Manage Service Catalogs

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The challenge

  • Your business users may not be aware of the full scope of your services.
  • Typically service information is written in technical jargon. For business users, this means that the information will be tough to understand.
  • Without a service catalog, you have no agreement o what is available, so business will assume that everything is.

Our advice

Insight

  • Define your services from a user's or customer perspective.
    • When your service catalog contains too much information that does not apply to most users, they will not use it.
  • Separate the line-of-business services from enterprise services. It simplifies your documentation process and makes the service catalog more comfortable to use.

Impact and results 

  • Our approach helps you organize your service catalog in a business-friendly way while keeping it manageable for IT.
  • And manageable also means that your service catalog remains a living document. You can update your service records easily.
  • Your service catalog forms a visible bridge between IT and the business. Improve IT's perception by communicating the benefits of the service catalog.

The roadmap

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

Get started

Our concise executive brief shows you why building a service catalog is a good idea for your company. We'll show you our methodology and the ways we can help you in handling this.

Minimize the risks from attrition through an effective knowledge transfer process.

Launch the initiative

Our launch phase will walk you through the charter template, build help a balanced team, create your change message and communication plan to obtain buy-in from all your organization's stakeholders.

  • Design & Build a User-Facing Service Catalog – Phase 1: Launch the Project (ppt)
  • Service Catalog Project Charter (doc)

Identify and define the enterprise services

Group enterprise services which you offer to everyone in the company, logically together.

  • Design & Build a User-Facing Service Catalog – Phase 2: Identify and Define Enterprise Services (ppt)
  • Sample Enterprise Services (ppt)

Identify and define your line-of-business (LOB) services

These services apply only to one business line. Other business users should not see them in the catalog.

  • Design & Build a User-Facing Service Catalog – Phase 3: Identify and Define Line of Business Services (ppt)
  • Sample LOB Services – Industry Specific (ppt)
  • Sample LOB Services – Functional Group (ppt)

Complete your services definition chart

Complete this chart to allow the business to pick what services to include in the service catalog. It also allows you to extend the catalog with technical services by including IT-facing services. Of course, separated-out only for IT.

  • Design & Build a User-Facing Service Catalog – Phase 4: Complete Service Definitions (ppt)
  • Services Definition Chart (xls)

Right-Size the Service Desk for Small Enterprise

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The service desk is a major function within IT. Small enterprises with constrained resources need to look at designing a service desk that enables consistency in supporting the business and finds the right balance of documentation.

Determining the right level of documentation to provide backup and getting the right level of data for good reporting may seem like a waste of time when the team is small, but this is key to knowing when to invest in more people, upgraded technology, and whether your efforts to improve service are successful.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

It’s easy to lose sight of the client experience when working as a small team supporting a variety of end users. Changing from a help desk to a service desk requires a focus on what it means to be a customer centric service desk and a change to the way the technicians think about providing support.

  • Make the best use of the team. Clearly define roles and responsibilities and monitor those wearing multiple hats to make sure they don’t burn out.
  • Build cross training and documentation into your culture to preserve service levels while giving team members time off to recharge.
  • Don’t discount the benefit of good tools. As volume increases, so does the likelihood of issues and requests getting missed. Look for tools that will help to keep a customer focus.

Impact and Result

  • Improved workload distribution for technicians and enable prioritization based on work type, urgency, and impact.
  • Improved communications methods and messaging will help the technicians to set expectations appropriately and reduce friction between each other and their supported end users.
  • Best practices and use of industry standard tools will reduce administrative overhead while improving workload management.

Right-Size the Service Desk for Small Enterprise Research & Tools

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

1. Right-Size the Service Desk for Small Enterprise Storyboard – A step-by-step guide to help you identify and prioritize initiatives to become more customer centric.

This blueprint provides a framework to quickly identify a plan for service desk improvements. It also provides references to build out additional skills and functionality as a continual improvement initiative.

  • Right-Size the Service Desk for Small Enterprise Storyboard

2. Maturity Assessment – An assessment to determine baseline maturity.

The maturity assessment will provide a baseline and identify areas of focus based on level of current and target maturity.

  • IT Service Desk Maturity Assessment for Small Enterprise

3. Standard Operating Procedure – A template to build out a clear, concise SOP right-sized for a small enterprise.

The SOP provides an excellent guide to quickly inform new team members or contractors of your support approach.

  • Incident Management and Service Desk SOP for Small Enterprise

4. Categorization Scheme – A template to build out an effective categorization scheme.

The categorization scheme template provides examples of asset-based categories, resolution codes and status.

  • Service Desk Asset-Based Categories Template

5. Improvement Plan – A template to present the improvement plan to stakeholders.

This template provides a starting point for building your communications on planned improvements.

  • Service Desk Improvement Initiative
[infographic]

Further reading

Right-Size the Service Desk for Small Enterprise

Turn your help desk into a customer-centric service desk.

Analyst Perspective

Small enterprises have many of the same issues as large ones, but with far fewer resources. Focus on the most important aspects to improve customer service.

The service desk is a major function within IT. Small enterprises with constrained resources need to look at designing a service desk that enables consistency in supporting the business and finds the right balance of documentation.

Evaluate documentation to ensure there is always redundancy built in to cover absences. Determining coverage will be an important factor, especially if vendors will be brought into the organization to assist during shortages. They will not have the same level of knowledge as teammates and may have different requirements for documentation.

It is important to be customer centric, thinking about how services are delivered and communicated with a focus on providing self-serve at the appropriate level for your users and determining what information the business needs for expectation-setting and service level agreements, as well as communications on incidents and changes.

And finally, don’t discount the value of good reporting. There are many reasons to document issues besides just knowing the volume of workload and may become more important as the organization evolves or grows. Stakeholder reporting, regulatory reporting, trend spotting, and staff increases are all good reasons to ensure minimum documentation standards are defined and in use.

Photo of Sandi Conrad, Principal Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group. Sandi Conrad
Principal Research Director
Info-Tech Research Group

Table of Contents

Title Page Title Page
Blueprint benefits 6 Incident management 25
Start / Stop / Continue exercise 10 Prioritization scheme 27
Complete a maturity assessment 11 Define SLAs 29
Select an ITSM tool 13 Communications 30
Define roles & responsibilities 15 Reporting 32
Queue management 17 What can you do to improve? 33
Ticket handling best practices 18 Staffing 34
Customer satisfaction surveys 19 Knowledge base & self-serve 35
Categorization 20 Customer service 36
Separate ticket types 22 Ticket analysis 37
Service requests 23 Problem management 38
Roadmap 39

Insight summary

Help desk to service desk

It’s easy to lose sight of the client experience when working as a small team supporting a variety of end users. Changing from a help desk to a service desk requires a focus on what it means to be a customer-centric service desk and a change to the way the technicians think about providing support.

Make the best use of the team

  • Clearly define primary roles and responsibilities, and identify when and where escalations should occur.
  • Divide the work in a way that makes the most sense based on intake patterns and categories of incidents or service requests.
  • Recognize who is wearing multiple hats, and monitor to make sure they don’t burn out or struggle to keep up.
  • Determine the most appropriate areas to outsource based on work type and skills required.

Build cross-training into your culture

  • Primary role holders need time off and need to know the day-to-day work won’t be waiting for them when they come back.
  • The knowledge base is your first line of defense to make sure incidents don’t have to wait for resolution and to avoid having technicians remote in on their day off.
  • When volumes spike for incidents and service requests, everyone needs to be prepared to pitch in. Train the team to recognize and step up to the call to action.

Don’t discount the benefit of good tools

  • When volume increases, so does the likelihood of missing issues and requests.
  • Designate a single solution to manage the workload, so there is one place to go for work orders, incident reporting, asset data, and more.
  • Set up self-serve for users so they have access to how-to articles and can check the status of tickets themselves.
  • Create a service catalog to make it easy for them to request the most frequent items easily.

Blueprint deliverables

Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals:

Standard Operating Procedures

Sample of the Standard Operating Procedures deliverable.

Maturity Assessment

Sample of the Maturity Assessment deliverable.

Categorization scheme

Sample of the Categorization scheme deliverable.

Improvement Initiative

Sample of the Improvement Initiative deliverable.
Create a standard operating procedure to ensure the support team has a consistent understanding of how they need to engage with the business.

Blueprint benefits

IT benefits

  • Improve workload distribution for technicians and enable prioritization based on work type, urgency, and impact.
  • Improved communications methods and messaging will help the technicians set expectations appropriately and reduce friction between each other and their supported end users.
  • Best practices and use of industry-standard tools will reduce administrative overhead while improving workload management.

Business benefits

  • IT taking a customer-centric approach will improve access to support and reduce interruptions to the way they do business.
  • Expectation setting and improved communications will allow the business to better plan their work around new requests and will have a better understanding of service level agreements.

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 is six to ten calls over the course of three to four months.

The current state discussion will determine the path.

What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

Current State & Vision

Best Practices

Service Requests & Incidents

Communications

Next Steps & Roadmap

Call #1: Discuss current state & create a vision

Call #2: Document roles & responsibilities

Call #3:Review and define best practices for ticket handling Call #4: Review categorization

Call #5: Discuss service requests & self-serve

Call #6: Assess incident management processes
Call #7: Assess and document reporting and metrics

Call #8: Discuss communications methods

Call #9: Review next steps

Call #10: Build roadmap for updates

For a workshop on this topic, see the blueprint Standardize the Service Desk

Executive Brief Case Study

Southwest CARE Center
Logo for Southwest Care.
INDUSTRY
Healthcare

Service Desk Project

After relying on a managed service provider (MSP) for a number of years, the business hired Kevin to repatriate IT. As part of that mandate, his first strategic initiative was to build a service desk. SCC engaged Info-Tech Research Group to select and build a structure; assign roles and responsibilities; implement incident management, request fulfilment, and knowledge management processes; and integrate a recently purchased ITSM tool.

Over the course of a four-day onsite engagement, SCC’s IT team worked with two Info-Tech analysts to create and document workflows, establish ticket handling guidelines, and review their technological requirements.

Results

The team developed a service desk standard operating procedure and an implementation roadmap with clear service level agreements.

Southwest CARE Center (SCC) is a leading specialty healthcare provider in New Mexico. They offer a variety of high-quality services with a focus on compassionate, patient-centered healthcare.

“Info-Tech helped me to successfully rebrand from an MSP help desk to an IT service desk. Sandi and Michel provided me with a customized service desk framework and SOP that quickly built trust within the organization. By not having to tweak and recalibrate my service desk processes through trial and error, I was able to save a year’s worth of work, resulting in cost savings of $30,000 to $40,000.” (Kevin Vigil, Director of Information Technology, Southwest CARE Center)

The service desk is the cornerstone for customer satisfaction

Bar charts comparing 'Dissatisfied' vs 'Satisfied End Users' in both 'Service Desk Effectiveness' and 'Timeliness'.
N=63, small enterprise organizations from the End-User Satisfaction Diagnostic, at December 2021
Dissatisfied was classified as those organizations with an average score less than 7.
Satisfied was classified as those organizations with an average score greater or equal to 8.
  • End users who were satisfied with service desk effectiveness rated all other IT processes 36% higher than dissatisfied end users.
  • End users who were satisfied with service desk timeliness rated all other IT processes 34% higher than dissatisfied end-users.

Improve the service desk with a Start, Stop, Continue assessment

Use this exercise as an opportunity to discuss what’s working and what isn’t with your current help desk. Use this to define your goals for the improvement project, with a plan to return to the results and rerun the exercise on a regular basis.

STOP

  • What service desk processes are counterproductive?
  • What service blockers exist that consistently undermine good results?
  • Are end-user relationships with individual team members negatively impacting satisfaction?
  • Make notes on initial ideas for improvement.

START

  • What service process improvements could be implemented immediately?
  • What technical qualifications do individual staff members need to improve?
  • What opportunities exist to improve service desk communications with end users?
  • How can escalation and triage be more efficient?

CONTINUE

  • What aspects of your current service desk are positive?
  • What processes are efficient and can be emulated elsewhere?
  • Where can you identify high levels of end-user satisfaction?

Complete a maturity assessment to create a baseline and areas of focus

The Service Desk Maturity Assessment tool helps organizations assess their service desk process maturity and focus the project on the activities that matter most.

The tool will help guide improvement efforts and measure your progress.

  • The second tab of the tool walks through a qualitative assessment of your service desk practices. Questions will prompt you to evaluate how you are executing key activities. Select the answer in the drop-down menus that most closely aligns with your current state.
  • The third tab displays your rate of process completeness and maturity. You will receive a score for each phase, an overall score, and advice based on your performance.
  • Document the results of the efficiency assessment in the Service Desk Improvement Initiative.
  • The tool is intended for periodic use. Review your answers each year and devise initiatives to improve the process performance where you need it most.
Sample of the Service Desk Maturity Assessment.

Define your vision for the support structure

Use this vision for communicating with the business and your IT team

Consider service improvements and how those changes can be perceived by the organization. For example, offering multiple platforms, such as adding Macs to end-user devices, could translate to “Providing the right IT solutions for the way our employees want to work.”

To support new platforms, you might need to look at the following steps to get there:
  • Evaluate skills needed – can you upskill generalists quickly, or will specialists be required? Determine training needs for support staff on new platforms.
  • Estimate uptake of the new platform and adjusting budgets – will these mostly be role-based decisions?
  • Determine what applications will work on the new platform and which will have a parity offering, which will require a solution like Parallels or VirtualBox, and which might need substitute applications.
  • What utilities will be needed to secure your solutions such as for encryption, antivirus, and firewalls?
  • What changes in the way you deploy and patch machines?
  • What level of support do you need to provide – just platform, or applications as well? What self-serve training can be made available?
If you need to change the way you deploy equipment, you may want to review the blueprint Simplify Remote Deployment With Zero-Touch Provisioning

Info-Tech Insight

Identify some high-level opportunities and plan out how these changes will impact the way you provide support today. Document steps you’ll need to follow to make it happen. This may include new offerings and product sourcing, training, and research.

Facilitate service desk operations with an ITSM tool

You don’t need to spend a fortune. Many solutions are free or low-cost for a small number of users, and you don’t necessarily have to give up functionality to save money.

Encourage users to submit requests through email or self-serve to keep organized. Ensure that reporting will provide you with the basics without effort, but ensure report creation is easy enough if you need to add more.

Consider tools that do more than just store tickets. ITSM tools for small enterprises can also assist with:
  • Equipment and software license management
  • Self-serve for password reset and improving the experience for end users to submit tickets
  • Software deployment
  • Onboarding and offboarding workflows
  • Integration with monitoring tools
Info-Tech Insight Buying rather than building allows you the greatest flexibility and can provide enterprise-level functionality at small-enterprise pricing. Use Info-Tech’s IT Service Management Selection Guide to create a business case and list of requirements for your ITSM purchase.
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ITSM implementations are the perfect time to fix processes

Consider engaging a partner for the installation and setup as they will have the expertise to troubleshoot and get you to value quickly.

Even with a partner, don’t rely on them to set up categories, prioritizations, and workflows. If you have unique requirements, you will need to bring your design work to the table to avoid getting a “standard install” that will need to be modified later.

When we look at what makes a strong and happy product launch, it boils down to a few key elements:
  • Improving customer service, or at least avoiding a decline
  • Improving access to information for technical team and end users
  • Successfully taking advantage of workflows, templates, and other features designed to improve the technician and user experience
  • Using existing processes with the new tools, without having to completely reengineer how things are done
For a complete installation guide, visit the blueprint Build an ITSM Implementation Plan
To prepare for a quick time to value in setting up the new ITSM tool, prioritize in this order:
  1. Categorization and status codes
  2. Prioritization
  3. Divide tickets into incidents and service requests
  4. Create workflows for onboarding and offboarding (automate where you can)
  5. Track escalations to vendors
  6. Reporting
  7. Self-serve
  8. Equipment inventory (leading to hardware asset management)

Define roles looking to balance between customer service and getting things done

The team will need to provide backfill for each other with high volume, vacations, and leave, but also need to proactively manage interruptions appropriately as they work on projects.
Icon of a bullseye. First contact – customer service, general knowledge
Answers phones, chats, responds to email, troubleshooting, creates knowledge articles for end users.
Icon of a pie chart. Analyst – experienced troubleshooter, general knowledge
Answers phone when FC isn’t available, responds to email, troubleshooting, creates knowledge articles for first contact, escalates to other technicians or vendors.
Icon of a lightbulb. Analyst – experienced troubleshooter, specialist
Answers phones only when necessary, troubleshooting, creates knowledge articles for anyone in IT, consults with peers, escalates to vendors.
Icon of gear on a folder. Engineer – deep expertise, specialist
Answers phones only when necessary, troubleshooting, creates knowledge articles for anyone in IT, consults with peers, escalates to vendors.
Icon of a handshake. Vendor, Managed Service Providers
Escalation point per contract terms, must meet SLAs, communicate regularly with analysts and management as appropriate. Who escalates and who manages them?
Row of colorful people.

Note roles in the Incident Management and Service Desk – Standard Operating Procedure Template

Keep customers happy and technicians calm by properly managing your queue

If ticket volume is too high or too dispersed to effectively have teams self-select tickets, assign a queue manager to review tickets throughout the day to ensure they’re assigned and on the technician’s schedule. This is particularly important for technicians who don’t regularly work out of the ticketing system. Follow up on approaching or missed SLAs.

  • Separate incidents (break fix) and service requests: Prioritize incidents over service requests to focus on getting users doing business as soon as possible. Schedule service requests for slower times or assign to technicians who are not working the front lines.
  • First in/first out…mostly: We typically look to prioritize incidents over service requests and only prioritize incidents if there are multiple people or VIPs affected. Where everything is equal, deal with the oldest first. Pause occasionally to deal with quick wins such as password resets.
  • Update ticket status and notes: Knowing what tickets are in progress and which ones are waiting on information or parts is important for anyone looking to pick up the next ticket. Make sure everyone is aware of the benefits of keeping this information up to date, so technicians know what to work on next without duplicating each other’s work.
  • Implement solutions quickly by using knowledge articles: Continue to build out the knowledge base to be able to resolve end-user issues quickly, check to see if additional information is needed before escalating tickets to other technicians.
  • Encourage end users to create tickets through the portal: Issues called in are automatically moved to the front of the queue, regardless of urgency. Make it easy for users to report issues using the portal and save the phone for urgent issues to allow appropriate prioritization of tickets.
  • Create a process to add additional resources on a regular basis to keep control of the backlog: A few extra hours once a week may be enough if the team is focused without interruptions.
  • Determine what backlog is acceptable to your users: Set that as a maximum time to resolve. Ideally, set up automated escalations for tickets that are approaching target SLAs, and build flexibility into schedules to have an “all hands on deck” option if the volume gets too high.

Info-Tech Insight

Make sure your queue manager has an accurate escalation list and has the authority to assign tickets and engage with the technical team to manage SLAs; otherwise, SLAs will never be consistently managed.

Best practices for ticket handling

Accurate data leads to good decisions. If working toward adding staff members, reducing recurring incidents, gaining access to better tools, or demonstrating value to the business, tickets will enable reporting and dashboards to manage your day-to-day business and provide reports to stakeholders.
  • Provide an easy way for end users to electronically submit tickets and encourage them to do so. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still accept phone calls, but that should be encouraged for time sensitive issues.
  • Create and update tickets, but not at the expense of good customer service. Agents can start the ticket but shouldn’t spend five minutes creating the ticket when they should be troubleshooting the problem.
  • Update the ticket when the issue is resolved or needs to be escalated. If agents are escalating, they should make sure all relevant information is passed along to the next technician.
  • Update user of ETA if issue cannot be resolved quickly.
  • Update categories to reflect the actual issue and resolution.
  • Reference or link to the knowledge base article as the documented steps taken to resolve the incident.
  • Validate incident is resolved with client. Automate this process with ticket closure after a certain time.
  • Close or resolve the ticket on time.
Ticket templates (or quick tickets) for common incidents can lead to fast creation, data input, and categorizations. Templates can reduce the time it takes to create tickets from two minutes to 30 seconds.
Sample ticket template.

Create a right-sized self-service portal

Review tickets and talk to the team to find out the most frequent requests and the most frequent incidents that could be solved by the end user if there were clear instructions. Check with your user community to see what they would like to see in the portal.

A portal is only as attractive as it is useful. Enabling ticket creation and review is the bare minimum and may not entice users to the portal if email is just as easy to use for ticket creation.

Consider opening the portal to groups other than IT. HR, finance, and others may have information they want to share or forms to fill in or download where an employee portal rather than an IT portal could be helpful. Work with other departments to see if they would find value. Make sure your solution is easy to use when adding content. Low-code options are useful for this.

Portals could be built in the ITSM solution or SharePoint/Teams and should include:

  • Easy ways to create and see status on all tickets
  • Manuals, how-to articles, links to training
  • Answers to common questions, could be a wiki or Q&A for users to help each other as well as IT
  • Could have a chatbot to help people find documents or to create a ticket

Info-Tech Insight

Consider using video capture software to create short how-to videos for common questions. Vendors such as TechSmith Snagit , Vimeo Screen Recorder, Screencast-O-Matic Video Recording, and Movavi Screen Recording may be quick and easy to learn.

49%

49% of employees have trouble finding information at work

35%

Employees can cut time spent looking for information by 35% with quality intranet

(Source: Liferay)

Use customer satisfaction surveys to monitor service levels

Transactional surveys are tied to specific interactions and provide a means of communication to help users communicate satisfaction or dissatisfaction with single interactions.
  • Keep it simple: One question to rate the service with opportunity to add a comment is enough to understand the sentiment and potential issues, and it will be more likely that the user will fill it out.
  • Follow up: Feedback will only be provided if customers think it’s being read and actioned. Set an alert to receive notification of any negative feedback and follow up within one or two business days to show you’re listening.

A simple customer feedback form with smiley face scale.

Relationship surveys can be run annually to obtain feedback on the overall customer experience.

Inform yourself of how well you are doing or where you need improvement in the broad services provided.

Provide a high-level perspective on the relationship between the business and IT.

Help with strategic improvement decisions.

Should be sent over a duration of time and to the entire customer base after they’ve had time to experience all the services provided by the service desk. This can be done on an annual basis.

For example: Info-Tech’s End User Satisfaction Diagnostic. Included in your membership.

Keep categorizations simple

Asset categorization provides reports that are straightforward and useful for IT and that are typically used where the business isn’t demanding complex reports.

Too many options can cause confusion; too few options provide little value. Try to avoid using “miscellaneous” – it’s not useful information. Test your tickets against your new scheme to make sure it works for you. Effective classification schemes are concise, easy to use correctly, and easy to maintain.

Build out the categories with these questions:
  • What kind of asset am I working on? (type)
  • What general asset group am I working on? (category)
  • What particular asset am I working on? (sub-category)

Create resolution codes to further modify the data for deeper reporting. This is typically a separate field, as you could use the same code for many categories. Keep it simple, but make sure it’s descriptive enough to understand the type of work happening in IT.

Create and define simple status fields to quickly review tickets and know what needs to be actioned. Don’t stop the clock for any status changes unless you’re waiting on users. The elapsed time is important to measure from a customer satisfaction perspective.

Info-Tech Insight

Think about how you will use the data to determine which components need to be included in reports. If components won’t be used for reporting, routing, or warranty, reporting down to the component level adds little value.

Example table of categorizations.


Need to make quick progress? Use Info-Tech Research Group’s Service Desk Asset-Based Categories template.

1.1 Build or review your categories

1-3 hours

Input: Existing tickets

Output: Categorization scheme

Materials: Whiteboard/Flip charts, Markers, Sample categorization scheme

Participants: CIO, Service desk manager, Technicians

Discuss:

  • How can you use categories and resolution information to enhance reporting?
  • What level of detail do you need to be able to understand the data and take action? What level of detail is too much?
  • Are current status fields allowing you to accurately assess pending work at a glance?

Draft:

  1. Start with existing categories and review, identifying duplicates and areas of inconsistency.
  2. Write out proposed resolution codes and status fields and critically assess their value.
  3. Test categories and resolution codes against a few recent tickets.
  4. Record the ticket categorization scheme in the Incident Management and Service Desk – Standard Operating Procedure.

Download the Incident Management and Service Desk – Standard Operating Procedure Template

Separate tickets into service requests and incidents

Tickets should be separated into different ticket types to be able to see briefly what needs to be prioritized. This may seem like a non-issue if you have a small team, but if you ever need to report how quickly you’re solving break-fix issues or whether you’re doing root cause analysis, this will save on future efforts. Separating ticket types may make it easier to route tickets automatically or to a new provider in the future.

INCIDENTS

SERVICE REQUESTS

Icon of a bullseye.

PRIORITIZATION

Incidents will be prioritized based on urgency and impact to the organization. Service requests will be scheduled and only increase in prioritization if there is an issue with the request process (e.g. new hire start).
Icon of a handshake.

SLAs

Did incidents get resolved according to prioritization rules? REPONSE & RESOLUTION Did service requests get completed on time? SCHEDULING & FULFILMENT
Icon of a lightbulb.

TRIAGE & ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS

Incidents will typically need triage at the service desk unless something is set up to go directly to a specialist. Service requests don’t need triage and can be routed automatically for approvals and fulfillment.

“For me, the first key question is, is this keeping you from doing business? Is this a service request? Is it actually something that's broken? Well, okay. Now let's have the conversation about what's broken and keeping you from doing business.” (Anonymous CIO)

Determine how service requests will be fulfilled

Process steps for service requests: 'Request, Approve, Schedule, Fulfill, Notify requester, Close ticket'.

  • Identify standard requests, meaning any product approved for use and deployment in the organization.
  • Determine whether this should be published and how. Consider a service catalog with the ability to create tickets right from the request page. If there is an opportunity to automate fulfillment, build that into your workflow and project plans.
  • Create workflows for complicated requests such as onboarding, and build them into a template in the service desk tool. This will allow you to reduce the administrative work to deploy tasks.
  • Who will fulfill requests? There may be a need for more than one technician to be able to fulfill if volume dictates, but it’s important to determine what will be done by each level to quickly assign those tickets for scheduling. Define what will be done by each group of technicians.
  • Determine reasonable SLAs for most service requests. Identify which ones will not meet “normal” SLAs. As you build out a service catalog or automate fulfillment, SLAs can be refined.

Info-Tech Insight

Service requests are not as urgent as incidents and should be scheduled.

Set the SLA based on time to fulfill, plus a buffer to schedule around more urgent service requests.

1.2 Identify service requests and routing needs

2-3 hours

Input: Ticket data, Existing workflow diagrams

Output: Workflow diagrams

Materials: Whiteboard/Flip charts, Markers, Visio

Participants: CIO, Service desk manager, Technicians

Identify:

  1. Create your list of typical service requests and identify the best person to fulfill, based on complexity, documentation, specialty, access rights.
  2. Review service requests which include multiple people or departments, such as onboarding and offboarding
  3. Draw existing processes.
  4. Discuss challenges and critique existing process.
  5. Document proposed changes and steps that will need to be taken to improve the process.

Download the Incident Management and Service Desk – Standard Operating Procedure Template

Incident management

Critical incidents and normal incidents

Even with a small team, it’s important to define a priority for response and resolution time for SLA and uptime reporting and extracting insights for continual improvement efforts.

  • Mission-critical systems or problems that affect many people should always come first (i.e. Severity Level 1).
  • The bulk of reported problems, however, are often individual problems with desktop PCs (i.e. Severity Level 3 or 4).
  • Some questions to consider when deciding on problem severity include:
    • How is productivity affected?
    • How many users are affected?
    • How many systems are affected?
    • How critical are the affected systems to the organization?
  • Decide how many severity levels the organization needs the service desk to have. Four levels of severity is ideal for most organizations.
Go to incident management for SE

Super-specialization of knowledge is also a common factor in smaller teams and is caused by complex architectures. While helpful, if that knowledge isn’t documented, it can walk out the door with the resource and the rest of the team is left scrambling.

Lessons learned may be gathered for critical incidents but often are not propagated, which impacts the ability to solve recurring incidents.

Over time, repeated incidents can have a negative impact on the customer’s perception that the service desk is a credible and essential service to the business.

Cover image for 'Incident Management for Small Enterprise'.
Click picture for a link to the blueprint

1.3 Activity: Identify critical systems

1 hour

Input: Ticket data, Business continuity plan

Output: Service desk SOP

Materials: Whiteboard/Flip charts, Markers

Participants: CIO, Service desk manager, Technicians

Discuss and document:

  1. Create a list of the most critical systems, and identify and document the escalation path.
  2. Review inventory of support documents for critical systems and identify any that require runbooks to ensure quick resolution in the event of an outage or major performance issue. Refer to the blueprint Incident Management for Small Enterprise to prioritize and document runbooks as needed.
  3. Review vendor agreements to determine if SLAs are appropriate to support needs. If there is a need for adjustments, determine options for modifying or renegotiating SLAs.

Download the Incident Runbook Prioritization Tool

Prioritization scheme

Keep the priority scheme simple and meaningful, using this framework to communicate and report to stakeholders and set SLAs for response and resolution.
  1. Focus primarily on incidents. Service requests should always be medium urgency, unless there is a valid reason to move one to high level.
  2. Separate major outages from all other tickets as these are a major factor in business impact.
  3. Decide how many levels of severity are appropriate for your organization.
  4. Build a prioritization matrix, breaking down priority levels by impact and urgency.
  5. Build out the definitions of “impact” and “urgency” to complete the prioritization matrix.
  6. Run through examples of each priority level to make sure everyone is on the same page.
A matrix of prioritization with rows as levels of 'IMPACT' and columns as levels of 'URGENCY'. Ratings range from 'Critical' at 'Extensive/Critical' to 'Low' at 'Low Impact/Low'.

Document escalation rules and contacts

Depending on the size of the team, escalations may be mostly to internal technical colleagues or could be primarily to vendors.

  • Ensure the list of escalation rules and contacts is accurate and available, adding expected SLAs for quick reference
  • If tickets are being escalated but shouldn’t be, ensure knowledge articles and training materials are up to date
  • Follow up on all external escalations, ensuring SLAs are respected
  • Publish an escalation path for clients if service is not meeting their needs (for internal and external providers) and automate escalations for tickets breaching SLAs
Escalation rules strung together.
User doesn’t know who will fix the issue but expects to see it done in a reasonable time. If issue cannot be resolved right away, set expectations for resolution time.
  • Document information so next technician doesn’t need to ask the same questions.
  • Escalate to the right technician the first time.
  • Check notes to catch up on the issue.
  • Run tests if necessary.
  • Contact user to troubleshoot and fix.
  • Meet SLAs or update client on new ETA.
  • Provide complete information to vendor.
  • Monitor resolution.
  • Follow up with vendor if delays.
  • Update client as needed.
  • Vendor will provide support according to agreement.
  • Encourage vendor to provide regular updates to IT.
  • Review vendor performance regularly.
  • IT will validate issue is resolved and close ticket.
Validate user is happy with the experience

Define, measure, and report on service level agreements

Improving communications is the most effective way to improve customer service
  1. Set goals for time to respond and time to resolve for different incident levels, communicate to the technical team, and test ability to meet these goals.
  2. Set goals for time to fulfil for most service requests, document exceptions (e.g. onboarding).
  3. Create reports to measure against goals and determine what information will be most effective for reporting to the business.
  4. Management: Communicate expectations to the business leaders and end users.
  5. Management: Set regular cadence to meet with stakeholders to discuss expectations and review relevant metrics.
  6. Management: Determine how metrics will be tracked and reviewed to manage technical partners.
Keep messaging simple
  • Be prepared with detailed reporting if needed, but focus on a few key metrics to inform stakeholders of progress against goals.
  • Use trending to tell a story, especially when presenting success stories.
  • Use appropriate media for each type of message. For example: SLAs can be listed on automated ticket responses or in a banner on the portal.

Determine what communications are most important and who will do them

Icon of a bperson ascending a staircase.

PROACTIVE, PLANNED CHANGES

From: Service Desk

Messaging provided by engineer or director, sent to all employees; proactive planning with business unit leaders.

Icon of a bullseye.

OUTAGES & UPDATES

From: Service Desk

Use templates to send out concise messaging and updates hourly, with input from technical team working on restoring services to all; director to liaise with business stakeholders.

Icon of a lightbulb.

UPDATES TO SERVICES, SELF-SERVE

From: Director

Send announcements no more than monthly about new services and processes.

Icon of a handshake.

REGULAR STAKEHOLDER COMMUNICATIONS

From: Director

Monthly reporting to business and IT stakeholders on strategic and project goals, manage escalations.

1.4 Create communications plan

2 hours

Input: Sample past communications

Output: Communications templates

Materials: Whiteboard/flip charts, Markers

Participants: CIO, Service desk manager, Technicians

Determine where templates are needed to ensure quick and consistent communications. Review sample templates and modify to suit your needs:

  1. Proactive, planned changes
  2. Outages and updates
  3. Updates to services, self-serve
  4. Regular stakeholder communications

Download the communications templates

Create reports that are useful and actionable

Reporting serves two purposes:

  1. Accountability to stakeholders
  2. Identification of items that need action

To determine what reports are needed, ask yourself:

  • What are your goals?
  • What story are you trying to tell?
  • What do you need to manage day to day?
  • What do you need to report to get funding?
  • What do you need to report to your stakeholders for service updates?

Determine which metrics will be most useful to suit your strategic and operational goals

STRATEGIC GOAL (stakeholders): Improve customer service evidenced by:

TIME

  • Aged backlog
  • Service requests solved within SLA (could also look for quick ones, e.g. tickets solved in one day, % solved within one hour)
  • Volume of incidents and time to solve each type
  • Critical incidents solved in 4 hours
  • Incidents solved same day

QUALITY

  • Percentage of tickets solved at first contact
  • SLAs missed
  • Percentage of services available to request through catalog
  • Percentage of tickets created through portal (speaks to quality of experience)
  • Customer satisfaction survey results – transactional and annual

RESOURCES

  • Knowledge articles used by technicians
  • Knowledge articles used by end users
  • Tickets resolved at each technician level (volume)
  • Non-standard requests evaluated and fulfilled by volume & time served
  • Volume of recurring incidents
OPERATIONAL GOALS: Report to director & technicians

What else can you do to improve service?

Review the next few pages to see if you need additional blueprints to help you:
  • Evaluate staffing and training needs to ensure the right number of resources are available and they have the skills they need for your environment.
  • Create self-service for end users to get quick answers and create tickets.
  • Create a knowledge base to ensure backup for technical expertise.
  • Develop customer service skills through training.
  • Perform ticket analysis to better understand your technical environment.

Be agile in your approach to service

It’s easy for small teams to get overwhelmed when covering for vacations, illness, or leave. Determine where priorities may be adjusted during busy or short-staffed times.

  • Have a plan to cross-train technicians and create comprehensive knowledge articles for coverage during vacations and unexpected absences.
  • Know where it makes sense to bring in vendors, such as for managed print services, or to cover for extended absences.
  • Look for opportunities to automate functions or reduce administrative overhead through workflows.
  • Identify any risks and determine how to mitigate, such as managing or changing administrative passwords.
  • Create self-serve to enable ticket creation and self-solve for those users who wish to use it.

Staff the service desk to meet demand

  • With increasing complexity of support and demand on service desks, staff are often left feeling overwhelmed and struggling to keep up with ticket volume, resulting in long resolution times and frustrated end users.
  • However, it’s not as simple as hiring more staff to keep up with ticket volume. IT managers must have the data to support their case for increasing resources or even maintaining their current resources in an environment where many executives are looking to reduce headcount.
  • Without changing resources to match demand, IT managers will need to determine how to maximize the use of their resources to deliver better service.

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Create and manage a knowledge base

With a small team, it may seem redundant to create a knowledge base, but without key system and process workflows and runbooks, an organization is still at risk of bottlenecks and knowledge failure.

  • Use a knowledge base to document pre-escalation troubleshooting steps, known errors and workarounds, and runbook solutions.
  • Where incidents may have many root causes, document which are the most frequent solutions and where variations are typically used.
  • Start with an inventory of personal documents, compare and consolidate into the knowledge base, and ensure they are accurate and up to date.
  • Assign someone to review articles on a regular basis and flag for editing and archiving as the technical environment changes.
  • Supplement with vendor-provided or purchased content. Two options for purchased content include RightAnswers or Netformx.

Info-Tech Insight

Appeal to a broad audience. Use non-technical language whenever possible to help less technical readers. Identify error messages and use screenshots where it makes sense. Take advantage of social features like voting buttons to increase use.

Optimize the service desk with a shift-left strategy

  • “Shift left” is a strategy which moves appropriate technical work to users through knowledge articles, automation and service catalogs, freeing up time for technicians to work on more complex issues.
  • Many organizations have built a great knowledge base 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 knowledge base 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.

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Customer service isn’t just about friendliness

Your team will all need to deal with end users at some point, and that may occur in times of high stress. Ensure the team has the skills they need to actively listen, stay positive, and de-escalate.

Info-Tech’s customer service program is a modular approach to improve skills one area at a time. Delivering good customer service means being effective in these areas:
  • Customer focus – Focus on the customer and use a positive, caring, and helpful attitude.
  • Listening and verbal communication skills – Demonstrate empathy and patience, actively listen, and speak in user-friendly ways to help get your point across.
  • Written communication skills – Use appropriate tone, language, and terms in writing (whether via chat, email, or other).
  • Manage difficult situations – Remain calm and in control when dealing with difficult customers and situations.
  • Go the extra mile – Go beyond simply resolving the request to make each interaction positive and memorable.

Deliver a customer service training program to your IT department

  • There’s a common misconception that customer service skills can’t be taught, so no effort is made to improve those skills.
  • Even when there is a desire to improve customer service, it’s hard for IT teams to make time for training and improvement when they’re too busy trying to keep up with tickets.
  • A talented service desk agent with both great technical and customer service skills doesn’t have to be a rare unicorn, and an agent without innate customer service skills isn’t a lost cause. Relevant and impactful customer service habits, techniques, and skills can be taught through practical, role-based training.
  • IT leaders can make time for this training through targeted, short modules along with continual on-the-job coaching and development.

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Improve your ticket analysis

Once you’ve got great data coming into the ticketing system, it’s important to rethink your metrics and determine if there are more insights to be found.

Analyzing ticket data involves:
  • Collecting ticket data and keeping it clean. Based on the metrics you’re analyzing, define ticket expectations and keep the data up to date.
  • Showing the value of the service desk. SLAs are meaningless if they are not met consistently. The prerequisite to implementing proper SLAs is fully understanding the proper workload of the service desk.
  • Understanding – and improving – the user experience. You cannot improve the user experience without meaningful metrics that allow you to understand the user experience. Different user groups will have different needs and different expectations of the level of service. Your metrics should reflect those needs and expectations.

Analyze your service desk ticket data

Properly analyzing ticket data is challenging for the following reasons:
  • Poor ticket hygiene and unclear ticket handling
  • Service desk personnel are not sure where to start with analysis
  • Too many metrics are tracked to parse actionable data from the noise
Ticket data won’t give you a silver bullet, but it can help point you in the right direction.

Cover image for 'Analyze Your Service Desk Ticket Data'.
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Start doing problem management

Proactively focusing on root cause analysis will reduce the most disruptive incidents to the organization.

  • A focus on elimination of critical incidents and the more disruptive recurring incidents will reduce future workloads for the team and improve customer satisfaction.
  • This can be challenging when the team is already struggling with workload; however, setting a regular cadence to review tickets, looking for trends, and identifying at least one focus area a month can be a positive outcome for everyone.
  • Focus on the most impactful ticket or service first. The initial goal should be to reduce or eliminate critical and high-impact incidents. Once the high-stress situations are reduced, proactively scheduling the smaller but still time-consuming repeatable incidents can be done.
  • Where you have vendors involved, work with them to determine when root cause analysis must happen and where they’ll need to coordinate with your team or other supporting vendors.

Problem management

Problem management can be challenging because it requires skills and knowledge to go deep into a problem and troubleshoot the root cause of an issue, but it also requires uninterrupted time.
  • Problem management, however, can be taught, and the issue isn’t always hard to spot if you have time to look.
  • Using tried and true methods for walking through an issue step by step will enable the team to improve their investigative and troubleshooting skills.
  • Reduction of one or two major incidents and recurring incidents per month will pay off quickly in reducing reactive ticket volume and improve customer satisfaction.

Cover image for 'Problem Management'.
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Create your roadmap with high-level requirements

Determine what tasks and projects need to be completed to meet your improvement goals. Create a high-level project plan and balance with existing resources.

