such as BigQuery, Compute Engine and Storage in the 2010s.

    Since the pandemic, we've seen another boost to their popularity. These platforms solidified their lead through several vectors:

    • Remote working
    • Business continuity and resilience promises
    • Acceleration of digital transformation
    • Scalability
    • Cost optimization 

    Companies made decisions on these premises. A prime example is the use of native cloud functions. These make life easier for developers. Native functions allow for serverless functionality to be made available to clients, and to do so in a non-infra-based way. It gives the impression of less complexity to the management. They are also easily scalable. 

    This comes at a cost, however. The cost is vendor lock-in. And with vendor lock-in, comes increased pricing power for the vendor.

    For a long time, it seems EU companies' attitude was: “It won't be such an issue, after all, there are multiple cloud vendors and if all else fails, we just go back.” The reality is much starker, I suspect that cloud providers with this level of market power will increase their pricing significantly.

     Government interference

    in come two elements:

    • EU laws
    • US laws and unpredictability
    EU laws

     The latest push to their market power came as an unintended consequence of EU Law: DORA. That EU law requires companies to have testable exit plans in place. But it goes well beyond this. The EU has increased the regulatory burden on companies significantly. BusinessEurope, a supranational organization, estimates that in the past five years, the Eu managed to release over 13,000 legislative acts. This is compared to 3,500 in the US.

    Coming back to DORA, this law requires EU companies to actually test their exit plans and show proof of it to the EU ESAs (European Supervisory Agency).  The reaction I have seen in industry representative organizations is complacency. 

    The cost of compliance is significant; hence, companies try to limit their exposure to the law as much as possible. They typically do this by limiting the applicability scope of the law to their business, based on the wording of the law. And herein lies the trap. This is not lost on the IT providers. They see that companies do the heavy lifting for them. What do I mean by that?  Several large providers are looked at by the EU as systemic providers. They fall under direct supervision by the ESAs. 

    For local EU providers, it is what it is, but for non-EU providers, they get to show their goodwill, using sovereign IT services.  I will come back to this in the next point, US unpredictability and laws. But the main point is: we are giving them more market power, and we have less contractual power. Why? Because we are showing them that we will go to great lengths to keep using their services.

    US laws and unpredictability

    US companies must comply with US law. So far, so good. Current US legislation also already requires US companies to share data on non-US citizens.

    • Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), particularly Section 702
    • The CLOUD (Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data) Act of 2018
    • The USA PATRIOT Act (specifically relevant sections like 215 and 314(a)/314(b))
    • Executive Order 14117 and related DOJ Final Rule (Preventing Access to U.S. Sensitive Personal Data and Government-Related Data by Countries of Concern)

    This last one is of particular concern. Not so much because of its contents, but because it is an Executive Order.

    We know that the current (May 2025) US government mostly works through executive orders. Let's not forget that executive orders are a legitimate way to implement policy, This means that the US government could use access to cloud services as a lever to obtain more favorable trade rules.

    The EU responds to this (the laws and executive order) by implementing several sovereignty countermeasures like GDPR, DORA, Digital markets Act (DMA), Data Governance Act (DGA), Cybersecurity Act and the upcoming European Health Data Act (EHDS). This is called the “Brussels Effect.”

    EU Answers

    Europe is also investing in several strategic initiatives such as

    This points to a new dynamic between the EU and the US, EU-based companies simply cannot trust their US counterparts anymore to the degree they could before. The sad thing is, that there is no difference on the interpersonal level. It is just that companies must comply with their respective laws.

    Hence, Microsoft, Google, and AWS and any other US provider cannot legally provide sovereign cloud services. In a strict legal sense, Microsoft and Google cannot absolutely guarantee that they can completely insulate EU companies and citizens from all US law enforcement requests for data, despite their robust efforts and sovereign cloud offerings. This is because they are US companies, subject to US law and US jurisdiction. The CLOUD act and FISA section 702 compel US companies to comply. 

    Moreover, there is the nature of sovereign cloud offerings:

    • Increased Control, Not Absolute Immunity: Services like Microsoft's EU Data Boundary and Google's Cloud for Sovereignty are designed to provide customers with greater control over data residency, administrative access (e.g., limiting access to EU-based personnel), and encryption keys
    • Customer-Managed Keys (CMEK): If an EU customer controls their encryption keys, and the data remains encrypted at rest and in transit, it theoretically makes it harder for the cloud provider to provide plaintext data if compelled. However, metadata and other operational data might still be accessible, and the extent to which US authorities could compel a US company to decrypt data remains a point of contention and legal ambiguity.
    • Partnerships and Local Entities: Some “sovereign cloud” models involve partnerships with local EU entities (e.g., Google's partnership with S3NS in France, or Microsoft's with Capgemini and Orange). While this might create a legal buffer, if the core cloud infrastructure and controlling entity are still ultimately US-based, the risk of US legal reach persists.
    • “Limited Security Instances”: Even with the EU Data Boundary, Microsoft explicitly states, “in limited security instances that require a coordinated global response, essential data may be transferred with robust protections that safeguard customer data.” This phrasing acknowledges that some data may still leave the EU boundary under certain circumstances.

     And lastly, there are the legal challenges to the EU data privacy Framework (DPF)

    • Ongoing Scrutiny: The DPF is the current legal basis for EU-US data transfers, but it is under continuous scrutiny and is highly likely to face further legal challenges in the CJEU (a “Schrems III” case is widely anticipated). This uncertainty means that the current framework's longevity and robustness are not guaranteed.
    • Fundamental Conflict: The core legal conflict between the broad scope of US surveillance laws and the EU's fundamental right to privacy has not been fully resolved by the DPF, according to many EU legal experts and privacy advocates.

    This all means that while the cloud providers are doing everything they can, and I'm assuming they are acting in good faith. The fact that they are US entities means however that they are subject to all US legislation and executive orders.  And we cannot trust this last part. Again, this is why the EU is pursuing its digital sovereignty initiatives and why some highly sensitive EU public sector entities are gravitating towards truly EU-owned and operated cloud solutions.

    Bankruptcy

    If your provider goes bankrupt, you do not have a leg to stand on. Most jurisdictions, including the EU and US, have the following elements regarding bankruptcy:

    • Automatic Stay: Upon a bankruptcy filing (in most jurisdictions, including the US and EU), an “automatic stay” is immediately imposed. This is a court order that stops most collection activities against the debtor. For you as a customer, this can mean you might be prevented from:

      • Terminating the contract immediately, even if your contract allows it.
      • Initiating legal proceedings against the provider.
      • Trying to recover your data directly without court permission.
    • Debtor's Estate and Creditor Priority

      • Property of the Estate: All the bankrupt provider's assets become part of the “bankruptcy estate,” to be managed by a court-appointed trustee or receiver. The crucial question becomes: Is your data considered the property of the estate, or does ownership remain unequivocally with you? While most cloud contracts explicitly state that the customer owns their data, a bankruptcy court might still view the possession of that data by the provider as an asset of the estate, potentially subject to monetization to pay off creditors.
      • Secured vs. Unsecured Creditors: You, as a customer seeking to retrieve your data or continue services, are likely to be an “unsecured creditor.” Secured creditors (e.g., banks with liens on assets) get paid first. Your claim for data or service continuity will be far down the priority list, meaning you might recover little, if anything, in compensation.
    • Executory contracts and the Trustee's power
      • Assumption or Rejection: Bankruptcy law generally allows the trustee (or debtor in possession in a Chapter 11 case) to assume (continue) or reject (terminate) “executory contracts” – those where both parties still have significant performance obligations.
      • Trustee's Discretion: The trustee will make this decision based on what benefits the bankruptcy estate and the creditors. If your contract is loss-making for the provider, or if continuing it is not in the best interest of the creditors, the trustee can reject it, even if it has a termination clause unfavorable to them.
      • No Customer Right to Demand Continuation: You typically cannot compel the trustee to continue the service if they choose to reject the contract. Your recourse would then be a claim for damages, which, as noted, is usually a low-priority claim.
    • The practical challenges of data retrieval
        • Even if your contract has strong data return clauses, the practicalities of a bankrupt provider make enforcement difficult. The provider's staff might be laid off, systems might be shut down, and there might be no one left with the technical knowledge or resources to facilitate data export. Not to mention that the trustee may simply refuse to honor the agreement (which is completely within the legal rights of the trustee.)
        • The receiver's priority is liquidation and asset sale, not customer service. They may limit data export speeds or volumes, or prioritize the sale of the business, which might include your data, making retrieval a slow and arduous process.

    Conclusion

    So, while I understand the wait and see stance in regard to exit plans, given where we are, it is in my opinion the wrong thing to do. Companies must make actionable exit plans and prepare beforehand for the exit. That means that you have to:

    1. Design your architecture so that you can port your applications to somewhere else.
    2. Prioritize your data portability and data ownership.
    3. Develop and practice your exit strategy and plans.
    4. Maintain your in-house expertise, especially for all critical business services.
    5. Continuously monitor your vendors and update your risk assessments.

      If you want more detailed steps on how to get there, feel free to contact me.

    The Essential COVID-19 Childcare Policy for Every Organization, Yesterday

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    • Helping employees navigate personal and business responsibilities to find solutions that ensure both are taken care of.
    • Reducing potential disruption to business operations through employee absenteeism due to increased care-provider responsibilities.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Remote work is complicated by children at home with school closures. Implement alternative temporary work arrangements that allow and support employees to balance work and personal obligations.
    • Adjustments to work arrangements and pay may be necessary. Temporary work arrangements while caring for dependents over a longer-term pandemic may require adjustments to the duties carried out, number of hours worked, and adjustments to employee pay.
    • Managing remotely is more than staying in touch by phone. As a leader you will need to provide clear options that provide solutions to your employees to avoid them getting overwhelmed while taking care of the business to ensure there is a business long term.

    Impact and Result

    • Develop a policy that provides parameters around mutually agreed adjustments to performance levels while balancing dependent care with work during a pandemic.
    • Take care of the business through clear guidelines on compensation while taking care of the health and wellness of your people.
    • Develop detailed work-from-home plans that lessen disruption to your work while taking care of children or aged parents.

    The Essential COVID-19 Childcare Policy for Every Organization, Yesterday Research & Tools

    Start here. Read The Essential COVID-19 Childcare Policy for Every Organization, Yesterday

    Read our recommendations and follow the steps to develop a policy that will help your employees work productively while managing care-provider responsibilities at home.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    • The Essential COVID-19 Childcare Policy for Every Organization, Yesterday Storyboard
    • Pandemic Dependent Care Policy
    • COVID-19 Dependent Care Policy Manager Action Toolkit
    • COVID-19 Dependent Care Policy Employee Guide
    • Dependent-Flextime Agreement Template
    • Workforce Planning Tool
    • Nine Ways to Support Working Caregivers Today
    • Employee Resource Group (ERG) Charter Template
    [infographic]

    Develop an IT Strategy to Support Customer Service

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    • Parent Category Name: Customer Relationship Management
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    • Customer expectations regarding service are rapidly evolving. As your current IT systems may be viewed as ineffective at delivering upon these expectations, a transformation is called for.
    • It is unclear whether IT has the system architecture/infrastructure to support modern Customer Service channels and technologies.
    • The relationship between Customer Service and IT is strained. Strategic system-related decisions are being made without the inclusions of IT, and IT is only engaged post-purchase to address integration or issues as they arise.
    • Scope: An ABPM-centric approach is taken to model the desired future state, and retrospectively look into the current state to derive gaps and sequential requirements. The requirements are bundled into logical IT initiatives to be plotted on a roadmap and strategy document.
    • Challenge: The extent to which business processes can be mapped down to task-based Level 5 can be challenging depending on the maturity of the organization.
    • Pain/Risk: The health of the relationship between IT and Customer Service may determine project viability. Poor collaboration and execution may strain the relationship further.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • When transformation is called for, start with future state visioning. Current state analysis can impede your ability to see future needs and possibilities.
    • Solve your own problems by enhancing core or “traditional” Customer Service functionality first, and then move on to more ambitious business enabling functionality.
    • The more rapidly businesses can launch applications in today’s market, the better positioned they are to improve customer experience and reap the associated benefits. Ensure that technology is implemented with a solid strategy to support the initiative.

    Impact and Result

    • The right technology is established to support current and future Customer Service needs.
    • Streamlined and optimized Customer Service processes that drive efficiency and improve Customer Service quality are established.
    • The IT and Customer Service functions are both transformed from a cost center into a competitive advantage.

    Develop an IT Strategy to Support Customer Service Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Structure the project

    Identify project stakeholders, define roles, and create the project charter.

    • Develop an IT Strategy to Support Customer Service Storyboard
    • Project RACI Chart
    • Project Charter

    2. Define vision for future state

    Identify and model the future state of key business processes.

    • Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool
    • Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool

    3. Document current state and assess gaps

    Model the current state of key business processes and assess gaps.

    4. Evaluate solution options

    Review the outputs of the current state architecture health assessment and adopt a preliminary posture on architecture.

    5. Evaluate application options

    Evaluate the marketplace applications to understand the “art of the possible.”

    6. Frame desired state and develop roadmap

    Compile and score a list of initiatives to bridge the gaps, and plot the initiatives on a strategic roadmap.

    • Customer Service Initiative Scoring and Roadmap
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Develop an IT Strategy to Support Customer Service

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Define Vision for Future State

    The Purpose

    Discuss Customer Service-related organizational goals and align goals with potential strategies for implementation.

    Score level 5 Customer Service business processes against organizational goals to come up with a shortlist for modeling.

    Create a future state model for one of the shortlisted business processes.

    Draft the requirements as they relate to the business process.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Preliminary list of Customer Service-related business goals

    List of Customer Service business processes (Task Level 5)

    Pre-selected Customer Service business process for modeling

    Activities

    1.1 Outline and prioritize your customer goals and link their relevance and value to your Customer Service processes with the Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool.

    1.2 Score customer service business processes against organizational goals with the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool.

    Outputs

    Initial position on viable Customer Service strategies

    Shortlist of key business processes

    Documented future state business process model

    Business/functional/non-functional requirements

    2 Document Current State and Assess Gaps

    The Purpose

    Create a current state model for the shortlisted business processes.

    Score the functionality and integration of current supporting applications.

    Revise future state model and business requirements.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Inventory of Customer Service supporting applications

    Inventory of related system interfaces

    Activities

    2.1 Holistically assess multiple aspects of Customer Service-related IT assets with the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool.

    Outputs

    Documented current state business process model

    Customer Service systems health assessment

    3 Adopt an Architectural Posture

    The Purpose

    Review the Customer Service systems health assessment results.

    Discuss options.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Completed Customer Service systems health assessment

    Application options

    Activities

    3.1 Analyze CS Systems Strategy and review results with the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool

    Outputs

    Posture on system architecture

    4 Frame Desired State and Develop Roadmap

    The Purpose

    Draft a list of initiatives based on requirements.

    Score and prioritize the initiatives.

    Plot the initiatives on a roadmap.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Business/functional/non-functional requirements

    Activities

    4.1 Help project and management stakeholders visualize the implementation of Customer Service IT initiatives with the Customer Service Initiative Scoring and Roadmap Tool.

    Outputs

    Scored and prioritized list of initiatives

    Customer Service implementation roadmap

    Further reading

    Develop an IT Strategy to Support Customer Service

    E-commerce is accelerating, and with it, customer expectations for exceptional digital service.

    Analyst Perspective

    The future of Customer Service is digital. Your organization needs an IT strategy to meet this demand.

    The image contains a picture of Thomas E. Randall.

    As the pandemic closed brick-and-mortar stores, the acceleration of ecommerce has cemented Customer Service’s digital future. However, the pandemic also revealed severe cracks in the IT strategy of organizations’ Customer Service – no matter the industry. These cracks may include low resolution and high wait times through the contact center, or a lack of analytics that fuel a reactive environment. Unfortunately, organizations have no time to waste in resolving these issues. Customer patience for poor digital service has only decreased since March 2020, leaving organizations with little to no runway for ramping up their IT strategy.

    Organizations that quickly mature their digital Customer Service will come out the other side of COVID-19 more competitive and with a stronger reputation. This move necessitates a concrete IT strategy for coordinating what the organization’s future state should look like and agreeing on the technologies and software required to meet this state across the entire organization.

    Thomas E. Randall, Ph.D.

    Senior Research Analyst, Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Common Obstacles

    Info-Tech’s Solution

    • COVID-19 has accelerated ecommerce, rapidly evolving customer expectations about the service they should receive. Without a robust IT strategy for enabling remote, contactless points of service, your organization will quickly fall behind.
    • The organization would like to use modern channels and technologies to enhance customer service, but it is unclear whether IT has the infrastructure to support them.
    • The relationship between Customer Service and IT is strained. Strategic system-related decisions are being made without the inclusion of IT.
    • IT is in a permanent reactive state, only engaged post-purchase to fix issues as they arise and to offer workarounds.
    • Use Info-Tech’s methodology to produce an IT strategy for Customer Service:
      • Phase 1: Define Project and Future State
      • Phase 2: Evaluate Current State
      • Phase 3: Build a Roadmap to Future State
    • Each phase contributes toward this blueprint’s key deliverable: the Strategic Roadmap.

    Info-Tech Insight

    IT must proactively engage with the organization to define what good customer service should look like. This ensures IT has a fair say in what kinds of architectural solutions are feasible for any projected future state. In this proactive scenario, IT can help build the roadmap for implementing and maintaining customer service infrastructure and operations, reducing the time and resources spent on putting out preventable fires or trying to achieve an unworkable goal set by the organization.

    Key insights

    Develop an IT Strategy to Support Customer Service

    Ecommerce growth has increased customer expectations

    Despite the huge obstacles that organizations are having to overcome to meet accelerating ecommerce from the pandemic, customers have not increased their tolerance for organizations with poor service. Indeed, customer expectations for excellent digital service have only increased since March 2020. If organizations cannot meet these demands, they will become uncompetitive.

    The future of customer service is tied up in analytics

    Without a coordinated IT strategy for leveraging technology and data to improve Customer Service, the organization will quickly be left behind. Analytics and reporting are crucial for proactively engaging with customers, planning marketing campaigns, and building customer profiles. Failing to do so leaves the organization blind to customer needs and will constantly be in firefighting mode.

    Meet the customer wherever they are – no matter the channel

    Providing an omnichannel experience is fast becoming a table stakes offering for customers. To maximize customer engagement and service, the organization must connect with the customer on whatever channel the customer prefers – be it social media, SMS, or by phone. While voice will continue to dominate how Customer Service connects with customers, demographics are shifting toward a digital-first generation. Organizations must be ready to capture this rapidly expanding audience.

    This blueprint will achieve:

    Increased customer satisfaction

    • An IT strategy for Customer Service that proactively meets customer demand, improving overall customer satisfaction with the organization’s services.
    • A process for identifying the organization’s future state of Customer Service and developing a concrete gap analysis.

    Time saved

    • Ready-to-use deliverables that analyze and provide a roadmap toward the organization’s desired future state.
    • Market analyses and rapid application selection through SoftwareReviews to streamline project time-to-completion.

    Increased ROI

    • A modernization process that aids Customer Service digital transformation, with a view to achieve high ROI.
    • Save costs through an effective requirements gathering method.
    • Building and expanding the organization’s customer base to increase revenues by meeting the customers where they are – no matter what channel.

    An IT strategy for customer service is imperative for a post-COVID world

    COVID-19 has accelerated ecommerce, rapidly evolving customer expectations for remote, contactless service.

    59% Of customers agree that the pandemic has raised their standards for service (Salesforce, 2020).

    • With COVID-19, most customer demand and employment moved online and turned remote.
    • Retailers had to rapidly respond, meeting customer demand through ecommerce. This not only entailed a complete shift in how customers could buy their goods but how retailers could provide a remote customer journey from discovery to post-purchase support.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The pandemic did not improve customer tolerance for bad service – instead, the demand for good service increased dramatically. Organizations need an IT strategy to meet customer support demands wherever the customer is located.

    The technology to provide remote customer support is surging

    IT needs to be at the forefront of learning about and suggesting new technologies, working with Customer Service to deliver a consistent, business-driven approach.

    78%

    Of decision makers say they’ve invested in new technology as a result of the pandemic (Salesforce, 2020).

    OMNICHANNEL SUPPORT

    Rapidly changing demographics and modes of communications require an evolution toward omnichannel engagement. Agents need customer information synced across each channel they use, meeting the customer’s needs where they are.

    78%

    Of customers have increased their use of self-service during the pandemic (Salesforce, 2020).

    INTELLIGENT SELF-SERVICE PORTALS

    Customers want their issues resolved as quickly as possible. Machine-learning self-service options deliver personalized customer experiences, which also reduce both agent call volume and support costs for the organization.

    90%

    Of global executives who use data analytics report that they improved their ability to deliver a great customer experience (Gottlieb, 2019).

    LEVERAGING ANALYTICS

    The future of customer service is tied up with analytics: from AI-driven capabilities that include agent assist and using biometric data (e.g., speech) for security, to feeding real insights about how customers and agents are doing and performing.

    Executive Brief – Case Study

    Self-service options improve quality of service and boost organization’s competitiveness in a digital marketspace.

    INDUSTRY: Financial Services

    SOURCE: TSB

    Situation

    Solution

    Results

    • The pandemic increased pressure on TSB’s Customer Service, with higher call loads from their five million customers who were anxious about their financial situation.
    • TSB needed to speed up its processing times to ensure loan programs and other assistances were provided as quickly as possible.
    • As meeting in-person became impossible due to the lockdown, TSB had to step up its digital abilities to serve their customers.
    • TSB sought to boost its competitiveness by shifting as far as possible to digital services.
    • TSB launched government loan programs in 36 hours, ahead of its competitors.
    • TSB created and released 21 digital self-service forms for customers to complete without needing to interact with bank staff.
    • TSB processed 140,000 forms in three months, replacing 15,000 branch visits.
    • TSB increased digital self-service rate by nine percent.

    IT can demonstrate its value to business by enhancing remote customer service

    IT must engage with Customer Service – otherwise, IT risks being perennially reactive and dictated to as remote customer service needs increase.

    IT benefits

    Customer Service benefits

    • The right technology is established to support Customer Service.
    • IT is viewed as a strategic partner and innovator, not just a cost center and support function.
    • Streamlined and optimized Customer Service processes that drive efficiency and improve Customer Service quality.
    • Transformation of the Customer Service function into a competitive advantage.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Change to how Customer Service will operate is inevitable. This is an opportunity for IT to establish their value to the business and improve their autonomy in how new technologies should be onboarded and utilized.

    Customer Service and IT need to work together to mitigate their pain points

    IT and Customer Service have an opportunity to reinforce and build their organization’s customer base by working together to streamline operations.

    IT pain points

    Customer Service pain points

    • IT lacks understanding of Customer Service challenges and pain points.
    • IT has technical debt or constrained technology funding.
    • The IT department is viewed as a cost center and support organization, not an engine of innovation, growth, and service delivery performance.
    • Processes supporting Customer Service delivery may be sub-optimal.
    • The existing technology cannot support the increasingly advanced needs of Customer Service functions.
    • Customer Service isn’t fully aware of what your customers think of your service quality. There is little to no monitoring of customer sentiment.
    • There is a lack of value-based segmentation of customers and information on their channel usage and preferences.
    • Competitor actions are not actively monitored.

    IT often cannot spark a debate with Customer Service on whether a decision made without IT is misaligned with corporate direction. It’s almost always an uphill battle for IT.

    Sahri Lava, Research Director, IDC

    Develop an IT Strategy to Support Customer Service

    DON’T FALL BEHIND

    70% of companies either have a digital transformation strategy in place or are working on one (Tech Pro Research, 2018). Unless IT can enable technology that meets the customer where they are, the organization will quickly fall behind in an age of accelerating ecommerce.

    DEVELOP FUTURE STATES

    Many customer journeys are now exclusively digital – 63% of customers expect to receive service over social media (Ringshall, 2020). Organization’s need an IT strategy to develop the future of their customer service – from leveraging analytics to self-service AI portals.

    BUILD GAP ANALYSIS

    73% of customers prefer to shop across multiple channels (Sopadjieva et al., 2017). Assess your current state’s application integrations and functionality to ensure your future state can accurately sync customer information across each channel.

    SHORTLIST SOLUTIONS

    Customer relationship management software is one of the world's fastest growing industries (Kuligowski, 2022). Choosing a best-fit solution requires an intricate analysis of the market, future trends, and your organization’s requirements.

    ADVANCE CHANGE

    95% of customers cite service as key to their brand loyalty (Microsoft, 2019). Build out your roadmap for the future state to retain and build your customer base moving forward.

    Use Info-Tech’s method to produce an IT strategy for Customer Service:

    PHASE 1: Define Project and Future State

    Output: Project Charter and Future State Business Processes

    1.1 Structure the Project

    1.2 Define a Vision for Future State

    1.3 Document Preliminary Requirements

    KEY DELIVERABLE:

    Strategic Roadmap

    The image contains a screenshot of the strategic roadmap.

    PHASE 2: Evaluate Current State

    Output: Requirements Identified to Bridge Current to Future State

    2.1 Document Current State Business Processes

    2.2 Assess Current State Architecture

    2.3 Review and Finalize Requirements for Future State

    PHASE 3: Build a Roadmap to Future State

    Output: Initiatives and Strategic Roadmap

    3.1 Evaluate Architectural and Application Options

    3.2 Understand the Marketplace

    3.3 Score and Plot Initiatives Along Your Strategic Roadmap

    Key deliverable and tools outline

    Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting materials to help you accomplish your goals.

    Project RACI Chart

    Activity 1.1a Organize roles and responsibilities for carrying out project steps.

    The image contains a screenshot of the Project RACI Chart.

    Key Deliverable:

    Strategic Roadmap

    Develop, prioritize, and implement key initiatives for your customer service IT strategy, plotting and tracking them on an easy-to-read timeline.

    The image contains a screenshot of the Strategic Roadmap.

    Business Process Shortlisting Tool

    Activities 1.2a, 1.2b, and 2.1aOutline and prioritize customer service goals.

    The image contains a screenshot of the Business Process Shortlisting Tool.

    Project Charter Template

    Activity 1.1b Define the project, its key deliverables, and metrics for success.

    The image contains a screenshot of the Project Charter Template.

    Systems Strategy Tool

    Activities 1.3a, Phase 2, 3.1a Prioritize requirements, assess current state customer service functions, and decide what to do with your current systems going forward.

    .The image contains a screenshot of the Systems Strategy Tool.

    Looking ahead: defining metrics for success

    Phase 1 of this blueprint will help solidify how to measure this project’s success. Start looking ahead now.

    For example, the metrics below show the potential business benefits for several stakeholders through building an IT strategy for Customer Service. These stakeholders include agents, customers, senior leadership, and IT. The benefits of this project are listed to the right.

    Metric Description

    Current Metric

    Future Goal

    Number of channels for customer contact

    1

    6

    Customer self-service resolution

    0%

    50%

    % ROI

    - 4%

    11%

    Agent satisfaction

    42%

    75%

    As this project nears completion:

    1. Customers will have more opportunities for self-service resolution.
    2. Agents will experience higher satisfaction, improving attrition rates.
    3. The organization will experience higher ROI from its digital Customer Service investments.
    4. Customers can engage the contact center via a communication channel that suits them.

    Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

    DIY Toolkit

    Guided Implementation

    Workshop

    Consulting

    “Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”“Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”“We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”“Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical Guided Implementation on this topic look like?

    Define Project and Future StateDocument and Assess Current StateEvaluate Architectural and Application OptionsBuild Roadmap to Future State

    Call #1: Introduce project, defining its vision and metrics of success.

    Call #2: Review environmental scan to define future state vision.

    Call #3: Examine future state business processes to compile initial requirements.

    Call #4: Document current state business processes.

    Call #5: Assess current customer service IT architecture.

    Call #6: Refine and prioritize list of requirements for future state.

    Call #7: Evaluate architectural options.

    Call #8: Evaluate application options.

    Call #9:Develop and score initiatives to future state.

    Call #10: Develop timeline and roadmap.

    Call #11: Review progress and wrap-up project.

    A Guided Implementation is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

    A typical Guided Implementation is two to 12 calls over the course of four to six months.

    Workshop Overview

    Contact your account representative for more information.
    workshops@infotech.com1-888-670-8889

    Day 1Day 2Day 3Day 4Day 5

    Define Your Vision for Future State

    Document Current State and Assess Gaps

    Adopt an Architectural Posture

    Frame Desired State and Develop Roadmap

    Communicate and Implement

    Activities

    1.1 Outline and prioritize your customer goals.

    1.2 Link customer service goals’ relevance and value to your Customer Service processes.

    1.3 Score Customer Service business processes against organizational goals.

    2.1 Holistically assess multiple aspects of Customer Service-related IT assets with Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool.

    3.1 Analyze Customer Service Systems Strategy and review results with the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool.

    4.1 Help project management stakeholders visualize implementation of Customer Service IT initiatives.

    4.2 Build strategic roadmap and plot initiatives.

    5.1 Finalize deliverables.

    5.2 Support communication efforts.

    5.3 Identify resources in support of priority initiatives.

    Deliverables

    1. Initial position on viable Customer Service strategies.
    2. Shortlist of key business processes.
    3. Documented future-state business process model.
    4. Business/functional/non-functional requirements.
    1. Documented current state business process model.
    2. Customer Service systems health assessment.
    3. Inventory of Customer Service supporting applications.
    4. Inventory of related system interfaces.
    1. Posture on system architecture.
    2. Completed Customer Service systems health assessment.
    3. List of application options.
    1. Scored and prioritized list of initiatives.
    2. Customer Service implementation roadmap.
    1. Customer Service IT Strategy Roadmap.
    2. Mapping of Info-Tech resources against individual initiatives.

    Phase 1

    Define Project and Future State

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    1.1 Structure the Project

    1.2 Define Vision for Future State

    1.3 Document Preliminary Requirements

    2.1 Document Current State Business Processes

    2.2 Assess Current State Architecture

    2.3 Review and Finalize Requirements for Future State

    3.1 Evaluate Architectural and Application Options

    3.2 Understand the Marketplace

    3.3 Score and Plot Initiatives Along Strategic Roadmap

    This phase will guide you through the following activities:

    1.1a Create your project’s RACI chart to establish key roles throughout the timeline of the project.

    1.1b Finalize your project charter that captures the key goals of the project, ready to communicate to stakeholders for approval.

    1.2a Begin documenting business processes to establish potential future states.

    1.2b Model future state business processes for looking beyond current constraints and building the ideal scenario.

    1.3a Document your preliminary requirements for concretizing a future state and performing a gap analysis.

    Participants required for Phase 1:

    • Applications Director
    • Customer Service Director
    • IT and Customer Service Representatives

    1.1 Identify process owners early for successful project execution

    IT and Customer Service must work in tandem throughout the project. Both teams’ involvement ensures all stakeholders are heard and support the final decision.

    Customer Service Perspective

    IT Perspective

    • Customer Service is the victim of pain points resulting from suboptimal systems and it stands to gain the most benefits from a well-planned systems strategy.
    • Looking to reduce pain points, Customer Service will likely initiate, own, and participate heavily in the project.
    • Customer Service must avoid the tendency to make IT-independent decisions. This could lead to disparate systems that contribute little to the overall organizational goals.
    • IT owns the application and back-end support of all Customer Service business processes. Any technological aspect of processes will need IT involvement.
    • IT may or may not have the mandate to run the Customer Service strategy project. Responsibility for systems decisions remains with IT.
    • IT should own the task of filtering out unnecessary or infeasible application and technology decisions. IT capabilities to support such acquisitions and post-purchase maintenance must be considered.

    Info-Tech Insight

    While involving management is important for high-level strategic decisions, input from those who interact day-to-day with the systems is a crucial component to a well-planned strategy.

    1.1 Define project roles and responsibilities to improve progress tracking

    Assign responsibilities, accountabilities, and other project involvement roles using a RACI chart.

    • IT should involve Customer Service from the beginning of project planning to implementation and execution. The project requires input and knowledge from both functions to succeed.
    • Do not let the tasks be forgotten within inter-functional communication. Define roles and responsibilities for the project as early as possible.
    • Each member of the project team should be given a RACI designation, which will vary for each task to ensure clear ownership, execution, and progress tracking.
    • Assigning RACI early can:
      • Improve project quality by assigning the right people to the right tasks.
      • Improve chances of project task completion by assigning clear accountabilities.
      • Improve project buy-in by ensuring that stakeholders are kept informed of project progress, risks, and successes.

    R – Responsibility

    A – Accountability

    C – Consulted

    I – Informed

    1.1 Use Info-Tech’s recommended process owners and roles for this blueprint

    Customer Service Head

    Customer Service Director

    CIO

    Applications Director*

    CEO/COO

    Marketing Head

    Sales Head

    Determine Project Suitability

    ARCCCII

    Phase 1.1

    CCARIII

    Phases 1.2 – 1.3

    ARCCICC

    Phase 2

    ARICIII

    Phase 3.1

    (Architectural options)

    CCARIII

    Phase 3.1

    (Application options)

    ACIRICC

    Phases 3.2 – 3.3

    CCARCII

    * The Applications Director is to compile a list of Customer Service systems; the Customer Service Director is responsible for vetting a list and mapping it to Customer Service functions.

    ** The Applications Director is responsible for technology-related decisions (e.g. SaaS or on-premise, integration issues); the Customer Service Director is responsible for functionality-related decisions.

    1.1a Create your project’s RACI chart

    1 hour

    1. The Applications Director and Customer Service Head should identify key participants and stakeholders of the project.
    2. Use Info-Tech’s Project RACI Chart to identify ownership of tasks.
    3. Record roles in the Project RACI Chart.
    The image contains a screenshot of the project RACI chart.
    InputOutput
    • Identification of key project participants and stakeholders.
    • Identification of key project participants and stakeholders.

    Materials

    Participants

    • Project RACI Chart
    • Applications Director
    • Customer Service Director

    Download the Project RACI Chart

    1.1 Start developing the project charter

    A project charter should address the following:

    • Executive Summary and Project Overview
      • Goals
      • Benefits
      • Critical Success Factors
    • Scope
    • Key Deliverables
    • Stakeholders and RACI
    • Risk Assessment
      • What are some risks you may encounter during project execution?
    • Projected Timeline and Key Milestones
    • Review and Approval Process

    What is a project charter?

    • The project charter defines the project and lays the foundation for all subsequent project planning.
    • Once approved by the business, the charter gives the project lead formal authority to initiate the project.

    Why create a project charter?

    • The project charter allows all parties involved to reach an agreement and document major aspects of the project.
    • It also supports the decision-making process and can be used as a communication tool.

    Stakeholders must:

    • Understand and agree on the objectives and important characteristics of the project charter before the project is initiated.
    • Be given the opportunity to adjust the project charter to better address their needs and concerns.

    1.1b Finalize the project charter

    1-2 hours

    1. Request relevant individuals and parties to complete sections of Info-Tech’s Project Charter Template.
    2. Input the simplified RACI output from tab 3 in Info-Tech’s Project RACI Chart tool into the RACI section of the charter.
    3. Send the completed template to the CIO and Customer Service Head for approval.
    4. Communicate the document to stakeholders for changes and finalization.
    The image contains a screenshot of the Project Charter Template.

    Input

    Output

    • Customer Service and IT strategies
    • Justification of impetus to begin this project
    • Timeline estimates
    • A completed project charter that captures the key goals of the project, ready to communicate to stakeholders for approval.

    Materials

    Participants

    • Project RACI Chart
    • Project Charter Template
    • Applications Director
    • Customer Service Director

    Download the Project Charter Template

    1.2 IT must play a role shaping Customer Service’s future vision

    IT is only one or two degrees of separation from the end customer – their involvement can significantly impact the customer experience.

    IT

    Customer Service

    Customer

    Customer Service-Facing Application

    Customer-Facing Application

    • IT enables, supports, and maintains the applications used by the Customer Service organization to service customers. IT provides the infrastructural and technical foundation to operate the function.
    • IT supports customer-facing interfaces and channels for Customer Service interaction.
    • Channel examples include web pages, mobile device applications and optimization, and interactive voice response for callers.

    1.2 Establish a vision for Customer Service excellence

    Info-Tech has identified three prominent Customer Service strategic patterns. Evaluate which fits best with your situation and organization.

    Retention

    Efficiency

    Cross-Sell/Up-Sell

    Ensuring customers remain customers by providing proactive customer service and a seamless omnichannel strategy.

    Reducing costs by diverting customers to lower cost channels and empowering agents to solve problems quickly.

    Maximizing the value of existing customers by capitalizing on cross-sell and up-sell opportunities.

    1.2 Let profitability goals help reveal which strategy to pursue

    Profitability goals are tied to the enabling of customer service strategies.

    • If looking to drive cost decreases across the organization, pursue cost efficiency strategies such as customer volume diversion in order to lower cost channels and avoid costly escalations for customer complaints and inquiries.
    • Ongoing Contribution Margin is positive only once customer acquisition costs (CAC) have been paid back. For every customer lost, another customer has to be acquired in order to experience no loss. In this way, customer retention strategies help decrease your overall costs.
    • Once cost reduction and customer retention measures are in place, look to increase overall revenue through cross-selling and up-selling activities with your customers.
    The image contains a screenshot of a diagram to demonstrate the relationship between goals and enabling strategies.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Purely driving efficiency is not the goal. Create a balance that does not compromise customer satisfaction.

    Customer Service strategies: Case studies

    Efficiency

    • Volume diversion to lower cost channels
    • Agent empowerment

    MISS DIG 811 – a utility notification system – sought to make their customer service more efficient by moving to softphones. Using the Cisco Customer Journey Platform, Miss Dig saw a 9% YoY increase in agent productivity and 83% reduction in phone equipment costs. Source: (Cisco, 2018).

    Retention

    • Proactive Customer Service
    • Seamless omnichannel strategy

    VoiceSage worked with Home Retail Group – a general merchandise retailer – to proactively increase customer outreach, reducing the number of routine customer order and delivery queries received. In four weeks, Home Retail Group increased their 30-40% answer rate from customers to 100%, with 90% of incoming calls answered and 60% of contacts made via SMS. Source: (VoiceSage, 2018)

    Cross-Sell/

    Up-Sell

    • Cross-Sell and Up-Sell opportunities

    A global brand selling language-learning software utilized Callzilla to help improve their call conversion rate of 2%. After six months of agent and supervisor training, this company increased their call conversion rate to 16% and their upsell rate to 40%. Their average order value increased from < $300 to $465. Source: (Callzilla, n.d.)

    1.2 Performing an environmental scan can help IT optimize Customer Service support

    Though typically executed by Customer Service, IT can gain valuable insights for best supporting infrastructure, applications, and operations from an environmental scan.

    An environmental scan seeks to understand your organization’s customers from multiple directions. It considers:

    • Customers’ value-based segmentations.
    • The interaction channels customers prefer to use.
    • Customers’ likes and dislikes.
    • The general sentiment of your customer service quality.
    • What your competitors are doing in this space.
    The image contains a screenshot of a diagram to demonstrate how performing an environmental scan can help IT optimize Customer Service support.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Business processes must directly relate to customer service. Failing to correlate customer experience with business performance outcomes overlooks the enormous cost of negative sentiment.

    1.2 The environmental scan results should drive IT’s strategy and resource spend

    Insights derived from this scan can help frame IT’s contributions to Customer Service’s future vision.

    Why IT should care:

    Implications:

    Each customer experience, from product/service selection to post-transaction support, can have a significant impact on business performance.

    It is not just IT or Customer Service that should care; rather, it should be an organizational responsibility to care about what customers say.

    Customers have little tolerance for mediocrity or poor service and simply switch their allegiances to those that can satisfy their expectations.

    Do not ignore your competitors; they may be doing something well in Customer Service technology which may serve as your organization’s benchmark.

    With maturing mobile and social technologies, customers want to be treated as individuals rather than as a series of disconnected accounts

    Do not ignore your customers’ plea for individuality through mobile and social. Assess your customers’ technology channel preferences.

    Customer service’s perception of service quality may be drastically different than what is expected by the customers.

    Prevent your organization from investing in technology that will have no positive impact on your customer experience.

    Some customers may not provide your organization the business value that surpasses your cost to serve them.

    Focus on enhancing the technology and customer service experience for your high-value customers.

    1.2 Have Customer Service examine feedback across channels for a holistic view

    Your method of listening needs to evolve to include active listening on social and mobile channels.

    Insights and Implications for Customer Service

    Limitations of conventional listening:

    • Solicited customer feedback, such as surveys, do not provide an accurate feedback method since customers only have one channel to express their views.
    • Sentiment, voice, and text analytics within social media channels provide the most accurate and timely intelligence.

    How IT Can Help

    IT can help facilitate the customer feedback process by:

    • Conducting customer feedback with voice recognition software.
    • Monitoring customer sentiment on mobile and social channels.
    • Utilizing customer data analytic engines on social media management platforms.
    • Referring Customer Service to customer advisory councils and their databases.

    1.2 Benchmark IT assets by examining your competitors’ Customer Service capabilities

    The availability of the internet means almost complete transparency between your products and services, and those of your competitors.

    Insights and implications from Customer Service

    How IT can help

    Competitor actions are crucial. Watch your competitors to learn how they use Customer Service as a competitive differentiator and a customer acquisition tool.

    Do not learn about a competitor’s actions because your customers are already switching to them. Track your competitors before getting a harsh surprise from your customers.

    View the customer service experience from the outside in. Assessing from the inside out gives an internal perspective on how good the service is, rather than what customers are experiencing.

    Take a data and analytics-driven approach to mine insights on what customers are saying about your competitors. Negative sentiment and specific complaints can be used as reference for IT and Customer Service to:

    • Avoid repeating the competitor’s mistakes.
    • Utilize sentiment as a benchmark for goal setting and improvements.
    • Duplicate successful technology initiatives to realize business value.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Look to your competitors for comparative models but do not pursue to solely replicate what they currently have. Aim higher and attempt to surpass their capabilities and brand value.

    1.2 Collaborate with Customer Service to understand customer value segments

    Let segmentation help you gain intelligence on customers’ expectations.

    Insights and implications from customer service

    • Segment your customers based on their value relative to the cost to serve. The easiest way to do so is with channel preference categorization.
    • If the cost for retention attempts are higher than the value that those customers provide, there is little business case to pursue retention action.

    How IT can help

    • Couple value-based segmentation with channel preference and satisfaction levels of your most-valued customers to effectively target IT investments in channels that maximize service customization and quality.
    • Correlate the customers’ channel and technology usage with their business value to see which IT assets are delivering on their investments.

    The image contains a screenshot of a graph to demonstrate the relationship between cost of retention and value.

    “If you're developing a Customer Service strategy, it has to start with who your clients are, what [they are] trying to do, and through what channels […] and then your decision around processes have to fall out of that. If IT is trying to lead the conversation, or bring people together to lead the conversation, then marketing and whoever does segmentation has to be at the table as a huge component of this.”

    Lisa Woznica, Director of Client Experience, BMO Financial Group

    1.2 Be mindful of trends in the consumer and technology landscape

    Building a future vision of customer service requires knowing what upcoming technologies can aid the organization.

    OMNICHANNEL SUPPORT

    Rapidly changing demographics and modes of communication requires an evolution toward omnichannel engagement. 63% of customers now expect to communicate with contact centers over their social media (Ringshall 2020). Agents need customer information synced across each channel they use, meeting the customer’s needs where they are.

    INTELLIGENT SELF-SERVICE PORTALS

    Customers want their issues resolved as quickly as possible. Machine learning self-service options deliver personalized customer experiences, which also reduce both agent call volume and support costs for the organization. 60% of contact centers are using or plan to use AI in the next 12 months to improve their customer (Canam Research 2020).

    LEVERAGING ANALYTICS

    The future of customer service is tied up with analytics. This not only entails AI-driven capabilities that fetch the agent relevant information, but it finds skills-based routing and uses biometric data (e.g., speech) for security. It also feeds operations leaders’ need for easy access to real insights about how their customers and agents are doing.

    Phase 1 – Case Study

    Omnichannel support delivers a financial services firm immediate customer service results.

    INDUSTRY: Financial Services

    SOURCE: Mattsen Kumar

    Situation

    Solution

    Results

    • A financial services firm’s fast growth began to show cracks in their legacy customer service system.
    • Costs to support the number of customer queries increased.
    • There was a lack of visibility into incoming customer communications and their resolutions.
    • Business opportunities were lost due to a lack of information on customers’ preferences and challenges. Customer satisfaction was decreasing, negatively impacting the firm’s brand.
    • Mattsen Kumar diagnosed that the firm’s major issue was that their customer service processes required a high percentage of manual interventions.
    • Mattsen Kumar developed an omnichannel strategy, including a mix of social channels joined together by a CRM.
    • A key aspect of this omnichannel experience was designing automated processes with minimal manual intervention.
    • 25% reduction in callbacks from customers.
    • $50,000 reduction in operational costs.
    • Two minutes wait time reduction for chat process.
    • 14% decrease in average handle time.
    • Scaled up from 6000 to 50,000 monthly calls that could be handled by the current team.
    • Enabled more than 10,000 customer queries over chats.

    1.2 Construct your future state using a business process management approach

    Documenting and evaluating your business processes serves as a good starting point for defining the overall Customer Service strategy.

    • Examining key Customer Service business processes can unlock clues around the following:
      • Driving operational effectiveness.
      • Identifying, implementing, and maintaining reusable enterprise systems.
      • Identifying gaps that can be addressed by acquisition of additional systems.
    • Business process modeling facilitates the collaboration between business and IT, recording the sequence of events, tasks performed, by whom they are performed, and the levels of interaction with the various supporting applications.
    • By identifying the events and decision points in the process, and overlaying the people that perform the functions and technologies that support them, organizations are better positioned to identify gaps that need to be bridged.
    • Encourage the analysis by compiling the inventory of Customer Service business processes that are relevant to the organization.

    Info-Tech Insight

    A process-oriented approach helps organizations see the complete view of the system by linking strategic requirements to business requirements, and business requirements to system requirements.

    1.2 Use the APQC Framework to define your Customer Service-related processes

    • APQC’s Process Classification Framework (PCF) is a taxonomy of cross-functional business processes intended to allow the objective comparison of organizational performance within and among organizations.
    • Section 5 of the PCF details various levels of Customer Service business processes, useful for mapping on to your own organization’s current state.
    • The APQC Framework can be accessed through the following link: APQC’s Process Classification Framework.

    The APQC Framework serves as a high-level, industry-neutral enterprise model that allows organizations to see activities from a cross-industry process perspective.

    The image contains a screenshot example of the APQC Process Classification Framework.
    Source: (Ziemba and Eisenbardt 2015)

    Info-Tech Caution

    The APQC framework does not list all processes within a specific organization, nor are the processes which are listed in the framework present in every organization. It is designed as a framework and global standard to be customized for use in any organization.

    1.2 Each APQC process has five levels that represent its logical components

    The image contains a screenshot of the APQC five levels. The levels include: category, process group, process, and activity.

    The PCF provides L1 through 4 for the Customer Service Framework.

    L5 processes are task- and industry-specific and need to be defined by the organization.

    Source: (APQC 2020)
    This Industry Process Classification Framework was jointly developed by APQC and IBM to facilitate improvement through process management and benchmarking. ©2018 APQC and IBM. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    1.2a Begin documenting business processes

    4 hours

    1. Using Info-Tech’s Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool, list the Customer Service goals and rank them by importance.
    2. Score the APQC L4 processes by relevance to the defined goals and perceived satisfaction index.
    3. Define the L5 processes for the top scoring L4 process.
    4. Leave Tab 5, Columns G – I for now. These columns will be revisited in activities 1.2b and 2.1a.
    The image contains a screenshot of the Customer Service Process Shortlisting Tool.

    Input

    Output

    • List of Customer Service goals
    • A detailed prioritization of Customer Service business processes to model for future states

    Materials

    Participants

    • Whiteboard
    • Writing materials
    • Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool
    • Applications Director
    • Customer Service Director
    • IT and Customer Service Representatives

    Download the Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool

    1.2 Start designing the future state of key business processes

    If Customer Service transformation is called for, start with your future-state vision. Don’t get stuck in current state and the “art of the possible” within its context.

    Future-State Analysis

    Start by designing your future state business processes (based on the key processes shortlisting exercise). Design these processes as they would exist as your “ideal scenario.” Next, analyze your current state to help better your understanding of:

    • The gaps that exist and must be bridged to achieve the future-state vision.
    • Whether or not any critical functions that support your business were omitted accidentally from the future-state processes.
    • Whether or not any of the supporting applications or architecture can be salvaged and used toward delivery of your future-state vision.

    Though it’s a commonly used approach, documenting your current-state business processes first can have several drawbacks:

    • Current-state analysis can impede your ability to see future possibility.
    • Teams will spend a great deal of time and effort on documenting current state and inevitably succumb to “analysis paralysis.”
    • Current state assessment, when done first, limits the development of the future (or target) state, constraining thinking to the limitations of the current environment rather than the requirements of the business strategy.

    Current-State Analysis

    “If you're fairly immature and looking for a paradigm shift or different approach [because] you recognize you're totally doing it wrong today, then starting with documenting current state doesn't do a lot except make you sad. You don't want to get stuck in [the mindset of] ‘Here's the current state, and here’s the art of the possible.’”

    Trevor Timbeck, Executive Coach, Parachute Executive Coaching

    1.2 Start modeling future-state processes

    Build buy-in and accountability in process owners through workshops and whiteboarding – either in-person or remotely.

    Getting consensus on the process definition (who does what, when, where, why, and how) is one of the hardest parts of BPM.

    Gathering process owners for a process-defining workshop isn’t easy. Getting them to cooperate can be even harder. To help manage these difficulties during the workshop, make sure to:

    • Keep the scope contained to the processes being defined in order to make best use of everyone’s time, as taking time away from employees is a cost too.
    • Prior to the workshop, gather information about the processes with interviews, questionnaires, and/or system data gathering and analysis.
    • Use the information gathered to have real-life examples of the processes in question so that time isn’t wasted.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Keep meetings short and on task as tangents are inevitable. Set ground rules at the beginning of any brainstorming or whiteboarding session to ensure that all participants are aligned.

    1.2 Use the five W’s to help map out your future-state processes

    Define the “who, what, why, where, when, and how” of the process to gain a better understanding of individual activities.

    Owner

    Who

    What

    When

    Where

    Why

    How

    Record Claim

    Customer Service

    Customer Service Rep.

    Claim

    Accident

    Claims system

    Customer notification

    Agent enters claim into the system and notifies claims department

    Manage Claim

    Claims Department

    Claims Clerk

    Claim

    Agent submitted the claim

    Claims system

    Agent notification

    Clerk enters claim into the claims system

    Investigate Claim

    Claims Investigation

    Adjuster

    Claim

    Claim notification

    Property where claim is being made

    Assess damage

    Evaluation and expert input

    Settle Claim

    Claims Department

    Claim Approver

    Claim and Adjuster’s evaluation

    Receipt of Adjuster’s report

    Claims system

    Evaluation

    Approval or denial

    Administer Claim

    Finance Department

    Finance Clerk

    Claim amount

    Claim approval notification

    Finance system

    Payment required

    Create payment voucher and cut check

    Close Claim

    Claims Department

    Claims Clerk

    Claim and all supporting documentation

    Payment issued

    Claims system

    Claim processed

    Close the claim in the system

    Info-Tech Insight

    It’s not just about your internal processes. To achieve higher customer retention and satisfaction, it’s also useful to map the customer service process from the customer perspective to identify customer pain points and disconnects.

    1.2 Use existing in-house software as a simplistic entry point to process modeling

    A diagramming tool like Visio enables you to plot process participants and actions using dedicated symbols and connectors that indicate causality.

    • Models can use a stick-figure format, a cross-functional workflow format, or BPMN notation.
    • Plot the key activities and decision points in the process using standard flowcharting shapes. Identify the data that belongs to each step in a separate document or as call-outs on the diagram.
    • Document the flow control between steps, i.e., what causes one step to finish and another to start?

    The image contains a screenshot of the sample cross-functional diagram using the claims process.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Diagramming tools can force the process designer into a specific layout: linear or cross-functional/swim lane.

    • A linear format is recommended for single function and system processes.
    • A swim lane format is recommended for cross-functional and cross-departmental processes.

    1.2 Introduce low investment alternatives for process modeling for modeling disciplines

    SaaS and low-cost modeling tools are emerging to help organizations with low to medium BPM maturity visualize their processes.

    • Formal modeling tools allow a designer to model in any view and easily switch to other views to gain new perspectives on the process.
    • Subscription-based, best-of-breed SaaS tools provide scalable and flexible process modeling capabilities.
    • Open source and lower cost tools also exist to help distribute BPM modeling discipline and standards.
    • BPMS suites incorporate advanced modeling tools with process execution engines for end-to-end business process management. Integrate process discovery with modeling, process simulation, and analysis. Deploy, monitor, and measure process models in process automation engines.

    The image contains a screenshot of a diagram of the claims process.

    Explore SoftwareReviews’ Business Process Management market analysis by clicking here.

    1.2b Model future state business processes

    4 hours

    1. Model the future state of the most critical business processes.
    2. Use Tab 5, Columns G – H of Info-Tech’s Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool to keep stock of what processes are targeted for modeling, and whether the models have been completed.
    The image contains a screenshot of the Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool.

    Input

    Output

    • Modeled future Customer Service business processes
    • An inventory of modeled future states for critical Customer Service business processes

    Materials

    Participants

    • Whiteboard
    • Writing materials
    • Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool
    • Applications Director
    • Customer Service Director

    Download the Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool

    1.3 Start a preliminary inventory of your requirements

    Use the future state business process models as a source for software requirements.

    • Business process modeling deals with business requirements that can be used as the foundation for elicitation of system (functional and non-functional) requirements.
    • Modeling creates an understanding of the various steps and transfers in each business process, as well as the inputs and outputs of the process.
    • The future state models form an understanding of what information is needed and how it flows from one point to another in each process.
    • Understand what technologies are (or can be) leveraged to facilitate the exchange of information and facilitate the process.

    For each task or event in the process, ask the following questions:

    • What is the input?
    • What is the output?
    • What are the underlying risks and how can they be mitigated?
    • What conditions should be met to mitigate or eliminate each risk?
    • What are the improvement opportunities?
    • What conditions should be met to enable these opportunities?

    Info-Tech Insight

    Incorporate future considerations into the requirements. How will the system need to adapt over time to accommodate additional processes, process variations, introduction of additional channels and capabilities, etc. Do not overreach by identifying system capabilities that cannot possibly be met.

    1.3 Understand the four different requirements to document

    Have a holistic view for capturing the various requirements the organization has for a Customer Service strategy.

    Business requirements

    High-level requirements that management would typically understand.

    User requirements

    High-level requirements on how the tool should empower users’ lives.

    Non-functional requirements

    Criteria that can be used to judge the operation of a contact center. It defines how the system should perform for the organization.

    Functional requirements

    Outline the technical requirements for the desired contact center.

    1.3 Extract requirements from the business process models

    To see how, let us examine our earlier example for the Claims Process, extracting requirements from the “Record Claim” task.

    The image contains an example of the claims process, and focuses on the record claim task.

    1.3a Document your preliminary requirements

    4 hours

    1. The Applications Director and Customer Service Head are to identify participants based on the business processes that will be reviewed.
    2. They are to conduct a workshop to gather all requirements that can be taken from the business process models.
    3. Use Tab 4 of Info-Tech’s Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool to document your preliminary requirements.
    The image contains a screenshot of the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool.
    InputOutput
    • Half-day workshop to review the proposed future-state diagrams and distill from them the business, functional, and non-functional requirements
    • Future state business process models from activities 1.2a and 1.2b
    • An inventory of preliminary requirements for modeled future states
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard
    • Writing materials
    • Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool
    • Results of activities 1.2a and 1.2b
    • Applications Director
    • Customer Service Director
    • IT and Customer Service Representatives

    Download the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool

    Phase 2

    Evaluate Current State

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    1.1 Structure the Project

    1.2 Define Vision for Future State

    1.3 Document Preliminary Requirements

    2.1 Document Current State Business Processes

    2.2 Assess Current State Architecture

    2.3 Review and Finalize Requirements for Future State

    3.1 Evaluate Architectural and Application Options

    3.2 Understand the Marketplace

    3.3 Score and Plot Initiatives Along Strategic Roadmap

    This phase will guide you through the following activities:

    2.1a Model current-state business processes for an inventory to compare against future-state models.

    2.1b Compare future and current business states for a preliminary gap analysis.

    2.1c Begin compiling an inventory of CS Systems by function for an overview of your current state map.

    2.2a Rate your functional and integration quality to assess the performance of your application portfolio.

    2.3a Compare states and propose action to bridge current business processes with viable future alternatives.

    2.3b Document finalized requirements, ready to enact change.

    Participants required for Phase 2:

    • Applications Director
    • Customer Service Director
    • IT and Customer Service Representatives
    • IT Managers

    2.1 Document the current state of your key business processes

    Doing so will solidify your understanding of the gaps, help identify any accidental omissions from the future state vision, and provide clues as to what can be salvaged.

    • Analysis of the current state is important in the context of gap analysis. It aids in understanding the discrepancies between your baseline and the future-state vision, and ensuring that these gaps are recorded as part of the overall requirements.
    • By analyzing the current state of key business processes, you may identify critical functions that are in place today that were not taken into consideration during the future-state business process visioning exercise.
    • By overlaying the current state process models with the applications that support them, the current state models will indicate what systems and interfaces can be salvaged.
    • The baseline feeds the business case, allowing the team to establish proposed benefits and improvements from implementing the future-state vision. Seek to understand the following:
      • The volumes of work
      • Major exceptions
      • Number of employees involved
      • Amount of time spent in each area of the process

    2.1 Assess the current state to drive the gap analysis

    Before you choose any solution, identify what needs to be done to your current state in order to achieve the vision you have defined.

    • By beginning with the future state in mind, you have likely already envisioned some potential solutions.
    • By reviewing your current situation in contrast with your desired future state, you can deliberate what needs to be done to bridge the gap. The differences between the models allow you to define a set of changes that must be enacted in sequence or in parallel. These represent the gaps.
    • The gaps, once identified, translate themselves into additional requirements.

    Assessment Example

    Future State

    Current Situation

    Next Actions/ Proposals

    Incorporate social channels for responding to customer inquiries.

    No social media monitoring or channels for interaction exist at present.

    1. Implement a social media monitoring platform tool and integrate it with the current CSM.
    2. Recruit additional Customer Service representatives to monitor and respond to inquiries via social channels.
    3. Develop report(s) for analyzing volumes of inquiries received through social channels.

    Info-Tech Insight

    It is important to allot time for the current-state analysis, confine it to the minimum effort required to understand the gaps, and identify any missing pieces from your future-state vision. Make sure the work expended is proportional to the benefit derived from this exercise.

    2.1a Model current-state business processes

    2 hours

    1. Model the current state of the most critical business processes, using the work done in activities 1.2a and 1.2b to help identify these processes.
    2. Use Tab 5, Column I of Info-Tech’s Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool to keep stock of what models have been completed.
    3. This tool is now complete.
    The image contains a screenshot of the Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool.
    InputOutput
    • Modeled current-state Customer Service business processes
    • An inventory of modeled current states for critical Customer Service business processes
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard
    • Writing materials
    • Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool
    • Results of activities 1.2a and 1.2b.
    • Applications Director
    • Customer Service Director

    Download the Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool

    2.1b Compare future and current business states

    2 hours

    1. Use Tab 9 of Info-Tech’s Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool to record a summary of the future state, current state, and actions proposed in order to bridge the gaps.
      • Fill out the desired future state of the business processes and IT architecture.
      • Fill out the current state of the business processes and IT architecture.
      • Fill out the actions required to mitigate the gaps between the future and current state.
    The image contains a screenshot of thr Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool.
    InputOutput
    • The results of activities 1.2a, 1.2b, and 2.1a.
    • Modeled future- and current-state business processes
    • An overview and analysis of how to reach certain future states from the current state.
    • A preliminary list of next steps through bridging the gap between current and future states.
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard
    • Writing materials
    • Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool
    • Applications Director
    • Customer Service Director

    Download the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool

    2.1 Assess whether Customer Service architecture can meet future-state vision

    Approach your CS systems holistically to identify opportunities for system architecture optimization.

    • Organizations often do not have a holistic view of their Customer Service systems. These systems are often cobbled together from disparate parts, such as:
      • Point solutions (both SaaS and on-premise).
      • Custom interfaces between applications and databases.
      • Spreadsheets and other manual workarounds.
    • A high degree of interaction between multiple systems can cause distention in the application portfolio and databases, creating room for error and more work for CS and IT staff. Mapping your systems and architectural landscape can help you:
      • Identify the number of manual processes you currently employ.
      • Eliminate redundancies.
      • Allow for consolidation and/or integration.

    Consider the following metrics when tracking your CS systems:

    Time needed to perform core tasks (i.e., resolving a customer complaint)

    Accuracy of basic information (customer history, customer product portfolio)

    CSR time spent on manual process/workarounds

    Info-Tech Insight

    There is a two-step process to document the current state of your Customer Service systems:

    1. Compile an inventory of systems by function
    2. Identify points of integration across systems

    2.1c Begin compiling an inventory of CS systems by function

    2 hours

    1. Using Tab 2 of Info-Tech’s Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool, request that the CS managers fill in the application inventory template with all the CS systems that they use.
    2. Questions to trigger exercise:
      • Which applications am I using?
      • Which CS function does the application support?
      • How many applications support the same function?
      • What spreadsheets or manual workarounds do I use to fill in system gaps?
    3. Send the filled-in template to IT Managers to validate and fill in missing system information.
    InputOutput
    • Applications Directors’ knowledge of the current state
    • IT Managers’ validation of this state
    • A corroborated inventory of the current state for Customer Service systems
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool
    • Applications Director
    • IT managers

    Download the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool

    2.1 Use activity 2.1c for an overview of your current state map

    The image contains a screenshot of activity 2.1.

    Info-Tech Insight

    A current-state map of CS systems can offer insight on:

    • Coverage, i.e. whether all functional areas are supported by systems.
    • Redundancies, i.e. functional areas with multiple systems. If a customer’s records are spread across multiple systems, it may be difficult to obtain a single source of truth.

    2.2 Assess current state with user interface architecture diagrams

    Understand a high-level overview of how your current state integrates together to rate its overall quality.

    • If IT already has an architecture diagram, use this in conjunction with your application inventory for the basis of current state discussions.
    • If your organization does not already have an architecture diagram for review and discussion, consider creating one in its most simplistic form using the following guidelines (see illustrative example on next slide):

    Represent each of your systems as a labelled shape with a unique number (this number can be referenced in other artifacts that can provide more detail).

    Color coding can also be applied to differentiate these objects, e.g., to indicate an internal system (where development is owned by your organization) vs. an external system (where development is outside of your organization’s control).

    2.2 Example: Current state with user interface architecture diagrams

    The image contains a screenshot of an example of current state with user interface architecture diagrams.

    2.2 Evaluate application functionality and functional coverage

    Use this documentation of the current state as an opportunity to spot areas for rationalizing your application portfolio.

    If an application is well-received by the organization and is an overall good platform, consider acquiring more modules from the same vendor application.

    The image contains a screenshot of a diagram to demonstrate functionality and functional coverage.

    If you have more than one application for a function, consider why that is and how you might consolidate into a single application.

    Measure the effectiveness of applications under consideration. For example, consider the number of failures when an application attempts a function (by ticket numbers), and overall satisfaction/ease of use.

    The above steps will reveal capability overlaps and application pain points and show how the overall portfolio could be made more efficient.

    2.2 Determine the degree of integration between systems

    Data and system integration are key components of an effective CS system portfolio.

    The needed level of integration will depend on three major factors:

    Integration between systems helps facilitate reporting. The required reports will vary from organization to organization:

    How many other systems benefit from the data of the application?

    Large workforces will benefit from more detailed WFM reports for optimizing workforce planning and talent acquisition.

    Will automating the integration between systems alleviate a significant amount of manual effort?

    Organizations with competitive sales and incentives will want to strategize around talent management and compensation.

    What kind of reports will your organization require in order to perform core and business-enabling functions?

    Aging workforces or organizations with highly specialized skills can benefit from detailed analysis around succession planning.

    Phase 2 – Case Study

    Integrating customer relationship information streamlines customer service and increases ROI for the organization.

    INDUSTRY: Retail and Wholesale

    SOURCE: inContact

    Situation

    Solution

    Results

    • Hall Automotive – a group of 14 multi-franchise auto dealerships located throughout Virginia and North Carolina – had customer information segmented throughout their CRM system at each dealership.
    • Call center agents lacked the technology to synthesize this information, leading customers to receive multiple and unrelated service calls.
    • Hall Automotive wanted to avoid embarrassing information gaps, integrate multiple CRM systems, and help agents focus on customers.
    • Hall Automotive utilized an inContact solution that included Automated Call Distributor, Computer Telephony Integration, and IVR technologies.
    • This created a complete customer-centric system that interfaced with multiple CRM and back-office systems.
    • The inContact solution simplified intelligent call flows, routed contacts to the right agent, and provided comprehensive customer information.
    • Call time decreased from five minutes to one minute and 23 seconds.
    • 350% increase in production.
    • Market response time down from three months to one day.
    • Cost per call cut from 83 cents to 23 cents.
    • Increased agents’ calls-per-hour from 12 to 43.
    • Scalability matched seasonal fluctuations in sales.

    2.2a Rate your functional and integration quality

    2 hours

    1. Using Tab 5 of Info-Tech’s Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool, evaluate the functionality of your applications.
    2. Then, use Tab 6 of the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool to evaluate the integration of your applications.
    The image contains screenshots of the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool.
    InputOutput
    • Applications Directors’ knowledge of the current state
    • IT Managers’ validation of this state
    • A documented evaluation of the organization’s application portfolio regarding functional and integration quality
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool
    • Applications Director
    • IT managers

    Download the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool

    2.3 Revisit and refine the future-state business processes and list of requirements

    With a better understanding of the current state, determine whether the future-state models hold up. Ensure that the requirements are updated accordingly to reflect the full set of gaps identified.

    • Future-state versus current-state modeling is an iterative process.
    • By assessing the gaps between target state and current state, you may decide that:
      • The future state model was overly ambitious for what can reasonably be delivered in the near-term.
      • Core functions that exist today were accidentally omitted from the future state models and need to be incorporated.
      • There are systems or processes that your organization would like to salvage, and they must be worked into the future-state model.
    • Once the future state vision is stabilized, ensure that all gaps have been translated into business requirements.
      • If possible, categorize all gaps by functional and non-functional requirements.

    2.3a Compare states and propose action

    3 hours

    • Revisit Tab 9 of Info-Tech’s Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool to more accurately compare your organization’s current- and future-state business processes.
    • Ensure that gaps in the system architecture have been captured.
    The image contains a screenshot of the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool.
    InputOutput
    • Modeled future- and current-state business processes
    • Refined and prioritized list of requirements
    • An accurate list of action steps for bridging current and future state business processes
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard
    • Writing materials
    • Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool
    • Applications Director
    • IT managers

    Download the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool

    2.3 Prioritize and finalize the requirements

    Prioritizing requirements will help to itemize initiatives and the timing with which they need to occur.

    Requirements are to be prioritized based on relative important and the timing of the respective initiatives.

    Prioritize the full set of requirements by assigning a priority to each:

    1. High/Critical: A critical requirement; without it, the product is not acceptable to the stakeholders.
    2. Medium/Important: A necessary but deferrable requirement that makes the product less usable but still functional.
    3. Low/Desirable: A nice feature to have if there are resources, but the product can function well without it.

    Requirements prioritization must be completed in collaboration with all key stakeholders (business and IT).

    Consider the following criteria when assigning the priority:

    • Business value
    • Business or technical risk
    • Implementation difficulty
    • Likelihood of success
    • Regulatory compliance
    • Relationship to other requirements
    • Urgency
    • Unified stakeholder agreement

    Stakeholders must ask themselves:

    • What are the consequences to the business objectives if this requirement is omitted?
    • Is there an existing system or manual process/workaround that could compensate for it?
    • Why can’t this requirement be deferred to the next release?
    • What business risk is being introduced if a particular requirement cannot be implemented right away?

    2.3b Document finalized requirements

    4 hours

    1. Using Tab 4 of Info-Tech’s Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool, evaluate your applications’ functionality, review, refine, prioritize, and finalize your requirements.
    2. Review the proposed future state diagrams in activity 2.3a and distill from them the business, functional, and non-functional requirements.
    3. The Applications Director and Customer Service Head are to identify participants based on the business processes that will be reviewed. They are to conduct a workshop to gather all the requirements that can be taken from the business process models.
    The image contains a screenshot of the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool.
    InputOutput
    • Modeled future- and current-state business processes
    • Refined and prioritized list of requirements
    • A documented finalized list of requirements to achieve future state business processes
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard
    • Writing materials
    • Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool
    • IT Applications Director
    • Customer Service Director
    • IT and Customer Service Representatives

    Download the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool

    Phase 3

    Build Roadmap to Future State

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    1.1 Structure the Project

    1.2 Define Vision for Future State

    1.3 Document Preliminary Requirements

    2.1 Document Current State Business Processes

    2.2 Assess Current State Architecture

    2.3 Review and Finalize Requirements for Future State

    3.1 Evaluate Architectural and Application Options

    3.2 Understand the Marketplace

    3.3 Score and Plot Initiatives Along Strategic Roadmap

    This phase will guide you through the following activities:

    3.1a Analyze future architectural posture to understand how applications within the organization ought to be arranged.

    3.3a Develop a Customer Service IT Systems initiative roadmap to reach your future state.

    Participants required for Phase 3:

    • Applications Director
    • CIO
    • Customer Service Director
    • Customer Service Head
    • IT and Customer Service Representatives
    • IT Applications Director

    3.1a Analyze future architectural posture

    1 hour

    Review Tab 8 of the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool.

    This tab plots each system that supports Customer Service on a 2x2 framework based on its functionality and integration scores. Where these systems plot on each 2x2 provides clues as to whether they should be considered for retention, functional enhancement (upgrade), increased system integration, or replacement.

    • Integrate: The application is functionally rich, so integrate it with other modules by building or enhancing interfaces.
    • Retain: The application satisfies both functionality and integration requirements, so it should be considered for retention.
    • Replace: The application neither offers the functionality sought, nor is it integrated with other modules.
    • Replace/Enhance: The module offers poor functionality but is well integrated with other modules. If enhancing for functionality is easy (e.g., through configuration or custom development), consider enhancement or replace it altogether.
    The image contains a screenshot of tab 8 of the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool.
    InputOutput
    • Review Tab 8 of the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool
    • An overview of how different applications in the organization ought to be assessed
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool
    • IT Applications Director
    • Customer Service Director
    • IT and Customer Service Representatives

    Download the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool

    3.1 Interpret 3.1a’s results for next steps

    Involving both sales and marketing in these discussions will provide a 360-degree view on what the modifications should accomplish.

    If the majority of applications are plotted in the “Integrate” quadrant:

    The applications are performing well in terms of functionality but have poor integration. Determine what improvements can be made to enhance integration between the systems where required (e.g. re-working existing interfaces to accommodate additional data elements, automating interfaces, or creating brand new custom interfaces where warranted).

    If the applications are spread across “Integrate,” “Retain,” and “Replace/Enhance”:

    There is no clear recommended direction in this case. Weigh the effort required to replace/enhance/integrate specific applications critical for supporting processes. If resource usage for piecemeal solutions is too high, consider replacement with suite.

    If the majority of applications are plotted in the “Retain” quadrant:

    All applications satisfy both functionality and integration requirements. There is no evidence that significant action is required.

    If the application placements are split between the “Retain” and “Replace/Enhance” quadrants:

    Consider whether or not IT has the capabilities to execute application replacement procedures. If considering replacement, consider the downstream impact on applications that the system in question is currently integrated with. Enhancing an application usually implies upgrading or adding a module to an existing application. Consider the current satisfaction with the application vendor and whether the upgrade or additional module will satisfy your customer service needs.

    3.1 Work through architectural considerations to narrow future states

    Best-of-breeds vs. suite

    Integration and consolidation

    Deployment

    Does the organization only need a point solution or an entire platform of solutions?

    Does the current state enable interoperability between software? Is there room for rationalization?

    Should any new software be SaaS-based, on-premises, or a hybrid?

    Info-Tech Insight

    Decommissioning and replacing entire applications can put well-functioning modules at risk. Make sure to drill down into the granular features to assess if the feature level performance prompts change. The goal is to make the architecture more efficient for Customer Service and easier to manage for IT. If integration has been chosen as a course of action, make sure that the spend on resources and effort is less than that on system replacement. Also make sure that the intended architecture streamlines usability for agents.

    3.1 Considerations: Best-of-breeds vs. suite

    If requirements extend beyond the capabilities of a best-of-breed solution, a suite of tools may be required.

    Best-of-breed

    Suite

    Benefits

    • Features may be more advanced for specific functional areas and a higher degree of customization may be possible.
    • If a potential delay in real-time customer data transfer is acceptable, best-of-breeds provide a similar level of functionality to suites for a lower price.
    • Best-of-breeds allow value to be realized faster than suites, as they are easier and faster to implement and configure.
    • Rip and replace is easier and vendor updates are relatively quick to market.

    Benefits

    • Everyone in the organization works from the same set of customer data.
    • There is a “lowest common denominator” for agent learning as consistent user interfaces lower learning curves and increase efficiency in usage.
    • There is a broader range of functionality using modules.
    • Integration between functional areas will be strong and the organization will be in a better position to enable version upgrades without risking invalidation of an integration point between separate systems.

    Challenges

    • Best-of-breeds typically cover less breadth of functionality than suites.
    • There is a lack of uniformity in user experience across best-of-breeds.
    • Data integrity risks are higher.
    • Variable infrastructure may be implemented due to multiple disparate systems, which adds to architecture complexity and increased maintenance.
    • There is potential for redundant functionality across multiple best-of-breeds.

    Challenges

    • Suites exhibit significantly higher costs compared to point solutions.
    • Suite module functionality may not have the same depth as point solutions.
    • Due to high configuration availability and larger-scale implementation requirements, the time to deploy is longer than point solutions.

    3.1 Considerations: Integration and consolidation

    Use Tab 7 of Info-Tech’s Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool to gauge the need for consolidation.

    IT benefits

    • Decreased spend on infrastructure, application acquisition, and development.
    • Reduced complexity in vendor management.
    • Less resources and effort spent on internal integration and functional customization.

    Customer Service benefits

    • Reduced user confusion and application usage efficiency.
    • Increased operational visibility and ease process mapping.
    • Improved data management and integrity.

    Theoretical scenarios and recommendations

    The image contains a screenshot of an example of a customer service functional purpose.

    Problem:

    • Large Redundancy – multiple applications address the same function, but one application performs better than others.

    Recommendation:

    • Consolidate the functions into Application 1 and consider decommissioning Applications 2 to 4.
    The image contains a screenshot of an example of a customer service functional purpose.

    Problem:

    • Large Redundancy – multiple applications address the same function, but none of them do it well.

    Recommendation:

    • None of the applications perform well in functional support. Consider replacing with suite or leveraging the Application 3 vendor for functional module expansion, if feasible.

    3.1 Considerations: Deployment

    SaaS is typically recommended as it reduces IT support needs. However, customization limitations and higher long-term TCO values continue to be a challenge for SaaS.

    On-premises deployment

    Hybrid deployment

    Public cloud deployment

    Benefits

    • Solution and deployment are highly customizable.
    • There are fewer compliance and security risks because customer data is kept on premises.

    Challenges

    • There is slower physical deployment.
    • Physical hardware and software are required.
    • There are higher upfront costs.

    Benefits

    • Pick-and-mix which aspects to keep on premises and which to outsource.
    • Benefits of scaling and flexibility for outsourced solution.

    Challenges

    • Expensive to maintain.
    • Requires in-house skillset for on-premises option.
    • Some control is lost over outsourced customization.

    Benefits

    • Physical hardware is not required.
    • There is rapid deployment, vendor managed product updates, and server maintenance.
    • There are lower upfront costs.

    Challenges

    • There is higher TCO over time.
    • There are perceived security risks.
    • There are service availability and reliability risks.
    • There is limited customization.

    3.1 Considerations: Public cloud deployment

    Functionality is only one aspect of a broader range of issues to narrow down the viability of a cloud-based architecture.

    Security/Privacy Concerns:

    Whether the data is stored on premise or in the cloud, it is never 100% safe. The risk increases with a multi-tenant cloud solution where a single vendor manages the data of multiple clients. If your data is particularly sensitive, heavily scrutinize the security infrastructure of potential vendors or store the data internally if internal security is deemed stronger than that of a vendor.

    Location:

    If there are individuals that need to access the system database and work in different locations, centralizing the system and its database in the cloud may be an effective approach.

    Compatibility:

    Assess the compatibility of the cloud solutions with your internal IT systems. Cloud solutions should be well-integrated with internal systems for data flow to ensure efficiency in service operations.

    Cost/Budget Constraints:

    SaaS allows conversion of up-front CapEx to periodic OpEx. It assists in bolstering a business case as costs in the short-run are much more manageable. On-premise solutions have a much higher upfront TCO than cloud solutions. However, the TCO for the long-term usage of cloud solutions under the licensing model will exceed that of an on-premise solution, especially with a growing business and user base.

    Functionality/Customization:

    Ensure that the function or feature that you need is available on the cloud solution market and that the feature is robust enough to meet service quality standards. If the available cloud solution does not support the processes that fit your future-state vision and gaps, it has little business value. If high levels of customization are required to meet functionality, the amount of effort and cost in dealing with the cloud vendor may outweigh the benefits.

    Maintenance/Downtime:

    For most organizations, lapses in cloud-service availability can become disastrous for customer satisfaction and service quality. Organizations should be prepared for potential outages since customers require constant access to customer support.

    3.2 Explore the customer service technology marketplace

    Your requirements, gap analysis, and assessment of current applications architecture may have prompted the need for a new solutions purchase.

    • Customer service technology has come a long way since PABX in 1960s call centers. Let Info-Tech give you a quick overview of the market and the major systems that revolve around Customer Service.
    • The image contains a screenshot of a timeline of the market and major systems that revolve  around customer service.

    Info-Tech Insight

    While Customer Relationships Management systems interlock several aspects of the customer journey, best-of-breed software for specific aspects of this journey could provide a better ROI if the organization’s coverage of these aspects are only “good enough” and need boosting.

    3.2 The CRM software market will continue to grow at an aggressive rate

    • In recent years, CRM suite solutions have matured significantly in their customer support capabilities. Much of this can be attributed to their acquisitions of smaller best-of-breed Customer Service vendors.
    • Many of the larger CRM solutions (like those offered by Salesforce) have now added social media engagement, knowledge bases, and multi-channel capabilities into their foundational offering.
    • CRM systems are capable of huge sophistication and integration with the core ERP, but they also have heavy license and implementation costs, and therefore may not be for everyone.
    • In some cases, customers are looking to augment upon very specific capabilities that are lacking from their customer service foundation. In these cases, best-of-breed solutions ought to be integrated with a CRM, ERP, or with one another through API integration.
    The image contains a screenshot of a graph that demonstrates the CRM global market growth, 2019-2027.

    3.2 Utilize SoftwareReviews to focus on which CS area needs enhancing

    Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS)

    Cloud-based customer experience solution that allows organizations to utilize a provider’s software to administer incoming support or inquiries from consumers in a hosted, subscription model.

    Customer Service Management (CSM)

    Supports an organization's interaction with current and potential customers. It uses data-driven tools designed to help organizations drive sales and deliver exceptional customer experiences.

    Customer Intelligence Platform

    Gather and analyze data from both structured and unstructured sources regarding your customers, including their demographic/firmographic details and activities, to build deeper and more effective customer relationships and improve business outcomes.

    Enterprise Social Media Management

    Software for monitoring social media activity with the goal of gaining insight into user opinion and optimizing social media campaigns.

    Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

    Consists of applications designed to automate and manage the customer life cycle. CRM software optimizes customer data management, lead tracking, communication logging, and marketing campaigns.

    Virtual Assistants and Chatbots

    interactive applications that use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to engage in conversation via speech or text. These applications simulate human interaction by employing natural language input and feedback.

    3.2 SoftwareReviews’ data accelerates and improves the software selection process

    SoftwareReviews collects and analyzes detailed reviews on enterprise software from real users to give you an unprecedented view into the product and vendor before you buy.

    With SoftwareReviews:

    • Access premium reports to understand the marketspace of 193 software categories.
    • Compare vendors with SoftwareReviews’ Data Quadrant Reports.
    • Discover which vendors have better customer relations management with SoftwareReviews’ Emotional Footprint Reports.
    • Explore the Product Scorecards of single vendors for a detailed analysis of their software offerings.
    The image contains a screenshot of the Software Reviews offerings.

    3.2 Speak with category experts to dive deeper into the vendor landscape

    Fact-based reviews of business software from IT professionals.

    Product and category reports with state-of-the-art data visualization.

    Top-tier data quality backed by a rigorous quality assurance process.

    User-experience insight that reveals the intangibles of working with a vendor.

    CLICK HERE to access SoftwareReviews

    Comprehensive software reviews to make better IT decisions.

    We collect and analyze the most detailed reviews on enterprise software from real users to give you an unprecedented view into the product and vendor before you buy.

    SoftwareReviews is powered by Info-Tech.

    Technology coverage is a priority for Info-Tech, and SoftwareReviews provides the most comprehensive unbiased data on today’s technology. The insights of our expert analysts provide unparalleled support to our members at every step of their buying journey.

    3.2 Leverage Info-Tech’s Rapid Application Selection Framework

    Improve your key software selection metrics for best-of-breed customer service software.

    The image contains a screenshot of an example of Info-Tech's Rapid Application Selection Framework.

    A simple measurement of the number of days from intake to decision.

    Use our Project Satisfaction Tool to measure stakeholder project satisfaction.

    Use our Application Portfolio Assessment Tool annually to measure application satisfaction.

    Use our Contract Review Service to benchmark and optimize your technology spending.

    Learn more about Info-Tech’s The Rapid Application Selection Framework

    The Rapid Application Selection Framework (RASF) is best geared toward commodity and mid-tier enterprise applications

    Not all software selection projects are created equal – some are very small, some span the entire enterprise. To ensure that IT is using the right framework, understand the cost and complexity profile of the application you’re looking to select. The RASF approach is best for commodity and mid-tier enterprise applications; selecting complex applications is better handled by the methodology described in Implement a Proactive and Consistent Vendor Selection Process.

    RASF Methodology

    Commodity & Personal Applications

    • Simple, straightforward applications (think OneNote vs. Evernote)
    • Total application spend of up to $10,000; limited risk and complexity
    • Selection done as a single, rigorous, one-day session

    Complex Mid-Tier Applications

    • More differentiated, department-wide applications (Marketo vs. Pardot)
    • Total application spend of up to $100,000; medium risk and complexity
    • RASF approach done over the course of an intensive 40-hour engagement

    Consulting Engagement

    Enterprise Applications

    Sophisticated, enterprise-wide applications (Salesforce vs. Dynamics)

    Total application spend of over $100,000; high risk and complexity

    Info-Tech can assist with tailored, custom engagements

    3.3 Translate gathered requirements and gaps into project-based initiatives

    Identify initiatives that can address multiple requirements simultaneously.

    The Process

    • You now have a list of requirements from assessing business processes and the current Customer Service IT systems architecture.
    • With a viable architecture and application posture, you can now begin scoring and plotting key initiatives along a roadmap.
    • Group similar requirements into categories of need and formulate logical initiatives to fulfill the requirements.
    • Ensure that all requirements are related to business needs, measurable, sufficiently detailed, and prioritized, and identify initiatives that meet the requirements.

    Consider this case:

    Paul’s organization, a midsize consumer packaged goods retailer, needs to monitor social media for sentiment, use social analytics to gain intelligence, and receive and respond to inquiries made over Twitter.

    The initiative:

    Implement a social media management platform (SMMP): A SMMP is able to deliver on all of the above requirements. SMMPs are highly capable platforms that have social listening modules and allow costumer service representatives to post to and monitor social media.

    3.3 Prioritize your initiatives and plan the order of rollout

    Initiatives should not and cannot be tackled all at once. There are three key factors that dictate the prioritization of initiatives.

    1. Value
      • What is the monetary value/perceived business value?
      • Are there regulatory or security related impacts if the initiative is not undertaken?
      • What is the time to market and is it an easily achievable goal?
      • How well does it align with the strategic direction?
    2. Risk
      • How technically complex is it?
      • Does it impact existing business processes?
      • Are there ample resources and right skillsets to support it?
    3. Dependencies
      • What initiatives must be undertaken first?
      • Which subsequent initiatives will it support?

    Example scenario using Info-Tech’s Initiative Scoring and Roadmap Tool

    An electronics distributor wants to implement social media monitoring and response. Its existing CRM does not have robust channel management functions. The organization plans to replace its CRM in the future, but because of project size and impact and budgetary constraints, the replacement project has been scheduled to occur two years from now.

    • The SMMP solution proposed for implementation has a high perceived value and is low risk.
    • The CRM replacement has higher value, but also carries significantly more risk.
    • Option 1: Complete the CRM replacement first, and overlay the social media monitoring component afterward (as the SMMP must be integrated with the CRM).
    • Option 2: Seize the easily achievable nature of the SMMP initiative. Implement it now and plan to re-work the CRM integration later.
    The image contains a screenshot of an example scenario using Info-Tech's Initiative Scoring and Roadmap Tool.

    3.3a Develop a Customer Service IT Systems initiative roadmap

    1 hour

    • Complete the tool as a team during a one-hour meeting to collaborate and agree on criteria and weighting.
      1. Input initiative information.
      2. Determine value and risk evaluation criteria.
      3. Evaluate each initiative to determine its priority.
      4. Create a roadmap of prioritized initiatives.
    The image contains a screenshot of the Customer Service Initiative Scoring and Roadmap Tool.
    InputOutput
    • Input the initiative information including the start date, end date, owner, and dependencies
    • Adjust the evaluation criteria, i.e., the value and risk factors
    • A list of initiatives and a roadmap toward the organization’s future state of Customer Service IT Systems
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Customer Service Initiative Scoring and Roadmap Tool
    • Applications Director
    • CIO
    • Customer Service Head

    Download the Customer Service Initiative Scoring and Roadmap Tool

    Document and communicate the strategy

    Leverage the artifacts of this blueprint to summarize your findings and communicate the outcomes of the strategy project to the necessary stakeholders.

    Document Section

    Proposed Content

    Leverage the Following Artifacts

    Executive Summary

    • Introduction
    • The opportunity
    • The scope
    • The stakeholders
    • Project success measures

    Project Charter section:

    • 1.1 Project Overview
    • 1.2 Project Objectives
    • 1.3 Project Benefits
    • 2.0 Scope

    Project RACI Chart Tool:

    • Tab 3. Simplified Output
    The image contains screenshots from the Project Charter, and the RACI Chart Tool.

    Background

    • The project approach
    • Current situation overview
    • Results of the environmental scan

    Blueprint slides:

    • Info-Tech’s methodology to develop your IT Strategy for CS Systems
    The image contains a screenshot from the blueprint slides.

    Future-State Vision

    • Customer service goals
    • Future-state modeling findings

    Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool:

    • Tab 2. Customer Service Goals
    • Tab 5. Level 5 Process Inventory

    Future State Business Process Models

    The image contains screenshots from the Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool.

    Current Situation

    • Current-state modeling findings
    • Current-state architecture findings
    • Gap assessment
    • Requirements

    Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool:

    • Tab 2. Inventory of Applications
    • Tab 7. Systems Health Heat Map
    • Tab 8. Systems Health Dashboard
    • Tab 9. Future vs. Current State
    • Tab 4. Requirements Collection
    The image contains screenshots from the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool.

    Summary of Recommendations

    • Optimization opportunities
    • New capabilities

    N/A

    IT Strategy Implementation Plan

    • Implementation plan
    • Business case

    Customer Service Initiative Scoring and Roadmap Tool:

    • Tab 2. CS Initiative Definition
    • Tab 4. CS Technology Roadmap
    The image contains screenshots from the Customer Service Initiative Scoring and Roadmap Tool.

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Develop an IT Strategy to Support Customer Service

    With ecommerce accelerating and customer expectations rising with it, organizations must have an IT strategy to support Customer Service.

    The deliverable you have produced from this blueprint provides a solution to this problem: a roadmap to a desired future state for how IT can ground an effective customer service engagement. From omnichannel to self-service, IT will be critical to enabling the tools required to digitally meet customer needs.

    Begin implementing your roadmap!

    If you would like additional support, have our analysts guide you through other phases as part of an Info-Tech workshop.

    Contact your account representative for more information.

    workshops@infotech.com

    1-888-670-8889

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Deliver a Customer Service Training Program to Your IT Department

    • One training session is not enough to make a change. Leaders must embed the habits, create a culture of engagement and positivity, provide continual coaching and development, regularly gather customer feedback, and seek ways to improve.

    Build a Chatbot Proof of Concept

    • When implemented effectively, chatbots can help save costs, generate new revenue, and ultimately increase customer satisfaction for both external- and internal-facing customers.

    The Rapid Application Selection Framework

    • Application selection is a critical activity for IT departments. Implement a repeatable, data-driven approach that accelerates application selection efforts.

    Bibliography (1/2)

    • Callzilla. "Software Maker Compares Call Center Companies, Switches to Callzilla After 6 Months of Results." Callzilla. N.d. Accessed: 4 Jul. 2022.
    • Cisco. “Transforming Customer Service.” Cisco. 2018. Accessed: 8 Feb. 2021.
    • Gottlieb, Giorgina. “The Importance of Data for Superior Customer Experience and Business Success.” Medium. 23 May 2019. Accessed: 8 Feb. 2021.
    • Grand View Research. “Customer Relationship Management Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Solution, By Deployment, By Enterprise Size, By End Use, By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2020 – 2027.” Grand View Research. April 2020. Accessed: 17 Feb. 2021.
    • inContact. “Hall Automotive Accelerates Customer Relations with inContact.” inContact. N.d. Accessed: 8 Feb. 2021.
    • Kulbyte, Toma. “37 Customer Experience Statistics to Know in 2021.” Super Office. 4 Jan. 2021. Accessed: 5 Feb. 2021.
    • Kuligowski, Kiely. "11 Benefits of CRM Systems." Business News Daily. 29 Jun. 2022. Accessed: 4 Jul. 2022.
    • Mattsen Kumar. “Ominchannel Support Transforms Customer Experience for Leading Fintech Player in India.” Mattsen Kumar. 4 Apr. 2020. Accessed: 8 Feb. 2021.
    • Microsoft. “State of Global Customer Service Report.” Microsoft. Mar. 2019. Accessed: 8 Feb. 2021.
    • Ringshall, Ben. “Contact Center Trends 2020: A New Age for the Contact Center.” Fonolo. 20 Oct. 2020. Accessed 2 Nov. 2020.
    • Salesforce. “State of Service.” Salesforce. 4th ed. 2020. Accessed: 8 Feb. 2021.
    • Sopadjieva, Emma, Utpal M. Dholakia, and Beth Benjamin. “A Study of 46,000 Shoppers Shows That Omnichannel Retailing Works.” Harvard Business Review. 3 Jan. 2017. Accessed: 8 Feb. 2021.

    Bibliography (2/2)

    • Tech Pro Research. “Digital Transformation Research Report 2018: Strategy, Returns on Investment, and Challenges.” Tech Pro Research. 29 Jul. 2018. Accessed: 5 Feb. 2021.
    • TSB. “TSB Bank Self-Serve Banking Increases 9% with Adobe Sign.” TSB. N.d. Accessed: 8 Feb. 2021.
    • VoiceSage. “VoiceSage Helps Home Retail Group Transform Customer Experience.” VoiceSage. 4 May 2018. Accessed: 8 Feb. 2021.

    Establish a Foresight Capability

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    • Parent Category Name: Innovation
    • Parent Category Link: /innovation
    • To be recognized and validated as a forward-thinking CIO, you must establish a structured approach to innovation that considers external trends as well as internal processes.
    • The CEO is expecting an investment in IT innovation to yield either cost reduction or revenue growth, but growth cannot happen without opportunity identification.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Technological innovation is disrupting business models – and it’s happening faster than organizations can react.
    • Smaller, more agile organizations have an advantage because they have less resources tied to existing operations and can move faster.

    Impact and Result

    • Be the disruptor, not the disrupted. This blueprint will help you plan proactively and identify opportunities before your competitors.
    • Strategic foresight gives you the tools you need to effectively process the signals in your environment, build an understanding of relevant trends, and turn this understanding into action.

    Establish a Foresight Capability Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out how to effectively apply strategic foresight, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Signal gathering

    Develop a better understanding of your external environment and build a database of signals.

    • Establish a Foresight Capability – Phase 1: Signal Gathering
    • Foresight Process Tool

    2. Trends and drivers

    Select and analyze trends to uncover drivers.

    • Establish a Foresight Capability – Phase 2: Trends and Drivers

    3. Scenario building

    Use trends and drivers to build plausible scenarios and brainstorm strategic initiatives.

    • Establish a Foresight Capability – Phase 3: Scenario Building

    4. Idea selection

    Apply the wind tunneling technique to assess strategic initiatives and determine which are most likely to succeed in the face of uncertainty.

    • Establish a Foresight Capability – Phase 4: Idea Selection
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Establish a Foresight Capability

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Pre-workshop – Gather Signals and Build a Repository

    The Purpose

    Note: this is preparation for the workshop and is not offered onsite.

    Gather relevant signals that will inform your organization about what is happening in the external competitive environment.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A better understanding of the competitive landscape.

    Activities

    1.1 Gather relevant signals.

    1.2 Store signals in a repository for quick and easy recall during the workshop.

    Outputs

    A set of signal items ready for analysis

    2 Identify Trends and Uncover Drivers

    The Purpose

    Uncover trends in your environment and assess their potential impact.

    Determine the causal forces behind relevant trends to inform strategic decisions.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    An understanding of the underlying causal forces that are influencing a trend that is affecting your organization.

    Activities

    2.1 Cluster signals into trends.

    2.2 Analyze trend impact and select a key trend.

    2.3 Perform causal analysis.

    2.4 Select drivers.

    Outputs

    A collection of relevant trends with a key trend selected

    A set of drivers influencing the key trend with primary drivers selected

    3 Build Scenarios and Ideate

    The Purpose

    Leverage your understanding of trends and drivers to build plausible scenarios and apply them as a canvas for ideation.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A set of potential responses or reactions to trends that are affecting your organization.

    Activities

    3.1 Build scenarios.

    3.2 Brainstorm potential strategic initiatives (ideation).

    Outputs

    Four plausible scenarios for ideation purposes

    A potential strategic initiative that addresses each scenario

    4 Apply Wind Tunneling and Select Ideas

    The Purpose

    Assess the various ideas based on which are most likely to succeed in the face of uncertainty.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    An idea that you have tested in terms of risk and uncertainty.

    An idea that can be developed and pitched to the business or stored for later use. 

    Activities

    4.1 Assign probabilities to scenarios.

    4.2 Apply wind tunneling.

    4.3 Select ideas.

    4.4 Discuss next steps and prototyping.

    Outputs

    A strategic initiative (idea) that is ready to move into prototyping

    Drive Technology Adoption

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    • Parent Category Name: Strategy and Organizational Design
    • Parent Category Link: /strategy-and-organizational-design

    The project isn’t over if the new product or system isn’t being used. How do you ensure that what you’ve put in place isn’t going to be ignored or only partially adopted? People are more complicated than any new system and managing them through the change needs careful planning.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Cultivating a herd mentality, where people adopt new technology merely because everyone else is, is an important goal in getting the bulk of users using the new product or system. The herd needs to gather momentum though and this can be done by using the more tech-able and enthused to lead the rest on the journey. Identifying and engaging these key resources early in the process will greatly assist in starting the flow.

    Impact and Result

    While communication is key throughout, involving staff in proof-of-concept activities and contests and using the train-the-trainer techniques and technology champions will all start the momentum toward technology adoption. Group activities will address the bulk of users, but laggards may need special attention.

    Drive Technology Adoption Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Drive Technology Adoption – A brief deck describing how to encourage users to adopt newly implemented technology.

    This document will help you to ensure that newly implemented systems and technologies are correctly adopted by the intended recipients.

    • Drive Technology Adoption Storyboard
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Drive Technology Adoption

    The project is over. The new technology is implemented. Now how do we make sure it's used?

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Technology endlessly changes and evolves. Similarly, business directions and requirements change, and these changes need to be supported by technology. Improved functionality and evolvement of systems, along with systems becoming redundant or unsupported, means that maintaining a static environment is virtually impossible.

    Enormous amounts of IT budget are allocated to these changes each year. But once the project is over, how do you manage that change and ensure the systems are being used? Planning your technology adoption is vital.

    Common Obstacles

    The obstacles to technology adoption can be many and various, covering a broad spectrum of areas including:

    • Reluctance of staff to let go of familiar processes and procedures.
    • Perception that any change will add complications but not add value, thereby hampering enthusiasm to adopt.
    • Lack of awareness of the change.
    • General fear of change.
    • Lack of personal confidence.

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    Start by identifying, understanding, categorizing, and defining barriers and put in place a system to:

    • Gain an early understanding of the different types of users and their attitudes to technology and change.
    • Review different adoption techniques and analyze which are most appropriate for your user types.
    • Use a “Follow the Leader” approach, by having technical enthusiasts and champions to show the way.
    • Prevent access to old systems and methods.

    Info-Tech Insight

    For every IT initiative that will be directly used by users, consider the question, “Will the final product be readily accepted by those who are going to use it?” There is no point in implementing a product that no one is prepared to use. Gaining user acceptance is much more than just ticking a box in a project plan once UAT is complete.

    The way change should happen is clear

    Prosci specializes in change. Its ADKAR model outlines what’s required to bring individuals along on the change journey.

    AWARENESS

    • Awareness means more than just knowing there’s a change occurring,
    • it means understanding the need for change.

    DESIRE

    • To achieve desire, there needs to be motivation, whether it be from an
    • organizational perspective or personal.

    KNOWLEDGE

    • Both knowledge on how to train during the transition and knowledge
    • on being effective after the change are required. This can only be done
    • once awareness and desire are achieved.

    ABILITY

    • Ability is not knowledge. Knowing how to do something doesn’t necessarily translate to having the skills to do it.

    REINFORCEMENT

    • Without reinforcement there can be a tendency to revert.

    When things go wrong

    New technology is not being used

    The project is seen as complete. Significant investments have been made, but the technology either isn’t being used or is only partially in use.

    Duplicate systems are now in place

    Even worse. The failure to adopt the new technology by some means that the older systems are still being used. There are now two systems that fail to interact; business processes are being affected and there is widespread confusion.

    Benefits not being realized

    Benefits promised to the business are not being realized. Projected revenue increases, savings, or efficiencies that were forecast are now starting to be seen as under threat.

    There is project blowout

    The project should be over, but the fact that the technology is not being used has created a perception that the implementation is not complete and the project needs to continue.

    Info-Tech Insight

    People are far more complicated than any technology being implemented.

    Consider carefully your approach.

    Why does it happen?

    POOR COMMUNICATION

    There isn’t always adequate communications about what’s changing in the workplace.

    FEAR

    Fear of change is natural and often not rational. Whether the fear is about job loss or not being able to adapt to change; it needs to be managed.

    TRAINING

    Training can be insufficient or ineffective and when this happens people are left feeling like they don’t have the skills to make the change.

    LACK OF EXECUTIVE SUPPORT

    A lack of executive support for change means the change is seen as less important.

    CONFLICTING VIEWS OF CHANGE

    The excitement the project team and business feels about the change is not necessarily shared throughout the business. Some may just see the change as more work, changing something that already works, or a reason to reduce staff levels.

    LACK OF CONFIDENCE

    Whether it’s a lack of confidence generally with technology or concern about a new or changing tool, a lack of confidence is a huge barrier.

    BUDGETARY CONSTRAINTS

    There is a cost with managing people during a change, and budget must be allocated to allow for it.

    Communications

    Info-Tech Insight

    Since Sigmund Freud there has been endless work to understand people’s minds.
    Don’t underestimate the effect that people’s reactions to change can have on your project.

    This is a Kubler-ross change curve graph, plotting the following Strategies: Create Alignment; Maximize Communication; Spark Motivation; Develop Capability; Share Knowledge

    Communication plans are designed to properly manage change. Managing change can be easier when we have the right tools and information to adapt to new circumstances. The Kubler-Ross change curve illustrates the expected steps on the path to acceptance of change. With the proper communications strategy, each can be managed appropriately

    Analyst perspective

    Paul Binns – Principal Research Advisor, Info-Tech

    The rapidly changing technology landscape in our world has always meant that an enthusiasm or willingness to embrace change has been advantageous. Many of us have seen how the older generation has struggled with that change and been left behind.

    In the work environment, the events of the past two years have increased pressure on those slow to adopt as in many cases they couldn't perform their tasks without new tools. Previously, for example, those who may have been reluctant to use digital tools and would instead opt for face-to-face meetings, suddenly found themselves without an option as physical meetings were no longer possible. Similarly, digital collaboration tools that had been present in the market for some time were suddenly more heavily used so everyone could continue to work together in the “online world.”

    At this stage no one is sure what the "new normal" will be in the post-pandemic world, but what has been clearly revealed is that people are prepared to change given the right motivation.

    “Technology adoption is about the psychology of change.”
    Bryan Tutor – Executive Counsellor, Info-Tech

    The Fix

    • Categorize Users
      • Gain a clear understanding of your user types.
    • Identify Adoption Techniques
      • Understand the range of different tools and techniques available.
    • Match Techniques To Categories
      • Determine the most appropriate techniques for your user base.
    • Follow-the-Leader
      • Be aware of the different skills in your environment and use them to your advantage.
    • Refresh, Retrain, Restrain
      • Prevent reversion to old methods or systems.

    Categories

    Client-Driven Insight

    Consider your staff and industry when looking at the Everett Rogers curve. A technology organization may have less laggards than a traditional manufacturing one.

    In Everett Rogers’ book Diffusion of Innovations 5th Edition (Free Press, 2005), Rogers places adopters of innovations into five different categories.

    This is an image of an Innovation Adoption Curve from Everett Rogers' book Diffusion of Innovations 5th Edition

    Category 1: The Innovator – 2.5%

    Innovators are technology enthusiasts. Technology is a central interest of theirs, either at work, at home, or both. They tend to aggressively pursue new products and technologies and are likely to want to be involved in any new technology being implemented as soon as possible, even before the product is ready to be released.

    For people like this the completeness of the new technology or the performance can often be secondary because of their drive to get new technology as soon as possible. They are trailblazers and are not only happy to step out of their comfort zone but also actively seek to do so.

    Although they only make up about 2.5% of the total, their enthusiasm, and hopefully endorsement of new technology, offers reassurance to others.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Innovators can be very useful for testing before implementation but are generally more interested in the technology itself rather than the value the technology will add to the business.

    Category 2: The Early Adopter – 13.5%

    Whereas Innovators tend to be technologists, Early Adopters are visionaries that like to be on board with new technologies very early in the lifecycle. Because they are visionaries, they tend to be looking for more than just improvement – a revolutionary breakthrough. They are prepared to take high risks to try something new and although they are very demanding as far as product features and performance are concerned, they are less price-sensitive than other groups.

    Early Adopters are often motivated by personal success. They are willing to serve as references to other adopter groups. They are influential, seen as trendsetters, and are of utmost importance to win over.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Early adopters are key. Their enthusiasm for technology, personal drive, and influence make them a powerful tool in driving adoption.

    Category 3: The Early Majority – 34%

    This group is comprised of pragmatists. The first two adopter groups belong to early adoption, but for a product to be fully adopted the mainstream needs to be won over, starting with the Early Majority.

    The Early Majority share some of the Early Adopters’ ability to relate to technology. However, they are driven by a strong sense of practicality. They know that new products aren’t always successful. Consequently, they are content to wait and see how others fare with the technology before investing in it themselves. They want to see well-established references before adopting the technology and to be shown there is no risk.

    Because there are so many people in this segment (roughly 34%), winning these people over is essential for the technology to be adopted.

    Category 4: The Late Majority – 34%

    The Late Majority are the conservatives. This group is generally about the same size as the Early Majority. They share all the concerns of the Early Majority; however, they are more resistant to change and are more content with the status quo than eager to progress to new technology. People in the Early Majority group are comfortable with their ability to handle new technology. People in the Late Majority are not.

    As a result, these conservatives prefer to wait until something has become an established standard and take part only at the end of the adoption period. Even then, they want to see lots of support and ensure that there is proof there is no risk in them adopting it.

    Category 5: The Laggard – 16%

    This group is made up of the skeptics and constitutes 16% of the total. These people want nothing to do with new technology and are generally only content with technological change when it is invisible to them. These skeptics have a strong belief that disruptive new technologies rarely deliver the value promised and are almost always worried about unintended consequences.

    Laggards need to be dealt with carefully as their criticism can be damaging and without them it is difficult for a product to become fully adopted. Unfortunately, the effort required for this to happen is often disproportional to the size of the group.

    Info-Tech Insight

    People aren’t born laggards. Technology projects that have failed in the past can alter people’s attitudes, especially if there was a negative impact on their working lives. Use empathy when dealing with people and respect their hesitancy.

    Adoption Techniques

    Different strokes for different folks

    Technology adoption is all about people; and therefore, the techniques required to drive that adoption need to be people oriented.

    The following techniques are carefully selected with the intention of being impactful on all the different categories described previously.

    Technology Adoption: Herd Mentality; Champions; Force; Group Training; One-on-One; Contests; Marketing; Proof of Concept; Train the Trainer

    There are multitudes of different methods to get people to adopt new technology, but which is the most appropriate for your situation? Generally, it’s a combination.

    Technology Adoption: Herd Mentality; Champions; Force; Group Training; One-on-One; Contests; Marketing; Proof of Concept; Train the Trainer

    Train the Trainer

    Use your staff to get your message across.

    Abstract

    This technique involves training key members of staff so they can train others. It is important that those selected are strong communicators, are well respected by others, and have some expertise in technology.

    Advantages

    • Cost effective
    • Efficient dissemination of information
    • Trusted internal staff

    Disadvantages

    • Chance of inconsistent delivery
    • May feel threatened by co-worker

    Best to worst candidates

    • Early Adopter: Influential trendsetters. Others receptive of their lead.
    • Innovator: Comfortable and enthusiastic about new technology, but not necessarily a trainer.
    • Early Majority: Tendency to take others’ lead.
    • Late Majority: Risk averse and tend to follow others, only after success is proven.
    • Laggard: Last to adopt usually. Unsuitable as Trainer.

    Marketing

    Marketing should be continuous throughout the change to encourage familiarity.

    Abstract

    Communication is key as people are comfortable with what is familiar to them. Marketing is an important tool for convincing adopters that the new product is mainstream, widely adopted and successful.

    Advantages

    • Wide communication
    • Makes technology appear commonplace
    • Promotes effectiveness of new technology

    Disadvantages

    • Reliant on staff interest
    • Can be expensive

    Best to worst candidates

    • Early Majority: Pragmatic about change. Marketing is effective encouragement.
    • Early Adopter: Receptive and interested in change. Marketing is supplemental.
    • Innovator: Actively seeks new technology. Does not need extensive encouragement.
    • Late Majority: Requires more personal approach.
    • Laggard: Resistant to most enticements.

    One-on-One

    Tailored for individuals.

    Abstract

    One-on-one training sometimes is the only way to train if you have staff with special needs or who are performing unique tasks.
    It is generally highly effective but inefficient as it only addresses individuals.

    Advantages

    • Tailored to specific need(s)
    • Only relevant information addressed
    • Low stress environment

    Disadvantages

    • Expensive
    • Possibility of inconsistent delivery
    • Personal conflict may render it ineffective

    Best to worst candidates

    • Laggard: Encouragement and cajoling can be used during training.
    • Late Majority: Proof can be given of effectiveness of new product.
    • Early Majority: Effective, but not cost efficient.
    • Early Adopter: Effective, but not cost-efficient.
    • Innovator: Effective, but not cost-efficient.

    Group Training

    Similar roles, attitudes, and abilities.

    Abstract

    Group training is one of the most common methods to start people on their journey toward new technology. Its effectiveness with the two largest groups, Early Majority and Late Majority, make it a primary tool in technology adoption.

    Advantages

    • Cost effective
    • Time effective
    • Good for team building

    Disadvantages

    • Single method may not work for all
    • Difficult to create single learning pace for all

    Best to worst candidates

    • Early Majority: Receptive. The formality of group training will give confidence.
    • Late Majority: Conservative attitude will be receptive to traditional training.
    • Early Adopter: Receptive and attentive. Excited about the change.
    • Innovator: Will tend to want to be ahead or want to move ahead of group.
    • Laggard: Laggards in group training may have a negative impact.

    Force

    The last resort.

    Abstract

    The transition can’t go on forever.

    At some point the new technology needs to be fully adopted and if necessary, force may have to be used.

    Advantages

    • Immediate full transition
    • Fixed delivery timeline

    Disadvantages

    • Alienation of some staff
    • Loss of faith in product if there are issues

    Best to worst candidates

    • Laggard: No choice but to adopt. Forces the issue.
    • Late Majority: Removes issue of reluctance to change.
    • Early Majority: Content, but worried about possible problems.
    • Early Adopter: Feel less personal involvement in change process.
    • Innovator: Feel less personal involvement in change process.

    Contests

    Abstract

    Contests can generate excitement and create an explorative approach to new technology. People should not feel pressured. It should be enjoyable and not compulsory.

    Advantages

    • Rapid improvement of skills
    • Bring excitement to the new technology
    • Good for team building

    Disadvantages

    • Those less competitive or with lower skills may feel alienated
    • May discourage collaboration

    Best to worst candidates

    • Early Adopter: Seeks personal success. Risk taker. Effective.
    • Innovator: Enthusiastic to explore limits of technology.
    • Early Majority: Less enthusiastic. Pragmatic. Less competitive.
    • Late Majority: Conservative. Not enthusiastic about new technology.
    • Laggard: Reluctant to get involved.

    Incentives

    Incentives don’t have to be large.

    Abstract

    For some staff, merely taking management’s lead is not enough. Using “Nudge” techniques to give that extra incentive is quite effective. Incentivizing staff either financially or through rewards, recognition, or promotion is a successful adoption technique for some.

    Advantages

    Encouragement to adopt from receiving tangible benefit

    Draws more attention to the new technology

    Disadvantages

    Additional expense to business or project

    Possible poor precedent for subsequent changes

    Best to worst candidates

    Early Adopter: Desire for personal success makes incentives enticing.

    Early Majority: Prepared to change, but extra incentive will assist.

    Late Majority: Conservative attitude means incentive may need to be larger.

    Innovator: Enthusiasm for new technology means incentive not necessary.

    Laggard: Sceptical about change. Only a large incentive likely to make a difference.

    Champions

    Strong internal advocates for your new technology are very powerful.

    Abstract

    Champions take on new technology and then use their influence to promote it in the organization. Using managers as champions to actively and vigorously promote the change is particularly effective.

    Advantages

    • Infectious enthusiasm encourages those who tend to be reluctant
    • Use of trusted internal staff

    Disadvantages

    • Removes internal staff from regular duties
    • Ineffective if champion not respected

    Best to worst candidates

    • Early Majority: Champions as references of success provide encouragement.
    • Late Majority: Management champions in particular are effective.
    • Laggard: Close contact with champions may be effective.
    • Early Adopter: Receptive of technology, less effective.
    • Innovator: No encouragement or promotion required.

    Herd Mentality

    Follow the crowd.

    Abstract

    Herd behavior is when people discount their own information and follow others. Ideally all adopters would understand the reason and advantages in adopting new technology, but practically, the result is most important.

    Advantages

    • New technology is adopted without question
    • Increase in velocity of adoption

    Disadvantages

    • Staff may not have clear understanding of the reason for change and resent it later
    • Some may adopt the change before they are ready to do so

    Best to worst candidates

    • Early Majority: Follow others’ success.
    • Late Majority: Likely follow an established proven standard.
    • Early Adopter: Less effective as they prefer to set trends rather than follow.
    • Innovator: Seeks new technology rather than following others.
    • Laggard: Suspicious and reluctant to change.

    Proof of Concepts

    Gain early input and encourage buy-in.

    Abstract

    Proof of concept projects give early indications of the viability of a new initiative. Involving the end users in these projects can be beneficial in gaining their support

    Advantages

    Involve adopters early on

    Valuable feedback and indications of future issues

    Disadvantages

    If POC isn’t fully successful, it may leave lingering negativity

    Usually, involvement from small selection of staff

    Best to worst candidates

    • Innovator: Strong interest in getting involved in new products.
    • Early Adopter: Comfortable with new technology and are influencers.
    • Early Majority: Less interest. Prefer others to try first.
    • Late Majority: Conservative attitude makes this an unlikely option.
    • Laggard: Highly unlikely to get involved.

    Match techniques to categories

    What works for who?

    This clustered column chart categorizes techniques by category

    Follow the leader

    Engage your technology enthusiasts early to help refine your product, train other staff, and act as champions. A combination of marketing and group training will develop a herd mentality. Finally, don’t neglect the laggards as they can prevent project completion.

    This is an inverted funnel chart with the output of: Change Destination.  The inputs are: 16% Laggards; 34% Late Majority; 34% Early Majority; 13.3% Early Adopters; 2% Innovators

    Info-Tech Insight

    Although there are different size categories, none can be ignored. Consider your budget when dealing with smaller groups, but also consider their impact.

    Refresh, retrain, restrain

    We don’t want people to revert.

    Don’t assume that because your staff have been trained and have access to the new technology that they will keep using it in the way they were trained. Or that they won’t revert back to their old methods or system.

    Put in place methods to remove completely or remove access to old systems. Schedule refresh training or skill enhancement sessions and stay vigilant.

    Research Authors

    Paul Binns

    Paul Binns

    Principal Research Advisor, Info-Tech Research Group

    With over 30 years in the IT industry, Paul brings to his work his experience as a Strategic Planner, Consultant, Enterprise Architect, IT Business Owner, Technologist, and Manager. Paul has worked with both small and large companies, local and international, and has had senior roles in government and the finance industry.

    Scott Young

    Scott Young

    Principal Research Advisor, Info-Tech Research Group

    Scott Young is a Director of Infrastructure Research at Info-Tech Research Group. Scott has worked in the technology field for over 17 years, with a strong focus on telecommunications and enterprise infrastructure architecture. He brings extensive practical experience in these areas of specialization, including IP networks, server hardware and OS, storage, and virtualization.

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    Bibliography

    Beylis, Guillermo. “COVID-19 accelerates technology adoption and deepens inequality among workers in Latin America and the Caribbean.” World Bank Blogs, 4 March 2021. Web.

    Cleland, Kelley. “Successful User Adoption Strategies.” Insight Voices, 25 Apr. 2017. Web.

    Hiatt, Jeff. “The Prosci ADKAR ® Model.” PROSCI, 1994. Web.

    Malik, Priyanka. “The Kübler Ross Change Curve in the Workplace.” whatfix, 24 Feb. 2022. Web.

    Medhaugir, Tore. “6 Ways to Encourage Software Adoption.” XAIT, 9 March 2021. Web.

    Narayanan, Vishy. “What PwC Australia learned about fast tracking tech adoption during COVID-19” PWC, 13 Oct. 2020. Web.

    Sridharan, Mithun. “Crossing the Chasm: Technology Adoption Lifecycle.” Think Insights, 28 Jun 2022. Web.

    Recruit and Retain People of Color in IT

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    • Organizations have been trying to promote equality for many years. Diversity and inclusion strategies and a myriad of programs have been implemented in companies across the world. Despite the attempts, many organizations still struggle to ensure that their workforce is representative of the populations they support or want to support.
    • IT brings another twist. Many IT companies and departments are based on the culture of white males, and underrepresented ethnic communities find it more of a challenge to fit in.
    • This sometimes means that talented minorities are less incentivized to join or stay in technology.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Diversity and inclusion cannot be a one-time campaign or a one-off initiative.
    • For real change to happen, every leader needs to internalize the value of creating and retaining diverse teams.

    Impact and Result

    • To stay competitive, IT leaders need to be more involved and commit to a plan to recruit and retain people of color in their departments and organizations. A diverse team is an answer to innovation that can differentiate your company.
    • Treat recruiting and retaining a diverse team as a business challenge that requires full engagement. Info-Tech offers a targeted solution that will help IT leaders build a plan to attract, recruit, engage, and retain people of color.

    Recruit and Retain People of Color in IT Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should recruit and retain people of color in your IT department or organization, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the ways we can support you in this endeavor.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Recruit people of color in IT

    Diverse teams are necessary to foster creativity and guide business strategies. Overcome limitations by recruiting people of color and creating a diverse workforce.

    • Recruit and Retain People of Color in IT – Phase 1: Recruit People of Color in IT
    • Support Plan
    • IT Behavioral Interview Question Library

    2. Retain people of color in IT

    Underrepresented employees benefit from an expansive culture. Create an inclusive environment and retain people of color and promote value within your organization.

    • Recruit and Retain People of Color in IT – Phase 2: Retain People of Color in IT

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    Workshop: Recruit and Retain People of Color in IT

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Setting the Stage

    The Purpose

    Introduce challenges and concerns around recruiting and retaining people of color.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Gain a sense of direction.

    Activities

    1.1 Introduction to diversity conversations.

    1.2 Assess areas to focus on and determine what is right, wrong, missing, and confusing.

    1.3 Obtain feedback from your team about the benefits of working at your organization.

    1.4 Establish your employee value proposition (EVP).

    1.5 Discuss and establish your recruitment goals.

    Outputs

    Current State Analysis

    Right, Wrong, Missing, Confusing Quadrant

    Draft EVP

    Recruitment Goals

    2 Refine Your Recruitment Process

    The Purpose

    Identify areas in your current recruitment process that are preventing you from hiring people of color.

    Establish a plan to make improvements.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Optimized recruitment process

    Activities

    2.1 Brainstorm and research community partners.

    2.2 Review current job descriptions and equity statement.

    2.3 Update job description template and equity statement.

    2.4 Set team structure for interview and assessment.

    2.5 Identify decision-making structure.

    Outputs

    List of community partners

    Updated job description template

    Updated equity statement

    Interview and assessment structure

    Behavioral Question Library

    3 Culture and Management

    The Purpose

    Create a plan for an inclusive culture where your managers are supported.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Awareness of how to better support employees of color.

    Activities

    3.1 Discuss engagement and belonging.

    3.2 Augment your onboarding materials.

    3.3 Create an inclusive culture plan.

    3.4 Determine how to support your management team.

    Outputs

    List of onboarding content

    Inclusive culture plan

    Management support plan

    4 Close the Loop

    The Purpose

    Establish mechanisms to gain feedback from your employees and act on them.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Finalize the plan to create your diverse and inclusive workforce.

    Activities

    4.1 Ask and listen: determine what to ask your employees.

    4.2 Create your roadmap.

    4.3 Wrap-up and next steps.

    Outputs

    List of survey questions

    Roadmap

    Completed support plan

    Develop a Plan to Pilot Enterprise Service Management

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    • Many business groups in the organization are siloed and have disjointed services that lead to a less than ideal customer experience.
    • Service management is too often process-driven and is implemented without a holistic view of customer value.
    • Businesses get caught up in the legacy of their old systems and find it difficult to move with the evolving market.

    Our Advice

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    • Customer experience is the new battleground. Parity between products is creating the need to differentiate via customer experience.
    • Don’t forget your employees! Enterprise service management (ESM) is also about delivering exceptional experiences to your employees so they can deliver exceptional services to your customers.
    • ESM is not driven by tools and processes. Rather, ESM is about pushing exceptional services to customers by pulling from organizational capabilities.

    Impact and Result

    • Understand ESM concepts and how they can improve customer service.
    • Use Info-Tech’s advice and tools to perform an assessment of your organization’s state for ESM, identify the gaps, and create an action plan to move towards an ESM pilot.
    • Increase business and customer satisfaction by delivering services more efficiently.

    Develop a Plan to Pilot Enterprise Service Management Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should move towards ESM, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Understand ESM and get buy-in

    Understand the concepts of ESM, determine the scope of the ESM program, and get buy-in.

    • Develop a Plan to Pilot Enterprise Service Management – Phase 1: Understand ESM and Get Buy-in
    • Enterprise Service Management Executive Buy-in Presentation Template
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    2. Assess the current state for ESM

    Determine the current state for ESM and identify the gaps.

    • Develop a Plan to Pilot Enterprise Service Management – Phase 2: Assess the Current State for ESM
    • Enterprise Service Management Assessment Tool
    • Enterprise Service Management Assessment Tool Action Plan Guide
    • Enterprise Service Management Action Plan Tool

    3. Identify ESM pilot and finalize action plan

    Create customer journey maps, identify an ESM pilot, and finalize the action plan for the pilot.

    • Develop a Plan to Pilot Enterprise Service Management – Phase 3: Identify ESM Pilot and Finalize Action Plan
    • Enterprise Service Management Customer Journey Map Template
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    Workshop: Develop a Plan to Pilot Enterprise Service Management

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Understand ESM and Get Buy-In

    The Purpose

    Understand what ESM is and how it can improve customer service.

    Determine the scope of your ESM initiative and identify who the stakeholders are for this program.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understanding of ESM concepts.

    Understanding of the scope and stakeholders for your ESM initiative.

    Plan for getting buy-in for the ESM program.

    Activities

    1.1 Understand the concepts and benefits of ESM.

    1.2 Determine the scope of your ESM program.

    1.3 Identify your stakeholders.

    1.4 Develop an executive buy-in presentation.

    1.5 Develop a general communications presentation.

    Outputs

    Executive buy-in presentation

    General communications presentation

    2 Assess the Current State for ESM

    The Purpose

    Assess your current state with respect to culture, governance, skills, and tools.

    Identify your strengths and weaknesses from the ESM assessment scores.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understanding of your organization’s current enablers and constraints for ESM.

    Determination and analysis of data needed to identify strengths or weaknesses in culture, governance, skills, and tools.

    Activities

    2.1 Understand your organization’s mission and vision.

    2.2 Assess your organization’s culture, governance, skills, and tools.

    2.3 Identify the gaps and determine the necessary foundational action items.

    Outputs

    ESM assessment score

    Foundational action items

    3 Define Services and Create Custom Journey Maps

    The Purpose

    Define and choose the top services at the organization.

    Create customer journey maps for the chosen services.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    List of prioritized services.

    Customer journey maps for the prioritized services.

    Activities

    3.1 Make a list of your services.

    3.2 Prioritize your services.

    3.3 Build customer journey maps.

    Outputs

    List of services

    Customer journey maps

    Manage Third-Party Service Security Outsourcing

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    • A lack of high-skill labor increases the cost of internal security, making outsourcing more appealing.
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    • It is not feasible to have 24/7/365 monitoring in-house for most firms.

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    • You are outsourcing support, not accountability, unless you preface that with your customer.
    • For most of you, you won’t have a choice – you’ll have to outsource high-end security skills to meet future needs.
    • Third-party service providers may be able to more effectively remediate threats because of their large, disparate customer base and wider scope.

    Impact and Result

    • Documented obligations and processes. This will allow you to determine which solution (outsourcing vs. insourcing) allows for the best use of resources, and maintains your brand reputation.
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    • Current limitations of your environment and the limitations of third parties identified for the environments you are looking to mature.
    • Security responsibilities determined that can be outsourced, and which should be outsourced in order to gain resource allocation and effectiveness, and to improve your overall security posture.
    • The limitations or restrictions for third-party usage understood.

    Manage Third-Party Service Security Outsourcing Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to understand how to avoid common mistakes when it comes to outsourcing security, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. What to outsource

    Identify different responsibilities/functions in your organization and determine which ones can be outsourced. Complete a cost analysis.

    • Manage Third-Party Service Security Outsourcing – Phase 1: What to Outsource
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    2. How to outsource

    Identify a list of features for your third-party provider and analyze.

    • Manage Third-Party Service Security Outsourcing – Phase 2: How to Outsource
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    3. Manage your third-party provider

    Understand how to align third-party providers to your organization.

    • Manage Third-Party Service Security Outsourcing – Phase 3: Manage Your Third-Party Provider
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    Gain Real Insights with a Social Analytics Program

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    • Social media is wildly popular with consumers and as a result, many businesses are starting to develop a presence on social media services like Facebook and Twitter. However, many businesses still struggle with understanding how to leverage consumer insights from these services to drive business decisions. They’re intimidated by the sheer volume of social data, and aren’t sure what to do about it.
    • Companies that do have an analytics program are often operating it on an ad-hoc basis rather than making an effort to integrate social insights with existing sourcing of consumer data. In doing this, they’re failing to make holistic decisions and missing out on valuable consumer and competitive insights.

    Our Advice

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    • Social analytics are indispensable in gaining real-time insights across marketing, sales, and customer service. SMBs can use social analytics to gain valuable consumer insights at a significantly lower expense than traditional forms of market research.
    • The greatest value from social analytics comes when organizations marry social data sources with other forms of customer information, such as point-of-sale data, customer surveys, focus groups, and psychographic profiles.
    • Social analytics must be integrated with your broader BI program for maximum effect. Consider creating a Customer Insights Center of Excellence (CICOE) to serve as a one-stop shop for both traditional and social customer analytics.
    • IT has an invaluable role to play in helping to govern and manage the analytics program. A best-of-breed Social Media Management Platform is the key enabling technology for conducting analytics, and IT must assist with selection, implementation and operation of this solution.
    • Internal social analytics is an emerging field that allows you to gauge the sentiment of your employees, while turbocharging ideation and feedback processes. Social networking analysis is particularly valuable for internal analysis.

    Impact and Result

    • Understand the value of a social analytics program and the various departmental use cases – how social analytics improves decision making and boosts critical KPIs like revenue attainment and customer satisfaction.
    • Determine the different social metrics (such as sentiment and frequency analysis) your business should be tracking and how to turn metrics into deep consumer insights.
    • Follow a step-by-step guide for successfully executing a social analytics program across your organization.
    • Roll out an internal analytics program to gauge the sentiment of your employees, improve engagement, and understand informal influencer networks.

    Gain Real Insights with a Social Analytics Program Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Determine the organization’s use cases

    Decide which functional areas in the organization will benefit the most from using social data, and create use cases accordingly.

    • Storyboard: Gain Real Insights with a Social Analytics Program

    2. Define and interpret metrics

    Identify and evaluate key social analytics metrics and understand the importance of combining multiple metrics to get the most out of the analytics program.

    • Social Analytics Maturity Assessment

    3. Execute the social analytics program

    Leverage a cross-departmental Social Media Steering Committee and evaluate SMMPs and other social analytics tools.

    • Social Analytics Specialist
    • Social Analytics Business Plan

    4. Leverage internal social analytics

    Identify specific uses of internal social analytics: crowd-sourcing ideation, harvesting employee feedback, and rewarding internal brand advocates.

    [infographic]

    Develop APIs That Work Properly for the Organization

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    • Parent Category Name: Requirements & Design
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    • CIOs have trouble integrating new technologies (e.g. mobile, cloud solutions) with legacy applications, and lack standards for using APIs across the organization.
    • Organizations produce APIs that are error-prone, not consistently configured, and not maintained effectively.
    • Organizations are looking for ways to increase application quality and code reusability to improve development throughput using web APIs.
    • Organizations are looking for opportunities to create an application ecosystem which can expose internal services across the organization and/or to external third parties and business partners.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Organizations are looking to go beyond current development practices to provide scalable and reusable web services.
    • Web API development is a tactical competency that is important to enabling speed of development, quality of applications, reusability, innovation, and business alignment.
    • Design your web API as a product that promotes speed of development and service reuse.
    • Optimize the design, development, testing, and monitoring of your APIs incrementally and iteratively to cover all use cases in the long term.

    Impact and Result

    • Create a repeatable process to improve the quality, reusability, and governance of your web APIs.
    • Define the purpose of your API and the common uses cases that it will service.
    • Understand what development techniques are required to develop an effective web API based on Info-Tech’s web API framework.
    • Continuously reiterate your web API to demonstrate to business stakeholders the value your web API provides.

    Develop APIs That Work Properly for the Organization Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should develop APIs, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Examine the opportunities web APIs can enable

    Assess the opportunities of web APIs.

    • Develop APIs That Work Properly for the Organization – Phase 1: Examine the Opportunities Web APIs Can Enable

    2. Design and develop a web API

    Design and develop web APIs that support business processes and enable reusability.

    • Develop APIs That Work Properly for the Organization – Phase 2: Design and Develop a Web API
    • Web APIs High-Level Design Requirements Template
    • Web API Design Document Template

    3. Test the web API

    Accommodate web API testing best practices in application test plans.

    • Develop APIs That Work Properly for the Organization – Phase 3: Test the Web API
    • Web API Test Plan Template

    4. Monitor and continuously optimize the web API

    Monitor the usage and value of web APIs and plan for future optimizations and maintenance.

    • Develop APIs That Work Properly for the Organization – Phase 4: Monitor and Continuously Optimize the Web API
    • Web API Process Governance Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Develop APIs That Work Properly for the Organization

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Examine the Opportunities Web APIs Can Enable

    The Purpose

    Gauge the importance of web APIs for achieving your organizational needs.

    Understand how web APIs can be used to achieve below-the-line and above-the-line benefits.

    Be aware of web API development pitfalls. 

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understanding the revenue generation and process optimization opportunities web APIs can bring to your organization.

    Knowledge of the current web API landscape. 

    Activities

    1.1 Examine the opportunities web APIs can enable.

    Outputs

    2 Design & Develop Your Web API

    The Purpose

    Establish a web API design and development process.

    Design scalable web APIs around defined business process flows and rules.

    Define the web service objects that the web APIs will expose. 

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Reusable web API designs.

    Identification of data sets that will be available through web services.

    Implement web API development best practices. 

    Activities

    2.1 Define high-level design details based on web API requirements.

    2.2 Define your process workflows and business rules.

    2.3 Map the relationships among data tables through ERDs.

    2.4 Define your data model by mapping the relationships among data tables through data flow diagrams.

    2.5 Define your web service objects by effectively referencing your data model.

    Outputs

    High-level web API design.

    Business process flow.

    Entity relationship diagrams.

    Data flow diagrams.

    Identification of web service objects.

    3 Test Your Web API

    The Purpose

    Incorporate APIs into your existing testing practices.

    Emphasize security testing with web APIs.

    Learn of the web API testing and monitoring tool landscape.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Creation of a web API test plan.

    Activities

    3.1 Create a test plan for your web API.

    Outputs

    Web API Test Plan.

    4 Monitor and Continuously Optimize Your Web API

    The Purpose

    Plan for iterative development and maintenance of web APIs.

    Manage web APIs for versioning and reuse.

    Establish a governance structure to manage changes to web APIs. 

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Implement web API monitoring and maintenance best practices.

    Establishment of a process to manage future development and maintenance of web APIs. 

    Activities

    4.1 Identify roles for your API development projects.

    4.2 Develop governance for web API development.

    Outputs

    RACI table that accommodates API development.

    Web API operations governance structure.

    Identify and Manage Reputational Risk Impacts on Your Organization

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    Access to information about companies is more available to consumers than ever. Organizations must implement mechanisms to monitor and manage how information is perceived to avoid potentially disastrous consequences to their brand reputation.

    A negative event could impact your organization's reputation at any given time. Make sure you understand where such events may come from and have a plan to manage the inevitable consequences.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Identifying and managing a vendor’s potential impact on your organization’s reputation requires efforts from multiple people in the organization across several functions. Those people all need coaching on the potential changes in the market and how social media can affect your brand.
    • Organizational leadership is often caught unaware during crises, and their response plans lack the flexibility to adjust to significant market upheavals.

    Impact and Result

    • Vendor management practices educate organizations on the different potential risks to vendors in your market and suggest creative and alternative ways to avoid and help manage them.
    • Prioritize and classify your vendors with quantifiable, standardized rankings.
    • Prioritize focus on your high-risk vendors.
    • Standardize your processes for identifying and monitoring vendor risks to manage potential impacts on your reputation and brand with our Reputational Risk Impact Tool.

    Identify and Manage Reputational Risk Impacts on Your Organization Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Identify and Manage Reputational Risk Impacts on Your Organization Deck – Use the research to better understand the negative impacts of vendor actions on your brand reputation.

    Use this research to identify and quantify the potential reputational impacts caused by vendors. Use Info-Tech's approach to look at the reputational impact from various perspectives to better prepare for issues that may arise.

    • Identify and Manage Reputational Risk Impacts on Your Organization Storyboard

    2. Reputational Risk Impact Tool – Use this tool to help identify and quantify the reputational impacts of negative vendor actions.

    By playing the “what if” game and asking probing questions to draw out – or eliminate - possible negative outcomes, everyone involved adds their insight into parts of the organization to gather a comprehensive picture of potential impacts.

    • Reputational Risk Impact Tool
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Identify and Manage Reputational Risk Impacts on Your Organization

    Brand reputation is the most valuable asset an organization can protect.

    Analyst Perspective

    Organizations must diligently assess and protect their reputations, both in the market and internally.

    Social media, unprecedented access to good and bad information, and consumer reliance on others’ online opinions force organizations to dedicate more resources to protecting their brand reputation than ever before. Perceptions matter, and you should monitor and protect the perception of your organization with as much rigor as possible to ensure your brand remains recognizable and trusted.

    Photo of Frank Sewell, Research Director, Vendor Management, Info-Tech Research Group.

    Frank Sewell
    Research Director, Vendor Management
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Access to information about companies is more available to consumers than ever. A negative event could impact your organizational reputation at any time. As a result, organizations must implement mechanisms to monitor and manage how information is perceived to avoid potentially disastrous consequences to their brand reputation.

    Make sure you understand where negative events may come from and have a plan to manage the inevitable consequences.

    Common Obstacles

    Identifying and managing a vendor’s potential impact on your organization’s reputation requires efforts from multiple people in the organization across several functions. Those people all need coaching on the potential changes in the market and how social media can affect your brand.

    Organizational leadership is often caught unaware during crises, and their response plans lack the flexibility to adjust to significant market upheavals.

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    Vendor management practices educate organizations on the different potential risks to vendors in your market and suggest creative and alternative ways to avoid and help manage them.

    Prioritize and classify your vendors with quantifiable, standardized rankings.

    Prioritize focus on your high-risk vendors.

    Standardize your processes for identifying and monitoring vendor risks to manage potential impacts on your reputation and brand with our Reputational Risk Impact Tool.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Organizations must evolve their risk assessments to be more adaptive to respond to rapid changes in online media. Ongoing monitoring of social media and the vendors tied to their company is imperative to achieving success and avoiding reputational disasters.

    Info-Tech’s multi-blueprint series on vendor risk assessment

    There are many individual components of vendor risk beyond cybersecurity.

    Cube with each multiple colors on each face, similar to a Rubix cube, and individual components of vendor risk branching off of it: 'Financial', 'Reputational', 'Operational', 'Strategic', 'Security', and 'Regulatory & Compliance'.

    This series will focus on the individual components of vendor risk and how vendor management practices can facilitate organizations’ understanding of those risks.

    Out of scope:
    This series will not tackle risk governance, determining overall risk tolerance and appetite, or quantifying inherent risk.

    Reputational risk impacts

    Potential losses to the organization due to risks to its reputation and brand

    In this blueprint, we’ll explore reputational risks (risks to the brand reputation of the organization) and their impacts.

    Identify potentially negative events to assess the overall impact on your organization and implement adaptive measures to respond and correct.

    Cube with each multiple colors on each face, similar to a Rubix cube, and the vendor risk component 'Reputational' highlighted.

    Protect your most valuable asset: your brand

    25%

    of a company’s market value is due to reputation (Transmission Private, 2021)

    94%

    of consumers say that a bad review has convinced them to avoid a business (ReviewTrackers, 2022)

    14 hours

    is the average time it takes for a false claim to be corrected on social media (Risk Analysis, 2018)
    Image of an umbrella covering the word 'BRAND' and three arrows approaching from above.

    What is brand recognition?

    And the cost of rebranding

    Brand recognition is the ability of consumers to recognize an identifying characteristic of one company versus a competitor.” (Investopedia)

    Most trademark valuation is based directly on its projected future earning power, based on income history. For a new brand with no history, evaluators must apply experience and common sense to predict the brand's earning potential. They can also use feedback from industry experts, market surveys, and other studies.” (UpCounsel)

    The cost of rebranding for small to medium businesses is about 10 to 20% of the recommended overall marketing budget and can take six to eight months (Ignyte).

    Stock image of a house with a money sign chimney.

    "All we are at our core is our reputation and our brand, and they are intertwined." (Phil Bode, Principal Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group)

    What your vendor associations say about you

    Arrows of multiple colors coalescing in an Earth labelled 'Your Brand', and then a red arrow that reads 'Reputation' points to the terms on the right.

    Bad Customer Reviews

    Breach of Data

    Poor Security Posture

    Negative News Articles

    Public Lawsuits

    Poor Performance

    How a major vendor protects its brand

    An ideal state
    • There is a dedicated brand protection department.
    • All employees are educated annually on brand protection policies and procedures.
    • Brand protection is tied to cybersecurity.
    • The organization actively monitors its brand and reputation through various media formats.
    • The organization has criteria for assessing x-party vendors and holds them accountable through ongoing monitoring and validation of their activities.

    Brand Protection
    Done Right

    Sticker for a '5 Star Rating'.

    Never underestimate the power of local media on your profits

    Info-Tech Insight

    Keep in mind that too much exposure to media can be a negative in that it heightens the awareness of your organization to outside actors. If you do go through a period of increased exposure, make sure to advance your monitoring practices and vigilance.

    Story: Restaurant data breach

    Losing customer faith

    A popular local restaurant’s point of service (POS) machines were breached and the credit card data of their customers over a two-week period was stolen. The restaurant did the right thing: they privately notified the affected people, helped them set up credit monitoring services, and replaced their compromised POS system.

    Unfortunately, the local newspaper got wind of the breach. It published the story, leaving out that the restaurant had already notified affected customers and had replaced their POS machines.

    In response, the restaurant launched a campaign in the local paper and on social media to repair their reputation in the community and reassure people that they could safely transact at their business.

    For at least a month, the restaurant experienced a drastic decrease in revenue as customers either refused to come in to eat or paid only in cash. During this same period the restaurant was spending outside their budget on the advertising.
    Broken trust.

    Story: Monitor your subcontractors

    Trust but verify

    A successful general contractor with a reputation for fairness in their dealings needed a specialist to perform some expert carpentry work for a few of their clients.

    The contractor gave the specialist the clients’ contact information and trusted them to arrange the work.

    Weeks later, the contractor checked in with the clients and received a ton of negative feedback:

    • The specialist called them once and never called back.
    • The specialist refused to do the work as described and wanted to charge extra.
    • The specialist performed work to “fix” the issue but cut corners to lessen their costs.

    As a result, the contractor took extreme measures to regain the clients’ confidence and trust and lost other opportunities in the process.

    Stock image of a sad construction site supervisor.

    You work hard for your reputation. Don’t let others ruin it.

    Don’t forget to look within as well as without

    Stock image of a frustrated desk worker.

    Story: Internal reputation is vital

    Trust works both ways

    An organization’s relatively new IT and InfoSec department leadership have been upgrading the organization's systems and policies as fast as resources allow when the organization encounters a major breach of security.

    Trust in the developing IT and InfoSec departments' leadership wanes throughout the organization as people search for the root cause and blame the systems. This degradation of trust limits the effectiveness of the newly implemented process, procedures, and tools of the departments.

    The new leaders' abilities are called into question, and they must now rigorously defend and justify their decisions and positions to the executives and board.

    It will be some time before the two departments gain their prior trust and respect, and the new leaders face some tough times ahead regaining the organization's confidence.

    How could the new leaders approach the situation to mend their reputations in the wake of this (perhaps unfair) reputational hit?

    It is not enough to identify the potential risks; there must also be adequate controls in place to monitor and manage them

    Stock image of a fingerprint on a computer chip under a blacklight.

    Identify, manage, and monitor reputational risks

    Global markets
    • Organizations need to learn how to assess the likelihood of potential risks in the changing global markets and recognize how their partnerships and subcontracts affect their brand.
    • Now more than ever, organizations need to be mindful of the larger global landscape and how their interactions within various regions can impact their reputation.
    Social media
    • Understanding how to monitor social media activity and online content will give you an edge in the current environment.
    • Changes in social media generally happen faster than companies can recognize them. If you are not actively monitoring those risks, the damage could set in before you even have a chance to respond.
    Global shortages
    • Organizations need to accept that shortages will recur periodically and that preparing for them will significantly increase the success potential of long-term plans.
    • Customers don’t always understand what is happening in the global supply chain and may blame you for poor service if you cannot meet demands as you have in the past.

    Which way is your reputation heading?

    • Do you understand and track items that might affect your reputation?
    • Do you understand the impact they may have on your business?

    Visualization of a Newton's Cradle perpetual motion device, aka clacky balls. The lifted ball is colored green with a smiley face and is labelled 'Your Brand Reputation'. The other four balls are red with a frowny face and are labelled 'Data Breach/ Lawsuit', 'Service Disruption', 'Customer Complaint', and 'Poor Delivery'.

    Identifying and understanding potential risks is essential to adapting to the ever-changing online landscape

    Info-Tech Insight

    Few organizations are good at identifying risks. As a result, almost none realistically plan to monitor, manage, and adapt their plans to mitigate those risks.

    Reputational risks

    Not protecting your brand can have disastrous consequences to your organization

    • Data breaches & lawsuits
    • Poor vendor performance
    • Service disruptions
    • Negative reviews

    Stock image of a smiling person on their phone rating something five stars.

    What to look for in vendors

    Identify potential reputational risk impacts
    • Check online reviews from both customers and employees.
    • Check news sites:
      • Has the vendor been affected by a breach?
      • Is the vendor frequently in the news – good or bad? Greater exposure can cause an uptick in hostile attacks, so make sure the vendor has adequate protections in line with its exposure.
    • Review its financials. Is it prime for an acquisition/bankruptcy or other significant change?
    • Review your contractual protections to ensure that you are made whole in the event something goes wrong. Has anything changed with the vendor that requires you to increase your protections?
    • Has anything changed in the vendor’s market? Is a competitor taking its business, or are its resources stretched on multiple projects due to increased demand?
    Illustration of business people in a city above various icons.

    Assessing Reputational Risk Impacts

    Zigzagging icons and numbers one through 7 alternating sides downward. Review Organizational Strategy
    Understand the organizational strategy to prepare for the “what if” game exercise.
    Identify & Understand Potential Risks
    Play the “what if” game with the right people at the table.
    Create a Risk Profile Packet for Leadership
    Pull all the information together in a presentation document.
    Validate the Risks
    Work with leadership to ensure that the proposed risks are in line with their thoughts.
    Plan to Manage the Risks
    Lower the overall risk potential by putting mitigations in place.
    Communicate the Plan
    It is important not only to have a plan but also to socialize it in the organization for awareness.
    Enact the Plan
    Once the plan is finalized and socialized put it in place with continued monitoring for success.
    (Adapted from Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance)

    Insight Summary

    Reputational risk impacts are often unanticipated, causing catastrophic downstream effects. Continuously monitoring your vendors’ actions in the market can help organizations head off brand disasters before they occur.

    Insight 1

    Understanding how to monitor social media activity and online content will give you an edge in the current environment.

    Do you have dedicated individuals or teams to monitor your organization's online presence? Most organizations review and approve the online content, but many forget the need to have analysts reviewing what others are saying about them.

    Insight 2

    Organizations need to learn how to assess the likelihood of potential risks in the rapidly changing online environments and recognize how their partnerships and subcontractors’ actions can affect their brand.

    For example, do you understand how a simple news article raises your profile for short-term and long-term adverse events?

    Insight 3

    Socialize the risk management process throughout the organization to heighten awareness and enable employees to help protect the company’s reputation.

    Do you include a social media and brand protection policy in your annual education?

    Identify reputational risk

    Who should be included in the discussion?
    • While it is true that executive-level leadership defines the strategy for an organization, it is vital for those making decisions to make INFORMED decisions.
    • Getting input from your organization's marketing experts will enhance your brand's long-term protection.
    • Involving those who directly manage vendors and understand the market will aid in determining the forward path for relationships with your current vendors and identifying new emerging potential partners.
    • Organizations have a wealth of experience in their marketing departments that can help identify real-world negative scenarios.
    • Include vendor relationship managers to help track what is happening in the media for those vendors.
    Keep in mind: (R=L*I)
    Risk = Likelihood x Impact

    Impact tends to remain the same, while likelihood is a very flexible variable.

    Stock image of a flowchart asking 'Risk?', 'Yes', 'No'.

    Manage and monitor reputational risk impacts

    What can we realistically do about the risks?
    • Re-evaluate corporate policies frequently.
    • Ensure proper protections in contracts:
      • Limit the use of your brand name in the publicity and trademark clauses.
      • Make sure to include security protections for your data in the event of a breach; understand that reputation can rarely be made whole again once trust is breached.
    • Introduce continual risk assessment to monitor the relevant vendor markets.
    • Be adaptable and allow for innovations that arise from the current needs.
      • Capture lessons learned from prior incidents to improve over time and adjust your strategy based on the lessons.
    • Monitor your company’s and associated vendors’ online presence.
    • Track similar companies’ brand reputations to see how yours compares in the market.

    Social media is driving the need for perpetual diligence.

    Organizations need to monitor their brand reputation considering the pace of incidents in the modern age.

    Stock image of a person on a phone that is connected to other people.

    The “what if” game

    1-3 hours

    Input: List of identified potential risk scenarios scored by likelihood and financial impact, List of potential management of the scenarios to reduce the risk

    Output: Comprehensive reputational risk profile on the specific vendor solution

    Materials: Whiteboard/flip charts, Reputational Risk Impact Tool to help drive discussion

    Participants: Vendor Management Coordinator, Organizational Leadership, Operations Experts (SMEs), Legal/Compliance/Risk Manager, Marketing

    Vendor management professionals are in an excellent position to help senior leadership identify and pull together resources across the organization to determine potential risks. By playing the "what if" game and asking probing questions to draw out – or eliminate – possible negative outcomes, everyone involved adds their insight into parts of the organization to gather a comprehensive picture of potential impacts.

    1. Break into smaller groups (or if too small, continue as a single group).
    2. Use the Reputational Risk Impact Tool to prompt discussion on potential risks. Keep this discussion flowing organically to explore all potential risk but manage the overall process to keep the discussion on track.
    3. Collect the outputs and ask the subject matter experts for management options for each one in order to present a comprehensive risk strategy. You will use this to educate senior leadership so that they can make an informed decision to accept or reject the solution.

    Download the Reputational Risk Impact Tool

    Example: Low reputational risk

    We can see clearly in this example that the contractor suffered minimal impact from the specialist's behavior. Though they did take a hit to their overall reputation with a few customers, they should be able to course-correct with a minimal outlay of effort and almost no loss of revenue.

    Stock image of construction workers.

    Sample table of 'Sample Questions to Ask to Identify Reputational Impacts'. Column headers are 'Score', 'Weight', 'Question', and 'Comments or Notes'. At the bottom the 'Reputational Score' row has a low average score of '1.3' and '%100' total weight in their respective columns.

    Example: High reputational risk

    Note in the example how the tool can represent different weights for each of the criteria depending on your needs.

    Stock image of an older person looking out a window.

    Sample table of 'Sample Questions to Ask to Identify Reputational Impacts'. Column headers are 'Score', 'Weight', 'Question', and 'Comments or Notes'. At the bottom the 'Reputational Score' row has a high average score of '3.1' and '%100' total weight in their respective columns.

    Summary

    Be vigilant and adaptable to change
    • Organizations need to learn how to assess the likelihood of potential risks in the changing global markets and recognize how their partnerships and subcontracts affect their brand.
    • Understanding how to monitor social media activity and online content will give you an edge in the current environment.
    • Bring the right people to the table to outline potential risks to your organization’s brand reputation.
    • Socialize the risk management process throughout the organization to heighten awareness and enable employees to help protect the company’s reputation.
    • Incorporate lessons learned from incidents into your risk management process to build better plans for future issues.
    Stock image of a person's face overlaid with many different images.

    Organizations must evolve their risk assessments to be more adaptive to respond to global factors in the market.

    Ongoing monitoring of online media and the vendors tied to company visibility is imperative to avoiding disaster.

    Bibliography

    "The CEO Reputation Premium: Gaining Advantage in the Engagement Era." Weber Shandwick, March 2015. Accessed June 2022.

    Glidden, Donna. "Don't Underestimate the Need to Protect Your Brand in Publicity Clauses." Info-Tech Research Group, June 2022.

    Greenaway, Jordan. "Managing Reputation Risk: A start-to-finish guide." Transmission Private, July 2020. Accessed June 2022.

    Jagiello, Robert D., and Thomas T. Hills. “Bad News Has Wings: Dread Risk Mediates Social Amplification in Risk Communication.” Risk Analysis, vol. 38, no. 10, 2018, pp. 2193-2207.

    Kenton, Will. "Brand Recognition.” Investopedia, Aug. 2021. Accessed June 2022.

    Lischer, Brian. "How Much Does it Cost to Rebrand Your Company?" Ignyte, October 2017. Accessed June 2022.

    "Powerful Examples of How to Respond to Negative Reviews." ReviewTrackers, 16 Feb. 2022. Accessed June 2022.

    Tonello, Matteo. “Strategic Risk Management: A Primer for Directors.” Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, 23 Aug. 2012. Web.

    "Valuation of Trademarks: Everything You Need to Know." UpCounsel, 2022. Accessed June 2022.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Sample of 'Assessing Financial Risk Management'. Identify and Manage Financial Risk Impacts on Your Organization
    • Identifying and managing a vendor’s potential financial impact requires multiple people in the organization across several functions – and those people all need educating on the potential risks.
    • Organizational leadership is often unaware of decisions on organizational risk appetite and tolerance, and they assume there are more protections in place against risk impact than there truly are.
    Sample of 'How to Assess Strategic Risk'. Identify and Manage Strategic Risk Impacts on Your Organization
    • Identifying and managing a vendor’s potential strategic impact requires multiple people in the organization across several functions – and those people all need coaching on the potential changes in the market and how these changes affect strategic plans.
    • Organizational leadership is often caught unaware during crises, and their plans lack the flexibility needed to adjust to significant market upheavals.
    Research coming soon. Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative
    • Vendor management is not “plug and play” – each organization’s vendor management initiative (VMI) needs to fit its culture, environment, and goals. The key is to adapt vendor management principles to fit your needs…not the other way around.
    • All vendors are not of equal importance to an organization. Classifying or segmenting your vendors allows you to focus your efforts on the most important vendors first, allowing your VMI to have the greatest impact possible.

    Research Contributors and Experts

    Frank Sewell

    Research Director
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Donna Glidden

    Research Director
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Steven Jeffery

    Principal Research Director
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Mark Roman

    Managing Partner
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Phil Bode

    Principal Research Director
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Sarah Pletcher

    Executive Advisor
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Scott Bickley

    Practice Lead
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Change Management

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    Every company needs some change management. Both business and IT teams benefit from knowing what changes when.

    incident, problem, problemchange

    Create a Post-Implementation Plan for Microsoft 365

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    M365 projects are fraught with obstacles. Common mistakes organizations make include:

    • Not having a post-migration plan in place.
    • Treating user training as an afterthought.
    • Inadequate communication to end users.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    There are three primary areas where organizations fail in a successful implementation of M365: training, adoption, and information governance. While it is not up to IT to ensure every user is well trained, it is their initial responsibility to find champions, SMEs, and business-based trainers and manage information governance from the backup, retention, and security aspects of data management.

    Impact and Result

    Migrating to M365 is a disruptive move for most organizations. It poses risk to untrained IT staff, including admins, help desk, and security teams. The aim for organizations, especially in this new hybrid workspace, is to maintain efficiencies through collaboration, share information in a secure environment, and work from anywhere, any time.

    Create a Post-Implementation Plan for Microsoft 365 Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Create a Post-Implementation Plan for Microsoft 365 Storyboard – A deck that guides you through the important considerations that will help you avoid common pitfalls and make the most of your investment.

    There are three primary goals when deploying Microsoft 365: productivity, security and compliance, and collaborative functionality. On top of these you need to meet the business KPIs and IT’s drive for adoption and usage. This research will guide you through the important considerations that are often overlooked as this powerful suite of tools is rolled out to the organization.

    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Create a Post-Implementation Plan for Microsoft 365

    You’ve deployed M365. Now what? Look at your business goals and match your M365 KPIs to meet those objectives.

    Analyst perspective

    You’ve deployed M365. Now what?

    John Donovan

    There are three primary objectives when deploying Microsoft 365: from a business perspective, the expectations are based on productivity; from an IT perspective, the expectations are based on IT efficiencies, security, and compliance; and from an organizational perspective, they are based on a digital employee experience and collaborative functionality.

    Of course, all these expectations are based on one primary objective, and that is user adoption of Teams, OneDrive, and SharePoint Online. A mass adoption, along with a high usage rate and a change in the way users work, is required for your investment in M365 to be considered successful.

    So, adoption is your first step, and that can be tracked and analyzed through analytics in M365 or other tools. But what else needs to be considered once you have released M365 on your organization? What about backup? What about security? What about sharing data outside your business? What about self-service? What about ongoing training? M365 is a powerful suite of tools, and taking advantage of all that it entails should be IT’s primary goal. How to accomplish that, efficiently and securely, is up to you!

    John Donovan
    Principal Research Director, I&O
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Insight summary

    Collaboration, efficiencies, and cost savings need to be earned

    Migrating to M365 is a disruptive move for most organizations. Additionally, it poses risk to untrained IT staff, including admins, help desk, and security teams. The aim for organizations, especially in this new hybrid workspace, is to maintain efficiencies through collaboration, share information in a secure environment, and work from anywhere, any time. However, organizations need to manage their licensing and storage costs and build this new way of working through post-deployment planning. By reducing their hardware and software footprint they can ensure they have earned these savings and efficiencies.

    Understand any shortcomings in M365 or pay the price

    Failing to understand any shortcomings M365 poses for your organization can ruin your chances at a successful implementation. Commonly overlooked expenses include backup and archiving, especially for regulated organizations; spending on risk mitigation through third-party tools for security; and paying a premium to Microsoft to use its Azure offerings with Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft Defender, or any security add-on that comes at a price above your E5 license, which is expensive in itself.

    Spend time with users to understand how they will use M365

    Understanding business processes is key to anticipating how your end users will adopt M365. By spending time with the staff and understanding their day-to-day activities and interactions, you can build better training scenarios to suit their needs and help them understand how the apps in M365 can help them do their job. On top of this you need to meet the business KPIs and IT’s drive for adoption and usage. Encourage early adopters to become trainers and champions. Success will soon follow.

    Executive summary

    Your Challenge

    Common Obstacles

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    M365 is a full suite of tools for collaboration, communication, and productivity, but organizations find the platform is not used to its full advantage and fail to get full value from their license subscription.

    Many users are unsure which tool to use when: Do you use Teams or Viva Engage, MS Project or Planner? When do you use SharePoint versus OneDrive?

    From an IT perspective, finding time to help users at the outset is difficult – it’s quite the task to set up governance, security, and backup. Yet training staff must be a priority if the implementation is to succeed.

    M365 projects are fraught with obstacles. Common mistakes organizations make include:

    • No post-migration plan in place.
    • User training is an afterthought.
    • Lack of communication to end users.
    • No C-suite promotion and sponsorship.
    • Absence of a vision and KPIs to meet that vision.

    To define your post-migration tasks and projects:

    • List all projects in a spreadsheet and rank them according to difficulty and impact.
    • Look for quick wins with easy tasks that have high impact and low difficulty.
    • Build a timeline to execute your plans and communicate clearly how these plans will impact the business and meet that vision.

    Failure to take meaningful action will not bode well for your M365 journey.

    Info-Tech Insight

    There are three primary areas where organizations fail in a successful implementation of M365: training, adoption, and information governance. While it is not up to IT to ensure every user is well trained, it is their initial responsibility to find champions, SMEs, and business-based trainers and to manage information governance from backup, retention, and security aspects of data management.

    Business priorities

    What priorities is IT focusing on with M365 adoption?

    What IT teams are saying

    • In a 2019 SoftwareONE survey, the biggest reason IT decision makers gave for adopting M365 was to achieve a “more collaborative working style.”
    • Organizations must plan and execute a strategy for mass adoption and training to ensure processes match business goals.
    • Cost savings can only be achieved through rightsizing license subscriptions, retiring legacy apps, and building efficiencies within the IT organization.
    • With increased mobility comes with increased cybersecurity risk. Make sure you take care of your security before prioritizing mobility. Multifactor authentication (MFA), conditional access (CA), and additional identity management will maintain a safe work-from-anywhere environment.

    Top IT reasons for adopting M365

    61% More collaborative working style

    54% Cost savings

    51% Improved cybersecurity

    49% Greater mobility

    Source: SoftwareONE, 2019; N=200 IT decision makers across multiple industries and organization sizes

    Define & organize post-implementation projects

    Key areas to success

    • Using Microsoft’s M365 adoption guide, we can prioritize and focus on solutions that will bring about better use of the M365 suite.
    • Most of your planning and prioritizing should be done before implementation. Many organizations, however, adopted M365 – and especially Teams, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive – in an ad hoc manner in response to the pandemic measures that forced users to work from home.
    • Use a Power BI Pro license to set up dashboards for M365 usage analytics. Install GitHub from AppSource and use the templates that will give you good insight and the ability to create business reports to show adoption and usage rates on the platform.
    • Reimagine your working behavior. Remember, you want to bring about a more collective and open framework for work. Take advantage of a champion SME to show the way. Every organization is different, so make sure your training is aligned to your business processes.
    The image contains a screenshot of the M365 post-implementation tasks.

    Process steps

    Define Vision

    Build Team

    Plan Projects

    Execute

    Define your vision and what your priorities are for M365. Understand how to reach your vision.

    Ensure you have an executive sponsor, develop champions, and build a team of SMEs.

    List all projects in a to-be scenario. Rank and prioritize projects to understand impact and difficulty.

    Build your roadmap, create timelines, and ensure you have enough resources and time to execute and deliver to the business.

    Info-Tech’s approach

    Use the out-of-the-box tools and take advantage of your subscription.

    The image contains a screenshot of the various tools and services Microsoft provides.

    Info-Tech Insight

    A clear understanding of the business purpose and processes, along with insight into the organizational culture, will help you align the right apps with the right tasks. This approach will bring about better adoption and collaboration and cancel out the shadow IT products we see in every business silo.

    Leverage built-in usage analytics

    Adoption of services in M365

    To give organizations insight into the adoption of services in M365, Microsoft provides built-in usage analytics in Power BI, with templates for visualization and custom reports. There are third-party tools out there, but why pay more? However, the template app is not free; you do need a Power BI Pro license.

    Usage Analytics pulls data from ActiveDirectory, including location, department, and organization, giving you deeper insight into how users are behaving. It can collect up to 12 months of data to analyze.

    Reports that can be created include Adoption, Usage, Communication, Collaboration (how OneDrive and SharePoint are being used), Storage (cloud storage for mailboxes, OneDrive, and SharePoint), and Mobility (which clients and devices are used to connect to Teams, email, Yammer, etc.).

    Source: Microsoft 365 usage analytics

    Understand admin roles

    Prevent intentional or unintentional internal breaches

    Admin Roles

    Best Practices

    • Global admin: Assign this role only to users who need the most access to management features and data across your tenant. Only global admins can modify an admin role.
    • Exchange admin: Assign this role to users who need to view and manage user mailboxes, M365 groups, and Exchange Online and handle Microsoft support requests.
    • Groups admin: These users can create, edit, delete, and restore M365 groups as well as create expiration and naming policies.
    • Helpdesk admin: These users can resets passwords, force user sign-out, manage Microsoft support requests, and monitor service health.
    • Teams/SharePoint Online admin: Assign these roles for users who manage the Teams and SharePoint Admin Center.
    • User admin: These users can assign licenses, add users and groups, manage user properties, and create and manage user views.

    Only assign two to four global admins, depending on the size of the organization. Too many admins increases security risk. In larger organizations, segment admin roles using role-based access control.