Roadmap of high-level requirements with 'Goals' as row headers and their timelines mapped out across fiscal quarters.

Bibliography

Taylor, Sharon and Ivor Macfarlane. ITIL Small Scale Implementation. Office of Government Commerce, 2005.

“Share, Collaborate, and Communicate on One Consistent Platform.” Liferay, n.d. Accessed 19 July 2022.

Rodela, Jimmy. “A Beginner’s Guide to Customer Self-Service.” The Ascent, 18 May 2022. Web.

Choose a Right-Sized Contact Center Solution

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  • Parent Category Name: Strategy and Organizational Design
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  • IT needs a method to pinpoint which contact center solution best aligns with business objectives, adapting to a post-COVID world of remote work, flexibility, and scalability.
  • Scoring RFP and RFQ proposals is a complex process, and it is difficult to map and gap without a clear view of the organization’s needs. SOWs can contain pitfalls that cause expensive headaches for the organization in the long run. Guidance through a SOW is required to best represent the organization’s interests.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • “On-premises versus cloud” is a false dichotomy. Contact center architectures come in all shapes and sizes, and organizations should discern whether a hybrid option best meets their needs.
  • Contact centers should service customers – not capabilities. Capabilities must work for you, your agents, and your customers – not the other way around.
  • Deliverables and responsibilities should be a contract’s focal point. While organizations are right to focus on avoiding unanticipated license charges, it is more important to clearly define how deliverables and responsibilities will be divided among the organization, the vendor, and potential third parties.

Impact and Result

  • Assess the array of contact center architectures with Info-Tech’s Contact Center Decision Points Tool to select a right-sized solution.
  • Build business requirements in a formalized process to achieve stakeholder buy-in.
  • Use Info-Tech’s Contact Center RFP Scoring Tool to evaluate and choose from a range of vendors.
  • Successfully navigate and avoid major pitfalls in a SOW construction.
  • Justify each stage of the process with this blueprint’s key deliverable: the Contact Center Playbook.

Choose a Right-Sized Contact Center Solution Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to examine the current contact center marketspace, review Info-Tech’s methodology for choosing a right-sized contact center solution, 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 Contact Center Architectures

Establish your project vision and metrics of success before shortlisting potential contact center architectures and deciding which is right-sized for the organization.

  • Choose a Right-Sized Contact Center Solution – Phase 1: Assess Contact Center Architectures
  • Contact Center Playbook
  • Contact Center Decision Points Tool

2. Gather Requirements and Shortlist Vendors

Build business requirements to achieve stakeholder buy-in, define key deliverables, and issue an RFP/RFQ to shortlisted vendors.

  • Choose a Right-Sized Contact Center Solution – Phase 2: Gather Requirements and Shortlist Vendors
  • Requirements Gathering Documentation Tool
  • Lean RFP Template
  • Contact Center Business Requirements Document
  • Request for Quotation Template
  • Long-Form RFP Template

3. Score Vendors and Construct SOW

Score RFP/RFQ responses and decide upon a vendor before constructing a SOW.

  • Choose a Right-Sized Contact Center Solution – Phase 3: Score Vendors and Construct SOW
  • Contact Center RFP Scoring Tool
  • Contact Center SOW Template and Guide
[infographic]

Workshop: Choose a Right-Sized Contact Center 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 Assess Architecture

The Purpose

Shortlist and decide upon a right-sized contact center architecture.

Key Benefits Achieved

A high-level decision for a right-sized architecture

Activities

1.1 Define vision and mission statements.

1.2 Identify infrastructure metrics of success.

1.3 Confirm key performance indicators for contact center operations.

1.4 Complete architecture assessment.

1.5 Confirm right-sized architecture.

Outputs

Project outline

Metrics of success

KPIs confirmed

Quickly narrow down right-sized architecture

Decision on right-sized contact center architecture

2 Gather Requirements

The Purpose

Build business requirements and define key deliverables to achieve stakeholder buy-in and shortlist potential vendors.

Key Benefits Achieved

Key deliverables defined and a shortlist of no more than five vendors

Sections 7-8 of the Contact Center Playbook completed

Activities

2.1 Hold focus groups with key stakeholders.

2.2 Gather business, nonfunctional, and functional requirements.

2.3 Define key deliverables.

2.4 Shortlist five vendors that appear meet those requirements.

Outputs

User requirements identified

Business Requirements Document completed

Key deliverables defined

Shortlist of five vendors

3 Initial Vendor Scoring

The Purpose

Compare and evaluate shortlisted vendors against gathered requirements.

Key Benefits Achieved

Have a strong overview of which vendors are preferred for issuing RFP/RFQ

Section 9 of the Contact Center Playbook

Activities

3.1 Input requirements to the Contact Center RFP Scoring Tool. Define which are mandatory and which are desirable.

3.2 Determine which vendors best meet requirements.

3.3 Compare requirements met with anticipated TCO.

3.4 Compare and rank vendors.

Outputs

An assessment of requirements

Vendor scoring

A holistic overview of requirements scoring and vendor TCO

An initial ranking of vendors to shape RFP process after workshop end

4 SOW Walkthrough

The Purpose

Walk through the Contact Center SOW Template and Guide to identify how much time to allocate per section and who will be responsible for completing it.

Key Benefits Achieved

An understanding of a SOW that is designed to avoid major pitfalls with vendor management

Section 10 of the Contact Center Playbook

Activities

4.1 Get familiar with the SOW structure.

4.2 Identify which sections will demand greater time allocation.

4.3 Strategize how to avoid potential pitfalls.

4.4 Confirm reviewer responsibilities.

Outputs

A broad understanding of a SOW’s key sections

A determination of how much time should be allocated for reviewing major sections

A list of ways to avoid major pitfalls with vendor management

A list of reviewers, the sections they are responsible for reviewing, and their time allocation for their review

5 Communicate and Implement

The Purpose

Finalize deliverables and plan post-workshop communications.

Key Benefits Achieved

A completed Contact Center Playbook that justifies each decision of this workshop

Activities

5.1 Finalize deliverables.

5.2 Support communication efforts.

5.3 Identify resources in support of priority initiatives.

Outputs

Contact Center Playbook delivered

Post-workshop engagement to confirm satisfaction

Follow-up research that complements the workshop or leads workshop group in relevant new directions

Innovation

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  • Teaser Video: Visit Website
  • Teaser Video Title: Digital Ethics = Data Equity
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  • Parent Category Name: Strategy and Governance
  • Parent Category Link: /strategy-and-governance
Innovation is the at heart of every organization, especially in these fast moving times. It does not matter if you are in a supporting or "traditional" sector.  The company performing the service in a faster, better and more efficient way, wins.

innovation

Mandate Data Valuation Before It’s Mandated

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  • Parent Category Name: Data Management
  • Parent Category Link: /data-management
  • Data can be valuable if used properly or dangerous when mishandled.
  • The organization needs to understand the value of their data before they can establish proper data management practice.
  • Data is not considered a capital asset unless there is a financial transaction (e.g. buying or selling data assets).
  • Data valuation is not easy, and it costs money to collect, store, and maintain data.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • Data always outlives people, processes, and technology. They all come and go, while data remains.
  • Oil is a limited resource, data is not. Contrary to oil, data is likely to grow over time.
  • Data is likely to outlast all other current popular financial instruments including currency, assets, or commodities.
  • Data is used internally and externally and can easily be replicated or combined.
  • Data is beyond currency, assets, or commodities and needs to be a category of its own.

Impact and Result

  • Every organization must calculate the value of their data. This will enable organizations to become truly data-driven.
  • Too much time has been spent arguing different methods of valuation. An organization must settle on valuation that is acceptable to all its stakeholders.
  • Align data governance and data management to data valuation. Often organizations struggle to justify data initiatives due to lack of visibility in data valuation.
  • Establish appropriate roles and responsibilities and ensure alignment to a common set of goals as a foundation to get the most accurate future data valuation for your organization.
  • Assess organization data assets and implementation roadmap that considers the necessary competencies and capabilities and their dependencies in moving towards the higher maturity of data assets.

Mandate Data Valuation Before It’s Mandated Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to understand the value associated with the organization's data. Review Info-Tech’s methodology for assessing data value and justifying your data initiatives with a value proposition.

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

1. Demystify data valuation

Understand the benefits of data valuation.

  • Mandate Data Valuation Before It’s Mandated – Phase 1: Demystify Data Valuation

2. Data value chain

Learn about the data value chain framework and preview the step-by-step guide to start collecting data sources.

  • Mandate Data Valuation Before It’s Mandated – Phase 2: Data Value Chain

3. Data value assessment

Mature your data valuation by putting in the valuation dimensions and metrics. Establish documented results that can be leveraged to demonstrate value in your data assets.

  • Mandate Data Valuation Before It’s Mandated – Phase 3: Data Value Assessment
[infographic]

Workshop: Mandate Data Valuation Before It’s Mandated

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 the Value of Data Valuation

The Purpose

Explain data valuation approach and value proposition.

Key Benefits Achieved

A clear understanding and case for data valuation.

Activities

1.1 Review common business data sources and how the organization will benefit from data valuation assessment.

1.2 Understand Info-Tech’s data valuation framework.

Outputs

Organization data valuation priorities

2 Capture Organization Data Value Chain

The Purpose

Capture data sources and data collection methods.

Key Benefits Achieved

A clear understanding of the data value chain.

Activities

2.1 Assess data sources and data collection methods.

2.2 Understand key insights and value proposition.

2.3 Capture data value chain.

Outputs

Data Valuation Tool

3 Data Valuation Framework

The Purpose

Leverage the data valuation framework.

Key Benefits Achieved

Capture key data valuation dimensions and align with data value chain.

Activities

3.1 Introduce data valuation framework.

3.2 Discuss key data valuation dimensions.

3.3 Align data value dimension to data value chain.

Outputs

Data Valuation Tool

4 Plan for Continuous Improvement

The Purpose

Improve organization’s data value.

Key Benefits Achieved

Continue to improve data value.

Activities

4.1 Capture data valuation metrics.

4.2 Define data valuation for continuous monitoring.

4.3 Create a communication plan.

4.4 Define a plan for continuous improvements.

Outputs

Data valuation metrics

Data Valuation Communication Plan

Get the Most Out of Workday

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  • member rating average days 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.
  • Parent Category Name: Optimization
  • Parent Category Link: /optimization
  • Your Workday systems are critical to supporting the organization’s business processes.They are expensive. Direct benefits and ROI can be hard to measure.
  • Workday application portfolios are often behemoths to support. With complex integration points and unique business processes, stabilization is the norm.
  • Application optimization is essential to staying competitive and productive in today’s digital environment.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

Continuous assessment and optimization of your Workday enterprise resource planning (ERP) is critical to the success of your organization.

Impact and Result

  • Build an ongoing optimization team to conduct application improvements.
  • Assess your Workday application(s) and the environment in which they exist. Take a business first strategy to prioritize optimization efforts.
  • Validate Workday capabilities, user satisfaction, processes, issues around data, integrations, and vendor management to build out an optimization strategy
  • Pull this all together to develop a prioritized optimization roadmap.

Get the Most Out of Workday Research & Tools

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

1. Get the Most Out of Workday – A guide to help the business leverages to accomplish its goals.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a core tool that the business leverages to accomplish its goals. Take a proactive approach to optimize your enterprise applications. Strategically re-align business goals, identify business application capabilities, complete a process assessment, evaluate user satisfaction, measure module satisfaction, and vendor relations to create an optimization plan that will drive a cohesive technology strategy that delivers results.

  • Get the Most Out of Workday – Phases 1-4

2. Get the Most Out of Workday Workbook – A tool to document and assist with this project.

The Get the Most out of Workday Workbook serves as the holding document for the different elements of the Get the Most out Workday blueprint. Use each assigned tab to input the relevant information for the process of optimizing Workday.

  • Get the Most Out of Workday Workbook

3. Workday Application Inventory Tool – A tool to define applications and capabilities around ERP.

Use this tool provide Info-Tech with information surrounding your ERP application(s). This inventory will be used to create a custom Application Portfolio Assessment (APA) for your ERP. The template includes demographics, application inventory, departments to be surveyed and data quality inclusion.

  • Workday Application Inventory Tool

Infographic

Workshop: Get the Most Out of Workday

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 Workday Application Vision

The Purpose

Define your workday application vision.

Key Benefits Achieved

Set the foundation for optimizing Workday by building a cross-functional team, aligning with organizational strategy, inventorying current system state, defining your timeframe, and exploring current costs.

Activities

1.1 Identify stakeholders and build your optimization team.

1.2 Build an ERP strategy model.

1.3 Inventory current system state.

1.4 Define optimization timeframe.

1.5 Understand Workday costs.

Outputs

Workday optimization team

Workday business model

Workday optimization goals

System inventory and data flow

Application and business capabilities list

Workday optimization timeline

2 Map Current-State Capabilities

The Purpose

Map current-state capabilities.

Key Benefits Achieved

Measure the state of your current Workday system to understand where it is not performing well.

Activities

2.1 Assess Workday capabilities.

2.2 Review your satisfaction with the vendor/product and willingness for change.

Outputs

Workday capability gap analysis

Workday user satisfaction (application portfolio assessment)

Workday SoftwareReviews survey results

Workday current costs

3 Assess Workday

The Purpose

Assess Workday.

Key Benefits Achieved

Explore underperforming areas to:

Uncover where user satisfaction is lacking and possible root causes.

Identify process and workflows that are creating issues for end users and identify improvement options.

Understand where data issues are occurring and explore how you can improve these.

Identify integration points and explore if there are any areas of improvement.

Investigate your relationship with the vendor and product, including that relative to others.

Identify any areas for cost optimization (optional).

Activities

3.1 Prioritize optimization opportunities.

3.2 Discover optimization initiatives.

Outputs

Product and vendor satisfaction opportunities

Capability and feature optimization opportunities

Process optimization opportunities

Integration optimization opportunities

Data optimization opportunities

Workday cost-saving opportunities

4 Build the Optimization Roadmap

The Purpose

Build the optimization roadmap.

Key Benefits Achieved

Understanding where you need to improve is the first step, now understand where to focus your optimization efforts, build out next steps and put a timeframe in place.

Activities

4.1 Build your optimization roadmap.

Outputs

Workday optimization roadmap

Further reading

Get the Most Out of Workday

In today’s connected world, the continuous optimization of enterprise applications to realize your digital strategy is key.

EXECUTIVE BRIEF

Analyst Perspective

Focus optimization on organizational value delivery.

HR, finance, and planning systems are the core foundation of enterprise resource systems (ERP) systems. These are core tools that the business leverages to accomplish its goals. An ERP that is doing its job well is invisible to the business. The challenges come when the tool is no longer invisible. It has become a source of friction in the functioning of the business.

Workday is expensive, benefits can be difficult to quantify, and optimization can be difficult to navigate. Over time, technology evolves, organizational goals change, and the health of these systems is often not monitored. This is complicated in today’s digital landscape with multiple integration points, siloed data, and competing priorities.

Too often organizations jump into selecting replacement systems without understanding the health of their systems. We can do better than this.

IT leaders need to take a proactive approach to continually monitor and optimize their enterprise applications. Strategically realign business goals, identify business application capabilities, complete a process assessment, evaluate user satisfaction, measure module satisfaction, and improve vendor relations to create an optimization plan that will drive a cohesive technology strategy that delivers results.

Lisa Highfield

Research Director, Enterprise Applications

Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

Your Workday systems are critical to supporting the organization’s business processes. They are expensive. Direct benefits and ROI can be hard to measure.

Workday application portfolios are often behemoths to support. With complex integration points and unique business processes, stabilization is the norm.

Application optimization is essential to staying competitive and productive in today’s digital environment.

Common Obstacles

Balancing optimization with stabilization is one of the most difficult decisions for Workday application leaders.

Competing priorities and often unclear enterprise application strategies make it difficult to make decisions about what, how, and when to optimize.

Enterprise applications involve large numbers of processes, users, and evolving vendor roadmaps.

Teams do not have a framework to illustrate, communicate, and justify the optimization effort in the language your stakeholders understand.

Info-Tech's Approach

In today’s changing world, it is imperative to evaluate your applications for optimization and to look for opportunities to capitalize on rapidly expanding technologies, integrated data, and employee solutions that meet the needs of your organization.

Assess your Workday applications and the environment in which they exist. Take a business-first strategy to prioritize optimization efforts.

Validate capabilities, user satisfaction, and issues around data, vendor management, and costs to build out an overall roadmap and optimization strategy.

Pull this all together to prioritize optimization efforts and develop a concrete roadmap.

Info-Tech Insight

Workday is investing heavily in expanding and deepening its finance and expanded product offerings, but we cannot stand still on our optimization efforts. Understand your product(s), processes, user satisfaction, integration points, and the availability of data to business decision makers. Examine these areas to develop a personalized Workday optimization roadmap that fits the needs of your organization. Incorporate these methodologies into an ongoing optimization strategy aimed at enabling the business, increasing productivity, and reducing costs.

The image shows a graphic titled Get the Most Out of Your ERP. The centre of the graphic shows circular gears labelled with text such as Processes; User Satisfaction; Integrations; Data; and Vendor Relations. There is also text surrounding the central gears in concentric circles, and on either side, there are sets of arrows titled Service-centric capabilities and Product-centric capabilities.

Insight summary

Continuous assessment and optimization of your Workday ERP is critical to the success of your organization.

  • Applications and the environments in which they live are constantly evolving.
  • This blueprint provides business and application managers with a method to complete a health assessment of their Workday systems to identify areas for improvement and optimization.
  • Put optimization practices into effect by:
    • Aligning and prioritizing key business and technology drivers.
    • Identifying ERP process classification and performing a gap analysis.
    • Measuring user satisfaction across key departments.
    • Evaluating vendor relations.
    • Understanding how data plays into the mix.
    • Pulling it all together into an optimization roadmap.

Workday enterprise resource planning (ERP) facilitates the flow of information across business units. It allows for the seamless integration of data across financial and people systems to create a holistic view of the enterprise to support decision making.

In many organizations, Workday is considered the core people systems and is becoming more widely adopted for finance and a full ERP system.

ERP systems are considered the lifeblood of organizations. Problems with this key operational system will have a dramatic impact on the ability of the enterprise to survive and grow.

ERP implementation should not be a one-and-done exercise. There needs to be ongoing optimization to enable business processes and optimal organizational results.

Workday enterprise resource planning (ERP)

Workday

  • Finance
  • Human Resources Management
  • Talent and Performance
  • Payroll and Workforce Management
  • Employee Experience
  • Student Information Systems
  • Professional Services Automation
  • Analytics and Reporting
  • Spend Management
  • Enterprise Planning

What is Workday?

Workday has many modules that work together to facilitate the flow of information across the business. Workday’s unique data platform allows for seamless integration of systems and creates a holistic view of the enterprise to support decision making.

In many organizations, the ERP system is considered the lifeblood of the enterprise. Problems with this key operational system will have a dramatic impact on the ability of the enterprise to survive and grow.

Workday operates in many industry verticals and performs well in service organizations.

An ERP system:

  • Automates processes, reducing the amount of manual, routine work.
  • Integrates with core modules, eliminating the fragmentation of systems.
  • Centralizes information for reporting from multiple parts of the value chain to a single point.

Workday Fast Facts

Product Description

  • Workday offers HR, Finance, planning systems, and extended offerings. Workday prides itself on rapidly expanding its product portfolio to meet the needs of organizations in a changing world.
  • The integrated cloud data model Workday has been built on allows for seamless end-to-end organizational data.
  • Offerings include Financial Management, Human Capital Management, Workday Adaptive Planning, Spend Management, Talent Management, Payroll & Workforce Management, Analytics & Reporting, Student, Professional Services Automation, Platform & Product Extensions, Workday Peakon Employee Voice, and most recently VNDLY (contract and vendor management).

Evolution of Workday

Workday HCM 2006

Workday Financial Management 2007

Workday 10 (Finance & HCM) 2010

Workday Student (Higher Education) 2011

Workday Cloud (PAAS) 2017

Acquisition of Adaptive Insights 2018

Acquisition of VNDLY 2021

Vendor Description

  • Workday was founded in 2005 by Aneel Bhusri and Dave Duffield (former PeopleSoft founder.)
  • The platform-as-a-service (PaaS) bundles and modules are sold in a subscription model to customers.
  • Workday has untaken several acquisitions in recent years to grow the product and invests in early-stage companies through Workday Ventures.
  • Workday is publicly traded (2012); Nasdaq: WDAY.

Employees: 12,500

Headquarters: Pleasanton, CA

Website: workday.com

Founded: 2005

Presence: Global, Publicly Traded

Workday by the numbers

77%

77% of clients were satisfied with the product’s business value created. 78% of clients were satisfied that the cost is fair relative to value, and 95% plan to renew. (SoftwareReviews, 2022)

50% of Fortune 500

Workday has seen steady growth working with over 50% of Fortune 500 companies. 4,100 of those are HCM and finance customers. It has seen great success in service industries and has a 95% gross retention rate. (Diginomica)

40%

Workday reported a 40% year-over-year increase in Workday Financial Management deployments for both new and existing customers, as accelerated demand for Workday cloud-based continues. (Workday, June 2021)

Workday Finance

A great opportunity for Workday

Workday continues to invest in Workday Finance

  • 35% of the Fortune 500 and 50% of the Fortune 50 use Workday HCM products (Seeking Alpha, 2019).
  • The customer base for Workday Financial Management has increased from 45 in 2014 to 530 in 2019 with 9 Fortune 500 companies in the mix. This infers that Financial Management is a product that will drive future growth for Workday.

Recent Finance-Related Acquisitions

  • Zimit - Quotation Management
  • Stories.bi - Augmented Analytics
  • Adaptive Insights - Business Planning
  • SkipFlag - Machine Learning (AI)
  • Platfora - Analytics
  • VNDLY - Contractor and Vendor Management

Workday challenges and dissatisfaction

Workday challenges and dissatisfaction

Organizational

  • Competing Priorities
  • Lack of Strategy
  • Budget Challenges

People and teams

  • Knowledgeable Staff/Turnover
  • Lack of Internal Skills
  • Ability to Manage New Products
  • Lack of Training

Technology

  • Integration Issues
  • Selecting Tools & Technology
  • Keeping Pace With Technology Changes
  • Update Challenges

Data

  • Access to Data
  • Data Literacy
  • Data Hygiene
  • One View of the Customer

Finance, IT, Sales, and other users of the ERP system can only optimize ERP with the full support of each other. The cooperation of the departments is crucial when trying to improve ERP technology capabilities and customer interaction.

Info-Tech Insight

While technology is the key enabler of building strong customer experiences, there are many other drivers of dissatisfaction. IT must stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the business to develop a technology framework for ERP.

Where are applications leaders focusing?

Big growth numbers

Year-over-year call topic requests

Enterprise Application Optimization - 124%

Product - 65%

Enterprise Application Selection - 76%

Agile - 79%

(Info-Tech case data, 2022; N=3,293)

We are seeing Applications leaders’ priorities change year over year, driven by a shift in their approach to problem solving. Leaders are moving from a process-centric approach to a collaborative approach that breaks down boundaries and brings teams together.

Other changes

Year-over-year call topic requests

Application Portfolio Management - 13%

Business Process Management - 4%

Software Development Lifecycle -25%

(Info-Tech case data, 2022; N=3,293)

Software development lifecycle topics are tactical point solutions. Organizations have been “shifting left” to tackle the strategic issues such as product vision and Agile mindset to optimize the whole organization.

Application optimization is risky without a plan

Avoid these common pitfalls:

  • Not considering how this pays into the short-, medium-, and long-term ERP strategy.
  • Not considering application optimization as a business and IT partnership, which requires the continuous formal engagement of all participants.
  • Not having a good understanding of your current state, including integration points and data.
  • Not adequately accommodating feedback and changes after digital applications are deployed and employed.
  • Not treating digital applications as a motivator for potential future IT optimization efforts and incorporating digital assets in strategic business planning.
  • Not involving department leads, management, and other subject-matter experts to facilitate the organizational change digital applications bring.

“A successful application optimization strategy starts with the business need in mind and not from a technological point of view. No matter from which angle you look at it, modernizing a legacy application is a considerable undertaking that can’t be taken lightly. Your best approach is to begin the journey with baby steps.” – Norelus, Pamidala, and Senti, 2020

Info-Tech’s methodology for getting the most out of your ERP

1. Map Current-State Capabilities 2. Assess Your Current State 3. Identify Key Optimization Areas 4. Build Your Optimization Roadmap
Phase Steps
  1. Identify Stakeholders and Build Your Workday Optimization Team
  2. Build an ERP Strategy Model
  3. Inventory Current System State
  4. Define Business Capabilities
  • Conduct a Gap Analysis for ERP Processes
  • Assess User Satisfaction
  • Review Your Satisfaction With the Vendor and Product
  1. Identify Key Optimization Areas
  2. Evaluate Product Sustainability Over the Short, Medium, and Long Term
  3. Identify Any Product Changes Anticipated Over Short, Medium, and Long Term
  1. Prioritize Optimization Opportunities
  2. Identify Key Optimization Areas
  3. Compile Optimization Assessment Results
Phase Outcomes
  1. Stakeholder map
  2. Workday optimization team
  3. Workday business model
  4. Strategy alignment
  5. Systems inventory and diagram
  6. Business capabilities map
  7. Key Workday processes list
  1. Gap analysis for Workday-related processes
  2. Understanding of user satisfaction across applications and processes
  3. Insight into Workday data quality
  4. Quantified satisfaction with the vendor and product
  5. Understanding Workday costs
  1. List of Workday optimization opportunities
  1. Workday optimization roadmap

Blueprint deliverables

Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals:

Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Identify and prioritize your Workday optimization goals.

Application Portfolio Assessment

Assess IT-enabled user satisfaction across your Workday portfolio.

Key deliverable:

Workday Optimization Roadmap

Complete an assessment of processes, user satisfaction, data quality, and vendor management.

Case Study

MANAGED AP AUTOMATION with OneSource Virtual

TripAdvisor + OneSource

INDUSTRY: Travel

SOURCE: OneSource Virtual, 2017

Challenge

TripAdvisor needed a solution that would decrease administrative labor from its accounting department.

“We needed something that was already compatible with our Workday tenant, that didn’t require a lot of customizations and would be an enhancement to our processes.” – Director of Accounting Operations, Scott Garner

Requirements included:

  • Easy implementation
  • Existing system compatibility
  • Enhancement to the company’s process
  • Competitive pricing
  • Secure

Solution

TripAdvisor chose to outsource its accounts payable services to OneSource Virtual (OSV).

OneSource Virtual offers the comprehensive finance and accounting outsourcing solutions needed to improve efficiency, eliminate paper processes, reduce errors, and improve cash flow.

Managed AP services include scanning and auditing all extracted invoice data for accuracy, transmitting AP files with line-item details from invoices, and creating full invoice images in Workday.

Results

  • Accurate and timely invoice processing for over 3,000 invoices per month.
  • Empowered employees to focus on higher-level tasks rather than day-to-day data entry.
  • 50+ hours saved per week on routine data entry.
  • Employees had 30% of their time freed up to focus on high-value tasks.
  • Allowed TripAdvisor to become more scalable across departments and as an organization.

Info-Tech offers various levels of support to 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?

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.

Phase 1

Call #1: Scope requirements, objectives, and your specific challenge.

Phase 2

Call #2:

  • Build the Workday team.
  • Align organizational goals.

Call #3:

  • Map current state.
  • Inventory Workday capabilities and processes.
  • Explore Workday-related costs.

Phase 3

Call #4: Understand product satisfaction and vendor management.

Call #5: Review APA results.

Call #6: Understand Workday optimization opportunities.

Call #7: Determine the right Workday path for your organization.

Phase 4

Call #8: Build out optimization roadmap and next steps.

Workshop Overview

Contact your account representative for more information.

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

Day 1Day 2Day 3Day 4Day 5
Define Your Workday Application VisionMap Current StateAssess WorkdayBuild Your Optimization RoadmapNext Steps and

Wrap-Up (offsite)

Activities

1.1 Identify Stakeholders and Build Your Optimization Team

1.2 Build an ERP Strategy Model

1.3 Inventory Current System State

1.4 Define Optimization Timeframe

1.5 Understand Workday Costs

2.1 Assess Workday Capabilities

2.2 Review Your Satisfaction With the Vendor/Product and Willingness for Change

3.1 Prioritize Optimization Opportunities

3.2 Discover Optimization Initiatives

4.1 Build Your Optimization 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
  1. Workday optimization team
  2. Workday business model
  3. Workday optimization goals
  4. System inventory and data flow
  5. Application and business capabilities list
  6. Workday optimization timeline
  1. Workday capability gap analysis
  2. Workday user satisfaction (application portfolio assessment)
  3. Workday SoftwareReviews survey results
  4. Workday current costs
  1. Product and vendor satisfaction opportunities
  2. Capability and feature optimization opportunities
  3. Process optimization opportunities
  4. Integration optimization opportunities
  5. Data optimization opportunities
  6. Workday cost-saving opportunities
  1. Workday optimization roadmap

Phase 1

Map Current-State Capabilities

Phase 1

1.1 Identify Stakeholders and Build Your Optimization Team

1.2 Build an ERP Strategy Model

1.3 Inventory Current System State

1.4 Define Optimization Timeframe

1.5 Understand Workday Costs

Phase 2

2.1 Assess Workday Capabilities

2.2 Review Your Satisfaction With the Vendor/Product and Willingness for Change

Phase 3

3.1 Prioritize Optimization Opportunities

3.2 Discover Optimization Initiatives

Phase 4

4.1 Build Your Optimization Roadmap

This phase will guide you through the following activities:

  • Align your organizational goals
  • Gain a firm understanding of your current state
  • Inventory Workday and related applications
  • Confirm the organization’s capabilities

This phase involves the following participants:

  • CFO
  • Department Leads – Finance, Procurement, Asset Management
  • Applications Director
  • Senior Business Analyst
  • Senior Developer
  • Procurement Analysts

Step 1.1

Identify Stakeholders and Build Your Optimization Team

Activities

1.1.1 Identify Stakeholders Critical to Success

1.1.2 Map Your Workday Optimization Stakeholders

1.1.3 Determine Your Workday Optimization Team

Map Current State Capabilities

Step 1.1

Step 1.2

Step 1.3

Step 1.4

Step 1.5

This step will guide you through the following activities:

  • Identify ERP drivers and objectives
  • Explore ERP challenges and pain points
  • Discover ERP benefits and opportunities
  • Align the ERP foundation with your corporate strategy

This step involves the following participants:

  • Stakeholders
  • Project sponsors and leaders

Outcomes of this step

  • Stakeholder map
  • Workday optimization team

ERP optimization stakeholders

  • Understand the roles necessary to Get the Most Out of Your Workday.
  • Understand the role of each player within your project structure. Look for listed participants on the activities slides to determine when each player should be involved.
Title Role Within the Project Structure
Organizational Sponsor
  • Owns the project at the management/C-suite level
  • Responsible for breaking down barriers and ensuring alignment with your organizational strategy
  • CIO, CFO, COO, or similar
Project Manager
  • The IT individual(s) that oversee day-to-day project operations
  • Responsible for preparing and managing the project plan and monitoring the project team’s progress
  • Applications Manager or other IT Manager, Business Analyst, Business Process Owner, or similar
Business Unit Leaders
  • Works alongside the IT Project Manager to ensure the strategy is aligned with business needs
  • In this case, likely to be a marketing, sales, or customer service lead
  • Sales Director, Marketing Director, Customer Care Director, or similar
Optimization Team
  • Comprised of individuals whose knowledge and skills are crucial to project success
  • Responsible for driving day-to-day activities, coordinating communication, and making process and design decisions; can assist with persona and scenario development for ERP
  • Project Manager, Business Lead, ERP Manager, Integration Manager, Application SMEs, Developers, Business Process Architects, and/or similar SMEs
Steering Committee
  • Comprised of the C-suite/management-level individuals that act as the project’s decision makers
  • Responsible for validating goals and priorities, defining the project scope, enabling adequate resourcing, and managing change
  • Project Sponsor, Project Manager, Business Lead, CFO, Business Unit SMEs, or similar

Info-Tech Insight

Do not limit project input or participation. Include subject-matter experts and internal stakeholders at stages within the project. Such inputs can be solicited on a one-off basis as needed. This ensures you take a holistic approach to create your ERP optimization strategy.

1.1.1 Identify Workday optimization stakeholders

1 hour

  1. Hold a meeting to identify the Workday optimization stakeholders.
  2. Use the next slide as a guide.

Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Understand how to navigate the complex web of stakeholders in ERP

Identify which stakeholders to include and what their level of involvement should be during requirements elicitation based on relevant topic expertise.

Sponsor End User IT Business
Description An internal stakeholder who has final sign-off on the ERP project. Front-line users of the ERP technology. Back-end support staff who are tasked with project planning, execution, and eventual system maintenance. Additional stakeholders that will be impacted by any ERP technology changes.
Examples
  • CEO
  • CIO/CTO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • Warehouse personnel
  • Sales teams
  • HR admins
  • Applications manager
  • Vendor relationship manager(s)
  • Director, Procurement
  • VP, Marketing
  • Manager, HR
Values Executive buy-in and support is essential to the success of the project. Often, the sponsor controls funding and resource allocation. End users determine the success of the system through user adoption. If the end user does not adopt the system, the system is deemed useless and benefits realization is poor. IT is likely to be responsible for more in-depth requirements gathering. IT possesses critical knowledge around system compatibility, integration, and data. Involving business stakeholders in the requirements gathering will ensure alignment between HR and organizational objectives.

Large-scale ERP projects require the involvement of many stakeholders from all corners and levels of the organization, including project sponsors, IT, end users, and business stakeholders. Consider the influence and interest of stakeholders in contributing to the requirements elicitation process and involve them accordingly.

The image shows a graph with dots on it, titled Example: Stakeholder Involvement during Selection.

Activity 1.1.2 Map your Workday optimization stakeholders

1 hour

  1. Use the list of Workday optimization stakeholders.
  2. Map each stakeholder on the quadrant based on their expected Influence and involvement in the project.

Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

The image shows a graph titled Map the Organization's Stakeholders, with stakeholders listed on the left, and arranged in quadrants. Along the bottom of the graph is the text: Involvement, with an arrow pointing to the right. Along the left side of the graph is the text: Influence, with an arrow pointing upwards.

Map the organization’s stakeholders

The image shows the same organization stakeholder map shown in the previous section.

The Workday optimization team

Consider the core team functions when putting together the project team. Form a cross-functional team (i.e. across IT, Marketing, Sales, Service, and Operations) to create a well-aligned ERP optimization strategy.

Don’t let your project team become too large when trying to include all relevant stakeholders. Carefully limiting the size of the project team will enable effective decision making while still including functional business units such as Human Resources, Operations, Manufacturing, Marketing, Sales, Service, and Finance as well as IT.

Required Skills/Knowledge Suggested Project Team Members
Business
  • Department leads
  • Business process leads
  • Business analysts
  • Subject matter experts
  • SMEs/Business process leads across all functional areas, for example, Strategy, Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, Finance, HR
IT
  • Application development
  • Enterprise integration
  • Business processes
  • Data management
  • Product owner
  • ERP application manager
  • Business process manager
  • Integration manager
  • Application developer
  • Data stewards
Other
  • Operations
  • Administrative
  • Change management
  • COO
  • CFO
  • Change management officer

1.1.3 Determine your Workday optimization team

1 hour

  1. Have the project manager and other key stakeholders discuss and determine who will be involved in the Workday optimization project.
    • The size of the team will depend on the initiative and size of your organization.
    • Key business leaders in key areas and IT representatives should be involved.

Note: Depending on your initiative and size of your organization, the size of this team will vary.

Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Step 1.2

Build an ERP Strategy Model

Activities

1.2.1 Explore Organizational Goals and Business Needs

1.2.2 Discover Environmental Factors and Technology Drivers

1.2.3 Consider Potential Barriers to Achieving Workday Optimization

1.2.4 Set the Foundation for Success

1.2.5 Discuss Workday Strategy and Develop Your ERP Optimization Goals

Map Current State Capabilities

Step 1.1

Step 1.2

Step 1.3

Step 1.4

Step 1.5

This step will guide you through the following activities:

  • Identify ERP drivers and objectives
  • Explore ERP challenges and pain points
  • Discover ERP benefits and opportunities
  • Align the ERP foundation with the corporate strategy

This step involves the following participants:

  • Workday Optimization Team

Outcomes of this step

  • ERP business model
  • Strategy alignment

Align your Workday strategy with the corporate strategy

Corporate Strategy

Your corporate strategy:

  • Conveys the current state of the organization and the path it wants to take.
  • Identifies future goals and business aspirations.
  • Communicates the initiatives that are critical for getting the organization from its current state to the desired future state.

Unified ERP Strategy

  • The ideal ERP strategy is aligned with overarching organizational business goals and broader IT initiatives.
  • Include all affected business units and departments in these conversations.
  • The ERP optimization can be and should be linked, with metrics, to the corporate strategy and ultimate business objectives.

IT Strategy

Your IT strategy:

  • Communicates the organization’s budget and spending on ERP.
  • Identifies IT initiatives that will support the business and key ERP objectives.
  • Outlines staffing and resourcing for ERP initiatives.

ERP projects are more successful when the management team understands the strategic importance and the criticality of alignment. Time needs to be spent upfront aligning business strategies with ERP capabilities. Effective alignment between IT and the business should happen daily. Alignment doesn’t just need to occur at the executive level but at each level of the organization.

ERP Business Model Template

The image shows a template of the ERP Business Model. At the top, there is a section for ERP Needs, then on the left and right, Environmental Factors and Organizational Goals. At the center, there is a box with text that reads Barriers, with empty space underneath it, then the text: ERP Strategy, and then the heading Enables with empty space beneath it. At the bottom are Technology Drivers. There are notes attached to sections. For ERP Needs, the note reads: What are your business drivers? What are your current ERP pains?. For the Environmental Factors section, the note reads: What factors impacting your strategy are out of your control?. For the Technology Drivers section, the note reads: Why do you need a new system? What is the purpose for becoming an integrated organization?.

Conduct interviews to elicit the business context

Stakeholder Interviews

Begin by conducting interviews of your executive team. Interview the following leaders:

  1. Chief Information Officer
  2. Chief Executive Officer
  3. Chief Financial Officer
  4. Chief Revenue Officer/Sales Leader
  5. Chief Operating Officer/Supply Chain & Logistics Leader
  6. Chief Technology Officer/Chief Product Officer

INTERVIEWS MUST UNCOVER:

  1. Your organization’s mission & vision
  2. Your organization’s top business goals
  3. Your organization’s top business initiatives
  4. The stakeholder’s top goals and initiatives
  5. Tools and systems needed to facilitate organizational and departmental goals

Understand the mission, vision, and goals of the organization and supporting departments

Business Needs Business Drivers
Definition A business need is a requirement associated with a particular business process. A business need is a requirement associated with a particular business process.
Examples
  • Audit tracking
  • Authorization levels
  • Business rules
  • Data quality
  • Customer satisfaction
  • Branding
  • Time-to-resolution

Info-Tech Insight

One of the biggest drivers for ERP adoption is the ability to make quicker decisions from timely information. This driver is a result of external considerations. Many industries today are highly competitive, uncertain, and rapidly changing. To succeed under these pressures, there needs to be timely information and visibility into all components of the organization.

1.2.1 Explore organizational goals and business needs

60 minutes

  1. Discuss organizational mission, vision, and goals. What are the top initiatives underway? Are you contracting, expanding, or innovating?
  2. Discuss business needs to support organizational goals. What are identified goals and initiatives at the departmental level? What tools and resources within the Workday system will help make this successful?
  3. Understand how the company is running today and what the organization’s future will look like. Envision the future system state.

Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

The image shows the same ERP Business Model Template from the previous section, zoomed in on the centre of the graphic.

Organizational Goals

  • Organization’s mission and vision
  • Top business goals
  • Initiatives underway

Business Needs

  • Departmental goals
  • Business drivers
  • Key initiatives
  • Key capabilities to support the organization
  • Requirements to support the business capability and process

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

ERP Business Model

Organizational Goals

  • Organization’s mission and vision
  • Top business goals (~3)
  • Initiatives underway
  • KPIs and metrics that are important to the organization in achieving its goals and objectives

Business Needs

  • Departmental goals
  • Key initiatives
  • Key capabilities to support the organization
  • Tools and systems required to support business capability or process
  • KPIs and metrics that are important to the department/stakeholder in achieving its goals and objectives

Understand the technology drivers and environmental factors

Technology Drivers Environmental Factors
Definition Technology drivers are technological changes that have created the need for a new ERP enablement strategy. Many organizations turn to technology systems to help them obtain a competitive edge. These external considerations are factors that take place outside of the organization and impact the way business is conducted inside the organization. These are often outside the control of the business. Look three to five years ahead, what challenges will the business face? Where will you have to adapt and pivot? How can we prepare for this?
Examples
  • Deployment model (i.e. SaaS)
  • Integration
  • Reporting capabilities
  • Fragmented technologies
  • Economic and political factors
  • Competitive influencers
  • Compliance regulations

Info-Tech Insight

A comprehensive plan that takes into consideration organizational goals, departmental needs, technology drivers, and environmental factors will allow for a collaborative approach to defining your Workday strategy.

1.2.2 Discover environmental factors and technology drivers

30 minutes

  1. Identify business drivers that are contributing to the organization’s need for ERP.
  2. Understand how the company is running today and what the organization’s future will look like. Try to identify the purpose for becoming an integrated organization. Use a whiteboard or flip charts and markers to capture key findings.
  3. Consider external considerations, organizational drivers, technology drivers, and key functional requirements.

Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

The image is the same ERP Business Model Template from previous sections. In this instance, it is zoomed into the centre of the graphic, with the environmental factors section circled.

External Considerations

  • Funding constraints
  • Regulations

Technology Considerations

  • Data accuracy
  • Data quality
  • Better reporting

Functional Requirements

  • Information availability
  • Integration between systems
  • Secure data

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Create a realistic ERP foundation by identifying the challenges and barriers the project will bestow

There are several different factors that may stifle the success of an ERP implementation. Organizations that are creating an ERP foundation must scan their current environment to identify internal barriers and challenges.

Common Internal Barriers

Management Support Organizational Culture Organizational Structure IT Readiness
Definition The degree of understanding and acceptance toward ERP systems. The collective shared values and beliefs. The functional relationships between people and departments in an organization. The degree to which the organization’s people and processes are prepared for a new ERP system.
Questions
  • Is an ERP project recognized as a top priority?
  • Will management commit time to the project?
  • Are employees resistant to change?
  • Is the organization highly individualized?
  • Is the organization centralized?
  • Is the organization highly formalized?
  • Is there strong technical expertise?
  • Is there strong infrastructure?
Impact
  • Funding
  • Resources
  • Knowledge sharing
  • User acceptance
  • Flow of knowledge
  • Quality of implementation
  • Need for reliance on consultants

1.2.3 Consider potential barriers to achieving Workday optimization

1-3 hours

  1. Open tab 1.2, “Strategy & Goals,” in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.
  2. Identify barriers to ERP optimization success.
  3. Review the ERP critical success factors and how they relate to your optimization efforts.
  4. Discuss potential barriers to successful ERP optimization.

Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

The image is the same zoomed-in section of the ERP Strategy Business Model Template seen in previous sections. In this instance, the Barriers section is circled.

Functional Gaps

  • No online purchase order requisitions

Technical Gaps

  • Inconsistent reporting – data quality concerns

Process Gaps

  • Duplication of data
  • Lack of system integration

Barriers to Success

  • Cultural mindset
  • Resistance to change
  • Lack of training
  • Funding

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

ERP Business Model

Organizational Goals

  • Efficiency
  • Effectiveness
  • Integrity
  • One source of truth for data
  • One team
  • Customer service, external and internal

Barriers

  • Organizational silos
  • Lack of formal process documentation
  • Funding availability
  • What goes first? Organizational priorities

What does success look like?

Top 15 Critical Success Factors for ERP System Implementation

The image shows a horizontal bar graph with the text: Frequency of Citation (n=127) at the top. Different implementation strategies are listed on the left, in descending order of frequency.

(Epizitone and Olugbara, 2019; CC BY 4.0)

Info-Tech Insight

Complement your ability to deliver on your critical success factors with the capabilities of your implementation partner to drive a successful ERP implementation.

“Implementation partners can play an important role in successful ERP implementations. They can work across the organizational departments and layers creating a synergy and a communications mechanism.” – Ayogeboh Epizitone, Durban University of Technology

1.2.3 Set the foundation for success

1-3 hours

  1. Open tab 1.2, “Strategy & Goals,” in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.
  2. Identify barriers to ERP optimization success.
  3. Review the ERP critical success factors and how they relate to your optimization efforts.
  4. Discuss potential barriers to successful ERP optimization.

Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

The image is the same zoomed-in section of the ERP Strategy Business Model Template seen in previous sections. In this instance, the Enablers section is circled.

Business Benefits

  • Business-IT alignment

IT Benefits

  • Compliance
  • Scalability
  • Operational efficiency

Organizational Benefits

  • Data accuracy
  • Data quality
  • Better reporting

Enablers of Success

  • Change management
  • Training
  • Alignment with strategic objectives

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

ERP Business Model

Organizational Goals

  • Efficiency
  • Effectiveness
  • Integrity
  • One source of truth for data
  • One team
  • Customer service, external and internal

Enablers

  • Cross-trained employees
  • Desire to focus on value-add activities
  • Collaborative
  • Top-level executive support
  • Effective change management process

The Business Value Matrix

Rationalizing and quantifying the value of Workday

Benefits can be realized internally and externally to the organization or department and have different drivers of value.

  • Financial benefits refer to the degree to which the value source can be measured through monetary metrics and are often quite tangible.
  • Human benefits refer to how an application can deliver value through a user’s experience.
  • Inward refers to value sources that have an internal impact and improve your organization’s effectiveness and efficiency in performing its operations.
  • Outward refers to value sources that come from your interaction with external factors, such as the market or your customers.

Organizational Goals

Increased Revenue

Application functions that are specifically related to the impact on your organization’s ability to generate revenue and deliver value to your customers.

Reduced Costs

Reduction of overhead. The ways in which an application limits the operational costs of business functions.

Enhanced Services

Functions that enable business capabilities that improve the organization’s ability to perform its internal operations.

Reach Customers

Application functions that enable and improve the interaction with customers or produce market information and insights.

Business Value Matrix

The image shows a matrix, with Human benefits and Financial Benefits on the horizontal axis, and Outward and Inward on the Vertical axis.

1.2.4 Define your Workday strategy and optimization goals

30 minutes

  1. Discuss the Workday business model exercises and ERP critical success factors.
  2. Through the lens of corporate goals and objectives think about the supporting ERP technology. How can the ERP system bring value to the organization? What are the top things that will make this initiative a success? What major themes are emerging?
  3. Develop five to ten optimization goals that will form the basis for the success of this initiative.
    • What is a strong statement that will help guide decision making throughout the life of the ERP project?
    • What are your overarching requirements for business processes?
    • What do you ultimately want to achieve?
    • What is a statement that will ensure all stakeholders are on the same page for the project?

Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Workday strategy and optimization goals

Key Themes Emerging / Workday Strategy

  • Efficiency
  • Effectiveness
  • Integrity
  • One source of truth for data
  • One team
  • Customer service, external and internal

Optimization Goals

  • Support Business Agility: A flexible and adaptable integrated business system providing a seamless user experience.
  • Use ERP best practices: Do not recreate or replicate what we have today; focus on modernization. Exercise customization governance by focusing on those customizations that are strategically differentiating.
  • Automate: Take manual work out where we can, empowering staff and improving productivity through automation and process efficiencies.
  • Stay focused: Focus on scope around core business capabilities. Maintain scope control. Prioritize demand in line with the strategy.
  • Strive for “One Source of Truth”: Unified data model and integrate processes where possible. Assess integration needs carefully.

Step 1.3

Inventory Current System State

Activities

1.3.1 Inventory Workday Applications and Interactions

1.3.2 Draw Your Workday System Diagram

1.3.3 Inventory Your Workday Modules and Business Capabilities (or Business Processes)

1.3.4 Define Your Key Workday Optimization Modules and Business Capabilities

Map Current-State Capabilities

Step 1.1

Step 1.2

Step 1.3

Step 1.4

Step 1.5

This step will guide you through the following activities:

  • Inventory of applications
  • Mapping interactions between systems

This step involves the following participants:

  • Workday Optimization Team
  • Enterprise Architect
  • Data Architect

Outcomes of this step

  • Systems inventory
  • Systems diagram

1.3.1 Inventory Workday applications and interfaces

1-3+ hours

  1. Enter your Workday systems, Workday extended applications, and integrated applications within scope.
  2. Include any abbreviated names or nicknames.
  3. List the application type or main function. List the modules the organization has licensed.
  4. List any integrations.

Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

ERP Data Flow

When assessing the current application portfolio that supports your ERP, the tendency will be to focus on the applications under the ERP umbrella. These relate mostly to marketing, sales, and customer service. Be sure to include systems that act as input to, or benefit due to outputs from, ERP or similar applications.

The image shows a flowchart, with example ERP Data. There is a colour-coded legend for the data, and at the bottom of the graphic, there is text that reads: Be sure to include enterprise applications that are not included in the ERP application portfolio. There are also definitions of abbreviated terms at the bottom of the graphic.

1.3.2 Draw your Workday system diagram (optional)

1-3+ hours

  1. From the Workday application inventory, diagram your network. Include:
    • Any internal or external systems
    • Integration points
    • Data flow

The image shows the flowchart section of th image that appears in the previous section.

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Sample Workday and integrations map

The image shows a sample map of Workday and integrations. There is a colour-coded legend at the bottom right.

Business capability map (Level 0)

In business architecture, the primary view of an organization is known as a business capability map.

A business capability defines what a business does to enable value creation, rather than how.

Business capabilities:

  • Represent stable business functions.
  • Are unique and independent of each other.
  • Will typically have a defined business outcome.

A business capability map provides details that help the business architecture practitioner direct attention to a specific area of the business for further assessment.

The image shows a Business Capability Map, which is divided into 4 sections: Products and Services Development; Revenue Generation; Demand Fulfillment; and Enterprise Management and Planning

The value stream

Value stream defined:

Value Streams:

Design Product

  • Manufacturers work proactively to design products and services that will meet consumer demand.
  • Products are driven by consumer demand and government regulations.

Produce Product

  • Production processes and labor costs are constantly analyzed for efficiencies and accuracies.
  • Quality of product and services are highly regulated through all levels of the supply chain.

Sell Product

  • Sales networks and sales staff deliver the product from the organization to the end consumer.
  • Marketing plays a key role throughout the value stream connecting consumers’ wants and needs to the products and services offered.

Customer Service

  • Relationships with consumers continue after the sale of products and services.
  • Continued customer support and data mining is important to revenue streams.

Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities in the marketplace. Those activities are dependent on the specific industry segment in which an organization operates. 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.

Taking a value stream approach to process mapping allows you to move across departmental and system boundaries to understand the underlying business capability.

Some mistakes organizations make are over-customizing processes, or conversely, not customizing when required. Workday provides good baseline process that work for most organizations. However, if a process is broken or not working efficiently take the time to investigate it, including underlying policies, roles, workflows, and integrations.

Process frameworks

Help define your inventory of sales, marketing, and customer services processes.

Operating Processes
1. Develop vision and strategy 2. Develop and manage products and services 3. Market and sell products and services 4. Deliver physical products 5. Deliver services
Management and Support Processes
6. Manage customer service
7. Develop and manage human capital
8. Manage IT
9. Manage financial resources
10. Acquire, construct, and manage assets
11. Manage enterprise risk, compliance, remediation, and resiliency
12. Manage external relationships
13. Develop and manage business capabilities

(APQC)

If you do not have a documented process model, you can use the APQC Framework to help define your inventory of sales business processes.

APQC’s Process Classification Framework is a taxonomy of cross-functional business processes intended to allow the objective comparison of organizational performance within and among organizations.

APQC’s Process Classification Framework

Process mapping hierarchy

A process classification framework is helpful for organizations to effectively define their processes and manage them appropriately.

Use Info-Tech’s related industry resources or publicly available process frameworks (such as APQC) to develop and map your business processes.

These processes can then be mapped to supporting applications and modules. Policies, roles, and workflows also play a role and should be considered in the overall functioning.

APQC’s Process Classification Framework

The image shows a chart, titled PCL Levels Explained, with each of the PCF Levels listed, and a brief description of each.

(APQC)

Focus on level-1 processes

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4
Market and sell products and services Understand markets, customers, and capabilities Perform customer and market intelligence analysis Conduct customer and market research
Market and sell products and services Develop a sales strategy Develop a sales forecast Gather current and historic order information
Deliver services Manage service delivery resources Manage service delivery resource demand Develop baseline forecasts
? ? ? ?

Info-Tech Insight

Focus your initial assessment on the level-1 processes that matter to your organization. This allows you to target your scant resources on the areas of optimization that matter most to the organization and minimize the effort required from your business partners.

You may need to iterate the assessment as challenges are identified. This allows you to be adaptive and deal with emerging issues more readily and become a more responsive partner to the business.

Process mapping and supporting ERP modules

The operating model

An operating model is a framework that drives operating decisions. It helps to set the parameters for the scope of ERP and the processes that will be supported. The operating model will serve to group core operational processes. These groupings represent a set of interrelated, consecutive processes aimed at generating a common output.

From your developed processes and your Workday license agreements you will be able to pinpoint the scope for investigation, including the processes and modules.

The image shows three images, overlapping one another. At the back is a chart with three sections, and boxes beneath. In front of that is a graphic with Objectives, Value Streams, Capabilities, and Processes written down the left side, and descriptions on the right. Below that image is an arrow pointing downward to the text Supporting Workday Modules. In front is a circular graphic with the word Workday in the centre, and circles with text in them around it.

Workday modules and process enablement

Workday Finance

  • Accounts Receivable and Collections
  • Accounts Payable and Payments
  • Asset Management
  • Audit and Controls
  • Billing and Invoicing
  • Cash Management
  • Contracts
  • Financial Reporting and Analysis
  • [Global] Close and Consolidation
  • Multi-GAAP/Multi-book/Multi-chart of Accounts
  • Revenue Management

Spend Management

  • Strategic Sourcing
  • Procure to Pay
  • Inventory
  • Expenses

Professional Services Automation

  • Project and Resource Management
  • Project Financials
  • Project Billing
  • Expense Management
  • Time Tracking

Enterprise Planning

  • Financial planning
  • Reporting
  • Analytics
  • Budgets
  • Insights
  • Workforce planning
  • Sales planning
  • Operational planning

Analytics and Reporting

  • Financial Management Core Reporting
  • Human Capital Management Core Reporting
  • Benchmarking
  • Data Hub
  • Augmented Analytics

Student

  • Admissions
  • Financial Aid
  • Advising
  • Student Finance
  • Student Records

Human Capital Management (HCM)

  • Human Resource Management
  • Organization Management
  • Business Process Management
  • Reporting and Analytics
  • Employee and Manager Self-Service
  • Contingent Labor Management
  • Skills Cloud
  • Absence Management
  • Benefits Administration
  • ACA Management
  • Compensation
  • Talent Optimization

Payroll and Workforce Management

  • Scheduling and Labor Management
  • Time and Attendance
  • Absence
  • Payroll

Employee Experience

  • Employee Engagement Insights
  • Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Measurement
  • Health and Well-Being Metrics
  • Back-to-Workplace Readiness
  • Confidential Employee-Manager Conversations
  • Attrition Prediction
  • Continuous Industry Benchmarks

Talent and Performance

  • Talent Profile
  • Continuous Feedback
  • Survey Campaigns
  • Embedded Analytics
  • Goal Management
  • Performance Management
  • Talent Review
  • Calibration
  • Competencies
  • Career and Development Planning
  • Succession Planning
  • Talent Marketplace
  • Mobile
  • Expenses

1.3.3 Inventory your Workday modules and business capabilities

1-3+ hours

  1. Look at the major functions or processes within the scope of ERP.
  2. From the inventory of current systems, choose the submodules or processes that you want to investigate and are within scope for this optimization initiative.
  3. List the top modules, capabilities, or processes that will be within the scope of this optimization initiative.

Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

1.3.4 Define your key Workday optimization modules and business capabilities

1-3+ hours

  1. Look at the major functions or processes within the scope of ERP.
  2. From the inventory of current systems, choose the submodules or processes for this optimization initiative. Base this on those that are most critical to the business, those with the lowest levels of satisfaction, or those that perhaps need more knowledge around them.

Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Step 1.4

Define Optimization Timeframe

Activities

1.4.1 Define Workday Key Dates, and Workday Optimization Roadmap Timeframe and Structure

Map Current-State Capabilities

Step 1.1

Step 1.2

Step 1.3

Step 1.4

Step 1.5

This step will guide you through the following activities:

  • Defining key dates related to your optimization initiative
  • Identifying key building blocks for your optimization roadmap

This step involves the following participants:

  • Workday Optimization Team
  • Vendor Management

Outcomes of this step

  • Optimization Key Dates
  • Optimization Roadmap Timeframe and Structure

1.4.1 Optimization roadmap timeframe and structure

1-3+ hours

  1. Key items and dates relevant to your optimization initiatives, such as any products reaching end of life or end of contract, or budget proposal submission deadlines.
  2. Enter the expected Optimization Initiative Start Date.
  3. Enter the Roadmap Length. This is the total amount of time you expect to participate in the Workday Optimization Initiative. This includes short-, medium-, and long-term initiatives.
  4. Enter your Roadmap Date markers – how you want dates displayed on the roadmap.
  5. Enter column time values – what level of granularity will be helpful for this initiative?
  6. Enter the sprint or cycle timeframe – use this if following Agile.

Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Step 1.5

Understand Workday Costs

Activities

1.5.1 Document Costs Associated With Workday

Map Current-State Capabilities

Step 1.1

Step 1.2

Step 1.3

Step 1.4

Step 1.5

This step will walk you through the following activities:

  • Define your Workday direct and indirect costs
  • List your Workday expense line items

This step involves the following participants:

  • Finance representatives
  • Workday Optimization Team

Outcomes of this step

  • Current Workday and related costs

1.5.1 Document costs associated with Workday

1-3 hours

Before you can make changes and optimization decisions, you need to understand the high-level costs associated with your current application architecture. This activity will help you identify the types of technology and people costs associated with your current systems.

  1. Identify the types of technology costs associated with each current system:
    1. System Maintenance
    2. Annual Renewal
    3. Licensing
  2. Identify the cost of people associated with each current system:
    1. Full-Time Employees
    2. Application Support Staff
    3. Help Desk Tickets

Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Phase 2

Assess Your Current State

Phase 1

1.1 Identify Stakeholders and Build Your Optimization Team

1.2 Build an ERP Strategy Model

1.3 Inventory Current System State

1.4 Define Optimization Timeframe

1.5 Understand Workday Costs

Phase 2

2.1 Assess Workday Capabilities

2.2 Review Your Satisfaction With the Vendor/Product and Willingness for Change

Phase 3

3.1 Prioritize Optimization Opportunities

3.2 Discover Optimization Initiatives

Phase 4

4.1 Build Your Optimization Roadmap

This phase will guide you through the following activities:

  • Determine process relevance
  • Perform a gap analysis
  • Perform a user satisfaction survey
  • Assess software and vendor satisfaction

This phase involves the following participants:

  • Workday Optimization Team
  • Users across functional areas of your ERP and related technologies

Step 2.1

Assess Workday Capabilities

Activities

2.1.1 Rate Capability Relevance to Organizational Goals

2.1.2 Complete a Workday Application Portfolio Assessment

2.1.3 (Optional) Assess Workday Process Maturity

Assess Workday Capabilities

Step 2.1

Step 2.2

This step will guide you through the following activities:

  • Capability Relevance
  • Process Gap Analysis
  • Application Portfolio Assessment

This step involves the following participants:

  • Workday Users

Outcomes of this step

  • Workday Capability Assessment

Benefits of the Application Portfolio Assessment

Assess the health of the application portfolio

  • Get a full 360-degree view of the effectiveness, criticality, and prevalence of all relevant applications to get a comprehensive view of the health of the applications portfolio.
  • Identify opportunities to drive more value from effective applications, retire nonessential applications, and immediately address at-risk applications that are not meeting expectations.

Provide targeted department feedback

  • Share end-user satisfaction and importance ratings for core IT services, IT communications, and business enablement to focus on the right end-user groups or lines of business, and ramp up satisfaction and productivity.

Gain insight into the state of data quality

  • Data quality is one of the key issues causing poor ERP user satisfaction and business results. This can include the relevance, accuracy, timeliness, or usability of the organization’s data.
  • Targeted, open-ended feedback around data quality will provide insight into where optimization efforts should be focused.

2.1.1 Complete a current state assessment (via the Application Portfolio Assessment)

3 hours

Option 1: Use Info-Tech’s Application Portfolio Assessment to generate your user satisfaction score. This tool not only measures application satisfaction but also elicits great feedback from users regarding the support they receive from the IT team around Workday.

  1. Download the Workday Application Inventory Tool.
  2. Complete the “Demographics” tab (tab 2).
  3. Complete the “Inventory” tab (tab 3).
    1. Complete the inventory by treating each module within your Workday system as an application.
    2. Treat every department as a separate column in the department section. Feel free to add, remove, or modify department names to match your organization.
    3. Include data quality for all applications applicable.

Option 2: Create a survey manually.

  1. Use tab Reference 2.1 “APA Questions” as a guide for creating your survey.
  2. Send out surveys to end users.
  3. Modify tab 2.1 “Workday Assessment” if required.

Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Content for New section Tag Goes HereThe image shows a number of charts relating to applications, such as Overall Applications Portfolio Satisfaction and Most Critical Applications. Data is shown in each category relating to number of users, usability, data quality, status, and others.

2.1.2 Complete the Application Portfolio Assessment

3 hours

Option 1: Use Info-Tech’s Application Portfolio Assessment to generate your user satisfaction score. This tool not only measures application satisfaction but also elicits great feedback from users regarding the support they receive from the IT team around Workday.

  1. Download the Workday Application Inventory Tool.
  2. Complete the “Demographics” tab (tab 2).
  3. Complete the “Inventory” tab (tab 3).
    1. Complete the inventory by treating each module within your Workday system as an application.
    2. Treat every department as a separate column in the department section. Feel free to add, remove, or modify department names to match your organization.
    3. Include data quality for all applications applicable.

Option 2: Create a survey manually.

  1. Use tab Reference 2.1 “APA Questions” as a guide for creating your survey.
  2. Send out surveys to end users.
  3. Modify tab 2.1 “Workday Assessment” if required.

Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

2.1.3 (Optional) Assess Workday process maturity

  1. As with any ERP system, the issues encountered may not be related to the system itself but processes that have developed over time.
  2. Use this opportunity to interview key stakeholders to learn about deeper capability processes.
    1. Identify key stakeholders.
    2. Hold sessions to document deeper processes.
    3. Discuss processes and technical enablement in each area.

Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Process Maturity Assessment

Process Assessment

Strong

Moderate

Weak

1.1 Financial Planning and Analysis

1.2 Accounting and Financial Close

1.3 Treasury Management

1.4 Financial Operations

1.5 Governance, Risk & Compliance

2.1 Core HR

Description All aspects related to financial operations
Key Success Indicators Month-end reporting in 5 days AR at risk managing down (zero over 90 days) Weekly operating cash flow updates
Timely liquidity for claims payments Payroll audit reporting and insights reporting 90% of workflow tasks captured in ERP
EFT uptake Automated reconciliations Reduce audit hours required
Current Pain Points A lot of voided and re-issued checks NIDPP Integration with banks; can’t get the information back into existing ERP
There is no payroll integration No payroll automation and other processes Lack of integration with HUB
Not one true source of data Incentive payment processing Rewards program management
Audit process is onerous Reconcile AP and AR for dealers

Stakeholders Interviewed:

The process is formalized, documented, optimized, and audited.

The process is poorly documented. More than one person knows how to do it. Inefficient and error-prone.

The process is not documented. One person knows how to do it. The process is ad hoc, not formalized, inconsistent.

Capability Processes:

General Ledger

Accounts Receivable

Incentives Management

Accounts Payable

General Ledger Consolidation

Treasury Management

Cash Management

Subscription / recurring payments

Treasury Transactions

Step 2.2

Review Your Satisfaction With the Vendor/Product and Willingness for Change

Activities

2.2.1 Rate Your Vendor and Product Satisfaction

2.2.2 Review Workday Product Scores (if applicable)

2.2.3 Evaluate Your Product Satisfaction

2.2.4 Check Your Business Process Change Tolerance

Product Satisfaction

Step 2.1

Step 2.2

This step will guide you through the following activities:

  • Rate your vendor and product satisfaction
  • Compare with survey data from SoftwareReviews

This step involves the following participants:

  • Workday Product Owner(s)
  • Procurement Representative
  • Vendor Contracts Manager

Outcomes of this step

  • Quantified satisfaction with vendor and product

2.2.1 Rate your vendor and product satisfaction

30 minutes

Use Info-Tech’s vendor satisfaction survey to identify optimization areas with your ERP product(s) and vendor(s).

  1. Option 1 (recommended): Conduct a satisfaction survey using SoftwareReviews. This option allows you to see your results in the context of the vendor landscape.
  2. Option 2: Use the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook to review your satisfaction with your Workday software.

Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

SoftwareReviews’ Enterprise Resource Planning Category

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

2.2.2 Review Workday product scores (if applicable)

30 minutes

  1. Download the scorecard for your Workday product from the SoftwareReviews website. (Note: Not all products are represented or have sufficient data, so a scorecard may not be available.)
  2. Use the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook tab 2.3 to record the scorecard results.
  3. Use your Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook to flag areas where your score may be lower than the product scorecard. Brainstorm ideas for optimization.

Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

SoftwareReviews’ Enterprise Resource Planning Category

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

2.2.3 How does your satisfaction compare with your peers?

Use SoftwareReviews to explore product features, vendor experience, and capability satisfaction.

The image shows two data quadrants, one titled Enterprise Resource Planning - Enterprise, and Enterprise Resource Planning - Midmarket.

(SoftwareReviews ERP Mid-Market, 2022; SoftwareReviews ERP Enterprise, 2022)

2.2.4 Check your business process change tolerance

1 hours

Input

  • Business process capability map

Output

  • Heat map of risk areas that require more attention to validate best practices or minimize customization

Materials

  • Whiteboard/flip charts
  • Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Participants

  • Implementation team
  • SMEs
  • Departmental Leaders
  1. As a group, list your level-0 and level-1 business capabilities. Sample on the next slide.
  2. Assess the department’s willingness for change and the risk of maintaining the status quo.
  3. Color-code the level-0 business capabilities based on:
    1. Green – Willing to follow best practices
    2. Yellow – May be challenging or unique business model
    3. Red – Low tolerance for change

Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Heat map representing desire for best practice or those having the least tolerance for change

Legend:

Willing to follow best practice

May be challenging or unique business model

Low tolerance for change

Out of Scope

Product-Centric Capabilities
R&D Production Supply Chain Distribution Asset Mgmt
Idea to Offering Plan to Produce Procure to Pay Forecast to Delivery Acquire to Dispose
Add/Remove Shop Floor Scheduling Add/Remove Add/Remove Add/Remove
Add/Remove Product Costing Add/Remove Add/Remove Add/Remove
Service-Centric Capabilities
Finance HR Marketing Sales Service
Record to Report Hire to Retire Market to Order Quote to Cash Issue to Resolution
Add/Remove Add/Remove Add/Remove Add/Remove Add/Remove
Add/Remove Add/Remove Add/Remove Add/Remove Add/Remove

Determine the areas of risk to conform to best practice and minimize customization. These will be areas needing focus from the vendor, supporting change and guiding best practice.

For example: Must be able to support our unique process manufacturing capabilities and enhance planning and visibility to detailed costing.

Phase 3

Identify Key Optimization Opportunities

Phase 1

1.1 Identify Stakeholders and Build Your Optimization Team

1.2 Build an ERP Strategy Model

1.3 Inventory Current System State

1.4 Define Optimization Timeframe

1.5 Understand Workday Costs

Phase 2

2.1 Assess Workday Capabilities

2.2 Review Your Satisfaction With the Vendor/Product and Willingness for Change

Phase 3

3.1 Prioritize Optimization Opportunities

3.2 Discover Optimization Initiatives

Phase 4

4.1 Build Your Optimization Roadmap

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

  • Identify key optimization areas
  • Create an optimization roadmap

This phase involves the following participants:

  • Workday Optimization Team

Step 3.1

Prioritize optimization opportunities

Activities

3.1.1 Prioritize Optimization Capability Areas

Build Your Optimization Roadmap

Step 3.1

Step 3.2

This step will guide you through the following activities:

  • Explore existing process gaps
  • Identify the impact of processes on user satisfaction
  • Identify the impact of data quality on user satisfaction
  • Review your overall product satisfaction and vendor management

This step involves the following participants:

  • Workday Optimization Team

Outcomes of this step

  • Application optimization plan

Info-Tech Insight

Enabling a high-performing organization requires excellent management practices and continuous optimization efforts. Your technology portfolio and architecture are important, but we must go deeper. Taking a holistic view of ERP technologies in the environments in which they operate allows for the inclusion of people and process improvements – this is key to maximizing business results. Using a formal ERP optimization initiative will drive business-IT alignment, identify IT automation priorities, and dig deep into continuous process improvement.

Address process gaps:

  • ERP and related technologies are invaluable to the goal of organizational enablement, but they must have supported processes driven by business goals.
  • Identify areas where capabilities need to be improved and work toward optimization.

Support user satisfaction:

  • The best technology in the world won’t deliver business results if it’s not working for the users who need it.
  • Understand concerns, communicate improvements, and support users in all roles.

Improve data quality:

  • Data quality is unique to each business unit and requires tolerance, not perfection.
  • Implement data quality initiatives that are aligned with overall business objectives and aimed at addressing data practices and the data itself.

Proactively manage vendors:

  • Vendor management is a critical component of technology enablement and IT satisfaction.
  • Assess your current satisfaction against that of your peers and work toward building a process that is best fit for your organization.

Assessing application business value

The Business

Keepers of the organization’s mission, vision, and value statements that define IT success. The business maintains the overall ownership and evaluation of the applications.

Business Value of Applications

IT

Technical subject matter experts of the applications they deliver and maintain. Each IT function works together to ensure quality applications are delivered to stakeholder expectations.

First, the authorities on business value need to define and weigh their value drivers that describe the priorities of the organization. This will allow the applications team to apply a consistent, objective, and strategically aligned evaluation of applications across the organization.

In this context…

business value is

the value of the business outcome that the application produces. Additionally, it is how effective the application is at producing that outcome.

Business value IS NOT

the user’s experience or satisfaction with the application.

Brainstorm IT initiatives to enable high areas of opportunity to support the business

Create or Improve:

  • ERP Capabilities
  • Optimization Initiatives

Capabilities are what the system and business do that creates value for the organization.

Optimization initiatives are projects with a definitive start and end date, and they enhance, create, maintain, or remove capabilities with the goal of increasing value.

Brainstorm ERP optimization initiatives in each area. Ensure you are looking for all-encompassing opportunities within the context of IT, the business, and Workday systems.

  • Process
  • Technology
  • Organization

Discover the value drivers of your applications

Financial vs. Human Benefits

Financial benefits refer to the degree to which the value source can be measured through monetary metrics and are often quite tangible.

Human benefits refer to how an application can deliver value through a user’s experience.

Inward vs. Outward Orientation

Inward refers to value sources that have an internal impact and improve your organization’s effectiveness and efficiency in performing its operations.

Outward refers to value sources that come from your interaction with external factors, such as the market or your customers.

The image shows a business value matrix, with Human benefit and Financial benefit in the horizontal and Outward and Inward on the vertical. In the top left quadrant is Reach Customers; top right is Increase Revenue or Deliver Value; bottom left is Enhance Services, and bottom right is Reduce Costs.

The image shows a graph titled Perceived business benefits from using digital tools. It is a bar graph, showing percentages assigned to each perceived benefit. The source is Collins et al, 2017.

Increased Revenue

Application functions that are specifically related to the impact on your organization’s ability to generate revenue and deliver value to your customers.

Reduced Costs

Reduction of overhead. The ways in which an application limits the operational costs of business functions.

Enhanced Services

Functions that enable business capabilities that improve the organization’s ability to perform its internal operations.

Reach Customers

Application functions that enable and improve the interaction with customers or produce market information and insights.

Prioritize Workday optimization areas that will bring the most value to the organization

Review your ERP capability areas and rate them according to relevance to organizational goals. This will allow you to eliminate optimization ideas that may not bring value to the organization.

The image shows a graph, separated into quadrants. On the x-axis is Satisfaction, from low to high, and on the Y-axis is Relevant to Organizational Goals from Low to High. The top left quadrant is High Priority, top right is Maintain, and the two lower quadrants are both low priority.

Value vs. Effort

How important is it? vs. How difficult is it?

How important is it? How Difficult is it?

What is the value?

  • Increase revenue
  • Decrease costs
  • Enhanced services
  • Reach customers

What is the benefit?

  • How can it help us reach our goals?

What is the impact?

  • To organizational goals
  • To ERP goals
  • To departmental goals

What is the cost?

  • Hours x Rates ++ =

What is the level of effort?

  • Development effort
  • Operational effort
  • Implementation effort
  • Outside resource coordination

What is the risk of implementing/not implementing?

What is the complexity?

(Roadmunk)

RICE method

Measure the “total impact per time worked”

The image shows a graphic with the word Confidence at the top, then an arrow pointing upwards that reads Impact. Below that, there is an arrow pointing horizontally in both directions that reads Reach, and then a horizontal line, with the word Effort below it.

Reach Impact Confidence Effort

How many people will this improvement impact? Internal: # of users OR # of transactions per period

External: # of customers OR # of transactions per period

What is the scale of impact? How much will the improvement affect satisfaction?

Example Weighting:

1 = Massive Impact

2 = High Impact

1 = Medium Impact

0.5 = Low Impact

0.25 = Very Low Impact

How confident are we that the improvements are achievable and that they will meet the impact estimates?

Example Weighting:

1 = High Confidence

0.80 = Medium Confidence

0.50 = Low Confidence

How much investment will be required to implement the improvement initiative?

FTE hours x cost per hour

(Intercom)

3.1.1 Prioritize and rate optimization capability areas

1-3 hours

  1. Use tab 3.1 Optimization Priorities.
  2. From the Workday Key Capabilities (pulled from tab 1.3 Key Capabilities), discuss areas of scope for the Workday optimization initiative.
  3. Discuss the four areas of the business value matrix and identify how each module, along with organizational goals, can bring value to the organization.
  4. Rate each of your Workday capabilities for the level of importance to your organization. The levels of importance are:
    • Crucial
    • Important
    • Secondary
    • Unimportant
    • Not applicable

Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Step 3.2

Discover Optimization Initiatives

Activities

3.2.1 Discover Product and Vendor Satisfaction Opportunities

3.2.2 Discover Capability and Feature Optimization Opportunities

3.2.3 Discover Process Optimization Opportunities

3.2.4 Discover Integration Optimization Opportunities

3.2.5 Discover Data Optimization Opportunities

3.2.6 Discover Workday Cost-Saving Opportunities

Build Your Optimization Roadmap

Step 3.1

Step 3.2

This step will guide you through the following activities:

  • Explore existing process gaps
  • Identify the impact of processes on user satisfaction
  • Identify the impact of data quality on user satisfaction
  • Review your overall product satisfaction and vendor management

This step involves the following participants:

  • Workday Optimization Team

Outcomes of this step

  • Application optimization plan
Content for New section Tag Goes HereThe image shows a graphic title Product Feature Satisfaction, showing features in rank order and data on each.
Content for New section Tag Goes HereThe image shows a graphic titled Vendor Capability Satisfaction, showing features in rank order with related data.

Workday’s partner landscape

Workday uses an extensive partner network to help deliver results.

ADVISORY PARTNERS

Workday Advisory Partners have in-depth knowledge to help customers determine what’s best for their needs and how to maximize business value. They guide you through digital acceleration strategy and planning, product selection, change management, and more.

SERVICES PARTNERS

Workday Services Partners represent a curated community of global systems integrators and regional firms that help companies deploy Workday and continually adopt new capabilities.

SOFTWARE PARTNERS

Workday Software Partners are a global ecosystem of application, content, and technology software companies that design, build, and deploy solution extensions to help customers enhance the capabilities of Workday.

Global payroll PARTNERS

Workday’s Global Payroll Cloud (GPC) program makes it easy to expand payroll (outside of the US, Canada, the UK, and France) to third-party payroll providers around the world using certified, prebuilt integrations from Workday Partners. Payroll partners provide solutions in more than 100 countries.

Adaptive planning PARTNERS

Adaptive planning partners guide you through all aspects of everything from integration to deployment.

With large-scale ERP and HCM systems, the success of the system can be as much about the SI (Systems Integrator) or vendor partners as it is about the core product.

In evaluating your Workday system, think about Workday’s extensive partner network to understand how you can capitalize on your installation.

You do not need to reinvent the system; you may just need an additional service partner or bolt-on solution to round out your product functionality.

Improving vendor management

Create a right-size, right-fit strategy for managing the vendors relevant to your organization.

The image shows a matrix, with strategic value on the x-axis from low to high, and Vendor Spend/Switching Costs on the y-axis, from low to high. In the top left is Operational, top right is Strategic; lower left is commodity; and lower right Tactical.

Info-Tech Insight

A vendor management initiative is an organization’s formalized process for evaluating, selecting, managing, and optimizing third-party providers of goods and services.

The amount of resources you assign to managing vendors depends on the number and value of your organization’s relationships. Before optimizing your vendor management program around the best practices presented in Info-Tech’s Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative blueprint, assess your current maturity and build the process around a model that reflects the needs of your organization.

Note: Info-Tech uses VMI interchangeably with the terms “vendor management office (VMO),” “vendor management function,” “vendor management process,” and “vendor management program.”

Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative

3.2.1 Discover product and vendor satisfaction

1-2 hours

  1. Review tab 2.2 Vend. & Prod. Sat. to review the overall Product (and Vendor) satisfaction of your Workday system.
  2. Use tab 3.2 Optimization Initiatives to answer the following questions in the Overall Product (and Vendor) Evaluation area.
    • Document overall product satisfaction.
    • How does your satisfaction compare with your peers?
    • Is the overall system fit for use?
    • Do you have a proactive vendor management strategy in place?
    • Is the product dissatisfaction at the point that you need to evaluate if it is time to replace the product?
    • Could your vendor or SI help you achieve better results?

Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

The image shows a box with text in it, titled 3.2.1 Overall Product (and Vendor) Evaluation.

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Content for New section Tag Goes HereThe image is a graphic, with the Five Most Critical Applications section at the top, with related data, and other sets of data included in smaller text at the bottom of the image.

3.2.2 Discover capability and feature optimization opportunities

1-2 hours

  1. Review tab 2.2 Vend. & Prod. Sat. and tab 3.1 Optimization Priorities to review the satisfaction with the capabilities and features of your Workday system.
  2. Use tab 3.2 Optimization Initiatives to answer the following questions in the Capabilities and Features Evaluation area to answer the following questions:
    • What capabilities and features are performing the worst?
    • Do other organizations and users struggle with these areas?
    • Why is it not performing well?
    • Is there an opportunity for improvement?
    • What are some optimization initiatives that could be undertaken?

Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

The image is a box with text in it, titled 3.2.2 Capabilities and Features Evaluation.

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Process optimization: the hidden goldmine

Know your strategic goals and KPIs that will deliver results.

Goals of Process Improvement Process Improvement Sample Areas Improvement Possibilities
  • Optimize business and improve value drivers
  • Reduce TCO
  • Reduce process complexity
  • Eliminate manual processes
  • Increase efficiencies
  • Support digital transformation and enablement
  • Order to cash
  • Procure to pay
  • Order to replenish
  • Plan to produce
  • Request to settle
  • Make to order
  • Make to stock
  • Purchase to order
  • Increase number of process instances processed successfully end to end
  • Increase number of instances processed in time
  • Increase degree of process automation
  • Speed up cycle times of supply chain processes
  • Reduce number of process exceptions
  • Apply internal best practices across organizational units

3.2.3 Discover process optimization opportunities

1-2 hours

  1. Use tab 3.1 Optimization Priorities and tab 2.2 Bus Proc Change Tolerance to review process optimization opportunities.
  2. Use tab 3.2 Optimization Initiatives to answer the following questions in the Capabilities and Features Evaluation area to answer the following questions:
    • List underperforming capabilities around process.
    • Answer the following:
      • What is the state of the current processes?
      • Is there an opportunity for process improvement?
      • What are some optimization initiatives that could be undertaken in this area?

Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

The image shows a box with text in it, titled Processes Optimization.

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Integration provides long-term usability

Balance the need for secure, compliant data availability with organizational agility.

The benefits of integration

  • The largest benefit is the extended use of data. The ERP data can be used in the enterprise-level business intelligence suite rather than the application-specific analytics.
  • Enhanced data security. Integrated approaches lend themselves to auditable processes such as sign-on and limit the email movement of data.
  • Regulatory compliance. Large multi-site organizations have many layers of regulation. A clear understanding of where orders, deliveries, and payments were made streamlines the audit process.

The challenges of integration

  • Extending a single instance ERP to multiple sites. The challenge for data management is the same as any SaaS application. The connection and data replication present challenges.
  • Combining data from equally high-volume systems. For Workday it is recommended that one instance is set to primary and all other sites are read-only to maintain data integrity.
  • Incorporating data from the separate system(s). The proprietary and locked-in nature of the data collection and definitions for ERP systems often limit the movement of data between separate systems.

Common integration and consolidation scenarios

Financial Consolidation Data Backup Synchronization Across Sites Legacy Consolidation
  • Financial consolidation requires a holistic view of data format and accounting schedules
  • Problem: Controlling financial documentation across geographic regions. Most companies are required to report in each region where they maintain a presence. Stakeholders and senior management also need a holistic view. This leads to significant strain on the financial department to consolidate both revenue and budget allocations for cross-site projects across the various geographic locations on a regular basis.
  • Solution: For enterprises with a single vendor or Workday-only portfolios, Workday can offer integration tools. For those needing to integrate with other ERPs the use of a connector may be required to send financial data to the main system. The format and accounting calendar for transactions should match the primary ERP system to allow consolidation. The local specific format should be a role-based customization at the level of the site’s specific instance.
  • Use a data center as the main repository to ensure all geographic locations have equal access to the necessary data.
  • Problem: ERP systems generate high volumes of data. Most systems have a defined schedule of back-up during off-hours. Multi-instance brings additional issues through lack of defined off-hours, higher volume of data, and the potential for cross-site or instance data relationships. This leads to headaches for both the Database Administrator and Business Analysts.
  • Solution: The best solution is an offsite data center with high availability. This may include cloud storage or hosted data centers. Regardless of where the data is stored, centralize the data and replicate to each site. Ensure that the data center can mirror the database and Binary Large Object (BLOB) storage that exists for each site.
  • Set up synchronization schedules based on data usage, not site location.
  • Problem: Providing access to up-to-date transactions requires copying of both contextual information (permissions, timestamp, location, history) and the transaction itself across multiple sites to allow local copies to be used for analysis and audits. The sheer volume of information makes timely synchronization difficult.
  • Solution: Not all data needs to be synchronized in a timely fashion. In Workday, administrators can use NetWeaver to maintain and alter global data synchronization through the Master Data Management module. Permissions can be given to users to perform on-demand synchronization of data attached to that user.
  • Carefully define older transactions. Only active transactions should be brought in the ERP. Send older data to storage.
  • Problem: Subsidiaries and acquired companies often have a Tier 2 ERP product. Prior to fully consolidating the processes, many enterprises will want to migrate data to their ERP system to build compliance and audit trails. Migration of data often breaks historical linkages between transactions.
  • Solution: Workday offers tools to integrate data across applications that can be used as part of a data migration strategy. The process of data migration should be combined with data warehousing to ensure a cost-effective process. For most enterprises, the lack of experience in data migration will necessitate the use of consultants and Independent Software Vendors (ISV).

For more information: Implement a Multi-site ERP

3.2.4 Discover integration optimization opportunities

1-2 hours

  1. Use tab 3.2 Optimization Initiatives to answer the following questions in the Integration Evaluation area:
    1. Are there some areas where integration could be improved?
    2. Is there an opportunity for process improvement?
    3. What are some optimization initiatives that could be undertaken in this area?

Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

The image shows a box with text in it, titled Integration Evaluation.

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Use a data strategy that fixes the enterprise-wide data management issues

Your data management must allow for flexibility and scalability for future needs.

IT has several concerns around ERP data and wide dissemination of that data across sites. Large organizations can benefit from building a data warehouse or at least adopting some of the principles of data warehousing. The optimal way to deal with the issue of integration is to design a metadata-driven data warehouse that acts as a central repository for all ERP data. This serves as the storage facility for millions of transactions, formatted to allow analysis and comparison.

Key considerations:

  • Technical: At what stage does data move to the warehouse? Can processes be automated to dump data or to do a scheduled data movement?
  • Process: Data integration requires some level of historical context for all data. Ensure that all data has multiple metadata tags to future-proof the data.
  • People: Who will be accessing the data and what are the key items that users will need to adapt to the data warehouse process?

Info-Tech Insight

Data warehouse solutions can be expensive. See Info-Tech’s Build a Data Warehouse on a Solid Foundation for guidance on what options are available to meet your budget and data needs.

Optimizing Workday data, additional considerations

Data Quality Management Effective Data Governance Data-Centric Integration Strategy Extensible Data Warehousing
  • Prevention is 10x cheaper than remediation. Stop fixing data quality with band-aid solutions and start fixing at the source of the problem.
  • Data quality is unique to each business unit and requires tolerance, not perfection. If the data allows the business to operate at the desired level, don’t waste time fixing data that may not need to be fixed.
  • Implement a set of data quality initiatives that are aligned with overall business objectives and aimed at addressing data practices and the data itself.
  • Develop a prioritized data quality improvement project roadmap and long-term improvement strategy.
  • Build related practices with more confidence and less risk after achieving an appropriate level of data quality.
  • Data governance enables data-driven insight. Think of governance as a structure for making better use of data.
  • Collaboration is critical. The business may own the data, but IT understands the data. Data governance will not work unless the business and IT work together.
  • Data governance powers the organization up the data value chain through policies and procedures, master data management, data quality, and data architecture.
  • Create a roadmap to prioritize initiatives and delineate responsibilities among data stewards, data owners, and the data governance steering committee.
  • Ensure buy-in from business and IT stakeholders. Communicate initiatives to end users and executives to reduce resistance.
  • Every enterprise application involves data integration. Any change in the application and database ecosystem requires you to solve a data integration problem.
  • Data integration is becoming more and more critical for downstream functions of data management and for business operations to be successful. Poor integration holds back these critical functions.
  • Build your data integration practice with a firm foundation in governance and a reference architecture. Ensure that your process is scalable and sustainable.
  • Support the flow of data through the organization and meet the organization’s requirements for data latency, availability, and relevancy.
  • Data availability must be frequently reviewed and repositioned to continue to grow with the business.
  • A data warehouse is a project, but successful data warehousing is a program. An effective data warehouse requires planning beyond the technology implementation.
  • Governance, not technology, needs to be the core support system for enabling a data warehouse program.
  • Leverage an approach that focuses on constructing a data warehouse foundation that can address a combination of operational, tactical, and ad hoc business needs.
  • Invest time and effort to put together pre-project governance to inform and guide your data warehouse implementation.
  • Select the most suitable architecture pattern to ensure the data warehouse is “built right” at the very beginning.

Build Your Data Quality Program

Establish Data Governance

Build a Data Integration Strategy

Build an Extensible Data Warehouse Foundation

3.2.5 Discover data optimization opportunities

1-2 hours

  1. Use your 2.1 APA survey and/or tab 2.2 Vendor & Prod Sat to better understand issues related to data.
  • Note: Data issues happen for a number of reasons:
    • Poor underlying data in the system
    • More than one source of truth
    • Inability to consolidate data
    • Inability to measure KPIs (key performance indicators) effectively
    • Reporting that is cumbersome or non-existent
  • Use tab 3.2 Optimization Initiatives to answer the following questions in the Data Evaluation area:
    • What are some underlying issues?
    • Is there an opportunity for data improvement?
    • What are some optimization initiatives that could be undertaken in this area?
  • Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    The image shows a box with text in it, titled 3.2.5 Data Evaluation.

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    Content for New section Tag Goes HereThe image shows a graphic, with a bar graph at the bottom, showing Primary Reason for Leaving Workday Human Capital Management.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The number one reason organizations leave Workday is because of cost. Do not be strong-armed into a contract you do not feel comfortable with. Do your homework, know your leverage points, be fully prepared for cost negotiations, use their competition to your advantage, and get support – such as Info-Tech’s vendor management resources and team.

    Approach contracts and pricing strategically

    Don’t go into contract negotiation blind.

    • Understand the vendor – year-end, market strategy, and competitive position.
    • Take the time to understand the contract. including contract details such as length of the contract, full-service equivalent (FSE, employee count,) innovation fees, modules included, and renewal clauses.
    • Be fully prepared to take a proactive approach to cost negotiations.
      • Use Info-Tech’s vendor management services to support you.
      • Go in prepared.
      • Use your leverage points – FSE count, Module Bundles, CPI & Innovation Fees.
      • Use competition to your advantage.

    Since 2007, Workday has been steadily growing its market share and footprint in human capital management, finance, and student information systems.

    Organizations considering additional modules or undergoing contract renewal need to gain insight into areas of leverage and other relevant vendor information.

    Key issues that occur include pricing transparency and contractual flexibility on terms and conditions. Adequate planning and communication need to be taken into consideration before entering into any agreement.

    3.2.6 Discover Workday cost-saving opportunities

    1-2 hours

    1. Use tab 1.5 Current Costs, as an input for this exercise. Another great resource is Info-Tech’s Workday vendor management resources which you can use to help understand cost-saving strategies.
    2. Use tab 3.2 Optimization Initiatives Costs Evaluation area to list cost savings initiatives and opportunities.

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    The image shows a box with text in it, titled 3.2.6 Costs Evaluation.

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    Other optimization opportunities

    There are many opportunities to improve your Workday portfolio. Choose the ones that are right for your business.

    • Artificial intelligence (AI) (and management of the AI lifecycle)
    • Machine learning (ML)
    • Augment business interactions
    • Automatically execute sales pipelines
    • Process mining
    • Workday application monitoring
    • Be aware of the Workday product roadmap
    • Implement and take advantage of Workday tools and product offerings

    Phase 4

    Build Your Optimization Roadmap

    Phase 1

    1.1 Identify Stakeholders and Build Your Optimization Team

    1.2 Build an ERP Strategy Model

    1.3 Inventory Current System State

    1.4 Define Optimization Timeframe

    1.5 Understand Workday Costs

    Phase 2

    2.1 Assess Workday Capabilities

    2.2 Review Your Satisfaction With the Vendor/Product and Willingness for Change

    Phase 3

    3.1 Prioritize Optimization Opportunities

    3.2 Discover Optimization Initiatives

    Phase 4

    4.1 Build Your Optimization Roadmap

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Review the different options to solve the identified pain points
    • Build out a roadmap showing how you will get to those solutions
    • Build a communication plan that includes the stakeholder presentation

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Primary stakeholders in each value stream supported by the ERP
    • ERP Applications support team

    Get the Most Out of Your Workday

    Step 4.1

    4.1 Build Your Optimization Roadmap

    Activities

    4.1.1 Evaluate Optimization Initiatives

    4.1.2 Prioritize Your Workday Initiatives

    4.1.3 Build a Roadmap

    4.1.4 Build a Visual Roadmap

    Next steps

    Step 4.1

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Review the different options to solve the identified pain points then build out a roadmap of how to get to that solution.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Primary stakeholders in each value stream supported by the ERP
    • ERP Applications support team

    Outcomes of this step

    • A strategic direction is set
    • An initial roadmap is laid out

    Evaluate your optimization initiatives and determine next steps to build out your optimization roadmap

    The image shows a chart titled Value Drivers, with specific categories and criteria listed along the top as headings. The rows below the headings are blank.

    Activity 4.1.1 Evaluate optimization Initiatives

    1 hour

    1. Evaluate your optimization initiatives from tab 3.2, Optimization Initiatives.
    2. Complete Value Drivers:
    • Relevance to Organizational Goals and Objectives
    • Applications Portfolio Assessment Survey:
      • Impact: Number of Users, Importance to Role
      • Current State: Satisfaction With Features, Usability, and Data Quality.
    • Value Drivers: Increase Revenue, Decrease Costs, Enhanced Services, or Reach Customers.
    • Additional Factors:
      • Current to Future Risk Profile
      • Number of Departments to Benefit
      • Importance to Stakeholder Relations
  • Complete Effort and Cost Estimations:
    • Resources: Do we have resources available and the skillset?
    • Cost
    • Overall Effort Rating
  • Gut Check: “Is it achievable? Have we done it or something similar before? Are we willing to invest in it?“
  • Decision to Proceed
  • Next Steps
  • Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    Activity 4.1.2 Determine your optimization roadmap building blocks

    1 hour

    Optimization initiatives: Determine which if any to proceed with.

    1. Identify initiatives.
    2. For each item on your roadmap assign an owner who will be accountable to the completion of the roadmap item.
    3. Wherever possible, assign a start date, month, or quarter. The more specific you can be the better.
    4. Identify completion dates to create a sense of urgency. If you are struggling with start dates, it can help to start with a finish date and “back in” to a start date based on estimated efforts.
    5. Include periphery tasks such as communication strategy.

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    Note: Your roadmap should be treated as a living document that is updated and shared with the stakeholders on a regular schedule.

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    Activity 4.1.3 – Build a visual Workday optimization roadmap (optional)

    1 hour

    For some, a visual representation of a roadmap is easier to comprehend.

    Consider taking the roadmap built in 4.1.2 and creating a visual roadmap.

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    The image shows a chart that tracks Initiative and Owner across multiple years.

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Get the Most Out of Your Workday

    ERP technology is critical to facilitating an organization’s flow of information across business units. It allows for seamless integration of systems and creates a holistic view of the enterprise to support decision making. ERP implementation should not be a one-and-done exercise. There needs to be ongoing optimization to enable business processes and optimal organizational results.

    Get the Most Out of Your Workday allows organizations to proactively implement continuous assessment and optimization of their enterprise resource planning system, including:

    • Alignment and prioritization of key business and technology drivers.
    • Identification of processes, including classification and gap analysis.
    • Measurement of user satisfaction across key departments.
    • Improved vendor relations.
    • Data quality initiatives.

    This formal Workday optimization initiative will drive business-IT alignment, identify IT automation priorities, and dig deep into continuous process improvement.

    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

    Research Contributors

    Ben Dickie

    Research Practice Lead

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Ben Dickie is a Research Practice Lead at Info-Tech Research Group. His areas of expertise include customer experience management, CRM platforms, and digital marketing. He has also led projects pertaining to enterprise collaboration and unified communications.

    Scott Bickley

    Practice Lead and Principal Research

    Director Info-Tech Research Group

    Scott Bickley is a Practice Lead and Principal Research Director at Info-Tech Research Group focused on vendor management and contract review. He also has experience in the areas of IT asset management (ITAM), software asset management (SAM), and technology procurement along with a deep background in operations, engineering, and quality systems management.

    Andy Neil

    Practice Lead, Applications

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Andy is a Senior Research Director, Data Management and BI, at Info-Tech Research Group. He has over 15 years of experience in managing technical teams, information architecture, data modeling, and enterprise data strategy. He is an expert in enterprise data architecture, data integration, data standards, data strategy, big data, and the development of industry standard data models.

    Bibliography

    “9 product prioritization frameworks for product managers.” Roadmunk, n.d. Accessed 15 May 2022.

    Armel, Kate. "New Article: Data-Driven Estimation, Management Lead to High Quality." QSM: Quantitative Software Management, 14 May 2013. Accessed 4 Feb. 2021.

    Collins, George, et al., “Connecting Small Businesses in the US.” Deloitte Commissioned by Google, 2017. Web.

    Epizitone, Ayogeboh, and Oludayo O. Olugbara. "Critical Success Factors for ERP System Implementation to Support Financial Functions." Academy of Accounting and Financial Studies Journal, vol. 23, no. 6, 2019. Accessed 12 Oct. 2021

    Gheorghiu, Gabriel. "The ERP Buyer’s Profile for Growing Companies." Selecthub, 2018. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021.

    Karlsson, Johan. "Product Backlog Grooming Examples and Best Practices." Perforce, 18 May 2018. Accessed 4 Feb. 2021.

    Lauchlan, Stuart. “Workday accelerates into fiscal 2023 with a strong year end as cloud adoption gets a COVID-bounce.” diginomica, 1 March 2022. Web.

    "Maximizing the Emotional Economy: Behavioral Economics." Gallup, n.d. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021.

    Noble, Simon-Peter. “Workday: A High-Quality Business That's Fairly Valued.” Seeking Alpha, 8 Apr. 2019. Web.

    Norelus, Ernese, Sreeni Pamidala, and Oliver Senti. "An Approach to Application Modernization: Discovery and Assessment Phase," Medium, 24 Feb. 2020. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021.

    "Process Frameworks." APQC, n.d. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021.

    Saxena, Deepak, and Joe Mcdonagh. "Evaluating ERP Implementations: The Case for a Lifecycle-based Interpretive Approach." The Electronic Journal of Information Systems Evaluation, vol. 22, no. 1, 2019, pp. 29-37. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021.

    “Workday Enterprise Management Cloud Product Scorecard.” SoftwareReviews, May 2022. Web.

    “Workday Meets Growing Customer Demand with Record Number of Deployments and Industry-Leading Customer Satisfaction Score.” Workday, Inc., 7 June 2021. Web.

    IT Talent Trends 2022

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    • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 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.

    Implement an IT Employee Development Plan

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}592|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 9.0/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: 5 Average Days Saved
    • member rating average days 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.
    • Parent Category Name: Train & Develop
    • Parent Category Link: /train-and-develop
    • There is a growing gap between the competencies organizations have been focused on developing and what is needed in the future.
    • Employees have been left to drive their own development with little direction or support and without the alignment of development to organizational needs.
    • The pace of change in today’s environment demands new competencies while making others obsolete, and IT is challenged with keeping up with upskilling employees.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Organizations position development as employee-owned, yet employees still feel like their needs aren’t being met, and many leave as a result.
    • Development needs to be employee-owned and manager-supported but also organization-informed to ensure that it meets the organization’s needs.
    • Today, operating environments change quickly, and organizations need to develop the competencies employees need both today and in the future.

    Impact and Result

    • Design employee development plans that build the competencies the organization and IT department need both today and in the future.
    • Equip managers and build program support to foster continuous learning and development.
    • Connect the right development opportunity to the right employee through an effective development planning process.

    Implement an IT Employee Development Plan Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should implement effective development planning, 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 employees' development needs

    Assist your employees in setting appropriate development goals.

    • Implement Effective Employee Development Planning – Phase 1: Assess Employees' Development Needs
    • IT Manager Job Aid: Employee Development
    • IT Employee Job Aid: Employee Development
    • IT Employee Career Development Workbook
    • Individual Competency Development Plan
    • IT Competency Library
    • Leadership Competencies Workbook

    2. Select appropriate activities for development

    Review existing and identify new development activities that employees can undertake to achieve their goals.

    • Implement Effective Employee Development Planning – Phase 2: Select Activities for Developing Prioritized Competencies
    • Learning Methods Catalog for IT Employees

    3. Build manager coaching skills

    Establish manager and employee follow-up accountabilities.

    • Implement Effective Employee Development Planning – Phase 3: Build Manager Coaching Skills to Support Employee Development
    • Role Play Coaching Scenarios
    [infographic]

    Define Requirements for Outsourcing the Service Desk

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    • member rating average dollars saved: N/A
    • member rating average days saved: N/A
    • Parent Category Name: Service Desk
    • Parent Category Link: /service-desk
    • In organizations where technical support is viewed as non-strategic, many see outsourcing as a cost-effective way to provide this support. However, outsourced projects often fall short of their goals in terms of cost savings and the quality of support. 
    • Significant administrative work and up-front costs are required to outsource the service desk, and poor planning often results in project failure and a decrease of end-user satisfaction.
    • A complete turnover of the service desk can result in lost knowledge and control over processes, and organizations without an exit strategy can struggle to bring their service desk back in house and return the confidence of end users.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Outsourcing is easy. Realizing the expected cost, quality, and focus benefits is hard. Successful outsourcing without being directly involved in service desk management is almost impossible.
    • You don’t need to standardize before you outsource, but you still need to conduct your due diligence. If you outsource without thinking about how you want the future to work, you will likely be unsatisfied with the result.
    • If cost is your only driver for outsourcing, understand that it comes at a cost. Customer service quality will likely be less, and your outsourcer may not add on frills such as Continual Improvement. Be careful that your specialists don’t end up spending more time working on incidents and service requests.

    Impact and Result

    • First decide if outsourcing is the correct step; there may be more preliminary work to do beforehand.
    • Assess requirements and make necessary adjustments before developing an outsource RFP.
    • Clearly define the project and produce an RFP to provide to vendors.
    • Plan for long-term success, not short-term gain.
    • Prepare to retain some of the higher-level service desk work.

    Define Requirements for Outsourcing the Service Desk Research & Tools

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

    1. Define Requirements for Outsourcing the Service Desk Deck – A step-by-step document to walk you through building a strategy for efficient service desk outsourcing.

    This storyboard will help you craft a project charter, create an RFP, and outline strategies to build a long-term relationship with the vendor.

    • Define Requirements for Outsourcing the Service Desk – Storyboard
    • Service Desk Outsourcing Requirements Database Library

    2. Service Desk Outsourcing Project Charter Template and Requirements Library – Best-of-breed templates to help you determine processes and build a strategy to outsource them.

    These templates will help you determine your service desk requirements and document your proposed service desk outsourcing strategy.

    • Service Desk Outsourcing Project Charter Template

    3. Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template – A structured document to help you outline expectations and communicate requirements to managed service providers.

    This template will allow you to create a detailed RFP for your outsourcing agreement, document the statement of work, provide service overview, record exit conditions, and document licensing model and estimated pricing.

    • Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template

    4. Service Desk Outsourcing Reference Interview Template and Scoring Tool – Materials to help you conduct efficient briefings and select the best vendor to fulfill your service desk requirements.

    Use the Reference Interview Template to outline a list of questions for interviewing current/previous customers of your candidate vendors. These interviews will help you with unbiased vendor scoring. The RFP Vendor Scoring Tool will help you facilitate vendor briefings with your list of questions and score candidate vendors efficiently through quantifying evaluations.

    • Service Desk Outsourcing Reference Interview Template
    • Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Scoring Tool

    Infographic

    Further reading

    Define Requirements for Outsourcing the Service Desk

    Prepare your RFP for long-term success, not short-term gains

    Define Requirements for Outsourcing the Service Desk

    Prepare your RFP for long-term success, not short-term gains

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Analyst Perspective

    Outsource services with your eyes wide open.

    Cost reduction has traditionally been an incentive for outsourcing the service desk. This is especially the case for organizations that don't have minimal processes in place and those that need resources and skills to fill gaps.

    Although cost reduction is usually the main reason to outsource the service desk, in most cases service desk outsourcing increases the cost in a short run. But without a proper model, you will only outsource your problems rather than solving them. A successful outsourcing strategy follows a comprehensive plan that defines objectives, assigns accountabilities, and sets expectations for service delivery prior to vendor outreach.

    For outsourcing the service desk, you should plan ahead, work as a group, define requirements, prepare a strong RFP, and contemplate tension metrics to ensure continual improvement. As you build a project charter to outline your strategy for outsourcing your IT services, ensure you focus on better customer service instead of cost optimization. Ensure that the outsourcer can support your demands, considering your long-term achievement.

    Think about outsourcing like a marriage deed. Take into account building a good relationship before beginning the contract, ensure to include expectations in the agreement, and make it possible to exit the agreement if expectations are not satisfied or service improvement is not achieved.

    This is a picture of Mahmoud Ramin, PhD, Senior Research Analyst, Infrastructure and Operations, Info-Tech Research Group

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

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    In organizations where technical support is viewed as non-strategic, many see outsourcing as a cost-effective way to provide this support. However, outsourcing projects often fall short of their goals in terms of cost savings and quality of support.

    Common Obstacles

    Significant administrative work and up-front costs are required to outsource the service desk, and poor planning often results in project failure and the decrease of end-user satisfaction.

    A complete turnover of the service desk can result in lost knowledge and control over processes, and organizations without an exit strategy can struggle to bring their service desk back in house and reestablish the confidence of end users.

    Info-Tech's Approach

    • First decide if outsourcing is the correct step; there may be more preliminary work to do beforehand.
    • Assess requirements and make necessary adjustments before developing an outsource RFP.
    • Clearly define the project and produce an RFP to provide to vendors.
    • Plan for long-term success, not short-term gains.
    • Prepare to retain some of the higher-level service desk work.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Outsourcing is easy. Realizing all of the expected cost, quality, and focus benefits is hard. Successful outsourcing without being directly involved in service desk management is almost impossible.

    Your challenge

    This research is designed to help organizations that need to:

    • Outsource the service desk or portions of service management to improve service delivery.
    • Improve and repatriate existing outsourcing outcomes by becoming more engaged in the management of the function. Regular reviews of performance metrics, staffing, escalation, knowledge base content, and customer satisfaction are critical.
    • Understand the impact that outsourcing would have on the service desk.
    • Understand the potential benefits that outsourcing can bring to the organization.

    This image contains a donut chart with the following information: Salaries and Benefits - 68.50%; Technology - 9.30%; Office Space and Facilities Expense - 14.90%; Travel, Training, and Office Supplies - 7.30%

    Source: HDI 2017

    About 68.5% of the service desk fund is allocated to agent salaries, while only 9.3% of the service desk fund is spent on technology. The high ratio of salaries and expenses over other expense drives organizations to outsource their service desk without taking other considerations into account.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The outsourcing contract must preserve your control, possession, and ownership of the intellectual property involved in the service desk operation. From the beginning of the process, repatriation should be viewed as a possibility and preserved as a capability.

    Your challenge

    This research helps organizations who would like to achieve these goals:

    • Determine objectives and requirements to outsource the service desk.
    • Develop a project charter and build an outsourcing strategy to efficiently define processes to reduce risk of failure.
    • Build an outsourcing RFP and conduct interviews to identify the best candidate for service delivery.
    • Build a long-term relationship with an outsourcing vendor, making sure the vendor is able to satisfy all requirements.
    • Include a continual improvement plan in the outsourcing strategy and contain the option upon service delivery dissatisfaction.

    New hires require between 10 and 80 hours of training (Forward Bpo Inc., 2019).

    A benchmark study by Zendesk from 45,000 companies reveals that timely resolution of issues and 24/7 service are the biggest factors in customer service experience.

    This image contains a bar graph with the following data: Timely issue resolution; 24/7 support; Friendly agent; Desired contact method; Not to repeat info; Proactive support; Self-serve; Call back; Rewards & freebies

    These factors push many businesses to consider service desk outsourcing to vendors that have capabilities to fulfill such requirements.

    Common obstacles

    These barriers make this challenge difficult to address for many organizations:

    • In most cases, organizations must perform significant administrative work before they can make a move. Those that fail to properly prepare impede a smooth transition, the success of the vendor, and the ability to repatriate.
    • Successful outsourcing comes from the recognition that an organization is experiencing complete turnover of its service desk staff. These organizations engage the vendor to transition knowledge and process to ensure continuity of quality.
    • IT realizes the most profound hidden costs of outsourcing when the rate of ticket escalation increases, diminishing the capacity of senior technical staff for strategic project work.

    Many organizations may not get the value they expect from outsourcing in their first year.

    Common Reasons:

    • Overall lack of due diligence in the outsourcing process
    • Unsuitable or unclear service transition plan
    • Poor service provider selection and management

    Poor transition planning results in delayed benefits and a poor relationship with your outsourcing service provider. A poor relationship with your service provider results in poor communication and knowledge transfer.

    Key components of a successful plan:

    1. Determine goals and identify requirements before developing an RFP.
    2. Finalize your outsourcing project charter and get ready for vendor evaluation.
    3. Assess and select the most appropriate provider; manage the transition and vendor relationship.

    Outsource the service desk properly, and you could see a wide range of benefits

    Service Desk Outsourcing: Ability to scale up/down; Reduce fixed costs; Refocus IT efforts on core activities; Access to up-to-date technology; Adhere to  ITSM best practices; Increased process optimization; Focus IT efforts on advanced expertise; Reframe to shift-left;

    Info-Tech Insight

    In your service desk outsourcing strategy, rethink downsizing first-level IT service staff. This can be an opportunity to reassign resources to more valuable roles, such as asset management, development or project backlog. Your current service desk staff are most likely familiar with the current technology, processes, and regulations within IT. Consider the ways to better use your existing resources before reducing headcount.

    Info-Tech's Approach

    Determine Goals

    Conduct activities in the blueprint to pinpoint your current challenges with the service desk and find out objectives to outsource customer service.

    Define Requirements

    You need to be clear about the processes that will be outsourced. Considering your objectives, we'll help you discover the processes to outsource, to help you achieve your goals.

    Develop RFP

    Your expectations should be documented in a formal proposal to help vendors provide solid information about how they will satisfy your requirements and what their plan is.

    Build Long-Term Relationship

    Make sure to plan for continual improvement by setting expectations, tracking the services with proper metrics, and using efficient communication with the provider. Think about the rainy day and include exit conditions for ending the relationship if needed.

    Info-Tech's methodology

    1. Define the Goal

    2. Design an Outsourcing Strategy

    3. Develop an RFP and Make a Long-Term Relationship

    Phase Steps

    1.1 Identify goals and objectives

    1.2 Assess outsourcing feasibility

    2.1 Identify project stakeholders

    2.2 Outline potential risks and constraints

    3.1 Prepare service overview and responsibility matrix

    3.2 Define approach to vendor relationship management

    3.3 Manage the outsource relationship

    Phase Outcomes

    Service Desk Outsourcing Vision and Goals

    Service Desk Processes to Outsource

    Outsourcing Roles and Responsibilities

    Outsourcing Risks and Constraints

    Service Desk Outsourcing Project Charter

    Service Desk Outsourcing RFP

    Continual Improvement Plan

    Exit Strategy

    This is an image of the strategy which you will use to build your requirements for outsourcing the service desk.  it includes: 1. Define the Goal; 2. Design an Outsourcing Strategy; 3. Develop RFP and long-term relationship.

    Insight summary

    Focus on value

    Outsourcing is easy. Realizing all of the expected cost, quality, and focus benefits is hard. Successful outsourcing without being directly involved in service desk management is almost impossible.

    Define outsourcing requirements

    You don't need to standardize before you outsource, but you still need to conduct your due diligence. If you outsource without thinking about how you want the future to work, you will likely be unsatisfied with the result.

    Don't focus on cost

    If cost is your only driver for outsourcing, understand that there will be other challenges. Customer service quality will likely be less, and your outsourcer may not add on frills such as Continual Improvement. Be careful that your specialists don't end up spending more time working on incidents and service requests.

    Emphasize on customer service

    A bad outsourcer relationship will result in low business satisfaction with IT overall. The service desk is the face of IT, and if users are dissatisfied with the service desk, then they are much likelier to be dissatisfied with IT overall.

    Vendors are not magicians

    They have standards in place to help them succeed. Determine ITSM best practices, define your requirements, and adjust process workflows accordingly. Your staff and end users will have a much easier transition once outsourcing proceeds.

    Plan ahead to guarantee success

    Identify outsourcing goals, plan for service and system integrations, document standard incidents and requests, and track tension metrics to make sure the vendor does the work efficiently. Aim for building a long-term relationship but contemplate potential exit strategy.

    Blueprint deliverables

    Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals:

    This is a screenshot from the Service Desk Outsourcing Requirements Database Library

    Service Desk Outsourcing Requirements Database Library

    Use this library to guide you through processes to outsource

    This is a screenshot from the Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template

    Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template

    Use this template to craft a proposal for outsourcing your service desk

    This is a screenshot from the Service Desk Outsourcing Reference Interview Template

    Service Desk Outsourcing Reference Interview Template

    Use this template to verify vendor claims on service delivery with pervious or current customers

    This is a screenshot from the Service Desk Outsourcing Vendor Proposal Scoring Tool

    Service Desk Outsourcing Vendor Proposal Scoring Tool

    Use this tool to evaluate RFP submissions

    Key deliverable:

    This is a screenshot from the key deliverable, Service Desk Outsourcing Project Charter

    Service Desk Outsourcing Project Charter

    Document your project scope and outsourcing strategy in this template to organize the project for efficient resource and requirement allocation

    Blueprint benefits

    IT Benefits

    Business Benefits

    • Determine current challenges with the service desk and identify services to outsource.
    • Make the project charter for an efficient outsourcing strategy that will lead to higher satisfaction from IT.
    • Select the best outsource vendor that will satisfy most of the identified requirements.
    • Reduce the risk of project failure with efficient planning.
    • Understand potential feasibility of service desk outsourcing and its possible impact on business satisfaction.
    • Improve end-user satisfaction through a better service delivery.
    • Conduct more efficient resource allocation with outsourcing customer service.
    • Develop a long-term relationship between the enterprise and vendor through a continual improvement plan.

    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 1Phase 2Phase 3

    Call #1: Scope your specific challenges and objectives

    Call #3: Identify project stakeholders, and potential risks and constraints

    Call #5: Create a detailed RFP

    Call #6: Identify strategy risks.

    Call #2: Assess outsourcing feasibility and processes to outsourceCall #4: Create a list of metrics to ensure efficient reporting

    Call #7: Prepare for vendor briefing and scoring each vendor

    Call #8: Build a communication plan

    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 10 calls over the course of 4 to 6 months.

    Phase 1

    Define the goal

    Define the goal

    Design an outsourcing strategy

    Develop an RFP and make a long-term relationship

    1.1 Identify goals and objectives

    1.2 Assess outsourcing feasibility

    2.1 Identify project stakeholders

    2.2 Outline potential risks and constraints

    3.1 Prepare a service overview and responsibility matrix

    3.2 Define your approach to vendor relationship management

    3.3 Manage the outsource relationship

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Analysis outsourcing objectives
    • Assess outsourcing feasibility
    • Identify services and processes to outsource

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Service Desk Team
    • IT Leadership

    Define requirements for outsourcing service desk support

    Step 1.1

    Identify goals and objectives

    Activities

    1.1.1 Find out why you want to outsource your service desk

    1.1.2 Document the benefits of outsourcing your service desk

    1.1.3 Identify your outsourcing vision and goals

    1.1.4 Prioritize service desk outsourcing goals to help structure your mission statement

    1.1.5 Craft a mission statement that demonstrates your decision to reach your outsourcing objectives

    Define the goal

    This step requires the following inputs:

    • List of strengths and weaknesses of the service desk
    • Challenges with the service desk

    This step involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • IT Leadership
    • Service Desk Manager
    • IT Managers

    Outcomes of this step

    • Service desk outsourcing vision and goals
    • Benefits of outsourcing the service desk
    • Mission statement

    What is your rationale to outsource the service desk?

    Potential benefits of outsourcing the service desk:

    • Bring in the expertise and knowledge to manage tickets according to best-practice guidelines
    • Reduce the timeline to response and resolution
    • Improve IT productivity
    • Enhance IT services and improve performance
    • Augment relationship between IT and business through service-level improvement
    • Free up the internal team and focus IT on complex projects and higher priority tasks
    • Speed up service desk optimization
    • Improve end-user satisfaction through efficient IT services
    • Reduce impact of incidents through effective incident management
    • Increase service consistency via turnover reduction
    • Expand coverage hour and access points
    • Expand languages to service different geographical areas

    1.1.1 Find out why you want to outsource your service desk

    1 hour

    Service desk is the face of IT. Service desk improvement increases IT efficiency, lowers operation costs, and enhances business satisfaction.

    Common challenges that result in deciding to outsource the service desk are:

    Participants: IT Director, Service Desk Manager, Service Desk Team

    ChallengeExample
    Lack of tier 1 supportStartup does not have a dedicated service desk to handle incidents and provide services to end users.
    Inefficient ticket handlingMTTR is very high and end users are frustrated with their issues not getting solved quickly. Even if they call service desk, they are put on hold for a long time. Due to these inefficiencies, their daily work is greatly impacted.
    Restricted service hoursCompany headquartered in Texas does not have resources to provide 24/7 IT service. When users in the East Asia branch have a laptop issue, they must wait until the next day to get response from IT. This has diminished their satisfaction.
    Restricted languagesCompany X is headquartered in New York. An end user not fluent in English from Madrid calls in for support. It takes five minutes for the agent to understand the issue and log a ticket.
    Ticket backlogIT is in firefighting mode, very busy with taking care of critical incidents and requests from upper management. Almost no one is committed to the SLA because of their limited availability.

    Brainstorm your challenges with the service desk. Why have you decided to outsource your service desk? Use the above table as a sample.

    1.1.2 Document benefits of outsourcing your service desk

    1 hour

    1. Review the challenges with your current service desk identified in activity 1.1.1.
    2. Discuss possible ways to tackle these challenges. Be specific and determine ways to resolve these issues if you were to do it internally.
    3. Determine potential benefits of outsourcing the service desk to IT, business, and end users.
    4. For each benefit, describe dependencies. For instance, to reduce the number of direct calls (benefit), users should have access to service desk as a single point of contact (dependency).
    5. Document this activity in the Service Desk Outsourcing Project Charter Template.

    Download the Project Charter Template

    Input

    • List of challenges with the current service desk from activity 1.1.1

    Output

    • Benefits of outsourcing the service desk

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Markers
    • Sticky notes
    • Laptops

    Participants

    • IT Director/CIO
    • Service Desk Manager
    • Service Desk Team
    • IT Managers

    Why should you not consider cost reduction as a primary incentive to outsourcing the service desk?

    Assume that some of the costs will not go away with outsourcing

    When you outsource, the vendor's staff tend to gradually become less effective as:

    • They are managed by metrics to reduce costs by escalating sooner, reducing talk time, and proposing questionable solutions.
    • Turnover results in new employees that get insufficient training.

    You must actively manage the vendor to identify and resolve these issues. Many organizations find that service desk management takes more time after they outsource.

    You need to keep spending on service desk management, and you may not get away from technology infrastructure spending.

    Info-Tech Insight

    In their first year, almost 42% of Info-Tech's clients do not get the real value of outsourcing services as expected. This iss primarily because of misalignment of organizational goals with outcomes of the outsourced services.

    Consider the hidden costs of outsourcing

    Expected Costs

    Unexpected Costs

    Example

    Transition CostsSeverance and staff retention
    • Cost to adapt to vendor standards
    • Training cost of vendor staff
    • Lost productivity
    • Format for requirements
    • Training report developers to work with vendor systems
    FeesPrice of the engagement
    • Extra fees for additional services
    • Extra charges for uploading data to cloud storage
    • Portal access
    Management CostsTime directing account
    • Time directly managing vendor staff
    • Checking deliverables for errors
    • Disputing penalty amounts
    Rework CostsDowntime, defect rate, etc. (quality metrics measured in SLAs)
    • Time spent adapting deliverables for unanticipated requirements
    • Time spent assuring the quality and usefulness of deliverables
    • Completing quality assurance and updating knowledgebase articles
    • Adapting reporting for presentation to stakeholders

    Determine strategies to avoid each hidden cost

    Costs related to transitioning into the engagementAdapting to standards and training costs

    Adapting to standards: Define the process improvements you will need to work with each potential vendor.

    Training costs for vendor staff: Reduce training costs by keeping the same vendor staff on all of your projects.

    Fee-related costs

    Fees for additional services (that you thought were included)

    Carefully review each proposed statement of work to identify and reduce extra fees. Understand why extra fees occur in the SLA, the contract, and the proposed statement of work, and take steps to protect yourself and the vendor.

    Management-related costs

    Direct management of vendor staff and dispute resolution

    Direct management of vendor staff: Avoid excessive management costs by defining a two-tier management structure on both sides of the engagement.

    Time spent resolving disputes: Avoid prolonged resolution costs by defining terms of divorce for the engagement up front.

    Rework costs

    Unanticipated requirements and integration with existing systems

    Unanticipated requirements: Use a two-stage process to define requirements, starting with business people and then with review by technical staff.

    Integration with existing systems: Obtain a commitment from vendors that deliverables will conform to standards at points of integration with your systems.

    Your outsourcing strategy should address the reasons you decided to outsource

    A clear vision of strategic objectives prior to entering an outsourcing agreement will allow you to clearly communicate these objectives to the Managed Service Provider (MSP) and use them as a contracted basis for the relationship.