    Because admins have access to sensitive data, you’ll want to assign the least permissive role so they can access only the tools and data they need to do their job.

    Enable MFA for all admins except one break-glass account that is stored in the cloud and not synced. Ensure a complex password, stored securely, and use only in the event of an MFA outage.

    Due to the large number of admin roles available and the challenges that brings with it, Microsoft has a built-in tool to compare roles in the admin portal. This can help you determine which role should be used for specific tasks.

    Secure your M365 tenant

    A checklist to ensure basic security coverage post M365

    • Multifactor Authentication: MFA is part of your M365 tenant, so using it should be a practical identity security. If you want additional conditional access (CA), you will require an Azure AD (AAD) Premium P1+ license. This will ensure adequate identity security protecting the business.
    • Password Protection: Use the AAD portal to set this up under Security > Authentication Methods. Microsoft provides a list of over 2,000 known bad passwords and variants to block.
    • Legacy Authentication: Disable legacy protocols; check to see if your legacy apps/workflows/scripts use them in the AAD portal. Once identified, update them and turn the protocols off. Use CA policies.
    • Self-Service Password Reset: Enable self-service to lower the helpdesk load for password resets. Users will have to initially register and set security questions. Hybrid AD businesses must write back to AD from AAD once changes are made.
    • Security Defaults: For small businesses, turn on default settings. To enable additional security settings, such as break- glass accounts, go into Manage Security Defaults in your AAD properties.
    • Conditional Access (CA) Policies: Use CA policies if strong identity security and zero trust are required. To create policies in AAD go to Security > Conditional Access > New Policies.

    Identity Checklist

    • Enable MFA for Admins
    • Enable MFA for Users
    • Disable App Passwords
    • Configure Trusted IPs
    • Disable Text/Phone MFA
    • Remember MFA on Trusted Devices for 90 Days
    • Train Staff in Using MFA Correctly
    • Integrate Apps Into Azure AD

    Training guidelines

    Identify business scenarios and training adoption KPIs

    • Customize your training to meet your organizational goals, align with your business culture, and define how users will work inside the world of M365.
    • Create scenario templates that align to your current day-to-day operations in each department. These can be created by individual business unit champions.
    • Make sure you have covered must-have capabilities and services within M365 that need to be rolled out post-pilot.
    • Phase in large transitions rather than multiple small ones to ensure collaboration between departments meets business scenarios.
    • Ensure your success metrics are being measured and continue to communicate and train after deployment using tools available in M365. See Microsoft’s adoption guidelines and template for training.

    Determine your training needs and align with your business processes. Choose training modalities that will give users the best chance of success. Consider one or many training methods, such as:

    • Online training
    • In-person classroom
    • Business scenario use cases
    • Mentoring
    • Department champion/Early adopter
    • Weekly bulletin fun facts

    Don’t forget backup!

    Providing 99% uptime and availability is not enough

    Why is M365 backup so important?

    Accidental Data Deletion.

    If a user is deleted, that deletion gets replicated across the network. Backup can save you here by restoring that user.

    Internal and External Security Threats.

    Malicious internal deletion of data and external threats including viruses, ransomware, and malware can severely damage a business and its reputation. A clean backup can easily restore the business’ uninfected data.

    Legal and Compliance Requirements.

    While e-discovery and legal hold are available to retain sensitive data, a third-party backup solution can easily search and restore all data to meet regulatory requirements – without depending on someone to ensure a policy was set.

    Retention Policy Gaps.

    Retention policies are not a substitute for backup. While they can be used to retain or delete content, they are difficult to keep track of and manage. Backups offer greater latitude in retention and better security for that data.

    Retire your legacy apps to gain adoption

    Identify like for like and retire your legacy apps

    Legacy

    Microsoft 365

    SharePoint 2016/19

    SharePoint Online

    Microsoft Exchange Server

    Microsoft Exchange in Azure

    Skype for Business Server

    Teams

    Trello

    Planner 2022

    System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM)

    Endpoint Manager, Intune, Autopilot

    File servers

    OneDrive

    Access

    Power Apps

    To meet the objectives of cost reduction and rationalization, look at synergies that M365 brings to the table. Determine what you are currently using to meet collaboration, storage, and security needs and plan to use the equivalent in your Microsoft entitlement.

    Managing M365’s hidden costs

    Licenses and storage limits TCO

    • Email security. Ninety-one percent of all cyberattacks come from phishing on email. Microsoft Defender for M365 is a bolt-on, so it is an additional cost.
    • Backup. This will bring additional cost to M365. Plan to spend more to ensure data is backed up and stored.
    • Email archiving. Archiving is different than backup. See our research on the subject. Archiving is needed for compliance purposes. Email archiving solutions are available through third-party software, which is an added cost.
    • Email end-to-end encryption. This is a requirement for all organizations that are serious about security. The enterprise products from Microsoft come at an additional cost.
    • Cybersecurity training. IT needs to ramp up on training, another expense.
    • Microsoft 365 Power Platform Licencing. From low-code and no-code developer tools (Power Apps), workflow tools (Power Automate), and business intelligence (Power BI) – while the E5 license gives you Power BI Pro, there are limitations and costs. Power BI Pro has limitations for data volume, data refresh, and query response time, so your premium license comes at a considerably marked up cost.

    M365 is not standalone

    • While Microsoft 365 is a platform that is ”just good enough,” it is actually not good enough in today’s cyberthreat environment. Microsoft provides add-ons with Defender for 365, Purview, and Sentinel, which pose additional costs, just like a third-party solution would. See the Threat Intelligence & Incident Response research in our Security practice.
    • The lack of data archiving, backup, and encryption means additional costs that may not have been budgeted for at the outset. Microsoft provides 30-60-90-day recovery, but anything else is additional cost. For more information see Understand the Difference between Backups and Archiving.

    Compliance and regulations

    Security and compliance features out of the box

    There are plenty of preconfigured security features contained in M365, but what’s available to you depends on your license. For example, Microsoft Defender, which has many preset policies, is built-in for E5 licenses, but if you have E3 licenses Defender is an add-on.

    Three elements in security policies are profiles, policies, and policy settings.

    • Preset Profiles come in the shape of:
      • Standard – baseline protection for most users
      • Strict – aggressive protection for profiles that may be high-value targets
      • Built-in Protection – turned on by default; it is not recommended to make exceptions based on users, groups, or domains
    • Preset Security Policies
      • Exchange Online Protection Policies – anti-spam, -malware, and -phishing policies
      • Microsoft Defender Policies – safe links and safe attachments policies
    • Policy Settings
      • User impersonation protection for internal and external domains
      • Select priorities from strict, standard, custom, and built-in

    Info-Tech Insight

    Check your license entitlement before you start purchasing add-ons or third-party solutions. Security and compliance are not optional in today’s cybersecurity risk world. With many organizations offering hybrid and remote work arrangements and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies, it is necessary to protect your data at the tenant level. Defender for Microsoft 365 is a tool that can protect both your exchange and collaboration environments.

    More information: Microsoft 365 Defender

    Use Intune and Autopilot

    Meet the needs of your hybrid workforce

    • Using the tools available in M365 can help you develop your hybrid or remote work strategy.
    • This strategy will help you maintain security controls for mobile and BYOD.
    • Migrating to Intune and Autopilot will give rise to the opportunity to migrate off SCCM and further reduce your on-premises infrastructure.

    NOTE: You must have Azure AD Premium and Windows 10 V1703 or later as well as Intune or other MDM service to use Autopilot. There is a monthly usage fee based on volume of data transmitted. These fees can add up over time.

    For more details visit the following Microsoft Learn pages:

    Intune /Autopilot Overview

    The image contains a screenshot of the Intune/Autopilot Overview.

    Info-Tech’s research on zero-touch provisioning goes into more detail on Intune and Autopilot:
    Simplify Remote Deployment With Zero-Touch Provisioning

    M365 long-term strategies

    Manage your costs in an inflationary world

    • Recent inflation globally, whether caused by supply chain woes or political uncertainty, will impact IT and cloud services along with everything else. Be prepared to pay more for your existing services and budget accordingly.
    • Your long-term strategies must include ongoing cost management, data management, security risks, and license and storage costs.
    • Continually investigate efficiencies, overlaps, and new tools in M365 that can get the job done for the business. Use as many of the applications as you can to ensure you are getting the best bang for your buck.
    • Watch for upgrades in the M365 suite of tools. As Microsoft continues to improve and deliver on most business applications well after their first release, you may find that something that was previously inefficient could work in your environment today and replace a tool you currently use.

    Ongoing Activities You Need to Maintain

    • Be aware of increased license costs and higher storage costs.
    • Keep an eye on Teams sprawl.
    • Understand your total cost of ownership.
    • Continue to look at legacy apps and get rid of your infrastructure debt.

    Activity

    Build your own M365 post-migration plan

    1. Using slide 6 as your guideline, create your own project list using impact and difficulty as your weighting factors.
    2. Do this exercise as a whiteboard sticky note exercise to agree on impact and difficulty as a team.
    3. Identify easy wins that have high impact.
    4. Place the projects into a project plan with time lines.
    5. Agree on start and completion dates.
    6. Ensure you have the right resources to execute.

    The image contains a screenshot of the activity described in the above text.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Govern Office 365

    • Office 365 is as difficult to wrangle as it is valuable. Leverage best practices to produce governance outcomes aligned with your goals.

    Drive Ongoing Adoption With an M365 Center of Excellence

    • Accelerate business processes change and get more value from your subscription by building and sharing, thanks to an effective center of excellence.

    Simplify Remote Deployment With Zero-Touch Provisioning

    • Adopt zero-touch provisioning to provide better services to your end users.
    • Save time and resources during device deployment while providing a high-quality experience to remote end users.

    Bibliography

    “5 Reasons Why Microsoft Office 365 Backup Is Important.” Apps 4Rent, Dec 2021, Accessed Oct 2022 .
    Chandrasekhar, Aishwarya. “Office 365 Migration Best Practices & Challenges 2022.” Saketa, 31 Mar 2022. Accessed Oct. 2022.
    Chronlund, Daniel. “The Fundamental Checklist – Secure your Microsoft 365 Tenant”. Daniel Chronlund Cloud Tech Blog,1 Feb 2019. Accessed 1 Oct 2022.
    Davies, Joe. “The Microsoft 365 Enterprise Deployment Guide.” Tech Community, Microsoft, 19 Sept 2018. Accessed 2 Oct 2022.
    Dillaway, Kevin. “I Upgraded to Microsoft 365 E5, Now What?!.” SpyGlassMTG, 10 Jan 2022. Accessed 4 Oct. 2022.
    Hartsel, Joe. “How to Make Your Office 365 Implementation Project a Success.” Centric, 20 Dec 2021. Accessed 2 Oct. 2022.
    Jha, Mohit. “The Ultimate Microsoft Office 365 Migration Checklist for Pre & Post Migration.” Office365 Tips.Org, 24 June 2022. Accessed Sept. 2022.
    Lang, John. “Why organizations don't realize the full value of Microsoft 365.“Business IT, 29 Nov 202I. Accessed 10 Oct 2022.
    Mason, Quinn. “How to increase Office 365 / Microsoft 365 user adoption.” Sharegate, 19 Sept 2019. Accessed 3 Oct 2022.
    McDermott, Matt. “6-Point Office 365 Post-Migration Checklist.” Spanning , 12 July 2019 . Accessed 4 Oct 2022.
    “Microsoft 365 usage analytics.” Microsoft 365, Microsoft, 25 Oct 2022. Web.
    Sharma, Megha. “Office 365 Pre & Post Migration Checklist.’” Kernel Data Recovery, 26 July 2022. Accessed 30 Sept. 2022.
    Sivertsen, Per. “How to avoid a failed M365 implementation? Infotechtion, 19 Dec 2021. Accessed 2 Oct. 2022.
    St. Hilaire, Dan. “Most Common Mistakes with Office 365 Deployment (and How to Avoid Them).“ KnowledgeWave, 4Mar 2019. Accessed Oct. 2022.
    “Under the Hood of Microsoft 365 and Office 365 Adoption.” SoftwareONE, 2019. Web.

    The ESG Imperative and Its Impact on Organizations

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    • Parent Category Name: IT Governance, Risk & Compliance
    • Parent Category Link: /it-governance-risk-and-compliance
    • Global regulatory climate disclosure requirements are still evolving and are not consistent.
    • Sustainability is becoming a corporate imperative, but IT’s role is not fully clear.
    • The environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data challenge is large and continually expanding in scope.
    • Collecting the necessary data and managing ethical issues across supply chains is a daunting task.
    • Communicating long-term value is difficult when customer and employee expectations are shifting.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • An organization's approach to ESG cannot be static or tactical. It is a moving landscape that requires a flexible, holistic approach across the organization. Cross-functional coordination is essential in order to be ready to respond to changing conditions.
    • Even though the ESG data requirements are large and continually expanding in scope, many organizations have well-established data frameworks and governance practices in place to meet regulatory obligations such as Sarbanes–Oxley that should used as a starting point.

    Impact and Result

    • Organizations will have greater success if they focus their ESG program efforts on the ESG factors that will have a material impact on their company performance and their key stakeholders.
    • Continually evaluating the evolving ESG landscape and its impact on key stakeholders will enable organizations to react quickly to changing conditions.
    • A successful ESG program requires a collaborative and integrated approach across key business stakeholders.
    • Delivering high-quality metrics and performance indicators requires a flexible and digital data approach, where possible, to enable data interoperability.

    The ESG Imperative and Its Impact on Organizations Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. The ESG Imperative and Its Impact on Organizations Deck – Learn why sustainability is becoming a key measurement of corporate performance and how to set your organization up for success.

    Understand the foundational components and drivers of the broader concept of sustainability: environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and IT’s roles within an organization’s ESG program. Learn about the functional business areas involved, the roles they play and how they interact with each other to drive program success.

    • The ESG Imperative and Its Impact on Organizations Storyboard

    Infographic

    Further reading

    The ESG Imperative and Its Impact on Organizations

    Design to enable an active response to changing conditions.

    Analyst Perspective

    Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) is a corporate imperative that is tied to long-term value creation. An organization's social license to operate and future corporate performance depends on managing ESG factors well.

    Central to an ESG program is having a good understanding of the ESG factors that may have a material impact on enterprise value and key internal and external stakeholders. A comprehensive ESG strategy supported by strong governance and risk management is also essential to success.

    Capturing relevant data and applying it within risk models, metrics, and internal and external reports is necessary for sharing your ESG story and measuring your progress toward meeting ESG commitments. Consequently, the data challenges have received a lot of attention, and IT leaders have a role to play as strategic partner and enabler to help address these challenges. However, ESG is more than a data challenge, and IT leaders need to consider the wider implications in managing third parties, selecting tools, developing supporting IT architecture, and ensuring ethical design.

    For many organizations, the ESG program journey has just begun, and collaboration between IT and risk, procurement, and compliance will be critical in shaping program success.

    This is a picture of Donna Bales, Principal Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group

    Donna Bales
    Principal Research Director
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    • Global regulatory climate disclosure requirements are still evolving and are not consistent.
    • Sustainability is becoming a corporate imperative, but IT's role is not fully clear.
    • The ESG data challenge is large and continually expanding in scope.
    • Collecting the necessary data and managing ethical issues across supply chains is a daunting task.
    • Communicating long-term value is difficult when customer and employee expectations are shifting.

    Common Obstacles

    • The data necessary for data-driven insights and accurate disclosure is often hampered by inaccurate and incomplete primary data.
    • Other challenges include:
      • Approaching ESG holistically and embedding it into existing governance, risk, and IT capabilities.
      • Building knowledge and adapting culture throughout all levels of the organization.
      • Monitoring stakeholder sentiment and keeping strategy aligned to expectations.

    Info-Tech's Approach

    • Use this blueprint to educate yourself on ESG factors and the broader concept of sustainability.
    • Learn about Info-Tech's ESG program approach and use it as a framework to begin your ESG program journey.
    • Identify changes that may be needed in your organizational operating model, strategy, governance, and risk management approach.
    • Discover areas of IT that may need to be prioritized and resourced.

    Info-Tech Insight

    An organization's approach to ESG cannot be static or tactical. ESG is a moving landscape that requires a flexible, holistic approach across the organization. It must become part of the way you work and enable an active response to changing conditions.

    This is an image of Info-Tech's thoughtmap for eight steps of the ESG Program Journey

    Putting ESG in context

    ESG has moved beyond the tipping point to corporate table stakes

    • In recent years, ESG issues have moved from voluntary initiatives driven by corporate responsibility teams to an enterprise-wide strategic imperative.
    • Organizations are no longer being measured by financial performance but by how they contribute to a sustainable and equitable future, such as how they support sustainable innovation through their business models and their focus on collaboration and inclusion.
    • A corporation's efforts toward sustainability is measured by three components: environmental, social, and governance.

    Sustainability

    The ability of a corporation and broader society to endure and survive over the long term by managing adverse impacts well and promoting positive opportunities.

    This is an image of the United Nation's 17 sustainable goals.

    Source: United Nations

    Putting "E," "S," and "G" in context

    Corporate sustainability depends on managing ESG factors well

    • Environmental, social, and governance are the component pieces of a sustainability framework that is used to understand and measure how an organization impacts or is affected by society as a whole.
    • Human activities, particularly fossil fuel burning since the mid twentieth century, have increased greenhouse gas concentration, resulting in observable changes to the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and biosphere.
    • The E in ESG relates to the positive and negative impacts an organization may have on the environment, such as the energy it takes in and the waste it discharges.
    • The S in ESG is the most ambiguous component in the framework, as social impact relates not only to risks but also prosocial behaviour. It's the most difficult to measure but can have significant financial and reputational impact on corporations if material and poorly managed.
    • The G in ESG is foundational to the realization of S and E. It encompasses how well an organization integrates these considerations into the business and how well the organization engages with key stakeholders, receives feedback, and is transparent with its intentions.

    Common examples of ESG issues include: Environmental: Climate change, greenhouse gas emissions (CHG), deforestation, biodiversity, pollution, water, waste, extended producer responsibility, etc. Social: Customer relations, employee relations, labor, human rights, occupational health and safety, community relations, supply chains, etc. Governance: Board management practices, succession planning, compensation, diversity, equity and inclusion, regulatory compliance, corruption, fraud, data hygiene and security, etc. Source: Getting started with ESG - Sustainalytics

    Understanding the drivers behind ESG

    $30 trillion is expected to be transferred from the baby boomers to Generation Z and millennials over the next decade
    – Accenture

    Drivers

    • The rapid rise of ESG investing
    • The visibility of climate change is driving governments, society, and corporations to act and to initiate and support net zero goals.
    • A younger demographic that has strong convictions and financial influence
    • A growing trend toward mandatory climate and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) disclosures required by global regulators
    • Recent emphasis by regulators on board accountability and fiduciary duty
    • Greater societal awareness of social issues and sustainability
    • A new generation of corporate leadership that is focused on sustainable innovation

    The evolving regulatory landscape

    Global regulators are mobilizing toward mandatory regulatory climate disclosure

    Canada

    • Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) NI 51-107 Disclosure of Climate-related Matters

    Europe

    • European Commission, Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR)
    • European Commission, EU Supply Chain Act
    • Germany – The German Supply Chain Act (GSCA)
    • Financial Conduct Authority UK, Proposal (DP 21/4) Sustainability Disclosure Requirements and investment labels
    • UK Modern Slavery Act, 2015

    United States

    • Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 33-11042– The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors
    • SEC 33-11038 Cybersecurity Risk Management, Strategy, Governance, and Incident Disclosure
    • Nasdaq Board Diversity Rule (5605(f))

    New Zealand

    • New Zealand, The Financial Sector (Climate-related Disclosures and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2021

    Begin by setting your purpose

    Consider your role as a corporation in society and your impact on key stakeholders

    • The impact of a corporation can no longer be solely measured by financial impact but also its impact on social good. Corporations have become real-world actors that impact and are affected by the environment, people, and society.
    • An ESG program should start with defining your organization's purpose in terms of corporate responsibility, the role it will play, and how it will endure over time through managing adverse impacts and promoting positive impacts.
    • Corporations should look inward and outward to assess the material impact of ESG factors on their organization and key internal and external stakeholders.
    • Once stakeholders are identified, consider how the ESG factors might be perceived by delving into what matters to stakeholders and what drives their behavior.

    Understanding your stakeholder landscape is essential to achieving ESG goals

    Internal Stakeholders: Board; Management; Employees. External Stakeholders: Activists; Regulators; Customers; Lenders; Government; Investors; Stakeholders; Community; Suppliers

    Assess ESG impact

    Materiality assessments help to prioritize your ESG strategy and enable effective reporting

    • The concept of materiality as it relates to ESG is the process of gaining different perspectives on ESG issues and risks that may have significant impact (both positive and negative) on or relevance to company performance.
    • The objective of a materiality assessment is to identify material ESG issues most critical to your organization by looking a broad range of social and environmental factors. Its purpose is to narrow strategic focus and enable an organization to assess the impact of financial and non-financial risks aggregately.
    • It helps to make the case for ESG action and strategy, assess financial impact, get ahead of long-term risks, and inform communication strategies.
    • Organizations can leverage assessment tools from Sustainalytics or SASB Standards to help assess ESG risks or use guidance or benchmarking information from industry associations.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Survey key stakeholders to obtain a more holistic viewpoint of expectations and the industry landscape and gain credibility through the process.

    Use a materiality matrix to understand ESG exposure

    This is an image of a materiality matrix used to understand ESG exposure.

    Example: Beverage Company

    Follow a holistic approach

    To deliver on your purpose, sustainability must be integrated throughout the organization

    • An ESG program cannot be implemented in a silo. It must be anchored on its purpose and supported by a strong governance structure that is intertwined with other functional areas.
    • Effective governance is essential to instill trust, support sound decision making, and manage ESG.
    • Governance extends beyond shareholder rights to include many other factors, such as companies' interactions with competitors, suppliers, and governments. More transparency is sought on:
      • Corporate behavior, executive pay, and oversight of controls.
      • Board diversity, compensation, and skill set.
      • Oversight of risk management, particularly risks related to fraud, product, data, and cybersecurity

    "If ESG is the framework of non-financial risks that may have a material impact on the company's stakeholders, corporate governance is the process by which the company's directors and officers manage those risks."
    – Zurich Insurance

    A pyramid is depicted. The top of the pyramid is labeled Continual Improvement, and the following terms are inside this box. Governance: Strategy; Risk Management; Metrics & Targets. At the bottom of the pyramid is a box with right facing arrows, labeled Transparency and Disclosure. This is Informed by the TCFD Framework

    Governance and organization approach

    There is no one-size-fits-all approach

    47% of companies reported that the full board most commonly oversees climate related risks and opportunities while 20% delegate to an existing board governance committee (EY Research, 2021).

    • The organizational approach to ESG will differ across industry segments and corporations depending on material risks and their upstream and downstream value change. However, the accountability for ESG sits squarely at the CEO and board level.
    • Some organizations have taken the approach of hiring a Chief Sustainability Officer to work alongside the CEO on execution of ESG goals and stakeholder communication, while others use other members of the strategic leadership to drive the desired outcomes.
    Governance Layer Responsibilities
    Board
    • Overall accountability lies with the full board. Some responsibilities may be delegated to newly formed dedicated ESG governance committee.
    Oversight
    Executive leadership
    • Accountable for sustainability program success and will work with CEO to set ESG purpose and goals.
    Oversight and strategic direction
    Management
    • Senior management drives execution; sometimes led by a cross-functional committee.
    Execution

    Strategy alignment

    "74% of finance leaders say that investors increasingly use nonfinancial information in their decision-making."

    – "Aligning nonfinancial reporting..." EY, 2020

    • Like any journey, the ESG journey requires knowing where you are starting from and where you are heading to.
    • Once your purpose is crystalized, identify and surface gaps between where you want to go as an organization (your purpose and goals) and what you need to deliver as an organization to meet the expectations of your internal and external stakeholders (your output).
    • Using the results of the materiality assessment, weigh the risk, opportunities, and financial impact to help prioritize and determine vulnerabilities and where you might excel.
    • Finally, evaluate and make changes to areas of your business that need development to be successful (culture, accountability and board structure, ethics committee, etc.)

    Gap analysis example for delivering reporting requirements

    Organizational Goals

    • Regulatory Disclosure
      • Climate
      • DEI
      • Cyber governance
    • Performance Tracking/Annual Reporting
      • Corporate transparency on ESG performance via social, annual circular
    • Evidence-Based Business Reporting
      • Risk
      • Board
      • Suppliers

    Risk-size your ESG goals

    When integrating ESG risks, stick with a proven approach

    • Managing ESG risks is central to making sound organizational decisions regarding sustainability but also to anticipating future risks.
    • Like any new risk type, ESG risk should be interwoven into your current risk management and control framework via a risk-based approach.
    • Yet ESG presents some new risk challenges, and some risk areas may need new control processes or enhancements.
    NET NEW ENHANCEMENT
    Climate disclosure Data quality management
    Assurance specific to ESG reporting Risk sensing and assessment
    Supply chain transparency tied back to ESG Managing interconnections
    Scenario analysis
    Third-party ratings and monitoring

    Info-Tech Insight

    Integrate ESG risks early, embrace uncertainty by staying flexible, and strive for continual improvement.

    A funnel chart is depicted. The inputs to the funnel are: Strategy - Derive ESG risks from strategy, and Enterprise Risk Appetite. Inside the funnel, are the following terms: ESG; Data; Cyber. The output of the funnel is: Evidence based reporting ESG Insights & Performance metrics

    Managing supplier risks

    Suppliers are a critical input into an organization's ESG footprint

    "The typical consumer company's supply chain ... [accounts] for more than 80% of greenhouse-gas emissions and more than 90% of the impact on air, land, water, biodiversity, and geological resources."
    – McKinsey & Company, 2016

    • Although companies are accustomed to managing third parties via procurement processes, voluntary due-diligence, and contractual provisions, COVID-19 surfaced fragility across global supply chains.
    • The mismanagement of upstream and downstream risks of supply chains can harm the reputation, operations, and financial performance of businesses.
    • To build resiliency to and visibility of supply chain risk, organizations need to adapt current risk management programs, procurement practices, and risk assessment tools and techniques.
    • Procurement departments have an enhanced function, effectively acting as gatekeepers by performing due diligence, evaluating performance, and strengthening the supplier relationship through continual feedback and dialogue.
    • Technologies such as blockchain and IoT are starting to play a more dominant role in supply chain transparency.

    Raw materials are upstream and consumers are downstream.

    "Forty-five percent of survey respondents say that they either have no visibility into their upstream supply chain or that they can see only as far as their first-tier suppliers."
    – "Taking the pulse of shifting supply chains," McKinsey & Company, 2022

    Metrics and targets

    Metrics are key to stakeholder transparency, measuring performance against goals, and surfacing organizational blind spots

    • ESG metrics are qualitative or quantitative insights that measure organizations' performance against ESG goals. Along with traditional business metrics, they assist investors with assessing the long-term performance of companies based on non-financial ESG risks and opportunities.
    • Metrics, key performance indicators (KPIs), and key risk indicators (KRIs) are used to measure how ESG factors affect an organization and how an organization may impact any of the underlying issues related to each ESG factor.
    • There are several reporting standards that offer specific ESG performance metrics, such as the Global Reporting Institute (GRI), Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), and World Economic Forum (WEF).
    • For climate-related disclosures, global regulators are converging on the Task Force for Climate-related Disclosures (TCFD) and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).

    Example metrics for ESG factors

    Example metrics for environment include greenhouse gas emissions, water footprint, renewable energy share, and % of recycled material. Example social metrics include rates of injury, proportion of spend on local supplies, and percentage of gender or ethnic groups in management roles. Example governance metrics include annual CEO compensation compared to median, number of PII data breaches, and completed number of supplier assessments.

    The impact of ESG on IT

    IT plays a critical role in achieving ESG goals

    • IT groups have a critical role to play in helping organizations develop strategic plans to meet ESG goals, measure performance, monitor risks, and deliver on disclosure requirements.
    • IT's involvement extends from the CIO providing input at a strategic level to leading the charge within IT to instill new goals and adapt the culture toward one focused on sustainability.
    • To set the tone, CIOs should begin by updating their IT governance structure and setting ESG goals for IT.
    • IT leaders will need to think about resource use and efficiency and incorporate this into their IT strategy.

    Info-Tech Insight

    IT leaders need to work collaboratively with risk management to optimize decision making and continually improve ESG performance and disclosure.

    "A great strategy meeting is a meeting of the minds."
    – Max McKeown

    The data challenge

    The ESG data requirement is large and continually expanding in scope

    • To meet ESG objectives, corporations are challenged with collecting non-financial data from across functional business and geographical locations and from their supplier base and supply chains.
    • One of the biggest impediments to ESG implementation is the lack of high-quality data and of mature processes and tools to support data collection.
    • The data challenge is compounded by the availability and usability of data, immature and fragmented standards that hinder comparability, and workflow integration.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Keep your data model flexible and digital where possible to enable data interoperability.

    A flow chart is depicted. the top box is labeled ESG Program. Below that are Boxes labeled Tactical and Strategic. Below the Tactical Box, is a large X showing a lack of connection to the following points: Duplicative; Inefficient/Costly. Below the box labeled Strategic are the following terms: Data-Driven; Reusable; Digital.

    "You can have data without information, but you cannot have information without data."
    – Daniel Keys Moran

    It's more than a data challenge

    Organizations will rely on IT for execution, and IT leaders will need to be ready

    Data Management: Aggregated Reporting; Supplier Management; Cyber Management; Operational Management; Ethical Design(AI, Blockchain); IT Architecture; Resource Efficiency; Processing & Tooling; Supplier Assessment.

    Top impacts on IT departments

    1. ESG requires corporations to keep track of ESG-related risks of third parties. This will mean more robust assessments and monitoring.
    2. Many areas of ESG are new and will require new processes and tools.
    3. The SEC has upped the ante recently, requiring more rigorous accountability and reporting on cyber incidents.
    4. New IT systems and architecture may be needed to support ESG programs.
    5. Current reporting frameworks may need updating as regulators move to digital.
    6. Ethical design will need to be considered when AI is used to support risk/data management and when it is used as part of product solutions.

    Key takeaways

    • It's critical for organizations to look inward and outward to assess the material impact of ESG factors on their organization and key internal and external stakeholders.
    • ESG requires a flexible, holistic approach across the organization. It must become part of the way you work and enable an active response to changing conditions.
    • ESG introduces new risks that should not be viewed in isolation but interwoven into your current risk management and control framework via a risk-based approach.
    • Identify and integrate risks early, embrace uncertainty by staying flexible, and strive for continual improvement.
    • Metrics are key to telling your ESG story. Place the appropriate importance on the information that will be reported.
    • Recognize that the data challenge is complex and evolving and design your data model to be flexible, interoperable, and digital.
    • IT's role is far reaching, and IT will have a critical part in managing third parties, selecting tools, developing supporting IT architecture, and using ethical design.

    Definitions

    TERM DEFINITON
    Corporate Social Responsibility Management concept whereby organizations integrate social and environmental concerns in their operations and interactions with their stakeholders.
    Chief Sustainability Officer Steers sustainability commitments, helps with compliance, and helps ensure internal commitments are met. Responsibilities may extend to acting as a liaison with government and public affairs, fostering an internal culture, acting as a change agent, and leading delivery.
    ESG An acronym that stands for environment, social, and governance. These are the three components of a sustainability program.
    ESG Standard Contains detailed disclosure criteria including performance measures or metrics. Standards provide clear, consistent criteria and specifications for reporting. Typically created through consultation process.
    ESG Framework A broad contextual model for information that provides guidance and shapes the understanding of a certain topic. It sets direction but does not typically delve into the methodology. Frameworks are often used in conjunction with standards.
    ESG Factors The factors or issues that fall under the three ESG components. Measures the sustainability performance of an organization.
    ESG Rating An aggregated score based on the magnitude of an organization's unmanaged ESG risk. Ratings are provided by third-party rating agencies and are increasingly being used for financing, transparency to investors, etc.
    ESG Questionnaire ESG surveys or questionnaires are administered by third parties and used to assess an organization's sustainability performance. Participation is voluntary.
    Key Risk Indicator (KRI) A measure to indicate the potential presence, level, or trend of a risk.
    Key Performance Indicator (KPI) A measure of deviation from expected outcomes to help a firm see how it is performing.
    Materiality Material topics are topics that have a direct or indirect impact on an organization's ability to create, preserve, or erode economic, environment and social impact for itself and its stakeholder and society as a whole
    Materiality Assessment A materiality assessment is a tool to identify and prioritize the ESG issues most critical to the organization.
    Risk Sensing The range of activities carried out to identify and understand evolving sources of risk that could have a significant impact on the organization (e.g. social listening).
    Sustainability The ability of an organization and broader society to endure and survive over the long term by managing adverse impacts well and promoting positive opportunities.
    Sustainalytics Now part of Morningstar. Sustainalytics provides ESG research, ratings, and data to institutional investors and companies.
    UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) provide an essential methodological foundation for how impacts across all dimensions should be assessed.

    Reporting & standard frameworks

    STANDARD DEFINITION AND FOCUS
    CDP CDP has created standards and metrics for comparing sustainability impact. Focuses on environmental data (e.g. carbon, water, and forests) and on data disclosure and benchmarking.
    (Formally Carbon Disclosure Project) Audience: All stakeholders
    Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) Heavy on corporate governance and company performance. Equal balance of economic, environmental, and social.
    Audience: All stakeholders
    Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) International standards organization that has a set of standards to help organizations understand and communicate their impacts on climate change and social responsibility. The standard has a strong emphasis on transparency and materiality, especially on social issues.
    Audience: All stakeholders
    International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) Standard-setting board that sits within the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation. The IFRS Foundation is a not-for-profit, public-interest organization established to develop high-quality, understandable, enforceable, and globally accepted accounting and sustainability disclosure standards.
    Audience: Investor-focused
    United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG) Global partnership across sectors and industries to achieve sustainable development for all (17 Global Goals)
    Audience: All stakeholders
    Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Industry-specific standards to help corporations select topics that may impact their financial performance. Focus on material impacts on financial condition or operating performance.
    Audience: Investor-focused
    Task Force Of Climate-related Disclosures (TCFD; created by the Financial Stability Board) Standards framework focused on the impact of climate risk on financial and operating performance. More broadly the disclosures inform investors of positive and negative measures taken to build climate resilience and make transparent the exposure to climate-related risk.
    Audience: Investors, financial stakeholders

    Bibliography

    Anne-Titia Bove and Steven Swartz, McKinsey, "Starting at the source: Sustainability in supply chains", 11 November 2016

    Accenture, "The Greater Wealth Transfer – Capitalizing on the intergenerational shift in wealth", 2012

    Beth Kaplan, Deloitte, "Preparing for the ESG Landscape, Readiness and reporting ESG strategies through controllership playbook", 15 February 2022

    Bjorn Nilsson et al, McKinsey & Company, "Financial institutions and nonfinancial risk: How corporates build resilience," 28 February 2022

    Bolden, Kyle, Ernst and Young, "Aligning nonfinancial reporting with your ESG strategy to communicate long-term value", 18 Dec. 2020

    Canadian Securities Administrators, "Canadian securities regulators seek comment on climate-related disclosure requirements", 18 October 2021

    Carol A. Adams et al., Global Risk Institute, "The double-materiality concept, Application and issues", May 2021

    Dunstan Allison-Hope et al, BSR, "Impact-Based Materiality, Why Companies Should-Focus Their Assessments on Impacts Rather than Perception", 3 February 2022

    EcoVadis, "The World's Most Trusted Business Sustainability Ratings",

    Ernst and Young, "Four opportunities for enhancing ESG oversight", 29 June 2021

    Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, The Act on Corporate Due Diligence Obligations in Supply Chains (Gesetz über die unternehmerischen Sorgfaltspflichten in Lieferketten)", Published into Federal Law Gazette, 22, July 2021

    "What Every Company Needs to Know", Sustainalytics

    Global Risk Institute, The GRI Perspective, "The materiality madness: why definitions matter", 22 February 2022

    John P Angkaw "Applying ERM to ESG Risk Management", 1 August 2022

    Hillary Flynn et al., Wellington Management, "A guide to ESG materiality assessments", June 2022

    Katie Kummer and Kyle Lawless, Ernst and Young, "Five priorities to build trust in ESG", 14 July 2022

    Knut Alicke et al., McKinsey & Company, "Taking the pulse of shifting supply chains", 26 August 2022

    Kosmas Papadopoulos and Rodolfo Arauj. The Harvard School Forum on Corporate Governance, "The Seven Sins of ESG Management", 23 September 2020

    KPMG, Sustainable Insight, "The essentials of materiality assessment", 2014

    Lorraine Waters, The Stack, "ESG is not an environmental issue, it's a data one", 20 May 2021

    Marcel Meyer, Deloitte, "What is TCFD and why does it matter? Understanding the various layers and implications of the recommendations",

    Michael W Peregnne et al., "The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, The Important Legacy of the Sarbanes Oxley Act," 30 August 2022

    Michael Posner, Forbes, "Business and Human Rights: Looking Ahead To The Challenges Of 2022", 15 December 2021

    Myles Corson and Tony Kilmas, Ernst and Young, "How the CFO can balance competing demands and drive future growth", 3 November 2020

    Novisto, "Navigating Climate Data Disclosure", 2022

    Novisto, "XBRL is coming to corporate sustainability reporting", 17 April 2022

    "Official Journal of the European Union, Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 on sustainability-related disclosures in the financial services sector", 9 December 2019

    Osler, "ESG and the future of sustainability", Podcast, 01 June 2022

    Osler, "The Rapidly Evolving World of ESG Disclosure: ISSB draft standards for sustainability and climate related disclosures", 19 May 2022

    Sarwar Choudhury and Zach Johnston, Ernst and Young "Preparing for Sox-Like ESG Regulation", 7 June 2022

    Securities and Exchange Commission, "The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-related Disclosures for Investors", 12 May 2022

    "Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC Proposes Rules on Cybersecurity, Risk Management, Strategy, Governance, and Incident Disclosure by Public Companies, 9 May 2022

    Sean Brown and Robin Nuttall, McKinsey & Company, "The role of ESG and purpose", 4 January 2022

    Statement by Chair Gary Gensler, "Statement on ESG Disclosure Proposal", 25 May 2022

    Svetlana Zenkin and Peter Hennig, Forbes, "Managing Supply Chain Risk, Reap ESG Rewards", 22 June 2022

    Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures, "Final Report, Recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures", June 2017

    World Economic Forum, "Why sustainable governance and corporate integrity are crucial for ESG", 29 July 2022

    World Economic Forum (in collaboration with PwC) "How to Set Up Effective Climate Governance on Corporate Boards, Guiding Principles and questions", January 2019

    World Economic Forum, "Defining the "G" in ESG Governance Factors at the Heart of Sustainable Business", June 2022

    World Economic Forum, "The Risk and Role of the Chief Integrity Officer: Leadership Imperatives in and ESG-Driven World", December 2021

    World Economic Forum, "How to Set Up Effective Climate Governance on Corporate Boards Guiding principles and questions", January 2019

    Zurich Insurance, "ESG and the new mandate for corporate governance", 2022

    Govern Office 365

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    • Parent Category Name: End-User Computing Applications
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    Exploring the enterprise collaboration marketspace is difficult. The difficulty in finding a suitable collaboration tool is that there are many ways to collaborate, with just as many tools to match.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Map your organizational goals to the administration features available in the Office 365 console. Your governance should reflect your requirements.

    Impact and Result

    The result is a defined plan for controlling Office 365 by leveraging hard controls to align Microsoft’s toolset with your needs and creating acceptable use policies and communication plans to highlight the impact of the transition to Office 365 on the end-user population.

    Govern Office 365 Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Understand the challenges posed by governing Office 365 and the necessity of deploying proper governance.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Define your organizational goals

    Develop a list of organizational goals that will enable you to leverage the Office 365 toolset to its fullest extent while also implementing sensible governance.

    • Govern Office 365 – Phase 1: Define Your Organizational Goals

    2. Control your Office 365 environment

    Use Info-Tech's toolset to build out controls for OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams that align with your organizational goals as they relate to governance.

    • Govern Office 365 – Phase 2: Control Your Office 365 Environment
    • Office 365 Control Map
    • Microsoft Teams Acceptable Use Policy
    • Microsoft SharePoint Online Acceptable Use Policy
    • Microsoft OneDrive Acceptable Use Policy

    3. Communicate your results

    Communicate the results of your Office 365 governance program using Info-Tech's toolset.

    • Govern Office 365 – Phase 3: Communicate Your Results
    • Office 365 Communication Plan Template

    Infographic

    Workshop: Govern Office 365

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Define Goals

    The Purpose

    Develop a plan to assess the capabilities of the Office 365 solution and select licensing for the product.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Office 365 capability assessment (right-size licensing)

    Acceptable Use Policies

    Mapped Office 365 controls

    Activities

    1.1 Review organizational goals.

    1.2 Evaluate Office 365 capabilities.

    1.3 Conduct the Office 365 capability assessment.

    1.4 Define user groups.

    1.5 Finalize licensing.

    Outputs

    List of organizational goals

    Targeted licensing decision

    2 Build Refined Governance Priorities

    The Purpose

    Leverage the Office 365 governance framework to develop and refined governance priorities.

    Build a SharePoint acceptable use policy and define SharePoint controls.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Refined governance priorities

    List of SharePoint controls

    SharePoint acceptable use policy

    Activities

    2.1 Explore the Office 365 Framework.

    2.2 Conduct governance priorities refinement exercise.

    2.3 Populate the Office 365 control map (SharePoint).

    2.4 Build acceptable use policy (SharePoint).

    Outputs

    Refined governance priorities

    SharePoint control map

    Sharepoint acceptable use policy

    3 Control Office 365

    The Purpose

    Implement governance priorities for OneDrive and Teams.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Clearly defined acceptable use policies for OneDrive and Teams

    List of OneDrive and Teams controls

    Activities

    3.1 Populate the Office 365 Control Map (OneDrive).

    3.2 Build acceptable use policy (OneDrive).

    3.3 Populate the Office 365 Control Map (Teams).

    3.4 Build acceptable use policy (Teams).

    Outputs

    OneDrive controls

    OneDrive acceptable use policy

    Teams controls

    Teams acceptable use policy

    4 SOW Walkthrough

    The Purpose

    Build a plan to communicate coming changes to the productivity environment.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Communication plan covering SharePoint, Teams, and OneDrive

    Activities

    4.1 Build SharePoint one pager.

    4.2 Build OneDrive one pager.

    4.3 Build Teams one pager.

    4.4 Finalize communication plan.

    Outputs

    SharePoint one pager

    OneDrive one pager

    Teams one pager

    Overall finalized communication plan

    5 Communicate and Implement

    The Purpose

    Finalize deliverables and plan post-workshop communications.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Completed Office 365 governance plan

    Finalized deliverables

    Activities

    5.1 Completed in-progress deliverables from previous four days.

    5.2 Set up review time for workshop deliverables and to discuss next steps.

    5.3 Validate governance with stakeholders.

    Outputs

    Completed acceptable use policies

    Completed control map

    Completed communication plan

    Completed licensing decision

    TY Advisory Services

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    What is our TY advisory service?

    The TY advisory service is tailored to your needs. It combines the best of traditional IT consulting expertise with the analysis and remedial solutions of an expert bureau.

    When you observe specific symptoms, TY analyses the exact areas that contribute to these symptoms.

    TY specializes in IT Operations and goes really deep in that area.  We define IT Operations as the core service you deliver to your clients:

    When you see your operation running smoothly, it looks obvious and simple, but it is not. IT Operations is a concerto, under the leadership of a competent IT Ops Conductor-Manager. IT Ops keeps the lights on and ensures your reputation with your clients and the market as a whole as a predictable and dependable business partner. And we help you achieve this, based on more than 30 years of IT Ops experience.

    As most companies' business services are linked at the hip with IT, your IT Operations, in other words, are your key to a successful business.

    Value Consulting

    That is why we work via a simple value-based proposition. We discuss your wants and together discover your needs. Once we all agree, only then do we make our proposal. Anything you learned on the way, is yours to keep and use. 

    This means a fixed agreement to deliver the value we promise. No time and material, no extensions, no unforeseen charges.

    How can we deliver this?

    Gert has advised clients on what to do before issues happen. We have also worked to bring companies back from the brink after serious events. TY has brought services back after big incidents.

    You need to get it done, not in theory, but via actionable advice and if required, via our actions and implementation prowess. It's really elementary. Anyone can create a spreadsheet with to-do lists and talk about how resilience laws like DORA and NIS2 need to be implemented.

    It's not the talk that counts, it's the walk. Service delivery is in our DNA. Resilience is our life.

    Efficient policies, procedures and guidelines

    Good governance directly ensures happy clients because staff knows what to do when and allows them leeway in improving the service. And this governance will satisfy auditors.

    • Incident management

      Incidents erode client confidence in your service and company. You must get them fixed in accordance with their importance,  

    • Problem management

      You don't want repeat incidents! Tackle the root causes and fix issues permanently. Save money by doing this right. 

    • Change management

      You must update your services to stay the best in your field. Do it in a controlled yet efficient way. Lose overhead where you can, add the right controls where you must.

    • Configuration management

      The base for most of your processes. You gotta know what you have and how it works together to provide the services to your clients.

    • Monitoring

      IT monitoring delivers business value by catching issues before they become problems. With real-time insights into system performance and security, you can minimize downtime, improve efficiency, and make better decisions that keep your operations strong and your customers happy.

    • Service management

      Bring all the IT Operations services together and measure how they perform versus set business relevant KPI's 

    • Disaster Recovery

      Disaster recovery is your company's safety net for getting critical systems and data back up and running after a major disruption, focusing on fast IT recovery and minimizing financial and operational losses, whereas business continuity ensures the entire business keeps functioning during and after the crisis.

    • Business Continuity

      Business continuity is keeping your company running smoothly during disruptions by having the right plans, processes, and backups in place to minimize downtime and protect your operations, customers, and reputation. We go beyond disaster recovery and make sure your critical processes can continue to function. 

    • Exit Plans

      Hope for the best, but plan for the worst. When you embark on a new venture, know how to get out of it. Planning to exit is best done in the very beginning, but better late than when it is too late.

      Get up to speed

    Your biggest asset, the people who execute your business services

    We base our analysis on over 30 years experience in corporate and large volume dynamic services.  Unique to our service is that we take your company culture into account, while we adjust the mindset of the experts working in these areas.

    Your people are what will make these processes work efficiently. We take their ideas, hard capabilities and leadership capabilities into account and improve upon where needed. That helps your company and the people themselves. 

    We look at the existing governance and analyse where they are best in class or how we can make them more efficient. We identify the gaps and propose remedial updates. Our updates are verified through earlier work, vetted by first and second line and sometimes even regulators 

    Next we decide with you on how to implement the updates to the areas that need them. 

    How does the TY advisory service work?

    • 1. Contact TY

      Fill out the small intake below and get started towards your solution. 

    • 2. Discovery call

      There is no financial commitment required from you. During this meeting we discus further in detail the issue at hand and the direction of the ideal solution and the way of working.

    • 3. TY consolidates and prepares roadmap

      We take in the information of our talks and prepare the the roadmap to the individualized solution for you.

    • 4. Second meeting to finalize roadmap

      By now, TY has a good idea of how we can help you, and we have prepared a roadmap to solving the issue. In this meeting we present the way forward our way of working and what it will require from you.

      If you decide this is not what you expected, you are free to take the information provided so far and work with it yourself. 

    • 5. We get to work

      After the previous meeting and agreement in principle, you will have by now received our offer.

      When you decide to work together, we start our partnership and solve the issue. We work to ensure you are fully satisfied with the result.

    Let's get started

    Continue reading

    Automate Work Faster and More Easily With Robotic Process Automation

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    • Parent Category Name: Optimization
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    • Your organization has many business processes that rely on repetitive, routine manual data collection and processing work, and there is high stakeholder interest in automating them.
    • You’re investigating whether robotic process automation (RPA) is a suitable technological enabler for automating such processes.
    • Being a trending technology, especially with its association with artificial intelligence (AI), there is much marketing fluff, hype, and misunderstanding about RPA.
    • Estimating the potential impact of RPA on business is difficult, as the relevant industry statistics often conflict each other and you aren’t sure how applicable it is to your business.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • There are no physical robots in RPA. RPA is about software “bots” that interact with applications as if they were human users to perform routine, repetitive work in your place. It’s for any business in any industry, not just for manufacturing.
    • RPA is lightweight IT; it reduces the cost of entry, maintenance, and teardown of automation as well as the technological requirement of resources that maintain it, as it complements existing automation solutions in your toolkit.
    • RPA is rules-based. While AI promises to relax the rigidity of rules, it adds business risks that are poorly understood by both businesses and subject-matter experts. Rules-based “RPA 1.0” is mature and may pose a stronger business case than AI-enabled RPA.
    • RPA’s sweet spot is “swivel chair automation”: processes that require human workers to act as a conduit between several systems, moving between applications, manually keying, re-keying, copying, and pasting information. A bot can take their place.

    Impact and Result

    • Discover RPA and how it differentiates from other automation solutions.
    • Understand the benefits and risks of complementing RPA with AI.
    • Identify existing business processes best suited for automation with RPA.
    • Communicate RPA’s potential business benefits to stakeholders.

    Automate Work Faster and More Easily With Robotic Process Automation Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should use RPA to automate routine, repetitive data collection and processing work, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the ways we can support you.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Discover robotic process automation

    Learn about RPA, including how it compares to IT-led automation rooted in business process management practices and the role of AI.

    • Automate Work Faster and More Easily With Robotic Process Automation – Phase 1: Discover Robotic Process Automation
    • Robotic Process Automation Communication Template

    2. Identify processes best suited for robotic process automation

    Identify and prioritize candidate processes for RPA.

    • Automate Work Faster and More Easily With Robotic Process Automation – Phase 2: Identify Processes Best Suited for Robotic Process Automation
    • Process Evaluation Tool for Robotic Process Automation
    • Minimum Viable Business Case Document
    [infographic]

    Start Making Data-Driven People Decisions

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    • Ninety-one percent of IT leaders believe that analytics is important for talent management but 59% use no workforce analytics at all, although those who use analytics are much more effective than those who don't.
    • The higher the level of analytics used, the higher the level of effectiveness of the department as a whole.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • You don't need advanced metrics and analytics to see a return on people data. Begin by getting a strong foundation in place and showing the ROI on a pilot project.
    • Complex analyses will never make up for inadequate data quality. Spend the time up front to audit and improve data quality if necessary, no matter which stage of analytics proficiency you are at.
    • Ensure you collect and analyze only data that is essential to your decision making. More is not better, and excess data can detract from the overall impact of analytics.

    Impact and Result

    • Build a small-scale foundational pilot, which will allow you to demonstrate feasibility, refine your costs estimate, and show the ROI on people analytics for your budgeting meeting.
    • Drive organizational change incrementally by identifying and communicating with the stakeholders for your people analytics pilot.
    • Choose basic analytics suitable for organizations of all sizes and understand the building blocks of data quality to support more further analytics down the line.

    Start Making Data-Driven People Decisions Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should strategically apply people analytics to your IT talent management.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Define the problem and apply the checklist

    From choosing the right data for the right problem to evaluating your progress toward data-driven people decisions, follow these steps to build your foundation to people analytics.

    • Start Making Data-Driven People Decisions – Phase 1: Define the Problem and Apply the Checklist
    • People Analytics Strategy Template
    • Talent Metrics Library
    [infographic]

    Implement a Transformative IVR Experience That Empowers Your Customers

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    • Parent Category Name: Development
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    • Today’s customers expect a top-tier experience when interacting with businesses.
    • The advancements in IVR technology mean that IT departments are managing added complexity in drafting a strategy for a top-tier IVR approach.
    • Implementing best practices and the right enabling technology stack is critical to supporting world-class customer experience through IVR.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Don’t assume that contact centers and IVR systems are relics of the past. Customers still look to phone calls as being the most effective way to get a fast answer.
    • Tailor your IVR system for your customers. There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach – understand your key customer demographics and support their experience by implementing the most effective strategies for them.
    • Don’t buy best of breed, buy best for you. Base your enabling technology selection on your requirements and use cases, not on the latest industry trends and developments.

    Impact and Result

    • Before selecting and deploying technology solutions, create a database of common customer pain points and FAQs to act as an outline for the call flow tree.
    • Understand and apply operational best practices, such as ensuring proper call menu organization and using self-service applications, to improve IVR metrics and, ultimately, the customer experience.
    • Understand emerging technologies and evolving trends in the IVR space, including natural language processing and integrating your IVR with other essential enterprise applications (e.g. customer relationship management platforms).

    Implement a Transformative IVR Experience That Empowers Your Customers Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Transformative IVR Experience Deck – A deck outlining the best strategies and enabling technologies to implement in your IVR approach to improve your customer experience.

    This storyboard offers insight into impactful strategies and beneficial enabling technologies to implement in your IVR approach to improve your customers’ experience and to reduce the load on your support staff. This deck outlines IT’s role in the IVR development process, offering insight into how to develop an effective IVR call flow and providing details on relevant enabling technologies to consider implementing to further improve your offering.

    • Implement a Transformative IVR Experience That Empowers Your Customers – Phases 1-4

    2. IVR Call Flow Template – A template designed to help you build an effective call flow tree by providing further insight into how to better understand your customers.

    This template demonstrates an ideal IVR approach, outlining a sample call flow for a telecommunications company designed to meet the needs of a curated customer persona. Use this template to gain a better understanding of your own key customers and to construct your own call flow tree.

    • Create an IVR Call Flow That Empowers Your Customers
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Implement a Transformative IVR Experience That Empowers Your Customers

    Learn the strategies that will allow you to develop an effective interactive voice response (IVR) framework that supports self-service and improves customer experience.

    Stop! Are you ready for this project?

    This Research Is Designed For:

    • Business analysts, application directors/managers, and customer service leaders tasked with developing and executing a technology enablement strategy for optimizing their contact center approach.
    • Any organization aiming to improve its customer experience by implementing a customer-centric approach to over-the-phone service via an IVR system.

    This Research Will Help You:

    • Adopt the best strategies for outlining an effective IVR approach and for transforming an existing IVR system.
    • Improve customer experience and ultimately customer satisfaction by enabling you to create a more efficient IVR call flow tree.
    • Select the proper IVR strategies to focus on based on the maturity level of your organization's call center.
    • Review the "art of the possible" and learn of the latest developments in successful IVR execution.
    • Learn IT's role in developing a successful IVR system and in developing a technology strategy that optimizes your IVR approach.

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    • Today's customers expect a top-tier experience when interacting with businesses.
    • The advancements in IVR technology mean that IT departments are managing added complexity in drafting a strategy for a top-tier IVR approach.
    • Implementing best practices and the right enabling technology stack is critical to supporting world-class customer experience through IVR.

    Common Obstacles

    • Many organizations do not have a clear understanding of customers' drivers for contacting their IVR.
    • As many contact centers look to improve the customer experience, the need for an impactful IVR system has markedly increased. The proliferation of recommendations for IVR best practices and related technologies has made it difficult to identify and implement the right approach.
    • With a growing number of IVR-related requests, IT must be prepared to speak intelligently about requirements and the "art of the possible."

    Info-Tech's Approach

    • Before selecting and deploying technology solutions, create a database of common customer call drivers to act as an outline for the call flow tree.
    • Understand and apply operational best practices, such as ensuring proper call menu organization and using self-service applications, to improve IVR metrics and, ultimately, the customer experience.
    • Understand evolving trends and emerging technologies in the IVR space, including offering personalized service and using natural language processing/conversational AI.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Tailor your IVR system specifically for your customers. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. Understand your key customers and support their experience by implementing the most effective strategies for them.

    Voice is still the dominant way in which customers choose to receive support

    Despite the contrary beliefs that the preference for phone support and IVR systems is declining, studies have consistently shown that consumers still prefer receiving customer service over the phone.

    76%

    of customers prefer the "traditional" medium of phone calls to reach customer support agents.

    50%

    of customers across all age groups generally use the phone to contact customer support, making it the most-used customer service channel.

    Your IVR approach can make or break your customers' experience

    The feelings that customers are left with after interacting with contact centers and support lines has a major impact on their future purchase decisions

    Effective IVR systems provide customers with positive experiences, keeping them happy and satisfied. Poorly executed IVR systems leave customers feeling frustrated and contribute to an overall negative experience. Negative experiences with your IVR system could lead to your customers taking their business elsewhere.

    In fact, research by Haptik shows that an average of $262 per customer is lost each year due to poor IVR experiences ("7 Conversational IVR Trends for 2021 and Beyond," Haptik, 2021).

    50%

    of customers have abandoned their business transactions while dealing with an IVR system.

    Source: Vonage, 2020

    45%

    of customers will abandon a business altogether due to a poor IVR experience.

    Source: "7 Remarkable IVR Trends For the Year 2022 And Beyond," Haptik, 2021

    IVR systems only improve your customers' experience when done properly

    There are many common mistakes that organizations make when implementing their own IVR strategies:

    1. Offering too many menu options. IVR systems are supposed to allow customers to resolve their inquiries quickly, so it is integral that you organize your menu effectively. Less is more when it comes to your IVR call flow tree.
    2. A lack of self-service capabilities. IVR systems are meant to maximize customer service and improve the customer experience by offering self-service functionality. If resolutions for common issues can't be found through IVR, your return on investment (ROI) is limited.
    3. Having callers get stuck in an "IVR loop." Customers caught hearing the same information repeatedly will often abandon their call. Don't allow customers to get "tangled" in your call flow tree; always make human contact an option.
    4. Not offering personalized service. The inability to identify customers by their number or other identifying features leads to poor personalization and time wasted repeating information, contributing to an overall negative experience.
    5. Not updating the IVR system. By not taking advantage of new developments in IVR technology and by not using customer and employee feedback to upgrade your offering, you are missing out on the potential to improve your customers' experience. Complacency kills, and your organization will be at a competitive disadvantage because of it.

    Implement a transformative IVR approach that empowers your customers

    Call flow trees don't grow overnight; they require commitment, nurturing, and care

    1. Focus on the Roots of Your Call Flow Tree
      • Your call flow tree will only grow as strong as the roots allow it; begin beneath the surface by understanding the needs of your customers and the goals of your organization first, before building your initial IVR menu.
    2. Allow Customers the Opportunity to Branch Out
      • Empower your customers by directing your call flow tree to self-service applications where possible and to live agents when necessary.
    3. Let Your Call Flow Tree Flourish
      • Integrate your IVR with other relevant business applications and apply technological developments that align with the needs of your customers and the goals of your organization.
    4. Keep Watering Your Call Flow Tree
      • Don't let your call flow tree die! Elicit feedback from relevant stakeholders and develop an iterative review cycle to identify and implement necessary changes to your call flow tree, ensuring continued growth.

    IT plays an integral role in supporting the IVR approach

    IT is responsible for providing technology enablement of the IVR strategy

    While IT may not be involved in organizing the call flow tree itself, their impact on an organization's IVR approach is undeniable. Not only will IT assist with the implementation and integration of your IVR system, they will also be responsible for maintaining the technology on an ongoing basis. As such, IT should be a part of your organization's software selection team, following Info-Tech's methodology for optimizing your software selection process.

    • With an understanding of the organization's customer experience management strategy and business goals, IT should be looked toward to:
    • Provide insight into the "art of the possible" with IVR systems.
    • Recommend enabling technologies relative to your call center's maturity (e.g. agent assist and natural language processing).
    • Outline integration capabilities with your existing application portfolio.
    • Highlight any security concerns.
    • Assist with vendor engagement.
    • Take part in stakeholder feedback groups, consulting with agents about their pain points and attempting to solve their problems.

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    Focus on the Roots of Your Call Flow Tree

    Allow Customers the Opportunity to Branch Out Let Your IVR Call Flow Tree Flourish Keep Watering Your Call Flow Tree

    Call #1: Introduce the project, scoping customer call drivers and defining metrics of success.

    Call #3: Discuss the importance of promoting self-service and how to improve call routing processes, assessing the final tiers of the IVR.

    Call #4: Discuss the benefits of integrating your IVR within your existing business architecture and using relevant enabling technologies.

    Call #5: Discuss how to elicit feedback from relevant stakeholders and develop an iterative IVR review cycle, wrapping up the project.

    Call #2: Begin assessing initial IVR structure.

    A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series

    of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

    A typical GI is 5 to 7 calls over the course of 4 to 6 months.

    Phase 1

    Focus on the Roots of Your Call Flow Tree

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    Phase 4

    1.1 Understand your customers

    1.2 Develop goals for your IVR

    1.3 Align goals with KPIs

    1.4 Build your initial IVR menu

    2.1 Build the second tier of your IVR menu

    2.2 Build the third tier of your IVR menu

    3.1 Learn the benefits of a personalized IVR

    3.2 Review new technology to apply to your IVR

    4.1 Gather insights on your IVR's performance

    4.2 Create an agile review method

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Building a database of your customers' call drivers
    • Developing IVR-related goals and connecting them with your key performance indicators (KPIs)
    • Developing the first tier of your IVR menu

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Business stakeholders (business analysts, application director/manager, customer service leaders)
    • IT project team

    Implement a Transformative IVR Approach That Empowers Your Customers

    Step 1.1

    Understand Your Customers

    This step will walk you through the following activity:

    1.1.1 Build a database of the reasons why your customers call your contact center

    Focus on the Roots of Your Call Flow Tree

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Business stakeholders (business analysts, application director/manager, customer service leaders)
    • IT project team

    Outcomes of this step

    • List of your customers' call drivers

    Help your customers get to where they need to go

    Understand which questions customers need answered the most and organize your IVR menu accordingly

    • With any IVR system, your primary focus should be creating a simple, easily navigated call flow. You not only want your customers to be able to find the solutions that they are looking for, but you want them to be able to do so easily and quickly.
    • In order to direct customers more efficiently, you need to understand why they're motivated to call your contact center. This will be different for every organization, so it requires a deeper understanding of your customers.
    • After understanding the motivators behind your customers' reasons for calling, you'll be able to organize your call flow tree effectively.
    • Assign the most popular reasons that customers call first in your IVR call flow. Organizing your call flow in such a way will ensure a quicker turn around time for customer inquiries, providing callers with the immediate resolution that they are seeking.

    "Call flows are the structure of a call center's interactive voice response (IVR). They define the path a caller takes to reach a resolution. The more efficient the flow, the quicker a resolution can be – thereby delivering a better caller experience."

    Thomas Randall, Ph.D.
    Senior Research Analyst
    Info-Tech Research Group

    1.1.1 Activity: Build a list of the most common reasons that your key customers call your contact center

    30 minutes

    1. As a group, review the reasons that customers call your contact center. This includes reviewing which questions are asked most frequently, what services are most often inquired about, and what pain points and complaints live agents hear most regularly.
    2. Organize each call driver from most to least popular based on how often they are heard.
    3. Record your findings.
    Input Output
    • List of common customer questions
    • List of common customer pain points/complaints
    • Database of customer call drivers
    Materials Participants
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    • Project team
    • Customer service leaders/live agents

    Info-Tech Insight

    To understand why your customers are calling, first you need to know who your customers are. Improve your caller understanding by creating customer personas.

    1.1.1 Activity: Build a list of the most common reasons that your key customers call your contact center

    Example

    Customer Call Drivers
    Need to pay a bill
    Complaints about an outage to their service
    Inquiry about new plans
    Need to update account information
    Complaints about their last bill

    Step 1.2

    Develop Goals for Your IVR

    This step will walk you through the following activity:

    1.2.1 Outline IVR-related goals relevant to your organization.

    Focus on the Roots of Your Call Flow Tree

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Business stakeholders (business analysts, application director/manager, customer service leaders)
    • IT project team

    Outcomes of this step

    • Goals for your organizational IVR

    Create IVR-related goals you wish for your organization to achieve

    Organizations across different industries will measure success in a multitude of ways; develop goals that are relevant to your needs and desires

    Based on your customer experience strategy and what industry you're in, the goals that you aim to accomplish will look different. A doctor's office will be more concerned with an accurate diagnosis and high first call resolution rate than low average talk time!

    Setting business goals relevant to your organization is only half of the battle; it's just as important to hold your organization accountable to those goals and measure your continued progress toward meeting them.

    1.2.1 Activity: Brainstorm a list of goals that you would like your organization to achieve when optimizing your IVR approach

    30 minutes

    1. In two to three groups, brainstorm goals related to your IVR that are relevant to your organization.
    2. Classify these goals as being either quick wins or part of a longer-term engagement based on the time they would take to accomplish.
    3. Introduce your goals to the entire group, coming to an agreement on the top goals that the organization should aim to achieve through implementing a new/transformed IVR approach.
    InputOutput
    • Customer experience strategy
    • Desired IVR-related achievements
    • Organizational IVR goals
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    • Project team

    1.2.1 Activity: Brainstorm a list of goals that you would like your organization to achieve when optimizing your IVR approach

    Example

    Goal Designation
    Lower the average queue time Quick win
    Lower call abandonment rate Quick win
    Lower customer attrition Long-term
    Lower employee attrition Long-term
    Increase average speed of answer Quick win

    Step 1.3

    Align Your Goals With Your KPIs

    This step will walk you through the following activity:

    1.3.1 Review your organizational IVR goals and connect them with your key performance indicators (KPIs)

    Focus on the Roots of Your Call Flow Tree

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Business stakeholders (business analysts, application director/manager, customer service leaders)
    • IT project team

    Outcomes of this step

    • Metrics used to measure organizational success related to your IVR

    Ensure you are using the proper metrics for measuring the success of your call flow tree

    You won't know if your IVR is operating successfully if you don't know what success looks like for you. It is important to align your contact center KPIs with your business goals so you can hold your IVR system accountable.

    Example

    Metric Description Current Score Target Score [Date/Year]
    First call resolution
    Average abandonment rate
    Customer attrition
    Employee attrition
    Average queue time
    Service level
    Average speed of answer
    Average handle time
    Average call transfer rate
    Average talk time
    Customer self-service resolution
    Agent satisfaction
    Customer satisfaction

    1.3.1 Activity: Develop KPIs for your contact center and connect them to your organization's business goals

    30 minutes

    1. As a group, establish the metrics or KPIs that will be used to measure your progress against the organizational IVR goals created in Activity 1.2.1.
    2. Take note of your current score for each of your organizational goals and determine your target score.
    3. Attach a deadline or target date by which you would like to reach your target score. Target dates can vary based on whether your goal is classified as a quick win or part of a longer-term engagement.
    InputOutput
    • Organizational IVR goals
    • KPIs
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    • Project team

    Step 1.4

    Build Your Initial IVR Menu

    This step will walk you through the following activity:

    1.4.1 Develop the first tier of your IVR menu, determining the initial selections that customers will have to choose from

    Focus on the Roots of Your Call Flow Tree

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Business stakeholders (business analysts, application director/manager, customer service leaders)
    • IT project team

    Outcomes of this step

    • Tier one of your IVR call flow tree

    Keep your IVR concise – minimize the length of your voice prompts and limit the depth of your menus

    You don't want to overload your customers with information. Providing your callers with overly detailed prompts and too many menu options will only lead to frustration, ultimately diminishing both the efficiency and the effectiveness of your IVR. Limiting the length of your voice prompts and the depth of your menus will lay out a clear path for your callers, increasing the likelihood that they are able to navigate your IVR accurately.

    Each of your IVR menus should provide your customers with no more than five selections.

    Your IVR should offer a maximum of three menu tiers.

    Each of your selection "descriptions" or voice prompts should be no longer than four seconds in length.

    Info-Tech Insight

    According to a study by Telzio (2020), introductory IVR messages that greet your customers and identify your company should be under 7.9 seconds in length. Longer introductions will only bore, frustrate, and overload the customer before the call really even begins.

    When developing your voice prompts, it is integral to speak clearly using simple and easily understood language

    • Speak clearly and stay away from industry-specific jargon to ensure that your voice prompts are widely understood by your customer base. This will allow callers to digest the information relayed through your IVR more accurately.
    • Part of increasing the retention of information communicated through your IVR is also ensuring that sufficient pauses are taken between each of your voice prompts. Just as you want to avoid overloading your customers with voice prompts that are too long and too detailed, you also want to give your callers adequate time to process the information that is being relayed to them.
    • Improving the ease of listening to your IVR will reduce the risk of overwhelming your callers and will increase the likelihood that they are able to follow along appropriately, directing themselves down the proper call flow.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Securing voice talent and be expensive and cumbersome. Consider using an automated voice through a text-to-speech solution for your prompts. This will ensure that all your prompts are consistent throughout your menus, and it also makes it significantly easier to provide crucial updates within your IVR system.

    When sufficient pauses are taken between menu options, input errors can be reduced by over…

    Source: Ansafone Contact Centers, 2019

    1.4.1 Activity: Begin building your call flow tree by developing the initial selections that customers will choose from when dialing into your IVR

    30 minutes

    1. Review the database of customer call drivers completed in Activity 1.1.1 to create the opening menu of your IVR call flow tree.
    2. Limit your selections/prompts to a maximum of five by grouping related questions, services, and complaints/pain points into broad categories.
    3. Organize your selections/prompts according to how often customers call in relating to that topic.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Remember: You don't need five selections! That is the maximum recommended number of prompts to use and will most likely be reserved for more complex call flows. More isn't always better. If you can limit your initial menu to fewer selections, then do so.

    InputOutput
    • Database of customer call drivers
    • Initial IVR menu
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    • Project team

    1.4.1 Activity: Begin building your call flow tree by developing the initial selections that customers will choose from when dialing into your IVR

    Example

    IVR Initial Greeting

    1. For Billing and Payments

    2. To Report an Outage

    3. To Make Changes to Your Plan or Account

    Phase 2

    Allow Customers the Opportunity to Branch Out

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    Phase 4

    1.1 Understand your customers

    1.2 Develop goals for your IVR

    1.3 Align goals with KPIs

    1.4 Build your initial IVR menu

    2.1 Build the second tier of your IVR menu

    2.2 Build the third tier of your IVR menu

    3.1 Learn the benefits of a personalized IVR

    3.2 Review new technology to apply to your IVR

    4.1 Gather insights on your IVR's performance

    4.2 Create an agile review method

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Completing the second tier of your call flow tree
    • Completing the third and final tier of your call flow tree

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Business stakeholders (business analysts, application director/manager, customer service leaders)
    • IT project team

    Implement a Transformative IVR Approach That Empowers Your Customers

    Step 2.1

    Build the Second Tier of Your IVR Menu

    This step will walk you through the following activity:

    • 2.1.1 Complete the second tier of your call flow tree, branching out from your initial menu

    Allow Customers the Opportunity to Branch Out

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Business stakeholders (business analysts, application director/manager, customer service leaders)
    • IT project team

    Outcomes of this step

    • Tier 2 of your IVR call flow tree

    An IVR system should empower your customers to solve problems on their own

    Integrate business applications into your IVR menus to enable self-service capabilities and automate processes where possible

    • An IVR system should assist your customer service team while also empowering your customers. This can be accomplished through offering self-service and using automated messaging via a broadcast messaging system.
    • Some common self-service practices include providing callers with the ability to check credit card statements, pay bills, and track shipments.
    • Automated messaging can be used to address common customer questions. For instance, if a company-wide issue exists, an automated message can outline the issue and highlight the approximate time for resolution, providing customers with the answer they were seeking while eliminating the need to speak to a live agent. This technique is commonly practiced by internet providers during outages.
    • Providing callers with the opportunity to find a resolution for themselves through self-service and automated messaging not only improves the customer experience but also frees up your customer service team for more pressing matters.

    73%

    of customers want to be provided with the ability to solve issues on their own.

    67%

    of customers prefer to use self-service options over speaking with a customer service representative.

    Source: Raffle, 2020

    2.1.1 Activity: Grow your call flow tree! Begin branching out from your initial menu options and develop the second tier of your IVR system

    30 minutes

    1. Branch out from your initial IVR menu created in Activity 1.4.1. Get more specific in your prompts, branching out from the general groupings you have created.
    2. Consult with your database of customer call drivers created in Activity 1.1.1 to organize your subgroupings, again prioritizing the services most sought and the questions, complaints, and pain points most frequently heard.
    3. Limit each subsection to a maximum of five prompts.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Always provide your callers with the option to go back to a previous menu or to have menu options repeated.

    InputOutput
    • Database of customer call drivers
    • Initial IVR menu
    • Second IVR menu
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    • Project team

    2.1.1 Activity: Grow your call flow tree! Begin branching out from your initial menu options and develop the second tier of your IVR system

    Example

    This is an image of the sample flow tree from Activity 2.1.1


    Step 2.2

    Build the Third Tier of Your IVR Menu

    This step will walk you through the following activity:

    2.2.1 Complete your call flow tree by branching out your third and final tier of menu options.

    Allow Customers the Opportunity to Branch Out

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Business stakeholders (business analysts, application director/manager, customer service leaders)
    • IT project team

    Outcomes of this step

    • Third and final tier of your IVR call flow tree

    Provide your callers with the option to speak to a live agent – but not too soon

    While promoting self-service and automating certain processes will improve the functionality of your IVR, it is also important to realize that some issues will ultimately require human intervention. An effective IVR system harmonizes these concepts by making human contact an option, but not too early in the process. You need to find the right balance!

    When organizing your IVR call flow tree, you need to be conscious of sending clients in an endless "IVR loop." You should never have your IVR continually repeat its menu options. Customers will abandon an IVR if they are stuck in an IVR loop, being forced to listen to the same information repeatedly without having a way to reach an agent.

    If a problem cannot be solved within three steps or by the third tier of your IVR menus, callers should be provided with the option to speak to a live agent, if not automatically routed to one. By providing your callers with the option to speak to a live agent on the third tier of your IVR, you are still offering ample time for customers to discover an avenue to solve their issue on their own through self-service, without frustrating them by losing them in an endless loop of IVR options.

    30%

    of customers say that not being able to reach a human agent is the most frustrating aspect of a poor customer service experience.

    Source: ProProfs Chat, 2022

    Info-Tech Insight

    Consider routing callers to a live agent not only on the third tier of your IVR menus but also after three input errors. Multiple input errors can show an eagerness to speak to a representative or a strong misunderstanding of the IVR offering.

    How you direct a customer to a live agent can make all the difference

    Don't think that just offering your customers the option to speak to a live agent is enough. When aiming to significantly improve your customers' experience, how you direct calls to your live agents plays a major role. When a call is being directed to a live agent, be sure to:

    • Optimize your call routing and minimize call transfers. Use skills-based routing to direct your incoming client calls to the most suitable agent to resolve their issue. Inaccurately routing callers through your IVR leads to having to transfer the customer to another agent, which is a major contributor to a negative customer experience.
    • Include wait-time expectations and call-back functionality. There is no denying it: Waiting on hold can be a real pain. If a customer needs to go on hold, inform them of where they are in the queue and what the approximate wait time is. A little transparency can go a long way. You should also provide customers with the option to have a representative call them back. This greatly improves the customer experience, particularly when wait times are long.
    • Play useful on-hold messages. If a customer does decide to wait on the line to speak to a representative, ensure your on-hold messaging doesn't negatively impact their experience. Always have multiple songs and messages available to cycle through to limit customer annoyance. For on-hold messages, consider mentioning self-service capabilities available on other channels or providing company news and information on special promotions. Know your key customer demographics and plan your on-hold messaging accordingly.

    72%

    of customers view having to talk to multiple agents as poor customer service.

    Source: ProProfs Chat, 2022

    33%

    of customers highlight waiting on hold as being their biggest frustration.

    Source: EmailAnalytics, 2022

    2.2.1 Activity: Complete your call flow tree!

    30 minutes

    1. Branch out from the second tier of your IVR call flow tree created in Activity 2.1.1, connecting relevant prompts with self-service applications and automated responses. Keep in mind, most of your frequently asked questions can and should be directed toward an automated response.
    2. Direct all remaining prompts to a live agent, ensuring each selection from your second-tier menu is capped off appropriately.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Remember: Your IVR system doesn't live in isolation. The information offered by your IVR, particularly from automated messages, should be consistent with information found within other resources (e.g. online knowledge bases).

    InputOutput
    • Tier 1 and 2 of your IVR menus
    • Completed IVR call flow
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    • Project team

    2.2.1 Activity: Complete your call flow tree!

    Example

    This is an image of the sample flow tree from Activity 2.2.1

    Phase 3

    Let Your IVR Call Flow Tree Flourish

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    Phase 4

    1.1 Understand your customers

    1.2 Develop goals for your IVR

    1.3 Align goals with KPIs

    1.4 Build your initial IVR menu

    2.1 Build the second tier of your IVR menu

    2.2 Build the third tier of your IVR menu

    3.1 Learn the benefits of a personalized IVR

    3.2 Review new technology to apply to your IVR

    4.1 Gather insights on your IVR's performance

    4.2 Create an agile review method

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Reviewing the benefits of offering personalized service
    • Reviewing new technologies offered in the IVR space

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Business stakeholders (business analysts, application director/manager, customer service leaders)
    • IT project team

    Implement a Transformative IVR Approach That Empowers Your Customers

    Step 3.1

    Learn the Benefits of a Personalized IVR

    This step will walk you through the following activity:

    3.1.1 Review the benefits of offering personalized service, namely by connecting your IVR system with your customer knowledge base

    Let Your IVR Call Flow Tree Flourish

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Business stakeholders (business analysts, application director/manager, customer service leaders)
    • IT project team

    Outcomes of this step

    • Understanding the importance of offering personalized service

    Personalizing service is integral for improving your customer experience

    Integrate your IVR system with your customer relationship management (CRM) system or customer knowledge base of choice to provide support to your customers on a personal level.

    The integration of your IVR system with your CRM or other applicable knowledge base allows for customer data (e.g. customer history and previous interactions) to be accessible to your staff during calls. Access to this data allows for a deeper understanding of your customers and for personalization of service. This provides immediate benefits to your contact center that will improve your customer experience.

    When you inevitably do need to transfer a customer to another agent, they won't have to repeat their issue to a new representative, as all their information will now be easily accessible. Being forced to repeat themselves to multiple agents is a major cause of frustration for customers. This integration would also allow you to route callers to the previous agent that they dealt with whenever possible for the purpose of continuity, and it would enable you to implement other beneficial technologies as well.

    One such example is "agent assist." Agent assist is an AI bot that listens in on calls, learning customer context and automatically searching knowledge bases to help resolve queries without the agent having to put the caller on hold to manually perform that work themselves. Not only does agent assist improve customer resolution times, but it also ramps up onboarding time, allowing for new agents to enter the workforce and perform with confidence earlier.

    76%

    of consumers expect personalized experiences.

    71%

    of customers expect internal collaboration so that they don't have to repeat themselves.

    Source: Zendesk, 2019

    Personalization can empower your IVR in many ways

    Personalizing your IVR does much more than just provide your customer service representatives with conversational context. Personalization enables your IVR to recognize callers by their phone number, or even by voice via biometric authentication technologies.

    This advanced level of recognition allows your IVR to greet your callers by name, speak to them in their preferred language, send follow-up correspondence to their preferred method of communication (i.e. email or SMS), and even provide them with contact numbers and addresses for your organization's physical locations that are closest to them.

    An example of a more advanced functionality is having your IVR call flow personalized for each customer based on their call history. As customers call in, their data is collected, ultimately improving your IVR's ability to predict and understand caller intent. This makes personalized call flows possible. If customers typically call in to make payments, your IVR can logically deduce that their next call will be for the same reason, and it will alter the call menu to direct them to that functionality more efficiently.

    Step 3.2

    Review New Technology to Apply to Your IVR

    This step will walk you through the following activity:

    3.2.1 Review new technologies offered in the IVR space and understand their impact

    Let Your IVR Call Flow Tree Flourish

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Business stakeholders (business analysts, application director/manager, customer service leaders)
    • IT project team

    Outcomes of this step

    • Understanding of key technologies

    Let your customers tell you exactly what they need

    Use natural language processing and conversational AI to further advance your IVR offering

    Instead of making your customers work their way through your call flow tree to find out what they need, why not just ask them? Conversational IVR, also known as an "intuitive IVR system," makes this possible.

    Think Google Assistant, Siri, and Alexa. Your customers can simply tell you what they need and your conversational IVR, using the advancements in natural language processing and conversational AI, will take it from there, directing callers to the resources needed to resolve their issues.

    Powerful enough to understand full sentences and not just select words or phrases, the increased intelligence of a conversational IVR system allows it to handle complex customer inquiries. Leveraging machine learning capabilities, the system will only continue to improve its ability to understand caller intent, ultimately leading to increased call routing accuracy as it fields more and more calls.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Remember: Your customers want fast and easy, not overwhelming and confusing. Some customers who are greeted with an open-ended question from a conversational IVR may not be sure how to respond.

    Understand your key customer demographics and act accordingly. It may be beneficial to provide your callers with guidelines of what to say. Outlining appropriate responses that will guide your customers to their desired department quicker will boost their experience with your conversational IVR.

    There are a lot of benefits to implementing a conversational IVR

    • Putting your callers in control and offering a more humanized approach, conversational IVRs are the preferred first point of contact for customers.
    • Conversational IVRs reduce the time required to reach resolution and can handle more calls than a standard IVR.
    • Conversational IVRs allow for the collection of more relevant data. By not limiting callers to predetermined menu options, you can track the reasons behind customers' calls with more accuracy, using this data to drive future IVR developments.
    • Conversational IVRs are more cost-effective than standard IVRs. According to a report by IBM, companies world-wide spend over $1.3 trillion to address 256 billion customer calls annually. This means that each call a live agent addresses costs an average of $30 (Cognigy, 2020). With a conversational IVR, that cost can be reduced to one-eighth (ETCIO.com, 2020).
    • Conversational IVRs can be handle calls in multiple languages, offering improved scalability for companies operating multi-nationally.

    60%

    of callers will bypass the pre-recorded messages in a standard IVR to reach a human voice.

    Source: Cognigy, 2020

    66%

    of requests can be resolved faster by a conversational IVR than by a live agent.

    Source: Cognigy, 2020

    Despite this, only...

    28%

    of IVR systems contacted use voice response as their primary input method.

    Source: Telzio, 2020

    How do you know if a conversational IVR is right for your organization?

    Large, enterprise-level organizations that field a high volume of customer calls are more likely to receive the benefits and higher ROI from implementing a conversational IVR

    Instead of updating the entire IVR system and implementing a conversational IVR, smaller and mid-level organizations should consider attaching a natural language processing front-end to their existing IVR. Through this, you will be able to reap a lot of the same benefits you would if you were to upgrade to a conversational IVR.

    You can attach a natural language processing front-end to your existing IVR in two ways.

    1. Use an API to recognize your customer's voice prompts. Greet your customers with a question, such as "what is your reason for calling," as your initial IVR menu, and when your customer answers, their response will be sent to your selected API (Amazon Lex, IBM Watson, Google Dialogflow, etc.). The API will then process the customer's input and direct the caller to the appropriate branch of your call flow tree.
    2. Use a conversational AI platform to field your calls. Implement a conversational AI platform to be the first point of contact for your customers. After receiving and analyzing the input from your customers, the platform would then route your callers to your current IVR system and to the appropriate menu, whether that be to an automated message, a self-service application, or a live agent.

    Phase 4

    Keep Watering Your IVR Call Flow Tree

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    Phase 4

    1.1 Understand your customers

    1.2 Develop goals for your IVR

    1.3 Align goals with KPIs

    1.4 Build your initial IVR menu

    2.1 Build the second tier of your IVR menu

    2.2 Build the third tier of your IVR menu

    3.1 Learn the benefits of a personalized IVR

    3.2 Review new technology to apply to your IVR

    4.1 Gather insights on your IVR's performance

    4.2 Create an agile review method

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Understanding the importance of receiving feedback from relevant stakeholders and the best practices for obtaining feedback
    • Understanding the best practices for developing an ongoing review cycle

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Business stakeholders (business analysts, application director/manager, customer service leaders)
    • IT project team

    Implement a Transformative IVR Approach That Empowers Your Customers

    Step 4.1

    Gather Insights on Your IVR's Performance

    This step will walk you through the following activity:

    4.1.1 Understand the importance of receiving feedback and review the best methods for obtaining it from your clients.

    Keep Watering Your IVR Call Flow Tree

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Business stakeholders (business analysts, application director/manager, customer service leaders)
    • IT project team

    Outcomes of this step

    • Understanding of the importance of receiving feedback and how to obtain it from customers

    Elicit feedback from your employees and from your customers

    Your live agents are on the proverbial front lines, fielding calls from customers daily. As such, they are the prime stakeholders for knowing what kinds of calls the organization receives and how often. Their input on the most frequent reasons that customers call, whether it be to address common pain points or to have FAQs answered, is invaluable. Ask them regularly for their feedback on how the IVR system is performing and which updates should be implemented.

    While improving the agent experience is a driver behind adopting an IVR system, the focus should always be improving your customer experience. So why wouldn't you ask your customers for their feedback on your IVR offering? Most customers don't only want to be asked to provide feedback, they expect to be asked. Have your agents ask your customers directly about their experience with your IVR or use the functions of your IVR to offer automated end-of-call surveys.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Many IVR systems are capable of recording calls. Listening back on previous calls is another great way to further understand how your IVR is performing, and it also can provide a glimpse into your customers' experience.

    Surveys provide great insight into your customers' level of satisfaction – not only with your IVR but also with your live agents

    Customer satisfaction score (CSAT) is a great way to determine how happy callers are with their experiences with your organization. CSAT surveys ask your clients outright how satisfied they are with their recent interaction and have them rate your service on a scale. While straightforward, the feedback received from CSAT surveys is more general and can lack depth.

    For more detailed responses, consider asking your clients an open-ended question as opposed to using a rating scale. This will provide you with a more specific understanding of your customers' experience. For this, an IVR system that supports voice transcription is best. Automated speech-to-text functionality will ensure rapid results.

    Another option is to offer a survey that includes skip logic. These multi-tiered surveys, much like an IVR call flow tree, direct your callers to different follow-up questions based on their previous answers. While capable of providing more insight into the customer experience, these surveys are only recommended for more complex service offerings.

    Customer feedback is vitally important

    Asking for feedback makes your callers feel valued, and it also provides your organization with extremely useful information – including an understanding of what you may need to change within your IVR

    90%

    of consumers believe that organizations should provide them with the opportunity to give customer feedback.

    Source: SmallBizGenius, 2022

    41%

    of customer support professionals say that CSAT is their team's most important KPI.

    Source: Hiver, 2022

    Step 4.2

    Create an Agile Review Method

    This step will walk you through the following activity:

    4.2.1 Understand the best practices for developing an ongoing review cycle for your IVR approach

    Keep Watering Your IVR Call Flow Tree

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Business stakeholders (business analysts, application director/manager, customer service leaders)
    • IT project team

    Outcomes of this step

    • Understanding of the importance of IVR maintenance and of the development of an iterative review cycle

    Create an agile review method to continually enhance your call flows

    • Track items
      • Elicit feedback from your key stakeholders (i.e. live agents) as part of a regular review – every month, two months, six months, or year – of your call flow tree's efficiency. Delve into the feedback elicited from your customers at the same intervals. Look for patterns and trends and record items accordingly.
    • Manage backlog
      • Store and organize your recorded items into a backlog, prioritizing items to implement in order of importance. This could be structured by way of identifying which items are a quick win vs. which items are part of a more strategic and long-term implementation.
    • Perform iteration
      • Record key metric scores and communicate the changes you have planned to stakeholders before you implement items. Then, make the change.
    • Be retrospective
      • Examine the success of the implementation by comparing your metric scores from before and after the change. Record instances where performing similar changes could be carried out better in future iterations.

    Summary of Accomplishment

    • Knowledge Gained
      • Benefits of enabling personalized service
      • IVR-enabling technologies
      • Methods of eliciting feedback
    • Processes Optimized
      • IVR voice prompt creation
      • IVR voice prompt organization
      • IVR review cycles
    • Deliverables Completed
      • Database of customer call drivers
      • Organizational IVR goals and KPIs
      • IVR call flow tree

    Related Info-Tech Research

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    • IT needs a method to pinpoint which contact center solution best aligns with business objectives, adapting to a post-COVID-19 world of remote work, flexibility, and scalability.
    This image contains a screenshot from Info-tech's Build a Strong Technology Foundation for Customer Experience Management.

    Build a Strong Technology Foundation for Customer Experience Management

    • Customer expectations around personalization, channel preferences, and speed-to-resolution are at an all-time high. Your customers are willing to pay more for high-value experiences, and having a strong customer experience management (CXM) strategy is a proven path to creating sustainable value for the organization.
    This image contains a screenshot from Info-tech's IT Strategy Research Center

    IT Strategy Research Center

    • Create an IT strategy based on business needs, not just intuition.
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    SoftwareReviews

    • Accelerate and improve your software selection process with enterprise software reviews. Focus on available resources for communications platform as a service providers and conversational intelligence software.

    Bibliography

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    "7 Remarkable IVR Trends For the Year 2022 And Beyond." Haptik, 30 Dec. 2021. Accessed 27 April 2022.
    "8 IVR Strategies that Keep Customers Happy." Ansafone Contact Centers, 31 May 2019. Accessed 25 April 2022.
    "Agent Assist." Speakeasy AI, 19 April 2022. Accessed 27 April 2022.
    "AI chatbot that's easy to use." IBM, n.d. Accessed 21 June 2022.
    "IVR Trends to Watch in 2020 and Beyond: Inside CX." Intrado, 1 May 2020. Accessed 27 April 2022.
    "RIP IVR: 1980-2020." Vonage, 2 June 2020. Accessed 16 June 2022.
    Andrea. "What do Customers Want? – 37 Customer Service Statistics." SmallBizGenius, 17 March 2022. Accessed 24 May 2022.
    Anthony, James. "106 Customer Service Statistics You Must See: 2021/2022 Data & Analysis." FinancesOnline, 14 Jan. 2022. Accessed 27 April 2022.
    Brown, James. "14 stats that prove the importance of self-service in customer service." raffle, 13 Oct. 2020. Accessed 17 June 2022.
    Buesing, Eric, et al. "Getting the best customer service from your IVR: Fresh eyes on an old problem." McKinsey & Company, 1 Feb. 2019. Accessed 25 April 2022.
    Callari, Ron. "IVR Menus and Best Practices." Telzio, 4 Sep. 2020. Accessed 27 April 2022.
    Cornell, Jared. "104 Customer Service Statistics & Facts of 2022." ProProfs Chat, 6 April 2022. Accessed 16 June 2022.
    DeCarlo, Matthew. "18 Common IVR Mistakes & How To Configure Effective IVR." GetVoIP, 13 June 2019. Accessed 27 April 2022.
    DeMers, Jayson. "77 Customer Service Statistics to Know." EmailAnalytics, 23 March 2022. Accessed 27 April 2022.
    Frants, Valeriy. Interview. Conducted by Austin Wagar, 22 June 2022.
    Grieve, Patrick. "Personalized customer service: what it is and how to provide it." Zendesk, 28 June 2019. Accessed 27 April 2022.
    "How Natural Language Processing Can Help Your Interactive Voice Response System Meet Best Practice." Hostcomm, 15 July 2019. Accessed 25 April 2022.
    "IVR and customer experience: get the best UX for your clients." Kaleyra, 14 Dec. 2020. Accessed 25 April 2022.
    Irvine, Bill. "Selecting an IVR System for Customer Satisfaction Surveys." IVR Technology Group, 14 April 2020. Accessed 22 June 2022.
    Kulbyte, Toma. "Key Customer Experience Statistics to Know." SuperOffice, 24 June 2021. Accessed 24 May 2022.
    Leite, Thiago. "What's the Difference Between Standard & Conversational IVR?" Cognigy, 27 Oct. 2020. Accessed 24 May 2022.
    Maza, Cristina. "What is IVR? The ultimate guide." Zendesk, 30 Sep. 2020. Accessed 25 April 2022.
    McCraw, Corey. "What is IVR Call Flow? Benefits, Features, Metrics & More." GetVoIP, 30 April 2020. Accessed 25 April 2022.
    Mircevski, Bruno. "Smart IVR Introduction – What Is It and Why You Should Use It." Ideta, 7 March 2022. Accessed 28 April 2022.
    Oriel, Astha. "Artificial Intelligence in IVR: A Step Towards Faster Customer Services." Analytics Insight, 19 Aug. 2020. Accessed 24 May 2022.
    Perzynska, Kasia. "What is CSAT & How to Measure Customer Satisfaction?" Survicate, 9 March 2022. Accessed 22 June 2022.
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    Robinson, Kerry. "Insight of the Week: Make Your IVR More Like Alexa." Waterfield Tech, 20 April 2022. Accessed 25 April 2022.
    Sehgal, Karishma. "Exclusive Research – 76% of customer service teams offer support outside of business hours." Hiver, 4 May 2022. Accessed 22 June 2022.
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    Thompson, Adrian. "A Guide to Conversational IVR." The Bot Forge, 27 Jan. 2021. Accessed 21 June 2022.
    Tolksdorf, Juergen. " 5 Ways to Leverage AI and Agent-Assist to Improve Customer Experience." Genesys, 19 May 2020. Accessed 27 April 2022.
    Vaish, Aakrit. "5 ways conversational IVR is helping businesses revolutionize customer service." ETCIO.com, 20 March 2020. Web.
    Westfall, Leah. "Improving customer experience with the right IVR strategy." RingCentral, 23 July 2021. Accessed 25 April 2022.

    Domino – Maintain, Commit to, or Vacate?

    If you have a Domino/Notes footprint that is embedded within your business units and business processes and is taxing your support organization, you may have met resistance from the business and been asked to help the organization migrate away from the Lotus Notes platform. The Lotus Notes platform was long used by technology and businesses and a multipurpose solution that, over the years, became embedded within core business applications and processes.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    For organizations that are struggling to understand their options for the Domino platform, the depth of business process usage is typically the biggest operational obstacle. Migrating off the Domino platform is a difficult option for most organizations due to business process and application complexity. In addition, migrating clients have to resolve the challenges with more than one replaceable solution.

    Impact and Result

    The most common tactic is for the organization to better understand their Domino migration options and adopt an application rationalization strategy for the Domino applications entrenched within the business. Options include retiring, replatforming, migrating, or staying with your Domino platform.

    Domino – Maintain, Commit to, or Vacate? Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Domino – Maintain, Commit to, or Vacate? – A brief deck that outlines key migration options for HCL Domino platforms.

    This blueprint will help you assess the fit, purpose, and price of Domino options; develop strategies for overcoming potential challenges; and determine the future of Domino for your organization.

    • Domino – Maintain, Commit to, or Vacate? Storyboard

    2. Application Rationalization Tool – A tool to understand your business-developed applications, their importance to business process, and the potential underlying financial impact.

    Use this tool to input the outcomes of your various application assessments.

    • Application Rationalization Tool

    Infographic

    Further reading

    Domino – Maintain, Commit to, or Vacate?

    Lotus Domino still lives, and you have options for migrating away from or remaining with the platform.

    Executive Summary

    Info-Tech Insight

    “HCL announced that they have somewhere in the region of 15,000 Domino customers worldwide, and also claimed that that number is growing. They also said that 42% of their customers are already on v11 of Domino, and that in the year or so since that version was released, it’s been downloaded 78,000 times. All of which suggests that the Domino platform is, in fact, alive and well.”
    – Nigel Cheshire in Team Studio

    Your Challenge

    You have a Domino/Notes footprint embedded within your business units and business processes. This is taxing your support organization; you are meeting resistance from the business, and you are now asked to help the organization migrate away from the Lotus Notes platform. The Lotus Notes platform was long used by technology and businesses as a multipurpose solution that, over the years, became embedded within core business applications and processes.

    Common Obstacles

    For organizations that are struggling to understand their options for the Domino platform, the depth of business process usage is typically the biggest operational obstacle. Migrating off the Domino platform is a difficult option for most organizations due to business process and application complexity. In addition, migrating clients have to resolve the challenges with more than one replaceable solution.

    Info-Tech Approach

    The most common tactic is for the organization to better understand their Domino migration options and adopt an application rationalization strategy for the Domino applications entrenched within the business. Options include retiring, replatforming, migrating, or staying with your Domino platform.

    Review

    Is “Lotus” Domino still alive?

    Problem statement

    The number of member engagements with customers regarding the Domino platform has, as you might imagine, dwindled in the past couple of years. While many members have exited the platform, there are still many members and organizations that have entered a long exit program, but with how embedded Domino is in business processes, the migration has slowed and been met with resistance. Some organizations had replatformed the applications but found that the replacement target state was inadequate and introduced friction because the new solution was not a low-code/business-user-driven environment. This resulted in returning the Domino platform to production and working through a strategy to maintain the environment.

    This research is designed for:

    • IT strategic direction decision-makers
    • IT managers responsible for an existing Domino platform
    • Organizations evaluating migration options for mission-critical applications running on Domino

    This research will help you:

    1. Evaluate migration options.
    2. Assess the fit and purpose.
    3. Consider strategies for overcoming potential challenges.
    4. Determine the future of this platform for your organization.

    The “everything may work” scenario

    Adopt and expand

    Believe it or not, Domino and Notes are still options to consider when determining a migration strategy. With HCL still committed to the platform, there are options organizations should seek to better understand rather than assuming SharePoint will solve all. In our research, we consider:

    Importance to current business processes

    • Importance of use
    • Complexity in migrations
    • Choosing a new platform

    Available tools to facilitate

    • Talent/access to skills
    • Economies of scale/lower cost at scale
    • Access to technology

    Info-Tech Insight

    With multiple options to consider, take the time to clearly understand the application rationalization process within your decision making.

    • Archive/retire
    • Application migration
    • Application replatform
    • Stay right where you are

    Eliminate your bias – consider the advantages

    “There is a lot of bias toward Domino; decisions are being made by individuals who know very little about Domino and more importantly, they do not know how it impacts business environment.”

    – Rob Salerno, Founder & CTO, Rivet Technology Partners

    Domino advantages include:

    Modern Cloud & Application

    • No-code/low-code technology

    Business-Managed Application

    • Business written and supported
    • Embrace the business support model
    • Enterprise class application

    Leverage the Application Taxonomy & Build

    • A rapid application development platform
    • Develop skill with HCL training

    HCL Domino is a supported and developed platform

    Why consider HCL?

    • Consider scheduling a Roadmap Session with HCL. This is an opportunity to leverage any value in the mission and brand of your organization to gain insights or support from HCL.
    • Existing Domino customers are not the only entities seeking certainty with the platform. Software solution providers that support enterprise IT infrastructure ecosystems (backup, for example) will also be seeking clarity for the future of the platform. HCL will be managing these relationships through the channel/partner management programs, but our observations indicate that Domino integrations are scarce.
    • HCL Domino should be well positioned feature-wise to support low-code/NoSQL demands for enterprises and citizen developers.

    Visualize Your Application Roadmap

    1. Focus on the application portfolio and crafting a roadmap for rationalization.
      • The process is intended to help you determine each application’s functional and technical adequacy for the business process that it supports.
    2. Document your findings on respective application capability heatmaps.
      • This drives your organization to a determination of application dispositions and provides a tool to output various dispositions for you as a roadmap.
    3. Sort the application portfolio into a disposition status (keep, replatform, retire, consolidate, etc.)
      • This information will be an input into any cloud migration or modernization as well as consolidation of the infrastructure, licenses, and support for them.

    Our external support perspective

    by Darin Stahl

    Member Feedback

    • Some members who have remaining Domino applications in production – while the retire, replatform, consolidate, or stay strategy is playing out – have concerns about the challenges with ongoing support and resources required for the platform. In those cases, some have engaged external services providers to augment staff or take over as managed services.
    • While there could be existing support resources (in house or on retainer), the member might consider approaching an external provider who could help backstop the single resource or even provide some help with the exit strategies. At this point, the conversation would be helpful in any case. One of our members engaged an external provider in a Statement of Work for IBM Domino Administration focused on one-time events, Tier 1/Tier 2 support, and custom ad hoc requests.
    • The augmentation with the managed services enabled the member to shift key internal resources to a focus on executing the exit strategies (replatform, retire, consolidate), since the business knowledge was key to that success.
    • The member also very aggressively governed the Domino environment support needs to truly technical issues/maintenance of known and supported functionality rather than coding new features (and increasing risk and cost in a migration down the road) – in short, freezing new features and functionality unless required for legal compliance or health and safety.
    • There obviously are other providers, but at this point Info-Tech no longer maintains a market view or scan of those related to Domino due to low member demand.

    Domino database assessments

    Consider the database.

    • Domino database assessments should be informed through the lens of a multi-value database, like jBase, or an object system.
    • The assessment of the databases, often led by relational database subject matter experts grounded in normalized databases, can be a struggle since Notes databases must be denormalized.
    Key/Value Column

    Use case: Heavily accessed, rarely updated, large amounts of data
    Data Model: Values are stored in a hash table of keys.
    Fast access to small data values, but querying is slow
    Processor friendly
    Based on amazon's Dynamo paper
    Example: Project Voldemort used by LinkedIn

    this is a Key/Value example

    Use case: High availability, multiple data centers
    Data Model: Storage blocks of data are contained in columns
    Handles size well
    Based on Google's BigTable
    Example: Hadoop/Hbase used by Facebook and Yahoo

    This is a Column Example
    Document Graph

    Use case: Rapid development, Web and programmer friendly
    Data Model: Stores documents made up of tagged elements. Uses Key/Value collections
    Better query abilities than Key/Value databases.
    Inspired by Lotus Notes.
    Example: CouchDB used by BBC

    This is a Document Example

    Use case: Best at dealing with complexity and relationships/networks
    Data model: Nodes and relationships.
    Data is processed quickly
    Inspired by Euler and graph theory
    Can easily evolve schemas
    Example: Neo4j

    This is a Graph Example

    Understand your options

    Archive/Retire

    Store the application data in a long-term repository with the means to locate and read it for regulatory and compliance purposes.

    Migrate

    Migrate to a new version of the application, facilitating the process of moving software applications from one computing environment to another.

    Replatform

    Replatforming is an option for transitioning an existing Domino application to a new modern platform (i.e. cloud) to leverage the benefits of a modern deployment model.

    Stay

    Review the current Domino platform roadmap and understand HCL’s support model. Keep the application within the Domino platform.

    Archive/retire

    Retire the application, storing the application data in a long-term repository.

    Abstract

    The most common approach is to build the required functionality in whatever new application/solution is selected, then archive the old data in PDFs and documents.

    Typically this involves archiving the data and leveraging Microsoft SharePoint and the new collaborative solutions, likely in conjunction with other software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions.

    Advantages

    • Reduce support cost.
    • Consolidate applications.
    • Reduce risk.
    • Reduce compliance and security concerns.
    • Improve business processes.

    Considerations

    • Application transformation
    • eDiscovery costs
    • Legal implications
    • Compliance implications
    • Business process dependencies

    Info-Tech Insights

    Be aware of the costs associated with archiving. The more you archive, the more it will cost you.

    Application migration

    Migrate to a new version of the application

    Abstract

    An application migration is the managed process of migrating or moving applications (software) from one infrastructure environment to another.

    This can include migrating applications from one data center to another data center, from a data center to a cloud provider, or from a company’s on-premises system to a cloud provider’s infrastructure.

    Advantages

    • Reduce hardware costs.
    • Leverage cloud technologies.
    • Improve scalability.
    • Improve disaster recovery.
    • Improve application security.

    Considerations

    • Data extraction, starting from the document databases in NSF format and including security settings about users and groups granted to read and write single documents, which is a powerful feature of Lotus Domino documents.
    • File extraction, starting from the document databases in NSF format, which can contain attachments and RTF documents and embedded files.
    • Design of the final relational database structure; this activity should be carried out without taking into account the original structure of the data in Domino files or the data conversion and loading, from the extracted format to the final model.
    • Design and development of the target-state custom applications based on the new data model and the new selected development platform.

    Application replatform

    Transition an existing Domino application to a new modern platform

    Abstract

    This type of arrangement is typically part of an application migration or transformation. In this model, client can “replatform” the application into an off-premises hosted provider platform. This would yield many benefits of cloud but in a different scaling capacity as experienced with commodity workloads (e.g. Windows, Linux) and the associated application.

    Two challenges are particularly significant when migrating or replatforming Domino applications:

    • The application functionality/value must be reproduced/replaced with not one but many applications, either through custom coding or a commercial-off-the-shelf/SaaS solution.
    • Notes “databases” are not relational databases and will not migrate simply to an SQL database while retaining the same business value. Notes databases are essentially NoSQL repositories and are difficult to normalize.

    Advantages

    • Leverage cloud technologies.
    • Improve scalability.
    • Align to a SharePoint platform.
    • Improve disaster recovery.
    • Improve application security.

    Considerations

    • Application replatform resource effort
    • Network bandwidth
    • New platform terms and conditions
    • Secure connectivity and communication
    • New platform security and compliance
    • Degree of complexity

    Info-Tech Insights

    There is a difference between a migration and a replatform application strategy. Determine which solution aligns to the application requirements.

    Stay with HCL

    Stay with HCL, understanding its future commitment to the platform.

    Abstract

    Following the announced acquisition of IBM Domino and up until around December 2019, HCL had published no future roadmap for the platform. The public-facing information/website at the time stated that HCL acquired “the product family and key lab services to deliver professional services.” Again, there was no mention or emphasis on upcoming new features for the platform. The product offering on their website at the time stated that HCL would leverage its services expertise to advise clients and push applications into four buckets:

    1. Replatform
    2. Retire
    3. Move to cloud
    4. Modernize

    That public-facing messaging changed with release 11.0, which had references to IBM rebranded to HCL for the Notes and Domino product – along with fixes already inflight. More information can be found on HCL’s FAQ page.

    Advantages

    • Known environment
    • Domino is a supported platform
    • Domino is a developed platform
    • No-code/low-code optimization
    • Business developed applications
    • Rapid application framework

    This is the HCL Domino Logo

    Understand your tools

    Many tools are available to help evaluate or migrate your Domino Platform. Here are a few common tools for you to consider.

    Notes Archiving & Notes to SharePoint

    Summary of Vendor

    “SWING Software delivers content transformation and archiving software to over 1,000 organizations worldwide. Our solutions uniquely combine key collaborative platforms and standard document formats, making document production, publishing, and archiving processes more efficient.”*

    Tools

    Lotus Notes Data Migration and Archiving: Preserve historical data outside of Notes and Domino

    Lotus Note Migration: Replacing Lotus Notes. Boost your migration by detaching historical data from Lotus Notes and Domino.

    Headquarters

    Croatia

    Best fit

    • Application archive and retire
    • Migration to SharePoint

    This is an image of the SwingSoftware Logo

    * swingsoftware.com

    Domino Migration to SharePoint

    Summary of Vendor

    “Providing leading solutions, resources, and expertise to help your organization transform its collaborative environment.”*

    Tools

    Notes Domino Migration Solutions: Rivit’s industry-leading solutions and hardened migration practice will help you eliminate Notes Domino once and for all.

    Rivive Me: Migrate Notes Domino applications to an enterprise web application

    Headquarters

    Canada

    Best fit

    • Application Archive & Retire
    • Migration to SharePoint

    This is an image of the RiVit Logo

    * rivit.ca

    Lotus Notes to M365

    Summary of Vendor

    “More than 300 organizations across 40+ countries trust skybow to build no-code/no-compromise business applications & processes, and skybow’s community of customers, partners, and experts grows every day.”*

    Tools

    SkyBow Studio: The low-code platform fully integrated into Microsoft 365

    Headquarters:

    Switzerland

    Best fit

    • Application Archive & Retire
    • Migration to SharePoint

    This is an image of the SkyBow Logo

    * skybow.com | About skybow

    Notes to SharePoint Migration

    Summary of Vendor

    “CIMtrek is a global software company headquartered in the UK. Our mission is to develop user-friendly, cost-effective technology solutions and services to help companies modernize their HCL Domino/Notes® application landscape and support their legacy COBOL applications.”*

    Tools

    CIMtrek SharePoint Migrator: Reduce the time and cost of migrating your IBM® Lotus Notes® applications to Office 365, SharePoint online, and SharePoint on premises.

    Headquarters

    United Kingdom

    Best fit

    • Application replatform
    • Migration to SharePoint

    This is an image of the CIMtrek Logo

    * cimtrek.com | About CIMtrek

    Domino replatform/Rapid application selection framework

    Summary of Vendor

    “4WS.Platform is a rapid application development tool used to quickly create multi-channel applications including web and mobile applications.”*

    Tools

    4WS.Platform is available in two editions: Community and Enterprise.
    The Platform Enterprise Edition, allows access with an optional support pack.

    4WS.Platform’s technical support provides support services to the users through support contracts and agreements.

    The platform is a subscription support services for companies using the product which will allow customers to benefit from the knowledge of 4WS.Platform’s technical experts.

    Headquarters

    Italy

    Best fit

    • Application replatform

    This is an image of the 4WS PLATFORM Logo

    * 4wsplatform.org

    Activity

    Understand your Domino options

    Application Rationalization Exercise

    Info-Tech Insight

    Application rationalization is the perfect exercise to fully understand your business-developed applications, their importance to business process, and the potential underlying financial impact.

    This activity involves the following participants:

    • IT strategic direction decision-makers.
    • IT managers responsible for an existing Domino platform
    • Organizations evaluating platforms for mission-critical applications.

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Completed Application Rationalization Tool

    Application rationalization exercise

    Use this Application Rationalization Tool to input the outcomes of your various application assessments

    In the Application Entry tab:

    • Input your application inventory or subset of apps you intend to rationalize, along with some basic information for your apps.

    In the Business Value & TCO Comparison tab, determine rationalization priorities.

    • Input your business value scores and total cost of ownership (TCO) of applications.
    • Review the results of this analysis to determine which apps should require additional analysis and which dispositions should be prioritized.

    In the Disposition Selection tab:

    • Add to or adapt our list of dispositions as appropriate.

    In the Rationalization Inputs tab:

    • Add or adapt the disposition criteria of your application rationalization framework as appropriate.
    • Input the results of your various assessments for each application.

    In the Disposition Settings tab:

    • Add or adapt settings that generate recommended dispositions based on your rationalization inputs.

    In the Disposition Recommendations tab:

    • Review and compare the rationalization results and confirm if dispositions are appropriate for your strategy.

    In the Timeline Considerations tab:

    • Enter the estimated timeline for when you execute your dispositions.

    In the Portfolio Roadmap tab:

    • Review and present your roadmap and rationalization results.

    Follow the instructions to generate recommended dispositions and populate an application portfolio roadmap.

    This image depicts a scatter plot graph where the X axis is labeled Business Value, and the Y Axis is labeled Cost. On the graph, the following datapoints are displayed: SF; HRIS; ERP; ALM; B; A; C; ODP; SAS

    Info-Tech Insight

    Watch out for misleading scores that result from poorly designed criteria weightings.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Build an Application Rationalization Framework

    Manage your application portfolio to minimize risk and maximize value.

    Embrace Business-Managed Applications

    Empower the business to implement their own applications with a trusted business-IT relationship.

    Satisfy Digital End Users With Low- and No-Code

    Extend IT, automation, and digital capabilities to the business with the right tools, good governance, and trusted organizational relationships.

    Maximize the Benefits from Enterprise Applications with a Center of Excellence

    Optimize your organization’s enterprise application capabilities with a refined and scalable methodology.

    Drive Successful Sourcing Outcomes With a Robust RFP Process

    Leverage your vendor sourcing process to get better results.

    Research Authors

    Darin Stahl, Principal Research Advisor, Info-Tech Research Group

    Darin Stahl, Principal Research Advisor,
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Darin is a Principal Research Advisor within the Infrastructure practice, leveraging 38+ years of experience. His areas of focus include IT operations management, service desk, infrastructure outsourcing, managed services, cloud infrastructure, DRP/BCP, printer management, managed print services, application performance monitoring, managed FTP, and non-commodity servers (zSeries, mainframe, IBM i, AIX, Power PC).

    Troy Cheeseman, Practice Lead, Info-Tech Research Group

    Troy Cheeseman, Practice Lead,
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Troy has over 24 years of experience and has championed large enterprise-wide technology transformation programs, remote/home office collaboration and remote work strategies, BCP, IT DRP, IT operations and expense management programs, international right placement initiatives, and large technology transformation initiatives (M&A). Additionally, he has deep experience working with IT solution providers and technology (cloud) startups.

    Research Contributors

    Rob Salerno, Founder & CTO, Rivit Technology Partners

    Rob Salerno, Founder & CTO, Rivit Technology Partners

    Rob is the Founder and Chief Technology Strategist for Rivit Technology Partners. Rivit is a system integrator that delivers unique IT solutions. Rivit is known for its REVIVE migration strategy which helps companies leave legacy platforms (such as Domino) or move between versions of software. Rivit is the developer of the DCOM Application Archiving solution.

    Bibliography

    Cheshire, Nigel. “Domino v12 Launch Keeps HCL Product Strategy On Track.” Team Studio, 19 July 2021. Web.

    “Is LowCode/NoCode the best platform for you?” Rivit Technology Partners, 15 July 2021. Web.

    McCracken, Harry. “Lotus: Farewell to a Once-Great Tech Brand.” TIME, 20 Nov. 2012. Web.

    Sharwood, Simon. “Lotus Notes refuses to die, again, as HCL debuts Domino 12.” The Register, 8 June 2021. Web.

    Woodie, Alex. “Domino 12 Comes to IBM i.” IT Jungle, 16 Aug. 2021. Web.

    Knowledge Management

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}33|cart{/j2store}
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    • member rating average dollars saved: $10,000
    • member rating average days saved: 2
    • Parent Category Name: People and Resources
    • Parent Category Link: /people-and-resources
    Mitigate Key IT Employee Knowledge Loss

    Purchase Storage Without Buyer's Remorse

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    • Parent Category Name: Storage & Backup Optimization
    • Parent Category Link: /storage-and-backup-optimization
    • Storage is a big ticket item that often only gets purchased every three to five years. Many buyers focus on capital costs and rely on vendors for scoping of requirements leading to overspending and buyer’s remorse.
    • Three-quarters of storage buyers are dissatisfied with at least one aspect of their most recent storage purchase, and over 40% of organizations switched vendors, making it critical to understand the market and the important factors to avoiding buyer’s remorse.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Know where to negotiate on price. Many organizations spend as much or more effort on negotiating a better price as they do on assessing current and future requirements; yet, more than 35% of organizations report dissatisfaction with hardware, software, and/or maintenance and support costs from their most recent purchase.
    • Understand support agreements and vendor offerings. Organizations satisfied with their storage purchase spent more effort evaluating support capabilities of vendors and assessing current and future requirements.
    • Determine costs to scale-up your storage. More than 35% of organizations report dissatisfaction with costs to scale their solutions by adding disks or disk trays, following their initial contract, making it crucial to establish scaling costs with your vendor.

    Impact and Result

    • Get peace of mind knowing that the quote you’re about to sign delivers the solution and capabilities around software and support that you think you are getting.
    • Understand contract discounting levels and get advice around where further discounting can be negotiated with the reseller.
    • Future-proof your purchase by capitalizing on Info-Tech’s exposure to other clients’ past experiences.

    Purchase Storage Without Buyer's Remorse Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Purchase storage without buyer's remorse

    Ensure the purchase is the lowest cost with fewest future headaches.

    • Storyboard: Purchase Storage Without Buyer's Remorse

    2. Evaluate storage vendors and their product capabilities

    Select the most appropriate offering for business needs at a competitive price point.

    3. Ensure vendors reveal all details regarding strengths and weaknesses

    Get the lowest priced feature set for the selected product.

    • Storage Reseller Interrogation Script
    [infographic]

    Map Your Business Architecture to Define Your Strategy

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    • Parent Category Name: Strategy & Operating Model
    • Parent Category Link: /strategy-and-operating-model
    • Organizations need to innovate rapidly to respond to the changing forces in their industry, but their IT initiatives often fail to deliver meaningful outcomes.
    • Planners face challenges in understanding the relationships between the important customer-focused innovations they’re trying to introduce and the resources (capabilities) that make them possible, including applications, human resources, information, and processes. For example, are we risking the success of a new service offering by underpinning it with a legacy or manual solution?

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Successful execution of business strategy requires planning that:

    1. Accurately reflects organizational capabilities.
    2. Is traceable so all levels can understand how decisions are made.
    3. Makes efficient use of organizational resources.

    To accomplish this, the business architect must engage stakeholders, model the business, and drive planning with business architecture.

    • Business architecture is often regarded as an IT function when its role and tools should be fixtures within the business planning and innovation practice.
    • Any size of organization – from start-ups to global enterprises -- can benefit from using a common language and modeling rigor to identify the opportunities that will produce the greatest impact and value.
    • You don’t need sophisticated modeling software to build an effective business architecture knowledgebase. In fact, the best format for engaging business stakeholders is intuitive visuals using business language.

    Impact and Result

    • Execute more quickly on innovation and transformation initiatives.
    • More effectively target investments in resources and IT according to what goals and requirements are most important.
    • Identify problematic areas (e.g. legacy applications, manual processes) that hinder the business strategy and create inefficiencies in our information technology operation.

    Map Your Business Architecture to Define Your Strategy Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Map Your Business Architecture Deck – A step-by-step document that walks you through how to properly engage business and IT in applying a common language and process rigor to build key capabilities required to achieve innovation and growth goals.

    Build a structured, repeatable framework for both IT and business stakeholders to appraise the activities that deliver value to consumers; and assess the readiness of their capabilities to enable them.

    • Map Your Business Architecture to Define Your Strategy – Phases 1-3

    2. Stakeholder Engagement Strategy Template – A best-of-breed template to help you build a clear, concise, and compelling strategy document for identifying and engaging stakeholders.

    This template helps you ensure that your business architecture practice receives the resources, visibility, and support it needs to be successful, by helping you develop a strategy to engage the key stakeholders involved.

    • Stakeholder Engagement Strategy Template

    3. Value Stream Map Template – A template to walk through the value streams that are tied to your strategic goals.

    Record the complete value stream and decompose it into stages. Add a description of the expected outcome of the value stream and metrics for each stage.

    • Value Stream Map Template

    4. Value Stream Capability Mapping Template – A template to define capabilities and align them to selected value streams.

    Build a business capability model for the organization and map capabilities to the selected value stream.

    • Value Stream – Capability Mapping Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Map Your Business Architecture to Define Your Strategy

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Discover the Business Context

    The Purpose

    Identify and consult stakeholders to discover the business goals and value proposition for the customer.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Engage stakeholders and SMEs in describing the business and its priorities and culture.

    Identify focus for the areas we will analyze and work on.

    Activities

    1.1 Select key stakeholders

    1.2 Plan for engaging stakeholders

    1.3 Gather business goals and priorities

    Outputs

    Stakeholder roles

    Engagement plan

    Business strategy, value proposition

    2 Define Value Streams

    The Purpose

    Describe the main value-adding activities of the business from the consumer’s point of view, e.g. provide product or service.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Shared understanding of why we build resources and do what we do.

    Starting point for analyzing resources and investing in innovation.

    Activities

    2.1 Define or update value streams

    2.2 Decompose selected value stream(s) into value stages and identify problematic areas and opportunities

    Outputs

    Value streams for the enterprise

    Value stages breakdown for selected value stream(s)

    3 Build Business Capability Map

    The Purpose

    Describe all the capabilities that make up an organization and enable the important customer-facing activities in the value streams.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Basis for understanding what resources the organization has and their ability to support its growth and success.

    Activities

    3.1 Define and describe all business capabilities (Level 1)

    3.2 Decompose and analyze capabilities for a selected priority value stream.

    Outputs

    Business Capability Map (Level 1)

    Business Capabilities Level 2 for selected value stream

    4 Develop a Roadmap

    The Purpose

    Use the Business Capability Map to identify key capabilities (e.g. cost advantage creator), and look more closely at what applications or information or business processes are doing to support or hinder that critical capability.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Basis for developing a roadmap of IT initiatives, focused on key business capabilities and business priorities.

    Activities

    4.1 Identify key capabilities (cost advantage creators, competitive advantage creators)

    4.2 Assess capabilities with the perspective of how well applications, business processes, or information support the capability and identify gaps

    4.3 Apply analysis tool to rank initiatives

    Outputs

    Business Capability Map with key capabilities: cost advantage creators and competitive advantage creators

    Assessment of applications or business processes or information for key capabilities

    Roadmap of IT initiatives

    Further reading

    Map Your Business Architecture to Define Your Strategy

    Plan your organization’s capabilities for best impact and value.

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Info-Tech is a provider of best-practice IT research advisory services that make every IT leader’s job easier.

    35,000 members sharing best practices you can leverage Millions spent developing tools and templates annually Leverage direct access to over 100 analysts as an extension of your team Use our massive database of benchmarks and vendor assessments Get up to speed in a fraction of the time

    Analyst perspective

    Know your organization’s capabilities to build a digital and customer-driven culture.

    Business architecture provides a holistic and unified view of:

    • All the organization’s activities that provide value to their clients (value streams).
    • The resources that make them possible and effective (capabilities, i.e. its employees, software, processes, information).
    • How they inter-relate, i.e. depend on and impact each other to help deliver value.

    Without a business architecture it is difficult to see the connections between the business’s activities for the customer and the IT resources supporting them – to demonstrate that what we do in IT is customer-driven.

    As a map of your business, the business architecture is an essential input to the digital strategy:

    • Develop a plan to transform the business by investing in the most important capabilities.
    • Ensure project initiatives are aligned with business goals as they evolve.
    • Respond more quickly to customer requirements and to disruptions in the industry by streamlining operations and information sharing across the enterprise.

    Crystal Singh, Research Director, Data and Analytics

    Crystal Singh
    Research Director, Data and Analytics
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Andrea Malick, Research Director, Data and Analytics

    Andrea Malick
    Research Director, Data and Analytics
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive summary

    Your Challenge Common Obstacles Info-Tech’s Approach

    Organizations need to innovate rapidly to respond to ever-changing forces and demands in their industry. But they often fail to deliver meaningful outcomes from their IT initiatives within a reasonable time.

    Successful companies are transforming, i.e. adopting fluid strategies that direct their resources to customer-driven initiatives and execute more quickly on those initiatives. In a responsive and digital organization, strategies, capabilities, information, people, and technology are all aligned, so work and investment are consistently allocated to deliver maximum value.

    You don’t have a complete reference map of your organization’s capabilities on which to base strategic decisions.

    You don’t know how to prioritize and identify the capabilities that are essential for achieving the organization’s customer-driven objectives.

    You don’t have a shared enterprise vision, where everyone understands how the organization delivers value and to whom.

    Begin important business decisions with a map of your organization – a business reference architecture. Model the business in the form of architectural blueprints.

    Engage your stakeholders. Recognize the opportunity for mapping work, and identify and engage the right stakeholders.

    Drive business architecture forward to promote real value to the organization. Assess your current projects to determine if you are investing in the right capabilities. Conduct business capability assessments to identify opportunities and prioritize projects.

    Info-Tech Insight
    Business architecture is the set of strategic planning techniques that connects organization strategy to execution in a manner that is accurate and traceable and promotes the efficient use of organizational resources.

    Blueprint activities summary

    Phase Purpose Activity Outcome
    1. Business context:
    Identify organization goals, industry drivers, and regulatory requirements in consultation with business stakeholders.
    Identify forces within and outside the organization to consider when planning the focus and timing of digital growth, through conducting interviews and surveys and reviewing existing strategies. Business value canvas, business strategy on a page, customer journey
    2. Customer activities (value stream):
    What is the customer doing? What is our reason for being as a company? What products and services are we trying to deliver?
    Define or update value streams, e.g. purchase product from supplier, customer order, and deliver product to customer. Value streams enterprise-wide (there may be more than one set of value streams, e.g. a medical school and community clinic)
    Prioritize value streams:
    Select key value streams for deeper analysis and focus.
    Assess value streams. Priority value streams
    Value stages:
    Break down the selected value stream into its stages.
    Define stages for selected value streams. Selected value stream stages
    3. Business capability map, level 1 enterprise:
    What resources and capabilities at a high level do we have to support the value streams?
    Define or update the business capabilities that align with and support the value streams. Business capability map, enterprise-wide capabilities level 1
    Business capability map, level 2 for selected area:
    List resources and capabilities that we have at a more detailed level.
    Define or update business capabilities for selected value stream to level 2. Business capability map, selected value stream, capability level 2
    Heatmap Business Capability Map: Flag focus areas in supporting technology, applications, data and information.

    Info-Tech’s workshop methodology

    Day 1: Discover Business Context Day 2: Define Value Streams Day 3: Build Business Capability Map Day 4: Roadmap Business Architecture
    Phase Steps

    1.1 Collect corporate goals and strategies

    1.2 Identify stakeholders

    2.1 Build or update value streams

    2.2 Decompose selected value stream into value stages and analyze for opportunities

    3.1 Update business capabilities to level 1 for enterprise

    3.2 For selected value streams, break down level 1 to level 2

    3.3 Use business architecture to heatmap focus areas: technology, information, and processes

    3.4 Build roadmap of future business architecture initiatives

    Phase Outcomes
    • Organizational context and goals
    • Business strategy on a page, customer journey map, business model canvas
    • Roles and responsibilities
    • Value stream map and definitions
    • Selected value stream(s) decomposed into value stages
    • Enterprise business capabilities map to level 1
    • Business architecture to level 2 for prioritized value stream
    • Heatmap business architecture
    • Business architecture roadmap, select additional initiatives

    Key concepts for this blueprint

    INDUSTRY VALUE CHAIN DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE
    A high-level analysis of how the industry creates value for the consumer as an overall end-to-end process. The adoption of digital technologies to innovate and re-invent existing business, talent ,and operating models to drive growth, business value, and improved customer experience. A holistic, multidimensional business view of capabilities, end-to-end value, and operating model in relation to the business strategy.
    INDUSTRY VALUE STREAM STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES CAPABILITY ASSESSMENTS
    A set of activities, tasks, and processes undertaken by a business or a business unit across the entire end-to-end business function to realize value. A set of standard objectives that most industry players will feature in their corporate plans. A heat-mapping effort to analyze the maturity and priority of each capability relative to the strategic priorities that they serve.

    Info-Tech’s approach

    1 Understand the business context and drivers
    Deepen your understanding of the organization’s priorities by gathering business strategies and goals. Talking to key stakeholders will allow you to get a holistic view of the business strategy and forces shaping the strategy, e.g. economy, workforce, and compliance.
    2 Define value streams; understand the value you provide
    Work with senior leadership to understand your customers’ experience with you and the ways your industry provides value to them.
    Assess the value streams for areas to explore and focus on.
    3 Customize the industry business architecture; develop business capability map
    Work with business architects and enterprise architects to customize Info-Tech’s business architecture for your industry as an enterprise-wide map of the organization and its capabilities.
    Extend the business capability map to more detail (Level 2) for the value stream stages you select to focus on.

    Business architecture is a planning function that connects strategy to execution

    Business architecture provides a framework that connects business strategy and IT strategy to project execution through a set of models that provide clarity and actionable insights. How well do you know your business?

    Business architecture is:

    • Inter-disciplinary: Business architecture is a core planning activity that supports all important decisions in the organization, for example, organizational resources planning. It’s not just about IT.
    • Foundational: The best way to answer the question, “Where do we start?” or “Where is our investment best directed?”, comes from knowing your organization, what its core functions and capabilities are (i.e. what’s important to us as an organization), and where there is work to do.
    • Connecting: Digital transformation and modernization cannot work with siloes. Connecting siloes means first knowing the organization and its functions and recognizing where the siloes are not communicating.

    Business architecture must be branded as a front-end planning function to be appropriately embedded in the organization’s planning process.

    Brand business architecture as an early planning pre-requisite on the basis of maintaining clarity of communication and spreading an accurate awareness of how strategic decisions are being made.

    As an organization moves from strategy toward execution, it is often unclear as to exactly how decisions pertaining to execution are being made, why priority is given to certain areas, and how the planning function operates.

    The business architect’s primary role is to model this process and document it.

    In doing so, the business architect creates a unified view as to how strategy connects to execution so it is clearly understood by all levels of the organization.

    Business architecture is part of the enterprise architecture framework

    Business Architecture
    Business strategy map Business model canvas Value streams
    Business capability map Business process flows Service portfolio
    Data Architecture Application Architecture Infrastructure Architecture
    Conceptual data model Application portfolio catalog Technology standards catalog
    Logical data model Application capability map Technology landscape
    Physical data model Application communication model Environments location model
    Data flow diagram Interface catalog Platform decomposition diagram
    Data lifecycle diagram Application use-case diagram Network computing / hardware diagram
    Security Architecture
    Enterprise security model Data security model Application security model

    Business architecture is a set of shared and practical views of the enterprise

    The key characteristic of the business architecture is that it represents real-world aspects of a business, along with how they interact.

    Many different views of an organization are typically developed. Each view is a diagram that illustrates a way of understanding the enterprise by highlighting specific information about it:

    • Business strategy view captures the tactical and strategic goals that drive an organization forward.
    • Business capabilities view describes the primary business functions of an enterprise and the pieces of the organization that perform those functions.
    • Value stream view defines the end-to-end set of activities that deliver value to external and internal stakeholders.
    • Business knowledge view establishes the shared semantics (e.g. customer, order, and supplier) within an organization and relationships between those semantics (e.g. customer name, order date, supplier name) – an information map.
    • Organizational view captures the relationships among roles, capabilities, and business units, the decomposition of those business units into subunits, and the internal or external management of those units.

    Business architect connects all the pieces

    The business owns the strategy and operating model; the business architect connects all the pieces together.

    R Business Architect (Responsible)
    A Business Unit Leads (Accountable)
    C Subject Matter Experts (Consulted)
    – Business Lines, Operations, Data, Technology Systems & Infrastructure Leads
    I Business Operators (Informed)
    – Process, Data, Technology Systems & Infrastructure

    Choose a key business challenge to address with business architecture

     Choose a key business challenge to address with business architecture

    Picking the right project is critical to setting the tone for business architecture work in the organization.

    Best practices for business architecture success

    Consider these best practices to maintain a high level of engagement from key stakeholders throughout the process of establishing or applying business architecture.

    Balance short-term cost savings with long-term benefits

    Participate in project governance to facilitate compliance

    Create a center of excellence to foster dialogue

    Identify strategic business objectives

    Value streams: Understand how you deliver value today

    It is important to understand the different value-generating activities that deliver an outcome for and from your customers.

    We do this by looking at value streams, which refer to the specific set of activities an industry player undertakes to create and capture value for and from the end consumer (and so the question to ask is, how do you make money as an organization?).

    Our approach helps you to strengthen and transform those value streams that generate the most value for your organization.

    Understand how you deliver value today

    An organization can have more than one set of streams.
    For example, an enterprise can provide both retail shopping and financial services, such as credit cards.

    Define the organization’s value streams

    • Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities. They enable an organization to create and capture value in the market place by engaging in a set of interconnected activities. Those activities are dependent on the specific industry segment an organization operates within. Value streams can extend beyond the organization into the supporting ecosystem, whereas business processes are contained within and the organization has complete control over them.
    • There are two types of value streams: core value streams and support value streams. Core value streams are mostly externally facing: they deliver value to either an external or internal customer and they tie to the customer perspective of the strategy map. Support value streams are internally facing and provide the foundational support for an organization to operate.
    • An effective method for ensuring all value streams have been considered is to understand that there can be different end-value receivers. Info-Tech recommends identifying and organizing the value streams with customers and partners as end-value receivers.

    Example: Value stream descriptions for the retail industry

    Value Streams Create or Purchase the Product Manage Inventory Distribute Product Sell Product, Make Product Available to Customers
    • Product is developed before company sells it.
    • Make these products by obtaining raw materials from external suppliers or using their own resources.
    • Retailers purchase the products they are going to sell to customers from manufacturers or wholesale distributors.
    • Retailer success depends on its ability to source products that customers want and are willing to buy.
    • Inventory products are tracked as they arrive in the warehouse, counted, stored, and prepared for delivery.
    • Estimate the value of your inventory using retail inventory management software.
    • Optimizing distribution activities is an important capability for retailers. The right inventory needs to be at a particular store in the right quantities exactly when it is needed. This helps to maximize sales and minimize how much cash is held up in inventory.
    • Proper supply chain management can not only reduce costs for retailers but drive revenues by enhancing shopping experiences.
    • Once produced, retailers need to sell the products. This is done through many channels including physical stores, online, the mail, or catalogs.
    • After the sale, retailers typically have to deliver the product, provide customer care, and manage complaints.
    • Retailers can use loyalty programs, pricing, and promotions to foster repeat business.

    Value streams describe your core business

    Value streams describe your core business

    Value streams – the activities we do to provide value to customers – require business capabilities.

    Value streams are broken down further into value stages, for example, the Sell Product value stream has value stages Evaluate Options, Place Order, and Make Payment.

    Think of value streams as the core operations: the reason for your organization’s being. A professional consulting organization may have a legal team but it does not brand itself as a law firm. A core value stream is providing research products and services; a business capability that supports it is legal counsel.

    Decompose the value stream into stages

    The stages of a value stream are usually action-oriented statements or verbs that make up the individual steps involved throughout the scope of the value stream, e.g. Place Order or Make Payment.

    Each value stream should have a trigger or starting point and an end result for a client or receiver.

    Decompose the value stream into stages

    There should be measurable value or benefits at each stage. These are key performance indicators (KPIs). Spot problem areas in the stream.

    Value streams usually fall into one of these categories:

    1. Fulfillment of products and services
    2. Manufacturing
    3. Software products
    4. Supporting value streams (procurement of supplies, product planning)

    Value streams need capabilities

    • Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities. They enable an organization to create and capture value in the market place by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.
    • There are two types of value streams: core value streams and support value streams. Core value streams are mostly externally facing: they deliver value to either an external or internal customer and they tie to the customer perspective of the strategy map. Support value streams are internally facing and provide the foundational support for an organization to operate.
    • There can be different end-value receivers. Info-Tech recommends identifying and organizing the value streams with customers and partners as end-value receivers.

    Value streams need business capabilities

    Business capabilities are built up to allow the business to perform the activities that bring value to customers. Map capabilities to the value-add activities in the value stream. Business capabilities lie at the top layer of the business architecture:

    • They are the most stable reference for planning organizations.
    • They make strategy more tangible.
    • If properly defined, they can help overcome organizational silos.

    Value streams need business capabilities

    Example business capability map – Higher Education

    A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and represents a view of what your data program must support.

    Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

    Example business capability map for: Higher Education

    Example business capability map for Higher Education

    Example business capability map – Local Government

    Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

    A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and represents a view of what your data program must support.

    Example business capability map for: Local Government

    Example business capability map for Local Government

    Value streams need business capabilities

    Value streams – the activities we do to provide value to customers – require business capabilities. Value streams are broken down further into value stages.

    Business capabilities are built up to allow the business to perform the activities that bring value to customers. Map capabilities to the activities in the value stage to spot opportunities and problems in delivering services and value.

    Business processes fulfill capabilities. They are a step-by-step description of who is performing what to achieve a goal. Capabilities consist of networks of processes and the resources – people, technology, materials – to execute them.

    Capability = Processes + Software, Infrastructure + People

    Prioritize a value stream and identify its supporting capabilities

    Prioritize your improvement objectives and business goals and identify a value stream to transform.

    Align the business objectives of your organization to your value streams (the critical actions that take place within your organization to add value to a customer).

    Prioritize a value stream to transform based on the number of priorities aligned to a value stream, and/or the business value (e.g. revenue, EBITDA earnings, competitive differentiation, or cost efficiency).

    Decompose the selected value stream into value stages.

    Align capabilities level 1 and 2 to value stages. One capability may support several value stages in the stream.

    Build a business architecture for the prioritized value stream with a map of business capabilities up to level 2.

    NOTE: We can’t map all capabilities all at once: business architecture is an ongoing practice; select key mapping initiatives each year based on business goals.

    Prioritize a value stream and identify its supporting capabilities

    Map business capabilities to Level 2

     Map business capabilities to Level 2

    Map capabilities to value stage

    Map capabilities to value stage

    Business value realization

    Business value defines the success criteria of an organization as manifested through organizational goals and outcomes, and it is interpreted from four perspectives:

    • Profit generation: The revenue generated from a business capability with a product that is enabled with modern technologies.
    • Cost reduction: The cost reduction when performing business capabilities with a product that is enabled with modern technologies.
    • Service enablement: The productivity and efficiency gains of internal business operations from products and capabilities enhanced with modern technologies.
    • Customer and market reach: The improved reach and insights of the business in existing or new markets.

    Business Value Matrix

    Value, goals, and outcomes cannot be achieved without business capabilities

    Break down your business goals into strategic and achievable initiatives focused on specific value streams and business capabilities.

    Business goals and outcomes

    Accelerate the process with an industry business architecture

    It’s never a good idea to start with a blank page.

    The business capability map available from Info-Tech and with industry standard models can be used as an accelerator. Assemble the relevant stakeholders – business unit leads and product/service owners – and modify the business capability map to suit your organization’s context.

    Acceleration path: Customize generic capability maps with the assistance of our industry analysts.

    Accelerate the process with an industry business architecture

    Identify goals and drivers

    Consider organizational goals and industry forces when planning.

    Business context Define value streams Build business capability map
    1.1 Select key stakeholders
    1.2 Collect and understand corporate goals
    2.1 Update or define value streams
    2.2 Decompose and analyze selected value stream
    3.1 Build level 1 capability map
    3.2 Build level 2 capability map
    3.3 Heatmap capability map
    3.4 Roadmap

    Use inputs from business goals and strategies to understand priorities.

    It is not necessary to have a comprehensive business strategy document to start – with key stakeholders, the business architect should be able to gather a one-page business value canvas or customer journey.

    Determine how the organization creates value

    Begin the process by identifying and locating the business mission and vision statements.

    What is business context?

    “The business context encompasses an understanding of the factors impacting the business from various perspectives, including how decisions are made and what the business is ultimately trying to achieve. The business context is used by IT to identify key implications for the execution of its strategic initiatives.”

    Source: Businesswire, 2018

    Identify the key stakeholders who can help you promote the value of business architecture

    First, as the CIO, you must engage executive stakeholders and secure their support.
    Focus on key players who have high power and high interest in business architecture.

    Engage the stakeholders who are impacted the most and have the power to impede the success of business architecture.

    For example, if the CFO – who has the power to block funding – is disengaged, business architecture will be put at risk.

    Use Info-Tech’s Stakeholder Power Map Template to help prioritize time spent with stakeholders.

    Sample power map

    Identify the key stakeholders concerned with the business architecture project

    A business architecture project may involve the following stakeholders:

    Business architecture project stakeholders

    You must identify who the stakeholders are for your business architecture work.

    Think about:

    • Who are the decision makers and key influencers?
    • Who will impact the business architecture work? Who will the work impact?
    • Who has vested interest in the success or failure of the practice?
    • Who has the skills and competencies necessary to help us be successful?

    Avoid these common mistakes:

    • Don’t focus on the organizational structure and hierarchy. Often stakeholder groups don’t fit the traditional structure.
    • Don’t ignore subject-matter experts on either the business or IT side. You will need to consider both.

    1.1 Identify and assemble key stakeholders

    1-3 hours

    Build an accurate depiction of the business.

    1. It is important to make sure the right stakeholders participate in this exercise. The exercise of identifying capabilities for an organization is very introspective and requires deep analysis.
    2. Consider:
      1. Who are the decision makers and key influencers?
      2. Who will impact the business capability work? Who has a vested interest in the success or failure of the outcome?
      3. Who has the skills and competencies necessary to help you be successful?
    3. Avoid:
      1. Don’t focus on the organizational structure and hierarchy. Often stakeholder groups don’t fit the traditional structure.
      2. Don’t ignore subject matter experts on either the business or IT side. You will need to consider both.
    Input Output
    • List of who is accountable for key business areas and decisions
    • Organizational chart
    • List of who has decision-making authority
    • A list of the key stakeholders
    Materials Participants
    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Modeling software (e.g. Visio, ArchiMate)
    • Business capability map industry models
    • CIO
    • Enterprise/Business Architect
    • Business Analysts
    • Business Unit Leads
    • Departmental Executives & Senior Managers

    Conduct interviews with the business to gather intelligence for strategy

    Talking to key stakeholders will allow you to get a holistic view of the business strategy.

    Stakeholder interviews provide holistic view of business strategy

    Build a strategy on a page through executive interviews and document reviews

    Understanding the business mandate and priorities ensures alignment across the enterprise.

    A business strategy must articulate the long-term destination the business is moving into. This illustration shapes all the strategies and activities in every other part of the business, including what IT capabilities and resources are required to support business goals. Ultimately, the benefits of a well-defined business strategy increase as the organization scales and as business units or functions are better equipped to align the strategic planning process in a manner that reflects the complexity of the organization.

    Using the Business Strategy on a Page canvas, consider the questions in each bucket to elicit the overall strategic context of the organization and uncover the right information to build your digital strategy. Interview key executives including your CEO, CIO, CMO, COO, CFO, and CRO, and review documents from your board or overall organizational strategy to uncover insights.

    Info-Tech Insight
    A well-articulated and clear business strategy helps different functional and business units work together and ensures that individual decisions support the overall direction of the business.

    Focus on business value and establish a common goal

    Business architecture is a strategic planning function and the focus must be on delivering business value.

    Examples business objectives:

    • Digitally transform the business, redefining its customer interactions.
    • Identify the root cause for escalating customer complaints and eroding satisfaction.
    • Identify reuse opportunities to increase operational efficiency.
    • Identify capabilities to efficiently leverage suppliers to handle demand fluctuations.

    Info-Tech Insight
    CIOs are ideally positioned to be the sponsors of business architecture given that their current top priorities are digital transformation, innovation catalyzation, and business alignment.

    1.2 Collect and understand business objectives

    1-3 hours

    Having a clear understanding of the business is crucial to executing on the strategic IT initiatives.

    1. Discover the strategic CIO initiatives your organization will pursue:
    • Schedule interviews.
    • Use the CIO Business Vision diagnostic or Business Context Discovery Tool.
  • Document the business goals.
  • Update and finalize business goals.
  • InputOutput
    • Existing business goals and strategies
    • Existing IT strategies
    • Interview findings
    • Diagnostic results
    • List of business goals
    • Strategy on a page
    • Business model canvas
    • Customer journey
    MaterialsParticipants
    • CIO Business Vision diagnostic
    • Interview questionnaire
    • CIO
    • Enterprise/Business Architect
    • Business Analysts
    • Business Unit Leads
    • Departmental Executives & Senior Managers

    CIO Business Vision Diagnostic

    CEO

    Vision

    Where do you want to go?
    What is the problem your organization is addressing?

    Mission/Mandate

    What do you do?
    How do you do?
    Whom do you do it for?

    Value Streams

    Why are you in business? What do you do?
    What products and services do you provide?
    Where has your business seen persistent demand?

    Key Products & Services

    What are your top three to five products and services?

    Key Customer Segments

    Who are you trying to serve or target?
    What are the customer segments that decide your value proposition?

    Value Proposition

    What is the value you deliver to your customers?

    Future Value Proposition

    What is your value proposition in three to five years’ time?

    Digital Experience Aspirations

    How can you create a more effective value stream?
    For example, greater value to customers or better supplier relationships.

    Business Resilience Aspirations

    How can you reduce business risks?
    For example, compliance, operational, security, or reputational.

    Sustainability (or ESG) Aspirations

    How can you deliver ESG and sustainability goals?

    Interview the following executives for each business goal area.

    CEO
    CRO
    COO

    Core Business Goals

    What are the core business goals to meet business objectives?

    Top Priorities & Initiatives

    What are the top initiatives and priorities over the planning horizon?

    Performance Insights/Metrics

    What do we need to achieve?
    How can the success be measured?

    CMO
    COO
    CFO

    Shared Business Goals

    What are the shared (operational) business goals to meet business objectives?

    Top Priorities & Initiatives

    What are the top initiatives and priorities over the planning horizon?

    Performance Insights/Metrics

    What do we need to achieve?
    How can the success be measured?

    CFO
    CIO
    COO
    CHRO

    Enabling Business Goals

    What are the enabling (supporting/enterprise) business goals to meet business objectives?

    Top Priorities & Initiatives

    What are the top initiatives and priorities over the planning horizon?

    Performance Insights/Metrics

    What do we need to achieve?
    How can the success be measured?

    Craft a strategy to increase stakeholder support and participation

    The BA practice’s supporters are potential champions who will help you market the value of BA; engage with them first to create positive momentum. Map out the concerns of each group of stakeholders so you can develop marketing tactics and communications vehicles to address them.

    Example Communication Strategy

    Stakeholder Concerns Tactics to Address Concerns Communication Vehicles Frequency
    Supporters
    (High Priority)
    • Build ability to execute BA techniques
    • Build executive support
    • Build understanding of how they can contribute to the success of the BA practice
    • Communicate the secured executive support
    • Help them apply BA techniques in their projects
    • Show examples of BA work (case studies)
    • Personalized meetings and interviews
    • Department/functional meetings
    • Communities of practice or centers of excellent (education and case studies)
    Bi-Monthly
    Indifferent
    (Medium Priority)
    • Build awareness and/or confidence
    • Feel like BA has nothing to do with them
    • Show quick wins and case studies
    • Centers of excellence (education and case studies
    • Use the support of the champions
    Quarterly
    Resistors
    (Medium Priority)
    • BA will cause delays
    • BA will step in their territory
    • BA’s scope is too broad
    • Lack of understanding
    • Prove the value of BA – case studies and metrics
    • Educate how BA complements their work
    • Educate them on the changes resulting from the BA practice’s work, and involve them in crafting the process
    • Individual meetings and interviews
    • Political jockeying
    • Use the support of the champions
    Tailored to individual groups

    1.3 Craft a strategy to increase stakeholder support and participation

    1-2 hours

    Now that you have organized and categorized your stakeholders based on their power, influence, interest, and knowledge of business architecture, it is time to brainstorm how you are going to gain their support and participation.

    Think about the following:

    • What are your stakeholders’ concerns?
    • How can you address them?
    • How will you deliver the message?
    • How often will you deliver the message?

    Avoid these common mistakes:

    • Your communication strategy development should be an iterative process. Do not assume to know the absolute best way to get through to every resistor right away. Instead, engage with your supporters for their input on how to communicate to resistors and repeat the process for indifferent stakeholders as well.
    Input Output
  • Stakeholder Engagement Map
    • Stakeholder Communications Strategy
    Materials Participants
    • Stakeholder Engagement Strategy Template
    • A computer
    • A whiteboard and markers CIO
    • Business Architect
    • IT Department Leads

    Download the Stakeholder Engagement Strategy Template for this project.

    Engaging the right stakeholders

    CASE STUDY

    Industry
    Financial - Banking

    Source
    Anonymous

    Situation Complication Result

    To achieve success with the business architecture initiative, the bank’s CIO needed to put together a plan to engage the right stakeholders in the process.

    Without the right stakeholders, the initiative would suffer from inadequate information and thus would run the risk of delivering an ineffective solution.

    The bank’s culture was resistant to change and each business unit had its own understanding of the business strategy. This was a big part of the problem that led to decreasing customer satisfaction.

    The CIO needed a unified vision for the business architecture practice involving people, process, and technology that all stakeholders could support.

    Starting with enlisting executive support in the form of a business sponsor, the CIO identified the rest of the key stakeholders, in this case, the business unit heads, who were necessary to engage for the initiative.

    Once identified, the CIO promoted the benefits of business architecture to each of the business unit heads while taking stock of their individual needs.

    1.4 Develop a plan to engage key stakeholders

    1 hour

    Using your stakeholder power map as a starting point, focus on the three most important quadrants: those that contain stakeholders you must keep informed, those to keep satisfied, and the key players.

    Plot the stakeholders from those quadrants on a stakeholder engagement map.

    Think about the following:

    • Who are your resistors? These individuals will actively detract from project’s success if you don’t address their concerns.
    • Who is indifferent? These individuals need to be educated more on the benefits of business architecture to have an opinion either way.
    • Who are your supporters? These individuals will support you and spread your message if you equip them to do so.

    Avoid these common mistakes:

    • Do not jump to addressing resistor concerns first. Instead, equip your supporters with the info they need to help your cause and gain positive momentum before approaching resistors.
    InputOutput
    • Stakeholder Engagement Map
    • Stakeholder Communications Strategy
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Stakeholder Engagement Strategy Template
    • A computer
    • A whiteboard and markers
    • CIO
    • Business Architect
    • IT Department Leads

    Download the Stakeholder Engagement Strategy Template for this project.

    1.5 Craft a strategy to increase stakeholder support and participation

    1-2 hours

    Now that you have organized and categorized your stakeholders based on their power, influence, interest, and knowledge of business architecture, it is time to brainstorm how you are going to gain their support and participation.

    Think about the following:

    • What are your stakeholders’ concerns?
    • How can you address them?
    • How will you deliver the message?
    • How often will you deliver the message?

    Avoid these common mistakes:

    • Your communication strategy development should be an iterative process. Do not assume to know the absolute best way to get through to every resistor right away. Instead, engage with your supporters for their input on how to communicate to resistors and repeat the process for indifferent stakeholders as well.
    InputOutput
    • Stakeholder Engagement Map
    • Stakeholder Communications Strategy
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Stakeholder Engagement Strategy Template
    • A computer
    • A whiteboard and markers
    • CIO
    • Business Architect
    • IT Department Leads

    Download the Stakeholder Engagement Strategy Template for this project.

    Define value streams

    Identify the core activities your organization does to provide value to your customers.

    Business context Define value streams Build business capability map

    1.1 Select key stakeholders
    1.2 Collect and understand corporate goals

    2.1 Update or define value streams
    2.2 Decompose and analyze selected value stream

    3.1 Build Level 1 capability map
    3.2 Build Level 2 capability map
    3.3 Heatmap capability map
    3.4 Roadmap

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Note: It is recommended that you gather and leverage relevant industry standard business architecture models you may have available to you. Example: Info-Tech Industry Business Architecture, BIZBOK, APQC.
    • Defining or updating the organization’s value streams.
    • Selecting priority value streams for deeper analysis.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Business Architect, Enterprise Architect
    • Relevant Business Stakeholder(s): Business Unit Leads, Departmental Executives, Senior Mangers, Business Analysts

    Define the organization’s value streams

    • Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities. They enable an organization to create and capture value in the marketplace by engaging in a set of interconnected activities. Those activities are dependent on the specific industry segment an organization operates within. Value streams can extend beyond the organization into the supporting ecosystem, whereas business processes are contained within and the organization has complete control over them.
    • There are two types of value streams: core value streams and support value streams. Core value streams are mostly externally facing: they deliver value to either an external or internal customer and they tie to the customer perspective of the strategy map. Support value streams are internally facing and provide the foundational support for an organization to operate.
    • An effective method for ensuring all value streams have been considered is to understand that there can be different end-value receivers. Info-Tech recommends identifying and organizing the value streams with customers and partners as end-value receivers.

    Connect business goals to value streams

    Example strategy map and value stream

    Identifying value streams

    Value streams connect business goals to organization’s value realization activities. They enable an organization to create and capture value in the market place by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.

    There are several key questions to ask when endeavoring to identify value streams.

    Key Questions
    • Who are your customers?
    • What are the benefits we deliver to them?
    • How do we deliver those benefits?
    • How does the customer receive the benefits?

    Example: Value stream descriptions for the retail industry

    Value StreamsCreate or Purchase ProductManage InventoryDistribute ProductSell Product
    • Retailers need to purchase the products they are going to sell to customers from manufacturers or wholesale distributors.
    • A retailer’s success depends on its ability to source products that customers want and are willing to buy.
    • In addition, they need to purchase the right amount and assortment of products based on anticipated demand.
    • The right inventory needs to be at a particular store in the right quantities exactly when it is needed. This helps to maximize sales and minimize how much cash is held up in inventory.
    • Inventory management includes tracking, ordering, and stocking products, e.g. raw materials, finished products, buffer inventory.
    • Optimizing distribution activities is important for retailers.
    • Proper supply chain management can not only reduce costs for retailers but also drive revenues by enhancing shopping experiences.
    • Distribution includes transportation, packaging and delivery.
    • As business becomes global, it is important to ensure the whole distribution channel is effective.
    • Once produced, retailers need to sell the products. This is done through many channels including physical stores, online, the mail, or catalogs.
    • After the sale, retailers typically have to deliver the product, provide customer care, and manage complaints.
    • Retailers can use loyalty programs, pricing, and promotions to foster repeat business.

    Value streams describe your core business

    Value streams – the activities we do to provide value to customers – require business capabilities.

    Value streams are broken down further into value stages, for example, Sell Product value stream has value stages Evaluate Options, Place Order, and Make Payment.

    Think of value streams as the core operations, the reason for our organization’s being. A professional consulting organization may have a legal team but it does not brand itself as a law firm. A core value stream is providing research products and services – a business capability that supports it is legal counsel.

    2.1 Define value streams

    1-3 hours

    Unify the organization’s perspective on how it creates value.

    1. Write a short description of the value stream that includes a statement about the value provided and a clear start and end for the value stream. Validate the accuracy of the descriptions with your key stakeholders.
    2. Consider:
      1. How does the organization deliver those benefits?
      2. How does the customer receive the benefits?
      3. What is the scope of your value stream? What will trigger the stream to start and what will the final value be?
    3. Avoid: Don’t start with a blank page. Use Info-Tech’s business architecture models for sample value streams.
    Input Output
    • Business strategy or goals
    • Financial statements
    • Info-Tech’s industry-specific business architecture
    • List of organizational specific value streams
    • Detailed value stream definition(s)
    Materials Participants
    • Whiteboard / Kanban Board
    • Reference Architecture Template – See your Account Representative for details
    • Other industry standard reference architecture models: BIZBOK, APQC, etc.
    • Info-Tech Archi Models
    • Enterprise/Business Architect
    • Business Analysts
    • Business Unit Leads
    • CIO
    • Departmental Executives & Senior Managers

    See your Info-Tech Account Representative for access to the Reference Architecture Template

    Decompose the value stream into stages

    The stages of a value stream are usually action-oriented statements or verbs that make up the individual steps involved throughout the scope of the value stream, e.g. Place Order or Make Payment.

    Each value stream should have a trigger or starting point and an end result for a client or receiver.

    Decompose the value stream into stages

    There should be measurable value or benefits at each stage.
    These are key performance indicators (KPIs).
    Spot problem areas in the stream.

    Value streams usually fall into one of these categories:

    1. Fulfillment of products and services
    2. Manufacturing
    3. Software products
    4. Supporting value streams (procurement of supplies, product planning)

    Value stream and value stages examples

    Customer Acquisitions
    Identify Prospects > Contact Prospects > Verify Interests

    Sell Product
    Identify Options > Evaluate Options > Negotiate Price and Delivery Date > Place Order > Get Invoice > Make Payment

    Product Delivery
    Confirm Order > Plan Load > Receive Warehouse > Fill Order > Ship Order > Deliver Order > Invoice Customer

    Product Financing
    Initiate Loan Application > Decide on Application > Submit Documents > Review & Satisfy T&C > Finalize Documents > Conduct Funding > Conduct Funding Audits

    Product Release
    Ideate > Design > Build > Release

    Sell Product is a value stream, made up of value stages Identify options, Evaluate options, and so on.

    2.2 Decompose selected value streams

    1-3 hours

    Once we have a good understanding of our value streams, we need to decide which ones to focus on for deeper analysis and modeling, e.g. extend the business architecture to more detailed level 2 capabilities.

    Organization has goals and delivers products or services.

    1. Identify which value propositions are most important, e.g. be more productive or manage money more simply.
    2. Identify the value stream(s) that create the value proposition.
    3. Break the selected value stream into value stages.
    4. Analyze value stages for opportunities.

    Practical Guide to Agile Strategy Execution

    InputOutput
    • Value stream maps and definitions
    • Business goals, business model canvas, customer journey (value proposition) Selected value streams decomposed into value stages
    • Analysis of selected value streams for opportunities
    • Value stream map
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard / Kanban Board
    • Reference Architecture Template – See your Account Representative for details
    • Other industry standard reference architecture models: BIZBOK, APQC, etc.
    • Enterprise/Business Architect
    • Business Analysts
    • Business Unit Leads
    • CIO
    • Departmental Executives & Senior Managers

    Build your value stream one layer at a time to ensure clarity and comprehensiveness

    The first step of creating a value stream is defining it.

    • In this step, you create the parameters around the value stream and document them in a list format.
    • This allows you to know where each value stream starts and ends and the unique value it provides.

    The second step is the value stream mapping.

    • The majority of the mapping is done here where you break down your value stream into each of its component stages.
    • Analysis of these stages allows for a deeper understanding of the value stream.
    • The mapping layer connects the value stream to organizational capabilities.

    Define the value streams that are tied to your strategic goals and document them in a list

    Title

    • Create a title for your value stream that indicates the value it achieves.
    • Ensure your title is clear and will be understood the same way across the organization.
    • The common naming convention for value streams is to use nouns, e.g. product purchase.

    Scope

    • Determine the scope of your value stream by defining the trigger to start the value stream and final value delivered to end the value stream.
    • Be precise with your trigger to ensure you do not mistakenly include actions that would not trigger your value stream.
    • A useful tip is creating a decision tree and outlining the path that results in your trigger.

    Objectives

    • Determine the objectives of the value stream by highlighting the outcome it delivers.
    • Identify the desired outcomes of the value stream from the perspective of your organization.

    Example Value Streams List

    Title Scope Objectives
    Sell Product From option identification to payment Revenue Growth

    Create a value stream map

    A Decompose the Value Stream Into Stages B Add the Customer Perspective
    • Determine the different stages that comprise the value stream.
    • Place the stages in the correct order.
    • Outline the likely sentiment and meaningful needs of the customer at each value stage.
    C Add the Expected Outcome D Define the Entry and Exit Criteria
    • Define the desired outcome of each stage from the perspective of the organization.
    • Define both the entry and exit criteria for each stage.
    • Note that the entry criteria of the first stage is what triggers the value stream.
    E Outline the Metrics F Assess the Stages
    • For each stage of the value stream, outline the metrics the organization can use to identify its ability to attain the desired outcome.
    • Assess how well each stage of the value stream is performing against its target metrics and use this as the basis to drill down into how/where improvements can be made.

    Decompose the value stream into its value stages

    The first step in creating a value stream map is breaking it up into its component stages.

    The stages of a value stream are usually action-oriented statements or verbs that make up the individual steps involved throughout the scope of the value stream.

    Illustration of decomposing value stream into its value stages

    The Benefit
    Segmenting your value stream into individual stages will give you a better understanding of the steps involved in creating value.

    Connect the stages of the value stream to a specific customer perspective

    Example of a sell product value stream

    The Benefit
    Adding the customer’s perspective will inform you of their priorities at each stage of the value stream.

    Connect the stages of the value stream to a desired outcome

    Example of a sell product value stream

    The Benefit
    Understanding the organization’s desired outcome at each stage of the value stream will help set objectives and establish metrics.

    Define the entry and exit criteria of each stage

    Example of entry and exit criteria for each stage

    The Benefit
    Establishing the entry and exit criteria for each stage will help you understand how the customer experience flows from one end of the stream to the other.

    Outline the key metric(s) for each stage

    Outline the key metrics for each stage

    The Benefit
    Setting metrics for each stage will facilitate the tracking of success and inform the business architecture practitioner of where investments should be made.

    Example value stream map: Sell Product

    Assess the stages of your value stream map to determine which capabilities to examine further

    To determine which specific business capabilities you should seek to assess and potentially refine, you must review performance toward target metrics at each stage of the value stream.

    Stages that are not performing to their targets should be examined further by assessing the capabilities that enable them.

    Value Stage Metric Description Metric Target Current Measure Meets Objective?
    Evaluate Options Number of Product Demonstrations 12,000/month 9,000/month No
    Identify Options Google Searches 100K/month 100K/month Yes
    Identify Options Product Mentions 1M/month 1M/month Yes
    Website Traffic (Hits)
    Average Deal Size
    Number of Deals
    Time to Complete an Order
    Percentage of Invoices Without Error
    Average Time to Acquire Payment in Full

    Determine the business capabilities that support the value stage corresponding with the failing metric

    Sell Product

    Identify Options > Evaluate Options > Negotiate Price and Delivery Date > Place Order > Get Invoice > Make Payment

    The value stage(s) that doesn’t meet its objective metrics should be examined further.