    • Define the business' overall approach to outsourcing along with the priorities, rules, and principles that will drive the outsourcing strategy and every subsequent outsourcing decision and activity.
    • Define specific business, service, and technical goals for the outsourcing project and relevant measures of success.

    "People often don't have a clear direction around what they're trying to accomplish. The strategic goals should be documented. Is this a cost-savings exercise? Is it because you're deficient in one area? Is it because you don't have the tools or expertise to run the service desk yourself? Figure out what problem you're trying to solve by outsourcing, then build your strategy around that.
    – Jeremy Gagne, Application Support Delivery Manager, Allegis Group

    Most organizations are driven to consider outsourcing their service desk hoping to improve the following:

    • Ability to scale (train people and acquire skills)
    • Focus on core competencies
    • Decrease capital costs
    • Access latest technology without large investment
    • Resolve labor force constraints
    • Gain access to special expertise without paying a full salary
    • Save money overall

    Info-Tech Insight

    Use your goals and objectives as a management tool. Clearly outline your desired project outcomes to both your in-house team and the vendor during implementation and monitoring. It will allow a common ground to unite both parties as the project progresses.

    Mitigate pitfalls that lay in the way of desired outcomes of outsourcing

    Desired outcomePitfalls to overcome
    IT can focus on core competencies and strategic initiatives rather than break-fix tasks.Escalation to second- and third-level support usually increases when the first level has been outsourced. Outsourcers will have less experience with your typical incidents and will give up on trying to solve some issues more quickly than your internal level-one staff.
    Low outsourcing costs compared to the costs needed to employ internal employees in the same role. Due to lack of incentive to decrease ticket volume, costs are likely to increase. As a result, organizations often find themselves paying more overall for an outsourced service desk than if they had a few dedicated IT service desk employees in-house.
    Improved employee morale as a result of being able to focus on more interesting tasks.Management often expects existing employee morale to increase as a result of shifting their focus to core and strategic tasks, but the fear of diminished job security often spreads to the remaining non-level-one employees.

    1.1.3 Identify outsourcing vision and goals

    Identify the goals and objectives of outsourcing to inform your strategy.

    Participants: IT Director, Service Desk Manager, Service Desk Team

    1-2 hours

    1. Meet with key business stakeholders and the service desk staff who were involved in the decision to outsource.
    2. As a group, review the results from activity 1.1.1 (challenges with current service desk operations) and identify the goals and objectives of the outsourcing initiative.
    3. Determine the key performance indicator (KPI) for each goal.
    4. Identify the impacted stakeholder/s for each goal.
    5. Discuss checkpoint schedule for each goal to make sure the list stays updated.

    Use the sample table as a starting point:

    1. Document your table in the Service Desk Outsourcing Project Charter Template.
    IDGoal DescriptionKPIImpacted StakeholdersCheckpoint Schedule
    1Provide capacity to take calls outside of current service desk work hours
    • Decreased in time to response
    • Decreased time to resolve
    • IT Entire organization
    • Every month
    2Take calls in different languages
    • Improved service delivery in different geographical regions
    • Improved end-user satisfaction
    • End users
    • Every month
    3Provide field support at remote sites with no IT presence without having to fly out an employee
    • 40% faster incident resolution and request fulfillment
    • Entire organization
    • Every month
    4Improve ease of management by vendor helping with managing and optimizing service desk tasks
    • Improved service management efficiency
    • Entire organization
    • Every 3 months

    Download the Project Charter Template

    Evaluate organizational demographics to assess outsourcing rationale

    The size, complexity, and maturity of your organization are good indicators of service desk direction with regards to outsourcing.

    Organization Size

    • As more devices, applications, systems, and users are added to the mix, vendor costs will increase but their ability to meet business needs will decrease.
    • Small organizations are often either rejected by vendors for being too small or locked into a contract that is overkill for their actual needs (and budget).

    Complexity

    • Highly customized environments and organizations with specialized applications or stringent regulatory requirements are very difficult to outsource for a reasonable cost and acceptable quality.
    • In these cases, the vendor is required to train skilled support or ends up escalating more tickets back to second- and third-level support.

    Requirements

    • Organizations looking to outsource must have defined outsourcing requirements before looking at vendors.
    • Without a requirement assessment, the vendor won't have guidelines to follow and you won't be able to measure their adherence.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Although less adherence to service desk best practices can be one of the main incentives to outsourcing the service desk, IT should have minimal processes in place to be able to set expectations with targeting vendors.

    1.1.4 Prioritize service desk outsourcing goals to help structure mission statement

    0.5-1 hour

    The evaluation process for outsourcing the service desk should be done very carefully. Project leaders should make sure they won't panic internal resources and impact their performance through the transition period.

    If the outsourcing process is rushed, it will result in poor evaluation, inefficient decision making, and project failure.

    1. Refer to results in activity 1.1.3. Discuss the service desk outsourcing goals once again.
    2. Brainstorm the most important objectives. Use sticky notes to prioritize the items from the most important to the least important.
    3. Edit the order accordingly.

    Input

    • Project goals from activity 1.1.3

    Output

    • Prioritized list of outsourcing goals

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Markers
    • Sticky notes
    • Laptops

    Participants

    • IT Director/CIO
    • Service Desk Manager
    • Service Desk Team
    • IT Managers

    Download the Project Charter Template

    1.1.5 Craft a mission statement that demonstrates your decision to reach outsourcing objectives

    Participants: IT Director, Service Desk Manager

    0.5-1 hour

    The IT mission statement specifies the function's purpose or reason for being. The mission should guide each day's activities and decisions. The mission statement should use simple and concise terminology and speak loudly and clearly, generating enthusiasm for the organization.

    Strong IT mission statements:

    • Articulate the IT function's purpose and reason for existence
    • Describe what the IT function does to achieve its vision
    • Define the customers of the IT function
    • Can be described as:
      • Compelling
      • Easy to grasp
      • Sharply focused
      • Inspirational
      • Memorable
      • Concise

    Sample mission statements:

    • To help fulfill organizational goals, IT has decided to empower business stakeholders with outsourcing the service desk.
    • To support efficient IT service provision, better collaboration, and effective communication, [Company Name] has decided to outsource the service desk.
    • [Company Name] plans to outsource the service desk so it can identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies with current service desk processes and enable [Company Name] to innovate and support business growth.
    • Considering the goals and benefits determined in the previous activities, outline a mission statement.
    • Document your outsourcing mission statement in the "Project Overview" section of the Project Charter Template.

    Download the Project Charter Template

    Step 1.2

    Assess outsourcing feasibility

    Activities

    1.2.1 Create a baseline of customer experience

    1.2.2 Identify service desk processes to outsource

    1.2.3 Design an outsourcing decision matrix for service desk processes and services

    1.2.4 Discuss if you need to outsource only service desk or if additional services would benefit from outsourcing too

    Define the goal

    This step requires the following inputs:

    • List of service desk tasks and responsibilities

    This step involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • IT Leadership
    • Service Desk Manager
    • Infrastructure Manager

    Outcomes of this step

    • End-user satisfaction with the service desk
    • List of processes and services to outsource

    1.2.1 Create a baseline of customer experience

    Solicit targeted department feedback on IT's core service capabilities, communications, and business enablement from end users. Use this feedback to assess end-user satisfaction with each service, broken down by department and seniority level.

    1. Complete an end-user satisfaction survey to define the current state of your IT services, including service desk (timeliness and effectiveness). With Info-Tech's end-user satisfaction program, an analyst will help you set up the diagnostic and will go through the report with you.
    2. Evaluate survey results.
    3. Communicate survey results with team leads and discuss the satisfaction rates and comments of the end users.
    4. Schedule to launch another survey one year after outsourcing the service desk.
    5. Your results will be compared to the following year's results to analyze the overall success/failure of your outsourcing project.

    A decrease of business and end-user satisfaction is a big drive to outsourcing the service desk. Conduct a customer service survey to discover your end-user experience prior to and after outsourcing the service desk.

    Don't get caught believing common misconceptions: outsourcing doesn't mean sending away all the work

    First-time outsourcers often assume they are transferring most of the operations over to the vendor, but this is often not the case.

    1. Management of performance, SLAs, and customer satisfaction remain the responsibility of your organization.
    2. Service desk outsource vendors provide first-line response. This includes answering the phones, troubleshooting simple problems, and redirecting requests that are more complex.
    3. The vendor is often able to provide specialized support for standard applications (and for customized applications if you'll pay for it). However, the desktop support still needs someone onsite, and that service is very expensive to outsource.
    4. Tickets that are focused on custom applications and require specialized or advanced support are escalated back to your organization's second- and third-level support teams.

    Switching to a vendor won't necessarily improve your service desk maturity

    You should have minimal requirements before moving.

    Whether managing in-house or outsourcing, it is your job to ensure core issues have been clarified, processes defined, and standards maintained. If your processes are ad-hoc or non-existent right now, outsourcing won't fix them.

    You must have the following in place before looking to outsource:

    • Defined reporting needs and plans
    • Formalized skill-set requirements
    • Problem management and escalation guidelines
    • Ticket templates and classification rules
    • Workflow details
    • Knowledge base standards

    Info-Tech Insight

    If you expect your problems to disappear with outsourcing, they might just get worse.

    Define long-term requirements

    Anticipate growth throughout the lifecycle of your outsourcing contract and build that into the RFP

    • Most outsourcing agreements typically last three to five years. In that time, you risk outgrowing your service provider by neglecting to define your long-term service desk requirements.
    • Outgrowing your vendor before your contract ends can be expensive due to high switching costs. Managing multiple vendors can also be problematic.
    • It is crucial to define your service desk requirements before developing a request for proposal to make sure the service you select can meet your organization's needs.
    • Make sure that the business is involved in this planning stage, as the goals of IT need to scale with the growth strategy of the business. You may select a vendor with no additional capacity despite the fact that your organization has a major expansion planned to begin two years from now. Assessing future requirements also allows you to culture match with the vendor. If your outlooks and practices are similar, the match will likely click.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Don't select a vendor for what your company is today – select a vendor for what your company will be years from now. Define your future service desk requirements in addition to your current requirements and leave room for growth and development.

    You can't outsource everything

    Manage the things that stay in-house well or suffer the consequences.

    "You can't outsource management; you can only outsource supervision." Barry Cousins, Practice Lead, Info-Tech Research Group

    What can be the vendor in charge of?

    What stays in-house?

    • Call and email answering
    • Ongoing daily ticket creation and tracking
    • Tier 1 support
    • Internal escalation to Level 2 support
    • External escalation to specialized Level 2 and Level 3 support
    • Knowledge base article creation
    • Service desk-related hardware acquisition and maintenance
    • Service desk software acquisition and maintenance
    • Security and access management
    • Disaster recovery
    • Staff acquisition
    • Facilities
    • The role of the Service Desk Manager
    • Skills and training standards
    • Document standardization
    • Knowledge base quality assurance and documentation standardization
    • Self-service maintenance, promotion, and ownership
    • Short and long-term tracking of vendor performance

    Info-Tech Insight

    The need for a Service Desk Manager does not go away when you outsource. In fact, the need becomes even stronger and never diminishes.

    Assess current service desk processes before outsourcing

    Process standards with areas such as documentation, workflow, and ticket escalation should be in place before the decision to outsource has been made.

    Every effective service desk has a clear definition of the services that they are performing for the end user. You can't provide a service without knowing what the services are.

    MSPs typically have their own set of standards and processes in play. If your service desk is not at a similar level of maturity, outsourcing will not be pleasant.

    Make sure that your metrics are reported consistently and that they tell a story.

    "Establish baseline before outsourcing. Those organizations that don't have enough service desk maturity before outsourcing should work with the outsourcer to establish the baseline."
    – Yev Khobrenkov, Enterprise Consultant, Solvera Solutions

    Info-Tech Insight

    Outsourcing vendors are not service desk builders; they're service desk refiners. Switching to a vendor won't improve your maturity; you must have a certain degree of process maturity and standardization before moving.

    Case Study

    INDUSTRY: Cleaning Supplies

    SOURCE: PicNet

    Challenge

    • Reckitt Benckiser of Australia determined that its core service desk needed to be outsourced.
    • It would retain its higher level service desk staff to work on strategic projects.
    • The MSP needed to fulfill key requirements outlined by Reckitt Benckiser.

    Solution

    • Reckitt Benckiser recognized that its rapidly evolving IT needs required a service desk that could fulfill the following tasks:
    • Free up internal IT staff.
    • Provide in-depth understanding of business apps.
    • Offer efficient, cost-effective support onsite.
    • Focus on continual service improvement (CSI).

    Results

    • An RFP was developed to support the outsourcing strategy.
    • With the project structure outlined and the requirements of the vendor for the business identified, Reckitt Benckiser could now focus on selecting a vendor that met its needs.

    1.2.1 Identify service desk processes to outsource

    2-3 hours

    Review your prioritized project goals from activity 1.1.4.

    Brainstorm requirements and use cases for each goal and describe each use case. For example: To improve service desk timeliness, IT should improve incident management, to resolve incidents according to the defined SLA and based on ticket priority levels.

    Discuss if you're outsourcing just incident management or both incident management and request fulfillment. If both, determine what level of service requests will be outsourced? Will you ask the vendor to provide a service catalog? Will you outsource self-serve and automation?

    Document your findings in the service desk outsourcing requirements database library.

    Input

    • Outsourcing project goals from activity 1.1.4

    Output

    • List of processes to outsource

    Materials

    • Sticky notes
    • Markers
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Laptops

    Participants

    • IT Director/CIO
    • Service Desk Manager
    • Service Desk Team

    Download the Requirements Database Library

    1.2.2 Design an outsourcing decision matrix for service desk processes and services

    Participants: IT Director, Service Desk Manager, Infrastructure manager

    2-3 hours

    Most successful service desk outsourcing engagements have a primary goal of freeing up their internal resources to work on complex tasks and projects. The key outsourcing success factor is to find out internal services and processes that are standardized or should be standardized, and then determine if they can be outsourced.

    1. Review the list of identified service desk processes from activity 1.2.1.
    2. Discuss the maturity level of each process (low, medium, high) and document under the maturity column of the Outsource the Service Desk Requirements Database Library.
    3. Use the following decision matrix for each process. Discuss which tasks are important to strategic objectives, which ones provide competitive advantage, and which ones require specialized in-house knowledge.
    4. Identify processes that receive high vendor's performance advantage. For instance, access to talent, lower cost at scale, and access to technology.
    5. In your outsourcing assessment, consider a narrow scope of engagement and a broad view of what is important to business outcome.
    6. Based on your findings, determine the priority of each process to be outsourced. Document results in the service desk outsourcing requirements database library, and section 4.1 of the service desk outsourcing project charter.
    • Important to strategic objectives
    • Provides competitive advantage
    • Specialized in-house knowledge required

    This is an image of a quadrant analysis, where the X axis is labeled Vendor's Performance Advantage, and the Y axis is labeled Importance to Business Outcomes.

    • Talent/access to skills
    • Economies of scale/lower cost at scale
    • Access to technology

    Download the Requirements Database Library

    Download the Project Charter Template

    Maintain staff and training: you need to know who is being hired, how, and why

    Define documentation rules to retain knowledge

    • Establish a standard knowledge article template and list of required information.
    • Train staff on the requirements of knowledge base creation and management. Help them understand the value of the time spent recording their work.
    • It is your responsibility to assure the quality of each knowledge article. Outline accountabilities for internal staff and track for performance evaluations.

    For information on better knowledge management, refer to Info-Tech's blueprint Optimize the Service Desk With a Shift-Left Strategy.

    Expect to manage stringent skills and training standards

    • Plan on being more formal about a Service Manager position and spending more time than you allocated previously.
    • Complete a thorough assessment of the skills you need to keep the service desk running smoothly.
    • Don't forget to account for any customized or proprietary systems. How will you train vendor staff to accommodate your needs? What does their turnaround look like: would it be more likely that you acquire a dependable employee in-house?
    • Staffing requirements need to be actively monitored to ensure the outsourcer doesn't have degradation of quality or hiring standards. Don't assume that things run well – complete regular checks and ask for access to audit results.
    • Are the systems and data being accessed by the vendor highly sensitive or subject to regulatory requirements? If so, it is your job to ensure that vendor staff are being screened appropriately.

    Does your service desk need to integrate to other IT services?

    A common challenge when outsourcing multiple services to more than one vendor is a lack of collaboration and communication between vendors.

    • Leverage SIAM capabilities to integrate service desk tasks to other IT services, if needed.
    • "Service Integration and Management (SIAM) is a management methodology that can be applied in an environment that includes services sourced from a number of service providers" (Scopism Limited, 2020).
    • SIAM supports cross-functional integrations. Organizations that look for a single provider will be less likely to get maximum benefits from SIAM.

    There are three layers of entities in SIAM:

    • Customer Organization: The customer who receives services, who defines the relationship with service providers.
    • Service Integrator: End-to-end service governance and integration is done at this layer, making sure all service providers are committed to their services.
    • Service Provider: Responsible party for service delivery according to contract. It can be combination of internal provider, managed by internal agreements, and external provider, managed by SLAs between providers and customer organization.

    Use SIAM to obtain better results from multiple service providers

    In the SIAM model, the customer organization keeps strategic, governance, and business activities, while integrating other services (either internally or externally).

    This is an image of the SIAM model

    SIAM Layers. Source: SIAM Foundation BoK

    Utilize SIAM to obtain better results from multiple service providers

    SIAM reduces service duplication and improves service delivery via managing internal and external service providers.

    To utilize the SIAM model, determine the following components:

    • Service providers
    • Service consumers
    • Service outcomes
    • Service obstacles and boundaries
    • Service dependencies
    • Technical requirements and interactions for each service
    • Service data and information including service levels

    To learn more about adopting SIAM, visit Scopism.

    1.2.3 Discuss if you need to outsource only service desk or if additional services would benefit from outsourcing too

    1-2 hours

    • Discuss principles and goals of SIAM and how integrating other services can apply within your processes.
    • Review the list of service desk processes and tasks to be outsourced from activities 1.2.1 and 1.2.2.
    • Brainstorm a list of other services that are outsourced/need to be outsourced.
    • Determine providers of each service (both internal and external). Document the other services to be integrated in the project charter template and requirements database library.

    Input

    • SIAM objectives
    • List of service desk processes to outsource

    Output

    • List of other services to outsource and integrate in the project

    Materials

    • Sticky notes
    • Markers
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Laptops

    Participants

    • IT Director/CIO
    • Service Desk Manager
    • Service Desk Team

    Download the Requirements Database Library

    Download the Project Charter Template

    Establish requirements for problem management in the outsourcing plan

    Your MSP should not just fulfill SLAs – they should be a proactive source of value.

    Problem management is a group effort. Make sure your internal team is assisted with sufficient and efficient data by the outsourcer to conduct a better problem management.

    Clearly state your organization's expectations for enabling problem management. MSPs may not necessarily need, and cannot do, problem management; however, they should provide metrics to help you discover trends, define recurring issues, and enable root cause analysis.

    For more information on problem management, refer to Info-Tech's blueprint Improve Incident and Problem Management.

    PROBLEM MANAGEMENT

    INCIDENT MANAGEMENT

    INTAKE: Ticket data from incident management is needed for incident matching to identify problems. Critical Incidents are also a main input to problem management.

    EVENT MANAGEMENT

    INTAKE: SMEs and operations teams monitoring system health events can identify indicators of potential future issues before they become incidents.

    APPLICATION, INFRASTRUCTURE, and SECURITY TEAMS

    ACTION: Problem tickets require investigation from relevant SMEs across different IT teams to identify potential solutions or workarounds.

    CHANGE MANAGEMENT

    OUTPUT: Problem resolution may need to go through Change Management for proper authorization and risk management.

    Outline problem management protocols to gain value from your service provider

    • For example, with a deep dive into ticket trend analysis, your MSP should be able to tell you that you've had a large number of tickets on a particular issue in the past month, allowing you to look into means to resolve the issue and prevent it from reoccurring.
    • A proactive MSP should be able to help your service levels improve over time. This should be built into the KPIs and metrics you ask for from the outsourcer.

    Sample Scenario

    Your MSP tracks ticket volume by platform.

    There are 100 network tickets/month, 200 systems tickets/month, and 5,000 end-user tickets/month.

    Tracking these numbers is a good start, but the real value is in the analysis. Why are there 5,000 end-user tickets? What are the trends?

    Your MSP should be providing a monthly root-cause analysis to help improve service quality.

    Outcomes:

    1. Meeting basic SLAs tells a small part of the story. The MSP is performing well in a functional sense, but this doesn't shed any insight on what kind of knowledge or value is being added.
    2. The MSP should provide routine updates on ticket trends and other insights gained through data analysis.
    3. A commitment to continual improvement will provide your organization with value throughout the duration of the outsourcing agreement.

    Phase 2

    Design an Outsourcing Strategy

    Define the goal

    Design an outsourcing strategy

    Develop an RFP and make a long-term relationship

    1.1 Identify goals and objectives

    1.2 Assess outsourcing feasibility

    2.1 Identify project stakeholders

    2.2 Outline potential risks and constraints

    3.1 Prepare a service overview and responsibility matrix

    3.2 Define your approach to vendor relationship management

    3.3 Manage the outsource relationship

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Identify roles and responsibilities
    • Determine potential risks of outsourcing the service desk
    • Build a list of metrics

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Service Desk Team
    • IT Leadership

    Define requirements for outsourcing service desk support

    Step 2.1

    Identify project stakeholders

    Activity

    2.1.1 Identify internal outsourcing roles and responsibilities

    Design an Outsourcing Strategy

    This step requires the following inputs:

    • List of service desk roles
    • Service desk outsourcing goals

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT Managers
    • Project Team
    • Service Desk Manager

    Outcome of this step

    • Outsourcing roles and responsibilities

    Design an outsourcing strategy to capture the vision of your service desk

    An outsourcing strategy is crucial to the proper accomplishment of an outsourcing project. By taking the time to think through your strategy beforehand, you will have a clear idea of your desired outcomes. This will make your RFP of higher quality and will result in a much easier negotiation process.

    Most MSPs are prepared to offer a standard proposal to clients who do not know what they want. These are agreements that are doomed to fail. A clearly defined set of goals (discussed in Phase 1), risks, and KPIs and metrics (covered in this phase) makes the agreement more beneficial for both parties in the long run.

    1. Identify goals and objectives
    2. Determine mission statement
    3. Define roles and responsibilities
    4. Identify risks and constraints
    5. Define KPIs and metrics
    6. Complete outsourcing strategy

    A successful outsourcing initiative depends on rigorous preparation

    Outsourcing is a garbage in, garbage out initiative. You need to give your service provider the information they need to provide an effective product.

    • Data quality is critical to your outsourcing initiative's success.
    • Your vendor will be much better equipped to help you and to better price its services if it has a thorough understanding of your IT environment.
    • This means more than just building a catalog of your hardware and software. You will need to make available documented policies and processes so you and your vendor can understand where they fit in.
    • Failure to completely document your environment can lead to a much longer time to value as your provider will have to spend much more time (and thus much more money) getting their service up and running.

    "You should fill the gap before outsourcing. You should make sure how to measure tickets, how to categorize, and what the cost of outsourcing will be. Then you'll be able to outsource the execution of the service. Start your own processes and then outsource their execution."
    – Kris Krishan, Head of IT and business systems, Waymo

    Case Study

    Digital media company built an outsourcing strategy to improve customer satisfaction

    INDUSTRY: Digital Media

    SOURCE: Auxis

    Challenge

    A Canadian multi-business company with over 13,000 employees would like to maintain a growing volume of digital content with their endpoint management.

    The client operated a tiered model service desk. Tier 1 was outsourced, and tier 2 tasks were done internally, for more complex tasks and projects.

    As a result of poor planning and defining goals, the company had issues with:

    • Low-quality ticket handling
    • High volume of tickets escalated to tier 2, restraining them from working on complex tickets
    • High turn over and a challenge with talent retention
    • Insufficient documentation to train external tier 1 team
    • Long resolution time and low end-user satisfaction

    Solution

    The company structured a strategy for outsourcing service desk and defined their expectations and requirements.

    They engaged with another outsourcer that would fulfill their requirements as planned.

    With the help of the outsourcer's consulting team, the client was able to define the gaps in their existing processes and system to:

    • Implement a better ticketing system that could follow best-practices guidelines
    • Restructure the team so they would be able to handle processes efficiently

    Results

    The proactive planning led to:

    • Significant improvement in first call resolution (82%).
    • MTTR improvement freed tier 2 to focus on business strategic objectives and allowed them to work on higher-value activities.
    • With a better strategy around outsourcing planning, the company saved 20% of cost compared to the previous outsourcer.
    • As a result of this partnership, the company is providing a 24/7 structure in multiple languages, which is aligned with the company's growth.
    • Due to having a clear strategy built for the project, the client now has better visibility into metrics that support long-term continual improvement plans.

    Define roles and responsibilities for the outsourcing transition to form the base of your outsourcing strategy

    There is no "I" in outsource; make sure the whole team is involved

    Outsourcing is a complete top-to-bottom process that involves multiple levels of engagement:

    • Management must make high-level decisions about staffing and negotiate contract details with the vendor.
    • Service desk employees must execute on the documentation and standardization of processes in an effort to increase maturity.
    • Roles and responsibilities need to be clearly defined to ensure that all aspects of the transition are completed on time.
    • Implement a full-scale effort that involves all relevant staff. The most common mistake is to have the project design follow the same top-down pattern as the decision-making process.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The service desk doesn't operate in isolation. The service desk interfaces with many other parts of the organization (such as finance, purchasing, field support, etc.), so it's important to ensure you engage stakeholders from other departments as well. If you only engage the service desk staff in your discussions around outsourcing strategy and RFP development, you may miss requirements that will come up when it's too late.

    2.1.1 Identify internal outsourcing roles and responsibilities

    2 hours

    1. The sample RACI chart in section 5 of the Project Charter Template outlines which positions are responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed for each major task within the outsourcing project.
    2. Responsible, is the group that is responsible for the execution and oversight of activities for the project. Accountable is the owner of the task/process, who is accountable for the results and outcomes. Consulted is the subject matter expert (SME) who is actively involved in the task/process and consulted on decisions. Informed is not actively involved with the task/process and is updated about decisions around the task/process.
    3. Make sure that you assign only one person as accountable per process. There can be multiple people responsible for each task. Consulted and Informed are optional for each task.
    4. Complete the RACI chart with recommended participants, and document in your service desk outsourcing project charter, under section 5.

    Input

    • RACI template
    • Org chart

    Output

    • List of roles and responsibilities for outsource project

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Markers
    • Laptops

    Participants

    • IT Director/CIO
    • Service Desk Manager
    • Service Desk Team

    Download the Project Charter Template

    Step 2.2

    Outline potential risks and constraints

    Activities

    2.2.1 Identify potential risks and constraints that may impact achievement of objectives

    2.2.2 Arrange groups of tension metrics to balance your reporting

    Design an Outsourcing Strategy

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Outsourcing objectives
    • Potential risks

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT Managers
    • Project Team
    • Service Desk Manager

    Outcomes of this step

    • Mitigation strategy for each risk
    • Service desk metrics

    Know your constraints to reduce surprises during project implementation

    No service desk is perfect; know your limits and plan accordingly

    Define your constraints to outsourcing the service desk.

    Consider all types of constraints and opportunities, including:

    • Business forces
    • Economic cycles
    • Disruptive tech
    • Regulation and compliance issues
    • Internal organizational issues

    Within the scope of a scouring decision, define your needs and objectives, measure those as much as possible, and compare them with the "as-is" situation.

    Start determining what alternative approaches/scenarios the organization could use to fill the gaps. Start a comparison of scenarios against drivers, goals, and risks.

    Constraints

    Goals and objectives

    • Budget
    • Maturity
    • Compliance
    • Regulations
    • Outsourcing Strategy

    Plan ahead for potential risks that may impede your strategy

    Risk assessment must go hand-in-hand with goal and objective planning

    Risk is inherent with any outsourcing project. Common outsourcing risks include:

    • Lack of commitment to the customer's goals from the vendor.
    • The distraction of managing the relationship with the vendor.
    • A perceived loss of control and a feeling of over-dependence on your vendor.
    • Managers may feel they have less influence on the development of strategy.
    • Retained staff may feel they have become less skilled in their specialist field.
    • Unanticipated expenses that were assumed to be offered by the vendor.
    • Savings only result from high capital investment in new projects on the part of the customer.

    Analyze the risks associated with a specific scenario. This analysis should identify and understand the most common sourcing and vendor risks using a risk-reward analysis for selected scenarios. Use tools and guidelines to assess and manage vendor risk and tailor risk evaluation criteria to the types of vendors and products.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Plan for the worst to prevent it from happening. Evaluating risk should cover a wide variety of scenarios including the worst possible cases. This type of thinking will be crucial when developing your exit strategy in a later exercise.

    2.2.1 Identify potential risks and constraints that may impact achievement of objectives

    1-3 hours

    1. Brainstorm any potential risks that may arise through the outsourcing project. Describe each risk and categorize both its probability of occurring and impact on the organization as high (H), medium (M), or low (L), using the table below:
    Risk Description

    Probability(H/M/L)

    Impact(H/M/L)Planned Mitigation
    Lack of documentationMMUse cloud-based solution to share documents.
    Knowledge transferLMDetailed knowledge-sharing agreement in place in the RFP.
    Processes not followedLHClear outline and definition of current processes.
    1. Identify any constraints for your outsourcing strategy that may restrict, limit, or place certain conditions on the outsourcing project.
      • This may include budget restrictions or staffing limitations.
      • Identifying constraints will help you be prepared for risks and will lessen their impact.
    2. Document risks and constraints in section 6 of the Service Desk Outsourcing Project Charter Template.

    Input

    • RACI template
    • Org chart

    Output

    • List of roles and responsibilities for outsource project

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Markers

    Participants

    • IT Director/CIO
    • Service Desk Manager
    • Service Desk Team

    Download the Project Charter Template

    Define service tiers and roles to develop clear vendor SLAs

    Management of performance, SLAs, and customer satisfaction remain the responsibility of your organization.

    Define the tiers and/or services that will be the responsibility of the MSP, as well as escalations and workflows across tiers. A sample outsourced structure is displayed here:

    External Vendor

    Tickets beyond the scope of the service desk staff need to be escalated back to the vendor responsible for the affected system.

    Tier 3

    Tickets that are focused on custom applications and require specialized or advanced support are escalated back to your organization's second- and third-level support teams.

    Tier 2

    The vendor is often able to provide specialized support for standard applications. However, the desktop support still needs someone onsite as that service is very expensive to outsource.

    Tier 1

    Service desk outsource vendors provide first-line response. This includes answering the phones, troubleshooting simple problems, and redirecting requests that are more complex.

    Info-Tech Insight

    If you outsource everything, you'll be at the mercy of consultancy or professional services shops later on. You won't have anyone in-house to help you deploy anything; you're at the mercy of a consultant to come in and tell you what to do and how much to spend. Keep your highly skilled people in-house to offset what you'd have to pay for consultancy. If you need to repatriate your service desk later on, you will need skills in-house to do so.

    Don't become obsessed with managing by short-term metrics – look at the big picture

    "Good" metric results may simply indicate proficient reactive fixing; long-term thinking involves implementing proactive, balanced solutions.

    KPIs demonstrate that you are running an effective service desk because:

    • You close an average of 300 tickets per week
    • Your first call resolution is above 90%
    • Your talk time is less than five minutes
    • Surveys reveal clients are satisfied

    While these results may appear great on the surface, metrics don't tell the whole story.

    The effort from any support team seeks to balance three elements:

    FCR: Time; Resources; Quality

    First-Contact Resolution (FCR) Rate

    Percentage of tickets resolved during first contact with user (e.g. before they hang up or within an hour of submitting ticket). Could be measured as first-contact, first-tier, or first-day resolution.

    End-User Satisfaction

    Perceived value of the service desk measured by a robust annual satisfaction survey of end users and/or transactional satisfaction surveys sent with a percentage of tickets.

    Ticket Volume and Cost Per Ticket

    Monthly operating expenses divided by average ticket volume per month. Report ticket volume by department or ticket category, and look at trends for context.

    Average Time to Resolve (incidents) or Fulfill (service requests)

    Time elapsed from when a ticket is "open" to "resolved." Distinguish between ticket resolution vs. closure, and measure time for incidents and service requests separately.

    Focus on tension metrics to achieve long-term success

    Tension metrics help create a balance by preventing teams from focusing on a single element.

    For example, an MSP built incentives around ticket volume for their staff, but not the quality of tickets. As a result, the MSP staff rushed through tickets and gamed the system while service quality suffered.

    Use metrics to establish baselines and benchmarking data:

    • If you know when spikes in ticket volumes occur, you can prepare to resource more appropriately for these time periods
    • Create KB articles to tackle recurring issues and assist tier 1 technicians and end users.
      • Employ a root cause analysis to eliminate recurring tickets.

    "We had an average talk time of 15 minutes per call and I wanted to ensure they could handle those calls in 15 minutes. But the behavior was opposite, [the vendor] would wrap up the call, transfer prematurely, or tell the client they'd call them back. Service levels drive behavior so make sure they are aligned with your strategic goals with no unintended consequences."
    – IT Services Manager, Banking

    Info-Tech Insight

    Make sure your metrics work cooperatively. Metrics should be chosen that cause tension on one another. It's not enough to rely on a fast service desk that doesn't have a high end-user satisfaction rate or runs at too high a cost; there needs to be balance.

    2.2.2 Arrange groups of tension metrics to balance your reporting

    1-3 hours

    1. Define KPIs and metrics that will be critical to service desk success.
    2. Distribute sticky notes of different colors to participants around the table.
    3. Select a space to place the sticky notes – a table, whiteboard, flip chart, etc. – and divide it into three zones.
    4. Refer to your defined list of goals and KPIs from activity 1.1.3 and discuss metrics to fulfill each KPI. Note that each goal (critical success factor, CSF) may have more than one KPI. For instance:
      1. Goal 1: Increase end-user satisfaction; KPI 1: Improve average transactional survey score. KPI 2: Improve annual relationship survey score.
      2. Goal 2: Improve service delivery; KPI 1: Reduce time to resolve incidents. KPI 2: Reduce time to fulfill service requests.
    5. Recall that tension metrics must form a balance between:
      1. Time
      2. Resources
      3. Quality
    6. Record the results in section 7 of the Service Desk Outsourcing Project Charter Template.

    Input

    • Service desk outsourcing goals
    • Service desk outsourcing KPIs

    Output

    • List of service desk metrics

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Sticky notes
    • Markers
    • Laptops

    Participants

    • Project Team
    • Service Desk Manager

    Download the Project Charter Template

    Phase 3

    Develop an RFP and make a long-term relationship

    Define the goal

    Design an outsourcing strategy

    Develop an RFP and make a long-term relationship

    1.1 Identify goals and objectives

    1.2 Assess outsourcing feasibility

    2.1 Identify project stakeholders

    2.2 Outline potential risks and constraints

    3.1 Prepare a service overview and responsibility matrix

    3.2 Define your approach to vendor relationship management

    3.3 Manage the outsource relationship

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Build your outsourcing RFP
    • Set expectations with candidate vendors
    • Score and select your vendor
    • Manage your relationship with the vendor

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • Service Desk Manager
    • IT Managers
    • Project Managers

    Define requirements for outsourcing service desk support

    Step 3.1

    Prepare a service overview and responsibility matrix

    Activities

    3.1.1 Evaluate your technology, people, and process requirements

    3.1.2 Outline which party will be responsible for which service desk processes

    This step requires the following inputs:

    • Service desk processes and requirements

    This step involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • Service Desk Manager
    • IT Managers
    • Project Managers

    Outcomes of this step

    • Knowledge management and technology requirements
    • Self-service requirements

    Develop an RFP and make a long-term relationship

    Create a detailed RFP to ensure your candidate vendor will fulfill all your requirements

    At its core, your RFP should detail the outcomes of your outsourcing strategy and communicate your needs to the vendor.

    The RFP must cover business needs and the more detailed service desk functions required. Many enterprises only consider the functionality they need, while ignoring operational and selection requirements.

    Negotiate a supply agreement with the preferred outsourcer for delivery of the required services. Ensure your RFP covers:

    1. Service specification
    2. Service levels
    3. Roles and responsibilities
    4. Transition period and acceptance
    5. Prices, payment, and duration
    6. Agreement administration
    7. Outsourcing issues

    In addition to defining your standard requirements, don't forget to take into consideration the following factors when developing your RFP:

    • Employee onboarding and hardware imaging for new users
    • Applications you need current and future support for
    • Reporting requirements
    • Self-service options
    • Remote support needs and locations

    Although it may be tempting, don't throw everything over the wall at your vendor in the RFP. Evaluate your service desk functions in terms of quality, cost effectiveness, and the value provided from the vendor. Organizations should only outsource functions that the vendor can operate better, faster, or cheaper.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Involve the right stakeholders in developing your RFP, not just service desk. If only service desk is involved in RFP discussion, the connection between tier 1 and specialists will be broken, as some processes are not considered from IT's point of view.

    Identify ITSM solution requirements

    Your vendor probably uses a different tool to manage their processes; make sure its capabilities align with the vision of your service desk.

    Your service desk and outsourcing strategy were both designed with your current ITSM solution in mind. Before you hand the reins to an MSP, it is crucial that you outline how your current ITSM solution is being used in terms of functionality.

    Find out if it's better to have the MSP use their own ITSM tools or your ITSM solution.

    Benefits of operating within your own ITSM while outsourcing the service desk:

    Disadvantages of using your own ITSM while outsourcing the service desk:

    • If you provide the service catalog, it's easier to control your ITSM tool yourself.
    • Using your own ITSM and giving access to the outsourcer will allow you to build your dashboard and access your operational metrics rather than relying on the MSP to provide you with metrics.
    • Usage of the current tool may be extended across multiple departments, so it may be in the best interest of your business to have the vendor adopt usage of the current tool.
    • While many ITSM solutions have similar functions, innate differences do exist between them. Outsourcers mostly want to operate in their own ticketing solution. As other departments besides IT may be using the service management tool, you will need to have the same tool across the organization. This makes purchasing the new ITSM license very expensive, unless you operate in the same ITSM as the outsourcer.
    • You need your vendor to be able to use the system you have in order to meet your requirements, which will limit your options in the market.
    • If the outsourcer is using your ITSM, you should provide training to them.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Defining your tool requirements can be a great opportunity to get the tool functionality you always wanted. Many MSPs offer enterprise-level ITSM tools and highly mature processes that may tempt you to operate within their ITSM environment. However, first define your goals for such a move, as well as pros and cons of operating in their service management tool to weigh if its benefits overweigh its downfalls.

    Case Study

    Lone Star College learned that it's important to select a vendor whose tool will work with your service desk

    INDUSTRY: Education

    SOURCE: ServiceNow

    Challenge

    Lone Star College has an end-user base of over 100,000 staff and students.

    The college has six campuses across the state of Texas, and each campus was using its own service desk and ITSM solution.

    Initially, the decision was to implement a single ITSM solution, but organizational complexity prevented that initiative from succeeding.

    A decision was made to outsource and consolidate the service desks of each of the campuses to provide more uniform service to end users.

    Solution

    Lone Star College selected a vendor that implemented FrontRange.

    Unfortunately, the tool was not the right fit for Lone Star's service and reporting needs.

    After some discussion, the outsourcing vendor made the switch to ServiceNow.

    Some time later, a hybrid outsourced model was implemented, with Lone Star and the vendor combining to provide 24/7 support.

    Results

    The consolidated, standardized approach used by Lone Star College and its vendor has created numerous benefits:

    • Standardized reporting
    • High end-user satisfaction
    • All SLAs are being met
    • Improved ticket resolution times
    • Automated change management.

    Lone Star outsourced in order to consolidate its service desks quickly, but the tools didn't quite match.

    It's important to choose a tool that works well with your vendor's, otherwise the same standardization issues can persist.

    Design your RFP to help you understand what the vendor's standard offerings are and what it is capable of delivering

    Your RFP should be worded in a way that helps you understand what your vendor's standard offerings are because that's what they're most capable of delivering. Rather than laying out all your requirements in a high level of detail, carefully craft your questions in a probing way. Then, understand what your current baseline is, what your target requirements are, and assess the gap.

    Design the RFP so that responses can easily be compared against one another.

    It is common to receive responses that are very different – RFPs don't provide a response framework. Comparing vastly different responses can be like comparing apples to oranges. Not only are they immensely time consuming to score, their scores also don't end up accurately reflecting the provider's capabilities or suitability as a vendor.

    If your RFP is causing a ten minute printer backlog, you're doing something wrong.

    Your RFP should not be hundreds of pages long. If it is, there is too much detail.

    Providing too much detail can box your responses in and be overly limiting on your responses. It can deter potentially suitable provider candidates from sending a proposal.

    Request
    For
    Proposal

    "From bitter experience, if you're too descriptive, you box yourself in. If you're not descriptive enough, you'll be inundated with questions or end up with too few bidders. We needed to find the best way to get the message across without putting too much detail around it."
    – Procurement Manager, Utilities

    Info-Tech's Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template contains nine sections

    1. Statement of work
      • Purpose, coverage, and participation ààInsert the purpose and goals of outsourcing your service desk, using steps 1.1 findings in this blueprint as reference.
    2. General information
      • Information about the document, enterprise, and schedule of events ààInsert the timeline you developed for the RFP issue and award process in this section.
    3. Proposal preparation instructions
      • The vendor's understanding of the RFP, good faith statement, points of contact, proposal submission, method of award, selection and notification.
    4. Service overview
      • Information about organizational perspective, service desk responsibility matrix, vendor requirements, and service level agreements (SLAs).
    5. Scope of work, specifications and requirements
      • Technical and functional requirements à Insert the requirements gathered in Phase 1 in this section of the RFP. Remember to include both current and future requirements.
    6. Exit conditions
      • Overview of exit strategy and transition process.
    7. Vendor qualifications and references
    8. Account management and estimated pricing
    9. Vendor certification
    This is a screenshot of the Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template.

    The main point of focus in this document is defining your requirements (discussed in Phase 1) and developing proposal preparation instructions.

    The rest of the RFP consists mostly of standard legal language. Review the rest of the RFP template and adapt the language to suit your organization's standards. Check with your legal departments to make sure the RFP adheres to company policies.

    3.1.1 Evaluate your technology, people, and process requirements

    1-2 hours

    1. Review the outsourcing goals you identified in Phase 1 (activity 1.1.3).
    2. For each goal, divide the defined requirements from your requirements database library (activity 1.2.1) into three areas:
      1. People Requirements
      2. Process Requirements
      3. Technical Requirements
    3. Group your requirements based on characteristics (e.g. recovery capabilities, engagement methodology, personnel, etc.).
    4. Validate these requirements with the relevant stakeholders.
    5. Document your results in section 4 of the Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template.

    Input

    • Identified key requirements

    Output

    • Refined requirements to input into the RFP

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Markers
    • Laptops

    Participants

    • IT Director/CIO
    • Service Desk Manager
    • IT Managers

    Download the Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template

    Assess knowledge management and technology requirements to enable the outsourcer with higher quality work

    Retain ownership of the knowledgebase to foster long-term growth of organizational intelligence

    With end users becoming more and more tech savvy, organizational intelligence is becoming an increasingly important aspect of IT support. Modern employees are able and willing to troubleshoot on their own before calling into the service desk. The knowledgebase and FAQs largely facilitate self-serve trouble shooting, both of which are not core concerns for the outsource vendor.

    Why would the vendor help you empower end users and decrease ticket volume when it will lead to less revenue in the future? Ticket avoidance is not simply about saving money by removing support. It's about the end-user community developing organizational intelligence so that it doesn't need as much technical support.

    Organizational intelligence occurs when shared knowledge and insight is used to make faster, better decisions.

    When you outsource, the flow of technical insight to your end-user community slows down or stops altogether unless you proactively drive it. Retain ownership of the knowledgebase and ensure that the content is:

    1. Validated to ensure it accurately describes the best solution.
    2. Actionable to ensure it prescribes repeatable, verifiable steps.
    3. Contextual to ensure the reader knows when NOT to apply the knowledge.
    4. Maintained to ensure the solution remains current.
    5. Applied, since knowledge is a cost with no benefit unless you apply it and turn it into organizational intelligence.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Include knowledge management process in your ticket handling workflows to make sure knowledge is transferred to the MSP and end users. For more information on knowledge management, refer to Info-Tech's Standardize the Service Desk and Optimize the Service Desk With a Shift-Left Strategy blueprints.

    Assess self-service requirements in your outsourcing plan

    When outsourcing the service desk, determine who will take ownership of the self-service portal.

    Nowadays, outsourcers provide innovative services such as self-serve options. However, bear in mind that the quality of such services is a differentiating factor. A well-maintained portal makes it easy to:

    • Report incidents efficiently via use-case-based forms
    • Place requests via a business-oriented service catalog
    • Automate request processes
    • Give visibility on ticket status
    • Access knowledgebase articles
    • Provide status on critical systems
    • Look for services by both clicking service lists and searching them
    • Provide 24/7 service via interactive communication with live agent and AI-powered machine
    • Streamline business process in multiple departments rather than only IT

    In the outsourcing process, determine your expectations from your vendor on self-serve options and discuss how they will fulfill these requirements. Similar to other processes, work internally to define a list of services your organization is providing that you can pass over to the outsourcer to convert to a service catalog.

    Use Info-Tech's Sample Enterprise Services document to start determining your business's services.

    Assess admin rights in your outsourcing plan to give access to the outsourcer while you keep ownership

    Provide accessibility to account management to improve self-service, which enables:

    • Group owners to be named who can add or remove people from their operating units
    • Users to update attributes such as photos, address, phone number
    • Synchronization with HRIS (Human Resource Information Systems) to enable two-way communication on attribute updates
    • Password reset self-service

    Ensure the vendor has access rights to execute regular clean up to help:

    • Find stale and inactive user and computer accounts (inactive, expired, stale, never logged in)
    • Bulk move and disable capabilities
    • Find empty groups and remove
    • Find and assess NTFS permissions
    • Automated tasks to search and remediate

    Give admin rights to outsourcer to enable reporting and auditing capabilities, such as:

    • Change tracking and notifications
    • Password reset attempts, account unlocks, permission and account changes
    • Anomaly detection and remediation
    • Privilege abuse, such as password sharing

    Info-Tech Insight

    Provide your MSP with access rights to enable the service desk to have account management without giving too much authentication. This way you'll enable moving tickets to the outsourcer while you keep ownership and supervision.

    3.1.2 Outline which party will be responsible for which service desk processes

    1-2 hours

    This activity is an expansion to the outcomes of activity 1.2.1, where you determined the outsourcing requirements and the party to deliver each requirement.

    1. Add your identified tasks from the requirements database library to the service desk responsibility matrix (section 4.2 of the Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template).
    2. Break each task down into more details. For instance, incident management may include tier 1, tier 2/3, KB creation and update, reporting, and auditing.
    3. Refer to section 4.1 of your Project Charter to review the responsible party for each use case.
    4. Considering the use cases, assess whether your organization, the MSP, or both parties will be responsible for the task.
    5. Document the results in section 4.2 of the RFP.

    Input

    • Identified key requirements

    Output

    • Responsible party to deliver each task

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Markers
    • Laptops

    Participants

    • IT Director/CIO
    • Service Desk Manager
    • IT Managers

    Download the Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template

    Step 3.2

    Define your approach to vendor relationship management

    Activities

    3.2.1 Define your SLA requirements

    3.2.2 Score each vendor to mitigate the risk of failure

    3.2.3 Score RFP responses

    3.2.4 Get referrals, conduct reference interviews and evaluate responses for each vendor

    Develop an RFP and make a long-term relationship

    This step requires the following inputs:

    • Service desk outsourcing RFP
    • List of service desk outsourcing requirements

    This step involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • Service Desk Manager
    • IT Managers
    • Project Managers

    Outcomes of this step

    • Service desk SLA
    • RFP scores

    Don't rush to judgment; apply due diligence when selecting your vendor

    The most common mistake in vendor evaluation is moving too quickly. The process leading to an RFP evaluation can be exhausting, and many organizations simply want to be done with the whole process and begin outsourcing.

    The most common mistake in vendor evaluation is moving too quickly. The process leading to an RFP evaluation can be exhausting, and many organizations simply want to be done with the whole process and begin outsourcing.

    1. Call around to get referrals for each vendor
    2. Create a shortlist
    3. Review SLAs and contract terms
    4. Select your vendor

    Recognize warning signs in the MSP's proposal to ensure a successful negotiation

    Vendors often include certain conditions in their proposals that masquerade as appealing but may spell disaster. Watch for these red flags:

    1. Discounted Price
      • Vendors know the market value of their competitors' services. Price is not what sets them apart; it's the type of services offered as well as the culture present.
      • A noticeably low price is often indicative of a desperate organization that is not focused on quality managed services.
    2. No Pushback
      • Vendors should work to customize their proposal to suit both their capabilities and your needs. No pushback means they are not invested in your project as deeply as they should be.
      • You should be prepared for and welcome negotiations; they're a sign that both sides are reaching a mutually beneficial agreement.
    3. Continual SLA Improvement
      • Continual improvement is a good quality that your vendor should have, but it needs to have some strategic direction.
      • Throwing continual SLA improvement into the deal may seem great, but make sure that you'll benefit from the value-added service. Otherwise, you'll be paying for services that you don't actually need.

    Clearly define core vendor qualities before looking at any options

    Vendor sales and marketing people know just what to say to sway you: don't talk to them until you know what you're looking for.

    Geography

    Do you prefer global or local data centers? Do you need multiple locations for redundancy in case of disaster? Will language barriers be a concern?

    Contract Length

    Ensure you can terminate a poor arrangement by having shorter terms with optional renewals. It's better to renew and renegotiate if one side is losing in the deal in order to keep things fair. Don't assume that proposed long-term cost savings will provide a satisfactory service.

    Target Market

    Vendors are aiming at different business segments, from startups to large enterprises. Some will accept existing virtual machines, and others enforce compliance to appeal to government and health agencies.

    SLA

    A robust SLA strengthens a vendor's reliability and accountability. Agencies with special needs should have room in negotiations for customization. Providers should also account for regular SLA reviews and updates. Vendors should be tracking call volume and making projections that should translate directly to SLAs.

    Support

    Even if you don't need a vendor with 24/7 availability, vendors who cannot support this timing should be eliminated. You may want to upgrade later and will want to avoid the hassle of switching.

    Maturity

    Vendors must have the willingness and ability to improve processes and efficiencies over time. Maintaining the status-quo isn't acceptable in the constantly evolving IT world.

    Cost

    Consider which model makes the most sense: will you go with per call or per user pricing? Which model will generate vendor motivation to continually improve and meet your long-term goals? Watch out for variable pricing models.

    Define your SLA requirements so your MSP can create a solution that fits

    SLAs ensure accountability from the service provider and determine service price

    SLAs define the performance of the service desk and clarify what the provider and customer can expect in their outsourcing relationship.

    • Service categories
    • The acceptable range of end-user satisfaction
    • The scope of what functions of the service desk are being measured (availability, time to resolve, time to respond, etc.)
    • Credits and penalties for achieving or missing targets
    • Frequency of measurement/reporting
    • Provisions and penalties for ending the contractual relationship early
    • Management and communication structure
    • Escalation protocol for incidents relating to tiers 2 or 3

    Each MSP's RFP response will help you understand their basic SLA terms and enhanced service offerings. You need to understand the MSP's basic SLA terms to make sure they are adequate enough for your requirements. A well-negotiated SLA will balance the requirements of the customer and limit the liability of the provider in a win/win scenario.

    For more information on defining service level requirements, refer to Info-Tech's blueprint Reduce Risk With Rock-Solid Service-Level Agreements.

    3.2.1 Define your SLA requirements

    2-3 hours

    • As a team, review your current service desk SLA for the following items:
      • Response time
      • Resolution time
      • Escalation time
      • End-user satisfaction
      • Service availability
    • Use the sample table as a starting point to determine your current incident management SLA:
    • Determine your SLA expectations from the outsourcer.
    • Document your SLA expectations in section 4.4 of the RFP template.

    Participants: IT Managers, Service Desk Manager, Project Team

    Response
    PriorityResponse SLOResolution SLOEscalation Time
    T1
    Severity 1CriticalWithin 10 minutes4 hours to resolveImmediate
    Severity 2HighWithin 1 business hour8 business hours to resolve20 minutes
    Severity 3MediumWithin 4 business hours24 business hours to resolveAfter 20 minutes without progress
    Severity 4LowSame day (8 hours)72 business hours to resolve After 1 hour without progress
    SLO ResponseTime it takes for service desk to respond to service request or incident. Target response is 80% of SLO
    SLO ResolutionTime it takes to resolve incident and return business services to normal. Target resolution is 80% of SLO

    Download the Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template

    Get a detailed plan from your selected vendor before signing a contract

    Build a standard process to evaluate candidate vendors

    Use section 5 of Info-Tech's Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template for commonly used questions and requirements for outsourcing the service desk. Ask the right questions to secure an agreement that meets your needs. If you are already in a contract with an MSP, tale the opportunity of contract renewal to improve the contract and service.

    This is a screenshot of the Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template.

    Download the Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template

    Add your finalized assessment questions into Info-Tech's Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Scoring Tool to aggregate responses in one repository for comparison. Since the vendors are asked to respond in a standard format, it is easier to bring together all the responses to create a complete view of your options.

    This is an image of the Service Desk Vendor Proposal Scoring Tool

    Download the Service Desk Vendor Proposal Scoring Tool

    3.2.2 Score each vendor to mitigate the risk of failure

    1-2 hours

    Include the right requirements for your organization and analyze candidate vendors on their capability to satisfy them.

    1. Use section 5 of the RFP template to convert your determined requirements into questions to address in vendor briefings.
    2. Review the questions in the context of near- and long-term service desk outsourcing needs. In the template, we have separated requirements into 7 categories:
      • Vendor Requirements (VR)
      • Vendor Qualifications/Engagement/Administration Capabilities (VQ)
      • Service Operations (SO)
      • Service Support (SS)
      • Service Level Agreement (SLA)
      • Transition Processes (TP)
      • Account Management (AM)
    3. Define the priority for each question:
      • Required
      • Desired
      • Optional
    4. Leave the compliance and comments to when you brief with vendors.

    Input

    • Technical and functional requirements

    Output

    • Priority level for each requirement
    • Completed list of requirement questions

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Markers
    • Laptops

    Participants

    • IT Director/CIO
    • Service Desk Manager
    • IT Managers

    Download the Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template

    3.2.3 Score RFP responses

    2-3 hours

    1. Enter the requirements questions into the RFP Scoring Tool and use it during vendor briefings.
    2. Copy the Required and Desired priority requirements from the previous activity into the RFP Questions column.
    3. Evaluate each RFP response against the RFP criteria based on the scoring scale.
    4. The Results section in the tool shows the vendor ranking based on their overall scores.
    5. Compare potential outsourcing partners considering scores on individual requirements categories and based on overall scores.

    Input

    • Completed list of requirement questions
    • Priority level for each requirement

    Output

    • List of top vendors for outsourcing the service desk

    Materials

    • Service Desk Vendor Proposal Scoring Tool

    Participants

    • Service Desk Manager
    • IT Managers
    • Project Managers
    • IT Director/CIO

    Download the Service Desk Vendor Proposal Scoring Tool

    3.2.3 Get referrals, conduct reference interviews, and evaluate responses for each vendor

    1. Outline a list of questions to conduct reference interviews with past/present clients of your candidate vendors.
    2. Use the reference interview template as a starting point. As a group review the questions and edit them to a list that will fulfill your requirements.
    3. Ask your candidate vendors to provide you with a list of three to five clients that have/had used their services. Make sure that vendors enforce the interview will be kept anonymous and names and results won't be disclosed.
    4. Ask vendors to book a 20-30 minute call with you and their client.
    5. Document your interview comments in your updated reference interview template.
    6. Update the RFP scoring tool accordingly.

    Input

    • List of top vendors for outsourcing the service desk

    Output

    • Updated list of top vendors for outsourcing the service desk

    Materials

    • Service Desk Outsourcing Reference Interview Template
    • Service Desk Vendor Proposal Scoring Tool

    Participants

    • Service Desk Manager
    • IT Managers
    • Project Managers

    Download the Service Desk Vendor Proposal Scoring Tool

    Compare pricing models of outsourcing services

    It's a common sales tactic to use a low price as an easy solution. Carefully evaluate the vendors on your short-list and ensure that SLAs, culture, and price all match to your organization.

    Research different pricing models and accurately assess which model fits your organization. Consider the following pricing models:

    Pay per technician

    In this model, a flat rate is allocated to agents tackling your service desk tickets. This is a good option for building long-term relationship with outsourcer's agents and efficient knowledge transfer to the external team; however, it's not ideal for small organizations that deal with few tickets. This is potentially an expensive model for small teams.

    Pay per ticket

    This model considers the number of tickets handled by the outsourcer. This model is ideal if you only want to pay for your requirement. Although the internal team needs to have a close monitoring strategy to make sure the outsourcer's efficiency in ticket resolution.

    Pay per call

    This is based on outbound and inbound calls. This model is proper for call centers and can be less expensive than the other models; however, tracking is not easy, as you should ensure service desk calls result in efficient resolution rather than unnecessary follow-up.

    Pay per time (minutes or hours)

    The time spent on tickets is considered in this model. With this model, you pay for the work done by agents, so that it may be a good and relatively cheap option. As quicker resolution SLA is usually set by the organization, customer satisfaction may drop, as agents will be driven to faster resolution, not necessarily quality of work.

    Pay per user

    This model is based on number of all users, or number of users for particular applications. In this model, correlation between number of users and number of tickets should be taken into account. This is an ideal model if you want to deal with impact of staffing changes on service price. Although you should first track metrics such as mean time to resolve and average number of tickets so you can prevent unnecessary payment based on number of users when most users are not submitting tickets.

    Step 3.3

    Manage the outsource relationship

    Activities

    3.3.1 Analyze your outsourced service desk for continual improvement

    3.3.2 Make a case to either rehabilitate your outsourcing agreement or exit

    3.3.3 Develop an exit strategy in case you need to end your contract early

    Develop an RFP and make a long-term relationship

    This step requires the following inputs:

    • Service desk SLA
    • List of impacted stakeholder groups
    • List of impacts and benefits of the outsourced service desk

    This step involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • Service Desk Manager
    • IT Managers
    • Project Managers

    Outcomes of this step

    • Communication plan
    • Vendor management strategy

    Ensure formality of your vendor management practice

    A service desk outsourcing project is an ongoing initiative. Build a relationship plan to make sure the outsourcer complies with the agreement.

    This is an iamge of the cycle of relationship management and pre-contract management.

    Monitor Vendor Performance

    Key Activity:

    Measure performance levels with an agreed upon standard scorecard.

    Manage Vendor Risk

    Key Activity:

    Periodical assessment of the vendors to ensure they are meeting compliance standards.

    Manage Vendor Contracts and Relationships

    Key Activity:
    Manage the contracts and renewal dates, the level of demand for the services/products provided, and the costs accrued.

    COMPLETE Identify and Evaluate Vendors

    Key Activity:
    Develop a plan with procurement and key internal stakeholders to define clear, consistent, and stable requirements.

    COMPLETE Select a Vendor

    Key Activity:
    Develop a consistent and effective process for selecting the most appropriate vendor.

    Manage Vendor Contracts and Relationships

    Key Activity:
    Contracts are consistently negotiated to ensure the vendor and the client have a documented and consistent understanding of mutual expectations.

    Expect the vendor to manage processes according to your standards

    You need this level of visibility into the service desk process, whether in-house or outsourced

    Each of these steps requires documentation – either through standard operating procedures, SLAs, logs, or workflow diagrams.

    • Define key operating procedures and workflows
    • Record, classify, and prioritize tickets
    • Verify, approve, and fulfill tickets
    • Investigate, diagnose, and allocate tickets
    • Resolve, recover, and close tickets
    • Track and report

    "Make sure what they've presented to you is exactly what's happening."
    – Service Desk Manager, Financial Services

    Manage the vendor relationship through regular communication

    Regular contact with your MSP provides opportunities to address issues that emerge

    Designate a relationship manager to act as a liaison at the business to be a conduit between the business and the MSP.

    • The relationship manager will take feedback from the MSP and relate it back to you to bridge the technical and business gap between the two.

    Who should be involved

    • Routine review meetings should involve the MSP and your relationship manager.
    • Technical knowledge may be needed to address specific issues, but business knowledge and relationship management skills are absolutely required.
    • Other stakeholders and people who are deeply invested in the vendor relationship should be invited or at least asked to contribute questions and concerns.

    What is involved

    • Full review of the service desk statistics, escalations, staffing changes, process changes, and drivers of extra billing or cost.
    • Updates to key documentation for the issues listed above and changes to the knowledgebase.
    • Significant drivers of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction.
    • Changes that have/are being proposed that can impact any of the above.

    Communicate changes to end users to avoid push back and get buy-in

    Top-down processes for outsourcing will leave end users in the dark

    • Your service desk staff has been involved in the outsourcing process the entire time, but end users are affected all the same.
    • The service desk is the face of IT. A radical shift in service processes and points of contact can be detrimental to not only the service desk, but all of IT.
    • Communicating the changes early to end users will both help them cope with the change and help the MSP achieve better results.
      • An internal communication plan should be rolled out in order to inform and educate end users about the changes associated with outsourcing the service desk.
    • Your relationship manager should be tasked with communicating the changes to end users. The focus should be on addressing questions or concerns about the transition while highlighting the value gained through outsourcing to an MSP.
    • Service quality is a two-way street; the end user needs to be informed of proper protocols and points of contact so that the service desk technicians can fulfill their duties to the best of their ability.

    "When my company decided to outsource, I performed the same role but for a different company. There was a huge disruption to the business flow and a lack of communication to manage the change. The transition took weeks before any end users figured out what the new processes were for submitting a ticket and who to ask for help, and from a personal side, it became difficult to maintain relationships with colleagues."
    – IT Specialist for a financial institution

    Info-Tech Insight

    Educate the enterprise on expectations and processes that are handled by the MSP. Identify stakeholder groups affected by the outsourced processes then build a communication plan on what's been changed, what the benefits are, and how they will be impacted. Determine a timeline for communicating these initiatives and how these announcements will be made. Use InfoTech's Sample Communication Plan as a starting point.

    Build a continual improvement plan to make sure your MSP is efficiently delivering services according to expectations

    Ensure that your quality assurance program is repeatable and applicable to the outsourced services

    1. Design a QA scorecard that can help you assess steps the outsourcer agents should follow. Keep the questionnaire high level but specific to your environment. The scorecard should include questions that follow the steps to take considering your intake channels. For instance, if end users can reach the service desk via phone, chat, and email, build your QA around assessing customer service for call, chat, and ticket quality.
    2. Build a training program for agents: Develop an internal monitoring plan to relay detailed feedback to your MSP. Assess performance and utilize KBs as training materials for coaching agents on challenging transactions.
    3. Everything that goes to your service desk has to be documented; there will be no organic transfer of knowledge and experience.
    4. You need to let your MSP know how their efforts are impacting the performance of your organization. Measure your internal performance against the external performance of your service desk.
    5. Constant internal check-ins ensure that your MSP is meeting the SLAs outlined in the RFP.
    6. Routine reporting of metrics and ticket trends allow you to enact problem management. Otherwise, you risk your MSP operating your service desk with no internal feedback from its owner.
    7. Use metrics to determine the service desk functionality.

    Consider the success story of your outsourced service desk

    Build a feedback program for your outsourced services. Utilize transactional surveys to discover and tell outsourcing success to the impacted stakeholders.

    Ensure you apply steps for providing feedback to make sure processes are handled as expected. Service desk is the face of IT. Customer satisfaction on ticket transactions reflects satisfaction with IT and the organization.

    Build customer satisfaction surveys and conduct them for every transaction to get a better sense of outsourced service desk functionality. Collaborate with the vendor to make sure you build a proper strategy.

    • Build a right list of questions. Multiple and lengthy questions may lead to survey taking fatigue. Make sure you ask the right questions and give an option to the customer to comment any additional notes.
    • Give the option to users to rate the transaction. Make the whole process very seamless and doable in a few seconds.
    • Ensure to follow-up on negative feedback. This will help you find gaps in services and provide training to improve customer service.

    3.3.1 Analyze your outsourced service desk for continual improvement

    1 hour

    1. In this project, you determined the KPIs based on your service desk objectives (activity 2.2.2).
    2. Refer to your list of metrics in section 7 of the Service Desk Outsourcing Project Charter.
    3. Think about what story you want to tell and determine what factors will help move the narrative.
    4. Discuss how often you would like to track these metrics. Determine the audience for each metric.
    5. Provide the list to the MSP to create reports with auto-distribution.

    Input

    • Determined CSFs and KPIs

    Output

    • List of metrics to track, including frequency to report and audience to report to

    Materials

    • Service Desk Outsourcing Project Charter

    Participants

    • Service Desk Manager
    • IT Managers
    • Project Managers

    Download the Project Charter Template

    Reward the MSP for performance instead of "punishing" them for service failure

    Turn your vendor into a true partner by including an "earn back" condition in the contract

    MSPs often offer clients credit requests (service credits) for their service failures, which are applied to the previous month's monthly recurring charge. They are applied to the last month's MRC (monthly reoccurring charges) at the end of term and then the vendor pays out the residual.

    However, while common, service credits are not always perceived to be a strong incentive for the provider to continually focus on improvement of mean-time-to-respond/mean-time-to-resolve.

    • Engage the vendor as a true partner within a relationship only based upon Service Credits.
    • Suggest the vendor include a minor change to the non-performance processes within the final agreement: the vendor implements an "earn back" condition in the agreement.
    • Where a bank of service credits exists because of non-performance, if the provider exceeds the SLA performance metrics for a number of consecutive months (two is common), then an amount of any prior credits received by client is returned to the provider as an earn back for improved performance.
    • This can be a useful mechanism to drive improved performance.

    Measure the outsourced service desk ROI constantly to drive efficient decisions for continual improvement or an exit plan

    Efficient outsourced service desk causes positive impacts on business satisfaction. To address the true value of the services outsourced, you should evaluate the return on investment (ROI) in these areas: Emotional ROI, Time ROI, Financial ROI

    Emotional ROI

    Service desk's main purpose should be to provide topnotch services to end users. Build a customer experience program and leverage transactional surveys and relationship surveys to constantly analyze customer feedback on service quality.

    Ask yourself:

    • How have the outsourced services improved customer satisfaction?
    • How has the service desk impacted the business brand?
    • Have these services improved agents' job satisfaction?
    • What is the NPS score of the service desk?
    • What should we do to reduce the detractor rate and improve satisfaction leveraging the outsourced service desk?

    Time ROI

    Besides customer satisfaction, SLA commitment is a big factor to consider when conducting ROI analysis.

    Ask these questions:

    • Have we had improvement in FCR?
    • What are the mean time to resolve incidents and mean time to fulfill requests?
    • Is the cost incurred to outsourced services worth improvement in such metrics?

    Financial ROI

    As already mentioned in Phase 1, the main motivation for outsourcing the service desk should not be around cost reduction, but to improve performance. Regardless, it's still important to understand the financial implications of your decision.

    To evaluate the financial impact of your outsourced service desk, ask these questions:

    • How much have the outsourced services impacted our business financially?
    • How much are we paying compared to when it was done internally?
    • Considering the emotional, time, and effort factors, is it worth bringing the services in house or changing the vendor?

    3.3.2 Make a case to either rehabilitate your outsourcing agreement or exit

    3-4 hours

    1. Refer to the results of activity 2.2.2. for the list of metrics and the metrics dashboard over the past quarter.
    2. Consider emotional and time ROI, assess end-user satisfaction and SLA, and run a report comparison with the baseline that you built prior to outsourcing the service desk.
    3. Estimate the organization's IT operating expenses over the next five years if you stay with the vendor.
    4. Estimate the organization's IT operating expenses over the next five years if you switch the vendor.
    5. Estimate the organization's IT operating expenses over the next five years if you repatriate the service desk.
    6. Estimate the non-recurring costs associated with the move, such as the penalty for early contract termination, data center moving costs, and cost of potential business downtime during the move. Sum them to determine the investment.
    7. Calculate the return on investment. Discuss and decide whether the organization should consider rehabilitating the vendor agreement or ending the partnership.

    Input

    • Outsourced service desk metrics
    • Operating expenses

    Output

    • Return on investment

    Materials

    • List of metrics
    • Laptop
    • Markers
    • Flip chart/whiteboard

    Participants

    • IT Director/CIO
    • Service Desk Manager
    • IT Managers

    For more information on conducting this activity, refer to InfoTech's blueprint Terminate the IT Infrastructure Outsourcing Relationship

    Define exit conditions to complete your contract with your MSP

    The end of outsourcing is difficult. Your organization needs to maintain continuity of service during the transition. Your MSP needs to ensure that its resources can be effectively transitioned to the next deployment with minimal downtime. It is crucial to define your exit conditions so that both sides can prepare accordingly.

    • Your exit conditions must be clearly laid out in the contract. Create a list of service desk functions and metrics that are important to your organization's success. If your MSP is not meeting those needs or performance levels, you should terminate your services.
    • Most organizations accomplish this through a clear definition of hard and measurable KPIs and metrics that must be achieved and what will happen in the case these metrics are not being regularly met. If your vendor doesn't meet these requirements as defined in your contract, you then have a valid reason and the ability to leave the agreement.

    Examples of exit conditions:

    • Your MSP did not meet their SLAs on priority 1 or 2 tickets two times within a month.
    • If they didn't meet the SLA twice in that 30 days, you could terminate the contract penalty-free.

    Info-Tech Insight

    If things start going south with your MSP, negotiate a "get well plan." Outline your problems to the MSP and have them come back to you with a list of how they're going to fix these problems to get well before you move forward with the contract.

    Try to rehabilitate before you repatriate

    Switching service providers or ending the contract can be expensive and may not solve your problems. Try to rehabilitate your vendor relationship before immediately ending it.

    You may consider terminating your outsourcing agreement if you are dissatisfied with the current agreement or there has been a change in circumstances (either the vendor has changed, or your organization has changed).

    Before doing so, consider the challenges:

    1. It can be very expensive to switch providers or end a contract.
    2. Switching vendors can be a large project involving transfer of knowledge, documentation, and data.
    3. It can be difficult to maintain service desk availability, functionality, and reliability during the transition.

    Diagnose the cause of the problem before assuming it's the MSP's fault. The issue may lie with poorly defined requirements and processes, lack of communication, poor vendor management, or inappropriate SLAs. Re-assess your strategy and re-negotiate your contract if necessary.

    Info-Tech Insight

    There are many reasons why outsourcing relationships fail, but it's not always the vendor's fault.

    Clients often think their MSP isn't doing a great job, but a lot of the time the reason comes back to the client. They may not have provided sufficient documentation on processes, were not communicating well, didn't have a regular point of contact, and weren't doing regular service reviews. Before exiting the relationship, evaluate why it's not working and try to fix things first.

    Don't stop with an exit strategy, you also need to develop a transition plan

    Plan out your transition timeline, taking into account current contract terms and key steps required. Be prepared to handle tickets immediately upon giving notice.

    • Review your outsourcing contract with legal counsel to identify areas of concern for lock-in or breech.
    • Complete a cost/benefit analysis.
    • Bring intellectual property (including ticket data, knowledge base articles, and reports) back in-house (if you'd like to repatriate the service desk) or transfer to the next service desk vendor (if you're outsourcing to another MSP).
    • Review and update service desk standard processes (escalation, service levels, ticket templates, etc.).
    • Procure service desk software, licenses, and necessary hardware as needed.
    • Train the staff (internal for repatriating the service desk, or external for the prospective MSP).
    • Communicate the transition plan and be prepared to start responding to tickets immediately.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Develop a transition plan about six months before the contract notice date. Be proactive by constantly tracking the MSP, running ROI analyses and training staff before moving the services to the internal team or the next MSP. This will help you manage the transition smoothly and handle intake channels so that upon potential exit, users won't be disrupted.

    3.3.3 Develop an exit strategy in case you need to end your contract early

    3-4 hours

    Create a plan to be prepared in case you need to end your contract with the MSP early.

    Your exit strategy should encompass both the conditions under which you would need to end your contract with the MSP and the next steps you will take to transition your services.

    1. Define the exit conditions you plan to negotiate into your contract with the MSP:
      • Identify the performance levels you will require your MSP to meet.
      • Identify the actions you expect the MSP to take if they fail to meet these performance levels.
      • Identify the conditions under which you would leave the contract early.
    2. Develop a strategy for transitioning services in the event you need to leave your contract with the MSP:
      • Will you hand the responsibility to a new MSP or repatriate the service desk back in-house?
      • How will you maintain services through the transition?
    3. Document your exit strategy in section 6 of the Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template.

    Input

    • Outsourced service desk metrics
    • Operating expenses

    Output

    • Return on investment

    Materials

    • List of metrics
    • Laptop
    • Markers
    • Flip chart/whiteboard

    Participants

    • IT Director/CIO
    • Service Desk Manager
    • IT Managers

    Download the Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Problem Solved

    You have now re-envisioned your service desk by building a solid strategy for outsourcing it to a vendor. You first analyzed your challenges with the current service desk and evaluated the benefits of outsourcing services. Then you went through requirements assessment to find out which processes should be outsourced. Thereafter, you developed an RFP to communicate your proposal and evaluate the best candidates.

    You have also developed a continual improvement plan to ensure the outsourcer provides services according to your expectations. Through this plan, you're making sure to build a good relationship through incentivizing the vendor for accomplishments rather than punishing for service failures. However, you've also contemplated an exit plan in the RFP for potential consistent service failures.

    Ideally, this blueprint has helped you go beyond requirements identification and served as a means to change your mindset and strategy for outsourcing the service desk efficiently to gain long-term benefits.

    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 Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.

    This is a picture of Info-Tech analyst Mahmoud Ramin

    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:

    This is a screenshot of activity 1.2.1 found in this blueprint

    Identify Processes to Outsource
    Identify service desk tasks that will provide the most value upon outsourcing.

    This is a screenshot of activity 3.2.2 found in this blueprint

    Score Candidate Vendors
    Evaluate vendors on their capabilities for satisfying your service desk requirements.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Standardize the Service Desk

    • Improve customer service by driving consistency in your support approach and meeting SLAs.

    Outsource IT Infrastructure to Improve System Availability, Reliability, and Recovery

    • There are very few IT infrastructure components you should be housing internally – outsource everything else.

    Terminate the IT Infrastructure Outsourcing Relationship

    • There must be 50 ways to leave your vendor.

    Research Contributors and Experts

    Yev Khovrenkov; Enterprise Consultant, Solvera Solutions

    Kamil Salagan; I&O Manager, Bartek Ingredients

    Satish Mekerira; VP of IT, Coherus BioSciences

    Kris Krishan; Head of IT and Business Systems, Waymo

    Kris Arthur; Infra & Security Director, SEKO Logistics

    Valance Howden; Principal Research Advisor, Info-Tech Research Group

    Sandi Conrad; Principal Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group

    Graham Price; Senior Director of Executive Services, Info-Tech Research Group

    Barry Cousins; Practice Lead, Info-Tech Research Group

    Mark Tauschek; VP of I&O Research, Info-Tech Research Group

    Darin Stahl; Principal Research Advisor, Info-Tech Research Group

    Scott Yong; Principal Research Advisor, Info-Tech Research Group

    A special thank-you to five anonymous contributors

    Bibliography

    Allnutt, Charles. "The Ultimate List of Outsourcing Statistics." MicroSourcing, 2022. Accessed July 2022.
    "Considerations for outsourcing the service desk. A guide to improving your service desk and service delivery performance through outsourcing." Giva. Accessed May 2022.
    Hurley, Allison. "Service Desk Outsourcing | Statistics, Challenges, & Benefits." Forward BPO Inc., 2019. Accessed June 2022.
    Mtsweni, Patricia, et al. "The impact of outsourcing information technology services on business operations." South African Journal of Information Management, 2021, Accessed May 2022.
    "Offshore, Onshore or Hybrid–Choosing the Best IT Outsourcing Model." Calance, 2021. Accessed June 2022. Web.
    "Service Integration and Management (SIAM) Foundation Body of Knowledge." Scopism, 2020. Accessed May 2022.
    Shultz, Aaron. "IT Help Desk Outsourcing Pricing Models Comparison." Global Help Desk Services. Accessed June 2022. Web.
    Shultz, Aaron. "4 Steps to Accurately Measure the ROI of Outsourced Help Desk Services" Global Help Desk Services, Accessed June 2022. Web.
    Sunberg, John. "Great Expectations: What to Look for from Outsourced Service Providers Today." HDI. Accessed June 2022. Web.
    Walters, Grover. "Pivotal Decisions in outsourcing." Muma Case Review, 2019. Accessed May 2022.
    Wetherell, Steve. "Outsourced IT Support Services: 10 Steps to Better QA" Global Held Desk Services. Accessed May 2022. Web.

    The MVP Major Incident Manager

    The time has come to hire a new major incident manager. How do you go about that? How do you choose the right candidate? Major incident managers must have several typically conflicting traits, so how do you pick the right person? Let's dive into that.

    Continue reading

    Establish an Analytics Operating Model

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    • Parent Category Name: Data Management
    • Parent Category Link: /data-management
    • Organizations are struggling to understand what's involved in the analytics developer lifecycle to generate reusable insights faster.
    • Discover what it takes to become a citizen analytics developer. Identify the proper way to enable self-serve analytics.
    • Self-serve business intelligence/analytics is misunderstood and confusing to the business, especially with regards to the roles and responsibilities of IT and the business.
    • End users are dissatisfied due to a lack of access to the data and the absence of a single source of truth.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Organizations that take data seriously should:

    • Decouple processes in which data is separated from business processes and elevate the visibility of the organization's data assets.
    • Leverage a secure platform where data can be easily exchanged for insights generation.
    • Create density for analytics where resources are mobilized around analytics ideas to generate value.

    Analytics is a journey, not a destination. This journey can eventually result in some level of sophisticated AI/machine learning in your organization. Every organization needs to mobilize its resources and enhance its analytics capabilities to quickly and incrementally add value to data products and services. However, most organizations fail to mobilize their resources in this way.

    Impact and Result

    • Firms become more agile when they realize efficiencies in their analytics operating models and can quickly implement reusable analytics.
    • IT becomes more flexible and efficient in understanding the business' data needs and eliminates redundant processes.
    • Trust in data-driven decision making goes up with collaboration, engagement, and transparency.
    • There is a clear path to continuous improvement in analytics.

    Establish an Analytics Operating Model Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief that outlines Info-Tech’s methodology for assessing the business' analytics needs and aligning your data governance, capabilities, and organizational structure to deliver analytics faster.

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

    1. Define your analytics needs

    This phase helps you understand your organization's data landscape and current analytics environment so you gain a deeper understanding of your future analytics needs.

    • Establish an Analytics Operating Model – Phase 1: Define Your Analytics Needs

    2. Establish an analytics operating model

    This phase introduces you to data operating model frameworks and provides a step-by-step guide on how to capture the right analytics operating model for your organization.

    • Establish an Analytics Operating Model – Phase 2: Establish an Analytics Operating Model
    • Analytics Operating Model Building Tool

    3. Implement your operating model

    This phase helps you implement your chosen analytics operating model, as well as establish an engagement model and communications plan.

    • Establish an Analytics Operating Model – Phase 3: Implement Your Analytics Operating Model
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Establish an Analytics 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 Define Your Analytics Needs

    The Purpose

    Achieve a clear understanding and case for data analytics.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A successful analytics operating model starts with a good understanding of your analytical needs.

    Activities

    1.1 Review the business context.

    1.2 Understand your analytics needs.

    1.3 Draft analytics ideas and use cases.

    1.4 Capture minimum viable analytics.

    Outputs

    Documentation of analytics products and services

    2 Perform an Analytics Capability Assessment

    The Purpose

    Achieve a clear understanding of your organization's analytics capability and mapping across organizational functions.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understand your organization's data landscape and current analytics environment to gain a deeper understanding of your future analytics needs.

    Activities

    2.1 Capture your analytics capabilities.

    2.2 Map capabilities to a hub-and-spoke model.

    2.3 Document operating model results.

    Outputs

    Capability assessment results

    3 Establish an Analytics Operating Model

    The Purpose

    Capture the right analytics operating model for your organization.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Explore data operating model frameworks.

    Capture the right analytics operating model for your organization using a step-by-step guide.