    • This is done through business capability mapping and assessment.
    • Starting at the highest level (level 0) view of a business, the business architecture practitioner must drill down into the lower level capabilities that support the specific value stage to diagnose/improve an issue.

    Info-Tech Insight
    In the absence of tangible metrics, you will have to make a qualitative judgement about which stage(s) of the value stream warrant further examination for problems and opportunities.

    Build business capability map

    Align supporting capabilities to priority activities.

    Business context Define value streams Build business capability map
    1.1 Select key stakeholders
    1.2 Collect and understand corporate goals
    2.1 Update or define value streams
    2.2 Decompose and analyze selected value stream
    3.1 Build Level 1 capability map
    3.2 Build Level 2 capability map
    3.3 Heatmap capability map
    3.4 Roadmap

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Determine which business capabilities support value streams
    • Accelerate the process with an industry reference architecture
    • Validate the business capability map
    • Establish level 2 capability

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Enterprise/Business Architect
    • Business Analysts
    • Business Unit Leads
    • CIO
    • Departmental Executives & Senior Managers

    Outcomes of this step

  • A validated level 1 business capability map
  • Level 2 capabilities for selected value stream(s)
  • Heatmapped business capability map
  • Business architecture initiatives roadmap
  • Develop a business capability map – level 1

    • Business architecture consists of a set of techniques to create multiple views of an organization; the primary view is known as a business capability map.
    • A business capability defines what a business does to enable value creation and achieve outcomes, rather than how. Business capabilities are business terms defined using descriptive nouns such as “Marketing” or “Research and Development.” They represent stable business functions, are unique and independent of each other, and typically will have a defined business outcome. Business capabilities should not be defined as organizational units and are typically longer lasting than organizational structures.
    • A business capability mapping process should begin at the highest-level view of an organization, the level 1, which presents the entire business on a page.
    • An effective method of organizing business capabilities is to split them into logical groupings or categories. At the highest level, capabilities are either “core” (customer-facing functions) or “enabling” (supporting functions).
    • As a best practice, Info-Tech recommends dividing business capabilities into the categories illustrated to the right.

    The Business Capability Map is the primary visual representation of the organization’s key abilities or services that are delivered to stakeholders. This model forms the basis of strategic planning discussions.

    Example of a business capability map

    Example business capability map – Higher Education

    A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and represents a view of what your data program must support.

    Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

    Example business capability map for: Higher Education

    Example business capability map for higher education

    Example business capability map – Local Government

    A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and represents a view of what your data program must support.

    Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

    Example business capability map for: Local Government

    Example business capability map for local government

    Map capabilities to value stage

    Example of a value stage

    Source: Lambert, “Practical Guide to Agile Strategy Execution”

    3.1 Build level 1 business capability map

    1-3 hours

    1. Analyze the value streams to identify and describe the organization’s capabilities that support them. This stage requires a good understanding of the business and will be a critical foundation for the business capability map. Use the reference business architecture’s business capability map for your industry for examples of level 1 and 2 business capabilities and the capability map template to work in.
    2. Avoid:
      1. Don’t repeat capabilities. Capabilities are typically mutually exclusive activities.
      2. Don’t include temporary initiatives. Capabilities should be stable over time. The people, processes, and technologies that support capabilities will change continuously.

    Ensure you engage with the right stakeholders:

    Don’t waste your efforts building an inaccurate depiction of the business: The exercise of identifying capabilities for an organization is very introspective and requires deep analysis.

    It is challenging to develop a common language that everyone will understand and be able to apply. Invest in the time to ensure the right stakeholders are brought into the fold and bring their business area expertise and understanding to the table.

    InputOutput
    • Existing business capability maps
    • Value stream map
    • Info-Tech’s industry-specific business architecture
    • Level 1 business capability map for enterprise
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard
    • Reference Architecture Template – See your Account Representative for details
    • Other industry standard reference architecture models: BIZBOK, APQC, etc.
    • Archi Models
    • Enterprise/Business Architect
    • Business Analysts
    • Business Unit Leads
    • CIO
    • Departmental Executives & Senior Managers

    Prioritize one value stream and build a business architecture to level 2 capabilities

    Prioritize your innovation objectives and business goals, and identify a value stream to transform.

    Align the innovation goals and business objectives of your organization to your value streams (the critical actions that take place within your organization to add value to a customer).
    Prioritize a value stream to transform based on the number of priorities aligned to a value stream and/or the business value (e.g. revenue, EBITDA earnings, competitive differentiation, or cost efficiency).
    Working alongside a business or enterprise architect, build a reference architecture for the prioritized value stream up to level 2.

    Example of a value stream to business architecture level 2 capabilities

    Info-Tech Insight
    To produce maximum impact, focus on value streams that provide two-thirds of your enterprise value (EBITDA earnings).

    From level 1 to level 2 business capabilities

    Example moving from level 1 to level 2 business capabilities

    3.2 Build level 2 business capability map

    1-3 hours

    It is only at level 2 and further that we can pinpoint the business capabilities – the exact resources, whether applications or data or processes – that we need to focus on to realize improvements in the organization’s performance and customer experience.

    1. Gather industry reference models and any existing business capability maps.
    2. For the selected value stream, further break down its level 1 business capabilities into level 2 capabilities.
    3. You can often represent the business capabilities on a single page, providing a holistic visual for decision makers.
    4. Use meaningful names for business capabilities so that planners, stakeholders, and subject matter experts can easily search the map.
    InputOutput
    • Existing business capability maps
    • Value stream map
    • Info-Tech’s industry-specific business architecture
    • Level 1 business capability map
    • Level 2 Business Capability Map for selected Value Stream
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard
    • Reference Architecture Template – See your Account Representative for details.
    • Other industry standard reference architecture models: BIZBOK, APQC, etc.
    • Archi Models
    • Enterprise/Business Architect
    • Business Analysts
    • Business Unit Leads
    • CIO
    • Departmental Executives & Senior Managers

    Download: See your Account Representative for access to Info-Tech’s Reference Architecture Template

    3.3 Heatmap business capability map

    1-3 hours

    Determine the organization’s key capabilities.

    1. Determine cost advantage creators. If your organization has a cost advantage over competitors, the capabilities that enable it should be identified and prioritized. Highlight these capabilities and prioritize the programs that support them.
    2. Determine competitive advantage creators. If your organization does not have a cost advantage over competitors, determine if it can deliver differentiated end-customer experiences. Once you have identified the competitive advantages, understand which capabilities enable them. These capabilities are critical to the success of the organization and should be highly supported.
    3. Define key future state capabilities. In addition to the current and competitive advantage creators, the organization may have the intention to enhance new capabilities. Discuss and select the capabilities that will help drive the attainment of future goals.
    4. Assess how well information, applications, and processes support capabilities.
    InputOutput
    • Business capability map
    • Cost advantage creators
    • Competitive advantage creators
    • IT and business assessments
    • Key business capabilities
    • Business process review
    • Information assessment
    • Application assessment
    • List of IT implications
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard
    • Reference Architecture Template – See your Account Representative for details.
    • Other industry standard reference architecture models: BIZBOK, APQC, etc.
    • Archi Models
    • Enterprise/Business Architect
    • Business Analysts
    • Business Unit Leads
    • CIO
    • Departmental Executives & Senior Managers

    Download: See your Account Representative for access to Info-Tech’s Reference Architecture Template

    Business capability map: Education

    Illustrative example of a business capability map for education

    Define key capabilities

    Illustrative example of Define key capabilities

    Note: Illustrative Example

    Business process review

    Illustrative example of a business process review

    Note: Illustrative Example

    Information assessment

     Illustrative example of an Information assessment

    Note: Illustrative Example

    Application assessment

     Illustrative example of an Application assessment

    Note: Illustrative Example

    MoSCoW analysis for business capabilities

     Illustrative example of a MoSCoW analysis for business capabilities

    Note: Illustrative Example

    Ranked list of IT implications

    MoSCoW Rank IT Implication Value Stream Impacted Comments/Actions
    M [Implication] [Value Stream]
    M [Implication] [Value Stream]
    M [Implication] [Value Stream]
    S [Implication] [Value Stream]
    S [Implication] [Value Stream]
    S [Implication] [Value Stream]
    C [Implication] [Value Stream]
    C [Implication] [Value Stream]
    C [Implication] [Value Stream]
    W [Implication] [Value Stream]
    W [Implication] [Value Stream]
    W [Implication] [Value Stream]

    3.4 Roadmap business architecture initiatives

    1-3 hours

    Unify the organization’s perspective on how it creates value.

    1. Write a short description of the value stream that includes a statement about the value provided and a clear start and end for the value stream. Validate the accuracy of the descriptions with your key stakeholders.
    2. Consider:
      1. How does the organization deliver those benefits?
      2. How does the customer receive the benefits?
      3. What is the scope of your value stream? What will trigger the stream to start and what will the final value be?
    3. Don’t start with a blank page. Use Info-Tech’s business architecture models for sample value streams.
    InputOutput
    • Existing business capability maps
    • Value stream map
    • Info-Tech’s industry-specific business architecture
    • Level 1 business capability map
    • Heatmapped business capability map
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard
    • Reference Architecture Template – See your Account Representative for details.
    • Other industry standard reference architecture models: BIZBOK, APQC, etc.
    • Archi Models
    • Enterprise/Business Architect
    • Business Analysts
    • Business Unit Leads
    • CIO
    • Departmental Executives & Senior Managers

    Download: See your Account Representative for access to Info-Tech’s Reference Architecture Template

    Example: Business architecture deliverables

    Enterprise Architecture Domain Architectural View Selection
    Business Architecture Business strategy map Required
    Business Architecture Business model canvas Optional
    Business Architecture Value streams Required
    Business Architecture Business capability map Not Used
    Business Architecture Business process flows
    Business Architecture Service portfolio
    Data Architecture Conceptual data model
    Data Architecture Logical data model
    Data Architecture Physical data model
    Data Architecture Data flow diagram
    Data Architecture Data lineage diagram

    Tools and templates to compile and communicate your business architecture work

    The Industry Business Reference Architecture Template for your industry is a place for you to collect all of the activity outputs and outcomes you’ve completed for use in next-steps.

    Download the Industry Business Reference Architecture Template for your industry

    Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

    DIY Toolkit Guided Implementation Workshop Consulting
    "Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful." "Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track." "We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place." "Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project."

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks are used throughout all four options

    Research Contributors and Experts

    Name Role Organization
    Ibrahim Abdel-Kader Research Analyst, Data & Analytics Info-Tech Research Group
    Ben Abrishami-Shirazi Technical Counselor, Enterprise Architecture Info-Tech Research Group
    Andrew Bailey Consulting, Manager Info-Tech Research Group
    Dana Dahar Research & Advisory Director, CIO / Digital Business Strategy Info-Tech Research Group
    Larry Fretz VP Info-Tech Research Group
    Shibly Hamidur Enterprise Architect Toronto Transit Commission (TTC)
    Rahul Jaiswal Principal Research Director, Industry Info-Tech Research Group
    John Kemp Executive Counselor, Executive Services Info-Tech Research Group
    Gerald Khoury Senior Executive Advisor Info-Tech Research Group
    Igor Ikonnikov Principal Advisory Director, Data & Analytics Info-Tech Research Group
    Daniel Lambert VP Benchmark Consulting
    Milena Litoiu Principal Research Director, Enterprise Architecture Info-Tech Research Group
    Andy Neill AVP Data & Analytics, Chief Enterprise Architect Info-Tech Research Group
    Rajesh Parab Research Director, Data & Analytics Info-Tech Research Group
    Rick Pittman VP, Research Info-Tech Research Group
    Irina Sedenko Research Director, Data & Analytics Info-Tech Research Group

    Bibliography

    Andriole, Steve. “Why No One Understands Enterprise Architecture & Why Technology Abstractions Always Fail.” Forbes, 18 September 2020. Web.

    “APQC Process Classification Framework (PCF) – Retail.” American Productivity & Quality Center, 9 January 2019. Web.

    Brose, Cari. “Who’s on First? Architecture Roles and Responsibilities in SAFe.” Business Architecture Guild, 9 March 2017. Web.

    Burlton, Roger, Jim Ryne, and Daniel St. George. “Value Streams and Business Processes: The Business Architecture Perspective.” Business Architecture Guild, December 2019. Web.

    “Business Architecture: An overview of the business architecture professional.” Capstera, 5 January 2022. Web.

    Business Architecture Guild. “What is Business Architecture?” Business Analyst Mentor, 18 November 2022. Web.

    “Business Architecture Overview.” The Business Architecture Working Group of the Object Management Group (OMG), n.d. Web.

    “Delivering on your strategic vision.” The Business Architecture Guild, n.d. Web.

    Ecker, Grant. “Deploying business architecture.” LinkedIn, 11 November 2021. (Presentation)

    IRIS. “Retail Business Architecture Framework and Examples.” IRIS Business Architect, n.d. Web.

    IRIS. “What Is Business Architecture?” IRIS Business Architect, 8 May 2014. Web.

    IRIS. “Your Enterprise Architecture Practice Maturity 2021 Assessment.” IRIS Business Architect, 17 May 2021. Web.

    Khuen, Whynde. “How Business Architecture Breaks Down and Bridges Silos.” Biz Arch Mastery, January 2020. Web.

    Lambert, Daniel. “Practical Guide to Agile Strategy Execution.” 18 February 2020.

    Lankhorst, Marc, and Bernd Ihnen. “Mapping the BIZBOK Metamodel to the ArchiMate Language.” Bizzdesign, 2 September 2021. Web.

    Ramias, Alan, and Andrew Spanyi, “Demystifying the Relationship Between Processes and Capabilities: A Modest Proposal.” BPTrends, 2 February 2015. Web.

    Newman, Daniel. “NRF 2022: 4 Key Trends From This Year’s Big Show.” Forbes, 20 January 2022. Web.

    Research and Markets. “Define the Business Context Needed to Complete Strategic IT Initiatives: 2018 Blueprint.” Business Wire, 1 February 2018. Web.

    Sabanoglu, Tugba. “Retail market worldwide - Statistics & Facts.” Statista, 21 April 2022. Web.

    Spacey, John. “Capability vs Process.” Simplicable, 18 November 2016. Web.

    “The Definitive Guide to Business Capabilities.” LeanIX, n.d. Web.

    TOGAF 9. Version 9.1. The Open Group, 2011. Web.

    “What is Business Architecture?” STA Group, 2017. PDF.

    Whittie, Ralph. “The Business Architecture, Value Streams and Value Chains.” BA Institute, n.d. Web.

    Create a Buyer Persona and Journey

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}558|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: N/A
    • member rating average dollars saved: N/A
    • member rating average days saved: N/A
    • Parent Category Name: Marketing Solutions
    • Parent Category Link: /marketing-solutions
    • Contacts fail to convert to leads because messaging fails to resonate with buyers.
    • Products fail to reach targets given shallow understanding of buyer needs.
    • Sellers' emails go unopened and attempts at discovery fail due to no understanding of buyer challenges, pain points, and needs.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Marketing leaders in possession of well-researched and up-to-date buyer personas and journeys dramatically improve product market fit, lead gen, and sales results.
    • Success starts with product, marketing, and sales alignment on targeted personas.
    • Speed to deploy is enabled via initial buyer persona attribute discovery internally.
    • However, ultimate success requires buyer interviews, especially for the buyer journey.
    • Leading marketers update journey maps every six months as disruptive events such as COVID-19 and new media and tech platform advancements require continual innovation.

    Impact and Result

    • Reduce time and treasure wasted chasing the wrong prospects.
    • Improve product-market fit.
    • Increase open and click-through rates in your lead gen engine.
    • Perform more effective sales discovery and increase eventual win rates.

    Create a Buyer Persona and Journey Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Our Executive Brief summarizes the challenges faced when buyer persona and journeys are ill-defined. It describes the attributes of, and the benefits that accrue from, a well-defined persona and journey and the key steps to take to achieve success.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Drive an aligned initial draft of buyer persona

    Define and align your team on target persona, outline steps to capture and document a robust buyer persona and journey, and capture current team buyer knowledge.

    • Buyer Persona Creation Template
    • Buyer Persona and Journey Interview Guide and Data Capture Tool

    2. Interview buyers and validate persona and journey

    Hold initial buyer interviews, test initial results, and continue with interviews.

    3. Prepare communications and educate stakeholders

    Consolidate interview findings, present to product, marketing, and sales teams. Work with them to apply to product design, marketing launch/campaigning, and sales and customer success enablement.

    • Buyer Persona and Journey Summary Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Create a Buyer Persona and Journey

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Align Team, Identify Persona, and Document Current Knowledge

    The Purpose

    Organize, drive alignment on target persona, and capture initial views.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Steering committee and project team roles and responsibilities clarified.

    Product, marketing, and sales aligned on target persona.

    Build initial team understanding of persona.

    Activities

    1.1 Outline a vision for buyer persona and journey creation and identify stakeholders.

    1.2 Identify buyer persona choices and settle on an initial target.

    1.3 Document team knowledge about buyer persona (and journey where possible).

    Outputs

    Documented steering committee and working team

    Executive Brief on personas and journey

    Personas and initial targets

    Documented team knowledge

    2 Validate Initial Work and Identify Buyer Interviewees

    The Purpose

    Build list of buyer interviewees, finalize interview guide, and validate current findings with analyst input.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Interview efficiently using 75-question interview guide.

    Gain analyst help in persona validation, reducing workload.

    Activities

    2.1 Share initial insights with covering industry analyst.

    2.2 Hear from industry analyst their perspectives on the buyer persona attributes.

    2.3 Reconcile differences; update “current understanding.”

    2.4 Identify interviewee types by segment, region, etc.

    Outputs

    Analyst-validated initial findings

    Target interviewee types

    3 Schedule and Hold Buyer Interviews

    The Purpose

    Validate current persona hypothesis and flush out those attributes only derived from interviews.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Get to a critical mass of persona and journey understanding quickly.

    Activities

    3.1 Identify actual list of 15-20 interviewees.

    3.2 Hold interviews and use interview guides over the course of weeks.

    3.3 Hold review session after initial 3-4 interviews to make adjustments.

    3.4 Complete interviews.

    Outputs

    List of interviewees; calls scheduled

    Initial review – “are you going in the right direction?”

    Completed interviews

    4 Summarize Findings and Provide Actionable Guidance to Colleagues

    The Purpose

    Summarize persona and journey attributes and provide activation guidance to team.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understanding of product market fit requirements, messaging, and marketing, and sales asset content.

    Activities

    4.1 Summarize findings.

    4.2 Create action items for supporting team, e.g. messaging, touch points, media spend, assets.

    4.3 Convene steering committee/executives and working team for final review.

    4.4 Schedule meetings with colleagues to action results.

    Outputs

    Complete findings

    Action items for team members

    Plan for activation

    5 Measure Impact and Results

    The Purpose

    Measure results, adjust, and improve.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Activation of outcomes; measured results.

    Activities

    5.1 Review final copy, assets, launch/campaign plans, etc.

    5.2 Develop/review implementation plan.

    5.3 Reconvene team to review results.

    Outputs

    Activation review

    List of suggested next steps

    Further reading

    Create a Buyer Persona and Journey

    Make it easier to market, sell, and achieve product-market fit with deeper buyer understanding.

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    B2B marketers without documented personas and journeys often experience the following:

    • Contacts fail to convert to leads because messaging fails to resonate with buyers.
    • Products fail to reach targets given shallow understanding of buyer needs.
    • Sellers’ emails go unopened, and attempts at discovery fail due to no understanding of buyer challenges, pain points, and needs.

    Without a deeper understanding of buyer needs and how they buy, B2B marketers will waste time and precious resources targeting the incorrect personas.

    Common Obstacles

    Despite being critical elements, organizations struggle to build personas due to:

    • A lack of alignment and collaboration among marketing, product, and sales.
    • An internal focus; or a lack of true customer centricity.
    • A lack of tools and techniques for building personas and buyer journeys.

    In today’s Agile development environment, combined with the pressure to generate revenues quickly, high tech marketers often skip the steps necessary to go deeper to build buyer understanding.

    SoftwareReviews’ Approach

    With a common framework and target output, clients will:

    • Align marketing, sales, and product, and collaborate together to share current knowledge on buyer personas and journeys.
    • Target 12-15 customers and prospects to interview and validate insights. Share that with customer-facing staff.
    • Activate the insights for more customer-centric lead generation, product development, and selling.

    Clients who activate findings from buyer personas and journeys will see a 50% results improvement.

    SoftwareReviews Insight:
    Buyer personas and buyer journeys are essential ingredients in go-to-market success, as they inform for product, marketing, sales, and customer success who we are targeting and how to engage with them successfully.

    Buyer personas and journeys: A go-to-market critical success factor

    Marketers – large and small – will fail to optimize product-market fit, lead generation, and sales effectiveness without well-defined buyer personas and a buyer journey.

    Critical Success Factors of a Successful G2M Strategy:

    • Opportunity size and business case
    • Buyer personas and journey
    • Competitively differentiated product hypothesis
    • Buyer-validated commercial concept
    • Sales revenue plan and program cost budget
    • Consolidated communications to steering committee

    Jeff Golterman, Managing Director, SoftwareReviews Advisory

    “44% of B2B marketers have already discovered the power of Personas.”
    – Hasse Jansen, Boardview.io!, 2016

    Documenting buyer personas enables success beyond marketing

    Documenting buyer personas has several essential benefits to marketing, sales, and product teams:

    • Achieve a better understanding of your target buyer – by building a detailed buyer persona for each type of buyer and keeping it fresh, you take a giant step toward becoming a customer-centric organization.
    • Team alignment on a common definition – will happen when you build buyer personas collaboratively and among those teams that touch the customer.
    • Improved lead generation – increases dramatically when messaging and marketing assets across your lead generation engine better resonate with buyers because you have taken the time to understand them deeply.
    • More effective selling – is possible when sellers apply persona development output to their interactions with prospects and customers.
    • Better product-market fit – increases when product teams more deeply understand for whom they are designing products. Documenting buyer challenges, pain points, and unmet needs gives product teams what they need to optimize product adoption.

    “It’s easier buying gifts for your best friend or partner than it is for a stranger, right? You know their likes and dislikes, you know the kind of gifts they’ll have use for, or the kinds of gifts they’ll get a kick out of. Customer personas work the same way, by knowing what your customer wants and needs, you can present them with content targeted specifically to their wants and needs.”
    – Emma Bilardi, Product Marketing Alliance, 2020

    Buyer understanding activates just about everything

    Without the deep buyer insights that persona and journey capture enables, marketers are suboptimized.

    Buyer Persona and Journey

    • Product design
    • Customer targeting
    • Personalization
    • Messaging
    • Content marketing
    • Lead gen & scoring
    • Sales Effectiveness
    • Customer retention

    “Marketing eutopia is striking the all-critical sweet spot that adds real value and makes customers feel recognized and appreciated, while not going so far as to appear ‘big brother’. To do this, you need a deep understanding of your audience coming from a range of different data sets and the capability to extract meaning.”
    – Plexure, 2020

    Does your organization need buyer persona and journey updating?

    “Yes,” if experiencing one or more key challenges:

    • Sales time is wasted on unqualified leads
    • Website abandon rates are high
    • Lead gen engine click-through rates are low
    • Ideal customer profile is ill defined
    • Marketing asset downloads are low
    • Seller discovery with prospects is ineffective
    • Sales win/loss rates drop due to poor product-market fit
    • Higher than desired customer churn

    SoftwareReviews Advisory Insight:
    Marketers developing buyer personas and journeys that lack agreement among Marketing, Sales, and Product of personas to target will squander precious time and resources throughout the customer targeting and acquisition process.

    Outcomes and benefits

    Building your buyer persona and journey using our methodology will enable:

    • Greater stakeholder alignment – when marketing, product, and sales agree on personas, less time is wasted on targeting alternate personas.
    • Improved product-market fit – when buyers see both pain-relieving features and value-based pricing, “because you asked vs. guessed,” win rates increase.
    • Greater open and click-through rates – because you understood buyer pain points and motivations for solution seeking, you’ll see higher visits and engagement with your lead gen engine, and because you asked “what asset types do you find most helpful” your CTAs become ”lead-gen magnets” because you’ve offered the right asset types in your content marketing strategy.
    • More qualified leads – because you defined a more accurate ideal customer profile (ICP) and your lead scoring algorithm has improved, sellers see more qualified leads.
    • Increased sales cycle velocity – since you learned from personas their content and engagement preferences and what collateral types they need during the down-funnel sales discussions, sales calls are more productive and sales cycles shrink.

    Our methodology for buyer persona and journey creation

    1. Document Team Knowledge of Buyer Persona and Drive Alignment 2. Interview Target Buyer Prospects and Customers 3. Create Outputs and Apply to Marketing, Sales, and Product
    Phase Steps
    1. Outline a vision for buyer persona and journey creation and identify stakeholders.
    2. Pull stakeholders together, identify initial buyer persona, and begin to document team knowledge about buyer persona (and journey where possible).
    3. Validate with industry and marketing analyst’s initial buyer persona, and identify list of buyer interviewees.
    1. Hold interviews and document and share findings.
    2. Validate initial drafts of buyer persona and create initial documented buyer journey. Review findings among key stakeholders, steering committee, and supporting analysts.
    3. Complete remaining interviews.
    1. Summarize findings.
    2. Convene steering committee/exec. and working team for final review.
    3. Communicate to key stakeholders in product, marketing, sales, and customer success for activation.
    Phase Outcomes
    1. Steering committee and team selection
    2. Team insights about buyer persona documented
    3. Buyer persona validation with industry and marketing analysts
    4. Sales, marketing, and product alignment
    1. Interview guide
    2. Target interviewee list
    3. Buyer-validated buyer persona
    4. Buyer journey documented with asset types, channels, and “how buyers buy” fully documented
    1. Education deck on buyer persona and journey ready for use with all stakeholders: product, field marketing, sales, executives, customer success, partners
    2. Activation will update product-market fit, optimize lead gen, and improve sales effectiveness

    Our approach provides interview guides and templates to help rebuild buyer persona

    Our methodology will enable you to align your team on why it’s important to capture the most important attributes of buyer persona including:

    • Functional – helps you find and locate your target personas
    • Emotive – deepens team understanding of buyer initiatives, motivations for seeking alternatives, challenges they face, pain points for your offerings to address, and terminology that describes the “space”
    • Solution – enables greater product market fit
    • Behavioral – clarifies how to communicate with personas and understand their content preferences
    Functional – “to find them”
    Job Role Title Org. Chart Dynamics Buying Center Firmographics
    Emotive – “what they do and jobs to be done”
    Initiatives: What programs/projects the persona is tasked with and their feelings and aspirations about these initiatives. Motivations? Build credibility? Get promoted? Challenges: Identify the business issues, problems, and pain points that impede attainment of objectives. What are their fears, uncertainties, and doubts about these challenges? Buyer Need: They may have multiple needs; which need is most likely met with the offering? Terminology: What are the keywords/phrases they organically use to discuss the buyer need or business issue?
    Decision Criteria – “how they decide”
    Buyer Role: List decision-making criteria and power level. The five common buyer roles are champion, influencer, decision maker, user, and ratifier (purchaser/negotiator). Evaluation and Decision Criteria: Which lens – strategic, financial, or operational – does the persona evaluate the impact of purchase through?
    Solution Attributes – “what does the ideal solution look like”
    Steps in “Jobs to Be Done” Elements of the “Ideal Solution” Business outcomes from ideal solution Opportunity scope; other potential users Acceptable price for value delivered Alternatives that see consideration Solution sourcing: channel, where to buy
    Behavioral Attributes – “how to approach them successfully”
    Content Preferences: List the persona’s content preferences – blog, infographic, demo, video – vs. long-form assets (e.g. white paper, presentation, analyst report). Interaction Preferences: Which are preferred among in-person meetings, phone calls, emails, videoconferencing, conducting research via Web, mobile, and social? Watering Holes: Which physical or virtual places do they go to network or exchange info with peers (e.g. LinkedIn)?

    Buyer journeys are constantly shifting

    If you didn’t remap buyer journeys in 2021, you may be losing to competitors that did. Leaders remap buyer journey frequently.

    • The multi-channel buyer journey is constantly changing. Today’s B2B buyer uses industry research sites, vendor content marketing assets, software reviews sites, contacts with vendor salespeople, events participation, peer networking, consultants, emails, social media sites, and electronic media to research purchasing decisions.
    • COVID-19 has dramatically decreased face-to-face interaction. We estimate a B2B buyer spent 20-25% more time online in 2021 than pre-COVID-19 researching software buying decisions. This has diminished the importance of face-to-face selling and given dramatic rise to digital selling and outbound marketing.
    • Content marketing has exploded, but without mapping the buyer journey and knowing where – by channel –and when – by buyer journey step – to offer content marketing assets, we will fail to convert prospects into buyers.

    “~2/3 of [B2B] buyers prefer remote human interactions or digital self-service.” And during Aug. ‘20 to Feb. ‘21, use of digital self-service to interact with sales reps leapt by more than 10% for both researching and evaluating new suppliers.”
    – Liz Harrison, Dennis Spillecke, Jennifer Stanley, and Jenny Tsai McKinsey & Company, 2021

    SoftwareReviews Advisory Insight:
    Marketers are advised to update their buyer journey annually and with greater frequency when the human vs. digital mix is affected due to events such as COVID-19 and as emerging media such as AR shifts asset-type usage and engagement options.

    Our approach helps you define the buyer journey

    Because marketing leaders need to reach buyers through the right channel with the right message at the right time during their decision cycle, you’ll benefit by using questionnaires that enable you to build the below easily and quickly.

    You’ll be more successful by following our overall guidance

    Overarching insight

    Buyer personas and buyer journeys are essential ingredients in go-to-market success, as they inform for product, marketing, sales, and customer success who we are targeting and how to engage with them successfully.

    Align Your Team

    Marketers developing buyer personas and journeys that lack agreement among Marketing, Sales, and Product of personas to target will squander precious time and resources throughout the customer targeting and acquisition process.

    Jump-Start Persona Development

    Marketing leaders leverage the buyer persona knowledge not only from in-house experts in areas such as sales and executives but from analysts that speak with their buyers each and every day.

    Buyer Interviews Are a Must

    While leaders will get a fast start by interviewing sellers, executives, and analysts, you will fail to craft the right messages, build the right marketing assets, and design the best buyer journey if you skip buyer interviews.

    Watch for Disruption

    Leaders will update their buyer journey annually and with greater frequency when the human vs. digital mix is effected due to events such as COVID-19 and as emerging media such as AR and VR shifts the way buyers engage.

    Advanced Buyer Journey Discovery

    Digital marketers that ramp up lead gen engine capabilities to capture “wins” and measure engagement back through the lead gen and nurturing engines will build a more data-driven view of the buyer journey. Target to build this advanced capability in your initial design.

    Tools and templates to speed your success

    This blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you gather team insights, interview customers and prospects, and summarize results for ease in communications.

    To support your buyer persona and journey creation, we’ve created the enclosed tools

    Buyer Persona Creation Template

    A PowerPoint template to aid the capture and summarizing of your team’s insights on the buyer persona.

    Buyer Persona and Journey Interview Guide and Data Capture Tool

    For interviewing customers and prospects, this tool is designed to help you interview personas and summarize results for up to 15 interviewees.

    Buyer Persona and Journey Summary Template

    A PowerPoint template into which you can drop your buyer persona and journey interviewees list and summary findings.

    SoftwareReviews offers two levels of support to best suit your needs

    DIY Toolkit

    "Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful."

    The "do-it-yourself" step-by-step instructions begin with Phase 1.

    Guided Implementation

    "Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track."

    A Guided Implementation is a series of analysts inquiries with you and your team.

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks are used throughout each option.

    Guided Implementation

    A Guided Implementation (GI) is series of calls with a SoftwareReviews Advisory analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

    For guidance on marketing applications, we can arrange a discussion with an Info-Tech analyst.

    Your engagement managers will work with you to schedule analyst calls.

    What does our GI on buyer persona and journey mapping look like?

    Drive an Aligned Initial Draft of Buyer Persona

    • Call #1: Collaborate on vision for buyer persona and the buyer journey. Review templates and sample outputs. Identify your team.
    • Call #2: Review work in progress on capturing working team knowledge of buyer persona elements.
    • Call #3: (Optional) Review Info-Tech’s research-sourced persona insights.
    • Call #4: Validate the persona WIP with Info-Tech analysts. Review buyer interview approach and target list.

    Interview Buyers and Validate Persona and Journey

    • Call #5: Revise/review interview guide and final interviewee list; schedule interviews.
    • Call #6: Review interim interview finds; adjust interview guide.
    • Call #7: Use interview findings to validate/update persona and build journey map.
    • Call #8: Add supporting analysts to final stakeholder review.

    Prepare Communications and Educate Stakeholders

    • Call #9: Review output templates completed with final persona and journey findings.
    • Call #10: Add supporting analysts to stakeholder education meetings for support and help with addressing questions/issues.

    Workshop overview

    Contact your account representative for more information. workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889

    Day1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5
    Align Team, Identify Persona, and Document Current Knowledge Validate Initial Work and Identify Buyer Interviewees Schedule and Hold Buyer interviews Summarize Findings and Provide Actionable Guidance to Colleagues Measure Impact and Results
    Activities

    1.1 Outline a vision for buyer persona and journey creation and identify stakeholders.

    1.2 Identify buyer persona choices and settle on an initial target.

    1.3 Document team knowledge about buyer persona (and journey where possible).

    2.1 Share initial insights with covering industry analyst.

    2.2 Hear from industry analyst their perspectives on the buyer persona attributes.

    2.3 Reconcile differences; update “current understanding.”

    2.4 Identify interviewee types by segment, region, etc.

    3.1 Identify actual list of 15-20 interviewees.

    A gap of up to a week for scheduling of interviews.

    3.2 Hold interviews and use interview guides (over the course of weeks).

    3.3 Hold review session after initial 3-4 interviews to make adjustments.

    3.4 Complete interviews.

    4.1 Summarize findings.

    4.2 Create action items for supporting team, e.g. messaging, touch points, media spend, assets.

    4.3 Convene steering committee/exec. and working team for final review.

    4.4 Schedule meetings with colleagues to action results.

    5.1 Review final copy, assets, launch/campaign plans, etc.

    5.2 Develop/review implementation plan.

    A period of weeks will likely intervene to execute and gather results.

    5.3 Reconvene team to review results.

    Deliverables
    1. Documented steering committee and working team
    2. Executive Brief on personas and journey
    3. Personas and initial targets
    4. Documented team knowledge
    1. Analyst-validated initial findings
    2. Target interviewee types
    1. List of interviewees; calls scheduled
    2. Initial review – “are we going in the right direction?”
    3. Completed interviews
    1. Complete findings
    2. Action items for team members
    3. Plan for activation
    1. Activation review
    2. List of suggested next steps

    Phase 1
    Drive an Aligned Initial Draft of Buyer Persona

    This Phase walks you through the following activities:

    • Develop an understanding of what comprises a buyer persona and journey, including their importance to overall go-to-market strategy and execution.
    • Sample outputs.

    This Phase involves the following stakeholders:

    • Program leadership
    • Product Marketing
    • Product Management
    • Representative(s) from Sales
    • Executive Leadership

    1.1 Establish the team and align on shared vision

    Input

    • Typically a joint recognition that buyer personas have not been fully documented.
    • Identify working team members/participants (see below), and an executive sponsor.

    Output

    • Communication of team members involved and the make-up of steering committee and working team
    • Alignment of team members on a shared vision of “Why Build Buyer Personas and Journey” and what key attributes define both.

    Materials

    • N/A

    Participants

    • Initiative Manager – individual leading the buyer persona and journey initiative
    • CMO/Sponsoring Executive Working Team – typically representatives in Product Marketing, Product Management, and Sales
    • SoftwareReviews marketing analyst

    60 minutes

    1. Schedule inquiry with working team members and walk the team through the Buyer Persona and Journey Executive Brief PowerPoint presentation.
    2. Optional: Have the (SoftwareReviews Advisory) SRA analyst walk the team through the Buyer Persona and Journey Executive Brief PowerPoint presentation as part of your session.

    Review the Create a Buyer Persona Executive Brief (Slides 3-14)

    1.2 Document team knowledge of buyer persona

    Input

    • Working team member knowledge

    Output

    • Initial draft of your buyer persona

    Materials

    • Buyer Persona Creation Template

    Participants

    • Initiative Manager – individual leading the buyer persona and journey initiative
    • CMO/Sponsoring Executive (optional)
    • Working Team – typically representatives in Product Marketing, Product Management, and Sales

    2-3 sessions of 60 minutes each

    1. Schedule meeting with working team members and, using the Buyer Persona Template, lead the team in a discussion that documents current team knowledge of the target buyer persona.
    2. Lead the team to prioritize an initial, single, most important persona and to collaborate to complete the template (and later, the buyer journey). Once the team learns the process for working on the initial persona, the development of additional personas will become more efficient.
    3. Place the PowerPoint template in a shared drive for team collaboration. Expect to schedule several 60-minute meets. Quicken collaboration by encouraging team to “do their homework” by sharing persona knowledge within the shared drive version of the template. Your goal is to get to an initial agreed upon version that can be shared for additional validation with industry analyst(s) in the next step.

    Download the Buyer Persona Creation Template

    1.3 Validate with industry analysts

    Input

    • Identify gaps in persona from previous steps

    Output

    • Further validated buyer persona

    Materials

    • Bring your Buyer Persona Creation Template to the meeting to share with analysts

    Participants

    • Initiative Manager – individual leading the buyer persona and journey initiative
    • CMO/Sponsoring Executive (Optional)
    • Working Team – typically representatives in Product Marketing, Product Management, and Sales
    • Info-Tech analyst covering your product category and SoftwareReviews marketing analyst

    30 minutes

    1. Schedule meeting with working team members and discuss which persona areas require further validation from an Info-Tech analyst who has worked closely with those buyers within your persona.

    60 minutes

    1. Schedule an inquiry with the appropriate Info-Tech analyst and SoftwareReviews Advisory analyst to share current findings and see:
      1. Info-Tech analyst provide content feedback given what they know about your target persona and product category.
      2. SoftwareReviews Advisory analyst provide feedback on persona approach and to coach any gaps or important omissions.
    2. Tabulate results and update your persona summary. At this point you will likely require additional validation through interviews with customers and prospects.

    1.4 Identify interviewees and prepare for interviews

    Input

    • Identify segments within which you require persona knowledge
    • Understand your persona insight gaps

    Output

    • List of interviewees

    Materials

    • Interviewee recording template on following slide
    • Interview guide questions found within the Buyer Persona and Journey Interview Guide and data Capture Tool

    Participants

    • Initiative Manager – individual leading the buyer persona and journey initiative
    • Working Team – typically representatives in Product Marketing, Product Management, and Sales

    1-2 weeks

    1. Identify the types of customers and prospects that will best represent your target persona. Choose interviewees that when interviewed will inform key differences among key segments (geographies, company size, mix of customers and prospects, etc.).
    2. Recruit interviewees and schedule interviews for 45 minutes.
    3. Keep track of Interviewees using the slide following this one.
    4. In preparation for interviews, review the Buyer Persona and Journey Interview Guide and Data Capture Tool. Review the two sets of questions:
      1. Buyer Persona-Related – use to validate areas where you still have gaps in your persona, OR if you are starting with a blank persona and wish to build your personas entirely based on customer and prospect interviews.
      2. Buyer-Journey Related, which we will focus on in the next phase.

    Download the Buyer Persona and Journey Interview Guide and Data Capture Tool

    The image shows a table titled ‘Interviewee List.’ A note next to the title indicates: Here you will document your interviewee list and outreach plan. A note in the Segment column indicates: Ensure you are interviewing personas across segments that will give you the insights you need, e.g. by size, by region, mix of customers and prospects. A note in the Title column reads: Vary your title types up or down in the “buying center” if you are seeking to strengthen buying center dynamics understanding. A note in the Roles column reads: Vary your role types according to decision-making roles (decision maker, influencer, ratifier, coach, user) if you are seeking to strengthen decision-making dynamics understanding.

    Phase 2
    Interview Buyers and Validate Persona and Journey

    This Phase walks you through the following activities:

    • Developing final interview guide.
    • Interviewing buyers and customers.
    • Adjusting approach.
    • Validating buyer persona.
    • Crafting buyer journey
    • Gaining analyst feedback.

    This Phase involves the following stakeholders:

    • Program leadership
    • Product Marketing
    • Representative(s) from Sales

    2.1 Hold interviews

    Input

    • List of interviewees
    • Final list of questions

    Output

    • Buyer perspectives on their personas and buyer journeys

    Materials

    • Buyer Persona and Journey Interview Guide and data Capture Tool

    Participants

    • Initiative Manager – individual leading the buyer persona and journey initiative
    • Working Team – typically representatives in Product Marketing, Product Management, and Sales

    1-2 weeks

    1. Hold interviews and adjust your interviewing approach as you go along. Uncover where you are not getting the right answers, check with working team and analysts, and adjust.

    Download the Buyer Persona and Journey Interview Guide and Data Capture Tool

    2.2 Use interview findings to validate what’s needed for activation

    Input

    • List of interviewees
    • Final list of questions

    Output

    • Buyer perspectives on their personas and buyer journeys
    • Stakeholder feedback that actionable insights are resulting from interviews

    Materials

    • Buyer Persona Creation Template
    • Buyer Persona and Journey Interview Guide and Data Capture Tool

    Participants

    • Initiative Manager – individual leading the buyer persona and journey initiative
    • Working Team – typically representatives in Product Marketing, Product Management, and Sales
    • SoftwareReviews marketing analyst

    2 hours

    1. Convene your team, with marketing analysts, and test early findings: It’s wise to test initial interview results to check that you are getting the right insights to understand and validate key challenges, pain points, needs, and other vital areas pertaining to the buyer persona. Are the answers you are getting enabling you to complete the Summary slides for later communications and training for Sales?
    2. Check when doing buyer journey interviews that you are getting actionable answers that drive messaging, what asset types are needed, what the marketing channel mix is, and other vital insights to activate the results. Are the answers you are getting adequate to give guidance to campaigners, content marketers, and sales enablement?
    3. See the following slides for detailed questions that need to be answered satisfactorily by your team members that need to “activate” the results.

    Download the Buyer Persona and Journey Interview Guide and Data Capture Tool

    2.2.1 Are you getting what you need from interviews to inform the buyer persona?

    Test that you are on the right track:

    1. Are you getting the functional answers so you can guide sellers to the right roles? Can you guide marketers/campaigners to the right “Ideal Customer Profile” for lead scoring?
    2. Are you capturing the right emotive areas that will support message crafting? Solutioning? SEM/SEO?
    3. Are you capturing insights into “how they decide” so sellers are well informed on the decision-making dynamics?
    4. Are you getting a strong understanding of content, interaction preferences, and news and information sources so sellers can outreach more effectively, you can pinpoint media spend, and content marketing can create the right assets?
    Functional – “to find them”
    Job Role Title Org. Chart Dynamics Buying Center Firmographics
    Emotive – “what they do and jobs to be done”
    Initiatives: What programs/projects the persona is tasked with and their feelings and aspirations about these initiatives. Motivations? Build credibility? Get promoted? Challenges: Identify the business issues, problems, and pain points that impede attainment of objectives. What are their fears, uncertainties, and doubts about these challenges? Buyer Need: They may have multiple needs; which need is most likely met with the offering? Terminology: What are the keywords/phrases they organically use to discuss the buyer need or business issue?
    Decision Criteria – “how they decide”
    Buyer Role: List decision-making criteria and power level. The five common buyer roles are champion, influencer, decision maker, user, and ratifier (purchaser/negotiator). Evaluation and Decision Criteria: Which lens – strategic, financial, or operational – does the persona evaluate the impact of purchase through?
    Solution Attributes – “what does the ideal solution look like”
    Steps in “Jobs to Be Done” Elements of the “Ideal Solution” Business outcomes from ideal solution Opportunity scope; other potential users Acceptable price for value delivered Alternatives that see consideration Solution sourcing: channel, where to buy
    Behavioral Attributes – “how to approach them successfully”
    Content Preferences: List the persona’s content preferences – blog, infographic, demo, video – vs. long-form assets (e.g. white paper, presentation, analyst report). Interaction Preferences: Which are preferred among in-person meetings, phone calls, emails, videoconferencing, conducting research via Web, mobile, and social? Watering Holes: Which physical or virtual places do they go to network or exchange info with peers (e.g. LinkedIn)?

    2.2.2 Are you getting what you need from interviews to support the buyer journey?

    Our approach helps you define the buyer journey

    Because marketing leaders need to reach buyers through the right channel with the right message at the right time during their decision cycle, you’ll benefit by using questionnaires that enable you to build the below easily and quickly.

    2.3 Continue interviews

    Input

    • Final adjustments to list of interview questions

    Output

    • Final buyer perspectives on their personas and buyer journeys

    Materials

    • Buyer Persona Creation Template
    • Buyer Persona and Journey Interview Guide and data Capture Tool

    Participants

    • Initiative Manager – individual leading the buyer persona and journey initiative
    • Working Team – typically representatives in Product Marketing, Product Management, and Sales

    1-2 weeks

    1. Continue customer and prospect interviews.
    2. Ensure you are gaining the segment perspectives needed.
    3. Complete the “Summary” columns within the Buyer Persona and Journey Interview Guide and Data Capture Tool.

    Download the Buyer Persona and Journey Interview Guide and Data Capture Tool

    Phase 3
    Prepare Communications and Educate Stakeholders

    This Phase walks you through the following activities:

    • Creating outputs for key stakeholders
    • Communicating final findings and supporting marketing, sales, and product activation.

    This Phase involves the following stakeholders:

    • Program leadership
    • Product Marketing
    • Product Management
    • Sales
    • Field Marketing/Campaign Management
    • Executive Leadership

    3.1 Summarize interview results and convene full working team and steering committee for final review

    Input

    • Buyer persona and journey interviews detail

    Output

    • Buyer perspectives on their personas and buyer journeys

    Materials

    • Buyer Persona and Journey Interview Guide and Data Capture Tool
    • Buyer Persona and Journey Summary Template

    Participants

    • Initiative Manager – individual leading the buyer persona and journey initiative
    • CMO/Sponsoring Executive (Optional)
    • Working Team – typically representatives in Product Marketing, Product Management, and Sales
    • SoftwareReviews marketing analyst

    1-2 hours

    1. Summarize interview results within the Buyer Persona and Journey Summary Template.

    Download the Buyer Persona and Journey Interview Guide and Data Capture Tool

    Download the Buyer Persona and Journey Summary Template

    3.2 Convene executive steering committee and working team to review results

    Input

    • Buyer persona and journey interviews summary

    Output

    • Buyer perspectives on their personas and buyer journeys

    Materials

    • Buyer Persona and Journey Summary Template

    Participants

    • Initiative Manager – individual leading the buyer persona and journey initiative
    • Working Team – typically representatives in Product Marketing, Product Management, and Sales

    1-2 hours

    1. Present final persona and journey results to the steering committee/executives and to working group using the summary slides interview results within the Buyer Persona and Journey Summary Template to finalize results.

    Download the Buyer Persona and Journey Summary Template

    3.3 Convene stakeholder meetings to activate results

    Input

    • Buyer persona and journey interviews summary

    Output

    Activation of key learnings to drive:

    • Better product –market fit
    • Lead gen
    • Sales effectiveness
    • Awareness

    Materials

    • Buyer Persona and Journey Summary Template

    Participants

    • Initiative Manager – individual leading the buyer persona and journey initiative
    • Working Team – typically representatives in Product Marketing, Product Management, and Sales
    • Stakeholder team members (see left)

    4-5 hours

    Present final persona and journey results to each stakeholder team. Key presentations include:

    1. Product team to validate product market fit.
    2. Content marketing to provide messaging direction for the creation of awareness and lead gen assets.
    3. Campaigners/Field Marketing for campaign-related messaging and to identify asset types required to be designed and delivered to support the buyer journey.
    4. Social media strategists for social post copy, and PR for other awareness-building copy.
    5. Sales enablement/training to enable updating of sales collateral, proposals, and sales training materials. Sellers to help with their targeting, prospecting, and crafting of outbound messaging and talk tracks.

    Download the Buyer Persona and Journey Summary Template

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Problem Solved

    With the help of this blueprint, you have deepened your and your colleagues’ buyer understanding at both the persona “who they are” level and the buyer journey “how do they buy” level. You are among the minority of marketing leaders that have fully documented a buyer persona and journey – congratulations!

    The benefits of having led your team through the process are significant and include the following:

    • Better alignment of customer/buyer-facing teams such as in product, marketing, sales, and customer success.
    • Messaging that can be used by marketing, sales, and social teams that will resonate with buyer initiatives, pain points, sought-after “pain relief,” and value.
    • Places in the digital and physical universe where your prospects “hang out” so you can optimize your media spend.
    • More effective use of marketing assets and sales collateral that align with the way your prospect needs to consume information throughout their buyer journey to make a decision in your solution area.

    And by capturing and documenting your buyer persona and journey even for a single buyer type, you have started to build the “institutional strength” to apply the process to other roles in the decision-making process or for when you go after new and different buyer types for new products. And finally, by bringing your team along with you in this process, you have also led your team in becoming a more customer-focused organization – a strategic shift that all organizations should pursue.

    If you would like additional support, contact us and we’ll make sure you get the professional expertise you need.

    Contact your account representative for more information.

    info@softwarereviews.com

    1-888-670-8889

    Related Software Reviews Research

    Optimize Lead Generation With Lead Scoring

    • Save time and money and improve your sales win rates when you apply our methodology to score contacts with your lead gen engine more accurately and pass better qualified leads over to your sellers.
    • Our methodology teaches marketers to develop your own lead scoring approach based upon lead/contact profile vs. your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and scores contact engagement. Applying the methodology to arrive at your own approach to scoring will mean reduced lead gen costs, higher conversion rates, and increased marketing-influenced wins.

    Bibliography

    Bilardi, Emma. “How to Create Buyer Personas.” Product Marketing Alliance, July 2020. Accessed Dec. 2021.

    Harrison, Liz, Dennis Spillecke, Jennifer Stanley, and Jenny Tsai. “Omnichannel in B2B sales: The new normal in a year that has been anything but.” McKinsey & Company, 15 March 2021. Accessed Dec. 2021.

    Jansen, Hasse. “Buyer Personas – 33 Mind Blowing Stats.” Boardview.io!, 19 Feb. 2016. Accessed Jan. 2022.

    Raynor, Lilah. “Understanding The Changing B2B Buyer Journey.” Forbes Agency Council, 18 July 2021. Accessed Dec. 2021.

    Simpson, Jon. “Finding Your Audience: The Importance of Developing a Buyer Persona.” Forbes Agency Council, 16 May 2017. Accessed Dec. 2021.

    “Successfully Executing Personalized Marketing Campaigns at Scale.” Plexure, 6 Jan. 2020. Accessed Dec 2020.

    Ulwick, Anthony W. JOBS TO BE DONE: Theory to Practice. E-book, Strategyn, 1 Jan. 2017. Accessed Jan. 2022.

    Optimize Applications Release Management

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    • Parent Category Name: Testing, Deployment & QA
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    • The business demands high service and IT needs to respond. Rapid customer response through efficient release and deployment is critical to maintain high business satisfaction.
    • The lack of process ownership leads to chaotic and uncoordinated releases, resulting in costly rework and poor hand-offs.
    • IT emphasizes tools but release tools and technologies alone will not fix the problem. Tools are integrated into the processes they support – if the process challenges aren’t addressed first, then the tool won’t help.
    • Releases are traditionally executed in silos with limited communication across the entire release pipeline. Culturally, there is little motivation for cross-functional collaboration and holistic process optimization.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Release management is not solely driven by tools. It is about delivering high quality releases on time through accountability and governance aided by the support of tools.
    • Release management is independent of your software development lifecycle (SDLC). Release management practices sit as an agnostic umbrella over your chosen development methodology.
    • Ownership of the entire process is vital. Release managers ensure standards are upheld and the pipeline operates efficiently.

    Impact and Result

    • Acquire release management ownership. Ensure there is appropriate accountability for speed and quality of the releases passing through the entire pipeline. A release manager has oversight over the entire release process and facilitates the necessary communication between business stakeholders and various IT roles.
    • Instill holistic thinking. Release management includes all steps required to push release and change requests to production along with the hand-off to Operations and Support. Increase the transparency and visibility of the entire pipeline to ensure local optimizations do not generate bottlenecks in other areas.
    • Standardize and lay a strong release management foundation. Optimize the key areas where you are experiencing the most pain and continually improve.

    Optimize Applications Release Management Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should optimize release management, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Review your release management objectives

    Assess the current state and define the drivers behind your release management optimizations.

    • Optimize Applications Release Management – Phase 1: Review Your Release Management Objectives
    • Release Management Process Standard Template
    • Release Management Maturity Assessment

    2. Standardize release management

    Design your release processes, program framework, and release change management standards, and define your release management team.

    • Optimize Applications Release Management – Phase 2: Standardize Release Management
    • Release Manager

    3. Roll out release management enhancements

    Create an optimization roadmap that fits your context.

    • Optimize Applications Release Management – Phase 3: Roll Out Release Management Enhancements
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Optimize Applications Release Management

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Review Your Release Management Objectives

    The Purpose

    Reveal the motivators behind the optimization of release management.

    Identify the root causes of current release issues and challenges.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Ensure business alignment of optimization efforts.

    Firm grasp of why teams are facing release issues and the impacts they have on the organization.

    Activities

    1.1 Identify the objectives for application release.

    1.2 Conduct a current state assessment of release practices.

    Outputs

    Release management business objectives and technical drivers

    Current state assessment of release processes, communication flows, and tools and technologies

    2 Standardize Release Management

    The Purpose

    Alleviate current release issues and challenges with best practices.

    Standardize a core set of processes, tools, and roles & responsibilities to achieve consistency, cadence, and transparency.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Repeatable execution of the same set of processes to increase the predictability of release delivery.

    Defined ownership of release management.

    Adaptable and flexible release management practices to changing business and technical environments.

    Activities

    2.1 Strengthen your release process.

    2.2 Coordinate releases with a program framework.

    2.3 Manage release issues with change management practices.

    2.4 Define your release management team.

    Outputs

    Processes accommodating each release type and approach the team is required to complete

    Release calendars and program framework

    Release change management process

    Defined responsibilities and accountabilities of release manager and release management team

    3 Roll Out Release Management Enhancements

    The Purpose

    Define metrics to validate release management improvements.

    Identify the degree of oversight and involvement of the release management team.

    Prioritize optimization roadmap against business needs and effort.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Easy-to-gather metrics to measure success that can be communicated to stakeholders.

    Understanding of how involved release management teams are in enforcing release management standards.

    Practical and achievable optimization roadmap.

    Activities

    3.1 Define your release management metrics.

    3.2 Ensure adherence to standards.

    3.3 Create your optimization roadmap.

    Outputs

    List of metrics to gauge success

    Oversight and reporting structure of release management team

    Release management optimization roadmap

    Debunk Machine Learning Endpoint Security Solutions

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    • Parent Category Name: Endpoint Security
    • Parent Category Link: /endpoint-security
    • Threat actors are more innovative than ever before and developing sophisticated methods of endpoints attacks capable of avoiding detection with traditional legacy anti-virus software.
    • Legacy anti-virus solutions rely on signatures and hence fail at detecting memory objects, and new and mutating malware.
    • Combined with the cybersecurity talent gap and the sheer volume of endpoint attacks, organizations need endpoint security solutions capable of efficiently and accurately blocking never-before-seen malware types and variants.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Don’t make machine learning a goal in itself. Think of how machine learning can help you achieve your goals.
    • Determine your endpoint security requirements and goals prior to shopping around for a vendor. Vendors can easily suck you into a vortex of marketing jargon and sell you tools that your organization does not need.
    • Machine learning alone is not a solution to catching malware. It is a computational method that can generalize and analyze large datasets, and output insights quicker than a human security analyst.

    Impact and Result

    • Consider deploying an endpoint protection technology that leverages machine learning into your existing endpoint security strategy to counteract against the unknown and to quickly sift through the large volumes of data.
    • Understand how machine learning methods can help drive your organization’s security goals.
    • Identify vendors that utilize machine learning in their endpoint security products.
    • Understand use cases of where machine learning in endpoint security has been successful.

    Debunk Machine Learning Endpoint Security Solutions Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should consider machine learning in endpoint security solutions, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Demystify machine learning concepts

    Understand basic machine learning concepts used in endpoint security.

    • Debunk Machine Learning Endpoint Security Solutions – Phase 1: Demystify Machine Learning Concepts

    2. Evaluate vendors that leverage machine learning

    Determine feature requirements to evaluate vendors.

    • Debunk Machine Learning Endpoint Security Solutions – Phase 2: Evaluate Vendors That Leverage Machine Learning
    • Endpoint Protection Request for Proposal
    [infographic]

    Build and Deliver an Optimized IT Update Presentation

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    • Parent Category Name: Manage Business Relationships
    • Parent Category Link: /manage-business-relationships
    • IT update presentation success comes with understanding the business and the needs of your stakeholders. It often takes time and effort to get it right.
    • Many IT updates are too technically focused and do not engage nor demonstrate value in the eyes of the business.
    • This is not the time to boast about technical metrics that lack relevance.
    • Too often IT updates are prepared without the necessary pre-discussions required to validate content and hone priorities.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • CIOs need to take charge of the IT value proposition, increasing the impact and strategic role of IT.
    • Use your IT update to focus decisions, improve relationships, find new sources of value, and drive credibility.
    • Evolve the strategic partnership with your business using key metrics to help guide the conversation.

    Impact and Result

    • Build and deliver an IT update that focuses on what is most important.
    • Achieve the buy-in you require while driving business value.
    • Gain clarity on your scope, goals, and outcomes.
    • Validate IT’s role as a strategic business partner.

    Build and Deliver an Optimized IT Update Presentation Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our Executive Brief to find out how an optimized IT update presentation is your opportunity to drive business value.Review Info-Tech’s methodology and understand how we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Scope and goals

    Confirm the “why” of the IT update presentation by determining its scope and goals.

    • Build and Deliver an Optimized IT Update Presentation – Phase 1: Scope and Goals

    2. Assess and build

    Confirm the “what” of the presentation by focusing on business requirements, metrics, presentation creation, and stakeholder validation.

    • Build and Deliver an Optimized IT Update Presentation – Phase 2: Assess and Build
    • IT Update Stakeholder Interview Guide
    • IT Metrics Prioritization Tool

    3. Deliver and inspire

    Confirm the “how” of the presentation by focusing on engaging your audience, getting what you need, and creating a feedback cycle.

    • Build and Deliver an Optimized IT Update Presentation – Phase 3: Deliver and Inspire
    • IT Update Open Issues Tracking Tool
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Build and Deliver an Optimized IT Update Presentation

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Scope, Goals, and Requirements

    The Purpose

    Determine the IT update’s scope and goals and identify stakeholder requirements

    Key Benefits Achieved

    IT update scope and goals

    Business stakeholder goals and requirements

    Activities

    1.1 Determine/validate the IT update scope

    1.2 Determine/validate the IT update goals

    1.3 Business context analysis

    1.4 Determine stakeholder needs and expectations

    1.5 Confirm business goals and requirements

    Outputs

    Documented IT update scope

    Documented IT update goals

    Validated business context

    Stakeholder requirements analysis

    Confirmed business goals and requirements

    2 Validate Metrics With Business Needs

    The Purpose

    Analyze metrics and content and validate against business needs

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Selection of key metrics

    Metrics and content validated to business needs

    Activities

    2.1 Analyze current IT metrics

    2.2 Review industry best-practice metrics

    2.3 Align metrics and content to business stakeholder needs

    Outputs

    Identification of key metrics

    Finalization of key metrics

    Metrics and content validated to business stakeholder needs

    3 Create an optimized IT update

    The Purpose

    Create an IT update presentation that is optimized to business needs

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Optimized IT update presentation

    Activities

    3.1 Understand the audience and how to best engage them

    3.2 Determine how to present the pertinent data

    3.3 IT update review with key business stakeholders

    3.4 Final edits and review of IT update presentation

    3.5 Pre-presentation checklist

    Outputs

    Clarity on update audience

    Draft IT update presentation

    Business stakeholder feedback

    Finalized IT update presentation

    Confirmation on IT update presentation readiness

    Next-Generation InfraOps

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    • Parent Category Name: Operations Management
    • Parent Category Link: /i-and-o-process-management
    • Traditional IT capabilities, activities, organizational structures, and culture need to adjust to leverage the value of cloud, optimize spend, and manage risk.
    • Different stakeholders across previously separate teams rely on one another more than ever, but rules of engagement do not yet exist.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • By defining your end goals and framing solutions based on the type of visibility and features you need, you can enable speed and reliability without losing control of the work.

    Impact and Result

    • Understand the xOps spectrum and what approaches benefit your organization.
    • Make sense of the architectural approaches and enablement tools available to you.
    • Evolve from just improving your current operations to a continuous virtuous cycle of development and deployment.

    Next-Generation InfraOps Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Next-Generation InfraOps Storyboard – A deck that will help you use Ops methodologies to build a virtuous cycle.

    This storyboard will help you understand the spectrum of different Agile xOps working modes and how best to leverage them and build an architecture and toolset that support rapid continuous IT operations

    • Next-Generation InfraOps Storyboard
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Next-Generation InfraOps

    Embrace the spectrum of Ops methodologies to build a virtuous cycle.

    Executive summary

    Your Challenge

    IT Operations continue to be challenged by increasing needs for scale and speed, often in the face of constrained resources and time. For most, Agile methodologies have become a foundational part of tackling this problem. Since then, we've seen Agile evolve into DevOps, which started a trend into different categories of "xOps" that are too many to count. How does one make sense of the xOps spectrum? What is InfraOps and where does it fit in?

    Common Obstacles

    Ultimately, all these methodologies and approaches are there to serve the same purpose: increase effectiveness through automation and improve governance through visibility. The key is to understand what tools and methodologies will deliver actual benefits to your IT operation and to the organization as a whole.

    Info-Tech's Approach

    By defining your end goals and framing solutions based on the type of visibility and features you need, you can enable speed and reliability without losing control of the work.

    1. Understand the xOps spectrum and what approaches will benefit your organization.
    2. Make sense of the architectural approaches and enablement tools available to you.
    3. Evolve from just improving your current operations to a continuous virtuous cycle of development and deployment.

    Info-Tech Insight

    InfraOps, when applied well, should be the embodiment of the governance policies as expressed by standards in architecture and automation.

    Project overview

    Understand the xOps spectrum

    There are as many different types of "xOps" as there are business models and IT teams. To pick the approaches that deliver the best value to your organization and that align to your way of operating, it's important to understand the different major categories in the spectrum and how they do or don't apply to your IT approach.

    How to optimize the Ops in DevOps

    InfraOps is one of the major methodologies to address a key problem in IT at cloud scale: eliminating friction and error from your deliveries and outputs. The good news is there are architectures, tools, and frameworks you can easily leverage to make adopting this approach easier.

    Evolve to integration and build a virtuous cycle

    Ultimately your DevOps and InfraOps approaches should embody your governance needs via architecture and process. As time goes on, however, both your IT footprint and your business environment will shift. Build your tools, telemetry, and governance to anticipate and adapt to change and build a virtuous cycle between development needs and IT Operations tools and governance.

    The xOps spectrum

    This is an image of the xOps spectrum. The three main parts are: Code Acceleration (left), Governance(middle), and Infrastructure Acceleration (right)

    xOps categories

    There is no definitive list of x's in the xOps spectrum. Different organizations and teams will divide and define these in different ways. In many cases, the definitions and domains of various xOps will overlap.

    Some of the commonly adopted and defined xOps models are listed here.

    Shift left? Shift right?

    Cutting through the jargon

    • Shifting left is about focusing on the code and development aspects of a delivery cycle.
    • Shifting right is about remembering that infrastructure and tools still do matter.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Shifting left or right isn't an either/or choice. They're more like opposite sides of the same coin. Like the different xOps approaches, usually more than one shift approach will apply to your IT Operations.

    IT Operations in the left-right spectrum

    Shifting from executing and deploying to defining the guardrails and standards

    This is an image of the left-right spectrum for your XOps position

    Take a middle-out approach

    InfraOps and DevOps aren't enemies; they're opposite sides of the same coin.

    • InfraOps is about the automation and standardization of execution. It's an essential element in any fully automated CI/CD pipeline.
    • Like DevOps, InfraOps is built on similar values (the pillars of DevOps).
    • It builds on the principle of Lean to focus on removing friction, or turn-and-type activities, from the pipeline/process.
    • In InfraOps, one of the key methods for removing friction is through automation of the interstitia between different phases of a DevOps or CI/CD cycle.

    Optimize the Ops in DevOps

    Focus on eliminating friction

    This is an image of an approach to optimizing the ops in DevOps.

    With the shift from execution to governing and validating, the role of deployment falls downstream of IT Operations.

    IT Operations needs to move to a mindset that focuses on creating the guardrails, enforced standards, and compliance rules that need to be used downstream, then apply those standards using automation and tooling to remove friction and error from the interstitia (the white spaces between chevrons) of the various phases.

    InfraOps tools

    Four quadrants in the shape of a human head, in the boxes are the following: Hyperconverged Infrastructure; Composable Infrastructure; Infrastructure as code and; Automation and Orchestration

    Info-Tech Insight

    Your tools can be broken into two categories:

    • Infrastructure Architecture
      • HCI vs. CI
    • Automation Tooling
      • IaC and A&O

    Keep in mind that while your infrastructure architecture is usually an either/or choice, your automation approach should use any and all tooling that helps.

    Infrastructure approach

    • Hyperconverged

    • Composable

    Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI)

    Hyperconvergence is the next phase of convergence, virtualizing servers, networks, and storage on a single server/storage appliance. Capacity scales as more appliances are added to a cluster or stack.
    The disruptive departure:

    • Even though servers, networks, and storage were each on their own convergence paths, the three remained separate management domains (or silos). Even single-SKU converged infrastructures like VCE Vblocks are still composed of distinct server, network, and storage devices.
    • In hyperconvergence, the silos collapse into single-software managed devices. This has been disruptive for both the vendors of technology solutions (especially storage) and for infrastructure management.
    • Large storage array vendors are challenged by hyperconvergence alternatives. IT departments need to adapt IT skills and roles away from individual management silos and to more holistic service management.

    A comparison between converged and hyperconverged systems.

    Info-Tech Insight

    HCI follows convergence trends of the past ten years but is also a departure from how IT infrastructure has traditionally been provisioned and managed.

    HCI is at the same time a logical progression of infrastructure convergence and a disruptive departure.

    Hyperconverged (HCI) – SWOT

    HCI can be the foundation block for a fully software defined data center, a prerequisite for private cloud.

    Strengths

    • Potentially lower TCO through further infrastructure consolidation, reducing CapEx and OpEx expenditures through facilities optimization and cost consolidation.
    • Operations in particular can be streamlined, since storage, network connections, and processors/memory are all managed as abstractions via a single control pane.
    • HCI comes with built-in automation and analytics that lead to quicker issue resolution.

    Opportunities

    • Increased business agility by paving the way for a fully software defined infrastructure stack and cloud automation.
    • Shift IT human assets from hardware asset maintainers and controllers to service delivery managers.
    • Better able to compete with external IT service alternatives.
    • Move toward a hybrid cloud service offering where the service catalog contains both internal and external offerings.

    Key attributes of a cloud are automation, resource elasticity, and self-service. This kind of agility is impossible if physical infrastructure needs intervention.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Virtualization alone does not a private cloud make, but complete stack virtualization (software defined) running on a hands-off preconfigured HCI appliance (or group of appliances) provides a solid foundation for building cloud services.

    Hyperconverged (HCI) – SWOT

    Silo-busting and private cloud sound great, but are your people and processes able to manage the change?

    Weaknesses

    • HCI typically scales out linearly (CPU & storage). This does not suit traditional scale-up applications such as high-performance databases and large-capacity data warehouses.
    • Infrastructure stacks are perceived as more flexible for variable growth across segments. For example, if storage is growing but processing is not, storage can scale separately from processing.

    Threats

    • HCI will be disruptive to roles within IT. Internal pushback is a real threat if necessary changes in skills and roles are not addressed.
    • HCI is not a simple component replacement but an adoption of a different kind of infrastructure. Different places in the lifecycles for each of storage, network, and processing devices could make HCI a solution where there is no immediate problem.

    In traditional infrastructure, performance and capacity are managed as distinct though complementary jobs. An all-in-one approach may not work.

    Composable Infrastructure (CI)

    • Composable infrastructure in many ways represents the opposite of an HCI approach. Its focus is on further disaggregating resources and components used to build systems.
      • Unlike traditional cloud virtual systems, composable infrastructure provides virtual bare metal resources, allowing tightly coupled resources like CPU, RAM, and GPU – or any device/card/module – to be released back and forth into the resource pool as required by a given workload.
      • This is enabled by the use of high-speed, low-latency PCI Express (PCI-e) and Compute Express Link (CXL) fabrics that allow these resources to be decoupled.
      • It also supports the ability to present other fabric types critical for building out enterprise systems (e.g. Ethernet, InfiniBand).
    • Accordingly, CI systems are also based on next-generation network architecture that supports moving critical functions to the network layer, which enables more efficient use of the application-layer resources.

    Composable Infrastructure (CI)

    • CI may also leverage network-resident data/infrastructure processing units (DPUs/IPUs), which offload many network, security, and storage functions.
      • As new devices and functions become available, they can be added into the catalog of resources/functions available in a CI pool.

    Use Case Example: Composable AI flow

    Data Ingestion > Data Cleaning/Tagging > Training > Conclusion

    • At each phase of the process, resources, including specialized hardware like memory and GPU cores, can be dynamically allocated and reallocated to the workload on demand

    Composable Infrastructure (CI)

    Use cases and considerations

    Where it's useful

    • Enable even more efficient allocation/utilization of resources for workloads.
    • Very large memory or shared memory requirements can benefit greatly.
    • Decouple purchasing decisions for underlying resources.
    • Leverage the fabric to make it easier to incrementally upgrade underlying resources as required.
    • Build "the Impossible Server."

    Considerations

    • Requires significant footprint/scale to justify in many cases
    • Not necessarily good value for environments that aren't very volatile and heterogeneous in terms of deployment requirements
    • May not be best value for environments where resource-stranding is not a significant issue

    Info-Tech Insight

    Many organizations using a traditional approach report resource stranding as having an impact of 20% or more on efficiency. When focusing specifically on the stranding of memory in workloads, the number can often approach 40%.

    The CI ecosystem

    This is an image of the CI ecosystem.

    • The CI ecosystem has many players, large and small!
    • Note that the CI ecosystem is dependent on a large ecosystem of underlying enablers and component builders to support the required technologies.

    Understanding the differences

    This image shows the similarities and differences between traditional, cloud, hyperconverged, and composable.

    Automation approach

    • Infrastructure as Code
    • Automation & Orchestration
    • Metaorchestration

    Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

    Infrastructure as code (IaC) is the process of managing and provisioning computer data centers through machine-readable definition files rather than physical hardware configuration or interactive configuration tools.

    Before IaC, IT personnel would have to manually change configurations to manage their infrastructure. Maybe they would use throwaway scripts to automate some tasks, but that was the extent of it.

    With IaC, your infrastructure's configuration takes the form of a code file, making it easy to edit, copy, and distribute.

    Info-Tech Insight
    IaC is a critical tool in enabling key benefits!

    • Reduced costs
    • Increased scalability, flexibility, and speed
    • Better consistency and version control
    • Reduced deployment errors

    Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

    1. IaC uses a high-level descriptive coding language to automate the provisioning of IT infrastructure. This eliminates the need to manually provision and manage servers, OS, database connections, storage, and other elements every time we want to develop, test, or deploy an application.
    2. IaC allows us to define the computer systems on which code needs to run. Most commonly, we use a framework like Chef, Ansible, Puppet, etc., to define their infrastructure. These automation and orchestration tools focus on the provisioning and configuring of base compute infrastructure.
    3. IaC is also an essential DevOps practice. It enables teams to rapidly create and version infrastructure in the same way they version source code and to track these versions so as to avoid inconsistency among IT environments that can lead to serious issues during deployment.
    • Idempotence is a principle of IaC. This means a deployment command always sets the target environment into the same configuration, regardless of the environment's starting state.
      • Idempotency is achieved by either automatically configuring an existing target or discarding the existing target and recreating a fresh environment.

    Automation/Orchestration

    Orchestration describes the automated arrangement, coordination, and management of complex computer systems, middleware, and services.

    This usage of orchestration is often discussed in the context of service-oriented architecture, virtualization, provisioning, converged infrastructure, and dynamic data center topics. Orchestration in this sense is about aligning the business request with the applications, data, and infrastructure.

    It defines the policies and service levels through automated workflows,
    provisioning, and change management. This creates an application-aligned infrastructure that can be scaled up or down based on the needs of each application.

    As the requirement for more resources or a new application is triggered, automated tools now can perform tasks that previously could only be done by multiple administrators operating on their individual pieces of the physical stack.

    Orchestration also provides centralized management of the resource pool, including billing, metering, and chargeback for consumption. For example, orchestration reduces the time and effort for deploying multiple instances of a single application.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Automation and orchestration tools can be key components of an effective governance toolkit too! Remember to understand what data can be pulled from your various tools and leveraged for other purposes such as cost management and portfolio roadmapping.

    Automation/Orchestration

    There are a wide variety of orchestration and automation tools and technologies.

    Configuration Management

    Configuration Management

    The logos for companies which fall in each of the categories in the column to the left of the image.

    CI/CD
    Orchestration

    Container
    Orchestration

    Cloud-Specific
    Orchestration

    PaaS
    Orchestration

    Info-Tech Insight

    Automation and orchestration tools and software offerings are plentiful, and many of them have a different focus on where in the application delivery ecosystem they provide automation functionality.

    Often there are different tools for different deployment and service models as well as for different functional phases for each service model.

    Automation/Orchestration

    Every tool focuses on different aspects or functions of the deployment of resources and applications.

    • Resources
      • Compute
      • Storage
      • Network
    • Extended Services
      • Platforms
      • Infrastructure Services
      • Web Services
    • Application Assets
      • Images
      • Templates
      • Containers
      • Code

    Info-Tech Insight

    Let the large ecosystem of tools be your ally. Leverage the right tools where needed and then address the complexity of tools using a master orchestration scheme.

    Metaorchestration

    A Flow chart for the approach to metaorchestration.

    Additionally, most tools do not cover all aspects required for most automation implementations, especially in hybrid cloud scenarios.

    As such, often multiple tools must be deployed, which can lead to fragmentation and loss of unified controls.

    Many enterprises address this fragmentation using a cloud management platform approach.

    One method of achieving this is to establish a higher layer of orchestration – an "orchestrator of orchestrators," or metaorchestration.

    In complex scenarios, this can be a challenge that requires customization and development.

    InfraOps tools ecosystem

    Toolkit Pros Cons Tips
    HCI Easy scale out Shift in skills required Good for enabling automation and hybridization with current-gen public cloud services
    CI Maximal workload resource efficiency Investment in new fabrics and technologies Useful for very dynamic or highly scalable workloads like AI
    IaC Error reduction and standardization Managing drift in standards and requirements Leverage a standards and exception process to keep track of drift
    A&O Key enabler of DevOps automation within phases Usually requires multiple toolsets/frameworks Use the right tools and stitch together at the metaorchestration layer
    Metaorchestration Reduces the complexity of a diverse A&O and IaC toolkit Requires understanding of the entire ecosystems of tools used Key layer of visibility and control for governance

    Build a virtuous cycle

    Remember, the goal is to increase speed AND reliability. That's why we focus on removing friction from our delivery pipelines.

    • The first step is to identify the points of friction in your cycle and understand the intensity and frequency of these friction points.
    • Depending on your delivery and project management methodology, you'll have a different posture of the different tools that make sense for your pipeline.
    • For example, if you are focused on delivering raw resources for sysadmins and/or you're in a Waterfall methodology where the friction points are large but infrequent, hyperconverged is likely to delivery good value, whereas tools like IaC and orchestration may not be as necessary.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Remember that, especially in modern and rapid methodologies, your IT footprint can drift unexpectedly. This means you need a real feedback mechanism on where the friction moves to next.

    This is particularly important in more Agile methodologies.

    Activity: Map your IT operations delivery

    Identify your high-friction interstitial points

    • Using the table below, or a table modified to your delivery phases, map out the activities and tasks that are not standardized and automated.
    • For the incoming and outgoing sections, think about what resources and activities need to be (or could be) created, destroyed, or repurposed to efficiently manage each cycle and the spaces between cycles.
    Plan Code Test Deploy Monitor
    Incoming Friction
    In-Cycle Friction
    Outgoing Friction

    Info-Tech Insight

    Map your ops groups to the delivery cycles in your pipeline. How many delivery cycles do you have or need?

    Good InfraOps is a reflection of governance policies, expressed by standards in architecture and automation.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Evaluate Hyperconverged Infrastructure for Your Infrastructure Roadmap

    • This Info-Tech note covers evaluation of HCI platforms.

    Design Your Cloud Operations

    • This Info-Tech blueprint covers organization of operations teams for various deployment and Agile modes.

    Bibliography

    Banks, Ethan, host. "Choosing Your Next Infrastructure." Datanauts, episode 094, Packet Pushers, 26 July 2017. Podcast.
    "Composable Infrastructure Solutions." Hewlett Packard Canada, n.d. Web.
    "Composable Infrastructure Technology." Liqid Inc., n.d. Web.
    "DataOps architecture design." Azure Architecture Center, Microsoft Learn, n.d. Web.
    Tan, Pei Send. "Differences: DevOps, ITOps, MLOps, DataOps, ModelOps, AIOps, SecOps, DevSecOps." Medium, 5 July 2021. Web.

    Excel Through COVID-19 With a Focused Business Architecture

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    • Business architecture, including value stream and business capability models, is the tool you need to reposition your organization for post-COVID-19 success.
    • Your business architecture model represents your strategic business components. It guides the development of all other architectures to enable new and improved business function.
    • Evaluating your current business architecture, or indeed rebuilding it, creates a foundation for facilitated discussions and target state alignment between IT and the senior C-suite.
    • New projects and initiatives during COVID-19 must evolve business architecture so that your front-line workers and your customers are supported through the resolution of the pandemic. Specifically, your projects and initiatives must be directly traced to evolving your architecture.
    • Business architecture anchors downstream architectural iterations and initiatives. Measure business capability enablement results directly from projects and initiatives using a business architecture model.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Focus on your most disruptive, game-changing innovations that have been on the backburner for some time. Here you will find the ingredients for post-pandemic success.

    Impact and Result

    • Craft your business architecture model, aligned to the current climate, to refocus on your highest priority goals and increase your chances of post-COVID-19 excellence.

    Excel Through COVID-19 With a Focused Business Architecture Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Create minimum viable business architecture

    Create your minimum viable business architecture.

    • Excel Through COVID-19 With a Focused Business Architecture Storyboard
    • Excel Through COVID-19 With a Focused Business Architecture – Healthcare
    • Excel Through COVID-19 With a Focused Business Architecture – Higher Education
    • Excel Through COVID-19 With a Focused Business Architecture – Manufacturing
    • Business Capability Modeling

    2. Identify COVID-19 critical capabilities for your industry

    If there are a handful of capabilities that your business needs to focus on right now, what are they?

    3. Brainstorm COVID-19 business opportunities

    Identify business opportunities.

    4. Enrich capability model with COVID-19 opportunities

    Enrich your capability model.

    [infographic]

    Modernize Your Microsoft Licensing for the Cloud Era

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    • Parent Category Name: Licensing
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    • Microsoft licensing is complicated. Often, the same software can be licensed a number of ways. It’s difficult to know which edition and licensing model is best.
    • Licensing and features often change with the release of new software versions, compounding the problem by making it difficult to stay current.
    • In tough economic times, IT is asked to reduce capital and operating expenses wherever possible. As one of the top five expense items in most enterprise software budgets, Microsoft licensing is a primary target for cost reduction.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Focus on needs first. Conduct a thorough needs assessment and document the results. Well-documented needs will be your best asset in navigating Microsoft licensing and negotiating your agreement.
    • Beware the bundle. Be aware when purchasing the M365 suite that there is no way out. Negotiating a low price is critical, as all leverage swings to Microsoft once it is on your agreement.
    • If the cloud doesn’t fit, be ready to pay up or start making room. Microsoft has drastically reduced discounting for on-premises products, support has been reduced, and product rights have been limited. If you are planning to remain on premises, be prepared to pay up.

    Impact and Result

    • Understand what your organization needs and what your business requirements are. It’s always easier to purchase more later than try to reduce your spend.
    • Complete cost calculations carefully, as the cloud might end up costing significantly more for the desired feature set. However, in some scenarios, it may be more cost efficient for organizations to license in the cloud.
    • If there are significant barriers to cloud adoption, discuss and document them. You’ll need this documentation in three years when it’s time to renew your agreement.

    Modernize Your Microsoft Licensing for the Cloud Era Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Modernize Your Microsoft Licensing Deck – A deck to help you build a strategy for your Microsoft licensing renewal.

    This storyboard will help you build a strategy for your Microsoft licensing renewal from conducting a thorough needs assessment to examining your licensing position, evaluating Microsoft's licensing options, and negotiations.

    • Modernize Your Microsoft Licensing for the Cloud Era – Phases 1-4

    2. Microsoft Cloud Products Cost Modeler – A tool to model estimated costs for Microsoft's cloud products.

    The Microsoft Cloud Products Cost Modeler will provide a rough estimate of what you can expect to pay for Office 365 or Dynamics CRM licensing, before you enter into negotiations. This is not your final cost, but it will give you an idea.

    • Microsoft Cloud Products Cost Modeler

    3. Microsoft Licensing Purchase Reference Guide - A template to capture licensing stakeholder information, proposed changes to licensing, and negotiation items.

    The Microsoft Licensing Purchase Reference Guide can be used throughout the process of licensing review: from initial meetings to discuss compliance state and planned purchases, to negotiation meetings with resellers. Use it in conjunction with Info-Tech's Microsoft Licensing Effective License Position Template.

    • Microsoft Licensing Purchase Reference Guide

    4. Negotiation Timeline for Microsoft – A template to navigate your negotiations with Microsoft.

    This tool will help you plot out your negotiation timeline, depending on where you are in your contract negotiation process.

  • 6-12 months
  • Less than 3 months
    • Negotiation Timeline for Microsoft – Visio
    • Negotiation Timeline for Microsoft – PDF

    5. Effective Licensing Position Tool – A template to help you create an effective licensing position and determine your compliance position.

    This template helps organizations to determine the difference between the number of software licenses they own and the number of software copies deployed. This is known as the organization’s effective license position (ELP).

    • Effective Licensing Position Tool
    [infographic]

    The challenge of corporate security management

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    • Parent Category Name: Security and Risk
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    Corporate security management is a vital aspect in every modern business, regardless of business area or size. At Tymans Group we offer expert security management consulting to help your business set up proper protocols and security programs. More elaborate information about our security management consulting services and solutions can be found below.

    Corporate security management components

    You may be experiencing one or more of the following:

    • The risk goals should support business goals. Your business cannot operate without security, and security is there to conduct business safely. 
    • Security governance supports security strategy and security management. These three components form a protective arch around your business. 
    • Governance and management are like the legislative branch and the executive branch. Governance tells people what to do, and management's job is to verify that they do it.

    Our advice with regards to corporate security management

    Insight

    To have a successful information security strategy, take these three factors into account:

    • Holistic: your view must include people, processes, and technology.
    • Risk awareness: Base your strategy on the actual risk profile of your company and then add the appropriate best practices.
    • Business-aligned: When your strategic security plan demonstrates alignment with the business goals and supports it, embedding will be much more straightforward.

    Impact and results of our corporate security management approach

    • The approach of our security management consulting company helps to provide a starting point for realistic governance and realistic corporate security management.
    • We help you by implementing security governance and managing it, taking into account your company's priorities, and keeping costs to a minimum.

    The roadmap

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within the corporate security management domain have access to:

    Get up to speed

    Read up on why you should build your customized corporate information security governance and management system. Review our methodology and understand the four ways we can support you.

    Align your security objectives with your business goals

    Determine the company's risk tolerance.

    • Implement a Security Governance and Management Program – Phase 1: Align Business Goals With Security Objectives (ppt)
    • Information Security Governance and Management Business Case (ppt)
    • Information Security Steering Committee Charter (doc)
    • Information Security Steering Committee RACI Chart (doc)
    • Security Risk Register Tool (xls)

    Build a practical governance framework for your company

    Our best-of-breed security framework makes you perform a gap analysis between where you are and where you want to be (your target state). Once you know that, you can define your goals and duties.

    • Implement a Security Governance and Management Program – Phase 2: Develop an Effective Governance Framework (ppt)
    • Information Security Charter (doc)
    • Security Governance Organizational Structure Template (doc)
    • Security Policy Hierarchy Diagram (ppt)
    • Security Governance Model Facilitation Questions (ppt)
    • Information Security Policy Charter Template (doc)
    • Information Security Governance Model Tool (Visio)
    • Pdf icon 20x20
    • Information Security Governance Model Tool (PDF)

    Now that you have built it, manage your governance framework.

    There are several essential management activities that we as a security management consulting company suggest you employ.

    • Implement a Security Governance and Management Program – Phase 3: Manage Your Governance Framework (ppt)
    • Security Metrics Assessment Tool (xls)
    • Information Security Service Catalog (xls)
    • Policy Exception Tracker (xls)
    • Information Security Policy Exception Request Form (doc)
    • Security Policy Exception Approval Workflow (Visio)
    • Security Policy Exception Approval Workflow (PDF)
    • Business Goal Metrics Tracking Tool (xls)

    Book an online appointment for more advice

    We are happy to tell you more about our corporate security management solutions and help you set up fitting security objectives. As a security management consulting firm we offer solutions and advice, based on our own extensive experience, which are practical and people-orientated. Discover our services, which include data security management and incident management and book an online appointment with CEO Gert Taeymans to discuss any issues you may be facing regarding risk management or IT governance.

    cybersecurity

    Build Better Workflows

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    Do you experience any of the following challenges:

    • You lack process documentation.
    • Your documentation lacks flowchart examples.
    • Your workflows have points of friction and need improvement.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Don’t just document – target your future state as you document your workflows.
    • Find opportunities for automation, pinpoint key handoff points, and turn cold handoffs into warm handoffs

    Impact and Result

    • Understand the basics of documenting a workflow in flowchart format.
    • Run activities to revise and stress-test your workflows to improve their accuracy and effectiveness.
    • Ensure your workflows are part of a continuous improvement cycle – keep them up to date as a living document.

    Build Better Workflows Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Build Better Workflows – A step by step document that walks you through the process of convening a working group to design and update a process flowchart.

    Ask the right questions and pressure test the workflow so the documentation is as helpful as possible to all who consult it.

    • Build Better Workflows Storyboard

    2. Workflow Activity: An onboarding example for a completed flowchart review.

    Use this workflow as an example of the output of an onboarding workflow-improvement activity.

    • Workflow Activity: Onboarding Example (Visio)
    • Workflow Activity: Onboarding Example (PDF)
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Build Better Workflows

    Go beyond draft one to refine and pressure test your process.

    Analyst Perspective

    Remove friction as you document workflows

    Emily Sugerman

    Emily Sugerman
    Research Analyst, Infrastructure & Operations

    Info-Tech Research Group

    You can’t mature processes without also documenting them. Process documentation is most effective when workflows are both written out and also visualized in the form of flow charts.

    Your workflows may appear in standard operating procedures, in business continuity and disaster recovery plans, or anywhere else a process’ steps need to be made explicit. Often, just getting something down on paper is a win. However, the best workflows usually do not emerge fully-formed out of a first draft. Your workflow documentation must achieve two things:

    • Be an accurate representation of how you currently operate or how you will operate in the near future as a target state.
    • Be the output of a series of refinements and improvements as the workflow is reviewed and iterated.

    This research will use the example of improving an onboarding workflow. Ask the right questions and pressure test the workflow so the documentation is as helpful as possible to all who consult it.

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Common Obstacles

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    • Your documentation lacks workflows entirely, or ...
    • Your workflows are documented in flowchart form but are not accurate, and/or ...
    • Your workflows are documented in flowchart form but contain points of friction and need process improvement.
    • Getting the relevant stakeholders together to contribute to workflow design and validate them.
    • Selecting the right detail level to include in the workflow – not too much and not too little.
    • Knowing the right questions to ask to review and improve your workflow flowcharts.

    Use this material to help

    • Understand the basics of documenting a workflow in flowchart format.
    • Run activities to revise and stress-test your workflows to improve their accuracy and effectiveness.
    • Ensure your workflows are part of a continuous improvement cycle – keep them up-to-date as a living document.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Don’t just document – target your future state as you document your workflows. Find opportunities for automation, pinpoint key handoff points, and turn cold handoffs into warm handoffs.

    Follow these steps to build, analyze, and improve the workflow

    The image contains a screenshot of a diagram that demonstrates the steps needed to build better workflows.

    Insight Summary

    Keep future state in mind.
    Don’t just document – target your future state as you document your workflows. Find opportunities for automation, pinpoint key handoff points, and turn cold handoffs into warm handoffs.

    Promote the benefits of documenting workflows as flowcharts.
    Foreground to the IT team how this will improve customer experience. End-users will benefit from more efficient workflows.

    Remember the principle of constructive criticism.
    Don’t be afraid to critique the workflow but remember this can be a team-building experience. Focus on how these changes will be mutually beneficial, not assigning blame for workflow friction.

    Don’t waste time building shelfware.
    Establish a review cadence to ensure the flowchart is a living document that people actually use.

    Benefits of building better workflows

    Risks of inadequate workflows

    Benefits of documented workflows

    • Lack of clear communication: If you don’t have workflows, you are losing out on an effective way to document and communicate processes.
    • Outdated documentation: If you do have workflows documented in standard operating procedures, they probably need to be updated unless you already consistently update documentation.
    • Facilitate knowledge transfer.
    • Standardize processes for service delivery consistency.
    • Optimize processes by discovering and improving points of friction within the workflow.
    • Improve transparency of processes to set expectations for other stakeholders.
    • Reduce risk.

    Why are visualized workflows useful?

    Use these talking points to build commitment toward documenting/updating processes.

    Risk reduction
    “Our outdated documentation is a risk, as people will assume the documented process is accurate.”

    Transparency
    “The activity of mapping our processes will bring transparency to everyone involved.”

    Accountability
    “Flow charts will help us clarify task ownership at a glance.”

    Accessibility
    “Some team members prefer diagrams over written steps, so we should provide both.”

    Knowledge centralization
    “Our flow charts will include links to other supporting documentation (checklists, vendor documentation, other flowcharts).”

    Role clarification
    “Separating steps into swim lanes can clarify different tiers, process stages, and ownership, while breaking down silos.”

    Communication
    To leadership/upper management: “This process flow chart quickly depicts the big picture.”

    Knowledge transfer
    “Flow charts will help bring new staff up to speed more quickly.”

    Consistency
    “Documenting a process standardizes it and enables everyone to do it in the same way.”

    Review what process mapping is

    A pictorial representation of a process that is used to achieve transparency.

    This research will use one specific example of an onboarding process workflow. Before drilling down into onboarding workflows specifically, review Info-Tech’s Process Mapping Guide for general guidance on what to do before you begin:

    • Know the purpose of process mapping.
    • Articulate the benefits of process mapping.
    • Recognize the risks of not process mapping.
    • Understand the different levels of processes.
    • Adopt BPMN 2.0 as a standard.
    • Consider tools for process mapping.
    • Select a process to map.
    • Learn methods to gather information.

    The image contains screenshots of the Process Mapping Guide.

    Download the Process Mapping Guide

    Select the workflow your team will focus upon

    Good candidates include:

    • Processes you don’t have documented and need to build from scratch.
    • An existing process that results in an output your users are currently dissatisfied with (if you run an annual IT satisfaction survey, use this data to find this information).
    • An existing process that is overly manual, lacks automation, and causes work slowdown for your staff.

    Info-Tech workflow examples

    Active Directory Processes

    Application Development Process

    Application Maintenance Process

    Backup Process

    Benefits Legitimacy Workflow

    Business Continuity Plan Business Process

    Business Continuity Plan Recovery Process

    Commitment Purchasing Workflow

    Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure Process

    Crisis Management Process

    Data Protection Recovery Workflow

    Disaster Recovery Process

    Disaster Recovery Plan/Business Continuity Plan Review Workflow

    End-User Device Management Workflow Library

    Expense Process

    Event Management Process

    Incident Management and Service Desk Workflows

    MACD Workflow Mapping

    Problem Management Process

    Project Management Process

    Ransomware Response Process

    Sales Process for New Clients

    Security Policy Exception Process

    Self-Service Resolution Process

    Service Definition Process

    Service Desk Ticket Intake by Channel

    Software Asset Management Processes

    Target State Maintenance Workflow

    Example: Onboarding workflow

    Onboarding is a perennial challenge due to the large number of separate teams and departments who are implicated in the process.

    There can be resistance to alignment. As a result, everyone needs to be pulled in to see the big picture and the impact of an overly manual and disconnected process.

    Additionally, the quality of the overall onboarding process (of which IT is but one part) has a significant impact on the employee experience of new hires, and the long-term experience of those employees. This workflow is therefore often a good one to target for improvement.

    “Organizations with a standardized onboarding process experience 62% greater new hire productivity, along with 50% greater new hire retention.”1

    “Companies that focus on onboarding retain 50% more new employees than companies that don’t.”2

    1. Carucci, “To Retain New Hires, Spend More Time Onboarding Them,” 2018
    2. Uzialko, “What Does Poor Onboarding, 2023

    Tabletop exercise: Generate first draft

    In the tabletop exercise, your team will walk through your onboarding process step by step and document what happens at each stage. Prep for this meeting with the following steps:

    1. Identify roles: facilitator, notetaker, and participants. Determine who should be involved in the working group in addition to IT (HR, Hiring Team, Facilities, etc.).
    2. Decide what method of documentation you will use in the meeting. If meeting in person, cue cards are useful because they can be easily rearranged or inserted. If meeting remotely, the notetaker or facilitator will need to share their screen and capture each step with software (such as Visio, PowerPoint, or a whiteboarding software).
    3. Before you even begin mapping out the process, conduct a quick brainstorming session. What are your current challenges with it? What is working? Document on a whiteboard (electronic or hard copy).
    4. Document each step of the process as it currently happens. You will improve it later. Include task ownership.

    Roles

    Facilitator
    Tasks:

    • Guide discussion – restate contributors’ ideas, ask probing questions.
    • Keep group on track – cut off or redirect conversation when off track.

    Notetaker
    Tasks:

    • Ensure the steps are documented via the agreed-upon tools (e.g. cue cards). If the process is being documented in software, the notetaker may be solely responsible for documentation.
    • The notetaker may be the same person as the facilitator.

    Document your workflow challenges: Onboarding

    Brainstorm and document. Group similar challenges together to pull out themes.

    Lack of communication/expectation setting with users:

    Messy process, poor coordination among task owners:

    User experience affected:

    • Users submit onboarding requests with too little lead time.
    • HR/hiring manager does not include all necessary information when submitting new hire request.
    • Approvals are slowing down our ability to fulfill in a timely manner.
    • Lots of manual, repeated tasks.
    • Too much back and forth between technicians.
    • Procurement delays (supply chain challenges) leading to new user starting with no device/workaround.
    • Inconsistent resolution times for these types of requests.
    • Complaints about onboarding were one of the most frequently recurring issues in our most recent annual IT satisfaction survey.
    • Some of these complaints fall more to the responsibility of HR and direct managers, but some of the complaints relate to onboarding tasks not being completed by start date, which is our responsibility.

    Establish flowcharting standards

    If you don’t have existing flowchart standards, use the basic notation conventions used in the examples here.

    Basic notation convention shapes: Circle, oval, square, rectangle, diamond, thought bubble.

    Start, End, and Connector. Traditional flowcharting standards reserve this shape for connectors to other flowcharts or other points in the existing flowchart. Unified modeling language (UML) also uses the circle for start and end points.

    Start, End. Traditional flowcharting standards use this for start and end. However, Info-Tech recommends using the circle shape to reduce the number of shapes and avoid confusion with other similar shapes.

    Process Step. Individual process steps or activities (e.g. create ticket or escalate ticket). If it’s a series of steps, then use the sub-process symbol and flowchart the sub-process separately.

    Sub-Process. A series of steps. For example, a critical incident standard operating procedure (SOP) might reference a recovery process as one of the possible actions. Marking it as a sub-process, rather than listing each step within the critical incident SOP, streamlines the flowchart and avoids overlap with other flowcharts (e.g. the recovery process).

    Decision. Represents decision points, typically with yes/no branches, but you could have other branches depending on the question (e.g. a “Priority” question could branch into separate streams for Priority 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 issues).

    Document/Report Output. For example, the output from a backup process might include an error log.

    Map the current process

    Prompt the working group with the following questions.

    • What happens when the ticket comes in? Who submits it? Where is it coming from? What are the trigger events? Are there any input channels we should eliminate?
    • What is the terminal event? Where does the workflow end?
    • Do we have a triage step?
    • Is the ticket prioritized? Does this need to be a step?
    • Do we create child tickets? Separate tasks for different teams? Do we create a primary/main ticket and sub-tickets? How should we represent this in the flowchart?
    • How should we represent escalations? How should we represent task ownership by different teams?
    • What are our decision points: points when the path can potentially branch (e.g. into yes/no branches)?

    Map the process: First pass

    The image contains a screenshot example of the first pass.

    Tabletop exercise: Revise workflow

    Time to review and revise the workflow. What gaps exist? How can you improve the process? What documentation gaps have been overlooked?

    Consider the following refinements for the onboarding workflow:

    • Identify missing steps
    • Clearly identify task ownership
    • Establish SLAs and timepoints
    • Capture/implement user feedback
    • Identify approval roadblocks
    • Identify communication points
    • Identify opportunities for automation
    • Create personas
    • Create onboarding checklist

    Roles

    Facilitator
    Tasks:

    • Guide discussion – restate contributors’ ideas, ask probing questions.
    • Keep group on track – cut off or redirect conversation when off track.

    Notetaker
    Tasks:

    • Ensure the steps are documented via the agreed-upon tools (e.g. cue cards). If the process is being documented in software, the notetaker may be solely responsible for documentation.
    • The notetaker may be the same person as the facilitator, but this takes some practice.

    Map the process: Critique draft

    The image contains a screenshot example of critique draft.

    Solicit feedback from the group.

    "

    • Our workflow is slowed down by hidden approvals that we haven’t mapped.
    • We have no efficient way to prevent submission of incomplete requests.
    • Our workflow doesn’t clearly show how different tasks are assigned to different teams.
    • We still don’t know how long this all takes.
    • We’re missing some tasks – what about including facilities?
    • We’re missing next steps for some of the decision points.
    "

    Review: Identify missing steps

    Consider the following refinements.

    Be complete.

    The workflow should surface tacit knowledge, so make it explicit (Haddadpoor et al.):

    • Where are the inputs coming from? Do you need to account for various input channels? Have you forgotten any?
    • Are there any input channels that you want to eliminate?
    • Have you overlooked any hardware, software, or services entitlements that should be called out?
    • Have all decision paths been worked through? Do you need to add any missing decision points?
    • Add information flows and annotations as needed.

    Review: Task ownership

    Identify task ownership.

    The flow chart will be more useful if it clearly identifies who does what in the process.

    • Consider organizing the sub-processes within the overall onboarding process into swim lanes, one for each team or group involved in the process.
    • Swim lanes help clarify who does what in the overall process (e.g. all the tasks completed by HR appear in the HR swim lane, all the tasks completed by service desk appear in the service desk swim lane).
    • They can also help draw attention to escalation points or handoff points between different teams. Assess the steps around the boundary of each swim lane. Does the working group experience/know of friction at these handoff points? What might solve it?
    • In what order should the tasks occur? What dependencies do they have?

    The image contains a screenshot of a model that demonstrates task ownership swim lanes.

    “Each task has an owner, and the task list is visible to the employee and other stakeholders, so there's visibility about whether each person has done their actions.”

    Matthew Stibbe, qtd. in Zapier, 2022

    Review: The time the workflow takes

    For onboarding, this means setting SLOs/SLAs and internal timepoints.

    Add internal timepoints for the major steps/tasks in the workflow. Begin to track these service level objectives and adjust as necessary.

    • Review old onboarding tickets and track how long each main step/task takes (or should take). Every additional approval risks adding days.
    • Consider where there are opportunities to increase automation or use templates to save time.
    • Zero in on which task within the onboarding workflow is slowing down the process.
    • Create an overall service level objective that communicates how many days the onboarding workflow is expected to take. Decide where escalations go when the SLA is breached.

    When you have validated the service level objectives are accurate and you can meet them an acceptable amount of time, communicate the overall SLA to your users. This will ensure they submit future onboarding requests to your team with enough lead time to fulfill the request. Try to place the SLA directly in the service catalog.

    “Tracking the time within the workflow can be a powerful way to show the working group why there is user dissatisfaction.”

    Sandi Conrad, Principal Advisory Director, Info-Tech Research Group

    Review: Capture user feedback

    For onboarding, this means implementing a transactional survey.

    The onboarding workflow will be subject to periodic reviews and continual improvement. Suggestions for improvement should come not only from the internal IT team, but also the users themselves.

    • Transactional surveys, launched at the close of a ticket, allow the ticket submitter to provide feedback on their customer service experience.
    • Onboarding tickets are somewhat more complex than the average incident or service request, since the ticket is often opened by one user (e.g. in HR) on behalf of another (the new employee).
    • Decide whose experience you want feedback on – the submitter of the request or the new user. Investigate your ITSM tool’s capabilities: is it possible to direct the survey to someone who is not the ticket submitter?
    Take Action on Service Desk Customer Feedback

    Use Info-Tech’s Take Action on Service Desk Customer Feedback for more guidance on creating these surveys.

    Review: Identify approval roadblocks

    For onboarding, approvals can be the main roadblock to fulfilling requests

    • How are the requests coming in? Do we have a predefined service catalog?
    • What kinds of approvals do we receive (manager, financial, legal, security, regulatory)? Ask the team to think about where there are instances of back and forth and clean that up.
    • Identify where approvals interrupt the technical flow.
      • Confirm that these approvals are indeed necessary (e.g. are certain approval requests ever declined? If not, follow up on whether they are necessary or whether some can be made into preapprovals).
      • Avoid putting agents in charge of waiting on or following up about approvals.
      • Investigate whether interruptive approvals can be moved.

    Review: Identify communication points

    A positive onboarding experience is an important part of a new employee’s success.

    Though IT is only one part of an employee’s onboarding experience, it’s an important part. Delays for hardware procurement and a lack of communication can lead to employee disengagement. Ask the team:

    • Are we communicating with our users when delays occur? When do delays occur most often?
    • How can we mitigate delays? Though we can’t resolve larger supply chain problems, can we increase stock in the meantime?
    • Can we start tracking delays to incorporate into the SLA
    • Do we offer loaner devices in the meantime?

    Place communication bullet points in the flow chart to indicate where the team will reach out to users to update or notify them of delays.

    Review: Identify opportunities for automation

    Where can we automate for onboarding?

    Identify when the process is dragged out due to waiting times (e.g. times when the technician can’t address the ticket right away).

    • Analyze the workflow to identify which tasks tend to stagnate because technician is busy elsewhere. Are these candidates for automation?
    • Is our ITSM tool capable of setting up automatically routed child tickets triggered by the main onboarding ticket? Does it generate a series of tasks? Is it a manual process? Which teams do these tasks/tickets go to?
    • Can we automate notifications if devices are delayed?
    • Can we use mobile device management for automated software installation?
    • If we have a robust service catalog, can we provide it to the users to download what they need? Or is this too many extra steps for our users?
    • Can we create personas to speed up onboarding?

    Avoid reinforcing manual processes, which make it even harder for departmental silos to work together.

    Review: Automation example – create personas

    Create role-based templates.

    Does HR know which applications our users need? Are they deferring to the manager, who then asks IT to simply duplicate an existing user?

    Personas are asset profiles that apply to multiple users (e.g. in a department) and that can be easily duplicated for new hires. You might create three persona groups in a department, with variations within each subgroup or title. To do this, you need accurate information upfront.

    Then, if you’re doing zero touch deployment, you can automate software to automatically load.

    Many HRIS systems have the ability to create a persona, and also to add users to the AD, email, and distribution groups without IT getting involved. This can alleviate work from the sysadmin. Does our HRIS do this?

    • Review old onboarding tickets. Do they include manual steps like setting up mailboxes, creating user accounts, adding to groups?
    • Investigate your ITSM tool’s onboarding template. Does it allow you to create a form through which to create dynamic required fields?
    • Identify the key information service desk needs from the department supervisor, or equivalent role, to begin the onboarding request – employee type, access level, hardware and software entitlements, etc.

    Revised workflow

    How does the group feel about the revised workflow?

    • Are any outputs still missing?
    • Can we add any more annotations to provide more context to someone reading this for the first time?
    • Do the task names follow a “verb-noun” format?
    • Are the handoffs clear?
    • Are some of the steps overly detailed compared to others?
    • Does it help resolve the challenges we listed?
    • Does it achieve the benefits we want to achieve?

    Download the Workflow Activity: Onboarding Example

    Remember the principle of constructive criticism.

    Don’t be afraid to critique the workflow but remember this can also be a team-building experience. Focus on how these changes will be mutually beneficial, not assigning blame for workflow friction.

    Post-review: Revised workflow

    The image contains a screenshot example of a revised workflow.

    Final check

    • Do we need to run this by Legal?
    • Have we included too many sub-processes? Not enough?
    • Is the flowchart easy to read and follow?

    Decide how often this workflow will be revised.

    • Is this workflow part of a larger piece of documentation that has a set review cadence? Where is it stored?
    • If not, what is a realistic time frame for regular review?
    • Who will own this process in an ongoing way and be in charge of convening a future review working group?

    Validation with stakeholders

    • What documentation does the flowchart belong to? When will you review it again?
    • Who do you need to validate the flowchart with?

    Share the flowchart and set up a review meeting.

    • Walk through the workflow with stakeholders who did not participate in building it.
    • Do they find it easy to follow?
    • Can they identify missing steps?

    Don’t waste time building shelfware.

    Establish a review cadence to ensure the flowchart is a living document that people actually use.

    Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

    DIY Toolkit

    “Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”

    Guided Implementation

    “Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”

    Workshop

    “We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”

    Consulting

    “Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Bibliography

    Bushkill, Claire. “The top 5 ways to automate your onboarding checklist.” Rippling Blog. 18 Mar 2022. Accessed 29 Nov 2022. Ha https://www.rippling.com/blog/the-top-5-ways-to-automate-your-onboarding-checklist
    Carucci, Ron. “To Retain New Hires, Spend More Time Onboarding Them.” Harvard Business Review, 3 Dec 2018
    Haddadpoor, Asefeh, et al. “Process Documentation: A Model for Knowledge Management in Organizations.” Materia Socio-Medica, vol. 27, no. 5, Oct. 2015, pp. 347–50. PubMed Central, https://doi.org/10.5455/msm.2015.27.347-350.
    King, Melissa. “New hire checklist: An employee onboarding checklist template for 2022.” Zapier. 14 Jul 2022. Accessed 29 Nov 2022. https://zapier.com/blog/onboarding-checklist/
    Uzialko, Adam. “What Does Poor Onboarding Really Do to Your Team?” Business News Daily. 23 Jan 2023.
    https://www.manageengine.com/products/service-desk...

    Contributors

    Sandi Conrad, Principal Advisory Director, Infrastructure and Operations, Info-Tech Research Group

    Christine Coz, Executive Counselor, Info-Tech Research Group

    Allison Kinnaird, Practice Lead, Infrastructure and Operations, Info-Tech Research Group

    Natalie Sansone, Research Director, Infrastructure and Operations, Info-Tech Research Group

    Manage Your Technical Debt

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    • Parent Category Name: Strategy and Organizational Design
    • Parent Category Link: /strategy-and-organizational-design
    • All organizations, of all sizes, have some amount of technical debt, but very few systematically track, manage, and communicate it.
    • Deferred project work is pushed over to operations, sometimes with little visibility or hand-off, where it gets deprioritized and lost.
    • IT doesn’t have the resources or authority to make needed changes to address the impact of tech debt and can’t make the case for improvement without good data on the problem.
    • Efforts to track technical debt get stuck in the weeds, don’t connect technical issues to business impact, and run out of steam.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Technical debt is a type of technical risk, which in turn is business risk. The business, not IT, must make the decision to accept or mitigate risk – but IT must help the business make an informed decision.
    • There are two ways to keep your technical debt at a manageable level – effectively, to mitigate risk: either stop introducing new debt or start paying back what you already have.

    Impact and Result

    • Define and identify your technical debt. Focus on tech debt you think you can actually fix.
    • Conduct a streamlined and targeted business impact analysis to prioritize tech debt based on its ongoing business impact.
    • Identify options to better manage technical debt and present your findings to business decision makers.

    Manage Your Technical Debt Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to understand the business case to manage technical debt, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Identify your technical debt

    Define, identify, and organize your technical debt in preparation for the technical debt impact analysis.

    • Technical Debt Business Impact Analysis Tool

    2. Measure your technical debt

    Conduct a technical debt business impact analysis.

    • Roadmap Tool

    3. Manage your technical debt

    Identify options to resolve technical debt and summarize the challenge and potential solutions for business decision makers.

    • Technical Debt Executive Summary Presentation
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Manage Your Technical Debt

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Define and Identify Technical Debt

    The Purpose

    Create a working definition of technical debt and identify the technical debt in your environment.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    List your technical debt.

    Activities

    1.1 Develop a working definition for technical debt.

    1.2 Discuss your organization’s technical debt risk.

    1.3 Identify 5-10 high-impact technical debts to structure the impact analysis.

    Outputs

    Goals, opportunities, and constraints related to tech debt management

    A list of technical debt

    2 Measure Technical Debt

    The Purpose

    Conduct a more-objective assessment of the business impact of technical debt.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Identify the most-critical technical debt in your environment, in terms of business risk.

    Activities

    2.1 Review and modify business impact scoring scales.

    2.2 Identify reasonable scenarios to structure the impact analysis.

    2.3 Apply the scoring scale to identify the business impact of each technical debt.

    Outputs

    Business impact scoring scales

    Scenarios to support the impact analysis

    Technical debt impact analysis

    3 Build a Roadmap to Manage Technical Debt

    The Purpose

    Leverage the technical debt impact analysis to identify, compare, and quantify projects that fix technical debt and projects that prevent it.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Create your plan to manage technical debt.

    Activities

    3.1 Brainstorm projects and action items to manage and pay back critical technical debt. Prioritize projects and action items to build a roadmap.

    3.2 Identify three possible courses of action to pay back each critical technical debt.

    3.3 Identify immediate next steps to manage remaining tech debt and limit the introduction of new tech debt.

    Outputs

    Technical debt management roadmap

    Technical debt executive summary

    Immediate next steps to manage technical debt

    Become a Strategic CIO

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    • Parent Category Name: IT Strategy
    • Parent Category Link: /it-strategy
    • As a CIO, you are currently operating in a stable and trusted IT environment, but you would like to advance your role to strategic business partner.
    • CIOs are often overlooked as a strategic partner by their peers, and therefore face the challenge of proving they deserve a seat at the table.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • To become a strategic business partner, you must think and act as a business person that works in IT, rather than an IT person that works for the business.
    • Career advancement is not a solo effort. Building relationships with your executive business stakeholders will be critical to becoming a respected business partner.

    Impact and Result

    • Create a personal development plan and stakeholder management strategy to accelerate your career and become a strategic business partner. For a CIO to be considered a strategic business partner, he or she must be able to:
      • Act as a business person that works in IT, rather than an IT person that works for the business. This involves meeting executive stakeholder expectations, facilitating innovation, and managing stakeholder relationships.
      • Align IT with the customer. This involves providing business stakeholders with information to support stronger decision making, keeping up with disruptive technologies, and constantly adapting to the ever-changing end-customer needs.
      • Manage talent and change. This involves performing strategic workforce planning, and being actively engaged in identifying opportunities to introduce change in your organization, suggesting ways to improve, and then acting on them.

    Become a Strategic CIO Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should become a strategic CIO, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Launch

    Analyze strategic CIO competencies and assess business stakeholder satisfaction with IT using Info-Tech's CIO Business Vision Diagnostic and CXO-CIO Alignment Program.

    • Become a Strategic CIO – Phase 1: Launch

    2. Assess

    Evaluate strategic CIO competencies and business stakeholder relationships.

    • Become a Strategic CIO – Phase 2: Assess
    • CIO Strategic Competency Evaluation Tool
    • CIO Stakeholder Power Map Template

    3. Plan

    Create a personal development plan and stakeholder management strategy.

    • Become a Strategic CIO – Phase 3: Plan
    • CIO Personal Development Plan
    • CIO Stakeholder Management Strategy Template

    4. Execute

    Develop a scorecard to track personal development initiatives.

    • Become a Strategic CIO – Phase 4: Execute
    • CIO Strategic Competency Scorecard
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Become a Strategic CIO

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Assess Competencies & Stakeholder Relationships

    The Purpose

    Gather and review information from business stakeholders.

    Assess strategic CIO competencies and business stakeholder relationships.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Gathered information to create a personal development plan and stakeholder management strategy.

    Analyzed the information from diagnostics and determined the appropriate next steps.

    Identified and prioritized strategic CIO competency gaps.

    Evaluated the power, impact, and support of key business stakeholders.

    Activities

    1.1 Conduct CIO Business Vision diagnostic

    1.2 Conduct CXO-CIO Alignment program

    1.3 Assess CIO competencies

    1.4 Assess business stakeholder relationships

    Outputs

    CIO Business Vision results

    CXO-CIO Alignment Program results

    CIO competency gaps

    Executive Stakeholder Power Map

    2 Take Control of Your Personal Development

    The Purpose

    Create a personal development plan and stakeholder management strategy.

    Track your personal development and establish checkpoints to revise initiatives.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Identified personal development and stakeholder engagement initiatives to bridge high priority competency gaps.

    Identified key performance indicators and benchmarks/targets to track competency development.

    Activities

    2.1 Create a personal development plan

    2.2 Create a stakeholder management strategy

    2.3 Establish key performance indicators and benchmarks/targets

    Outputs

    Personal Development Plan

    Stakeholder Management Strategy

    Strategic CIO Competency Scorecard

    Select Your Data Platform

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    • Parent Category Name: Data Management
    • Parent Category Link: /data-management

    Every organization needs a data management (DM) platform that enables the DM capabilities required. This could be a daunting task because:

    • Every organization has a unique set of requirements for the DM platform.
    • Software products are difficult to compare because every vendor provides a unique set of features.
    • Software vendors are interested in getting as large a footprint as possible.
    • Some products from different categories offer the same functionalities.
    • Some products are just not compatible.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Technology requirements start with the business goals.
    • Data platform selection should be based on common best practices and, at the same time, be optimized for the organization’s specific needs and goals and support an evolutionary platform development.
    • What is best for one organization may be totally unacceptable for another – all for very valid reasons.

    Impact and Result

    Understand your current environment and use proven reference architecture patterns to expedite building the data management platform that matches your needs.

    • Use a holistic approach.
    • Understand your goals and priorities.
    • Picture your target-state architecture.
    • Identify your current technology coverage.
    • Select the software covering the gaps in technology enablement based on feature/functional enablement descriptions as well as vendor and deployment preferences.

    Select Your Data Platform Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out what challenges are typically in the way of designing a data platform, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand how we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Select your data platform

    Assess your current environment, find the right reference architecture pattern, and match identified capabilities with software features.

    • Data Platform Design Assessment
    • Reference Architecture Pattern

    Infographic

    Review Your Application Strategy

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    • Parent Category Name: Architecture & Strategy
    • Parent Category Link: /architecture-and-strategy
    • Over 80% of CXOs experience frustration with IT’s failure to deliver business value.
    • Sixty percent of CEOs believe that improvement is required around IT’s understanding of business goals.
    • Sixty percent of IT professionals know there is an opportunity to run applications more efficiently, eliminating wasteful or low-value activities.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Organizations need to better align their application strategy with their business strategy as they proceed through tactical initiatives.
    • Application strategies provide guidance on how they will help the organization survive and thrive.

    Impact and Result

    Aligning your business with applications through your strategy will not only increase business satisfaction but also help to ensure you’re delivering applications that enable the organization’s goals.

    Review Your Application Strategy Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should have an application strategy and why you should use Info-Tech’s approach to review it. Learn how we can support you in completing this strategy and review.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Review your strategy

    This review guide provides organizations with a detailed assessment of their application strategy, ensuring that the applications enable the business strategy so that the organization can be more effective.The assessment provides criteria and exercises to provide actionable outcomes.

    • Application Strategy Assessment Tool
    • Application Strategy Action Plan Report Template
    • Application Strategy Sample Action Plan Report
    [infographic]

    Create an Architecture for AI

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    • Parent Category Name: Data Management
    • Parent Category Link: /data-management

    This research is designed to help organizations who are facing these challenges:

    • Deliver on the AI promise within the organization.
    • Prioritize the demand for AI projects and govern the projects to prevent overloading resources.
    • Have sufficient data management capability.
    • Have clear metrics in place to measure progress and for decision making.

    AI requires a high level of maturity in all data management capabilities, and the greatest challenge the CIO or CDO faces is to mature these capabilities sufficiently to ensure AI success.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Build your target state architecture from predefined best-practice building blocks.
    • Not all business use cases require AI to increase business capabilities.
    • Not all organizations are ready to embark on the AI journey.
    • Knowing the AI pattern that you will use will simplify architecture considerations.

    Impact and Result

    • This blueprint will assist organizations with the assessment, planning, building, and rollout of their AI initiatives.
      • Do not embark on an AI project with an immature data management practice. Embark on initiatives to fix problems before they cripple your AI projects.
      • Using architecture building blocks will speed up the architecture decision phase.
    • The success rate of AI initiatives is tightly coupled with data management capabilities and a sound architecture.

    Create an Architecture for AI Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to understand why you need an underlying architecture for AI, review Info-Tech's methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Assess business use cases for AI readiness

    Define business use cases where AI may bring value. Evaluate each use case to determine the company’s AI maturity in people, tools, and operations for delivering the correct data, model development, model deployment, and the management of models in the operational areas.

    • Create an Architecture for AI – Phase 1: Assess Business Use Cases for AI Readiness
    • AI Architecture Assessment and Project Planning Tool
    • AI Architecture Assessment and Project Planning Tool – Sample

    2. Design your target state

    Develop a target state architecture to allow the organization to effectively deliver in the promise of AI using architecture building blocks.

    • Create an Architecture for AI – Phase 2: Design Your Target State
    • AI Architecture Templates

    3. Define the AI architecture roadmap

    Compare current state with the target state to define architecture plateaus and build a delivery roadmap.

    • Create an Architecture for AI – Phase 3: Define the AI Architecture Roadmap
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Create an Architecture for AI

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Answer “Where To?”

    The Purpose

    Define business use cases where AI may add value and assess use case readiness.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Know upfront if all required data resources are available in the required velocity, veracity, and variety to service the use case.

    Activities

    1.1 Review the business vision.

    1.2 Identify and classify business use cases.

    1.3 Assess company readiness for each use case.

    1.4 Review architectural principles and download and install Archi.

    Outputs

    List of identified AI use cases

    Assessment of each use case

    Data sources needed for each use case

    Archi installed

    2 Define the Required Architecture Building Blocks

    The Purpose

    Define architecture building blocks that can be used across use cases and data pipeline.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    The architectural building blocks ensure reuse of resources and form the foundation of a stepwise rollout.

    Activities

    2.1 ArchiMate modelling language overview.

    2.2 Architecture building block overview

    2.3 Identify architecture building blocks by use case.

    2.4 Define the target state architecture.

    Outputs

    A set of building blocks created in Archi

    Defined target state architecture using architecture building blocks

    3 Assess the Current State Architecture

    The Purpose

    Assess your current state architecture in the areas identified by the target state.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Only evaluating the current state architecture that will influence your AI implementation.

    Activities

    3.1 Identify the current state capabilities as required by the target state.

    3.2 Assess your current state architecture.

    3.3 Define a roadmap and design implementation plateaus.

    Outputs

    Current state architecture documented in Archi

    Assessed current state using assessment tool

    A roadmap defined using plateaus as milestones

    4 Bridge the Gap and Create the Roadmap

    The Purpose

    Assess your current state against the target state and create a plan to bridge the gaps.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Develop a roadmap that will deliver immediate results and ensure long-term durability.

    Activities

    4.1 Assess the gaps between current- and target-state capabilities.

    4.2 Brainstorm initiatives to address the gaps in capabilities

    4.3 Define architecture delivery plateaus.

    4.4 Define a roadmap with milestones.

    4.5 Sponsor check-in.

    Outputs

    Current to target state gap assessment

    Architecture roadmap divided into plateaus

    Harness Configuration Management Superpowers

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    • Parent Category Name: Asset Management
    • Parent Category Link: /asset-management
    • Configuration management databases (CMDB) are a lot of work to build and maintain. Starting down this process without the right tools, processes, and buy-in is a lot of work with very little reward.
    • If you decide to just build it and expect they will come, you may find it difficult to articulate the value, and you will be disappointed by the lack of visitors.
    • Relying on manual entry or automated data collection without governance may result in data you can’t trust, and if no one trusts the data, they won’t use it.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • The right mindset is just as important as the right tools. By involving everyone early, you can ensure the right data is captured and validated and you can make maintenance part of the culture. This is critical to reaching early and continual value with a CMDB.

    Impact and Result

    • Define your use cases: Identify the use cases and prioritize those objectives into phases. Define what information will be needed to meet the use cases and how that information will be populated.
    • Understand and design the CMDB data model: Define services and undiscoverable configuration items (CI) and map them to the discoverable CIs.
    • Operationalize configuration record updates: Define data stewards and governance processes and integrate your configuration management practice with existing practices and lifecycles.

    Harness Configuration Management Superpowers Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Harness Configuration Management Superpowers Deck – A step-by-step document that walks you through creating a configuration management program.

    Use this blueprint to create a configuration management program that provides immediate value.

    • Harness Configuration Management Superpowers – Phases 1-4

    2. Configuration Management Project Charter Template – A project charter template to help you build a concise document for communicating appropriate project details to stakeholders.

    Use this template to create a project charter to launch the configuration management project.

    • Configuration Management Project Charter

    3. Configuration Control Board Charter Template – A board charter template to help you define the roles and responsibilities of the configuration control board.

    Use this template to create your board charter for your configuration control board (CCB). Define roles and responsibilities and mandates for the CCB.

    • Configuration Control Board Charter

    4. Configuration Management Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) Template – An SOP template to describe processes and procedures for ongoing maintenance of the CMDB under the configuration management program.

    Use this template to create and communicate your SOP to ensure ongoing maintenance of the CMDB under the configuration management program.

    • Configuration Management Standard Operation Procedures

    5. Configuration Management Audit and Validation Checklist Template – A template to be used as a starting point to meet audit requirements under NIST and ITIL programs.

    Use this template to assess capability to pass audits, adding to the template as needed to meet internal auditors’ requirements.

    • Configuration Management Audit and Validation Checklist

    6. Configuration Management Policy Template – A template to be used for building out a policy for governance over the configuration management program.

    Use this template to build a policy for your configuration management program.

    • Configuration Management Policy

    7. Use Cases and Data Worksheet – A template to be used for validating data requirements as you work through use cases.

    Use this template to determine data requirements to meet use cases.

    • Use Cases and Data Worksheet

    8. Configuration Management Diagram Template Library – Examples of process workflows and data modeling.

    Use this library to view sample workflows and a data model for the configuration management program.

    • Configuration Management Diagram Template Library (Visio)
    • Configuration Management Diagram Template Library (PDF)

    9. Configuration Manager Job Description – Roles and responsibilities for the job of Configuration Manager.

    Use this template as a starting point to create a job posting, identifying daily activities, responsibilities, and required skills as you create or expand your configuration management program.

    • Configuration Manager

    Infographic

    Workshop: Harness Configuration Management Superpowers

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Configuration Management Strategy

    The Purpose

    Define the scope of your service configuration management project.

    Design the program to meet specific stakeholders needs

    Identify project and operational roles and responsibilities.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Designed a sustainable approach to building a CMDB.

    Activities

    1.1 Introduction

    1.2 Define challenges and goals.

    1.3 Define and prioritize use cases.

    1.4 Identify data needs to meet these goals.

    1.5 Define roles and responsibilities.

    Outputs

    Data and reporting use cases based on stakeholder requirements

    Roles and responsibility matrix

    2 CMDB Data Structure

    The Purpose

    Build a data model around the desired use cases.

    Identify the data sources for populating the CMDB.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Identified which CIs and relationships will be captured in the CMDB.

    Activities

    2.1 Define and prioritize your services.

    2.2 Evaluate CMDB default classifications.

    2.3 Test configuration items against existing categories.

    2.4 Build a data model diagram.

    Outputs

    List of CI types and relationships to be added to default settings

    CMDB data model diagram

    3 Processes

    The Purpose

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Built a right-sized approach to configuration record updates and data validation.

    Activities

    3.1 Define processes for onboarding, offboarding, and maintaining data in the CMDB.

    3.2 Define practices for configuration baselines.

    3.3 Build a data validation and auditing plan.

    Outputs

    Documented processes and workflows

    Data validation and auditing plan

    4 Communications & Roadmap

    The Purpose

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Metrics program defined

    Communications designed

    Activities

    4.1 Define key metrics for configuration management.

    4.2 Define metrics for supporting services.

    4.3 Build configuration management policies.

    4.4 Create a communications plan.

    4.5 Build a roadmap

    Outputs

    Policy for configuration management

    Communications documents

    Roadmap for next steps

    Further reading

    Harness Configuration Management Superpowers

    Create a configuration management practice that will provide ongoing value to the organization.

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Analyst Perspective

    A robust configuration management database (CMDB) can provide value to the business and superpowers to IT. It's time to invest smartly to reap the rewards.

    IT environments are becoming more and more complex, and balancing demands for stability and demands for faster change requires visibility to make the right decisions. IT needs to know their environment intimately. They need to understand dependencies and integrations and feel confident they are making decisions with the most current and accurate view.

    Solutions for managing operations rely on the CMDB to bring visibility to issues, calculate impact, and use predictive analytics to fix performance issues before they become major incidents. AIOps solutions need accurate data, but they can also help identify configuration drift and flag changes or anomalies that need investigation.

    The days of relying entirely on manual entry and updates are all but gone, as the functionality of a robust configuration management system requires daily updates to provide value. We used to rely on that one hero to make sure information was up to date, but with the volume of changes we see in most environments today, it's time to improve the process and provide superpowers to the entire IT department.

    This is a picture of Sandi Conrad

    Sandi Conrad, ITIL Managing Professional
    Principal Research Director, IT Infrastructure & Operations, Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    • Build a configuration management database (CMDB): You need to implement a CMDB, populate it with records and relationships, and integrate it with discovery and management tools.
    • Identify the benefits of a CMDB: Too many CMDB projects fail because IT tries to collect everything. Base your data model on the desired use cases.
    • Define roles and responsibilities: Keeping data accurate and updated is difficult. Identify who will be responsible for helping

    Common Obstacles

    • Significant process maturity is required: Service configuration management (SCM) requires high maturity in change management, IT asset management, and service catalog practices.
    • Large investment: Building a CMDB takes a large amount of effort, process, and expertise.
    • Tough business case: Configuration management doesn't directly provide value to the business, but it requires a lot of investment from IT.

    Info-Tech's Approach

    • Define your scope and objectives: Identify the use cases for SCM and prioritize those objectives into phases.
    • Design the CMDB data model: Align with your existing configuration management system's data model.
    • Operationalize configuration record updates: Integrate your SCM practice with existing practices and lifecycles.

    Start small

    Scope creep is a serial killer of configuration management databases and service configuration management practices.

    Insight summary

    Many vendors are taking a CMDB-first approach to enable IT operations or sometimes asset management. It's important to ensure processes are in place immediately to ensure the data doesn't go stale as additional modules and features are activated.

    Define processes early to ensure success

    The right mindset is just as important as the right tools. By involving everyone early, you can ensure the right data is captured and validated and you can make maintenance part of the culture. This is critical to reaching early and continual value with a CMDB.

    Identify use cases

    The initial use case will be the driving force behind the first assessment of return on investment (ROI). If ROI can be realized early, momentum will increase, and the team can build on the initial successes.

    If you don't see value in the first year, momentum diminishes and it's possible the project will never see value.

    Keep the initial scope small and focused

    Discovery can collect a lot of data quickly, and it's possible to be completely overwhelmed early in the process.

    Build expertise and troubleshoot issues with a smaller scope, then build out the process.

    Minimize customizations

    Most CMDBs have classes and attributes defined as defaults. Use of the defaults will enable easier implementation and faster time to value, especially where automations and integrations depend on standard terms for field mapping.

    Automate as much as possible

    In large, complex environments, the data can quickly become unmanageable. Use automation as much as possible for discovery, dependency mapping, validation, and alerts. Minimize the amount of manual work but ensure everyone is aware of where and how these manual updates need to happen to see continual value.

    Info-Tech's Harness Configuration Management Superpowers.

    Configuration management will improve functionality of all surrounding processes

    A well-functioning CMDB empowers almost all other IT management and governance practices.

    Service configuration management is about:

    • Building a system of record about IT services and the components that support those services.
    • Continuously reconciling and validating information to ensure data accuracy.
    • Ensuring the data lifecycle is defined and well understood and can pass data and process audits.
    • Accessing information in a variety of ways to effectively serve IT and the business.
    An image of Info-Tech's CMDB Configuration Management tree, breaking down aspects into the following six categories: Strategic Partner; Service Provider; Proactive; Stabilize; Core; and Foundational.

    Configuration management most closely impacts these practices

    Info-Tech Research Group sees a clear relationship.

    When an IT department reports they are highly effective at configuration management, they are much more likely to report they are highly effective at these management and governance processes:

    The following management and governance processes are listed: Quality Management; Asset Management; Performance Measurement; Knowledge Management; Release Management; Incident and Problem Management; Service Management; Change Management.

    The data is clear

    Service configuration management is about more than just doing change management more effectively.

    Source: Info-Tech Research Group, IT Management and Governance Diagnostic; N=684 organizations, 2019 to July 2022.

    Make the case to use configuration management to improve IT operations

    Consider the impact of access to data for informing innovations, optimization efforts, and risk assessments.

    75% of Uptime's 2021 survey respondents who had an outage in the past three years said the outage would have been prevented if they'd had better management or processes.(1)

    75%

    75% of Uptime's 2021 survey respondents who had an outage in the past three years said the outage would have been prevented if they'd had better management or processes.(1)

    42%

    of publicly reported outages were due to software or configuration issues. (1)

    58%

    of networking-related IT outages were due to configuration and change management failure.(1)

    It doesn't have to be that way!

    Enterprise-grade IT service management (ITSM) tools require a CMDB for the different modules to work together and to enable IT operations management (ITOM), providing greater visibility.

    Decisions about changes can be made with accurate data, not guesses.

    The CMDB can give the service desk fast access to helpful information about the impacted components, including a history of similar incidents and resolutions and the relationship between the impacted components and other systems and components.

    Turn your team into IT superheroes.

    CMDB data makes it easier for IT Ops groups to:

    • Avoid change collisions.
    • Eliminate poor changes due to lack of visibility into complex systems.
    • Identify problematic equipment.
    • Troubleshoot incidents.
    • Expand the services provided by tier 1 and through automation.

    Benefits of configuration management

    For IT

    • Configuration management will supercharge processes that have relied on inherent knowledge of the IT environment to make decisions.
    • IT will more quickly analyze and understand issues and will be positioned to improve and automate issue identification and resolution.
    • Increase confidence and reduce risks for decisions involving release and change management with access to accurate data, regardless of the complexity of the environment.
    • Reduce or eliminate unplanned work related to poor outcomes due to decisions made with incorrect or incomplete data.

    For the Business

    • Improve strategic planning for business initiatives involving IT solutions, which may include integrations, development, or security concerns.
    • More quickly deploy new solutions or updates due to visibility into complex environments.
    • Enable business outcomes with reliable and stable IT systems.
    • Reduce disruptions caused by planning without accurate data and improve resolution times for service interruptions.
    • Improve access to reporting for budgeting, showbacks, and chargebacks as well as performance metrics.

    Measure the value of this blueprint

    Fast-track your planning and increase the success of a configuration management program with this blueprint

    Workshop feedback
    8.1/10

    $174,000 savings

    30 average days saved

    Guided Implementation feedback

    8.7/10

    $31,496 average savings

    41 average days saved

    "The workshop was well run, with good facilitation, and gained participation from even the most difficult parts of the audience. The best part of the experience was that if I were to find myself in the same position in the future, I would repeat the workshop."

    – University of Exeter

    Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

    DIY Toolkit

    “Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”

    Guided Implementation

    “Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”

    Workshop

    “We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”

    Consulting

    “Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4

    Call #1: Scope requirements, objectives, and your specific challenges.

    Call #2: Prioritize services and use cases.

    Call #3: Identify data needed to meet goals.

    Call #4: Define roles and responsibilities.

    Call #5: Define and prioritize your services.

    Call #6: Evaluate and test CMDB default classifications.

    Call #7: Build a data model diagram.

    Call #8: Define processes for onboarding, offboarding, and maintaining data.

    Call #9: Discuss configuration baselines.

    Call #10: Build a data validation and audit plan.

    Call #11: Define key metrics.

    Call #12: Build a configuration management policy and communications plan.

    Call #13: Build a roadmap.

    A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

    A typical GI is between 8 to 12 calls over the course of 4 to 9 months.

    Workshop Overview

    Contact your account representative for more information.
    workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889

    Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4

    Configuration Management Strategy

    CMDB Data Structure

    Process Design

    Communications & Roadmap

    Activities
    • Introduction
    • Define challenges and goals.
    • Define and prioritize use cases.
    • Identify data needed to meet goals.
    • Define roles and responsibilities.
    • Define and prioritize your services.
    • Evaluate CMDB default classifications.
    • Test configuration items against existing categories.
    • Build a data model diagram.
    • Define processes for onboarding, offboarding, and maintaining data in the CMDB.
    • Define practices for configuration baselines.
    • Build a data validation and auditing plan.
    • Define key metrics for configuration management.
    • Define metrics for supporting services.
    • Build configuration management policies.
    • Create a communications plan.
    • Build a roadmap.

    Deliverables

    • Roles and responsibility matrix
    • Data and reporting use cases based on stakeholder requirements
    • List of CI types and relationships to be added to default settings
    • CMDB data model diagram
    • Documented processes and workflows
    • Data validation and auditing plan
    • Policy for configuration management
    • Roadmap for next steps
    • Communications documents

    Blueprint deliverables

    Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals:

    Configuration Management Project Charter

    Detail your approach to building an SCM practice and a CMDB.

    Screenshot from the Configuration Management Project Charter

    Use Cases and Data Worksheet

    Capture the action items related to your SCM implementation project.

    Screenshot from the Use Cases and Data Worksheet

    Configuration Manager Job Description

    Use our template for a job posting or internal job description.

    Screenshot from the Configuration Manager Job Description

    Configuration Management Diagram Template Library

    Use these diagrams to simplify building your SOP.

    Screenshot from the Configuration Management Diagram Template Library

    Configuration Management Policy

    Set expectations for configuration control.

    screenshot from the Configuration Management Policy

    Configuration Management Audit and Validation Checklist

    Use this framework to validate controls.

    Screenshot from the Configuration Management Audit and Validation Checklist

    Configuration Control Board Charter

    Define the board's responsibilities and meeting protocols.

    Screenshot from the Configuration Management Audit and Validation Checklist

    Key deliverable:

    Configuration Management Standard Operating Procedures Template

    Outlines SCM roles and responsibilities, the CMDB data model, when records are expected to change, and configuration baselines.

    Four Screenshots from the Configuration Management Standard Operating Procedures Template

    Phase 1

    Configuration Management Strategy

    Strategy Data Structure Processes Roadmap
    • Challenges and Goals
    • Use Cases and Data
    • Roles and Responsibilities
    • Services
    • Classifications
    • Data Modeling
    • Lifecycle Processes
    • Baselines
    • Audit and Data Validation
    • Metrics
    • Communications Plan
    • Roadmap

    This phase will walk you through the following aspects of a configuration management system:

    • Scope
    • Use Cases
    • Reports and Analytics

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • IT and business service owners
    • Business/customer relationship managers
    • Enterprise architects
    • Practice owners and managers
    • SCM practice manager
    • SCM project manager
    • SCM project sponsor

    Harness Service Configuration Management Superpowers

    Establish clear definitions

    Ensure everyone is using the same terms.

    Term Definition
    Configuration Management

    The purpose of configuration management is to:

    • "Ensure that accurate and reliable information about the configuration of services, and the CIs that support them, is available when and where it is needed. This includes information on how CIs are configured and the relationships between them" (AXELOS).
    • "Provide sufficient information about service assets to enable the service to be effectively managed. Assess the impact of changes and deal with service incidents" (ISACA, 2018).
    Configuration Management System (CMS) A set of tools and databases used to manage, update, and present data about all configuration items and their relationships. A CMS may maintain multiple federated CMDBs and can include one or many discovery and dependency mapping tools.
    Configuration Management Database (CMDB) A repository of configuration records. It can be as simple as a spreadsheet or as complex as an integrated database populated through multiple autodiscovery tools.
    Configuration Record Detailed information about a configuration item.
    Configuration Item (CI)

    "Any component that needs to be managed in order to deliver an IT service" (AXELOS).

    These components can include everything from IT services and software to user devices, IT infrastructure components, and documents (e.g. maintenance agreements).
    Attributes Characteristics of a CI included in the configuration record. Common attributes include name, version, license expiry date, location, supplier, SLA, and owner.
    Relationships Information about the way CIs are linked. A CI can be part of another CI, connect to another CI, or use another CI. A CMDB is significantly more valuable when relationships are recorded. This information allows CMDB users to identify dependencies between components when investigating incidents, performing root-cause analysis, assessing the impact of changes before deployment, and much more.

    What is a configuration management database (CMDB)?

    The CMDB is a system of record of your services and includes a record for everything you need to track to effectively manage your IT services.

    Anything that is tracked in your CMDB is called a configuration item (CI). Examples of CIs include:

    • User-Facing Services
    • IT-Facing Services
    • Business Capabilities
    • Relationships
    • IT Infrastructure Components
    • Enterprise Software
    • End-User Devices
    • Documents

    Other systems of record can refer to CIs, such as:

    • Ticket database: Tickets can refer to which CI is impacted by an incident or provided as part of a service request.
    • Asset management database (AMDB): An IT asset is often also a CI. By associating asset records with CI records, you can leverage your IT asset data in your reporting.
    • Financial systems: If done well, the CMDB can supercharge your IT financial cost model.

    CMDBs can allow you to:

    • Query multiple databases simultaneously (so long as you have the CI name field in each database).
    • Build automated workflows and chatbots that interact with data across multiple databases.
    • More effectively identify the potential impact of changes and releases.

    Do not confuse asset with configuration

    Asset and configuration management look at the same world through different lenses

    • IT asset management (ITAM) tends to focus on each IT asset in its own right: assignment or ownership, lifecycle, and related financial obligations and entitlements.
    • Configuration management is focused on configuration items (CIs) that must be managed to deliver a service and the relationships and integrations with other CIs.
    • ITAM and configuration management teams and practices should work closely together. Though asset and configuration management focus on different outcomes, they may use overlapping tools and data sets. Each practice, when working effectively, can strengthen the other.
    • Many objects will exist in both the CMDB and AMDB, and the data on those shared objects will need to be kept in sync.

    A comparison between Asset and Configuration Management Databases

    *Discovery, dependency mapping, and data normalization are often features or modules of configuration management, asset management, or IT service management tools.

    Start with ITIL 4 guiding principles to make your configuration management project valuable and realistic

    Focus on where CMDB data will provide value and ensure the cost of bringing that data in will be reasonable for its purpose. Your end goal should be not just to build a CMDB but to use a CMDB to manage workload and workflows and manage services appropriately.

    Focus on value

    Include only the relevant information required by stakeholders.

    Start where you are

    Use available sources of information. Avoid adding new sources and tools unless they are justified.

    Progress iteratively with feedback

    Regularly review information use and confirm its relevance, adjusting the CMDB scope if needed.

    Collaborate and promote visibility

    Explain and promote available sources of configuration information and the best ways to use them, then provide hints and tips for more efficient use.

    Think and work holistically

    Consider other sources of data for decision making. Do not try to put everything in the CMDB.

    Keep it simple and practical

    Provide relevant information in the most convenient way; avoid complex interfaces and reports.

    Optimize and automate

    Continually optimize resource-consuming practice activities. Automate CDMB verification, data collection, relationship discovery, and other activities.

    ITIL 4 guiding principles as described by AXELOS

    Step 1.1

    Identify use cases and desired benefits for service configuration management

    Activities

    1.1.1 Brainstorm data collection challenges

    1.1.2 Define goals and how you plan to meet them

    1.1.3 Brainstorm and prioritize use cases

    1.1.4 Identify the data needed to reach your goals

    1.1.5 Record required data sources

    This step will walk you through the following aspects of a configuration management system:

    • Scope
    • Use cases

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • IT and business service owners
    • Business/customer relationship managers
    • Enterprise architects
    • Practice owners and managers
    • SCM practice manager
    • Project sponsor
    • Project manager

    Identify potential obstacles in your organization to building and maintaining a CMDB

    Often, we see multiple unsuccessful attempts to build out a CMDB, with teams eventually losing faith and going back to spreadsheets. These are common obstacles:

    • Significant manual data collection, which is rarely current and fully accurate.
    • Multiple discovery solutions creating duplicate records, with no clear path to deduplicate records.
    • Manual dependency mapping that isn't accurate because it's not regularly assessed and updated.
    • Hybrid cloud and on-premises environment with discovery solutions only partially collecting as the right discovery and dependency mapping solutions aren't in place.
    • Dynamic environments (virtual, cloud, or containers) that may exist for a very short time, but no one knows how they should be managed.
    • Lack of expertise to maintain and update the CMDB or lack of an assigned owner for the CMDB. If no one owns the process and is assigned as a steward of data, it will not be maintained.
    • Database that was designed with other purposes in mind and is heavily customized, making it difficult to use and maintain.

    Understanding the challenges to accessing and maintaining quality data will help define the risks created through lack of quality data.

    This knowledge can drive buy-in to create a configuration management practice that benefits the organization.

    1.1.1 Brainstorm data collection challenges

    Involve stakeholders.
    Allot 45 minutes for this discussion.

    1. As a group, brainstorm the challenges you have with data:
    2. Accuracy and trustworthiness: What challenges do you have with getting accurate data on IT services and systems?
      1. Access: Where do you have challenges with getting data to people when they need it?
      2. Manually created data: Where are you relying on data that could be automatically collected?
      3. Data integration: Where do you have issues with integrating data from multiple sources?
      4. Impact: What is the result of these challenges?
    3. Group together these challenges into similar issues and identify what goals would help overcome them.
    4. Record these challenges in the Configuration Management Project Charter, section 1.2: Project Purpose.

    Download the Configuration Management Project Charter

    Input

    Output

    • None
    • List of high-level desired benefits for SCM
    Materials Participants
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Sticky notes
    • Markers/pens
    • Configuration Management Project Charter
    • IT and business service owners
    • Business/customer relationship managers
    • Practice owners and managers
    • SCM practice manager
    • SCM project sponsor

    Info-Tech Maturity Ladder

    Identify your current and target state

    INNOVATOR

    • Characteristics of business partner
    • Integration with orchestration tools

    BUSINESS PARTNER

    Data collection and validation is fully automated

    Integrated with several IT processes

    Meets the needs of IT and business use cases

    TRUSTED OPERATOR

    • Data collection and validation is partially or fully automated
    • Trust in data accuracy is high, meets the needs of several IT use cases

    FIREFIGHTER

    • Data collection is partially or fully automated, validation is ad hoc
    • Trust in data accuracy is variable, used for decision making

    UNSTABLE

    INNOVATOR

    • Characteristics of business partner
    • Integration with orchestration tools

    BUSINESS PARTNER

    • Data collection and validation is fully automated
    • Integrated with several IT processes
    • Meets the needs of IT and business use cases

    TRUSTED OPERATOR

    • Data collection and validation is partially or fully automated
    • Trust in data accuracy is high, meets the needs of several IT use cases

    FIREFIGHTER

    • Data collection is partially or fully automated, validation is ad hoc
    • Trust in data accuracy is variable, used for decision making

    UNSTABLE

    A tower is depicted, with arrows pointing to Current (orange) and Target(blue)

    Define goals for your CMDB to ensure alignment with all stakeholders

    • How are business or IT goals being hindered by not having the right data available?
    • If the business isn't currently asking for service-based reporting and accountability, start with IT goals. This will help to develop goals that will be most closely aligned to the IT teams' needs and may help incentivize the right behavior in data maintenance.
    • Configuration management succeeds by enabling its stakeholders to achieve their outcomes. Set goals for configuration management based on the most important outcomes expected from this project. Ask your stakeholders:
      1. What are the business' or IT's planned transformational initiatives?
      2. What are your highest priority goals?
      3. What should the priorities of the configuration management practice be?
    • The answers to these questions will shape your approach to configuration management. Direct input from your leadership and executives, or their delegates, will help ensure you're setting a solid foundation for your practice.
    • Identify which obstacles will need to be overcome to meet these goals.

    "[T]he CMDB System should be viewed as a 'system of relevance,' rather than a 'single source of truth.' The burdens of relevance are at once less onerous and far more meaningful in terms of action, analysis, and automation. While 'truth' implies something everlasting or at least stable, relevance suggests a far more dynamic universe."

    – CMDB Systems, Making Change Work in the Age of Cloud and Agile, Drogseth et al

    Identify stakeholders to discuss what they need from a CMDB; business and IT needs will likely differ

    Define your audience to determine who the CMDB will serve and invite them to these conversations. The CMDB can aid the business and IT and can be structured to provide dashboards and reports for both.

    Nondiscoverable configuration items will need to be created for both audiences to organize CIs in a way that makes sense for all uses.

    Integrations with other systems may be required to meet the needs of your audience. Note integrations for future planning.

    Business Services

    Within the data sets, service configuration models can be used for:

    • Impact analysis
    • Cause and effect analysis
    • Risk analysis
    • Cost allocation
    • Availability analysis and planning

    Technical Services

    Connect to IT Finance for:

    • Service-based consumption and costing
    • Financial awareness through showback
    • Financial recovery through chargeback
    • Support IT strategy through financial transparency
    • Cost optimization
    • Reporting for depreciation, location-related taxation, and capitalization (may also use asset management for these)

    Intersect with IT Processes to:

    • Reduce time to restore services through incident management
    • Improve stability through change management
    • Reduce outages through problem management
    • Optimize assets through IT asset management
    • Provide detailed reporting for audit/governance, risk, and compliance

    1.1.2 Define goals and how you plan to meet them

    Involve stakeholders.

    Allot 45 minutes for this discussion.

    As a group, identify current goals for building and using a CMDB.

    Why are we doing this?

    • How do you hope to use the data within the CMDB?
    • What processes will be improved through use of this data and what are the expected outcomes?

    How will we improve the process?

    • What processes will be put in place to ensure data integrity?
    • What tools will be put in place to improve the methods used to collect and maintain data?

    Record these goals in the Configuration Management Project Charter, section 1.3: Project Objectives.

    Input

    Output

    • None
    • List of high-level desired benefits for SCM
    Materials Participants
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Sticky notes
    • Markers/pens
    • Configuration Management Project Charter
    • IT and business service owners
    • Business/customer relationship managers
    • Practice owners and managers
    • SCM practice manager
    • SCM project sponsor

    It's easy to think that if you build it, they will come, but CMDBs rarely succeed without solid use cases

    Set expectations for your organization that defined and fulfilled use cases will factor into prioritization exercises, functional plans, and project milestones to achieve ROI for your efforts.

    A good use case:

    • Justifies resource allocation
    • Gains funding for the right tools
    • Builds stakeholder support
    • Drives interest and excitement
    • Gains support from anyone in a position to help build out and validate the data
    • Helps to define success

    In the book CMDB Systems, Making Change Work in the Age of Cloud and Agile, authors Drogseth, Sturm, and Twing describe the secrets of success:

    A documented evaluation of CMDB System vendors showed that while most "best case" ROI fell between 6 and 9 months for CMDB deployments, one instance delivered ROI for a significant CMDB investment in as little as 2 weeks!

    If there's a simple formula for quick time to value for a CMDB System, it's the following:

    Mature levels of process awareness
    + Strong executive level support
    + A ready and willing team with strongly supportive stakeholders
    + Clearly defined and ready phase one use case
    + Carefully selected, appropriate technologies

    All this = Powerful early-phase CMDB System results

    Define and prioritize use cases for how the CMDB will be used to drive value

    The CMDB can support several use cases and may require integration with various modules within the ITSM solution and integration with other systems.

    Document the use cases that will drive your CMDB to relevance, including the expected benefits for each use case.

    Identify the dependencies that will need to be implemented to be successful.

    Define "done" so that once data is entered, verified, and mapped, these use cases can be realized.

    "Our consulting experience suggests that more than 75% of all strategic initiatives (CMDB or not) fail to meet at least initial expectations across IT organizations. This is often due more to inflated expectations than categorical failure."

    – CMDB Systems, Making Change Work in the Age of Cloud and Agile, Drogseth et al.

    This image demonstrates how CMBD will be used to drive value.

    After identifying use cases, determine the scope of configuration items required to feed the use cases

    On-premises software and equipment will be critical to many use cases as the IT team and partners work on network and data-center equipment, enterprise software, and integrations through various means, including APIs and middleware. Real-time and near real-time data collection and validation will ensure IT can act with confidence.

    Cloud use can include software as a service (SaaS) solutions as well as infrastructure and platform as a service (IaaS and PaaS), and this may be more challenging for data collection. Tools must be capable of connecting to cloud environments and feeding the information back into the CMDB. Where on-premises and cloud applications show dependencies, you might need to validate data if multiple discovery and dependency mapping solutions are used to get a complete picture. Tagging will be crucial to making sense of the data as it comes into the CMDB.

    In-house developed software would be beneficial to have in the CMDB but may require more manual work to identify and classify once discovered. A combination of discovery and tagging may be beneficial to input and classification.

    Highly dynamic environments may require data collection through integration with a variety of solutions to manage and record continuous deployment models and verifications, or they may rely on tags and activity logs to record historical activity. Work with a partner who specializes in CI/CD to help architect this use case.

    Containers will require an assessment of the level of detail required. Determine if the container is a CI and if the content will be described as attributes. If there is value to your use case to map the contents of each container as separate CIs within the container CI, then you can map to that level of detail, but don't map to that depth unless the use case calls for it.

    Internet of Things (IoT) devices and applications will need to match a use case as well. IoT device asset data will be useful to track within an asset database but may have limited value to add to a CMDB. If there are connections between IoT applications and data warehouses, the dependencies should likely be mapped to ensure continued dataflow.

    Out of scope

    A single source of data is highly beneficial, but don't make it a catchall for items that are not easily stored in a CMDB.

    Source code should be stored in a definitive media library (DML). Code can be linked to the CMDB but is generally too big to store in a CMDB and will reduce performance for data retrieval.

    Knowledge articles and maintenance checklists are better suited to a knowledge base. They can also be linked to the CDMB if needed but this can get messy where many-to-many relationships between articles and CIs exist.

    Fleet (transportation) assets and fixed assets should be in fleet management systems and accounting systems, respectively. Storing these types of data in the CMDB doesn't provide value to the support process.

    1.1.3 Brainstorm and prioritize use cases

    Which IT practices will you supercharge?

    Focus on improving both operations and strategy.

    1. Brainstorm the list of relevant use cases. What do you want to do with the data from the CMDB? Consider:
      1. ITSM management and governance practices
      2. IT operations, vendor orchestration, and service integration and management (SIAM) to improve vendor interactions
      3. IT finance and business service reporting needs
    2. Identify which use cases are part of your two- to three-year plan, including the purpose for adding configuration data into that process. Prioritize one or two of these use cases to accomplish in your first year.
    3. Identify dependencies to manage as part of the solution and define a realistic timeline for implementing integrations, modules, or data sources.
    4. Document this table in the Configuration Management Project Charter, section 2.2: Use Cases.
    Audience Use Case Goal/Purpose Project/Solution Dependencies Proposed Timeline Priority
    • IT
    • Change Management

    Stabilize the process by seeing:

    Change conflict reporting

    Reports of CI changes without change records

    System availability

    RFC mapping requires discovered CIs

    RFC review requires criticality, technical and business owners

    Conflict reporting requires dependency mapping

    • Discovery and manual information entered by October
    • Dependency mapping implemented by December

    High

    Determine what additional data will be needed to achieve your use cases

    Regardless of which use cases you are planning to fulfill with the CMDB, it is critical to not add data and complexity with the plan of resolving every possible inquiry. Ensure the cost and effort of bringing in the data and maintaining it is justified. The complexity of the environment will impact the complexity of data sources and integrations for discovery and dependency mapping.

    Before bringing in new data, consider:

    • Is this information available in other maintained databases now?
    • Will this data be critical for decision making? If it is nice to have or optional, can it be automatically moved into the database and maintained using existing integrations?
    • Is there a cost to bringing the data into the CMDB and maintaining it? Is that cost reasonable for its purpose?
    • How frequently will this information be accessed, and can it be updated in an adequate cadence to meet these needs?
    • When does this information need to be available?

    Info-Tech Insight

    If data will be used only occasionally upon request, determine if it will be more efficient to maintain it or to retrieve it from the CMDB or another data source as needed.

    Remember, within the data sets, service configuration models can be used for:

    • Impact analysis
    • Cause and effect analysis
    • Risk analysis
    • Cost allocation
    • Availability analysis and planning

    1.1.4 Expand your use cases by identifying the data needed to reach your goals

    Involve stakeholders.

    Allot 60 minutes for this discussion.

    Review use cases and their goals.

    Identify what data will be required to meet those goals and determine whether it will be mandatory or optional/nice-to-have information.

    Identify sources of data for each type of data. Color code or sort.

    Italicize data points that can be automatically discovered.

    Gain consensus on what information will be manually entered.

    Record the data in the Use Cases and Data Worksheet.

    Download the Use Cases and Data Worksheet

    Input

    Output

    • None
    • List of data requirements
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Sticky notes
    • Markers/pens
    • Use Cases and Data Worksheet
    • IT and business service owners
    • Business/customer relationship managers
    • Practice owners and managers
    • SCM practice manager
    • SCM project sponsor

    Use discovery and dependency mapping tools to automatically update the CMDB

    Avoid manual data entry whenever possible.

    Consider these features when looking at tools:

    • Application dependency mapping: Establishing and tracking the relationships and dependencies between system components, applications, and IT services. The ideal tool will be able to generate maps automatically.
    • Agentless and agent discovery: Scanning systems with both agent and agentless approaches. Agent-based scanning provides comprehensive information on applications used in individual endpoints, which is helpful in minimizing its IT footprint. However, agents require endpoint access. Agentless-based scanning provides a broader and holistic view of deployed applications without the need to install an agent on end devices, which can be good enough for inventory awareness.
    • Data export capability: Easy exporting of application inventory information to be used in reports and other tools.
    • Dashboards and chart visualization: Detailed list of the application inventory, including version number, number of users, licenses, deployment location, and other application details. These details will inform decision makers of each application's health and its candidacy for further rationalization activities.
    • Customizable scanning scripts: Tailor your application discovery approach by modifying the scripts used to scan your systems.
    • Integration with third-party tools: Easy integration with other systems with out-of-the-box plugins or customizable APIs.

    Determine which data collection methods will be used to populate the CMDB

    The effort-to-value ratio is an important factor in populating a CMDB. Manual efforts require a higher process focus, more intensive data validation, and a constant need to remind team members to act on every change.

    Real-Time Data AIOps continual scans Used for event and incident management
    Near Real-Time Data Discovery and dependency mapping run on a regular cycle Used for change and asset management
    Historical Data Activity log imports, manual data entry Used for IT finance, audit trail
    • Determine what amount of effort is appropriate for each data grouping and use case. As decisions are made to expand data within the CMDB, the effort-to-value ratio should always factor in. To be usable, data must be accurate, and every piece of data that needs to be manually entered runs the risk of becoming obsolete.
    • Identify which data sources will bring in each type of data. Where there is a possibility of duplicate records being created, one of the data sources will need to be identified as the primary.
    • If the decision is to manually enter configuration items early in the process, be aware that automation may create duplicates of the CIs that will need to be deduplicated at some point in the process to make the information more usable.
    • Typically, items are discovered, validated, then mapped, but there will be variations depending on the source.
    • Active Directory or LDAP may be used to bring users and technicians into the CMDB. Data may be imported from spreadsheets. Identify efforts where data cleanup may have to happen before transferring into the CMDB.
    • Identify how often manual imports will need to be conducted to make sure data is usable.

    Identify other nondiscoverable data that will need to be added to or accessed by the CMDB

    Foundational data, such as technicians, end users and approvers, roles, location, company, agency, department, building, or cost center, may be added to tables that are within or accessed by the CMDB. Work with your vendor to understand structure and where this information resides.

    • These records can be imported from CSV files manually, but this will require manual removal or edits as information changes.
    • Integration with the HRIS, Active Directory, or LDAP will enable automatic updates through synchronization or scheduled imports.
    • If synchronization is fully enabled, new data can be added and removed from the CMDB automatically.
    • Identify which nondiscoverable attributes will be needed, such as system criticality, support groups, groups it is managed by, location.
    • If partially automating the process, identify where manual updates will need to occur.
    • If fully automating the process, notifications will need to be set up when business owner or product or technical owner fields become empty to prompt defining a replacement within the CMDB.
    • Determine who will manage these updates.
    • Work with your CMDB implementation vendor to determine the best option for bringing this information in.

    1.1.5 Record required data sources

    Allot 15 minutes for this discussion.

    1. Where do you track the work involved in providing services? Typically, your ticket database tracks service requests and incidents. Additional data sources can include:
      • Enterprise resource planning tools for tracking purchase orders
      • Project management information system for tracking tasks
    2. What trusted data sources exist for the technology that supports these services? Examples include:
      • Management tools (e.g. Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager)
      • Architectural diagrams and network topology diagrams
      • IT asset management database
      • Spreadsheets
      • Other systems of record
    3. What other data sources can help you gather the data you identified in activity 1.1.4?
    4. Record the relevant data sources for each use case in the Configuration Management Standard Operating Procedures, section 6: Data Collection and Updates.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Improve the trustworthiness of your CMDB as a system of record by relying on data that is already trusted.

    Input

    Output

    • Use cases
    • List of data requirements
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Use Cases and Data Worksheet
    • Configuration Management Standard Operating Procedures
    • IT and business service owners
    • Practice owners and managers
    • SCM practice manager
    • SCM project sponsor

    Step 1.2

    Define roles and responsibilities

    Activities

    1.2.1 Record the project team and stakeholders

    1.2.2 Complete a RACI chart to define who will be accountable and responsible for configuration tasks

    This step will walk you through the following aspects of a configuration management system:

    • Roles and responsibilities

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • IT service owners
    • Enterprise architects
    • Practice owners and managers
    • SCM practice manager
    • Project manager

    Identify the roles you need in your SCM project

    Determine which roles will need to be involved in the initial project and how to source these roles.

    Leadership Roles
    Oversee the SCM implementation

    1. Configuration Manager – The practice owner for SCM. This is a long-term role.
    2. Configuration Control Board (CCB) Chair – An optional role that oversees proposed alterations to configuration plans. If a CCB is implemented, this is a long-term role.
    3. Project Sponsor or Program Sponsor – Provides the necessary resources for building the CMDB and SCM practices.
    4. Architecture Roles
      Plan the program to build strong foundation
      1. Configuration Management Architect – Technical leader who defines the overall CM solution, plans the scope, selects a tool, and leads the technical team that will implement the solution.
      2. Requirements Analyst – Gathers and manages the requirements for CM.
      3. Process Engineer – Defines, documents, and implements the entire process.

    Architecture Roles
    Plan the program to build strong foundation

    1. Configuration Management Architect – Technical leader who defines the overall CM solution, plans the scope, selects a tool, and leads the technical team that will implement the solution.
    2. Requirements Analyst – Gathers and manages the requirements for CM.
    3. Process Engineer – Defines, documents, and implements the entire process.

    Engineer Roles
    Implement the system

    1. Logical Database Analyst (DBA) Designs the structure to hold the configuration management data and oversees implementation.
    2. Communications and Trainer – Communicates the goals and functions of CM and teaches impacted users the how and why of the process and tools.

    Administrative Roles
    Permanent roles involving long-term ownership

    1. Technical Owner – The system administrator responsible for their system's uptime. These roles usually own the data quality for their system.
    2. Configuration Management Integrator – Oversees regular transfer of data into the CMDB.
    3. Configuration Management Tool Support – Selects, installs, and maintains the CM tool.
    4. Impact Manager – Analyzes configuration data to ensure relationships between CIs are accurate; conducts impact analysis.

    1.2.1 Record the project team and stakeholders

    Allocate 25 minutes to this discussion.

    1. Record the project team.
      1. Identify the project manager who will lead this project.
      2. Identify key personnel that will need to be involved in design of the configuration management system and processes.
      3. Identify where vendors/outsourcers may be required to assist with technical aspects.
      4. Document the project team in the Configuration Management Project Charter, section 1.1: Project Team.
    1. Record a list of stakeholders.
      1. Identify stakeholders internal and external to IT.
      2. Build the stakeholder profile. For each stakeholder, identify their role, interest in the project, and influence on project success. You can score these criteria high/medium/low or score them out of ten.
      3. If managed service providers will need to be part of the equation, determine who will be the liaison and how they will provide or access data.
    Input

    Output

    • Project team members
    • Project plan resources
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Configuration Management Project Charter
    • List of project stakeholders and participants
    • IT service owners
    • Practice owners and managers
    • SCM practice manager
    • SCM project sponsor

    Even with full automation, this cannot be a "set it and forget it" project if it is to be successful long-term

    Create a team to manage the process and data updates and to ensure data is always usable.

    • Services may be added and removed.
    • Technology will change as technical debt is reduced.
    • Vendors may change as contract needs develop.
    • Additional use cases may be introduced by IT and the business as approaches to management evolve.
    • AIOps can reduce the level of effort and improve visibility as configuration items change from the baseline and notifications are automated.
    • Changes can be checked against requests for changes through automated reconciliations, but changes will still need to be investigated where they do not meet expectations.
    • Manual data changes will need to be made regularly and verified.

    "We found that everyone wanted information from the CMDB, but no one wanted to pay to maintain it. People pointed to the configuration management team and said, 'It's their responsibility.'

    Configuration managers, however, cannot own the data because they have no way of knowing if the data is accurate. They can own the processes related to checking accuracy, but not the data itself."
    – Tim Mason, founding director at TRM Associates
    (Excerpt from Viewpoint: Focus on CMDB Leadership)

    Include these roles in your CMDB practice to ensure continued success and continual improvement

    These roles can make up the configuration control board (CCB) to make decisions on major changes to services, data models, processes, or policies. A CCB will be necessary in complex environments.

    Configuration Manager

    This role is focused on ensuring everyone works together to build the CMDB and keep it up to date. The configuration manager is responsible to:

    • Plan and manage the standards, processes, and procedures and communicate all updates to appropriate staff. Focused on continual improvement.
    • Plan and manage population of the CMDB and ensure data included meets criteria for cost effectiveness and reasonable effort for the value it brings.
    • Validate scope of services and CIs to be included and controlled within the CMDB and manage exceptions.
    • Audit data quality to ensure it is valid, is current, and meets defined standards.
    • Evaluate and recommend tools to support processes, data collection, and integrations.
    • Ensure configuration management processes interface with all other service and business management functions to meet use cases.
    • Report on configuration management performance and take appropriate action on process adherence and quality issues.

    Configuration Librarian

    This role is most important where manual data entry is prevalent and where many nonstandard configurations are in place. The librarian role is often held by the tool administrator. The librarian focuses specifically on data within the CMDB, including:

    • Manual updates to configuration data.
    • CMDB data verification on a regular schedule.
    • Processing ad hoc requests for data.

    Product/Service/Technical Owners

    The product or technical owner will validate information is correctly updating and reflects the existing data requirements as new systems are provisioned or as existing systems change.

    Interfacing Practice Owners

    All practice owners, such as change manager, incident manager, or problem manager, must work with the configuration team to ensure data is usable for each of the use cases they are responsible for.

    Download the Configuration Manager job description

    Assign configuration management responsibilities and accountabilities

    Align authority and accountability.

    • A RACI exercise will help you discuss and document accountability and responsibility for critical configuration management activities.
    • When responsibility and accountability are not well documented, it's often useful to invite a representative of the roles identified to participate in this alignment exercise. The discussion can uncover contrasting views on responsibility and governance, which can help you build a stronger management and governance model.
    • The RACI chart can help you identify who should be involved when making changes to a given activity. Clarify the variety of responsibilities assigned to each key role.
    • In the future, you may need to define roles in more detail as you change your configuration management procedures.

    Responsible: The person who actually gets the job done.
    Different roles may be responsible for different aspects of the activity relevant to their role.

    Accountable: The one role accountable for the activity (in terms of completion, quality, cost, etc.)
    Must have sufficient authority to be held accountable; responsible roles are often accountable to this role.

    Consulted: Those who need the opportunity to provide meaningful input at certain points in the activity; typically, subject matter experts or stakeholders. The more people you must consult, the more overhead and time you'll add to a process.

    Informed: Those who receive information regarding the task but do not need to provide feedback.
    Information might relate to process execution, changes, or quality.

    Complete a RACI chart to define who will be accountable and responsible for configuration tasks

    Determine what roles will be in place in your organization and who will fulfill them, and create your RACI chart to reflect what makes sense for your organization. Additional roles may be involved where there is complexity.

    R = responsible, A = accountable, C = consulted, I = informed CCB Configuration Manager Configuration Librarian Technical Owner(s) Interfacing Practice Owners Tool Administrator
    Plan and manage the standards, processes, and procedures and communicate all updates to appropriate staff. Focused on continual improvement. A R
    Plan and manage population of the CMDB and ensure data included meets criteria for cost effectiveness and reasonable effort for the value it brings. A R
    Validate scope of services and CIs to be included and controlled within the CMDB and manage exceptions. A R
    Audit data quality to ensure it is valid, is current, and meets defined standards. A,R
    Evaluate and recommend tools to support processes, data collection, and integrations. A,R
    Ensure configuration management processes interface with all other service and business management functions to meet use cases. A
    Report on configuration management performance and take appropriate action on process adherence and quality issues. A
    Make manual updates to configuration data. A
    Conduct CMDB data verification on a regular schedule. A
    Process ad hoc requests for data. A
    Enter new systems into the CMDB. A R
    Update CMDB as systems change. A R
    Identify new use cases for CMDB data. R A
    Validate data meets the needs for use cases and quality. R A
    Design reports to meet use cases. R
    Ensure integrations are configured as designed and are functional. R

    1.2.2 Complete a RACI chart to define who will be accountable and responsible for configuration tasks

    Allot 60 minutes for this discussion.

    1. Open the Configuration Management Standard Operating Procedures, section 4.1: Responsibility Matrix. In the RACI chart, review the top row of roles. Smaller organizations may not need a configuration control board, in which case the configuration manager may have more authority.
    2. Modify or expand the process tasks in the left column as needed.
    3. For each role, identify what that person is responsible for, accountable for, consulted on, or informed of. Fill out each column.
    4. Document in the SOP. Schedule a time to share the results with organization leads.
    5. Distribute the chart among all teams in your organization.
    6. Describe additional roles as needed in the documentation.
    7. Add accountabilities and responsibilities for the CCB into the Configuration Control Board Charter.
    8. If appropriate, add auxiliary roles to the Configuration Management Standard Operating Procedures, section 4.2: Configuration Management Auxiliary Role Definitions.

    Notes:

    1. Assign one Accountable for each task.
    2. Have one or more Responsible for each task.
    3. Avoid generic responsibilities such as "team meetings."
    4. Keep your RACI definitions in your documents for quick reference.

    Refer back to the RACI chart when building out the communications plan to ensure accountable and responsible team members are on board and consulted and informed people are aware of all changes.

    Input

    Output

    • Task assignments
    • RACI chart with roles and responsibilities
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Configuration Management Standard Operating Procedures, RACI chart
    • Configuration Control Board Charter, Responsibilities section
    • IT service owners
    • Practice owners and managers
    • SCM practice manager
    • SCM project sponsor

    Phase 2

    Configuration Management Data Model

    StrategyData StructureProcessesRoadmap
    • Challenges and Goals
    • Use Cases and Data
    • Roles and Responsibilities
    • Services
    • Classifications
    • Data Modeling
    • Lifecycle Processes
    • Baselines
    • Audit and Data Validation
    • Metrics
    • Communications Plan
    • Roadmap

    This phase will walk you through the following aspects of a configuration management system:

    • Data Model
    • Customer-Facing and Supporting Services
    • Business Capabilities
    • Relationships
    • IT Infrastructure Components
    • Enterprise Software
    • End-User Devices
    • Documents

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • IT service owners
    • Enterprise architects
    • Practice owners and managers
    • CM practice manager
    • CM project manager

    Step 2.1

    Build a framework for CIs and relationships

    Activities

    Document services:

    2.1.1 Define and prioritize your services

    2.1.2 Test configuration items against existing categories

    2.1.3 Create a configuration control board charter to define the board's responsibilities and protocols

    This step will walk you through the following aspects of a configuration management system:

    • Data model
    • Configuration items
    • Relationships

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • IT service owners
    • Enterprise architects
    • Practice owners and managers
    • CM practice manager
    • Project manager

    Making sense of data daily will be key to maintaining it, starting with services

    As CIs are discovered and mapped, they will automatically map to each other based on integrations, APIs, queries, and transactions. However, CIs also need to be mapped to a conceptional model or service to present the service and its many layers in an easily consumable way.

    These services will need to be manually created or imported into the CMDB and manually connected to the application services. Services can be mapped to technical or business services or both.

    If business services reporting has been requested, talk to the business to develop a list of services that will be required. Use terms the business will be expecting and identify which applications and instances will be mapped to those services.

    If IT is using the CMDB to support service usage and reporting, develop the list of IT services and identify which applications and instances will be mapped to those services.

    This image show the relationship between Discoverable and Nondiscoverable CIs. The discoverable CIs are coloured in purple, and the nondiscoverables are blue.

    Work with your stakeholders to ensure catalog items make sense to them

    There isn't a definitive right or wrong way to define catalog items. For example, the business and IT could both reference application servers, but only IT may need to see technical services broken down by specific locations or device types.

    Refer back to your goals and use cases to think through how best to meet those objectives and determine how to categorize your services.

    Define the services that will be the top-level, nondiscoverable services, which will group together the CIs that make up the complete service. Identify which application(s) will connect into the technical service.

    When you are ready to start discovery, this list of services will be connected to the discovered data to organize it in a way that makes sense for how your stakeholders need to see the data.

    While working toward meeting the goals of the first few use cases, you will want to keep the structure simple. Once processes are in place and data is regularly validated, complexities of different service types and names can be integrated into the data.

    This image show the relationship between Discoverable and Nondiscoverable CIs. Both Discoverable and nondiscoverable CIs are blue.

    Application Service(blue); Technical Service(Purple); IT Shared Services(Orange); Billable Services(green); Service Portfolio(red)

    Define the service types to manage within the CMDB to logically group CIs

    Determine which method of service groupings will best serve your audience for your prioritized use cases. This will help to name your service categories. Service types can be added as the CMDB evolves and as the audience changes.

    Application Service

    Technical Service

    IT Shared Services

    Billable Services

    Service Portfolio

    A set of interconnected applications and hosts configured to offer a service to the organization.

    Example: Financial application service, which may include email, web server, application server, databases, and middleware.

    A logical grouping of CIs based on common criteria.

    Example: Toronto web services, which may include several servers, web applications, and databases.

    A logical grouping of IT and business services shared and used across the organization.

    Example: VoIP/phone services or networking or security services.

    A group of services that will be billed out to departments or customers and would require logical groupings to enable invoicing.

    A group of business and technical service offerings with specific performance reporting levels. This may include multiple service levels for different customer audiences for the same service.

    2.1.1 Define and prioritize your services

    Prioritize your starting point. If multiple audiences need to be accommodated, work with one group at a time.

    Timing: will vary depending on number of services, and starting point

    1. Create your list of services, referencing an existing service catalog, business continuity or disaster recovery plan, list of applications, or brainstorming sessions. Use the terminology that makes the most sense for the audience and their reporting requirements.
    2. If this list is already in place, assess for relevance and reduce the list to only those services that will be managed through the CMDB.
    3. Determine what data will be relevant for each service based on the exercises done in 1.1.4 and 1.1.5. For example, if priority was a required attribute for use case data, ensure each service lists the priority of that service.
    4. For each of these, identify the supporting services. These items can come from your technical service catalog or list of systems and software.
    5. Document this table in the Use Cases and Data Worksheet, tab 3: Service Catalog.

    Service Record Example

    Service: Email
    Supporting Services: M365, Authentication Services

    Service Attributes

    Availability: 24/7 (99.999%)
    Priority: Critical
    Users: All
    Used for: Collaboration
    Billable: Departmental
    Support: Unified Support Model, Account # 123456789

    The CMDB will be organized by services and will enable data analysis through multiple categorization schemes

    To extract maximum service management benefit from a CMDB, the highest level of CI type should be a service, as demonstrated below. While it is easier to start at the system or single-asset level, taking the service mapping approach will provide you with a useful and dynamic view of your IT environment as it relates to the services you offer, instead of a static inventory of components.

    Level 1: Services

    • Business Service Offering: A business service is an IT service that supports a business process, or a service that is delivered to business customers. Business service offerings typically are bound by service-level agreements.
    • IT Service Offering: An IT service supports the customer's business processes and is made up of people, processes, and technology. IT service offerings typically are bound by service-level agreements.

    Level 2: Infrastructure CIs

    • IT Component Set: An IT service offering consists of one of more sets of IT components. An IT component set allows you to group or bundle IT components with other components or groupings.
    • IT Component: An IT system is composed of one or more supporting components. Many components are shared between multiple IT systems.

    Level 3: Supporting CIs

    • IT Subcomponent: Any IT asset that is uniquely identifiable and a component of an IT system.
    • IT components can have subcomponents, and those components can have subcomponents, etc.

    Two charts, showing Enterprise Architect Model and Configuration Service Model. Each box represents a different CI.

    Assess your CMDB's standard category offerings against your environment, with a plan to minimize customization

    Standard categorization schemes will allow for easier integration with multiple tools and reporting and improve results if using machine learning to automate categorization. If the CMDB chosen includes structured categories, use that as your starting point and focus only on gaps that are not addressed for CIs unique to your environment.

    There is an important distinction between a class and a type. This concept is foundational for your configuration data model, so it is important that you understand it.

    • Types are general groupings, and the things within a type will have similarities. For attributes that you want to collect on a type, all children classes and CIs will have those attribute fields.
    • Classes are a more specific grouping within a type. All objects within a class will have specific similarities. You can also use subclasses to further differentiate between CIs.
    • Individual CIs are individual instances of a class or subclass. All objects in a class will have the same attribute fields and behave the same, although the values of their attributes will likely differ.
    • Attributes may be discovered or nondiscoverable and manually added to CIs. The attributes are properties of the CI such as serial number, version, memory, processor speed, or asset tag.

    Use inheritance structures to simplify your configuration data model.

    An example CM Data Model is depicted.

    Assess the list of classes of configuration items against your requirements

    Types are general groupings, and the things within a type will have similarities. Each type will have its own table within the CMDB. Classes within a type are a more specific grouping of configuration items and may include subclasses.

    Review your vendor's CMDB documentation. Find the list of CI types or classes. Most CMDBs will have a default set of classes, like this standard list. If you need to build your own, use the table below as a starting point. Define anything required for unique classes. Create a list and consult with your installation partner.

    Sample list of classes organized by type

    Types Services Network Hardware Storage Compute App Environment Documents
    Classes
    • Application Service
    • Technical Service
    • IT Shared Service
    • Billable Service
    • Service Portfolio
    • Switch
    • Router
    • Firewall
    • Modem
    • SD-WAN
    • Load Balancer
    • UPS
    • Computer
    • Laptop
    • Server
    • Tablet
    • Database
    • Network-Attached Storage
    • Storage Array Network
    • Blob
    • Operating System
    • Hypervisor
    • Virtual Server
    • Virtual Desktop
    • Appliance
    • Virtual Application
    • Enterprise Application
    • Line of Business Application Software
    • Development
    • Test
    • Production
    • Contract
    • Business Impact Analysis
    • Requirements

    Review relationships to determine which ones will be most appropriate to map your dependencies

    Your CMDB should include multiple relationship types. Determine which ones will be most effective for your environment and ensure everyone is trained on how to use them. As CIs are mapped, verify they are correct and only manually map what is incorrect or not mapping through automation.

    Manually mapping CMDB relationships may be time consuming and prone to error, but where manual mapping needs to take place, ensure the team has a common view of the dependency types available and what is important to map.

    Use automated mapping whenever possible to improve accuracy, provide functional visualizations, and enable dynamic updates as the environment changes.

    Where a dependency maps to external providers, determine where it makes sense to discover and map externally provided CIs.

    • Only connect where there is value in mapping to vendor-owned systems.
    • Only connect where data and connections can be trusted and verified.

    Most common dependency mapping types

    A list of the most common dependency mapping types.

    2.1.2 Test configuration items against existing categories

    Time to complete: 1-2 hours

    1. Select a service to test.
    2. Identify the various components that make up the service, focusing on configuration items, not attributes
    3. Categorize configuration items against types and classes in the default settings of the CMDB.
    4. Using the default relationships within the CMDB, identify the relationships between the configuration items.
    5. Identify types, classes, and relationships that do not fit within the default settings. Determine if there are common terms for these items or determine most appropriate name.
    6. Validate these exceptions with the publisher.
    7. Document exceptions in the Configuration Management Standard Operating Procedures, Appendix 2: Types and Classes of Configuration Items
    Input

    Output

    • List of default settings for classes, types, and relationships
    • Small list of services for testing
    • List of CIs to map to at least one service
    • List of categories to add to the CMDB solution.
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Use Cases and Data Worksheet
    • Configuration Management Standard Operating Procedures
    • IT service owners
    • Practice owners and managers
    • SCM practice manager
    • SCM project sponsor

    2.1.3 Create a configuration control board charter to define the board's responsibilities and protocols

    A charter will set the tone for meetings, ensure purpose is defined and meeting cadence is set for regular reviews.

    1. Open the Configuration Control Board Charter. Review the document and modify as appropriate for your CCB. This will include:
      • Purpose and mandate of the committee – Reference objectives from the project charter.
      • Team composition – Determine the right mix of team members. A team of six to ten people can provide a good balance between having a variety of opinions and getting work done.
      • Voting option – Determine the right quorum to approve changes.
      • Responsibilities – List responsibilities, starting with RACI chart items.
      • Authority – Define the control board's span of control.
      • Governing laws and regulations – List any regulatory requirements that will need to be met to satisfy your auditors.
      • Meeting preparation – Set expectations to ensure meetings are productive.
    2. Distribute the charter to CCB members.
    Input

    Output

    • Project team members
    • Project plan resources
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Configuration Control Board Charter
    • IT service owners
    • Practice owners and managers
    • SCM practice manager
    • SCM project sponsor

    Assess the default list of statuses for each state

    Align this list with your CMDB

    Minimize the number of customizations that will make it difficult to update the platform.

    1. Review the default status list within the tool.
    2. Identify which statuses will be most used. Write a definition for each status.
    3. Update this list as you update process documentation in Step 3.1. After initial implementation, this list should only be modified through change enablement.
    4. Record this list of statuses in the Configuration Management Standard Operating Procedures, Appendix 4: Statuses
    State Status Description
    Preparation Ordered Waiting delivery from the vendor
    In Planning Being created
    Received Vendor has delivered the item, but it is not ready for deployment
    Production In Stock Available to be deployed
    In Use Deployed
    On Loan Deployed to a user on a temporary basis
    For Removal Planning to be phased out but still deployed to an end user
    Offline In Transit Moving to a new location
    Under Maintenance Temporarily offline while a patch or change is applied
    Removed Decommissioned Item has been retired and is no longer in production
    Disposed Item has been destroyed and we are no longer in possession of it
    Lost Item has been lost
    Stolen Item has been stolen

    Step 2.2

    Document statuses, attributes, and data sources

    Activities

    2.2.1 Follow the packet and map out the in-scope services and data centers

    2.2.2 Build data model diagrams

    2.2.3 Determine access rights for your data

    This step will walk you through the following aspects of a configuration management system:

    • Statuses
    • Attributes for each class of CI

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • IT service owners
    • Enterprise architects
    • Practice owners and managers
    • SCM practice manager
    • Project manager

    Outcomes of this step

    • Framework for approaching CI statuses
    • Attributes for each class of CI
    • Data sources for those attributes

    Service mapping approaches

    As you start thinking about dependency mapping, it's important to understand the different methods and how they work, as well as your CMDB's capabilities. These approaches may be all in the same tool, or the tool may only have the top-down options.

    Top down, most common

    Pattern-based

    Most common option, which includes indicators of connections such as code, access rights, scripting, host discovery, and APIs.

    Start with pattern-based, then turn on traffic-based for more detail. This combination will provide the most accuracy.

    Traffic-based

    Map against traffic patterns involving connection rules to get more granular than pattern-based.

    Traffic-based can add a lot of overhead with extraneous data, so you may not want to run it continuously.

    Tag-based

    Primarily used for cloud, containers, and virtual machines and will attach the cloud licenses to their dependent services and any related CIs.

    Tags work well with cloud but will not have the same hierarchical view as on-premises dependency mapping.

    Machine learning

    Machine learning will look for patterns in the traffic-based connections, match CIs to categories and help organize the data.

    Machine learning (ML) may not be in every solution, but if you have it, use it. ML will provide many suggestions to make the life of the data manager easier.

    Model hierarchy

    Automated data mapping will be helpful, but it won't be foolproof. It's critical to understand the data model to validate and map nondiscoverable CIs correctly.

    The framework consists of the business, enterprise, application, and implementation layers.

    The business layer encodes real-world business concepts via the conceptual model.

    The enterprise layer defines all enterprise data assets' details and their relationships.

    The application layer defines the data structures as used by a specific application.

    The implementation layer defines the data models and artifacts for use by software tools.

    An example of Model Hierarchy is depicted.

    Learn how to create data models with Info-Tech's blueprint Create and Manage Enterprise Data Models

    2.2.1 Follow the packet and map out the in-scope services and data centers

    Reference your network topology and architecture diagrams.

    Allot 1 hour for this activity.

    1. Start with a single service that is well understood and documented.
    2. Identify the technical components (hardware and applications) that make up the service.
    3. Determine if there is a need to further break down services into logical service groupings. For example, the email service to the right is broken down into authentication and mail flow.
    4. If you don't have a network diagram to follow, create a simple one to identify workflows within the service and components the service uses.
    5. Record the apps and underlying components in the Configuration Management Standard Operating Procedures, Appendix 1: Configuration Data Model Structure.

    This information will be used for CM project planning and validating the contents of the CMDB.

    an example of a Customer-facing service is shown, for Email sample topology.

    Download the Configuration Management Diagram Template Library to see an example.

    Build your configuration data model

    Rely on out-of-the-box functionality where possible and keep a narrow focus in the early implementation stages.

    1. If you have an enterprise architecture, then your configuration management data model should align with it.
    2. Keep a narrow focus in the early implementation stages. Don't fill up your CMDB until you are ready to validate and fix the data.
    3. Rely on out-of-the-box (OOTB) functionality where possible. If your configuration management database (CMDB) and platform do not have a data model OOTB, then rely on a publicly available data model.
    4. Map your business or IT service offering to the first few layers.

    Once this is built out in the system, you can let the automated dependency mapping take over, but you will still need to validate the accuracy of the automated mapping and investigate anything that is incorrect.

    Sample Configuration Data Model

    Every box represents a CI, and every line represents a relationship

    A sample configuration Data model is shown.

    Example: Data model and CMDB visualization

    Once the data model is entered into the CMDB, it will provide a more dynamic and complex view, including CIs shared with other services.

    An example of a Data Model Exercise

    CMDB View

    An example of a CMDB View of the Data Model Exercise

    2.2.2 Build data model diagrams

    Visualize the expected CI classes and relationships.

    Allot 45 minutes.

    1. Identify the different data model views you need. Use multiple diagrams to keep the information simple to read and understand. Common diagrams include:
      1. Network level: Outline expected CI classes and relationships at the network level.
      2. Application level: Outline the expected components and relationships that make up an application.
      3. Services level: Outline how business capability CIs and service CIs relate to each other and to other types of CIs.
    1. Use boxes to represent CI classes.
    2. Use lines to represent relationships. Include details such as:
      1. Relationship name: Write this name on the arrow.
      2. Direction: Have an arrow point to each child.

    Review samples in Configuration Management Diagram Template Library.
    Record these diagrams in the Configuration Management Standard Operating Procedures, Appendix 1: Configuration Data Model Structure.

    Input

    Output

    • List of default settings for classes, types, and relationships
    • Small list of services for testing
    • List of CIs to map to at least one service
    • List of additions of categories to add to the CMDB solution.
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Configuration Management Standard Operating Procedures
    • Configuration Management Diagram Template Library
    • IT service owners
    • Practice owners and managers
    • SCM practice manager
    • SCM project sponsor

    Download the Configuration Management Diagram Template Library to see examples.

    Determine governance for data security, access, and validation

    Align CMDB access to the organization's access control policy to maintain authorized and secure access for legitimate staff performing their role.

    Data User Type Access Role
    Data consumers
    • View-only access
    • Will need to view and use the data but will not need to make modifications to it
    • Service desk
    • Change manager
    • Major incident manager
    • Finance
    CMDB owner
    • Read/write access with the ability to update and validate data as needed
    • Configuration manager
    Domain owner
    • Read/write access for specific domains
    • Data owner within their domain, which includes validating that data is in the database and that it is correctly categorized.
    • Enterprise architect
    • Application owner
    Data provider
    • Read/write access for specific domains
    • Ensures automated data has been added and adds nondiscoverable assets and attributes as needed
    • Server operations
    • Database management
    • Network teams
    CMDB administrator
    • View-only access for data
    • Will need to have access for modifying the structure of the product, including adding fields, as determined by the CCB
    • ITSM tool administrator

    2.2.3 Determine access rights for your data

    Allot 30 minutes for this discussion.

    1. Open the Configuration Management Standard Operating Procedures, section 5: Access Rights.
    2. Review the various roles from an access perspective.
      1. Who needs read-only access?
      2. Who needs read/write access?
      3. Should there be restrictions on who can delete data?
    1. Fill in the chart and communicate this to your CMDB installation vendor or your CMDB administrator.
    Input

    Output

    • Task assignments
    • Access rights and roles
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Configuration Management Standard Operating Procedures
    • IT service owners
    • Practice owners and managers
    • SCM practice manager
    • SCM project sponsor

    Phase 3

    Configuration Record Updates

    StrategyData StructureProcessesRoadmap
    • Challenges and Goals
    • Use Cases and Data
    • Roles and Responsibilities
    • Services
    • Classifications
    • Data Modeling
    • Lifecycle Processes
    • Baselines
    • Audit and Data Validation
    • Metrics
    • Communications Plan
    • Roadmap

    This phase will walk you through the following aspects of a configuration management system:

    • ITSM Practices and Workflows
    • Discovery and Dependency Mapping Tools
    • Auditing and Data Validation Practices

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • IT service owners
    • Enterprise architects
    • Practice owners and managers
    • SCM practice manager
    • SCM project manager
    • IT audit

    Harness Service Configuration Management Superpowers

    Step 3.1

    Keep CIs and relationships up to date through lifecycle process integrations

    Activities

    3.1.1 Define processes to bring new services into the CMDB

    3.1.2 Determine when each type of CI will be created in the CMDB

    3.1.3 Identify when each type of CI will be retired in the CMDB

    3.1.4 Record when and how attributes will change

    3.1.5 Institute configuration control and configuration baselines

    This step will walk you through the following aspects of a configuration management system:

    1. ITSM Practices and Workflows
    2. Discovery and Dependency Mapping Tools

    This phase involves the following participants:

    1. IT service owners
    2. Enterprise architects
    3. Practice owners and managers
    4. SCM practice manager
    5. Project manager

    Outcomes of this step

    • List of action items for updating interfacing practices and processes
    • Identification of where configuration records will be manually updated

    Incorporate CMDB updates into IT operations

    Determine which processes will prompt changes to the CMDB data

    Onboard new services - Offboard Redundant Services. Onboard new CIs - Offboard Redundant CIs; Maintain CIs - Update Attributes.

    Change enablement

    Identify which process are involved in each stage of data input, maintenance, and removal to build out a process for each scenario.

    Project management

    Change enablement

    Asset management

    Security controls

    Project management

    Incident management

    Deployment management

    Change enablement

    Asset management

    Security controls

    Project management

    Incident management

    Service management

    Formalize the process for adding new services to the CMDB

    As new services and products are introduced into the environment, you can improve your ability to correctly cost the service, design integrations, and ensure all operational capabilities are in place, such as data backup and business continuity plans.
    In addition, attributes such as service-level agreements (SLAs), availability requirements, and product, technical, and business owners should be documented as soon as those new systems are made live.

    • Introduce the technical team and CCB to the product early to ensure the service record is created before deployment and to quickly map the services once they are moved into the production environment.
    • Engage with project managers or business analysts to define the process to include security and technical reviews early.
    • Engage with the security and technical reviewers to start documenting the service as soon as it is approved.
    • Determine which practices will be involved in the creation and approval of new services and formalize the process to streamline entry of the new service, onboarding corresponding CIs and mapping dependencies.

    an example of the review and approval process for new service or products is shown.

    3.1.1 Define processes to bring new services into the CMDB

    Start with the most frequent intake methods, and if needed, use this opportunity to streamline the process.

    1. Discuss the methods for new services to be introduced to the IT environment.
    2. Critique existing methods to assess consistency and identify issues that could prevent the creation of services in the CMDB in a timely manner.
    3. Create a workflow for the existing processes, with an eye to improvement. Identify any changes that will need to be introduced and managed appropriately.
    4. Identify where additional groups may need to be engaged to ensure success. For example, if project managers are not interfacing early with IT, discuss process changes with them.
    5. Discuss the validation process and determine where control points are. Document these on the workflows.
    6. Complete the Configuration Management Standard Operating Procedures, section 8.1: Introduce New Service and Data Model.

    Possible intake opportunities:

    • Business-driven project intake process
    • IT-driven project intake process
    • Change enablement reviews
    • Vendor-driven product changes
    Input

    Output

    • Discussion
    • Intake processes
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Configuration Management Standard Operating Procedures
    • Configuration Management Diagram Template Library
    • Configuration control board
    • Configuration manager
    • Project sponsor
    • IT stakeholders

    Identify scenarios where CIs are added and removed in the configuration management database

    New CIs may be introduced with new services or may be introduced and removed as part of asset refreshes or through service restoration in incident management. Updates may be done by your own services team or a managed services provider.
    Determine the various ways the CIs may be changed and test with various CI types.
    Review attributes such as SLAs, availability requirements, and product, technical, and business owners to determine if changes are required.

    • Identify what will be updated automatically or manually. Automation could include discovery and dependency mapping or synchronization with AMDB or AIOps tools.
    • Engage with relevant program managers to define and validate processes.
    • Identify control points and review audit requirements.

    An example of New or refresh CI from Procurement.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Data deemed no longer current may be archived or deleted. Retained data may be used for tracing lifecycle changes when troubleshooting or meeting audit obligations. Determine what types of CIs and use cases require archived data to meet data retention policies. If none do, deletion of old data may be appropriate.

    3.1.2 Identify when each type of CI will be created in the CMDB

    Allot 45 minutes for discussion.

    1. Discuss the various methods for new CIs to be introduced to the IT environment.
    2. Critique existing methods to assess consistency and identify issues that could prevent the creation of CIs in the CMDB in a timely manner.
    3. Create a workflow for the existing processes, with an eye to improvement. Identify any changes that will need to be introduced and managed appropriately.
    4. Identify where additional groups may need to be engaged to ensure success. For example, if project managers are not interfacing early with IT, discuss process changes with them.
    5. Discuss the validation process and determine where control points are. Document these on the workflows.
    6. Complete Configuration Management Standard Operating Procedures, section 8.2: Introduce New Configuration Items to the CMDB

    Possible intake opportunities:

    • Business-driven project intake process
    • IT-driven project intake process
    • Change enablement reviews
    • Vendor-driven product changes
    • Incident management
    • Asset management, lifecycle refresh
    Input

    Output

    • Discussion
    • Retirement processes
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Configuration Management Standard Operating Procedures
    • Configuration Management Diagram Template Library
    • Configuration control board
    • Configuration manager
    • Project sponsor
    • IT stakeholders

    3.1.3 Identify when each type of CI will be retired in the CMDB

    Allot 45 minutes for discussion.

    1. Discuss the various methods for CIs to be removed from the IT environment.
    2. Critique existing methods to assess consistency and identify issues that could prevent the retirement of CIs in the CMDB in a timely manner.
    3. Create a workflow for the existing processes, with an eye to improvement. Identify any changes that will need to be introduced and managed appropriately.
    4. Identify where additional groups may need to be engaged to ensure success. For example, if project managers are not interfacing early with IT, discuss process changes with them.
    5. Discuss the validation process and determine where control points are. Document these on the workflows.
    6. Discuss data retention. How long will retired information need to be archived? What are the potential scenarios where legacy information may be needed for analysis?
    7. Complete the Configuration Management Standard Operating Procedures, section 8.4: Retire and Archive Configuration Records.

    Possible retirement scenarios:

    • Change enablement reviews
    • Vendor-driven product changes
    • Incident management
    • Asset management, lifecycle refresh
    Input

    Output

    • Discussion
    • Intake processes
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Configuration Management Standard Operating Procedures
    • Configuration Management Diagram Template Library
    • Configuration control board
    • Configuration manager
    • Project sponsor
    • IT stakeholders

    Determine appropriate actions for detecting new or changed CIs through discovery

    Automated detection will provide the most efficient way of recording planned changes to CIs as well as detected unplanned changes. Check with the tool to determine what reports or notifications are available for the configuration management process and define what actions will be appropriate.

    As new CIs are detected, identify the process by which they should have been introduced into configuration management and compare against those records. If your CMDB can automatically check for documentation, this may be easier. Weekly reporting will allow you to catch changes quickly, and alerts on critical CIs could enable faster remediation, if the tool allows for alerting. AIOps could identify, notify of, and process many changes in a highly dynamic environment.

    Type of Change

    Impacted Process

    Validation

    Findings

    Actions

    Configuration change to networking equipment or software

    Change management

    Check for request for change

    No RFC

    Add to CAB agenda, notify technical owner

    Configuration change to end-user device or software

    Asset management

    Check for service ticket

    No ticket

    Escalate to asset agenda, notify service manager

    New assets coming into service

    Security incident and event management

    Check for SIEM integration

    No SIEM integration

    Notify security operations team to investigate

    The configuration manager may not have authority to act but can inform the process owners of unauthorized changes for further action. Once the notifications are forwarded to the appropriate process owner, the configuration manager will note the escalation and follow up on data corrections as deemed appropriate by the associated process owner.

    3.1.4 Record when and how attributes will change

    These lists will help with configuration control plans and your implementation roadmap.

    1. List each attribute that will change in that CI type's life.
    2. Write all the times that each attribute will change. Identify:
      1. The name of the workflow, service request, process, or practice that modifies the attribute.
      2. Whether the update is made automatically or manually.
      3. The role or tool that updates the CMDB.
    1. Update the relevant process or procedure documentation. Explicitly identify when the configuration records are updated.

    Document these tables in Configuration Management Standard Operation Procedures, Section 8.7: Practices That Modify CIs.

    Network Equipment
    Attributes

    Practices That Modify This Attribute

    Status
    • Infra Deployment (updated manually by Network Engineering)
    • Change Enablement (updated manually by CAB or Network Engineering)
    Assigned User
    • IT Employee Offboarding or Role Change (updated manually by Network Engineering)
    Version
    • Patch Deployment (updated automatically by SolarWinds)
    End-User Computers
    Attributes
    Practices That Modify This Attribute
    Status
    • Device Deployment (updated manually by Desktop Support)
    • Device Recovery (updated manually by Desktop Support)
    • Employee Offboarding and Role Change (updated manually by Service Desk)
    Assigned User
    • Device Deployment (updated manually by Desktop Support)
    • Device Recovery (updated manually by Desktop Support)
    • Employee Offboarding and Role Change (updated manually by Service Desk)
    Version
    • Patch Deployment (updated automatically by ConfigMgr)

    Institute configuration control and configuration baselines where appropriate

    A baseline enables an assessment of one or more systems against the desired state and is useful for troubleshooting incidents or problems and validating changes and security settings.

    Baselines may be used by enterprise architects and system engineers for planning purposes, by developers to test their solution against production copies, by technicians to assess configuration drift that may be causing performance issues, and by change managers to assess and verify the configuration meets the target design.

    Configuration baselines are a snapshot of configuration records, displaying attributes and first-level relationships of the CIs. Standard configurations may be integral to the success of automated workflows, deployments, upgrades, and integrations, as well as prevention of security events. Comparing current CIs against their baselines will identify configuration drift, which could cause a variety of incidents. Configuration baselines are updated through change management processes.
    Configuration baselines can be used for a variety of use cases:

    • Version control – Management of software and hardware versions, https://dj5l3kginpy6f.cloudfront.net/blueprints/harness-configuration-management-superpowers-phases-1-4/builds, and releases.
    • Access control – Management of access to facilities, storage areas, and the CMS.
    • Deployment control – Take a baseline of CIs before performing a release so you can use this to check against actual deployment.
    • Identify accidental changes Everyone makes mistakes. If someone installs software on the wrong server or accidentally drops a table in a database, the CMS can alert IT of the unauthorized change (if the CI is included in configuration control).

    Info-Tech Insight

    Determine the appropriate method for evaluating and approving changes to baselines. Delegating this to the CCB every time may reduce agility, depending on volume. Discuss in CCB meetings.

    A decision tree for deploying requested changes.

    3.1.5 Institute configuration control and configuration baselines where appropriate

    Only baseline CIs and relationships that you want to control through change enablement.

    1. Determine criteria for capturing configuration baselines, including CI type, event, or processes.
    2. Identify who will use baselines and how they will use the data. Identify their needs.
    3. Identify CIs that will be out of scope and not have baselines created.
    4. Document requirements in the SOP.
    5. Ensure appropriate team members have training on how to create and capture baselines in the CMDB.
    6. Document in the Configuration Management Standard Operating Procedures, section 8.5: Establish and Maintain Configuration Baselines.
    Process Criteria Systems
    Change Enablement & Deployment All high-risk changes must have the baseline captured with version number to revert to stable version in the event of an unsuccessful change
    • Servers (physical and virtual)
    • Enterprise software
    • IaaS
    • Data centers
    Security Identify when configuration drift may impact risk mitigation strategies
    • Servers (physical and virtual)
    • Enterprise software
    • IaaS
    • Data centers
    Input

    Output

    • Discussion
    • Baseline configuration guidelines
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Configuration Management Standard Operating Procedures
    • Configuration control board
    • Configuration manager
    • Project sponsor
    • IT stakeholders

    Step 3.2

    Validate data within the CMDB

    Activities

    3.2.1 Build an audit plan and checklist

    This step will walk you through the following aspects of a configuration management system:

    • Data validation and audit

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • IT service owners
    • Enterprise architects
    • Practice owners and managers
    • SCM practice manager
    • Project manager
    • IT audit

    Outcomes of this step

    • Updates to processes for data validation
    • Plan for auditing and validating the data in the CMDB

    Audit and validate the CMDB

    Review the performance of the supporting technologies and processes to validate the accuracy of the CMDB.

    A screenshot of the CM Audit Plan.

    CM Audit Plan

    • CM policies
    • CM processes and procedures
    • Interfacing processes
    • Content within the CMDB

    "If the data in your CMDB isn't accurate, then it's worthless. If it's wrong or inaccurate, it's going to drive the wrong decisions. It's going to make IT worse, not better."
    – Valence Howden, Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group

    Ensure the supporting technology is working properly

    Does the information in the database accurately reflect reality?

    Perform functional tests during audits and as part of release management practices.

    Audit results need to have a clear status of "compliant," "noncompliant," or "compliant with conditions," and conditions need to be noted. The conditions will generally offer a quick win to improve a process, but don't use these audit results to quickly check off something as "done." Ensure the fix is useful and meaningful to the process.
    The audit should cover three areas:

    • Process: Are process requirements for the program well documented? Are the processes being followed? If there were updates to the process, were those updates to the process documented and communicated? Has behavior changed to suit those modified processes?
    • Physical: Physical configuration audits (PCAs) are audits conducted to verify that a configuration item, as built, conforms to the technical documentation that defines and describes it.
    • Functional: Functional configuration audits (FCAs) are audits conducted to verify that the development of a configuration item has been completed satisfactorily, the item has achieved the functional attributes specified in the functional or allocated baseline, and its technical documentation is complete and satisfactory.

    Build auditing and validation of processes whenever possible

    When technicians and analysts are working on a system, they should check to make sure the data about that system is correct. When they're working in the CMDB, they should check that the data they're working with is correct.

    More frequent audits, especially in the early days, may help move toward process adoption and resolving data quality issues. If audits are happening more frequently, the audits can include a smaller scope, though it's important to vary each one to ensure many different areas have been audited through the year.

    • Watch for data duplication from multiple discovery tools.
    • Review mapping to ensure all relevant CIs are attached to a product or service.
    • Ensure report data is logical.

    Ensure the supporting technology is working properly

    Does the information in the database accurately reflect reality?

    Perform functional tests during audits and as part of release management practices.

    Audit results need to have a clear status of "compliant," "noncompliant," or "compliant with conditions," and conditions need to be noted. The conditions will generally offer a quick win to improve a process, but don't use these audit results to quickly check off something as "done." Ensure the fix is useful and meaningful to the process.
    The audit should cover three areas:

    • Process: Are process requirements for the program well documented? Are the processes being followed? If there were updates to the process, were those updates to the process documented and communicated? Has behavior changed to suit those modified processes?
    • Physical: Physical configuration audits (PCAs) are audits conducted to verify that a configuration item, as built, conforms to the technical documentation that defines and describes it.
    • Functional: Functional configuration audits (FCAs) are audits conducted to verify that the development of a configuration item has been completed satisfactorily, the item has achieved the functional attributes specified in the functional or allocated baseline, and its technical documentation is complete and satisfactory.

    More frequent audits, especially in the early days, may help move toward process adoption and resolving data quality issues. If audits are happening more frequently, the audits can include a smaller scope, though it's important to vary each one to ensure many different areas have been audited through the year.

    • Watch for data duplication from multiple discovery tools.
    • Review mapping to ensure all relevant CIs are attached to a product or service.
    • Ensure report data is logical.

    Identify where processes break down and data is incorrect

    Once process stops working, data becomes less accurate and people find workarounds to solve their own data needs.

    Data within the CMDB often becomes incorrect or incomplete where human work breaks down

    • Investigate processes that are performed manually, including data entry.
    • Investigate if the process executors are performing these processes uniformly.
    • Determine if there are opportunities to automate or provide additional training.
    • Select a sample of the corresponding data in the CMS. Verify if the data is correct.

    Non-CCB personnel may not be completing processes fully or consistently

    • Identify where data in the CMS needs to be updated.
    • Identify whether the process practitioners are uniformly updating the CMS.
    • Discuss options for improving the process and driving consistency for data that will benefit the whole organization.

    Ensure that the data entered in the CMDB is correct

    • Confirm that there is no data duplication. Data duplication is very common when there are multiple discovery tools in your environment. Confirm that you have set up your tools properly to avoid duplication.
    • Build a process to respond to baseline divergence when people make changes without following change processes and when updates alter settings.
    • Audit the system for accuracy and completeness.

    3.2.1 Build an audit plan and checklist

    Use the audit to identify areas where processes are breaking down.

    Audits present you with the ability to address these pain points before they have greater negative impact.

    1. Identify which regulatory requirements and/or auditing bodies will be relevant to audit processes or findings.
    2. Determine frequency of practice audits and how they relate to internal audits or external audits.
    3. Determine audit scope, including requirements for data spot checks.
    4. Determine who will be responsible for conducting audits and validate this is consistent with the RACI chart.
    5. Record audit procedures in the Configuration Management Standard Operating Procedures section 8.6: Verify and Review the Quality of Information Through Auditing.
    6. Review the Configuration Management Audit and Validation Checklist and modify to suit your needs.

    Download the Configuration Management Audit and Validation Checklist

    Input

    Output

    • Discussion
    • Baseline configuration guidelines
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Configuration Management Standard Operating Procedures
    • Configuration control board
    • Configuration manager
    • Project sponsor
    • IT stakeholders

    Phase 4

    Service Configuration Roadmap

    StrategyData StructureProcessesRoadmap
    • Challenges and Goals
    • Use Cases and Data
    • Roles and Responsibilities
    • Services
    • Classifications
    • Data Modeling
    • Lifecycle Processes
    • Baselines
    • Audit and Data Validation
    • Metrics
    • Communications Plan
    • Roadmap

    This phase will walk you through the following aspect of a configuration management system:
    Roadmap
    This phase involves the following participants:

    • IT service owners
    • Enterprise architects
    • Practice owners and managers
    • SCM practice manager
    • SCM project manager

    Harness Service Configuration Management Superpowers

    Step 4.1

    Define measures of success

    Activities

    4.1.1 Identify key metrics to define configuration management success
    4.1.2 Brainstorm and record desired reports, dashboards, and analytics
    4.1.3 Build a configuration management policy

    This phase will walk you through the following aspects of a configuration management system:

    • Metrics
    • Policy

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • IT service owners
    • Enterprise architects
    • Practice owners and managers
    • SCM practice manager
    • SCM project manager

    The value of metrics can be found in IT efficiency increases

    When determining metrics for configuration management, be sure to separate metrics needed to gauge configuration management success and those that will use data from the CMDB to provide metrics on the success of other practices.

    • Metrics provide accurate indicators for IT and business decisions.
    • Metrics help you identify IT efficiencies and problems and solve issues before they become more serious.
    • Active metrics tracking makes root cause analysis of issues much easier.
    • Proper application of metrics helps IT services identification and prioritization.
    • Operational risks can be prevented by identifying and implementing metrics.
    • Metrics analysis increases the confidence of the executive team and ensures that IT is working well.

    A funnel is shown. The output is IT Performance. The inputs are: Service Desk Metrics; Incident Metrics; Asset Mgmt. Metrics; Release Mgmt. Metrics; Change Mgmt. Metrics; Infra. Metrics

    4.1.1 Identify key metrics to define configuration management success

    Determine what metrics are specifically related to the practice and how and when metrics will be accessed.

    Success factors

    Key metrics

    Source

    Product and service configuration data is relevant

    • Stakeholder satisfaction with data access, accuracy, and usability
    • Stakeholder satisfaction with service configuration management interface, procedures, and reports

    Stakeholder discussions

    • Number of bad decisions made due to incorrect or insufficient data
    • Impact of bad decisions made due to incorrect or insufficient data

    Process owner discussions

    • Number and impact of data identified as incorrect
    • % of CMDB data verified over the period

    CMDB

    Cost and effort are continually optimized

    • Effort devoted to service configuration management
    • Cost of tools directly related to the process

    Resource management or scheduling

    ERP

    Progress reporting

    • Communication execution
    • Process
    • Communications and feedback

    Communications team and stakeholder discussions

    Data – How many products are in the CMDB and are fully and accurately discovered and mapped?

    CMDB

    Ability to meet milestones on time and with appropriate quality

    Project team

    Document metrics in the Configuration Management Standard Operating Procedures, section 7: Success Metrics

    Use performance metrics to identify areas to improve service management processes using CMDB data

    Metrics can indicate a problem with service management processes but cannot provide a clear path to a solution on their own.

    • The biggest challenge is defining and measuring the process and people side of the equation.
    • Expected performance may also need to be compared to actual performance in planning, budgeting, and improvements.
    • The analysis will need to include critical success factors (CSFs), data collection procedures, office routines, engineering practices, and flow diagrams including workflows and key relationships.
    • External benchmarking may also prove useful in identifying how similar organizations are managing aspects of their infrastructure, processing transactions/requests, or staffing. If using external benchmarking for actual process comparisons, clearly defining your internal processes first will make the data collection process smoother and more informative.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Using a service framework such as ITIL, COBIT, or ISO 20000 may make this job easier, and subscribing to benchmarking partners will provide some of the external data needed for comparison.

    4.1.2 Brainstorm and record desired reports, dashboards, and analytics with related practices

    The project team will use this list as a starting point

    Allot 45 minutes for this discussion.

    1. Create a table for each service or business capability.
      1. Have one column for each way of consuming data: reports, dashboards, and ad hoc analytics.
      2. Have one row for each stakeholder group that will consume the information.
    2. Use the challenges and use cases to brainstorm reports, dashboards, and ad hoc analytic capabilities that each stakeholder group will find useful.
    3. Record these results in your Configuration Management Standard Operating Procedures, section 7: Aligned Processes' Desired Analytical Capabilities.
    Stakeholder Groups Reports Dashboards
    Change Management
    • CI changes executed without an RFC
    • RFCs grouped by service
    • Potential collisions in upcoming changes
    Security
    • Configuration changes that no longer match the baseline
    • New configuration items discovered
    Finance
    • Service-based costs
    • Service consumption by department

    Download the blueprint Take Control of Infrastructure and Operations Metrics to create a complete metrics program.

    Create a configuration management policy and communicate it

    Policies are important documents to provide definitive guidelines and clarity around data collection and use, process adherence, and controls.

    • A configuration management policy will apply to IT as the audience, and participants in the program will largely be technical.
    • Business users will benefit from a great configuration management program but will not participate directly.
    • The policy will include objectives and scope, use of data, security and integrity of data, data models and criteria, and baseline configurations.
    • Several governing regulations and practices may intersect with configuration management, such as ITIL, COBIT, and NIST frameworks, as well as change enablement, quality management, asset management, and more.
    • As the policy is written, review processes to ensure policies and processes are aligned. The policy should enable processes, and it may require modifications if it hinders the collection, security, or use of data required to meet proposed use cases.
    • Once the policy is written and approved, ensure all stakeholders understand the importance, context, and repercussions of the policy.

    The approvals process is about appropriate oversight of the drafted policies. For example:

    • Do the policies satisfy compliance and regulatory requirements?
    • Do the policies work with the corporate culture?
    • Do the policies address the underlying need?

    If the draft is approved:

    • Set the effective date and a review date.
    • Begin communication, training, and implementation.

    Employees must know that there are new policies and understand the steps they must take to comply with the policies in their work.

    Employees must be able to interpret, understand, and know how to act upon the information they find in the policies.

    Employees must be informed on where to get help or ask questions and who to request policy exceptions from.

    If the draft is rejected:

    • Acquire feedback and make revisions.
    • Resubmit for approval.

    4.1.3 Build a configuration management policy

    This policy provides the foundation for configuration control.

    Use this template as a starting point.

    The Configuration Management Policy provides the foundation for a configuration control board and the use of configuration baselines.
    Instructions:

    1. Review and modify the policy statements. Ensure that the policy statements reflect your organization and the expectations you wish to set.
    2. If you don't have a CCB: The specified responsibilities can usually be assigned to either the configuration manager or the governing body for change enablement.
    3. Determine if you should apply this policy beyond SCM. As written, this policy may provide a good starting point for practices such as:
      • Secure baseline configuration management
      • Software configuration management

    Two screenshots from the Configuration Management Policy template

    Download the Configuration Management Policy template

    Step 4.2

    Build communications and a roadmap

    Activities

    4.2.1 Build a communications plan
    4.2.2 Identify milestones

    This phase will walk you through the following aspects of a configuration management system:

    • Communications plan
    • Roadmap

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • IT service owners
    • Enterprise architects
    • Practice owners and managers
    • SCM practice manager
    • SCM project manager

    Outcomes of this step

    • Documented expectations around configuration control
    • Roadmap and action items for the SCM project

    Do not discount the benefits of a great communications plan as part of change management

    Many configuration management projects have failed due to lack of organizational commitment and inadequate communications.

    • Start at the top to ensure stakeholder buy-in by verifying alignment and use cases. Without a committed project sponsor who believes in the value of configuration management, it will be difficult to draw the IT team into the vision.
    • Clearly articulate the vision, strategy, and goals to all stakeholders. Ensure the team understands why these changes are happening, why they are happening now, and what outcomes you hope to achieve.
    • Gain support from technical teams by clearly expressing organizational and departmental benefits – they need to know "what's in it for me."
    • Clearly communicate new responsibilities and obligations and put a feedback process in place to hear concerns, mitigate risk, and act on opportunities for improvement. Be prepared to answer questions as this practice is rolled out.
    • Be consistent in your messaging. Mixed messages can easily derail progress.
    • Communicate to the business how these efforts will benefit the organization.
    • Share documents built in this blueprint or workshop with your technical teams to ensure they have a clear picture of the entire configuration management practice.
    • Share your measures and view of success and communicate wins throughout building the practice.

    30%

    When people are truly invested in change, it is 30% more likely to stick.
    McKinsey

    82%

    of CEOs identify organizational change management as a priority.
    D&B Consulting

    6X

    Initiatives with excellent change management are six times more likely to meet objectives than those with poor change management.
    Prosci

    For a more detailed program, see Drive Technology Adoption

    Formulate a communications plan to ensure all stakeholders and impacted staff will be aware of the plan

    Communication is key to success in process adoption and in identifying potential risks and issues with integration with other processes. Engage as often as needed to get the information you need for the project and for adoption.

    Identify Messages

    Distinct information that needs to be sent at various times. Think about:

    • Who will be impacted and how.
    • What the goals are for the project/new process.
    • What the audience needs to know about the new process and how they will interface with each business unit.
    • How people can request configuration data.

    Identify Audiences

    Any person or group who will be the target of the communication. This may include:

    • Project sponsors and stakeholders.
    • IT staff who will be involved in the project.
    • IT staff who will be impacted by the project (i.e. who will benefit from it or have obligations to fulfill because of it).
    • Business sponsors and product owners.

    Document and Track

    Document messaging, medium, and responsibility, working with the communications team to refine messages before executing.

    • Identify where people can send questions and feedback to ensure they have the information they need to make or accept the changes.
    • Document Q&A and share in a central location.

    Determine Timing

    Successful communications plans consider timing of various messages:

    • Advanced high-level notice of improvements for those who need to see action.
    • Advanced detailed notice for those who will be impacted by workload.
    • Advanced notice for who will be impacted (i.e. who will benefit from it or have obligations to fulfill because of it) once the project is ready to be transitioned to daily life.

    Determine Delivery

    Work with your communications team, if you have one, to determine the best medium, such as:

    • Meeting announcement for stakeholders and IT.
    • Newsletter for those less impacted.
    • Intranet announcements: "coming soon!"
    • Demonstrations with vendors or project team.

    4.2.1 Build a communications plan

    The communications team will use this list as a starting point.

    Allot 45 minutes for this discussion.

    Identify stakeholders.

    1. Identify everyone who will be affected by the project and by configuration management.

    Craft key messages tailored to each stakeholder group.

    1. Identify the key messages that must be communicated to each group.

    Finalize the communication plan.

    1. Determine the most appropriate timing for communications with each group to maximize receptivity.
    2. Identify any communication challenges you anticipate and incorporate steps to address them into your communication plan.
    3. Identify multiple methods for getting the messages out (e.g. newsletters, emails, meetings).
    1. Identify how feedback will be collected (i.e. through interviews or surveys) to measure whether the changes were communicated well.
    Audience Message Medium Timing Feedback Mechanism
    Configuration Management Team Communicate all key processes, procedures, policies, roles, and responsibilities In-person meetings and email communications Weekly meetings Informal feedback during weekly meetings
    Input

    Output

    • Discussion
    • Rough draft of messaging for communications team
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Project plan
    • Configuration manager
    • Project sponsor
    • IT director
    • Communications team

    Build a realistic, high-level roadmap including milestones

    Break the work into manageable pieces

    1. Plan to have multiple phases with short-, medium-, and long-term goals/timeframes. Building a CMDB is not easy and should be broken into manageable sections.
    2. Set reasonable milestones. For each phase, document goals to define "done" and ensure they're reasonable for the resources you have available. If working with a vendor, include them in your discussions of what's realistic.
    3. Treat the first phase as a pilot. Focus on items you understand well:
      1. Well-understood user-facing and IT services
      2. High-maturity management and governance practices
      3. Trusted data sources
    4. Capture high-value, high-criticality services early. Depending on the complexity of your systems, you may need to split this phase into multiple phases.

    Document this table in the Configuration Management Project Charter, section 3.0: Milestones

    Timeline/Owner Milestone/Deliverable Details
    First four weeks Milestone: Plan defined and validated with ITSM installation vendor Define processes for intake, maintenance, and retirement.
    Rebecca Roberts Process documentation written, approved, and ready to communicate Review CI categories

    4.2.2 Identify milestones

    Build out a high-level view to inform the project plan

    Open the Configuration Management Project Charter, section 3: Milestones.
    Instructions:

    1. Identify high-level milestones for the implementation of the configuration management program. This may include tool evaluation and implementation, assignment of roles, etc.
    2. Add details to fill out the milestone, keeping to a reasonable level of detail. This may inform vendor discussion or further development of the project plan.
    3. Add target dates to the milestones. Validate they are realistic with the team.
    4. Add notes to the assumptions and constraints section.
    5. Identify risks to the plan.

    Two Screenshots from the Configuration Management Project Charter

    Download the Configuration Management Project Charter

    Workshop Participants

    R = Recommended
    O = Optional

    Participants Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4
    Configuration Management Strategy CMDB Data Structure Processes Communications & Roadmap
    Morning Afternoon Morning Afternoon Morning Afternoon Morning Afternoon
    Head of IT R O
    Project Sponsor R R O O O O O O
    Infrastructure, Enterprise Apps Leaders R R O O O O O O
    Service Manager R R O O O O O O
    Configuration Manager R R R R R R R R
    Project Manager R R R R R R R R
    Representatives From Network, Compute, Storage, Desktop R R R R R R R R
    Enterprise Architecture R R R R O O O O
    Owner of Change Management/Change Control/Change Enablement R R R R R R R R
    Owner of In-Scope Apps, Use Cases R R R R R R R R
    Asset Manager R R R R R R R R

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Research Contributors and Experts

    Thank you to everyone who contributed to this publication

    Brett Johnson, Senior Consultant, VMware

    Yev Khovrenkov, Senior Consultant, Solvera Solutions

    Larry Marks, Reviewer, ISACA New Jersey

    Darin Ohde, Director of Service Delivery, GreatAmerica Financial Services

    Jim Slick, President/CEO, Slick Cyber Systems

    Emily Walker, Sr. Digital Solution Consultant, ServiceNow

    Valence Howden, Principal Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group

    Allison Kinnaird, Practice Lead, IT Operations, Info-Tech Research Group

    Robert Dang, Principal Research Advisor, Security, Info-Tech Research Group

    Monica Braun, Research Director, IT Finance, Info-Tech Research Group

    Jennifer Perrier, Principal Research Director, IT Finance, Info-Tech Research Group

    Plus 13 anonymous contributors

    Bibliography

    An Introduction to Change Management, Prosci, Nov. 2019.
    BAI10 Manage Configuration Audit Program. ISACA, 2014.
    Bizo, Daniel, et al, "Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey 2021." Uptime Institute, 1 Sept. 2021.
    Brown, Deborah. "Change Management: Some Statistics." D&B Consulting Inc. May 15, 2014. Accessed June 14, 2016.
    Cabinet Office. ITIL Service Transition. The Stationery Office, 2011.
    "COBIT 2019: Management and Governance Objectives. ISACA, 2018.
    "Configuration Management Assessment." CMStat, n.d. Accessed 5 Oct. 2022.
    "Configuration Management Database Foundation." DMTF, 2018. Accessed 1 Feb. 2021.
    Configuration Management Using COBIT 5. ISACA, 2013.
    "Configuring Service Manager." Product Documentation, Ivanti, 2021. Accessed 9 Feb. 2021.
    "Challenges of Implementing configuration management." CMStat, n.d. Accessed 5 Oct. 2022.
    "Determining if configuration management and change control are under management control, part 1." CMStat, n.d. Accessed 5 Oct. 2022.
    "Determining if configuration management and change control are under management control, part 2." CMStat, n.d. Accessed 5 Oct. 2022.
    "Determining if configuration management and change control are under management control, part 3." CMStat, n.d. Accessed 5 Oct. 2022.
    "CSDM: The Recipe for Success." Data Content Manager, Qualdatrix Ltd. 2022. Web.
    Drogseth, Dennis, et al., 2015, CMDB Systems: Making Change Work in the Age of Cloud and Agile. Morgan Kaufman.
    Ewenstein, B, et al. "Changing Change Management." McKinsey & Company, 1 July 2015. Web.
    Farrell, Karen. "VIEWPOINT: Focus on CMDB Leadership." BMC Software, 1 May 2006. Web.
    "How to Eliminate the No. 1 Cause of Network Downtime." SolarWinds, 4 April 2014. Accessed 9 Feb. 2021.
    "ISO 10007:2017: Quality Management -- Guidelines for Configuration Management." International Organization for Standardization, 2019.
    "IT Operations Management." Product Documentation, ServiceNow, version Quebec, 2021. Accessed 9 Feb. 2021.
    Johnson, Elsbeth. "How to Communicate Clearly During Organizational Change." Harvard Business Review, 13 June 2017. Web.
    Kloeckner, K. et al. Transforming the IT Services Lifecycle with AI Technologies. Springer, 2018.
    Klosterboer, L. Implementing ITIL Configuration Management. IBM Press, 2008.
    Norfolk, D., and S. Lacy. Configuration Management: Expert Guidance for IT Service Managers and Practitioners. BCS Learning & Development Limited, revised ed., Jan. 2014.
    Painarkar, Mandaar. "Overview of the Common Data Model." BMC Documentation, 2015. Accessed 1 Feb. 2021.
    Powers, Larry, and Ketil Been. "The Value of Organizational Change Management." Boxley Group, 2014. Accessed June 14, 2016.
    "Pulse of the Profession: Enabling Organizational Change Throughout Strategic Initiatives." PMI, March 2014. Accessed June 14, 2016.
    "Service Configuration Management, ITIL 4 Practice Guide." AXELOS Global Best Practice, 2020
    "The Guide to Managing Configuration Drift." UpGuard, 2017.

    Identify the Components of Your Cloud Security Architecture

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    • Parent Category Name: Security Strategy & Budgeting
    • Parent Category Link: /security-strategy-and-budgeting
    • Leveraging the cloud introduces IT professionals to a new world that they are tasked with securing. Consumers do not know what security services they need and when to implement them.
    • With many cloud vendors proposing to share the security responsibility, it can be a challenge for organizations to develop a clear understanding of how they can best secure their data off premises.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Your cloud security architecture needs to be strategic, realistic, and based on risk. The NIST approach to cloud security is to include everything security into your cloud architecture to be deemed secure. However, you can still have a robust and secure cloud architecture by using a risk-based approach to identify the necessary controls and mitigating services for your environment.
    • The cloud is not the right choice for everyone. You’re not as unique as you think. Start with a reference model that is based on your risks and business attributes and optimize it from there.
    • Your responsibility doesn’t end at the vendor. Even if you outsource your security services to your vendors, you will still have security responsibilities to address.
    • Don’t boil the ocean; do what is realistic for your enterprise. Your cloud security architecture should be based on securing your most critical assets. Use our reference model to determine a launch point.
    • A successful strategy is holistic. Controlling for cloud risks comes from knowing what the risks are. Consider the full spectrum of security, including both processes and technologies.

    Impact and Result

    • The business is adopting a cloud environment and it must be secured, which includes:
      • Ensuring business data cannot be leaked or stolen.
      • Maintaining the privacy of data and other information.
      • Securing the network connection points.
      • Knowing the risks associated with the cloud and mitigating those risks with the appropriate services.
    • This blueprint and associated tools are scalable for all types of organizations within various industry sectors. It allows them to know what types of risk they are facing and what security services are strongly recommended to mitigate those risks.

    Identify the Components of Your Cloud Security Architecture Research & Tools

    Start Here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should create a cloud security architecture with security at the forefront, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Cloud security alignment analysis

    Explore how the cloud changes and whether your enterprise is ready for the shift to the cloud.

    • Identify the Components of Your Cloud Security Architecture – Phase 1: Cloud Security Alignment Analysis
    • Cloud Security Architecture Workbook

    2. Business-critical workload analysis

    Analyze the workloads that will migrated to the cloud. Consider the various domains of security in the cloud, considering the cloud’s unique risks and challenges as they pertain to your workloads.

    • Identify the Components of Your Cloud Security Architecture – Phase 2: Business-Critical Workload Analysis

    3. Cloud security architecture mapping

    Map your risks to services in a reference model from which to build a robust launch point for your architecture.

    • Identify the Components of Your Cloud Security Architecture – Phase 3: Cloud Security Architecture Mapping
    • Cloud Security Architecture Archive Document
    • Cloud Security Architecture Reference Model (Visio)
    • Cloud Security Architecture Reference Model (PDF)

    4. Cloud security strategy planning

    Map your risks to services in a reference architecture to build a robust roadmap from.

    • Identify the Components of Your Cloud Security Architecture – Phase 4: Cloud Security Strategy Planning
    • Cloud Security Architecture Communication Deck

    Infographic

    Workshop: Identify the Components of Your Cloud Security Architecture

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Cloud Security Alignment Analysis

    The Purpose

    Understand your suitability and associated risks with your workloads as they are deployed into the cloud.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    An understanding of the organization’s readiness and optimal service level for cloud security.

    Activities

    1.1 Workload Deployment Plan

    1.2 Cloud Suitability Questionnaire

    1.3 Cloud Risk Assessment

    1.4 Cloud Suitability Analysis

    Outputs

    Workload deployment plan

    Determined the suitability of the cloud for your workloads

    Risk assessment of the associated workloads

    Overview of cloud suitability

    2 Business-Critical Workload Analysis

    The Purpose

    Explore your business-critical workloads and the associated controls and mitigating services to secure them.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Address NIST 800-53 security controls and the appropriate security services that can mitigate the risks appropriately.

    Activities

    2.1 “A” Environment Analysis

    2.2 “B” Environment Analysis

    2.3 “C” Environment Analysis

    2.4 Prioritized Security Controls

    2.5 Effort and Risk Dashboard Overview

    Outputs

    NIST 800-53 control mappings and relevancy

    NIST 800-53 control mappings and relevancy

    NIST 800-53 control mappings and relevancy

    Prioritized security controls based on risk and environmental makeup

    Mitigating security services for controls

    Effort and Risk Dashboard

    3 Cloud Security Architecture Mapping

    The Purpose

    Identify security services to mitigate challenges posed by the cloud in various areas of security.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Comprehensive list of security services, and their applicability to your network environment. Documentation of your “current” state of cloud security.

    Activities

    3.1 Cloud Security Control Mapping

    3.2 Cloud Security Architecture Reference Model Mapping

    Outputs

    1. Cloud Security Architecture Archive Document to codify and document each of the associated controls and their risk levels to security services

    2. Mapping of the codified controls onto Info-Tech’s Cloud Security Architecture Reference Model for clear security prioritization

    4 Cloud Security Strategy Planning

    The Purpose

    Prepare a communication deck for executive stakeholders to socialize them to the state of your cloud security initiatives and where you still have to go.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A roadmap for improving security in the cloud.

    Activities

    4.1 Cloud Security Strategy Considerations

    4.2 Cloud Security Architecture Communication Deck

    Outputs

    Consider the additional security considerations of the cloud for preparation in the communication deck.

    Codify all your results into an easily communicable communication deck with a clear pathway for progression and implementation of security services to mitigate cloud risks.

    Agile Enterprise Architecture Operating Model

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    • Parent Category Name: Strategy & Operating Model
    • Parent Category Link: /strategy-and-operating-model

    Establish an enterprise architecture practice that:

    • Leverages an operating model that promotes/supports agility within the organization.
    • Embraces business, data, application, and technology architectures in an optimal mix.
    • Is Agile in itself and will be sustainable and reactive to business needs, staying relevant and “profitable” – continuously delivering business value.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Use your business and EA strategy and design principles to right-size standardized operating models to fit your EA organization’s needs.
    • You need to define a sound set of design principles before commencing with the design of your EA organization.
    • The EA operating model structure should be rigid but pliable enough to fit the needs of the stakeholders it provides services to.
    • A phased approach and a good communication strategy is key to the success of the new EA organization.
    • Start with one group and work out the hurdles before rolling it out organization-wide.
    • Make sure that you communicate regularly on wins but also on hurdles and how to overcome them.

    Impact and Result

    • The organization design approach proposed will aim to provide twofold agility: the ability to stretch and shrink depending on business requirements and the promotion of agility in architecture delivery.
    • By recognizing that agility comes in different flavors, organizations using more traditional design patterns will also benefit from the approach advocated by this blueprint.

    Agile Enterprise Architecture Operating Model Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out create an Agile EA operating model to execute the EA function, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Design your EA operating model

    You need to define a sound set of design principles before commencing with the design of your EA organization.

    • Agile EA Operating Model Communication Deck
    • Agile EA Operating Model Workbook
    • Business Architect
    • Application Architect
    • Data Architect
    • Enterprise Architect

    2. Define your EA organizational structure

    The EA operating model structure should be rigid but pliable enough to fit the needs of the stakeholders it provide services to.

    • EA Views Taxonomy
    • EA Operating Model Template
    • Architecture Board Charter Template
    • EA Policy Template
    • EA Compliance Waiver Form Template

    3. Implement the EA operating model

    A phased approach and a good communications strategy are key to the success of the new EA organization.

    • EA Roadmap
    • EA Communication Plan Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Agile Enterprise Architecture Operating Model

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 EA Function Design

    The Purpose

    Identify how EA looks within the organization and ensure all the necessary skills are accounted for within the function.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    EA is designed to be the most appropriately placed and structured for the organization.

    Activities

    1.1 Place the EA department.

    1.2 Define roles for each team member.

    1.3 Find internal and external talent.

    1.4 Create job descriptions with required proficiencies.

    Outputs

    EA organization design

    Role-based skills and competencies

    Talent acquisition strategy

    Job descriptions

    2 EA Engagement Model

    The Purpose

    Create a thorough engagement model to interact with stakeholders.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    An understanding of each process within the engagement model.

    Create stakeholder interaction cards to plan your conversations.

    Activities

    2.1 Define each engagement process for your organization.

    2.2 Document stakeholder interactions.

    Outputs

    EA Operating Model Template

    EA Stakeholder Engagement Model Template

    3 EA Governance

    The Purpose

    Develop EA boards, alongside a charter and policies to effectively govern the function.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Governance that aids the EA function instead of being a bureaucratic obstacle.

    Adherence to governace.

    Activities

    3.1 Outline the architecture review process.

    3.2 Position the architecture review board.

    3.3 Create a committee charter.

    3.4 Make effective governance policy.

    Outputs

    Architecture Board Charter Template

    EA Policy Template

    4 Architecture Development Framework

    The Purpose

    Create an operating model that is influenced by universal standards including TOGAF, Zachmans, and DoDAF.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A thoroughly articulated development framework.

    Understanding of the views that influence each domain.

    Activities

    4.1 Tailor an architecture development framework to your organizational context.

    Outputs

    EA Operating Model Template

    Enterprise Architecture Views Taxonomy

    5 Operational Plan

    The Purpose

    Create a change management and communication plan or roadmap to execute the operating model.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Build a plan that takes change management and communication into consideration to achieve the wanted benefits of an EA program.

    Effectively execute the roadmap.

    Activities

    5.1 Create a sponsorship action plan.

    5.2 Outline a communication plan.

    5.3 Execute a communication roadmap.

    Outputs

    Sponsorship Action Plan

    EA Communication Plan Template

    EA Roadmap

    Streamline Your Workforce During a Pandemic

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    • Parent Category Name: Lead
    • Parent Category Link: /lead

    Reduced infection rates in compromised areas are providing hope that these difficult times will pass. However, organizations are facing harsh realities in real time. With significant reductions in revenue, employers are facing pressure to quickly implement cost-cutting strategies, resulting in mass layoffs of valuable employees.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Employees are an organization’s greatest asset. When faced with cost-cutting pressures, look for redeployment opportunities that use talent as a resource to get through hard times before resorting to difficult layoff decisions.

    Impact and Result

    Make the most of your workforce in this unprecedented situation by following McLean & Company’s process to initiate redeployment efforts and reduce costs. If all else fails, follow our guidance on planning for layoffs and considerations when doing so.

    Streamline Your Workforce During a Pandemic Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Meet with leadership

    Set a strategy with senior leadership, brainstorm underused and understaffed employee segments and departments, then determine an approach to redeployments and layoffs.

    • Streamline Your Workforce During a Pandemic Storyboard
    • Redeployment and Layoff Strategy Workbook

    2. Plan individual and department redeployment

    Collect key information, prepare and redeploy, and roll up information across the organization.

    • Short-Term Survival Segment Evaluation Tool
    • Skills Inventory for Redeployment Tool
    • Redeployment Action and Communication Plan
    • Crisis Communication Guide for HR
    • Crisis Communication Guide for Leaders
    • Leadership Crisis Communication Guide Template
    • 3i's of Engaging Management – Manager Guide
    • Feedback and Coaching Guide for Managers
    • Redeployment Communication Roll-up Template

    3. Plan individual and department layoffs

    Plan for layoffs, execute on the layoff plan, and communicate to employees.

    • Employee Departure Checklist Tool
    • 10 Communication Best Practices in the Face of Crisis
    • Termination Logistics Tool
    • Termination Costing Tool
    • COVID-19: Employee-Facing Frequently Asked Questions Template
    • COVID-19: Employee-Facing Frequently Asked Questions
    • Standard Internal Communications Plan

    4. Monitor and manage departmental effectiveness

    Monitor departmental performance, review organizational performance, and determine next steps.

    • HR Metrics Library
    • Standard HR Scorecard
    [infographic]

    Maximize Value From Your Value-Added Reseller (VAR)

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    • member rating average days saved: Read what our members are saying
    • Parent Category Name: Vendor Management
    • Parent Category Link: /vendor-management

    Organizations need to understand their value-added reseller (VAR) portfolio and the greater VAR landscape to better:

    • Manage the VAR portfolio.
    • Understand additional value each VAR can provide.
    • Maximize existing VAR commitments.
    • Evaluate the VARs’ performance.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    VARs typically charge more for products because they are in some way adding value. If you’re not leveraging any of the provided value, you’re likely wasting money and should use a basic commodity-type reseller for procurement.

    Impact and Result

    This project will provide several benefits to Vendor Management and Procurement:

    • Defined VAR value and performance tracking.
    • Manageable portfolio of VARs that fully benefit the organization.
    • Added training, licensing advice, faster quoting, and invoicing resolution.
    • Reduced deployment and logistics costs.

    Maximize Value From Your Value-Added Reseller (VAR) Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our informative Executive Brief to find out why you should maximize value from your value-added reseller, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the three ways to better manage your VARs improve performance and reduce costs.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Organize and prioritize

    Organize all your VARs and create a manageable portfolio detailing their value, specific, product, services, and certifications.

    • Maximize Value From Your Value-Added Reseller – Phase 1: Organize and Prioritize
    • VAR Listing and Prioritization Tool

    2. “EvaluRate” your VARs

    Create an in-depth evaluation of the VARs’ capabilities.

    • Maximize Value From Your Value-Added Reseller – Phase 2: EvaluRate Your VARs
    • VAR Features Checklist Tool
    • VAR Profile and EvaluRation Tool

    3. Consolidate and reduce

    Assess each VAR for low performance and opportunity to increase value or consolidate to another VAR and reduce redundancy.

    • Maximize Value From Your Value-Added Reseller – Phase 3: Consolidate and Reduce

    4. Maximize their value

    Micro-manage your primary VARs to ensure performance to commitments and maximize their value.

    • Maximize Value From Your Value-Added Reseller – Phase 4: Maximize Their Value
    • VAR Information and Scorecard Workbook
    [infographic]

    Marketing Management Suite Software Selection Guide

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    • Parent Category Name: Marketing Solutions
    • Parent Category Link: /marketing-solutions
    • Selecting and implementing the right MMS platform – one that aligns with your requirements is a significant undertaking.
    • Despite the importance of selecting and implementing the right MMS platform, many organizations struggle to define an approach to picking the most appropriate vendor and rolling out the solution in an effective and cost-efficient manner.
    • IT often finds itself in the unenviable position of taking the fall for an MMS platform that doesn’t deliver on the promise of the MMS strategy.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • MMS platform selection must be driven by your overall customer experience management strategy. Link your MMS selection to your organization’s CXM framework.
    • Determine what exactly you require from your MMS platform; leverage use cases to help guide selection.
    • Ensure strong points of integration between your MMS and other software such as CRM and POS. Your MMS solution should not live in isolation; it must be part of a wider ecosystem.

    Impact and Result

    • An MMS platform that effectively meets business needs and delivers value.
    • Reduced costs during MMS vendor platform selection and faster time to results after implementation.

    Marketing Management Suite Software Selection Guide Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Marketing Management Suite Software Selection Guide – A deck that walks you through the process of building your business case and selecting the proper MMS platform.

    This blueprint will help you build a business case for selecting the right MMS platform, define key requirements, and conduct a thorough analysis and scan of the current state of the ever-evolving MMS market space.

    • Marketing Management Suite Software Selection Guide Storyboard
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Marketing Management Suite Software Selection Guide

    Streamline your organizational approach to selecting a right-sized marketing management platform.

    Analyst perspective

    A robustly configured and comprehensive MMS platform is a crucial ingredient to help kick-start your organization's cross-channel and multichannel marketing management initiatives.

    Modern marketing management suites (MMS) are imperative given today's complex, multitiered, and often non-standardized marketing processes. Relying on isolated methods such as lead generation or email marketing techniques for executing key cross-channel and multichannel marketing initiatives is not enough to handle the complexity of contemporary marketing management activities.

    Organizations need to invest in highly customizable and functionally extensive MMS platforms to provide value alongside the marketing value chain and a 360-degree view of the consumer's marketing journey. IT needs to be rigorously involved with the sourcing and implementation of the new MMS tool, and the necessary business units also need to own the requirements and be involved from the initial stages of software selection.

    To succeed with MMS implementation, consider drafting a detailed roadmap that outlines milestone activities for configuration, security, points of integration, and data migration capabilities and provides for ongoing application maintenance and support.

    This is a picture of Yaz Palanichamy

    Yaz Palanichamy
    Senior Research Analyst, Customer Experience Strategy
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive summary

    Your Challenge

    • Many organizations struggle with taking a systematic and structured approach to selecting a right-sized marketing management suite (MMS) – an indispensable part of managing an organization's specific and nuanced marketing management needs.
    • Organizations must define a clear-cut strategic approach to investing in a new MMS platform. Exercising the appropriate selection and implementation rigor for a right-sized MMS tool is a critical step in delivering concrete business value to sustain various marketing value chains across the organization.

    Common Obstacles

    • An MMS vendor that is not well aligned to marketing requirements wastes resources and causes an endless cascade of end-user frustration.
    • The MMS market is rapidly evolving, making it difficult for vendors to retain a competitive foothold in the space.
    • IT managers and/or marketing professionals often find themselves in the unenviable position of taking the fall for MMS platforms that fail to deliver on the promise of the overarching marketing management strategy.

    Info-Tech's Approach

    • MMS platform selection must be driven by your overall marketing management strategy. Email marketing techniques, social marketing, and/or lead management strategies are often not enough to satisfy the more sophisticated use cases demanded by increasingly complex customer segmentation levels.
    • For organizations with a large audience or varied product offerings, a well-integrated MMS platform enables the management of various complex campaigns across many channels, product lines, customer segments, and marketing groups throughout the enterprise.

    Info-Tech Insight

    IT must collaborate with marketing professionals and other key stakeholder groups to define a unified vision and holistic outlook for a right-sized MMS platform.

    Info-Tech's methodology for selecting a right-sized marketing management suite platform

    1. Understand Core MMS Features

    2. Build the Business Case & Streamline Requirements

    3. Discover the MMS Market Space & Prepare for Implementation

    Phase Steps

    1. Define MMS Platforms
    2. Classify Table Stakes & Differentiating Capabilities
    3. Explore Trends
    1. Build the Business Case
    2. Streamline the Requirements Elicitation Process for a New MMS Platform
    3. Develop an Inclusive RFP Approach
    1. Discover Key Players in the Vendor Landscape
    2. Engage the Shortlist & Select Finalist
    3. Prepare for Implementation

    Phase Outcomes

    1. Consensus on scope of MMS and key MMS platform capabilities
    1. MMS platform selection business case
    2. Top-level use cases and requirements
    3. Procurement vehicle best practices
    1. Market analysis of MMS platforms
    2. Overview of shortlisted vendors
    3. Implementation considerations

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

    Call #1: Understand what a marketing management suite is. Discuss core capabilities and key trends.

    Call #2: Build the business case
    to select a right-sized MMS.

    Call #3: Define your core
    MMS requirements.

    Call #4: Build and sustain procurement vehicle best practices.

    Call #5: Evaluate the MMS vendor landscape and short-list viable options.


    Call #6: Review implementation considerations.

    A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

    The MMS procurement process should be broken into segments:

    1. Create a vendor shortlist using this buyer's guide.
    2. Define a structured approach to selection.
    3. Review the contract.

    Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

    DIY Toolkit

    “Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”

    Guided Implementation

    “Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”

    Workshop

    “We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”

    Consulting

    “Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    What are marketing management suite platforms?

    Our Definition: Marketing management suite (MMS) platforms are core enterprise applications that provide a unified set of marketing processes for a given organization and, typically, the capability to coordinate key cross-channel marketing initiatives.

    Key product capabilities for sophisticated MMS platforms include but are not limited to:

    • Email marketing
    • Lead nurturing
    • Social media management
    • Content curation and distribution
    • Marketing reporting and analytics
    • Consistent brand messaging

    Using a robust and comprehensive MMS platform equips marketers with the appropriate tools needed to make more informed decisions around campaign execution, resulting in better targeting, acquisition, and customer retention initiatives. Moreover, such tools can help bolster effective revenue generation and ensure more viable growth initiatives for future marketing growth enablement strategies.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Feature sets are rapidly evolving over time as MMS offerings continue to proliferate in this market space. Ensure that you focus on core components such as customer conversion rates and new lead captures through maintaining well- integrated multichannel campaigns.

    Marketing Management Suite Software Selection Buyer's Guide

    Info-Tech Insight

    A right-sized MMS software selection and procurement decision should involve comprehensive requirements and needs analysis by not just Marketing but also other organizational units such as IT, in conjunction with input suppled from the internal vendor procurement team.

    MMS Software Selection & Vendor Procurement Journey. The three main steps are: Envision the Art of the Possible; Elicit Granular Requirements; Contextualize the MMS Vendor Market Space

    Phase 1

    Understand Core MMS Features

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    1.1 Define MMS Platforms

    1.2 Classify Table Stakes & Differentiating Capabilities

    1.3 Explore Trends

    2.1 Build the Business Case

    2.2 Streamline Requirements Elicitation

    2.3 Develop an Inclusive RFP Approach

    3.1 Discover Key Players in the Vendor Landscape

    3.2 Engage the Shortlist & Select Finalist

    3.3 Prepare for Implementation

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Level-set an understanding of MMS technology.
    • Define which MMS features are table stakes (standard) and which are key differentiating functionalities.
    • Identify the art of the possible in a modern MMS platform from sales, marketing, and service lenses.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • CMO
    • Digital Marketing Project Manager
    • Marketing Data Analytics Analyst
    • Marketing Management Executive

    What are marketing management suite platforms?

    Our Definition: Marketing management suite (MMS) platforms are core enterprise applications that provide a unified set of marketing processes for a given organization and, typically, the capability to coordinate key cross-channel marketing initiatives.

    Key product capabilities for sophisticated MMS platforms include but are not limited to:

    • Email marketing
    • Lead nurturing
    • Social media management
    • Content curation and distribution
    • Marketing reporting and analytics
    • Consistent brand messaging

    Using a robust and comprehensive MMS platform equips marketers with the appropriate tools needed to make more informed decisions around campaign execution, resulting in better targeting, acquisition, and customer retention initiatives. Moreover, such tools can help bolster effective revenue generation and ensure more viable growth initiatives for future marketing growth enablement strategies.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Feature sets are rapidly evolving over time as MMS offerings continue to proliferate in this market space. Ensure that you focus on core components such as customer conversion rates and new lead captures through maintaining well- integrated multichannel campaigns.

    Marketing through the ages

    Tracing the foundational origins of marketing management practices

    Initial traction for marketing management strategies began with the need to holistically understand the effects of advertising efforts and how the media mix could be best optimized.

    1902

    1920s-1930s

    1942

    1952-1964

    1970s-1990s

    Recognizing the increasing need for focused and professional marketing efforts, the University of Pennsylvania offers the first marketing course, dubbed "The Marketing of Products."

    As broadcast media began to peak, marketers needed to manage a greater number of complex and interspersed marketing channels.

    The introduction of television ads in 1942 offered new opportunities for brands to reach consumers across a growing media landscape. To generate the highest ROI, marketers sought to understand the consumer and focus on more tailored messaging and product personalization. Thus, modern marketing practices were born.

    Following the introduction of broadcast media, marketers had to develop strategies beyond traditional spray-and-pray methods. The first modern marketing measurement concept, "marketing mix," was conceptualized in 1952 and popularized in 1964 by Neil Borden.

    This period marked the digital revolution and the new era of marketing. With the advent of new communications technology and the modern internet, marketing management strategies reached new heights of sophistication. During the early 1990s, search engines emerged to help users navigate the web, leading to early forms of search engine optimization and advertising.

    Where it's going: the future state of marketing management

    1. Increasing Complexity Driving Consumer Purchasing Decisions
      • "The main complexity is dealing with the increasing product variety and changing consumer demands, which is forcing marketers to abandon undifferentiated marketing strategies and even niche marketing strategies and to adopt a mass customization process interacting one-to-one with their customers." – Complexity, 2019
    2. Consumers Seeking More Tailored Brand Personalization
      • Financial Services marketers lead all other industries in AI application adoption, with 37% currently using them (Salesforce, 2019).
    3. The Inclusion of More AI-Enabled Marketing Strategies
      • According to a 2022 Nostro report, 70% of consumers say it is important that brands continue to offer personalized consumer experiences.
    4. Green Marketing
      • Recent studies have shown that up to 80% of all consumers are interested in green marketing strategies (Marketing Schools, 2020).

    Marketing management by the numbers

    Key trends

    6%

    As a continuously growing discipline, marketing management roles are predicted to grow faster than average, at a rate of 6% over the next decade.

    Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021

    17%

    While many marketing management vendors offer A/B testing, only 17% of marketers are actively using A/B testing on landing pages to increase conversion rates.

    Source: Oracle, 2022

    70%

    It is imperative that technology and SaaS companies begin to use marketing automation as a core component of their martech strategy to remain competitive. About 70% of technology and SaaS companies are employing integrated martech tools.

    Source: American Marketing Association, 2021

    Understand MMS table stakes features

    Organizations can expect nearly all MMS vendors to provide the following functionality

    Email Marketing

    Lead Nurturing

    Reporting, Analytics, and Marketing KPIs

    Marketing Campaign Management

    Integrational Catalog

    The use of email alongside marketing efforts to promote a business' products and services. Email marketing can be a powerful tool to maintain connections with your audience and ensure sustained brand promotion.

    The process of developing and nurturing relationships with key customer contacts at every major touchpoint in their customer journey. MMS platforms can use automated lead-nurturing functions that are triggered by customer behavior.

    The use of well-defined metrics to help curate, gather, and analyze marketing data to help track performance and improve the marketing department's future marketing decisions and strategies.

    Tools needed for the planning, execution, tracking, and analysis of direct marketing campaigns. Such tools are needed to help gauge your buyers' sentiments toward your company's product offerings and services.

    MMS platforms should generally have a comprehensive open API/integration catalog. Most MMS platforms should have dedicated integration points to interface with various tools across the marketing landscape (e.g. social media, email, SEO, CRM, CMS tools, etc.).

    Identify differentiating MMS features

    While not always deemed must-have functionality, these features may be the deciding factor when choosing between two MMS-focused vendors.

    Digital Asset Management (DAM)

    A DAM can help manage digital media asset files (e.g. photos, audio files, video).

    Customer Data Management

    Customer data management modules help your organization track essential customer information to maximize your marketing results.

    Text-Based Marketing

    Text-based marketing strategy is ideal for any organization primarily focused on coordinating structured and efficient marketing campaigns.

    Customer
    Journey Orchestration

    Customer journey orchestration enables users to orchestrate customer conversations and journeys across the entire marketing value chain.

    AI-Driven Workflows

    AI-powered workflows can help eliminate complexities and allow marketers to automate and optimize tasks across the marketing spectrum.

    Dynamic Segmentation

    Dynamic segmentation to target audience cohorts based on recent actions and stated preferences.

    Advanced Email Marketing

    These include capabilities such as A/B testing, spam filter testing, and detailed performance reporting.

    Ensure you understand the art of the possible across the MMS landscape

    Understanding the trending feature sets that encompass the broader MMS vendor landscape will best equip your organization with the knowledge needed to effectively match today's MMS platforms with your organization's marketing requirements.

    Holistically examine the potential of any MMS solution through three main lenses:

    Data-Driven
    Digital Advertising

    Adapt innovative techniques such as conversational marketing to help collect, analyze, and synthesize crucial audience information to improve the customer marketing experience and pre-screen prospects in a more conscientious manner.

    Next Best Action Marketing

    Next best action marketing (NBAM) is a customer-centric paradigm/marketing technique designed to capture specific information about customers and their individual preferences. Predicting customers' future actions by understanding their intent during their purchasing decisions stage will help improve conversion rates.

    AI-Driven Customer
    Segmentation

    The use of inclusive and innovative AI-based forecast modeling techniques can help more accurately analyze customer data to create more targeted segments. As such, marketing messages will be more accurately tailored to the customer that is reading them.

    Art of the possible: data-driven digital advertising

    CONVERSATIONAL MARKETING INTELLIGENCE

    Are you curious about the measures needed to boost engagement among your client base and other primary target audience groups? Conversational marketing intelligence metrics can help collect and disseminate key descriptive data points across a broader range of audience information.

    AI-DRIVEN CONVERSATIONAL MARKETING DEVICES

    Certain social media channels (e.g. LinkedIn and Facebook) like to take advantage of click-to-Messenger-style applications to help drive meaningful conversations with customers and learn more about their buying preferences. In addition, AI-driven chatbot applications can help the organization glean important information about the customer's persona by asking probing questions about their marketing purchase behaviors and preferences.

    METAVERSE- DRIVEN BRANDING AND ADVERTISING

    One of the newest phenomena in data-driven marketing technology and digital advertising techniques is the metaverse, where users can represent themselves and their brand via virtual avatars to further gamify their marketing strategies. Moreover, brands can create immersive experiences and engage with influencers and established communities and collect a wealth of information about their audience that can help drive customer retention and loyalty.

    Case study

    This is the logos for Gucci and Roblox.

    Metaverse marketing extends the potential for commercial brand development and representation: a deep dive into Gucci's metaverse practice

    INDUSTRY: Luxury Goods Apparel
    SOURCE: Vogue Business

    Challenge

    Beginning with a small, family-owned leather shop known as House of Gucci in Florence, Italy, businessman and fashion designer Guccio Gucci sold saddles, leather bags, and other accessories to horsemen during the 1920s. Over the years, Gucci's offerings have grown to include various other personal luxury goods.

    As consumer preferences have evolved over time, particularly with the younger generation, Gucci's professional marketing teams looked to invest in virtual technology environments to help build and sustain better brand awareness among younger consumer audiences.

    Solution

    In response to the increasing presence of metaverse-savvy gamers on the internet, Gucci began investing in developing its online metaverse presence to bolster its commercial marketing brand there.

    A recent collaboration with Roblox, an online gaming platform that offers virtual experiences, provided Gucci the means to showcase its fashion items using the Gucci Garden – a virtual art installation project for Generation Z consumers, powered by Roblox's VR technology. The Gucci Garden virtual system featured a French-styled garden environment where players could try on and buy Gucci virtual fashion items to dress up their blank avatars.

    Results

    Gucci's disruptive, innovative metaverse marketing campaign project with Roblox is proof of its commitment to tapping new marketing growth channels to showcase the brand to engage new and prospective consumers (e.g. Roblox's player base) across more unique sandboxed/simulation environments.

    The freedom and flexibility in the metaverse environments allows brands such as Gucci to execute a more flexible digital marketing approach and enables them to take advantage of innovative metaverse-driven technologies in the market to further drive their data-driven digital marketing campaigns.

    Art of the possible: next best action marketing (NBAM)

    NEXT BEST ACTION PREDICTIVE MODELING

    To improve conversion propensity, next best action techniques can use predictive modeling methods to help build a dynamic overview of the customer journey. With information sourced from actionable marketing intelligence data, MMS platforms can use NBAM techniques to identify customer needs based on their buying behavior, social media interactions, and other insights to determine what unique set of actions should be taken for each customer.

    MACHINE LEARNING–BASED RECOMMENDER SYSTEMS

    Rules-based recommender systems can help assign probabilities of purchasing behaviors based on the patterns in touchpoints of a customer's journey and interaction with your brand. For instance, a large grocery chain company such as Walmart or Whole Foods will use ML-based recommender systems to decide what coupons they should offer to their customers based on their purchasing history.

    Art of the possible: AI-driven customer segmentation

    MACHINE/DEEP LEARNING (ML/DL) ALGORITHMS

    The inclusion of AI in data analytics helps make customer targeting more accurate
    and meaningful. Organizations can analyze customer data more thoroughly and generate in-depth contextual and descriptive information about the targeted segments. In addition, they can use this information to automate the personalization of marketing campaigns for a specific target audience group.

    UNDERSTANDING CUSTOMER SENTIMENTS

    To greatly benefit from AI-powered customer segmentation, organizations must deploy specialized custom AI solutions to help organize qualitative comments into quantitative data. This approach requires companies to use custom AI models and tools that will analyze customer sentiments and experiences based on data extracted from various touchpoints (e.g. CRM systems, emails, chatbot logs).

    Phase 2

    Build the Business Case and Streamline Requirements

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    1.1 Define MMS Platforms

    1.2 Classify Table Stakes & Differentiating Capabilities

    1.3 Explore Trends

    2.1 Build the Business Case

    2.2 Streamline Requirements Elicitation

    2.3 Develop an Inclusive RFP Approach

    3.1 Discover Key Players in the Vendor Landscape

    3.2 Engage the Shortlist & Select Finalist

    3.3 Prepare for Implementation

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Define and build the business case for the selection of a right-sized MMS platform.
    • Elicit and prioritize granular requirements for your MMS platform.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • CMO
    • Technical Marketing Analyst
    • Digital Marketing Project Manager
    • Marketing Data Analytics Analyst
    • Marketing Management Executive

    Software Selection Engagement

    5 Advisory Calls over a 5-Week Period to Accelerate Your Selection Process

    Expert analyst guidance over 5 weeks on average to select software and negotiate with the vendor.

    Save money, align stakeholders, speed up the process and make better decisions.

    Use a repeatable, formal methodology to improve your application selection process.

    Better, faster results, guaranteed, included in your membership.

    This is an image of the plan for five advisory calls over a five-week period.

    CLICK HERE to book your Selection Engagement

    Elicit and prioritize granular requirements for your marketing management suite (MMS) platform

    Understanding business needs through requirements gathering is the key to defining everything you need from your software. However, it is an area where people often make critical mistakes.

    Poorly scoped requirements

    Best practices

    • Fail to be comprehensive and miss certain areas of scope.
    • Focus on how the solution should work instead of what it must accomplish.
    • Have multiple levels of detail within the requirements, causing inconsistency and confusion.
    • Drill all the way down to system-level detail.
    • Add unnecessary constraints based on what is done today rather than focusing on what is needed for tomorrow.
    • Omit constraints or preferences that buyers think are obvious.
    • Get a clear understanding of what the system needs to do and what it is expected to produce.
    • Test against the principle of MECE – requirements should be "mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive."
    • Explicitly state the obvious and assume nothing.
    • Investigate what is sold on the market and how it is sold. Use language that is consistent with that of the market and focus on key differentiators – not table stakes.
    • Contain the appropriate level of detail – the level should be suitable for procurement and sufficient for differentiating vendors.

    Info-Tech Insight
    Poor requirements are the number one reason projects fail. Review Info-Tech's Improve Requirements Gathering blueprint to learn how to improve your requirements analysis and get results that truly satisfy stakeholder needs.

    Info-Tech's approach

    Develop an inclusive and thorough approach to the RFP process

    Identity Need; Define Business requirements; Gain Business Authorization; Perform RFI/RFP; Negotiate Agreement; Purchase Goods and Services; Assess and Measure Performance.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Review Info-Tech's process and understand how you can prevent your organization from leaking negotiation leverage while preventing vendors from taking control of your RFP.

    The Info-Tech difference:

    1. The secret to managing an RFP is to make it as manageable and as thorough as possible. The RFP process should be like any other aspect of business – by developing a standard process. With a process in place, you are better able to handle whatever comes your way, because you know the steps you need to follow to produce a top-notch RFP.
    2. The business then identifies the need for more information about a product/service or determines that a purchase is required.
    3. A team of stakeholders from each area impacted gather all business, technical, legal, and risk requirements. What are the expectations of the vendor relationship post-RFP? How will the vendors be evaluated?
    4. Based on the predetermined requirements, either an RFI or an RFP is issued to vendors with a due date.

    Leverage Info-Tech's Contract Review Service to level the playing field with your shortlisted vendors

    You may be faced with multiple products, services, master service agreements, licensing models, service agreements, and more.
    Use Info-Tech's Contract Review Service to gain insights on your agreements:

    1. Are all key terms included?
    2. Are they applicable to your business?
    3. Can you trust that results will be delivered?
    4. What questions should you be asking from an IT perspective?

    Validate that a contract meets IT's and the business' needs by looking beyond the legal terminology. Use a practical set of questions, rules, and guidance to improve your value for dollar spent.

    This is an image of three screenshots from Info-Tech's Contract Review Service.

    CLICK to BOOK The Contract Review Service

    CLICK to DOWNLOAD Master Contract Review and Negotiation for Software Agreements

    Phase 3

    Discover the MMS Market Space and Prepare for Implementation

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    1.1 Define MMS Platforms

    1.2 Classify Table Stakes & Differentiating Capabilities

    1.3 Explore Trends

    2.1 Build the Business Case

    2.2 Streamline Requirements Elicitation

    2.3 Develop an Inclusive RFP Approach

    3.1 Discover Key Players in the Vendor Landscape

    3.2 Engage the Shortlist & Select Finalist

    3.3 Prepare for Implementation

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Dive into the key players of the MMS vendor landscape.
    • Understand best practices for building a vendor shortlist.
    • Understand key implementation considerations for MMS.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • CMO
    • Marketing Management Executive
    • Applications Manager
    • Digital Marketing Project Manager
    • Sales Executive
    • Vendor Outreach and Partnerships Manager

    Review your use cases to start your shortlist

    Your Info-Tech analysts can help you narrow down the list of vendors that will meet your requirements.

    Next steps will include:

    1. Reviewing your requirements.
    2. Checking out SoftwareReviews.
    3. Shortlisting your vendors.
    4. Conducting demos and detailed proposal reviews.
    5. Selecting and contracting with a finalist!

    Get to know the key players in the MMS landscape

    The following slides provide a top-level overview of the popular players you will encounter in your MMS shortlisting process.

    This is a series of images of the logos for the companies which will be discussed later in this blueprint.

    Evaluate software category leaders through vendor rankings and awards

    SoftwareReviews

    This is an image of two screenshots from the Data Quadrant Report.

    The Data Quadrant is a thorough evaluation and ranking of all software in an individual category to compare platforms across multiple dimensions.

    Vendors are ranked by their Composite Score, based on individual feature evaluations, user satisfaction rankings, vendor capability comparisons, and likeliness to recommend the platform.

    This is an image of two screenshots from the Emotional Footprint Report.

    The Emotional Footprint is a powerful indicator of overall user sentiment toward the relationship with the vendor, capturing data across five dimensions.

    Vendors are ranked by their Customer Experience (CX) Score, which combines the overall Emotional Footprint rating with a measure of the value delivered by the solution.

    Speak with category experts to dive deeper into the vendor landscape

    SoftwareReviews

    • Fact-based reviews of business software from IT professionals.
    • Product and category reports with state-of-the-art data visualization.
    • Top-tier data quality backed by a rigorous quality assurance process.
    • User-experience insight that reveals the intangibles of working with a vendor.

    CLICK HERE to ACCESS

    Comprehensive software reviews
    to make better IT decisions

    We collect and analyze the most detailed reviews on enterprise software from real users to give you an unprecedented view into the product and vendor before you buy.

    SoftwareReviews is powered by Info-Tech

    Technology coverage is a priority for Info-Tech, and SoftwareReviews provides the most comprehensive unbiased data on today's technology. Combined with the insight of our expert analysts, our members receive unparalleled support in their buying journey.

    SoftwareReviews' Enterprise MMS Rankings

    Strengths:

    • Advanced Campaign Management
    • Email Marketing Automation
    • Multichannel Integration

    Areas to Improve:

    • Mobile Marketing Management
    • Advanced Data Segmentation
    • Pricing Sensitivity and Implementation Support Model

    This is an image of SoftwareReviews analysis for Adobe Experience Cloud.

    history

    This is the Logo for Adobe Experience Cloud

    "Adobe Experience Cloud (AEC), formerly Adobe Marketing Cloud (AMC), provides a host of innovative multichannel analytics, social, advertising, media optimization, and content management products (just to name a few). The Adobe Marketing Cloud package allows users with valid subscriptions to download the entire collection and use it directly on their computer with open access to online updates. Organizations that have a deeply ingrained Adobe footprint and have already reaped the benefits of Adobe's existing portfolio of cloud services products (e.g. Adobe Creative Cloud) will find the AEC suite a functionally robust and scalable fit for their marketing management and marketing automation needs.

    However, it is important to note that AEC's pricing model is expensive when compared to other competitors in the space (e.g. Sugar Market) and, therefore, is not as affordable for smaller or mid-sized organizations. Moreover, there is the expectation of a learning curve with the AEC platform. Newly onboarded users will need to spend some time learning how to navigate and work comfortably with AEC's marketing automaton modules. "
    - Yaz Palanichamy
    Senior Research Analyst, Info-Tech Research Group

    Adobe Experience Cloud Platform pricing is opaque.
    Request a demo.*

    *Info-Tech recommends reaching out to the vendor's internal sales management team for explicit details on individual pricing plans for the Adobe Marketing Cloud suite.

    2021

    Adobe Experience Platform Launch is integrated into the Adobe Experience Platform as a suite of data collection technologies (Experience League, Adobe).

    November 2020

    Adobe announces that it will spend $1.5 billion to acquire Workfront, a provider of marketing collaboration software (TechTarget, 2020).

    September 2018

    Adobe acquires marketing automation software company Marketo (CNBC, 2018).

    June 2018

    Adobe buys e-commerce services provider Magento Commerce from private equity firm Permira for $1.68 billion (TechCrunch, 2018).

    2011

    Adobe acquires DemDex, Inc. with the intention of adding DemDex's audience-optimization software to the Adobe Online Marketing Suite (Adobe News, 2011).

    2009

    Adobe acquires online marketing and web analytics company Omniture for $1.8 billion and integrates its products into the Adobe Marketing Cloud (Zippia, 2022).

    Adobe platform launches in December 1982.

    SoftwareReviews' Enterprise MMS Rankings

    Strengths:

    • Marketing Workflow Management
    • Advanced Data Segmentation
    • Marketing Operations Management

    Areas to Improve:

    • Email Marketing Automation
    • Marketing Asset Management
    • Process of Creating and/or Managing Marketing Lists

    This is an image of SoftwareReviews analysis for Dynamics 365

    history

    This is the logo for Dynamics 365

    2021

    Microsoft Dynamics 365 suite adds customer journey orchestration as a viable key feature (Tech Target, 2021)

    2019

    Microsoft begins adding to its Dynamics 365 suite in April 2019 with new functionalities such as virtual agents, fraud detection, new mixed reality (Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog, 2019).

    2017

    Adobe and Microsoft expand key partnership between Adobe Experience Manager and Dynamics 365 integration (TechCrunch, 2017).

    2016

    Microsoft Dynamics CRM paid seats begin growing steadily at more than 2.5x year-over-year (TechCrunch, 2016).

    2016

    On-premises application, called Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement, contains the Dynamics 365 Marketing Management platform (Learn Microsoft, 2023).

    Microsoft Dynamics 365 product suite is released on November 1, 2016.

    "Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Marketing remains a viable option for organizations that require a range of innovative MMS tools that can provide a wealth of functional capabilities (e.g. AI-powered analytics to create targeted segments, A/B testing, personalizing engagement for each customer). Moreover, Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Marketing offers trial options to sandbox their platform for free for 30 days to help users familiarize themselves with the software before buying into the product suite.

    However, ensure that you have the time to effectively train users on implementing the MS Dynamics 365 platform. The platform does not score high on customizability in SoftwareReviews reports. Developers have only a limited ability to modify the core UI, so organizations need to be fully equipped with the knowledge needed to successfully navigate MS-based applications to take full advantage of the platform. For organizations deep in the Microsoft stack, D365 Marketing is a compelling option."
    Yaz Palanichamy
    Senior Research Analyst, Info-Tech Research Group

    Dynamics 365
    Marketing

    Dynamics 365
    Marketing (Attachment)

    • Starts from $1,500 per tenant/month*
    • Includes 10,000 contacts, 100,000 interactions, and 1,000 SMS messages
    • For organizations without any other Dynamics 365 application
    • Starts from $750 per tenant/month*
    • Includes 10,000 contacts, 100,000 interactions, and 1,000 SMS messages
    • For organizations with a qualifying Dynamics 365 application

    * Pricing correct as of October 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts. See pricing on vendor's website for latest information.

    SoftwareReviews' Enterprise MMS Rankings

    Strengths:

    • Marketing Analytics
    • Marketing Workflow Management
    • Lead Nurturing

    Areas to Improve:

    • Advanced Campaign Management
    • Email Marketing Automation
    • Marketing Segmentation

    This is an image of SoftwareReviews analysis for HubSpot

    history

    This is an image of the Logo for HubSpot

    2022

    HubSpot Marketing Hub releases Campaigns 2.0 module for its Marketing Hub platform (HubSpot, 2022).

    2018


    HubSpot announces the launch of its Marketing Hub Starter platform, a new offering that aims to give growing teams the tools they need to start marketing right (HubSpot Company News, 2018).

    2014

    HubSpot celebrates its first initial public offering on the NYSE market (HubSpot Company News, 2014).

    2013

    HubSpot opens its first international office location in Dublin, Ireland
    (HubSpot News, 2013).

    2010

    Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah write "Inbound Marketing," a seminal book that focuses on inbound marketing principles (HubSpot, n.d.).

    HubSpot opens for business in Cambridge, MA, USA, in 2005.

    "HubSpot's Marketing Hub software ranks consistently high in scores across SoftwareReviews reports and remains a strong choice for organizations that want to run successful inbound marketing campaigns that make customers interested and engaged with their business. HubSpot Marketing Hub employs comprehensive feature sets, including the option to streamline ad tracking and management, perform various audience segmentation techniques, and build personalized and automated marketing campaigns.

    However, SoftwareReviews reports indicate end users are concerned that HubSpot Marketing Hub's platform may be slightly overpriced in recent years and not cost effective for smaller and mid-sized companies that are working with a limited budget. Moreover, when it comes to mobile user accessibility reports, HubSpot's Marketing Hub does not directly offer data usage reports in relation to how mobile users navigate various web pages on the customer's website."
    Yaz Palanichamy
    Senior Research Analyst, Info-Tech Research Group

    HubSpot Marketing Hub (Starter Package)

    HubSpot Marketing Hub (Professional Package)

    HubSpot Marketing Hub (Enterprise Package)

    • Starts from $50/month*
    • Includes 1,000 marketing contacts
    • All non-marketing contacts are free, up to a limit of 15 million overall contacts (marketing contacts + non-marketing contracts)
    • Starts from $890/month*
    • Includes 2,000 marketing contacts
    • Onboarding is required for a one-time fee of $3,000
    • Starts from $3600/month*
    • Includes 10,000 marketing contacts
    • Onboarding is required for a one-time fee of $6,000

    *Pricing correct as of October 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts.
    See pricing on vendor's website for latest information.

    SoftwareReviews' Enterprise MMS Rankings

    Strengths:

    • Email Marketing Automation
    • Customer Journey Mapping
    • Contacts Management

    Areas to Improve:

    • Pricing Model Flexibility
    • Integrational API Support
    • Antiquated UI/CX Design Elements

    This is an image of SoftwareReviews analysis for Maropost

    history

    This is an image of the Logo for MAROPOST Marketing Cloud

    2022

    Maropost acquires Retail Express, leading retail POS software in Australia for $55M (PRWire, 2022).

    2018


    Maropost develops innovative product feature updates to its marketing cloud platform (e.g. automated social campaign management, event segmentation for mobile apps) (Maropost, 2019).

    2015

    US-based communications organization Success selects Maropost Marketing Cloud for marketing automation use cases (Apps Run The World, 2015).

    2017

    Maropost is on track to become one of Toronto's fastest-growing companies, generating $30M in annual revenue (MarTech Series, 2017).

    2015

    Maropost is ranked as a "High Performer" in the Email Marketing category in a G2 Crowd Grid Report (VentureBeat, 2015).

    Maropost is founded in 2011 as a customer-centric ESP platform.

    Maropost Marketing Cloud – Essential

    Maropost
    Marketing Cloud –Professional

    Maropost
    Marketing Cloud –Enterprise

    • Starts from $279/month*
    • Includes baseline features such as email campaigns, A/B campaigns, transactional emails, etc.
    • Starts from $849/month*
    • Includes additional system functionalities of interest (e.g. mobile keywords, more journeys for marketing automation use cases)
    • Starts from $1,699/month*
    • Includes unlimited number of journeys
    • Upper limit for custom contact fields is increased by 100-150

    *Pricing correct as of October 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts.
    See pricing on vendor's website for latest information.

    SoftwareReviews' Enterprise MMS Rankings

    Strengths:

    • Advanced Data Segmentation
    • Marketing Analytics
    • Multichannel Integration

    Areas to Improve:

    • Marketing Operations
      Management
    • Marketing Asset Management
    • Community Marketing Management

    This is an image of SoftwareReviews analysis for Oracle Marketing Cloud.

    history

    This is an image of the Logo for Oracle Marketing Cloud

    2021

    New advanced intelligence capabilities within Oracle Eloqua Marketing Automation help deliver more targeted and personalized messages (Oracle, Marketing Automation documentation).

    2015


    Oracle revamps its marketing cloud with new feature sets, including Oracle ID Graph for cross-platform identification of customers, AppCloud Connect, etc. (Forbes, 2015).

    2014

    Oracle announces the launch of the Oracle Marketing Cloud (TechCrunch, 2014).

    2005

    Oracle acquires PeopleSoft, a company that produces human resource management systems, in 2005 for $10.3B (The Economic Times, 2016).

    1982

    Oracle becomes the first company to sell relational database management software (RDBMS). In 1982 it has revenue of $2.5M (Encyclopedia.com).

    Relational Software, Inc (RSI) – later renamed Oracle Corporation – is founded in 1977.

    "Oracle Marketing Cloud offers a comprehensive interwoven and integrated marketing management solution that can help end users launch cross-channel marketing programs and unify all prospect and customer marketing signals within one singular view. Oracle Marketing Cloud ranks consistently high across our SoftwareReviews reports and sustains top scores in overall customer experience rankings at a factor of 9.0. The emotional sentiment of users interacting with Oracle Marketing Cloud is also highly favorable, with Oracle's Emotional Footprint score at +93.

    Users should be aware that some of the reporting mechanisms and report-generation capabilities may not be as mature as those of some of its competitors in the MMS space (e.g. Salesforce, Adobe). Data exportability also presents a challenge in Oracle Marketing Cloud and requires a lot of internal tweaking between end users of the system to function properly. Finally, pricing sensitivity may be a concern for small and mid-sized organizations who may find Oracle's higher-tiered pricing plans to be out of reach. "
    Yaz Palanichamy
    Senior Research Analyst, Info-Tech Research Group

    Oracle Marketing Cloud pricing is opaque.
    Request a demo.*

    *Info-Tech recommends reaching out to the vendor's internal sales management team for explicit details on individual pricing plans for the Adobe Marketing Cloud suite.

    SoftwareReviews' Enterprise MMS Rankings

    Strengths:

    • Marketing Analytics
    • Advanced Campaign Management
    • Email Marketing Automation
    • Social Media Marketing Management

    Areas to Improve:

    • Community Marketing Management
    • Marketing Operations Management
    • Pricing Sensitivity and Vendor Support Model

    This is an image of SoftwareReviews analysis for Salesforce

    history

    This is an image of the Logo for Salesforce Marketing Cloud

    2022

    Salesforce announces sustainability as a core company value (Forbes, 2022).

    2012



    Salesforce unveils Salesforce Marketing Cloud during Dreamforce 2012, with 90,000 registered attendees (Dice, 2012).

    2009

    Salesforce launches Service Cloud, bringing customer service and support automation features to the market (TechCrunch, 2009).

    2003


    The first Dreamforce event is held at the Westin St. Francis hotel in downtown San Francisco
    (Salesforce, 2020).

    2001


    Salesforce delivers $22.4M in revenue for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2002 (Salesforce, 2020).

    Salesforce is founded in 1999.

    "Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a long-term juggernaut of the marketing management software space and is the subject of many Info-Tech member inquiries. It retains strong composite and customer experience (CX) scores in our SoftwareReviews reports. Some standout features of the platform include marketing analytics, advanced campaign management functionalities, email marketing automation, and customer journey management capabilities. In recent years Salesforce has made great strides in improving the overall user experience by investing in new product functionalities such as the Einstein What-If Analyzer, which helps test how your next email campaign will impact overall customer engagement, triggers personalized campaign messages based on an individual user's behavior, and uses powerful real-time segmentation and sophisticated AI to deliver contextually relevant experiences that inspire customers to act.

    On the downside, we commonly see Salesforce's solutions as costlier than competitors' offerings, and its commercial/sales teams tend to be overly aggressive in marketing its solutions without a distinct link to overarching business requirements. "
    Yaz Palanichamy
    Senior Research Analyst, Info-Tech Research Group

    Marketing Cloud Basics

    Marketing Cloud Pro

    Marketing Cloud Corporate

    Marketing Cloud Enterprise

    • Starts at $400*
    • Per org/month
    • Personalized promotional email marketing
    • Starts at $1,250*
    • Per org/month
    • Personalized marketing automation with email solutions
    • Starts at $3,750*
    • Per org/month
    • Personalized cross-channel strategic marketing solutions

    "Request a Quote"

    *Pricing correct as of October 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts. See pricing on vendor's website for latest information.

    SoftwareReviews' Enterprise MMS Rankings

    Strengths:

    • Email Marketing Automation
    • Marketing Workflow Management
    • Marketing Analytics

    Areas to Improve:

    • Mobile Marketing Management
    • Marketing Operations Management
    • Advanced Data Segmentation

    This is an image of SoftwareReviews analysis for SAP

    history

    This is an image of the Logo for SAP

    2022

    SAP announces the second cycle of the 2022 SAP Customer Engagement Initiative. (SAP Community Blog, 2022).

    2020

    SAP acquires Austrian cloud marketing company Emarsys (TechCrunch, 2020).

    2015

    SAP Digital for Customer Engagement launches in May 2015 (SAP News, 2015).

    2009

    SAP begins branching out into three markets of the future (mobile technology, database technology, and cloud). SAP acquires some of its competitors (e.g. Ariba, SuccessFactors, Business Objects) to quickly establish itself as a key player in those areas (SAP, n.d.).

    1999

    SAP responds to the internet and new economy by launching its mysap.com strategy (SAP, n.d.).

    SAP is founded In 1972.

    "Over the years, SAP has positioned itself as one of the usual suspects across the enterprise applications market. While SAP has a broad range of capabilities within the CRM and customer experience space, it consistently underperforms in many of our user-driven SoftwareReviews reports for MMS and adjacent areas, ranking lower in MMS product feature capabilities such as email marketing automation and advanced campaign management than other mainstream MMS vendors, including Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Adobe Experience Cloud. The SAP Customer Engagement Marketing platform seems decidedly a secondary focus for SAP, behind its more compelling presence across the enterprise resource planning space.

    If you are approaching an MMS selection from a greenfield lens and with no legacy vendor baggage for SAP elsewhere, experience suggests that your needs will be better served by a vendor that places greater primacy on the MMS aspect of their portfolio."
    Yaz Palanichamy
    Senior Research Analyst, Info-Tech Research Group

    SAP Customer Engagement Marketing pricing is opaque:
    Request a demo.*

    *Info-Tech recommends reaching out to the vendor's internal sales management team for explicit details on individual pricing plans for the Adobe Marketing Cloud suite.

    SoftwareReviews' Enterprise MMS Rankings

    Strengths:

    • Social Media Automation
    • Email Marketing Automation
    • Marketing Analytics

    Areas to Improve:

    • Ease of Data Integration
    • Breadth of Features
    • Marketing Workflow Management

    b

    SoftwareReviews' Enterprise MMS Rankings

    Strengths:

    • Campaign Management
    • Segmentation
    • Email Delivery

    Areas to Improve:

    • Mobile Optimization
    • A/B Testing
    • Content Authoring

    This is an image of SoftwareReviews analysis for ZOHO Campaigns.

    history

    This is an image of the Logo for ZOHO Campaigns

    2021

    Zoho announces CRM-Campaigns sync (Zoho Campaigns Community Learning, 2021).

    2020

    Zoho reaches more than 50M customers in January ( Zippia, n.d.).

    2017

    Zoho launches Zoho One, a comprehensive suite of 40+ applications (Zoho Blog, 2017).

    2012

    Zoho releases Zoho Campaigns (Business Wire, 2012).

    2007

    Zoho expands into the collaboration space with the release of Zoho Docs and Zoho Meetings (Zoho, n.d.).

    2005

    Zoho CRM is released (Zoho, n.d.).

    Zoho platform is founded in 1996.

    "Zoho maintains a long-running repertoire of end-to-end software solutions for business development purposes. In addition to its flagship CRM product, the company also offers Zoho Campaigns, which is an email marketing software platform that enables contextually driven marketing techniques via dynamic personalization, email interactivity, A/B testing, etc. For organizations that already maintain a deep imprint of Zoho solutions, Zoho Campaigns will be a natural extension to their immediate software environment.

    Zoho Campaigns is a great ecosystem play in environments that have a material Zoho footprint. In the absence of an existing Zoho environment, it's prudent to consider other affordable products as well."
    Yaz Palanichamy
    Senior Research Analyst, Info-Tech Research Group

    Free Version

    Standard

    Professional

    • Starts at $0*
    • Per user/month billed annually
    • Up to 2,000 contacts
    • 6,000 emails/month
    • Starts at $3.75*
    • Per user/month billed annually
    • Up to 100,000 contacts
    • Advanced email templates
    • SMS marketing
    • Starts at $6*
    • Per user/month billed annually
    • Advanced segmentation
    • Dynamic content

    *Pricing correct as of October 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts.

    See pricing on vendor's website for latest information.

    Leverage Info-Tech's research to plan and execute your MMS implementation

    Use Info-Tech's three-phase implementation process to guide your planning:

    1. Assess

    2. Prepare

    3. Govern & Course Correct

    Download Info-Tech's Governance and Management of Enterprise Software Implementation
    Establish and execute an end-to-end, agile framework to succeed with the implementation of a major enterprise application.

    Ensure your implementation team has a high degree of trust and communication

    If external partners are needed, dedicate an internal resource to managing the vendor and partner relationships.

    Communication

    Teams must have some type of communication strategy. This can be broken into:

    • Regularity: Having a set time each day to communicate progress and a set day to conduct retrospectives.
    • Ceremonies: Injecting awards and continually emphasizing delivery of value to encourage relationship building and constructive motivation.
    • Escalation: Voicing any concerns and having someone responsible for addressing them.

    Proximity

    Distributed teams create complexity as communication can break down. This can be mitigated by:

    • Location: Placing teams in proximity to eliminate the barrier of geographical distance and time zone differences.
    • Inclusion: Making a deliberate attempt to pull remote team members into discussions and ceremonies.
    • Communication Tools: Having the right technology (e.g. video conference) to help bring teams closer together virtually.

    Trust

    Members should trust other members are contributing to the project and completing their required tasks on time. Trust can be developed and maintained by:

    • Accountability: Having frequent quality reviews and feedback sessions. As work becomes more transparent, people become more accountable.
    • Role Clarity: Having a clear definition of what everyone's role is.

    Selecting a right-sized MMS platform

    This selection guide allows organizations to execute a structured methodology for picking an MMS platform that aligns with their needs. This includes:

    • Alignment and prioritization of key business and technology drivers for an MMS selection business case.
    • Identification of key use cases and requirements for a right-sized MMS platform.
    • A comprehensive market scan of key players in the MMS market space.

    This formal MMS selection initiative will drive business-IT alignment, identify pivotal sales and marketing automation priorities, and thereby allow for the rollout of a streamlined MMS platform that is highly likely to satisfy all stakeholder needs.

    If you would like additional support, have our analysts guide you through other phases as part of an Info-Tech workshop

    contact your account representative for more information

    workshops@infotech.com

    1-888-670-8889

    Summary of accomplishment

    Knowledge Gained

    • What marketing management is
    • Historical origins of marketing management
    • The future of marketing management
    • Key trends in marketing management suites

    Processes Optimized

    • Requirements gathering
    • RFPs and contract reviews
    • Marketing management suite vendor selection
    • Marketing management platform implementation

    Marketing Management

    • Adobe Experience Cloud
    • Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Marketing
    • HubSpot Marketing Hub
    • Maropost Marketing Cloud
    • Oracle Marketing Cloud

    Vendors Analyzed

    • Salesforce Marketing Cloud
    • SAP
    • Sugar Market
    • Zoho Campaigns

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Select a Marketing Management Suite

    Many organizations struggle with taking a systematic approach to selection that pairs functional requirements with specific marketing workflows, and as a result they choose a marketing management suite (MMS) that is not well aligned to their needs, wasting resources and causing end-user frustration.

    Get the Most Out of Your CRM

    Customer relationship management (CRM) application portfolios are often messy,
    with multiple integration points, distributed data, and limited ongoing end-user training. A properly optimized CRM ecosystem will reduce costs and increase productivity.

    Customer Relationship Management Platform Selection Guide

    Speed up the process to build your business case and select your CRM solution. Despite the importance of CRM selection and implementation, many organizations struggle to define an approach to picking the right vendor and rolling out the solution in an effective and cost-efficient manner.

    Bibliography

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    Anderson, Meghan Keaney. "HubSpot Launches European Headquarters." HubSpot Company News, 3 Mar 2013.
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    Fleishman, Hannah. "HubStop Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering." HubSpot Company News, 8 Oct. 204. Web.
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    • Parent Category Name: Security Processes & Operations
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    • Many security leaders put off adding metrics to their program because they don't know where to start or how to assess what is worth measuring.
    • Sometimes, this uncertainty causes the belief that their security programs are not mature enough for metrics to be worthwhile.
    • Because metrics can become very technical and precise,it's easy to think that they're inherently complicated (not true).

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • The best metrics are tied to goals.
    • Tying your metrics to goals ensures that you are collecting metrics for a specific purpose rather than just to watch the numbers change.

    Impact and Result

    • A metric, really, is just a measure of success against a given goal. Gradually, programs will achieve their goals and set new more specific goals, and with them come more-specific metrics.
    • It is not necessary to jump into highly technical metrics right away. A lot can be gained from metrics that track behaviors.
    • A metrics program can be very simple and still effectively demonstrate the value of security to the organization. The key is to link your metrics to the goals or objectives the security team is pursuing, even if they are simple implementation plans (e.g. percentage of departments that have received security training course).

    Build a Security Metrics Program to Drive Maturity Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should build a security metrics program, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Link security metrics to goals to boost maturity

    Develop goals and KPIs to measure your progress.

    • Build a Security Metrics Program to Drive Maturity – Phase 1: Link Security Metrics to Goals to Boost Maturity
    • Security Metrics Determination and Tracking Tool
    • KPI Development Worksheets

    2. Adapt your reporting strategy for various metric types

    Learn how to present different types of metrics.

    • Build a Security Metrics Program to Drive Maturity – Phase 2: Adapt Your Reporting Strategy for Various Metric Types
    • Security Metrics KPX Dashboard
    • Board-Level Security Metrics Presentation Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Build a Security Metrics Program to Drive Maturity

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Current State, Initiatives, and Goals

    The Purpose

    Create a prioritized list of goals to improve the security program’s current state.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Insight into the current program and the direct it needs to head in.

    Activities

    1.1 Discuss current state and existing approach to metrics.

    1.2 Review contract metrics already in place (or available).

    1.3 Determine security areas that should be measured.

    1.4 Determine what stakeholders are involved.

    1.5 Review current initiatives to address those risks (security strategy, if in place).

    1.6 Begin developing SMART goals for your initiative roadmap.

    Outputs

    Gap analysis results

    SMART goals

    2 KPI Development

    The Purpose

    Develop unique KPIs to measure progress against your security goals.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Learn how to develop KPIs

    Prioritized list of security goals

    Activities

    2.1 Continue SMART goal development.

    2.2 Sort goals into types.

    2.3 Rephrase goals as KPIs and list associated metric(s).

    2.4 Continue KPI development.

    Outputs

    KPI Evolution Worksheet

    3 Metrics Prioritization

    The Purpose

    Determine which metrics will be included in the initial program launch.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A set of realistic and manageable goals-based metrics.

    Activities

    3.1 Lay out prioritization criteria.

    3.2 Determine priority metrics (implementation).

    3.3 Determine priority metrics (improvement & organizational trend).

    Outputs

    Prioritized metrics

    Tool for tracking and presentation

    4 Metrics Reporting

    The Purpose

    Strategize presentation based around metric type to indicate organization’s risk posture.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Develop versatile reporting techniques

    Activities

    4.1 Review metric types and discuss reporting strategies for each.

    4.2 Develop a story about risk.

    4.3 Discuss the use of KPXs and how to scale for less mature programs.

    Outputs

    Key Performance Index Tool and presentation materials

    Further reading

    Build a Security Metrics Program to Drive Maturity

    Good metrics come from good goals.

    ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

    Metrics are a maturity driver.

    "Metrics programs tend to fall into two groups: non-existent and unhelpful.

    The reason so many security professionals struggle to develop a meaningful metrics program is because they are unsure of what to measure or why.

    The truth is, for metrics to be useful, they need to be tied to something you care about – a state you are trying to achieve. In other words, some kind of goal. Used this way, metrics act as the scoreboard, letting you know if you’re making progress towards your goals, and thus, boosting your overall maturity."

    Logan Rohde, Research Analyst, Security Practice Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive summary

    Situation

    • Many security leaders put off adding metrics to their program because they don't know where to start or how to assess what is worth measuring.

    Complication

    • Sometimes, this uncertainty causes the belief that their security programs are not mature enough for metrics to be worthwhile.
    • Because metrics can become very technical and precise, it's easy to think they're inherently complicated (not true).

    Resolution

    • A metric, really, is just a measure of success against a given goal. Gradually, programs will achieve their goals and set new, more specific goals, and with them comes more specific metrics.
    • It is not necessary to jump into highly technical metrics right away. A lot can be gained from metrics that track behaviors.
    • A metrics program can be very simple and still effectively demonstrate the value of security to the organization. The key is to link your metrics to the goals or objectives the security team is pursuing, even if they are simple implementation plans (e.g. percentage of departments that have received security training).

    Info-Tech Insight

    1. Metrics lead to maturity, not vice versa
      • Tracking metrics helps you assess progress and regress in your security program. This helps you quantify the maturity gains you’ve made and continue to make informed strategic decisions.
    2. The best metrics are tied to goals
      • Tying your metrics to goals ensures that you are collecting metrics for a specific purpose rather than just to watch the numbers change.

    Our understanding of the problem

    This Research is Designed For:

    • CISO

    This Research Will Help You:

    • Understand the value of metrics.
    • Right-size a metrics program based on your organization’s maturity and risk profile.
    • Tie metrics to goals to create meaningful KPIs.
    • Develop strategies to effectively communicate the right metrics to stakeholders.

    This Research Will Also Assist:

    • CIO
    • Security Manager
    • Business Professionals

    This Research Will Help Them:

    • Become informed on the metrics that matter to them.
    • Understand that investment in security is an investment in the business.
    • Feel confident in the progress of the organization’s security strategy.

    Info-Tech’s framework integrates several best practices to create a best-of-breed security framework

    Information Security Framework

    Governance

    • Context and Leadership
      • Information Security Charter
      • Information Security Organizational Structure
      • Culture and Awareness
    • Evaluation and Direction
      • Security Risk Management
      • Security Policies
      • Security Strategy and Communication
    • Compliance, Audit, and Review
      • Security Compliance Management
      • External Security Audit
      • Internal Security Audit
      • Management Review of Security

    Management

    • Prevention
      • Identity Security
        • Identity and Access Management
      • Data Security
        • Hardware Asset Management
        • Data Security & Privacy
      • Infrastructure Security
        • Network Security
        • Endpoint Security
        • Malicious Code
        • Application Security
        • Vulnerability Management
        • Cryptography Management
        • Physical Security
        • Cloud Security
      • HR Security
        • HR Security
      • Change and Support
        • Configuration and Change Management
        • Vendor Management
    • Detection
      • Security Threat Detection
      • Log and Event Management
    • Response and Recovery
      • Security Incident Management
      • Information Security in BCM
      • Security eDiscovery and Forensics
      • Backup and Recovery
    • Measurement
      • Metrics Program
      • Continuous Improvement

    Metrics help to improve security-business alignment

    While business leaders are now taking a greater interest in cybersecurity, alignment between the two groups still has room for improvement.

    Key statistics show that just...

    5% of public companies feel very confident that they are properly secured against a cyberattack.

    41% of boards take on cybersecurity directly rather than allocating it to another body (e.g. audit committee).

    19% of private companies do not discuss cybersecurity with the board.

    (ISACA, 2018)

    Info-Tech Insight

    Metrics help to level the playing field

    Poor alignment between security and the business often stems from difficulties with explaining how security objectives support business goals, which is ultimately a communication problem.

    However, metrics help to facilitate these conversations, as long as the metrics are expressed in practical, relatable terms.

    Security metrics benefit the business

    Executives get just as much out of management metrics as the people running them.

    1. Metrics assuage executives’ fears
      • Metrics help executives (and security leaders) feel more at ease with where the company is security-wise. Metrics help identify areas for improvement and gaps in the organization’s security posture that can be filled. A good metrics program will help identify deficiencies in most areas, even outside the security program, helping to identify what work needs to be done to reduce risk and increase the security posture of the organization.
    2. Metrics answer executives’ questions
      • Numbers either help ease confusion or signify other areas for improvement. Offering quantifiable evidence, in a language that the business can understand, offers better understanding and insight into the information security program. Metrics also help educate on types of threats, staff needed for security, and budget needs to decrease risk based on management’s threat tolerance. Metrics help make an organization more transparent, prepared, and knowledgeable.
    3. Metrics help to continually prove security’s worth
      • Traditionally, the security team has had to fight for a seat at the executive table, with little to no way to communicate with the business. However, the new trend is that the security team is now being invited before they have even asked to join. This trend allows the security team to better communicate on the organization’s security posture, describe threats and vulnerabilities, present a “plan of action,” and get a pulse on the organization’s risk tolerance.

    Common myths make security metrics seem challenging

    Security professionals have the perception that metrics programs are difficult to create. However, this attitude usually stems from one of the following myths. In reality, security metrics are much simpler than they seem at first, and they usually help resolve existing challenges rather than create new ones.

    Myth Truth
    1 There are certain metrics that are important to all organizations, based on maturity, industry, etc. Metrics are indications of change; for a metric to be useful it needs to be tied to a goal, which helps you understand the change you're seeing as either a positive or a negative. Industry and maturity have little bearing here.
    2 Metrics are only worthwhile once a certain maturity level is reached Metrics are a tool to help an organization along the maturity scale. Metrics help organizations measure progress of their goals by helping them see which tactics are and are not working.
    3 Security metrics should focus on specific, technical details (e.g. of systems) Metrics are usually a means of demonstrating, objectively, the state of a security program. That is, they are a means of communicating something. For this reason, it is better that metrics be phrased in easily digestible, non-technical terms (even if they are informed by technical security statistics).

    Tie your metrics to goals to make them worthwhile

    SMART metrics are really SMART goals.

    Specific

    Measurable

    Achievable

    Realistic

    Timebound

    Achievable: What is an achievable metric?

    When we say that a metric is “achievable,” we imply that it is tied to a goal of some kind – the thing we want to achieve.

    How do we set a goal?

    1. Determine what outcome you are trying to achieve.
      • This can be small or large (e.g. I want to determine what existing systems can provide metrics, or I want a 90% pass rate on our monthly phishing tests).
    2. Decide what indicates that you’ve achieved your goal.
      • At what point would you be satisfied with the progress made on the initiative(s) you’re working on? What conditions would indicate victory for you and allow you to move on to another goal?
    3. Develop a key performance indicator (KPI) to measure progress towards that goal.
      • Now that you’ve defined what you’re trying to achieve, find a way to indicate progress in relative or relational terms (e.g. percentage change from last quarter, percentage of implementation completed, ratio of programs in place to those still needing implementation).

    Info-Tech’s security metrics methodology is repeatable and iterative to help boost maturity

    Security Metric Lifecycle

    Start:

    Review current state and decide on priorities.

    Set a SMART goal for improvement.

    Develop an appropriate KPI.

    Use KPI to monitor program improvement.

    Present metrics to the board.

    Revise metrics if necessary.

    Metrics go hand in hand with your security strategy

    A security strategy is ultimately a large goal-setting exercise. You begin by determining your current maturity and how mature you need to be across all areas of information security, i.e. completing a gap analysis.

    As such, linking your metrics program to your security strategy is a great way to get your metrics program up and running – but it’s not the only way.

    Check out the following Info-Tech resource to get started today:

    Build an Information Security Strategy

    The value of security metrics goes beyond simply increasing security

    This blueprint applies to you whether you need to develop a metrics program from scratch or optimize and update your current strategy.

    Value of engaging in security metrics:

    • Increased visibility into your operations.
    • Improved accountability.
    • Better communication with executives as a result of having hard evidence of security performance.
    • Improved security posture through better understanding of what is working and what isn’t within the security program.

    Value of Info-Tech’s security metrics blueprint:

    • Doesn’t overwhelm you and allows you to focus on determining the metrics you need to worry about now without pressuring you to do it all at once.
    • Helps you develop a growth plan as your organization and metrics program mature, so you continue to optimize.
    • Creates effective communication. Prepares you to present the metrics that truly matter to executives rather than confusing them with unnecessary data. Pay attention to metric accuracy and reproducibility. No management wants inconsistent reporting.

    Impact

    Short term: Streamline your program. Based on your organization’s specific requirements and risk profile, figure out which metrics are best for now while also planning for future metrics as your organization matures.

    Long term: Once the program is in place, improvements will come with increased visibility into operations. Investments in security will be encouraged when more evidence is available to executives, contributing to overall improved security posture. Potential opportunities for eventual cost savings also exist as there is more informed security spending and fewer incidents.

    Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

    DIY Toolkit

    “Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”

    Guided Implementation

    “Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”

    Workshop

    “We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked-off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”

    Consulting

    “Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Link Security Metrics to Goals to Boost Maturity – Project Overview

    1. Link Security Metrics to Goals to Boost Maturity 2. Adapt Your Reporting Strategy for Various Metric Types
    Best-Practice Toolkit

    1.1 Review current state and set your goals

    1.2 Develop KPIs and prioritize your goals

    1.3 Implement and monitor the KPI to track goal progress

    2.1 Review best practices for presenting metrics

    2.2 Strategize your presentation based on metric type

    2.3 Tailor presentation to your audience

    2.4 Use your metrics to create a story about risk

    2.5 Revise your metrics

    Guided Implementations
    • Call 1: Setting Goals
    • Call 2: KPI Development
    • Call 1: Best Practices and Reporting Strategy
    • Call 2: Build a Dashboard and Presentation Deck
    Onsite Workshop Module 1: Current State, Initiatives, Goals, and KPIs Module 2: Metrics Reporting

    Phase 1 Outcome:

    • KPI development and populated metrics tracking tool.

    Phase 2 Outcome:

    • Reporting strategy with dashboard and presentation deck.

    Workshop overview

    Contact your account representative or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Workshop Day 1 Workshop Day 2 Workshop Day 3 Workshop Day 4 Workshop Day 5
    Activities

    Current State, Initiatives, and Goals

    • Discuss current state and existing approach to metrics.
    • Review contract metrics already in place (or available).
    • Determine security areas that should be measured.
    • Determine which stakeholders are involved.
    • Review current initiatives to address those risks (security strategy, if in place).
    • Begin developing SMART goals for your initiative roadmap.

    KPI Development

    • Continue SMART goal development.
    • Sort goals into types.
    • Rephrase goals as KPIs and list associated metric(s).
    • Continue KPI development.

    Metrics Prioritization

    • Lay out prioritization criteria.
    • Determine priority metrics (implementation).
    • Determine priority metrics (improvement & organizational trend).

    Metrics Reporting

    • Review metric types and discuss reporting strategies for each.
    • Develop a story about risk.
    • Discuss the use of KPXs and how to scale for less mature programs.

    Offsite Finalization

    • Review and finalization of documents drafted during workshop.
    Deliverables
    1. Gap analysis results
    1. Completed KPI development templates
    1. Prioritized metrics and tool for tracking and presentation.
    1. Key Performance Index tool and presentation materials.
    1. Finalization of completed deliverables

    Phase 1

    Link Security Metrics to Goals to Boost Maturity


    Phase 1

    1.1 Review current state and set your goals

    1.2 Develop KPIs and prioritize your goals

    1.3 Implement and monitor KPIs

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Current state assessment
    • Setting SMART goals
    • KPI development
    • Goals prioritization
    • KPI implementation

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Security Team

    Outcomes of this phase

    • Goals-based KPIs
    • Security Metrics Determination and Tracking Tool

    Phase 1 outline

    Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Complete these steps on your own or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of two to three advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation 1: Link Security Metrics to Goals to Boost Maturity

    Proposed Time to Completion: 2-4 weeks

    Step 1.1: Setting Goals

    Start with an analyst kick-off call:

    • Determine current and target maturity for various security programs.
    • Develop SMART Goals.

    Then complete these activities…

    • CMMI Assessment

    Step 1.2 – 1.3: KPI Development

    Review findings with analyst:

    • Prioritize goals
    • Develop KPIs to track progress on goals
    • Track associated metrics

    Then complete these activities…

    • KPI Development

    With these tools & templates:

    • KPI Development Worksheet
    • Security Metrics Determination and Tracking Tool

    Phase 1 Results & Insights:

    • Basic Metrics program

    1.1 Review current state and set your goals

    120 minutes

    Let’s put the security program under the microscope.

    Before program improvement can take place, it is necessary to look at where things are at presently (in terms of maturity) and where we need to get them to.

    In other words, we need to perform a security program gap analysis.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    The most thorough way of performing this gap analysis is by completing Info-Tech’s Build an Information Security Strategy blueprint, as it will provide you with a prioritized list of initiatives to boost your security program maturity.

    Completing an abbreviated gap analysis...

    • Security Areas
    • Network Security
    • Endpoint Security
    • Vulnerability Management
    • Identity Access Management
    • Incident Management
    • Training & Awareness
    • Compliance, Audit, & Review
    • Risk Management
    • Business Alignment & Governance
    • Data Security
    1. Using the CMMI scale on the next slide, assess your maturity level across the security areas to the left, giving your program a score from 1-5. Record your assessment on a whiteboard.
    2. Zone in on your areas of greatest concern and choose 3 to 5 areas to prioritize for improvement.
    3. Set a SMART goal for improvement, using the criteria on goals slides.

    Use the CMMI scale to contextualize your current maturity

    Use the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) scale below to help you understand your current level of maturity across the various areas of your security program.

    1. Initial
      • Incident can be managed. Outcomes are unpredictable due to lack of a standard operating procedure.
    2. Repeatable
      • Process in place, but not formally implemented or consistently applied. Outcomes improve but still lack predictability.
    3. Defined
      • Process is formalized and consistently applied. Outcomes become more predictable, due to consistent handling procedure.
    4. Managed
      • Process shows signs of maturity and can be tracked via metrics. Moving towards a predictive approach to incident management.
    5. Optimizing
      • Process reaches a fully reliable level, though improvements still possible. Regularity allows for process to be automated.

    (Adapted from the “CMMI Institute Maturity Model”)

    Base your goals around the five types of metrics

    Choose goals that make sense – even if they seem simple.

    The most effective metrics programs are personalized to reflect the goals of the security team and the business they work for. Using goals-based metrics allows you to make incremental improvements that can be measured and reported on, which makes program maturation a natural process.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Before setting a SMART goal, take a moment to consider your maturity for each security area, and which metric type you need to collect first, before moving to more ambitious goals.

    Security Areas

    • Network Security
    • Endpoint Security
    • Vulnerability Management
    • Identity Access Management
    • Incident Management
    • Training & Awareness
    • Compliance, Audit & Review
    • Risk Management
    • Business Alignment & Governance
    • Data Security
    Metric Type Description
    Initial Probe Determines what can be known (i.e. what sources for metrics exist?).
    Baseline Testing Establishes organization’s normal state based on current metrics.
    Implementation Focuses on setting up a series of related processes to increase organizational security (i.e. roll out MFA).
    Improvement Sets a target to be met and then maintained based on organizational risk tolerance.
    Organizational Trends Culls together several metrics to track (sometimes predict) how various trends affect the organization’s overall security. Usually focuses on large-scale issues (e.g. likelihood of a data breach).

    Set SMART goals for your security program

    Specific

    Measurable

    Achievable

    Realistic

    Timebound

    Now that you have determined which security areas you’d like to improve, decide on a goal that meets the SMART criteria.

    Examples of possible goals for various maturity levels:

    1. Perform initial probe to determine number of systems capable of providing metrics by the end of the week.
    2. Take baseline measurements each month for three months to determine organization’s baseline state.
    3. Implement a vulnerability management program to improve baseline state by the end of the quarter.
    4. Improve deployment of critical patches by applying 90% of them within the set window by the end of the year.
    5. Demonstrate how vulnerability management affects broad organizational trends at quarterly report to senior leadership.

    Compare the bolded text in these examples with the metric types on the previous slide

    Record and assess your goals in the Security Metrics Determination and Tracking Tool

    1.1 Security Metrics Determination and Tracking Tool

    Use tab “2. Identify Security Goals” to document and assess your goals.

    To increase visibility into the cost, effort, and value of any given goal, assess them using the following criteria:

    • Initial Cost
    • Ongoing Cost
    • Initial Staffing
    • Ongoing Staffing
    • Alignment w/Business
    • Benefit

    Use the calculated Cost/Effort Rating, Benefit Rating, and Difference Score later in this project to help with goal prioritization.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    If you have already completed a security strategy with Info-Tech resources, this work may likely have already been done. Consult your Information Security Program Gap Analysis Tool from the Build an Information Security Strategy research.

    1.2 Develop KPIs and prioritize your goals

    There are two paths to success.

    At this time, it is necessary to evaluate the priorities of your security program.

    Option 1: Progress to KPI Development

    • If you would like practice developing KPIs for multiple goals to get used to the process, move to KPI development and then assess which goals you can pursue now based on resources available, saving the rest for later.

    Option 2: Progress to Prioritization of Goals

    • If you are already comfortable with KPI development and do not wish to create extras for later use, then prioritize your goals first and then develop KPIs for them.

    Phase 1 Schematic

    • Gap Analysis
    • Set SMART Goals (You are here.)
      • Develop KPIs
    • Prioritize Goals
    • Implement KPI & Monitor
    • Phase 2

    Develop a key performance indicator (KPI)

    Find out if you’re meeting your goals.

    Terms like “key performance indicator” may make this development practice seem more complicated than it really is. A KPI is just a single metric used to measure success towards a goal. In relational terms (i.e. as a percentage, ratio, etc.) to give it context (e.g. % of improvement over last quarter).

    KPI development is about answering the question: what would indicate that I have achieved my goal?

    To develop a KPI follow these steps:

    1. Review the case study on the following slides to get a sense of how KPIs can start simple and general and get more specific and complex over time.
    2. Using the example to the right, sort your SMART goals from step 1.1 into the various metric types, then determine what success would look like for you. What outcome are you trying to achieve? How will you know when you’ve achieved it?
    3. Fill out the KPI Development Worksheets to create sample KPIs for each of the SMART goals you have created. Ensure that you complete the accompanying KPI Checklist.

    KPIs differ from goal to goal, but their forms follow certain trends

    Metric Type KPI Form
    Initial Probe Progress of probe (e.g. % of systems checked to see if they can supply metrics).
    Baseline Testing What current data shows (e.g. % of systems needing attention).
    Implementation Progress of the implementation (e.g. % of complete vulnerability management program implementation).
    Improvement The threshold or target to be achieved and maintained (e.g. % of incidents responded to within target window).
    Organizational Trends The interplay of several KPIs and how they affect the organization’s risk posture (e.g. assessing the likelihood for a data breach).

    Explore the five metric types

    1. Initial Probe

    Focused on determining how many sources for metrics exist.

    • Question: What am I capable of knowing?
    • Goal: To determine what level of insight we have into our security processes.
    • Possible KPI: % of systems for which metrics are available.
    • Decision: Do we have sufficient resources available to collect metrics?

    2. Baseline Testing

    Focused on gaining initial insights about the state of your security program (what are the measurements?).

    • Question: Does this data suggest areas for improvement?
    • Goal: To create a roadmap for improvement.
    • Possible KPI: % of systems that provide useful metrics to measure improvement.
    • Decision: Is it necessary to acquire tools to increase, enhance, or streamline the metrics-gathering process?

    Info-Tech Insight

    Don't lose hope if you lack resources to move beyond these initial steps. Even if you are struggling to pull data, you can still draw meaningful metrics. The percent or ratio of processes or systems you lack insight into can be very valuable, as it provides a basis to initiate a risk-based discussion with management about the organization's security blind spots.

    Explore the five metric types (cont’d)

    3. Program Implementation

    Focused on developing a basic program to establish basic maturity (e.g. implement an awareness and training program).

    • Question: What needs to be implemented to establish basic maturity?
    • Goal: To begin closing the gap between current and desired maturity.
    • Possible KPI: % of implementation completed.
    • Decision: Have we achieved a formalized and repeatable process?

    4. Improvement

    Focused on attaining operational targets to lower organizational risk.

    • Question: What other related activities could help to support this goal (e.g. regular training sessions)?
    • Goal: To have metrics operate above or below a certain threshold (e.g. lower phishing-test click rate to an average of 10% across the organization)
    • Possible KPI: Phishing click rate %
    • Decision: What other metrics should be tracked to provide insight into KPI fluctuations?

    Info-Tech Insight

    Don't overthink your KPI. In many cases it will simply be your goal rephrased to express a percentage or ratio. In others, like the example above, it makes sense for them to be identical.

    5. Organizational Impact

    Focused on studying several related KPIs (Key Performance Index, or KPX) in an attempt to predict risks.

    • Question: What risks does the organization need to address?
    • Goal: To provide high-level summaries of several metrics that suggest emerging or declining risks.
    • Possible KPI: Likelihood of a given risk (based on the trends of the KPX).
    • Decision: Accept the risk, transfer the risk, mitigate the risk?

    Case study: Healthcare example

    Let’s take a look at KPI development in action.

    Meet Maria, the new CISO at a large hospital that desperately needs security program improvements. Maria’s first move was to learn the true state of the organization’s security. She quickly learned that there was no metrics program in place and that her staff were unaware what, if any, sources were available to pull security metrics from.

    After completing her initial probe into available metrics and then investigating the baseline readings, she determined that her areas of greatest concern were around vulnerability and access management. But she also decided it was time to get a security training and awareness program up and running to help mitigate risks in other areas she can’t deal with right away.

    See examples of Maria’s KPI development on the next four slides...

    Info-Tech Insight

    There is very little variation in the kinds of goals people have around initial probes and baseline testing. Metrics in these areas are virtually always about determining what data sources are available to you and what that data actually shows. The real decisions start in determining what you want to do based on the measures you’re seeing.

    Metric development example: Vulnerability Management

    See examples of Maria’s KPI development on the next four slides...

    Implementation

    Goal: Implement vulnerability management program

    KPI: % increase of insight into existing vulnerabilities

    Associated Metric: # of vulnerability detection methods

    Improvement

    Goal: Improve deployment time for patches

    KPI: % of critical patches fully deployed within target window

    • Associated Metric 1: # of critical vulnerabilities not patched
    • Associated Metric 2: # of patches delayed due to lack of staff
    • Associated Metric X

    Metric development example: Identity Access Management

    Implementation

    Goal: Implement MFA for privileged accounts

    KPI: % of privileged accounts with MFA applied

    Associated Metric: # of privileged accounts

    Improvement

    Goal: Remove all unnecessary privileged accounts

    KPI: % of accounts with unnecessary privileges

    • Associated Metric 1: # of privileged accounts
    • Associated Metric 2: # of necessary privileged accounts
    • Associated Metric X

    Metric development example: Training and Awareness

    Implementation

    Goal: Implement training and awareness program

    KPI: % of organization trained

    Associated Metric: # of departments trained

    Improvement

    Goal: Improve time to report phishing

    KPI: % of phishing cases reported within target window

    • Associated Metric 1: # of phishing tests
    • Associated Metric 2: # of training sessions
    • Associated Metric X

    Metric development example: Key Performance Index

    Organizational Trends

    Goal: Predict Data Breach Likelihood

    • KPX 1: Insider Threat Potential
      • % of phishing cases reported within target window
        • Associated Metrics:
          • # of phishing tests
          • # of training sessions
      • % of critical patches fully deployed within target window
        • Associated Metrics:
          • # of critical vulnerabilities not patched
          • # of patches delayed due to lack of staff
      • % of accounts with unnecessary privileges
        • Associated Metrics:
          • # of privileged accounts
          • # of necessary privileged accounts
    • KPX 2: Data Leakage Issues
      • % of incidents related to unsecured databases
        • Associated Metrics:
          • # of unsecured databases
          • # of business-critical databases
      • % of misclassified data
        • Associated Metrics:
          • # of misclassified data reports
          • # of DLP false positives
      • % of incidents involving data-handling procedure violations.
        • Associated Metrics:
          • # of data processes with SOP
          • # of data processes without SOP
    • KPX 3: Endpoint Vulnerability Issues
      • % of unpatched critical systems
        • Associated Metrics:
          • # of unpatched systems
          • # of missed patches
      • % of incidents related to IoT
        • Associated Metrics:
          • # of IoT devices
          • # of IoT unsecure devices
      • % of incidents related to BYOD
        • Associated Metrics:
          • # of end users doing BYOD
          • # of BYOD incidents

    Develop Goals-Based KPIs

    1.2 120 minutes

    Materials

    • Info-Tech KPI Development Worksheets

    Participants

    • Security Team

    Output

    • List of KPIs for immediate and future use (can be used to populate Info-Tech’s KPI Development Tool).

    It’s your turn.

    Follow the example of the CISO in the previous slides and try developing KPIs for the SMART goals set in step 1.1.

    • To begin, decide if you are starting with implementation or improvement metrics.
    • Enter your goal in the space provided on the left-hand side and work towards the right, assigning a KPI to track progress towards your goal.
    • Use the associated metrics boxes to record what raw data will inform or influence your KPI.
      • Associated metrics are connected to the KPI box with a segmented line. This is because these associated metrics are not absolutely necessary to track progress towards your goal.
      • However, if a KPI starts trending in the wrong direction, these associated metrics would be used to determine where the problem has occurred.
    • If desired, bundle together several related KPIs to create a key performance index (KPX), which is used to forecast the likelihood of certain risks that would have a major business impact (e.g. potential for insider threat, or risk for a data breach).

    Record KPIs and assign them to goals in the Security Metrics Determination and Tracking Tool

    1.2 Security Metrics Determination and Tracking Tool

    Document KPI metadata in the tool and optionally assign them to a goal.

    Tab “3. Identify Goal KPIs” allows you to record each KPI and its accompanying metadata:

    • Source
    • Owner
    • Audience
    • KPI Target
    • Effort to Collect
    • Frequency of Collection
    • Comments

    Optionally, each KPI can be mapped to goals defined on tab “2. Identify Security Goals.”

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Ensure your metadata is comprehensive, complete, and realistic. A different employee should be able to use only the information outlined in the metadata to continue collecting measurements for the program.

    Complete Info-Tech’s KPI Development Worksheets

    1.2 KPI Development Worksheet

    Use these worksheets to model the maturation of your metrics program.

    Follow the examples contained in this slide deck and practice creating KPIs for:

    • Implementation metrics
    • Improvement metrics
    • Organizational trends metrics

    As well as drafting associated metrics to inform the KPIs you create.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Keep your metrics program manageable. This exercise may produce more goals, metrics, and KPIs than you deal with all at once. But that doesn’t mean you can’t save some for future use.

    Build an effort map to prioritize your SMART goals

    1.2 120 minutes

    Materials

    • Whiteboard
    • Sticky notes
    • Laptop

    Participants

    • Security team
    • Other stakeholders

    Output

    • Prioritized list of SMART goals

    An effort map visualizes a cost and benefit analysis. It is a quadrant output that visually shows how your SMART goals were assessed. Use the calculated Cost/Effort Rating and Benefit Rating values from tab “2. Identify Security Goals” of the Security Metrics Determination and Tracking Tool to aid this exercise.

    Steps:

    1. Establish the axes and colors for your effort map:
      1. X-axis (horizontal) - Security benefit
      2. Y-axis (vertical) - Overall cost/effort
      3. Sticky color - Business alignment
    2. Create sticky notes for each SMART goal and place them onto the effort map based on your determined axes.
      • Goal # Example Security Goal - Benefit (1-12) - Cost (1-12)

    The image shows a matric with four quadrants. The X-axis is labelled Low Benefit on the left side and High benefit on the right side. The Y-axis is labelled Low cost at the top and High cost at the bottom. The top left quadrant is labelled Could Dos, the top right quadrant is labelled Must Dos, the lower left quadrant is labelled May Not Dos, and the lower right quadrant is Should Dos. On the right, there are three post-it style notes, the blue one labelled High Alignment, the yellow labelled Medium Alignment, and the pink labelled Low Alignment.

    1.3 Implement and monitor the KPI to track goal progress

    Let’s put your KPI into action!

    Now that you’ve developed KPIs to monitor progress on your goals, it’s time to use them to drive security program maturation by following these steps:

    1. Review the KPI Development Worksheets (completed in step 1.2) for your prioritized list of goals. Be sure that you are able to track all of the associated metrics you have identified.
    2. Track the KPI and associated metrics using Info-Tech’s KPI Development Tool (see following slide).
    3. Update the data as necessary according to your SMART criteria of your goal.

    A Word on Key Risk Indicators...

    The term key risk indicator (KRI) gets used in a few different ways. However, in most cases, KRIs are closely associated with KPIs.

    1. KPIs and KRIs are the same thing
      • A KPI, at its core, is really a measure of risk. Sometimes it is more effective to emphasize that risk rather than performance (i.e. the data shows you’re not meeting your goal).
    2. KRI is KPI going the wrong way
      • After achieving the desired threshold for an improvement goal, our new goal is usually to maintain such a state. When this balance is upset, it indicates that settled risk has once again become active.
    3. KRI as a predictor of emerging risks
      • When organizations reach a highly mature state, they often start assessing how events external to the organization can affect the optimal performance of the organization. They monitor such events or trends and try to predict when the organization is likely to face additional risks.

    Track KPIs in the Security Metrics Determination and Tracking Tool

    1.3 Security Metrics Determination and Tracking Tool

    Once a metric has been measured, you have the option of entering that data into tab “4. Track Metrics” of the Tool.

    Tracking metric data in Info-Tech's tool provides the following data visualizations:

    • Sparklines at the end of each row (on tab “4. Track Metrics”) for a quick sense of metric performance.
    • A metrics dashboard (on tab “5. Graphs”) with three graph options in two color variations for each metric tracked in the tool, and an overall metric program health gauge.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Be diligent about measuring and tracking your metrics. Record any potential measurement biases or comments on measurement values to ensure you have a comprehensive record for future use. In the tool, this can be done by adding a comment to a cell with a metric measurement.

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. While onsite, our analysts will work with you and your team to facilitate the activities outlined in the blueprint.

    Getting key stakeholders together to formalize the program, while getting started on data discovery and classification, allows you to kickstart the overall program.

    In addition, leverage over-the-phone support through Guided Implementations included in advisory memberships to ensure the continuous improvement of the classification program even after the workshop.

    Logan Rohde

    Research Analyst – Security, Risk & Compliance Info-Tech Research Group

    Ian Mulholland

    Senior Research Analyst – Security, Risk & Compliance Info-Tech Research Group

    Call 1-888-670-8889 for more information.

    Phase 2

    Adapt Your Reporting Strategy for Various Metric Types


    Phase 2

    2.1 Review best practices for presenting metrics

    2.2 Strategize your presentation based on metric type

    2.3 Tailor your presentation to your audience

    2.4 Use your metrics to create a story about risk

    2.5 Revise Metrics

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Develop reporting strategy
    • Use metrics to create a story about risk
    • Metrics revision

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Security Team

    Outcomes of this phase

    • Metrics Dashboard
    • Metrics Presentation Deck

    Phase 2 outline

    Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Complete these steps on your own or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of two to three advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation 2: Adapt Your Reporting Strategy for Various Metric Types

    Proposed Time to Completion: 2-4 weeks

    Step 2.1 – 2.3: Best Practices and Reporting Strategy

    Start with an analyst kick-off call:

    • Do’s and Don’ts of reporting metrics.
    • Strategize presentation based on metric type.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Strategy development for 3-5 metrics

    Step 2.4 – 2.5: Build a Dashboard and Presentation Deck

    Review findings with analyst:

    • Review strategies for reporting.
    • Compile a Key Performance Index.
    • Revise metrics.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Dashboard creation
    • Presentation development

    With these tools & templates:

    • Security Metrics Determination and Tracking Tool Template
    • Security Metrics KPX Dashboard Tool

    Phase 2 Results & Insights:

    • Completed reporting strategy with presentable dashboard

    2.1 Review best practices for presenting metrics

    Avoid technical details (i.e. raw data) by focusing on the KPI.

    • KPIs add context to understand the behavior and associated risks.

    Put things in terms of risk; it's the language you both understand.

    • This usually means explaining what will happen if not addressed and what you recommend.
    • There are always three options:
      • Address it completely
      • Address it partially
      • Do not address it (i.e. accept the risk)

    Explain why you’re monitoring metrics in terms of the goals you’re hoping to achieve.

    • This sets you up well to explain what you've been doing and why it's important for you to meet your goals.

    Choose between KPI or KRI as the presentation format.

    • Base your decision on whether you are trying to emphasize current success or risk.

    Match presentation with the audience.

    • Board presentations will be short; middle-management ones may be a bit longer.
    • Maximize your results by focusing on the minimum possible information to make sure you sufficiently get your point across.
    • With the board, plan on showing no more than three slides.