    Activities

    3.1 Discuss your operating model results.

    3.2 Review your organizational structure’s pros and cons.

    3.3 Map resources to target structure.

    3.4 Brainstorm initiatives to develop your analytics capabilities.

    Outputs

    Target operating model

    4 Implement Your Analytics Operating Model

    The Purpose

    Formalize your analytics organizational structure and prepare to implement your chosen analytics operating model.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Implement your chosen analytics operating model.

    Establish an engagement model and communications plan.

    Activities

    4.1 Document your target organizational structure and RACI.

    4.2 Establish an analytics engagement model.

    4.3 Develop an analytics communications plan.

    Outputs

    Reporting and analytics responsibility matrix (RACI)

    Analytics engagement model

    Analytics communications plan

    Analytics organizational chart

    Prepare and Defend Against a Software Audit

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    • Parent Category Name: Licensing
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    • Audit defense starts long before you get audited. Negotiating your vendors’ audit rights and maintaining a documented consolidated licensing position ensure that you are not blindsided by a sudden audit request.
    • Notification of an impending audit can cause panic. Don't panic. While the notification will be full of strong language, your best chance of success is to take control of the situation. Prepare a measured response that buys you enough time to get your house in order before you let the vendor in.
    • If a free software asset review sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. If a vendor or one of its partners offers up a free software asset management engagement, they aren’t doing so out of the goodness of their heart — they expect to recoup their costs (and then some) from identified license discrepancies.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • The amount of business disruption depends on the scope of the audit, and the size and complexity of the organization coupled with the contractual audit clause in the contract.
    • These highly visible failures can be prevented through effective software asset management practices.
    • As complexity of licensing increases, so do penalties. If the environment is highly complex, prioritize effort by likelihood of audit and spend.
    • Ensure electronic records exist for license documentation to provide fast access for audit and information requests
    • Verify accuracy of discovered data. Ensure all devices on the network are being audited. Without a complete discovery process, data will always be inaccurate.

    Impact and Result

    • Being able to respond quickly with accurate data is critical. When deadlines are tight, and internal resources don’t exist, hire a third party as their experience will allow a faster response.
    • Negotiate terms of the audit such as deadlines, proof of license entitlement, and who will complete the audit.
    • Create a methodology to quickly and efficiently respond to audit requests.
    • Conduct annual internal audits.
    • Have a designated cross-functional IT audit team.
    • Prepare documentation in advance.
    • Manage audit logistics to minimize business disruption.
    • Dispute unwarranted findings.

    Prepare and Defend Against a Software Audit Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should be prepared and ready to defend against a software audit, 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. Prevent an audit

    Begin your proactive audit management journey and leverage value from your software asset management program.

    • Prepare and Defend Against a Software Audit – Phase 1: Prevent an Audit
    • Audit Defense Maturity Assessment Tool
    • Effective Licensing Position Tool
    • Audit Defence RACI Template

    2. Prepare for an audit

    Prepare for an audit by effectively scoping and consolidating organizational response.

    • Prepare and Defend Against a Software Audit – Phase 2: Prepare for an Audit
    • Software Audit Scoping Email Template
    • Audit Defense Readiness Assessment

    3. Conduct the audit

    Execute the audit in a way that preserves valuable relationships while accounting for vendor specific criteria.

    • Prepare and Defend Against a Software Audit – Phase 3: Conduct an Audit
    • Software Audit Launch Email Template

    4. Manage post-audit activities

    Conduct negotiations, settle on remuneration, and close out the audit.

    • Prepare and Defend Against a Software Audit - Phase 4: Manage Post-Audit Activities
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Prepare and Defend Against a Software Audit

    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 Prevent an Audit

    The Purpose

    Kick off the project

    Identify challenges and red flags

    Determine maturity and outline internal audit

    Clarify stakeholder responsibilities

    Build and structure audit team

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Leverage value from your audit management program

    Begin your proactive audit management journey

    A documented consolidated licensing position, which ensures that you are not blindsided by a sudden audit request

    Activities

    1.1 Perform a maturity assessment of the current environment

    1.2 Classify licensing contracts/vendors

    1.3 Conduct a software inventory

    1.4 Meter application usage

    1.5 Manual checks

    1.6 Gather software licensing data

    1.7 Reconcile licenses

    1.8 Create your audit team and assign accountability

    Outputs

    Maturity assessment

    Effective license position/license reconciliation

    Audit team RACI chart

    2 Prepare for an Audit

    The Purpose

    Create a strategy for audit response

    Know the types of requests

    Scope the engagement

    Understand scheduling challenges

    Know roles and responsibilities

    Understand common audit pitfalls

    Define audit goals

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Take control of the situation and prepare a measured response

    A dedicated team responsible for all audit-related activities

    A formalized audit plan containing team responsibilities and audit conduct policies

    Activities

    2.1 Use Info-Tech’s readiness assessment template

    2.2 Define the scope of the audit

    Outputs

    Readiness assessment

    Audit scoping email template

    3 Conduct the Audit

    The Purpose

    Overview of process conducted

    Kick-off and self-assessment

    Identify documentation requirements

    Prepare required documentation

    Data validation process

    Provide resources to enable the auditor

    Tailor audit management to vendor compliance position

    Enforce best-practice audit behaviors

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A successful audit with minimal impact on IT resources

    Reduced severity of audit findings

    Activities

    3.1 Communicate audit commencement to staff

    Outputs

    Audit launch email template

    4 Manage Post-Audit Activities

    The Purpose

    Clarify auditor findings and recommendations

    Access severity of audit findings

    Develop a plan for refuting unwarranted findings

    Disclose findings to management

    Analyze opportunities for remediation

    Provide remediation options and present potential solutions

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Ensure your audit was productive and beneficial

    Improve your ability to manage audits

    Come to a consensus on which findings truly necessitate organizational change

    Activities

    4.1 Don't accept the penalties; negotiate with vendors

    4.2 Close the audit and assess the financial impact

    Outputs

    A consensus on which findings truly necessitate organizational change

    Improve IT Governance to Drive Business Results

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}190|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 9.3/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $194,553 Average $ Saved
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    • Parent Category Name: IT Governance, Risk & Compliance
    • Parent Category Link: /it-governance-risk-and-compliance
    • IT governance is the number-one predictor of value generated by IT, yet many organizations struggle to organize their governance effectively.
    • Current IT governance does not address the changing goals, risks, or context of the organization, so IT spend is not easily linked to value.
    • The right people are not making the right decisions about IT.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Organizations do not have a governance framework in place that optimally aligns IT with the business objectives and direction.
    • Implementing IT governance requires the involvement of key business stakeholders who do not see IT’s value in corporate governance and strategy.
    • The current governance processes are poorly designed, making the time to decisions too long and driving non-compliance.

    Impact and Result

    • Use Info-Tech’s four-step process to optimize your IT governance framework.
    • Our client-tested methodology supports the enablement of IT-business alignment, decreases decision-making cycle times, and increases IT’s transparency and effectiveness in decisions around benefits realization, risks, and resources.
    • Successful completion of the IT governance redesign will result in the following outcomes:
      1. Align IT with the business context.
      2. Assess the current governance framework.
      3. Redesign the governance framework.
      4. Implement governance redesign.

    Improve IT Governance to Drive Business Results Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should redesign IT governance, 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. Align IT with the business context

    Align IT’s direction with the business using the Statement of Business Context.

    • Redesign IT Governance to Drive Optimal Business Results – Phase 1: Align IT With the Business Context
    • Make the Case for an IT Governance Redesign
    • Stakeholder Power Map Template
    • IT Governance Stakeholder Communication Planning Tool
    • PESTLE Analysis Template
    • Business SWOT Analysis Template
    • Statement of Business Context Template

    2. Assess the current governance framework

    Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of current governance using the Current State Assessment.

    • Redesign IT Governance to Drive Optimal Business Results – Phase 2: Assess the Current Governance Framework
    • Current State Assessment of IT Governance

    3. Redesign the governance framework

    Build a redesign of the governance framework using the Future State Design template.

    • Redesign IT Governance to Drive Optimal Business Results – Phase 3: Redesign the Governance Framework
    • Future State Design for IT Governance
    • IT Governance Terms of Reference

    4. Implement governance redesign

    Create an implementation plan to jump-start the communication of the redesign and set it up for success.

    • Redesign IT Governance to Drive Optimal Business Results – Phase 4: Implement Governance Redesign
    • Redesign IT Governance to Drive Optimal Business Results Executive Presentation Template
    • IT Governance Implementation Plan
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Improve IT Governance to Drive Business Results

    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 Need for Governance

    The Purpose

    Identify the need for governance in your organization and engage the leadership team in the redesign process.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Establish an engagement standard for the leadership of your organization in the IT governance redesign.

    Activities

    1.1 Identify stakeholders.

    1.2 Make the case for improved IT governance.

    1.3 Customize communication plan.

    Outputs

    Stakeholder Power Map

    Make the Case Presentation

    Communication Plan

    2 Align IT With the Business Context

    The Purpose

    Create a mutual understanding with the business leaders of the current state of the organization and the state of business it is moving towards.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    The understanding of the business context will provide an aligned foundation on which to redesign the IT governance framework.

    Activities

    2.1 Review documents.

    2.2 Analyze frameworks.

    2.3 Conduct brainstorming.

    2.4 Finalize the Statement of Business Context.

    Outputs

    PESTLE Analysis

    SWOT Analysis

    Statement of Business Context

    3 Assess the Current Governance Framework

    The Purpose

    Establish a baseline of the current governance framework.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Develop guidelines based off results from the current state that will guide the future state design.

    Activities

    3.1 Create committee profiles.

    3.2 Build governance structure map.

    3.3 Establish governance guidelines.

    Outputs

    Current State Assessment

    4 Redesign the Governance Framework

    The Purpose

    Redesign the governance structure and the committees that operate within it.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Build a future state of governance where the relationships and processes that are built drive optimal business results.

    Activities

    4.1 Build governance structure map.

    4.2 Create committee profiles.

    Outputs

    Future State Design

    IT Governance Terms of Reference

    5 Implement Governance Redesign

    The Purpose

    Build a roadmap for implementing the governance redesign.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Create a transparent and relationship-oriented implementation strategy that will pave the way for a successful redesign implementation.

    Activities

    5.1 Identify next steps for the redesign.

    5.2 Establish communication plan.

    5.3 Lead executive presentation.

    Outputs

    Implementation Plan

    Executive Presentation

    Further reading

    Improve IT Governance to Drive Business Results

    Avoid bureaucracy and achieve alignment with a minimalist approach.

    ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

    Governance optimization is achieved where decision making, authority, and context meet.

    "Governance is something that is done externally to IT and well as internally by IT, with the intention of providing oversight to direct the organization to meet goals and keep things on target.

    Optimizing IT governance is the most effective way to consistently direct IT spend to areas that provide the most value in producing or supporting business outcomes, yet it is rarely done well.

    IT governance is more than just identifying where decisions are made and who has the authority to make them – it must also provide the context and criteria under which decisions are made in order to truly provide business value" (Valence Howden, Director, CIO Practice Info-Tech Research Group)

    Our understanding of the problem

    This Research is Designed For:

    • CIOs
    • CTOs
    • IT Directors

    This Research Will Help You:

    • Achieve and maintain executive and business support for optimizing IT governance.
    • Optimize your governance structure.
    • Build high-level governance processes.
    • Build governance committee charters and set accountability for decision making.
    • Plan the transition to the optimized governance structure and processes.

    This Research Will Also Assist:

    • Executive Leadership
    • IT Managers
    • IT Customers
    • Project Managers

    This Research Will Help Them:

    • Improve alignment between business decisions and IT initiatives.
    • Establish a mechanism to validate, redirect, and reprioritize IT initiatives.
    • Realize greater value from more effective decision making.
    • Receive a better overall quality of service.

    Executive Summary

    Situation

    • IT governance is the #1 predictor of value generated by IT, yet many organizations struggle to organize their governance effectively.*
    • Current IT governance does not address the changing goals, risks, or context of the organization so IT spend is not easily linked to value.
    • The right people are not making the right decisions about IT.

    Complication

    • Organizations do not have a governance framework in place that optimally aligns IT with the business objectives and direction.
    • Implementing IT governance requires the involvement of key business stakeholders who do not see IT’s value in governance and strategy.
    • The current governance processes are poorly designed, creating long decision-making cycles and driving non-compliance with regulation.

    Resolution

    • Use Info-Tech’s four-step process for optimizing your IT governance framework. Our client-tested methodology supports the enablement of IT-business alignment, decreases decision-making cycle times, and increases IT’s transparency and effectiveness in making decisions around benefits realization, risks, and resources.
    • Successful completion of the IT governance redesign will result in the following outcomes:
      1. Align IT with the business context.
      2. Assess the current governance framework.
      3. Redesign the governance framework.
      4. Implement governance redesign.

    Info-Tech Insight

    • Establish IT-business fusion. In governance, alignment is not enough. Merge IT and the business through governance to ensure business success.
    • With great governance comes great responsibility. Involve relevant business leaders, who will be impacted by IT outcomes, to take on governing responsibility of IT.
    • Let IT manage and the business govern. IT governance should be a component of enterprise governance, allowing IT leaders to focus on managing.

    IT governance is...

    An enabling framework for decision-making context and accountabilities for related processes.

    A means of ensuring business-IT collaboration, leading to increased consistency and transparency in decision making and prioritization of initiatives.

    A critical component of ensuring delivery of business value from IT spend and driving high satisfaction with IT.

    IT governance is not...

    An annoying, finger-waving roadblock in the way of getting things done.

    Limited to making decisions about technology.

    Designed tacitly; it is purposeful, with business objectives in mind.

    A one-time project; you must review and revalidate the efficiency.

    Avoid common misconceptions of IT governance

    Don’t blur the lines between governance and management; each has a unique role to play. Confusing these results in wasted time and confusion around ownership.

    Governance

    A cycle of 'Governance Processes' and 'Management Processes'. On the left side of the cycle 'Governance Processes' begins with 'Evaluate', then 'Direct', then 'Monitor'. This leads to 'Management Processes' on the right side with 'Plan', 'Build', 'Run', and 'Monitor', which then feeds back into 'Evaluate'.

    Management

    IT governance sets direction through prioritization and decision making, and monitors overall IT performance.

    Governance aligns with the mission and vision of the organization to guide IT.

    Management is responsible for executing on, operating, and monitoring activities as determined by IT governance.

    Management makes decisions for implementing based on governance direction.

    The IT Governance Framework

    An IT governance framework is a system that will design structures, processes, authority definitions, and membership assignments that lead IT toward optimal results for the business.

    Governance is performed in three ways:
    1. Evaluate

      Governance ensures that business goals are achieved by evaluating stakeholder needs, criteria, metrics, portfolio, risk, and definition of value.
    2. Direct

      Governance sets the direction of IT by delegating priorities and determining the decisions that will guide the IT organization.
    3. Monitor

      Governance establishes a framework to monitor performance, compliance to regulation, and progress on expected outcomes.

    "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)

    Create impactful IT governance by embedding it within enterprise governance

    The business should engage in IT governance and IT should influence the direction of the business.

    Enterprise Governance

    IT Governance

    Authority for enterprise governance falls to the board and executive management.

    Responsibilities Include:
    • Provide strategic direction for the organization.
    • Ensure objectives are met.
    • Set the risk standards or profile.
    • Delegate resources responsibly.
    –› Engage in –›

    ‹– Influence ‹–

    Governance of IT is a component of enterprise governance.

    Responsibilities Include:
    • Build structure, authority, process, and membership designations in a governance framework.
    • Ensure the IT organization is aligned with business goals.
    • Influence the direction of the business to ensure business success.

    Identify signals of sub-optimal IT governance within any of these domains

    If you notice any of these signals, governance redesign is right for you!

    Inability to Realize Benefits

    1. IT is unable to articulate the value of its initiatives or spend.
    2. IT is regularly delegated unplanned projects.
    3. The is no standard approach to prioritization.
    4. Projects do not meet target metrics.

    Resource Misallocation

    1. Resources are wasted due to duplication or overlap in IT initiatives.
    2. IT projects fail at an unacceptable rate, leading to wasted resources.
    3. IT’s costs continue to increase without reciprocal performance increase.

    Misdiagnosed Risks

    1. Risk appetite is incorrectly identified or not identified at all.
    2. Disagreement on the approach to risk in the organization.
    3. Increasing rate of IT incidents related to risk.
    4. IT is failing to meet regulatory requirements.

    Dissatisfied Stakeholders

    1. There are no ways to measure stakeholder satisfaction with IT.
    2. Business strategies and IT strategies are misaligned.
    3. IT’s relationship with key stakeholders is unstable and there is a lack of mutual trust.

    A majority of organizations experience significant alignment gaps

    The majority of organizations and their key stakeholders experience highly visible gaps in the alignment of IT investments and organizational goals.

    There are two bars with percentages of their length marked out for different CXO responses. The possible responses are from '1, Critical Gap' to '7, No Gap'. The top bar says '57% of CXOs identify a major gap in IT's ability to support business goals', and shows 13% answered '1, Critical Gap', 22% answered '2', and 22% answered '3'. The bottom bar says '84% of CXOs often perceive that IT is investing in areas that do not support the business' and shows 38% answered '1, Critical Gap', 33% answered '2', and 13% answered '3'.

    88% of CIOs believe that their governance is not effective. (Info-Tech Diagnostics)

    Leverage governance as the catalyst for connecting IT and the business

    49% of firms are misaligned on current performance expectations for IT.

    • 49% Misaligned
    • 51% Aligned

    67% of firms are misaligned on the target role for IT.

    • 34% Highly Misaligned
    • 33% Somewhat Misaligned
    • 33% Aligned

    A well-designed IT governance framework will hep you to:

    1. Make sure IT keeps up with the evolving business context.
    2. Align IT with the mission and the vision of the organization.
    3. Optimize the speed and quality of decision making.
    4. Meet regulatory and compliance needs in the external environment.
    5. (Info-Tech Diagnostics)

    Align with business goals through governance to attain business-IT fusion

    Create a state of business-IT fusion, in which the two become one.

    Without business-IT fusion, IT will go in a different direction, leading to a divergence of purpose and outcomes. IT can transform into a fused partner of the business by ensuring that they govern toward the same goal.

    Firefighter
    • Delivers lower value
    • Duplication of effort
    • Unclear risk profile
    • High risk exposure
    Three sets of arrows, each pointing upward and arranged in an ascending stair pattern. The first, lowest set of arrows has a large blue arrow with a small green arrow veering off to the side, unaligned. The second, middle set of arrows has a large blue arrow with a medium green arrow overlaid on its center, somewhat aligned. The third, highest set of arrows has half of a large blue arrow, and the other half is a large green arrow, aligned. Business Partner
    • Increased speed of decision making
    • Aligned with business priorities
    • Optimized utility of people, financial, and time resources
    • Monitors and mitigates risk and compliance issues

    Redesign IT governance in accordance with COBIT and proven good practice

    Info-Tech’s approach to governance redesign is rooted in COBIT, the world-class and open-source IT governance standard.

    COBIT begins with governance, EDM – Evaluate, Direct, and Monitor.

    We build upon these standards with industry best practices and add a practical approach based on member feedback.

    This blueprint will help you optimize your governance framework.

    The upper image is a pyramid with 'Info-Tech Insights, Analysts, Experts, Clients' on top, 'IT Governance Best Practices' in the middle, and 'COBIT 5' on the bottom, indicating that Info-Tech's Governance guidance is based in COBIT 5. 'This project will focus on EDM01, Set/Maintain Governance Framework.'

    Use Info-Tech’s approach to implementing an IT governance redesign

    The four phases of Info-Tech’s governance redesign methodology will help you drive greater value for the business.

    1. Align IT With the Business Context
      Align IT’s direction with the business using the Statement of Business Context Template.
    2. Assess the Current Governance Framework
      Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of current governance using the Current State Assessment of IT Governance.
    3. Redesign the Governance Framework
      Build a redesign of the governance framework using the Future State Design for IT Governance tool.
    4. Implement Governance Redesign
      Create an IT Governance Implementation Plan to jumpstart the communication of the redesign and set it up for success.
    5. Continuously assess your governance framework to ensure alignment.

    Leverage Info-Tech’s insights for an optimal redesign process

    Common Pitfalls

    Info-Tech Solutions

    Phase 1

    There must be an active understanding of the current and future state of the business for governance to address the changing needs of the business. –›
    1. Make the case for a governance redesign.
    2. Create a custom communication plan to facilitate support.
    3. Establish a collectively agreed upon statement of business context.

    Phase 2

    Take a proactive approach to revising your governance framework. Understand why you are making decisions before actually making them. –›
    1. Conduct the IT governance current state assessment.
    2. Create governance guidelines for redesign.

    Phase 3

    Keep the current and future goals in sight to build an optimized governance framework that maintains the minimum bar of oversight required. –›
    1. Redesign the future state of IT governance in your organization.

    Phase 4

    Don’t overlook the politics and culture of your organization in redesigning your governance framework. –›
    1. Rationalize steps in an implementation plan.
    2. Outline a communication strategy to navigate culture and politics.
    3. Construct an executive presentation to facilitate transparency for the governing framework.

    Leverage both COBIT and Info-Tech-defined metrics to evaluate the success of your redesign

    These metrics will help you determine the extent to which your governance is supporting your business goals, and whether the governance in place promotes business-IT fusion.

    Benefits Realization

    1. Percent of IT-enabled investments where benefit realization is monitored through the full economic life. (COBIT-defined metric)
    2. Percent of enterprise strategic goals and requirements supported by IT strategic goals. (COBIT-defined metric)
    3. Percent of IT services where expected benefits are realized or exceeded. (COBIT-defined metric)

    Resources

    1. Satisfaction level of business and IT executives with IT-related costs and capabilities. (COBIT-defined metric)
    2. Average time to turn strategic IT objectives into an agreed-upon and approved initiative. (COBIT-defined metric)
    3. Number of deviations from resource utilization plan.

    Risks

    1. Number of security incidents causing financial loss, business disruption, or public embarrassment. (COBIT-defined metric)
    2. Number of issues related to non-compliance with policies. (COBIT-defined metric)
    3. Percentage of enterprise risk assessments that include IT-related risks. (COBIT-defined metric)
    4. Frequency with which the risk profile is updated. (COBIT-defined metric)

    Stakeholders

    1. Change in score of alignment with the scope of the planned portfolio of programs and services (using CIO-CXO Alignment Diagnostic).
    2. Percent of executive management roles with clearly defined accountabilities for IT decisions. (COBIT-defined metric)
    3. Percent of business stakeholders satisfied that IT service delivery meets agreed-upon service levels. (COBIT-defined metric)
    4. Percent of key business stakeholders involved in IT governance.

    Capture monetary value by establishing and monitoring key metrics

    While benefits of governance are often qualitative, the power of effective governance can be demonstrated through quantitative financial gains.

    Scenario 1 – Realizing Expected Gains

    Scenario 2 – Mitigating Unexpected Losses

    Metric

    Track the percentage of initiatives that provided expected ROI year over year. The optimization of the governance framework should generate an increase in this metric. Monitor this metric for continuous improvement opportunities. Track the financial losses related to non-compliance with policy or regulation. An optimized governance framework should better protect the organization against policy breach and mitigate the possibility and impact of “rogue” actions.

    Formula

    ROI of all initiatives / number of initiatives in year 2 – ROI of all initiatives / number of initiatives in year 1

    The expected result should be positive.

    Cost of non-compliance in year 2 – cost of non-compliance in year 1

    The expected result should be negative.

    Redesign IT governance to achieve optimal business outcomes

    CASE STUDY

    Industry: Healthcare
    Source: Info-Tech

    Situation

    The IT governance had been structured based on regulations and had not changed much since it was put in place. However, a move to become an integration and service focused organization had moved the organization into the world of web services, Agile development, and service-oriented architecture.

    Complication

    The existing process was well defined and entrenched, but did not enable rapid decision making and Agile service delivery. This was due to the number of committees where initiatives were reviewed, made worse by their lack of approval authority. This led to issues moving initiatives forward in the timeframes required to meet clinician needs and committed governmental deadlines.

    In addition, the revised organizational mandate had created confusion regarding the primary purpose and function of the organization and impacted the ability to prioritize spend on a limited budget.

    To complicate matters further, there was political sensitivity tied to the membership and authority of different governing committees.

    Result:

    The CEO decided that a project would be initiated by the Enterprise Architecture Group, but managed by an external consultant to optimize and restructure the governance within the organization.

    The purpose of using the external consultant was to help remove internal politics from the discussion. This allowed the organization to establish a shared view of the organization’s revised mission and IT’s role in its execution.

    The exercise led to the removal of one governing committee and the merger of two others, modification to committee authority and membership, and a refined decision-making context that was agreed to by all parties.

    The redesigned governance process led to a 30% reduction in cycle time from intake to decision, and a 15% improvement in alignment of IT spend with strategic priorities.

    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

    Redesign IT Governance – project overview

    Align IT With the Business Context

    Assess the Current State

    Redesign Governance

    Implement Redesign

    Supporting Tool icon

    Best-Practice Toolkit

    1.1 Identify Stakeholders
    1.2 Make the Case
    1.3 Present to Executives
    1.4 Customize Comm. Plan
    1.5 Review Documents
    1.6 Analyze Frameworks
    1.7 Conduct Brainstorming
    1.8 Finalize the SoBC
    2.1 Create Committee Profiles

    2.2 Build a Governance Structure Map

    2.3 Establish Governance Guidelines

    3.1 Build Governance Structure Map

    3.2 Create Committee Profiles

    3.3 Leverage Process Specific Governance Blueprints

    4.1 Identify Next Steps for the Redesign

    4.2 Establish Communication Plan

    4.3 Lead Executive Presentation

    Guided Implementations

    • Move towards gaining buy-in from the business if necessary. Then identify the major components of the SoBC.
    • Review SoBC and discuss a strategy to engage key stakeholders in the redesign.
    • Explore the process of identifying the four major elements of governance. Build guidelines for the future state.
    • Review the current state of governance and discuss the implications and guidelines.
    • Identify the changes that will need to be made.
    • Review redesigned structure and authority.
    • Review redesigned process and membership.
    • Discuss and review the implementation plan.
    • Prepare the presentation for the executives. Provide support on any final questions.
    Associated Activity icon

    Onsite Workshop

    Module 1:
    Align IT with the business context
    Module 2:
    Assess the current governance framework
    Module 3:
    Redesign the governance framework
    Module 4:
    Implement governance redesign
    Phase 1 Results:
    • Align IT’s direction with the business.
    Phase 2 Results:
    • Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of current governance and build guidelines.
    Phase 3 Results:
    • Establish a redesign of the governance framework.
    Phase 4 Results:
    • Create an implementation plan for the communication of the redesign.

    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

    Task – Identify the Need for Governance Task – Align IT with the Business Context Task – Assess the Current State Task – Redesign Governance Framework Task – Implement Governance Redesign

    Activities

    • 1.1 Identify Stakeholders
    • 1.2 Make the Case
    • 1.3 Present to Executives
    • 1.4 Customize Communication Plan
    • 2.1 Review Documents
    • 2.2 Analyze Frameworks
    • 2.3 Conduct Brainstorming
    • 2.4 Finalize the Statement of Business Context
    • 3.1 Create Committee Profiles
    • 3.2 Build Governance Structure Map
    • 3.3 Establish Governance Guidelines
    • 4.1 Build Governance Structure Map
    • 4.2 Create Committee Profiles
    • 4.3 Leverage Process Specific Governance Blueprints
    • 5.1 Identify Next Steps for the Redesign
    • 5.2 Establish Communication Plan
    • 5.3 Lead Executive Presentation

    Deliverables

    1. Make the Case Presentation
    2. Stakeholder Power Map Template
    3. Communication Plan
    1. PESTLE Analysis
    2. SWOT Analysis
    3. Statement of Business Context
    1. Current State Assessment
    1. Future State Design Tool
    2. IT Governance Terms of Reference
    1. Implementation Plan
    2. Executive Presentation

    Improve IT Governance to Drive Business Results

    PHASE 1

    Align IT With the Business Context

    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: Align IT With the Business Context

    Proposed Time to Completion: 2-4 weeks
    Step 1.1: Identify the Need for Governance Step 1.2: Create the Statement of Business Context
    Start with an analyst kick-off call:
    • Understand the core concepts of IT governance.
    • Create a strategy for key stakeholder support.
    • Identify key communication milestones.
    Review findings with analyst:
    • Identify and discuss the process of engaging senior leadership.
    • Review findings from business analysis.
    • Review diagnostic and interview outcomes.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Identify stakeholders.
    • Make the case to executives.
    • Build a communication plan.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Review business documents.
    • Review the PESTLE and SWOT analyses.
    • Analyze outcomes of CIO-CEO Alignment Diagnostic.
    • Complete the Statement of Business Context.
    With these tools & templates:
    • Make the Case for an IT Governance Redesign
    • Stakeholder Power Map Template
    • IT Governance Stakeholder Communication Planning Tool
    With these tools & templates:
    • PESTLE Analysis Template
    • Business SWOT Analysis Template
    • CIO-CEO Alignment Diagnostic
    • Statement of Business Context Template

    Phase 1: Align IT With the Business Context

    1 2 3 4
    Align IT With the Business Context Assess the Current Governance Framework Redesign the Governance Framework Implement Governance Redesign

    Activities:

    • 1.1 Identify Stakeholders
    • 1.2 Customize Make the Case Presentation
    • 1.3 Present to Executives
    • 1.4 Customize Communication Plan
    • 1.5 Review Business Documents
    • 1.6 Analyze Business Frameworks
    • 1.7 Conduct Brainstorming Efforts
    • 1.8 Finalize the SoBC

    Outcomes:

    • Make the case for a governance redesign.
    • Create a custom communication plan to facilitate support for the redesign process.
    • Establish a collectively agreed upon statement of business context.

    Set up business-driven governance by gaining an understanding of the business context

    Fuse IT with the business by establishing a common context of what the business is trying to achieve. Align IT with the business by developing an understanding of the business state, creating a platform to build a well-aligned governance framework.

    "IT governance philosophies can no longer be a ‘black box’ … IT governance can no longer be ignored by senior executives." (Iskandar and Mohd Salleh, University of Malaya, International Journal of Digital Society)

    Info-Tech Insight

    Get consensus on the changing state of business. There must be an active understanding of the current and future state of the business for governance to address the changing needs of the business.

    The source for the governance redesign directive will dictate the route for attaining leadership buy-in

    "Without an awareness of IT governance, there is no chance that it will be followed … The higher the percentage of managers who can describe your governance, the higher the governance performance." (Jeanne Ross, Director, MIT Center for Information Systems Research)

    The path you will choose for your governance buy-in tactics will be based on the original directive to redesign governance.

    Enterprise Directive.
    In the case that the redesign is an enterprise directive, jump directly to building a communication plan.

    IT Directive.
    In the case that the redesign is an IT directive, make the case to get the business on board.

    Use the Make the Case presentation template to get buy-in from the business

    Supporting Tool icon 1A Convince senior management to redesign governance

    INSTRUCTIONS

    1. Identify Stakeholders
      Determine which business stakeholders will be impacted or involved in the redesign process.
    2. Customize the Presentation
      Identify specific pain points regarding IT-business alignment.
    3. Present to Executives
      Present the make the case presentation.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Use the Make the Case customizable deliverable to lead a boardroom-quality presentation proving the specific need for senior executive involvement in the governance redesign.

    Determine which business stakeholders will be impacted or involved in the redesign process

    Associated Activity icon 1.1 Identify the stakeholders for the IT governance redesign

    It is vital to identify key business and IT stakeholders before the IT governance redesign has begun. Consider whose input and influence will be necessary in order to align with the business context and redesign the governance framework accordingly.

    Business

    • Shareholders
    • Board
    • Chief Executive Officer
    • –› Example: the CEO wants to know how IT will support the achievement of strategic corporate objectives.
    • Chief Financial Officer
    • Chief Operating Officer
    • Business Executives
    • Business Process Owners
    • Strategy Executive Committee
    • Chief Risk Officer
    • Chief Information Security Officer
    • Architecture Board
    • Enterprise Risk Committee
    • Head of Human Resources
    • Compliance
    • Audit

    IT

    • Chief Information Officer
    • –› Example: the CIO would like validation from the business with regards to prioritization criteria.
    • Head Architect
    • Head of Development
    • Head of IT Operations
    • Head of IT Administration
    • Service Manager
    • Information Security Manager
    • Business Continuity Manager
    • Privacy Officer

    External

    • Government Agency
    • –› Example: some governments mandate that organizations develop and implement an IT governance framework.
    • Audit Firm

    Build a power map to prioritize stakeholders

    Associated Activity icon 1.1 2-4 hours

    Stakeholders may have competing concerns – that is, concerns that cannot be addressed with one solution. The governance redesigner must prioritize their time to address the concerns of the stakeholders who have the most power and who are most impacted by the IT governance redesign.

    Draw a stakeholder power map to visualize the importance of various stakeholders and their concerns, and to help prioritize your time with those stakeholders.

    • Power: How much influence does the stakeholder have? Enough to drive the project forward or into the ground?
    • Involvement: How interested is the stakeholder? How much involvement does the stakeholder have in the project already?
    • Impact: To what degree will the stakeholder be impacted? Will this significantly change the job?
    • Support: Is the stakeholder a supporter of the project? Neutral? A resistor?
    A power map of stakeholders with two axes and four quadrants. The vertical axis is 'Low Power' on the bottom and 'High Power' on top. The horizontal axis is 'Low Involvement' on the left and 'High Involvement' on the right. The top left quadrant is labeled 'Keep satisfied' and contains 'CFO', a Strongly Impacted Resistor, and 'COO', a Weakly Impacted Resistor. The top right quadrant is labeled 'Key Players' and contains 'CIO' and 'CEO', both Strongly Impacted Supporters. The bottom left quadrant is labeled 'Minimal effort' and contains 'Marketing Head', a Weakly Impacted Neutral, and 'Production Head', a Moderately Impacted Neutral. The bottom right quadrant is labeled 'Keep informed' and contains 'Director of Ops', a Strongly Impacted Supporter, and 'Chief Architect', a Strongly Impacted Neutral.

    Download Info-Tech’s Stakeholder Power Map Template to help you visualize your key stakeholders.

    Build a power map to prioritize stakeholders

    Associated Activity icon 1.1

    It is important to identify who will be impacted and who has power, and the level of involvement they have in the governance redesign. If they have power, will be highly impacted, and are not involved in governance, you have already lost – because they will resist later. You need to get them involved early.

    • Focus on key players – relevant stakeholders who have high power, are highly impacted, and should have a high level of involvement.
    • Engage the stakeholders that are impacted most and have the power to impede the success of redesigning IT governance.
      • For example, if a CFO, who has the power to block project funding, is heavily impacted and not involved, the IT governance redesign success will be put at risk.
    • Some stakeholders may have influence over others so you should focus your efforts on the influencer rather than the influenced.
      • For example, if an uncooperative COO is highly influenced by the Director of Operations, it is recommended to engage the latter.

    The same power map of stakeholders with two axes and four quadrants, but with focus points and notes. The vertical axis is 'Low Power' on the bottom and 'High Power' on top. The horizontal axis is 'Low Involvement' on the left and 'High Involvement' on the right. The top left quadrant is labeled 'Keep satisfied' and contains 'CFO', a Strongly Impacted Resistor, and 'COO', a Weakly Impacted Resistor, as well as a dotted line moving 'CFO' to the top right quadrant with the note 'A) needs to be engaged'. The top right quadrant is labeled 'Key Players' and contains 'CIO' and 'CEO', both Strongly Impacted Supporters, as well as the new required position of 'CFO'. The bottom left quadrant is labeled 'Minimal effort' and contains 'Marketing Head', a Weakly Impacted Neutral, and 'Production Head', a Moderately Impacted Neutral. The bottom right quadrant is labeled 'Keep informed' and contains 'Director of Ops', a Strongly Impacted Supporter, and 'Chief Architect', a Strongly Impacted Neutral, as well as a line from 'Director of Ops' to 'COO' in the top left quadrant with a note that reads 'B) Influences'.

    Identify specific pain points regarding business-IT alignment

    Associated Activity icon 1.2 2-4 hours

    INPUT: Signal Questions, CIO-CXO Alignment Diagnostic

    OUTPUT: List of Categorized Pain Points

    Materials: Make the Case for an IT Governance Redesign

    Participants: Identified Key Business Stakeholders

    1. Consider Signals for Redesign
      Refer to the Executive Brief for questions to identify pain points related to governance.
      • Benefits Realization
      • Resources
      • Risks
      • Stakeholders
    2. Conduct CIO-CEO Alignment Diagnostic
      Assess the current state of alignment between the CIO and the major stakeholders of the organization.

    See the CEO-CIO Alignment Program for more information.

    Conduct the CEO-CIO Alignment Diagnostic

    Why CEO-CIO Alignment?

    The CEO-CIO Alignment Program helps you understand the gaps between what the CEO wants for IT and what the CIO wants for IT. The program will also evaluate the current state of IT, from a strategic and tactical perspective, based on the CEO’s opinion.

    The CEO-CIO Alignment Program helps to:

    • Evaluate how the executive leadership currently feels about the IT organization’s performance along the following dimensions:
      • IT budgeting and staffing
      • IT strategic planning
      • Degree of project success
      • IT-business alignment
    • Answer the question, “What does the CEO want from IT?”
    • Understand the CEO’s perception of and vision for IT in the business.
    • Define the current and target roles for IT. Understanding IT’s current and target roles, in the eyes of the CEO, is crucial to creating IT governance. By focusing the IT governance on achieving the target role, you will ensure that the senior leadership will support the implementation of the IT governance.

    To conduct the CEO-CIO Alignment Program, follow the steps outlined below.

    1. Select the senior business leader to participate in the program. While Info-Tech suggests that the CEO participate, you might have other senior stakeholders who should be involved.
    2. Send the survey link to your senior business stakeholder and ensure the survey’s completion.
    3. Complete your portion of the survey.
    4. Hold a meeting to discuss the results and document your findings.

    See the CEO-CIO Alignment Program for more information.

    Present the “Make the Case” for IT governance redesign

    Associated Activity icon 1.3 30 minutes

    1. Review Finalized Stakeholder List
      Consolidate a list of the most important and impactful stakeholders who need further convincing to participate in the governance redesign and implementation.
    2. Present the Deck
      Include the information gathered throughout the discovery into the presentation deck and hold a meeting to review the findings.

    Business

    • Shareholders
    • Board
    • Chief Executive Officer
    • Chief Financial Officer
    • Chief Operating Officer
    • Business Executives
    • Strategy Executive Committee
    • Chief Risk Officer
    • Architecture Board
    • Enterprise Risk Committee
    • Head of Human Resources
    • Compliance

    IT

    • Chief Information Officer

    External

    • Government Agency
    • Audit Firm

    Use the Make the Case for an IT Governance Redesign template for more information.

    Create a custom communication plan to facilitate support for the redesign process

    Supporting Tool icon 1B Create a plan to engage the key stakeholders

    INSTRUCTIONS

    1. Identify Stakeholders
      Determine which business stakeholders will be involved (refer to Activity 1.1).
    2. Customize Communication Plan
      Follow up with individual communication plans.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Create personal communication plans to provide individualized engagement, instead of assuming that everyone will respond to the same communication style.

    Download the IT Governance Stakeholder Communication Planning Tool for more information.

    Create a communication plan to engage key stakeholders

    Associated Activity icon 1.4 1 hour
    1. Input Stakeholders
      Determine which business stakeholders will be involved (refer to Activity 1.1). Then, insert their position on the power map, the rationale to inform them, the timing of communications, and what inputs they will be needed to provide.

      Stakeholder role

      Power map position

      Why inform them

      When to inform them

      What we need from them

      Chief Executive Officer
      Chief Financial Officer
      Chief Operating Officer
    2. Identify Communication Strategy
      Outline the most effective communication plan for that stakeholder. Identify how to best communicate to the stakeholders to make sure they are appropriately engaged in the redesign process.