    Read between the lines.

    • It can be difficult to get time with the board, so you may find yourself in a trial and error position, so pay attention to cues or suggestions that indicate the board is interested in something.
    • If you can, make an ally to get the inside scoop on what the board cares about.

    Read the news if you’re stuck for content.

    • Board members are likely to have awareness (and interest) in large-scale risks like data breaches and ransomware.

    Present your metrics as a story.

    • Summarize how the security program looks to you and why the metrics lead you to see it this way.

    2.2 Strategize your presentation based on metric type (1 of 5)

    Metric Type: Initial Probe

    Scenario: Implementing your first metrics program.

    • All metrics programs start with determining what measurements you are capable of taking.

    Decisions: Do you have sufficient insight into the program? (i.e. do you need to acquire additional tools to collect metrics?)

    Strategy: If there are no barriers to this (e.g. budget), then focus your presentation on the fact that you are addressing the risk of not knowing what your organization's baseline state is and what potential issues exist but are unknown. This is likely the first phase of an improvement plan, so sketching the overall plan is a good idea too.

    • If budget is an issue, explain the risks associated with not knowing and what you would need to make it happen.

    Possible KPIs:

    • % of project complete.
    • % of systems that provide worthwhile metrics.

    Strategize your presentation based on metric type (2 of 5)

    Metric Type: Baseline Testing

    Scenario: You've taken the metrics to determine what your organization’s normal state is and you're now looking towards addressing your gaps or problem areas.

    Decisions: What needs to be prioritized first and why? Are additional resources required to make this happen?

    Strategy: Explain your impression of the organization's normal state and what you plan to do about it. In other words, what goals are you prioritizing and why? Be sure to note any challenges that may occur along the way (e.g. staffing).

    • If the board doesn't like to open their pocketbook, your best play is to explain what stands to happen (or is happening) if risks are not addressed.

    Possible KPIs:

    • % of goals complete.
    • % of metrics indicating urgent attention needed.

    Strategize your presentation based on metric type (3 of 5)

    Metric Type: Implementation

    Scenario: You are now implementing solutions to address your security priorities.

    Decisions: What, to you, would establish the basis of a program?

    Strategy: Focus on what you're doing to implement a certain security need, why, and what still needs to be done when you’re finished.

    • Example: To establish a training and awareness program, a good first step is to actually hold training sessions with each department. A single lecture is simple but something to build from. A good next step would be to hold regular training sessions or implement monthly phishing tests.

    Possible KPIs:

    • % of implementation complete (e.g. % of departments trained).

    Strategize your presentation based on metric type (4 of 5)

    Metric Type: Improvement

    Scenario: Now that a basic program has been established, you are looking to develop its maturity to boost overall performance (i.e. setting a new development goal).

    Decisions: What is a reasonable target, given the organization's risk tolerance and current state?

    Strategy: Explain that you're now working to tighten up the security program. Note that although things are improving, risk will always remain, so we need to keep it within a threshold that’s proportionate with our risk tolerance.

    • Example: Lower phishing-test click rate to 10% or less. Phishing will always be a risk, and just one slip up can have a huge effect on business (i.e. lost money).

    Possible KPIs:

    • % of staff passing the phishing test.
    • % of employees reporting phishing attempts within time window.

    Strategize your presentation based on metric type (5 of 5)

    Metric Type: Organizational Trends

    Scenario: You've reached a mature state and now how several KPIs being tracked. You begin to look at several KPIs together (i.e. a KPX) to assess the organization's exposure for certain broad risk trends.

    Decisions: Which KPIs can be used together to look at broader risks?

    Strategy: Focus on the overall likelihood of a certain risk and why you've chosen to assess it with your chosen KPIs. Spend some time discussing what factors affect the movement of these KPIs, demonstrating how smaller behaviors create a ripple effect that affects the organization’s exposure to large-scale risks.

    Possible KPX: Insider Threat Risk

    • % of phishing test failures.
    • % of critical patches missed.
    • % of accounts with unnecessary privileges.

    Change your strategy to address security challenges

    Even challenges can elicit useful metrics.

    Not every security program is capable of progressing smoothly through the various metric types. In some cases, it is impossible to move towards goals and metrics for implementation, improvement, or organizational trends because the security program lacks resources.

    Info-Tech Insight

    When your business is suffering from a lack of resources, acquiring these resources automatically becomes the goal that your metrics should be addressing. To do this, focus on what risks are being created because something is missing.

    When your security program is lacking a critical resource, such as staff or technology, your metrics should focus on what security processes are suffering due to this lack. In other words, what critical activities are not getting done?

    KPI Examples:

    • % of critical patches not deployed due to lack of staff.
    • % of budget shortfall to acquire vulnerability scanner.
    • % of systems with unknown risk due to lack of vulnerability scanner.

    2.3 Tailor presentation to your audience

    Metrics come in three forms...

    1. Raw Data

    • Taken from logs or reports, provides values but not context.
    • Useful for those with technical understanding of the organization’s security program.

    2. Management-Level

    • Raw data that has been contextualized and indicates performance of something (i.e. a KPI).
    • Useful for those with familiarity with the overall state of the security program but do not have a hands-on role.

    3. Board-Level

    • KPI with additional context indicating overall effect on the organization.
    • Useful for those removed from the security program but who need to understand the relationship between security, business goals, and cyber risk.

    For a metric to be useful it must...

    1. Be understood by the audience it’s being presented to.
      • Using the criteria on the left, choose which metric form is most appropriate.
    2. Indicate whether or not a certain target or goal is being met.
      • Don’t expect metrics to speak for themselves; explain what the indications and implications are.
    3. Drive some kind of behavioral or strategic change if that target or goal is not being met.
      • Metrics should either affirm that things are where you want them to be or compel you to take action to make an improvement. If not, it is not a worthwhile metric.

    As a general rule, security metrics should become decreasingly technical and increasingly behavior-based as they are presented up the organizational hierarchy.

    "The higher you travel up the corporate chain, the more challenging it becomes to create meaningful security metrics. Security metrics are intimately tied to their underlying technologies, but the last thing the CEO cares about is technical details." – Ben Rothke, Senior Information Security Specialist, Tapad.

    Plan for reporting success

    The future of your security program may depend on this presentation; make it count.

    Reporting metrics is not just another presentation. Rather, it is an opportunity to demonstrate and explain the value of security.

    It is also a chance to correct any misconceptions about what security does or how it works.

    Use the tips on the right to help make your presentation as relatable as possible.

    Info-Tech Insight

    There is a difference between data manipulation and strategic presentation: the goal is not to bend the truth, but to present it in a way that allows you to show the board what they need to see and to explain it in terms familiar to them.

    General Tips for a Successful Presentation

    Avoid jargon; speak in practical terms

    • The board won’t receive your message if they can’t understand you.
    • Explain things as simply as you can; they only need to know enough to make decisions about addressing cyber risk.

    Address compliance

    • Boards are often interested in compliance, so be prepared to talk about it, but clarify that it doesn't equal security.
    • Instead, use compliance as a bridge to discussing areas of the security program that need attention.

    Have solid answers

    • Try to avoid answering questions with the answer, “It depends.”
      • Depends on what?
      • Why?
      • What do you recommend?
    • The board is relying on you for guidance, so be prepared to clarify what the board is asking (you may have to read between the lines to do this).
    • Also address the pain points of board members and have answers to their questions about how to resolve them.

    2.4 Use your metrics to create a story about risk

    Become the narrator of your organization’s security program.

    Security is about managing risk. This is also its primary value to the organization. As such, risk should be the theme of the story you tell.

    "Build a cohesive story that people can understand . . . Raw metrics are valuable from an operations standpoint, but at the executive level, it's about a cohesive story that helps executives understand the value of the security program and keeps the company moving forward. "– Adam Ely, CSO and Co-Founder, Bluebox Security, qtd. by Tenable, 2016

    How to Develop Your Own Story...

    1. Review your security program goals and the metrics you’re using to track progress towards them. Then, decide which metrics best tell this story (i.e. what you’re doing and why).
      • Less is more when presenting metrics, so be realistic about how much your audience can digest in one sitting.
      • Three metrics is usually a safe number; choose the ones that are most representative of your goals.
    2. Explain why you chose the goals you did (i.e. what risks were you addressing?). Then, make an honest assessment of how the security program is doing as far as meeting those goals:
      • What’s going well?
      • What still needs improvement?
      • What about your metrics suggests this?
    3. Address how risks have changed and explain your new recommended course of action.
      • What risks were present when you started?
      • What risks remain despite your progress?
      • How do these risks affect the business operation and what can security do to help?

    Story arc for security metrics

    The following model encapsulates the basic trajectory of all story development.

    Use this model to help you put together your story about risk.

    Introduction: Overall assessment of security program.

    Initial Incident: Determination of the problems and associated risks.

    Rising Action: Creation of goals and metrics to measure progress.

    Climax: Major development indicated by metrics.

    Falling Action: New insights gained about organization’s risks.

    Resolution: Recommendations based on observations.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Follow this model to ensure that your metrics presentation follows a coherent storyline that explains how you assessed the problem, why you chose to address it the way you did, what you learned in doing so, and finally what should be done next to boost the security program’s maturity.

    Use a nesting-doll approach when presenting metrics

    Move from high-level to low-level to support your claims

    1. Avoid the temptation to emphasize technical details when presenting metrics. The importance of a metric should be clear from just its name.
    2. This does not mean that technical details should be disregarded entirely. Your digestible, high-level metrics should be a snapshot of what’s taking place on the security ground floor.
    3. With this in mind, we should think of our metrics like a nesting doll, with each metrics level being supported by the one beneath it.

    ...How do you know that?

    Board-Level KPI

    Mgmt.-Level KPI

    Raw Data

    Think of your lower-level metrics as evidence to back up the story you are telling.

    When you’re asked how you arrived at a given conclusion, you know it’s time to go down a level and to explain those results.

    Think of this like showing your work.

    Info-Tech Insight

    This approach is built into the KPX reporting format, but can be used for all metric types by drawing from your associated metrics and goals already achieved.

    Use one of Info-Tech’s dashboards to present your metrics

    2.4 Security Metrics Determination and Tracking Tool

    Choose the dashboard tool that makes the most sense for you.

    Info-Tech provides two options for metric dashboards to meet the varying needs of our members.

    If you’re just starting out, you’ll likely be inclined towards the dashboard within the Security Metrics Determination and Tracking Tool (seen here).

    The image shows a screenshot of the Security Metrics Determination and Tracking Tool.

    But if you’ve already got several KPIs to report on, you may prefer the Security Metrics KPX Dashboard Tool, featured on the following slides.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Not all graphs will be needed in all cases. When presenting, consider taking screenshots of the most relevant data and displaying them in Info-Tech’s Board-Level Security Metrics Presentation Template.

    Use one of Info-Tech’s dashboards to present your metrics

    2.4 Security Metrics KPX Dashboard

    Use Info-Tech’s Security Metrics KPX Dashboard to track and show your work.

    The image shows a screenshot of the Definitions section of the Security Metrics KPX Dashboard

    1. Start by customizing the definitions on tab 1 to match your organization’s understanding of high, medium, and low risk across the three impact areas (functional, informational, and recoverability).
    2. Next, enter up to 5 business goals that your security program supports.

    Use one of Info-Tech’s dashboards to present your metrics

    2.4 Security Metrics KPX Dashboard

    Use Info-Tech’s Security Metrics KPX Dashboard to track and show your work.

    The image shows a screenshot of tab 2 of the Security Metrics KPX Dashboard.

    1. On tab 2, enter the large-scale risk you are tracking
    2. Proceed by naming each of your KPXs after three broad risks that – to you – contribute to the large-scale risk.

    Use one of Info-Tech’s dashboards to present your metrics

    2.4 Security Metrics KPX Dashboard

    Use Info-Tech’s Security Metrics KPX Dashboard to track and show your work.

    The image is the same screenshot from the previous section, of tab 2 of the Security Metrics KPX Dashboard.

    1. Then, add up to five KPIs aimed at managing more granular risks that contribute to the broad risk.
    2. Assess the frequency and impact associated with these more granular risks to determine how likely it is to contribute to the broad risk the KPX is tracking.

    Use one of Info-Tech’s dashboards to present your metrics

    2.4 Security Metrics KPX Dashboard

    Use Info-Tech’s Security Metrics KPX Dashboard to track and show your work.

    The image is the same screenshot of tab 2 of the Security Metrics KPX Dashboard.

    1. Repeat as necessary for the other KPXs on tab 2.
    2. Repeat steps 3-7 for up to two more large-scale risks and associated KPXs on tabs 3 and 4.

    Use one of Info-Tech’s dashboards to present your metrics

    2.4 Security Metrics KPX Dashboard

    Use Info-Tech’s Security Metrics KPX Dashboard to track and show your work.

    The image shows a chart titled Business Alignment, with sample Business Goals and KPXs filled in.

    1. If desired, complete the Business Alignment evaluation (located to the right of KPX 2 on tabs 2-4) to demonstrate how well security is supporting business goals.

    "An important key to remember is to be consistent and stick to one framework once you've chosen it. As you meet with the same audiences repeatedly, having the same framework for reference will ensure that your communications become smoother over time." – Caroline Wong, Chief Strategy Officer, Cobalt.io

    Use one of Info-Tech’s dashboards to present your metrics

    2.4 Security Metrics KPX Dashboard

    Use Info-Tech’s Security Metrics KPX Dashboard to track and show your work.

    The image shows a screenshot of the dashboard on tab 5 of the Security Metrics KPX Dashboard.

    1. Use the dashboard on tab 5 to help you present your security metrics to senior leadership.

    Use one of Info-Tech’s dashboards to present your metrics

    2.4 Security Metrics KPX Dashboard

    Use Info-Tech’s Security Metrics KPX Dashboard to track and show your work.

    The image shows the same screenshot of Tab 2 of the Security Metrics KPX Dashboard that was shown in previous sections.

    Best Practice:

    This tool helps you convert your KPIs into the language of risk by assessing frequency and severity, which helps to make the risk relatable for senior leadership. However, it is still useful to track fluctuations in terms of percentage. To do this, track changes in the frequency, severity, and trend scores from quarter to quarter.

    Customize Info-Tech’s Security Metrics Presentation Template

    2.4 Board-Level Security Metrics Presentation Template

    Use the Board-Level Security Metrics Presentation Template deck to help structure and deliver your metrics presentation to the board.

    To make the dashboard slide, simply copy and paste the charts from the dashboard tool and arrange the images as needed.

    Adapt the status report and business alignment slides to reflect the story about risk that you are telling.

    2.5 Revise your metrics

    What's next?

    Now that you’ve made it through your metrics presentation, it’s important to reassess your goals with feedback from your audience in mind. Use the following workflow.

    The image shows a flowchart titled Metrics-Revision Workflow. The flowchart begins with the question Have you completed your goal? and then works through multiple potential answers.

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. While onsite, our analysts will work with you and your team to facilitate the activities outlined in the blueprint.

    Getting key stakeholders together to formalize the program, while getting started on data discovery and classification, allows you to kickstart the overall program.

    In addition, leverage over-the-phone support through Guided Implementations included in advisory memberships to ensure the continuous improvement of the classification program even after the workshop.

    Logan Rohde

    Research Analyst – Security, Risk & Compliance Info-Tech Research Group

    Ian Mulholland

    Senior Research Analyst – Security, Risk & Compliance Info-Tech Research Group

    Call 1-888-670-8889 for more information.

    Insight breakdown

    Metrics lead to maturity, not vice versa.

    • Tracking metrics helps you assess progress and regress in your security program, which helps you quantify the maturity gains you’ve made.

    Don't lose hope if you lack resources to move beyond baseline testing.

    • Even if you are struggling to pull data, you can still draw meaningful metrics. The percent or ratio of processes or systems you lack insight into can be very valuable, as it provides a basis to initiate a risk-based discussion with management about the organization's security blind spots.

    The best metrics are tied to goals.

    • Tying your metrics to goals ensures that you are collecting metrics for a specific purpose rather than just to watch the numbers change.

    Summary of accomplishment

    Knowledge Gained

    • Current maturity assessment of security areas
    • Setting SMART goals
    • Metric types
    • KPI development
    • Goals prioritization
    • Reporting and revision strategies

    Processes Optimized

    • Metrics development
    • Metrics collection
    • Metrics reporting

    Deliverables Completed

    • KPI Development Worksheet
    • Security Metrics Determination and Tracking Tool
    • Security Metrics KPX Dashboard Tool
    • Board-Level Security Metrics Presentation Template

    Research contributors and experts

    Mike Creaney, Senior Security Engineer at Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago

    Peter Chestna, Director, Enterprise Head of Application Security at BMO Financial Group

    Zane Lackey, Co-Founder / Chief Security Officer at Signal Sciences

    Ben Rothke, Senior Information Security Specialist at Tapad

    Caroline Wong, Chief Strategy Officer at Cobalt.io

    2 anonymous contributors

    Related Info-Tech research

    Build an Information Security Strategy

    Tailor best practices to effectively manage information security.

    Implement a Security Governance and Management Program

    Align security and business objectives to get the greatest benefit from both.

    Bibliography

    Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI). ISACA. Carnegie Mellon University.

    Ely, Adam. “Choose Security Metrics That Tell a Story.” Using Security Metrics to Drive Action: 33 Experts Share How to Communicate Security Program Effectiveness to Business Executives and the Board Eds. 2016. Web.

    https://www.ciosummits.com/Online_Assets_Tenable_eBook-_Using_Security_Metrics_to_Drive_Action.pdf

    ISACA. “Board Director Concerns about Cyber and Technology Risk.” CSX. 11 Sep. 2018. Web.

    Rothke, Ben. “CEOs Require Security Metrics with a High-Level Focus.” Using Security Metrics to Drive Action: 33 Experts Share How to Communicate Security Program Effectiveness to Business Executives and the Board Eds. 2016. Web.

    https://www.ciosummits.com/Online_Assets_Tenable_eBook-_Using_Security_Metrics_to_Drive_Action.pdf

    Wong, Caroline. Security Metrics: A Beginner’s Guide. McGraw Hill: New York, 2012.

    Combine Security Risk Management Components Into One Program

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    • Parent Category Name: Governance, Risk & Compliance
    • Parent Category Link: /governance-risk-compliance
    • Companies are aware of the need to discuss and assess risk, but many struggle to do so in a systematic and repeatable way.
    • Rarely are security risks analyzed in a consistent manner, let alone in a systematic and repeatable method to determine project risk as well as overall organizational risk exposure.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • The best security programs are built upon defensible risk management. With an appropriate risk management program in place, you can ensure that security decisions are made strategically instead of based on frameworks and gut feelings. This will optimize any security planning and budgeting.
    • All risks can be quantified. Security, compliance, legal, or other risks can be quantified using our methodology.

    Impact and Result

    • Develop a security risk management program to create a standardized methodology for assessing and managing the risk that information systems face.
    • Build a risk governance structure that makes it clear how security risks can be escalated within the organization and who makes the final decision on certain risks.
    • Use Info-Tech’s risk assessment methodology to quantifiably evaluate the threat severity for any new or existing project or initiative.
    • Tie together all aspects of your risk management program, including your information security risk tolerance level, threat and risk assessments, and mitigation effectiveness models.

    Combine Security Risk Management Components Into One Program Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should develop and implement a security risk management program, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Establish the risk environment

    Lay down the foundations for security risk management, including roles and responsibilities and a defined risk tolerance level.

    • Combine Security Risk Management Components Into One Program – Phase 1: Establish the Risk Environment
    • Security Risk Governance Responsibilities and RACI Template
    • Risk Tolerance Determination Tool
    • Risk Weighting Determination Tool

    2. Conduct threat and risk assessments

    Define frequency and impact rankings then assess the risk of your project.

    • Combine Security Risk Management Components Into One Program – Phase 2: Conduct Threat and Risk Assessments
    • Threat and Risk Assessment Process Template
    • Threat and Risk Assessment Tool

    3. Build the security risk register

    Catalog an inventory of individual risks to create an overall risk profile.

    • Combine Security Risk Management Components Into One Program – Phase 3: Build the Security Risk Register
    • Security Risk Register Tool

    4. Communicate the risk management program

    Communicate the risk-based conclusions and leverage these in security decision making.

    • Combine Security Risk Management Components Into One Program – Phase 4: Communicate the Risk Management Program
    • Security Risk Management Presentation Template
    • Security Risk Management Summary Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Combine Security Risk Management Components Into One Program

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Establish the Risk Environment

    The Purpose

    Build the foundation needed for a security risk management program.

    Define roles and responsibilities of the risk executive.

    Define an information security risk tolerance level.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Clearly defined roles and responsibilities.

    Defined risk tolerance level.

    Activities

    1.1 Define the security executive function RACI chart.

    1.2 Assess business context for security risk management.

    1.3 Standardize risk terminology assumptions.

    1.4 Conduct preliminary evaluation of risk scenarios to determine your risk tolerance level.

    1.5 Decide on a custom risk factor weighting.

    1.6 Finalize the risk tolerance level.

    1.7 Begin threat and risk assessment.

    Outputs

    Defined risk executive functions

    Risk governance RACI chart

    Defined quantified risk tolerance and risk factor weightings

    2 Conduct Threat and Risk Assessments

    The Purpose

    Determine when and how to conduct threat and risk assessments (TRAs).

    Complete one or two TRAs, as time permits during the workshop.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Developed process for how to conduct threat and risk assessments.

    Deep risk analysis for one or two IT projects/initiatives.

    Activities

    2.1 Determine when to initiate a risk assessment.

    2.2 Review appropriate data classification scheme.

    2.3 Identify system elements and perform data discovery.

    2.4 Map data types to the elements.

    2.5 Identify STRIDE threats and assess risk factors.

    2.6 Determine risk actions taking place and assign countermeasures.

    2.7 Calculate mitigated risk severity based on actions.

    2.8 If necessary, revisit risk tolerance.

    2.9 Document threat and risk assessment methodology.

    Outputs

    Define scope of system elements and data within assessment

    Mapping of data to different system elements

    Threat identification and associated risk severity

    Defined risk actions to take place in threat and risk assessment process

    3 Continue to Conduct Threat and Risk Assessments

    The Purpose

    Complete one or two TRAs, as time permits during the workshop.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Deep risk analysis for one or two IT projects/initiatives, as time permits.

    Activities

    3.1 Continue threat and risk assessment activities.

    3.2 As time permits, one to two threat and risk assessment activities will be performed as part of the workshop.

    3.3 Review risk assessment results and compare to risk tolerance level.

    Outputs

    One to two threat and risk assessment activities performed

    Validation of the risk tolerance level

    4 Establish a Risk Register and Communicate Risk

    The Purpose

    Collect, analyze, and aggregate all individual risks into the security risk register.

    Plan for the future of risk management.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Established risk register to provide overview of the organizational aggregate risk profile.

    Ability to communicate risk to other stakeholders as needed.

    Activities

    4.1 Begin building a risk register.

    4.2 Identify individual risks and threats that exist in the organization.

    4.3 Decide risk responses, depending on the risk level as it relates to the risk tolerance.

    4.4 If necessary, revisit risk tolerance.

    4.5 Identify which stakeholders sign off on each risk.

    4.6 Plan for the future of risk management.

    4.7 Determine how to present risk to senior management.

    Outputs

    Risk register, with an inventory of risks and a macro view of the organization’s risk

    Defined risk-based initiatives to complete

    Plan for securing and managing the risk register

    Optimize Your Software Selection Process: Why 5 and 30 Are the Magic Numbers

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    • Parent Category Name: Selection & Implementation
    • Parent Category Link: /selection-and-implementation
    • Software selection takes forever. The process of choosing even the smallest apps can drag on for years: sometimes in perpetuity. Software selection teams are sprawling, leading to scheduling slowdowns and scope creep. Moreover, cumbersome or ad hoc selection processes lead to business-driven software selection.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Maximize project effectiveness with a five-person team. Project satisfaction and effectiveness is stagnant or decreases once the team grows beyond five people.
    • Tight project timelines are critical. Keep stakeholders engaged with a defined application selection timeline that moves the project forward briskly – 30 days is optimal.
    • Empower both IT and end users with a standardized selection process to consistently achieve high satisfaction coming out of software selection projects.

    Impact and Result

    • Shatter stakeholder expectations with truly rapid application selections.
    • Put the “short” back in shortlist by consolidating the vendor shortlist up-front and reducing downstream effort.
    • Identify high-impact software functionality by evaluating fewer use cases.
    • Lock in hard savings and do not pay list price by using data-driven tactics.

    Optimize Your Software Selection Process: Why 5 and 30 Are the Magic Numbers Research & Tools

    Discover the Magic Numbers

    Increase project satisfaction with a five-person core software selection team that will close out projects within 30 days.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    • Optimize Your Software Selection Process: Why 5 and 30 Are the Magic Numbers Storyboard

    1. Align and eliminate elapsed time

    Ensure a formal selection process is in place and make a concerted effort to align stakeholder calendars.

    2. Reduce low-impact activities

    Reduce time spent watching vendor dog and pony shows, while reducing the size of your RFPs or skipping them entirely.

    3. Focus on high-impact activities

    Narrow the field to four contenders prior to in-depth comparison and engage in accelerated enterprise architecture oversight.

    4. Use these rapid and essential selection tools

    Focus on key use cases rather than lists of features.

    • The Software Selection Workbook
    • The Vendor Evaluation Workbook
    • The Guide to Software Selection: A Business Stakeholder Manual

    5. Engage Two Viable Vendors in Negotiation

    Save more by bringing two vendors to the final stage of the project and surfacing a consolidated list of demands prior to entering negotiation.

    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Optimize Your Software Selection Process: Why 5 and 30 Are the Magic Numbers

    Select your applications better, faster, and cheaper.

    How to Read This Software Selection Insight Primer

    1. 43,000 Data Points
    2. This report is based on data gathered from a survey of 43,000 real-world IT practitioners.

    3. Aggregating Feedback
    4. The data is compiled from SoftwareReviews (a sister company of Info-Tech Research Group), which collects and aggregates feedback on a wide variety of enterprise technologies.

    5. Insights Backed by Data
    6. The insights, charts, and graphs in this presentation are all derived from data submitted by real end users.

    The First Magic Number Is Five

    The optimal software selection team comprises five people

    • Derived from 43,000 data points. Analysis of thousands of software selection projects makes it clear a tight core selection team accelerates the selection process.
    • Five people make up the core team. A small but cross-functional team keeps the project moving without getting bogged down on calendar alignment and endless back-and-forth.
    • It is a balancing act. Having too few stakeholders on the core selection team will lead to missing valuable information, while having too many will lead to delays and politically driven inefficiencies.

    There Are Major Benefits to Narrowing the Selection Team Size to Five

    Limit the risk of ineffective “decision making by committee”

    Expedite resolution of key issues and accelerate crucial decisions

    Achieve alignment on critical requirements

    Streamline calendar management

    Info-Tech Insight

    Too many cooks spoil the broth: create a highly focused selection team that can devote the majority of its time to the project while it’s in flight to demonstrate faster time to value.

    Arm Yourself With Data to Choose the Right Plays for Selection

    Software selection takes forever. The process of choosing even the smallest apps can drag on for years: sometimes in perpetuity.

    Organizations keep too many players on the field, leading to scheduling slowdowns and scope creep.

    Keeping the size of the core selection team down, while liaising with more stakeholders and subject matter experts (SMEs), leads to improved results.

    Maximize project effectiveness with a five-person team. Project satisfaction and effectiveness are stagnant or decrease once the team grows beyond five people.

    Cumbersome or ad hoc selection processes lead to business-driven software selection.

    Increase stakeholder satisfaction by using a consistent selection framework that captures their needs while not being a burden.

    Empower both IT and end users with a standardized selection process to consistently achieve high satisfaction coming out of software selection projects.

    The image contains a graph that is titled: A compact selection team can save you weeks. The graph demonstrates time saved with a five person team in comparison to larger teams.

    Project Satisfaction and Effectiveness Are Stagnant Once the Team Grows Beyond Five People

    The image contains a graph to demonstrate project satisfaction and effectiveness being stagnant with a team larger than five.
    • There is only a marginal difference in selection effectiveness when more people are involved, so why include so many? It only bogs down the process!
    • Full-time resourcing: At least one member of the five team members must be allocated to the selection initiative as a full-time resource.

    Info-Tech Insight

    It sounds natural to include as many players as possible in the core selection group; however, expanding the group beyond five people does not lead to an increase in satisfaction. Consider including a general stakeholder feedback working session instead.

    Shorten Project Duration by Capping the Selection Team at Five People

    However, it is important to make all stakeholders feel heard

    The image contains a graph to demonstrate that an increase in time and effort connects with an increase in total number of people involved.

    Exclusion is not the name of the game.

    • Remember, we are talking about the core selection team.
    • Help stakeholders understand their role in the project.
    • Educate stakeholders about your approach to selection.
    • Ensure stakeholders understand why the official selection team is being capped at five people.
    • Soliciting requirements and feedback from a broader array of stakeholders is still critical.

    Large Organizations Benefit From Compact Selection Teams Just as Much as Small Firms

    Think big even if your organization is small

    Small organizations

    Teams smaller than five people are common due to limited resources.

    Medium organizations

    Selection project satisfaction peaks with teams of fewer than two people. Consider growing the team to about five people to make stakeholders feel more included with minimal drops in satisfaction.

    Large organizations

    Satisfaction peaks when teams are kept to three to five people. With many SMEs available, it is critical to choose the right players for your team.

    The image contains a multi bar graph to demonstrate the benefits of compact selection teams depending on the size of the company, small, medium, or large.

    Keep the Core Selection Team to Five People Regardless of the Software Category

    Smaller selection teams yield increased satisfaction across software categories

    Info-Tech Insight

    Core team size remains the same regardless of the application being selected. However, team composition will vary depending on the end users being targeted.

    Think beyond application complexity

    • Our instinct is to vary the size of the core selection team based on perceived application complexity.
    • The data has demonstrated that a small team yields increased satisfaction for applications across a wide array of application complexity profiles.
    • The real differentiator for complex applications will be the number of stakeholders that the core selection team liaise with, particularly for defining strong requirements.

    The image contains a graph to demonstrate satisfaction across software categories increases with smaller selection teams.

    The Second Magic Number Is 30

    Finish the project while stakeholders are still fully engaged in order to maximize satisfaction

    • 30- to 60-day project timelines are critical. Keep stakeholders engaged with a defined application selection timeline that moves the project forward briskly.
    • Strike while the iron is hot. Deliver applications in a timely manner after the initial request. Don’t let IT become the bottleneck for process optimization.
    • Minimize scope creep: As projects drag on in perpetuity, the scope of the project balloons to something that cannot possibly achieve key business objectives in a timely fashion.

    Aggressively Timeboxing the Project Yields Benefits Across Multiple Software Categories

    After four weeks, stakeholder satisfaction is variable

    The image contains a graph to demonstrate that aggressively timeboxing the project yields benefits across multiple software categories.
    Only categories with at least 1,000 responses were included in the analysis.

    Achieve peak satisfaction by allotting 30 days for an application selection project.

    • Spending two weeks or less typically leads to higher levels of satisfaction for each category because it leaves more time for negotiation, implementation, and making sure everything works properly (especially if there is a time constraint).
    • Watch out for the “satisfaction danger zone” once project enters the 6- to 12-week mark. Completing a selection in four weeks yields greater satisfaction.

    Spend Your Time Wisely to Complete the Selection in 30 Days

    Save time in the first three phases of the selection project

    Awareness

    Education & Discovery

    Evaluation

    Reduce Time

    Reduce Time

    Reduce Time

    Save time duplicating existing market research. Save time and maintain alignment with focus groups.

    Save time across tedious demos and understanding the marketplace.

    Save time gathering detailed historical requirements. Instead, focus on key issues.

    Info-Tech Insight – Awareness

    Timebox the process of impact analysis. More time should be spent performing the action than building a business case.

    Info-Tech Insight – Education

    Save time duplicating existing market research. Save time and maintain alignment with focus groups.

    Info-Tech Insight – Evaluation

    Decision committee time is valuable. Get up to speed using third-party data and written collateral. Use committee time to conduct investigative interviews instead. Salesperson charisma and marketing collateral quality should not be primary selection criteria. Sadly, this is the case far too often.

    Limit Project Duration to 30 Days Regardless of the Application Being Selected

    Timeboxing application selection yields increased satisfaction across software categories

    The image contains a graph to demonstrate selection effort in weeks by satisfaction. The graph includes informal and formal methods on the graph across the software categories.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Office collaboration tools are a great case study for increasing satisfaction with decreased time to selection. Given the sharp impetus of COVID-19, many organizations quickly selected tools like Zoom and Teams, enabling remote work with very high end-user satisfaction.

    There are alternative approaches for enterprise-sized applications:

    • New applications that demand rigorous business process improvement efforts may require allotting time for prework before engaging in the 30-day selection project.
    • To ensure that IT is using the right framework, understand the cost and complexity profile of the application you’re looking to select.

    The Data Also Shows That There Are Five Additional Keys to Improving Your Selection Process

    1. ALIGN & ELIMINATE ELAPSED TIME
    • Ensure a formal selection process is in place.
    • Balance the core selection team’s composition.
    • Make a concerted effort to align stakeholder calendars.
    2. REDUCE TIME SPENT ON LOW-IMPACT ACTIVITIES
    • Reduce time spent on internet research. Leverage hard data and experts.
    • Reduce RFP size or skip RFPs entirely.
    • Reduce time spent watching vendor dog and pony shows.
    3. FOCUS ON HIGH- IMPACT ACTIVITIES
    • Narrow the field to four contenders prior to in-depth comparison.
    • Identify portfolio overlap with accelerated enterprise architecture oversight.
    • Focus on investigative interviews and proof of concept projects.
    4. USE RAPID & ESSENTIAL ASSESSMENT TOOLS
    • Focus on key use cases, not lists of features.
    • You only need three essential tools: Info-Tech’s Vendor Evaluation Workbook, Software Selection Workbook, and Business Stakeholder Manual.
    5. ENGAGE TWO VIABLE VENDORS IN NEGOTIATION
    • Save more during negotiation by selecting two viable alternatives.
    • Surface a consolidated list of demands prior to entering negotiation.
    • Communicate your success with the organization.

    1. Align & Eliminate Elapsed Time

    ✓ Ensure a formal selection process is in place.

    ✓ Reduce time by timeboxing the project to 30 days.

    ✓ Align the calendars of the five-person core selection team.

    Improving Your IT Department’s Software Selection Capability Yields Big Results

    Time spent building a better process for software selection is a great investment

    • Enterprise application selection is an activity that every IT department must embark on, often many times per year.
    • The frequency and repeatability of software selection means it is an indispensable process to target for optimization.
    • A formal process is not always synonymous with a well-oiled process.
    • Even if you have a formal selection process already in place, it’s imperative to take a concerted approach to continuous improvement.

    It is critical to improve the selection process before formalizing

    Leverage Info-Tech’s Rapid Application Selection Framework to gain insights on how you can fine-tune and accelerate existing codified approaches to application selection.

    Before Condensing the Selection Team, First Formalize the Software Selection Process

    Software selection processes are challenging

    Vendor selection is politically charged, requiring Procurement to navigate around stakeholder biases and existing relationships.

    Stakeholders

    The process is time consuming and often started too late. In the absence of clarity around requirements, it is easy to default to looking at price instead of best functional and architectural fit.

    Timing

    Defining formal process and methodology

    Formal selection methodologies are repeatable processes that anybody can consistently follow to quickly select new technology.

    Repeatable

    The goal of formalizing the approach is to enable IT to deliver business value consistently while also empowering stakeholders to find tools that meet their needs. Remember! A formal selection process is synonymous with a bureaucratic, overblown approach.

    Driving Value

    Most Organizations Are Already Using a Formal Software Selection Methodology

    Don’t get left behind!

    • A common misconception for software selection is that only large organizations have formal processes.
    • The reality is that organizations of all sizes are making use of formal processes for software selection.
    • Moreover, using a standardized method to evaluate new technology is most likely common practice among your competitors regardless of their size.
    • It is important to remember that the level of rigor for the processes will vary based not only on project size but also on organization size.
    Only categories with at least 1,000 responses were included in the analysis.

    The image contains a double bar graph that compares the sizes of companies using formal or informal evaluation and selection methodology.

    Use a Formal Evaluation and Selection Methodology to Achieve Higher Satisfaction

    A formal selection process does not equal a bloated selection process

    • No matter what process is being used, you should consider implementing a formal methodology to reduce the amount of time required to select the software. This trend continues across different levels of software (commodity, complex, and enterprise).
    • It is worth noting that using a process can actually add more time to the selection process, so it is important to know how to use it properly.
    • Don’t use just one process: you should use a combination, but don’t use more than three when selecting your software.
    The image contains a double bar graph to demonstrate the difference between formal and informal evaluation to achieve a higher satisfaction.

    Hit a Home Run With Your Business Stakeholders

    Use a data-driven approach to select the right application vendor for their needs – fast

    The image contains a screenshot of the data-drive approach. The approach includes: awareness, education & discovery, evaluation, selection, negotiation & configuration.

    Investing time improving your software selection methodology has big returns.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Not all software selection projects are created equal – some are very small; some span the entire enterprise. To ensure that IT is using the right framework, understand the cost and complexity profile of the application you’re looking to select. The Rapid Application Selection Framework approach is best for commodity and mid-tier enterprise applications; selecting complex applications is better handled by the methodology described in Implement a Proactive and Consistent Vendor Selection Process.

    Lock Down the Key Players Before Setting Up the Relevant Timeline

    You are the quarterback of your selection team

    Don’t get bogged down “waiting for the stars to align” in terms of people’s availability: if you wait for the perfect alignment, the project may never get done.

    If a key stakeholder is unavailable for weeks or months due to PTO or other commitments, don’t jeopardize project timelines to wait for them to be free. Find a relevant designate that can act in their stead!

    You don’t need the entire team on the field at once. Keep certain stakeholders on the bench to swap in and out as needed.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Assemble the key stakeholders for project kick-off to synchronize the application selection process and limit elapsed time. Getting all parties on the same page increases output satisfaction and eliminates rework. Save time and get input from key stakeholders at the project kick-off.

    Assemble a Cross-Functional Team for Best Results

    A blend of both worlds gets the best of both worlds from domain expertise (technical and business)

    The image contains a graph labelled: Likeliness to recommend. It is described in the text below.

    How to manage the cross-functional selection team:

    • There should be a combination of IT and businesspeople involved in the selection process, and ideally the ratio would be balanced.
    • No matter what you are looking for, you should never include more than five people in the selection process.
    • You can keep key stakeholders and other important individuals informed with what is going on, but they don’t necessarily have to be involved in the selection process.

    Leverage a Five-Person Team With Players From Both IT and the Business

    For maximum effectiveness, assign at least one resource to the project on a full-time basis

    IT Leader

    Technical IT

    Business Analyst/ Project Manager

    Business Lead

    Process Expert

    This team member is an IT director or CIO who will provide sponsorship and oversight from the IT perspective.

    This team member will focus on application security, integration, and enterprise architecture.

    This team member elicits business needs and translates them into technology requirements.

    This team member will provide sponsorship from the business needs perspective.

    This team member will contribute their domain-specific knowledge around the processes that the new application supports.

    Info-Tech Insight

    It is critical for the selection team to determine who has decision rights. Organizational culture will play the largest role in dictating which team member holds the final say for selection decisions.

    Ensure That Your Project Has the Right Mix of the Core Team and Ancillary Stakeholders

    Who is involved in selecting the new application?

    • Core selection team:
      • The core team ideally comprises just five members.
      • There will be representatives from IT and the specific business function that is most impacted by the application.
      • The team is typically anchored by a business analyst or project management professional.
      • This is the team that is ultimately accountable for ensuring that the project stays on track and that the right vendor is selected.
    • Ancillary stakeholders:
      • These stakeholders are brought into the selection project on an as-needed basis. They offer commentary on requirements and technical know-how.
      • They will be impacted by the project outcome but they do not bear ultimate accountability for selecting the application.
    The image contains an outer circle that lists Ancillary Stakeholders, and an inner selection team that lists core selection teams.

    Tweak the Team Composition Based on the Application Category in Question

    All applications are different. Some categories may require a slightly different balance of business and IT users.

    When to adjust the selection team’s business to IT ratio:

    • Increase the number of business stakeholders for customer-centric applications like customer relationship management and customer service management.
    • Keep projects staffed with more technical resources when selecting internal-facing tools like network monitoring platforms, next-generation firewalls, and endpoint protection systems.
    The image contains a graph to demonstrate how to tweak the team composition based on the application category.

    When to adjust the selection team’s business to IT ratio:

    • Increase the number of business stakeholders for customer-centric applications like customer relationship management and customer service management.
    • Keep projects staffed with more technical resources when selecting internal-facing tools like network monitoring platforms, next-generation firewalls, and endpoint protection systems.

    Balance the Selection Team With Decision Makers and Front-Line Resources

    Find the right balance!

    • Make sure to include key decision makers to increase the velocity of approvals.
    • However, it is critical to include the right number of front-line resources to ensure that end-user needs are adequately reflected in the requirements and decision criteria used for selection.

    The image contains a graph on the team composition with number of decision makers involved.

    Info-Tech Insight

    When selecting their software, organizations have an average of two to four business and IT decision makers/influencers on the core selection team.

    Optimize Meeting Cadence to Complete Selection in 30 Days

    Project Cadence:

    • Execute approximately one phase per week.
    • Conduct weekly checkpoints to move through your formal selection framework.
    • Allot two to four hours per touchpoint.

    The image contains a calendar with the five phases spread put over five weeks.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Use weekly touchpoints with the core selection team to eliminate broken telephone. Hold focus groups and workshops to take a more collaborative, timely, and consensus-driven approach to zero in on critical requirements.

    2. Reduce Time Spent on Low-Impact Activities

    ✓ Reduce time spent on internet research. Leverage hard data and experts.

    ✓ Reduce RFP size or skip RFPs entirely.

    ✓ Reduce time spent watching vendor dog and pony shows.

    Reduce Time Spent on Internet Research by Leveraging Hard Data and Experts

    REDUCE BIAS

    Taking a data-driven approach to vendor selection ensures that decisions are made in a manner that reduces human bias and exposure to misaligned incentives.

    SCORING MODELS

    Create a vendor scoring model that uses several different scored criteria (alignment to needs, alignment to architecture, cost, relationship, etc.) and weight them.

    AGGREGATE EXPERIENCES

    When you leverage services such as SoftwareReviews, you’re relying on amalgamated data from hundreds of others that have already been down this path: benefit from their experience!

    PEER-DRIVEN INSIGHTS

    Formally incorporate a review of Category Reports from SoftwareReviews into your vendor selection process to take advantage of peer-driven expert insights.

    Contact Us

    Info-Tech is just a phone call away. Our expert analysts can guide you to successful project completion at no additional cost to you.

    Bloated RFPs Are Weighing You Down

    Avoid “RFP overload” – parse back deliverables for smaller projects

    1. Many IT and procurement professionals are accustomed to deliverable-heavy application selection projects.
    2. Massive amounts of effort is spent creating onerous RFIs, RFPs, vendor demo scripts, reference guides, and Pugh matrices – with only incremental (if any) benefits.
    3. For smaller projects, focus on creating a minimum viable RFP that sketches out a brief need statement and highlights three or four critical process areas to avoid RFP fatigue.

    Draft a lightweight RFI (or minimum viable RFP) to give vendors a snapshot of your needs while managing effort

    An RFI or MV-RFP is a truncated RFP document that highlights core use cases to vendors while minimizing the amount of time the team has to spend building it.

    You may miss out on the right vendor if:

    • The RFP is too long or cumbersome for the vendor to respond.
    • Vendors believe their time is better spent relationship selling.
    • The RFP is unclear and leads them to believe they won’t be successful.
    • The vendor was forced to guess what you were looking for.

    How to write a successful RFI/MV-RFP:

    • Expend your energy relative to the complexity of the required solution or product you’re seeking.
    • A good MV-RFP is structured as follows: a brief description of your organization, business context, and key requirements. It should not exceed a half-dozen pages in length.
    • Be transparent.
    • This could potentially be a long-term relationship, so don’t try to trick suppliers.
    • Be clear in your expectations and focus on the key aspects of what you’re trying to achieve.

    Use the appropriate Info-Tech template for your needs (RFI, RFQ, or RFP). The Request for Information Template is best suited to the RASF approach.

    If Necessary, Make Sure That You Are Going About RFPs the Right Way

    RFPs only add satisfaction when done correctly

    The image contains a graph to demonstrate RFP and satisfaction.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Prescriptive yet flexible: Avoid RFP overload when selecting customer experience–centric applications, but a formal approach to selection is still beneficial.

    When will an RFP increase satisfaction?

    • Satisfaction is increased when the RFP is used in concert with a formal selection methodology. An RFP on its own does not drive significant value.
    • RFPs that focus on an application’s differentiating features lead to higher satisfaction with the selection process.
    • Using the RFP to evaluate mandatory or standard and/or mandatory features yields neutral results.

    Reduce Time Spent Watching Vendor Dog and Pony Shows

    Salesperson charisma and marketing collateral quality should not be primary selection criteria. Sadly, this is the case far too often.

    Use data to take control back from the vendor

    • Taking a data-driven approach to vendor selection ensures that decisions are made in a manner that reduces human bias and exposure to misaligned incentives.
    • When you leverage services such as SoftwareReviews, you’re relying on amalgamated data from hundreds of others that have already been down this path: benefit from their collective experience!

    Kill the “golf course effect” and eliminate stakeholder bias

    • A leading cause of selection failure is human bias. While rarely malicious, the reality is that decision makers and procurement staff can become unduly biased over time by vendor incentives. Conference passes, box seats, a strong interpersonal relationship – these are all things that may be valuable to a decision maker but have no bearing on the efficacy of an enterprise application.
    • A strong selection process mitigates human bias by using a weighted scoring model and basing decisions on hard data: cost, user satisfaction scores, and trusted third-party data from services such as SoftwareReviews.

    Conduct a Day of Rapid-Fire Investigative Interviews

    Zoom in on high-value use cases and answers to targeted questions

    Make sure the solution will work for your business

    Give each vendor 60 to 90 minutes to give a rapid-fire presentation. We suggest the following structure:

    • 20 minutes: company introduction and vision
    • 20 minutes: one high-value scenario walkthrough
    • 20-40 minutes: targeted Q&A from the business stakeholders and procurement team

    To ensure a consistent evaluation, vendors should be asked analogous questions, and a tabulation of answers should be conducted.

    How to challenge the vendors in the investigative interview

    • Change the visualization/presentation.
    • Change the underlying data.
    • Add additional data sets to the artifacts.
    • Collaboration capabilities.
    • Perform an investigation in terms of finding BI objects and identifying previous changes and examine the audit trail.

    Rapid-Fire Vendor Investigative Interview

    Invite vendors to come onsite (or join you via videoconference) to demonstrate the product and to answer questions. Use a highly targeted demo script to help identify how a vendor’s solution will fit your organization’s particular business capability needs.

    Spend Your Time Wisely and Accelerate the Process

    Join the B2B software selection r/evolution

    Awareness

    Education & Discovery

    Evaluation

    Selection

    Negotiation & Configuration

    Reduce Time

    Reduce Time

    Reduce Time

    Reduce Time

    Reduce Time

    Save time
    duplicating existing market research. Save time and maintain alignment with focus groups.

    Save time across tedious demos and understanding the marketplace.

    Save time gathering detailed historical requirements. Instead, focus on key issues.

    Use your time to validate how the solution will handle mission-critical requirements.

    Spend time negotiating with two viable alternatives to reduce price by up to 50%.

    Use a tier-based model to accelerate commodity and complex selection projects.

    Eliminate elapsed process time with focus groups and workshops.

    3. Focus on High-Impact Activities

    ✓ Narrow the field to four contenders prior to in-depth comparison.

    ✓ Identify portfolio overlap with accelerated enterprise architecture oversight.

    ✓ Focus on investigative interviews and proof of concept projects.

    Narrow the Field to a Maximum of Four Contenders

    Focus time spent on the players that we know can deliver strong value

    1. ACCELERATE SELECTION

    Save time by exclusively engaging vendors that support the organization’s differentiating requirements.

    2. DECISION CLARITY

    Prevent stakeholders from getting lost in the weeds with endless lists of vendors.

    3.CONDENSED DEMOS

    Limiting the project to four contenders allows you to stack demos/investigative interviews into the same day.

    4. LICENSING LEVERAGE

    Keep track of key differences between vendor offerings with a tight shortlist.

    Rapid & Effective Selection Decisions

    Consolidating the Vendor Shortlist Up-Front Reduces Downstream Effort

    Put the “short” back in shortlist!

    • Radically reduce effort by narrowing the field of potential vendors earlier in the selection process. Too many organizations don’t funnel their vendor shortlist until nearing the end of the selection process. The result is wasted time and effort evaluating options that are patently not a good fit.
    • Leverage external data (such as SoftwareReviews) and expert opinion to consolidate your shortlist into a smaller number of viable vendors before the investigative interview stage and eliminate time spent evaluating dozens of RFP responses.
    • Having fewer RFP responses to evaluate means you will have more time to do greater due diligence.

    Rapid Enterprise Architecture Evaluations Are High-Impact Activities

    When accelerating selection decisions, finding the right EA is a balancing act

    • Neglecting enterprise architecture as a shortcut to save time often leads to downstream integration problems and decreases application satisfaction.
    • On the other hand, overly drawn out enterprise architecture evaluations can lead to excessively focusing on technology integration versus having a clear and concise understanding of critical business needs.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Targeting an enterprise architecture evaluation as part of your software selection process that does not delay the selection while also providing sufficient insight into platform fit is critical.

    Key activities for rapid enterprise architecture evaluation include:

    1. Security analysis
    2. Portfolio overlap review + integration assessment
    3. Application standards check

    The data confirms that it is worthwhile to spend time on enterprise architecture

    • Considering software architecture fit up-front to determine if new software aligns with the existing application architecture directly links to greater satisfaction.
    • Stakeholders are most satisfied with their software value when there is a good architectural platform fit.
    • Stakeholders that ranked Architectural Platform Fit lower during the selection process were ultimately more unsatisfied with their software choice.

    The image contains a screenshot of data to demonstrate that it is worthwhile to spend time on enterprise architecture.

    Identify Portfolio Overlap With an Accelerated Enterprise Architecture Assessment

    Develop a clear view of any overlap within your target portfolio subset and clear rationalization/consolidation options

    • Application sprawl is a critical pain point in many organizations. It leads to wasted time, money, and effort as IT (and the business) maintain myriad applications that all serve the same functional purpose.
    • Opportunities are missed to consolidate and streamline associated business process management, training, and end-user adoption activities.
    • Identify which applications in your existing architecture serve a duplicate purpose: these applications are the ones you will want to target for consolidation.
    • As you select a new application, identify where it can be used to serve the goal for application rationalization (i.e. can we replace/retire existing applications in our portfolio by standardizing the new one?).

    Keep the scope manageable!

    • Highlight the major functional processes that are closely related to the application you’re selecting and identify which applications support each.
    • The template below represents a top-level view of a set of customer experience management (CXM) applications. Identify linkages between sets of applications and if they’re uni- or bi-directional.
    The image contains a screenshot of images that demonstrate portfolio overlap with an accelerated enterprise architecture assessment.

    Rapidly Evaluate the Security & Risk Profile for a Right-Sized Enterprise Architecture Evaluation

    There are four considerations for determining the security and risk profile for the new application

    1. Financial Risk
    • Consider the financial impact the new application has on the organization.
      • How significant is the investment in technology?
    • If this application fails to meet its business goals and deliver strong return on investment, will there be a significant amount of financial resources to mitigate the problem?
  • Data Sensitivity Risk
    • Understand the type of data that will be handled/stored by the application.
      • For example, a CRM will house customer personally identifiable information (PII) and an ECM will store confidential business documentation.
    • Determine the consequences of a potential breach (i.e. legal and financial).
  • Application Vulnerability Risk
    • Consider whether the application category has a historically strong security track record.
      • For example, enterprise cloud storage solutions may have a different level of vulnerability than an HRIS platform.
  • Infrastructure Risk
    • Determine whether the new application requires changes to infrastructure or additional security investments to safeguard expanded infrastructure.
    • Consider the ways in which the changes to infrastructure increase the vectors for security breaches.

    Spend More Time Validating Key Issues With Deep Technical Assessments

    The image contains a screenshot of an image of an iceberg. The top part of the iceberg is above water and labelled 40%. The rest of the iceberg is below water and is labelled 60%.

    Conversations With the Vendor

    • Initial conversations with the vendor build alignment on overall application capabilities, scope of work, and pricing.

    Pilot Projects and Trial Environments

    • Conduct a proof of concept project to ensure that the application satisfies your non-functional requirements.
    • Technical assessments not only demonstrate whether an application is compatible with your existing systems but also give your technical resources the confidence that the implementation process will be as smooth as possible.
    • Marketing collateral glosses over actual capabilities and differentiation. Use unbiased third-party data and detailed system training material.

    4. Use Rapid & Essential Assessment Tools

    ✓ Focus on key use cases, not lists of features.

    ✓ You only need three essential tools:

    1. Info-Tech’s Vendor Evaluation Workbook
    2. The Software Selection Workbook
    3. A Business Stakeholder Manual

    Focus on Key Use Cases, Not an Endless Laundry List of Table Stakes Features

    Focus on Critical Requirements

    Failure to differentiate must-have and nice-to-have use cases leads to applications full of non-critical features.

    Go Beyond the Table Stakes

    Accelerate the process by skipping common requirements that we know that every vendor will support.

    Streamline the Quantity of Use Cases

    Working with a tighter list of core use cases increases time spent evaluating the most impactful functionality.

    Over-Customization Kills Projects

    Eliminating dubious “sacred cow” requirements reduces costly and painful platform customization.

    Only Make Use of Essential Selection Artifacts

    Vendor selection projects often demand extensive and unnecessary documentation

    The Software Selection Workbook

    Work through the straightforward templates that tie to each phase of the Rapid Application Selection Framework, from assessing the business impact to requirements gathering.

    The image contains a screenshot of The Software Selection Workbook.

    The Vendor Evaluation Workbook

    Consolidate the vendor evaluation process into a single document. Easily compare vendors as you narrow the field to finalists.

    The image contains a screenshot of The Vendor Evaluation Workbook.

    The Guide to Software Selection: A Business Stakeholder Manual

    Quickly explain the Rapid Application Selection Framework to your team while also highlighting its benefits to stakeholders.

    The image contains a screenshot of The Guide to Software Selection: A Business Stakeholder Manual.

    Software Selection Engagement

    Five advisory calls over a five-week period to accelerate your selection process

    • Expert analyst guidance over five weeks on average to select and negotiate software.
    • Save money, align stakeholders, speed up the process, and make better decisions.
    • Use a repeatable, formal methodology to improve your application selection process.
    • Better, faster results, guaranteed, included in membership.
    The image contains a screenshot of the calendar over 30 days that outlines the five calls.

    Click here to book your selection engagement

    Software Selection Workshop

    With 40 hours of advisory assistance delivered online, select better software, faster.

    • 40 hours of expert analyst guidance.
    • Project and stakeholder management assistance.
    • Save money, align stakeholders, speed up the process, and make better decisions.
    • Better, faster results, guaranteed; $20K standard engagement fee.
    The image contains a screenshot of the calendar over 30 days that outlines the five calls.

    CLICK HERE TO BOOK YOUR WORKSHOP ENGAGEMENT

    5. Select Two Viable Options & Engage Both in Negotiation

    ✓ Save more during negotiation by selecting two viable alternatives.

    ✓ Surface a consolidated list of demands prior to entering negotiation.

    ✓ Communicate your success with the organization.

    Save More During Negotiation by Selecting Two Viable Alternatives

    VENDOR 1

    Build in a realistic plan B that allows you to apply leverage to the incumbent or primary vendor of choice.

    VENDOR 2

    If the top contender is aware that they do not have competition, they will be less inclined to make concessions.

    Maintain momentum with two options

    • Should you realize that the primary contender is no longer a viable option (i.e. security concerns), keeping a second vendor in play enables you to quickly pivot without slowing down the selection project.

    Secure best pricing by playing vendors off each other

    • Vendors are more likely to give concessions on the base price once they become aware that a direct competitor has entered the evaluation.

    Truly commit to a thorough analysis of alternatives

    • By evaluating competitive alternatives, you’ll get a more comprehensive view on market standards for a solution and be able to employ a range of negotiation tactics.

    Focus on 5-10 Specific Contract Change Requests

    Accelerate negotiation by picking your battles

    ANALYZE

    DOCUMENT

    CONSOLIDATE

    PRESENT

    • Parse the contract, order form, and terms & conditions for concerning language.
    • Leverage expertise from internal subject matter experts in addition to relevant legal council.
    • Document all concerns and challenges with the language in the vendor contract in a single spreadsheet.
    • Make vendors more receptive to your cause by going one step beyond writing what the change should be. Provide the reasoning behind the change and even the relevant context.
    • Identify the change requests that are most important for the success of the selection project.
    • Compile a list of the most critical change requests.
    • Consider including nice-to-have requests that you can leverage as strategic concessions.
    • Present the consolidated list of critical change requests to the vendor rather than sharing the entire range of potential changes to the contract.
    • Make sure to include context and background for each request.
    • Eliminate potential delays by proactively establishing a timeline for the vendor’s response.

    Share Stories of Cost Savings With the Organization

    Secure IT’s seat at the table

    Hard cost savings speak louder than words. Executive leadership will see IT as the go-to team for driving business value quickly, yet responsibly.

    Build hype around the new software

    Generate enthusiasm by highlighting the improved user experience provided by the new software that was has just been selected.

    Drive end-user adoption

    Position the cost savings as an opportunity to invest in onboarding. An application is only as valuable as your employees’ ability to effectively use it.

    Keep the process rolling

    Use the momentum from the project and its successful negotiation to roll out the accelerated selection approach to more departments across the organization.

    Overall: The Magic Number Saves You Time and Money

    Software selection takes forever. The process of choosing even the smallest apps can drag on for years: sometimes in perpetuity.

    Organizations keep too many players on the field, leading to scheduling slowdowns and scope creep.

    Keeping the size of the core selection team down, while liaising with more stakeholders and subject matter experts (SMEs), leads to improved results.

    Maximize project effectiveness with a five-person team. Project satisfaction and effectiveness are stagnant or decrease once the team grows beyond five people.

    Cumbersome or ad hoc selection processes lead to business-driven software selection.

    Increase stakeholder satisfaction by using a consistent selection framework that captures their needs while not being a burden.

    Empower both IT and end users with a standardized selection process to consistently achieve high satisfaction coming out of software selection projects.

    The image contains a graph that is titled: A compact selection team can save you weeks. The graph demonstrates time saved with a five person team in comparison to larger teams.

    Key Takeaways for Improving Your Selection Process

    1. ALIGN & ELIMINATE ELAPSED TIME

    • Ensure a formal selection process is in place and reduce time by timeboxing the project to 30 days.
    • Align the calendars of the five-person core selection team to maximize efficiency.

    2. REDUCE TIME SPENT ON LOW-IMPACT ACTIVITIES

    • Go beyond the table stakes and accelerate the process by skipping common requirements that we know that every vendor will support.
    • Only make use of essential selection artifacts.

    3. FOCUS ON HIGH- IMPACT ACTIVITIES

    • Skip the vendor dog and pony shows with investigative interviews.
    • Minimize time spent on novel-sized RFPs; instead highlight three or four critical process areas.

    4. USE RAPID & ESSENTIAL ASSESSMENT TOOLS

    • Consolidating the vendor shortlist up-front reduces downstream effort.
    • Application sprawl is a critical pain point in many organizations that leads to wasted time and money.

    5. ENGAGE TWO VIABLE VENDORS IN NEGOTIATION

    • Build in a realistic plan B that allows you to apply leverage to the incumbent or primary vendor of choice.
    • Pick your battles and focus on 5-10 specific contract change requests.

    Appendix

    This study is based on a survey of 43,000 real-world IT practitioners.

    • SoftwareReviews (a sister company of Info-Tech Research Group) collects and aggregates feedback on a wide variety of enterprise technologies.
    • The practitioners are actual end users of hundreds of different enterprise application categories.
    • The following slides highlight the supplementary data points from the comprehensive survey.

    Methodology

    A comprehensive study based on the responses of thousands of real-world practitioners.

    Qualitative & Secondary

    Using comprehensive statistical techniques, we surveyed what our members identified as key drivers of success in selecting enterprise software. Our goal was to determine how organizations can accelerate selection processes and improve outcomes by identifying where people should spend their time for the best results.

    Large-n Survey

    To determine the “Magic Numbers,” we used a large-n survey: 40,000 respondents answered questions about their applications, selection processes, organizational firmographics, and personal characteristics. We used this data to determine what drives satisfaction not only with the application but with the selection process itself.

    Quantitative Drill-Down

    We used the survey to narrow the list of game-changing practices. We then conducted additional quantitative research to understand why our respondents may have selected the responses they did.

    Proactively Identify and Mitigate Vendor Risk

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}227|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: N/A
    • member rating average dollars saved: N/A
    • member rating average days saved: N/A
    • Parent Category Name: Vendor Management
    • Parent Category Link: /vendor-management
    • IT priorities are focused on daily tasks, pushing risk management to secondary importance and diverging from a proactive environment.
    • IT leaders are relying on an increasing number of third-party technology vendors and outsourcing key functions to meet the rapid pace of change within IT.
    • Risk levels can fluctuate over the course of the partnership, requiring manual process checks and/or automated solutions.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Every IT vendor carries risks that have business implications. These legal, financial, security, and operational risks could inhibit business continuity and IT can’t wait until an issue arises to act.
    • Making intelligent decisions about risks without knowing what their financial impact will be is difficult. Risk impact must be quantified.
    • You don’t know what you don’t know, and what you don’t know, can hurt you. To find hidden risks, you must use a structured risk identification method.

    Impact and Result

    • A thorough risk assessment in the selection phase is your first line of defense. If you follow the principles of vendor risk management, you can mitigate collateral losses following an adverse event.
    • Make a conscious decision whether to accept the risk based on time, priority, and impact. Spend the required time to correctly identify and enact defined vendor management processes that determine spend categories and appropriately evaluate potential and preferred suppliers. Ensure you accurately assess the partnership potential.
    • Take a proactive stance against IT threats and vulnerabilities by identifying and assessing IT’s most significant risks before they happen.

    Proactively Identify and Mitigate Vendor Risk Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out how to create a vendor risk management program that minimizes your organization’s vulnerability and mitigates adverse scenarios.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Review vendor risk fundamentals and establish governance

    Review IT vendor risk fundamentals and establish a risk governance framework.

    • Proactively Identify and Mitigate Vendor Risk – Phase 1: Review Vendor Risk Fundamentals and Establish Governance
    • Vendor Risk Management Maturity Assessment Tool
    • Vendor Risk Management Program Manual
    • Risk Event Action Plan

    2. Assess vendor risk and define your response strategy

    Categorize, prioritize, and assess your vendor risks. Follow up with creating effective response strategies.

    • Proactively Identify and Mitigate Vendor Risk – Phase 2: Assess Vendor Risk and Define Your Response Strategy
    • Vendor Classification Model Tool
    • Vendor Risk Profile and Assessment Tool
    • Risk Costing Tool
    • Risk Register Tool

    3. Monitor, communicate, and improve IT vendor risk process

    Assign accountability and responsibilities to formalize ongoing risk monitoring. Communicate your findings to management and share the plan moving forward.

    • Proactively Identify and Mitigate Vendor Risk – Phase 3: Monitor, Communicate, and Improve IT Vendor Risk Process
    • Risk Report
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Proactively Identify and Mitigate Vendor Risk

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Prepare for the Workshop

    The Purpose

    To prepare the team for the workshop.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Avoids delays and interruptions once the workshop is in progress.

    Activities

    1.1 Send workshop agenda to all participants.

    1.2 Prepare list of vendors and review any contracts provided by them.

    1.3 Review current risk management process.

    Outputs

    All necessary participants assembled

    List of vendors and vendor contracts

    Understanding of current risk management process

    2 Review Vendor Risk Fundamentals and Establish Governance

    The Purpose

    Review IT vendor risk fundamentals.

    Assess current maturity and set risk management program goals.

    Engage stakeholders and establish a risk governance framework.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understanding of organizational risk culture and the corresponding risk threshold.

    Obstacles to effective IT risk management identified.

    Attainable goals to increase maturity established.

    Understanding of the gap to achieve vendor risk readiness.

    Activities

    2.1 Brainstorm vendor-related risks.

    2.2 Assess current program maturity.

    2.3 Identify obstacles and pain points.

    2.4 Develop risk management goals.

    2.5 Develop key risk indicators (KRIs) and escalation protocols.

    2.6 Gain stakeholders’ perspective.

    Outputs

    Vendor risk management maturity assessment

    Goals for vendor risk management

    Stakeholders’ opinions

    3 Assess Vendor Risk and Define Your Response Strategy

    The Purpose

    Categorize vendors.

    Prioritize assessed risks.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Risk events prioritized according to risk severity – as defined by the business.

    Activities

    3.1 Categorize vendors.

    3.2 Map vendor infrastructure.

    3.3 Prioritize vendors.

    3.4 Identify risk contributing factors.

    3.5 Assess risk exposure.

    3.6 Calculate expected cost.

    3.7 Identify risk events.

    3.8 Input risks into the Risk Register Tool.

    Outputs

    Vendors classified and prioritized

    Vendor risk exposure

    Expected cost calculation

    4 Assess Vendor Risk and Define Your Response Strategy (continued)

    The Purpose

    Determine risk threshold and contract clause relating to risk prevention.

    Identify and assess risk response actions.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Thorough analysis has been conducted on the value and effectiveness of risk responses for high-severity risk events.

    Risk response strategies have been identified for all key risks.

    Authoritative risk response recommendations can be made to senior leadership.

    Activities

    4.1 Determine the threshold for (un)acceptable risk.

    4.2 Match elements of the contract to related vendor risks.

    4.3 Identify and assess risk responses.

    Outputs

    Thresholds for (un)acceptable risk

    Risk responses

    5 Monitor, Communicate, and Improve IT Vendor Risk Process

    The Purpose

    Communicate top risks to management.

    Assign accountabilities and responsibilities for risk management process.

    Establish monitoring schedule.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Risk monitoring responsibilities are established.

    Transparent accountabilities and established ongoing improvement of the vendor risk management program.

    Activities

    5.1 Create a stakeholder map.

    5.2 Complete RACI chart.

    5.3 Establish the reporting schedule.

    5.4 Finalize the vendor risk management program.

    Outputs

    Stakeholder map

    Assigned accountability for risk management

    Established monitoring schedule

    Risk report

    Vendor Risk Management Program Manual

    Effective IT Communications

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}429|cart{/j2store}
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    IT communications are often considered ineffective. This is demonstrated by:

    • A lack of inclusion or time to present in board meetings.
    • Confusion around IT priorities and how they align to organizational objectives.
    • Segregating IT from the rest of the organization.
    • The inability to secure the necessary funding for IT-led initiatives.
    • IT employees not feeling supported or engaged.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • No one is born a good communicator. Every IT employee needs to spend the time and effort to grow their communication skills; with constant change and worsening IT crises, IT cannot afford to communicate poorly anymore.
    • The skills needed to communicate effectively as a front=line employee or CIO are the same. It is important to begin the development of these skills from the beginning of one's career.
    • Time is a non-renewable resource. Any communication needs to be considered valuable and engaging by the audience or they will be unforgiving.

    Impact and Result

    Communications is a responsibility of all members of IT. This is demonstrated through:

    • Engaging in two-way communications that are continuous and evolving.
    • Establishing a communications strategy – and following the plan.
    • Increasing the skills of all IT employees when it comes to communications.
    • Identifying audiences and their preferred means of communication.

    Effective IT Communications Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Effective IT Communications Capstone Deck – A resource center to ensure you never start communications from a blank page again.

    This capstone blueprint highlights the components, best practices, and importance of good communication for all IT employees.

    • Effective IT Communications Storyboard

    2. IT Townhall Template – A ready-to-use template to help you engage with IT employees and ensure consistent access to information.

    IT town halls must deliver value to employees, or they will withdraw and miss key messages. To engage employees, use well-crafted communications in an event that includes crowd-sourced contents, peer involvement, recognition, significant Q&A time allotment, organizational discussions, and goal alignment.

    • IT Townhall Template

    3. IT Year in Review Template – A ready-to-use template to help communicate IT successes and future objectives.

    This template provides a framework to build your own IT Year In Review presentation. An IT Year In Review presentation typically covers the major accomplishments, challenges, and initiatives of an organization's information technology (IT) department over the past year.

    • IT Year in Review Template

    Infographic

    Further reading

    Effective IT Communications

    Empower IT employees to communicate well with any stakeholder across the organization.

    Analyst perspective

    There has never been an expectation for IT to communicate well.

    Brittany Lutes

    Brittany Lutes
    Research Director
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Diana MacPherson

    Diana MacPherson
    Senior Research Analyst
    Info-Tech Research Group

    IT rarely engages in proper communications. We speak at, inform, or tell our audience what we believe to be important. But true communications seldom take place.

    Communications only occur when channels are created to ensure the continuous opportunity to obtain two-way feedback. It is a skill that is developed over time, with no individual having an innate ability to be better at communications. Each person in IT needs to work toward developing their personal communications style. The problem is we rarely invest in development or training related to communications. Information and technology fields spend time and money developing hard skills within IT, not soft ones.

    The benefits associated with communications are immense: higher business satisfaction, funding for IT initiatives, increased employee engagement, better IT to business alignment, and the general ability to form ongoing partnerships with stakeholders. So, for IT departments looking to obtain these benefits through true communications, develop the necessary skills.

    Executive summary

    Your Challenge Common Obstacles Info-Tech’s Approach
    IT communications are often considered ineffective. This is demonstrated by:
    • A lack of inclusion or time to present in board meetings.
    • Confusion around IT priorities and how they align to organizational objectives.
    • Segregating IT from the rest of the organization.
    • An inability to secure the necessary funding for IT-led initiatives.
    • IT employees not feeling supported or engaged.
    Frequently, these barriers have prevented IT communications from being effective:
    • Using technical jargon when a universal language is needed.
    • Speaking at organization stakeholders rather than engaging through dialogue.
    • Understanding the needs of the audience.
    Overall, IT has not been expected to engage in good communications or taken a proactive approach to communicate effectively.
    Communications is a responsibility of all members of IT. This is demonstrated through:
    • Engaging in two-way communications that are continuous and evolving.
    • Establishing a communications strategy – and following the plan.
    • Increasing the skills of all IT employees when it comes to communications.
    • Identifying audiences and their preferred means of communication.

    Info-Tech Insight
    No one is born a good communicator. Every IT employee needs to spend the time and effort to grow their communication skills as constant change and worsening IT crises mean that IT cannot afford to communicate poorly anymore.

    Your challenge

    Overall satisfaction with IT is correlated to satisfaction with IT communications

    Chart showing satisfaction with it and communications

    The bottom line? For every 10% increase in communications there 8.6% increase in overall IT satisfaction. Therefore, when IT communicates with the organization, stakeholders are more likely to be satisfied with IT overall.

    Info-Tech Diagnostic Programs, N=330 organizations

    IT struggles to communicate effectively with the organization:

    • CIOs are given minimal time to present to the board or executive leaders about IT’s value and alignment to business goals.
    • IT initiatives are considered complicated and confusing.
    • The frequency and impact of IT crises are under planned for, making communications more difficult during a major incident.
    • IT managers do not have the skills to communicate effectively with their team.
    • IT employees do not have the skills to communicate effectively with one another and end users.

    Common obstacles

    IT is prevented from communicating effectively due to these barriers:

    • Difficulty assessing the needs of the audience to inform the language and means of communication that should be used.
    • Using technical jargon rather than translating the communication into commonly understood terms.
    • Not receiving the training required to develop communication skills across IT employees.
    • Frequently speak at organization stakeholders rather than engaging through dialogue.
    • Beginning many communications from a blank page, especially crisis communications.
    • Difficulty presenting complex concepts in a short time to an audience in a digestible and concise manner without diluting the point.

    Effective IT communications are rare:

    53% of CXOs believe poor communication between business and IT is a barrier to innovation.
    Source: Info-Tech CEO-CIO Alignment Survey, 2022

    69% of those in management positions don’t feel comfortable even communicating with their staff.”
    Source: TeamStage, 2022

    Info-Tech’s approach

    Effective communications is not a broadcast but a dialogue between communicator and audience in a continuous feedback loop.

    Continuous loop of dialogue

    The Info-Tech difference:

    1. Always treat every communication as a dialogue, enabling the receiver of the message to raise questions, concerns, or ideas.
    2. Different audiences will require different communications. Be sure to cater the communication to the needs of the receiver(s).
    3. Never assume the communication was effective. Create measures and adjust the communications to get the desired outcome.

    Common IT communications

    And the less common but still important communications

    Communicating Up to Board or Executives

    • Board Presentations
    • Executive Leadership Committee Meetings
    • Technology Updates
    • Budget Updates
    • Risk Updates
    • Year in Review

    Communicating Across the Organization

    • Townhalls – external to IT
    • Year in Review
    • Crisis Email
    • Intranet Communication
    • Customer/Constituent Requests for Information
    • Product Launches
    • Email
    • Watercooler Chat

    Communicating Within IT

    • Townhalls – internal to IT
    • Employee 1:1s
    • Team Meetings
    • Project Updates
    • Project Collaboration Sessions
    • Year in Review
    • All-Hands Meeting
    • Employee Interview
    • Onboarding Documentation
    • Vendor Negotiation Meetings
    • Vendor Product Meetings
    • Email
    • Watercooler Chat

    Insight Summary

    Overarching insight
    IT cannot afford to communicate poorly given the overwhelming impact and frequency of change related to technology. Learn to communicate well or get out of the way of someone who can.

    Insight 1: The skills needed to communicate effectively as a frontline employee or a CIO are the same. It’s important to begin the development of these skills from the beginning of one’s career.
    Insight 2: Time is a non-renewable resource. Any communication needs to be considered valuable and engaging by the audience or they will be unforgiving.
    Insight 3: Don’t make data your star. It is a supporting character. People can argue about the collection methods or interpretation of the data, but they cannot argue the story you share.
    Insight 4: Measure if the communication is being received and resulting in the desired outcome. If not, modify what and how the message is being expressed.
    Insight 5: Messages are also non-verbal. Practice using your voice and body to set the right tone and impact your audience.

    Communication principles

    Follow these principles to support all IT communications.

    Two-Way

    Incorporate feedback loops into your communication efforts. Providing stakeholders with the opportunity to voice their opinions and ideas will help gain their commitment and buy-in.

    Timely

    Frequent communications mitigate rumors and the spread of misinformation. Provide warning before the implementation of any changes whenever possible. Communicate as soon as possible after decisions have been made.

    Consistent

    Make sure the messaging is consistent across departments, mediums, and presenters. Provide managers with key phrases to support the consistency of messages.

    Open & Honest

    Transparency is a critical component of communication. Always tell employees that you will share information as soon as you can. This may not be as soon as you receive the information but as soon as sharing it is acceptable.

    Authentic

    Write messages in a way that embodies the personality of the organization. Don’t spin information; position it within the wider organizational context.

    Targeted

    Use your target audience profiles to determine which audiences need to consume which messages and what mediums should be employed.

    Importance of IT being a good communicator

    Don’t pay the price for poor communication.

    IT needs to communicate well because:

    • IT risk mitigation and technology initiative funding are dependent on critical stakeholders comprehending the risk impact and initiative benefit in easy-to-understand terms.
    • IT employees need clear and direct information to feel empowered and accountable to do their jobs well.
    • End users who have a good experience engaging in communications with IT employees have an overall increase in satisfaction with IT.
    • Continuously demonstrating IT’s value to the organization comes when those initiatives are clearly aligned to overall objectives.
    • Communication prevents assumptions and further miscommunication from happening among IT employees who are usually impacted and fear change the most.

    “Poor communication results in employee misunderstanding and errors that cost approximately $37 billion.”
    – Intranet Connections, 2019

    Effective communication enables organizational strategy and facilitates a two-way exchange

    Effective communication facilitates a two-way exchange

    What makes internal communications effective?

    To be effective, internal communications must be strategic. They should directly support organizational objectives, reinforce key messages to make sure they drive action, and facilitate two-way dialogue, not just one-way messaging.

    Measure the value of the communication

    Communication effectiveness can be measured through a variety of metrics:

    • Increase in Productivity
    • “When employees are offered better communication technology and skills, productivity can increase by up to 30%” (Expert Market, 2022).
    • Increase in Understanding Decision Rationale
    • Employees who report understanding the rationale behind the business decisions made by the executive leadership team (ELT) are 3.6x more likely to be engaged, compared to those who were not (McLean & Company Engagement Survey Database, 2022; N=133,167 responses, 187 organizations).
    • Increase in Revenue
    • Collaboration amongst C-suite executives led to a 27% increase in revenue compared to low collaborating C-suites (IBM, 2021).
    • Increase in End-User Satisfaction
    • 80.9% of end users are satisfied with IT’s ability to communicate with them regarding the information they need to perform their job (Info-Tech’s End-User Satisfaction Survey Database, N=20,617 end users from 126 organizations).

    Methods to determine effectiveness:

    • CIO Business Vision Survey
    • Engagement surveys
    • Focus groups
    • Suggestion boxes
    • Team meetings
    • Random sampling
    • Informal feedback
    • Direct feedback
    • Audience body language
    • Repeating the message back

    How to navigate the research center

    This research center is intended to ensure that IT never starts their communications from a blank page again:

    Tools to help IT be better communicators

    “‘Effectiveness’ can mean different things, and effectiveness for your project is going to look different than it would for any other project.”
    – Gale McCreary in WikiHow, 2022

    Audience: Organizational leadership

    Speaking with Board and executive leaders about strategy, risk, and value

    Keep in mind:

    1 2 3
    Priorities Differ Words Matter The Power of Three
    What’s important to you as CIO is very different from what is important to a board or executive leadership team or even the individual members of these groups. Share only what is important or relevant to the stakeholder(s). Simplify the message into common language whenever possible. A good test is to ensure that someone without any technical background could understand the message. Keep every slide to three points with no more than three words. You are the one to translate this information into a worth-while story to share.

    “Today’s CIOs have a story to tell. They must change the old narrative and describe the art of the (newly) possible. A great leader rises to the occasion and shares a vision that inspires the entire organization.”
    – Dan Roberts, CIO, 2019

    Communications for board presentations

    Secure funding and demonstrate IT as a value add to business objectives.

    DEFINING INSIGHT

    Stop presenting what is important to you as the CIO and present to the board what is important to them.

    Why does IT need to communicate with the board?

    • To get their buy-in and funding for critical IT initiatives.
    • To ensure that IT risks are understood and receive the funding necessary to mitigate.
    • To change the narrative of IT as a service provider to a business enabler.

    FRAMEWORK

    Framework for board presentations

    CHECKLIST

    Do’s & Don’ts of Communicating Board Presentations:

    Do: Ensure you know all the members of the board and their strengths/areas of focus.

    Do: Ensure the IT objectives and initiatives align to the business objectives.

    Do: Avoid using any technical jargon.

    Do: Limit the amount of data you are using to present information. If it can’t stand alone, it isn’t a strong enough data point.

    Do: Avoid providing IT service metrics or other operational statistics.

    Do: Demonstrate how the organization’s revenue is impacted by IT activities.

    Do: Tell a story that is compelling and excited.

    OUTCOME

    Organization Alignment

    • Approved organization objectives and IT objectives are aligned and supporting one another.

    Stakeholder Buy-In

    • Board members all understand what the future state of IT will look like – and are excited for it!

    Awareness on Technology Trends

    • It is the responsibility of the CIO to ensure the board is aware of critical technology trends that can impact the future of the organization/industry.

    Risks

    • Risks are understood, the impact they could have on the organization is clear, and the necessary controls required to mitigate the risk are funded.

    Communications for business updates

    Continuously build strong relationships with all members of business leadership.

    DEFINING INSIGHT

    Business leaders care about themselves and their goals – present ideas and initiatives that lean into this self-interest.

    Why does IT need to communicate business updates?

    • The key element here is to highlight how IT is impacting the organization’s overall ability to meet goals and targets.
    • Ensure all executive leaders know about and understand IT’s upcoming initiatives – and how they will be involved.

    FRAMEWORK

    Framework for business updates

    CHECKLIST

    Do’s & Don’ts of Communicating Business Updates:

    Do: Ensure IT is given sufficient time to present with the rest of the business leaders.

    Do: Ensure the goals of IT are clear and can be depicted visually.

    Do: Tie every IT goal to the objectives of different business leaders.

    Do: Avoid using any technical jargon.

    Do: Reinforce the positive benefits business leaders can expect.

    Do: Avoid providing IT service metrics or other operational statistics.

    Do: Demonstrate how IT is driving the digital transformation of the organization.

    OUTCOME

    Better Reputation

    • Get other business leaders to see IT as a value add to any initiative, making IT an enabler not an order taker.

    Executive Buy-In

    • Executives are concerned about their own budgets; they want to embrace all the innovation but within reason and minimal impact to their own finances.

    Digital Transformation

    • Indicate and commit to how IT can help the different leaders deliver on their digital transformation activities.

    Relationship Building

    • Establish trust with the different leaders so they want to engage with you on a regular basis.

    Audience: Organization wide

    Speaking with all members of the organization about the future of technology – and unexpected crises.

    1 2 3
    Competing to Be Heard Measure Impact Enhance the IT Brand
    IT messages are often competing with a variety of other communications simultaneously taking place in the organization. Avoid the information-overload paradox by communicating necessary, timely, and relevant information. Don’t underestimate the benefit of qualitative feedback that comes from talking to people within the organization. Ensure they read/heard and absorbed the communication. IT might be a business enabler, but if it is never communicated as such to the organization, it will only be seen as a support function. Use purposeful communications to change the IT narrative.

    Less than 50% of internal communications lean on a proper framework to support their communication activities.
    – Philip Nunn, iabc, 2020

    Communications for strategic IT initiatives

    Communicate IT’s strategic objectives with all business stakeholders and users.

    DEFINING INSIGHT

    IT leaders struggle to communicate how the IT strategy is aligned to the overall business objectives using a common language understood by all.

    Why does IT need to communicate its strategic objectives?

    • To ensure a clear and consistent view of IT strategic objectives can be understood by all stakeholders within the organization.
    • To demonstrate that IT strategic objectives are aligned with the overall mission and vision of the organization.

    FRAMEWORK

    Framework for IT strategic initiatives

    CHECKLIST

    Do’s & Don’ts of Communicating IT Strategic Objectives:

    Do: Ensure all IT leaders are aware of and understand the objectives in the IT strategy.

    Do: Ensure there is a visual representation of IT’s goals.

    Do: Ensure the IT objectives and initiatives align to the business objectives.

    Do: Avoid using any technical jargon.

    Do: Provide metrics if they are relevant, timely, and immediately understandable.

    Do: Avoid providing IT service metrics or other operational statistics.

    Do: Demonstrate how the future of the organization will benefit from IT initiatives.

    OUTCOME

    Organization Alignment

    • All employees recognize the IT strategy as being aligned, even embedded, into the overall organization strategy.

    Stakeholder Buy-In

    • Business and IT stakeholders alike understand what the future state of IT will look like – and are excited for it!

    Role Clarity

    • Employees within IT are clear on how their day-to-day activities impact the overall objectives of the organization.

    Demonstrate Growth

    • Focus on where IT is going to be maturing in the coming one to two years and how this will benefit all employees.

    Communications for crisis management

    Minimize the fear and chaos with transparent communications.

    DEFINING INSIGHT

    A crisis communication should fit onto a sticky note. If it’s not clear, concise, and reassuring, it won’t be effectively understood by the audience.

    Why does IT need to communicate when a crisis occurs?

    • To ensure all members of the organization have an understanding of what the crisis is, how impactful that crisis is, and when they can expect more information.
    • “Half of US companies don’t have a crisis communication plan” (CIO, 2017).

    FRAMEWORK

    Framework for crisis management

    CHECKLIST

    Do’s & Don’ts of Communicating During a Crisis:

    Do: Provide timely and regular updates about the crisis to all stakeholders.

    Do: Involve the Board or ELT immediately for transparency.

    Do: Avoid providing too much information in a crisis communication.

    Do: Have crisis communication statements ready to be shared at any time for possible or common IT crises.

    Do: Highlight that employee safety and wellbeing is top priority.

    Do: Work with members of the public relations team to prepare any external communications that might be required.

    OUTCOME

    Ready to Act

    • Holding statements for possible crises will eliminate the time and effort required when the crisis does occur.

    Reduce Fears

    • Prevent employees from spreading concerns and not feeling included in the crisis.

    Maintain Trust

    • Ensure Board and ELT members trust IT to respond in an appropriate manner to any crisis or major incident.

    Eliminate Negative Reactions

    • Any crisis communication should be clear and concise enough when done via email.

    Audience: IT employees

    IT employees need to receive and obtain regular transparent communications to better deliver on their expectations.

    Keep in mind:

    1 2 3
    Training for All Listening Is Critical Reinforce Collaboration
    From the service desk technician to CIO, every person within IT needs to have a basic ability to communicate. Invest in the training necessary to develop this skill set. It seems simple, but as humans we do an innately poor job at listening to others. It’s important you hear employee concerns, feedback, and recommendations, enabling the two-way aspect of communication. IT employees will reflect the types of communications they see. If IT leaders and managers cannot collaborate together, then teams will also struggle, leading to productivity and quality losses.

    “IT professionals who […] enroll in communications training have a chance to both upgrade their professional capabilities and set themselves apart in a crowded field of technology specialists.”
    – Mark Schlesinger, Forbes, 2021

    Communications for IT activities and tactics

    Get IT employees aligned and clear on their daily objectives.

    DEFINING INSIGHT

    Depending on IT goals, the structure might need to change to support better communication among IT employees.

    Why does IT need to communicate IT activities?

    • To ensure all members of the project team are aligned with their tasks and responsibilities related to the project.
    • To be able to identify, track, and mitigate any problems that are preventing the successful delivery of the project.

    FRAMEWORK

    Framework for IT activities & tactics

    CHECKLIST

    Do’s & Don’ts of Communicating IT Activities:

    Do: Provide metrics that define how success of the project will be measured.

    Do: Demonstrate how each project aligns to the overarching objectives of the organization.

    Do: Avoid having large meetings that include stakeholders from two or more projects.

    Do: Consistently create a safe space for employees to communicate risks related to the project(s).

    Do: Ensure the right tools are being leveraged for in-office, hybrid, and virtual environments to support project collaboration.

    Do: Leverage a project management software to reduce unnecessary communications.

    OUTCOME

    Stakeholder Adoption

    • Create a standard communication template so stakeholders can easily find and apply communications.

    Resource Allocation

    • Understand what the various asks of IT are so employees can be adequately assigned to tasks.

    Meet Responsibly

    • Project status meetings are rarely valuable or insightful. Use meetings for collaboration, troubleshooting, and knowledge sharing.

    Encourage Engagement

    • Recognize employees and their work against critical milestones, especially for projects that have a long timeline.

    Communications for everyday IT

    Engage employees and drive results with clear and consistent communications.

    DEFINING INSIGHT

    Employees are looking for empathy to be demonstrated by those they are interacting with, from their peers to managers. Yet, we rarely provide it.

    Why does IT need to communicate on regularly with itself?

    • Regular communication ensures employees are valued, empowered, and clear about their expectations.
    • 97% of employees believe that their ability to perform their tasks efficiently is impacted by communication (Expert Market, 2022).

    FRAMEWORK

    Framework for everyday IT

    CHECKLIST

    Do’s & Don’ts of Communicating within IT:

    Do: Have responses for likely questions prepared and ready to go.

    Do: Ensure that all leaders are sharing the same messages with their teams.

    Do: Avoid providing irrelevant or confusing information.

    Do: Speak with your team on a regular basis.

    Do: Reinforce the messages of the organization every chance possible.

    Do: Ensure employees feel empowered to do their jobs effectively.

    Do: Engage employees in dialogue. The worst employee experience is when they are only spoken at, not engaged with.

    OUTCOME

    Increased Collaboration

    • Operating in a vacuum or silo is no longer an option. Enable employees to successfully collaborate and deliver holistic results.

    Role Clarity

    • Clear expectations and responsibilities eliminate confusion and blame game. Engage employees and create a positive work culture with role clarity.

    Prevent Rumors

    • Inconsistent communication often leads to information sharing and employees spreading an (in)accurate narrative.

    Organizational Insight

    • Employees trust the organization’s direction because they are aware of the different activities taking place and provided with a rationale about decisions.

    Case Study

    Amazon

    INDUSTRY
    E-Commerce

    SOURCE
    Harvard Business Review

    Jeff Bezos has definitely taken on unorthodox approaches to business and leadership, but one that many might not know about is his approach to communication. Some of the key elements that he focused on in the early 2000s when Amazon was becoming a multi-billion-dollar empire included:

    • Banning PowerPoint for all members of the leadership team. They had to learn to communicate without the crutch of the most commonly used presentation tool.
    • Leveraging memos that included specific action steps and clear nouns
    • Reducing all communication to an eighth-grade reading level, including pitches for new products (e.g. Kindle).

    Results

    While he was creating the Amazon empire, 85% of Jeff Bezos’ communication was written in a way that an eighth grader could read. Communicating in a way that was easy to understand and encouraging his leadership team to do so as well is one of the many reasons this business has grown to an estimated value of over $800B.

    “If you cannot simplify a message and communicate it compellingly, believe me, you cannot get the masses to follow you.”
    – Indra Nooyi, in Harvard Business Review, 2022

    Communication competency expectations

    Communication is a business skill; not a technical skill.

    Demonstrated Communication Behavior
    Level 1: Follow Has sufficient communication skills for effective dialogue with others.
    Level 2: Assist Has sufficient communication skills for effective dialogue with customers, suppliers, and partners.
    Level 3: Apply Demonstrates effective communication skills.
    Level 4: Enable Communicates fluently, orally, and in writing and can present complex information to both technical and non-technical audiences.
    Level 5: Ensure, Advise Communicates effectively both formally and informally.
    Level 6: Initiate, Influence Communicates effectively at all levels to both technical and non-technical audiences.
    Level 7: Set Strategy, Inspire, Mobilize Understands, explains, and presents complex ideas to audiences at all levels in a persuasive and convincing manner.

    Source: Skills Framework for the Information Age, 2021

    Key KPIs for communication with any stakeholder

    Measuring communication is hard; use these to determine effectiveness.

    Goal Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Related Resource
    Obtain board buy-in for IT strategic initiatives X% of IT initiatives that were approved to be funded. Number of times technical initiatives were asked to be explained further. Using our Board Presentation Review service
    Establish stronger relationships with executive leaders X% of business leadership satisfied with the statement “IT communicates with your group effectively.” Using the CIO Business Vision Diagnostic
    Organizationally, people know what products and services IT provides X% of end users who are satisfied with communications around changing services or applications. Using the End-User Satisfaction Survey
    Organizational reach and understanding of the crisis. Number of follow-up tickets or requests related to the crisis after the initial crisis communication was sent. Using templates and tools for crisis communications
    Project stakeholders receive sufficient communication throughout the initiative. X% overall satisfaction with the quality of the project communications. Using the PPM Customer Satisfaction Diagnostic
    Employee feedback is provided, heard, and acted on X% of satisfaction employees have with managers or IT leadership to act on employee feedback. Using the Employee Engagement Diagnostic Program

    Standard workshop communication activities

    Introduction
    Communications overview.

    Plan
    Plan your communications using a strategic tool.

    Compose
    Create your own message.

    Deliver
    Practice delivering your own message.

    Contact your account representative for more information. workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889

    Research contributors and experts

    Anuja Agrawal, National Communications Director, PwC

    Anuja Agrawal
    National Communications Director
    PwC

    Anuja is an accomplished global communications professional, with extensive experience in the insurance, banking, financial, and professional services industries in Asia, the US, and Canada. She is currently the National Communications Director at PwC Canada. Her prior work experience includes communication leadership roles at Deutsche Bank, GE, Aviva, and Veritas. Anuja works closely with senior business leaders and key stakeholders to deliver measurable results and effective change and culture building programs. Anuja has experience in both internal and external communications, including strategic leadership communication, employee engagement, PR and media management, digital and social media, and M&A/change and crisis management. Anuja believes in leveraging digital tools and technology-enabled solutions, combined with in-person engagement, to help improve the quality of dialogue and increase interactive communication within the organization to help build an inclusive culture of belonging.

    Nastaran Bisheban, Chief Technology Officer, KFC Canada

    Nastaran Bisheban
    Chief Technology Officer
    KFC Canada

    A passionate technologist, and seasoned transformational leader. A software engineer and computer scientist by education, a certified Project Manager that holds an MBA in Leadership with Honors and Distinction from University of Liverpool. A public speaker on various disciplines of technology and data strategy with a Harvard Business School executive leadership program training to round it all. Challenges status quo and conventional practices; is an advocate for taking calculated risk and following the principle of continuous improvement. With multiple computer software and project management publications she is a strategic mentor and board member on various non-profit organizations. Nastaran sees the world as a better place only when everyone has a seat at the table and is an active advocate for diversity and inclusion.

    Heidi Davidson, Co-Founder & CEO, Galvanize Worldwide and Galvanize On Demand

    Heidi Davidson
    Co-Founder & CEO
    Galvanize Worldwide and Galvanize On Demand

    Dr. Heidi Davidson is the co-founder and CEO of Galvanize Worldwide, the largest distributed network of marketing and communications experts in the world. She also is the co-founder and CEO of Galvanize On Demand, a tech platform that matches marketing and communications freelancers with client projects. Now with 167 active experts, the Galvanize team delivers startup advisory work, outsourced marketing, training, and crisis communications to organizations of all sizes. Before Galvanize, Heidi spent four years as part of the turnaround team at BlackBerry as the Chief Communications Officer and SVP of Corporate Marketing, where she helped the company move from a device manufacturer to a security software provider.

    Eli Gladstone, Co-Founder, Speaker Labs

    Eli Gladstone
    Co-Founder
    Speaker Labs

    Eli is a co-founder of Speaker Labs. He has spent over six years helping countless individuals overcome their public speaking fears and communicate with clarity and confidence. When he’s not coaching others on how to build and deliver the perfect presentation, you’ll probably find him reading some weird books, teaching his kids how to ski or play tennis, or trying to develop a good-enough jumpshot to avoid being a liability on the basketball court.

    Francisco Mahfuz, Keynote Speaker & Storytelling Coach

    Francisco Mahfuz
    Keynote Speaker & Storytelling Coach

    Francisco Mahfuz has been telling stories in front of audiences for a decade and even became a National Champion of public speaking. Today, Francisco is a keynote speaker and storytelling coach and offers communication training to individuals and international organizations and has worked with organizations like Pepsi, HP, the United Nations, Santander, and Cornell University. He’s the author of Bare: A Guide to Brutally Honest Public Speaking and the host of The Storypowers Podcast, and he’s been part of the IESE MBA communications course since 2020. He’s received a BA in English Literature from Birkbeck University in London.

    Sarah Shortreed, EVP & CTO, ATCO Ltd.

    Sarah Shortreed
    EVP & CTO
    ATCO Ltd.

    Sarah Shortreed is ATCO’s Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. Her responsibilities include leading ATCO’s Information Technology (IT) function as it continues to drive agility and collaboration throughout ATCO’s global businesses and expanding and enhancing its enterprise IT strategy, including establishing ATCO’s technology roadmap for the future. Ms. Shortreed’s skill and expertise are drawn from her more than 30-year career that spans many industries and includes executive roles in business consulting, complex multi-stakeholder programs, operations, sales, customer relationship management, and product management. She was recently the Chief Information Officer at Bruce Power and has previously worked at BlackBerry, IBM, and Union Gas. She sits on the Board of Governors for the University of Western Ontario and is the current Chair of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) Committee at the Conference Board of Canada.

    Eric Silverberg, Co-Founder, Speaker Labs

    Eric Silverberg
    Co-Founder
    Speaker Labs

    Eric is a co-founder of Speaker Labs and has helped thousands of people build their public speaking confidence and become more dynamic and engaging communicators. When he’s not running workshops to help people grow in their careers, there’s a good chance you’ll find him with his wife and dog, drinking Diet Coke, and rewatching iconic episodes of the reality TV show Survivor! He’s such a die-hard fan, that you’ll probably see him playing the game one day.

    Stephanie Stewart, Communications Officer & DR Coordinator, Info Security Services Simon Fraser University

    Stephanie Stewart
    Communications Officer & DR Coordinator
    Info Security Services Simon Fraser University

    Steve Strout, President, Miovision Technologies

    Steve Strout
    President
    Miovision Technologies

    Mr. Strout is a recognized and experienced technology leader with extensive experience in delivering value. He has successfully led business and technology transformations by leveraging many dozens of complex global SFDC, Oracle, and SAP projects. He is especially adept at leading what some call “Project Rescues” – saving people’s careers where projects have gone awry; always driving “on-time and on-budget.” Mr. Strout is the current President of Miovision Technologies and the former CEO and board member of the Americas’ SAP Users” Group (ASUG). His wealth of practical knowledge comes from 30 years of extensive experience in many CxO and executive roles at some prestigious organizations such as Vonage, Sabre, BlackBerry, Shred-it, The Thomson Corporation (now Thomson Reuters), and Morris Communications. He has served on boards including Customer Advisory Boards of Apple, AgriSource Data, Dell, Edgewise, EMC, LogiSense, Socrates.ai, Spiro Carbon Group, and Unifi.

    Info-Tech Research Group Contributors:

    Sanchia Benedict, Research Lead
    Antony Chan Executive Counsellor
    Janice Clatterbuck, Executive Counsellor
    Ahmed Jowar, Research Specialist
    Dave Kish, Practice Lead
    Nick Kozlo, Senior Research Analyst
    Heather Leier Murray, Senior Research Analyst
    Amanda Mathieson, Research Director
    Carlene McCubbin, Practice Lead
    Joe Meier, Executive Counsellor
    Andy Neill, AVP Research
    Thomas Randall, Research Director

    Plus an additional two contributors who wish to remain anonymous.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Boardroom Presentation Review

    • You will come away with a clear, concise, and compelling board presentation that IT leaders can feel confident presenting in front of their board of directors.
    • Add improvements to your current board presentation in terms of visual appeal and logical flow to ensure it resonates with your board of directors.
    • Leverage a best-of-breed presentation template.

    Build a Better Manager

    • Management skills training is needed, but organizations are struggling to provide training that makes a long-term difference in the skills managers actually use in their day to day.
    • Many training programs are ineffective because they offer the wrong content, deliver it in a way that is not memorable, and are not aligned with the IT department’s business objectives.

    Crisis Communication Guides

    During a crisis it is important to communicate to employees through messages that convey calm and are transparent and tailored to your audience. Use the Crisis Communication Guides to:

    • Draft a communication strategy.
    • Tailor messages to your audience.
    • Draft employee crisis communications.
    Use this guide to equip leadership to communicate in times of crisis.

    Bibliography

    “Communication in the Workplace Statistics: Importance and Effectiveness in 2022.” TeamStage, 2022.

    Gallo, Carmine. “How Great Leaders Communicate.” Harvard Business Review, 23 November 2022

    Guthrie, Georgina. “Why Good Internal Communications Matter Now More than Ever.” Nulab, 15 December 2021.

    Lambden, Duncan. “The Importance of Effective Workplace Communication – Statistics for 2022.” Expert Market, 13 June 2022.

    “Mapping SFIA Levels of Responsibilities to Behavioural Factors.” Skills Framework for the Information Age, 2021.

    McCreary, Gale. “How to Measure the Effectiveness of Communication: 14 Steps.” WikiHow, 31 March 2023.

    Nowak, Marcin. “Top 7 Communication Problems in the Workplace.” MIT Enterprise Forum CEE, 2021.

    Nunn, Philip. “Messaging That Works: A Unique Framework to Maximize Communication Success.” iabc, 26 October 2020.

    Picincu, Andra. “How to Measure Effective Communications.” Small Business Chron. 12 January 2021.

    Price. David A. “Pixar Story Rules.” Stories From the Frontiers of Knowledge, 2011.

    Roberts, Dan. “How CIOs Become Visionary Communicators.” CIO, 2019.

    Schlesinger, Mark. “Why building effective communication skill in IT is incredibly important.” Forbes, 2021.

    Stanten, Andrew. “Planning for the Worst: Crisis Communications 101.” CIO, 25 May 2017.

    State of the American Workplace Report. Gallup, 6 February 2020.

    “The CIO Revolution.” IBM, 2021.

    “The State of High Performing Teams in Tech 2022.” Hypercontex, 2022.

    Walters, Katlin. “Top 5 Ways to Measure Internal Communication.” Intranet Connections, 30 May 2019.

    Grow Your Own PPM Solution

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}436|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.6/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $47,944 Average $ Saved
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    • Parent Category Name: Portfolio Management
    • Parent Category Link: /portfolio-management
    • As portfolio manager, you’re responsible for supporting the intake of new project requests, providing visibility into the portfolio of in-flight projects, and helping to facilitate the right approval and prioritization decisions.
    • You need a project portfolio management (PPM) tool that promotes the maintenance and flow of good data to help you succeed in these tasks. However, while throwing expensive technology at bad process rarely works, many organizations take this approach to solve their PPM problems.
    • Commercial PPM solutions are powerful and compelling, but they are also expensive, complex, and hard to use. When a solution is not properly adopted, the data can be unreliable and inconsistent, defeating the point of purchasing a tool in the first place.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Your choice of PPM solution must be in tune with your organizational PPM maturity to ensure that you are prepared to sustain the tool use without having the corresponding PPM processes collapse under its own weight.
    • A spreadsheet-based homegrown PPM solution can provide key capabilities of an optimized PPM solution with a high level of sophistication and complexity without the prohibitive capital and labor costs demanded by commercial PPM solution.
    • Focus on your PPM decision makers that will consume the reports and insights by investigating their specific reporting needs.

    Impact and Result

    • Think outside the commercial box. Develop an affordable, adoptable, and effective PPM solution using widely available tools based on Info-Tech’s ready-to-deploy templates.
    • Make your solution sustainable. When it comes to portfolio management, high level is better. A tool that is accurate and maintainable will provide more value than one that strives for precise data yet is ultimately unmaintainable.
    • Report success. A PPM tool needs to foster portfolio visibility in order to engage and inform the executive layer and support effective decision making.

    Grow Your Own PPM Solution Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should grow your own PPM solution, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Right-size your PPM solution

    Scope an affordable, adoptable, and effective PPM solution with Info-Tech's Portfolio Manager 2017 workbook.

    • Grow Your Own PPM Solution – Phase 1: Right-Size Your PPM Solution
    • Portfolio Manager 2017 Cost-in-Use Estimation Tool
    • None

    2. Get to know Portfolio Manager 2017

    Learn how to use Info-Tech's Portfolio Manager 2017 workbook and create powerful reports.

    • Grow Your Own PPM Solution – Phase 2: Meet Portfolio Manager 2017
    • Portfolio Manager 2017
    • Portfolio Manager 2017 (with Actuals)
    • None
    • None
    • None

    3. Implement your homegrown PPM solution

    Plan and implement an affordable, adoptable, and effective PPM solution with Info-Tech's Portfolio Manager 2017 workbook.

    • Grow Your Own PPM Solution – Phase 3: Implement Your PPM Solution
    • Portfolio Manager 2017 Operating Manual
    • Stakeholder Engagement Workbook
    • Portfolio Manager Debut Presentation for Portfolio Owners
    • Portfolio Manager Debut Presentation for Data Suppliers

    4. Outgrow your own PPM solution

    Develop an exit strategy from your home-grown solution to a commercial PPM toolset. In this video, we show a rapid transition from the Excel dataset shown on this page to a commercial solution from Meisterplan. Christoph Hirnle of Meisterplan is interviewed starting at 9 minutes.

    • None
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Grow Your Own PPM Solution

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Scope a Homegrown PPM Solution for Your Organization

    The Purpose

    Assess the current state of project portfolio management capability at your organization. The activities in this module will inform the next modules by exploring your organization’s current strengths and weaknesses and identifying areas that require improvement.

    Set up the workbook to generate a fully functional project portfolio workbook that will give you a high-level view into your portfolio.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A high-level review of your current project portfolio capability is used to decide whether a homegrown PPM solution is an appropriate choice

    Cost-benefit analysis is done to build a business case for supporting this choice

    Activities

    1.1 Review existing PPM strategy and processes.

    1.2 Perform a cost-benefit analysis.

    Outputs

    Confirmation of homegrown PPM solution as the right choice

    Expected benefits for the PPM solution

    2 Get to Know Portfolio Manager 2017

    The Purpose

    Define a list of requirements for your PPM solution that meets the needs of all stakeholders.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A fully customized PPM solution in your chosen platform

    Activities

    2.1 Introduction to Info-Tech's Portfolio Manager 2017: inputs, outputs, and the data model.

    2.2 Gather requirements for enhancements and customizations.

    Outputs

    Trained project/resource managers on the homegrown solution

    A wish list of enhancements and customizations

    3 Implement Your Homegrown PPM Solution

    The Purpose

    Determine an action plan regarding next steps for implementation.

    Implement your homegrown PPM solution. The activities outlined in this step will help to promote adoption of the tool throughout your organization.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A set of processes to integrate the new homegrown PPM solution into existing PPM activities

    Plans for piloting the new processes, process improvement, and stakeholder communication

    Activities

    3.1 Plan to integrate your new solution into your PPM processes.

    3.2 Plan to pilot the new processes.

    3.3 Manage stakeholder communications.

    Outputs

    Portfolio Manager 2017 operating manual, which documents how Portfolio Manager 2017 is used to augment the PPM processes

    Plan for a pilot run and post-pilot evaluation for a wider rollout

    Communication plan for impacted PPM stakeholders

    Improve Requirements Gathering

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    • Parent Category Name: Requirements & Design
    • Parent Category Link: /requirements-and-design
    • Poor requirements are the number one reason that projects fail. Requirements gathering and management has been an ongoing issue for IT professionals for decades.
    • If proper due diligence for requirements gathering is not conducted, then the applications that IT is deploying won’t meet business objectives and will fail to deliver adequate business value.
    • Inaccurate requirements definition can lead to significant amounts of project rework and hurt the organization’s financial performance. It will also create significant damage to the working relationship between IT and the business.
    • Often, business analysts haven’t developed the right competencies to successfully execute requirements gathering processes, even when they are in place.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • To avoid makeshift solutions, an organization needs to gather requirements with the desired future state in mind.
    • Creating a unified set of standard operating procedures is essential for effectively gathering requirements, but many organizations fail to do it.
    • Centralizing governance of requirements processes with a requirements gathering steering committee or requirements gathering center of excellence can bring greater uniformity and cohesion when gathering requirements across projects.
    • Business analysts must be targeted for competency development to ensure that the processes developed above are being successfully executed and the right questions are being asked of project sponsors and stakeholders.

    Impact and Result

    • Enhanced requirements analysis will lead to tangible reductions in cycle time and reduced project overhead.
    • An improvement in requirements analysis will strengthen the relationship between business and IT, as more and more applications satisfy stakeholder needs.
    • More importantly, the applications delivered by IT will meet all of the must-have and at least some of the nice-to-have requirements, allowing end users to successfully execute their day-to-day responsibilities.

    Improve Requirements Gathering Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should invest in optimizing your requirements gathering processes.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Build the target state for the requirements gathering process

    Capture a clear understanding of the target needs for the requirements process.

    • Build a Strong Approach to Business Requirements Gathering – Phase 1: Build the Target State for the Requirements Gathering Process
    • Requirements Gathering SOP and BA Playbook
    • Requirements Gathering Maturity Assessment
    • Project Level Selection Tool
    • Business Requirements Analyst
    • Requirements Gathering Communication Tracking Template

    2. Define the elicitation process

    Develop best practices for conducting and structuring elicitation of business requirements.

    • Build a Strong Approach to Business Requirements Gathering – Phase 2: Define the Elicitation Process
    • Business Requirements Document Template
    • Scrum Documentation Template

    3. Analyze and validate requirements

    Standardize frameworks for analysis and validation of business requirements.

    • Build a Strong Approach to Business Requirements Gathering – Phase 3: Analyze and Validate Requirements
    • Requirements Gathering Documentation Tool
    • Requirements Gathering Testing Checklist

    4. Create a requirements governance action plan

    Formalize change control and governance processes for requirements gathering.

    • Build a Strong Approach to Business Requirements Gathering – Phase 4: Create a Requirements Governance Action Plan
    • Requirements Traceability Matrix
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Improve Requirements Gathering

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Define the Current State and Target State for Requirements Gathering

    The Purpose

    Create a clear understanding of the target needs for the requirements gathering process.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A comprehensive review of the current state for requirements gathering across people, processes, and technology.

    Identification of major challenges (and opportunity areas) that should be improved via the requirements gathering optimization project.

    Activities

    1.1 Understand current state and document existing requirement process steps.

    1.2 Identify stakeholder, process, outcome, and training challenges.

    1.3 Conduct target state analysis.

    1.4 Establish requirements gathering metrics.

    1.5 Identify project levels 1/2/3/4.

    1.6 Match control points to project levels 1/2/3/4.

    1.7 Conduct project scoping and identify stakeholders.

    Outputs

    Requirements Gathering Maturity Assessment

    Project Level Selection Tool

    Requirements Gathering Documentation Tool

    2 Define the Elicitation Process

    The Purpose

    Create best practices for conducting and structuring elicitation of business requirements.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A repeatable framework for initial elicitation of requirements.

    Prescribed, project-specific elicitation techniques.

    Activities

    2.1 Understand elicitation techniques and which ones to use.

    2.2 Document and confirm elicitation techniques.

    2.3 Create a requirements gathering elicitation plan for your project.

    2.4 Build the operating model for your project.

    2.5 Define SIPOC-MC for your selected project.

    2.6 Practice using interviews with business stakeholders to build use case models.

    2.7 Practice using table-top testing with business stakeholders to build use case models.

    Outputs

    Project Elicitation Schedule

    Project Operating Model

    Project SIPOC-MC Sub-Processes

    Project Use Cases

    3 Analyze and Validate Requirements

    The Purpose

    Build a standardized framework for analysis and validation of business requirements.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Policies for requirements categorization, prioritization, and validation.

    Improved project value as a result of better prioritization using the MOSCOW model.

    Activities

    3.1 Categorize gathered requirements for use.

    3.2 Consolidate similar requirements and eliminate redundancies.

    3.3 Practice prioritizing requirements.

    3.4 Build the business process model for the project.

    3.5 Rightsize the requirements documentation template.

    3.6 Present the business requirements document to business stakeholders.

    3.7 Identify testing opportunities.

    Outputs

    Requirements Gathering Documentation Tool

    Requirements Gathering Testing Checklist

    4 Establish Change Control Processes

    The Purpose

    Create formalized change control processes for requirements gathering.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Reduced interjections and rework – strengthened formal evaluation and control of change requests to project requirements.

    Activities

    4.1 Review existing CR process.

    4.2 Review change control process best practices and optimization opportunities.

    4.3 Build guidelines for escalating changes.

    4.4 Confirm your requirements gathering process for project levels 1/2/3/4.

    Outputs

    Requirements Traceability Matrix

    Requirements Gathering Communication Tracking Template

    5 Establish Ongoing Governance for Requirements Gathering

    The Purpose

    Establish governance structures and ongoing oversight for business requirements gathering.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Consistent governance and oversight of the requirements gathering process, resulting in fewer “wild west” scenarios.

    Better repeatability for the new requirements gathering process, resulting in less wasted time and effort at the outset of projects.

    Activities

    5.1 Define RACI for the requirements gathering process.

    5.2 Define the requirements gathering steering committee purpose.

    5.3 Define RACI for requirements gathering steering committee.

    5.4 Define the agenda and cadence for the requirements gathering steering committee.

    5.5 Identify and analyze stakeholders for communication plan.

    5.6 Create communication management plan.

    5.7 Build the action plan.

    Outputs

    Requirements Gathering Action Plan

    Further reading

    Improve Requirements Gathering

    Back to basics: great products are built on great requirements.

    Analyst Perspective

    A strong process for business requirements gathering is essential for application project success. However, most organizations do not take a strategic approach to optimizing how they conduct business analysis and requirements definition.

    "Robust business requirements are the basis of a successful project. Without requirements that correctly articulate the underlying needs of your business stakeholders, projects will fail to deliver value and involve significant rework. In fact, an Info-Tech study found that of projects that fail over two-thirds fail due to poorly defined business requirements.

    Despite the importance of good business requirements to project success, many organizations struggle to define a consistent and repeatable process for requirements gathering. This results in wasted time and effort from both IT and the business, and generates requirements that are incomplete and of dubious value. Additionally, many business analysts lack the competencies and analytical techniques needed to properly execute the requirements gathering process.

    This research will help you get requirements gathering right by developing a set of standard operating procedures across requirements elicitation, analysis, and validation. It will also help you identify and fine-tune the business analyst competencies necessary to make requirements gathering a success."

    – Ben Dickie, Director, Enterprise Applications, Info-Tech Research Group

    Our understanding of the problem

    This Research is Designed For:

    • The IT applications director who has accountability for ensuring that requirements gathering procedures are both effective and efficient.
    • The designated business analyst or requirements gathering professional who needs a concrete understanding of how to execute upon requirements gathering SOPs.

    This Research Will Help You:

    • Diagnose your current state and identify (and prioritize) gaps that exist between your target requirements gathering needs and your current capabilities and processes.
    • Build a requirements gathering SOP that prescribes a framework for requirements governance and technology usage, as well as techniques for elicitation, analysis, and validation.

    This Research Will Also Assist:

    • The business partner/stakeholder who is interested in ways to work with IT to improve upon existing procedures for requirements gathering.
    • Systems analysts and developers who need to understand how business requirements are effectively gathered upstream.

    This Research Will Help Them:

    • Understand the significance and importance of business requirements gathering on overall project success and value alignment.
    • Create rules of engagement for assisting IT with the collection of requirements from the right stakeholders in a timely fashion.

    Executive summary

    Situation

    • Strong business requirements are essential to project success – inadequate requirements are the number one reason that projects fail.
    • Organizations need a consistent, repeatable, and prescriptive set of standard operating procedures (SOPs) that dictate how business requirements gathering should be conducted.

    Complication

    • If proper due diligence for requirements gathering is not conducted, then the applications that IT is deploying won’t meet business objectives, and they will fail to deliver adequate business value.
    • Inaccurate requirements definition can lead to significant amounts of project rework and hurt the organization’s financial performance. It will also damage the relationship between IT and the business.

    Resolution

    • To avoid delivering makeshift solutions (paving the cow path), organizations need to gather requirements with the desired future state in mind. Organizations need to keep an open mind when gathering requirements.
    • Creating a unified set of SOPs is essential for effectively gathering requirements; these procedures should cover not just elicitation, analysis, and validation, but also include process governance and documentation.
    • BAs who conduct requirements gathering must demonstrate proven competencies for stakeholder management, analytical techniques, and the ability to speak the language of both the business and IT.
    • An improvement in requirements analysis will strengthen the relationship between business and IT, as more and more applications satisfy stakeholder needs. More importantly, the applications delivered by IT will meet all of the must-have and at least some of the nice-to-have requirements, allowing end users to execute their day-to-day responsibilities.

    Info-Tech Insight

    1. Requirements gathering SOPs should be prescriptive based on project complexity. Complex projects will require more analytical rigor. Simpler projects can be served by more straightforward techniques like user story development.
    2. Business analysts (BA) can make or break the execution of the requirements gathering process. A strong process still needs to be executed well by BAs with the right blend of skills and knowledge.

    Understand what constitutes a strong business requirement

    A business requirement is a statement that clearly outlines the functional capability that the business needs from a system or application. There are several attributes to look at in requirements:

    Verifiable
    Stated in a way that can be easily tested

    Unambiguous
    Free of subjective terms and can only be interpreted in one way

    Complete
    Contains all relevant information

    Consistent
    Does not conflict with other requirements

    Achievable
    Possible to accomplish with budgetary and technological constraints

    Traceable
    Trackable from inception through to testing

    Unitary
    Addresses only one thing and cannot be decomposed into multiple requirements

    Agnostic
    Doesn’t pre-suppose a specific vendor or product

    Not all requirements will meet all of the attributes.

    In some situations, an insight will reveal new requirements. This requirement will not follow all of the attributes listed above and that’s okay. If a new insight changes the direction of the project, re-evaluate the scope of the project.

    Attributes are context specific.

    Depending on the scope of the project, certain attributes will carry more weight than others. Weigh the value of each attribute before elicitation and adjust as required. For example, verifiable will be a less-valued attribute when developing a client-facing website with no established measuring method/software.

    Build a firm foundation: requirements gathering is an essential step in any project, but many organizations struggle

    Proper requirements gathering is critical for delivering business value from IT projects, but it remains an elusive and perplexing task for most organizations. You need to have a strategy for end-to-end requirements gathering, or your projects will consistently fail to meet business expectations.

    50% of project rework is attributable to problems with requirements. (Info-Tech Research Group)

    45% of delivered features are utilized by end users. (The Standish Group)

    78% of IT professionals believe the business is “usually” or “always” out of sync with project requirements. (Blueprint Software Systems)

    45% of IT professionals admit to being “fuzzy” about the details of a project’s business objectives. (Blueprint Software Systems)

    Requirements gathering is truly an organization-spanning issue, and it falls directly on the IT directors who oversee projects to put prudent SOPs in place for managing the requirements gathering process. Despite its importance, the majority of organizations have challenges with requirements gathering.

    What happens when requirements are no longer effective?

    • Poor requirements can have a very visible and negative impact on deployed apps.
    • IT receives the blame for any project shortcomings or failures.
    • IT loses its credibility and ability to champion future projects.
    • Late projects use IT resources longer than planned.

    Requirements gathering is a core component of the overall project lifecycle that must be given its due diligence

    PMBOK’s Five Phase Project Lifecycle

    Initiate – Plan: Requirements Gathering Lives Here – Execute – Control – Close

    Inaccurate requirements is the 2nd most common cause of project failure (Project Management Institute ‒ Smartsheet).

    Requirements gathering is a critical stage of project planning.

    Depending on whether you take an Agile or Waterfall project management approach, it can be extended into the initiate and execute phases of the project lifecycle.

    Strong stakeholder satisfaction with requirements gathering results in higher satisfaction in other areas

    Organizations that had high satisfaction with requirements gathering were more likely to be highly satisfied with the other areas of IT. In fact, 72% of organizations that had high satisfaction with requirements gathering were also highly satisfied with the availability of IT capacity to complete projects.

    A bar graph measuring % High Satisfaction when projects have High Requirements Gathering vs. Not High Requirements Gathering. The graph shows a substantially higher percentage of high satisfaction on projects with High Requirements Gathering

    Note: High satisfaction was classified as organizations with a score greater or equal to 8. Not high satisfaction was every other organization that scored below 8 on the area questions.

    N=395 organizations from Info-Tech’s CIO Business Vision diagnostic

    Requirements gathering efforts are filled with challenges; review these pitfalls to avoid in your optimization efforts

    The challenges that afflict requirements gathering are multifaceted and often systemic in nature. There isn’t a single cure that will fix all of your requirements gathering problems, but an awareness of frequently encountered challenges will give you a basis for where to consider establishing better SOPs. Commonly encountered challenges include:

    Process Challenges

    • Requirements may be poorly documented, or not documented at all.
    • Elicitation methods may be inappropriate (e.g. using a survey when collaborative whiteboarding is needed).
    • Elicitation methods may be poorly executed.
    • IT and business units may not be communicating requirements in the same terms/language.
    • Requirements that conflict with one another may not be identified during analysis.
    • Requirements cannot be traced from origin to testing.

    Stakeholder Challenges

    • Stakeholders may be unaware of the requirements needed for the ideal solution.
    • Stakeholders may have difficulty properly articulating their desired requirements.
    • Stakeholders may have difficulty gaining consensus on the ideal solution.
    • Relevant stakeholders may not be consulted on requirements.
    • Sign-off may not be received from the proper stakeholders.

    70% of projects fail due to poor requirements. (Info-Tech Research Group)

    Address the root cause of poor requirements to increase project success

    Root Causes of Poor Requirements Gathering:

    • Requirements gathering procedures don’t exist.
    • Requirements gathering procedures exist but aren’t followed.
    • There isn't enough time allocated to the requirements gathering phase.
    • There isn't enough involvement or investment secured from business partners.
    • There is no senior leadership involvement or mandate to fix requirements gathering.
    • There are inadequate efforts put towards obtaining and enforcing sign-off.

    Outcomes of Poor Requirements Gathering:

    • Rework due to poor requirements leads to costly overruns.
    • Final deliverables are of poor quality.
    • Final deliverables are implemented late.
    • Predicted gains from deployed applications are not realized.
    • There are low feature utilization rates by end users.
    • There are high levels of end-user dissatisfaction.
    • There are high levels of project sponsor dissatisfaction.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Requirements gathering is the number one failure point for most development or procurement projects that don’t deliver value. This has been and continues to be the case as most organizations still don't get requirements gathering right. Overcoming organizational cynicism can be a major obstacle when it is time to optimize the requirements gathering process.

    Reduce wasted project work with clarity of business goals and analysis of requirements

    You can reduce the amount of wasted work by making sure you have clear business goals. In fact, you could see an improvement of as much as 50% by going from a low level of satisfaction with clarity of business goals (<2) to a high level of satisfaction (≥5).

    A line graph demonstrating that as the amount of wasted work increases, clarity of business goals satisfaction decreases.

    Likewise, you could see an improvement of as much as 43% by going from a low level of satisfaction with analysis of requirements (less than 2) to a high level of satisfaction (greater than or equal to 5).

    A line graph demonstrating that as the Amount of Wasted Work decreases, the level of satisfaction with analysis of requirements shifts from low to high.

    Note: Waste is measured by the amount of cancelled projects; suboptimal assignment of resources; analyzing, fixing, and re-deploying; inefficiency, and unassigned resources.

    N=200 teams from the Project Portfolio Management diagnostic

    Effective requirements gathering supports other critical elements of project management success

    Good intentions and hard work aren’t enough to make a project successful. As you proceed with a project, step back and assess the critical success factors. Make sure that the important inputs and critical activities of requirements gathering are supporting, not inhibiting, project success.

    1. Streamlined Project Intake
    2. Strong Stakeholder Management
    3. Defined Project Scope
    4. Effective Project Management
    5. Environmental Analysis

    Don’t improvise: have a structured, end-to-end approach for successfully gathering useful requirements

    Creating a unified SOP guide for requirements elicitation, analysis, and validation is a critical step for requirements optimization; it gives your BAs a common frame of reference for conducting requirements gathering.

    • The key to requirements optimization is to establish a strong set of SOPs that provide direction on how your organization should be executing requirements gathering processes. This SOP guide should be a holistic document that walks your BAs through a requirements gathering project from beginning to end.
    • An SOP that is put aside is useless; it must be well communicated to BAs. It should be treated as the veritable manifesto of requirements management in your organization.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Having a standardized approach to requirements management is critical, and SOPs should be the responsibility of a group. The SOP guide should cover all of the major bases of requirements management. In addition to providing a walk-through of the process, an SOP also clarifies requirements governance.

    Leverage Info-Tech’s proven Requirements Gathering Framework as the basis for building requirements processes

    A graphic with APPLICATIONS THAT DELIVER BUSINESS VALUE written in the middle. Three steps are named: Elicit; Analyze; Validate. Around the outer part of the graphic are 4 arrows arranged in a circle, with the labels: Plan; Monitor; Communicate; Manage.

    Info-Tech’s Requirements Gathering Framework is a comprehensive approach to requirements management that can be scaled to any size of project or organization. This framework has been extensively road-tested with our clients to ensure that it balances the needs of IT and business stakeholders to give a holistic, end-to-end approach for requirements gathering. It covers the foundational issues (elicitation, analysis, and validation) and prescribes techniques for planning, monitoring, communicating, and managing the requirements gathering process.

    Don’t forget resourcing: the best requirements gathering process will still fail if you don’t develop BA competencies

    When creating the process for requirements gathering, think about how it will be executed by your BAs, and what the composition of your BA team should look like. A strong BA needs to serve as an effective translator, being able to speak the language of both the business and IT.

    1. To ensure alignment of your BAs to the requirements gathering process, undertake a formal skills assessment to identify areas where analysts are strong, and areas that should be targeted for training and skills development.
    2. Training of BAs on the requirements gathering process and development of intimate familiarity with SOPs is essential; you need to get BAs on the same page to ensure consistency and repeatability of the requirements process.
    3. Consider implementing a formal mentorship and/or job shadowing program between senior and junior BAs. Many of our members report that leveraging senior BAs to bootstrap the competencies of more junior team members is a proven approach to building skillsets for requirements gathering.

    What are some core competencies of a good BA?

    • Strong stakeholder management.
    • Proven track record in facilitating elicitation sessions.
    • Ability to bridge the gulf between IT and the business by speaking both languages.
    • Ability to ask relevant probing questions to uncover latent needs.
    • Experience with creating project operating models and business process diagrams.
    • Ability to set and manage expectations throughout the process.

    Throughout this blueprint, look for the “BA Insight” box to learn how steps in the requirements gathering process relate to the skills needed by BAs to facilitate the process effectively.

    A mid-sized local government overhauls its requirements gathering approach and sees strong results

    CASE STUDY

    Industry

    Government

    Source

    Info-Tech Research Group Workshop

    The Client

    The organization was a local government responsible for providing services to approximately 600,000 citizens in the southern US. Its IT department is tasked with deploying applications and systems (such as HRIS) that support the various initiatives and mandate of the local government.

    The Requirements Gathering Challenge

    The IT department recognized that a strong requirements gathering process was essential to delivering value to its stakeholders. However, there was no codified process in place – each BA unilaterally decided how they would conduct requirements gathering at the start of each project. IT recognized that to enhance both the effectiveness and efficiency of requirements gathering, it needed to put in place a strong, prescriptive set of SOPs.

    The Improvement

    Working with a team from Info-Tech, the IT leadership and BA team conducted a workshop to develop a new set of SOPs that provided clear guidance for each stage of the requirements process: elicitation, analysis, and validation. As a result, business satisfaction and value alignment increased.

    The Requirements Gathering SOP and BA Playbook offers a codified set of SOPs for requirements gathering gave BAs a clear playbook.

    Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

    DIY Toolkit

    “Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”

    Guided Implementation

    “Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”

    Workshop

    “We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”

    Consulting

    “Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Build a Strong Approach to Business Requirements Gathering – project overview

    1. Build the Target State for Requirements Gathering 2. Define the Elicitation Process 3. Analyze and Validate Requirements 4. Create a Requirements Governance Action Plan
    Best-Practice Toolkit

    1.1 Understand the Benefits of Requirements Optimization

    1.2 Determine Your Target State for Requirements Gathering

    2.1 Determine Elicitation Techniques

    2.2 Structure Elicitation Output

    3.1 Create Analysis Framework

    3.2 Validate Business Requirements

    4.1 Create Control Processes for Requirements Changes

    4.2 Build Requirements Governance and Communication Plan

    Guided Implementations
    • Review Info-Tech’s requirements gathering methodology.
    • Assess current state for requirements gathering – pains and challenges.
    • Determine target state for business requirements gathering – areas of opportunity.
    • Assess elicitation techniques and determine best fit to projects and business environment.
    • Review options for structuring the output of requirements elicitation (i.e. SIPOC).
    • Create policies for requirements categorization and prioritization.
    • Establish best practices for validating the BRD with project stakeholders.
    • Discuss how to handle changes to requirements, and establish a formal change control process.
    • Review options for ongoing governance of the requirements gathering process.
    Onsite Workshop Module 1: Define the Current and Target State Module 2: Define the Elicitation Process Module 3: Analyze and Validate Requirements Module 4: Governance and Continuous Improvement Process
    Phase 1 Results: Clear understanding of target needs for the requirements process. Phase 2 Results: Best practices for conducting and structuring elicitation. Phase 3 Results: Standardized frameworks for analysis and validation of business requirements. Phase 4 Results: Formalized change control and governance processes for requirements.

    Workshop overview

    Contact your account representative or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Workshop Day 1 Workshop Day 2 Workshop Day 3 Workshop Day 4 Workshop Day 5
    Activities

    Define Current State and Target State for Requirements Gathering

    • Understand current state and document existing requirement process steps.
    • Identify stakeholder, process, outcome, and reigning challenges.
    • Conduct target state analysis.
    • Establish requirements gathering metrics.
    • Identify project levels 1/2/3/4.
    • Match control points to project levels 1/2/3/4.
    • Conduct project scoping and identify stakeholders.

    Define the Elicitation Process

    • Understand elicitation techniques and which ones to use.
    • Document and confirm elicitation techniques.
    • Create a requirements gathering elicitation plan for your project.
    • Practice using interviews with business stakeholders to build use case models.
    • Practice using table-top testing with business stakeholders to build use case models.
    • Build the operating model for your project

    Analyze and Validate Requirements

    • Categorize gathered requirements for use.
    • Consolidate similar requirements and eliminate redundancies.
    • Practice prioritizing requirements.
    • Rightsize the requirements documentation template.
    • Present the business requirements document (BRD) to business stakeholders.
    • Identify testing opportunities.

    Establish Change Control Processes

    • Review existing CR process.
    • Review change control process best practices & optimization opportunities.
    • Build guidelines for escalating changes.
    • Confirm your requirements gathering process for project levels 1/2/3/4.

    Establish Ongoing Governance for Requirements Gathering

    • Define RACI for the requirements gathering process.
    • Define the requirements gathering governance process.
    • Define RACI for requirements gathering governance.
    • Define the agenda and cadence for requirements gathering governance.
    • Identify and analyze stakeholders for communication plan.
    • Create communication management plan.
    • Build the action plan.
    Deliverables
    • Requirements gathering maturity assessment
    • Project level selection tool
    • Requirements gathering documentation tool
    • Project elicitation schedule
    • Project operating model
    • Project use cases
    • Requirements gathering documentation tool
    • Requirements gathering testing checklist
    • Requirements traceability matrix
    • Requirements gathering communication tracking template
    • Requirements gathering action plan

    Phase 1: Build the Target State for the Requirements Gathering Process

    Phase 1 outline

    Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation 1: Build the Target State

    Proposed Time to Completion: 2 weeks

    Step 1.1: Understand the Benefits of Requirements Optimization

    Start with an analyst kick off call:

    • Review Info-Tech’s requirements gathering methodology.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Hold a fireside chat.

    With these tools & templates:

    Requirements Gathering SOP and BA Playbook

    Step 1.2: Determine Your Target State for Requirements Gathering

    Review findings with analyst:

    • Assess current state for requirements gathering – pains and challenges.
    • Determine target state for business requirements gathering – areas of opportunity.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Identify your business process model.
    • Define project levels.
    • Match control points to project level.
    • Identify and analyze stakeholders.

    With these tools & templates:

    • Requirements Gathering Maturity Assessment
    • Project Level Selection Tool
    • Business Requirements Analyst job description
    • Requirements Gathering Communication Tracking Template

    Phase 1 Results & Insights:

    Clear understanding of target needs for the requirements process.

    Step 1.1: Understand the Benefits of Requirements Optimization

    Phase 1

    1.1 Understand the Benefits of Requirements Optimization

    1.2 Determine Your Target State for Requirements Gathering

    Phase 2

    2.1 Determine Elicitation Techniques

    2.2 Structure Elicitation Output

    Phase 3

    3.1 Create Analysis Framework

    3.2 Validate Business Requirements

    Phase 4

    4.1 Create Control Processes for Requirements Changes

    4.2 Build Requirements Governance and Communication Plan

    This step will walk you through the following activities:
    • Identifying challenges with requirements gathering and identifying objectives for the workshop.
    This step involves the following participants:
    • Business stakeholders
    • BAs
    Outcomes of this step
    • Stakeholder objectives identified.

    Requirements optimization is powerful, but it’s not free; gauge the organizational capital you’ll need to make it a success

    Optimizing requirements management is not something that can be done in isolation, and it’s not necessarily going to be easy. Improving your requirements will translate into better value delivery, but it takes real commitment from IT and its business partners.

    There are four “pillars of commitment” that will be necessary to succeed with requirements optimization:

    1. Senior Management Organizational Capital
      • Before organizations can establish revised SOPs for requirements gathering, they’ll need a strong champion in senior management to ensure that updated elicitation and sign-off techniques do not offend people. A powerful sponsor can lead to success, especially if they are in the business.
    2. End-User Organizational Capital
      • To overcome cynicism, you need to focus on convincing end users that there is something to be gained from participating in requirements gathering (and the broader process of requirements optimization). Frame the value by focusing on how good requirements mean better apps (e.g. faster, cheaper, fewer errors, less frustration).
    3. Staff Resourcing
      • You can have a great SOP, but if you don’t have the right resources to execute on it you’re going to have difficulty. Requirements gathering needs dedicated BAs (or equivalent staff) who are trained in best practices and can handle elicitation, analysis, and validation successfully.
    4. Dedicated Cycle Time
      • IT and the business both need to be willing to demonstrate the value of requirements optimization by giving requirements gathering the time it needs to succeed. If these parties are convinced by the concept in theory, but still try to rush moving to the development phase, they’re destined for failure.

    Rethink your approach to requirements gathering: start by examining the business process, then tackle technology

    When gathering business requirements, it’s critical not to assume that layering on technology to a process will automatically solve your problems.

    Proper requirements gathering views projects holistically (i.e. not just as an attempt to deploy an application or technology, but as an endeavor to enable new or re-engineered business processes). Neglecting to see requirements gathering in the context of business process enablement leads to failure.

    • Far too often, organizations automate an existing process without putting much thought into finding a better way to do things.
    • Most organizations focus on identifying a series of small improvements to make to a process and realize limited gains.
    • The best way to generate transformational gains is to reinvent how the process should be performed and work backwards from there.
    • You should take a top-down approach and begin by speaking with senior management about the business case for the project and their vision for the target state.
    • You should elicit requirements from the rank-and-file employees while centering the discussion and requirements around senior management’s target state. Don’t turn requirements gathering into a griping session about deficiencies with a current application.

    Leverage Info-Tech’s proven Requirements Gathering Framework as the basis for building requirements processes

    A graphic with APPLICATIONS THAT DELIVER BUSINESS VALUE written in the middle. Three steps are named: Elicit; Analyze; Validate. Around the outer part of the graphic are 4 arrows arranged in a circle, with the labels: Plan; Monitor; Communicate; Manage.

    Info-Tech’s Requirements Gathering Framework is a comprehensive approach to requirements management that can be scaled to any size of project or organization. This framework has been extensively road-tested with our clients to ensure that it balances the needs of IT and business stakeholders to give a holistic, end-to-end approach for requirements gathering. It covers both the foundational issues (elicitation, analysis, and validation) as well as prescribing techniques for planning, monitoring, communicating, and managing the requirements gathering process.

    Requirements gathering fireside chat

    1.1.1 – 45 minutes

    Output
    • Stakeholder objectives
    Materials
    • Whiteboard, markers, sticky notes
    Participants
    • BAs

    Identify the challenges you’re experiencing with requirements gathering, and identify objectives.

    1. Hand out sticky notes to participants, and ask the group to work independently to think of challenges that exist with regards to requirements gathering. (Hint: consider stakeholder challenges, process challenges, outcome challenges, and training challenges.) Ask participants to write their current challenges on sticky notes, and place them on the whiteboard.
    2. As a group, review all sticky notes and group challenges into themes.
    3. For each theme you uncover, work as a group to determine the objective that will overcome these challenges throughout the workshop and write this on the whiteboard.
    4. Discuss how these challenges will be addressed in the workshop.

    Don’t improvise: have a structured, prescriptive end-to-end approach for successfully gathering useful requirements

    Creating a unified SOP guide for requirements elicitation, analysis, and validation is a critical step for requirements optimization; it gives your BAs a common frame of reference for conducting requirements gathering.

    • The key to requirements optimization is to establish a strong set of SOPs that provide direction on how your organization should be executing requirements gathering processes. This SOP guide should be a holistic document that walks your BAs through a requirements gathering project from beginning to end.
    • An SOP that is put aside is useless; it must be well communicated to BAs. It should be treated as the veritable manifesto of requirements management in your organization.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Having a standardized approach to requirements management is critical, and SOPs should be the responsibility of a group. The SOP guide should cover all of the major bases of requirements management. In addition to providing a walk-through of the process, an SOP also clarifies requirements governance.

    Use Info-Tech’s Requirements Gathering SOP and BA Playbook to assist with requirements gathering optimization

    Info-Tech’s Requirements Gathering SOP and BA Playbook template forms the basis of this blueprint. It’s a structured document that you can fill out with defined procedures for how requirements should be gathered at your organization.

    Info-Tech’s Requirements Gathering SOP and BA Playbook template provides a number of sections that you can populate to provide direction for requirements gathering practitioners. Sections provided include: Organizational Context Governance Procedures Resourcing Model Technology Strategy Knowledge Management Elicitation SOPs Analysis SOPs Validation SOPs.

    The template has been pre-populated with an example of requirements management procedures. Feel free to customize it to fit your specific needs.

    Download the Requirements Gathering SOP and BA Playbook template.

    Step 1.2: Determine Your Target State for Requirements Gathering

    Phase 1

    1.1 Understand the Benefits of Requirements Optimization

    1.2 Determine Your Target State for Requirements Gathering

    Phase 2

    2.1 Determine Elicitation Techniques

    2.2 Structure Elicitation Output

    Phase 3

    3.1 Create Analysis Framework

    3.2 Validate Business Requirements

    Phase 4

    4.1 Create Control Processes for Requirements Changes

    4.2 Build Requirements Governance and Communication Plan

    This step will walk you through the following activities:
    • Conduct a current and target state analysis.
    • Identify requirements gathering business process model.
    • Establish requirements gathering performance metrics.
    • Define project levels – level 1/2/3/4.
    • Match control points to project level.
    • Conduct initial brainstorming on the project.
    This step involves the following participants:
    • BAs
    Outcomes of this step:
    • Requirements gathering maturity summary.
    • Requirements gathering business process model.
    • Identification of project levels.
    • Identification of control points.

    Plan for requirements gathering

    The image is the Requirements Gathering Framework from earlier slides, but with all parts of the graphic grey-out, except for the arrows containing Plan and Monitor, at the top.

    Establishing an overarching plan for requirements governance is the first step in building an SOP. You must also decide who will actually execute the requirements gathering processes, and what technology they will use to accomplish this. Planning for governance, resourcing, and technology is something that should be done repeatedly and at a higher strategic level than the more sequential steps of elicitation, analysis, and validation.

    Establish your target state for requirements gathering processes to have a cogent roadmap of what needs to be done

    Visualize how you want requirements to be gathered in your organization. Do not let elements of the current process restrict your thinking.

    • First, articulate the impetus for optimizing requirements management and establish clear goals.
    • Use these goals to drive the target state.

    For example:

    • If the goal is to improve the accuracy of requirements, then restructure the validation process.
    • If the goal is to improve the consistency of requirements gathering, then create SOPs or use electronic templates and tools.

    Refrain from only making small changes to improve the existing process. Think about the optimal way to structure the requirements gathering process.

    Define the attributes of a good requirement to help benchmark the type of outputs that you’re looking for

    Attributes of Good Requirements

    Verifiable – It is stated in a way that can be tested.

    Unambiguous – It is free of subjective terms and can only be interpreted in one way.

    Complete – It contains all relevant information.

    Consistent – It does not conflict with other requirements.

    Achievable – It is possible to accomplish given the budgetary and technological constraints.

    Traceable – It can tracked from inception to testing.

    Unitary – It addresses only one thing and cannot be decomposed into multiple requirements.

    Accurate – It is based on proven facts and correct information.

    Other Considerations:

    Organizations can also track a requirement owner, rationale, priority level (must have vs. nice to have), and current status (approved, tested, etc.).

    Info-Tech Insight

    Requirements must be solution agnostic – they should focus on the underlying need rather than the technology required to satisfy the need as it can be really easy to fall into the technology solution trap.

    Use Info-Tech’s Requirements Gathering Maturity Assessment tool to help conduct current and target state analysis

    Use the Requirements Gathering Maturity Assessment tool to help assess the maturity of your requirements gathering function in your organization, and identify the gaps between the current state and the target state. This will help focus your organization's efforts in closing the gaps that represent high-value opportunities.

    • On tab 2. Current State, use the drop-down responses to provide the answer that best matches your organization, where 1= Strongly disagree and 5 = Strongly agree. On tab 3. Target State, answer the same questions in relation to where your organization would like to be.
    • Based on your responses, tab 4. Maturity Summary will display a visual of the gap between the current and target state.

    Conduct a current and target state analysis

    1.2.1 – 1 hour

    Complete the Requirements Gathering Maturity Assessment tool to define your target state, and identify the gaps in your current state.

    Input
    • Current and target state maturity rating
    Output
    • Requirements gathering maturity summary
    Materials
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    Participants
    • BAs
    1. For each component of requirements gathering, write out a series of questions to evaluate your current requirements gathering practices. Use the Requirements Gathering Maturity Assessment tool to assist you in drafting questions.
    2. Review the questions in each category, and agree on a rating from 1-5 on their current maturity: 1= Strongly disagree and 5 = Strongly agree. (Note: it will likely be very rare that they would score a 5 in any category, even for the target state.)
    3. Once the assigned categories have been completed, have groups present their assessment to all, and ensure that there is consensus. Once consensus has been reached, input the information into the Current State tab of the tool to reveal the overall current state of maturity score for each category.
    4. Now that the current state is complete, go through each category and define the target state goals.
    5. Document any gaps or action items that need to be addressed.

    Example: Conduct a current and target state analysis

    The Requirements Gathering Maturity Assessment - Target State, with example data inputted.

    Select the project-specific KPIs that will be used to track the value of requirements gathering optimization

    You need to ensure your requirements gathering procedures are having the desired effect and adjust course when necessary. Establishing an upfront list of key performance indicators that will be benchmarked and tracked is a crucial step.

    • Without following up on requirements gathering by tracking project metrics and KPIs, organizations will not be able to accurately gauge if the requirements process re-engineering is having a tangible, measurable effect. They will also not be able to determine what changes (if any) need to be made to SOPs based on project performance.
    • This is a crucial step that many organizations overlook. Creating a retroactive list of KPIs is inadequate, since you must benchmark pre-optimization project metrics in order to assess and isolate the value generated by reducing errors and cycle time and increasing value of deployed applications.

    Establish requirements gathering performance metrics

    1.2.2 – 30 minutes

    Input
    • Historical metrics
    Output
    • Target performance metrics
    Materials
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    • Paper
    Participants
    • BAs
    1. Identify the following information for the last six months to one year:
      1. Average number of reworks to requirements.
      2. Number of change requests.
      3. Percent of feature utilization by end users.
      4. User adoption rate.
      5. Number of breaches in regulatory requirements.
      6. Percent of final deliverables implemented on time.
      7. End-user satisfaction score (if possible).
    2. As a group, look at each metric in turn and set your target metrics for six months to one year for each of these categories.

    Document the output from this exercise in section 2.2 of the Requirements Gathering SOP and BA Playbook.

    Visualize your current and target state process for requirements gathering with a business process model

    A business process model (BPM) is a simplified depiction of a complex process. These visual representations allow all types of stakeholders to quickly understand a process, how it affects them, and enables more effective decision making. Consider these areas for your model:

    Stakeholder Analysis

    • Identify who the right stakeholders are
    • Plan communication
    • Document stakeholder responsibilities in a RACI

    Elicitation Techniques

    • Get the right information from stakeholders
    • Document it in the appropriate format
    • Define business need
    • Enterprise analysis

    Documentation

    • How are outputs built?
    • Process flows
    • Use cases
    • Business rules
    • Traceability matrix
    • System requirements

    Validation & Traceability

    • Make sure requirements are accurate and complete
    • Trace business needs to requirements

    Managing Requirements

    • Organizing and prioritizing
    • Gap analysis
    • Managing scope
    • Communicating
    • Managing changes

    Supporting Tools

    • Templates to standardize
    • Checklists
    • Software to automate the process

    Your requirements gathering process will vary based on the project level

    It’s important to determine the project levels up front, as each project level will have a specific degree of elicitation, analysis, and validation that will need to be completed. That being said, not all organizations will have four levels.

    Level 4

    • Very high risk and complexity.
    • Projects that result in a transformative change in the way you do business. Level 4 projects affect all lines of business, multiple technology areas, and have significant costs and/or risks.
    • Example: Implement ERP

    Level 3

    • High risk and complexity.
    • Projects that affect multiple lines of business and have significant costs and/or risks.
    • Example: Implement CRM

    Level 2

    • Medium risk and complexity.
    • Projects with broader exposure to the business that present a moderate level of risk to business operations.
    • Example: Deploy Office 365

    Level 1

    • Low risk and complexity.
    • Routine/straightforward projects with limited exposure to the business and low risk of negative business impact.
    • Example: SharePoint Update

    Use Info-Tech’s Project Level Selection Tool to classify your project level and complexity

    1.3 Project Level Selection Tool

    The Project Level Selection Tool will classify your projects into four levels, enabling you to evaluate the risk and complexity of a particular project and match it with an appropriate requirements gathering process.

    Project Level Input

    • Consider the weighting criteria for each question and make any needed adjustments to better reflect how your organization values each of the criterion.
    • Review the option levels 1-4 for each of the six questions, and make any modifications necessary to better suit your organization.
    • Review the points assigned to each of the four buckets for each of the six questions, and make any modifications needed.

    Project Level Selection

    • Use this tab to evaluate the project level of each new project.
    • To do so, answer each of the questions in the tool.

    Define project levels – Level 1/2/3/4

    1.2.3 – 1 hour

    Input
    • Project level assessment criteria
    Output
    • Identification of project levels
    Materials
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    Participants
    • BAs

    Define the project levels to determine the appropriate requirements gathering process for each.

    1. Begin by asking participants to review the six criteria for assessing project levels as identified in the Project Level Selection Tool. Have participants review the list and ensure agreement around the factors. Create a chart on the board using Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, and Level 4 as column headings.
    2. Create a row for each of the chosen factors. Begin by filling in the chart with criteria for a level 4 project: What constitutes a level 4 project according to these six factors?
    3. Repeat the exercise for Level 3, Level 2, and Level 1. When complete, you should have a chart that defines the four project levels at your organization.
    4. Input this information into the tool, and ask participants to review the weighting factors and point allocations and make modifications where necessary.
    5. Input the details from one of the projects participants had selected prior to the workshop beginning and determine its project level. Discuss whether this level is accurate, and make any changes needed.

    Document the output from this exercise in section 2.3 of the Requirements Gathering SOP and BA Playbook.

    Define project levels

    1.2.3 – 1 hour

    Category Level 4 Level 3 Level 2 Level 1
    Scope of Change Full system update Full system update Multiple modules Minor change
    Expected Duration 12 months + 6 months + 3-6 months 0-3 months
    Impact Enterprise-wide, globally dispersed Enterprise-wide Department-wide Low users/single division
    Budget $1,000,000+ $500,000-1,000,000 $100,000-500,000 $0-100,000
    Services Affected Mission critical, revenue impacting Mission critical, revenue impacting Pervasive but not mission critical Isolated, non-essential
    Confidentiality Yes Yes No No

    Define project levels

    1.2.3 – 1 hour

    The tool is comprised of six questions, each of which is linked to at least one type of project risk.

    Using the answers provided, the tool will calculate a level for each risk category. Overall project level is a weighted average of the individual risk levels, based on the importance weighting of each type of risk set by the project manager.

    This tool is an excerpt from Info-Tech’s exhaustive Project Level Assessment Tool.

    The image shows the Project Level Tool, with example data filled in.

    Build your initial requirements gathering business process models: create different models based on project complexity

    1.2.4 – 30 minutes

    Input
    • Current requirements gathering process flow
    Output
    • Requirements gathering business process model
    Materials
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    Participants
    • BAs

    Brainstorm the ideal target business process flows for your requirements gathering process (by project level).

    1. As a group, create a process flow on the whiteboard that covers the entire requirements gathering lifecycle, incorporating the feedback from exercise 1.2.1. Draw the process with input from the entire group.
    2. After the process flow is complete, compare it to the best practice process flow on the following slide. You may want to create different process flows based on project level (i.e. a process model for Level 1 and 2 requirements gathering, and a process model for how to collect requirements for Level 3 and 4). As you work through the blueprint, revisit and refine these models – this is the initial brainstorming!

    Document the output from this exercise in section 2.4 of the Requirements Gathering SOP and BA Playbook.

    Example: requirements gathering business process model

    An example of the requirements gathering business process model. The model depicts the various stages of the requirements gathering process.

    Develop your BA team to accelerate collecting, analyzing, and translating requirements

    Having an SOP is important, but it should be the basis for training the people who will actually execute the requirements gathering process. Your BA team is critical for requirements gathering – they need to know the SOPs in detail, and you need to have a plan for recruiting those with an excellent skill set.

    • The designated BA(s) for the project have responsibility for end-to-end requirements management – they are responsible for executing the SOPs outlined in this blueprint, including elicitation, analysis, and validation of requirements during the project.
    • Designated BAs must work collaboratively with their counterparts in the business and IT (e.g. developer teams or procurement professionals) to ensure that the approved requirements are met in a timely and cost-effective manner.

    The ideal candidates for requirements gathering are technically savvy analysts (but not necessarily computer science majors) from the business who are already fluent with the business’ language and cognizant of the day-to-day challenges that take place. Organizationally, these BAs should be in a group that bridges IT and the business (such as an RGCOE or PMO) and be specialists rather than generalists in the requirements management space.

    A BA resourcing strategy is included in the SOP. Customize it to suit your needs.

    "Make sure your people understand the business they are trying to provide the solution for as well if not better than the business folks themselves." – Ken Piddington, CIO, MRE Consulting

    Use Info-Tech’s Business Requirements Analyst job description template for sourcing the right talent

    1.4 Business Requirements Analyst

    If you don’t have a trained group of in-house BAs who can execute your requirements gathering process, consider sourcing the talent from internal candidates or calling for qualified applicants. Our Business Requirements Analyst job description template can help you quickly get the word out.

    • Sometimes, you will have a dedicated set of BAs, and sometimes you won’t. In the latter case, the template covers:
      • Job Title
      • Description of Role
      • Responsibilities
      • Target Job Skills
      • Target Job Qualifications
    • The template is primarily designed for external hiring, but can also be used to find qualified internal candidates.

    Info-Tech Deliverable
    Download the Business Requirements Analyst job description template.

    Standardizing process begins with establishing expectations

    CASE STUDY

    Industry Government

    Source Info-Tech Workshop

    Challenge

    A mid-sized US municipality was challenged with managing stakeholder expectations for projects, including the collection and analysis of business requirements.

    The lack of a consistent approach to requirements gathering was causing the IT department to lose credibility with department level executives, impacting the ability of the team to engage project stakeholders in defining project needs.

    Solution

    The City contracted Info-Tech to help build an SOP to govern and train all BAs on a consistent requirements gathering process.

    The teams first set about establishing a consistent approach to defining project levels, defining six questions to be asked for each project. This framework would be used to assess the complexity, risk, and scope of each project, thereby defining the appropriate level of rigor and documentation required for each initiative.

    Results

    Once the project levels were defined, the team established a formalized set of steps, tools, and artifacts to be created for each phase of the project. These tools helped the team present a consistent approach to each project to the stakeholders, helping improve credibility and engagement for eliciting requirements.

    The project level should set the level of control

    Choose a level of control that facilitates success without slowing progress.

    No control Right-sized control Over-engineered control
    Final deliverable may not satisfy business or user requirements. Control points and communication are set at appropriate stage-gates to allow for deliverables to be evaluated and assessed before proceeding to the next phase. Excessive controls can result in too much time spent on stage-gates and approvals, which creates delays in the schedule and causes milestones to be missed.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Throughout the requirements gathering process, you need checks and balances to ensure that the projects are going according to plan. Now that we know our stakeholder, elicitation, and prioritization processes, we will set up the control points for each project level.

    Plan your communication with stakeholders

    Determine how you want to receive and distribute messages to stakeholders.

    Communication Milestones Audience Artifact Final Goal
    Project Initiation Project Sponsor Project Charter Communicate Goals and Scope of Project
    Elicitation Scheduling Selected Stakeholders (SMEs, Power Users) Proposed Solution Schedule Elicitation Sessions
    Elicitation Follow-Up Selected Stakeholders Elicitation Notes Confirm Accuracy of Notes
    First Pass Validation Selected Stakeholders Consolidated Requirements Validate Aggregated Requirements
    Second Pass Validation Selected Stakeholders Prioritized Requirements Validate Requirements Priority
    Eliminated Requirements Affected Stakeholders Out of Scope Requirements Affected Stakeholders Understand Impact of Eliminated Requirements
    Solution Selection High Authority/Expertise Stakeholders Modeled Solutions Select Solution
    Selected Solution High Authority/Expertise Stakeholders and Project Sponsor Requirements Package Communicate Solution
    Requirements Sign-Off Project Sponsor Requirements Package Obtain Sign-Off

    Setting control points – approvals and sign-offs

    # – Control Point: A decision requiring specific approval or sign-off from defined stakeholders involved with the project. Control points result in accepted or rejected deliverables/documents.

    A – Plan Approval: This control point requires a review of the requirements gathering plan, stakeholders, and elicitation techniques.

    B – Requirements Validation: This control point requires a review of the requirements documentation that indicates project and product requirements.

    C – Prioritization Sign-Off: This requires sign-off from the business and/or user groups. This might be sign-off to approve a document, prioritization, or confirm that testing is complete.

    D – IT or Peer Sign-Off: This requires sign-off from IT to approve technical requirements or confirm that IT is ready to accept a change.

    Match control points to project level and identify these in your requirements business process models

    1.2.5 – 45 minutes

    Input
    • Activity 1.2.4 business process diagram
    Output
    • Identify control points
    Materials
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    • Sticky notes
    Participants
    • Business stakeholders
    • BAs

    Define all of the key control points, required documentation, and involved stakeholders.

    1. On the board, post the initial business process diagram built in exercise 1.2.4. Have participants suggest appropriate control points. Write the control point number on a sticky note and place it where the control point should be.
    2. Now that we have identified the control points, consider each control point and define who will be involved in each one, who provides the approval to move forward, the documentation required, and the overall goal.

    Document the output from this exercise in section 6.1 of the Requirements Gathering SOP and BA Playbook.

    A savvy BA should clarify and confirm project scope prior to embarking on requirements elicitation

    Before commencing requirements gathering, it’s critical that your practitioners have a clear understanding of the initial business case and rationale for the project that they’re supporting. This is vital for providing the business context that elicitation activities must be geared towards.

    • Prior to commencing the requirements gathering phase, the designated BA should obtain a clear statement of scope or initial project charter from the project sponsor. It’s also advisable for the BA to have an in-person meeting with the project sponsor(s) to understand the overarching strategic or tactical impetus for the project. This initial meeting should be less about eliciting requirements and more about understanding why the project is moving forward, and the business processes it seeks to enable or re-engineer (the target state).
    • During this meeting, the BA should seek to develop a clear understanding of the strategic rationale for why the project is being undertaken (the anticipated business benefits) and why it is being undertaken at this time. If the sponsor has any business process models they can share, this would be a good time to review them.

    During requirements gathering, BAs should steer clear of solutions and focus on capturing requirements. Focus on traceable, hierarchical, and testable requirements. Focusing on solution design means you are out of requirements mode.

    Identify constraints early and often, and ensure that they are adequately communicated to project sponsors and end users

    Constraints come in many forms (i.e. financial, regulatory, and technological). Identifying these constraints prior to entering requirements gathering enables you to remain alert; you can separate what is possible from what is impossible, and set stakeholder expectations accordingly.

    • Most organizations don’t inventory their constraints until after they’ve gathered requirements. This is dangerous, as clients may inadvertently signal to end users or stakeholders that an infeasible requirement is something they will pursue. As a result, stakeholders are disappointed when they don’t see it materialize.
    • Organizations need to put advanced effort into constraint identification and management. Too much time is wasted pursuing requirements that aren't feasible given existing internal (e.g. budgets and system) and external (e.g. legislative or regulatory) constraints.
    • Organizations need to manage diverse stakeholders for requirements analysis. Communication will not always be solely with internal teams, but also with suppliers, customers, vendors, and system integrators.

    Stakeholder management is a critical aspect of the BA’s role. Part of the BA’s responsibility is prioritizing solutions and demonstrating to stakeholders the level of effort required and the value attained.

    A graphic, with an arrow running down the left side, pointing downward, which is labelled Constraint Malleability. On the right side of the arrow are three rounded arrows, stacked. The top arrow is labelled Legal/Regulatory Constraints, the second is labelled System/Technical Constraints and the third is labelled Stakeholder Constraints

    Conduct initial brainstorming on the scope of a selected enterprise application project (real or a sample of your choice)

    1.2.6 – 30 minutes

    Input
    • Project details
    Output
    • Initial project scoping
    Materials
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    Participants
    • Business stakeholders

    Begin the requirements gathering process by conducting some initial scoping on why we are doing the project, the goals, and the constraints.

    1. Share the project intake form/charter with each member of the group, and give them a few minutes to read over the project details.
    2. On the board write the project topic and three sub-topics:
      • Why does the business want this?
      • What do you want customers (end users) to be able to do?
      • What are the constraints?
    3. As a group, brainstorm answers to each of these questions and write them on the board.

    Example: Conduct initial brainstorming on the project

    Image shows an example for initial brainstorming on a project. The image shows the overall idea, Implement CRM, with question bubbles emerging out of it, and space left blank to brainstorm the answers to those questions.

    Identify stakeholders that must be consulted during the elicitation part of the process; get a good spectrum of subject matter experts (SMEs)

    Before you can dive into most elicitation techniques, you need to know who you’re going to speak with – not all stakeholders hold the same value.

    There are two broad categories of stakeholders:

    Customers: Those who ask for a system/project/change but do not necessarily use it. These are typically executive sponsors, project managers, or interested stakeholders. They are customers in the sense that they may provide the funding or budget for a project, and may have requests for features and functionality, but they won’t have to use it in their own workflows.

    Users: Those who may not ask for a system but must use it in their routine workflows. These are your end users, those who will actually interact with the system. Users don’t necessarily have to be people – they can also be other systems that will require inputs or outputs from the proposed solution. Understand their needs to best drive more granular functional requirements.

    "The people you need to make happy at the end of the day are the people who are going to help you identify and prioritize requirements." – Director of IT, Municipal Utilities Provider

    Need a hand with stakeholder identification? Leverage Info-Tech’s Stakeholder Planning Tool to catalog and prioritize the stakeholders your BAs will need to contact during the elicitation phase.

    Exercise: Identify and analyze stakeholders for the application project prior to beginning formal elicitation

    1.2.7 – 45 minutes

    Input
    • List of stakeholders
    Output
    • Stakeholder analysis
    Materials
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    • Sticky notes
    Participants
    • BAs

    Practice the process for identifying and analyzing key stakeholders for requirements gathering.

    1. As a group, generate a complete list of the project stakeholders. Consider who is involved in the problem and who will be impacted by the solution, and record the names of these stakeholders/stakeholder groups on a sticky note. Categories include:
      1. Who is the project sponsor?
      2. Who are the user groups?
      3. Who are the project architects?
      4. Who are the specialty stakeholders (SMEs)?
      5. Who is your project team?
    2. Now that you’ve compiled a complete list, review each user group and indicate their level of influence against their level of involvement in the project to create a stakeholder power map by placing their sticky on a 2X2 grid.
    3. At the end of the day, record this list in the Requirements Gathering Communication Tracking Template.

    Use Info-Tech’s Requirements Gathering Communication Tracking Template

    1.5 Requirements Gathering Communication Tracking Template

    Use the Requirements Gathering Communication Tracking Template for structuring and managing ongoing communications among key requirements gathering implementation stakeholders.

    An illustration of the Stakeholder Power Map Template tab of the Requirements Gathering Communication Tracking Template

    Use the Stakeholder Power Map tab to:

    • Identify the stakeholder's name and role.
    • Identify their position on the power map using the drop-down menu.
    • Identify their level of support.
    • Identify resisters' reasons for resisting as: unwilling, unable, and/or unknowing.
    • Identify which committees they currently sit on, and which they will sit on in the future state.
    • Identify any key objections the stakeholder may have.

    Use the Communication Management Plan tab to:

    • Identify the vehicle/communication medium (status update, meeting, training, etc.).
    • Identify the audience for the communication.
    • Identify the purpose for communication.
    • Identify the frequency.
    • Identify who is responsible for the communication.
    • Identify how the communication will be distributed, and the level of detail.

    Right-size your investments in requirements management technology; sometimes the “suite spot” isn’t necessary

    Recording and analyzing requirements needs some kind of tool, but don’t overinvest in a dedicated suite if you can manage with a more inexpensive solution (such as Word, Excel, and/or Visio). Top-tier solutions may be necessary for an enterprise ERP deployment, but you can use a low-cost solution for low-level productivity application.

    • Many companies do things in the wrong order. Organizations need to right-size the approach that they take to recording and analyzing requirements. Taking the suite approach isn’t always better – often, inputting the requirements into Word or Excel will suffice. An RM suite won’t solve your problems by itself.
    • If you’re dealing with strategic approach or calculated approach projects, their complexity likely warrants a dedicated RM suite that can trace system dependencies. If you’re dealing with primarily elementary or fundamental approach projects, use a more basic tool.

    Your SOP guide should specify the technology platform that your analysts are expected to use for initial elicitation as well as analysis and validation. You don’t want them to use Word if you’ve invested in a full-out IBM RM solution.

    The graphic shows a pyramid shape next to an arrow, pointing up. The arrow is labelled Project Complexity. The pyramid includes three text boxes, reading (from top to bottom) Dedicated RM Suite; RM Module in PM Software; and Productivity APP (Word/Excel/Visio)

    If you need to opt for a dedicated suite, these vendors should be strong contenders in your consideration set

    Dedicated requirements management suites are a great (although pricey) way to have full control over recording, analysis, and hierarchical categorization of requirements. Consider some of the major vendors in the space if Word, Excel, and Visio aren’t suitable for you.

    • Before you purchase a full-scale suite or module for requirements management, ensure that the following contenders have been evaluated for your requirements gathering technology strategy:
      • Micro Focus Requirements Management
      • IBM Requisite Pro
      • IBM Rational DOORS
      • Blueprint Requirements Management
      • Jama Software
      • Polarion Software (a Siemens Company)

    A mid-sized consulting company overhauls its requirement gathering software to better understand stakeholder needs

    CASE STUDY

    Industry Consulting

    Source Jama Software

    Challenge

    ArcherPoint is a leading Microsoft Partner responsible for providing business solutions to its clients. Its varied customer base now requires a more sophisticated requirements gathering software.

    Its process was centered around emailing Word documents, creating versions, and merging issues. ArcherPoint recognized the need to enhance effectiveness, efficiency, and accuracy of requirements gathering through a prescriptive set of elicitation procedures.

    Solution

    The IT department at ArcherPoint recognized that a strong requirements gathering process was essential to delivering value to stakeholders. It needed more scalable and flexible requirements gathering software to enhance requirements traceability. The company implemented SaaS solutions that included traceability and seamless integration features.

    These features reduced the incidences of repetition, allowed for tracing of requirements relationships, and ultimately led to an exhaustive understanding of stakeholders’ needs.

    Results

    Projects are now vetted upon an understanding of the business client’s needs with a thorough requirements gathering collection and analysis.

    A deeper understanding of the business needs also allows ArcherPoint to better understand the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders. This allows for the implementation of structures and policies which makes the requirements gathering process rigorous.

    There are different types of requirements that need to be gathered throughout the elicitation phase

    Business Requirements

    • Higher-level statements of the goals, objectives, or needs of the enterprise.
    • Describe the reasons why a project has been initiated, the objectives that the project will achieve, and the metrics that will be used to measure its success.
    • Business requirements focus on the needs of the organization as a whole, not stakeholders within it.
    • Business requirements provide the foundation on which all further requirements analysis is based:
      • Ultimately, any detailed requirements must map to business requirements. If not, what business need does the detailed requirement fulfill?

    Stakeholder Requirements

    • Statements of the needs of a particular stakeholder or class of stakeholders, and how that stakeholder will interact with a solution.
    • Stakeholder requirements serve as a bridge between business requirements and the various classes of solution requirements.
    • When eliciting stakeholder requirements, other types of detailed requirements may be identified. Record these for future use, but keep the focus on capturing the stakeholders’ needs over detailing solution requirements.

    Solution options or preferences are not requirements. Be sure to identify these quickly to avoid being forced into untimely discussions and sub-optimal solution decisions.

    Requirement types – a quick overview (continued)

    Solution Requirements: Describe the characteristics of a solution that meet business requirements and stakeholder requirements. They are frequently divided into sub-categories, particularly when the requirements describe a software solution:

    Functional Requirements

    • Describe the behavior and information that the solution will manage. They describe capabilities the system will be able to perform in terms of behaviors or operations, i.e. specific information technology application actions or responses.
    • Functional requirements are not detailed solution specifications; rather, they are the basis from which specifications will be developed.

    Non-Functional Requirements

    • Capture conditions that do not directly relate to the behavior or functionality of the solution, but rather describe environmental conditions under which the solution must remain effective or qualities that the systems must have. These can include requirements related to capacity, speed, security, availability, and the information architecture and presentation of the user interface.
    • Non-functional requirements often represent constraints on the ultimate solution. They tend to be less negotiable than functional requirements.
    • For IT solutions, technical requirements would fit in this category.
    Info-Tech Insight

    Remember that solution requirements are distinct from solution specifications; in time, specifications will be developed from the requirements. Don’t get ahead of the process.

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

    The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

    1.2.1 Conduct current and target state analysis

    An analyst will facilitate a discussion to assess the maturity of your requirements gathering process and identify any gaps in the current state.

    1.2.2 Establish requirements gathering performance metrics

    Speak to an analyst to discuss and determine key metrics for measuring the effectiveness of your requirements gathering processes.

    1.2.4 Identify your requirements gathering business process model

    An analyst will facilitate a discussion to determine the ideal target business process flow for your requirements gathering.

    1.2.3; 1.2.5 Define control levels and match control points

    An analyst will assist you with determining the appropriate requirements gathering approach for different project levels. The discussion will highlight key control points and define stakeholders who will be involved in each one.

    1.2.6; 1.2.7 Conduct initial scoping and identify key stakeholders

    An analyst will facilitate a discussion to highlight the scope of the requirements gathering optimization project as well as identify and analyze key stakeholders in the process.

    Phase 2: Define the Elicitation Process

    Phase 2 outline

    Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation 2: Define the Elicitation Process

    Proposed Time to Completion: 2 weeks

    Step 2.1: Determine Elicitation Techniques

    Start with an analyst kick off call:

    • Understand and assess elicitation techniques.
    • Determine best fit to projects and business environment.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Understand different elicitation techniques.
    • Record the approved elicitation techniques.
    Step 2.2: Structure Elicitation Output

    Review findings with analyst:

    • Review options for structuring the output of requirements elicitation.
    • Build the requirements gathering operating model.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Build use case model.
    • Use table-top testing to build use case models.
    • Build the operating model.

    With these tools & templates:

    • Business Requirements Document Template
    • Scrum Documentation Template
    Phase 2 Results & Insights:
    • Best practices for conducting and structuring elicitation.

    Step 2.1: Determine Elicitation Techniques

    Phase 1

    1.1 Understand the Benefits of Requirements Optimization

    1.2 Determine Your Target State for Requirements Gathering

    Phase 2

    2.1 Determine Elicitation Techniques

    2.2 Structure Elicitation Output

    Phase 3

    3.1 Create Analysis Framework

    3.2 Validate Business Requirements

    Phase 4

    4.1 Create Control Processes for Requirements Changes

    4.2 Build Requirements Governance and Communication Plan

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Understand requirements elicitation techniques.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • BAs
    • Business stakeholders

    Outcomes of this step

    • Select and record best-fit elicitation techniques.

    Eliciting requirements is all about effectively creating the initial shortlist of needs the business has for an application

    The image is the Requirements Gathering Framework, shown earlier. All parts of the framework are greyed-out, except for the arrow containing the word Elicit in the center of the image, with three bullet points beneath it that read: Prepare; Conduct; Confirm.

    The elicitation phase is where the BAs actually meet with project stakeholders and uncover the requirements for the application. Major tasks within this phase include stakeholder identification, selecting elicitation techniques, and conducting the elicitation sessions. This phase involves the most information gathering and therefore requires a significant amount of time to be done properly.

    Good requirements elicitation leverages a strong elicitation framework and executes the right elicitation techniques

    A mediocre requirements practitioner takes an order taker approach to elicitation: they elicit requirements by showing up to a meeting with the stakeholder and asking, “What do you want?” This approach frequently results in gaps in requirements, as most stakeholders cannot free-form spit out an accurate inventory of their needs.

    A strong requirements practitioner first decides on an elicitation framework – a mechanism to anchor the discussion about the business requirements. Info-Tech recommends using business process modelling (BPM) as the most effective framework. The BA can now work through several key questions:

    • What processes will this application need to support?
    • What does the current process look like?
    • How could we improve the process?
    • In a target state process map, what are the key functional requirements necessary to support this?

    The second key element to elicitation is using the right blend of elicitation techniques: the tactical approach used to actually collect the requirements. Interviews are the most popular means, but focus groups, JAD sessions, and observational techniques can often yield better results – faster. This section will touch on BPM/BPI as an elicitation framework, then do deep dive on different elicitation techniques.

    The elicitation phase of most enterprise application projects follows a similar four-step approach

    Prepare

    Stakeholders must be identified, and elicitation frameworks and techniques selected. Each technique requires different preparation. For example, brainstorming requires ground rules; focus groups require invitations, specific focus areas, and meeting rooms (perhaps even cameras). Look at each of these techniques and discuss how you would prepare.

    Conduct

    A good elicitor has the following underlying competencies: analytical thinking, problem solving, behavioral characteristics, business knowledge, communication skills, interaction skills, and proficiency in BA tools. In both group and individual elicitation techniques, interpersonal proficiency and strong facilitation is a must. A good BA has an intuitive sense of how to manage the flow of conversations, keep them results-oriented, and prevent stakeholder tangents or gripe sessions.

    Document

    How you document will depend on the technique you use. For example, recording and transcribing a focus group is probably a good idea, but you still need to analyze the results and determine the actual requirements. Use cases demand a software tool – without one, they become cumbersome and unwieldy. Consider how you would document the results before you choose the technique. Some analysts prefer to use solutions like OneNote or Evernote for capturing the raw initial notes, others prefer pen and paper: it’s what works best for the BA at hand.

    Confirm

    Review the documentation with your stakeholder and confirm the understanding of each requirement via active listening skills. Revise requirements as necessary. Circulating the initial notes of a requirements interview or focus group is a great practice to get into – it ensures jargon and acronyms are correctly captured, and that nothing has been lost in the initial translation.

    BPM is an extremely useful framework for framing your requirements elicitation discussions

    What is BPM? (Source: BPMInstitute.org)

    BPMs can take multiple forms, but they are created as visual process flows that depict a series of events. They can be customized at the discretion of the requirements gathering team (swim lanes, legends, etc.) based on the level of detail needed from the input.

    When to use them?

    BPMs can be used as the basis for further process improvement or re-engineering efforts for IT and applications projects. When the requirements gathering process owner needs to validate whether or not a specific step involved in the process is necessary, BPM provides the necessary breakdown.

    What’s the benefit?

    Different individuals absorb information in a variety of ways. Visual representations of a process or set of steps tend to be well received by a large sub-set of individuals, making BPMs an effective analysis technique.

    This related Info-Tech blueprint provides an extremely thorough overview of how to leverage BPM and process improvement approaches.

    Use a SIPOC table to assist with zooming into a step in a BPM to help define requirements

    Build a Sales Report
    • Salesforce
    • Daily sales results
    • Sales by product
    • Sales by account rep
    • Receive customer orders
    • Process invoices
    • GL roll-up
    • Sales by region
    • Sales by rep
    • Director of Sales
    • CEO
    • Report is accurate
    • Report is timely
    • Balance to GL
    • Automated email notification

    Source: iSixSigma

    Example: Extract requirements from a BPM for a customer service solution

    Look at an example for a claims process, and focus on the Record Claim task (event).

    Task Input Output Risks Opportunities Condition Sample Requirements
    Record Claim Customer Email Case Record
    • An agent accidentally misses the email and the case is not submitted.
    • The contents of the email are not properly ported over into the case for the claim.
    • The claim is routed to the wrong recipient within the claims department.
    • There is translation risk when the claim is entered in another language from which it is received.
    • Reduce the time to populate a customer’s claim information into the case.
    • Automate the data capture and routing.
    • Pre-population of the case with the email contents.
    • Suggested routing based on the nature of the case.
    • Multi-language support.

    Business:

    • The system requires email-to-case functionality.

    Non-Functional:

    • The cases must be supported in multiple languages.
    • Case management requires Outlook integration.

    Functional:

    • The case must support the following information:
    • Title; Customer; Subject; Case Origin; Case Type; Owner; Status; Priority
    • The system must pre-populate the claims agent based on the nature of the case.

    The image is an excerpt from a table, with the title Claims Process at the top. The top row is labelled Customer Service, and includes a textbox that reads Record Claim. The bottom row is labelled Claims, and includes a textbox that reads Manage Claim. A downward-pointing arrow connects the two textboxes.

    Identify the preferred elicitation techniques in your requirements gathering SOP: outline order of operations

    Conducting elicitation typically takes the greatest part of the requirements management process. During elicitation, the designated BA(s) should be reviewing documentation, and conducting individual and group sessions with key stakeholders.

    • When eliciting requirements, it’s critical that your designated BAs use multiple techniques; relying only on stakeholder interviews while neglecting to conduct focus groups and joint whiteboarding sessions will lead to trouble.
    • Avoid makeshift solutions by focusing on target state requirements, but don’t forget about the basic user needs. These can often be neglected because one party assumes that the other already knows about them.
    • The SOP guide should provide your BAs with a shortlist of recommended/mandated elicitation techniques based on business scenarios (examples in this section). Your SOP should also suggest the order in which BAs use the techniques for initial elicitation. Generally, document review comes first, followed by group, individual, and observational techniques.

    Elicitation is an iterative process – requirements should be refined in successive steps. If you need more information in the analysis phases, don’t be afraid to go back and conduct more elicitation.

    Understand different elicitation techniques

    2.1.1 – 1 hour

    Input
    • Elicitation techniques
    Output
    • Elicitation technique assessment
    Materials
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    • Paper
    Participants
    • BAs
    1. For this exercise, review the following elicitation techniques: observation, document review, surveys, focus groups, and interviews. Use the material in the next slides to brainstorm around the following questions:
      1. What types of information can the technique be used to collect?
      2. Why would you use this technique over others?
      3. How will you prepare to use the technique?
      4. How will you document the technique?
      5. Is this technique suitable for all projects?
      6. When wouldn’t you use it?
    2. Have each group present their findings from the brainstorming to the group.

    Document any changes to the elicitation techniques in section 4.0 of the Requirements Gathering SOP and BA Playbook.

    Understand different elicitation techniques – Interviews

    Technique Description Assessment and Best Practices Stakeholder Effort BA Effort
    Structured One-on-One Interview In a structured one-on-one interview, the BA has a fixed list of questions to ask the stakeholder and follows up where necessary. Structured interviews provide the opportunity to quickly home in on areas of concern that were identified during process mapping or group elicitation techniques. They should be employed with purpose, i.e. to receive specific stakeholder feedback on proposed requirements or to help identify systemic constraints. Generally speaking, they should be 30 minutes or less. Low Medium
    Unstructured One-on-One Interview In an unstructured one-on-one interview, the BA allows the conversation to flow free form. The BA may have broad themes to touch on but does not run down a specific question list. Unstructured interviews are most useful for initial elicitation, when brainstorming a draft list of potential requirements is paramount. Unstructured interviews work best with senior stakeholders (sponsors or power users), since they can be time consuming if they’re applied to a large sample size. It’s important for BAs not to stifle open dialogue and allow the participants to speak openly. They should be 60 minutes or less. Medium Low
    Info-Tech Insight

    Interviews should be used with high-value targets. Those who receive one-on-one face time can help generate good requirements, as well as allow effective communication around requirements at a later point (i.e. during the analysis and validation phases).

    Understand the diverse approaches for interviews

    Use a clear interview approach to guide the preparation, facilitation styles, participants, and interview schedules you manage for a specific project.

    Depending on your stakeholder audience and interview objectives, apply one or more of the following approaches to interviews.

    Interview Approaches

    • Unstructured
    • Semi-structured
    • Structured

    The Benefits of Interviews

    Fosters direct engagement

    IT is able to hear directly from stakeholders about what they are looking to do with a solution and the level of functionality that they expect from it.

    Offers greater detail

    With interviews, a greater degree of insight can be gained by leveraging information that wouldn’t be collected through traditional surveys. Face-to-face interactions provide thorough answers and context that helps inform requirements.

    Removes ambiguity

    Face-to-face interactions allow opportunities for follow-up around ambiguous answers. Clarify what stakeholders are looking for and expect in a project.

    Enables stakeholder management

    Interviews are a direct line of communication with a project stakeholder. They provide input and insight, and help to maintain alignment, plan next steps, and increase awareness within the IT organization.

    Select an interview structure based on project objectives and staff types

    Consider stakeholder types and characteristics, in conjunction with the best way to maximize time, when selecting which of the three interview structures to leverage during the elicitation phase of requirements gathering.

    Structured Interviews

    • Interviews conducted using this structure are modelled after the typical Q&A session.
    • The interviewer asks the participant a variety of closed-ended questions.
    • The participant’s response is limited to the scope of the question.

    Semi-Structured Interviews

    • The interviewer may prepare a guide, but it acts as more of an outline.
    • The goal of the interview is to foster and develop conversation.
    • Participants have the ability to answer questions on broad topics without compromising the initial guide.

    Unstructured Interviews

    • The interviewer may have a general interview guide filled with open-ended questions.
    • The objective of the questions is to promote discussion.
    • Participants may discuss broader themes and topics.

    Select the best interview approach

    Review the following questions to determine what interview structure you should utilize. If you answer the question with “Yes,” then follow the corresponding recommendations for the interview elements.

    Question Structure Type Facilitation Technique # of Participants
    Do you have to interview multiple participants at once because of time constraints? Semi-structured Discussion 1+
    Does the business or stakeholders want you to ask specific questions? Structured Q&A 1
    Have you already tried an unsuccessful survey to gather information? Semi-structured Discussion 1+
    Are you utilizing interviews to understand the area? Unstructured Discussion 1+
    Do you need to gather requirements for an immediate project? Structured Q&A 1+

    Decisions to make for interviews

    Interviews should be used with high-value targets. Those who receive one-on-one face time can help generate good requirements and allow for effective communication around requirements during the analysis and validation stages.

    Who to engage?

    • Individuals with an understanding of the project scope, constraints and considerations, and high-level objectives.
    • Project stakeholders from across different functional units to solicit a varied set of requirement inputs.

    How to engage?

    • Approach selected interview candidate(s) with a verbal invitation to participate in the requirements gathering process for [Project X].
    • Take the initiative to book time in the candidate’s calendar. Include in your calendar invitation a description of the preparation required for the interview, the anticipated outputs, and a brief timeline agenda for the interview itself.

    How to drive participant engagement?

    • Use introductory interview questions to better familiarize yourself with the interviewee and to create an environment in which the individual feels welcome and at ease.
    • Once acclimatized, ensure that you hold the attention of the interviewee by providing further probing, yet applicable, interview questions.

    Manage each point of the interaction in the interview process

    Interviews generally follow the same workflow regardless of which structure you select. You must manage the process to ensure that the interview runs smoothly and results in an effective gathering requirements process.

    1. Prep Schedule
      • Recommended Actions
        • Send an email with a proposed date and time for the meeting.
        • Include an overview of what you will be discussing.
        • Mention if other people will be joining (if group interview).
    2. Meeting Opening
      • Recommended Actions
        • Provide context around the meeting’s purpose and primary focal points.
        • Let interviewee(s) know how long the interview will last.
        • Ask if they have any blockers that may cause the meeting to end early.
    3. Meeting Discussion
      • Recommended Actions
        • Ask questions and facilitate discussion in accordance with the structure you have selected.
        • Ensure that the meeting’s dialogue is being either recorded using written notes (if possible) or a voice recorder.
    4. Meeting Wrap-Up
      • Recommended Actions
        • Provide a summary of the big findings and what was agreed upon.
        • Outline next steps or anything else you will require from the participant.
        • Let the interviewee(s) know that you will follow up with interview notes, and will require feedback from them.
    5. Meeting Follow-Up
      • Recommended Actions
        • Send an overview of what was covered and agreed upon during the interview.
        • Show the mock-ups of your work based on the interview, and solicit feedback.
        • Give the interviewee(s) the opportunity to review your notes or recording and add value where needed.

    Solve the problem before it occurs with interview troubleshooting techniques

    The interview process may grind to a halt due to challenging situations. Below are common scenarios and corresponding troubleshooting techniques to get your interview back on track.

    Scenario Technique
    Quiet interviewee Begin all interviews by asking courteous and welcoming questions. This technique will warm the interviewee up and make them feel more comfortable. Ask prompting questions during periods of silence in the interview. Take note of the answers provided by the interviewee in your interview guide, along with observations and impact statements that occur throughout the duration of the interview process.
    Disgruntled interviewee Avoid creating a hostile environment by eliminating the interviewee’s perception that you are choosing to focus on issues that the interviewee feels will not be resolved. Ask questions to contextualize the issue. For example, ask why they feel a particular way about the issue, and determine whether they have valid concerns that you can resolve.
    Interviewee has issues articulating their answer Encourage the interviewee to use a whiteboard or pen and paper to kick start their thought process. Make sure you book a room with these resources readily available.

    Understand different elicitation techniques – Observation

    Technique Description Assessment and Best Practices Stakeholder Effort BA Effort
    Casual Observation The process of observing stakeholders performing tasks where the stakeholders are unaware they are being observed. Capture true behavior through observation of stakeholders performing tasks without informing them they are being observed. This information can be valuable for mapping business process; however, it is difficult to isolate the core business activities from unnecessary actions. Low Medium
    Formal Observation The process of observing stakeholders performing tasks where the stakeholders are aware they are being observed. Formal observation allows BAs to isolate and study the core activities in a business process because the stakeholder is aware they are being observed. Stakeholders may become distrusting of the BA and modify their behavior if they feel their job responsibilities or job security are at risk Low Medium

    Info-Tech Insight

    Observing stakeholders does not uncover any information about the target state. Be sure to use contextual observation in conjunction with other techniques to discover the target state.

    Understand different elicitation techniques – Surveys

    Technique Description Assessment and Best Practices Stakeholder Effort BA Effort
    Closed-Response Survey A survey that has fixed responses for each answer. A Likert-scale (or similar measures) can be used to have respondents evaluate and prioritize possible requirements. Closed response surveys can be sent to large groups and used to quickly gauge user interest in different functional areas. They are easy for users to fill out and don’t require a high investment of time. However, their main deficit is that they are likely to miss novel requirements not listed. As such, closed response surveys are best used after initial elicitation or brainstorming to validate feature groups. Low Medium
    Open-Response Survey A survey that has open-ended response fields. Questions are fixed, but respondents are free to populate the field in their own words. Open-response surveys take longer to fill out than closed, but can garner deeper insights. Open-response surveys are a useful supplement (and occasionally replacement) for group elicitation techniques, like focus groups, when you need to receive an initial list of requirements from a broad cross-section of stakeholders. Their primary shortcoming is the analyst can’t immediately follow up on interesting points. However, they are particularly useful for reaching stakeholders who are unavailable for individual one-on-ones or group meetings. Low Medium

    Info-Tech Insight

    Surveys can be useful mechanisms for initial drafting of raw requirements (open-response) and gauging user interest in proposed requirements or feature sets (closed-response). However, they should not be the sole focus of your elicitation program due to lack of interactivity and two-way dialogue with the BA.

    Be aware: Know the implications of leveraging surveys

    What are surveys?

    Surveys take a sample population’s written responses for data collection. Survey respondents can identify themselves or choose to remain anonymous. Anonymity removes the fear of repercussions for giving critical responses to sensitive topics.

    Who needs to be involved?

    Participants of a survey include the survey writer, respondent(s), and results compiler. There is a moderate amount of work that comes from both the writer and compiler, with little work involved on the end of the respondent.

    What are the benefits?

    The main benefit of surveys is their ability to reach large population groups and segments without requiring personal interaction, thus saving money. Surveys are also very responsive and can be created and modified rapidly to address needs as they arise on an on-going basis.

    When is it best to employ a survey method?

    Surveys are most valuable when completed early in the requirements gathering stage.

    Intake and Scoping → Requirements Gathering → Solution Design → Development/ Procurement → Implementation/ Deployment

    When a project is announced, develop surveys to gauge what users consider must-have, should-have, and could-have requirements.

    Use surveys to profile the demand for specific requirements.

    It is often difficult to determine if requirements are must haves or should haves. Surveys are a strong method to assist in narrowing down a wide range of requirements.

    • If all survey respondents list the same requirement, then that requirement is a must have.
    • If no participants mention a requirement, then that requirement is not likely to be important to project success.
    • If the results are scattered, it could be that the organization is unsure of what is needed.

    Are surveys worth the time and effort? Most of the time.

    Surveys can generate insights. However, there are potential barriers:

    • Well-constructed surveys are difficult to make – asking the right questions without being too long.
    • Participants may not take surveys seriously, giving non-truthful or half-hearted answers.

    Surveys should only be done if the above barriers can easily be overcome.

    Scenario: Survey used to gather potential requirements

    Scenario

    There is an unclear picture of the business needs and functional requirements for a solution.

    Survey Approach

    Use open-ended questions to allow respondents to propose requirements they see as necessary.

    Sample questions

    • What do you believe _______ (project) should include to be successful?
    • How can _______ (project) be best made for you?
    • What do you like/dislike about ________ (process that the project will address)?

    What to do with your results

    Take a step back

    If you are using surveys to elicit a large number of requirements, there is probably a lack of clear scope and vision. Focus on scope clarification. Joint development sessions are a great technique for defining your scope with SMEs.

    Moving ahead

    • Create additional surveys. Additional surveys can help narrow down the large list of requirements. This process can be reiterated until there is a manageable number of requirements.
    • Move onto interviews. Speak directly with the users to get a grasp of the importance of the requirements taken from surveys.

    Employ survey design best practices

    Proper survey design determines how valuable the responses will be. Review survey principles released by the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

    Provide context

    Include enough detail to contextualize questions to the employee’s job duties.

    Where necessary:

    • Include conditions
    • Timeline considerations
    • Additional pertinent details

    Give clear instructions

    When introducing a question identify if it should be answered by giving one answer, multiple answers, or a ranking of answers.

    Avoid IT jargon

    Ensure the survey’s language is easily understood.

    When surveying colleagues from the business use their own terms, not IT’s.

    E.g. laptops vs. hardware

    Saying “laptops” is more detailed and is a universal term.

    Use ranges

    Recommended:

    In a month your Outlook fails:

    • 1-3 times
    • 4-7 times
    • 7+ times

    Not Recommended:

    Your Outlook fails:

    • Almost never
    • Infrequently
    • Frequently
    • Almost always

    Keep surveys short

    Improve responses and maintain stakeholder interest by only including relevant questions that have corresponding actions.

    Recommended: Keep surveys to ten or less prompts.

    Scenario: Survey used to narrow down requirements

    Scenario

    There is a large list of requirements and the business is unsure of which ones to further pursue.

    Survey Approach

    Use closed-ended questions to give degrees of importance and rank requirements.

    Sample questions

    • How often do you need _____ (requirement)?
      • 1-3 times a week; 4-6 times a week; 7+ times a week
    • Given the five listed requirements below, rank each requirement in order of importance, with 1 being the most important and 5 being the least important.
    • On a scale from 1-5, how important is ________ (requirement)?
      • 1 – Not important at all; 2 – Would provide minimal benefit; 3 – Would be nice to have; 4 – Would provide substantial benefit; 5 – Crucial to success

    What to do with your results

    Determine which requirements to further explore

    Avoid simply aggregating average importance and using the highest average as the number-one priority. Group the highest average importance requirements to be further explored with other elicitation techniques.

    Moving ahead

    The group of highly important requirements needs to be further explored during interviews, joint development sessions, and rapid development sessions.

    Scenario: Survey used to discover crucial hidden requirements

    Scenario

    The business wanted a closer look into a specific process to determine if the project could be improved to better address process issues.

    Survey Approach

    Use open-ended questions to allow employees to articulate very specific details of a process.

    Sample questions

    • While doing ________ (process/activity), what part is the most frustrating to accomplish? Why?
    • Is there any part of ________ (process/activity) that you feel does not add value? Why?
    • How would you improve _________ (process/activity)?

    What to do with your results

    Set up prototyping

    Prototype a portion with the new requirement to see if it meets the user’s needs. Joint application development and rapid development sessions pair developers and users together to collaboratively build a solution.

    Next steps

    • Use interviews to begin solution mapping. Speak to SMEs and the users that the requirement would affect. Understand how to properly incorporate the discovered requirement(s) into the solution.
    • Create user stories. User stories allow developers to step into the shoes of the users. Document the user’s requirement desires and their reason for wanting it. Give those user stories to the developers.

    Explore mediums for survey delivery

    Online

    Free online surveys offer quick survey templates but may lack customization. Paid options include customizable features. Studies show that most participants find web-based surveys more appealing, as web surveys tend to have a higher rate of completion.

    Potential Services (Not a comprehensive list)

    SurveyMonkey – free and paid options

    Good Forms – free options

    Ideal for:

    • Low complexity surveys
    • High complexity surveys
    • Quick responses
    • Low cost (free survey options)

    Paper

    Paper surveys offer complete customizability. However, paper surveys take longer to distribute and record, and are also more expensive to administer.

    Ideal for:

    • Low complexity surveys
    • High complexity surveys
    • Quick responses
    • Low cost

    Internally-developed

    Internally-developed surveys can be distributed via the intranet or email. Internal surveys offer the most customization. Cost is the creator’s time, but cost can be saved on distribution versus paper and paid online surveys.

    Ideal for:

    • Low complexity surveys
    • High complexity surveys
    • Quick responses
    • Low cost (if created quickly)

    Understand different elicitation techniques – Focus Groups

    Technique Description Assessment and Best Practices Stakeholder Effort BA Effort
    Focus Group Focus groups are sessions held between a small group (typically ten individuals or less) and an experienced facilitator who leads the conversation in a productive direction. Focus groups are highly effective for initial requirements brainstorming. The best practice is to structure them in a cross-functional manner to ensure multiple viewpoints are represented, and the conversation doesn’t become dominated by one particular individual. Facilitators must be wary of groupthink in these meetings (i.e. the tendency to converge on a single POV). Medium Medium
    Workshop Workshops are larger sessions (typically ten people or more) that are led by a facilitator, and are dependent on targeted exercises. Workshops may be occasionally decomposed into smaller group sessions. Workshops are highly versatile: they can be used for initial brainstorming, requirement prioritization, constraint identification, and business process mapping. Typically, the facilitator will use exercises or activities (such as whiteboarding, sticky note prioritization, role-playing, etc.) to get participants to share and evaluate sets of requirements. The main downside to workshops is a high time commitment from both stakeholders and the BA. Medium High

    Info-Tech Insight

    Group elicitation techniques are most useful for gathering a wide spectrum of requirements from a broad group of stakeholders. Individual or observational techniques are typically needed for further follow-up and in-depth analysis with critical power users or sponsors.

    Conduct focus groups and workshops

    There are two specific types of group interviews that can be utilized to elicit requirements: focus groups and workshops. Understand each type’s strengths and weaknesses to determine which is better to use in certain situations.

    Focus Groups Workshops
    Description
    • Small groups are encouraged to speak openly about topics with guidance from a facilitator.
    • Larger groups are led by a facilitator to complete target exercises that promote hands-on learning.
    Strengths
    • Highly effective for initial requirements brainstorming.
    • Insights can be explored in depth.
    • Any part of the requirements gathering process can be done in a workshop.
    • Use of activities can increase the learning beyond simple discussions.
    Weaknesses
    • Loudest voice in the room can induce groupthink.
    • Discussion can easily veer off topic.
    • Extremely difficult to bring together such a large group for extended periods of time.
    Facilitation Guidance
    • Make sure the group is structured in a cross-functional manner to ensure multiple viewpoints are represented.
    • If the group is too large, break the members into smaller groups. Try putting together members who would not usually interact.

    Solution mapping and joint review sessions should be used for high-touch, high-rigor BPM-centric projects

    Technique Description Assessment and Best Practices Stakeholder Effort BA Effort
    Solution Mapping Session A one-on-one session to outline business processes. BPM methods are used to write possible target states for the solution on a whiteboard and to engineer requirements based on steps in the model. Solution mapping should be done with technically savvy stakeholders with a firm understanding of BPM methodologies and nomenclature. Generally, this type of elicitation method should be done with stakeholders who participated in tier one elicitation techniques who can assist with reverse-engineering business models into requirement lists. Medium Medium
    Joint Requirements Review Session This elicitation method is sometimes used as a last step prior to moving to formal requirements analysis. During the review session, the rough list of requirements is vetted and confirmed with stakeholders. A one-on-one (or small group) requirements review session gives your BAs the opportunity to ensure that what was recorded/transcribed during previous one-on-ones (or group elicitation sessions) is materially accurate and representative of the intent of the stakeholder. This elicitation step allows you to do a preliminary clean up of the requirements list before entering the formal analysis phase. Low Low

    Info-Tech Insight

    Solution mapping and joint requirements review sessions are more advanced elicitation techniques that should be employed after preliminary techniques have been utilized. They should be reserved for technically sophisticated, high-value stakeholders.

    Interactive whiteboarding and joint development sessions should be leveraged for high-rigor BPM-based projects

    Technique Description Assessment and Best Practices Stakeholder Effort BA Effort
    Interactive White- boarding A group session where either a) requirements are converted to BPM diagrams and process flows, or b) these flows are reverse engineered to distil requirement sets. While the focus of workshops and focus groups is more on direct requirements elicitation, interactive whiteboarding sessions are used to assist with creating initial solution maps (or reverse engineering proposed solutions into requirements). By bringing stakeholders into the process, the BA benefits from a greater depth of experience and access to SMEs. Medium Medium
    Joint Application Development (JAD) JAD sessions pair end-user teams together with developers (and BA facilitators) to collect requirements and begin mapping and developing prototypes directly on the spot. JAD sessions fit well with organizations that use Agile processes. They are particularly useful when the overall project scope is ambiguous; they can be used for project scoping, requirements definition, and initial prototyping. JAD techniques are heavily dependent on having SMEs in the room – they should preference knowledge power users over the “rank and file.” High High

    Info-Tech Insight

    Interactive whiteboarding should be heavily BPM-centric, creating models that link requirements to specific workflow activities. Joint development sessions are time-consuming but create greater cohesion and understanding between BAs, developers, and SMEs.

    Rapid application development sessions add some Agile aspects to requirements elicitation

    Technique Description Assessment and Best Practices Stakeholder Effort BA Effort
    Rapid Application Development A form of prototyping, RAD sessions are akin to joint development sessions but with greater emphasis on back-and-forth mock-ups of the proposed solution. RAD sessions are highly iterative – requirements are gathered in sessions, developers create prototypes offline, and the results are validated by stakeholders in the next meeting. This approach should only be employed in highly Agile-centric environments. High High

    For more information specific to using the Agile development methodology, refer to the project blueprint Implement Agile Practices That Work.

    The role of the BA differs with an Agile approach to requirements gathering. A traditional BA is a subset of the Agile BA, who typically serves as product owner. Agile BAs have elevated responsibilities that include bridging communication between stakeholders and developers, prioritizing and detailing the requirements, and testing solutions.

    Overview of JAD and RDS techniques (Part 1)

    Use the following slides to gain a thorough understanding of both JAD and rapid development sessions (RDS) to decide which fits your project best.

    Joint Application Development Rapid Development Sessions
    Description JAD pairs end users and developers with a facilitator to collect requirements and begin solution mapping to create an initial prototype. RDS is an advanced approach to JAD. After an initial meeting, prototypes are developed and validated by stakeholders. Improvements are suggested by stakeholders and another prototype is created. This process is iterated until a complete solution is created.
    Who is involved? End users, SMEs, developers, and a facilitator (you).
    Who should use this technique? JAD is best employed in an Agile organization. Agile organizations can take advantage of the high amount of collaboration involved. RDS requires a more Agile organization that can effectively and efficiently handle impromptu meetings to improve iterations.
    Time/effort versus value JAD is a time/effort-intensive activity, requiring different parties at the same time. However, the value is well worth it. JAD provides clarity for the project’s scope, justifies the requirements gathered, and could result in an initial prototype. RDS is even more time/effort intensive than JAD. While it is more resource intensive, the reward is a more quickly developed full solution that is more customized with fewer bugs.

    Overview of JAD and RDS techniques (Part 2)

    Joint Application Development

    Timeline

    Projects that use JAD should not expect dramatically quicker solution development. JAD is a thorough look at the elicitation process to make sure that the right requirements are found for the final solution’s needs. If done well, JAD eliminates rework.

    Engagement

    Employees vary in their project engagement. Certain employees leverage JAD because they care about the solution. Others are asked for their expertise (SMEs) or because they perform the process often and understand it well.

    Implications

    JAD’s thorough process guarantees that requirements gathering is done well.

    • All requirements map back to the scope.
    • SMEs are consulted throughout the duration of the process.
    • Prototyping is only done after final solution mapping is complete.

    Rapid Development Sessions

    Timeline

    Projects that use RDS can either expect quicker or slower requirements gathering depending on the quality of iteration. If each iteration solves a requirement issue, then one can expect that the solution will be developed fairly rapidly. If the iterations fail to meet requirements the process will be quite lengthy.

    Engagement

    Employees doing RDS are typically very engaged in the project and play a large role in helping to create the solution.

    Implications

    RDS success is tied to the organization’s ability to collaborate. Strong collaboration will lead to:

    • Fewer bugs as they are eliminated in each iteration.
    • A solution that is highly customized to meet the user’s needs.

    Poor collaboration will lead to RDS losing its full value.

    When is it best to use JAD?

    JAD is best employed in an Agile organization for application development and selection. This technique best serves relatively complicated, large-scale projects that require rapid or sequential iterations on a prototype or solution as a part of requirements gathering elicitation. JAD effectuates each step in the elicitation process well, from initial elicitation to narrowing down requirements.

    When tackling a project type you’ve never attempted

    Most requirement gathering professionals will use their experience with project type standards to establish key requirements. Avoid only relying on standards when tackling a new project type. Apply JAD’s structured approach to a new project type to be thorough during the elicitation phase.

    In tandem with other elicitation techniques

    While JAD is an overarching requirements elicitation technique, it should not be the only one used. Combine the strengths of other elicitation techniques for the best results.

    When is it best to use RDS?

    RDS is best utilized when one, but preferably both, of the below criteria is met.

    When the scope of the project is small to medium sized

    RDS’ strengths lie in being able to tailor-make certain aspects of the solution. If the solution is too large, tailor-made sections are impossible as multiple user groups have different needs or there is insufficient resources. When a project is small to medium sized, developers can take the time to custom make sections for a specific user group.

    When most development resources are readily available

    RDS requires developers spending a large amount of time with users, leaving less time for development. Having developers at the ready to take on users’ improvement maintains the effectiveness of RDS. If the same developer who speaks to users develops the entire iteration, the process would be slowed down dramatically, losing effectiveness.

    Techniques to compliment JAD/RDS

    1. Unstructured conversations

    JAD relies on unstructured conversations to clarify scope, gain insights, and discuss prototyping. However, a structure must exist to guarantee that all topics are discussed and meetings are not wasted.

    2. Solution mapping and interactive white-boarding

    JAD often involves visually illustrating how high-level concepts connect as well as prototypes. Use solution mapping and interactive whiteboarding to help users and participants better understand the solution.

    3. Focus groups

    Having a group development session provides all the benefits of focus groups while reducing time spent in the typically time-intensive JAD process.

    Plan how you will execute JAD

    Before the meeting

    1. Prepare for the meeting

    Email all parties a meeting overview of topics that will be discussed.

    During the meeting

    2. Discussion

    • Facilitate the conversation according to what is needed (e.g. skip scope clarification if it is already well defined).
    • Leverage solution mapping and other visual aids to appeal to all users.
    • Confirm with SMEs that requirements will meet the users’ needs.
    • Discuss initial prototyping.

    After the meeting

    3. Wrap-up

    • Provide a key findings summary and set of agreements.
    • Outline next steps for all parties.

    4. Follow-up

    • Send the mock-up of any agreed upon prototype(s).
    • Schedule future meetings to continue prototyping.

    JAD provides a detail-oriented view into the elicitation process. As a facilitator, take detailed notes to maximize the outputs of JAD.

    Plan how you will execute RDS

    Before the meeting

    1. Prepare for the meeting

    • Email all parties a meeting overview.
    • Ask employees and developers to bring their vision of the solution, regardless of its level of detail.

    During the meeting

    2. Hold the discussion

    • Facilitate the conversation according to what is needed (e.g. skip scope clarification if already well defined).
    • Have both parties explain their visions for the solution.
    • Talk about initial prototype and current iteration.

    After the meeting

    3. Wrap-up

    • Provide a key findings summary and agreements.
    • Outline next steps for all parties.

    4. Follow-up

    • Send the mock-up of any agreed upon prototype(s).
    • Schedule future meeting to continue prototyping.

    RDS is best done in quick succession. Keep in constant contact with both employees and developers to maintain positive momentum from a successful iteration improvement.

    Develop a tailored facilitation guide for JAD and RDS

    JAD/RDS are both collaborative activities, and as with all group activities, issues are bound to arise. Be proactive and resolve issues using the following guidelines.

    Scenario Technique
    Employee and developer visions for the solution don’t match up Focus on what both solutions have in common first to dissolve any tension. Next, understand the reason why both parties have differences. Was it a difference in assumptions? Difference in what is a requirement? Once the answer has been determined, work on bridging the gaps. If there is no resolution, appoint a credible authority (or yourself) to become the final decision maker.
    Employee has difficulty understanding the technical aspect of the developer’s solution Translate the developer’s technical terms into a language that the employee understands. Encourage the employee to ask questions to further their understanding.
    Employee was told that their requirement or proposed solution is not feasible Have a high-level member of the development team explain how the requirement/solution is not feasible. If it’s possible, tell the employee that the requirement can be done in a future release and keep them updated.

    Harvest documentation from past projects to uncover reusable requirements

    Technique Description Assessment and Best Practices Stakeholder Effort BA Effort
    Legacy System Manuals The process of reviewing documentation and manuals associated with legacy systems to identify constraints and exact requirements for reuse. Reviewing legacy systems and accompanying documentation is an excellent way to gain a preliminary understanding of the requirements for the upcoming application. Be careful not to overly rely on requirements from legacy systems; if legacy systems have a feature set up one way, this does not mean it should be set up the same way on the upcoming application. If an upcoming application must interact with other systems, it is ideal to understand the integration points early. None High
    Historical Projects The process of reviewing documentation from historical projects to extract reusable requirements. Previous project documentation can be a great source of information and historical lessons learned. Unfortunately, historical projects may not be well documented. Historical mining can save a great deal of time; however, the fact that it was done historically does not mean that it was done properly. None High

    Info-Tech Insight

    Document mining is a laborious process, and as the term “mining” suggests the yield will vary. Regardless of the outcome, document mining must be performed and should be viewed as an investment in the requirements gathering process.

    Extract internal and external constraints from business rules, policies, and glossaries

    Technique Description Assessment and Best Practices Stakeholder Effort BA Effort
    Rules The process of extracting business logic from pre-existing business rules (e.g. explicit or implied workflows). Stakeholders may not be fully aware of all of the business rules or the underlying rationale for the rules. Unfortunately, business rule documents can be lengthy and the number of rules relevant to the project will vary. None High
    Glossary The process of extracting terminology and definitions from glossaries. Terminology and definitions do not directly lead to the generation of requirements. However, reviewing glossaries will allow BAs to better understand domain SMEs and interpret their requirements. None High
    Policy The process of extracting business logic from business policy documents (e.g. security policy and acceptable use). Stakeholders may not be fully aware of the different policies or the underlying rationale for why they were created. Going directly to the source is an excellent way to identify constraints and requirements. Unfortunately, policies can be lengthy and the number of items relevant to the project will vary. None High

    Info-Tech Insight

    Document mining should be the first type of elicitation activity that is conducted because it allows the BA to become familiar with organizational terminology and processes. As a result, the stakeholder facing elicitation sessions will be more productive.

    Review the different types of formal documentation (Part 1)

    1. Glossary

    Extract terminology and definitions from glossaries. A glossary is an excellent source to understand the terminology that SMEs will use.

    2. Policy

    Pull business logic from policy documents (e.g. security policy and acceptable use). Policies generally have mandatory requirements for projects, such as standard compliance requirements.

    3. Rules

    Review and reuse business logic that comes from pre-existing rules (e.g. explicit or implied workflows). Like policies, rules often have mandatory requirements or at least will require significant change for something to no longer be a requirement.

    Review the different types of formal documentation (Part 2)

    4. Legacy System

    Review documents and manuals of legacy systems, and identify reusable constraints and requirements. Benefits include:

    • Gain a preliminary understanding of general organizational requirements.
    • Ease of solution integration with the legacy system if needed.

    Remember to not use all of the basic requirements of a legacy system. Always strive to find a better, more productive solution.

    5. Historical Projects

    Review documents from historical projects to extract reusable requirements. Lessons learned from the company’s previous projects are more applicable than case studies. While historical projects can be of great use, consider that previous projects may not be well documented.

    Drive business alignment as an output from documentation review

    Project managers frequently state that aligning projects to the business goals is a key objective of effective project management; however, it is rarely carried out throughout the project itself. This gap is often due to a lack of understanding around how to create true alignment between individual projects and the business needs.

    Use company-released statements and reports

    Extract business wants and needs from official statements and reports (e.g. press releases, yearly reports). Statements and reports outline where the organization wants to go which helps to unearth relevant project requirements.

    Ask yourself, does the project align to the business?

    Documented requirements should always align with the scope of the project and the business objectives. Refer back frequently to your set of gathered requirements to check if they are properly aligned and ensure the project is not veering away from the original scope and business objectives.

    Don’t just read for the sake of reading

    The largest problem with documentation review is that requirements gathering professionals do it for the sake of saying they did it. As a result, projects often go off course due to not aligning to business objectives following the review sessions.

    • When reading a document, take notes to avoid projects going over time and budget and business dissatisfaction. Document your notes and schedule time to review the set of complete notes with your team following the individual documentation review.

    Select elicitation techniques that match the elicitation scenario

    There is a time and place for each technique. Don’t become too reliant on the same ones. Diversify your approach based on the elicitation goal.

    A chart showing Elicitation Scenarios and Techniques, with each marked for their efficacy.

    This table shows the relative strengths and weaknesses of each elicitation technique compared against the five basic elicitation scenarios.

    A typical project will encounter most of the elicitation scenarios. Therefore, it is important to utilize a healthy mix of techniques to optimize effectiveness.

    Very Strong = Very Effective

    Strong = Effective

    Medium = Somewhat Effective

    Weak = Minimally Effective

    Very Weak = Not Effective

    Record the approved elicitation techniques that your BAs should use

    2.1.2 – 30 minutes

    Input
    • Approved elicitation techniques
    Output
    • Execution procedure
    Materials
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    Participants
    • Business stakeholders
    • BAs

    Record the approved elicitation methods and best practices for each technique in the SOP.

    Identify which techniques should be utilized with the different stakeholder classes.

    Segment the different techniques based by project complexity level.

    Use the following chart to record the approved techniques.

    Stakeholder L1 Projects L2 Projects L3 Projects L4 Projects
    Senior Management Structured Interviews
    Project Sponsor Unstructured Interviews
    SME (Business) Focus Groups Unstructured Interviews
    Functional Manager Focus Groups Structured Interviews
    End Users Surveys; Focus Groups; Follow-Up Interviews; Observational Techniques

    Document the output from this exercise in section 4.0 of the Requirements Gathering SOP and BA Playbook.

    Confirm initial elicitation notes with stakeholders

    Open lines of communication with stakeholders and keep them involved in the requirements gathering process; confirm the initial elicitation before proceeding.

    Confirming the notes from the elicitation session with stakeholders will result in three benefits:

    1. Simple miscommunications can compound and result in costly rework if they aren’t caught early. Providing stakeholders with a copy of notes from the elicitation session will eliminate issues before they manifest themselves in the project.
    2. Stakeholders often require an absorption period after elicitation sessions to reflect on the meeting. Following up with stakeholders gives them an opportunity to clarify, enhance, or change their responses.
    3. Stakeholders will become disinterested in the project (and potentially the finished application) if their involvement in the project ends after elicitation. Confirming the notes from elicitation keeps them involved in the process and transitions stakeholders into the analysis phase.

    This is the Confirm stage of the Confirm, Verify, Approve process.

    “Are these notes accurate and complete?”

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

    The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

    2.1.1 Understand the different elicitation techniques

    An analyst will walk you through the different elicitation techniques including observations, document reviews, surveys, focus groups, and interviews, and highlight the level of effort required for each.

    2.1.2 Select and record the approved elicitation techniques

    An analyst will facilitate the discussion to determine which techniques should be utilized with the different stakeholder classes.

    Step 2.2: Structure Elicitation Output

    Phase 1

    1.1 Understand the Benefits of Requirements Optimization

    1.2 Determine Your Target State for Requirements Gathering

    Phase 2

    2.1 Determine Elicitation Techniques

    2.2 Structure Elicitation Output

    Phase 3

    3.1 Create Analysis Framework

    3.2 Validate Business Requirements

    Phase 4

    4.1 Create Control Processes for Requirements Changes

    4.2 Build Requirements Governance and Communication Plan

    This step will walk you through the following activities:
    • Build use-case models.
    • Practice using elicitation techniques with business stakeholders to build use-case models.
    • Practice leveraging user stories to convey requirements.
    This step involves the following participants:
    • BAs
    • Business stakeholders
    Outcomes of this step
    • Understand the value of use-case models for requirements gathering.
    • Practice different techniques for building use-case models with stakeholders.

    Record and capture requirements in solution-oriented formats

    Unstructured notes for each requirement are difficult to manage and create ambiguity. Using solution-oriented formats during elicitation sessions ensures that the content can be digested by IT and business users.

    This table shows common solution-oriented formats for recording requirements. Determine which formats the development team and BAs are comfortable using and create a list of acceptable formats to use in projects.

    Format Description Examples
    Behavior Diagrams These diagrams describe what must happen in the system. Business Process Models, Swim Lane Diagram, Use Case Diagram
    Interaction Diagrams These diagrams describe the flow and control of data within a system. Sequence Diagrams, Entity Diagrams
    Stories These text-based representations take the perspective of a user and describe the activities and benefits of a process. Scenarios, User Stories

    Info-Tech Insight

    Business process modeling is an excellent way to visually represent intricate processes for both IT and business users. For complex projects with high business significance, business process modeling is the best way to capture requirements and create transformational gains.

    Use cases give projects direction and guidance from the business perspective

    Use Case Creation Process

    Define Use Cases for Each Stakeholder

    • Each stakeholder may have different uses for the same solution. Identify all possible use cases attributed to the stakeholders.
    • All use cases are possible test case scenarios.

    Define Applications for Each Use Case

    • Applications are the engines behind the use cases. Defining the applications to satisfy use cases will pinpoint the areas where development or procurement is necessary.

    Consider the following guidelines:

    1. Don’t involve systems in the use cases. Use cases just identify the key end-user interaction points that the proposed solution is supposed to cover.
    2. Some use cases are dependent on other use cases or multiple stakeholders may be involved in a single use case. Depending on the availability of these use cases, they can either be all identified up front (Waterfall) or created at various iterations (Agile).
    3. Consider the enterprise architecture perspective. Existing enterprise architecture designs can provide a foundation of current requirement mappings and system structure. Reuse these resources to reduce efforts.
    4. Avoid developing use cases in isolation. Reusability is key in reducing designing efforts. By involving multiple departments, requirement clashes can be avoided and the likelihood of reusability increases.

    Develop practical use cases to help drive the development effort in the right direction

    Evaluating the practicality and likelihood of use cases is just as important as developing them.

    Use cases can conflict with each other. In certain situations, specific requirements of these use cases may clash with one another even though they are functionally sound. Evaluate use-case requirements and determine how they satisfy the overall business need.

    Use cases are not necessarily isolated; they can be nested. Certain functionalities are dependent on the results of another action, often in a hierarchical fashion. By mapping out the expected workflows, BAs can determine the most appropriate way to implement.

    Use cases can be functionally implemented in many ways. There could be multiple ways to accomplish the same use case. Each of these needs to be documented so that functional testing and user documentation can be based on them.

    Nested Use Case Examples:

    Log Into Account ← Depends on (Nested) Ordering Products Online
    Enter username and password Complete order form
    Verify user is a real person Process order
    Send user forgotten password message Check user’s account
    Send order confirmation to user

    Build a use-case model

    2.2.1 – 45 minutes

    Input
    • Sub processes
    Output
    • Use case model
    Materials
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    Participants
    • Business stakeholders
    • BAs
    Demonstrate how to use elicitation techniques to build use cases for the project.
    1. Identify a sub-process to build the use-case model. Begin the exercise by giving a brief description of the purpose of the meeting.
    2. For each stakeholder, draw a stick figure on the board. Pose the question “If you need to do X, what is your first step?” Go through the process until the end goal and draw each step. Ensure that you capture triggers, causes, decision points, outcomes, tools, and interactions.
    3. Starting at the beginning of the diagram, go through each step again and check with stakeholders if the step can be broken down into more granular steps.
    4. Ask the stakeholder if there are any alternative flows that people use, or any exceptions to process steps. If there are, map these out on the board.
    5. Go back through each step and ask the stakeholder where the current process is causing them grief, and where modification should be made.
    6. Record this information in the Business Requirements Document Template.

    Build a use-case model

    2.2.1

    Example: Generate Letters

    Inspector: Log into system → Search for case → Identify recipient → Determine letter type → Print letter

    Admin: Receive letter from inspector → Package and mail letter

    Citizen: Receive letter from inspector

    Understand user stories and profiles

    What are they?

    User stories describe what requirement a user wants in the solution and why they want it. The end goal of a user story is to create a simple description of a requirement for developers.

    When to use them

    User stories should always be used in requirements gathering. User stories should be collected throughout the elicitation process. Try to recapture user stories as new project information is released to capture any changes in end-customer needs.

    What’s the benefit?

    User stories help capture target users, customers, and stakeholders. They also create a “face” for individual user requirements by providing user context. This detail enables IT leaders to associate goals and end objectives with each persona.

    Takeaway

    To better understand the characteristics driving user requirements, begin to map objectives to separate user personas that represent each of the project stakeholders.

    Are user stories worth the time and effort?

    Absolutely.

    A user’s wants and needs serve as a constant reminder to developers. Developers can use this information to focus on how a solution needs to accomplish a goal instead of only focusing on what goals need to be completed.

    Create customized user stories to guide or structure your elicitation output

    Instructions

    1. During surveys, interviews, and development sessions, ask participants the following questions:
      • What do you want from the solution?
      • Why do you want that?
    2. Separate the answer into an “I want to” and “So that” format.
      • For users who give multiple “I want to” and “So that” statements, separate them into their respective pairs.
    3. Place each story on a small card that can easily be given to developers.
    As a I want to So that Size Priority
    Developer Learn network and system constraints The churn between Operations and I will be reduced. 1 point Low

    Team member

    Increase the number of demonstrations I can achieve greater alignment with business stakeholders. 3 points High
    Product owner Implement a user story prioritization technique I can delegate stories in my product backlog to multiple Agile teams. 3 points Medium

    How to make an effective and compelling user story

    Keep your user stories short and impactful to ensure that they retain their impact.

    Follow a simple formula:

    As a [stakeholder title], I want to [one requirement] so that [reason for wanting that requirement].

    Use this template for all user stories. Other formats will undermine the point of a user story. Multiple requirements from a single user must be made into multiple stories and given to the appropriate developer. User stories should fit onto a sticky note or small card.

    Example

    As an: I want to: So that:
    Administrator Integrate with Excel File transfer won’t possibly lose information
    X Administrator Integrate with Excel and Word File transfer won’t possibly lose information

    While the difference between the two may be small, it would still undermine the effectiveness of a user story. Different developers may work on the integration of Excel or Word and may not receive this user story.

    Assign user stories a size and priority level

    Designate a size to user stories

    Size is an estimate of how many resources must be dedicated to accomplish the want. Assign a size to each user story to help determine resource allocation.

    Assign business priority to user stories

    Based on how important the requirement is to project success, assign each user story a rating of high, medium, or low. The priority given will dictate which requirements are completed first.

    Example:

    Scope: Design software to simplify financial reporting

    User Story Estimated Size Priority
    As an administrator, I want to integrate with Excel so that file transfer won’t possibly lose information. Low High
    As an administrator, I want to simplify graph construction so that I can more easily display information for stakeholders. High Medium

    Combine both size and priority to decide resource allocation. Low-size, high-priority tasks should always be done first.

    Group similar user stories together to create greater impact

    Group user stories that have the same requirement

    When collecting user stories, many will be centered around the same requirement. Group similar user stories together to show the need for that requirement’s inclusion in the solution.

    Even if it isn’t a must-have requirement, if the number of similar user stories is high enough, it would become the most important should-have requirement.

    Group together user stories such as these:
    As an I want So that
    Administrator To be able to create bar graphs Information can be more easily illustrated
    Accountant To be able to make pie charts Budget information can be visually represented

    Both user stories are about creating charts and would be developed similarly.

    Leave these user stories separate
    As an I want So that
    Administrator The program to auto-save Information won’t be lost during power outages
    Accountant To be able to save to SharePoint My colleagues can easily view and edit my work

    While both stories are about saving documents, the development of each feature is vastly different.

    Create customized user profiles

    User profiles are a way of grouping users based on a significant shared details (e.g. in the finance department, website user).

    Go beyond the user profile

    When creating the profile, consider more than the group’s name. Ask yourself the following questions:

    • What level of knowledge and expertise does this user profile have with this type of software?
    • How much will this user profile interact with the solution?
    • What degree of dependency will this user profile have on the solution?

    For example, if a user profile has low expertise but interacts and depends heavily on the program, a more thorough tutorial of the FAQ section is needed.

    Profiles put developers in user’s shoes

    Grouping users together helps developers put a face to the name. Developers can then more easily empathize with users and develop an end solution that is directly catered to their needs.

    Leverage group activities to break down user-story sizing techniques

    Work in groups to run through the following story-sizing activities.

    Planning Poker: This approach uses the Delphi method where members estimate the size of each user story by revealing numbered cards. These estimates are then discussed and agreed upon as a group.

    • Planning poker generates discussion about variances in estimates but dominant personalities may lead to biased results or groupthink.

    Team Sort: This approach can assist in expediting estimation when you are handling numerous user stories.

    • Bucket your user stories into sizes (e.g. extra-small, small, medium, large, and extra-large) based on an acceptable benchmark that may change from project to project.
    • Collaborate as a team to conclude the final size.
    • Next, translate these sizes into points.

    The graphic shows the two activities described, Planning Poker and Team Sort. In the Planning Poker image, 3 sets of cards are shown, with the numbers 13, 5, and 1 on the top of each set. At the bottom of the image are 7 cards, labelled with: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21. In the Team Sort section, there is an arrow pointing in both directions, representing a spectrum from XS to XL. Each size is assigned a point value: XS is 1; S is 3; M is 5; L is 10; and XL is 20. Cards with User Story # written on them are arranged along the spectrum.

    Create a product backlog to communicate business needs to development teams

    Use the product backlog to capture expected work and create a roadmap for the project by showing what requirements need to be delivered.

    How is the product owner involved?

    • The product owner is responsible for keeping in close contact with the end customer and making the appropriate changes to the product backlog as new ideas, insights, and impediments arise.
    • The product owner should have good communication with the team to make accurate changes to the product backlog depending on technical difficulties and needs for clarification.

    How do I create a product backlog?

    • Write requirements in user stories. Use the format: “As a (user role), I want (function) so that (benefit).” Identify end users and understand their needs.
    • Assign each requirement a priority. Decide which requirements are the most important to deliver. Ask yourself, “Which user story will create the most value?”

    What are the approaches to generate my backlog?

    • Team Brainstorming – The product owner, team, and scrum master work together to write and prioritize user stories in a single or a series of meetings.
    • Business Case – The product owner translates business cases into user stories as per the definition of “development ready.”

    Epics and Themes

    As you begin to take on larger projects, it may be advantageous to organize and group your user stories to simplify your release plan:

    • Epics are collections of similar user stories and are used to describe significant and large development initiatives.
    • Themes are collections of similar epics and are normally used to define high-level business objectives.

    To avoid confusion, the pilot product backlog will be solely composed of user stories.

    Example:

    Theme: Increase user exposure to corporate services through mobile devices
    Epic: Access corporate services through a mobile application Epic: Access corporate services through mobile website
    User Story: As a user, I want to find the closest office so that I can minimize travel time As a user, I want to find the closest office so that I can minimize travel time User Story: As a user, I want to submit a complaint so that I can improve company processes

    Simulate product backlog creation

    Overview

    Leverage Info-Tech’s Scrum Documentation Template, using the Backlog and Planning tab, to help walk you through this activity.

    Instructions

    1. Have your product owner describe the business objectives of the pilot project.
    2. Write the key business requirements as user stories.
    3. Based on your business value drivers, identify the business value of your user stories (high, medium, low).
    4. Have your team review the user stories and question the story’s value, priority, goal, and meaning.
    5. Break down the user stories if the feature or business goal is unclear or too large.
    6. Document the perceived business value of each user story, as well as the priority, goal, and meaning.

    Examples:

    As a citizen, I want to know about road construction so that I can save time when driving. Business Value: High

    As a customer, I want to find the nearest government office so that I can register for benefits. Business Value: Medium

    As a voter, I want to know what each candidate believes in so that I can make an informed decision. Business Value: High

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

    The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

    2.2.1 Build use-case models

    An analyst will assist in demonstrating how to use elicitation techniques to build use-case models. The analyst will walk you through the table testing to visually map out and design process flows for each use case.

    Phase 3: Analyze and Validate Requirements

    Phase 3 outline

    Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation 3: Analyze and Validate Requirements

    Proposed Time to Completion: 1 week
    Step 3.1: Create Analysis Framework

    Start with an analyst kick off call:

    • Create policies for requirements categorization and prioritization.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Create functional requirements categories.
    • Consolidate similar requirements and eliminate redundancies.
    • Prioritize requirements.

    With these tools & templates:

    • Requirements Gathering Documentation Tool
    Step 3.2: Validate Business Requirements

    Review findings with analyst:

    • Establish best practices for validating the BRD with project stakeholders.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Right-size the BRD.
    • Present the BRD to business stakeholders.
    • Translate business requirements into technical requirements.
    • Identify testing opportunities.

    With these tools & templates:

    • Business Requirements Document Template
    • Requirements Gathering Testing Checklist

    Phase 3 Results & Insights:

    • Standardized frameworks for analysis and validation of business requirements

    Step 3.1: Create Analysis Framework

    Phase 1

    1.1 Understand the Benefits of Requirements Optimization

    1.2 Determine Your Target State for Requirements Gathering

    Phase 2

    2.1 Determine Elicitation Techniques

    2.2 Structure Elicitation Output

    Phase 3

    3.1 Create Analysis Framework

    3.2 Validate Business Requirements

    Phase 4

    4.1 Create Control Processes for Requirements Changes

    4.2 Build Requirements Governance and Communication Plan

    This step will walk you through the following activities:
    • Categorize requirements.
    • Eliminate redundant requirements.
    This step involves the following participants:
    • BAs
    Outcomes of this step
    • Prioritized requirements list.

    Analyze requirements to de-duplicate them, consolidate them – and most importantly – prioritize them!

    he image is the Requirements Gathering Framework, shown earlier. All parts of the framework are greyed-out, except for the arrow containing the word Analyze in the center of the image, with three bullet points beneath it that read: Organize; Prioritize; Verify

    The analysis phase is where requirements are compiled, categorized, and prioritized to make managing large volumes easier. Many organizations prematurely celebrate being finished the elicitation phase and do not perform adequate diligence in this phase; however, the analysis phase is crucial for a smooth transition into validation and application development or procurement.

    Categorize requirements to identify and highlight requirement relationships and dependencies

    Eliciting requirements is an important step in the process, but turning endless pages of notes into something meaningful to all stakeholders is the major challenge.

    Begin the analysis phase by categorizing requirements to make locating, reconciling, and managing them much easier. There are often complex relationships and dependencies among requirements that do not get noted or emphasized to the development team and as a result get overlooked.

    Typically, requirements are classified as functional and non-functional at the high level. Functional requirements specify WHAT the system or component needs to do and non-functional requirements explain HOW the system must behave.

    Examples

    Functional Requirement: The application must produce a sales report at the end of the month.

    Non-Functional Requirement: The report must be available within one minute after midnight (EST) of the last day of the month. The report will be available for five years after the report is produced. All numbers in the report will be displayed to two decimal places.

    Categorize requirements to identify and highlight requirement relationships and dependencies

    Further sub-categorization of requirements is necessary to realize the full benefit of categorization. Proficient BAs will even work backwards from the categories to drive the elicitation sessions. The categories used will depend on the type of project, but for categorizing non-functional requirements, the Volere Requirements Resources has created an exhaustive list of sub-categories.

    Requirements Category Elements

    Example

    Look & Feel Appearance, Style

    User Experience

    Usability & Humanity Ease of Use, Personalization, Internationalization, Learning, Understandability, Accessibility Language Support
    Performance Speed, Latency, Safety, Precision, Reliability, Availability, Robustness, Capacity, Scalability, Longevity Bandwidth
    Operational & Environmental Expected Physical Environment, Interfacing With Adjacent Systems, Productization, Release Heating and Cooling
    Maintainability & Support Maintenance, Supportability, Adaptability Warranty SLAs

    Security

    Access, Integrity, Privacy, Audit, Immunity Intrusion Prevention
    Cultural & Political Global Differentiation Different Statutory Holidays
    Legal Compliance, Standards Hosting Regulations

    What constitutes good requirements

    Complete – Expressed a whole idea or statement.

    Correct – Technically and legally possible.

    Clear – Unambiguous and not confusing.

    Verifiable – It can be determined that the system meets the requirement.

    Necessary – Should support one of the project goals.

    Feasible – Can be accomplished within cost and schedule.

    Prioritized – Tracked according to business need levels.

    Consistent – Not in conflict with other requirements.

    Traceable – Uniquely identified and tracked.

    Modular – Can be changed without excessive impact.

    Design-independent – Does not pose specific solutions on design.

    Create functional requirement categories

    3.1.1 – 1 hour

    Input
    • Activity 2.2.1
    Output
    • Requirements categories
    Materials
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    • Sticky notes
    Participants
    • BAs
    Practice the techniques for categorizing requirements.
    1. Divide the list of requirements that were elicited for the identified sub-process in exercise 2.2.1 among smaller groups.
    2. Have groups write the requirements on red, yellow, or green sticky notes, depending on the stakeholder’s level of influence.
    3. Along the top of the whiteboard, write the eight requirements categories, and have each group place the sticky notes under the category where they believe they should fit.
    4. Once each group has posted the requirements, review the board and discuss any requirements that should be placed in another category.

    Document any changes to the requirements categories in section 5.1 of the Requirements Gathering SOP and BA Playbook.

    Create functional requirement categories

    The image depicts a whiteboard with different colored post-it notes grouped into the following categories: Look & Feel; Usability & Humanity; Legal; Maintainability & Support; Operational & Environmental; Security; Cultural & Political; and Performance.

    Consolidate similar requirements and eliminate redundancies

    Clean up requirements and make everyone’s life simpler!

    After elicitation, it is very common for an organization to end up with redundant, complementary, and conflicting requirements. Consolidation will make managing a large volume of requirements much easier.

    Redundant Requirements Owner Priority
    1. The application shall feed employee information into the payroll system. Payroll High
    2. The application shall feed employee information into the payroll system. HR Low
    Result The application shall feed employee information into the payroll system. Payroll & HR High
    Complementary Requirements Owner Priority
    1. The application shall export reports in XLS and PDF format. Marketing High
    2. The application shall export reports in CSV and PDF format. Finance High
    Result The application shall export reports in XLS, CSV, and PDF format. Marketing & Finance High

    Info-Tech Insight

    When collapsing redundant or complementary requirements, it is imperative that the ownership and priority metadata be preserved for future reference. Avoid consolidating complementary requirements with drastically different priority levels.

    Identify and eliminate conflict between requirements

    Conflicting requirements are unavoidable; identify and resolve them as early as possible to minimize rework and grief.

    Conflicting requirements occur when stakeholders have requirements that either partially or fully contradict one another, and as a result, it is not possible or practical to implement all of the requirements.

    Steps to Resolving Conflict:

    1. Notify the relevant stakeholders of the conflict and search for a basic solution or compromise.
    2. If the stakeholders remain in a deadlock, appoint a final decision maker.
    3. Schedule a meeting to resolve the conflict with the relevant stakeholders and the decision maker. If multiple conflicts exist between the same stakeholder groups, try to resolve as many as possible at once to save time and encourage reciprocation.
    4. Give all parties the opportunity to voice their rationale and objectively rate the priority of the requirement. Attempt to reach an agreement, consensus, or compromise.
    5. If the parties remain in a deadlock, encourage the final decision maker to weigh in. Their decision should be based on which party has the greater need for the requirement, the difficulty to implement the requirement, and which requirement better aligns with the project goals.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Resolve conflicts whenever possible during the elicitation phase by using cross-functional workshops to facilitate discussions that address and settle conflicts in the room.

    Consolidate similar requirements and eliminate redundancies

    3.1.2 – 30 minutes

    Input
    • Activity 3.1.1
    Output
    • Requirements categories
    Materials
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    • Sticky notes
    Participants
    • BAs

    Review the outputs from the last exercise and ensure that the list is mutually exclusive by consolidating similar requirements and eliminating redundancies.

    1. Looking at each category in turn, review the sticky notes and group similar, complementary, and conflicting notes together. Put a red dot on any conflicting requirements to be used in a later exercise.
    2. Have the group start by eliminating the redundant requirements.
    3. Have the group look at the complementary requirements, and consolidate each into a single requirement. Discard originals.
    4. Record this information in the Requirements Gathering Documentation Tool.

    Prioritize requirements to assist with solution modeling

    Prioritization is the process of ranking each requirement based on its importance to project success. Hold a separate meeting for the domain SMEs, implementation SMEs, project managers, and project sponsors to prioritize the requirements list. At the conclusion of the meeting, each requirement should be assigned a priority level. The implementation SMEs will use these priority levels to ensure efforts are targeted towards the proper requirements as well as to plan features available on each release. Use the MoSCoW Model of Prioritization to effectively order requirements.

    The MoSCoW Model of Prioritization

    The image shows the MoSCoW Model of Prioritization, which is shaped like a pyramid. The sections, from top to bottom (becoming incrementally larger) are: Must Have; Should Have; Could Have; and Won't Have. There is additional text next to each category, as follows: Must have - Requirements must be implemented for the solution to be considered successful.; Should have: Requirements are high priority that should be included in the solution if possible.; Could Have: Requirements are desirable but not necessary and could be included if resources are available.; Won't Have: Requirements won’t be in the next release, but will be considered for the future releases.

    The MoSCoW model was introduced by Dai Clegg of Oracle UK in 1994 (Source: ProductPlan).

    Base your prioritization on the right set of criteria

    Effective Prioritization Criteria

    Criteria

    Description

    Regulatory & Legal Compliance These requirements will be considered mandatory.
    Policy Compliance Unless an internal policy can be altered or an exception can be made, these requirements will be considered mandatory.
    Business Value Significance Give a higher priority to high-value requirements.
    Business Risk Any requirement with the potential to jeopardize the entire project should be given a high priority and implemented early.
    Likelihood of Success Especially in proof-of-concept projects, it is recommended that requirements have good odds.
    Implementation Complexity Give a higher priority to low implementation difficulty requirements.
    Alignment With Strategy Give a higher priority to requirements that enable the corporate strategy.
    Urgency Prioritize requirements based on time sensitivity.
    Dependencies A requirement on its own may be low priority, but if it supports a high-priority requirement, then its priority must match it.

    Info-Tech Insight

    It is easier to prioritize requirements if they have already been collapsed, resolved, and rewritten. There is no point in prioritizing every requirement that is elicited up front when some of them will eventually be eliminated.

    Use the Requirements Gathering Documentation Tool to steer your requirements gathering approach during a project

    3.1 Requirements Gathering Documentation Tool

    Use the Requirements Gathering Documentation Tool to identify and track stakeholder involvement, elicitation techniques, and scheduling, as well as to track categorization and prioritization of requirements.

    • Use the Identify Stakeholders tab to:
      • Identify the stakeholder's name and role.
      • Identify their influence and involvement.
      • Identify the elicitation techniques that you will be using.
      • Identify who will be conducting the elicitation sessions.
      • Identify if requirements were validated post elicitation session.
      • Identify when the elicitation will take place.
    • Use the Categorize & Prioritize tab to:
      • Identify the stakeholder.
      • Identify the core function.
      • Identify the business requirement.
      • Describe the requirement.
      • Identify the categorization of the requirement.
      • Identify the level of priority of the requirement.

    Prioritize requirements

    3.1.3 – 30 minutes

    Input
    • Requirements list
    • Prioritization criteria
    Output
    • Prioritized requirements
    Materials
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    • Sticky notes
    Participants
    • BAs
    • Business stakeholders

    Using the output from the MoSCoW model, prioritize the requirements according to those you must have, should have, could have, and won’t have.

    1. As a group, review each requirement and decide if the requirement is:
      1. Must have
      2. Should have
      3. Could have
      4. Won’t have
    2. Beginning with the must-have requirements, determine if each has any dependencies. Ensure that each of the dependencies are moved to the must-have category. Group and circle the dependent requirements.
    3. Continue the same exercise with the should-have and could-have options.
    4. Record the results in the Requirements Gathering Documentation Tool.

    Step 1 – Prioritize requirements

    3.1.3

    The image shows a whiteboard, with four categories listed at the top: Must Have; Should Have; Could Have; Won't Have. There are yellow post-it notes under each category.

    Step 2-3 – Prioritize requirements

    This image is the same as the previous image, but with the additions of two dotted line squares under the Must Have category, with arrows pointing to them from post-its in the Should have category.

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

    3.1.1 Create functional requirements categories

    An analyst will facilitate the discussion to brainstorm and determine criteria for requirements categories.

    3.1.2 Consolidate similar requirements and eliminate redundancies

    An analyst will facilitate a session to review the requirements categories to ensure the list is mutually exclusive by consolidating similar requirements and eliminating redundancies.

    3.1.3 Prioritize requirements

    An analyst will facilitate the discussion on how to prioritize requirements according to the MoSCoW prioritization framework. The analyst will also walk you through the exercise of determining dependencies for each requirement.

    Step 3.2: Validate Business Requirements

    Phase 1

    1.1 Understand the Benefits of Requirements Optimization

    1.2 Determine Your Target State for Requirements Gathering

    Phase 2

    2.1 Determine Elicitation Techniques

    2.2 Structure Elicitation Output

    Phase 3

    3.1 Create Analysis Framework

    3.2 Validate Business Requirements

    Phase 4

    4.1 Create Control Processes for Requirements Changes

    4.2 Build Requirements Governance and Communication Plan

    This step will walk you through the following activities:
    • Build the BRD.
    • Translate functional requirements to technical requirements.
    • Identify testing opportunities.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • BAs

    Outcomes of this step

    • Finalized BRD.

    Validate requirements to ensure that they meet stakeholder needs – getting sign-off is essential

    The image is the Requirements Gathering Framework shown previously. In this instance, all aspects of the graphic are greyed out with the exception of the Validate arrow, right of center. Below the arrow are three bullet points: Translate; Allocate; Approve.

    The validation phase involves translating the requirements, modeling the solutions, allocating features across the phased deployment plan, preparing the requirements package, and getting requirement sign-off. This is the last step in the Info-Tech Requirements Gathering Framework.

    Prepare a user-friendly requirements package

    Before going for final sign-off, ensure that you have pulled together all of the relevant documentation.

    The requirements package is a compilation of all of the business analysis and requirements gathering that occurred. The document will be distributed among major stakeholders for review and sign-off.

    Some may argue that the biggest challenge in the validation phase is getting the stakeholders to sign off on the requirements package; however, the real challenge is getting them to actually read it. Often, stakeholders sign the requirements document without fully understanding the scope of the application, details of deployment, and how it affects them.

    Remember, this document is not for the BAs; it’s for the stakeholders. Make the package with the stakeholders in mind. Create multiple versions of the requirements package where the length and level of technical details is tailored to the audience. Consider creating a supplementary PowerPoint version of the requirements package to present to senior management.

    Contents of Requirements Package:

    • Project Charter (if available)
    • Overarching Project Goals
    • Categorized Business Requirements
    • Selected Solution Proposal
    • Rationale for Solution Selection
    • Phased Roll-Out Plan
    • Proposed Schedule/Timeline
    • Signatures Page

    "Sit down with your stakeholders, read them the document line by line, and have them paraphrase it back to you so you’re on the same page." – Anonymous City Manager of IT Project Planning Info-Tech Interview

    Capture requirements in a dedicated BRD

    The BRD captures the original business objectives and high-level business requirements for the system/process. The system requirements document (SRD) captures the more detailed functional and technical requirements.

    The graphic is grouped into two sections, indicated by brackets on the right side, the top section labelled BRD and the lower section labelled as SRD. In the BRD section, a box reads Needs Identified in the Business Case. An arrow points from the bottom of the box down to another box labelled Use Cases. In the SRD section, there are three arrows pointing from the Use Cases box to three boxes in a row. They are labelled Functionality; Usability; and Constraints. Each of these boxes has a plus sign between it and the next in the line. At the bottom of the SRD section is a box with text that reads: Quality of Service Reliability, Supportability, and Performance

    Use Info-Tech’s Business Requirements Document Template to specify the business needs and expectations

    3.2 Business Requirements Document Template

    The Business Requirements Document Template can be used to record the functional, quality, and usability requirements into formats that are easily consumable for future analysis, architectural and design activities, and most importantly in a format that is understandable by all business partners.

    The BRD is designed to take the reader from a high-level understanding of the business processes down to the detailed automation requirements. It should capture the following:

    • Project summary and background
    • Operating model
    • Business process model
    • Use cases
    • Requirements elicitation techniques
    • Prioritized requirements
    • Assumptions and constraints

    Rightsize the BRD

    3.2.1 – 30 minutes

    Input
    • Project levels
    • BRD categories
    Output
    • BRD
    Materials
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    Participants
    • BAs
    • Business stakeholders

    Build the required documentation for requirements gathering.

    1. On the board, write out the components of the BRD. As a group, review the headings and decide if all sections are needed for level 1 & 2 and level 3 & 4 projects. Your level 3-4 project business cases will have the most detailed business cases; consider your level 1-2 projects, and remove any categories you don’t believe are necessary for the project level.
    2. Now that you have a right-sized template, break the team into two groups and have each group complete one section of the template for your selected project.
      1. Project overview
      2. Implementation considerations
    3. Once complete, have each group present its section, and allow the group to make additions and modifications to each section.

    Document the output from this exercise in section 6 of the Requirements Gathering SOP and BA Playbook.

    Present the BRD to business stakeholders

    3.2.2 – 1 hour

    Input
    • Activity 3.2.1
    Output
    • BRD presentation
    Materials
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    Participants
    • Business stakeholders

    Practice presenting the requirements document to business stakeholders.

    1. Hold a meeting with a group of selected stakeholders, and have a representative present each section of the BRD for your project.
    2. Instruct participants that they should spend the majority of their time on the requirements section, in particular the operating model and the requirements prioritization.
    3. At the end of the meeting, have the business stakeholders validate the requirements, and approve moving forward with the project or indicate where further requirements gathering must take place.

    Example:

    Typical Requirements Gathering Validation Meeting Agenda
    Project overview 5 minutes
    Project operating model 10 minutes
    Prioritized requirements list 5 minutes
    Business process model 30 minutes
    Implementation considerations 5 minutes

    Translate business requirements into technical requirements

    3.2.3 – 30 minutes

    Input
    • Business requirements
    Output
    • BRD presentation
    Materials
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    Participants
    • Business stakeholders
    • BAs
    • Developers

    Practice translating business requirements into system requirements.

    1. Bring in representatives from the development team, and have a representative walk them through the business process model.
    2. Present a detailed account of each business requirement, and work with the IT team to build out the system requirements for each.
    3. Document the system requirements in the Requirements Gathering Documentation Tool.

    For requirements traceability, ensure you’re linking your requirements management back to your test strategy

    After a solution has been fully deployed, it’s critical to create a strong link between your software testing strategy and the requirements that were collected. User acceptance testing (UAT) is a good approach for requirement verification.

    • Many organizations fail to create an explicit connection between their requirements gathering and software testing strategies. Don’t follow their example!
    • When conducting UAT, structure exercises in the context of the requirements; run through the signed-off list and ask users whether or not the deployed functionality was in line with the expectations outlined in the finalized requirements documentation.
    • If not – determine whether it was a miscommunication on the requirements management side or a failure of the developers (or procurement team) to meet the agreed-upon requirements.

    Download the Requirements Gathering Testing Checklist template.

    Identify the testing opportunities

    3.2.4 – 30 minutes

    Input
    • List of requirements
    Output
    • Requirements testing process
    Materials
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    Participants
    • BAs
    • Developers

    Identify how to test the effectiveness of different requirements.

    1. Ask the group to review the list of requirements and identify:
      1. Which kinds of requirements enable constructive testing efforts?
      2. Which kinds of requirements enable destructive testing efforts?
      3. Which kinds of requirements support end-user acceptance testing?
      4. What do these validation-enabling objectives mean in terms of requirement specificity?
    2. For each, identify who will do the testing and at what stage.

    Verify that the requirements still meet the stakeholders’ needs

    Keep the stakeholders involved in the process in between elicitation and sign-off to ensure that nothing gets lost in transition.

    After an organization’s requirements have been aggregated, categorized, and consolidated, the business requirements package will begin to take shape. However, there is still a great deal of work to complete. Prior to proceeding with the process, requirements should be verified by domain SMEs to ensure that the analyzed requirements continue to meet their needs. This step is often overlooked because it is laborious and can create additional work; however, the workload associated with verification is much less than the eventual rework stemming from poor requirements.

    All errors in the requirements gathering process eventually surface; it is only a matter of time. Control when these errors appear and minimize costs by soliciting feedback from stakeholders early and often.

    This is the Verify stage of the Confirm, Verify, Approve process.

    “Do these requirements still meet your needs?”

    Put it all together: obtain final requirements sign-off

    Use the sign-off process as one last opportunity to manage expectations, obtain commitment from the stakeholders, and minimize change requests.

    Development or procurement of the application cannot begin until the requirements package has been approved by all of the key stakeholders. This will be the third time that the stakeholders are asked to review the requirements; however, this will be the first time that the stakeholders are asked to sign off on them.

    It is important that the stakeholders understand the significance of their signatures. This is their last opportunity to see exactly what the solution will look like and to make change requests. Ensure that the stakeholders also recognize which requirements were omitted from the solution that may affect them.

    The sign-off process needs to mean something to the stakeholders. Once a signature is given, that stakeholder must be accountable for it and should not be able to make change requests. Note that there are some requests from senior stakeholders that can’t be refused; use discretion when declining requests.

    This is the Approve stage of the Confirm, Verify, Approve process.

    "Once requirements are signed off, stay firm on them!" – Anonymous Hospital Business Systems Analyst Info-Tech Interview

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

    Book a workshop with out Info-Tech analysts:

    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

    The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

    3.2.1; 3.2.2 Rightsize the BRD and present it to business stakeholders

    An analyst will facilitate the discussion to gather the required documentation for building the BRD. The analyst will also assist with practicing the presenting of each section of the document to business stakeholders.

    3.2.3; 3.2.4 Translate business requirements into technical requirements and identify testing opportunities

    An analyst will facilitate the session to practice translating business requirements into testing requirements and assist in determining how to test the effectiveness of different requirements.

    Phase 4: Create a Requirements Governance Action Plan

    Phase 4 outline

    Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation 4: Create a Requirements Governance Action Plan

    Proposed Time to Completion: 3 weeks

    Step 4.1: Create Control Processes for Requirements Changes

    Start with an analyst kick off call:

    • Discuss how to handle changes to requirements and establish a formal change control process.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Develop a change control process.
    • Build the guidelines for escalating changes.
    • Confirm your requirements gathering process.
    • Define RACI for the requirements gathering process.

    With these tools & templates:

    • Requirements Traceability Matrix
    Step 4.2: Build Requirements Governance and Communication Plan

    Review findings with analyst:

    • Review options for ongoing governance of the requirements gathering process.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Define the requirements gathering steering committee purpose.
    • Define the RACI for the RGSC.
    • Define procedures, cadence, and agenda for the RGSC.
    • Identify and analyze stakeholders.
    • Create a communications management plan.
    • Build the requirements gathering process implementation timeline.

    With these tools & templates:

    Requirements Gathering Communication Tracking Template

    Phase 4 Results & Insights:
    • Formalized change control and governance processes for requirements.

    Step 4.1: Create Control Processes for Requirements Changes

    Phase 1

    1.1 Understand the Benefits of Requirements Optimization

    1.2 Determine Your Target State for Requirements Gathering

    Phase 2

    2.1 Determine Elicitation Techniques

    2.2 Structure Elicitation Output

    Phase 3

    3.1 Create Analysis Framework

    3.2 Validate Business Requirements

    Phase 4

    4.1 Create Control Processes for Requirements Changes

    4.2 Build Requirements Governance and Communication Plan

    This step will walk you through the following activities:
    • Develop change control process.
    • Develop change escalation process.
    This step involves the following participants:
    • BAs
    • Business stakeholders
    Outcomes of this step
    • Requirements gathering process validation.
    • RACI completed.

    Manage, communicate, and test requirements

    The image is the Requirement Gathering Framework graphic from previous sections. In this instance, all parts of the image are greyed out, with the exception of the arrows labelled Communicate and Manage, located at the bottom of the image.

    Although the manage, communicate, and test requirements section chronologically falls as the last section of this blueprint, that does not imply that this section is to be performed only at the end. These tasks are meant to be completed iteratively throughout the project to support the core requirements gathering tasks.

    Prevent requirements scope creep

    Once the stakeholders sign off on the requirements document, any changes need to be tracked and managed. To do that, you need a change control process.

    Thoroughly validating requirements should reduce the amount of change requests you receive. However, eliminating all changes is unavoidable.

    The BAs, sponsor, and stakeholders should have agreed upon a clearly defined scope for the project during the planning phase, but there will almost always be requests for change as the project progresses. Even a high number of small changes can negatively impact the project schedule and budget.

    To avoid scope creep, route all changes, including small ones, through a formal change control process that will be adapted depending on the level of project and impact of the change.

    Linking change requests to requirements is essential to understanding relevance and potential impact

    1. Receive project change request.
    2. Refer to requirements document to identify requirements associated with the change.
      • Matching requirement is found: The change is relevant to the project.
      • Multiple requirements are associated with the proposed change: The change has wider implications for the project and will require closer analysis.
      • The request involves a change or new business requirements: Even if the change is within scope, time, and budget, return to the stakeholder who submitted the request to identify the potentially new requirements that relate to this change. If the sponsor agrees to the new requirements, you may be able to approve the change.
    3. Findings influence decision to escalate/approve/reject change request.

    Develop a change control process

    4.1.1 – 45 minutes

    Input
    • Current change control process
    Output
    • Updated change control process
    Materials
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    Participants
    • BAs
    • Developers
    1. Ask the team to consider their current change control process. It might be helpful to discuss a project that is currently underway, or already completed, to provide context. Draw the process on the whiteboard through discussion with the team.
    2. If necessary, provide some cues. Below are some change control process activities:
      • Submit project change request form.
      • PM assesses change.
      • Project sponsor assesses change.
      • Bring request to project steering committee to assess change.
      • Approve/reject change.
    3. Ask participants to brainstorm a potential separate process for dealing with small changes. Add a new branch for minor changes, which will allow you to make decisions on when to bundle the changes versus implementing directly.

    Document any changes from this exercise in section 7.1 of the Requirements Gathering SOP and BA Playbook.

    Example change control process

    The image is an example of a change control process, depicted via a flowchart.

    Build guidelines for escalating changes

    4.1.2 – 1 hour

    Input
    • Current change control process
    Output
    • Updated change control process
    Materials
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    Participants
    • BAs
    • Developers

    Determine how changes will be escalated for level 1/2/3/4 projects.

    1. Write down the escalation options for level 3 & 4 projects on the whiteboard:
      • Final decision rests with project manager.
      • Escalate to sponsor.
      • Escalate to project steering committee.
      • Escalate to change control board.
    2. Brainstorm categories for assessing the impact of a change and begin creating a chart on the whiteboard by listing these categories in the far left column. Across the top, list the escalation options for level 3 & 4 projects.
    3. Ask the team to agree on escalation conditions for each escalation option. For example, for the final decision to rest with the project manager one condition might be:
      • Change is within original project scope.
    4. Review the output from exercise 4.1.1 and tailor the process model to meet level 3 & 4 escalation models.
    5. Repeat steps 1-4 for level 1 & 2 projects.

    Document any changes from this exercise in section 7.2 of the Requirements Gathering SOP and BA Playbook.

    Example: Change control process – Level 3 & 4

    Impact Category Final Decision Rests With Project Manager If: Escalate to Steering Committee If: Escalate to Change Control Board If: Escalate to Sponsor If:
    Scope
    • Change is within original project scope.
    • Change is out of scope.
    Budget
    • Change can be absorbed into current project budget.
    • Change will require additional funds exceeding any contingency reserves.
    • Change will require the release of contingency reserves.
    Schedule
    • Change can be absorbed into current project schedule.
    • Change will require the final project close date to be delayed.
    • Change will require a delay in key milestone dates.
    Requirements
    • Change can be linked to an existing business requirement.
    • Change will require a change to business requirements, or a new business requirement.

    Example: Change control process – Level 1 & 2

    Impact CategoryFinal Decision Rests With Project Manager If:Escalate to Steering Committee If:Escalate to Sponsor If:
    Scope
    • Change is within original project scope.
    • Change is out of scope.
    Budget
    • Change can be absorbed into current project budget, even if this means releasing contingency funds.
    • Change will require additional funds exceeding any contingency reserves.
    Schedule
    • Change can be absorbed into current project schedule, even if this means moving milestone dates.
    • Change will require the final project close date to be delayed.
    Requirements
    • Change can be linked to an existing business requirement.
    • Change will require a change to business requirements, or a new business requirement.

    Leverage Info-Tech’s Requirements Traceability Matrix to help create end-to-end traceability of your requirements

    4.1 Requirements Traceability Matrix

    Even if you’re not using a dedicated requirements management suite, you still need a way to trace requirements from inception to closure.
    • Ensuring traceability of requirements is key. If you don’t have a dedicated suite, Info-Tech’s Requirements Traceability Matrix can be used as a form of documentation.
    • The traceability matrix covers:
      • Association ID
      • Technical Assumptions and Needs
      • Functional Requirement
      • Status
      • Architectural Documentation
      • Software Modules
      • Test Case Number

    Info-Tech Deliverable
    Take advantage of Info-Tech’s Requirements Traceability Matrix to track requirements from inception through to testing.

    You can’t fully validate what you don’t test; link your requirements management back to your test strategy

    Create a repository to store requirements for reuse on future projects.

    • Reuse previously documented requirements on future projects to save the organization time, money, and grief. Well-documented requirements discovered early can even be reused in the same project.
    • If every module of the application must be able to save or print, then the requirement only needs to be written once. The key is to be able to identify and isolate requirements with a high likelihood of reuse. Typically, requirements pertaining to regulatory and business rule compliance are prime candidates for reuse.
    • Build and share a repository to store historical requirement documentation. The repository must be intuitive and easy to navigate, or users will not take advantage of it. Plan the information hierarchy in advance. Requirements management software suites have the ability to create a repository and easily migrate requirements over from past projects.
    • Assign one person to manage the repository to create consistency and accountability. This person will maintain the master requirements document and ensure the changes that take place during development are reflected in the requirements.

    Confirm your requirements gathering process

    4.1.3 – 45 minutes

    Input
    • Activity 1.2.4
    Output
    • Requirements gathering process model
    Materials
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    Participants
    • BAs

    Review the requirements gathering process and control levels for project levels 1/2/3/4 and add as much detail as possible to each process.

    1. Draw out the requirements gathering process for a level 4 project as created in exercise 1.2.4 on a whiteboard.
    2. Review each process step as a group, and break down each step so that it is at its most granular. Be sure to include each decision point, key documentation, and approvals.
    3. Once complete, review the process for level 3, 2 & 1. Reduce steps as necessary. Note: there may not be a lot of differentiation between your project level 4 & 3 or level 2 & 1 processes. You should see differentiation in your process between 2 and 3.

    Document the output from this exercise in section 2.4 of the Requirements Gathering SOP and BA Playbook.

    Example: Confirm your requirements gathering process

    The image is an example of a requirements gathering process, representing in the format of a flowchart.

    Define RACI for the requirements gathering process

    4.1.4 – 45 minutes

    Input
    • List of stakeholders
    Output
    • RACI matrix
    Materials
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    Participants
    • Business stakeholders

    Understand who is responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed for key elements of the requirements gathering process for project levels 1/2/3/4.

    1. As a group, identify the key stakeholders for requirements gathering and place those names along the top of the board.
    2. On the left side of the board, list the process steps and control points for a level 4 project.
    3. For each process step, identify who is responsible, accountable, informed, and consulted.
    4. Repeat this process for project levels 3, 2 & 1.

    Example: RACI for requirements gathering

    Project Requestor Project Sponsor Customers Suppliers Subject Matter Experts Vendors Executives Project Management IT Management Developer/ Business Analyst Network Services Support
    Intake Form A C C I R
    High-Level Business Case R A C C C C I I C
    Project Classification I I C I R A R
    Project Approval R R I I I I I I A I I
    Project Charter R C R R C R I A I R C C
    Develop BRD R I R C C C R A C C
    Sign-Off on BRD/ Project Charter R A R R R R
    Develop System Requirements C C C R I C A R R
    Sign-Off on SRD R R R I A R R
    Testing/Validation A I R C R C R I R R
    Change Requests R R C C A I R C
    Sign-Off on Change Request R A R R R R
    Final Acceptance R A R I I I I R R R I I

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    4.1.1; 4.1.2 Develop a change control process and guidelines for escalating changes

    An analyst will facilitate the discussion on how to improve upon your organization’s change control processes and how changes will be escalated to ensure effective tracking and management of changes.

    4.1.3 Confirm your requirements gathering process

    With the group, an analyst will review the requirements gathering process and control levels for the different project levels.

    4.1.4 Define the RACI for the requirements gathering process

    An analyst will facilitate a whiteboard exercise to understand who is responsible, accountable, informed, and consulted for key elements of the requirements gathering process.

    Step 4.2: Build Requirements Governance and Communication Plan

    Phase 1

    1.1 Understand the Benefits of Requirements Optimization

    1.2 Determine Your Target State for Requirements Gathering

    Phase 2

    2.1 Determine Elicitation Techniques

    2.2 Structure Elicitation Output

    Phase 3

    3.1 Create Analysis Framework

    3.2 Validate Business Requirements

    Phase 4

    4.1 Create Control Processes for Requirements Changes

    4.2 Build Requirements Governance and Communication Plan

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Developing a requirements gathering steering committee.
    • Identifying and analyzing stakeholders for requirements governance.
    • Creating a communication management plan.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Business stakeholders
    • BAs

    Outcomes of this step

    • Requirements governance framework.
    • Communication management plan.

    Establish proper governance for requirements gathering that effectively creates and communicates guiding principles

    If appropriate governance oversight doesn’t exist to create and enforce operating procedures, analysts and developers will run amok with their own processes.

    • One of the best ways to properly govern your requirements gathering process is to establish a working committee within the framework of your existing IT steering committee. This working group should be given the responsibility of policy formulation and oversight for requirements gathering operating procedures. The governance group should be comprised of both business and IT sponsors (e.g. a director, BA, and “voice of the business” line manager).
    • The governance team will not actually be executing the requirements gathering process, but it will be deciding upon which policies to adopt for elicitation, analysis, and validation. The team will also be responsible for ensuring – either directly or indirectly through designated managers – that BAs or other requirements gathering processionals are following the approved steps.

    Requirements Governance Responsibilities

    1. Provide oversight and review of SOPs pertaining to requirements elicitation, analysis, and validation.

    2. Establish corporate policies with respect to requirements gathering SOP training and education of analysts.

    3. Prioritize efforts for requirements optimization.

    4. Determine and track metrics that will be used to gauge the success (or failure) of requirements optimization efforts and make process and policy changes as needed.

    Right-size your governance structure to your organization’s complexity and breadth of capabilities

    Not all organizations will be best served by a formal steering committee for requirements gathering. Assess the complexity of your projects and the number of requirements gathering practitioners to match the right governance structure.

    Level 1: Working Committee
    • A working committee is convened temporarily as required to do periodic reviews of the requirements process (often annually, or when issues are surfaced by practitioners). This governance mechanism works best in small organizations with an ad hoc culture, low complexity projects, and a small number of practitioners.
    Level 2: IT Steering Committee Sub-Group
    • For organizations that already have a formal IT steering committee, a sub-group dedicated to managing the requirements gathering process is desirable to a full committee if most projects are complexity level 1 or 2, and/or there are fewer than ten requirements gathering practitioners.
    Level 3: Requirements Gathering Steering Committee
    • If your requirements gathering process has more than ten practitioners and routinely deals with high-complexity projects (like ERP or CRM), a standing formal committee responsible for oversight of SOPs will provide stronger governance than the first two options.
    Level 4: Requirements Gathering Center of Excellence
    • For large organizations with multiple business units, matrix organizations for BAs, and a very large number of requirements gathering practitioners, a formal center of excellence can provide both governance as well as onboarding and training for requirements gathering.

    Identify and analyze stakeholders

    4.2.1A – 1 hour

    Input
    • Number of practitioners, project complexity levels
    Output
    • Governance structure selection
    Materials
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    Participants
    • Business stakeholders

    Use a power map to determine which governance model best fits your organization.

    The image is a square, split into four equal sections, labelled as follows from top left: Requirements Steering Committee; Requirements Center of Excellence; IT Steering Committee Sub-Group; Working Committee. The left and bottom edges of the square are labelled as follows: on the left, with an arrow pointing upwards, Project Complexity; on the bottom, with arrow pointing right, # of Requirements Practitioners.

    Define your requirements gathering governance structure(s) and purpose

    4.2.1B – 30 minutes

    Input
    • Requirements gathering elicitation, analysis, and validation policies
    Output
    • Governance mandate
    Materials
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    Participants
    • Business stakeholders

    This exercise will help to define the purpose statement for the applicable requirements gathering governance team.

    1. As a group, brainstorm key words that describe the unique role the governance team will play. Consider value, decisions, and authority.
    2. Using the themes, come up with a set of statements that describe the overall purpose statement.
    3. Document the outcome for the final deliverable.

    Example:

    The requirements gathering governance team oversees the procedures that are employed by BAs and other requirements gathering practitioners for [insert company name]. Members of the team are appointed by [insert role] and are accountable to [typically the chair of the committee].

    Day-to-day operations of the requirements gathering team are expected to be at the practitioner (i.e. BA) level. The team is not responsible for conducting elicitation on its own, although members of the team may be involved from a project perspective.

    Document the output from this exercise in section 3.1 of the Requirements Gathering SOP and BA Playbook.

    A benefits provider established a steering committee to provide consistency and standardization in requirements gathering

    CASE STUDY

    Industry Not-for-Profit

    Source Info-Tech Workshop

    Challenge

    This organization is a not-for-profit benefits provider that offers dental coverage to more than 1.5 million people across three states.

    With a wide ranging application portfolio that includes in-house, custom developed applications as well as commercial off-the-shelf solutions, the company had no consistent method of gathering requirements.

    Solution

    The organization contracted Info-Tech to help build an SOP to put in place a rigorous and efficient methodology for requirements elicitation, analysis, and validation.

    One of the key realizations in the workshop was the need for governance and oversight over the requirements gathering process. As a result, the organization developed a Requirements Management Steering Committee to provide strategic oversight and governance over requirements gathering processes.

    Results

    The Requirements Management Steering Committee introduced accountability and oversight into the procedures that are employed by BAs. The Committee’s mandate included:

    • Provide oversight and review SOPs pertaining to requirements elicitation, analysis, and validation.
    • Establish corporate policies with respect to training and education of analysts on requirements gathering SOPs.
    • Prioritize efforts for requirements optimization.
    • Determine metrics that can be used to gauge the success of requirements optimization efforts.

    Authority matrix – RACI

    There needs to be a clear understanding of who is accountable, responsible, consulted, and informed about matters brought to the attention of the requirements gathering governance team.

    • An authority matrix is often used within organizations to indicate roles and responsibilities in relation to processes and activities.
    • Using the RACI model as an example, there is only one person accountable for an activity, although several people may be responsible for executing parts of the activity.
    • In this model, accountable means end-to-end accountability for the process. Accountability should remain with the same person for all activities of a process.

    RResponsible

    The one responsible for getting the job done.

    A – Accountable

    Only one person can be accountable for each task.

    C – Consulted

    Involvement through input of knowledge and information.

    I – Informed

    Receiving information about process execution and quality.

    Define the RACI for effective requirements gathering governance

    4.2.2 – 30 minutes

    Input
    • Members’ list
    Output
    • Governance RACI
    Materials
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    • Sticky notes
    Participants
    • Governance team members

    Build the participation list and authority matrix for the requirements gathering governance team.

    1. Have each participant individually consider the responsibilities of the governance team, and write five participant roles they believe should be members of the governance team.
    2. Have each participant place the roles on the whiteboard, group participants, and agree to five participants who should be members.
    3. On the whiteboard, write the responsibilities of the governance team in a column on the left, and place the sticky notes of the participant roles along the top of the board.
    4. Under the appropriate column for each activity, identify who is the “accountable,” “responsible,” “consulted,” and “informed” role for each activity.
    5. Agree to a governance chair.

    Document any changes from this exercise in section 3.1 of the Requirements Gathering SOP and BA Playbook.

    Example: Steps 2-5: Build the governance RACI

    The image shows an example governance RACI, with the top of the chart labelled with Committee Participants, and the left hand column labelled Committee Responsibilities. Some of the boxes have been filled in.

    Define your requirements gathering governance team procedures, cadence, and agenda

    4.2.3 – 30 minutes

    Input
    • Governance responsibilities
    Output
    • Governance procedures and agenda
    Materials
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    Participants
    • Steering committee members

    Define your governance team procedures, cadence, and agenda.

    1. Review the format of a typical agenda as well as the list of responsibilities for the governance team.
    2. Consider how you will address each of these responsibilities in the meeting, who needs to present, and how long each presentation should be.
    3. Add up the times to define the meeting duration.
    4. Consider how often you need to meet to discuss the information: monthly, quarterly, or annually? Are there different actions that need to be taken at different points in the year?
    5. As a group, decide how the governance team will approve changes and document any voting standards that should be included in the charter. Will a vote be taken during or prior to the meeting? Who will have the authority to break a tie?
    6. As a group, decide how the committee will review information and documentation. Will members commit to reviewing associated documents before the meeting? Can associated documentation be stored in a knowledge repository and/or be distributed to members prior to the meeting? Who will be responsible for this? Can a short meeting/conference call be held with relevant reviewers to discuss documentation before the official committee meeting?

    Review the format of a typical agenda

    4.2.3 – 30 minutes

    Meeting call to order [Committee Chair] [Time]
    Roll call [Committee Chair] [Time]
    Review of SOPs
    A. Requirements gathering dashboard review [Presenters, department] [Time]
    B. Review targets [Presenters, department] [Time]
    C. Policy Review [Presenters, department] [Time]

    Define the governance procedures and cadence

    4.2.3 – 30 minutes

    • The governance team or committee will be chaired by [insert role].
    • The team shall meet on a [insert time frame (e.g. monthly, semi-annual, annual)] basis. These meetings will be scheduled by the team or committee chair or designated proxy.
    • Approval for all SOP changes will be reached through a [insert vote consensus criteria (majority, uncontested, etc.)] vote of the governance team. The vote will be administered by the governance chair. Each member of the committee shall be entitled to one vote, excepting [insert exceptions].
    • The governance team has the authority to reject any requirements gathering proposal which it deems not to have made a sufficient case or which does not significantly contribute to the strategic objectives of [insert company name].
    • [Name of individual] will record and distribute the meeting minutes and documentation of business to be discussed in the meeting.

    Document any changes from this exercise in section 3.1 of the Requirements Gathering SOP and BA Playbook.

    Changing the requirements gathering process can be disruptive – be successful by gaining business support

    A successful communication plan involves making the initiative visible and creating staff awareness around it. Educate the organization on how the requirements gathering process will differ.

    People can be adverse to change and may be unreceptive to being told they must “comply” to new policies and procedures. Demonstrate the value in requirements gathering and show how it will assist people in their day-to-day activities.

    By demonstrating how an improved requirements gathering process will impact staff directly, you create a deeper level of understanding across lines-of-business, and ultimately a higher level of acceptance for new processes, rules, and guidelines.

    A proactive communication plan will:
    • Assist in overcoming issues with prioritization, alignment resourcing, and staff resistance.
    • Provide a formalized process for implementing new policies, rules, and guidelines.
    • Detail requirements gathering ownership and accountability for the entirety of the process.
    • Encourage acceptance and support of the initiative.

    Identify and analyze stakeholders to communicate the change process

    Who are the requirements gathering stakeholders?

    Stakeholder:

    • A stakeholder is any person, group, or organization who is the end user, owner, sponsor, or consumer of an IT project, change, or application.
    • When assessing an individual or group, ask whether they can impact or be impacted by any decision, change, or activity executed as part of the project. This might include individuals outside of the organization.

    Key Stakeholder:

    • Someone in a management role or someone with decision-making power who will be able to influence requirements and/or be impacted by project outcomes.

    User Group Representatives:

    • For impacted user groups, follow best practice and engage an individual to act as a representative. This individual will become the primary point of contact when making decisions that impact the group.

    Identify the reasons for resistance to change

    Stakeholders may resist change for a variety of reasons, and different strategies are necessary to address each.

    Unwilling – Individuals who are unwilling to change may need additional encouragement. For these individuals, you’ll need to reframe the situation and emphasize how the change will benefit them specifically.

    Unable – All involved requirements gathering will need some form of training on the process, committee roles, and responsibilities. Be sure to have training and support available for employees who need it and communicate this to staff.

    Unaware – Until people understand exactly what is going on, they will not be able to conform to the process. Communicate change regularly at the appropriate detail to encourage stakeholder support.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Resisters who have influence present a high risk to the implementation as they may encourage others to resist as well. Know where and why each stakeholder is likely to resist to mitigate risk. A detailed plan will ensure you have the needed documentation and communications to successfully manage stakeholder resistance.

    Identify and analyze stakeholders

    4.2.4 – 1 hour

    Input
    • Requirements gathering stakeholders list
    Output
    • Stakeholder power map
    Materials
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    • Sticky notes
    Participants
    • RGSC members

    Identify the impact and level of resistance of all stakeholders to come up with the right communication plan.

    1. Through discussion, generate a complete list of stakeholders for requirements gathering and record the names on the whiteboard or flip chart. Group related stakeholders together.
    2. Using the template on the next slide, draw the stakeholder power map.
    3. Evaluate each stakeholder on the list based on:
      1. Influence: To what degree can this stakeholder impact progress?
      2. Involvement: How involved is the stakeholder already?
      3. Support: Label supporters with green sticky notes, resisters with red notes, and the rest with a third color.
    4. Based on the assessment, write the stakeholder’s name on a green, red, or other colored sticky note, and place the sticky note in the appropriate place on the power map.
    5. For each of the stakeholders identified as resisters, determine why you think they would be resistant. Is it because they are unwilling, unable, and/or unknowing?
    6. Document changes to the stakeholder analysis in the Requirements Gathering Communication Tracking Template.

    Identify and analyze stakeholders

    4.2.4 – 1 hour

    Use a power map to plot key stakeholders according to influence and involvement.

    The image shows a power map, which is a square divided into 4 equally-sized sections, labelled from top left: Focused Engagement; Key Players; Keep Informed; Minimal Engagement. On the left side of the square, there is an arrow pointing upwards labelled Influence; at the bottom of the square, there is an arrow pointing right labelled Involvement. On the right side of the image, there is a legend indicating that a green dot indicates a Supporter; a grey dot indicated Neutral; and a red dot indicates a Resister.

    Example: Identify and analyze stakeholders

    Use a power map to plot key stakeholders according to influence and involvement.

    The image is the same power map image from the previous section, with some additions. A red dot is located at the top left, with a note: High influence with low involvement? You need a strategy to increase engagement. A green dot is located mid-high on the right hand side. Grey dots are located left and right in the bottom of the map. The bottom right grey dot has the note: High involvement with lower influence? Make sure to keep these stakeholders informed at regular intervals and monitor engagement.

    Stakeholder analysis: Reading the power map

    High Risk:

    Stakeholders with high influence who are not as involved in the project or are heavily impacted by the project are less likely to give feedback throughout the project lifecycle and need to be engaged. They are not as involved but have the ability to impact project success, so stay one step ahead.

    Do not limit your engagement to kick-off and close – you need to continue seeking input and support at all stages of the project.

    Mid Risk:

    Key players have high influence, but they are also more involved with the project or impacted by its outcomes and are thus easier to engage.

    Stakeholders who are heavily impacted by project outcomes will be essential to your organizational change management strategy. Do not wait until implementation to engage them in preparing the organization to accept the project – make them change champions.

    Low Risk:

    Stakeholders with low influence who are not impacted by the project do not pose as great of a risk, but you need to keep them consistently informed of the project and involve them at the appropriate control points to collect feedback and approval.

    Inputs to the communications plan

    Stakeholder analysis should drive communications planning.

    Identify Stakeholders
    • Who is impacted by this project?
    • Who can affect project outcomes?
    Assess Stakeholders
    • Influence
    • Involvement
    • Support
    Stakeholder Change Impact Assessment
    • Identify change supporters/resistors and craft change messages to foster acceptance.
    Stakeholder Register
    • Record assessment results and preferred methods of communication.
    The Communications Management Plan:
    • Who will receive information?
    • What information will be distributed?
    • How will information be distributed?
    • What is the frequency of communication?
    • What will the level of detail be?
    • Who is responsible for distributing information?

    Communicate the reason for the change and stay on message throughout the change

    Leaders of successful change spend considerable time developing a powerful change message: a compelling narrative that articulates the desired end state and makes the change concrete and meaningful to staff. They create the change vision with staff to build ownership and commitment.

    The change message should:

    • Explain why the change is needed.
    • Summarize the things that will stay the same.
    • Highlight the things that will be left behind.
    • Emphasize the things that are being changed.
    • Explain how the change will be implemented.
    • Address how the change will affect the various roles in the organization.
    • Discuss staff’s role in making the change successful.

    The five elements of communicating the reason for the change:

    COMMUNICATING THE CHANGE

    What is the change?

    Why are we doing it?

    How are we going to go about it?

    How long will it take us?

    What will the role be for each department and individual?

    Create a communications management plan

    4.2.5 – 45 minutes

    Input
    • Exercise 4.1.1
    Output
    • Communications management plan
    Materials
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    Participants
    • RGSC members

    Build the communications management plan around your stakeholders’ needs.

    1. Build a chart on the board using the template on the next slide.
    2. Using the list from exercise 4.1.1, brainstorm a list of communication vehicles that will need to be used as part of the rollout plan (e.g. status updates, training).
    3. Through group discussion, fill in all these columns for at least three communication vehicles:
      • (Target) audience
      • Purpose (description)
      • Frequency (of the communication)
        • The method, frequency, and content of communication vehicles will change depending on the stakeholder involved. This needs to be reflected by your plan. For example, you may have several rows for “Status Report” to cover the different stakeholders who will be receiving it.
      • Owner (of the message)
      • Distribution (method)
      • (Level of) details
        • High/medium/low + headings
    4. Document your stakeholder analysis in the Requirements Gathering Communication Tracking Template.

    Communications plan template

    4.2.5 – 45 minutes

    Sample communications plan: Status reports

    Vehicle Audience Purpose Frequency Owner Distribution Level of Detail
    Communications Guidelines
    • Regardless of complexity, it is important not to overwhelm stakeholders with information that is not relevant to them. Sending more detailed information than is necessary might mean that it does not get read.
    • Distributing reports too widely may lead to people assuming that someone else is reading it, causing them to neglect reading it themselves.
    • Only distribute reports to the stakeholders who need the information. Think about what information that stakeholder requires to feel comfortable.

    Example: Identify and analyze stakeholders

    Sample communications plan: Status reports

    Vehicle Audience Purpose Frequency Owner Distribution Level of Detail
    Status Report Sponsor Project progress and deliverable status Weekly Project Manager Email

    Details for

    • Milestones
    • Deliverables
    • Budget
    • Schedule
    • Issues
    Status Report Line of Business VP Project progress Monthly Project Manager Email

    High Level for

    • Major milestone update

    Build your requirements gathering process implementation timeline

    4.2.6 – 45 minutes

    Input
    • Parking lot items
    Output
    • Implementation timeline
    Materials
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    • Sticky notes
    Participants
    • RGSC members

    Build a high-level timeline for the implementation.

    1. Collect the action items identified throughout the week in the “parking lot.”
    2. Individually or in groups, brainstorm any additional action items. Consider communication, additional training required, approvals, etc.
      • Write these on sticky notes and add them to the parking lot with the others.
    3. As a group, start organizing these notes into logical groupings.
    4. Assign each of the tasks to a person or group.
    5. Identify any risks or dependencies.
    6. Assign each of the tasks to a timeline.
    7. Following the exercise, the facilitator will convert this into a Gantt chart using the roadmap for requirements gathering action plan.

    Step 3: Organize the action items into logical groupings

    4.2.6 – 45 minutes

    The image shows a board with 5 categories: Documentation, Approval, Communication, Process, and Training. There are groups of post-it notes under each category title.

    Steps 4-6: Organize the action items into logical groupings

    4.2.6 – 45 minutes

    This image shows a chart with Action Items to be listed in the left-most column, Person or Group Responsible in the next column, Risks/Dependencies in the next columns, and periods of time (i.e. 1-3 months, 2-6 months, etc.) in the following columns. The chart has been partially filled in as an exemplar.

    Recalculate the selected requirements gathering metrics

    Measure and monitor the benefits of requirements gathering optimization.

    • Reassess the list of selected and captured requirements management metrics.
    • Recalculate the metrics and analyze any changes. Don’t expect a substantial result after the first attempt. It will take a while for BAs to adjust to the Info-Tech Requirements Gathering Framework. After the third project, results will begin to materialize.
    • Understand that the project complexity and business significance will also affect how long it takes to see results. The ideal projects to beta the process on would be of low complexity and high business significance.
    • Realize that poor requirements gathering can have negative effects on the morale of BAs, IT, and project managers. Don’t forget to capture the impact of these through surveys.

    Major KPIs typically used for benchmarking include:

    • Number of application bugs/defects (for internally developed applications).
    • Number of support requests or help desk tickets for the application, controlled for user deployment levels.
    • Overall project cycle time.
    • Overall project cost.
    • Requirements gathering as a percentage of project time.

    Revisit the requirements gathering metrics selected in the planning phase and recalculate them after requirements gathering optimization has been attempted.

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

    The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

    4.2.1; 4.2.2; 4.2.3 – Build a requirements gathering steering committee

    The analyst will facilitate the discussion to define the purpose statement of the steering committee, build the participation list and authority matrix for its members, and define the procedures and agenda.

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    4.2.4 Identify and analyze stakeholders

    An analyst will facilitate the discussion on how to identify the impact and level of resistance of all stakeholders to come up with the communication plan.

    4.2.5 Create a communications management plan

    An analyst will assist the team in building the communications management plan based on the stakeholders’ needs that were outlined in the stakeholder analysis exercise.

    4.2.6 Build a requirements gathering implementation timeline

    An analyst will facilitate a session to brainstorm and document any action items and build a high-level timeline for implementation.

    Insight breakdown

    Requirements gathering SOPs should be prescriptive based on project complexity.

    • Complex projects will require more analytical rigor. Simpler projects can be served by more straightforward techniques such as user stories.

    Requirements gathering management tools can be pricy, but they can also be beneficial.

    • Requirements gathering management tools are a great way to have full control over recording, analyzing, and categorizing requirements over complex projects.

    BAs can make or break the execution of the requirements gathering process.

    • A strong process still needs to be executed well by BAs with the right blend of skills and knowledge.

    Summary of accomplishment

    Knowledge Gained

    • Best practices for each stage of the requirements gathering framework:
      • Elicitation
      • Analysis
      • Validation
    • A clear understanding of BA competencies and skill sets necessary to successfully execute the requirements gathering process.

    Processes Optimized

    • Stakeholder identification and management.
    • Requirements elicitation, analysis, and validation.
    • Requirements gathering governance.
    • Change control processes for new requirements.
    • Communication processes for requirements gathering.

    Deliverables Completed

    • SOPs for requirements gathering.
    • Project level selection framework.
    • Communications framework for requirements gathering.
    • Requirements documentation standards.

    Organizations and experts who contributed to this research

    Interviews

    • Douglas Van Gelder, IT Manager, Community Development Commission of the County of Los Angeles
    • Michael Lyons, Transit Management Analyst, Metropolitan Transit Authority
    • Ken Piddington, CIO, MRE Consulting
    • Thomas Dong, Enterprise Software Manager, City of Waterloo
    • Chad Evans, Director of IT, Ontario Northland
    • Three anonymous contributors

    Note: This research also incorporates extensive insights and feedback from our advisory service and related research projects.

    Bibliography

    “10 Ways Requirements Can Sabotage Your Projects Right From the Start.” Blueprint Software Systems, 2012. Web.

    “BPM Definition.” BPMInstitute.org, n.d. Web.

    “Capturing the Value of Project Management.” PMI’s Pulse of the Profession, 2015. Web.

    Eby, Kate. “Demystifying the 5 Phases of Project Management.” Smartsheet, 29 May 2019. Web.

    “Product Management: MoSCoW Prioritization.” ProductPlan, n.d. Web.

    “Projects Delivered on Time & on Budget Result in Larger Market Opportunities.” Jama Software, 2015. Web.

    “SIPOC Table.” iSixSigma, n.d. Web.

    “Survey Principles.” University of Wisconsin-Madison, n.d. Web.

    “The Standish Group 2015 Chaos Report.” The Standish Group, 2015. Web.

    Domino – Maintain, Commit to, or Vacate?

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    If you have a Domino/Notes footprint that is embedded within your business units and business processes and is taxing your support organization, you may have met resistance from the business and been asked to help the organization migrate away from the Lotus Notes platform. The Lotus Notes platform was long used by technology and businesses and a multipurpose solution that, over the years, became embedded within core business applications and processes.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    For organizations that are struggling to understand their options for the Domino platform, the depth of business process usage is typically the biggest operational obstacle. Migrating off the Domino platform is a difficult option for most organizations due to business process and application complexity. In addition, migrating clients have to resolve the challenges with more than one replaceable solution.

    Impact and Result

    The most common tactic is for the organization to better understand their Domino migration options and adopt an application rationalization strategy for the Domino applications entrenched within the business. Options include retiring, replatforming, migrating, or staying with your Domino platform.

    Domino – Maintain, Commit to, or Vacate? Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Domino – Maintain, Commit to, or Vacate? – A brief deck that outlines key migration options for HCL Domino platforms.

    This blueprint will help you assess the fit, purpose, and price of Domino options; develop strategies for overcoming potential challenges; and determine the future of Domino for your organization.

    • Domino – Maintain, Commit to, or Vacate? Storyboard

    2. Application Rationalization Tool – A tool to understand your business-developed applications, their importance to business process, and the potential underlying financial impact.

    Use this tool to input the outcomes of your various application assessments.

    • Application Rationalization Tool
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Domino – Maintain, Commit to, or Vacate?

    Lotus Domino still lives, and you have options for migrating away from or remaining with the platform.

    Executive Summary

    Info-Tech Insight

    “HCL announced that they have somewhere in the region of 15,000 Domino customers worldwide, and also claimed that that number is growing. They also said that 42% of their customers are already on v11 of Domino, and that in the year or so since that version was released, it’s been downloaded 78,000 times. All of which suggests that the Domino platform is, in fact, alive and well.”
    – Nigel Cheshire in Team Studio

    Your Challenge

    You have a Domino/Notes footprint embedded within your business units and business processes. This is taxing your support organization; you are meeting resistance from the business, and you are now asked to help the organization migrate away from the Lotus Notes platform. The Lotus Notes platform was long used by technology and businesses as a multipurpose solution that, over the years, became embedded within core business applications and processes.

    Common Obstacles

    For organizations that are struggling to understand their options for the Domino platform, the depth of business process usage is typically the biggest operational obstacle. Migrating off the Domino platform is a difficult option for most organizations due to business process and application complexity. In addition, migrating clients have to resolve the challenges with more than one replaceable solution.

    Info-Tech Approach

    The most common tactic is for the organization to better understand their Domino migration options and adopt an application rationalization strategy for the Domino applications entrenched within the business. Options include retiring, replatforming, migrating, or staying with your Domino platform.

    Review

    Is “Lotus” Domino still alive?

    Problem statement

    The number of member engagements with customers regarding the Domino platform has, as you might imagine, dwindled in the past couple of years. While many members have exited the platform, there are still many members and organizations that have entered a long exit program, but with how embedded Domino is in business processes, the migration has slowed and been met with resistance. Some organizations had replatformed the applications but found that the replacement target state was inadequate and introduced friction because the new solution was not a low-code/business-user-driven environment. This resulted in returning the Domino platform to production and working through a strategy to maintain the environment.

    This research is designed for:

    • IT strategic direction decision-makers
    • IT managers responsible for an existing Domino platform
    • Organizations evaluating migration options for mission-critical applications running on Domino

    This research will help you:

    1. Evaluate migration options.
    2. Assess the fit and purpose.
    3. Consider strategies for overcoming potential challenges.
    4. Determine the future of this platform for your organization.

    The “everything may work” scenario

    Adopt and expand

    Believe it or not, Domino and Notes are still options to consider when determining a migration strategy. With HCL still committed to the platform, there are options organizations should seek to better understand rather than assuming SharePoint will solve all. In our research, we consider:

    Importance to current business processes

    • Importance of use
    • Complexity in migrations
    • Choosing a new platform

    Available tools to facilitate

    • Talent/access to skills
    • Economies of scale/lower cost at scale
    • Access to technology

    Info-Tech Insight

    With multiple options to consider, take the time to clearly understand the application rationalization process within your decision making.

    • Archive/retire
    • Application migration
    • Application replatform
    • Stay right where you are

    Eliminate your bias – consider the advantages

    “There is a lot of bias toward Domino; decisions are being made by individuals who know very little about Domino and more importantly, they do not know how it impacts business environment.”

    – Rob Salerno, Founder & CTO, Rivet Technology Partners

    Domino advantages include:

    Modern Cloud & Application

    • No-code/low-code technology

    Business-Managed Application

    • Business written and supported
    • Embrace the business support model
    • Enterprise class application

    Leverage the Application Taxonomy & Build

    • A rapid application development platform
    • Develop skill with HCL training

    HCL Domino is a supported and developed platform

    Why consider HCL?

    • Consider scheduling a Roadmap Session with HCL. This is an opportunity to leverage any value in the mission and brand of your organization to gain insights or support from HCL.
    • Existing Domino customers are not the only entities seeking certainty with the platform. Software solution providers that support enterprise IT infrastructure ecosystems (backup, for example) will also be seeking clarity for the future of the platform. HCL will be managing these relationships through the channel/partner management programs, but our observations indicate that Domino integrations are scarce.
    • HCL Domino should be well positioned feature-wise to support low-code/NoSQL demands for enterprises and citizen developers.

    Visualize Your Application Roadmap

    1. Focus on the application portfolio and crafting a roadmap for rationalization.
      • The process is intended to help you determine each application’s functional and technical adequacy for the business process that it supports.
    2. Document your findings on respective application capability heatmaps.
      • This drives your organization to a determination of application dispositions and provides a tool to output various dispositions for you as a roadmap.
    3. Sort the application portfolio into a disposition status (keep, replatform, retire, consolidate, etc.)
      • This information will be an input into any cloud migration or modernization as well as consolidation of the infrastructure, licenses, and support for them.

    Our external support perspective

    by Darin Stahl

    Member Feedback

    • Some members who have remaining Domino applications in production – while the retire, replatform, consolidate, or stay strategy is playing out – have concerns about the challenges with ongoing support and resources required for the platform. In those cases, some have engaged external services providers to augment staff or take over as managed services.
    • While there could be existing support resources (in house or on retainer), the member might consider approaching an external provider who could help backstop the single resource or even provide some help with the exit strategies. At this point, the conversation would be helpful in any case. One of our members engaged an external provider in a Statement of Work for IBM Domino Administration focused on one-time events, Tier 1/Tier 2 support, and custom ad hoc requests.
    • The augmentation with the managed services enabled the member to shift key internal resources to a focus on executing the exit strategies (replatform, retire, consolidate), since the business knowledge was key to that success.
    • The member also very aggressively governed the Domino environment support needs to truly technical issues/maintenance of known and supported functionality rather than coding new features (and increasing risk and cost in a migration down the road) – in short, freezing new features and functionality unless required for legal compliance or health and safety.
    • There obviously are other providers, but at this point Info-Tech no longer maintains a market view or scan of those related to Domino due to low member demand.

    Domino database assessments

    Consider the database.

    • Domino database assessments should be informed through the lens of a multi-value database, like jBase, or an object system.
    • The assessment of the databases, often led by relational database subject matter experts grounded in normalized databases, can be a struggle since Notes databases must be denormalized.
    Key/Value Column

    Use case: Heavily accessed, rarely updated, large amounts of data
    Data Model: Values are stored in a hash table of keys.
    Fast access to small data values, but querying is slow
    Processor friendly
    Based on amazon's Dynamo paper
    Example: Project Voldemort used by LinkedIn

    this is a Key/Value example

    Use case: High availability, multiple data centers
    Data Model: Storage blocks of data are contained in columns
    Handles size well
    Based on Google's BigTable
    Example: Hadoop/Hbase used by Facebook and Yahoo

    This is a Column Example
    Document Graph

    Use case: Rapid development, Web and programmer friendly
    Data Model: Stores documents made up of tagged elements. Uses Key/Value collections
    Better query abilities than Key/Value databases.
    Inspired by Lotus Notes.
    Example: CouchDB used by BBC

    This is a Document Example

    Use case: Best at dealing with complexity and relationships/networks
    Data model: Nodes and relationships.
    Data is processed quickly
    Inspired by Euler and graph theory
    Can easily evolve schemas
    Example: Neo4j

    This is a Graph Example

    Understand your options

    Archive/Retire

    Store the application data in a long-term repository with the means to locate and read it for regulatory and compliance purposes.

    Migrate

    Migrate to a new version of the application, facilitating the process of moving software applications from one computing environment to another.

    Replatform

    Replatforming is an option for transitioning an existing Domino application to a new modern platform (i.e. cloud) to leverage the benefits of a modern deployment model.

    Stay

    Review the current Domino platform roadmap and understand HCL’s support model. Keep the application within the Domino platform.

    Archive/retire

    Retire the application, storing the application data in a long-term repository.

    Abstract

    The most common approach is to build the required functionality in whatever new application/solution is selected, then archive the old data in PDFs and documents.

    Typically this involves archiving the data and leveraging Microsoft SharePoint and the new collaborative solutions, likely in conjunction with other software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions.

    Advantages

    • Reduce support cost.
    • Consolidate applications.
    • Reduce risk.
    • Reduce compliance and security concerns.
    • Improve business processes.

    Considerations

    • Application transformation
    • eDiscovery costs
    • Legal implications
    • Compliance implications
    • Business process dependencies

    Info-Tech Insights

    Be aware of the costs associated with archiving. The more you archive, the more it will cost you.

    Application migration

    Migrate to a new version of the application

    Abstract

    An application migration is the managed process of migrating or moving applications (software) from one infrastructure environment to another.

    This can include migrating applications from one data center to another data center, from a data center to a cloud provider, or from a company’s on-premises system to a cloud provider’s infrastructure.

    Advantages

    • Reduce hardware costs.
    • Leverage cloud technologies.
    • Improve scalability.
    • Improve disaster recovery.
    • Improve application security.

    Considerations

    • Data extraction, starting from the document databases in NSF format and including security settings about users and groups granted to read and write single documents, which is a powerful feature of Lotus Domino documents.
    • File extraction, starting from the document databases in NSF format, which can contain attachments and RTF documents and embedded files.
    • Design of the final relational database structure; this activity should be carried out without taking into account the original structure of the data in Domino files or the data conversion and loading, from the extracted format to the final model.
    • Design and development of the target-state custom applications based on the new data model and the new selected development platform.

    Application replatform

    Transition an existing Domino application to a new modern platform

    Abstract

    This type of arrangement is typically part of an application migration or transformation. In this model, client can “replatform” the application into an off-premises hosted provider platform. This would yield many benefits of cloud but in a different scaling capacity as experienced with commodity workloads (e.g. Windows, Linux) and the associated application.

    Two challenges are particularly significant when migrating or replatforming Domino applications:

    • The application functionality/value must be reproduced/replaced with not one but many applications, either through custom coding or a commercial-off-the-shelf/SaaS solution.
    • Notes “databases” are not relational databases and will not migrate simply to an SQL database while retaining the same business value. Notes databases are essentially NoSQL repositories and are difficult to normalize.

    Advantages

    • Leverage cloud technologies.
    • Improve scalability.
    • Align to a SharePoint platform.
    • Improve disaster recovery.
    • Improve application security.

    Considerations

    • Application replatform resource effort
    • Network bandwidth
    • New platform terms and conditions
    • Secure connectivity and communication
    • New platform security and compliance
    • Degree of complexity

    Info-Tech Insights

    There is a difference between a migration and a replatform application strategy. Determine which solution aligns to the application requirements.

    Stay with HCL

    Stay with HCL, understanding its future commitment to the platform.

    Abstract

    Following the announced acquisition of IBM Domino and up until around December 2019, HCL had published no future roadmap for the platform. The public-facing information/website at the time stated that HCL acquired “the product family and key lab services to deliver professional services.” Again, there was no mention or emphasis on upcoming new features for the platform. The product offering on their website at the time stated that HCL would leverage its services expertise to advise clients and push applications into four buckets:

    1. Replatform
    2. Retire
    3. Move to cloud
    4. Modernize

    That public-facing messaging changed with release 11.0, which had references to IBM rebranded to HCL for the Notes and Domino product – along with fixes already inflight. More information can be found on HCL’s FAQ page.

    Advantages

    • Known environment
    • Domino is a supported platform
    • Domino is a developed platform
    • No-code/low-code optimization
    • Business developed applications
    • Rapid application framework

    This is the HCL Domino Logo

    Understand your tools

    Many tools are available to help evaluate or migrate your Domino Platform. Here are a few common tools for you to consider.

    Notes Archiving & Notes to SharePoint

    Summary of Vendor

    “SWING Software delivers content transformation and archiving software to over 1,000 organizations worldwide. Our solutions uniquely combine key collaborative platforms and standard document formats, making document production, publishing, and archiving processes more efficient.”*

    Tools

    Lotus Notes Data Migration and Archiving: Preserve historical data outside of Notes and Domino

    Lotus Note Migration: Replacing Lotus Notes. Boost your migration by detaching historical data from Lotus Notes and Domino.

    Headquarters

    Croatia

    Best fit

    • Application archive and retire
    • Migration to SharePoint

    This is an image of the SwingSoftware Logo

    * swingsoftware.com

    Domino Migration to SharePoint

    Summary of Vendor

    “Providing leading solutions, resources, and expertise to help your organization transform its collaborative environment.”*

    Tools

    Notes Domino Migration Solutions: Rivit’s industry-leading solutions and hardened migration practice will help you eliminate Notes Domino once and for all.

    Rivive Me: Migrate Notes Domino applications to an enterprise web application

    Headquarters

    Canada

    Best fit

    • Application Archive & Retire
    • Migration to SharePoint

    This is an image of the RiVit Logo

    * rivit.ca

    Lotus Notes to M365

    Summary of Vendor

    “More than 300 organizations across 40+ countries trust skybow to build no-code/no-compromise business applications & processes, and skybow’s community of customers, partners, and experts grows every day.”*

    Tools

    SkyBow Studio: The low-code platform fully integrated into Microsoft 365

    Headquarters:

    Switzerland

    Best fit

    • Application Archive & Retire
    • Migration to SharePoint

    This is an image of the SkyBow Logo

    * skybow.com | About skybow

    Notes to SharePoint Migration

    Summary of Vendor

    “CIMtrek is a global software company headquartered in the UK. Our mission is to develop user-friendly, cost-effective technology solutions and services to help companies modernize their HCL Domino/Notes® application landscape and support their legacy COBOL applications.”*

    Tools

    CIMtrek SharePoint Migrator: Reduce the time and cost of migrating your IBM® Lotus Notes® applications to Office 365, SharePoint online, and SharePoint on premises.

    Headquarters

    United Kingdom

    Best fit

    • Application replatform
    • Migration to SharePoint

    This is an image of the CIMtrek Logo

    * cimtrek.com | About CIMtrek

    Domino replatform/Rapid application selection framework

    Summary of Vendor

    “4WS.Platform is a rapid application development tool used to quickly create multi-channel applications including web and mobile applications.”*

    Tools

    4WS.Platform is available in two editions: Community and Enterprise.
    The Platform Enterprise Edition, allows access with an optional support pack.

    4WS.Platform’s technical support provides support services to the users through support contracts and agreements.

    The platform is a subscription support services for companies using the product which will allow customers to benefit from the knowledge of 4WS.Platform’s technical experts.

    Headquarters

    Italy

    Best fit

    • Application replatform

    This is an image of the 4WS PLATFORM Logo

    * 4wsplatform.org

    Activity

    Understand your Domino options

    Application Rationalization Exercise

    Info-Tech Insight

    Application rationalization is the perfect exercise to fully understand your business-developed applications, their importance to business process, and the potential underlying financial impact.

    This activity involves the following participants:

    • IT strategic direction decision-makers.
    • IT managers responsible for an existing Domino platform
    • Organizations evaluating platforms for mission-critical applications.

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Completed Application Rationalization Tool

    Application rationalization exercise

    Use this Application Rationalization Tool to input the outcomes of your various application assessments

    In the Application Entry tab:

    • Input your application inventory or subset of apps you intend to rationalize, along with some basic information for your apps.

    In the Business Value & TCO Comparison tab, determine rationalization priorities.

    • Input your business value scores and total cost of ownership (TCO) of applications.
    • Review the results of this analysis to determine which apps should require additional analysis and which dispositions should be prioritized.

    In the Disposition Selection tab:

    • Add to or adapt our list of dispositions as appropriate.

    In the Rationalization Inputs tab:

    • Add or adapt the disposition criteria of your application rationalization framework as appropriate.
    • Input the results of your various assessments for each application.

    In the Disposition Settings tab:

    • Add or adapt settings that generate recommended dispositions based on your rationalization inputs.

    In the Disposition Recommendations tab:

    • Review and compare the rationalization results and confirm if dispositions are appropriate for your strategy.

    In the Timeline Considerations tab:

    • Enter the estimated timeline for when you execute your dispositions.

    In the Portfolio Roadmap tab:

    • Review and present your roadmap and rationalization results.

    Follow the instructions to generate recommended dispositions and populate an application portfolio roadmap.

    This image depicts a scatter plot graph where the X axis is labeled Business Value, and the Y Axis is labeled Cost. On the graph, the following datapoints are displayed: SF; HRIS; ERP; ALM; B; A; C; ODP; SAS

    Info-Tech Insight

    Watch out for misleading scores that result from poorly designed criteria weightings.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Build an Application Rationalization Framework

    Manage your application portfolio to minimize risk and maximize value.

    Embrace Business-Managed Applications

    Empower the business to implement their own applications with a trusted business-IT relationship.

    Satisfy Digital End Users With Low- and No-Code

    Extend IT, automation, and digital capabilities to the business with the right tools, good governance, and trusted organizational relationships.

    Maximize the Benefits from Enterprise Applications with a Center of Excellence

    Optimize your organization’s enterprise application capabilities with a refined and scalable methodology.

    Drive Successful Sourcing Outcomes With a Robust RFP Process

    Leverage your vendor sourcing process to get better results.

    Research Authors

    Darin Stahl, Principal Research Advisor, Info-Tech Research Group

    Darin Stahl, Principal Research Advisor,
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Darin is a Principal Research Advisor within the Infrastructure practice, leveraging 38+ years of experience. His areas of focus include IT operations management, service desk, infrastructure outsourcing, managed services, cloud infrastructure, DRP/BCP, printer management, managed print services, application performance monitoring, managed FTP, and non-commodity servers (zSeries, mainframe, IBM i, AIX, Power PC).

    Troy Cheeseman, Practice Lead, Info-Tech Research Group

    Troy Cheeseman, Practice Lead,
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Troy has over 24 years of experience and has championed large enterprise-wide technology transformation programs, remote/home office collaboration and remote work strategies, BCP, IT DRP, IT operations and expense management programs, international right placement initiatives, and large technology transformation initiatives (M&A). Additionally, he has deep experience working with IT solution providers and technology (cloud) startups.

    Research Contributors

    Rob Salerno, Founder & CTO, Rivit Technology Partners

    Rob Salerno, Founder & CTO, Rivit Technology Partners

    Rob is the Founder and Chief Technology Strategist for Rivit Technology Partners. Rivit is a system integrator that delivers unique IT solutions. Rivit is known for its REVIVE migration strategy which helps companies leave legacy platforms (such as Domino) or move between versions of software. Rivit is the developer of the DCOM Application Archiving solution.

    Bibliography

    Cheshire, Nigel. “Domino v12 Launch Keeps HCL Product Strategy On Track.” Team Studio, 19 July 2021. Web.

    “Is LowCode/NoCode the best platform for you?” Rivit Technology Partners, 15 July 2021. Web.

    McCracken, Harry. “Lotus: Farewell to a Once-Great Tech Brand.” TIME, 20 Nov. 2012. Web.

    Sharwood, Simon. “Lotus Notes refuses to die, again, as HCL debuts Domino 12.” The Register, 8 June 2021. Web.

    Woodie, Alex. “Domino 12 Comes to IBM i.” IT Jungle, 16 Aug. 2021. Web.

    Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}281|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: N/A
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    • Parent Category Name: Mobile Development
    • Parent Category Link: /mobile-development
    • Organizations see the value of mobile applications in improving productivity and reach of day-to-day business and IT operations. This motivates leaders to begin the planning of their first application.
    • However, organizations often lack the critical foundational knowledge and skills to deliver and maintain high quality and valuable applications that meet business and user priorities and technical requirements.
    • Mobile technologies and trends are continually evolving and maturing. It is hard to predict which trends will make a significant impact and to prepare current mobile investments to harness their value of these trends.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Mobile applications can stress the stability, reliability, and overall quality of your enterprise systems and services. They will also increase your security risks because of the exposure of your enterprise technology assets to unsecured networks and devices.
    • High costs of entry may restrict what built-in features your users can have in their mobile experience. Workarounds may not be sufficient to offset the costs of certain built-in feature needs.
    • Many operating models do not enable or encourage the collaboration required to fully understand user needs and behaviors and evaluate mobile opportunities and underlying operational systems from multiple perspectives.

    Impact and Result

    • Establish the right expectations. Understand your mobile users by learning their needs, challenges, and behaviors. Discuss the current state of your systems and your high priority non-functional requirements to determine what to expect from your mobile applications.
    • Choose the right mobile platform approach and shortlist your mobile delivery solutions. Obtain a thorough view of the business and technical complexities of your mobile opportunities, including current mobile delivery capabilities and system compatibilities.
    • Create your mobile roadmap. Describe the gradual rollout of your mobile technologies through minimal valuable products (MVPs).

    Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools Storyboard

    This blueprint helps you develop an approach to understand the mobile experience your stakeholders want your users to have and select the appropriate platform and delivery tools to meet these expectations.

    • Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools Storyboard

    2. Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template – Clearly communicate the goal and approach of your mobile application implementation in a language your audience understands.

    This template narrates a story to describe the need and expectations of your low- and no-code initiative to get buy-in from stakeholders and interested parties.

    • Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template

    Infographic

    Workshop: Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Choose Your Platform and Delivery Solution

    The Purpose

    Choose the right mobile platform.

    Shortlist your mobile delivery solution and desired features and services.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A chosen mobile platform that meets user and enterprise needs.

    Candidate mobile delivery solutions that meet your delivery needs and capacity of your teams.

    Activities

    1.1 Select your platform approach.

    1.2 Shortlist your mobile delivery solution.

    1.3 Build your feature and service lists.

    Outputs

    Desired mobile platform approach.

    Shortlisted mobile delivery solutions.

    Desired list of vendor features and services.

    2 Create Your Roadmap

    The Purpose

    Design the mobile application minimal viable product (MVP).

    Create your mobile roadmap.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    An achievable and valuable mobile application that is scalable for future growth.

    Clear intent of business outcome delivery and completing mobile delivery activities.

    Activities

    2.1 Define your MVP release.

    2.2 Build your roadmap.

    Outputs

    MVP design.

    Mobile delivery roadmap.

    3 Set the Mobile Context

    The Purpose

    Understand your user’s environment needs, behaviors, and challenges.

    Define stakeholder expectations and ensure alignment with the holistic business strategy.

    Identify your mobile application opportunities.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Thorough understanding of your mobile user and opportunities where mobile applications can help.

    Level set stakeholder expectations and establish targeted objectives.

    Prioritized list of mobile opportunities.

    Activities

    3.1 Generate user personas with empathy maps.

    3.2 Build your mobile application canvas.

    3.3 Build your mobile backlog.

    Outputs

    User personas.

    Mobile objectives and metrics.

    Mobile opportunity backlog.

    4 Identify Your Technical Needs

    The Purpose

    Define the mobile experience you want to deliver and the features to enable it.

    Understand the state of your current system to support mobile.

    Identify your definition of mobile application quality.

    List the concerns with mobile delivery.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Clear understanding of the desired mobile experience.

    Potential issues and risks with enabling mobile on top of existing systems.

    Grounded understanding of mobile application quality.

    Holistic readiness assessment to proceed with mobile delivery.

    Activities

    4.1 Discuss your mobile needs.

    4.2 Conduct a technical assessment.

    4.3 Define mobile application quality.

    4.4 Verify your decision to deliver mobile applications.

    Outputs

    List of mobile features to enable the desired mobile experience.

    System current assessment.

    Mobile application quality definition.

    Verification to proceed with mobile delivery.

    Further reading

    Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools

    Maximize the value of your mobile investments by prioritizing technology decisions on user experience, business priorities, and system quality.

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Analyst Perspective

    Mobile is the way of working.

    Workers require access to enterprise products, data, and services anywhere at anytime on any device. Give them the device-specific features, offline access, desktop-like interfaces, and automation capabilities they need to be productive.

    To be successful, you need to instill a collaborative business-IT partnership. Only through this partnership will you be able to select the right mobile platform and tools to balance desired outcomes with enterprise security, performance, integration, quality, and other delivery capacity concerns.

    This is a picture of Andrew Kum-Seun Senior Research Analyst, Application Delivery and Application Management Info-Tech Research Group

    Andrew Kum-Seun
    Senior Research Analyst,
    Application Delivery and Application Management
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    • Organizations see the value of mobile applications in improving productivity and reach of day-to-day business and IT operations. This motivates leaders to begin the planning of their first application.
    • However, organizations often lack the critical foundational knowledge and skills to deliver and maintain high quality and valuable applications that meet business and user priorities and technical requirements.
    • Mobile technologies and trends are continually evolving and maturing. It is hard to predict which trends will make a significant impact and to prepare current mobile investments to harness the value of these trends.

    Common Obstacles

    • Mobile applications can stress the stability, reliability and overall quality of your enterprise systems and services. They will also increase your security risks because of the exposure of your enterprise technology assets to unsecured networks and devices.
    • High costs of entry may restrict what native features your users can have in their mobile experience. Workarounds may not be sufficient to offset the costs of certain native feature needs.
    • Many operating models do not enable or encourage the collaboration required to fully understand user needs and behaviors and evaluate mobile opportunities and underlying operational systems from multiple perspectives.

    Info-Tech's Approach

    • Establish the right expectations. Understand your mobile users by learning their needs, challenges, and behaviors. Discuss the current state of your systems and your high priority non-functional requirements to determine what to expect from your mobile applications.
    • Choose the right mobile platform approach and shortlist your mobile delivery solutions. Obtain a thorough view of the business and technical complexities of your mobile opportunities, including current mobile delivery capabilities and system compatibilities.
    • Create your mobile roadmap. Describe the gradual rollout of your mobile technologies through minimal valuable products (MVPs).

    Insight Summary

    Overarching Info-Tech Insight

    Treat your mobile applications as digital products. Digital products are continuously modernized to ensure they are fit-for-purpose, secured, accessible, and immersive. A successful mobile experience involves more than just the software and supporting system. It involves good training and onboarding, efficient delivery turnaround, and a clear and rational vision and strategy.

    Phase 1: Set the Mobile Context

    • Build applications your users need and desire – Design the right mobile application that enables your users to address their frustrations and productivity challenges.
    • Maximize return on your technology investments – Build your mobile applications with existing web APIs, infrastructure, and services as much as possible.
    • Prioritize mobile security, performance and integration requirements – Understand the unique security, performance, and integration influences has on your desired mobile user experience. Find the right balance of functional and non-functional requirements through business and IT collaboration.

    Phase 2: Define Your Mobile Approach

    • Start with a mobile web platform - Minimize disruptions to your existing delivery process and technical stack by building against common web standards. Select a hybrid platform or cross-platform if you need device hardware access or have complicated non-functional requirements.
    • Focus your mobile solution decision on vendor support and functional complexity – Verify that your solution is not only compatible with the architecture, data, and policies of existing business systems, but satisfies IT's concerns with access to restricted technology and data, and with IT's ability to manage and operate your applications.
    • Anticipate changes, defects & failures in your roadmap - Quickly shift your mobile roadmaps according to user feedback, delivery challenges, value, and stability.

    Mobile is how the business works today

    Mobile adoption continues to grow in part due to the need to be a mobile workforce, and the shift in customer behaviors. This reality pushed the industry to transform business processes and technologies to better support the mobile way of working.

    Mobile Builds Interests
    61%
    Mobile devices drove 61% of visits to U.S. websites
    Source: Perficient, 2021

    Mobile Maintains Engagement
    54%
    Mobile devices generated 54.4% of global website traffic in Q4 2021.
    Source: Statista, 2022

    Mobile Drives Productivity
    82%
    According to 82% of IT executives, smartphones are highly important to employee productivity
    Source: Samsung and Oxford Economics, 2022

    Mobile applications enable and drive your digital business strategy

    Organizations know the criticality of mobile applications in meeting key business and digital transformation goals, and they are making significant investments. Over half (58%) of organizations say their main strategy for driving application adoption is enabling mobile access to critical enterprise systems (Enterprise CIO, 2016). The strategic positioning and planning of mobile applications are key for success.

    Mobile Can Motivate, Support and Drive Progress in Key Activities Underpinning Digital Transformation Goals

    Goal: Enhance Customer Experience

    • A shift from paper to digital communications
    • Seamless, omni-channel client experiences across devices
    • Create Digital interactive documents with sections that customers can customize to better understand their communications

    Goal: Increase Workflow Throughput & Efficiency

    • Digitized processes and use of data to improve process efficiency
    • Modern IT platforms
    • Automation through robotic process automation (RPA) where possible
    • Use of AI and machine learning for intelligent automation

    Source: Broadridge, 2022

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Define Your Digital Business Strategy blueprint.

    Well developed mobile applications bring unique opportunities to drive more value

    Role

    Opportunities With Mobile Applications

    Expected Value

    Stationary Worker

    Design flowcharts and diagrams, while abandoning paper and desktop applications in favor of easy-to-use, drawing tablet applications.

    Multitask by checking the application to verify information given by a vendor during their presentation or pitch.

    • Reduce materials cost to complete administrative responsibilities.
    • Digitally and automatically store and archive frequently used documents.

    Roaming Worker
    (Engineer)

    Replace physical copies of service and repair manuals with digital copies, and access them with mobile applications.

    Scan or input product bar code to determine whether a replacement part is available or needs to be ordered.

    • Readily access and update corporate data anywhere at anytime.
    • Expand employee responsibilities with minimal skills impact.

    Roaming Worker
    (Nurse)

    Log patient information according to HIPAA standards and complete diagnostics live to propose medication for a patient.

    Receive messages from senior staff about patients and scheduling while on-call.

    • Quickly and accurately complete tasks and update patient data at site.
    • Be readily accessible to address urgent issues.

    Info-Tech Insight

    If you build it, they may not come. Design and build the applications your user wants and needs, and ensure users are properly onboarded and trained. Learn how your applications are leveraged, capture feedback from the user and system dashboards, and plan for enhancements, fixes, and modernizations.

    Workers expect IT to deliver against their high mobile expectations

    Workers want sophisticated mobile applications like what they see their peers and competitors use.

    Why is IT considering building their own applications?

    • Complex and Unique Workflows: Canned templates and shells are viewed as incompatible to the workflows required to complete worker responsibilities outside the office, with the same level of access to corporate data as on premise.
    • Supporting Bring Your Own Device (BYOD): Developing your own mobile applications around your security protocols and standards can help mitigate the risks with personal devices that are already in your workforce.
    • Long-Term Architecture Misalignment: Outsourcing mobile development risks the mobile application misaligned with your quality standards or incompatible with other enterprise and third-party systems.

    Continuously meeting aggressive user expectations will not be easy

    Value Quickly Wears Off
    39.9% of users uninstall an application because it is not in use.
    40%
    Source: n=2,000, CleverTap, 2021

    Low Tolerance to Waiting
    Keeping a user waiting for 3 seconds is enough to dissatisfy 43% of users.
    43%
    Source: AppSamurai, 2018

    Quick Fixes Are Paramount
    44% of defects are found by users
    44%
    Source: Perfecto Mobile, 2014

    Mobile emphasizes the importance of good security, performance, and integration

    Today's mobile workers are looking for new ways to get more work done quickly. They want access to enterprise solutions and data directly on their mobile devices, which can reside on multiple legacy systems and in the cloud and third-party infrastructure. This presents significant performance, integration, and security risks.

    Cloud Solutions: Can I use my existing APIs?. Solutions in Corporate Networks: Do my legacy systems have the capacity to support mobile?; How do I integrate solutions and data from multiple sources into a single view?; Third Party Solutions: Will I have a significant performance bottleneck?; Single View on Mobile Devices: How is corporate data stored on the device?; What new technology dependencies must I account for in my architecture and operational support capabilities?

    Accept change as the norm

    IT is challenged with keeping up with disruptive technologies, such as mobile, which are arriving and changing faster and faster.

    What is the issue? Mobile priorities, concepts, and technologies do not remain static. For example, current Google's Pixels benefit from at least three versions of Android updates and at least three years of monthly security patches after their release (NextPit, 2022). Keeping up to date with anything mobile is difficult if you do not have the right delivery and product management practices in place.

    What is the impact on IT? Those who fail to prepare for changing requirements and technologies will quickly run into maintainability, extensibility, and flexibility issues. Mobile applications will quickly become stale and misaligned with the maturity of other enterprise infrastructure and applications.

    Continuously look at the trends, vendor roadmaps, and your user's feedback to envision where your mobile applications should be. Learning from your past attempts gives you insights on the opportunities and impacts changes will have on your people, process, and technology.

    How do I address this issue? A well-defined mobile vision and roadmap ensures your initiatives are aligned with your holistic business and technology strategies, the right problem is being solved, and resources are available to deliver high priority changes.

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision blueprint.

    Address the difficulties in managing enterprise mobile technologies

    Adaptability During Development

    Teams must be ready to alter their mobile approach when new insights and issues arise during and after the delivery of your mobile application and its updates.

    High Cybersecurity Standards

    Cybersecurity should be a top priority given the high security exposure of mobiles and the sensitive data mobile applications need to operate. Role-based access, back-up systems, advanced scanning, and protection software and encryption should all be implemented.

    Integration with Other Systems

    Your application will likely be integrated with other systems to expand service offerings and optimize performance and user experience. Your enterprise integration strategy ensures all systems connect against a common pattern with compatible technologies.

    Finding the Right Mobile Developers

    Enterprise mobile delivery requires a broad skillset to build valuable applications against extensive non-functional requirements in complex and integration environments. The right resources are even harder to find when native applications are preferred over web-based ones.

    Source: Radoslaw Szeja, Netguru, 2022.

    Build and manage the right experience by treating mobile as digital products

    Digital products are continuously modernized to ensure they are fit-for-purpose, secured, insightful, accessible, and interoperable. A good experience involves more than just technology.

    First, deliver the experience end users want and expect by designing the application against digital application principles.

    Business Value

    Continuous modernization

    • Fit for purpose
    • User-centric
    • Adaptable
    • Accessible
    • Private and secured
    • Informative and insightful
    • Seamless application connection
    • Relationship and network building

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Modernize Your Applications blueprint.

    Then, deliver a long-lasting experience by supporting your applications with key governance and management capabilities.

    • Product Strategy and Roadmap
    • External Relationships
    • User Adoption and Organizational Change Management
    • Funding
    • Knowledge Management
    • Stakeholder Management
    • Product Governance
    • Maintenance & Enhancement
    • User Support
    • Managing and Governing Data
    • Requirements Analysis and Design
    • Research & Development

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Make the Case for Product Delivery blueprint.

    Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools

    Maximize the value of your mobile investments by prioritizing technology decisions on user experience, business priorities, and system quality.

    WORKFLOW

    1. Capture Your User Personas and Journey workflow: Trigger: Step 1; Step 2; Step 3; Step 4; Outcome
    2. Select Your Platform Nine datapoints are arranged on a graph where the x axis s labeled: User Centric Needs; and the Y axis is labeled: Enterprise-centric needs. The datapoints are, in order from left to right, top to bottom: Hybrid; Cross- Platform; Native; Web; Hybrid or Cross- Platform; Cros-s Platform; Web; Web; Hybrid or Cross- Platform.
    3. Shortlist Your Solutions A quadrant analysis is depicted. the top data is labeled Complex Mobile Features; the right side is labeled Organization-Managed Stack; the bottom is labeled Simple Mobile Features; and the left side is labeled Vendor-Managed Stack. The quadrants are labeled the following, in order from left to right, top to bottom. Vendor- Hosted Mobile Platform; Custom Native Development Solutions; Commercial-Off-the-Shelf Solutions; Custom Web Development Solutions. In the middle of the graph are the following, in order from top to bottom: Cross-Platform Development Solutions; Hybrid Development Solutions

    Strategic Perspective
    Business and Product Strategies

    1. End-User Perspective

    End User Needs

    • Productivity
    • Innovation
    • Transformation

    Native User Experience

    • Anytime, Anywhere
    • Visually Pleasing & Fulfilling
    • Personalized & Insightful
    • Hands-Off & Automated
    • Integrated Ecosystem

    2. Platform Perspective

    Technical Requirements

    Security

    Performance

    Integration

    Mobile Platform

    3. Solution Perspective

    Vendor Support

    Services

    Stack Mgmt.

    Quality & Risk

    Mobile Delivery Solutions

    Make user experience (UX) the standard

    User experience (UX) focuses on a user's emotions, beliefs, and physical and psychological responses that occur before, during, or after interacting with a service or product.

    For a mobile application to be meaningful, the functions, aesthetics and content must be:

    • Usable
      • Users can intuitively navigate through your mobile application and complete their desired tasks.
    • Desirable
      • The application elements are used to evoke positive emotions and appreciation.
    • Accessible
      • Users can easily use your mobile application, including those with disabilities.
    • Valuable
      • Users find the content useful, and it fulfills a need.

    Enable a greater experience with UX-driven thinking

    Designing for a high-quality experience requires more than just focusing on the UI. It also requires the merging of multiple business, technical, and social disciplines in order to create an immersive, practical, and receptive application. The image on the right explains the disciplines involved in UX. This is critical for ensuring users have a strong desire to use the mobile application, it is adequately supported technically, and it supports business objectives.

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Implement and Mature Your User Experience Design Practice blueprint.

    A Venn diagram is depicted, demonstrating the inputs that lead to an interactive design, with interactive elements, usability, and accessibility. This work by Mark Roden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

    Source: Marky Roden, Xomino, 2018

    Define the mobile experience your end users want

    • Anytime, Anywhere
      • The user can access, update and analyze data and corporate products and services whenever they want, in all networks, and on any device.
    • Hands-Off and Automated
      • The application can perform various workflows and tasks without the user's involvement and notify the user when specific triggers are hit.
    • Personalized and Insightful
      • Content presentation and subject are tailored for the user based on specific inputs from the user, device hardware, or predicted actions.
    • Integrated Ecosystem
      • The application supports a seamless experience across various third-party and enterprise applications and services the user needs.
    • Visually Pleasing and Fulfilling
      • The UI is intuitive and aesthetically gratifying, with little security and performance trade-offs to use the full breadth of its functions and services.

    Each mobile platform has its own take on the mobile native experience. The choice ultimately depends on whether the costs and effort are worth the anticipated value.

    Mobile value is dependent on the platform you choose

    What is a platform?

    "A platform is a set of software and a surrounding ecosystem of resources that helps you to grow your business. A platform enables growth through connection: its value comes not only from its own features, but from its ability to connect external tools, teams, data, and processes." (Source: Emilie Nøss Wangen, 2021) In the mobile context, applications in a platform execute and communicate through a loosely-coupled API architecture, whether the supporting system is managed and supported by your organization or by third-party providers.

    Web

    Mobile web applications are deployed and executed within the mobile web browser. They are often developed with a combination of web and scripting languages, such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Web often takes two forms on mobile:

    • Progressive Web Applications (PWA)
    • Mobile Web Sites

    Hybrid

    Hybrid applications are developed with web technologies but are deployed as native applications. The code is wrapped using a framework so that it runs locally within a native container. It uses the device's browser runtime engine to support more sophisticated designs and features than to the web approach.

    Cross-Platform

    Cross-platform applications are developed within a distinct programming or scripting environment that uses its own scripting language (often like web languages) and APIs. The solution compiles the code into device-specific builds for native deployment.

    Native

    Native applications are developed and deployed to specific devices and OSs using platform-specific software development kits (SDKs) provided by the operating system vendors. The programming language and framework are dictated by the targeted device, such as Java for Android.

    Start mobile development on a mobile web platform

    Start with what you have: begin with a mobile web platform to minimize impacts to your existing delivery skill sets and technical stack while addressing business needs. Resort to a hybrid first. Then consider a cross-platform application if you require device access or need to meet specific non-functional requirements.

    Why choose a mobile web platform?

    Pros

    The latest versions of the most popular web languages (HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript) abstract away from the granular, physical components of the application, simplifying the development process. HTML5 offer some mobile features (e.g. geolocation, accelerometer) that can meet your desired experience without the need for native development skills. Native look-and-feel, high performance, and full device access are just a few tradeoffs of going with web languages.

    Cons

    Native mobile platforms depend on device-specific code which follows specific frameworks and leverages unique programming libraries, such as Objective C for iOS and Java for Android. Each language requires a high level of expertise in the coding structure and hardware of specific devices. This requires resources with specific skillsets and different tools to support development and testing.

    Other Notable Benefits with Web Languages

    • Modern browsers in most mobile devices can execute and render many mobile features developed in web languages, allowing for greater portability and sophistication of code across multiple devices. However, this flexibility comes at the cost of performance since the browser's runtime engine will not perform as well as a native engine.
    • Web languages are well known by developers, minimizing skills and resourcing impacts. Consequently, changes can be quickly accommodated and updated uniformly across all end users.

    Select your mobile platform

    Drive your mobile platform selection against user-centric needs (e.g. device access, aesthetics) and enterprise-centric needs (e.g. security, system performance).

    When does a platform makes sense to use?

    Web

    • Desire to maximize current web technologies investments (people, process, and technologies).
    • Use cases do not require significant computational resources on the device or are tightly constrained by non-functional requirements.
    • Limited budget to acquire mobile development resources.
    • Access to device hardware is not a high priority.

    Hybrid / Cross-Platform

    • The need to quickly spin up native-like applications for multiple platforms and devices.
    • Desire to leverage existing web development skills, but also a need for device access and meeting specific non-functional requirements.
    • Vendor support is needed for the entire mobile delivery process.

    Native

    • Developers are experts in the target programming language and with the device's hardware.
    • Strong need for high performance, security, and device-specific access and customizations.
    • Application use cases require significant computing resources.

    Nine datapoints are arranged on a graph where the x axis s labeled: User Centric Needs; and the Y axis is labeled: Enterprise-centric needs. The datapoints are, in order from left to right, top to bottom: Hybrid; Cross- Platform; Native; Web; Hybrid or Cross- Platform; Cros-s Platform; Web; Web; Hybrid or Cross- Platform.

    Understand the common attributes of a mobile delivery solution

    • Source Code Management – Built-in or having the ability to integrate with code management solutions for branching, merging, and versioning. Debugging and coding assistance capabilities may be available.
    • Single Code Base – Capable of programming in a standard coding and scripting language for deployment into several platforms and devices. This code base is aligned to a common industry framework (e.g. AngularJS, Java) or a vendor-defined one.
    • Out-of-the-Box Connectors & Plug-ins – Pre-built APIs enhance the solution's capabilities with third-party tools and systems to deliver and manage high quality and valuable mobile applications.
    • Emulators – Ability to virtualize an application's execution on a target platform and device.
    • Support for Native Features – Supports plug-ins and APIs for access to device-specific features.

    What are mobile delivery solutions?

    A mobile delivery solution provides the tools, resources, and support to enable or build your mobile application. It can provide pre-built applications, vendor supported components to allow some configurations, or resources for full stack customizations. Solutions can be barebone software development kits (SDKs), or comprehensive suites offering features to support the entire software delivery lifecycle, such as:

    • Mobile application management
    • Testing and publishing to app stores
    • Content management
    • Cloud hosting
    • Application performance management

    Info-Tech Insight

    Mobile enablement and development capabilities are already embedded in many common productivity tools and enterprise applications, such as Microsoft PowerApps and ERP modules. They can serve as a starting point in the initial rollout of new management and governance practices without the need to acquire new tools.

    Select your mobile delivery solutions

    1. Set the scope of your framework.
    • The initial context of this framework is based on the mobile functions needed to support your desired mobile experience and on the current state of your enterprise and 3rd party systems.
  • Define the decision factors for your solution selection.
    • Review the decision factors that will influence the selection of your mobile delivery solution for each mobile opportunity:
    • Stack Management – Who will be hosting and supporting your mobile application stack?
    • Workflows Complexity & Native Experience – How complex is your desired mobile experience and how will native device features be leveraged?
  • Select your solution type.
    • Mobile delivery solutions are broadly defined in the following groups:
    • Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) – Pre-built mobile applications requiring little to no configurations or implementation effort.
    • Vendor Hosted Mobile Platform – Back-end and mid-tier infrastructure and operational support are managed by a vendor.
    • Cross-Platform Development – Frameworks that transform a single code base into platform-specific builds.
    • Hybrid Development – Tools that wrap a single code base into a locally deployable build.
    • Custom Web Development – Environment enabling full stack development for mobile web applications.
    • Custom Native Development – Environment enabling full stack development for mobile native applications.
  • A quadrant analysis is depicted. the top data is labeled Complex Mobile Features; the right side is labeled Organization-Managed Stack; the bottom is labeled Simple Mobile Features; and the left side is labeled Vendor-Managed Stack. The quadrants are labeled the following, in order from left to right, top to bottom. Vendor- Hosted Mobile Platform; Custom Native Development Solutions; Commercial-Off-the-Shelf Solutions; Custom Web Development Solutions. In the middle of the graph are the following, in order from top to bottom: Cross-Platform Development Solutions; Hybrid Development Solutions

    Optimize your software delivery process

    Mobile brings new delivery and management challenges that are often difficult for organizations that are tied to legacy systems, hindered by rigid and slow delivery lifecycles, and are unable to adopt leading-edge technologies. Many of these challenges stem from the fact that mobile is a significant shift from desktop development:

    • Mobile devices and operating systems are heavily fragmented, especially in the Android space.
    • Test coverage is significantly expanded to include physical environments and multiple network connections.
    • Mobile devices do not have the same performance capabilities and memory storage as their desktop counterparts.
    • The user interface must be strategically designed to accommodate the limited screen size.
    • Mobile applications are highly susceptible to security breaches.
    • Mobile users often expect quick turnaround time on fixes and enhancements due to continuously changing technology, business priorities, and user needs.

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Modernize Your SDLC blueprint.

    How should the process change?

    • Cross-functional collaboration – Bringing business and IT together at the most opportune times to clarify user needs and business priorities, and set realistic expectations given technology and capacity constraints. The appropriate tactics and techniques are used to improve decision making and delivery effectiveness according to the type of work.
    • Iterative delivery – Frequent delivery of progressive changes minimizes the risk of low-quality features by containing and simplifying scope, and enables responsive turnarounds of fixes, enhancements, and priority changes.
    • Feedback loops –Mobile application owners constantly review, update and refine their backlog of mobile features and changes to reflect user feedback and system performance metrics. Delivery teams proactively prepare the application for future scaling based on lessons and feedback learned from earlier releases.

    Achieve mobile success with MVPs

    By delivering mobile capabilities in small iterations, teams recognize value sooner and reduce accumulated risk. Both benefits are realized as the iteration enters validation testing and release.

    This image depicts a graph of the learn-build-measure cycle over time, adapted from Managing the Development of Large Software Systems, Dr. Winston W. Royce, 1970

    An MVP focuses on a small set of functions, involves minimal possible effort to deliver a working and valuable solution, and is designed to satisfy a specific user group. Its purpose is to:

    • Maximize learning.
    • Evaluate the value and acceptance of mobile applications.
    • Inform the building of a mobile delivery practice.

    The build-measure-learn loop suggests mobile delivery teams should perpetually take an idea and develop, test, and validate it with the mobile development solution, then expand on the MVP using the lessons learned and evolving ideas. In this sense the MVP is just the first iteration in the loop.

    Gauge the value with the right metrics

    Metrics are a powerful way to drive behavior change in your organization. But metrics are highly prone to creating unexpected outcomes so they must be used with great care. Use metrics judiciously to avoid gaming or ambivalent behavior, productivity loss, and unintended consequences.

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Select and Use SDLC Metrics Effectively blueprint.

    What should I measure?

    1. Mobile Application Engagement, Retention and User Satisfaction
      1. The activeness of users on the applications, the number of returning users, and the happiness of the users.
      2. Example: Number of tasks completed, number of active and returning users, session length and intervals, user satisfaction
    2. Value Driven from Mobile Applications
      1. The business value that the user directly or indirectly receives with the mobile application.
      2. Example: Mobile application revenue, business operational costs, worker productivity, business reputation and image
    3. Delivery Throughput and Quality
      1. The health and quality of your mobile applications throughout their lifespan and the speed to deliver working applications that meet stakeholder expectations.
      2. Example: Frequency of release, lead time, request turnaround, escaped defects, test coverage.

    Use Info-Tech's diagnostic to evaluate the reception of your mobile applications

    Info-Tech's Application Portfolio Assessment (APA) Diagnostic is a canned end-user satisfaction survey used to evaluate your application portfolio health to support data-driven decisions.

    This image contains a screenshot from Info-Tech's Application Portfolio Assessment (APA) Diagnostic

    USE THE PROGRAM DIAGNOSTIC TO:

    • Assess the importance and satisfaction of enterprise applications.
    • Solicit feedback from your end users on applications being used.
    • Understand the strengths and weaknesses of your current applications.
    • Perform a high-level application rationalization initiative.

    INTEGRATE DIAGNOSTIC RESULTS TO:

    • Target which applications to analyze in greater detail.
    • Expand on the initial application rationalization results with a more comprehensive and business-value-focused criteria.

    Grow your mobile delivery practice

    Level 1: Mobile Delivery Foundations

    You understand the opportunities and impacts mobile has on your business operations and its disruptive nature on your enterprise systems. Your software delivery lifecycle was optimized to incorporate the specific practices and requirements needed for mobile. A mobile platform was selected based on stakeholder needs that are weighed against current skillsets, high priority non-functional requirements, the available capacity and scalability of your stack, and alignment to your current delivery process.

    Level 2: Scaled Mobile Delivery

    New features and mobile use cases are regularly emerging in the industry. Ensuring your mobile platform and delivery process can easily scale to incorporate constantly changing mobile features and technologies is key. This can help minimize the impact these changes will have on your mobile stack and the resulting experience.

    Achieving this state requires three competencies: mobile security, performance optimization, and integration practices.

    Level 3: Leading-Edge Mobile Delivery

    Many of today's mobile trends involve, in one form or another, hardware components on the mobile device (e.g., NFC receivers, GPS, cameras). You understand the scope of native features available on your end user's mobile device and the required steps and capabilities to enable and leverage them.

    Hit a home run with your stakeholders

    Use a data-driven approach to select the right tooling vendor for your needs – fast.

    Awareness Education & Discovery Evaluation Selection

    Negotiation & Configuration

    1.1 Proactively Lead Technology Optimization & Prioritization 2.1 Understand Marketplace Capabilities & Trends 3.1 Gather & Prioritize Requirements & Establish Key Success Metrics 4.1 Create a Weighted Selection Decision Model 5.1 Initiate Price Negotiation with Top Two Venders
    1.2 Scope & Define the Selection Process for Each Selection Request Action 2.2 Discover Alternate Solutions & Conduct Market Education 3.2 Conduct a Data Driven Comparison of Vendor Features & Capabilities 4.2 Conduct Investigative Interviews Focused on Mission Critical Priorities with Top 2-4 Vendors 5.2 Negotiate Contract Terms & Product Configuration

    1.3 Conduct an Accelerated Business Needs Assessment

    2.3 Evaluate Enterprise Architecture & Application Portfolio Narrow the Field to Four Top Contenders 4.3 Validate Key Issues with Deep Technical Assessments, Trial Configuration & Reference Checks 5.3 Finalize Budget Approval & Project
    1.4 Align Stakeholder Calendars to Reduce Elapsed Time & Asynchronous Evaluation 2.4 Validate the Business Case 5.4 Invest in Training & Onboarding Assistance

    Investing time improving your software selection methodology has big returns.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Not all software selection projects are created equal – some are very small, some span the entire enterprise. To ensure that IT is using the right framework, understand the cost and complexity profile of the application you're looking to select. Info-Tech's Rapid Application Selection Framework approach is best for commodity and mid-tier enterprise applications; selecting complex applications is better handled by the methodology in Info-Tech's Implement a Proactive and Consistent Vendor Selection Process.

    Pitch your mobile delivery approach with Info-Tech's template

    Communicate the justification of your approach to mobile applications with Info-Tech's Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template:

    • Level set your mobile application goals and objectives by weighing end user expectations with technical requirements.
    • Define the high priority opportunities for mobile applications.
    • Educate decision makers of the limitations and challenges of delivering specific mobile experiences with the various mobile platform options.
    • Describe your framework to select the right mobile platform and delivery tools.
    • Lay out your mobile delivery roadmap and initiatives.

    INFO-TECH DELIVERABLE

    This is a screenshot from Info-Tech's Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template

    Info-Tech's methodology for mobile platform and delivery solution selection

    1. Set the Mobile Context

    2. Define Your Mobile Approach

    Phase Steps

    Step 1.1 Build Your Mobile Backlog

    Step 1.2 Identify Your Technical Needs

    Step 1.3 Define Your Non-Functional Requirements

    Step 2.1 Choose Your Platform Approach

    Step 2.2 Shortlist Your Mobile Delivery Solution

    Step 2.3 Create a Roadmap for Mobile Delivery

    Phase Outcomes

    • User personas
    • Mobile objectives and metrics
    • Mobile opportunity backlog
    • List of mobile features to enable the desired mobile experience
    • System current assessment
    • Mobile application quality definition
    • Readiness for mobile delivery
    • Desired mobile platform approach
    • Shortlisted mobile delivery solutions
    • Desired list of vendor features and services
    • MVP design
    • Mobile delivery roadmap

    Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

    DIY Toolkit

    "Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful."

    Guided Implementation

    "Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track."

    Workshop

    "We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place."

    Consulting

    "Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project."

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    Phase 1 Phase 2

    Call #1: Understand the case and motivators for mobile applications.

    Call #2: Discuss the end user and desired mobile experience.

    Call #5: Discuss the desired mobile platform.

    Call #8: Discuss your mobile MVP.

    Call #3: Review technical complexities and non-functional requirements.

    Call #6: Shortlist mobile delivery solutions and desired features.

    Call #9: Review your mobile delivery roadmap.

    A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

    A typical GI is 6 to 9 calls over the course of 2 to 3 months.

    Workshop Overview

    Contact your account representative for more information.
    workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889

    Module 1 Module 2 Module 3 Module 4 Post-Workshop
    Activities Set the Mobile Context Identify Your Technical Needs Choose Your Platform & Delivery Solution Create Your Roadmap Next Steps andWrap-Up (offsite)

    1.1 Generate user personas with empathy maps

    1.2 Build your mobile application canvas

    1.3 Build your mobile backlog

    2.1 Discuss your mobile needs

    2.2 Conduct a technical assessment

    2.3 Define mobile application quality

    2.4 Verify your decision to deliver mobile applications

    3.1 Select your platform approach

    3.2 Shortlist your mobile delivery solution

    3.3 Build your feature and service lists

    4.1 Define your MVP release

    4.2 Build your roadmap

    5.1 Complete in-progress deliverables from previous four days.

    5.2 Set up review time for workshop deliverables and to discuss next steps.

    Deliverables

    • User personas
    • Mobile objectives and metrics
    • Mobile opportunity backlog
    • List of mobile features to enable the desired mobile experience
    • System current assessment
    • Mobile application quality definition
    • Verification to proceed with mobile delivery
    • Desired mobile platform approach
    • Shortlisted mobile delivery solutions
    • Desired list of vendor features and services
    • MVP design
    • Mobile delivery roadmap
    • Completed workshop output deliverable
    • Next steps

    Phase 1

    Set the Mobile Context

    Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools

    This phase will walk you through the following steps:

    • Step 1.1 – Build Your Mobile Backlog
    • Step 1.2 – Identify Your Technical Needs
    • Step 1.3 – Define Your Non-Functional Requirements

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    Step 1.1

    Build Your Mobile Backlog

    Activities

    1.1.1 Generate user personas with empathy maps

    1.1.2 Build your mobile application canvas

    1.1.3 Build your mobile backlog

    Set the Mobile Context

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    Outcomes of this step

    • User personas
    • Mobile objectives and metrics
    • Mobile opportunity backlog

    Users expect your organization to support their mobile way of working

    Today, users expect sophisticated and personalized features, immersive interactions, and cross-platform capabilities from their mobile applications and be able to access information and services anytime, anywhere and on any device. These demands are pushing organizations to become more user-driven, placing greater importance on user experience (UX) with enterprise-grade technologies.

    How has technologies evolved to easily enable mobile capabilities?

    • Desktop-Like Features
      • Native-like features, such as geolocation and local caching, are supported through web language or third-party plugins and extensions.
    • Extendable & Scalable
      • Plug-and-play architecture is designed to allow software delivery teams to explore new use cases and mobile capabilities with out-of-the-box connectors and/or customizable REST APIs.
    • Low Barrier to Entry
      • Low- and no-code development tools, full-stack solutions, and plug-and-play architectures allow non-technical users to easily build and implement applications without direct IT involvement.
    • Templates & Shells
      • Vendors provide UI templates and application shells that contain pre-built native features and multiple aesthetic layouts in a publishing-friendly and configurable way.
    • Personalized Content
      • Content can be uniquely tailored to a user's preference or be automatically generated based on the user's profile or activity history.
    • Hands-Off Operations
      • Many mobile solutions operate in a as-a-service model where the underlying and integrated technologies are managed by the vendor and abstracted away.

    Make user experience (UX) the standard

    User experience (UX) focuses on a user's emotions, beliefs, and physical and psychological responses that occur before, during, or after interacting with a service or product.

    For a mobile application to be a meaningful experience, the functions, aesthetics and content must be:

    • Usable
      • Users can intuitively navigate through your mobile application and complete their desired tasks.
    • Desirable
      • The application elements are used to evoke positive emotions and appreciation.
    • Accessible
      • Users can easily use your mobile application, including those with disabilities.
    • Valuable
      • Users find the content useful, and it fulfills a need.

    Enable a greater experience with UX-driven thinking

    Designing for a high-quality experience requires more than just focusing on the UI. It also requires the merging of multiple business, technical, and social disciplines in order to create an immersive, practical, and receptive application. The image on the right explains the disciplines involved in UX. This is critical for ensuring users have a strong desire to use the mobile application, it is adequately supported technically, and it supports business objectives.

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Implement and Mature Your User Experience Design Practice blueprint.

    A Venn diagram is depicted, demonstrating the inputs that lead to an interactive design, with interactive elements, usability, and accessibility. This work by Mark Roden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

    Source: Marky Roden, Xomino, 2018

    UX-driven mobile apps bring together a compelling UI with valuable functionality

    Info-Tech Insight

    Organizations often over-rotate on the UI. Receptive and satisfying applications require more than just pretty pictures, bold colors, and flashy animations. UX-driven mobile applications require the seamless merging of enticing design elements and valuable functions that are specifically tailored to the behaviors of the users. Take a deep look at how each design element and function is used and perceived by the user, and how your application can sufficiently support user needs.

    UI-Function Balance to Achieve Highly Satisfying Mobile Applications

    An application's UI and function both contribute to UX, but they do so in different ways.

    • The UI generates the visual, audio, and vocal cues to draw the attention of users to key areas of the application while stimulating the user's emotions.
    • Functions give users the means to satisfy their needs effortlessly.

    Finding the right balance of UI and function is dependent on the organization's understanding of user emotions, needs, and tendencies. However, these factors are often left out of an application's design. Having the right UX competencies is key in assuring user behaviors are appropriately accommodated early in the delivery process.

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Modernize Your Corporate Website to Drive Business Value blueprint.

    Focus your efforts on all items that drive high user experience and satisfaction

    UX-driven mobile applications involve all interaction points and system components working together to create an immersive experience while being actively supported by delivery and operations teams. Many organizations commonly focus on visual and content design to improve the experience, but this is only a small fraction of the total UX design. Look beyond the surface to effectively enhance your application's overall UX.

    Typical Focus of Mobile UX

    Aesthetics
    What Are the Colors & Fonts?

    Relevance & Modern
    Will Users Receive Up to Date Content and Trending Features?

    UI Design
    Where Are the Interaction Points?

    Content Layout
    How Is Content Organized?

    Critical Areas of Mobile UX That Are Often Ignored

    Web Infrastructure
    How Will Your Application Be Operationally Supported?

    Human Behavior
    What Do the Users Feel About Your Application?

    Coding Language
    What Is the Best Language to Use?

    Cross-Platform Compatibility
    How Does It Work in a Browser Versus Each Mobile Platform?

    Application Quality
    How are Functional and Non-Functional Needs Balanced?

    Adoption & Retention
    How Do I Promote Adoption and Maintain User Engagement?

    Application Support
    How Will My Requests and Issues Be Handled?

    Use personas to envision who will be using your mobile application

    What Are Personas?

    Personas are detailed descriptions of the targeted audience of your mobile application. It represents a type of user in a particular scenario. Effective personas:

    • Express and focus on the major needs and expectations of the most important user groups.
    • Give a clear picture of the typical user's behavior.
    • Aid in uncovering critical features and functionalities.
    • Describe real people with backgrounds, goals, and values.

    Why Are Personas Important to UX?

    They are important because they help:

    • Focus the development of mobile application features on the immediate needs of the intended audience.
    • Detail the level of customization needed to ensure content is valuable to and resonates with the user.
    • Describe how users may behave when certain audio and visual stimulus are triggered from the mobile application.
    • Outline the special design considerations required to meet user accessibility needs.

    Key Elements of a Persona:

    • Professional and Technical Skills and Experiences (e.g., knowledge of mobile applications, area of expertise)
    • Persona Group (e.g., executives)
    • Technological Environment of User (e.g., devices, browsers, network connection)
    • Demographics (e.g., nationality, age, language spoken)
    • Typical Behaviors and Tendencies (e.g., goes to different website when cannot find information in 20 seconds)
    • Purpose of Using the Mobile Application (e.g., search for information, submit registration form)

    Create empathy maps to gain a deeper understanding of stakeholder personas

    Empathy mapping draws out the characteristics, motivations, and mannerisms of a potential end user.

    This image contains an image of an empathy map from XPLANE, 2017. it includes the following list: 1. Who are we empathizing with; 2. What do they need to DO; 3. What do they SEE; 4. What do they SAY?; 5. What do they DO; 6. What do they HEAR; 7. What do they THINK and FEEL.

    Source: XPLANE, 2017

    Empathy mapping focuses on identifying the problems, ambitions, and frustrations they are looking to resolve and describes their motivations for wanting to resolve them. This analysis helps your teams:

    • Better understand the reason behind the struggles, frustrations and motivators through a user's perspective.
    • Verify the accuracy of assertions made about the user.
    • Pinpoint the specific problem the mobile application will be designed to solve and the constraints to its successful adoption and on-going use.
    • Read more about empathy mapping and download the empathy map PDF template here.

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Use Experience Design to Drive Empathy with the Business blueprint.

    1.1.1 Generate user personas with empathy maps

    1-3 hours

    1. Download the Empathy Map Canvas and draw the map on a whiteboard or project it on the screen.
    2. Choose an end user to be the focus of your empathy map. Using sticky notes, fill out the sections of the empathy map in the following order:
      1. Start by filling out the goals section. State who the subject of the empathy map will be and what activity or task you would like them to do.
        1. Focus on activities and tasks that may benefit from mobile.
      2. Next, complete the outer sections in clockwise order (see, say, do, hear). The purpose of this is to think in terms of what the subject of your empathy map is observing, sensing, and experiencing.
        1. Indicate the mobile devices and OS users will likely use and the environments they will likely be in (e.g., places with poor connections)
        2. Discuss accessibility needs and how user prefer to consume content.
      3. Last, complete the inner circle of the empathy map (pains and gains). Since you spent the last step of the exercise thinking about the external influences on your stakeholder, you can think about how those stimuli affect their emotions.
    3. Document your end user persona into Info-Tech's Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template.

    Input

    Output
    • List of potential mobile application users
    • User personas
    Materials Participants
    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template
    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    1.1.1 cont'd

    This image contains an image of an empathy map from XPLANE, 2017. it includes the following list: 1. Who are we empathizing with; 2. What do they need to DO; 3. What do they SEE; 4. What do they SAY?; 5. What do they DO; 6. What do they HEAR; 7. What do they THINK and FEEL.

    Download the Empathy Map Canvas

    Many business priorities are driving mobile

    Mobile Applications

    • Product Roadmap
      • Upcoming enterprise technology releases and updates offer mobile capabilities to expand its access to a broader userbase.
    • Cost Optimization
      • Maximizing business value in processes and technologies through disciplined and strategic cost and spending reduction practices with mobile applications.
    • Competitive Differentiation
      • Developing and optimizing your organization's distinct products and services quickly with mobile applications.
    • Digital Transformation
      • Transitioning processes, data and systems to a digital environment to broaden access to enterprise data and services anywhere at anytime.
    • Operational Efficiency
      • Improving software delivery and business process throughput by increasing worker productivity with mobile applications.
    • Other Business Priorities
      • New corporate products and services, business model changes, application rationalization and other priorities may require modernization, innovation and a mobile way of working.

    Focus on the mobile business and end user problem, not the solution

    People are naturally solution-focused. The onus isn't on them to express their needs in the form of a problem statement!

    When refining your mobile problem statement, attempt to answer the following four questions:

    • Who is impacted?
    • What is the (user or organizational) challenge that needs to be addressed?
    • Where does it happen?
    • Why does it matter?

    There are many ways of writing problem statements, a clear approach follows the format:

    • "Our (who) has the problem that (what) when (where). Our solution should (why)."
    • Example: "Our system analysts has the problem that new tickets take too long to update when working on user requests. Our approach should enable the analyst to focus on working with customers and not on administration."

    Adapted from: "Design Problem Statements – What and How to Frame Them"

    How to write a vision statement

    It's ok to dream a little!

    When thinking about a vision statement, think about:

    • Who is it for?
    • What does the customer need?
    • What can we do for them?
    • And why is this special?

    There are different statement templates available to help form your vision statements. Some include:

    1. For [our target customer], who [customer's need], the [product] is a [product category or description] that [unique benefits and selling points]. Unlike [competitors or current methods], our product [main differentiators]. (Crossing the Chasm)
    2. "We believe (in) a [noun: world, time, state, etc.] where [persona] can [verb: do, make, offer, etc.], for/by/with [benefit/goal].
    3. To [verb: empower, unlock, enable, create, etc.] [persona] to [benefit, goal, future state].
    4. Our vision is to [verb: build, design, provide], the [goal, future state], to [verb: help, enable, make it easier to...] [persona]."

    (Numbers 2-4 from: How to define a product vision)

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    A vision shouldn't be so far out that it doesn't feel real and so short term that it gets bogged down in minutiae and implementation details. Finding that right balance will take some trial and error and will be different depending on your organization.

    Ensure mobile supports ongoing value delivery and stakeholder expectations

    Success hinges on your team's ability to deliver business value. Well-developed mobile applications instill stakeholder confidence in ongoing business value delivery and stakeholder buy-in, provided proper expectations are set and met.

    Business value defines the success criteria of an organization, and it is interpreted from four perspectives:

    • Profit Generation – The revenue generated from a business capability with mobile applications.
    • Cost Reduction – The cost reduction when performing business capabilities with mobile applications.
    • Service Enablement – The productivity and efficiency gains of internal business operations with mobile applications.
    • Customer and Market Reach – Metrics measuring the improved reach and insights of the business in existing or new markets.

    See our Build a Value Measurement Framework blueprint for more information about business value definition.

    This image contains a quadrant analysis with the following labels: Left - Improved Capabilities; Top - Outward; Right - Financial Benefit; Bottom - Inward. the quadrants are labeled the following, in order from left to right, top to bottom. Customer and Market Reach; Profit Generation; Service Enhancement; Cost Reduction

    Set realistic mobile goals

    Mobile applications enables the exploration of new and different ways to improve worker productivity and deliver business value. However, the realities of mobile applications may limit your ability to meet some of your objectives:

    • On the day of installation, the average retention rate for public-facing applications was 25.3%. By day 30, the retention rate drops to 5.7%. (Source: Statista, 2020)
    • 63% of 3,335 most popular Android mobile applications on the Google Play Store contained open-source components with known security vulnerabilities and other pervasive security concerns including exposing sensitive data (Source: Synopsys, 2021)
    • 62% of users would delete the application because of performance issues, such as crashes, freezes and other errors (Source: Intersog, 2021).

    These realities are not guaranteed to occur or impede your ability to deliver valuable mobile applications, but they can lead to unachievable expectations. Ensure your stakeholders are not oversold on advertised benefits and hold you accountable for unrealistic objectives. Recognize that the organization must also change how it works and operates to see the full benefit and adoption of mobile applications and overcome the known and unknown challenges and hurdles that often come with mobile delivery.

    Benchmarks present enticing opportunities, but should be used to set reasonable expectations

    66%
    Improve Market Reach
    66% of the global population uses a mobile device
    Source: DataReportal, 2021

    20%
    Connected Workers are More Productive
    Nearly 20 percent of mobile professionals estimate they miss more than three hours of working time a week not being able to get connected to the internet
    Source: iPass, 2017

    80%
    Increase Brand Recognition
    80% of smartphone users are more likely to purchase from companies whose mobile sites of apps help them easily find answers to their questions
    Source: Google, 2018

    Gauge the value with the right metrics

    Metrics are a powerful way to drive behavior change in your organization. But metrics are highly prone to creating unexpected outcomes so they must be used with great care. Use metrics judiciously to avoid gaming or ambivalent behavior, productivity loss, and unintended consequences.

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Select and Use SDLC Metrics Effectively blueprint.

    What should I measure?

    1. Mobile Application Engagement, Retention and User Satisfaction
      • The activeness of users on the applications, the number of returning users, and the happiness of the users.
      • Example: Number of tasks completed, number of active and returning users, session length and intervals, user satisfaction
    2. Value Driven from Mobile Applications
      • The business value that the user directly or indirectly receives with the mobile application.
      • Example: Mobile application revenue, business operational costs, worker productivity, business reputation and image
    3. Delivery Throughput and Quality
      • The health and quality of your mobile applications throughout their lifespan and the speed to deliver working applications that meet stakeholder expectations.
      • Example: Frequency of release, lead time, request turnaround, escaped defects, test coverage.

    Use Info-Tech's diagnostic to evaluate the reception of your mobile applications

    Info-Tech's Application Portfolio Assessment (APA) Diagnostic is a canned end user satisfaction survey used to evaluate your application portfolio health to support data-driven decisions.

    This image contains a screenshot from Info-Tech's Application Portfolio Assessment (APA) Diagnostic

    USE THE PROGRAM DIAGNOSTIC TO:

    • Assess the importance and satisfaction of enterprise applications.
    • Solicit feedback from your end users on applications being used.
    • Understand the strengths and weaknesses of your current applications.
    • Perform a high-level application rationalization initiative.

    INTEGRATE DIAGNOSTIC RESULTS TO:

    • Target which applications to analyze in greater detail.
    • Expand on the initial application rationalization results with a more comprehensive and business-value-focused criteria.

    Use a canvas to define key elements of your mobile initiative

    Mobile Application Initiative Name

    Owner:
    Parent Initiative:
    Updated:

    NAME
    LINK
    October 05, 2022

    Problem Statement

    Vision

    The problem or need mobile applications are addressing

    Vision, unique value proposition, elevator pitch, or positioning statement

    Business Goals & Metrics

    Capabilities, Processes & Application Systems

    List of business objectives or goals for the mobile application initiative.

    List of business capabilities, processes and application systems related to this initiative.

    Personas/Customers/Users

    Stakeholders

    List of groups who consume the mobile application

    List of key resources, stakeholders, and teams needed to support the process, systems and services

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision blueprint.

    1.1.2 Build your mobile application canvas

    1-3 hours

    1. Complete the following fields to build your mobile application canvas:
      • Mobile application initiative name
      • Mobile application owner
      • Parent initiative name
      • Problem that mobile applications are intending to solve and your vision. See the outcome from the previous exercise.
      • Mobile application business goals and metrics.
      • Capabilities, processes and application systems involved
      • Primary customers/users (For additional help with your product personas, download and complete to Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision.)
    2. Stakeholders
    3. Document your findings and discussions into Info-Tech's Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template.

    Download the Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template

    Input

    Output
    • User personas
    • Business strategy
    • Problem and vision statements
    • Mobile objectives and metrics
    • Mobile application canvas
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template
    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    1.1.2 cont'd

    Mobile Application Initiative Name

    Owner:
    Parent Initiative:
    Updated:

    NAME
    LINK
    October 05, 2022

    Problem Statement

    Vision

    [Problem Statement]

    [Vision]

    Business Goals & Metrics

    Capabilities, Processes & Application Systems

    [Business Goal 1, Metric]
    [Business Goal 2, Metric]
    [Business Goal 3, Metric]

    [Business Capability]
    [Business Process]
    [Application System]

    Personas/Customers/Users

    Stakeholders

    [User 1]
    [User 2]
    [User 3]

    [Stakeholder 1]
    [Stakeholder 2]
    [Stakeholder 3]

    Create your mobile backlog

    Your backlog gives you a holistic understanding of the demand for mobile applications across your organization.

    Opportunities
    Trends
    MVP

    External Sources

    Internal Sources

    • Market Trends Analysis
    • Competitive Analysis
    • Regulations & Industry Standards
    • Customer & Reputation Analysis
    • Application Rationalization
    • Capability & Value Stream Analysis
    • Business Requests & Incidents
    • Discovery & Mining Capabilities

    A mobile application minimum viable product (MVP) focuses on a small set of functions, involves minimal possible effort to deliver a working and valuable solution, and is designed to satisfy a specific user group. Its purpose is to maximize learning, evaluate value and acceptance, and inform the development of a full-fledged mobile delivery practice.

    Find your mobile opportunities

    Modern mobile technologies enable users to access, analyze and change data anywhere with native device features, which opens the door to enhanced processes and new value sources.

    Examples of Mobile Opportunities:

    • Mobile Payment
      • Cost alternative to credit card transaction fees.
      • Loyalty systems are updated upon payment without need of a physical card.
      • Quicker completion of transactions.
    • Inventory Management
      • Update inventory database when shipments arrive or deliveries are made.
      • Inform retailers and consumers of current stock on website.
      • Alert staff of expired or outdated products.
    • Quick and Small Data Transfer
      • Embed tags into posters to transfer URIs, which sends users to sites containing product or location information.
      • Replace entry tags, fobs, or smart cards at doors.
      • Exchange contact details.
    • Location Sensitive Information
      • Proactively send promotions and other information (e.g. coupons, event details) to users within a defined area.
      • Inform employees of nearby prospective clients.
    • Supply Chain Management
      • Track the movement and location of goods and delivery trucks.
      • Direct drivers to the most optimal route.
      • Location-sensitive billing apps such as train and bus ticket purchases.
    • Education and Learning
      • Educate users about real-world objects and places with augmented books and by pushing relevant learning materials.
      • Visualize theories and other text with dynamic 3D objects.
    • Augmented Reality (AR)
      • Provide information about the user's surroundings and the objects in the environment through the mobile device.
      • Interactive and immersive experiences with the inclusion of virtual reality.
    • Architecture and Planning
      • Visualize historic buildings or the layout of structural projects and development plans.
      • Develop a digital tour with location-based audio initiated with location-based services or a camera.
    • Navigation
      • Provide directions to users to navigate and provide contextual travelling instructions.
      • Push traffic notifications and route changes to travelling users.
    • Tracking User Movement
      • Predict the future location of users based on historic information and traffic modelling.
      • Proactively push information to users before they reach their destination.

    1.1.3 Build your mobile backlog

    1-3 hours

    1. As a group, discuss the use and value mobile already has within your organization for each persona.
      1. What are some of the apps being used?
      2. What enterprise systems and applications are already exposed to the web and accessible by mobile devices?
      3. How critical is mobile to business operations, marketing campaigns, etc.?
    2. Discuss how mobile can bring additional business value to other areas of your organization for each persona.
      1. Can mobile enhance your customer reach? Do your customers care that your services are offered through mobile?
      2. Are employees asking for better access to enterprise systems in order to improve their productivity?
    3. Write your mobile opportunities in the following form: As a [end user persona], I want to [process or capability to enable with mobile applications], so that [organizational benefit]. Prioritize each opportunity against feasibility, desirability, and viability.
    4. Document your findings and discussions into Info-Tech's Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template.

    Input

    Output
    • Problem and vision statements
    • Mobile objectives and metrics
    • Mobile application canvas
    • Mobile opportunities backlog
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template
    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    Manage your mobile backlog

    Your backlog stores and organizes your mobile opportunities at various stages of readiness. It must be continuously refined to address new requests, maintenance and changing priorities.

    3 – IDEAS
    Composed of raw, vague, and potentially large ideas that have yet to go through any formal valuation.

    2 – QUALIFIED
    Researched and qualified opportunities awaiting refinement.

    1 READY
    Discrete, refined opportunities that are ready to be placed in your team's delivery plans.

    Adapted from Essential Scrum

    A well-formed backlog can be thought of as a DEEP backlog

    • Detailed Appropriately: opportunities are broken down and refined as necessary
    • Emergent: The backlog grows and evolves over time as opportunities are added and removed.
    • Estimated: The effort an opportunity requires is estimated at each tier.
    • Prioritized: The opportunity's value and priority are determined at each tier.

    (Source Perforce, 2018)

    See our Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision for more information on backlog practices.

    Step 1.2

    Identify Your Technical Needs

    Activities

    1.2.1 Discuss your mobile needs

    1.2.2 Conduct a technical assessment

    Set the Mobile Context

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    Outcomes of this step

    • List of mobile features to enable the desired mobile experience
    • System current assessment

    Describe your desired mobile experiences with journey maps

    A journey map tells the story of the user's experience with an existing or prospective product or service, starting with a trigger, through the process of engagement, to create an outcome. Journey maps can focus on a particular part of the user's or the entire experience with your organization's products or services. All types of maps capture key interactions and motivations of the user in chronological order.

    Why are journey maps an important for mobile application delivery?

    Everyone has their own preferred method for completing their tasks on mobile devices – often, what differentiates one persona from another has to do with how users privately behave. Understand that the activities performed outside of IT's purview develop context for your persona's pain points and position IT to meet their needs with the appropriate solution.

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Use Experience Design to Drive Empathy with the Business blueprint.

    Two charts are depicted, the first shows the path from Trigger, through steps 1-4, to the outcome, and the Activities and Touchpoints for each. The second chart shows the Expectation analysis, showing which steps are must-haves, nice-to-haves, and hidden-needs.

    Pinpoint specific mobile needs in your journey map

    Realize that mobile applications may not precisely fit with your personas workflow or align to their expectations due to device and system limitations and restrictions. Flag the mobile opportunities that require significant modifications to underlying systems.

    Consider these workflow scenarios that can influence your persona's desire for mobile:

    Workflow Scenarios Ask Yourself The Key Questions Technology Constraints or Restrictions to Consider Examples of Mobile Opportunities

    Data View – Data is queried, prepared and presented to make informed decisions, but it cannot be edited.

    Where is the data located and can it be easily gathered and prepared?

    Is the data sensitive and can it be locally stored?

    What is the level of detail in my view?

    Multi-factor authentication required.

    Highly sensitive data requires encryption in transit and at rest.

    Minor calculations and preparation needed before data view.

    Generate a status report.

    View social media channels.

    View contact information.

    Data Collection – Data is inputted directly into the application and updates back-end system or integrated 3rd party services.

    Do I need special permission to add, delete and overwrite data?

    How much data can I edit?

    Is the data automatically gathered?

    Bandwidth restrictions.

    Multi-factor authentication required.

    Native device access required (e.g., camera).

    Multiple types and formats of gathered data.

    Manual and automatic data gathering

    Book appointments with clients.

    Update inventory.

    Tracking movement of company assets.

    Data Analysis & Modification – Data is evaluated, manipulated and transformed through the application, back-end system or 3rd party service.

    How complex are my calculations?

    Can computations be offloaded?

    What resources are needed to complete the analysis?

    Memory and processing limitations on device.

    Inability to configure device and enterprise hardware to support system resource demand.

    Scope and precision of analysis and modifications.

    Evaluate and propose trends.

    Gauge user sentiment.

    Propose next steps and directions.

    Define the mobile experience your end users want

    Anytime, Anywhere
    The user can access, update and analyze data, and corporate products and services whenever they want, in all networks, and on any device.

    Hands-Off & Automated
    The application can perform various workflows and tasks without the user's involvement and notify the user when specific triggers are hit.

    Personalized & Insightful
    Content presentation and subject are tailored for the user based on specific inputs from the user, device hardware or predicted actions.

    Integrated Ecosystem
    The application supports a seamless experience across various 3rd party and enterprise applications and services the user needs.

    Visually Pleasing & Fulfilling
    The UI is intuitive and aesthetically gratifying with little security and performance trade-offs to use the full breadth of its functions and services.

    Each mobile platform has its own take on the mobile native experience. The choice ultimately depends on whether the costs and effort are worth the anticipated value.

    1.2.1 Discover your mobile needs

    1-3 hours

    1. Define the workflow of a high priority opportunity in your mobile backlog. This workflow can be pertaining to an existing mobile application or a workflow that can benefit with a mobile application.
      1. Indicate the trigger that will initiate the opportunity and the desired outcome.
      2. Break down the persona's desired outcome into small pieces of value that are realized in each workflow step.
    2. Identify activities and touchpoints the persona will need to complete to finish each step in the workflow. Indicate the technology used to complete the activity or to facilitate the touchpoint.
    3. Indicate which activities and touchpoints can be satisfied, complimented or enhanced with mobile.

    Input

    Output
    • User personas
    • Mobile application canvas
    • Desired mobile experience
    • List of mobile features
    • Journey map
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template
    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    1.2.1 cont'd

    Workflow

    Trigger

    Conduct initial analysis

    Get planning help

    Complete and submit RFP

    Design and implement solution

    Implement changes

    Activities, Channels, and Touchpoints

    Need is recognized in CIO council meeting

    See if we have a sufficient solution internally

    Seek planning help (various channels)

    *Meet with IT shared services business analyst

    Select the appropriate vendor

    Follow action plan

    Compliance rqmt triggered by new law

    See if we have a sufficient solution internally

    *Hold in-person initial meeting with IT shared services

    *Review and approve rqmts (email)

    Seek miscellaneous support

    Implement project and manage change

    Research potential solutions in the marketplace

    Excess budget identified for utilization

    Pick a "favorite" solution

    *Negotiate and sign statement of work (email)

    Prime organization for the change

    Create action plan

    If solution is unsatisfactory, plan remediation

    Current Technology

    • Email
    • Video conferencing
    • Phone
    • Meeting transcripts and recordings
    • ERP
    • IT asset management
    • Internet browser for research
    • Virtual environment to demonstrate solutions
    • Email
    • Vendor assessment and procurement solution
    • Email
    • Video conferencing
    • Phone
    • Meeting transcripts and recordings
    • PDF documents and reader
    • Digital signature
    • Email
    • Video conferencing
    • Phone
    • Meeting transcripts and recordings
    • PDF documents and reader
    • Digital signature
    • Email
    • Video conferencing
    • Phone
    • Vendor assessment and procurement solution
    • Project management solution
    • Team collaboration solution
    • Email
    • Video conferencing
    • Phone
    • Project management solution
    • Team collaboration solution
    • Vendor's solution

    Legend:

    Bold – Touchpoint

    * – Activities or Touchpoints That Can Benefit with Mobile

    1.2.1 cont'd

    1-3 hours

    1. Analyze persona expectations. Identify the persona's must-haves, then nice-to-haves, and then hidden needs to effectively complete the workflow.
      1. Must-haves. The necessary outcomes, qualities, and features of the workflow step.
      2. Nice-to-haves. Desired outcomes, qualities, or features that your persona is able to articulate or express.
      3. Hidden needs. Outcomes, qualities, or features that your persona is not aware they have a desire for; benefits that they are pleasantly surprised to receive. These will usually be unknown for your first-iteration journey map.
    2. Indicate which persona expectations can be satisfied with mobile. Discuss what would the desired mobile experience be.
    3. Discuss feedback and experiences your team has heard from the personas they engage with regularly.
    4. Document your findings and discussions into Info-Tech's Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template.

    Download the Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template

    1.2.1 cont'd

    Example

    This image contains an example workflow for determining mobile needs.

    1.2.1 cont'd

    Template:

    Workflow

    TriggerStep 1Step 2Step 3Step 4

    Desired Outcome

    Journey Map

    Activities & Touch-points

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    Must-Haves

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    Nice-to-Haves

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    Hidden Needs

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    Emotional Journey

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    If you need more than four steps in the workflow, duplicate this slide.

    Understand how mobile fits with your current system

    Evaluate the risks and impacts of your desired mobile features by looking at your enterprise system architecture from top to bottom. Is your mobile vision and needs compatible with your existing business capabilities and technologies?

    An architecture is usually represented by one or more architecture views that together provide a coherent description of the application system, including demonstrating the full impact mobile will have. A single, comprehensive model is often too complex to be understood and communicated in its most detailed form, and a model too high level hides the underlying complexity of an application's structure and deployment (The Open Group, TOGAF 8.1.1 - Developing Architecture Views). Obtain a complete understanding of your architecture by assessing it through multiple levels of views to reveal different sets of concerns:

    Application Architecture Views

    1. Use Case View
    • How does your business operate, and how will users interact with your mobile applications?
  • . Process View
    • What is the user workflow impacted by mobile, and how will it change?
  • Component View
    • How are my existing applications structured? What are its various components? How will mobile expand the costs of the existing technical debt?
  • Data View
    • What is the relationship of the data and information consumed, analyzed, and transmitted? Will mobile jeopardize the quality and reliability of the data?
  • Deployment View
    • In what environment are your mobile application components deployed? How will the existing systems operate with your mobile applications?
  • System View
    • How does your mobile application communicate with other internal and external systems? How will dependencies change with mobile?
  • See our Enhance Your Solution Architecture for more information.

    Ask key questions in your current system assessment

    • How do the various components of your system communicate with each other (e.g., web APIs, middleware, and point to point)?
    • What information is exchanged during the conversation?
    • How does the data flow from one component to the next? Is the data read-only or can application and users edit and modify it?
    • What are the access points to your mid- and back-tier systems (e.g., user access through web interface, corporate networks and third-party application access through APIs)?
    • Who has access to your enterprise systems?
    • Which components are managed and operated by third-party providers? What is your level of control?
    • What are the security protocols currently enforced in your system?
    • How often are your databases updated? Is it real-time or periodic extract, transfer, and load (ETL)?
    • What are the business rules?
    • Is your mobile stack dependent on other systems?
    • Is a mobile middleware, web server, or API gateway needed to help facilitate the integration between devices and your back-end support?

    1.2.2 Conduct a technical assessment

    1-3 hours

    1. Evaluate your current systems that will support the journey map of your mobile opportunities based on two categories: system quality and system management. Use the tables on the following slides and modify the questions if needed.
    2. Discuss if the current state of your system will impede your ability to succeed with mobile. Use this discussion to verify the decision to continue with mobile applications in your current state.
    3. Document your findings and discussions into Info-Tech's Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template.

    Download the Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template

    Input

    Output
    • Journey map
    • Understanding of current system
    • Assessment of current system
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template
    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    1.2.2 cont'd

    Current State System Quality Assessment

    Factors Definitions Survey Responses
    Fit-for-Purpose System functionalities, services and integrations are designed and implemented for the purpose of satisfying the end users' needs and technology compatibilities. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)
    Response Rate The system completes computation and processing requests within acceptable timeframes. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)
    Data Quality The system delivers consumable, accurate, and trustworthy data. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)
    Usability The system provides functionalities, services and integrations that are rewarding, engaging, intuitive, and emotionally satisfying. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)
    Reliability The system is resilient or quickly recovers from issues and defects. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)
    Accessible The system is available on demand and on the end user's preferred interface and device. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)
    Secured End-user activity and data is protected from unauthorized access. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)
    Adaptable The system can be quickly tailored to meet changing end-user and technology needs with reusable and customizable components. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)

    1.2.2 cont'd

    Current State System Management Assessment

    Factors Definitions Survey Responses
    Documentation The system is documented, accurate, and shared in the organization. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)
    Measurement The system is continuously measured against clearly defined metrics tied to business value. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)
    Compliance The system is compliant with regulations and industry standards. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)
    Continuous Improvement The system is routinely rationalized and enhanced. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)
    Architecture There is a shared overview of how the process supports business value delivery and its dependencies with technologies and other processes. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)
    Ownership & Accountability The process has a clearly defined owner who is accountable for its risks and roadmap. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)
    Support Resources are available to address adoption and execution challenges. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)
    Organizational Change Management Communication, onboarding, and other change management capabilities are available to facilitate technology and related role and process changes. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)

    Step 1.3

    Define Your Non-Functional Requirements

    Activities

    1.3.1 Define mobile application quality

    1.3.2 Verify your decision to deliver mobile applications

    Set the Mobile Context

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams

    Outcomes of this step

    • Mobile application quality definition
    • Readiness for mobile delivery

    Build a strong foundation of mobile application quality

    Functionality and aesthetics often take front seats in mobile application delivery. Applications are then frequently modified and changed, not because they are functionally deficient or visually displeasing, but because they are difficult to maintain or scale, too slow, vulnerable or compromised. Implementing clear quality principles (i.e., non-functional requirements) and strong quality assurance practices throughout delivery are critical to minimize the potential work of future maintenance and to avoid, mitigate and manage IT risks.

    What is Mobile Application Quality?

    • Quality requirements (i.e., non-functional requirements) are properties of a system or product that dictate how it should behave at runtime and how it should be designed, implemented, and maintained.
    • These requirements should be involved in decision making around architecture, UI and functional design changes.
    • Functionality should not dictate the level of security, availability, or performance of a product, thereby risking system quality. Functionality and quality are viewed orthogonally, and trade-offs are discussed when one impacts the other.
    • Quality attributes should never be achieved in isolation as one attribute can have a negative or positive impact on another (e.g. security and availability).

    Why is Mobile Quality Assurance Critical?

    • Quality assurance (QA) is a necessity for the validation and verification of mobile delivery, whether you are delivering applications in an Agile or Waterfall fashion. Effective QA practices implemented across the software development lifecycle (SDLC) are vital, as all layers of the mobile stack need to readily able to adjust to suddenly evolving and changing business and user needs and technologies without risking system stability and breaking business standards and expectations.
    • However, investments in QA optimizations are often afterthoughts. QA is commonly viewed as a lower priority compared to other delivery capabilities (e.g., design and coding) and is typically the first item cut when delivery is under pressure.

    See our Build a Software Quality Assurance Program for more information.

    Mobile emphasizes the importance of good security, performance and integration

    Today's mobile workforce is looking for new ways to get more work done quickly. They want access to enterprise solutions and data directly on their mobile device, which can reside on multiple legacy systems and in the cloud and third-party infrastructure. This presents significant performance, integration, and security risks.

    Cloud Solutions: Can I use my existing APIs?. Solutions in Corporate Networks: Do my legacy systems have the capacity to support mobile?; How do I integrate solutions and data from multiple sources into a single view?; Third Party Solutions: Will I have a significant performance bottleneck?; Single View on Mobile Devices: How is corporate data stored on the device?; What new technology dependencies must I account for in my architecture and operational support capabilities?

    Mobile risks opening and widening existing security gaps

    New mobile technologies and the continued expansion of the enterprise environment increase the number of entry points attackers to your corporate data and networks. The ever-growing volume, velocity, and variety of new threats puts significant pressure on mobile delivery teams who are responsible for implementing mobile security measures and maintaining alignment to your security policies and those of app stores.

    Mobile attacks can come from various vectors:

    Attack Surface: Mobile Device

    Attack Surface: Network

    Attack Surface: Data Center

    Browser:
    Phishing
    Buffer Overflow
    Data Caching

    System:
    No Passcode
    Jailbroken and Rooted OS
    No/Weak Encryption
    OS Data Caching

    Phone:
    SMSishing
    Radio Frequency Attacks

    Apps:
    Configuration Manipulation
    Runtime Injection
    Improper SSL Validation

    • Packet Sniffing
    • Session Hijacking
    • Man-in-the-Middle (circumvent password verification systems)
    • Fake SSL Certificate
    • Rogue Access Points

    Web Server:
    Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
    Brute Force Attacks
    Server Misconfigurations

    Database:
    SQL Injection
    Data Dumping

    Understand the top web security risks and vulnerabilities seen in the industry

    Recognize mobile applications are exposed to the same risks and vulnerabilities as web applications. Learn of OWASP's top 10 web security risks.

    • Broken Access Control
      • Failures typically lead to unauthorized information disclosure, modification, or destruction of all data or performing a business function outside the user's limits.
    • Cryptographic Failures
      • Improper and incorrect protection of data in transit and at rest, especially proprietary and confidential data and those that fall under privacy laws.
    • Injection
      • Execution of malicious code and injection of hostile or unfiltered data on the mobile device via the mobile application.
    • Insecure Design
      • Missing or ineffective security controls in the application design. An insecure design cannot be fixed by a perfect implementation,. Needed security controls were never created to defend against specific attacks.
    • Security Misconfiguration
      • The security settings in the application are not securely set or configured, including poor security hardening and inadequate system upgrading practices.
    • Vulnerable and Outdated Components
      • System components are vulnerable because they are unsupported, out of date, untested or not hardened against current security concerns.
    • Identification and Authentication Failures
      • Improper or poor protection against authentication-related attacks, particularly to the user's identity, authentication and session management.
    • Software and Data Integrity Failures
      • Failures related to code and infrastructure that does not protect against integrity violations, such as an application relying upon plugins, libraries, or modules from untrusted sources, repositories, and content delivery networks
    • Security Logging and Monitoring Failures
      • Insufficient logging, detection, monitoring, and active response that hinders the ability to detect, escalate, and respond to active breaches.
    • Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)
      • SSRF flaws occur whenever a web application is fetching a remote resource without validating the user-supplied URL.

    Good mobile application performance drives satisfaction and value delivery

    Underperforming mobile applications can cause your users to be unproductive. Your mobile applications should always aim to satisfy the productivity requirements of your end users.

    Users quickly notice applications that are slow and difficult to use. Providing a seamless experience for the user is now heavily dependent on how well your application performs. Optimizing your mobile application's processing efficiency can help your users perform their jobs properly in various environment conditions.

    Productive Users Need
    Performant Mobile Applications

    Persona

    Mobile Application Use Case

    Optimized Mobile Application

    Stationary Worker

    • Design flowcharts and diagrams, while abandoning paper and desktop apps in favor of easy-to-use, drawing tablet applications.
    • Multitask by checking the application to verify information given by a vendor during their presentation or pitch.
    • Flowcharts and diagrams are updated in real time for team members to view and edit
    • Compare vendors under assessment with a quick look-up app feature

    Roaming Worker (Engineer)

    • Replace physical copies of service and repair manuals physically stored with digital copies and access them with mobile applications.
    • Scan or input product bar code to determine whether a replacement part is available or needs to be ordered.
    • Worker is capable of interacting with other features of the mobile web app while product bar code is being verified

    Enhance the performance of the entire mobile stack

    Due to frequently changing mobile hardware, users' high performance expectations and mobile network constraints, mobile delivery teams must focus on the entire mobile stack for optimizing performance.

    Fine tune your enterprise mobile applications using optimization techniques to improve performance across the full mobile stack.

    This image contains a bar graph ranking the importance of the following datapoints: Minimize render blocking resources; Configure the mobile application viewport; Determine the right image file format ; Determine above-the-fold content; Minimize browser reflow; Adopt UI techniques to improve perceived latency; Resource minification; Data compression; Asynchronous programming; Resource HTTP caching; Minimize network roundtrips for first time to render.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Some user performance expectations can be managed with clever UI design (e.g., spinning pinwheels to indicate loading in progress and directing user focus to quick loading content) and operational choices (e.g. graceful degradation and progressive enhancements).

    Create an API-centric integration strategy

    Mobile delivery teams are tasked to keep up with the changing needs of end users and accommodate the evolution of trending mobile features. Ensuring scalable APIs is critical in quickly releasing changes and ensuring availability of corporate services and resources.

    As your portfolio of mobile applications grows, and device platforms and browsers diversify, it will become increasingly complex to provide all the data and service capabilities your mobile apps need to operate. It is important that your APIs are available, reliable, reusable, and secure for multiple uses and platforms.

    Take an API-centric approach to retain control of your mobile development and ensure reliability.

    APIs are the underlying layer of your mobile applications, enabling remote access of company data and services to end users. Focusing design and development efforts on the maintainability, reliability and scalability of your APIs enables your delivery teams to:

    • Reuse tried-and-tested APIs to deliver, test and harden applications and systems quicker by standardizing on the use and structure of REST APIs.
    • Ensure a consistent experience and performance across different applications using the same API.
    • Uniformly apply security and access control to remain compliant to security protocols, industry standards and regulations.
    • Provide reliable integration points when leveraging third-party APIs and services.

    See our Build Effective Enterprise Integration on the Back of Business Process for more information.

    Guide your integration strategy with principles

    Craft your principles around good API management and integration practices

    Expose Enterprise Data And Functionality in API-Friendly Formats
    Convert complex on-premises application services into developer-friendly RESTful APIs

    Protect Information Assets Exposed Via APIs to Prevent Misuse
    Ensure that enterprise systems are protected against message-level attack and hijack

    Authorize Secure, Seamless Access for Valid Identities
    Deploy strong access control, identity federation and social login functionality

    Optimize System Performance and Manage the API Lifecycle
    Maintain the availability of backend systems for APIs, applications and end users

    Engage, Onboard, Educate and Manage Developers
    Give developers the resources they need to create applications that deliver real value

    Source: 5 Pillars of API Management, Broadcom, 2021

    Clarify your definition of mobile quality

    Quality does not mean the same thing to everyone

    Do not expect a universal definition of mobile quality. Each department, person and industry standard will have a different interpretation of quality, and they will perform certain activities and enforce policies that meet those interpretations. Misunderstanding of what is defined as a high quality mobile application within business and IT teams can lead to further confusion behind governance, testing priorities and compliance.

    Each interpretation of quality can lead to endless testing, guardrails and constraints, or lack thereof. Be clear on the priority of each interpretation and the degree of effort needed to ensure they are met.

    For example:

    Mobile Application Owner
    What does an accessible mobile application mean?

    Persona: Customer
    I can access it on mobile phones, tablets and the web browser

    Persona: Developer
    I have access to each layer of the mobile stack including the code & data

    Persona: Operations
    The mobile application is accessible 24/7 with 95% uptime

    Example: A School Board's Quality Definition

    Quality Attribute Definitions
    Usability The product is an intuitive solution. Usability is the ease with which the user accomplishes a desired task in the application system and the degree of user support the system provides. Limited training and documentation are required.
    Performance Usability and performance are closely related. A solution that is slow is not usable. The application system is able to meet timing requirements, which is dependent on stable infrastructure to support it regardless of where the application is hosted. Baseline performance metrics are defined and changes must result in improvements. Performance is validated against peak loads.
    Availability The application system is present, accessible, and ready to carry out its tasks when needed. The application is accessible from multiple devices and platforms, is available 24x7x365, and teams communicate planned downtimes and unplanned outages. IT must serve teachers international student's parents, and other users who access the application outside normal business hours. The application should never be down when it should be up. Teams must not put undue burden on end users accessing the systems. Reasonable access requirements are published.
    Security Applications handle both private and personal data, and must be able to segregate data based on permissions to protect privacy. The application system is able to protect data and information from unauthorized access. Users want it to be secure but seamless. Vendors need to understand and implement the District School Board's security requirements into their products. Teams ensure access is authorized, maintain data integrity, and enforce privacy.
    Reusability Reusability is the capability for components and subsystems to be suitable for use in other applications and in other scenarios. This attribute minimizes the duplication of components and implementation time. Teams ensure a modular design that is flexible and usable in other applications.
    Interoperability The degree to which two or more systems can usefully exchange meaningful information via interfaces in a particular context.

    Scalability

    There are two kinds of scalability:

    • Horizontal scalability (scaling out): Adding more resources to logical units, such as adding another server to a cluster of servers.
    • Vertical scalability (scaling up): Adding more resources to a physical unit, such as adding more memory to a single computer.

    Ease of maintenance and enhancements are critical. Additional care is given to custom code because of the inherent difficulty to make it scale and update.

    Modifiability The capability to manage the risks and costs of change, considering what can be changed, the likelihood of change, and when and who makes the change. Teams minimize the barriers to change, and get business buy in to keep systems current and valuable.
    Testability The ease with which software are made to demonstrate its faults through (typically execution-based) testing. It cannot be assumed that the vendor has already tested the system against District School Board's requirements. Testability applies to all applications, operating systems, and databases.
    Supportability The ability of the system to provide information helpful for identifying and resolving issues when it fails to work correctly. Supportability applies to all applications and systems within the District School Board's portfolio, whether that be custom developed applications or vendor provided solutions. Resource investments are made to better support the system.
    Cost Efficiency The application system is executed and maintained in such a way that each area of cost is reduced to what is critically needed. Cost efficiency is critical (e.g. printers cost per page, TCO, software what does downtime cost us), and everyone must understand the financial impact of their decisions.
    Self-Service End users are empowered to make configurations, troubleshoot and make changes to their application without the involvement of IT. The appropriate controls are in place to manage the access to unauthorized access to corporate systems.
    Modifiability The capability to manage the risks and costs of change, considering what can be changed, the likelihood of change, and when and who makes the change. Teams minimize the barriers to change, and get business buy in to keep systems current and valuable.
    Testability The ease with which software are made to demonstrate its faults through (typically execution-based) testing. It cannot be assumed that the vendor has already tested the system against District School Board's requirements. Testability applies to all applications, operating systems, and databases.
    Supportability The ability of the system to provide information helpful for identifying and resolving issues when it fails to work correctly. Supportability applies to all applications and systems within the District School Board's portfolio, whether that be custom developed applications or vendor provided solutions. Resource investments are made to better support the system.

    1.3.1 Define mobile application quality

    1-3 hours

    1. List 5 quality attributes that your organization sees as important for a successful mobile application.
    2. List the core personas that will support mobile delivery and that will consume the mobile application. Start with development, operations and support, and end user.
    3. Describe each quality attributes from the perspective of each persona by asking, "What does quality mean to you?".
    4. Review each description from each persona to come to an acceptable definition.
    5. Document your findings and discussions into Info-Tech's Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template.

    Download the Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template

    Input

    Output
    • User personas
    • Mobile application canvas
    • Journey map
    • Mobile application quality definition
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template
    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    1.3.1 cont'd

    Example: Info-Tech Guided Implementation with a Legal and Professional Services Organization

    Quality AttributeDeveloperOperations & Support TeamEnd Users

    Usability

    • Architecture and frameworks are aligned with industry best practices
    • Regular feedback through analytics and user feedback
    • Faster development and less technical debt
    • Pride in the product
    • Satisfaction that the product is serving its purpose and is actually being used by the user
    • Increased update of product use and feedback for future lifecycle
    • Standardization and positive perception of IT processes
    • Simpler to train users to adopt products and changes
    • Trust in system and ability to promote the product in a positive light
    • Trusted list of applications
    • Intuitive (easy to use, no training required)
    • Encourage collaboration and sharing ideas between end users and delivery teams
    • The information presented is correct and accurate
    • Users understand where the data came from and the algorithms behind it
    • Users learn features quickly and retain their knowledge longer, which directly correlates to decreased training costs and time
    • High uptake in use of the product
    • Seamless experience, use less energy to work with product

    Security

    • Secure by design approach
    • Testing across all layers of the application stack
    • Security analysis of our source code
    • Good approach to security requirement definition, secure access to databases, using latest libraries and using semantics in code
    • Standardized & clear practices for development
    • Making data access granular (not all or none)
    • Secure mission critical procedures which will reduce operational cost, improve compliance and mitigate risks
    • Auditable artifacts on security implementation
    • Good data classification, managed secure access, system backups and privacy protocols
    • Confidence of protection of user data
    • Encryption of sensitive data
    Availability
    • Good access to the code
    • Good access to the data
    • Good access to APIs and other integration technologies
    • Automatic alerts when something goes wrong
    • Self-repairing/recovering
    • SLAs and uptimes
    • Code documentation
    • Proactive support from the infrastructure team
    • System availability dashboard
    • Access on any end user device, including mobile and desktop
    • 24/7 uptime
    • Rapid response to reported defects or bugs
    • Business continuity

    1.3.2 Verify your decision to deliver mobile applications

    1-3 hours

    1. Review the various end user, business and technical expectations for mobile its achievability given the current state of your system and non-functional requirements.
    2. Complete the list of questions on the following slide as an indication for your readiness for mobile delivery.

    Input

    Output
    • Mobile application canvas
    • Assessment to proceed with mobile
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    1.3.2 cont'd

    Skill Sets
    Software delivery teams have skills in creating mobile applications that stakeholders are expecting in value and quality. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Architects look for ways to reuse existing technical asset and design for future growth and maturity in mobile. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Resources can be committed to implement and manage a mobile platform. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Software delivery teams and resources are adaptable and flexible to requirements and system changes. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Delivery Process
    My software delivery process can accommodate last minute and sudden changes in mobile delivery tasks. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Business and IT requirements for the mobile are clarified through collaboration between business and IT representatives. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Mobile will help us fill the gaps and standardize our software delivery process process. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    My testing practices can be adapted to verify and validate the mobile functional and non-functional requirements. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Technical Stack
    My mid-tier and back-end support has the capacity to accommodate additional traffic from mobile. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    I have access to my web infrastructure and integration technologies, and I am capable of making configurations. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    My security approaches and capabilities can be enhanced address specific mobile application risks and vulnerabilities. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    I have a sound and robust integration strategy involving web APIs that gives me the flexibility to support mobile applications. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)

    Phase 2

    Define Your Mobile Approach

    Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Step 2.1 – Choose Your Platform Approach
    • Step 2.2 – Shortlist Your Mobile Delivery Solution
    • Step 2.3 – Create a Roadmap for Mobile Delivery

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    Step 2.1

    Choose Your Platform Approach

    Activities

    2.1.1 Select your platform approach

    Define Your Mobile Approach

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    Outcomes of this step

    • Desired mobile platform approach

    Mobile value is dependent on the platform you choose

    What is a platform?

    "A platform is a set of software and a surrounding ecosystem of resources that helps you to grow your business. A platform enables growth through connection: its value comes not only from its own features, but from its ability to connect external tools, teams, data, and processes." (Source: Emilie Nøss Wangen, 2021) In the mobile context, applications in a platform execute and communicate through a loosely coupled API architecture whether the supporting system is managed and supported by your organization or by 3rd party providers.

    Web

    The mobile web often takes on one of the following two approaches:

    • Responsive websites – Content, UI and other website elements automatically adjusts itself according to the device, creating a seamless experience regardless of the device.
    • Progressive web applications (PWAs) – PWAs uses the browser's APIs and features to offer native-like experiences.

    Mobile web applications are often developed with a combination of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript languages.

    Hybrid

    Hybrid applications are developed with web technologies but are deployed as native applications. The code is wrapped using a framework so that it runs locally within a native container, and it uses the device's browser runtime engine to support more sophisticated designs and features compared to the web approach. Hybrid mobile solutions allows teams to code once and deploy to multiple platforms.

    Some notable examples:

    • Gmail
    • Instagram

    Cross-Platform

    Cross-platform applications are developed within a distinct programming or scripting environment that uses its own scripting language (often like web languages) and APIs. Then the solution will compile the code into device-specific builds for native deployment.

    Some notable examples:

    • Facebook
    • Skype
    • Slack

    Native

    Native applications are developed and deployed to specific devices and OSs using platform-specific software development kits (SDKs) provided by the operating system vendors. The programming language and framework are dictated by the targeted device, such as Java for Android.

    With this platform, developers have direct access to local device features allowing customized operations. This enables the use of local resources, such as memory and runtime engines, which will achieve a higher performance than hybrid and cross-platform applications.

    Each platform offers unique pros and cons depending on your mobile needs

    WebHybridCross-PlatformNative

    Pros

    Cons

    Pros

    Cons

    Pros

    Cons

    Pros

    Cons

    • Modern browsers support the popular of web languages (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript).
    • Ubiquitous across multiple form factors and devices.
    • Mobile can be easily integrated into traditional web development processes and technical stacks.
    • Installations are not required, and updates are immediate.
    • Sensitive data can be wiped from memory after app is closed.
    • Limited access to local device hardware and software.
    • Local caching is available for limited offline capabilities, but the scope of tasks that can be completed in this scenario is restricted.
    • The browser's runtime engine is limited in computing power.
    • Not all browsers fully support the latest versions of HTML, CSS, or JavaScript.
    • Web languages can be used to develop a complete application.
    • Code can be reused for multiple platforms, including web.
    • Access to commonly-used native features that are not available through the web platform.
    • Quick delivery and maintenance updates compared to native and cross-platform platforms.
    • Consistent internet access is needed due to its reliance heavily reliance on web technologies to operate.
    • Limited ability to support complex workflows and features.
    • Sluggish performance compared to cross-platform and native applications.
    • Certain features may not operate the same across all platforms given the code once, deploy everywhere approach.
    • More cost-effective to develop than using native development approaches to gain similar features. Platform-specific developers are not needed.
    • Common codebase to develop applications on different applications.
    • Enables more complex application functionalities and technical customizations compared to hybrid applications.
    • Code is not portable across cross-platform delivery solutions.
    • The framework is tied to the vendor solution which presents the risk of vendor lock-in.
    • Deployment is dependent on an app store and the delivery solution may not guarantee the application's acceptance into the application store.
    • Significant training and onboarding may be needed using the cross-platform framework.
    • Tight integration with the device's hardware enables high performance and greater use of hardware features.
    • Computationally-intensive and complex tasks can be completed on the device.
    • Available offline access.
    • Apps are available through easy-to-access app stores.
    • Requires additional investments, such as app stores, app-specific support, versioning, and platform-specific extensions.
    • Developers skilled in a device-specific language are difficult to acquire and costly to train.
    • Testing is required every time a new device or OS is introduced.
    • Higher development and maintenance costs are tradeoffs for native device features.

    Start mobile development on a mobile web platform

    Start with what you have: begin with a mobile web platform to minimize impacts to your existing delivery skill sets and technical stack while addressing business needs. Resort to a hybrid first and then consider a cross-platform application if you require device access or the need to meet specific non-functional requirements.

    Why choose a mobile web platform?

    Pros

    The latest versions of the most popular web languages (HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript) abstract away from the granular, physical components of the application, simplifying the development process. HTML5 offer some mobile features (e.g., geolocation, accelerometer) that can meet your desired experience without the need for native development skills. Native look-and-feel, high performance, and full device access are just a few tradeoffs of going with web languages.

    Cons

    Native mobile platforms depend on device-specific code which follows specific frameworks and leverages unique programming libraries, such as Objective C for iOS and Java for Android. Each language requires a high level of expertise in the coding structure and hardware of specific devices requiring resources with specific skillsets and different tools to support development and testing.

    Other Notable Benefits with Web Languages

    • Modern browsers in most mobile devices are capable of executing and rendering many mobile features developed in web languages, allowing for greater portability and sophistication of code across multiple devices. However, this flexibility comes at the cost of performance since the browser's runtime engine will not perform as well as a native engine.
    • Web languages are well known by developers, minimizing skills and resourcing impacts. Consequently, changes can be quickly accommodated and updated uniformly across all end users.

    Do you need a native platform?

    Consider web workarounds if you choose a web platform but require some native experiences.

    The web platform does not give you direct access or sophisticated customizations to local device hardware and services, underlying code and integrations. You may run into the situation where you need some native experiences, but the value of these features may not offset the costs to undertake a native, hybrid or cross-platform application. When developing hybrid and cross-platform applications with a mobile delivery solution, only the APIs of the commonly used device features are available. Note that some vendors may not offer a particular native feature across all devices, inhibiting your ability to achieve feature parity or exploiting device features only available in certain devices. Workarounds are then needed.

    Consider the following workarounds to address the required native experiences on the web platform:

    Native Function Description Web Workaround Impact
    Camera Takes pictures or records videos through the device's camera. Create an upload form in the web with HTML5. Break in workflow leading to poor user experience (UX).
    Geolocation Detects the geographical location of the device. Available through HTML5. Not Applicable.
    Calendar Stores the user's calendar in local memory. Integrate with calendaring system or manually upload contacts. Costly integration initiative. Poor user experience.
    Contacts Stores contact information in local memory. Integrate app with contact system or manually upload contacts. Costly integration initiative. Poor user experience.
    Near Field Communication (NFC) Communication between devices by touching them together or bringing them into proximity. Manual transfer of data. A lot of time is consumed transferring simple information.
    Native Computation Computational power and resources needed to complete tasks on the device. Resource-intensive requests are completed by back-end systems and results sent back to user. Slower application performance given network constraints.

    Info-Tech Insight

    In many cases, workarounds are available when evaluating the gaps between web and native applications. For example, not having application-level access to the camera does not negate the user option to upload a picture taken by the camera through a web form. Tradeoffs like this will come down to assessing the importance of each platform gap for your organization and whether a workaround is good enough as a native-like experience.

    Architect and configure your entire mobile stack with a plan

    • Assess your existing technology stack that will support your mobile platform. Determine if it has the capacity to handle mobile traffic and the necessary integration between devices and enterprise and 3rd party systems are robust and reliable. Reach out to your IT teams and vendors if you are missing key mobile components, such as:
    • The acquisition and provisioning of physical or virtual mobile web servers and middleware from existing vendors.
    • Cloud services [e.g., Mobile Back-end as a Service (mBaaS)] that assists in the mobilization of back-end data sources with API SDKs, orchestration of data from multiple sources, transformation of legacy APIs to mobile formats, and satisfaction of other security, integration and performance needs.
    • Configure the services of your web server or middleware to facilitate the translation, transformation, and transfer of data between your mobile front-end and back-end. If your plan involves scripts, maintenance and other ongoing costs will likely increase.
    • Leverage the APIs or adapters provided by your vendors or device manufacturers to integrate your mobile front-end and back-end support to your web server or middleware. If you are reusing a web server, the back-end integration should already be in place. Remember, APIs implement business rules to maintain the integrity of data exchange within your mobile stack.
    • See Appendix A for examples of reference architectures of mobile platforms.

    See our Enhance Your Solution Architecture for more information.

    Do Not Forget Your Security and Performance Requirements

    Security: New threats from mobile put organizations into a difficult situation beyond simply responding to them in a timely matter. Be careful not to take the benefits of security out of the mobile context. You need to make security a first-order citizen during the scoping, design, and optimization of your systems supporting mobile. It must also be balanced with other functional and non-functional requirements with the right roles taking accountability for these decisions.

    See our Strengthen the SSDLC for Enterprise Mobile Applications for more information.

    Performance: Within a distributed mobile environment, performance has a risk of diminishing due to limited device capacity, network hopping, lack of server scalability, API bottlenecks, and other device, network and infrastructure issues. Mobile web APIs suffer from the same pain points as traditional web browsing and unplanned API call management in an application will lead to slow performance.

    See our Develop Enterprise Mobile Applications With Realistic and Relevant Performance for more information.

    Enterprise platform selection requires a shift in perspective

    Your mobile platform selection must consider both user and enterprise (i.e., non-functional) needs. Use a two-step process for your analysis:

    Begin Platform Selection with a User-Centric Approach

    Organizations appealing to end users place emphasis on the user experience: the look and appeal of the user interface, and the satisfaction, ease of use, and value of its functionalities. In this approach, IT concerns and needs are not high priorities, but many functions are completed locally or isolated from mission critical corporate networks and sensitive data. Some needs include:

    • Performance: quick execution of tasks and calculations made on the device or offloaded to web servers or the cloud.
    • User Interface: cross-platform compatibility and feature-rich design and functionality. The right native experience is critical to the user adoption and satisfaction.
    • Device Access: use of local device hardware and software to complete app use cases, such as camera, calendar, and contact lists.

    Refine Platform Selection with an Enterprise-Centric Approach

    From the enterprise perspective, emphasis is on security, system performance, integration, reuse and other non-functional requirements as the primary motivations in the selection of a mobile platform. User experience is still a contributing factor because of the mobile application's need to drive value but its priority is not exclusive. Some drivers include:

    • Openness: agreed-upon industry standards and technologies that can be applied to serve enterprise needs which support business processes.
    • Integration: increase the reuse of legacy investments and existing applications and services with integration capabilities.
    • Flexibility: support for multiple data types from applications such as JSON format for mobile.
    • Capacity: maximize the utilization of your software delivery resources beyond the initial iteration of the mobile application.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Selecting a mobile platform should not solely be made on business requirements. Key technical stakeholders should be at the table in this discussion to provide insight on the implementation and ongoing costs and benefits of each platform. Both business and technical requirements should be considered when deciding on a final platform.

    Select your mobile platform

    Drive your mobile platform selection against user-centric needs (e.g. device access, aesthetics) and enterprise-centric needs (e.g. security, system performance).

    When does a platform makes sense to use?

    Web

    • Desire to maximize current web technologies investments (people, process, and technologies).
    • Use cases do not require significant computational resources on the device or are tightly constrained by non-functional requirements.
    • Limited budget to acquire mobile development resources.
    • Access to device hardware is not a high priority.

    Hybrid / Cross-Platform

    • The need to quickly spin up native-like applications for multiple platforms and devices.
    • Desire to leverage existing web development skills, but also a need for device access and meeting specific non-functional requirements.
    • Vendor support is needed for the entire mobile delivery process.

    Native

    • Developers are experts in the target programming language and with the device's hardware.
    • Strong need for high performance, security and device-specific access and customizations.
    • Application use cases requiring significant computing resources.

    Nine datapoints are arranged on a graph where the x axis s labeled: User Centric Needs; and the Y axis is labeled: Enterprise-centric needs. The datapoints are, in order from left to right, top to bottom: Hybrid; Cross- Platform; Native; Web; Hybrid or Cross- Platform; Cros-s Platform; Web; Web; Hybrid or Cross- Platform.

    2.1.1 Select your platform approach

    1-3 hours

    1. Review your mobile objectives, end user needs and non-functional requirements.
    2. Determine which mobile platform is appropriate for each mobile opportunity or use case by answering the following questions on the following slides against two factors: user-centric and enterprise-centric needs.
    3. Calculate an average score for user-centric and one for enterprise-centric. Then, map them on the matrix to indicate possible platform options. Consider all options around the plotted point.
    4. Further discuss which platforms should be the preferred choice.
    5. Document your findings and discussions into Info-Tech's Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template.

    Download the Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template

    Input

    Output
    • Desired mobile experience
    • List of desired mobile features
    • Current state assessments
    • Mobile platform approach
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template
    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    2.1.1 cont'd

    User-Centric Needs: Functional Requirements

    Factors Definitions Survey Responses
    Device Hardware Access The scope of access to native device hardware features. Basic features include those that are available through current web languages (e.g., geolocation) whereas comprehensive features are those that are device-specific. 1 (Basic) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (Comprehensive)
    Customized Execution of Device Hardware The degree of changes to the execution of local device hardware to satisfy functional needs. 1 (Use as Is) – 2 – 3 (Configure) – 4 – 5 (Customize)
    Device Software Access The scope of access to software on the user's device, such as calendars and contact. 1 (Basic) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (Comprehensive)
    Customized Execution of Device Software The degree of changes to the execution of local device software to satisfy functional needs. 1 (Use as Is) – 2 – 3 (Configure) – 4 – 5 (Customize)
    Use Case Complexity Workflow tasks and decisions are simple and straightforward. Complex computation is not needed to acquire the desired outcome. 1 (Strongly Agree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Disagree)
    Computational Resources The resources needed on the device to complete desired functional needs. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Use Case Ambiguity The mobile use case and technical requirements are well understood and documented. Changes to the mobile application is likely. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Mobile Application Access Enterprise systems and data are accessible to the broader organization through the mobile application. This factor does not necessarily mean that anyone can access it untracked. You may still need to identify yourself or log in, etc. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Scope of Adoption & Impact The extent to which the mobile application is leveraged in the organization. 1 (Enterprise) – 2 – 3 (Department) – 4 – 5 (Team)
    Installable The need to locally install the mobile application. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Targeted Devices & Platforms Mobile applications are developed for a defined set of mobile platform versions and types and device. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Output Audience The mobile application transforms an input into a valuable output for high-priority internal or external stakeholders. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)

    2.1.1 cont'd

    User-Centric Needs: Native User Experience Factors

    Factors Definitions Survey Responses
    Immersive Experience The need to bridge physical world with the virtual and digital environment, such as geofencing and NFC. 1 (Internally Delivered) – 2 – 3 (3rd Party Supported) – 4 – 5 (Business Implemented)
    Timeliness of Content and Updates The speed of which the mobile application (and supporting system) responds with requested information, data and updates from enterprise systems and 3rd party services. 1 (Reasonable Delayed Response) – 2 – 3 (Partially Outsourced) – 4 – 5 (Fully Outsourced)
    Application Performance The speed of which the mobile application completes tasks is critical to its success. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Network Accessibility The needed ability to access and use the mobile application in various network conditions. 1 (Only Available When Online) – 2 – 3 (Partially Available When Online) – 4 – 5 (Available Online)
    Integrated Ecosystem The approach to integrate the mobile application with enterprise or 3rd party systems and services. 1 (Out-of-the-Box Connectors) – 2 – 3 (Configurable Connectors) – 4 – 5 (Customized Connectors)
    Desire to Have a Native Look-and-Feel The aesthetics and UI features (e.g., heavy animations) that are only available through native and cross-platform applications. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    User Tolerance to Change The degree of willingness and ableness for a user to change their way of working to maximize the value of the mobile application. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Mission Criticality The business could not execute its main strategy if the mobile application was removed. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Business Value The mobile application directly adds business value to the organization. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Industry Differentiation The mobile application provides a distinctive competitive advantage or is unique to your organization. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)

    2.1.1 cont'd

    Enterprise-Centric Needs: Non-Functional Requirements

    Factors Definitions Survey Responses
    Legacy Compatibility The need to integrate and operate with legacy systems. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Code Portability The need to enable the "code once and deploy everywhere" approach. 1 (High) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (Low)
    Vendor & Technology Lock-In The tolerance to lock into a vendor mobile delivery solution or technology framework. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Data Sensitivity The data used by the mobile application does not fall into the category of sensitive data – meaning nothing financial, medical, or personal identity (GDPR and worldwide equivalents). The disclosure, modification, or destruction of this data would cause limited harm to the organization. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Data Policies Policies of the mobile application's data are mandated by internal departmental standards (e.g. naming standards, backup standards, data type consistency). Policies only mandated in this way usually have limited use in a production capacity. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Security Risks Mobile applications are connected to private data sources and its intended use will be significant if underlying data is breached. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Business Continuity & System Integrity Risks The mobile application in question does not have much significance relative to the running of mission critical processes in the organization. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    System Openness Openness of enterprise systems to enable mobile applications from the user interface to the business logic and backend integrations and database. 1 (High) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (Low)
    Mobile Device Management The organization's policy for the use of mobile devices to access and leverage enterprise data and services. 1 (Bring-Your-Own-Device) – 2 – 3 (Hybrid) – 4 – 5 (Corporate Devices)

    2.1.1 cont'd

    Enterprise-Centric Needs: Delivery Capacity

    Factors Definitions Survey Responses
    Ease of Mobile Delivery The desire to have out-of-the-box and packaged tools to expedite mobile application delivery using web technologies. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Solution Competency The capability for internal staff to and learn how to implement and administer mobile delivery tools and deliver valuable, high-quality applications. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Ease of Deployment The desire to have the mobile applications delivered by the team or person without specialized resources from outside the team. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Delivery Approach The capability to successfully deliver mobile applications given budgetary and costing, resourcing, and supporting services constraints. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Maintenance & Operational Support The capability of the resources to responsibly maintain and operate mobile applications, including defect fixes and the addition and extension of modules to base implementations of the digital product. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Domain Knowledge Support The availability and accessibility of subject and domain experts to guide facilitate mobile application implementation and adoption. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Delivery Urgency The desire to have the mobile application delivered quickly. 1 (High) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (Low)
    Reusable Components The desire to reuse UI elements and application components. 1 (High) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (Low)

    2.1.1 cont'd

    Example:

    Score Factors (Average) Mobile Opportunity 1: Inventory Management Mobile Opportunity 2: Remote Support
    User-Centric Needs 4.25 3
    Functional Requirements 4.5 2.25
    Native User Experience Factors 4 1.75
    Enterprise-Centric Needs 4 2
    Non-Functional Requirements 3.75 3.25
    Delivery Capacity 4.25 2.75
    Possible Mobile Platform Cross-Platform Native PWA Hybrid

    Nine datapoints are arranged on a graph where the x axis s labeled: User Centric Needs; and the Y axis is labeled: Enterprise-centric needs. The datapoints are, in order from left to right, top to bottom: Hybrid; Cross- Platform; Native; Web; Hybrid or Cross- Platform; Cros-s Platform; Web; Web; Hybrid or Cross- Platform. Two yellow circles are overlaid, one containing the phrase: Remote Support - over the box containing Progressive Web Applications (PWA) or Hybrid; and a yellow circle containing the phrase Inventory MGMT, partly covering the box containing Native; and the box containing Cross-Platform.

    Build a scalable and manageable platform

    Long-term mobile success depends on the efficiency and reliability of the underlying operational platform. This platform must support the computational and performance demands in a changing business environment, whether it is composed of off-the-self or custom-developed solutions, or a single vendor or best-of-breed.

    • Application
      • The UI design and content language is standardized and consistently applied
      • All mobile configurations and components are automatically versioned
      • Controlled administration and tooling access, automation capabilities, and update delivery
      • Holistic portfolio management
    • Data
      • Automated data management to preserve data quality (e.g. removal of duplications)
      • Defined single source of truth
      • Adherence to data governance, and privacy and security policies
      • Good content management practices, governance and architecture
    • Infrastructure
      • Containers and sandboxes are available for development and testing
      • Self-healing and self-service environments
      • Automatic system scaling and load balancing
      • Comply to budgetary and licensing constraints
    • Integration
      • Backend database and system updates are efficient
      • Loosely coupled architecture to minimize system regressions and delivery effort
      • Application, system and data monitoring

    Step 2.2

    Shortlist Your Mobile Delivery Solution

    Activities

    2.2.1 Shortlist your mobile delivery solution

    2.2.2 Build your feature and service lists

    Define Your Mobile Approach

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    Outcomes of this step

    • Shortlisted mobile delivery solutions
    • Desired list of vendor features and services

    Ask yourself: should I build or buy?

    Build Buy

    Multi-Source Best-of-Breed

    Vendor Add-Ons & Integrations

    Integrate various technologies that provide subset(s) of the features needed for supporting the business functions.

    Enhance an existing vendor's offerings by using their system add-ons either as upgrades, new add-ons or integrations.

    Pros

    • Flexibility in choice of tools.
    • In some cases, cost may be lower.
    • Easier to enhance with in-house teams.

    Cons

    • Introduces tool sprawl.
    • Requires resources to understand tools and how they integrate.
    • Some of the tools necessary may not be compatible with each other.

    Pros

    • Reduces tool sprawl.
    • Supports consistent tool stack.
    • Vendor support can make enhancement easier.
    • Total cost of ownership may be lower.

    Cons

    • Vendor Lock-In.
    • The processes to enhance may require tweaking to fit tool capability.

    Multi-Source Custom

    Single Source

    Integrate systems built in-house with technologies developed by external organizations.

    Buy an application/system from one vendor only.

    Pros

    • Flexibility in choice of tools.
    • In some cases, cost may be lower.
    • Easier to enhance with in-house teams.

    Cons

    • May introduce tool sprawl.
    • Requires resources to have strong technical skills
    • Some of the tools necessary may
    • not be compatible with each other.

    Pros

    • Reduces tool sprawl.
    • Supports consistent tool stack.
    • Vendor support can make enhancement easier.
    • Total cost of ownership may be lower.

    Cons

    • Vendor Lock-In.
    • The processes to enhance may require tweaking to fit tool capability.

    Weigh the pros and cons of mobile enablement versus development

    Mobile Enablement

    Mobile Development

    Description Mobile interfaces that heavily rely on enterprise or 3rd party systems to operate. Mobile does not expand the functionality of the system but complements it with enhanced access, input and consumption capabilities. Mobile applications that are custom built or configured in a way that can operate as a standalone entity, whether they are locally deployed to a user's device or virtually hosted.
    Mobile Platform Mobile web, locally installed mobile application provided by vendor Mobile web, hybrid, cross-platform, native
    Typical Audience Internal staff, trusted users Internal and external users, general public
    Examples of Tooling Flavors Enterprise applications, point solutions, robotic & process automation Mobile enterprise application platform, web development, low and no code development, software development kits (SDKs)
    Technical Skills Required Little to no mobile delivery experience and skillsets are needed, but teams must be familiar with the supporting system to understand how a mobile interface can improve the value of the system. Have good UX-driven and quality-first practices in the mobile context. In-depth coding, networking, system and UX design, data management and security skills are needed for complex designs, functions, and architectures.
    Architecture & Integration Architecture is standardized by the vendor or enterprise with UI elements that are often minimally configurable. Extensions and integrations must be done through the system rather than the mobile interface. Much of application stack and integration approach can be customized to meet the specific functional and non-functional needs. It should still leverage web and design standards and investments currently used.
    Functional Scope Functionality is limited to the what the underlying system allows the interface to do. This often is constrained to commodity web application features (e.g., reporting) or tied to minor configurations to the vendor-provided point solution Functionality is only constrained by the platform and the targeted mobile devices whether it is performance, integration, access or security related. Teams should consider feature and content parity across all products within the organization portfolio.
    Delivery Pipeline End-to-end delivery and automated pipeline is provided by the vendor to ensure parity across all interfaces. Many vendors provide cloud-based services for hosting. Otherwise, it is directly tied to the SDLC of the supporting system. End-to-end delivery and automated pipeline is directly tied to enterprise SDLC practices or through the vendor. Some vendors provide cloud-based services for hosting. Updates are manually or automatically (through a vendor) published to app stores and can be automatically pushed to corporate users through mobile application management capabilities.
    Standards & Guardrails Quality standards and technology governance are managed by the vendor or IT with limited capabilities to tailor them to be mobile specific. Quality standards and technology governance are managed by the mobile delivery teams. The degree of customizations to these standards and guardrails is dependent on the chosen platform and delivery team competencies.

    Understand the common attributes of a mobile delivery solution

    • Source Code Management – Built-in or having the ability to integrate with code management solutions for branching, merging, and versioning. Debugging and coding assistance capabilities may be available.
    • Single Code Base – Capable of programming in a standard coding and scripting language for deployment into several platforms and devices. This code base is aligned to a common industry framework (e.g., AngularJS, Java) or a vendor-defined one.
    • Out-of-the-Box Connectors & Plug-ins – Pre-built APIs enhance the solution's capabilities with 3rd party tools and systems to deliver and manage high quality and valuable mobile applications.
    • Emulators – Ability to virtualize an application's execution on a target platform and device.
    • Support for Native Features – Supports plug-ins and APIs for access to device-specific features.

    What are mobile delivery solutions?

    A mobile delivery solution gives you the tools, resources and support to enable or build your mobile application. They can provide pre-built applications, vendor supported components to allow some configurations, or resources for full stack customizations. Some solutions can be barebone software development kits (SDKs) or comprehensive suites offering features to support the entire software delivery lifecycle, such as:

    • Mobile application management
    • Testing and publishing to app stores
    • Content management
    • Cloud hosting
    • Application performance management

    Info-Tech Insight

    Mobile enablement and development capabilities are already embedded in many common productivity tools and enterprise applications, such as Microsoft PowerApps and ERP modules. They can serve as a starting point in the initial rollout of new management and governance practices without the need of acquiring new tools.

    Select your mobile delivery solutions

    1. Set the scope of your framework.
    • The initial context of this framework is based on the mobile functions needed to support your desired mobile experience and on the current state of your enterprise and 3rd party systems.
  • Define the decision factors for your solution selection.
    • Review the decision factors that will influence the selection of your mobile delivery solution for each mobile opportunity:
    • Stack Management – Who will be hosting and supporting your mobile application stack?
    • Workflows Complexity & Native Experience – How complex is your desired mobile experience and how will native device features be leveraged?
  • Select your solution type.
    • Mobile delivery solutions are broadly defined in the following groups:
    • Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) – Pre-built mobile applications requiring little to no configurations or implementation effort.
    • Vendor Hosted Mobile Platform – Back-end and mid-tier infrastructure and operational support are managed by a vendor.
    • Cross-Platform Development – Frameworks that transform a single code base into platform-specific builds.
    • Hybrid Development – Tools that wrap a single code base into a locally deployable build.
    • Custom Web Development – Environment enabling full stack development for mobile web applications.
    • Custom Native Development – Environment enabling full stack development for mobile native applications.
  • A quadrant analysis is depicted. the top data is labeled Complex Mobile Features; the right side is labeled Organization-Managed Stack; the bottom is labeled Simple Mobile Features; and the left side is labeled Vendor-Managed Stack. The quadrants are labeled the following, in order from left to right, top to bottom. Vendor- Hosted Mobile Platform; Custom Native Development Solutions; Commercial-Off-the-Shelf Solutions; Custom Web Development Solutions. In the middle of the graph are the following, in order from top to bottom: Cross-Platform Development Solutions; Hybrid Development Solutions

    Explore the various solution options

    Vendor Hosted Mobile Platform

    • Cloud Services (Mobile Backend-as-a-Service) (Amazon Amplify, Kinvey, Back4App, Google Firebase, Apache Usergrid)
    • Low Code Mobile Platforms (Outsystems, Mendix, Zoho Creator, IBM Mobile Foundation, Pega Mobile, HCL Volt MX, Appery)
    • Mobile Development via Enterprise Application (SalesForce Heroku, Oracle Application Accelerator MAX, SAP Mobile Development Kit, NetSuite Mobile)
    • Mobile Development via Business Process Automation (PowerApps, Appian, Nintex, Quickbase)

    Cross-Platform Development SDKs

    React Native, NativeScript, Xamarin Forms, .NET MAUI, Flutter, Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile, jQuery Mobile, Telerik, Temenos Quantum

    Custom Native Development Solutions

    • Native Development Languages and Environments (Swift, Java, Objective-C, Kotlin, Xcode, NetBeans, Android Studio, AppCode, Microsoft Visual Studio, Eclipse, DriodScript, Compose, Atom)
    • Mobile Application Utilities (Unity, MonoGame, Blender, 3ds Max Design, Maya, Unreal Engine, Amazon Lumberyard, Oculus)

    Commercial-Off-the-Shelf Solutions

    • No Code Mobile Platforms (Swiftic, Betty Blocks, BuildFire, Appy Pie, Plant an App, Microsoft Power Apps, AppSheet, Wix, Quixy)
    • Mobile Application Point Solutions and Enablement via Enterprise Applications

    Hybrid Development SDKs

    Cordova Project, Sencha Touch, Electron, Ionic, Capacitor, Monaca, Voltbuilder

    Custom Web Development Solutions

    Web Development Frameworks (React, Angular, Vue, Express, Django, Rails, Spring, Ember, Backbone, Bulma, Bootstrap, Tailwind CSS, Blade)

    Get the most out of your solutions by understanding their core components

    While most of the heavy lifting is handled by the vendor or framework, understanding how the mobile application is built and operates can identify where further fine-tuning is needed to increase its value and quality.

    Platform Runtime

    Automatic provisioning, configurations, and tuning of organizational and 3rd party infrastructure for high availability, performance, security and stability. This can include cloud management and non-production environments.

    Extensions

    • Mobile delivery solutions can be extended to allow:
    • Custom development of back-end code
    • Customizable integrations and hooks where needed
    • Integrations with CI/CD pipelines and administrative services
    • Integrations with existing databases and authentication services

    Platform Services

    The various services needed to support mobile delivery and enable continuous delivery, such as:

    • Configuration & Change Management – Verifies, validates, and monitors builds, deployments and changes across all components.
    • Code Generator – Transforms UI and data models into native application components that are ready to be deployed.
    • Deployment Services – Deploys application components consistently across all target environments and app stores.
    • Application Services – Manages the mobile application at runtime, including executing scheduled tasks and instrumentation.

    Application Architecture

    Fundamentally, mobile application architecture is no different than any other application architecture so much of your design standards still applies. The trick is tuning it to best meet your mobile functional and non-functional needs.

    This image contains an example of mobile application architecture.

    Source: "HCL Volt MX", HCL.

    Build your shortlist decision criteria

    The decision on which type of mobile delivery solution to use is dependent on several key questions?

    Who is the Mobile Delivery Team?

    • Is it a worker, business or IT?
    • What skills and knowledge does this person have?
    • Who is supporting mobile delivery and management?
    • Are other skills and tools needed to support, extend or mature mobile delivery adoption?

    What are the Use Cases?

    • What is the value and priority of the use cases?
    • What native features do we need?
    • Who is the audience of the output and who is impacted?
    • What systems, data and services do I need access?
    • Is it best to build it or buy it?
    • What are the quality standards?
    • How strategic is the use case?

    How Complex is the System?

    • Is the mobile application a standalone or integrated with enterprise systems?
    • What is the system's state and architecture?
    • What 3rd party services do we need integrated?
    • Are integrations out-of-the-box or custom?
    • Is the data standardized and who can edit its definition?
    • Is the system monolithic or loosely coupled?

    How Much Can We Tolerate?

    • Risks: What are the business and technical risks involved?
    • Costs: How much can we invest in implementation, training and operations?
    • Change: What organizational changes am I expecting to make? Will these changes be accepted and adopted?

    2.2.1 Shortlist your mobile delivery solution

    1-3 hours

    1. Determine which mobile delivery solutions is appropriate for each mobile opportunity or use case by answering the following questions on the following slides against two factors: complexity of mobile workflows and native features and management of the mobile stack.
      1. Take the average of the enterprise-centric and user-centric scores from step 2.1 for your complexity of mobile workflows and native features scores.
    2. Calculate an average score for the management of the mobile stack. Then, map them on the matrix to indicate possible solution options alongside your user-centric scores. Consider all options around the plotted point.
    3. Further discuss which solution should be the preferred choice and compare those options with your selected platform approach.
    4. Document your findings and discussions into Info-Tech's Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template.

    Download the Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template

    Input

    Output
    • Current state assessment
    • Mobile platform approach
    • Shortlist of mobile delivery solution
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template
    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    2.2.1 cont'd

    Stack Management

    Factors Definitions Survey Responses
    Cost of Delayed Delivery The expected cost if a vendor solution or update is delayed. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Vendor Negotiation Organization's ability to negotiate favorable terms from vendors. 1 (High) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (Low)
    Controllable Delivery Timeline Organization's desire to control when solutions and updates are delivered. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Solution Hosting The desired approach to host the mobile application. 1 (Fully Outsourced) – 2 – 3 (Partially Outsourced) – 4 – 5 (Internally Hosted)
    Vendor Lock-In The tolerance to be locked into a specific technology stack or vendor ecosystem. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Operational Cost Target The primary target of the mobile application's operational budget. 1 (External Resources) – 2 – 3 (Hybrid) – 4 – 5 (Internal Resources)
    Platform Management The desired approach to manage the mobile delivery solution, platform or underlying technology. 1 (Decentralized) – 2 – 3 (Federated) – 4 – 5 (Centralized)
    Skill & Competency of Mobile Delivery Team The ability of the team to create and manage valuable and high-quality mobile applications. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Current Investment in Enterprise Technologies The need to maximize the ROI of current enterprise technologies or integrate with legacy technologies. 1 (High) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (Low)
    Ease of Extensibility Need to have out-of-the-box connectors and plug-ins to extend the mobile delivery solution beyond its base implementation. 1 (High) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (Low)
    Holistic Application Strategy Organizational priorities on the types of applications the portfolio should be comprised. 1 (Buy) – 2 – 3 (Hybrid) – 4 – 5 (Build)
    Control of Delivery Pipeline The desire to control the software delivery pipeline from design to development, testing, publishing and support. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Specific Quality Requirements Software and mobile delivery is constrained to your unique quality standards (e.g., security, performance, availability) 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)

    2.2.1 cont'd

    Example:

    Score Factors (Average) Mobile Opportunity 1: Inventory Management Mobile Opportunity 2: Remote Support
    User-Centric & Enterprise Centric Needs (From Step 2.1) 4.125 2.5
    Stack Management 2 2.5
    Desired Mobile Delivery Solution Vendor-Hosted Mobile Platform

    Commercial-Off-the-Shelf Solution

    Hybrid Development Solution

    A quadrant analysis is depicted. the top data is labeled Complex Mobile Features; the right side is labeled Organization-Managed Stack; the bottom is labeled Simple Mobile Features; and the left side is labeled Vendor-Managed Stack. The quadrants are labeled the following, in order from left to right, top to bottom. Vendor- Hosted Mobile Platform; Custom Native Development Solutions; Commercial-Off-the-Shelf Solutions; Custom Web Development Solutions. In the middle of the graph are the following, in order from top to bottom: Cross-Platform Development Solutions; Hybrid Development Solutions.

    Consider the following in your solution selection and implementation

    • Vendor lock in – Each solution has its own approach, frameworks, and data schemas to convert designs and logic into an executable build that is stable in the targeted environment. Consequently, moving application artifacts (e.g., code and designs) from one solution or environment to another may not be easily accomplished without significant modifications or the use of application modernization or migration services.
    • Conflicting priorities and viewpoints of good delivery practices – Mobile delivery solutions are very particular on how they generate applications from designs and configurations. The solution's approach may not accommodate your interpretation of high-quality code (e.g., scalability, maintainability, extensibility, security). Technical experts should be reviewing and refactoring the generated code.
    • Incompatibility with enterprise applications and systems – The true benefit of mobile delivery solutions is their ability to connect your mobile application to enterprise and 3rd party technologies and services. This capability often requires enterprise technologies and services to be architected in a way that is compatible with your delivery solution while ensuring data, security protocols and other standards and policies are consistently enforced.
    • Integration with current application development and management tools – Mobile delivery solutions should be extensions from your existing application development and management tools that provides the versioning, testing, monitoring, and deployment capabilities to sustain a valuable application portfolio. Without this integration, IT will be unable to:
      • Root cause issues found on IT dashboards or reported to help desk.
      • Rollback defective applications to a previous stable state.
      • Obtain a complete application portfolio inventory.
      • Execute comprehensive testing for high-risk applications.
      • Trace artifacts throughout the development lifecycle.
      • Generate reports of the status of releases.

    Enhance your SDLC to support mobile delivery

    What is the SDLC?

    The software development lifecycle (SDLC) is a process that ensures valuable software products are efficiently delivered to customers. It contains a repeatable set of activities needed to intake and analyze requirements to design, build, test, deploy, and maintain software products.

    How will mobile delivery influence my SDLC?

    • Cross-functional collaboration – Bringing business and IT together at the most opportune times to clarify user needs and business priorities, and set realistic expectations given technology and capacity constraints. The appropriate tactics and techniques are used to improve decision making and delivery effectiveness according to the type of work.
    • Iterative delivery – Frequent delivery of progressive changes minimizes the risk of low-quality features by containing and simplifying scope, and enables responsive turnarounds of fixes, enhancements, and priority changes.
    • Feedback loops –Mobile application owners constantly review, update and refine their backlog of mobile features and changes to reflect user feedback and system performance metrics. Delivery teams proactively prepare the application for future scaling based on lessons and feedback learned from earlier releases.

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Modernize Your SDLC blueprint.

    Example: Low- & No-Code Mobile Delivery Pipeline

    Low Code

    Data Modeling & Configuration

    No Code

    Visual Interface with Complex Data Models

    Data Modeling & Configuration

    Visual Interfaces with Simple Data Models

    GUI Designer with Customizable Components & Entities

    UI Definition & Design

    GUI Designer with Canned Templates

    Visual Workflow and Custom Scripting

    Business Logic Rules and Workflow Specification

    Visual Workflow and Natural Language Scripting

    Out-of-the-Box Plugins & Custom Integrations

    Integration of External Services (via 3rd Party APIs)

    Out-of-the-Box Plugins

    Automated and Manual Build & Packaging

    Build & Package

    Automated Build & Packaging

    Automated & Manual Testing

    Test

    Automated Testing

    One-Click Push or IT Push to App Store

    Publish to App Store

    One-Click Push to App Store

    Use Info-Tech's research to address your delivery gaps

    Mobile success requires more than a set of good tools.

    Overcome the Common Challenges Faced with Building Mobile Applications

    Common Challenges with Digital Applications

    Suggested Solutions

    • Time & Resource Constraints
    • Buy-In From Internal Stakeholders
    • Rapidly Changing Requirements
    • Legacy Systems
    • Low-Priority for Internal Tools
    • Insufficient Data Access

    Source: DronaHQ, 2021

    Learn the differentiators of mobile delivery solutions

    • Native Program Languages – Supports languages other than web (Java, Ruby, C/C++/C#, Objective-C).
    • IDE Integration – Available plug-ins for popular development suites and editors.
    • Debugging Tools – Finding and eliminating bugs (breakpoints, single stepping, variable inspection, etc.).
    • Application Packaging via IDE – Digitally sign applications through the IDE for it to be packaged and published in app stores.
    • Automated Testing Tools – Native or integration with automated functional and unit testing tools.
    • Low- and No- Code Designer – Tools for designing graphical user interfaces and features and managing data with drag-and-drop functionalities.
    • Publishing and Deployment Capabilities – Automated deployment to mobile device management (MDM) systems, mobile application management (MAM) systems, mobile application stores, and web servers.
    • Third-Party and Open-Source Integration – Integration with proprietary and open-source third-party modules, development tools, and systems.
    • Developer Marketplace – Out-of-the-box plug-ins, templates, and integration are available through a marketplace.
    • Mobile Application Support Capabilities – Ability to gather, manage, and address application issues and defects.
    • API Gateway, Monitoring, and Management – Services that enable the creation, publishing, maintenance, monitoring, and securing of APIs through a common interface.
    • Mobile Analytics and Monitoring – View the adoption, usage, and performance of deployed mobile applications through graphical dashboards.
    • Mobile Content Management – Publish and manage mobile content through a centralized system.
    • Mobile Application Security – Supports the securing of application access and usage, data encryption, and testing of security controls.

    Define your mobile delivery vendor selection criteria

    Focus on the key vendor attributes and capabilities that enable mobile delivery scaling and growth in your organization

    Considerations in Mobile Delivery Vendor Selection
    Platform Features & Capabilities Price to Implement & Operate Platform
    Types of Mobile Applications That Can Be Developed Ease of IT Administration & Management
    User Community & Marketplace Size Security, Privacy & Access Control Capabilities
    SME in Industry Verticals & Business Functions Vendor Product Roadmap & Corporate Strategy
    Pre-Built Designs, Templates & Application Shells Scope of Device- and OS-Specific Compatibilities
    Regulatory & Industry Compliance Integration & Technology Partners
    Importing Artifacts From and Exporting to Other Solutions Platform Architecture & Underlying Technology
    End-to-End Support for the Entire Mobile SDLC Relevance to Current Mobile Trends & Practices

    Build your features list

    Incorporate different perspectives when defining the list of mandatory and desired features of your target solution.

    Appendix B contains a list of features for low- and no-code solutions that can be used as a starting point.

    Visit Info-Tech's Implement a Proactive and Consistent Vendor Selection Process blueprint.

    Mobile Developer

    • Visual, drag-and-drop models to define data models, business logic, and user interfaces.
    • One-click deployment.
    • Self-healing capabilities.
    • Vendor-managed infrastructure.
    • Active community and marketplace.
    • Pre-built templates and libraries.
    • Optical character recognition and natural language processing.
    • Knowledgebase and document management.
    • Business value, operational costs, and other KPI monitoring.
    • Business workflow automation.

    Mobile IT Professional

    • Audit and change logs.
    • Theme and template builder.
    • Template management.
    • Role-based access.
    • Regulatory compliance.
    • Consistent design and user experience across applications.
    • Application and system performance monitoring.
    • Versioning and code management.
    • Automatic application and system refactoring and recovery.
    • Exception and error handling.
    • Scalability (e.g. load balancing) and infrastructure management.
    • Real-time debugging.
    • Testing capabilities.
    • Security management.
    • Application integration management.

    2.2.2 Build your feature and service lists

    1-3 hours

    Review the key outcomes in the previous exercises to help inform the features and vendor support you require to support your mobile delivery needs:

    End user personas and desired mobile experience

    Objectives and expectations

    Desired mobile features and platform

    Mobile delivery solutions

    Brainstorm a list of features and functionalities you require from your ideal solution vendors. Prioritize these features and functionalities. See our Implement a Proactive and Consistent Vendor Selection Process blueprint for more information on vendor procurement.

    Document your findings and discussions into Info-Tech's Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template.

    Download the Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template

    Input

    Output
    • Shortlist of mobile solutions
    • Quality definitions
    • Mobile objectives and metrics
    • List of desired features and services of mobile delivery solution vendors
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template
    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    Hit a home run with your stakeholders

    Use a data-driven approach to select the right tooling vendor for your needs – fast.

    AwarenessEducation & DiscoveryEvaluationSelection

    Negotiation & Configuration

    1.1 Proactively Lead Technology Optimization & Prioritization2.1 Understand Marketplace Capabilities & Trends3.1 Gather & Prioritize Requirements & Establish Key Success Metrics4.1 Create a Weighted Selection Decision Model5.1 Initiate Price Negotiation with Top Two Venders
    1.2 Scope & Define the Selection Process for Each Selection Request Action2.2 Discover Alternate Solutions & Conduct Market Education3.2 Conduct a Data Driven Comparison of Vendor Features & Capabilities4.2 Conduct Investigative Interviews Focused on Mission Critical Priorities with Top 2-4 Vendors5.2 Negotiate Contract Terms & Product Configuration

    1.3 Conduct an Accelerated Business Needs Assessment

    2.3 Evaluate Enterprise Architecture & Application PortfolioNarrow the Field to Four Top Contenders4.3 Validate Key Issues with Deep Technical Assessments, Trial Configuration & Reference Checks5.3 Finalize Budget Approval & Project
    1.4 Align Stakeholder Calendars to Reduce Elapsed Time & Asynchronous Evaluation2.4 Validate the Business Case5.4 Invest in Training & Onboarding Assistance

    Investing time improving your software selection methodology has big returns.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Not all software selection projects are created equal – some are very small, some span the entire enterprise. To ensure that IT is using the right framework, understand the cost and complexity profile of the application you're looking to select. Info-Tech's Rapid Application Selection Framework approach is best for commodity and mid-tier enterprise applications; selecting complex applications is better handled by the methodology in Info-Tech's Implement a Proactive and Consistent Vendor Selection Process.

    Step 2.3

    Create a Roadmap for Mobile Delivery

    Activities

    2.3.1 Define your MVP release

    2.3.2 Build your roadmap

    Define Your Mobile Approach

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    Outcomes of this step

    • MVP design
    • Mobile delivery roadmap

    Achieve mobile success with MVPs

    By delivering mobile capabilities in small iterations, teams recognize value sooner and reduce accumulated risk. Both benefits are realized as the iteration enters validation testing and release.

    This image depicts a graph of the learn-build-measure cycle over time, adapted from Managing the Development of Large Software Systems, Dr. Winston W. Royce, 1970

    An MVP focuses on a small set of functions, involves minimal possible effort to deliver a working and valuable solution, and is designed to satisfy a specific user group. Its purpose is to:

    • Maximize learning.
    • Evaluate the value and acceptance of mobile applications.
    • Inform the building of a mobile delivery practice.

    The build-measure-learn loop suggests mobile delivery teams should perpetually take an idea and develop, test, and validate it with the mobile development solution, then expand on the MVP using the lessons learned and evolving ideas. In this sense the MVP is just the first iteration in the loop.

    Leverage a canvas to detail your MVP

    Use the release canvas to organize and align the organization around your MVP!

    This is an example of a release canvas which can be used to detail your MVP.

    2.3.1 Define your MVP release

    1-3 hours

    1. Create a list of high priority use cases slated for mobile application delivery. Brainstorm the various supporting activities required to implement your use cases including the shortlisting of mobile delivery tools.
    2. Prioritize these use cases based on business priority (from your canvas). Size the effort of these use cases through collaboration.
    3. Define your MVPs using a release canvas as shown on the following slide.
    4. Document your findings and discussions into Info-Tech's Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template.

    Input

    Output
    • High priority mobile opportunities
    • Mobile platform approach
    • Shortlist of mobile solutions
    • List of potential MVPs
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template
    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    2.3.1 cont'd

    MVP Name

    Owner:
    Parent Initiative:
    Updated:

    NAME
    LINK
    October 05, 2022

    MVP Theme/Goals

    [Theme / Goal]

    Use Cases

    Value

    Costs

    [Use Case 1]
    [Use Case 2]
    [Use Case 3]

    [Business Value 1]
    [Business Value 2]
    [Business Value 3]

    [Cost Item 1]
    [Cost Item 2]
    [Cost Item 3]

    Impacted Personas

    Impacted Workflows

    Stakeholders

    [Persona 1]
    [Persona 2]
    [Persona 3]

    [Workflow 1]
    [Workflow 2]
    [Workflow 3]

    [Stakeholder 1]
    [Stakeholder 2]
    [Stakeholder 3]

    Build your mobile roadmap

    It's more than a set of colorful boxes. It's the map to align everyone to where you are going

    Your mobile roadmap

    • Lays out a strategy for your mobile application, platform and practice implementation and scaling.
    • Is a statement of intent for your mobile adoption.
    • Communicates direction for the implementation and use of mobile delivery tools, mobile applications and supporting technologies.
    • Directly connects to the organization's goals

    However, it is not:

    • Representative of a hard commitment.
    • A simple combination of your current product roadmaps

    Roadmap your MVPs against your milestones and release dates

    This is an image of an example of a roadmap for your MVPS, with milestones across Jan 2022, Feb 2022, Mar 2022, Apr 2022. under milestones, are the following points: Points in the timeline when an established set of artifacts is complete (feature-based), or to check status at a particular point in time (time-based); Typically assigned a date and used to show progress; Plays an important role when sequencing different types of artifacts. Under Release Dates are the following points: Releases mark the actual delivery of a set of artifacts packaged together in a new version of processes and applications or new mobile application and delivery capabilities. ; Release dates, firm or not, allow stakeholders to anticipate when this is coming.

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision blueprint.

    Understand what is communicated in your roadmap

    WHY is the work being done?

    Explains the overarching goal of work being done to a specific audience.

    WHO is doing the work?

    Categorizes the different groups delivering the work on the product.

    WHAT is the work being done?

    Explains the artifacts, or items of work, that will be delivered.

    WHEN is the work being done?

    Explains when the work will be delivered within your timeline.

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision blueprint.

    Pay attention to organizational changes

    Be prepared to answer:

    "How will mobile change the way I do my job?"

    • Plan how workers will incorporate mobile applications into their way of working and maximize the features it offers.
    • Address the human concerns regarding the transition to a digital world involving modern and mobile technologies and automation.
    • Accept changes, challenges and failures with open arms and instill tactics to quickly address them.
    • Build and strengthen business-IT trust, empowerment, and collaborative culture by adopting the right practices throughout the mobile delivery process.
    • Ensure continuous management and leadership support for business empowerment, operational changes, and shifts in role definitions to best support mobile delivery.
    • Establish a committee to manage the growth, adoption, and delivery of mobile as part of a grandeur digital application portfolio and address conflicts among business units and IT.

    Anticipate and prepare for changes and issues

    Verify and validate the flexibility and adaptability of your mobile applications, strategy and roadmap against various scenarios

    • Scenarios
      • Application Stores Rejecting the Application
      • Security Incidents & Risks
      • Low User Adoption, Retention & Satisfaction
      • Incompatibility with User's Device & Other Systems
      • Device & OS Patches & Updates
      • Changes in Industry Standards & Regulations

    Use the "Now, Next, Later" roadmap

    Use this when deadlines and delivery dates are not strict. This is best suited for brainstorming a product plan when dependency mapping is not required.

    Now

    What are you going to do now?

    Next

    What are you going to do very soon?

    Later

    What are you going to do in the future?

    This is a roadmap showing various points in the following categories: Now; Next; Later

    Adapted From: "Tips for Agile product roadmaps & product roadmap examples," Scrum.org, 2017

    2.3.2 Build your roadmap

    1-3 hours

    1. Identify the business outcomes your mobile application delivery and MVP is expected to deliver.
    2. Build your strategic roadmap by grouping each business outcome by how soon you need to deliver it:
      1. Now: Let's achieve this ASAP.
      2. Next: Sometime very soon, let's achieve these things.
      3. Later: Much further off in the distance, let's consider these things.
    3. Identify what the critical steps are for the organization to embrace mobile application delivery and deliver your MVP.
    4. Build your tactical roadmap by grouping each critical step by how soon you need to address it:
      1. Now: Let's do this ASAP.
      2. Next: Sometime very soon, let's do these things.
      3. Later: Much further off in the distance, let's consider these things.
    5. Document your findings and discussions into Info-Tech's Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template.

    Input

    Output
    • List of potential MVPs
    • Mobile roadmap
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template
    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    2.3.2 cont'd

    Example: Tactical Roadmap

    Milestone 1

    • Modify the business processes of the MVP to best leverage mobile technologies. Streamline the business processes by removing the steps that do not directly support value delivery.
    • Develop UI templates using the material design framework and the organization's design standards. Ensure it is supported on mobile devices through the mobile browser and satisfy accessibility design standards.
    • Verify and validate current security controls against latest security risks using the W3C as a starting point. Install the latest security patches to maintain compliance.
    • Acquire the Ionic SDK and upskill delivery teams.

    Milestone 2

    • Update the current web framework and third-party libraries with the latest version and align web infrastructure to latest W3C guidelines.
    • Verify and validate functionality and stability of APIs with third-party applications. Begin transition to REST APIs where possible.
    • Make minor changes to the existing data architecture to better support the data volume, velocity, variety, and veracity the system will process and deliver.
    • Update the master data management with latest changes. Keep changes to a minimum.
    • Develop and deliver the first iteration of the MVP with Ionic.

    Milestone 3

    • Standardize the initial mobile delivery practice.
    • Continuously monitor the system and proactively address business continuity, system stability and performance, and security risks.
    • Deliver a hands-on and facilitated training session to end users.
    • Develop intuitive user manuals that are easily accessible on SharePoint.
    • Consult end users for their views and perspectives of suggested business model and technology changes.
    • Regularly survey end users and the media to gauge industry sentiment toward the organization.

    Pitch your roadmap initiatives

    There are multiple audiences for your pitch, and each audience requires a different level of detail when addressed. Depending on the outcomes expected from each audience, a suitable approach must be chosen. The format and information presented will vary significantly from group to group.

    Audience

    Key Contents

    Outcome

    Outcome

    • Costs or benefits estimates

    Sign off on cost and benefit projections

    Executives and decision makers

    • Business value and financial benefits
    • Notable business risks and impacts
    • Business rationale and strategic roadmap

    Revisions, edits, and approval

    IT teams

    • Notable technical and IT risks
    • IT rationale and tactical roadmap
    • Proposed resourcing and skills capacity

    Clarity of vision and direction and readiness for delivery

    Business workers

    • Business rationale
    • Proposed business operations changes
    • Application roadmap

    Verification on proposed changes and feedback

    Continuously measure the benefits and value realized in your mobile applications

    Success hinges on your team's ability to deliver business value. Well-developed mobile applications instill stakeholder confidence in ongoing business value delivery and stakeholder buy-in, provided proper expectations are set and met.

    Business value defines the success criteria of an organization, and it is interpreted from four perspectives:

    • Profit Generation – The revenue generated from a business capability with mobile applications.
    • Cost Reduction – The cost reduction when performing business capabilities with mobile applications.
    • Service Enablement – The productivity and efficiency gains of internal business operations with mobile applications.
    • Customer and Market Reach – Metrics measuring the improved reach and insights of the business in existing or new markets.

    See our Build a Value Measurement Framework blueprint for more information about business value definition.

    Business Value Matrix

    This image contains a quadrant analysis with the following labels: Left - Improved Capabilities; Top - Outward; Right - Financial Benefit; Bottom - Inward. the quadrants are labeled the following, in order from left to right, top to bottom. Customer and Market Reach; Profit Generation; Service Enhancement; Cost Reduction

    Grow your mobile delivery practice

    We are Here
    Level 1: Mobile Delivery Foundations Level 2: Scaled Mobile Delivery Level 3: Leading-Edge Mobile Delivery

    You understand the opportunities and impacts mobile has on your business operations and its disruptive nature on your enterprise systems. Your software delivery lifecycle was optimized to incorporate the specific practices and requirements needed for mobile. A mobile platform was selected based on stakeholder needs that are weighed against current skillsets, high priority non-functional requirements, the available capacity and scalability of your stack, and alignment to your current delivery process.

    New features and mobile use cases are regularly emerging in the industry. Ensuring your mobile platform and delivery process can easily scale to incorporate constantly changing mobile features and technologies is key. This can help minimize the impact these changes will have on your mobile stack and the resulting experience.

    Achieving this state requires three competencies: mobile security, performance optimization, and integration practices.

    Many of today's mobile trends involve, in one form or another, hardware components on the mobile device (e.g., NFC receivers, GPS, cameras). You understand the scope of native features available on your end user's mobile device and the required steps and capabilities to enable and leverage them.

    Grow your mobile delivery practice (cont'd)

    Ask yourself the following questions:
    Level 1: Mobile Delivery Foundations Level 2: Scaled Mobile Delivery Level 3: Leading-Edge Mobile Delivery

    Checkpoint questions shown at the end of step 1.2 of this blueprint

    You should be at this point upon the successful delivery of your first mobile application.

    Security

    • Your mobile stack (application, data, and infrastructure) is updated to incorporate the security risks mobile apps will have on your systems and business operations.
    • Leading edge encryption, authentication management (e.g., multi-factor), and access control systems are used to bolster existing mobile security infrastructure.
    • Network traffic to and from mobile application is monitored and analyzed.

    Performance Optimization

    • Performance enhancements are made with the entire mobile stack in mind.
    • Mobile performance is monitored and assessed with both proactive (data flow) and retroactive (instrumentation) approaches.
    • Development and testing practices and technologies accommodate the performance differences between mobile and desktop applications.

    API Development

    • Existing web APIs are compatible with mobile applications, or a gateway / middleware is used to facilitate communication with backend and third-party services.
    • APIs are secured to prevent unauthorized access and misuse.
    • Web APIs are documented and standardized for reuse in multiple mobile applications.
    • Implementing APIs of native features in native and/or cross-platform and/or hybrid platforms is well understood.
    • All leading-edge mobile features are mapped to and support business requirements and objectives.
    • The new mobile use cases are well understood and account for the various scenarios/environments a user may encounter with the leading-edge mobile features.
    • The relevant non-mobile devices, readers, sensors, and other dependent systems are shortlisted and acquired to enable and support your new mobile capabilities.
    • Delivery teams are prepared to accommodate the various security, performance, and integration risks associated with implementing leading-edge mobile features. Practices and mechanisms are established to minimize the impact to business operations.
    • Metrics are used to measure the success of your leading-edge mobile features implementation by comparing its performance and acceptance against past projects.
    • Business stakeholders and development teams are up to date with the latest mobile technologies and delivery techniques.

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools

    • User personas
    • Mobile objectives and metrics
    • Mobile opportunity backlog
    • List of mobile features to enable the desired mobile experience
    • System current assessment
    • Mobile application quality definition
    • Readiness for mobile delivery
    • Desired mobile platform approach
    • Shortlisted mobile delivery solutions
    • Desired list of vendor features and services
    • MVP design
    • Mobile delivery roadmap

    If you would like additional support, have our analysts guide you through other phases as part of Info-Tech workshop.

    Contact your account representative for more information

    workshops@infotech.com

    1-888-670-8889

    Research Contributors and Experts

    This is a picture of Chaim Yudkowsky, Chief Information Officer for The American Israel Public Affairs Committee

    Chaim Yudkowsky
    Chief Information Officer
    The American Israel Public Affairs Committee

    Chaim Yudkowsky is currently Chief information Officer for American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the DC headquartered not-for-profit focused on lobbying for a strong US-Israel relationship. In that role, Chaim is responsible for all traditional IT functions including oversight of IT strategy, vendor relationships, and cybersecurity program. In addition, Chaim also has primary responsibility for all physical security technology and strategy for US offices and event technology for the many AIPAC events.

    Bibliography

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    Ceci, L. "Mobile app user retention rate worldwide 2020, by vertical". Statista, 6 Apr 2022. Web.

    Clement, J. "Share of global mobile website traffic 2015-2021". Statista, 18 Feb 2022. Web

    DeVos, Jordan. "Design Problem Statements – What They Are and How to Frame Them." Toptal, n.d. Web.

    Enge, Eric. "Mobile vs. Desktop Usage in 2020". Perficient, 23 March 2021. Web.

    Engels, Antoine. "How many Android updates does Samsung, Xiaomi or OnePlus offer?" NextPit, Mar 2022. Web.

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    Wangen, Emilie Nøss. "What Is a Software Platform & How Is It Different From a Product?" HubSpot, 2021. Web.

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    "Why Mobile Apps Fail: Failure to Launch". Perfecto Mobile, 26 Jan 2014. Web.

    Appendix A

    Sample Reference Frameworks

    Reference Framework: Web Platform

    Most of the operations of the applications on a web platform are executed in the mid-tier or back-end servers. End users interact with the platform through the presentation layer, developed with web languages, in the browser.

    This is an image of the Reference Framework: Web Platform

    Reference Framework: Mobile Web Application

    Many mobile web applications are composed of JavaScript (the muscle of the app), HTML5 (the backbone of the app), and CSS (the aesthetics of the app). The user will make a request to the web server which will interact with the application to provide a response. Since each device has unique attributes, consider a device detection service to help adjust content for each type of device.

    this is an image of the Reference Framework: Mobile Web Application

    Source: MaLavolta, Ivono, 2012.

    Web Platform: Anatomy of a Web Server

    Web Server Services

    • Mediation Services: Perform transformation of data/messages.
    • Boundary Services: Provide interface protocol and data/message conversion capabilities.
    • Event Distribution: Provides for the enterprise-wide adoption of content and topic-based publish/subscribe event distribution.
    • Transport Services: Facilitate data transmission across the middleware/server.
    • Service Directory: Manages multiple service identifiers and locations.

    This image shows the relationships of the various web server services listed above

    Reference Framework: Hybrid Platform

    Unlike the mobile web platform, most of an application's operations on the hybrid platform is on the device within a native container. The container leverages the device browser's runtime engine and is based on the framework of the mobile delivery solution.

    This is an image of the Reference Framework: Hybrid Platform

    Reference Framework: Native Platform

    Applications on a native platform are installed locally on the device giving it access to native device hardware and software. The programming language depends on the operating system's or device's SDK.

    This is an image of the Reference Framework: Native Platform

    Appendix B

    List of Low- and No- Code Software Delivery Solution Features

    Supplementary List of Features

    Graphical user interface

    • Drag-and-drop designer - This feature enhances the user experience by permitting to drag all the items involved in making an app including actions, responses, connections, etc.
    • Point and click approach - This is similar to the drag-and-drop feature except it involves pointing on the item and clicking on the interface rather than dragging and dropping the item.
    • Pre-built forms/reports - This is off-the-shelf and most common reusable editable forms or reports that a user can use when developing an application.
    • Pre-built dashboards - This is off-the-shelf and most common dashboards that a user can use when developing an application.
    • Forms - This feature helps in creating a better user interface and user experience when developing applications. A form includes dashboards, custom forms, surveys, checklists, etc. which could be useful to enhance the usability of the application being developed.
    • Progress tracking - This features helps collaborators to combine their work and track the development progress of the application.
    • Advanced Reporting - This features enables the user to obtain a graphical reporting of the application usage. The graphical reporting includes graphs, tables, charts, etc.
    • Built-in workflows - This feature helps to concentrate the most common reusable workflows when creating applications.
    • Configurable workflows - Besides built-in workflows, the user should be able to customize workflows according to their needs.

    Interoperability support

    • Interoperability with external services - This feature is one of the most important features to incorporate different services and platforms including that of Microsoft, Google, etc. It also includes the interoperability possibilities among different low-code platforms.
    • Connection with data sources - This features connects the application with data sources such as Microsoft Excel, Access and other relational databases such as Microsoft SQL, Azure and other non-relational databases such as MongoDB.

    Security Support

    • Application security - This feature enables the security mechanism of an application which involves confidentiality, integrity and availability of an application, if and when required.
    • Platform security - The security and roles management is a key part in developing an application so that the confidentiality, integrity and authentication (CIA) can be ensured at the platform level.

    Collaborative development support

    • Off-line collaboration - Different developers can collaborate on the specification of the same application. They work off-line locally and then they commit to a remote server their changes, which need to be properly merged.
    • On-line collaboration - Different developers collaborate concurrently on the specification of the same application. Conflicts are managed at run-time.

    Reusability support

    • Built-in workflows - This feature helps to concentrate the most common reusable workflows in creating an application.
    • Pre-built forms/reports - This is off-the-shelf and most common reusable editable forms or reports that a user might want to employ when developing an application.
    • Pre-built dashboards - This is off-the-shelf and most common dashboards that a user might want to employ when developing an application.

    Scalability

    • Scalability on number of users - This features enables the application to scale-up with respect to the number of active users that are using that application at the same time.
    • Scalability on data traffic - This features enables the application to scale-up with respect to the volume of data traffic that are allowed by that application in a particular time.
    • Scalability on data storage - This features enables the application to scale-up with respect to the data storage capacity of that application.

    Business logic specification mechanisms

    • Business rules engine - This feature helps in executing one or more business rules that help in managing data according to user's requirements.
    • Graphical workflow editor - This feature helps to specify one or more business rules in a graphical manner.
    • AI enabled business logic - This is an important feature which uses Artificial Intelligence in learning the behavior of an attributes and replicate those behaviors according to learning mechanisms.

    Application build mechanisms

    • Code generation - According to this feature, the source code of the modeled application is generated and subsequently deployed before its execution.
    • Models at run-time - The model of the specified application is interpreted and used at run-time during the execution of the modeled application without performing any code generation phase.

    Deployment support

    • Deployment on cloud - This features enables an application to be deployed online in a cloud infrastructure when the application is ready to deployed and used.
    • Deployment on local infrastructures - This features enables an application to be deployed locally on the user organization's infrastructure when the application is ready to be deployed and used.

    Kinds of supported applications

    • Event monitoring - This kind of applications involves the process of collecting data, analyzing the event that can be caused by the data, and signaling any events occurring on the data to the user.
    • Process automation - This kind of applications focuses on automating complex processes, such as workflows, which can take place with minimal human intervention.
    • Approval process control - This kind of applications consists of processes of creating and managing work approvals depending on the authorization of the user. For example, payment tasks should be managed by the approval of authorized personnel only.
    • Escalation management - This kind of applications are in the domain of customer service and focuses on the management of user viewpoints that filter out aspects that are not under the user competences.
    • Inventory management - This kind of applications is for monitoring the inflow and outflow of goods and manages the right amount of goods to be stored.
    • Quality management - This kind of applications is for managing the quality of software projects, e.g., by focusing on planning, assurance, control and improvements of quality factors.
    • Workflow management - This kind of applications is defined as sequences of tasks to be performed and monitored during their execution, e.g., to check the performance and correctness of the overall workflow.

    Source: Sahay, Apurvanand et al., 2020

    Architect Your Big Data Environment

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}202|cart{/j2store}
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    • Parent Category Name: Big Data
    • Parent Category Link: /big-data
    • Organizations may understand the transformative potential of a big data initiative, but they struggle to make the transition from the awareness of its importance to identifying a concrete use case for a pilot project.
    • The big data ecosystem is crowded and confusing, and a lack of understanding of it may cause paralysis for organizations.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Don’t panic, and make use of the resources you already have. The skills, tools, and infrastructure for big data can break any budget quickly, but before making rash decisions, start with the resources you have in-house.
    • Big data as a service (BDaaS) is making big waves. BDaaS removes many of the hurdles associated with implementing a big data strategy and vastly lowers the barrier of entry.

    Impact and Result

    • Follow Info-Tech’s methodology for understanding the types of modern approaches to big data tools, and then determining which approach style makes the most sense for your organization.
    • Based on your big data use case, create a plan for getting started with big data tools that takes into account the backing of the use case, the organization’s priorities, and resourcing available.
    • Put a repeatable framework in place for creating a comprehensive big data tool environment that will help you decide on the necessary tools to help you realize the value from your big data use case and scale for the future.

    Architect Your Big Data Environment Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should find your optimal approach to big data tools, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the ways we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Plant the foundations of your big data tool architecture

    Identify your big data use case and your current data-related capabilities.

    • Architect Your Big Data Environment – Phase 1: Plant the Foundations of Your Big Data Tool Architecture
    • Big Data Execution Plan Presentation
    • Big Data Architecture Planning Tool

    2. Weigh your big data architecture decision criteria

    Determine your capacity for big data tools, as well as the level of customizability and security needed for your solution to help justify your implementation style decision.

    • Architect Your Big Data Environment – Phase 2: Weigh Your Big Data Architecture Decision Criteria

    3. Determine your approach to implementing big data tools

    Analyze the three big data implementation styles, select your approach, and complete the execution plan for your big data initiative.

    • Architect Your Big Data Environment – Phase 3: Determine Your Approach To Implementing Big Data Tools
    [infographic]

    Mergers & Acquisitions: The Sell Blueprint

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    • Parent Category Name: IT Strategy
    • Parent Category Link: /it-strategy

    There are four key scenarios or entry points for IT as the selling/divesting organization in M&As:

    • IT can suggest a divestiture to meet the business objectives of the organization.
    • IT is brought in to strategy plan the sale/divestiture from both the business’ and IT’s perspectives.
    • IT participates in due diligence activities and complies with the purchasing organization’s asks.
    • IT needs to reactively prepare its environment to enable the separation.

    Consider the ideal scenario for your IT organization.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Divestitures are inevitable in modern business, and IT’s involvement in the process should be too. This progression is inspired by:

    • The growing trend for organizations to increase, decrease, or evolve through these types of transactions.
    • A maturing business perspective of IT, preventing the difficulty that IT is faced with when invited into the transaction process late.
    • Transactions that are driven by digital motivations, requiring IT’s expertise.
    • There never being such a thing as a true merger, making the majority of M&A activity either acquisitions or divestitures.

    Impact and Result

    Prepare for a sale/divestiture transaction by:

    • Recognizing the trend for organizations to engage in M&A activity and the increased likelihood that, as an IT leader, you will be involved in a transaction in your career.
    • Creating a standard strategy that will enable strong program management.
    • Properly considering all the critical components of the transaction and integration by prioritizing tasks that will reduce risk, deliver value, and meet stakeholder expectations.

    Mergers & Acquisitions: The Sell Blueprint Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out how your organization can excel its reduction strategy by engaging in M&A transactions. Review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Proactive Phase

    Be an innovative IT leader by suggesting how and why the business should engage in an acquisition or divestiture.

    • One-Pager: M&A Proactive
    • Case Study: M&A Proactive
    • Information Asset Audit Tool
    • Data Valuation Tool
    • Enterprise Integration Process Mapping Tool
    • Risk Register Tool
    • Security M&A Due Diligence Tool
    • Service Catalog Internal Service Level Agreement Template

    2. Discovery & Strategy

    Create a standardized approach for how your IT organization should address divestitures or sales.

    • One-Pager: M&A Discovery & Strategy – Sell
    • Case Study: M&A Discovery & Strategy – Sell

    3. Due Diligence & Preparation

    Comply with due diligence, prepare the IT environment for carve-out possibilities, and establish the separation project plan.

    • One-Pager: M&A Due Diligence & Preparation – Sell
    • Case Study: M&A Due Diligence & Preparation – Sell
    • IT Due Diligence Charter
    • IT Culture Diagnostic
    • M&A Separation Project Management Tool (SharePoint)
    • SharePoint Template: Step-by-Step Deployment Guide
    • M&A Separation Project Management Tool (Excel)

    4. Execution & Value Realization

    Deliver on the separation project plan successfully and communicate IT’s transaction value to the business.

    • One-Pager: M&A Execution & Value Realization – Sell
    • Case Study: M&A Execution & Value Realization – Sell

    Infographic

    Workshop: Mergers & Acquisitions: The Sell Blueprint

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Pre-Transaction Discovery & Strategy

    The Purpose

    Establish the transaction foundation.

    Discover the motivation for divesting or selling.

    Formalize the program plan.

    Create the valuation framework.

    Strategize the transaction and finalize the M&A strategy and approach.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    All major stakeholders are on the same page.

    Set up crucial elements to facilitate the success of the transaction.

    Have a repeatable transaction strategy that can be reused for multiple organizations.

    Activities

    1.1 Conduct the CIO Business Vision and CEO-CIO Alignment diagnostics.

    1.2 Identify key stakeholders and outline their relationship to the M&A process.

    1.3 Understand the rationale for the company's decision to pursue a divestiture or sale.

    1.4 Assess the IT/digital strategy.

    1.5 Identify pain points and opportunities tied to the divestiture/sale.

    1.6 Create the IT vision statement and mission statement and identify IT guiding principles and the transition team.

    1.7 Document the M&A governance.

    1.8 Establish program metrics.

    1.9 Create the valuation framework.

    1.10 Establish the separation strategy.

    1.11 Conduct a RACI.

    1.12 Create the communication plan.

    1.13 Prepare to assess target organizations.

    Outputs

    Business perspectives of IT

    Stakeholder network map for M&A transactions

    Business context implications for IT

    IT’s divestiture/sale strategic direction

    Governance structure

    M&A program metrics

    IT valuation framework

    Separation strategy

    RACI

    Communication plan

    Prepared to assess target organization(s)

    2 Mid-Transaction Due Diligence & Preparation

    The Purpose

    Establish the foundation.

    Discover the motivation for separation.

    Identify expectations and create the carve-out roadmap.

    Prepare and manage employees.

    Plan the separation roadmap.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    All major stakeholders are on the same page.

    Methodology identified to enable compliance during due diligence.

    Employees are set up for a smooth and successful transition.

    Separation activities are planned and assigned.

    Activities

    2.1 Gather and evaluate the stakeholders involved, M&A strategy, future-state operating model, and governance.

    2.2 Review the business rationale for the divestiture/sale.

    2.3 Establish the separation strategy.

    2.4 Create the due diligence charter.

    2.5 Create a list of IT artifacts to be reviewed in the data room.

    2.6 Create a carve-out roadmap.

    2.7 Create a service/technical transaction agreement.

    2.8 Measure staff engagement.

    2.9 Assess the current culture and identify the goal culture.

    2.10 Create employee transition and functional workplans.

    2.11 Establish the separation roadmap.

    2.12 Establish and align project metrics with identified tasks.

    2.13 Estimate integration costs.

    Outputs

    Stakeholder map

    IT strategy assessed

    IT operating model and IT governance structure defined

    Business context implications for IT

    Separation strategy

    Due diligence charter

    Data room artifacts

    Carve-out roadmap

    Service/technical transaction agreement

    Engagement assessment

    Culture assessment

    Employee transition and functional workplans

    Integration roadmap and associated resourcing

    3 Post-Transaction Execution & Value Realization

    The Purpose

    Establish the transaction foundation.

    Discover the motivation for separation.

    Plan the separation roadmap.

    Prepare employees for the transition.

    Engage in separation.

    Assess the transaction outcomes.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    All major stakeholders are on the same page.

    Separation activities are planned and assigned.

    Employees are set up for a smooth and successful transition.

    Separation strategy and roadmap are executed to benefit the organization.

    Review what went well and identify improvements to be made in future transactions.

    Activities

    3.1 Identify key stakeholders and outline their relationship to the M&A process.

    3.2 Gather and evaluate the M&A strategy, future-state operating model, and governance.

    3.3 Review the business rationale for the divestiture/sale.

    3.4 Establish the separation strategy.

    3.5 Prioritize separation tasks.

    3.6 Establish the separation roadmap.

    3.7 Establish and align project metrics with identified tasks.

    3.8 Estimate separation costs.

    3.9 Measure staff engagement.

    3.10 Assess the current culture and identify the goal culture.

    3.11 Create employee transition and functional workplans.

    3.12 Complete the separation by regularly updating the project plan.

    3.13 Assess the service/technical transaction agreement.

    3.14 Confirm separation costs.

    3.15 Review IT’s transaction value.

    3.16 Conduct a transaction and separation SWOT.

    3.17 Review the playbook and prepare for future transactions.

    Outputs

    M&A transaction team

    Stakeholder map

    IT strategy assessed

    IT operating model and IT governance structure defined

    Business context implications for IT

    Separation strategy

    Separation roadmap and associated resourcing

    Engagement assessment

    Culture assessment

    Employee transition and functional workplans

    Updated separation project plan

    Evaluated service/technical transaction agreement

    SWOT of transaction

    M&A Sell Playbook refined for future transactions

    Further reading

    Mergers & Acquisitions: The Sell Blueprint

    For IT leaders who want to have a role in the transaction process when their business is engaging in an M&A sale or divestiture.

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Analyst Perspective

    Don’t wait to be invited to the M&A table, make it.

    Photo of Brittany Lutes, Research Analyst, CIO Practice, Info-Tech Research Group.
    Brittany Lutes
    Research Analyst,
    CIO Practice
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Photo of Ibrahim Abdel-Kader, Research Analyst, CIO Practice, Info-Tech Research Group.
    Ibrahim Abdel-Kader
    Research Analyst,
    CIO Practice
    Info-Tech Research Group

    IT has always been an afterthought in the M&A process, often brought in last minute once the deal is nearly, if not completely, solidified. This is a mistake. When IT is brought into the process late, the business misses opportunities to generate value related to the transaction and has less awareness of critical risks or inaccuracies.

    To prevent this mistake, IT leadership needs to develop strong business relationships and gain respect for their innovative suggestions. In fact, when it comes to modern M&A activity, IT should be the ones suggesting potential transactions to meet business needs, specifically when it comes to modernizing the business or adopting digital capabilities.

    IT needs to stop waiting to be invited to the acquisition or divestiture table. IT needs to suggest that the table be constructed and actively work toward achieving the strategic objectives of the business.

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    There are four key scenarios or entry points for IT as the selling/divesting organization in M&As:

    • IT can suggest a divestiture to meet the business objectives of the organization.
    • IT is brought in to strategy plan the sale/divestiture from both the business’ and IT’s perspectives.
    • IT participates in due diligence activities and complies with the purchasing organization’s asks.
    • IT needs to reactively prepare its environment to enable the separation.

    Consider the ideal scenario for your IT organization.

    Common Obstacles

    Some of the obstacles IT faces include:

    • IT is often told about the transaction once the deal has already been solidified and is now forced to meet unrealistic business demands.
    • The business does not trust IT and therefore does not approach IT to define value or reduce risks to the transaction process.
    • The people and culture element is forgotten or not given adequate priority.

    These obstacles often arise when IT waits to be invited into the transaction process and misses critical opportunities.

    Info-Tech's Approach

    Prepare for a sale/divestiture transaction by:

    • Recognizing the trend for organizations to engage in M&A activity and the increased likelihood that, as an IT leader, you will be involved in a transaction in your career.
    • Creating a standard strategy that will enable strong program management.
    • Properly considering all the critical components of the transaction and integration by prioritizing tasks that will reduce risk, deliver value, and meet stakeholder expectations.

    Info-Tech Insight

    As the number of merger, acquisition, and divestiture transactions continues to increase, so too does IT’s opportunity to leverage the growing digital nature of these transactions and get involved at the onset.

    The changing M&A landscape

    Businesses will embrace more digital M&A transactions in the post-pandemic world

    • When the pandemic occurred, businesses reacted by either pausing (61%) or completely cancelling (46%) deals that were in the mid-transaction state (Deloitte, 2020). The uncertainty made many organizations consider whether the risks would be worth the potential benefits.
    • However, many organizations quickly realized the pandemic is not a hindrance to M&A transactions but an opportunity. Over 16,000 American companies were involved in M&A transactions in the first six months of 2021 (The Economist). For reference, this had been averaging around 10,000 per six months from 2016 to 2020.
    • In addition to this transaction growth, organizations have increasingly been embracing digital. These trends increase the likelihood that, as an IT leader, you will engage in an M&A transaction. However, it is up to you when you get involved in the transactions.

    The total value of transactions in the year after the pandemic started was $1.3 billion – a 93% increase in value compared to before the pandemic. (Nasdaq)

    71% of technology companies anticipate that divestitures will take place as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. (EY, 2020)

    Your challenge

    IT is often not involved in the M&A transaction process. When it is, it’s often too late.

    • The most important driver of an acquisition is the ability to access new technology (DLA Piper), and yet 50% of the time, IT isn’t involved in the M&A transaction at all (IMAA Institute, 2017).
    • Additionally, IT’s lack of involvement in the process negatively impacts the business:
      • Most organizations (60%) do not have a standardized approach to integration (Steeves and Associates), let alone separation.
      • Two-thirds of the time, the divesting organization and acquiring organization will either fail together or succeed together (McKinsey, 2015).
      • Less than half (47%) of organizations actually experience the positive results sought by the M&A transaction (Steeves and Associates).
    • Organizations pursuing M&A and not involving IT are setting themselves up for failure.

    Only half of M&A deals involve IT (Source: IMAA Institute, 2017)

    Common Obstacles

    These barriers make this challenge difficult to address for many organizations:

    • IT is rarely afforded the opportunity to participate in the transaction deal. When IT is invited, this often happens later in the process where separation will be critical to business continuity.
    • IT has not had the opportunity to demonstrate that it is a valuable business partner in other business initiatives.
    • One of the most critical elements that IT often doesn’t take the time or doesn’t have the time to focus on is the people and leadership component.
    • IT waits to be invited to the process rather then actively involving themselves and suggesting how value can be added to the process.

    In hindsight, it’s clear to see: Involving IT is just good business.

    47% of senior leaders wish they would have spent more time on IT due diligence to prevent value erosion. (Source: IMAA Institute, 2017)

    “Solutions exist that can save well above 50 percent on divestiture costs, while ensuring on-time delivery.” (Source: SNP)

    Info-Tech's approach

    Acquisitions & Divestitures Framework

    Acquisitions and divestitures are inevitable in modern business, and IT’s involvement in the process should be too. This progression is inspired by:

    1. The growing trend for organizations to increase, decrease, or evolve through these types of transactions.
    2. Transactions that are driven by digital motivations, requiring IT’s expertise.
    3. A maturing business perspective of IT, preventing the difficulty that IT is faced with when invited into the transaction process late.
    4. There never being such a thing as a true merger, making the majority of M&A activity either acquisitions or divestitures.
    A diagram highlighting the 'IT Executives' Role in Acquisitions and Divestitures' when they are integrated at different points in the 'Core Business Timeline'. There are four main entry points 'Proactive', 'Discovery and Strategy', 'Due Diligence and Preparation', and 'Execution and Value Realized'. It is highlighted that IT can and should start at 'Proactive', but most organizations start at 'Execution and Value Realized'. 'Proactive': suggest opportunities to evolve the organization; prove IT's value and engage in growth opportunities early. Innovators start here. Steps of the business timeline in 'Proactive' are 'Organization strategies are defined' and 'M and A is considered to enable strategy'. After a buy or sell transaction is initiated is 'Discovery and Strategy': pre-transaction state. If it is a Buy transaction, 'Establish IT's involvement and approach'. If it is a Sell transaction, 'Prepare to engage in negotiations'. Business Partners start here. Steps of the business timeline in 'Discovery and Strategy' are 'Searching criteria is set', 'Potential candidates are considered', and 'LOI is sent/received'. 'Due Diligence and Preparation': mid-transaction state. If it is a Buy transaction, 'Identify potential transaction benefits and risks'. If it is a Sell transaction, 'Comply, communicate, and collaborate in transaction'. Trusted Operators start here. Steps of the business timeline in 'Due Diligence and Preparation' are 'Due diligence engagement occurs', 'Final agreement is reached', and 'Preparation for transaction execution occurs'. 'Execution and Value Realization': post-transaction state. If it is a Buy transaction, 'Integrate the IT environments and achieve business value'. If it is a Sell transaction, 'Separate the IT environment and deliver on transaction terms'. Firefighters start here. Steps of the business timeline in 'Execution and Value Realization' are 'Staff and operations are addressed appropriately', 'Day 1 of implementation and integration activities occurs', '1st 100 days of new entity state occur' and 'Ongoing risk mitigating and value creating activities occur'.

    The business’ view of IT will impact how soon IT can get involved

    There are four key entry points for IT

    A colorful visualization of the four key entry points for IT and a fifth not-so-key entry point. Starting from the top: 'Innovator', Information and Technology as a Competitive Advantage, 90% Satisfaction; 'Business Partner', Effective Delivery of Strategic Business Projects, 80% Satisfaction; 'Trusted Operator', Enablement of Business Through Application and Work Orders, 70% Satisfaction; 'Firefighter', Reliable Infrastructure and IT Service Desk, 60% Satisfaction; and then 'Unstable', Inability to Consistently Deliver Basic Services, <60% Satisfaction.
    1. Innovator: IT suggests a sale or divestiture to meet the business objectives of the organization.
    2. Business Partner: IT is brought in to strategy plan the sale/divestiture from both the business’ and IT’s perspective.
    3. Trusted Operator: IT participates in due diligence activities and complies with the purchasing organization’s asks.
    4. Firefighter: IT needs to reactively prepare its environment in order to enable the separation.

    Merger, acquisition, and divestiture defined

    Merger

    A merger looks at the equal combination of two entities or organizations. Mergers are rare in the M&A space, as the organizations will combine assets and services in a completely equal 50/50 split. Two organizations may also choose to divest business entities and merge as a new company.

    Acquisition

    The most common transaction in the M&A space, where an organization will acquire or purchase another organization or entities of another organization. This type of transaction has a clear owner who will be able to make legal decisions regarding the acquired organization.

    Divestiture

    An organization may decide to sell partial elements of a business to an acquiring organization. They will separate this business entity from the rest of the organization and continue to operate the other components of the business.

    Info-Tech Insight

    A true merger does not exist, as there is always someone initiating the discussion. As a result, most M&A activity falls into acquisition or divestiture categories.

    Selling vs. buying

    The M&A process approach differs depending on whether you are the selling or buying organization

    This blueprint is only focused on the sell side:

    • Examples of sell-related scenarios include:
      • Your organization is selling to another organization with the intent of keeping its regular staff, operations, and location. This could mean minimal separation is required.
      • Your organization is selling to another organization with the intent of separating to be a part of the purchasing organization.
      • Your organization is engaging in a divestiture with the intent of:
        • Separating components to be part of the purchasing organization permanently.
        • Separating components to be part of a spinoff and establish a unit as a standalone new company.
    • As the selling organization, you could proactively seek out suitors to purchase all or components of your organization, or you could be approached by an organization.

    The buy side is focused on:

    • More than two organizations could be involved in a transaction.
    • Examples of buy-related scenarios include:
      • Your organization is buying another organization with the intent of having the purchased organization keep its regular staff, operations, and location. This could mean minimal integration is required.
      • Your organization is buying another organization in its entirety with the intent of integrating it into your original company.
      • Your organization is buying components of another organization with the intent of integrating them into your original company.
    • As the purchasing organization, you will probably be initiating the purchase and thus will be valuating the selling organization during due diligence and leading the execution plan.

    For more information on acquisitions or purchases, check out Info-Tech’s Mergers & Acquisitions: The Buy Blueprint.

    Core business timeline

    For IT to be valuable in M&As, you need to align your deliverables and your support to the key activities the business and investors are working on.

    Info-Tech’s methodology for Selling Organizations in Mergers, Acquisitions, or Divestitures

    1. Proactive

    2. Discovery & Strategy

    3. Due Diligence & Preparation

    4. Execution & Value Realization

    Phase Steps

    1. Identify Stakeholders and Their Perspective of IT
    2. Assess IT’s Current Value and Future State
    3. Drive Innovation and Suggest Growth Opportunities
    1. Establish the M&A Program Plan
    2. Prepare IT to Engage in the Separation or Sale
    1. Engage in Due Diligence and Prepare Staff
    2. Prepare to Separate
    1. Execute the Transaction
    2. Reflection and Value Realization

    Phase Outcomes

    Be an innovative IT leader by suggesting how and why the business should engage in an acquisition or divestiture.

    Create a standardized approach for how your IT organization should address divestitures or sales.

    Comply with due diligence, prepare the IT environment for carve-out possibilities, and establish the separation project plan.

    Deliver on the separation project plan successfully and communicate IT’s transaction value to the business.

    Metrics for each phase

    1. Proactive

    2. Discovery & Strategy

    3. Valuation & Due Diligence

    4. Execution & Value Realization

    • % Share of business innovation spend from overall IT budget
    • % Critical processes with approved performance goals and metrics
    • % IT initiatives that meet or exceed value expectation defined in business case
    • % IT initiatives aligned with organizational strategic direction
    • % Satisfaction with IT's strategic decision-making abilities
    • $ Estimated business value added through IT-enabled innovation
    • % Overall stakeholder satisfaction with IT
    • % Percent of business leaders that view IT as an Innovator
    • % IT budget as a percent of revenue
    • % Assets that are not allocated
    • % Unallocated software licenses
    • # Obsolete assets
    • % IT spend that can be attributed to the business (chargeback or showback)
    • % Share of CapEx of overall IT budget
    • % Prospective organizations that meet the search criteria
    • $ Total IT cost of ownership (before and after M&A, before and after rationalization)
    • % Business leaders that view IT as a Business Partner
    • % Defects discovered in production
    • $ Cost per user for enterprise applications
    • % In-house-built applications vs. enterprise applications
    • % Owners identified for all data domains
    • # IT staff asked to participate in due diligence
    • Change to due diligence
    • IT budget variance
    • Synergy target
    • % Satisfaction with the effectiveness of IT capabilities
    • % Overall end-customer satisfaction
    • $ Impact of vendor SLA breaches
    • $ Savings through cost-optimization efforts
    • $ Savings through application rationalization and technology standardization
    • # Key positions empty
    • % Frequency of staff turnover
    • % Emergency changes
    • # Hours of unplanned downtime
    • % Releases that cause downtime
    • % Incidents with identified problem record
    • % Problems with identified root cause
    • # Days from problem identification to root cause fix
    • % Projects that consider IT risk
    • % Incidents due to issues not addressed in the security plan
    • # Average vulnerability remediation time
    • % Application budget spent on new build/buy vs. maintenance (deferred feature implementation, enhancements, bug fixes)
    • # Time (days) to value realization
    • % Projects that realized planned benefits
    • $ IT operational savings and cost reductions that are related to synergies/divestitures
    • % IT staff–related expenses/redundancies
    • # Days spent on IT separation
    • $ Accurate IT budget estimates
    • % Revenue growth directly tied to IT delivery
    • % Profit margin growth

    IT's role in the selling transaction

    And IT leaders have a greater likelihood than ever of needing to support a merger, acquisition, or divestiture.

    1. Reduced Risk

      IT can identify risks that may go unnoticed when IT is not involved.
    2. Increased Accuracy

      The business can make accurate predictions around the costs, timelines, and needs of IT.
    3. Faster Integration

      Faster integration means faster value realization for the business.
    4. Informed Decision Making

      IT leaders hold critical information that can support the business in moving the transaction forward.
    5. Innovation

      IT can suggest new opportunities to generate revenue, optimize processes, or reduce inefficiencies.

    The IT executive’s critical role is demonstrated by:

    • Reduced Risk

      47% of senior leaders wish they would have spent more time on IT due diligence to prevent value erosion (IMAA Institute, 2017).
    • Increased Accuracy

      Sellers often only provide 15 to 30 days for the acquiring organization to decide (Forbes, 2018), increasing the necessity of accurate pricing.
    • Faster Integration

      36% of CIOs have visibility into only business unit data, making the divestment a challenge (EY, 2021).
    • Informed Decision Making

      Only 38% of corporate and 22% of private equity firms include IT as a significant aspect in their transaction approach (IMAA Institute, 2017).
    • Innovation

      Successful CIOs involved in M&As can spend 70% of their time on aspects outside of IT and 30% of their time on technology and delivery (CIO).

    Playbook benefits

    IT Benefits

    • IT will be seen as an innovative partner to the business, and its suggestions and involvement in the organization will lead to benefits, not hindrances.
    • Develop a streamlined method to prepare the IT environment for potential carve-out and separations, ensuring risk management concerns are brought to the business’ attention immediately.
    • Create a comprehensive list of items that IT needs to do during the separation that can be prioritized and actioned.

    Business Benefits

    • The business will get accurate and relevant information about its IT environment in order to sell or divest the company to the highest bidder for a true price.
    • Fewer business interruptions will happen, because IT can accurately plan for and execute the high-priority separation tasks.
    • The business can obtain a high-value offer for the components of IT being sold and can measure the ongoing value the sale will bring.

    Insight summary

    Overarching Insight

    IT controls if and when it gets invited to support the business through a purchasing growth transaction. Take control of the process, demonstrate the value of IT, and ensure that separation of IT environments does not lead to unnecessary and costly decisions.

    Proactive Insight

    CIOs on the forefront of digital transformation need to actively look for and suggest opportunities to acquire or partner on new digital capabilities to respond to rapidly changing business needs.

    Discovery & Strategy Insight

    IT organizations that have an effective M&A program plan are more prepared for the transaction, enabling a successful outcome. A structured strategy is particularly necessary for organizations expected to deliver M&As rapidly and frequently.

    Due Diligence & Preparation Insight

    IT often faces unnecessary separation challenges because of a lack of preparation. Secure the IT environment and establish how IT will retain employees early in the transaction process.

    Execution & Value Realization Insight

    IT needs to demonstrate value and cost savings within 100 days of the transaction. The most successful transactions are when IT continuously realizes synergies a year after the transaction and beyond.

    Blueprint deliverables

    Key Deliverable: M&A Sell Playbook

    The M&A Sell Playbook should be a reusable document that enables your IT organization to successfully deliver on any divestiture transaction.

    Screenshots of the 'M and A Sell Playbook' deliverable.

    M&A Sell One-Pager

    See a one-page overview of each phase of the transaction.

    Screenshots of the 'M and A Sell One-Pagers' deliverable.

    M&A Sell Case Studies

    Read a one-page case study for each phase of the transaction.

    Screenshots of the 'M and A Sell Case Studies' deliverable.

    M&A Separation Project Management Tool (SharePoint)

    Manage the separation process of the divestiture/sale using this SharePoint template.

    Screenshots of the 'M and A Separation Project Management Tool (SharePoint)' deliverable.

    M&A Separation Project Management Tool (Excel)

    Manage the separation process of the divestiture/sale using this Excel tool if you can’t or don’t want to use SharePoint.

    Screenshots of the 'M and A Separation Project Management Tool (Excel)' deliverable.

    Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

    DIY Toolkit

    Guided Implementation

    Workshop

    Consulting

    "Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful." "Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track." "We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place." "Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project."

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

    A typical GI is between 6 to 10 calls over the course of 2 to 4 months.

      Proactive Phase

    • Call #1: Scope requirements, objectives, and your specific challenges.
    • Discovery & Strategy Phase

    • Call #2: Determine stakeholders and business perspectives on IT.
    • Call #3: Identify how M&A could support business strategy and how to communicate.
    • Due Diligence & Preparation Phase

    • Call #4: Establish a transaction team and divestiture/sale strategic direction.
    • Call #5: Create program metrics and identify a standard separation strategy.
    • Call #6: Prepare to carve out the IT environment.
    • Call #7: Identify the separation program plan.
    • Execution & Value Realization Phase

    • Call #8: Establish employee transitions to retain key staff.
    • Call #9: Assess IT’s ability to deliver on the divestiture/sale transaction.

    The Sell Blueprint

    Phase 1

    Proactive

    Phase 1

    Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4
    • 1.1 Identify Stakeholders and Their Perspective of IT
    • 1.2 Assess IT’s Current Value and Future State
    • 1.3 Drive Innovation and Suggest Reduction Opportunities
    • 2.1 Establish the M&A Program Plan
    • 2.2 Prepare IT to Engage in the Separation or Sale
    • 3.1 Engage in Due Diligence and Prepare Staff
    • 3.2 Prepare to Separate
    • 4.1 Execute the Transaction
    • 4.2 Reflection and Value Realization

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Conduct the CEO-CIO Alignment diagnostic
    • Conduct the CIO Business Vision diagnostic
    • Visualize relationships among stakeholders to identify key influencers
    • Group stakeholders into categories
    • Prioritize your stakeholders
    • Plan to communicate
    • Valuate IT
    • Assess the IT/digital strategy
    • Determine pain points and opportunities
    • Align goals to opportunities
    • Recommend reduction opportunities

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • IT and business leadership

    What is the Proactive phase?

    Embracing the digital drivers

    As the number of merger, acquisition, or divestiture transactions driven by digital means continues to increase, IT has an opportunity to not just be involved in a transaction but actively seek out potential deals.

    In the Proactive phase, the business is not currently considering a transaction. However, the business could consider one to reach its strategic goals. IT organizations that have developed respected relationships with the business leaders can suggest these potential transactions.

    Understand the business’ perspective of IT, determine who the critical M&A stakeholders are, valuate the IT environment, and examine how it supports the business goals in order to suggest an M&A transaction.

    In doing so, IT isn’t waiting to be invited to the transaction table – it’s creating it.

    Goal: To support the organization in reaching its strategic goals by suggesting M&A activities that will enable the organization to reach its objectives faster and with greater-value outcomes.

    Proactive Prerequisite Checklist

    Before coming into the Proactive phase, you should have addressed the following:

    • Understand what mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures are.
    • Understand what mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures mean for the business.
    • Understand what mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures mean for IT.

    Review the Executive Brief for more information on mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures for selling organizations.

    Proactive

    Step 1.1

    Identify M&A Stakeholders and Their Perspective of IT

    Activities

    • 1.1.1 Conduct the CEO-CIO Alignment diagnostic
    • 1.1.2 Conduct the CIO Business Vision diagnostic
    • 1.1.3 Visualize relationships among stakeholders to identify key influencers
    • 1.1.4 Group stakeholders into categories
    • 1.1.5 Prioritize your stakeholders
    • 1.16 Plan to communicate

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT executive leader
    • IT leadership
    • Critical M&A stakeholders

    Outcomes of Step

    Understand how the business perceives IT and establish strong relationships with critical M&A stakeholders.

    Business executives' perspectives of IT

    Leverage diagnostics and gain alignment on IT’s role in the organization

    • To suggest or get involved with a merger, acquisition, or divestiture, the IT executive leader needs to be well respected by other members of the executive leadership team and the business.
    • Specifically, the Proactive phase relies on the IT organization being viewed as an Innovator within the business.
    • Identify how the CEO/business executive currently views IT and where they would like IT to move within the Maturity Ladder.
    • Additionally, understand how other critical department leaders view IT and how they view the partnership with IT.
    A colorful visualization titled 'Maturity Ladder' detailing levels of IT function that a business may choose from based on the business executives' perspectives of IT. Starting from the bottom: 'Struggle', Does not embarrass, Does not crash; 'Support', Keeps business happy, Keeps costs low; 'Optimize', Increases efficiency, Decreases costs; 'Expand', Extends into new business, Generates revenue; 'Transform', Creates new industry.

    Misalignment in target state requires further communication between the CIO and CEO to ensure IT is striving toward an agreed-upon direction.

    Info-Tech’s CIO Business Vision (CIO BV) diagnostic measures a variety of high-value metrics to provide a well-rounded understanding of stakeholder satisfaction with IT.

    Sample of Info-Tech's CIO Business Vision diagnostic measuring percentages of high-value metrics like 'IT Satisfaction' and 'IT Value' regarding business leader satisfaction. A note for these two reads 'Evaluate business leader satisfaction with IT this year and last year'. A section titled 'Relationship' has metrics such as 'Understands Needs' and 'Trains Effectively'. A note for this section reads 'Examine relationship indicators between IT and the business'. A section titled 'Security Friction' has metrics such as 'Regulatory Compliance-Driven' and 'Office/Desktop Security'.

    Business Satisfaction and Importance for Core Services

    The core services of IT are important when determining what IT should focus on. The most important services with the lowest satisfaction offer the largest area of improvement for IT to drive business value.

    Sample of Info-Tech's CIO Business Vision diagnostic specifically comparing the business satisfaction of 12 core services with their importance. Services listed include 'Service Desk', 'IT Security', 'Requirements Gathering', 'Business Apps', 'Data Quality', and more. There is a short description of the services, a percentage for the business satisfaction with the service, a percentage comparing it to last year, and a numbered ranking of importance for each service. A note reads 'Assess satisfaction and importance across 12 core IT capabilities'.

    1.1.1 Conduct the CEO-CIO Alignment diagnostic

    2 weeks

    Input: IT organization expertise and the CEO-CIO Alignment diagnostic

    Output: An understanding of an executive business stakeholder’s perception of IT

    Materials: M&A Sell Playbook, CEO-CIO Alignment diagnostic

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, Business executive/CEO

    1. The CEO-CIO Alignment diagnostic can be a powerful input. Speak with your Info-Tech account representative to conduct the diagnostic. Use the results to inform current IT capabilities.
    2. You may choose to debrief the results of your diagnostic with an Info-Tech analyst. We recommend this to help your team understand how to interpret and draw conclusions from the results.
    3. Examine the results of the survey and note where there might be specific capabilities that could be improved.
    4. Determine whether there are any areas of significant disagreement between the you and the CEO. Mark down those areas for further conversations. Additionally, take note of areas that could be leveraged to support transactions or support your rationale in recommending transactions.

    Download the sample report.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    1.1.2 Conduct the CIO Business Vision diagnostic

    2 weeks

    Input: IT organization expertise, CIO BV diagnostic

    Output: An understanding of business stakeholder perception of certain IT capabilities and services

    Materials: M&A Buy Playbook, CIO Business Vision diagnostic

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, Senior business leaders

    1. The CIO Business Vision (CIO BV) diagnostic can be a powerful tool for identifying IT capability focus areas. Speak with your account representative to conduct the CIO BV diagnostic. Use the results to inform current IT capabilities.
    2. You may choose to debrief the results of your diagnostic with an Info-Tech analyst. We recommend this to help your team understand how to interpret the results and draw conclusions from the diagnostic.
    3. Examine the results of the survey and take note of any IT services that have low scores.
    4. Read through the diagnostic comments and note any common themes. Especially note which stakeholders identified they have a favorable relationship with IT and which stakeholders identified they have an unfavorable relationship. For those who have an unfavorable relationship, identify if they will have a critical role in a growth transaction.

    Download the sample report.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Create a stakeholder network map for M&A transactions

    Follow the trail of breadcrumbs from your direct stakeholders to their influencers to uncover hidden stakeholders.

    Example:

    Diagram of stakeholders and their relationships with other stakeholders, such as 'Board Members', 'CFO/Finance', 'Compliance', etc. with 'CIO/IT Leader' highlighted in the middle. There are unidirectional black arrows and bi-directional green arrows indicating each connection.

      Legend
    • Black arrows indicate the direction of professional influence
    • Dashed green arrows indicate bidirectional, informal influence relationships

    Info-Tech Insight

    Your stakeholder map defines the influence landscape that the M&A transaction will occur within. This will identify who holds various levels of accountability and decision-making authority when a transaction does take place.

    Use connectors to determine who may be influencing your direct stakeholders. They may not have any formal authority within the organization, but they may have informal yet substantial relationships with your stakeholders.

    1.1.3 Visualize relationships among stakeholders to identify key influencers

    1-3 hours

    Input: List of M&A stakeholders

    Output: Relationships among M&A stakeholders and influencers

    Materials: Flip charts, Markers, Sticky notes, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive leadership

    1. The purpose of this activity is to list all the stakeholders within your organization that will have a direct or indirect impact on the M&A transaction.
    2. Determine the critical stakeholders, and then determine the stakeholders of your stakeholders and consider adding each of them to the stakeholder list.
    3. Assess who has either formal or informal influence over your stakeholders; add these influencers to your stakeholder list.
    4. Construct a diagram linking stakeholders and their influencers together.
      • Use black arrows to indicate the direction of professional influence.
      • Use dashed green arrows to indicate bidirectional, informal influence relationships.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Categorize your stakeholders with a prioritization map

    A stakeholder prioritization map helps IT leaders categorize their stakeholders by their level of influence and ownership in the merger, acquisition, or divestiture process.

    A prioritization map of stakeholder categories split into four quadrants. The vertical axis is 'Influence', from low on the bottom to high on top. The horizontal axis is 'Ownership/Interest', from low on the left to high on the right. 'Spectators' are low influence, low ownership/interest. 'Mediators' are high influence, low ownership/interest. 'Noisemakers' are low influence, high ownership/interest. 'Players' are high influence, high ownership/interest.

    There are four areas in the map, and the stakeholders within each area should be treated differently.

    Players – players have a high interest in the initiative and the influence to effect change over the initiative. Their support is critical, and a lack of support can cause significant impediment to the objectives.

    Mediators – mediators have a low interest but significant influence over the initiative. They can help to provide balance and objective opinions to issues that arise.

    Noisemakers – noisemakers have low influence but high interest. They tend to be very vocal and engaged, either positively or negatively, but have little ability to enact their wishes.

    Spectators – generally, spectators are apathetic and have little influence over or interest in the initiative.

    1.1.4 Group stakeholders into categories

    30 minutes

    Input: Stakeholder map, Stakeholder list

    Output: Categorization of stakeholders and influencers

    Materials: Flip charts, Markers, Sticky notes, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive leadership, Stakeholders

    1. Identify your stakeholders’ interest in and influence on the M&A process as high, medium, or low by rating the attributes below.
    2. Map your results to the model to the right to determine each stakeholder’s category.

    Same prioritization map of stakeholder categories as before. This one has specific stakeholders mapped onto it. 'CFO' is mapped as low interest and middling influence, between 'Mediator' and 'Spectator'. 'CIO' is mapped as higher than average interest and high influence, a 'Player'. 'Board Member' is mapped as high interest and high influence, a 'Player'.

    Level of Influence
    • Power: Ability of a stakeholder to effect change.
    • Urgency: Degree of immediacy demanded.
    • Legitimacy: Perceived validity of stakeholder’s claim.
    • Volume: How loud their “voice” is or could become.
    • Contribution: What they have that is of value to you.
    Level of Interest

    How much are the stakeholder’s individual performance and goals directly tied to the success or failure of the product?

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Prioritize your stakeholders

    There may be too many stakeholders to be able to manage them all. Focus your attention on the stakeholders that matter most.

    Level of Support

    Supporter

    Evangelist

    Neutral

    Blocker

    Stakeholder Category Player Critical High High Critical
    Mediator Medium Low Low Medium
    Noisemaker High Medium Medium High
    Spectator Low Irrelevant Irrelevant Low

    Consider the three dimensions for stakeholder prioritization: influence, interest, and support. Support can be determined by answering the following question: How significant is that stakeholder to the M&A or divestiture process?

    These parameters are used to prioritize which stakeholders are most important and should receive your focused attention.

    1.1.5 Prioritize your stakeholders

    30 minutes

    Input: Stakeholder matrix

    Output: Stakeholder and influencer prioritization

    Materials: Flip charts, Markers, Sticky notes, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive leadership, M&A/divestiture stakeholders

    1. Identify the level of support of each stakeholder by answering the following question: How significant is that stakeholder to the M&A transaction process?
    2. Prioritize your stakeholders using the prioritization scheme on the previous slide.

    Stakeholder

    Category

    Level of Support

    Prioritization

    CMO Spectator Neutral Irrelevant
    CIO Player Supporter Critical

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Define strategies for engaging stakeholders by type

    A revisit to the map of stakeholder categories, but with strategies listed for each one, and arrows on the side instead of an axis. The vertical arrow is 'Authority', which increases upward, and the horizontal axis is Ownership/Interest which increases as it moves to the right. The strategy for 'Players' is 'Engage', for 'Mediators' is 'Satisfy', for 'Noisemakers' is 'Inform', and for 'Spectators' is 'Monitor'.

    Type

    Quadrant

    Actions

    Players High influence, high interest – actively engage Keep them updated on the progress of the project. Continuously involve Players in the process and maintain their engagement and interest by demonstrating their value to its success.
    Mediators High influence, low interest – keep satisfied They can be the game changers in groups of stakeholders. Turn them into supporters by gaining their confidence and trust and including them in important decision-making steps. In turn, they can help you influence other stakeholders.
    Noisemakers Low influence, high interest – keep informed Try to increase their influence (or decrease it if they are detractors) by providing them with key information, supporting them in meetings, and using Mediators to help them.
    Spectators Low influence, low interest – monitor They are followers. Keep them in the loop by providing clarity on objectives and status updates.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Each group of stakeholders draws attention and resources away from critical tasks. By properly identifying stakeholder groups, the IT executive leader can develop corresponding actions to manage stakeholders in each group. This can dramatically reduce wasted effort trying to satisfy Spectators and Noisemakers while ensuring the needs of Mediators and Players are met.

    1.1.6 Plan to communicate

    30 minutes

    Input: Stakeholder priority, Stakeholder categorization, Stakeholder influence

    Output: Stakeholder communication plan

    Materials: Flip charts, Markers, Sticky notes, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive leadership, M&A/divestiture stakeholders

    The purpose of this activity is to make a communication plan for each of the stakeholders identified in the previous activities, especially those who will have a critical role in the M&A transaction process.

    1. In the M&A Sell Playbook, input the type of influence each stakeholder has on IT, how they would be categorized in the M&A process, and their level of priority. Use this information to create a communication plan.
    2. Determine the methods and frequency of communication to keep the necessary stakeholder satisfied and maintain or enhance IT’s profile within the organization.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Proactive

    Step 1.2

    Assess IT’s Current Value and Method to Achieve a Future State

    Activities

    • 1.2.1 Valuate IT
    • 1.2.2 Assess the IT/digital strategy

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT executive leader
    • IT leadership
    • Critical stakeholders to M&A

    Outcomes of Step

    Identify critical opportunities to optimize IT and meet strategic business goals through a merger, acquisition, or divestiture.

    How to valuate your IT environment

    And why it matters so much

    • Valuating your current organization’s IT environment is a critical step that all IT organizations should take, whether involved in an M&A or not, to fully understand what it might be worth.
    • The business investments in IT can be directly translated into a value amount. For every $1 invested in IT, the business might be gaining $100 in value back or possibly even loosing $100.
    • Determining, documenting, and communicating this information ensures that the business takes IT’s suggestions seriously and recognizes why investing in IT is so critical.
    • There are three ways a business or asset can be valuated:
      • Cost Approach: Look at the costs associated with building, purchasing, replacing, and maintaining a given aspect of the business.
      • Market Approach: Look at the relative value of a particular aspect of the business. Relative value can fluctuate and depends on what the markets and consequently society believe that particular element is worth.
      • Discounted Cash Flow Approach: Focus on what the potential value of the business could be or the intrinsic value anticipated due to future profitability.
    • (Source: “Valuation Methods,” Corporate Finance Institute)

    Four ways to create value through digital

    1. Reduced costs
    2. Improved customer experience
    3. New revenue sources
    4. Better decision making
    5. (Source: McKinsey & Company)

    1.2.1 Valuate IT

    1 day

    Input: Valuation of data, Valuation of applications, Valuation of infrastructure and operations, Valuation of security and risk

    Output: Valuation of IT

    Materials: Relevant templates/tools listed on the following slides, Capital budget, Operating budget, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership

    The purpose of this activity is to demonstrate that IT is not simply an operational functional area that diminishes business resources. Rather, IT contributes significant value to the business.

    1. Review each of the following slides to valuate IT’s data, applications, infrastructure and operations, and security and risk. These valuations consider several tangible and intangible factors and result in a final dollar amount.
    2. Input the financial amounts identified for each critical area into a summary slide. Use this information to determine where IT is delivering value to the organization.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Consistency is key when valuating your IT organization as well as other IT organizations throughout the transaction process.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Data valuation

    Data valuation identifies how you monetize the information that your organization owns.

    Create a data value chain for your organization

    When valuating the information and data that exists in an organization, there are many things to consider.

    Info-Tech has two tools that can support this process:

    1. Information Asset Audit Tool: Use this tool first to take inventory of the different information assets that exist in your organization.
    2. Data Valuation Tool: Once information assets have been accounted for, valuate the data that exists within those information assets.

    Data Collection

    Insight Creation

    Value Creation

    Data Valuation

    01 Data Source
    02 Data Collection Method
    03 Data
    04 Data Analysis
    05 Insight
    06 Insight Delivery
    07 Consumer
    08 Value in Data
    09 Value Dimension
    10 Value Metrics Group
    11 Value Metrics
    Screenshots of Tab 2 of Info-Tech's Data Valuation Tool.

    Instructions

    1. Using the Data Valuation Tool, start gathering information based on the eight steps above to understand your organization’s journey from data to value.
    2. Identify the data value spectrum. (For example: customer sales service, citizen licensing service, etc.)
    3. Fill out the columns for data sources, data collection, and data first.
    4. Capture data analysis and related information.
    5. Then capture the value in data.
    6. Add value dimensions such as usage, quality, and economic dimensions.
      • Remember that economic value is not the only dimension, and usage/quality has a significant impact on economic value.
    7. Collect evidence to justify your data valuation calculator (market research, internal metrics, etc.).
    8. Finally, calculate the value that has a direct correlation with underlying value metrics.

    Application valuation

    Calculate the value of your IT applications

    When valuating the applications and their users in an organization, consider using a business process map. This shows how business is transacted in the company by identifying which IT applications support these processes and which business groups have access to them. Info-Tech has a business process mapping tool that can support this process:

    • Enterprise Integration Process Mapping Tool: Complete this tool first to map the different business processes to the supporting applications in your organization.

    Instructions

    1. Start by calculating user costs. This is the multiplication of: (# of users) × (% of time spent using IT) × (fully burdened salary).
    2. Identify the revenue per employee and divide that by the average cost per employee to calculate the derived productivity ratio (DPR).
    3. Once you have calculated the user costs and DPR, multiply those total values together to get the application value.
    4. User Costs

      Total User Costs

      Derived Productivity Ratio (DPR)

      Total DPR

      Application Value

      # of users % time spent using IT Fully burdened salary Multiply values from the 3 user costs columns Revenue per employee Average cost per employee (Revenue P.E) ÷ (Average cost P.E) (User costs) X (DPR)

    5. Once the total application value is established, calculate the combined IT and business costs of delivering that value. IT and business costs include inflexibility (application maintenance), unavailability (downtime costs, including disaster exposure), IT costs (common costs statistically allocated to applications), and fully loaded cost of active (full-time equivalent [FTE]) users.
    6. Calculate the net value of applications by subtracting the total IT and business costs from the total application value calculated in step 3.
    7. IT and Business Costs

      Total IT and Business Costs

      Net Value of Applications

      Application maintenance Downtime costs (include disaster exposure) Common costs allocated to applications Fully loaded costs of active (FTE) users Sum of values from the four IT and business costs columns (Application value) – (IT and business costs)

    (Source: CSO)

    Infrastructure valuation

    Assess the foundational elements of the business’ information technology

    The purpose of this exercise is to provide a high-level infrastructure valuation that will contribute to valuating your IT environment.

    Calculating the value of the infrastructure will require different methods depending on the environment. For example, a fully cloud-hosted organization will have different costs than a fully on-premises IT environment.

    Instructions:

    1. Start by listing all of the infrastructure-related items that are relevant to your organization.
    2. Once you have finalized your items column, identify the total costs/value of each item.
      • For example, total software costs would include servers and storage.
    3. Calculate the total cost/value of your IT infrastructure by adding all of values in the right column.

    Item

    Costs/Value

    Hardware Assets Total Value +$3.2 million
    Hardware Leased/Service Agreement -$
    Software Purchased +$
    Software Leased/Service Agreement -$
    Operational Tools
    Network
    Disaster Recovery
    Antivirus
    Data Centers
    Service Desk
    Other Licenses
    Total:

    For additional support, download the M&A Runbook for Infrastructure and Operations.

    Risk and security

    Assess risk responses and calculate residual risk

    The purpose of this exercise is to provide a high-level risk assessment that will contribute to valuating your IT environment. For a more in-depth risk assessment, please refer to the Info-Tech tools below:

    1. Risk Register Tool
    2. Security M&A Due Diligence Tool

    Instructions

    1. Review the probability and impact scales below and ensure you have the appropriate criteria that align to your organization before you conduct a risk assessment.
    2. Identify the probability of occurrence and estimated financial impact for each risk category detail and fill out the table on the right. Customize the table as needed so it aligns to your organization.
    3. Probability of Risk Occurrence

      Occurrence Criteria
      (Classification; Probability of Risk Event Within One Year)

      Negligible Very Unlikely; ‹20%
      Very Low Unlikely; 20 to 40%
      Low Possible; 40 to 60%
      Moderately Low Likely; 60 to 80%
      Moderate Almost Certain; ›80%

    Note: If needed, you can customize this scale with the severity designations that you prefer. However, make sure you are always consistent with it when conducting a risk assessment.

    Financial & Reputational Impact

    Budgetary and Reputational Implications
    (Financial Impact; Reputational Impact)

    Negligible (‹$10,000; Internal IT stakeholders aware of risk event occurrence)
    Very Low ($10,000 to $25,000; Business customers aware of risk event occurrence)
    Low ($25,000 to $50,000; Board of directors aware of risk event occurrence)
    Moderately Low ($50,000 to $100,000; External customers aware of risk event occurrence)
    Moderate (›$100,000; Media coverage or regulatory body aware of risk event occurrence)

    Risk Category Details

    Probability of Occurrence

    Estimated Financial Impact

    Estimated Severity (Probability X Impact)

    Capacity Planning
    Enterprise Architecture
    Externally Originated Attack
    Hardware Configuration Errors
    Hardware Performance
    Internally Originated Attack
    IT Staffing
    Project Scoping
    Software Implementation Errors
    Technology Evaluation and Selection
    Physical Threats
    Resource Threats
    Personnel Threats
    Technical Threats
    Total:

    1.2.2 Assess the IT/digital strategy

    4 hours

    Input: IT strategy, Digital strategy, Business strategy

    Output: An understanding of an executive business stakeholder’s perception of IT, Alignment of IT/digital strategy and overall organization strategy

    Materials: Computer, Whiteboard and markers, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, Business executive/CEO

    The purpose of this activity is to review the business and IT strategies that exist to determine if there are critical capabilities that are not being supported.

    Ideally, the IT and digital strategies would have been created following development of the business strategy. However, sometimes the business strategy does not directly call out the capabilities it requires IT to support.

    1. On the left half of the corresponding slide in the M&A Sell Playbook, document the business goals, initiatives, and capabilities. Input this information from the business or digital strategies. (If more space for goals, initiatives, or capabilities is needed, duplicate the slide).
    2. On the other half of the slide, document the IT goals, initiatives, and capabilities. Input this information from the IT strategy and digital strategy.

    For additional support, see Build a Business-Aligned IT Strategy.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Proactive

    Step 1.3

    Drive Innovation and Suggest Growth Opportunities

    Activities

    • 1.3.1 Determine pain points and opportunities
    • 1.3.2 Align goals with opportunities
    • 1.3.3 Recommend reduction opportunities

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT executive leader
    • IT leadership
    • Critical M&A stakeholders

    Outcomes of Step

    Establish strong relationships with critical M&A stakeholders and position IT as an innovative business partner that can suggest reduction opportunities.

    1.3.1 Determine pain points and opportunities

    1-2 hours

    Input: CEO-CIO Alignment diagnostic, CIO Business Vision diagnostic, Valuation of IT environment, IT-business goals cascade

    Output: List of pain points or opportunities that IT can address

    Materials: Computer, Whiteboard and markers, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Business stakeholders

    The purpose of this activity is to determine the pain points and opportunities that exist for the organization. These can be external or internal to the organization.

    1. Identify what opportunities exist for your organization. Opportunities are the potential positives that the organization would want to leverage.
    2. Next, identify pain points, which are the potential negatives that the organization would want to alleviate.
    3. Spend time considering all the options that might exist, and keep in mind what has been identified previously.

    Opportunities and pain points can be trends, other departments’ initiatives, business perspectives of IT, etc.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    1.3.2 Align goals with opportunities

    1-2 hours

    Input: CEO-CIO Alignment diagnostic, CIO Business Vision diagnostic, Valuation of IT environment, IT-business goals cascade, List of pain points and opportunities

    Output: An understanding of an executive business stakeholder’s perception of IT, Foundations for reduction strategy

    Materials: Computer, Whiteboard and markers, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Business stakeholders

    The purpose of this activity is to determine whether a growth or separation strategy might be a good suggestion to the business in order to meet its business objectives.

    1. For the top three to five business goals, consider:
      1. Underlying drivers
      2. Digital opportunities
      3. Whether a growth or reduction strategy is the solution
    2. Just because a growth or reduction strategy is a solution for a business goal does not necessarily indicate M&A is the way to go. However, it is important to consider before you pursue suggesting M&A.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    1.3.3 Recommend reduction opportunities

    1-2 hours

    Input: Growth or separation strategy opportunities to support business goals, Stakeholder communication plan, Rationale for the suggestion

    Output: M&A transaction opportunities suggested

    Materials: M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, Business executive/CEO

    The purpose of this activity is to recommend a merger, acquisition, or divestiture to the business.

    1. Identify which of the business goals the transaction would help solve and why IT is the one to suggest such a goal.
    2. Leverage the stakeholder communication plan identified previously to give insight into stakeholders who would have a significant level of interest, influence, or support in the process.

    Info-Tech Insight

    With technology and digital driving many transactions, leverage your organizations’ IT environment as an asset and reason why the divestiture or sale should happen, suggesting the opportunity yourself.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    By the end of this Proactive phase, you should:

    Be prepared to suggest M&A opportunities to support your company’s goals through sale or divestiture transactions

    Key outcome from the Proactive phase

    Develop progressive relationships and strong communication with key stakeholders to suggest or be aware of transformational opportunities that can be achieved through sale or divestiture strategies.

    Key deliverables from the Proactive phase
    • Business perspective of IT examined
    • Key stakeholders identified and relationship to the M&A process outlined
    • Ability to valuate the IT environment and communicate IT’s value to the business
    • Assessment of the business, digital, and IT strategies and how M&As could support those strategies
    • Pain points and opportunities that could be alleviated or supported through an M&A transaction
    • Sale or divestiture recommendations

    The Sell Blueprint

    Phase 2

    Discovery & Strategy

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3Phase 4
    • 1.1 Identify Stakeholders and Their Perspective of IT
    • 1.2 Assess IT’s Current Value and Future State
    • 1.3 Drive Innovation and Suggest Reduction Opportunities
    • 2.1 Establish the M&A Program Plan
    • 2.2 Prepare IT to Engage in the Separation or Sale
    • 3.1 Engage in Due Diligence and Prepare Staff
    • 3.2 Prepare to Separate
    • 4.1 Execute the Transaction
    • 4.2 Reflection and Value Realization

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Create the mission and vision
    • Identify the guiding principles
    • Create the future-state operating model
    • Determine the transition team
    • Document the M&A governance
    • Create program metrics
    • Establish the separation strategy
    • Conduct a RACI
    • Create the communication plan
    • Assess the potential organization(s)

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • IT executive/CIO
    • IT senior leadership
    • Company M&A team

    Workshop Overview

    Contact your account representative for more information.
    workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889

    Pre-Work

    Day 1

    Day 2

    Day 3

    Day 4

    Day 5

    Establish the Transaction FoundationDiscover the Motivation for Divesting or SellingFormalize the Program PlanCreate the Valuation FrameworkStrategize the TransactionNext Steps and Wrap-Up (offsite)

    Activities

    • 0.1 Conduct the CIO Business Vision and CEO-CIO Alignment diagnostics
    • 0.2 Identify key stakeholders and outline their relationship to the M&A process
    • 0.3 Identify the rationale for the company's decision to pursue a divestiture or sale
    • 1.1 Review the business rationale for the divestiture/sale
    • 1.2 Assess the IT/digital strategy
    • 1.3 Identify pain points and opportunities tied to the divestiture/sale
    • 1.4 Create the IT vision statement, create the IT mission statement, and identify IT guiding principles
    • 2.1 Create the future-state operating model
    • 2.2 Determine the transition team
    • 2.3 Document the M&A governance
    • 2.4 Establish program metrics
    • 3.1 Valuate your data
    • 3.2 Valuate your applications
    • 3.3 Valuate your infrastructure
    • 3.4 Valuate your risk and security
    • 3.5 Combine individual valuations to make a single framework
    • 4.1 Establish the separation strategy
    • 4.2 Conduct a RACI
    • 4.3 Review best practices for assessing target organizations
    • 4.4 Create the communication plan
    • 5.1 Complete in-progress deliverables from previous four days
    • 5.2 Set up review time for workshop deliverables and to discuss next steps

    Deliverables

    1. Business perspectives of IT
    2. Stakeholder network map for M&A transactions
    1. Business context implications for IT
    2. IT’s divestiture/sale strategic direction
    1. Operating model for future state
    2. Transition team
    3. Governance structure
    4. M&A program metrics
    1. IT valuation framework
    1. Separation strategy
    2. RACI
    3. Communication plan
    1. Completed M&A program plan and strategy
    2. Prepared to assess target organization(s)

    What is the Discovery & Strategy phase?

    Pre-transaction state

    The Discovery & Strategy phase during a sale or divestiture is a unique opportunity for many IT organizations. IT organizations that can participate in the transaction at this stage are likely considered a strategic partner of the business.

    For one-off sales/divestitures, IT being invited during this stage of the process is rare. However, for organizations that are preparing to engage in many divestitures over the coming years, this type of strategy will greatly benefit from IT involvement. Again, the likelihood of participating in an M&A transaction is increasing, making it a smart IT leadership decision to, at the very least, loosely prepare a program plan that can act as a strategic pillar throughout the transaction.

    During this phase of the pre-transaction state, IT may be asked to participate in ensuring that the IT environment is able to quickly and easily carve out components/business lines and deliver on service-level agreements (SLAs).

    Goal: To identify a repeatable program plan that IT can leverage when selling or divesting all or parts of the current IT environment, ensuring customer satisfaction and business continuity

    Discovery & Strategy Prerequisite Checklist

    Before coming into the Discovery & Strategy phase, you should have addressed the following:

    • Understand the business perspective of IT.
    • Know the key stakeholders and have outlined their relationship to the M&A process.
    • Be able to valuate the IT environment and communicate IT's value to the business.
    • Understand the rationale for the company's decision to pursue a sale or divestiture and the opportunities or pain points the sale should address.

    Discovery & Strategy

    Step 2.1

    Establish the M&A Program Plan

    Activities

    • 2.1.1 Create the mission and vision
    • 2.1.2 Identify the guiding principles
    • 2.1.3 Create the future-state operating model
    • 2.1.4 Determine the transition team
    • 2.1.5 Document the M&A governance
    • 2.1.6 Create program metrics

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT executive/CIO
    • IT senior leadership
    • Company M&A team

    Outcomes of Step

    Establish an M&A program plan that can be repeated across sales/divestitures.

    The vision and mission statements clearly articulate IT’s aspirations and purpose

    The IT vision statement communicates a desired future state of the IT organization, whereas the IT mission statement portrays the organization’s reason for being. While each serves its own purpose, they should both be derived from the business context implications for IT.

    Vision Statements

    Mission Statements

    Characteristics

    • Describe a desired future
    • Focus on ends, not means
    • Concise
    • Aspirational
    • Memorable
    • Articulate a reason for existence
    • Focus on how to achieve the vision
    • Concise
    • Easy to grasp
    • Sharply focused
    • Inspirational

    Samples

    To be a trusted advisor and partner in enabling business innovation and growth through an engaged IT workforce. (Source: Business News Daily) IT is a cohesive, proactive, and disciplined team that delivers innovative technology solutions while demonstrating a strong customer-oriented mindset. (Source: Forbes, 2013)

    2.1.1 Create the mission and vision statements

    2 hours

    Input: Business objectives, IT capabilities, Rationale for the transaction

    Output: IT’s mission and vision statements for reduction strategies tied to mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures

    Materials: Flip charts/whiteboard, Markers, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to create mission and vision statements that reflect IT’s intent and method to support the organization as it pursues a reduction strategy.

    1. Review the definitions and characteristics of mission and vision statements.
    2. Brainstorm different versions of the mission and vision statements.
    3. Edit the statements until you get to a single version of each that accurately reflects IT’s role in the reduction process.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Guiding principles provide a sense of direction

    IT guiding principles are shared, long-lasting beliefs that guide the use of IT in constructing, transforming, and operating the enterprise by informing and restricting IT investment portfolio management, solution development, and procurement decisions.

    A diagram illustrating the place of 'IT guiding principles' in the process of making 'Decisions on the use of IT'. There are four main items, connecting lines naming the type of process in getting from one step to the next, and a line underneath clarifying the questions asked at each step. On the far left, over the question 'What decisions should be made?', is 'Business context and IT implications'. This flows forward to 'IT guiding principles', and they are connected by 'Influence'. Next, over the question 'How should decisions be made?', is the main highlighted section. 'IT guiding principles' flows forward to 'Decisions on the use of IT', and they are connected by 'Guide and inform'. On the far right, over the question 'Who has the accountability and authority to make decisions?', is 'IT policies'. This flows back to 'Decisions on the use of IT', and they are connected by 'Direct and control'.

    IT principles must be carefully constructed to make sure they are adhered to and relevant

    Info-Tech has identified a set of characteristics that IT principles should possess. These characteristics ensure the IT principles are relevant and followed in the organization.

    Approach focused. IT principles should be focused on the approach – how the organization is built, transformed, and operated – as opposed to what needs to be built, which is defined by both functional and non-functional requirements.

    Business relevant. Create IT principles that are specific to the organization. Tie IT principles to the organization’s priorities and strategic aspirations.

    Long lasting. Build IT principles that will withstand the test of time.

    Prescriptive. Inform and direct decision making with actionable IT principles. Avoid truisms, general statements, and observations.

    Verifiable. If compliance can’t be verified, people are less likely to follow the principle.

    Easily Digestible. IT principles must be clearly understood by everyone in IT and by business stakeholders. IT principles aren’t a secret manuscript of the IT team. IT principles should be succinct; wordy principles are hard to understand and remember.

    Followed. Successful IT principles represent a collection of beliefs shared among enterprise stakeholders. IT principles must be continuously communicated to all stakeholders to achieve and maintain buy-in.

    In organizations where formal policy enforcement works well, IT principles should be enforced through appropriate governance processes.

    Consider the example principles below

    IT Principle Name

    IT Principle Statement

    1. Risk Management We will ensure that the organization’s IT Risk Management Register is properly updated to reflect all potential risks and that a plan of action against those risks has been identified.
    2. Transparent Communication We will ensure employees are spoken to with respect and transparency throughout the transaction process.
    3. Separation for Success We will create a carve-out strategy that enables the organization and clearly communicates the resources required to succeed.
    4. Managed Data We will handle data creation, modification, separation, and use across the enterprise in compliance with our data governance policy.
    5.Deliver Better Customer Service We will reduce the number of products offered by IT, enabling a stronger focus on specific products or elements to increase customer service delivery.
    6. Compliance With Laws and Regulations We will operate in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations for both our organization and the potentially purchasing organization.
    7. Defined Value We will create a plan of action that aligns with the organization’s defined value expectations.
    8. Network Readiness We will ensure that employees and customers have immediate access to the network with minimal or no outages.
    9. Value Generator We will leverage the current IT people, processes, and technology to turn the IT organization into a value generator by developing and selling our services to purchasing organizations.

    2.1.2 Identify the guiding principles

    2 hours

    Input: Business objectives, IT capabilities, Rationale for the transaction, Mission and vision statements

    Output: IT’s guiding principles for reduction strategies tied to mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures

    Materials: Flip charts/whiteboard, Markers, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to create the guiding principles that will direct the IT organization throughout the reduction strategy process.

    1. Review the role of guiding principles and the examples of guiding principles that organizations have used.
    2. Brainstorm different versions of the guiding principles. Each guiding principle should start with the phrase “We will…”
    3. Edit and consolidate the statements until you have a list of approximately eight to ten statements that accurately reflect IT’s role in the reduction process.
    4. Review the guiding principles every six months to ensure they continue to support the delivery of the business’ reduction strategy goals.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Create two IT teams to support the transaction

    IT M&A Transaction Team

    • The IT M&A Transaction Team should consist of the strongest members of the IT team who can be expected to deliver on unusual or additional tasks not asked of them in normal day-to-day operations.
    • The roles selected for this team will have very specific skills sets or deliver on critical separation capabilities, making their involvement in the combination of two or more IT environments paramount.
    • These individuals need to have a history of proving themselves very trustworthy, as they will likely be required to sign an NDA as well.
    • Expect to have to certain duplicate capabilities or roles across the M&A Team and Operational Team.

    IT Operational Team

    • This group is responsible for ensuring the business operations continue.
    • These employees might be those who are newer to the organization but can be counted on to deliver consistent IT services and products.
    • The roles of this team should ensure that end users or external customers remain satisfied.

    Key capabilities to support M&A

    Consider the following capabilities when looking at who should be a part of the IT Transaction Team.

    Employees who have a significant role in ensuring that these capabilities are being delivered will be a top priority.

    Infrastructure & Operations

    • System Separation
    • Data Management
    • Helpdesk/Desktop Support
    • Cloud/Server Management

    Business Focus

    • Service-Level Management
    • Enterprise Architecture
    • Stakeholder Management
    • Project Management

    Risk & Security

    • Privacy Management
    • Security Management
    • Risk & Compliance Management

    Build a lasting and scalable operating model

    An operating model is an abstract visualization, used like an architect’s blueprint, that depicts how structures and resources are aligned and integrated to deliver on the organization’s strategy.

    It ensures consistency of all elements in the organizational structure through a clear and coherent blueprint before embarking on detailed organizational design.

    The visual should highlight which capabilities are critical to attaining strategic goals and clearly show the flow of work so that key stakeholders can understand where inputs flow in and outputs flow out of the IT organization.

    As you assess the current operating model, consider the following:

    • Does the operating model contain all the necessary capabilities your IT organization requires to be successful?
    • What capabilities should be duplicated?
    • Are there individuals with the skill set to support those roles? If not, is there a plan to acquire or develop those skills?
    • A dedicated project team strictly focused on M&A is great. However, is it feasible for your organization? If not, what blockers exist?
    A diagram with 'Initiatives' and 'Solutions' on the left and right of an area chart, 'Customer' at the top, the area between them labelled 'Functional Area n', and six horizontal bars labelled 'IT Capability' stacked on top of each other. The 'IT Capability' bars are slightly skewed to the 'Solutions' side of the chart.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Investing time up-front getting the operating model right is critical. This will give you a framework to rationalize future organizational changes, allowing you to be more iterative and allowing your model to change as the business changes.

    2.1.3 Create the future-state operating model

    4 hours

    Input: Current operating model, IT strategy, IT capabilities, M&A-specific IT capabilities, Business objectives, Rationale for the transaction, Mission and vision statements

    Output: Future-state operating model for divesting organizations

    Materials: Operating model, Capability overlay, Flip charts/whiteboard, Markers, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to establish what the future-state operating model will be if your organization needs to adjust to support a divestiture transaction. If your organization plans to sell in its entirety, you may choose to skip this activity.

    1. Ensuring that all the IT capabilities are identified by the business and IT strategy, document your organization’s current operating model.
    2. Identify what core capabilities would be critical to the divesting transaction process and separation. Highlight and make copies of those capabilities in the M&A Sell Playbook. As a result of divesting, there may also be capabilities that will become irrelevant in your future state.
    3. Ensure the capabilities that will be decentralized are clearly identified. Decentralized capabilities do not exist within the central IT organization but rather in specific lines of businesses, products, or locations to better understand needs and deliver on the capability.

    An example operating model is included in the M&A Sell Playbook. This process benefits from strong reference architecture and capability mapping ahead of time.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    2.1.4 Determine the transition team

    3 hours

    Input: IT capabilities, Future-state operating model, M&A-specific IT capabilities, Business objectives, Rationale for the transaction, Mission and vision statements

    Output: Transition team

    Materials: Reference architecture, Organizational structure, Flip charts/whiteboard, Markers

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to create a team that will support your IT organization throughout the transaction. Determining which capabilities and therefore which roles will be required ensures that the business will continue to get the operational support it needs.

    1. Based on the outcome of activity 2.1.3, review the capabilities that your organization will require on the transition team. Group capabilities into functional groups containing capabilities that are aligned well with one another because they have similar responsibilities and functionalities.
    2. Replace the capabilities with roles. For example, stakeholder management, requirements gathering, and project management might be one functional group. Project management and stakeholder management might combine to create a project manager role.
    3. Review the examples in the M&A Sell Playbook and identify which roles will be a part of the transition team.

    For more information, see Redesign Your Organizational Structure

    What is governance?

    And why does it matter so much to IT and the M&A process?

    • Governance is the method in which decisions get made, specifically as they impact various resources (time, money, and people).
    • Because M&A is such a highly governed transaction, it is important to document the governance bodies that exist in your organization.
    • This will give insight into what types of governing bodies there are, what decisions they make, and how that will impact IT.
    • For example, funds to support separation need to be discussed, approved, and supplied to IT from a governing body overseeing the acquisition.
    • A highly mature IT organization will have automated governance, while a seemingly non-existent governance process will be considered ad hoc.
    A pyramid with four levels representing the types of governing bodies that are available with differing levels of IT maturity. An arrow beside the pyramid points upward. The bottom of the arrow is labelled 'Traditional (People and document centric)' and the top is labelled 'Adaptive (Data centric)'. Starting at the bottom of the pyramid is level 1 'Ad Hoc Governance', 'Governance that is not well defined or understood within the organization. It occurs out of necessity but often not by the right people'. Level 2 is 'Controlled Governance', 'Governance focused on compliance and decisions driven by hierarchical authority. Levels of authority are defined and often driven by regulatory'. Level 3 is 'Agile Governance', 'Governance that is flexible to support different needs and quick response in the organization. Driven by principles and delegated throughout the company'. At the top of the pyramid is level 4 'Automated Governance', 'Governance that is entrenched and automated into organizational processes and product/service design. Empowered and fully delegated governance to maintain fit and drive organizational success and survival'.

    2.1.5 Document M&A governance

    1-2 hours

    Input: List of governing bodies, Governing body committee profiles, Governance structure

    Output: Documented method on how decisions are made as it relates to the M&A transaction

    Materials: Flip charts/whiteboard, Markers, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to determine the method in which decisions are made throughout the M&A transaction as it relates to IT. This will require understanding both governing bodies internal to IT and those external to IT.

    1. First, determine the other governance structures within the organization that will impact the decisions made about M&A. List out these bodies or committees.
    2. Create a profile for each committee that looks at the membership, purpose of the committee, decision areas (authority), and the process of inputs and outputs. Ensure IT committees that will have a role in this process are also documented. Consider the benefits realized, risks, and resources required for each.
    3. Organize the committees into a structure, identifying the committees that have a role in defining the strategy, designing and building, and running.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Current-state structure map – definitions of tiers

    Strategy: These groups will focus on decisions that directly connect to the strategic direction of the organization.

    Design & Build: The second tier of groups will oversee prioritization of a certain area of governance as well as design and build decisions that feed into strategic decisions.

    Run: The lowest level of governance will be oversight of more-specific initiatives and capabilities within IT.

    Expect tier overlap. Some committees will operate in areas that cover two or three of these governance tiers.

    Measure the IT program’s success in terms of its ability to support the business’ M&A goals

    Upper management will measure IT’s success based on your ability to support the underlying reasons for the M&A. Using business metrics will help assure business stakeholders that IT understands their needs and is working with the business to achieve them.

    Business-Specific Metrics

    • Revenue Growth: Increase in the top line as seen by market expansion, product expansion, etc. by percentage/time.
    • Synergy Extraction: Reduction in costs as determined by the ability to identify and eliminate redundancies over time.
    • Profit Margin Growth: Increase in the bottom line as a result of increased revenue growth and/or decreased costs over time.

    IT-Specific Metrics

    • IT operational savings and cost reductions due to synergies: Operating expenses, capital expenditures, licenses, contracts, applications, infrastructure over time.
    • Reduction in IT staff expense and headcount: Decreased budget allocated to IT staff, and ability to identify and remove redundancies in staff.
    • Meeting or improving on IT budget estimates: Delivering successful IT separation on a budget that is the same or lower than the budget estimated during due diligence.
    • Meeting or improving on IT time-to-separation estimates: Delivering successful IT carve-out on a timeline that is the same or shorter than the timeline estimated during due diligence.
    • Business capability support: Delivering the end state of IT that supports the expected business capabilities and growth.

    Establish your own metrics to gauge the success of IT

    Establish SMART M&A Success Metrics

    S pecific Make sure the objective is clear and detailed.
    M easurable Objectives are measurable if there are specific metrics assigned to measure success. Metrics should be objective.
    A ctionable Objectives become actionable when specific initiatives designed to achieve the objective are identified.
    R ealistic Objectives must be achievable given your current resources or known available resources.
    T ime-Bound An objective without a timeline can be put off indefinitely. Furthermore, measuring success is challenging without a timeline.
    • What should IT consider when looking to identify potential additions, deletions, or modifications that will either add value to the organization or reduce costs/risks?
    • Provide a definition of synergies.
    • IT operational savings and cost reductions due to synergies: Operating expenses, capital expenditures, licenses, contracts, applications, infrastructure.
    • Reduction in IT staff expense and headcount: Decreased budget allocated to IT staff, and ability to identify and remove redundancies in staff.
    • Meeting or improving on IT budget estimates: Delivering successful IT separation on a budget that is the same or lower than the budget estimated during due diligence.
    • Meeting or improving on IT time-to-separation estimates: Delivering successful IT carve-out on a timeline that is the same or shorter than the timeline estimated during due diligence.
    • Revenue growth: Increase in the top line as a result, as seen by market expansion, product expansion, etc., as a result of divesting lines of the business and selling service-level agreements to the purchasing organization.
    • Synergy extraction: Reduction in costs, as determined by the ability to identify and eliminate redundancies.
    • Profit margin growth: Increase in the bottom line as a result of increased revenue growth and/or decreased costs.

    Metrics for each phase

    1. Proactive

    2. Discovery & Strategy

    3. Valuation & Due Diligence

    4. Execution & Value Realization

    • % Share of business innovation spend from overall IT budget
    • % Critical processes with approved performance goals and metrics
    • % IT initiatives that meet or exceed value expectation defined in business case
    • % IT initiatives aligned with organizational strategic direction
    • % Satisfaction with IT's strategic decision-making abilities
    • $ Estimated business value added through IT-enabled innovation
    • % Overall stakeholder satisfaction with IT
    • % Percent of business leaders that view IT as an Innovator
    • % IT budget as a percent of revenue
    • % Assets that are not allocated
    • % Unallocated software licenses
    • # Obsolete assets
    • % IT spend that can be attributed to the business (chargeback or showback)
    • % Share of CapEx of overall IT budget
    • % Prospective organizations that meet the search criteria
    • $ Total IT cost of ownership (before and after M&A, before and after rationalization)
    • % Business leaders that view IT as a Business Partner
    • % Defects discovered in production
    • $ Cost per user for enterprise applications
    • % In-house-built applications vs. enterprise applications
    • % Owners identified for all data domains
    • # IT staff asked to participate in due diligence
    • Change to due diligence
    • IT budget variance
    • Synergy target
    • % Satisfaction with the effectiveness of IT capabilities
    • % Overall end-customer satisfaction
    • $ Impact of vendor SLA breaches
    • $ Savings through cost-optimization efforts
    • $ Savings through application rationalization and technology standardization
    • # Key positions empty
    • % Frequency of staff turnover
    • % Emergency changes
    • # Hours of unplanned downtime
    • % Releases that cause downtime
    • % Incidents with identified problem record
    • % Problems with identified root cause
    • # Days from problem identification to root cause fix
    • % Projects that consider IT risk
    • % Incidents due to issues not addressed in the security plan
    • # Average vulnerability remediation time
    • % Application budget spent on new build/buy vs. maintenance (deferred feature implementation, enhancements, bug fixes)
    • # Time (days) to value realization
    • % Projects that realized planned benefits
    • $ IT operational savings and cost reductions that are related to synergies/divestitures
    • % IT staff–related expenses/redundancies
    • # Days spent on IT separation
    • $ Accurate IT budget estimates
    • % Revenue growth directly tied to IT delivery
    • % Profit margin growth

    2.1.6 Create program metrics

    1-2 hours

    Input: IT capabilities, Mission, vision, and guiding principles, Rationale for the acquisition

    Output: Program metrics to support IT throughout the M&A process

    Materials: Flip charts/whiteboard, Markers, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to determine how IT’s success throughout a growth transaction will be measured and determined.

    1. Document a list of appropriate metrics on the whiteboard. Remember to include metrics that demonstrate the business impact. You can use the sample metrics listed on the previous slide as a starting point.
    2. Set a target and deadline for each metric. This will help the group determine when it is time to evaluate progression.
    3. Establish a baseline for each metric based on information collected within your organization.
    4. Assign an owner for tracking each metric as well as someone to be accountable for performance.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Discovery & Strategy

    Step 2.2

    Prepare IT to Engage in the Separation or Sale

    Activities

    • 2.2.1 Establish the separation strategy
    • 2.2.2 Conduct a RACI
    • 2.2.3 Create the communication plan
    • 2.2.4 Assess the potential organization(s)

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT executive/CIO
    • IT senior leadership
    • Company M&A team

    Outcomes of Step

    Identify IT’s plan of action when it comes to the separation/sale and align IT’s separation/sale strategy with the business’ M&A strategy.

    Separation strategies

    There are several IT separation strategies that will let you achieve your target technology environment.

    IT Separation Strategies
    • Divest. Carve out elements of the IT organization and sell them to a purchasing organization with or without a service-level agreement.
    • Sell. Sell the entire IT environment to a purchasing organization. The purchasing organization takes full responsibility in delivering and running the IT environment.
    • Spin-Off Joint Venture. Carve out elements of the IT organization and combine them with elements of a new or purchasing organization to create a new entity.

    The approach IT takes will depend on the business objectives for the M&A.

    • Generally speaking, the separation strategy is well understood and influenced by the frequency of and rationale for selling.
    • Based on the initiatives generated by each business process owner, you need to determine the IT separation strategy that will best support the desired target technology environment, especially if you are still operating or servicing elements of that IT environment.

    Key considerations when choosing an IT separation strategy include:

    • What are the main business objectives of the M&A?
    • What are the key synergies expected from the transaction?
    • What IT separation strategy best helps obtain these benefits?
    • What opportunities exist to position the business for sustainable and long-term growth?

    Separation strategies in detail

    Review highlights and drawbacks of different separation strategies

    Divest
      Highlights
    • Recommended for businesses striving to reduce costs and potentially even generate revenue for the business through the delivery of SLAs.
    • Opportunity to reduce or scale back on lines of business or products that are not driving profits.
      Drawbacks
    • May be forced to give up critical staff that have been known to deliver high value.
    • The IT department is left to deliver services to the purchasing organization with little support or consideration from the business.
    • There can be increased risk and security concerns that need to be addressed.
    Sell
      Highlights
    • Recommended for businesses looking to gain capital to exit the market profitably or to enter a new market with a large sum of capital.
    • The business will no longer exist, and as a result all operational costs, including IT, will become redundant.
      Drawbacks
    • IT is no longer needed as an operating or capital service for the organization.
    • Lost resources, including highly trained and critical staff.
    • May require packaging employees off and using the profit or capital generated to cover any closing costs.
    Spin-Off or Joint Venture
      Highlights
    • Recommended for businesses looking to expand their market presence or acquire new products. Essentially aligning the two organizations in the same market.
    • Each side has a unique offering but complementing capabilities.
      Drawbacks
    • As much as the organization is going through a separation from the original company, it will be going through an integration with the new company.
    • There could be differences in culture.
    • This could require a large amount of investment without a guarantee of profit or success.

    2.2.1 Establish the separation strategy

    1-2 hours

    Input: Business separation strategy, Guiding principles, M&A governance

    Output: IT’s separation strategy

    Materials: Flip charts/whiteboard, Markers, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to determine IT’s approach to separating or selling. This approach might differ slightly from transaction to transaction. However, the businesses approach to transactions should give insight into the general separation strategy IT should adopt.

    1. Make sure you have clearly articulated the business objectives for the M&A, the technology end state for IT, and the magnitude of the overall separation.
    2. Review and discuss the highlights and drawbacks of each type of separation.
    3. Use Info-Tech’s Separation Posture Selection Framework on the next slide to select the separation posture that will appropriately enable the business. Consider these questions during your discussion:
      1. What are the main business objectives of the M&A? What key IT capabilities will need to support business objectives?
      2. What key synergies are expected from the transaction? What opportunities exist to position the business for sustainable growth?
      3. What IT separation best helps obtain these benefits?

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Separation Posture Selection Framework

    Business M&A Strategy

    Resultant Technology Strategy

    M&A Magnitude (% of Seller Assets, Income, or Market Value)

    IT Separation Posture

    A. Horizontal Adopt One Model ‹100% Divest
    ›99% Sell
    B. Vertical Create Links Between Critical Systems Any Divest
    C. Conglomerate Independent Model Any Joint Venture
    Divest
    D. Hybrid: Horizontal & Conglomerate Create Links Between Critical Systems Any Divest
    Joint Venture

    M&A separation strategy

    Business M&A Strategy Resultant Technology Strategy M&A Magnitude (% of Seller Assets, Income, or Market Value) IT Separation Posture

    You may need a hybrid separation posture to achieve the technology end state.

    M&A objectives may not affect all IT domains and business functions in the same way. Therefore, the separation requirements for each business function may differ. Organizations will often choose to select and implement a hybrid separation posture to realize the technology end state.

    Each business division may have specific IT domain and capability needs that require an alternative separation strategy.

    • Example: Even when conducting a joint venture by forming a new organization, some partners might view themselves as the dominant partner and want to influence the IT environment to a greater degree.
    • Example: Some purchasing organizations will expect service-level agreements to be available for a significant period of time following the divestiture, while others will be immediately independent.

    2.2.2 Conduct a RACI

    1-2 hours

    Input: IT capabilities, Transition team, Separation strategy

    Output: Completed RACI for Transition team

    Materials: Reference architecture, Organizational structure, Flip charts/whiteboard, Markers, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to identify the core accountabilities and responsibilities for the roles identified as critical to your transition team. While there might be slight variation from transaction to transaction, ideally each role should be performing certain tasks.

    1. First, identify a list of critical tasks that need to be completed to support the sale or separation. For example:
      • Communicate with the company M&A team.
      • Identify the key IT solutions that can and cannot be carved out.
      • Gather data room artifacts and provide them to acquiring organization.
    2. Next, identify at the activity level which role is accountable or responsible for each activity. Enter an A for accountable, R for responsible, or A/R for both.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Communication and change

    Prepare key stakeholders for the potential changes

    • Anytime you are starting a project or program that will depend on users and stakeholders to give up their old way of doing things, change will force people to become novices again, leading to lost productivity and added stress.
    • Change management can improve outcomes for any project where you need people to adopt new tools and procedures, comply with new policies, learn new skills and behaviors, or understand and support new processes.
    • M&As move very quickly, and it can be very difficult to keep track of which stakeholders you need to be communicating with and what you should be communicating.
    • Not all organizations embrace or resist change in the same ways. Base your change communications on your organization’s cultural appetite for change in general.
      • Organizations with a low appetite for change will require more direct, assertive communications.
      • Organizations with a high appetite for change are more suited to more open, participatory approaches.

    Three key dimensions determine the appetite for cultural change:

    • Power Distance. Refers to the acceptance that power is distributed unequally throughout the organization.
      In organizations with a high power distance, the unequal power distribution is accepted by the less powerful employees.
    • Individualism. Organizations that score high in individualism have employees who are more independent. Those who score low in individualism fall into the collectivism side, where employees are strongly tied to one another or their groups.
    • Uncertainty Avoidance. Describes the level of acceptance that an organization has toward uncertainty. Those who score high in this area find that their employees do not favor uncertain situations, while those that score low in this area find that their employees are comfortable with change and uncertainty.

    2.2.3 Create the communication plan

    1-2 hours

    Input: IT’s M&A mission, vision, and guiding principles, M&A transition team, IT separation strategy, RACI

    Output: IT’s M&A communication plan

    Materials: Flip charts/whiteboard, Markers, RACI, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to create a communication plan that IT can leverage throughout the initiative.

    1. Create a structured communication plan that allows for continuous communication with the integration management office, senior management, and the business functional heads.
    2. Outline key topics of communication, with stakeholders, inputs, and outputs for each topic.
    3. Review Info-Tech’s example communication plan in the M&A Sell Playbook and update it with relevant information.
    4. Does this communication plan make sense for your organization? What doesn’t make sense? Adjust the communication guide to suit your organization.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Assessing potential organizations

    As soon as you have identified organizations to consider, it’s imperative to assess critical risks. Most IT leaders can attest that they will receive little to no notice when the business is pursuing a sale and IT has to assess the IT organization. As a result, having a standardized template to quickly assess the potential acquiring organization is important.

    Ways to Assess

    1. News: Assess what sort of news has been announced in relation to the organization. Have they had any risk incidents? Has a critical vendor announced working with them?
    2. LinkedIn: Scan through the LinkedIn profiles of employees. This will give you a sense of what platforms they have based on employees. It will also give insight into positive or negative employee experiences that could impact retention.
    3. Trends: Some industries will have specific solutions that are relevant and popular. Assess what the key players are (if you don’t already know) to determine the solution.
    4. Business Architecture: While this assessment won’t perfect, try to understand the business’ value streams and the critical business and IT capabilities that would be needed to support them. Will your organization or employee skills be required to support these long term?

    Info-Tech Insight

    Assessing potential organizations is not just for the purchaser. The seller should also know what the purchasing organization’s history with M&As is and what potential risks could occur if remaining connected through ongoing SLAs.

    2.2.4 Assess the potential organization(s)

    1-2 hours

    Input: Publicized historical risk events, Solutions and vendor contracts likely in the works, Trends

    Output: IT’s valuation of the potential organization(s) for selling or divesting

    Materials: M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO

    The purpose of this activity is to assess the organization(s) that your organization is considering selling or divesting to.

    1. Complete the Historical Valuation Worksheet in the M&A Sell Playbook to understand the type of IT organization that your company may support.
      • The business likely isn’t looking for in-depth details at this time. However, as the IT leader, it is your responsibility to ensure critical risks are identified and communicated to the business.
    2. Use the information identified to help the business narrow down which organizations could be the right organizations to sell or divest to.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    By the end of this pre-transaction phase you should:

    Have a program plan for M&As and a repeatable M&A strategy for IT when engaging in reduction transactions

    Key outcomes from the Discovery & Strategy phase
    • Prepare the IT environment to support the potential sale or divestiture by identifying critical program plan elements and establishing a separation or carve-out strategy that will enable the business to reach its goals.
    • Create a M&A strategy that accounts for all the necessary elements of a transaction and ensures sufficient governance, capabilities, and metrics exist.
    Key deliverables from the Discovery & Strategy phase
    • Create vision and mission statements
    • Establish guiding principles
    • Create a future-state operating model
    • Identify the key roles for the transaction team
    • Identify and communicate the M&A governance
    • Determine target metrics
    • Identify the M&A operating model
    • Select the separation strategy framework
    • Conduct a RACI for key transaction tasks for the transaction team
    • Document the communication plan

    M&A Sell Blueprint

    Phase 3

    Due Diligence & Preparation

    Phase 1Phase 2

    Phase 3

    Phase 4
    • 1.1 Identify Stakeholders and Their Perspective of IT
    • 1.2 Assess IT’s Current Value and Future State
    • 1.3 Drive Innovation and Suggest Reduction Opportunities
    • 2.1 Establish the M&A Program Plan
    • 2.2 Prepare IT to Engage in the Separation or Sale
    • 3.1 Engage in Due Diligence and Prepare Staff
    • 3.2 Prepare to Separate
    • 4.1 Execute the Transaction
    • 4.2 Reflection and Value Realization

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Drive value with a due diligence charter
    • Gather data room artifacts
    • Measure staff engagement
    • Assess culture
    • Create a carve-out roadmap
    • Prioritize separation tasks
    • Establish the separation roadmap
    • Identify the buyer’s IT expectations
    • Create a service/transaction agreement
    • Estimate separation costs
    • Create an employee transition plan
    • Create functional workplans for employees
    • Align project metrics with identified tasks

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • IT executive/CIO
    • IT senior leadership
    • Company M&A team
    • Business leaders
    • Purchasing organization
    • Transition team

    Workshop Overview

    Contact your account representative for more information.
    workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889

    Pre-Work

    Day 1

    Day 2

    Day 3

    Day 4

    Day 5

    Establish the Transaction FoundationDiscover the Motivation for SeparationIdentify Expectations and Create the Carve-Out RoadmapPrepare and Manage EmployeesPlan the Separation RoadmapNext Steps and Wrap-Up (offsite)

    Activities

    • 0.1 Identify the rationale for the company's decision to pursue a divestiture/sale.
    • 0.2 Identify key stakeholders and determine the IT transaction team.
    • 0.3 Gather and evaluate the M&A strategy, future-state operating model, and governance.
    • 1.1 Review the business rationale for the divestiture/sale.
    • 1.2 Identify pain points and opportunities tied to the divestiture/sale.
    • 1.3 Establish the separation strategy.
    • 1.4 Create the due diligence charter.
    • 2.1 Identify the buyer’s IT expectations.
    • 2.2 Create a list of IT artifacts to be reviewed in the data room.
    • 2.3 Create a carve-out roadmap.
    • 2.4 Create a service/technical transaction agreement.
    • 3.1 Measure staff engagement.
    • 3.2 Assess the current culture and identify the goal culture.
    • 3.3 Create an employee transition plan.
    • 3.4 Create functional workplans for employees.
    • 4.1 Prioritize separation tasks.
    • 4.2 Establish the separation roadmap.
    • 4.3 Establish and align project metrics with identified tasks.
    • 4.4 Estimate separation costs.
    • 5.1 Complete in-progress deliverables from previous four days.
    • 5.2 Set up review time for workshop deliverables and to discuss next steps.

    Deliverables

    1. IT strategy
    2. IT operating model
    3. IT governance structure
    4. M&A transaction team
    1. Business context implications for IT
    2. Separation strategy
    3. Due diligence charter
    1. Data room artifacts identified
    2. Carve-out roadmap
    3. Service/technical transaction agreement
    1. Engagement assessment
    2. Culture assessment
    3. Employee transition plans and workplans
    1. Separation roadmap and associated resourcing
    1. Divestiture separation strategy for IT

    What is the Due Diligence & Preparation phase?

    Mid-transaction state

    The Due Diligence & Preparation phase during a sale or divestiture is a critical time for IT. If IT fails to proactively participate in this phase, IT will have to merely react to separation expectations set by the business.

    If your organization is being sold in its entirety, staff will have major concerns about their future in the new organization. Making this transition as smooth as possible and being transparent could go a long way in ensuring their success in the new organization.

    In a divestiture, this is the time to determine where it’s possible for the organization to divide or separate from itself. A lack of IT involvement in these conversations could lead to an overcommitment by the business and under-delivery by IT.

    Goal: To ensure that, as the selling or divesting organization, you comply with regulations, prepare staff for potential changes, and identify a separation strategy if necessary

    Due Diligence Prerequisite Checklist

    Before coming into the Due Diligence & Preparation phase, you must have addressed the following:

    • Understand the rationale for the company's decision to pursue a sale or divestiture and what opportunities or pain points the sale should alleviate.
    • Identify the key roles for the transaction team.
    • Identify the M&A governance.
    • Determine target metrics.
    • Select a separation strategy framework.
    • Conduct a RACI for key transaction tasks for the transaction team.

    Before coming into the Due Diligence & Preparation phase, we recommend addressing the following:

    • Create vision and mission statements.
    • Establish guiding principles.
    • Create a future-state operating model.
    • Identify the M&A operating model.
    • Document the communication plan.
    • Examine the business perspective of IT.
    • Identify key stakeholders and outline their relationship to the M&A process.
    • Be able to valuate the IT environment and communicate IT’s value to the business.

    The Technology Value Trinity

    Delivery of Business Value & Strategic Needs

    • Digital & Technology Strategy
      The identification of objectives and initiatives necessary to achieve business goals.
    • IT Operating Model
      The model for how IT is organized to deliver on business needs and strategies.
    • Information & Technology Governance
      The governance to ensure the organization and its customers get maximum value from the use of information and technology.

    All three elements of the Technology Value Trinity work in harmony to deliver business value and achieve strategic needs. As one changes, the others need to change as well.

    • Digital and IT Strategy tells you what you need to achieve to be successful.
    • IT Operating Model and Organizational Design is the alignment of resources to deliver on your strategy and priorities.
    • Information & Technology Governance is the confirmation of IT’s goals and strategy, which ensures the alignment of IT and business strategy. It’s the mechanism by which you continuously prioritize work to ensure that what is delivered is in line with the strategy. This oversight evaluates, directs, and monitors the delivery of outcomes to ensure that the use of resources results in the achieving the organization’s goals.

    Too often strategy, operating model and organizational design, and governance are considered separate practices. As a result, “strategic documents” end up being wish lists, and projects continue to be prioritized based on who shouts the loudest – not based on what is in the best interest of the organization.

    Due Diligence & Preparation

    Step 3.1

    Engage in Due Diligence and Prepare Staff

    Activities

    • 3.1.1 Drive value with a due diligence charter
    • 3.1.2 Gather data room artifacts
    • 3.1.3 Measure staff engagement
    • 3.1.4 Assess culture

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT executive/CIO
    • IT senior leadership
    • Company M&A team
    • Business leaders
    • Prospective IT organization
    • Transition team

    Outcomes of Step

    This step of the process is when IT should prepare and support the business in due diligence and gather the necessary information about staff changes.

    3.1.1 Drive value with a due diligence charter

    1-2 hours

    Input: Key roles for the transaction team, M&A governance, Target metrics, Selected separation strategy framework, RACI of key transaction tasks for the transaction team

    Output: IT Due Diligence Charter

    Materials: M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to create a charter leveraging the items completed in the previous phase, as listed on the Due Diligence Prerequisite Checklist slide, to gain executive sign-off.

    1. In the IT Due Diligence Charter in the M&A Sell Playbook, complete the aspects of the charter that are relevant for you and your organization.
    2. We recommend including these items in the charter:
      • Communication plan
      • Transition team roles
      • Goals and metrics for the transaction
      • Separation strategy
      • Sale/divestiture RACI
    3. Once the charter has been completed, ensure that business executives agree to the charter and sign off on the plan of action.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    3.1.2 Gather data room artifacts

    4 hours

    Input: Future-state operating model, M&A governance, Target metrics, Selected separation strategy framework, RACI of key transaction tasks for the transaction team

    Output: List of items to acquire and verify can be provided to the purchasing organization while in the data room

    Materials: Critical domain lists on following slides, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team, Transition team, Legal team, Compliance/privacy officers

    The purpose of this activity is to create a list of the key artifacts that you could be asked for during the due diligence process.

    1. Review the lists on the following pages as a starting point. Identify which domains, stakeholders, artifacts, and information should be requested for the data room.
    2. IT leadership may or may not be asked to enter the data room directly. The short notice for having to find these artifacts for the purchasing organization can leave your IT organization scrambling. Identify the critical items worth obtaining ahead of time.
    3. Once you have identified the artifacts, provide the list to the legal team or compliance/privacy officers and ensure they also agree those items can be provided. If changes to the documents need to be made, take the time to do so.
    4. Store all items in a safe and secure file or provide to the M&A team ahead of due diligence.

    **Note that if your organization is not leading/initiating the data room, then you can ignore this activity.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Critical domains

    Understand the key stakeholders and outputs for each domain

    Domain

    Stakeholders

    Key Artifacts

    Key Information to request

    Business
    • Enterprise Architecture
    • Business Relationship Manager
    • Business Process Owners
    • Business capability map
    • Capability map (the M&A team should be taking care of this, but make sure it exists)
    • Business satisfaction with various IT systems and services
    Leadership/IT Executive
    • CIO
    • CTO
    • CISO
    • IT budgets
    • IT capital and operating budgets (from current year and previous year)
    Data & Analytics
    • Chief Data Officer
    • Data Architect
    • Enterprise Architect
    • Master data domains, system of record for each
    • Unstructured data retention requirements
    • Data architecture
    • Master data domains, sources, and storage
    • Data retention requirements
    Applications
    • Applications Manager
    • Application Portfolio Manager
    • Application Architect
    • Applications map
    • Applications inventory
    • Applications architecture
    • Copy of all software license agreements
    • Copy of all software maintenance agreements
    Infrastructure
    • Head of Infrastructure
    • Enterprise Architect
    • Infrastructure Architect
    • Infrastructure Manager
    • Infrastructure map
    • Infrastructure inventory
    • Network architecture (including which data centers host which infrastructure and applications)
    • Inventory (including separation capabilities of vendors, versions, switches, and routers)
    • Copy of all hardware lease or purchase agreements
    • Copy of all hardware maintenance agreements
    • Copy of all outsourcing/external service provider agreements
    • Copy of all service-level agreements for centrally provided, shared services and systems
    Products and Services
    • Product Manager
    • Head of Customer Interactions
    • Product lifecycle
    • Product inventory
    • Customer market strategy

    Critical domains (continued)

    Understand the key stakeholders and outputs for each domain

    Domain

    Stakeholders

    Key Artifacts

    Key Information to request

    Operations
    • Head of Operations
    • Service catalog
    • Service overview
    • Service owners
    • Access policies and procedures
    • Availability and service levels
    • Support policies and procedures
    • Costs and approvals (internal and customer costs)
    IT Processes
    • CIO
    • IT Management
    • VP of IT Governance
    • VP of IT Strategy
    • IT process flow diagram
    • Processes in place and productivity levels (capacity)
    • Critical processes/processes the organization feels they do particularly well
    IT People
    • CIO
    • VP of Human Resources
    • IT organizational chart
    • Competency & capacity assessment
    • IT organizational structure (including resources from external service providers such as contractors) with appropriate job descriptions or roles and responsibilities
    • IT headcount and location
    Security
    • CISO
    • Security Architect
    • Security posture
    • Information security staff
    • Information security service providers
    • Information security tools
    • In-flight information security projects
    Projects
    • Head of Projects
    • Project portfolio
    • List of all future, ongoing, and recently completed projects
    Vendors
    • Head of Vendor Management
    • License inventory
    • Inventory (including what will and will not be transitioning, vendors, versions, number of licenses)

    Retain top talent throughout the transition

    Focus on retention and engagement

    • People are such a critical component of this process, especially in the selling organization.
    • Retaining employees, especially the critical employees who hold specific skills or knowledge, will ensure the success and longevity of the divesting organization, purchasing organization, or the new company.
    • Giving employees a role in the organization and ensuring they do not see their capabilities as redundant will be critical to the process.
    • It is okay if employees need to change what they were doing temporarily or even long-term. However, being transparent about these changes and highlighting their value to the process and organization(s) will help.
    • The first step to moving forward with retention is to look at the baseline engagement and culture of employees and the organization. This will help determine where to focus and allow you to identify changes in engagement that resulted from the transaction.
    • Job engagement drivers are levers that influence the engagement of employees in their day-to-day roles.
    • Organizational engagement drivers are levers that influence an employee’s engagement with the broader organization.
    • Retention drivers are employment needs. They don’t necessarily drive engagement, but they must be met for engagement to be possible.

    3.1.3 Measure staff engagement

    3-4 hours

    Input: Engagement survey

    Output: Baseline engagement scores

    Materials: Build an IT Employee Engagement Program

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, IT employees of current organization

    The purpose of this activity is to measure current staff engagement to have a baseline to measure against in the future state. This is a good activity to complete if you will be divesting or selling in entirety.

    The results from the survey should act as a baseline to determine what the organization is doing well in terms of employee engagement and what drivers could be improved upon.

    1. Review Info-Tech’s Build an IT Employee Engagement Program research and select a survey that will best meet your needs.
    2. Conduct the survey and note which drivers employees are currently satisfied with. Likewise, note where there are opportunities.
    3. Document actions that should be taken to mitigate the negative engagement drivers throughout the transaction and enhance or maintain the positive engagement drivers.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Assess culture as a part of engagement

    Culture should not be overlooked, especially as it relates to the separation of IT environments

    • There are three types of culture that need to be considered.
    • Most importantly, this transition is an opportunity to change the culture that might exist in your organization’s IT environment.
    • Make a decision on which type of culture you’d like IT to have post transition.

    Target Organization's Culture. The culture that the target organization is currently embracing. Their established and undefined governance practices will lend insight into this.

    Your Organization’s Culture. The culture that your organization is currently embracing. Examine people’s attitudes and behaviors within IT toward their jobs and the organization.

    Ideal Culture. What will the future culture of the IT organization be once separation is complete? Are there aspects that your current organization and the target organization embrace that are worth considering?

    Culture categories

    Map the results of the IT Culture Diagnostic to an existing framework

    Competitive
    • Autonomy
    • Confront conflict directly
    • Decisive
    • Competitive
    • Achievement oriented
    • Results oriented
    • High performance expectations
    • Aggressive
    • High pay for good performance
    • Working long hours
    • Having a good reputation
    • Being distinctive/different
    Innovative
    • Adaptable
    • Innovative
    • Quick to take advantage of opportunities
    • Risk taking
    • Opportunities for professional growth
    • Not constrained by rules
    • Tolerant
    • Informal
    • Enthusiastic
    Traditional
    • Stability
    • Reflective
    • Rule oriented
    • Analytical
    • High attention to detail
    • Organized
    • Clear guiding philosophy
    • Security of employment
    • Emphasis on quality
    • Focus on safety
    Cooperative
    • Team oriented
    • Fair
    • Praise for good performance
    • Supportive
    • Calm
    • Developing friends at work
    • Socially responsible

    Culture Considerations

    • What culture category was dominant for each IT organization?
    • Do you share the same dominant category?
    • Is your current dominant culture category the most ideal to have post-separation?

    3.1.4 Assess Culture

    3-4 hours

    Input: Cultural assessments for current IT organization, Cultural assessment for target IT organization

    Output: Goal for IT culture

    Materials: IT Culture Diagnostic

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, IT employees of current organization, IT employees of target organization, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to assess the different cultures that might exist within the IT environments of the organizations involved. By understanding the culture that exists in the purchasing organization, you can identify the fit and prepare impacted staff for potential changes.

    1. Complete this activity by leveraging the blueprint Fix Your IT Culture, specifically the IT Culture Diagnostic.
    2. Fill out the diagnostic for the IT department in your organization:
      1. Answer the 16 questions in tab 2, Diagnostic.
      2. Find out your dominant culture and review recommendations in tab 3, Results.
    3. Document the results from tab 3, Results, in the M&A Sell Playbook if you are trying to record all artifacts related to the transaction in one place.
    4. Repeat the activity for the purchasing organization.
    5. Leverage the information to determine what the goal for the culture of IT will be post-separation if it will differ from the current culture.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Due Diligence & Preparation

    Step 3.2

    Prepare to Separate

    Activities

    • 3.2.1 Create a carve-out roadmap
    • 3.2.2 Prioritize separation tasks
    • 3.2.3 Establish the separation roadmap
    • 3.2.4 Identify the buyer’s IT expectations
    • 3.2.5 Create a service/transaction agreement
    • 3.2.6 Estimate separation costs
    • 3.2.7 Create an employee transition plan
    • 3.2.8 Create functional workplans for employees
    • 3.2.9 Align project metrics with identified tasks

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT executive/CIO
    • IT senior leadership
    • Transition team
    • Company M&A team
    • Purchasing organization

    Outcomes of Step

    Have an established plan of action toward separation across all domains and a strategy toward resources.

    Don’t underestimate the importance of separation preparation

    Separation involves taking the IT organization and dividing it into two or more separate entities.

    Testing the carve capabilities of the IT organization often takes 3 months. (Source: Cognizant, 2014)

    Daimler-Benz lost nearly $19 billion following its purchase of Chrysler by failing to recognize the cultural differences that existed between the two car companies. (Source: Deal Room)

    Info-Tech Insight

    Separating the IT organization requires more time and effort than business leaders will know. Frequently communicate challenges and lost opportunities when carving the IT environment out.

    Separation needs

    Identify the business objectives of the sale to determine the IT strategy

    Set up a meeting with your IT due diligence team to:

    • Ensure there will be no gaps in the delivery of products and services in the future state.
    • Discuss the people and processes necessary to achieve the target technology environment and support M&A business objectives.

    Use this opportunity to:

    • Identify data and application complexities between the involved organizations.
    • Identify the IT people and process gaps, initiatives, and levels of support expected.
    • Determine your infrastructure needs to ensure effectiveness and delivery of services:
      • Does IT have the infrastructure to support the applications and business capabilities?
      • Identify any gaps between the current infrastructure in both organizations and the infrastructure required.
      • Identify any redundancies/gaps.
      • Determine the appropriate IT separation strategies.
    • Document your gaps, redundancies, initiatives, and assumptions to help you track and justify the initiatives that must be undertaken and help estimate the cost of separation.

    Separation strategies

    There are several IT separation strategies that will let you achieve your target technology environment.

    IT Separation Strategies
    • Divest. Carve out elements of the IT organization and sell them to a purchasing organization with or without a service-level agreement.
    • Sell. Sell the entire IT environment to a purchasing organization. The purchasing organization takes full responsibility in delivering and running the IT environment.
    • Spin-Off Joint Venture. Carve out elements of the IT organization and combine them with elements of a new or purchasing organization to create a new entity.

    The approach IT takes will depend on the business objectives for the M&A.

    • Generally speaking, the separation strategy is well understood and influenced by the frequency of and rationale for selling.
    • Based on the initiatives generated by each business process owner, you need to determine the IT separation strategy that will best support the desired target technology environment, especially if you are still operating or servicing elements of that IT environment.

    Key considerations when choosing an IT separation strategy include:

    • What are the main business objectives of the M&A?
    • What are the key synergies expected from the transaction?
    • What IT separation strategy best helps obtain these benefits?
    • What opportunities exist to position the business for sustainable and long-term growth?

    Separation strategies in detail

    Review highlights and drawbacks of different separation strategies

    Divest
      Highlights
    • Recommended for businesses striving to reduce costs and potentially even generate revenue for the business through the delivery of SLAs.
    • Opportunity to reduce or scale back on lines of business or products that are not driving profits.
      Drawbacks
    • May be forced to give up critical staff that have been known to deliver high value.
    • The IT department is left to deliver services to the purchasing organization with little support or consideration from the business.
    • There can be increased risk and security concerns that need to be addressed.
    Sell
      Highlights
    • Recommended for businesses looking to gain capital to exit the market profitably or to enter a new market with a large sum of capital.
    • The business will no longer exist, and as a result all operational costs, including IT, will become redundant.
      Drawbacks
    • IT is no longer needed as an operating or capital service for the organization.
    • Lost resources, including highly trained and critical staff.
    • May require packaging employees off and using the profit or capital generated to cover any closing costs.
    Spin-Off or Joint Venture
      Highlights
    • Recommended for businesses looking to expand their market presence or acquire new products. Essentially aligning the two organizations in the same market.
    • Each side has a unique offering but complementing capabilities.
      Drawbacks
    • As much as the organization is going through a separation from the original company, it will be going through an integration with the new company.
    • There could be differences in culture.
    • This could require a large amount of investment without a guarantee of profit or success.

    Preparing the carve-out roadmap

    And why it matters so much

    • When carving out the IT environment in preparation for a divestiture, it’s important to understand the infrastructure, application, and data connections that might exist.
    • Much to the business’ surprise, carving out the IT environment is not easy, especially when considering the services and products that might depend on access to certain applications or data sets.
    • Once the business has indicated which elements they anticipate divesting, be prepared for testing the functionality and ability of this carve-out, either through automation or manually. There are benefits and drawbacks to both methods:
      • Automated requires a solution and a developer to code the tests.
      • Manual requires time to find the errors, possibly more time than automated testing.
    • Identify if there are dependencies that will make the carve-out difficult.
      • For example, the business is trying to divest Product X, but that product is integrated with Product Y, which is not being sold.
      • Consider all the processes and products that specific data might support as well.
      • Moreover, the data migration tool will need to enter the ERP system and identify not just the data but all supporting and historical elements that underlie the data.

    Critical components to consider:

    • Selecting manual or automated testing
    • Determining data dependencies
    • Data migration capabilities
    • Auditing approval
    • People and skills that support specific elements being carved out

    3.2.1 Create a carve-out roadmap

    6 hours

    Input: Items included in the carve-out, Dependencies, Whether testing is completed, If the carve-out will pass audit, If the carve-out item is prepared to be separated

    Output: Carve-out roadmap

    Materials: Business’ divestiture plan, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Business leaders, Transition team

    The purpose of this activity is to prepare the IT environment by identifying a carve-out roadmap, specifically looking at data, infrastructure, and applications. Feel free to expand the roadmap to include other categories as your organization sees fit.

    1. In the Carve-Out Roadmap in the M&A Sell Playbook, identify the key elements of the carve-out in the first column.
    2. Note any dependencies the items might have. For example:
      • The business is selling Product X, which is linked to Data X and Data Y. The organization does not want to sell Data Y. Data X would be considered dependent on Data Y.
    3. Once the dependencies have been confirmed, begin automated or manual testing to examine the possibility of separating the data sets (or other dependencies) from one another.
    4. After identifying an acceptable method of separation, inform the auditing individual or body and confirm that there would be no repercussions for the planned process.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    3.2.2 Prioritize separation tasks

    2 hours

    Input: Separation tasks, Transition team, M&A RACI

    Output: Prioritized separation list

    Materials: Separation task checklist, Separation roadmap

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to prioritize the different separation tasks that your organization has identified as necessary to this transaction. Some tasks might not be relevant for this particular transaction, and others might be critical.

    1. Begin by downloading the SharePoint or Excel version of the M&A Separation Project Management Tool.
    2. Identify which separation tasks you want to have as part of your project plan. Alter or remove any tasks that are irrelevant to your organization. Add in tasks you think are missing.
    3. When deciding criticality of the task, consider the effect on stakeholders, those who are impacted or influenced in the process of the task, and dependencies (e.g. data strategy needs to be addressed first before you can tackle its dependencies, like data quality).
    4. Feel free to edit the way you measure criticality. The standard tool leverages a three-point scale. At the end, you should have a list of tasks in priority order based on criticality.

    Record the updates in the M&A Separation Project Management Tool (SharePoint).

    Record the updates in the M&A Separation Project Management Tool (Excel).

    Separation checklists

    Prerequisite Checklist
    • Build the project plan for separation and prioritize activities
      • Plan first day
      • Plan first 30/100 days
      • Plan first year
    • Create an organization-aligned IT strategy
    • Identify critical stakeholders
    • Create a communication strategy
    • Understand the rationale for the sale or divestiture
    • Develop IT's sale/divestiture strategy
      • Determine goal opportunities
      • Create the mission and vision statements
      • Create the guiding principles
      • Create program metrics
    • Consolidate reports from due diligence/data room
    • Conduct culture assessment
    • Create a transaction team
    • Establish a service/technical transaction agreement
    • Plan and communicate culture changes
    • Create an employee transition plan
    • Assess baseline engagement
    Business
    • Design an enterprise architecture
    • Document your business architecture
    • Meet compliance and regulatory standards
    • Identify and assess all of IT's risks
    Applications
    • Prioritize and address critical applications
      • CRM
      • HRIS
      • Financial
      • Sales
      • Risk
      • Security
      • ERP
      • Email
    • Develop method of separating applications
    • Model critical applications that have dependencies on one another
    • Identify the infrastructure capacity required to support critical applications
    • Prioritize and address critical applications
    Leadership/IT Executive
    • Build an IT budget
    • Structure operating budget
    • Structure capital budget
    • Identify the workforce demand vs. capacity
    • Establish and monitor key metrics
    • Communicate value realized/cost savings
    Data
    • Confirm data strategy
    • Confirm data governance
    • Build a data architecture roadmap
    • Analyze data sources and domains
    • Evaluate data storage (on-premises vs. cloud)
    • Develop an enterprise content management strategy and roadmap
    • Ensure cleanliness/usability of data sets
    • Identify data sets that can remain operational if reduced/separated
    • Develop reporting and analytics capabilities
    • Confirm data strategy
    Operations
    • Manage sales access to customer data
    • Determine locations and hours of operation
    • Separate/terminate phone lists and extensions
    • Split email address books
    • Communicate helpdesk/service desk information

    Separation checklists (continued)

    Infrastructure
    • Manage organization domains
    • Consolidate data centers
    • Compile inventory of vendors, versions, switches, and routers
    • Review hardware lease or purchase agreements
    • Review outsourcing/service provider agreements
    • Review service-level agreements
    • Assess connectivity linkages between locations
    • Plan to migrate to a single email system if necessary
    • Determine network access concerns
    Vendors
    • Establish a sustainable vendor management office
    • Review vendor landscape
    • Identify warranty options
    • Identify the licensing grant
    • Rationalize vendor services and solutions
    People
    • Design an IT operating model
    • Design your future IT organizational structure
    • Conduct a RACI for prioritized activities
    • Conduct a culture assessment and identify goal IT culture
    • Build an IT employee engagement program
    • Determine critical roles and systems/process/products they support
    • Define new job descriptions with meaningful roles and responsibilities
    • Create employee transition plans
    • Create functional workplans
    Projects
    • Identify projects to be on hold
    • Communicate project intake process
    • Reprioritize projects
    Products & Services
    • Redefine service catalog
    • Ensure customer interaction requirements are met
    • Select a solution for product lifecycle management
    • Plan service-level agreements
    Security
    • Conduct a security assessment
    • Develop accessibility prioritization and schedule
    • Establish an information security strategy
    • Develop a security awareness and training program
    • Develop and manage security governance, risk, and compliance
    • Identify security budget
    • Build a data privacy and classification program
    IT Processes
    • Evaluate current process models
    • Determine productivity/capacity levels of processes
    • Identify processes to be changed/terminated
    • Establish a communication plan
    • Develop a change management process
    • Establish/review IT policies
    • Evaluate current process models

    3.2.2 Establish the separation roadmap

    2 hours

    Input: Prioritized separation tasks, Carve-out roadmap, Employee transition plan, Separation RACI, Costs for activities, Activity owners

    Output: Separation roadmap

    Materials: M&A Separation Project Plan Tool (SharePoint), M&A Separation Project Plan Tool (Excel), SharePoint Template: Step-by-Step Deployment Guide

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Transition team, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to create a roadmap to support IT throughout the separation process. Using the information gathered in previous activities, you can create a roadmap that will ensure a smooth separation.

    1. Use our Separation Project Management Tool to help track critical elements in relation to the separation project. There are a few options available:
      1. Follow the instructions on the next slide if you are looking to upload our SharePoint project template. Additional instructions are available in the SharePoint Template Step-by-Step Deployment Guide.
      2. If you cannot or do not want to use SharePoint as your project management solution, download our Excel version of the tool.
        **Remember that this your tool, so customize to your liking.
    2. Identify who will own or be accountable for each of the separation tasks and establish the time frame for when each project should begin and end. This will confirm which tasks should be prioritized.

    Record the updates in the M&A Separation Project Management Tool (SharePoint).

    Record the updates in the M&A Separation Project Management Tool (Excel).

    Separation Project Management Tool (SharePoint Template)

    Follow these instructions to upload our template to your SharePoint environment

    1. Create or use an existing SP site.
    2. Download the M&A Separation Project Management Tool (SharePoint) .wsp file from the Mergers & Acquisitions: The Sell Blueprint landing page.
    3. To import a template into your SharePoint environment, do the following:
      1. Open PowerShell.
      2. Connect-SPO Service (need to install PowerShell module).
      3. Enter in your tenant admin URL.
      4. Enter in your admin credentials.
      5. Set-SPO Site https://YourDomain.sharepoint.com/sites/YourSiteHe... -DenyAddAndCustomizePages 0
      OR
      1. Turn on both custom script features to allow users to run custom
    4. Screenshot of the 'Custom Script' option for importing a template into your SharePoint environment. Feature description reads 'Control whether users can run custom script on personal sites and self-service created sites. Note: changes to this setting might take up to 24 hours to take effect. For more information, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkIn=397546'. There are options to prevent or allow users from running custom script on personal/self-service created sites.
    5. Enable the SharePoint Server feature.
    6. Upload the .wsp file in Solutions Gallery.
    7. Deploy by creating a subsite and select from custom options.
      • Allow or prevent custom script
      • Security considerations of allowing custom script
      • Save, download, and upload a SharePoint site as a template
    8. Refer to Microsoft documentation to understand security considerations and what is and isn’t supported:

    For more information, check out the SharePoint Template: Step-by-Step Deployment Guide.

    Supporting the transition and establishing service-level agreements

    The purpose of this part of the transition is to ensure both buyer and seller have a full understanding of expectations for after the transaction.

    • Once the organizations have decided to move forward with a deal, all parties need a clear level of agreement.
    • IT, since it is often seen as an operational division of an organization, is often expected to deliver certain services or products once the transaction has officially closed.
    • The purchasing organization or the new company might depend on IT to deliver these services until they are able to provide those services on their own.
    • Having a clear understanding of what the buyer’s expectations are and what your company, as the selling organization, can provide is important.
    • Have a conversation with the buyer and document those expectations in a signed service agreement.

    3.2.4 Identify the buyer's IT expectations

    3-4 hours

    Input: Carve-out roadmap, Separation roadmap, Up-to-date version of the agreement

    Output: Buyer’s IT expectations

    Materials: Questions for meeting

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team, Purchasing company M&A team, Purchasing company IT leadership

    The purpose of this activity is to determine if the buyer has specific service expectations for your IT organization. By identifying, documenting, and agreeing on what services your IT organization will be responsible for, you can obtain a final agreement to protect you as the selling organization.

    1. Buyers should not assume certain services will be provided. Organize a meeting with IT leaders and the company M&A teams to determine what services will be provided.
    2. The next slide has a series of questions that you can start from. Ensure you get detailed information about each of the services.
    3. Once you fully understand the buyer’s IT expectations, create an SLA in the next activity and obtain sign-off from both organizations.

    Questions to ask the buyer

    1. What services would you like my IT organization to provide?
    2. How long do you anticipate those services will be provided to you?
    3. How do you expect your staff/employees to communicate requests or questions to my staff/employees?
    4. Are there certain days or times that you expect these services to be delivered?
    5. How many staff do you expect should be available to support you?
    6. What should be the acceptable response time on given service requests?
    7. When it comes to the services you require, what level of support should we provide?
    8. If a service requires escalation to Level 2 or Level 3 support, are we still expected to support this service? Or are we only Level 1 support?
    9. What preventative security methods does your organization have to protect our environment during this agreement period?

    3.2.5 Create a service/ transaction agreement

    6 hours

    Input: Buyer's expectations, Separation roadmap

    Output: SLA for the purchasing organization

    Materials: Service Catalog Internal Service Level Agreement Template, M&A Separation Project Plan Tool (SharePoint), M&A Separation Project Plan Tool (Excel)

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team, Purchasing company M&A team, Purchasing company IT leadership

    The purpose of this activity is to determine if the buyer has specific service expectations for your IT organization post-transaction that your IT organization is agreeing to provide.

    1. Document the expected services and the related details in a service-level agreement.
    2. Provide the SLA to the purchasing organization.
    3. Obtain sign-off from both organizations on the level of service that is expected of IT.
    4. Update the M&A Separation Project Management Tool Excel or SharePoint document to reflect any additional items that the purchasing organization identified.

    *For organizations being purchased in their entirety, this activity may not be relevant.

    Modify the Service Catalog Internal Service Level Agreement with the agreed-upon terms of the SLA.

    Importance of estimating separation costs

    Change is the key driver of separation costs

    Separation costs are dependent on the following:
    • Meeting synergy targets – whether that be cost saving or growth related.
      • Employee-related costs, licensing, and reconfiguration fees play a huge part in meeting synergy targets.
    • Adjustments related to compliance or regulations – especially if there are changes to legal entities, reporting requirements, or risk mitigation standards.
    • Governance or third party–related support required to ensure timelines are met and the separation is a success.
    Separation costs vary by industry type.
    • Certain industries may have separation costs made up of mostly one type, differing from other industries, due to the complexity and demands of the transaction. For example:
      • Healthcare separation costs are mostly driven by regulatory, safety, and quality standards, as well as consolidation of the research and development function.
      • Energy and Utilities tend to have the lowest separation costs due to most transactions occurring within the same sector rather than as cross-sector investments. For example, oil and gas transactions tend to be for oil fields and rigs (strategic fixed assets), which can easily be added to the buyer’s portfolio.

    Separation costs are more related to the degree of change required than the size of the transaction.

    3.2.6 Estimate separation costs

    3-4 hours

    Input: Separation tasks, Transition team, Valuation of current IT environment, Valuation of target IT environment, Outputs from data room, Technical debt, Employees

    Output: List of anticipated costs required to support IT separation

    Materials: Separation task checklist, Separation roadmap, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team, Transition team

    The purpose of this activity is to estimate the costs that will be associated with the separation. Identify and communicate a realistic figure to the larger M&A team within your company as early in the process as possible. This ensures that the funding required for the transaction is secured and budgeted for in the overarching transaction.

    1. On the associated slide in the M&A Sell Playbook, input:
      • Task
      • Domain
      • Cost type
      • Total cost amount
      • Level of certainty around the cost
    2. Provide a copy of the estimated costs to the company’s M&A team. Also provide any additional information identified earlier to help them understand the importance of those costs.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Employee transition planning

    Considering employee impact will be a huge component to ensure successful separation

    • Meet With Leadership
    • Plan Individual and Department Redeployment
    • Plan Individual and Department Layoffs
    • Monitor and Manage Departmental Effectiveness
    • For employees, the transition could mean:
      • Changing from their current role to a new role to meet requirements and expectations throughout the transition.
      • Being laid off because the role they are currently occupying has been made redundant.
    • It is important to plan for what the M&A separation needs will be and what the IT operational needs will be.
    • A lack of foresight into this long-term plan could lead to undue costs and headaches trying to retain critical staff, rehiring positions that were already let go, and keeping redundant employees longer then necessary.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Being transparent throughout the process is critical. Do not hesitate to tell employees the likelihood that their job may be made redundant. This will ensure a high level of trust and credibility for those who remain with the organization after the transaction.

    3.2.7 Create an employee transition plan

    3-4 hours

    Input: IT strategy, IT organizational design

    Output: Employee transition plans

    Materials: M&A Sell Playbook, Whiteboard, Sticky notes, Markers

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team, Transition team

    The purpose of this activity is to create a transition plan for employees.

    1. Transition planning can be done at specific individual levels or more broadly to reflect a single role. Consider these four items in the transition plan:
      • Understand the direction of the employee transitions.
      • Identify employees that will be involved in the transition (moved or laid off).
      • Prepare to meet with employees.
      • Meet with employees.
    2. For each employee that will be facing some sort of change in their regular role, permanent or temporary, create a transition plan.
    3. For additional information on transitioning employees, review the blueprint Streamline Your Workforce During a Pandemic.

    **Note that if someone’s future role is a layoff, then there is no need to record anything for skills needed or method for skill development.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    3.2.8 Create functional workplans for employees

    3-4 hours

    Input: Prioritized separation tasks, Employee transition plan, Separation RACI, Costs for activities, Activity owners

    Output: Employee functional workplans

    Materials: M&A Sell Playbook, Learning and development tools

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, IT management team, Company M&A team, Transition team

    The purpose of this activity is to create a functional workplan for the different employees so that they know what their key role and responsibilities are once the transaction occurs.

    1. First complete the transition plan from the previous activity (3.2.7) and the separation roadmap. Have these documents ready to review throughout this process.
    2. Identify the employees who will be transitioning to a new role permanently or temporarily. Creating a functional workplan is especially important for these employees.
    3. Identify the skills these employees need to have to support the separation. Record this in the corresponding slide in the M&A Sell Playbook.
    4. For each employee, identify someone who will be a point of contact for them throughout the transition.

    It is recommended that each employee have a functional workplan. Leverage the IT managers to support this task.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Metrics for separation

    Valuation & Due Diligence

    • % Defects discovered in production
    • $ Cost per user for enterprise applications
    • % In-house-built applications vs. enterprise applications
    • % Owners identified for all data domains
    • # IT staff asked to participate in due diligence
    • Change to due diligence
    • IT budget variance
    • Synergy target

    Execution & Value Realization

    • % Satisfaction with the effectiveness of IT capabilities
    • % Overall end-customer satisfaction
    • $ Impact of vendor SLA breaches
    • $ Savings through cost-optimization efforts
    • $ Savings through application rationalization and technology standardization
    • # Key positions empty
    • % Frequency of staff turnover
    • % Emergency changes
    • # Hours of unplanned downtime
    • % Releases that cause downtime
    • % Incidents with identified problem record
    • % Problems with identified root cause
    • # Days from problem identification to root cause fix
    • % Projects that consider IT risk
    • % Incidents due to issues not addressed in the security plan
    • # Average vulnerability remediation time
    • % Application budget spent on new build/buy vs. maintenance (deferred feature implementation, enhancements, bug fixes)
    • # Time (days) to value realization
    • % Projects that realized planned benefits
    • $ IT operational savings and cost reductions that are related to synergies/divestitures
    • % IT staff–related expenses/redundancies
    • # Days spent on IT separation
    • $ Accurate IT budget estimates
    • % Revenue growth directly tied to IT delivery
    • % Profit margin growth

    3.2.9 Align project metrics with identified tasks

    3-4 hours

    Input: Prioritized separation tasks, Employee transition plan, Separation RACI, Costs for activities, Activity owners, M&A goals

    Output: Separation-specific metrics to measure success

    Materials: Separation roadmap, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Transition team

    The purpose of this activity is to understand how to measure the success of the separation project by aligning metrics to each identified task.

    1. Review the M&A goals identified by the business. Your metrics will need to tie back to those business goals.
    2. Identify metrics that align to identified tasks and measure achievement of those goals. For each metric you consider, ask the following questions:
      • What is the main goal or objective that this metric is trying to solve?
      • What does success look like?
      • Does the metric promote the right behavior?
      • Is the metric actionable? What is the story you are trying to tell with this metric?
      • How often will this get measured?
      • Are there any metrics it supports or is supported by?

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    By the end of this mid-transaction phase you should:

    Have successfully evaluated your IT people, processes, and technology to determine a roadmap forward for separating or selling.

    Key outcomes from the Due Diligence & Preparation phase
    • Participate in due diligence activities to comply with regulatory and auditing standards and prepare employees for the transition.
    • Create a separation roadmap that considers the tasks that will need to be completed and the resources required to support separation.
    Key deliverables from the Due Diligence & Preparation phase
    • Drive value with a due diligence charter
    • Gather data room artifacts
    • Measure staff engagement
    • Assess culture
    • Create a carve-out roadmap
    • Prioritize separation tasks
    • Establish the separation roadmap
    • Identify the buyer’s IT expectations
    • Create a service/transaction agreement
    • Estimate separation costs
    • Create an employee transition plan
    • Create functional workplans for employees
    • Align project metrics with identified tasks

    M&A Sell Blueprint

    Phase 4

    Execution & Value Realization

    Phase 1Phase 2Phase 3

    Phase 4

    • 1.1 Identify Stakeholders and Their Perspective of IT
    • 1.2 Assess IT’s Current Value and Future State
    • 1.3 Drive Innovation and Suggest Reduction Opportunities
    • 2.1 Establish the M&A Program Plan
    • 2.2 Prepare IT to Engage in the Separation or Sale
    • 3.1 Engage in Due Diligence and Prepare Staff
    • 3.2 Prepare to Separate
    • 4.1 Execute the Transaction
    • 4.2 Reflection and Value Realization

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Monitor service agreements
    • Continually update the project plan
    • Confirm separation costs
    • Review IT’s transaction value
    • Conduct a transaction and separation SWOT
    • Review the playbook and prepare for future transactions

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • IT executive/CIO
    • IT senior leadership
    • Vendor management team
    • IT transaction team
    • Company M&A team

    Workshop Overview

    Contact your account representative for more information.
    workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889

    Pre-Work

    Day 1

    Day 2

    Day 3

    Engage in Separation

    Day 4

    Establish the Transaction FoundationDiscover the Motivation for IntegrationPlan the Separation RoadmapPrepare Employees for the TransitionEngage in SeparationAssess the Transaction Outcomes (Must be within 30 days of transaction date)

    Activities

    • 0.1 Identify the rationale for the company's decision to pursue a divestiture/sale.
    • 0.2 Identify key stakeholders and determine the IT transaction team.
    • 0.3 Gather and evaluate the M&A strategy, future-state operating model, and governance.
    • 1.1 Review the business rationale for the divestiture/sale.
    • 1.2 Identify pain points and opportunities tied to the divestiture/sale.
    • 1.3 Establish the separation strategy.
    • 1.4 Create the due diligence charter.
    • 2.1 Prioritize separation tasks.
    • 2.2 Establish the separation roadmap.
    • 2.3 Establish and align project metrics with identified tasks.
    • 2.4 Estimate separation costs.
    • 3.1 Measure staff engagement
    • 3.2 Assess the current culture and identify the goal culture.
    • 3.3 Create an employee transition plan.
    • 3.4 Create functional workplans for employees.
    • S.1 Complete the separation by regularly updating the project plan.
    • S.2 Assess the service/technical transaction agreement.
    • 4.1 Confirm separation costs.
    • 4.2 Review IT’s transaction value.
    • 4.3 Conduct a transaction and separation SWOT.
    • 4.4 Review the playbook and prepare for future transactions.

    Deliverables

    1. IT strategy
    2. IT operating model
    3. IT governance structure
    4. M&A transaction team
    1. Business context implications for IT
    2. Separation strategy
    3. Due diligence charter
    1. Separation roadmap and associated resourcing
    1. Engagement assessment
    2. Culture assessment
    3. Employee transition plans and workplans
    1. Evaluate service/technical transaction agreement
    2. Updated separation project plan
    1. SWOT of transaction
    2. M&A Sell Playbook refined for future transactions

    What is the Execution & Value Realization phase?

    Post-transaction state

    Once the transaction comes to a close, it’s time for IT to deliver on the critical separation tasks. As the selling organization in this transaction, you need to ensure you have a roadmap that properly enables the ongoing delivery of your IT environment while simultaneously delivering the necessary services to the purchasing organization.

    Throughout the separation transaction, some of the most common obstacles IT should prepare for include difficulty separating the IT environment, loss of key personnel, disengaged employees, and security/compliance issues.

    Post-transaction, the business needs to understands the value they received by engaging in the transaction and the ongoing revenue they might obtain as a result of the sale. You also need to ensure that the IT environment is functioning and mitigating any high-risk outcomes.

    Goal: To carry out the planned separation activities and deliver the intended value to the business.

    Execution Prerequisite Checklist

    Before coming into the Execution & Value Realization phase, you must have addressed the following:

    • Understand the rationale for the company's decisions to pursue a sale or divestiture and what opportunities or pain points the sale should alleviate.
    • Identify the key roles for the transaction team.
    • Identify the M&A governance.
    • Determine target metrics.
    • Select a separation strategy framework.
    • Conduct a RACI for key transaction tasks for the transaction team.
    • Create a carve-out roadmap.
    • Prioritize separation tasks.
    • Establish the separation roadmap.
    • Create employee transition plans.

    Before coming into the Execution & Value Realization phase, we recommend addressing the following:

    • Create vision and mission statements.
    • Establish guiding principles.
    • Create a future-state operating model.
    • Identify the M&A operating model.
    • Document the communication plan.
    • Examine the business perspective of IT.
    • Identify key stakeholders and outline their relationship to the M&A process.
    • Establish a due diligence charter.
    • Be able to valuate the IT environment and communicate IT’s value to the business.
    • Gather and present due diligence data room artifacts.
    • Measure staff engagement.
    • Assess and plan for culture.
    • Estimate separation costs.
    • Create functional workplans for employees.
    • Identify the buyer’s IT expectations.
    • Create a service/ transaction agreement.

    Separation checklists

    Prerequisite Checklist
    • Build the project plan for separation and prioritize activities
      • Plan first day
      • Plan first 30/100 days
      • Plan first year
    • Create an organization-aligned IT strategy
    • Identify critical stakeholders
    • Create a communication strategy
    • Understand the rationale for the sale or divestiture
    • Develop IT's sale/divestiture strategy
      • Determine goal opportunities
      • Create the mission and vision statements
      • Create the guiding principles
      • Create program metrics
    • Consolidate reports from due diligence/data room
    • Conduct culture assessment
    • Create a transaction team
    • Establish a service/technical transaction agreement
    • Plan and communicate culture changes
    • Create an employee transition plan
    • Assess baseline engagement
    Business
    • Design an enterprise architecture
    • Document your business architecture
    • Meet compliance and regulatory standards
    • Identify and assess all of IT's risks
    Applications
    • Prioritize and address critical applications
      • CRM
      • HRIS
      • Financial
      • Sales
      • Risk
      • Security
      • ERP
      • Email
    • Develop method of separating applications
    • Model critical applications that have dependencies on one another
    • Identify the infrastructure capacity required to support critical applications
    • Prioritize and address critical applications
    Leadership/IT Executive
    • Build an IT budget
    • Structure operating budget
    • Structure capital budget
    • Identify the workforce demand vs. capacity
    • Establish and monitor key metrics
    • Communicate value realized/cost savings
    Data
    • Confirm data strategy
    • Confirm data governance
    • Build a data architecture roadmap
    • Analyze data sources and domains
    • Evaluate data storage (on-premises vs. cloud)
    • Develop an enterprise content management strategy and roadmap
    • Ensure cleanliness/usability of data sets
    • Identify data sets that can remain operational if reduced/separated
    • Develop reporting and analytics capabilities
    • Confirm data strategy
    Operations
    • Manage sales access to customer data
    • Determine locations and hours of operation
    • Separate/terminate phone lists and extensions
    • Split email address books
    • Communicate helpdesk/service desk information

    Separation checklists (continued)

    Infrastructure
    • Manage organization domains
    • Consolidate data centers
    • Compile inventory of vendors, versions, switches, and routers
    • Review hardware lease or purchase agreements
    • Review outsourcing/service provider agreements
    • Review service-level agreements
    • Assess connectivity linkages between locations
    • Plan to migrate to a single email system if necessary
    • Determine network access concerns
    Vendors
    • Establish a sustainable vendor management office
    • Review vendor landscape
    • Identify warranty options
    • Identify the licensing grant
    • Rationalize vendor services and solutions
    People
    • Design an IT operating model
    • Design your future IT organizational structure
    • Conduct a RACI for prioritized activities
    • Conduct a culture assessment and identify goal IT culture
    • Build an IT employee engagement program
    • Determine critical roles and systems/process/products they support
    • Define new job descriptions with meaningful roles and responsibilities
    • Create employee transition plans
    • Create functional workplans
    Projects
    • Identify projects to be on hold
    • Communicate project intake process
    • Reprioritize projects
    Products & Services
    • Redefine service catalog
    • Ensure customer interaction requirements are met
    • Select a solution for product lifecycle management
    • Plan service-level agreements
    Security
    • Conduct a security assessment
    • Develop accessibility prioritization and schedule
    • Establish an information security strategy
    • Develop a security awareness and training program
    • Develop and manage security governance, risk, and compliance
    • Identify security budget
    • Build a data privacy and classification program
    IT Processes
    • Evaluate current process models
    • Determine productivity/capacity levels of processes
    • Identify processes to be changed/terminated
    • Establish a communication plan
    • Develop a change management process
    • Establish/review IT policies
    • Evaluate current process models

    Execution & Value Realization

    Step 4.1

    Execute the Transaction

    Activities

    • 4.1.1 Monitor service agreements
    • 4.1.2 Continually update the project plan

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Monitor service agreements
    • Continually update the project plan

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT executive/CIO
    • IT senior leadership
    • Vendor management team
    • IT transaction team
    • Company M&A team

    Outcomes of Step

    Successfully execute the separation of the IT environments and update the project plan, strategizing against any roadblocks as they come.

    Key concerns to monitor during separation

    If you are entering the transaction at this point, consider and monitor the following three items above all else.

    Your IT environment, reputation as an IT leader, and impact on key staff will depend on monitoring these aspects.

    • Risk & Security. Make sure that the channels of communication between the purchasing organization and your IT environment are properly determined and protected. This might include updating or removing employees’ access to certain programs.
    • Retaining Employees. Employees who do not see a path forward in the organization or who feel that their skills are being underused will be quick to move on. Make sure they are engaged before, during, and after the transaction to avoid losing employees.
    • IT Environment Dependencies. Testing the IT environment several times and obtaining sign-off from auditors that this has been completed correctly should be completed well before the transaction occurs. Have a strong architecture outlining technical dependencies.

    For more information, review:

    • Reduce and Manage Your Organization’s Insider Threat Risk
    • Map Technical Skills for a Changing Infrastructure Operations Organization
    • Build a Data Architecture Roadmap

    4.1.1 Monitor service agreements

    3-6 months

    Input: Original service agreement, Risk register

    Output: Service agreement confirmed

    Materials: Original service agreement

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, External organization IT senior leadership

    The purpose of this activity is to monitor the established service agreements on an ongoing basis. Your organization is most at risk during the initial months following the transaction.

    1. Ensure the right controls exist to prevent the organization from unnecessarily opening itself up to risks.
    2. Meet with the purchasing organization/subsidiary three months after the transaction to ensure that everyone is satisfied with the level of services provided.
    3. This is not a quick and completed activity, but one that requires ongoing monitoring. Repeatedly identify potential risks worth mitigating.

    For additional information and support for this activity, see the blueprint Build an IT Risk Management Program.

    4.1.2 Continually update the project plan

    Reoccurring basis following transition

    Input: Prioritized separation tasks, Separation RACI, Activity owners

    Output: Updated separation project plan

    Materials: M&A Separation Project Plan Tool (SharePoint), M&A Separation Project Plan Tool (Excel)

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, IT transaction team, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to ensure that the project plan is continuously updated as your transaction team continues to execute on the various components outlined in the project plan.

    1. Set a regular cadence for the transaction team to meet, update the project plan, review the status of the various separation task items, and strategize how to overcome any roadblocks.
    2. Employ governance best practices in these meetings to ensure decisions can be made effectively and resources allocated strategically.

    Record the updates in the M&A Separation Project Management Tool (SharePoint).

    Record the updates in the M&A Separation Project Management Tool (Excel).

    Execution & Value Realization

    Step 4.2

    Reflection and Value Realization

    Activities

    • 4.2.1 Confirm separation costs
    • 4.2.2 Review IT’s transaction value
    • 4.2.3 Conduct a transaction and separation SWOT
    • 4.2.4 Review the playbook and prepare for future transactions

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT executive/CIO
    • IT senior leadership
    • Transition team
    • Company M&A team

    Outcomes of Step

    Review the value that IT was able to generate around the transaction and strategize about how to improve future selling or separating transactions.

    4.2.1 Confirm separation costs

    3-4 hours

    Input: Separation tasks, Carve-out roadmap, Transition team, Previous RACI, Estimated separation costs

    Output: Actual separation costs

    Materials: M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Transaction team, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to confirm the associated costs around separation. While the separation costs would have been estimated previously, it’s important to confirm the costs that were associated with the separation in order to provide an accurate and up-to-date report to the company’s M&A team.

    1. Taking all the original items identified previously in activity 3.2.6, identify if there were changes in the estimated costs. This can be an increase or a decrease.
    2. Ensure that each cost has a justification for why the cost changed from the original estimation.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Track cost savings and revenue generation

    Throughout the transaction, the business would have communicated its goals, rationales, and expectations for the transaction. Sometimes this is done explicitly, and other times the information is implicit. Either way, IT needs to ensure that metrics have been defined and are measuring the intended value that the business expects. Ensure that the benefits realized to the organization are being communicated regularly and frequently.

    1. Define Metrics: Select metrics to track synergies through the separation.
      1. You can track value by looking at percentages of improvement in process-level metrics depending on the savings or revenue being pursued.
      2. For example, if the value being pursued is decreasing costs, metrics could range from capacity to output, highlighting that the output remains high despite smaller IT environments.
    2. Prioritize Value-Driving Initiatives: Estimate the cost and benefit of each initiative's implementation to compare the amount of business value to the cost. The benefits and costs should be illustrated at a high level. Estimating the exact dollar value of fulfilling a synergy can be difficult and misleading.
        Steps
      • Determine the benefits that each initiative is expected to deliver.
      • Determine the high-level costs of implementation (capacity, time, resources, effort).
    3. Track Cost Savings and Revenue Generation: Develop a detailed workplan to resource the roadmap and track where costs are saved and revenue is generated as the initiatives are undertaken.

    4.2.2 Review IT’s transaction value

    3-4 hours

    Input: Prioritized separation tasks, Separation RACI, Activity owners, M&A company goals

    Output: Transaction value

    Materials: M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company's M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to track how your IT organization performed against the originally identified metrics.

    1. If your organization did not have the opportunity to identify metrics, determine from the company M&A what those metrics might be. Review activity 3.2.9 for more information on metrics.
    2. Identify whether the metric (which should support a goal) was at, below, or above the original target metric. This is a very critical task for IT to complete because it allows IT to confirm that they were successful in the transaction and that the business can count on them in future transactions.
    3. Be sure to record accurate and relevant information on why the outcomes (good or bad) are supporting the M&A goals set out by the business.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    4.2.3 Conduct a transaction and separation SWOT

    2 hours

    Input: Separation costs, Retention rates, Value that IT contributed to the transaction

    Output: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats

    Materials: Flip charts, Markers, Sticky notes

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Business transaction team

    The purpose of this activity is to assess the positive and negative elements of the transaction.

    1. Consider the internal and external elements that could have impacted the outcome of the transaction.
      • Strengths. Internal characteristics that are favorable as they relate to your development environment.
      • Weaknesses Internal characteristics that are unfavorable or need improvement.
      • Opportunities External characteristics that you may use to your advantage.
      • Threats External characteristics that may be potential sources of failure or risk.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    M&A Sell Playbook review

    With an acquisition complete, your IT organization is now more prepared then ever to support the business through future M&As

    • Now that the transaction is more than 80% complete, take the opportunity to review the key elements that worked well and the opportunities for improvement.
    • Critically examine the M&A Sell Playbook your IT organization created and identify what worked well to help the transaction and where your organization could adjust to do better in future transactions.
    • If your organization were to engage in another sale or divestiture under your IT leadership, how would you go about the transaction to make sure the company meets its goals?

    4.2.4 Review the playbook and prepare for future transactions

    4 hours

    Input: Transaction and separation SWOT

    Output: Refined M&A playbook

    Materials: M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO

    The purpose of this activity is to revise the playbook and ensure it is ready to go for future transactions.

    1. Using the outputs from the previous activity, 4.2.3, determine what strengths and opportunities there were that should be leveraged in the next transaction.
    2. Likewise, determine which threats and weaknesses could be avoided in the future transactions.
      Remember, this is your M&A Sell Playbook, and it should reflect the most successful outcome for you in your organization.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    By the end of this post-transaction phase you should:

    Have completed the separation post-transaction and be fluidly delivering the critical value that the business expected of IT.

    Key outcomes from the Execution & Value Realization phase
    • Ensure the separation tasks are being completed and that any blockers related to the transaction are being removed.
    • Determine where IT was able to realize value for the business and demonstrate IT’s involvement in meeting target goals.
    Key deliverables from the Execution & Value Realization phase
    • Monitor service agreements
    • Continually update the project plan
    • Confirm separation costs
    • Review IT’s transaction value
    • Conduct a transaction and separation SWOT
    • Review the playbook and prepare for future transactions

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Problem Solved

    Congratulations, you have completed the M&A Sell Blueprint!

    Rather than reacting to a transaction, you have been proactive in tackling this initiative. You now have a process to fall back on in which you can be an innovative IT leader by suggesting how and why the business should engage in a separation or sale transaction. You have:

    • Created a standardized approach for how your IT organization should address divestitures or sales.
    • Retained critical staff and complied with any regulations throughout the transaction.
    • Delivered on the separation project plan successfully and communicated IT’s transaction value to the business.

    Now that you have done all of this, reflect on what went well and what can be improved if you were to engage in a similar divestiture or sale again.

    If you would like additional support, have our analysts guide you through other phases as part of an Info-Tech workshop.

    Contact your account representative for more information
    workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8899

    Research Contributors and Experts

    Ibrahim Abdel-Kader
    Research Analyst | CIO
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Brittany Lutes
    Senior Research Analyst | CIO
    Info-Tech Research Group
    John Annand
    Principal Research Director | Infrastructure
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Scott Bickley
    Principal Research Director | Vendor Management
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Cole Cioran
    Practice Lead | Applications
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Dana Daher
    Research Analyst | Strategy & Innovation
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Eric Dolinar
    Manager | M&A Consulting
    Deloitte Canada
    Christoph Egel
    Director, Solution Design & Deliver
    Cooper Tire & Rubber Company
    Nora Fisher
    Vice President | Executive Services Advisory
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Larry Fretz
    Vice President | Industry
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Research Contributors and Experts

    David Glazer
    Vice President of Analytics
    Kroll
    Jack Hakimian
    Senior Vice President | Workshops and Delivery
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Gord Harrison
    Senior Vice President | Research & Advisory
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Valence Howden
    Principal Research Director | CIO
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Jennifer Jones
    Research Director | Industry
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Nancy McCuaig
    Senior Vice President | Chief Technology and Data Office
    IGM Financial Inc.
    Carlene McCubbin
    Practice Lead | CIO
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Kenneth McGee
    Research Fellow | Strategy & Innovation
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Nayma Naser
    Associate
    Deloitte
    Andy Neill
    Practice Lead | Data & Analytics, Enterprise Architecture
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Research Contributors and Experts

    Rick Pittman
    Vice President | Research
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Rocco Rao
    Research Director | Industry
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Mark Rosa
    Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer
    Mohegan Gaming and Entertainment
    Tracy-Lynn Reid
    Research Lead | People & Leadership
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Jim Robson
    Senior Vice President | Shared Enterprise Services (retired)
    Great-West Life
    Steven Schmidt
    Senior Managing Partner Advisory | Executive Services
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Nikki Seventikidis
    Senior Manager | Finance Initiative & Continuous Improvement
    CST Consultants Inc.
    Allison Straker
    Research Director | CIO
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Justin Waelz
    Senior Network & Systems Administrator
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Sallie Wright
    Executive Counselor
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Bibliography

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    “America’s elite law firms are booming.” The Economist, 15 July 2021. Web.

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    Bradt, George. “83% Of Mergers Fail -- Leverage A 100-Day Action Plan For Success Instead.” Forbes, 27 Jan. 2015. Web.

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    “Five steps to a better 'technology fit' in mergers and acquisitions.” BCS, 7 Nov. 2019. Web.

    Fricke, Pierre. “The Biggest Opportunity You’re Missing During an M&Aamp; IT Integration.” Rackspace, 4 Nov. 2020. Web.

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    Hope, Michele. “M&A Integration: New Ways To Contain The IT Cost Of Mergers, Acquisitions And Migrations.” Iron Mountain, n.d. Web.

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    Maheshwari, Adi, and Manish Dabas. “Six strategies tech companies are using for successful divesting.” EY, 1 Aug. 2020. Web.

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    Optimize the Service Desk With a Shift-Left Strategy

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    • Parent Category Name: Service Desk
    • Parent Category Link: /service-desk
    • Tier 2 and 3 specialists lose time and resources working on tickets instead of more complex projects.
    • The service desk finds themselves resolving the same incidents over and over, wasting manual work on tasks that could be automated.
    • Employees expect modern, consumer-like experiences when they need help; they want to access information and resources from wherever they are and have the tools to solve their problems themselves without waiting for help.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • It can be difficult to overcome the mindset that difficult functions need to be escalated. Shift left involves a cultural change to the way the service desk works, and overcoming objections and getting buy-in up front is critical.
    • Many organizations have built a great knowledgebase but fail to see the value of it over time as it becomes overburdened with overlapping and out-of-date information. Knowledge capture, updating, and review must be embedded into your processes if you want to keep the knowledgebase useful.
    • Similarly, the self-service portal is often deployed out of the box with little input from end users and fails to deliver its intended benefits. The portal needs to be designed from the end user’s point of view with the goal of self-resolution if it will serve its purpose of deflecting tickets.

    Impact and Result

    • Embrace a shift-left strategy by moving repeatable service desk tasks and requests into lower-cost delivery channels such as self-help tools and automation.
    • Shift work from Tier 2 and 3 support to Tier 1 through good knowledge management practices that empower the first level of support with documented solutions to recurring issues and free up more specialized resources for project work and higher value tasks.
    • Shift knowledge from the service desk to the end user by enabling them to find their own solutions. A well-designed and implemented self-service portal will result in fewer logged tickets to the service desk and empowered, satisfied end users.
    • Shift away manual repetitive work through the use of AI and automation.
    • Successfully shifting this work left can reduce time to resolve, decrease support costs, and increase end-user satisfaction.

    Optimize the Service Desk With a Shift-Left Strategy Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to understand why a shift-left strategy can help to optimize your service desk, review Info-Tech's methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Prepare to shift left

    Assess whether you’re ready to optimize the service desk with a shift-left strategy, get buy-in for the initiative, and define metrics to measure success.

    • Optimize the Service Desk With a Shift-Left Strategy – Phase 1: Prepare to Shift Left
    • Shift-Left Prerequisites Assessment
    • Shift-Left Strategy
    • Shift-Left Stakeholder Buy-In Presentation

    2. Design shift-left model

    Build strategy and identify specific opportunities to shift service support left to Level 1 through knowledge sharing and other methods, to the end-user through self-service, and to automation and AI.

    • Optimize the Service Desk With a Shift-Left Strategy – Phase 2: Design Shift Left Model
    • Shift-Left Action Plan
    • Knowledge Management Workflows (Visio)
    • Knowledge Management Workflows (PDF)
    • Self-Service Portal Checklist
    • Self-Service Resolution Workflow (Visio)
    • Self-Service Resolution Workflow (PDF)

    3. Implement and communicate

    Identify, track, and implement specific shift-left opportunities and document a communications plan to increase adoption.

    • Optimize the Service Desk With a Shift-Left Strategy – Phase 3: Implement & Communicate
    • Incident Management Workflow (Visio)
    • Incident Management Workflow (PDF)
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Optimize the Service Desk With a Shift-Left Strategy

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Prepare to Shift Left

    The Purpose

    Define how shift left would apply in your organization, get buy-in for the initiative, and define metrics to measure success.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Defined scope and objectives for the shift-left initiative

    Buy-in for the program

    Metrics to keep the project on track and evaluate success

    Activities

    1.1 Review current service desk structure

    1.2 Discuss challenges

    1.3 Review shift-left model and discuss how it would apply in your organization

    1.4 Complete the Shift-Left Prerequisites Assessment

    1.5 Complete a RACI chart for the project

    1.6 Define and document objectives

    1.7 Review the stakeholder buy-in presentation

    1.8 Document critical success factors

    1.9 Define KPIs and metrics

    Outputs

    Shift-left scope

    Completed shift-left prerequisites assessment

    RACI chart

    Defined objectives

    Stakeholder buy-in presentation

    Critical success factors

    Metrics to measure success

    2 Plan to Shift to Level 1

    The Purpose

    Build strategy and identify specific opportunities to shift service support left to Level 1 through knowledge sharing and other methods.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Identified initiatives to shift work to Level 1

    Documented knowledge management process workflows and strategy

    Activities

    2.1 Identify barriers to Level 1 resolution

    2.2 Discuss knowledgebase challenges and areas for improvement

    2.3 Optimize KB input process

    2.4 Optimize KB usage process

    2.5 Optimize KB review process

    2.6 Discuss and document KCS strategy and roles

    2.7 Document knowledge success metrics

    2.8 Brainstorm additional methods of increasing FLR

    Outputs

    KB input workflow

    KB usage workflow

    KB review workflow

    KCS strategy and roles

    Knowledge management metrics

    Identified opportunities to shift to Level 1

    3 Plan to Shift to End User and Automation

    The Purpose

    Build strategy and identify specific opportunities to shift service support left to the end user through self-service and to automation and AI.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Identified initiatives to shift work to self-service and automation

    Evaluation of self-service portal and identified opportunities for improvement

    Activities

    3.1 Review existing self-service portal and discuss vision

    3.2 Identify opportunities to improve portal accessibility, UI, and features

    3.3 Evaluate the user-facing knowledgebase

    3.4 Optimize the ticket intake form

    3.5 Document plan to improve, communicate, and evaluate portal

    3.6 Map the user experience with a workflow

    3.7 Document your AI strategy

    3.8 Identify candidates for automation

    Outputs

    Identified opportunities to improve portal

    Improvements to knowledgebase

    Improved ticket intake form

    Strategy to communicate and measure success of portal

    Self-service resolution workflow

    Strategy to apply AI and automation

    Identified opportunities to shift tasks to automation

    4 Build Implementation and Communication Plan

    The Purpose

    Build an action plan to implement shift left, including a communications strategy.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Action plan to track and implement shift-left opportunities

    Communications plan to increase adoption

    Activities

    4.1 Examine process workflows for shift-left opportunities

    4.2 Document shift-left-specific responsibilities for each role

    4.3 Identify and track shift-left opportunities in the action plan

    4.4 Brainstorm objections and responses

    4.5 Document communications plan

    Outputs

    Incident management workflow with shift-left opportunities

    Shift left responsibilities for key roles

    Shift-left action plan

    Objection handling responses

    Communications plan

    Tactics to Retain IT Talent

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    • Parent Category Name: Engage
    • Parent Category Link: /engage
    • Regrettable turnover is impacting organizational productivity and leading to significant costs associated with employee departures and the recruitment required to replace them.
    • Many organizations focus on increasing engagement to improve retention, but this approach doesn’t address the entire problem.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Engagement surveys mask the volatility of the employee experience and hide the reason why individual employees leave. You must also talk to employees to understand the moments that matter and engage managers to understand turnover triggers.

    Impact and Result

    • Build the case for creating retention plans by leveraging employee data and feedback to identify the key reasons for turnover that need to be addressed.
    • Target employee segments and work with management to develop solutions to retain top talent.

    Tactics to Retain IT Talent Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Tactics to Retain IT Talent Storyboard – Use this storyboard to develop a targeted talent retention plan to retain top and core talent in the organization.

    Integrate data from exit surveys and interviews, engagement surveys, and stay interviews to understand the most commonly cited reasons for employee departure in order to select and prioritize tactics that improve retention. This blueprint will help you identify reasons for regrettable turnover, select solutions, and create an action plan.

    • Tactics to Retain IT Talent Storyboard

    2. Retention Plan Workbook – Capture key information in one place as you work through the process to assess and prioritize solutions.

    Use this tool to document and analyze turnover data to find suitable retention solutions.

    • Retention Plan Workbook

    3. Stay Interview Guide – Managers will use this guide to conduct regular stay interviews with employees to anticipate and address turnover triggers.

    The Stay Interview Guide helps managers conduct interviews with current employees, enabling the manager to understand the employee's current engagement level, satisfaction with current role and responsibilities, suggestions for potential improvements, and intent to stay with the organization.

    • Stay Interview Guide

    4. IT Retention Solutions Catalog – Use this catalog to select and prioritize retention solutions across the employee lifecycle.

    Review best-practice solutions to identify those that are most suitable to your organizational culture and employee needs. Use the IT Retention Solutions Catalog to explore a variety of methods to improve retention, understand their use cases, and determine stakeholder responsibilities.

    • IT Retention Solutions Catalog
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Tactics to Retain IT Talent

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Identify Reasons for Regrettable Turnover

    The Purpose

    Identify the main drivers of turnover at the organization.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Find out what to explore during focus groups.

    Activities

    1.1 Review data to determine why employees join, stay, and leave.

    1.2 Identify common themes.

    1.3 Prepare for focus groups.

    Outputs

    List of common themes/pain points recorded in the Retention Plan Workbook.

    2 Conduct Focus Groups

    The Purpose

    Conduct focus groups to explore retention drivers.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Explore identified themes.

    Activities

    2.1 Conduct four 1-hour focus groups with the employee segment(s) identified in the pre-workshop activities.

    2.2 Info-Tech facilitators independently analyze results of focus groups and group results by theme.

    Outputs

    Focus group feedback.

    Focus group feedback analyzed and organized by themes.

    3 Identify Needs and Retention Initiatives

    The Purpose

    Home in on employee needs that are a priority.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A list of initiatives to address the identified needs

    Activities

    3.1 Create an empathy map to identify needs.

    3.2 Shortlist retention initiatives.

    Outputs

    Employee needs and shortlist of initiatives to address them.

    4 Prepare to Communicate and Launch

    The Purpose

    Prepare to launch your retention initiatives.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A clear action plan for implementing your retention initiatives.

    Activities

    4.1 Select retention initiatives.

    4.2 Determine goals and metrics.

    4.3 Plan stakeholder communication.

    4.4 Build a high-level action plan.

    Outputs

    Finalized list of retention initiatives.

    Goals and associated metrics recorded in the Retention Plan Workbook.

    Further reading

    Tactics to Retain IT Talent

    Keep talent from walking out the door by discovering and addressing moments that matter and turnover triggers.

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Many organizations are facing an increase in voluntary turnover as low unemployment, a lack of skilled labor, and a rise in the number of vacant roles have given employees more employment choices.

    Common Obstacles

    Regrettable turnover is impacting organizational productivity and leading to significant costs associated with employee departures and the recruitment required to replace them.

    Many organizations tackle retention from an engagement perspective: Increase engagement to improve retention. This approach doesn't consider the whole problem.

    Info-Tech's Approach

    Build the case for creating retention plans by leveraging employee data and feedback to identify the key reasons for turnover that need to be addressed.

    Target employee segments and work with management to develop solutions to retain top talent.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Engagement surveys mask the volatility of the employee experience and hide the reason why individual employees leave. You must also talk to employees to understand the moments that matter and engage managers to understand turnover triggers.

    This research addresses regrettable turnover

    This is an image of a flow chart with three levels. The top level has only one box, labeled Turnover.  the Second level has 2 boxes, labeled Voluntary, and Involuntary.  The third level has two boxes under Voluntary, labeled Non-regrettable: The loss of employees that the organization did not wish to keep, e.g. low performers, and Regrettable:  The loss of employees that the organization wishes it could have kept.

    Low unemployment and rising voluntary turnover makes it critical to focus on retention

    As the economy continues to recover from the pandemic, unemployment continues to trend downward even with a looming recession. This leaves more job openings vacant, making it easier for employees to job hop.

    This image contains a graph of the US Employment rate between 2020 - 2022 from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis and Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 2022, the percentage of individuals who change jobs every one to five years from 2022 Job Seeker Nation Study, Jobvite, 2022, and voluntary turnover rates from BLS, 2022

    With more employees voluntarily choosing to leave jobs, it is more important than ever for organizations to identify key employees they want to retain and put plans in place to keep them.

    Retention is a challenge for many organizations

    The number of HR professionals citing retention/turnover as a top workforce management challenge is increasing, and it is now the second highest recruiting priority ("2020 Recruiter Nation Survey," Jobvite, 2020).

    65% of employees believe they can find a better position elsewhere (Legaljobs, 2021). This is a challenge for organizations in that they need to find ways to ensure employees want to stay at the organization or they will lose them, which results in high turnover costs.

    Executives and IT are making retention and turnover – two sides of the same coin – a priority because they cost organizations money.

    • 87% of HR professionals cited retention/turnover as a critical and high priority for the next few years (TINYpulse, 2020).
    • $630B The cost of voluntary turnover in the US (Work Institute, 2020).
    • 66% of organizations consider employee retention to be important or very important to an organization (PayScale, 2019).

    Improving retention leads to broad-reaching organizational benefits

    Cost savings: the price of turnover as a percentage of salary

    • 33% Improving retention can result in significant cost savings. A recent study found turnover costs, on average, to be around a third of an employee's annual salary (SHRM, 2019).
    • 37.9% of employees leave their organization within the first year. Employees who leave within the first 90 days of being hired offer very little or no return on the investment made to hire them (Work Institute, 2020).

    Improved performance

    Employees with longer tenure have an increased understanding of an organization's policies and processes, which leads to increased productivity (Indeed, 2021).

    Prevents a ripple effect

    Turnover often ripples across a team or department, with employees following each other out of the organization (Mereo). Retaining even one individual can often have an impact across the organization.

    Transfer of knowledge

    Retaining key individuals allows them to pass it on to other employees through communities of practice, mentoring, or other knowledge-sharing activities.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Improving retention goes beyond cost savings: Employees who agree with the statement "I expect to be at this organization a year from now" are 71% more likely to put in extra hours and 32% more likely to accomplish more than what is expected of their role (McLean & Company Engagement Survey, 2021; N=77,170 and 97,326 respectively).

    However, the traditional engagement-focused approach to retention is not enough

    Employee engagement is a strong driver of retention, with only 25% of disengaged employees expecting to be at their organization a year from now compared to 92% of engaged employees (McLean & Company Engagement Survey, 2018-2021; N=117,307).

    Average employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)

    This image contains a graph of the Average employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)

    Individual employee Net Promoter Scores (eNPS)

    This image contains a graph of the Individual employee Net Promoter Scores (eNPS)

    However, engagement surveys mask the volatility of the employee experience and hide the reason why individual employees leave.

    This analysis of McLean & Company's engagement survey results shows that while an organization's average employee net promoter score (eNPS) stays relatively static, at an individual level there is a huge amount of volatility.

    This demonstrates the need for an approach that is more capable of responding to or identifying employees' in-the-moment needs, which an annual engagement survey doesn't support.

    Turnover triggers and moments that matter also have an impact on retention

    Retention needs to be monitored throughout the employee lifecycle. To address the variety of issues that can appear, consider three main paths to turnover:

    1. Employee engagement – areas of low engagement.
    2. Turnover triggers that can quickly lead to departures.
    3. Moments that matter in the employee experience (EX).

    Employee engagement

    Engagement drivers are strong predictors of turnover.

    Employees who are highly engaged are 3.6x more likely to believe they will be with the organization 12 months from now than disengaged employees (McLean & Company Engagement Survey, 2018-2021; N=117,307).

    Turnover triggers

    Turnover triggers are events that act as shocks or catalysts that quickly lead to an employee's departure.

    Turnover triggers are a cause for voluntary turnover more often than accumulated issues (Lee et al.).

    Moments that matter

    Employee experience is the employee's perception of the accumulation of moments that matter within their employee lifecycle.

    Retention rates increase from 21% to 44% when employees have positive experiences in the following categories: belonging, purpose, achievement, happiness, and vigor at work. (Workhuman, 2020).

    While managers do not directly impact turnover, they do influence the three main paths to turnover

    Research shows managers do not appear as one of the common reasons for employee turnover.

    Top five most common reasons employees leave an organization (McLean & Company, Exit Survey, 2018-2021; N=107 to 141 companies,14,870 to 19,431 responses).

    Turnover factorsRank
    Opportunities for career advancement1
    Satisfaction with my role and responsibilities2
    Base pay3
    Opportunities for career-related skill development4
    The degree to which my skills were used in my job5

    However, managers can still have a huge impact on the turnover of their team through each of the three main paths to turnover:

    Employee engagement

    Employees who believe their managers care about them as a person are 3.3x more likely to be engaged than those who do not (McLean & Company, 2021; N=105,186).

    Turnover triggers

    Managers who are involved with and aware of their staff can serve as an early warning system for triggers that lead to turnover too quickly to detect with data.

    Moments that matter

    Managers have a direct connection with each individual and can tailor the employee experience to meet the needs of the individuals who report to them.

    Gallup has found that 52% of exiting employees say their manager could have done something to prevent them from leaving (Gallup, 2019). Do not discount the power of managers in anticipating and preventing regrettable turnover.

    Addressing engagement, turnover triggers, and moments that matter is the key to retention

    This is an image of a flow chart with four levels. The top level has only one box, labeled Turnover.  the Second level has 2 boxes, labeled Voluntary, and Involuntary.  The third level has two boxes under Voluntary, labeled Non-regrettable, and Regrettable.  The fourth level has three boxes under Regrettable, labeled Employee Engagement, Turnover triggers, and Moments that matter

    Info-Tech Insight

    HR traditionally seeks to examine engagement levels when faced with retention challenges, but engagement is only a part of the full picture. You must also talk to employees to understand the moments that matter and engage managers to understand turnover triggers.

    Follow Info-Tech's two-step process to create a retention plan

    1. Identify Reasons for Regrettable Turnover

    2. Select Solutions and Create an Action Plan

    Step 1

    Identify Reasons for Regrettable Turnover

    After completing this step you will have:

    • Analyzed and documented why employees join, stay, and leave your organization.
    • Identified common themes and employee needs.
    • Conducted employee focus groups and prioritized employee needs.

    Step 1 focuses on analyzing existing data and validating it through focus groups

    Employee engagement

    Employee engagement and moments that matter are easily tracked by data. Validating employee feedback data by speaking and empathizing with employees helps to uncover moments that matter. This step focuses on analyzing existing data and validating it through focus groups.

    Engagement drivers such as compensation or working environment are strong predictors of turnover.
    Moments that matter
    Employee experience (EX) is the employee's perception of the accumulation of moments that matter with the organization.
    Turnover triggers
    Turnover triggers are events that act as shocks or catalysts that quickly lead to an employee's departure.

    Turnover triggers

    This step will not touch on turnover triggers. Instead, they will be discussed in step 2 in the context of the role of the manager in improving retention.

    Turnover triggers are events that act as shocks or catalysts that quickly lead to an employee's departure.

    Info-Tech Insight

    IT managers often have insights into where and why retention is an issue through their day-to-day work. Gathering detailed quantitative and qualitative data provides credibility to these insights and is key to building a business case for action. Keep an open mind and allow the data to inform your gut feeling, not the other way around.

    Gather data to better understand why employees join, stay, and leave

    Start to gather and examine additional data to accurately identify the reason(s) for high turnover. Begin to uncover the story behind why these employees join, stay, and leave your organization through themes and trends that emerge.

    Look for these icons throughout step 2.

    Join

    Why do candidates join your organization?

    Stay

    Why do employees stay with your organization?

    Leave

    Why do employees leave your organization?

    For more information on analysis, visualization, and storytelling with data, see Info-Tech's Start Making Data-Driven People Decisions blueprint.

    Employee feedback data to look at includes:

    Gather insights through:

    • Focus groups
    • Verbatim comments
    • Exit interviews
    • Using the employee value proposition (EVP) as a filter (does it resonate with the lived experience of employees?)

    Prepare to draw themes and trends from employee data throughout step 1.

    Uncover employee needs and reasons for turnover by analyzing employee feedback data.

    • Look for trends (e.g. new hires join for career opportunities and leave for the same reason, or most departments have strong work-life balance scores in engagement data).
    • Review if there are recurring issues being raised that may impact turnover.
    • Group feedback to highlight themes (e.g. lack of understanding of EVP).
    • Identify which key employee needs merit further investigation or information.

    This is an image showing how you can draw out themes and trends using employee data throughout step 1.

    Classify where key employee needs fall within the employee lifecycle diagram in tab 2 of the Retention Plan Workbook. This will be used in step 2 to pinpoint and prioritize solutions.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The employee lifecycle is a valuable way to analyze and organize engagement pain points, moments that matter, and turnover triggers. It ensures that you consider the entirety of an employee's tenure and the different factors that lead to turnover.

    Examine new hire data and begin to document emerging themes

    Join

    While conducting a high-level analysis of new hire data, look for these three key themes impacting retention:

    Issues or pain points that occurred during the hiring process.

    Reasons why employees joined your organization.

    The experience of their first 90 days. This can include their satisfaction with the onboarding process and their overall experience with the organization.

    Themes will help to identify areas of strength and weakness organization-wide and within key segments. Document in tab 3 of the Retention Plan Workbook.

    1. Start by isolating the top reasons employees joined your organization. Ask:
      • Do the reasons align with the benefits you associate with working at your organization?
      • How might this impact your EVP?
      • If you use a new hire survey, look at the results for the following questions:
      • For which of the following reasons did you apply to this organization?
      • For what reasons did you accept the job offer with this organization?
    2. then, examine other potential problem areas that may not be covered by your new hire survey, such as onboarding or the candidate experience during the hiring process.
      • If you conduct a new hire survey, look at the results in the following sections:
        • Candidate Experience
        • Acclimatization
        • Training and Development
        • Defining Performance Expectations

      Analyze engagement data to identify areas of strength that drive retention

      Employees who are engaged are 3.6x more likely to believe they will be with the organization 12 months from now (McLean & Company Engagement Survey, 2018-2021; N=117,307). Given the strength of this relationship, it is essential to identify areas of strength to maintain and leverage.

      1. Look at the highest-performing drivers in your organization's employee engagement survey and drivers that fall into the "leverage" and "maintain" quadrants of the priority matrix.
        • These drivers provide insight into what prompts broader groups of employees to stay.

      This is an image of a quadrant analysis, with the following quadrants in order from left to right, top to bottom.  Improve; Leverage; Evaluate; Maintain.

      1. Look into what efforts have been made to maintain programs, policies, and practices related to these drivers and ensure they are consistent across the entire organization.
      2. Document trends and themes related to engagement strengths in tab 2 of the Retention Plan Workbook.

      If you use Info-Tech's Engagement Survey, look in detail at what are classified as "Retention Drivers": total compensation, working environment, and work-life balance.

      Identify areas of weakness that drive turnover in your engagement data

      1. Look at the lowest-performing drivers in your organization's employee engagement survey and drivers that fall into the "improve" and "evaluate" quadrants of the priority matrix.
        • These drivers provide insight into what pushes employees to leave the organization.
      2. Delve into organizational efforts that have been made to address issues with the programs, policies, and practices related to these drivers. Are there any projects underway to improve them? What are the barriers preventing improvements?
      3. Document trends and themes related to engagement weaknesses in tab 2 of the Retention Plan Workbook.

      If you use a product other than Info-Tech's Engagement Survey, your results will look different. The key is to look at areas of weakness that emerge from the data.

      This is an image of a quadrant analysis, with the following quadrants in order from left to right, top to bottom.  Improve; Leverage; Evaluate; Maintain.

      If you use Info-Tech's Engagement Survey, look in detail at what are classified as "Retention Drivers": total compensation, working environment, and work-life balance.

      Mine exit surveys to develop an integrated, holistic understanding of why employees leave

      Conduct a high-level analysis of the data from your employee exit diagnostic. While analyzing this data, consider the following:

      • What are the trends and quantitative data about why employees leave your organization that may illuminate employee needs or issues at specific points throughout the employee lifecycle?
      • What are insights around your key segments? Data on key segments is easily sliced from exit survey results and can be used as a starting point for digging deeper into retention issues for specific groups.
      • Exit surveys are an excellent starting point. However, it is valuable to validate the data gathered from an exit survey using exit interviews.
      1. Isolate results for key segments of employees to target with retention initiatives (e.g. by age group or by department).
      2. Identify data trends or patterns over time; for example, that compensation factors have been increasing in importance.
      3. Document trends and themes taken from the exit survey results in tab 2 of the Retention Plan Workbook.

      If your organization conducts exit interviews, analyze the results alongside or in lieu of exit survey data.

      Compare new hire data with exit data to identify patterns and insights

      Determine if new hire expectations weren't met, prompting employees to leave your organization, to help identify where in the employee lifecycle issues driving turnover may be occurring.

      1. Look at your new hire data for the top reasons employees joined your organization.
        • McLean & Company's New Hire Survey database shows that the top three reasons candidates accept job offers on average are:
          1. Career opportunities
          2. Nature of the job
          3. Development opportunities
      2. Next, look at your exit data and the top reasons employees left your organization.
        1. McLean & Company's Exit Survey database shows that the top three reasons employees leave on average are:
          1. Opportunities for career advancement
          2. Base pay
          3. Satisfaction with my role and responsibilities
      3. Examine the results and ask:
        • Is there a link between why employees join and leave the organization?
        • Did they cite the same reasons for joining and for leaving?
        • What do the results say about what your employees do and do not value about working at your organization?
      4. Document the resulting insights in tab 2 of the Retention Plan Workbook.

      Example:

      A result where employees are leaving for the same reason they're joining the organization could signal a disconnect between your organization's employee value proposition and the lived experience.

      Revisit your employee value proposition to uncover misalignment

      Your employee value proposition (EVP), formal or informal, communicates the value your organization can offer to prospective employees.

      If your EVP is mismatched with the lived experience of your employees, new hires will be in for a surprise when they start their new job and find out it isn't what they were expecting.

      Forty-six percent of respondents who left a job within 90 days of starting cited a mismatch of expectations about their role ("Job Seeker Nation Study 2020," Jobvite, 2020).

      1. Use the EVP as a filter through which you look at all your employee feedback data. It will help identify misalignment between the promised and the lived experience.
      2. If you have EVP documentation, start there. If not, go to your careers page and put yourself in the shoes of a candidate. Ask what the four elements of an EVP look like for candidates:
        • Compensation and benefits
        • Day-to-day job elements
        • Working conditions
        • Organizational elements
      3. Next, compare this to your own day-to-day experiences. Does it differ drastically? Are there any contradictions with the lived experience at your organization? Are there misleading statements or promises?
      4. Document any insights or patterns you uncover in tab 2 of the Retention Plan Workbook.

      Conduct focus groups to examine themes

      Through focus groups, explore the themes you have uncovered with employees to discover employee needs that are not being met. Addressing these employee needs will be a key aspect of your retention plan.

      Identify employee groups who will participate in focus groups:

      • Incorporate diverse perspectives (e.g. employees, managers, supervisors).
      • Include employees from departments and demographics with strong and weak engagement for a full picture of how engagement impacts your employees.
      • Invite boomerang employees to learn why an individual might return to your organization after leaving.

      image contains two screenshots Mclean & Company's Standard Focus Group Guide.

      Customize Info-Tech's Standard Focus Group Guide based on the themes you have identified in tab 3 of the Retention Plan Workbook.

      The goal of the focus group is to learn from employees and use this information to design or modify a process, system, or other solution that impacts retention.

      Focus questions on the employees' personal experience from their perspective.

      Key things to remember:

      • It is vital for facilitators to be objective.
      • Keep an open mind; no feelings are wrong.
      • Beware of your own biases.
      • Be open and share the reason for conducting the focus groups.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Maintaining an open dialogue with employees will help flesh out the context behind the data you've gathered and allow you to keep in mind that retention is about people first and foremost.

      Empathize with employees to identify moments that matter

      Look for discrepancies between what employees are saying and doing.

      1. Say

      "What words or quotes did the employee use?"

      3.Think

      "What might the employee be thinking?"

      Record feelings and thoughts discussed, body language observed, tone of voice, and words used.

      Look for areas of negative emotion to determine the moments that matter that drive retention.

      2. Do

      "What actions or behavior did the employee demonstrate?"

      4. Feel

      "What might the employee be feeling?"

      Record them in tab 3 of the Retention Plan Workbook.

      5. Identify Needs

      "Needs are verbs (activities or desires), not nouns (solutions)"

      Synthesize focus group findings using Info-Tech's Empathy Map Template.

      6. Identify Insights

      "Ask yourself, why?"

      (Based on Stanford d.school Empathy Map Method)

      Distill employee needs into priority issues to address first

      Take employee needs revealed by your data and focus groups and prioritize three to five needs.

      Select a limited number of employee needs to develop solutions to ensure that the scope of the project is feasible and that the resources dedicated to this project are not stretched too thin. The remaining needs should not be ignored – act on them later.

      Share the needs you identify with stakeholders so they can support prioritization and so you can confirm their buy-in and approval where necessary.

      Ask yourself the following questions to determine your priority employee needs:

      • Which needs will have the greatest impact on turnover?
      • Which needs have the potential to be an easy fix or quick win?
      • Which themes or trends came up repeatedly in different data sources?
      • Which needs evoked particularly strong or negative emotions in the focus groups?

      This image contains screenshots of two table templates found in tab 5 of the Retention Plan Workbook

      In the Retention Plan Workbook, distill employee needs on tab 2 into three to five priorities on tab 5.

      Step 2

      Select Solutions and Create an Action Plan

      After completing this step, you will have:

      • Selected and prioritized solutions to address employee needs.
      • Created a plan to launch stay interviews.
      • Built an action plan to implement solutions.

      Select IT-owned solutions and implement people leader–driven initiatives

      Solutions

      First, select and prioritize solutions to address employee needs identified in the previous step. These solutions will address reasons for turnover that influence employee engagement and moments that matter.

      • Brainstorm solutions using the Retention Solutions Catalog as a starting point. Select a longlist of solutions to address your priority needs.
      • Prioritize the longlist of solutions into a manageable number to act on.

      People leaders

      Next, create a plan to launch stay interviews to increase managers' accountability in improving retention. Managers will be critical to solving issues stemming from turnover triggers.

      • Clarify the importance of harnessing the influence of people leaders in improving retention.
      • Discover what might cause individual employees to leave through stay interviews.
      • Increase trust in managers through training.

      Action plan

      Finally, create an action plan and present to senior leadership for approval.

      Look for these icons in the top right of slides in this step.

      Select solutions to employee needs, starting with the Retention Solutions Catalog

      Based on the priority needs you have identified, use the Retention Solutions Catalog to review best-practice solutions for pain points associated with each stage of the lifecycle.

      Use this tool as a starting point, adding to it and iterating based on your own experience and organizational culture and goals.

      This image contains three screenshots from Info-Tech's Retention Solutions Catalog.

      Use Info-Tech's Retention Solutions Catalog to start the brainstorming process and produce a shortlist of potential solutions that will be prioritized on the next slide.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Unless you have the good fortune of having only a few pain points, no single initiative will completely solve your retention issues. Combine one or two of these broad solutions with people-leader initiatives to ensure employee needs are addressed on an individual and an aggregate level.

      Prioritize solutions to be implemented

      Target efforts accordingly

      Quick wins are high-impact, low-effort initiatives that will build traction and credibility within the organization.

      Long-term initiatives require more time and need to be planned for accordingly but will still deliver a large impact. Review the planning horizon to determine how early these need to begin.

      Re-evaluate low-impact and low-effort initiatives and identify ones that either support other higher impact initiatives or have the highest impact to gain traction and credibility. Look for low-hanging fruit.

      Deprioritize initiatives that will take a high degree of effort to deliver lower-value results.

      When assessing the impact of potential solutions, consider:

      • How many critical segments or employees will this solution affect?
      • Is the employee need it addresses critical, or did the solution encompass several themes in the data you analyzed?
      • Will the success of this solution help build a case for further action?
      • Will the solution address multiple employee needs?

      Info-Tech Insight

      It's better to master a few initiatives than under-deliver on many. Start with a few solutions that will have a measurable impact to build the case for further action in the future.

      Solutions

      Low ImpactMedium ImpactLarge Impact
      Large EffortThis is an image of the used to help you prioritize solutions to be implemented.
      Medium Effort
      Low Effort

      Use tab 3 of the Retention Plan Workbook to prioritize your shortlist of solutions.

      Harness the influence of people leaders to improve employee retention

      Leaders at all levels have a huge impact on employees.

      Effective people leaders:

      • Manage work distribution.
      • Create a motivating work environment.
      • Provide development opportunities.
      • Ensure work is stimulating and challenging, but not overwhelming.
      • Provide clear, actionable feedback.
      • Recognize team member contributions.
      • Develop positive relationships with their teams.
      • Create a line of sight between what the employee is doing and what the organization's objectives are.

      Support leaders in recommitting to their role as people managers through Learning & Development initiatives with particular emphasis on coaching and building trust.

      For coaching training, see Info-Tech's Build a Better Manager: Team Essentials – Feedback and Coaching training deck.

      For more information on supporting managers to become better people leaders, see Info-Tech's Build a Better Manager: Manage Your People blueprint.

      "HR can't fix turnover. But leaders on the front line can."
      – Richard P. Finnegan, CEO, C-Suite Analytics

      Equip managers to conduct regular stay interviews to address turnover triggers

      Managers often have the most visibility into their employees' personal and work lives and have a key opportunity to anticipate and address turnover triggers.

      Stay interviews are an effective way of uncovering potential retention issues and allowing managers to act as an early warning system for turnover triggers.

      Examples of common turnover triggers and potential manager responses:

      • Moving, creating a long commute to the office.
        • Through stay interviews, a manager can learn that a long commute is an issue and can help find workarounds such as flexible/remote work options.
      • Not receiving an expected promotion.
        • A trusted manager can anticipate issues stemming from this, discuss why the decision was made, and plan development opportunities for future openings.

      Stay interview best practices

      1. Conducted by an employee's direct manager.
      2. Happen regularly as a part of an ongoing process.
      3. Based on the stay interview, managers produce a turnover forecast for each direct report.
        1. The method used by stay interview expert Richard P. Finnegan is simple: red for high risk, yellow for medium, and green for low.
      4. Provide managers with training and a rough script or list of questions to follow.
        1. Use and customize Info-Tech's Stay Interview Guide to provide a guide for managers on how to conduct a stay interview.
      5. Managers use the results to create an individualized retention action plan made up of concrete actions the manager and employee will take.

      Sources: Richard P. Finnegan, CEO, C-Suite Analytics; SHRM

      Build an action plan to implement the retention plan

      For each initiative identified, map out timelines and actions that need to be taken.

      When building actions and timelines:

      • Refer to the priority needs you identified in tab 4 of the Retention Plan Workbook and ensure they are addressed first.
      • Engage internal stakeholders who will be key to the development of the initiatives to ensure they have sufficient time to complete their deliverables.
        • For example, if you conduct manager training, Learning & Development needs to be involved in the development and launch of the program.
      • Include a date to revisit your baseline retention and engagement data in your project milestones.
      • Designate process owners for new processes such as stay interviews.

      Plan for stay interviews by determining:

      • Whether stay interviews will be a requirement for all employees.
      • How much flexibility managers will have with the process.
      • How you will communicate the stay interview approach to managers.
      • If manager training is required.
      • How managers should record stay interview data and how you will collect this data from them as a way to monitor retention issues.
        • For example, managers can share their turnover forecasts and action plans for each employee.

      Be clear about manager accountabilities for initiatives they will own, such as stay interviews. Plan to communicate the goals and timelines managers will be asked to meet, such as when they must conduct interviews or their responsibility to follow up on action items that come from interviews.

      Track project success to iterate and improve your solutions

      Analyze measurements

      • Regularly remeasure your engagement and retention levels to identify themes and trends that provide insights into program improvements.
      • For example, look at the difference in manager relationship score to see if training has had an impact, or look at changes in critical segment turnover to calculate cost savings.

      Revisit employee and manager feedback

      • After three to six months, conduct additional surveys or focus groups to determine the success of your initiatives and opportunities for improvement. Tweak the program, including stay interviews, based on manager and employee feedback.

      Iterate frequently

      • Revisit your initiatives every two or three years to determine if a refresh is necessary to meet changing organizational and employee needs and to update your goals and targets.

      Key insights

      Insight 1Insight 2Insight 3

      Retention and turnover are two sides of the same coin. You can't fix retention without first understanding turnover.

      Engagement surveys mask the volatility of the employee experience and hide the reason why individual employees leave. You must also talk to employees to understand the moments that matter and engage managers to understand turnover triggers.

      Improving retention isn't just about lowering turnover, it's about discovering what healthy retention looks like for your organization.

      Insight 4Insight 5Insight 6

      HR professionals often have insights into where and why retention is an issue. Gathering detailed employee feedback data through surveys and focus groups provides credibility to these insights and is key to building a case for action. Keep an open mind and allow the data to inform your gut feeling, not the other way around.

      Successful retention plans must be owned by both IT leaders and HR.

      IT leaders often have the most visibility into their employees' personal and work lives and have a key opportunity to anticipate and address turnover triggers.

      Stay interviews help managers anticipate potential retention issues on their teams.

      Workshop Overview

      Contact your account representative for more information.
      workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889

      Info-Tech AnalystsPre-workPost-work
      Client Data Gathering and PlanningImplementation Supported Through Analyst Calls

      1.1 Discuss participants, logistics, overview of workshop activities

      1.2 Provide support to client for below activities through calls.

      2.1 Schedule follow-up calls to work through implementation of retention solutions based on identified needs.
      Client

      1.Gather results of engagement survey, new hire survey, exit survey, and any exit and stay interview feedback.

      2.Gather and analyze turnover data.

      3.Identify key employee segment(s) and identify and organize participants for focus groups.

      4.Complete cost of turnover analysis.

      5.Review turnover data and prioritize list of employee segments.

      1.Obtain senior leader approval to proceed with retention plan.

      2.Finalize and implement retention solutions.

      3.Prepare managers to conduct stay interviews.

      4.Communicate next steps to stakeholders.

      Workshop Overview

      Contact your account representative for more information.
      workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889

      ActivitiesDay 1Day 2Day 3Day 4
      Assess Current StateConduct Focus GroupsIdentify Needs and Retention InitiativesPrepare to Communicate and Launch

      1.1 Review data to determine why employees join, stay, and leave.

      1.2 Identify common themes.

      1.3 Prepare for focus groups.

      2.1 Conduct four 1-hour focus groups with the employee segment(s) identified in the pre-workshop activities..

      2.2 Info-Tech facilitators independently analyze results of focus groups and group results by theme.

      3.1 Create an empathy map to identify needs

      3.2 Shortlist retention initiatives

      4.1 Select retention initiatives

      4.2 Determine goals and metrics

      4.3 Plan stakeholder communication4.4 Build a high-level action plan

      Deliverables

      1.List of common themes/pain points recorded in the Retention Plan Workbook

      2.Plan for focus groups documented in the Focus Group Guide

      1.Focus group feedback

      2.Focus group feedback analyzed and organized by themes

      1.Employee needs and shortlist of initiatives to address them1.Finalized list of retention initiatives

      Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

      DIY Toolkit

      “Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”

      Guided Implementation

      “Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”

      Workshop

      “We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”

      Consulting

      “Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”

      Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

      Research Contributors and Experts

      Jeff Bonnell
      VP HR
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Phillip Kotanidis
      CHRO
      Michael Garron Hospital

      Michael McGuire
      Director, Organizational Development
      William Osler Health System

      Dr. Iris Ware
      Chief Learning Officer
      City of Detroit

      Richard P. Finnegan
      CEO
      C-Suite Analytics

      Dr. Thomas Lee
      Professor of Management
      University of Washington

      Jane Moughon
      Specialist in increasing profits, reducing turnover, and maximizing human potential in manufacturing companies

      Lisa Kaste
      Former HR Director
      Citco

      Piyush Mathur
      Head of Workforce Analytics
      Johnson & Johnson

      Gregory P. Smith
      CEO
      Chart Your Course

      Works Cited

      "17 Surprising Statistics about Employee Retention." TINYpulse, 8 Sept. 2020. Web.
      "2020 Job Seeker Nation Study." Jobvite, April 2020. Web.
      "2020 Recruiter Nation Survey." Jobvite, 2020. Web.
      "2020 Retention Report: Insights on 2019 Turnover Trends, Reasons, Costs, & Recommendations." Work Institute, 2020. Web.
      "25 Essential Productivity Statistics for 2021." TeamStage, 2021. Accessed 22 Jun. 2021.
      Agovino, Theresa. "To Have and to Hold." SHRM, 23 Feb. 2019. Web.
      "Civilian Unemployment Rate." Bureau of Labor Statistics, June 2020. Web.
      Foreman, Paul. "The domino effect of chief sales officer turnover on salespeople." Mereo, 19 July 2018. Web.
      "Gross Domestic Product." U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 27 May 2021. Accessed 22 Jun. 2020.
      Kinne, Aaron. "Back to Basics: What is Employee Experience?" Workhuman, 27August 2020. Accessed 21 Jun. 2021.
      Lee, Thomas W, et al. "Managing employee retention and turnover with 21st century ideas." Organizational Dynamics, vol 47, no. 2, 2017, pp. 88-98. Web.
      Lee, Thomas W. and Terence R. Mitchell. "Control Turnover by Understanding its Causes." The Blackwell Handbook of Principles of Organizational Behaviour. 2017. Print.
      McFeely, Shane, and Ben Wigert. "This Fixable Problem Costs U.S. Businesses $1 Trillion." Gallup. 13 March 2019. Web.
      "Table 18. Annual Quit rates by Industry and Region Not Seasonally Adjusted." Bureau of Labor Statistics. June 2021. Web.
      "The 2019 Compensation Best Practices Report: Will They Stay or Will They Go? Employee Retention and Acquisition in an Uncertain Economy." PayScale. 2019. Web.
      Vuleta, Branka. "30 Troubling Employee Retention Statistics." Legaljobs. 1 Feb. 2021. Web.
      "What is a Tenured Employee? Top Benefits of Tenure and How to Stay Engaged as One." Indeed. 22 Feb. 2021. Accessed 22 Jun. 2021.