      Vehicle

      Audience

      Purpose

      Frequency

      Owner

      Distribution

      Level of detail

      Status Report IT Managers Project progress and deliverable status Weekly CIO, John Smith Email Details for milestones, deliverables, budget, schedule, issues, next steps
      Status Report Marketing Manager Project progress Monthly CIO, John Smith Email High-level detail for major milestone update and impact to the marketing unit

    Establish a collectively agreed upon statement of business context (SoBC)

    Supporting Tool icon 1C Document the mutual understanding of the business context

    INSTRUCTIONS

    1. Review Business Documents
      Review business documents from broad areas of the business to assess the business context.
    2. Analyze Business Frameworks
      Analyze business frameworks to articulate the current and projected future business context.
    3. Brainstorm With Key Stakeholders
      Conduct stakeholder brainstorming efforts to gain insights from key business stakeholders.
    4. Finalize the SoBC
      Document and sign the SoBC with identified stakeholders.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Use the Statement of Business Context customizable deliverable as a point of reference that will guide the direction of the governance redesign.

    Use the Statement of Business Context to identify the critical information needed to guide governance

    Components of the SoBC

    1. Mission
      • Who are you as an organization?
      • Who are your internal and external customers?
      • What are your core business functions?

      Example (Higher Education)
      Nurture global leaders and provide avenues for intellectual exploration.
    2. Vision
      • Is your vision statement future-facing?
      • Is your vision statement concise?
      • Is your vision statement achievable?
      • Does your vision statement involve change?

      Example
      Be a catalyst for creating the future leaders of tomorrow through dynamic and immersive educational experiences. The university will be recognized for being a prestigious innovative research hub and educational institution.
    Sample of Info-Tech's Statement of Business Context Template with the Mission and Vision Statements.

    Use the Statement of Business Context to identify the critical information needed to guide governance (cont.)

    More Components of the SoBC

    1. Strategic Objectives
      • What are the strategic initiatives of the organization?
      • Do you have a roadmap to accomplish your mission?
      • What are the primary goals of senior leaders for the organization?

      Example
      1. Meeting government regulation
      2. Revenue generation
      3. Top research quality
      4. High teaching quality
    Sample of Info-Tech's Statement of Business Context Template with Strategic Objectives.
    1. State of Business
      • Consider what the current state and future state are.
      • How does the operating model used define the state?
      • How do industry trends shape the business?
      • What internal changes impact the business model?

      Example
      Our organization aims to make quick decisions and navigate the fast-paced industry with agility, uniting the development and operational sides of the business.
    Sample of Info-Tech's Statement of Business Context Template with State of the Business.

    Leverage core concepts to determine the direction of the organization’s state of the business

    1. Mission
    2. Vision
    3. Strategic Objectives
    –›
    1. State of Business

    2. Work through if your organization’s state is small vs. large, public vs. private, and lean vs. DevOps vs. traditional.

    Small

    IT team is 30 people or less.

    Large

    IT team is more than 30 people.

    Public

    Wholly or partly funded by the government.

    Private

    No government funding is provided.
    Lean: The business aims to eliminate any waste of resources (time, effort, or money) by removing steps in the business process that do not create value. Devops/Agile: Our organization aims to make quick decisions and navigate the fast-paced industry with agility. Uniting the development and operational sides of the business. Hierarchical: Departments in the organization are siloed by function. The organization is top-down and hierarchical, and takes more time with decision making.

    ‹– Multi-State (any combination) –›

    Review business documents to assess business context

    Associated Activity icon 1.5 2-4 hours

    INPUT: Strategic Documents, Financial Documents

    OUTPUT: Mission, Vision, Strategic Objectives

    Materials: Corporate Documents

    Participants: IT Governance Redesign Owner

    Start assessing the state of the business context by leveraging easily accessible information. Many organization have strategic plans, documents, and presentations that already include a large portion of the information for the SoBC – use these sources first.

    Instructions

    1. Strategic Documents
      Leverage your organization’s strategic documents to gain understanding of the business context.

    2. Documents to Review:
    • Corporate strategy document.
    • Business unit strategy documents.
    • Annual general reports.
  • Financial Documents
    Leverage your organization’s financial documents to gain understanding of the business context.

  • Documents to Review:
    • Look for large capital expenditures.
    • Review operating costs.
    • Business cases submitted.

    Review strategic planning documents

    Overview

    Some organizations (and business units) create an authoritative strategy document. These documents contain the organization’s corporate aspirations and outline initiatives, reorganizations, and shifts in strategy. Additionally, some documents contain strategic analysis (Porter’s Five Forces, etc.).

    Action

    • Read through any of the following:
      • Corporate strategy document
      • Business unit strategy documents
      • Annual general reports
    • Watch out for key future-looking words:
      • We will be…
      • We are planning to…

    Overt Statements

    • Corporate objectives and initiatives are often explicitly stated in these documents. Look for statements that begin with phrases such as “Our corporate objectives are…”
    • Remember that different organizations use different terminology – if you cannot find the word “goal” or “objective” then look for “pillar,” “imperative,” “theme,” etc.
    • Ask a business partner to assist if you need some help.

    Covert, Outdated, and Non-Existent Statements

    • Some corporate objectives and initiatives will be mentioned in passing and will require clarification, for example:
      “As we continue to penetrate new markets, we will be diversifying our manufacturing geography to simplify distribution.”
    • Some corporate strategies may be outdated and therefore of limited use for understanding the state of business – validate the statement to ensure it is up to date.
    • Some organizations lack a strategic plan altogether. Use stakeholder interviews to identify imperatives and validate conflicting statements before moving on.

    Review financial documentation

    Overview

    Departmental budgets highlight the new projects that will launch in the next fiscal year. The overwhelming majority of these projects will have IT implications. Additionally, identifying where the department is spending money will allow you to identify business unit initiatives and operational change.

    Action

    • Scan budgets:
      • Look for large capital expenditures
      • Review operating costs
      • Review business cases submitted
    • Look for abnormalities or changes:
      • What does an increase in spending mean?
      • Does IT need to change as a result?

    Capital Budgets

    • Capital expenditures are driven by projects, which map to corporate goals and initiatives.
    • Look for large capital expenditures and cross-reference the outflows with any project plans that have been collected.
    • If an expenditure cannot be explained by project plans, request additional information.

    Operating Budgets

    • Major changes to operating costs typically reflect changes to a business unit. Some of these changes affect IT capabilities and can be classified as corporate initiatives.
    • Changes that should be classified as corporate initiatives are expansion or contraction of a labor force, outsourcing initiatives, and significant process changes.
    • Changes that should not be classified as corporate initiatives are changes in third-party fees, consulting engagements, and changes caused by inflation or growth.

    Analyze business frameworks to articulate context

    Associated Activity icon 1.6 2-4 hours

    INPUT: Industry Research, Organizational Research, Analysis Templates

    OUTPUT: PESTLE and SWOT Analysis

    Materials: Computer or Whiteboards and Markers

    Participants: IT Governance Redesign Owner

    If corporate documents denoting the key components of the SoBC are not easily available, or do not provide all information required, refer to business analysis frameworks to discover internal and external trends that impact the mission, vision, strategic objectives, and state of the business.

    1. Conduct a PESTLE Analysis
      The PESTLE analysis will support the organization in identifying external factors that impact the business. Keep watch for trends and changes in the industry.
    2. Political

      Economic

      Social

      Technological

      Legal

      Environmental

    3. Conduct a SWOT Analysis
      The SWOT analysis will be more specific to the organization and the industry in which it operates. Identify the unique strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for your organization.
    4. Strengths

      Weaknesses

      Opportunities

      Threats

    Conduct a PESTLE analysis

    Associated Activity icon 1.6 Conduct a PESTLE analysis
    • Break participants into teams and divide the categories amongst them:
      • Political trends
      • Economic trends
      • Social trends
      • Technological trends
      • Legal trends
      • Environmental trends
    • Have each group identify relevant trends under their respective categories. You must relate each trend back to the business by considering:
      • How does this affect my business?
      • Why do we care?
    • Use the prompt questions on the next slide to help the brainstorming process.
    • Have each team present its list and have remaining teams give feedback and additional suggestions.

    Political. Examine political factors such as taxes, environmental regulations, and zoning restrictions.

    Economic Examine economic factors such as interest rates, inflation rate, exchange rates, the financial and stock markets, and the job market.

    Social. Examine social factors such as gender, race, age, income, disabilities, educational attainment, employment status, and religion.

    Technological. Examine technological factors such as servers, computers, networks, software, database technologies, wireless capabilities, and availability of software as a service.

    Legal. Examine legal factors such as trade laws, labor laws, environmental laws, and privacy laws.

    Environmental. Examine environmental factors such as green initiatives, ethical issues, weather patterns, and pollution.

    Download Info-Tech’s PESTLE Analysis Template to help get started.

    Review these questions to help you conduct a PESTLE analysis

    For each prompt below, always try to answer the question: how does this affect my business?

    Political

    • Will a change in government (at any level) affect your organization?
    • Do inter-government or trade relations affect you?
    • Are there shareholder needs or demands that must be considered?

    Economical

    • How are your costs changing (moving off-shore, fluctuations in markets, etc.)?
    • Do currency fluctuations have an effect on your business?
    • Can you attract and pay for top-quality talent (e.g. desirable location, reasonable cost of living, changes to insurance requirements)?

    Social

    • What are the demographics of your customers or employees?
    • What are the attitudes of your customers or staff (do they require social media, collaboration, transparency of costs, etc.)?
    • What is the general lifecycle of an employee (i.e. is there high turnover)?
    • Is there a market of qualified staff?
    • Is your business seasonal?

    Technological

    • Do you require constant technology upgrades (faster network, new hardware, etc.)?
    • What is the appetite for innovation within your industry or business?
    • Are there demands for increasing data storage, quality, BI, etc.?
    • Are you looking at cloud technologies?
    • What is the stance on “bring your own device”?
    • Are you required to do a significant amount of development work in-house?

    Legal

    • Are there changes to trade laws?
    • Are there changes to regulatory requirements, e.g. data storage policies or privacy policies?
    • Are there union factors that must be considered?

    Environmental

    • Is there a push towards being environmentally friendly?
    • Does the weather have any effect on your business (hurricanes, flooding, etc.)?

    Conduct a SWOT analysis on the business

    Associated Activity icon 1.6 Conduct a business SWOT analysis

    Break the group into two teams.

    Assign team A internal strengths and weaknesses.

    Assign team B external opportunities and threats.

    • Have the teams brainstorm items that fit in their assigned grids. Use the prompt questions on the next slide to help you with your SWOT analysis.
    • Pick someone from each group to fill in the grids on the whiteboard.
    • Conduct a group discussion about the items on the list. Identify implications for IT and opportunities to innovate as you did for the other business and external drivers.
    Helpful
    to achieve the objective
    Harmful
    to achieve the objective
    Internal Origin
    attributes of the organization
    Strength Weaknesses
    External Origin
    attributes of the environment
    Opportunities Threats

    Download Info-Tech’s Business SWOT Analysis Template to help get started.

    Review these questions to help you conduct your SWOT analysis on the business

    Strengths (Internal)

    • What competitive advantage does your organization have?
    • What do you do better than anyone else?
    • What makes you unique (human resources, product offering, experience, etc.)?
    • Do you have location advantages?
    • Do you have price, cost, or quality advantages?
    • Does your organizational culture offer an advantage (hiring the best people, etc.)?

    Weaknesses (Internal)

    • What areas of your business require improvement?
    • Are there gaps in capabilities?
    • Do you have financial vulnerabilities?
    • Are there leadership gaps (succession, poor management, etc.)?
    • Are there reputational issues?
    • Are there factors that are making you lose sales?

    Opportunities (External)

    • Are there market developments or new markets?
    • Industry or lifestyle trends, e.g. move to mobile?
    • Are there geographical changes in the market?
    • Are there new partnerships or M&A opportunities?
    • Are there seasonal factors that can be used to the advantage of the business?
    • Are there demographic changes that can be used to the advantage of the business?

    Threats (External)

    • Are there obstacles that the organization must face?
    • Are there issues with respect to sourcing of staff or technologies?
    • Are there changes in market demand?
    • Are your competitors making changes that you are not making?
    • Are there economic issues that could affect your business?

    Conduct brainstorming efforts to gain insights from key business stakeholders

    Associated Activity icon 1.7 2-4 hours

    INPUT: SoBC Template

    OUTPUT: Completed SoBC

    Materials: Computer, Phone, or Other Mechanism of Connection

    Participants: CEO, CFO, COO, CMO, CHRO, and Business Unit Owners

    There are two ways to gather primary knowledge on the key components of the SoBC:

    1. Stakeholder Interviews
      Approach each individual to have a conversation about the key components of the SoBC. Go through the SoBC and fill it in together.
    2. Stakeholder Survey
      In the case that you are in a very large organization, create a stakeholder survey. Input the key components of the SoBC into an online survey maker and send it off the key stakeholders.

    Use the SoBC as the guide to both the interview and the survey. Be clear about the purpose of understanding the business context when connecting with key business stakeholders to participate in the brainstorming. This is a perfect opportunity to establish or develop a relationship with the stakeholders who will need to buy into the redesigned governance framework since it will involve and impact them significantly.

    Go directly to the information source – the key stakeholders

    Overview

    Talking to key stakeholders will allow you to get a holistic view of the business strategy. You will be able to ask follow-up questions to get a better understanding of abstract or complex concepts. Interviews also allow you to have targeted discussions with specific stakeholders who have in-depth subject-matter knowledge.

    Action

    • Talk to key stakeholders:
      • Structure focused, i.e. CEO or CFO
      • Customer focused, i.e. CMO or Head of Sales
      • Operational focused, i.e. COO
      • Lower-level employees or managers
    • Listen for key pains that IT could alleviate.

    Overcome the Unstructured Nature of Interviews

    • Interviewees will often explicitly state objectives and initiatives.
    • However, interviews are less formal and less structured than objective-oriented strategy documents. Objectives are often stated using informal language.
      “We’re talking rev gen here. That’s the name of the game. If we can get a foothold in India, there’s huge upside potential.” (VP Marketing)
    • Further analysis might translate this into a corporate imperative: increase revenue by growing our market share in India to 8% by January of next year.
    • If an imperative is unclear, ask the stakeholder for more detail.
    • Understand how key stakeholders evaluate, direct, and monitor their own areas of the business; this will give you insight as to their style.

    Receive final sign-off to proceed with developing the IT governance redesign

    Associated Activity icon 1.8 30 minutes

    Document any project assumptions or constraints. Before proceeding with the IT governance activities, validate the statement of business context with senior stakeholders. When consensus has been reached, have them sign the final page of the document.

    How to ensure sign-off:

    • Schedule a meeting with the senior stakeholders and conduct a review of the document. This meeting presents a great opportunity to deliver your interpretation of management expectations and make any modifications.
    • Obtaining stakeholder approval in person ensures there is no miscommunication or misunderstandings around the tasks that need to be accomplished to develop a successful IT governance.
    • This is an iterative process; if senior stakeholders have concerns over certain aspects of the document, revise and review again.
    • Final sign-off should only take place when mutual understanding has been reached.

    Download the SoBC Template and complete for final approval.

    Info-Tech Tip

    In most circumstances, you should have the SoBC validated with the following stakeholders:

    • CIO
    • CEO
    • CFO
    • Business Unit Leaders

    Understand the business context to set the foundation for governance redesign

    CASE STUDY

    Industry: Healthcare
    Source: Info-Tech

    Challenge

    The new business direction to become an integrator shifted focus to faster software iteration and on enabling integration and translation technologies, while moving away from creating complete, top-to-bottom IT solutions to be leveraged by clinicians and patients.

    Internal to the IT organization, this created a different in perspective on what was important to prioritize: foundational elements, web services, development, or data compliance issues. There was no longer agreement on which initiatives should move forward.

    Solution

    A series of mandatory meetings were held with key decision makers and SMEs within the organization in order to re-orient everyone on the overall purpose, goals, and outcomes of the organization.

    All attendees were asked to identify what they saw as the mission and vision of the organization.

    Finally, clinicians and patient representatives were brought in to describe how they were going to use the services the organization was providing and how it would enable better patient outcomes.

    Results

    Identifying the purpose of the work the IT organization was doing and how the services were going to be used realigned the different perspectives in the context of the healthcare outcomes they enabled.

    This activity provided a unifying view of the purpose and the state of the business. Understanding the business context prepared the organization to move forward with the governance redesign.

    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

    Sample of activity 1.1 'Determine which business stakeholders will be impacted or involved in the redesign process'. Identify Relevant Stakeholders

    Build a list of relevant stakeholders and identify their position on the stakeholder power map.

    1.4

    Sample of activity 1.4 'Create a communication plan to engage key stakeholders'. Communication Plan

    Build customized communication plans to engage the key stakeholders in IT governance redesign.

    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:

    1.7

    Sample of activity 1.7 'Review business documents to assess business context'. Gather Business Information

    Review business documents, leverage business analysis tools, and brainstorm with key executives to document the Statement of Business Context.

    1.8

    Sample of activity 1.8 'Receive final sign-off to proceed with developing the IT Governance redesign'. Finalize the Statement of Business Context

    Get final approval and acceptance on the Statement of Business Context that will guide your redesign.

    Improve IT Governance to Drive Business Results

    PHASE 2

    Assess the Current Governance Framework

    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: Assess the Current Governance Framework

    Proposed Time to Completion: 2 weeks
    Step 2.1: Outline the Current State AssessmentStep 2.2: Review the Current State Assessment
    Start with an analyst kick-off call:
    • Connect the current business state identified in Phase 1 with the current state of governance.
    • Identify the key elements of current governance.
    • Begin building the structure and committee profiles.
    Review findings with analyst:
    • Review the current governing bodies that were identified.
    • Review the current structure that was identified.
    • Determine the strengths, weaknesses, and guidelines from the implications in the current state assessment.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Identify stakeholders.
    • Make the case to executives.
    • Build a communication plan.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Create committee profiles.
    • Build governance structure map.
    With these tools & templates:
    • Current State Assessment of IT Governance
    With these tools & templates:
    • Current State Assessment of IT Governance

    Phase 2: Assess the Current Governance Framework

    1 2 3 4
    Align IT With the Business Context Assess the Current Governance Framework Redesign the Governance Framework Implement Governance Redesign

    Activities:

    • 2.1 Create Committee Profiles
    • 2.2 Build a Governance Structure Map
    • 2.3 Establish Governance Guidelines

    Outcomes:

    • Use the Current State Assessment of IT Governance to determine governance guidelines.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Don’t be passive; take action! Take an active approach to revising your governance framework. Understand why you are making decisions before actually making them.

    Explore the current governance that exists within your organization

    Your current governance framework will give you a strong understanding of the way the key stakeholders in your business currently view IT governance.

    "Much of the focus of governance today has been on the questions:
    • Are we doing [things] the right way?
    • And are we getting them done well?"
    –› "We need to shift to…
    • Are we doing the right things?
    • Are we getting the benefits?
    • What are the outcomes?
    • What do we want to achieve?
    • How do we make intelligent decisions about what will help us achieve those outcomes?"
    (John Thorp, Author of The Information Paradox)

    Leverage this understanding of IT governance to determine where governance is occurring and how it transpires.

    Conduct a current state assessment

    Supporting Tool icon 2A Assess the current governance framework

    Use this tool to critically assess each governing body to determine the areas of improvement that are necessary in order to achieve optimal business results.

    1. Identify All Governing Bodies
      Some bodies govern intentionally, and some govern through habit and practice. Outline all bodies that take on an element of governance.
    2. Create a Governance Structure Map
      Configure the structural relationships for the governing bodies using the structure map.
    3. Reveal Strengths and Weaknesses
      Identify the strengths and weaknesses of the governance structure, authority definitions, processes, and membership.
    4. Establish Governance Guidelines
      Based on the SoBC, express clear and applicable guidelines to improve on the weaknesses while retaining the strengths of your governance framework.

    Download the Current State Assessment of IT Governance to work toward these outcomes

    Conduct a current state assessment to identify governance guidelines

    Supporting Tool icon 2A Assess the current governance framework

    How to use the Current State Assessment of IT Governance deliverable: Follow the steps below to create a cohesive understanding of the current state of IT governance and the challenges that the current system poses.

    Part A – Committee Profiles

    1. Identify Governing Bodies
    2. Leverage Committee Templates
    3. Create Committee Profiles
      Use the Committee Profile Template

    Part B – Structure Map

    1. Assess Inputs and Outputs to Express Structural Relationships
    2. Create Structure Map
      Use the Governance Structure Map

    Part C – Governance Guidelines

    1. Choose Operating Model Template
    2. Identify Strengths and Weaknesses
    3. Establish Governance Guidelines
      Use the Governance Guideline Template

    What makes up the “governance framework”?

    There are four major elements of the governance framework:

    1. Structure
      Structural relationships are shown by mapping the connections between committees.
    2. Authority
      Each committee will have a purpose and area of decision making that it is accountable for.
    3. Process
      The process includes the inputs, outputs, and activities required for the committee to function.
    4. Membership The individuals or roles who sit on each committee. Take into account members’ knowledge, capability, and political influence.

    Create governing board or committee profiles

    Supporting Tool icon 2A.1 Assess the current governance framework

    Part A – Committee Profiles

    1. Identify Governing Bodies

      Establish where governance happens and who is governing. For different organizations, the governance framework will contain a variety of governing bodies or people. Use a list format to identify governing bodies that exist in your organization.
    2. Leverage Committee Templates

      Use the templates provided. Create a profile for each governing body that currently operates in your IT governance framework as listed in step 1.
    3. Create Committee Profiles

      Identify what they are governing and how they are governing.
      Using the profiles created in step 2, identify each body’s membership roles, purpose, decision areas, inputs, and outputs. Refer to the example text in the template to guide you, but feel free to adjust the text to reflect the reality of your governing body. Screenshot of the 'Committee Template - Executive Management Committee'.
      Consider the following domains of governance:
      (refer to Executive Brief)
      • Benefits realization
      • Risks
      • Resources
      Refer to our examples for some common governing bodies.

    Consistently define the components of governance in the committee profiles

    Membership

    Membership Roles
    Insert information here that reflects who the individuals are that sit on that governing body and what their role is. Include other important information about the individuals’ knowledge, skills, or capabilities that are relevant.

    Authority

    Purpose
    Define why the committee was established in the first place.

    Decision Areas
    Explain the specific areas of decision making this group is responsible for overseeing.

    Process

    Inputs
    Consider the information and materials that are needed to make decisions.

    Outputs
    Describe the outcomes of the committee. Think about decisions that were made through the governance process.

    Screenshot of the components of governance section from the 'Committee Template'.

    Map out relationships on the Governance Map

    Supporting Tool icon 2A.2 Assess the current governance framework

    Part B – Structure Map

    Structure
    1. Assess Inputs and Outputs

      Governing Bodies

      Inputs

      Outputs

      Committee #1
      Committee #2
      Committee #3
      CFO
      IT Director
      CIO
      To understand relationships between governing bodies, list the inputs and outputs for each unique committee that rely on other committees in the table provided.
    2. Create Structure Map
      Sample of the 'Current State Structure Map'. Using the outline provided, create your own governance structure map to represent the way the governing bodies interact and feed into each other. This is crucial to ensure that the governing structure is streamlined. It will ensure that communication occurs efficiently and that there are no barriers to making decisions swiftly.

    Outline the governance structure in the governance structure map

    Associated Activity icon 2.2 30 minutes
    The 'Current State Structure Map' from the last slide, but with added description. There are three tiers of groups. At the bottom is 'Run', described as 'The lowest level of governance will be an oversight of more specific initiatives and capabilities within IT.' 'Design and Build', described as 'The second tier of groups will oversee prioritization of a certain area of governance as well as second-tier decisions that feed into strategic decisions.' At the top is 'Strategy', described as 'These groups will focus on decisions that directly connect to the strategic direction of the organization.' The specific groups laid out in the map are 'Risk and Compliance Committee' which straddle the line between 'Run' and 'Design and Build', 'Portfolio Review Board' and 'IT Steering Committee (ITSC)' both of which straddle the line between 'Design and Build' and 'Strategy', 'Executive Management Committee (EMC)' which is in 'Strategy', and 'Other' in all tiers.

    Identify strengths and weaknesses of the governance framework

    Supporting Tool icon 2A.3 Assess the current governance framework

    Part C – Governance Guidelines

    1. Choose Business State Template Choose the template that represents the identified future state of business in the Statement of Business Context. Mini sample of the 'State of Business' table from the 'Statement of Business Context'.
    2. Identify Strengths and Weaknesses Input the major strengths and weaknesses of your governance that were highlighted in the brainstorming activity. Mini sample of a Strengths and Weaknesses table.
    3. Establish Governance Guidelines Draw your own implications from the strength and weaknesses that will drive the design of your governance in its future state. These guidelines should be concise and easy to implement. Mini sample of an expanded Strengths and Weaknesses table including a row for 'Implication/Guideline'. Note: Refer to the example guidelines in the Current State Assessment of IT Governance after you have considered your own specific guidelines. The examples are supplementary for your convenience.

    Distinguish your business state from the others to ensure implications act as accurate guidelines

    Business State Options

    1

    Small

    IT team is 30 people or less.

    Large

    IT team is more than 30 people.

    2

    Public

    Wholly or partly funded by the government.

    Private

    No government funding is provided.

    3

    Lean: The business aims to eliminate any waste of resources (time, effort, or money) by removing steps in the business process that do not create value.Devops: Our organization aims to make quick decisions and navigate the fast-paced industry with agility. Uniting the development and operational sides of the business. Hierarchical: Departments in the organization are siloed by function. The organization is top-down and hierarchical, and takes more time with decision making.

    ‹– Multi-State (any combination) –›

    Multi-State Example A: If you are small organization that is publicly funded and you are shifting towards a lean methodology, combine the implications of all those groups in a way that fits your organization.

    Multi-State Example B: Your organization is shifting from a more traditional state of operating to combining the development and operations groups. Use hierarchical implications to govern one group and DevOps implications for the other.

    Identify strengths and weaknesses of the governance framework

    Associated Activity icon 2.3 2 hours

    INSTRUCTIONS

    1. Input Strengths of Governance
      Include useful components of the current framework; that may include elements that are operating well, fit the future state, or are required due to regulations or statutes.
    2. Determine Weaknesses and Challenges
      Discuss the pain points of the current governance framework by looking through the lenses of structure, authority, process, or membership.

    Consider:

    • Where is governance not meeting expectations?
    • Are we doing the right things?
    • Are we getting the benefits?
    • What are the outcomes?
    • What do we want to achieve?
    • How do we make intelligent decisions about what will help us achieve those outcomes?
    *Example

    Structure

    Authority

    Process

    Membership

    Strength

    • We must maintain a legal compliance committee due to the high level of legislation in the industry
    • The ITSC gathers and prioritizes investment options, saving time for the EMC
    • The EMC only make decisions on investments that are greater than $200,000
    • The legal board has a narrow focus, allowing it to maintain its necessary purpose efficiently
    • The information flow from ITSC to the EMC allows the EMC to spend their time effectively
    • The CIO sits on the EMC and the ITSC
    • The EMC is made up of senior leadership who have stakes in all areas of the business

    Weakness

    • Wrong number (too many/little groups)
    • Relationship is misaligned (input/output problems)
    • The tier it sits on the map is misguided
    • Duplication of the same tier of decisions in different groups
    • Approval for one specific topic occurs in more than one group
    • Lack of clarity in which group makes which decisions
    • Intake – where the information is coming from is the wrong source/inaccurate
    • Time to decision (too slow)
    • Poor results of governance (redoing projects, low value)
    • There is lack of knowledge in committee membership
    • Misplaced seniority (too Jr./Sr.)
    • Lack of representation in group (breadth across the business or depth of specific area)

    Derive governance implications from strengths and weaknesses

    Associated Activity icon 2.3 2-4 hours

    INSTRUCTIONS

    1. Copy and paste your strengths and weaknesses from part B into the template that reflects your business state.
    2. Draw your own implications from the strengths and weaknesses that will drive the design of your governance in its future state. These guidelines should be concise and practical.
    *Example

    Structure

    Authority

    Process

    Membership

    Strength

    Weakness

    Implication / Guideline

    • Make sure that the decision-making authority for most areas are at the lower tier
    • Governing bodies should be lower in the organization
    • One overarching governing body – directing priorities
    • High authority at a lower point of the organization
    • Highest tier is responsible for major budget shifts
    • High-level tier - reporting and feed in from lower level groups
    • Prioritization and sequencing occur at the mid-tier
    • Lowest governing tiers will have direct links to the customer to allow for interaction
    • Project or initiative owner as the leader of the body

    Note: Use the examples of guidelines provided in the Current State Assessment of IT Governance to help formulate your own.

    Conduct a current state assessment to identify guidelines for the future state of governance

    CASE STUDY

    Industry: Healthcare
    Source: Anonymous

    Challenge

    Over time, the organization had to create a large amount of governing committees and subcommittees in order to comply with governance frameworks applied to them and to meet regulatory compliance requirements.

    The current structure was no longer optimal to meet the newly identified mandate of the organization. However, the organization did not want to start from scratch and scrap the elements that worked, such as the dates and times that had been embedded into the organization.

    Solution

    A current state assessment was planned and executed in order to review what was currently being done and identify what could be retained and what should be added, changed, or removed to improve the governance outcomes.

    The scope involved examining how current and near-term governance needs were, or were not, met through the existing structure, bodies, and their processes.

    The organization investigated governance approaches of organizations with similar governance needs and with similar constraints to model their own.

    Results

    The outputs of this exercise included:

    • A list of effective practices and committee guidelines that could be leveraged with little to no change in the future state.
    • A list of opportunities to streamline the structure and processes.

    These guidelines were used to drive recommendations for improvements to the governance structures and processes in the organization.

    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:

    2.1

    Sample of activity 2.1 'Outline the governance structure in the governance structure map'. Create Current State Structure and Profiles

    Take the time to clearly articulate the current governance framework of your organization. Outline the structure and build the committee profiles for the governing bodies in your organization.

    2.3

    Sample of activity 2.3 'Identify strengths and weaknesses of the governance framework'. Determine Strengths, Weaknesses, and Guidelines

    Evaluate the strengths of your governance framework, the weaknesses that it exhibits, and the guidelines that will help maintain the strengths and alleviate the pains.

    Improve IT Governance to Drive Business Results

    PHASE 3

    Redesign the Governance Framework

    Phase 3 Guided Implementation

    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: Redesign the Governance Framework

    Proposed Time to Completion: 4 weeks
    Step 3.1: Understand the Redesign Process Step 3.2: Review Governance Structure Step 3.3: Review Governance Committees
    Start with an analyst kick-off call:
    • Review the guidelines from the current state assessment.
    • Begin modifying the governance structure, authorities, processes, and memberships.
    Review findings with analyst:
    • Determine the impact of the guidelines on the structural layout of the framework.
    • Determine the impact of the guidelines on the authority element of the framework.
    Finalize phase deliverable:
    • Determine the impact of the guidelines on the processes within the framework.
    • Determine the impact of the guidelines on the membership element of the framework.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Break down guidelines to make sure they are actionable and realistic.
    • Identify what to add, modify, or remove.
    • Review additional sources of information.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Build and review the governance structure map.
    • Identify additions, changes, or reductions in governing bodies and their areas of authority.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Use the template provided to build committee profiles for each identified committee.
    • Identify the membership, purpose, decision areas, inputs, and outputs of each.
    • Build committee charters if needed.
    With these tools & templates:
    • Current State Assessment
    • Future State Design for IT Governance
    With these tools & templates:
    • Future State Design for IT Governance
    With these tools & templates:
    • Future State Design for IT Governance
    • IT Governance Terms of Reference

    Phase 3: Redesign the Governance Framework

    1 2 3 4
    Align IT With the Business Context Assess the Current Governance Framework Redesign the Governance Framework Implement Governance Redesign

    Activities:

    • 3.1 Build a Governance Structure Map
    • 3.2 Create Committee Profiles
    • 3.3 Leverage Process-Specific Governance Blueprints

    Outcomes:

    • Use the Future State Design for IT Governance template to build the optimal governance framework for your organization.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Keep the current and future goals in sight to build an optimized governance framework that maintains the minimum bar of oversight required.

    Anticipate the outcomes of the Future State Design for IT Governance tool

    Supporting Tool icon 3A Redesign the governance frameworks

    Use this tool to guide your organization toward transformative outcomes gleaned from an optimized governance framework.

    1. Implement Structural Guidelines
      Determine what governing bodies to add, change, or remove from your governance structure.
    2. Create a Governance Structure Map
      Configure the structural relationships for the redesigned governing bodies using the structure map.
    3. Build Effective Committees
      Use the IT Governance Terms of Reference to build profiles for each newly created committee and to alter any existing committees.
    4. Determine Follow-up Governance Support
      Access external material on governance from other Info-Tech blueprints that will help with specific governance areas.

    Download the Future State Design for IT Governance template to work toward these outcomes.

    Use the Future State Design for IT Governance tool to create a custom governance framework for your organization

    Supporting Tool icon 3A Redesign the governance frameworks

    How to use the Future State Design for IT Governance deliverable: Follow the steps below to redesign the future state of IT governance. Use the guidelines to respond to challenges identified in the current governance framework based on the current state assessment.

    Part A – Structure Map

    Part B – Committee Profiles

    1a. Input Structural Guidelines 1b. Input Authority Guidelines 1a. Input Process Guidelines 1b. Input Member Guidelines
    2. Guiding Questions
    Do governing bodies operate at a tier that matches the guidelines?

    Do governing bodies focus on the decisions that align with the guidelines?
    2. Guiding Questions
    Do the process inputs and outputs reflect the structure and authority guidelines?

    Do governing bodies engage the right people who have the roles, capacity, and knowledge to govern?
    3. Add / Change (Tier/Authority) / Remove
    Governing Bodies – Structure
    3. Adapt / Refine
    Governing Bodies – Profiles
    4. Use the Structure Map to Show Redesign Use the IT Governance Terms of Reference for Redesign

    Connect key learnings to initiate governance redesign

    The future state design will reflect the state of business that was identified in Phase 1 along with the guidelines defined in Phase 2 to build a governance framework that promotes business-IT fusion.

    Statement of Business Context –› Current State Assessment

    Identified Future Business State

    Structure
    Authority

    Leverage the structure and authority guidelines to build the governance structure.

    Defined Governance Guidelines

    Process
    Membership

    Leverage the process and membership guidelines to build the governance committees.

    Future State Design

    Use structure and authority guidelines to build a new governance structure map

    Supporting Tool icon 3A.1 Redesign the governance frameworks

    Part A – Structure Map

    Structure
    Authority
    1a. Structural Guidelines1b. Authority Guidelines
    Input the guidelines from the current state assessment to guide the redesign.

    2. Leverage Guiding Questions

    Use the guiding questions provided to assess the needed changes.
    Guiding Questions


    Do governing bodies operate at a tier that matches the guidelines?


    Do governing bodies focus on the decisions that align with the guidelines?
    Build the “where/why” of governance. Consider at what tier each committee will reside and what area of governance will be part of its domain. Modify the current structure; do not start from scratch.

    3. Add / Change (Tier/Authority) / Remove

    Determine changes to structure or authority that will be occurring for each of the current governing bodies. Work within the current structure as much as possible.A mini sample of an 'Add/Change/Remove' table for governing bodies.

    4. Use the Structure Map to Show Redesign

    Create your own governance structure map to represent the way the governing bodies interact and feed into each other. A mini sample of the 'Current State Structure Map' from before.

    Maintain as much of the existing framework as possible in the redesign

    Associated Activity icon 3.1 2-4 hours

    Future State Design

    • Structure
    • Authority

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Keep the number of added or removed committees as low as possible, while still optimizing. The less change to the structure, the easier it will be to implement.

    Refer to the example to help guide your committee redesign.

      Determine:
    1. Do the guidelines impact committees you already have? Will you have to modify the tier or the authority of those committees?
    2. Do the guidelines require you to build a new committee to meet needs?
    3. Do the guidelines require you to remove a committee that isn’t necessary?

    All Governing Bodies

    Add

    Change

    Remove

    ITSC Structure

    Authority
    Delegate the authority of portfolio investment decisions over $200K to this body
    Portfolio Review Board This committee no longer needs to exist since its authority of portfolio investment decisions over $200K has been redelegated
    Risk and Compliance Committee Create a new governing body to address increasing risk and compliance issues that face the organization

    Outline the new governance structure in the governance structure map in the Future State Design for IT Governance tool

    Associated Activity icon 3.1 The 'Current State Structure Map' from before, but with some abbreviated terms. There are three tiers of groups. At the bottom is 'Run', described as 'The lowest level of governance will be an oversight of more specific initiatives and capabilities within IT.' 'Design and Build', described as 'The second tier of groups will oversee prioritization of a certain area of governance as well as second-tier decisions that feed into strategic decisions.' At the top is 'Strategy', described as 'These groups will focus on decisions that directly connect to the strategic direction of the organization.' The specific groups laid out in the map are 'Risk and Compliance Committee' which straddle the line between 'Run' and 'Design and Build', 'Portfolio Review Board' and 'ITSC' both of which straddle the line between 'Design and Build' and 'Strategy', 'EMC' which is in 'Strategy', and 'Other' in all tiers.

    Use process and membership guidelines along with the IT Governance Terms of Reference to build committees

    Supporting Tool icon 3A.2 Redesign the governance frameworks

    Part B – Committee Profiles

    Process
    Membership
    1a. Process Guidelines 1b. Authority Guidelines
    Input the guidelines from the current state assessment to guide the redesign.

    2. Leverage Guiding Questions

    Use the guiding questions provided to assess the needed changes.
    Guiding Questions
    Do the process inputs and outputs reflect the structure and authority guidelines?

    Do governing bodies engage the right people who have the roles, capacity, and knowledge to govern?
    Build the “what/how” of governance. Build out the process and procedures that each committee will use.

    3. Adapt / Refine Governing Body Profiles

    Using your customized guidelines, create a profile for each committee.

    We have provided templates for some common committees. To make these committee profiles reflective of your organization, use the information you have gathered in your Current State Assessment of IT Governance guidelines.

    For a more detailed approach to building out specific charters for each committee refer to the IT Governance Terms of Reference.

    A mini sample of the 'Committee Template - Executive Management Committee'.

    A mini sample of the 'IT Governance Terms of Reference'.

    Use the IT Governance Terms of Reference to establish operational procedures for governing bodies

    Associated Activity icon 3.2 3-6 hours

    Future State Design

    • Process
    • Membership

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    The people on the committee matter. Governance committee membership does not have to correspond with the organizational structure, but it should correspond with the purpose and decision areas of the governance structure.

    Refer to the example to help guide your committee redesign.

      Determine:
    1. Do the guidelines alter the members needed to achieve the outcomes?
    2. Do the guidelines change the purpose and decision areas of the committee?
    3. How do the new structure’s guidelines impact the inputs and outputs of the governing body?

    Screenshot of the 'Committee Template - Executive Management Committee'.

    Add depth to the committee profiles using the IT Governance Terms of Reference

    Supporting Tool icon 3A.3 Redesign the governance frameworks

    Refer to the sections outlined below to build a committee charter for your governance committees. Four examples are provided in the tool and can be edited for your convenience. They are: Executive Management Committee, IT Steering Committee, Portfolio Review Board, and Risk and Compliance Committee.

    1. Purpose
    2. Goals
    3. Responsibilities
    4. Committee Members
    5. RACI
    6. Procedures
    7. Agenda

    Be sure to embed the domains of governance in the charters so that committees focus on the appropriate elements of benefits realization, risk optimization, and resource optimization.

    Download the IT Governance Terms of Reference for more in-depth committee charters.

    Three pillars of planning effective governance meetings

    The effectiveness of the governance is reliant on the ability to work within operational dependencies that will exist in the governance framework. Consider these questions to guide the duration, frequency, and sequencing of your governing body meetings.

    Frequency

    • What is the quantity of decisions that must be made?
    • Is a rapid or urgent response typically required?

    Duration

    • How long should your meeting run based on your meeting frequency and the volume of work to be accomplished?

    Sequencing

    • Are there other decisions that rely on the outcomes of this meeting?
    • Are there any decisions that must be made first for others to occur?
    A venn diagram of the three pillars of planning effective governance meetings, 'Frequency', 'Duration', and 'Sequencing'.

    Leverage process-specific governance blueprints

    Associated Activity icon 3.3

    If there are specific areas of IT governance that you require further support on, refer to Info-Tech’s library of DIY blueprints, Guided Implementations, and workshops for further support. We cover IT governance in the following areas:

    Enterprise Architecture Governance

    Service Portfolio Governance

    Security Governance

    Titlecard of 'Create a Right-Sized Enterprise Architecture Governance Framework' blueprint. Titlecard of 'Lead Strategic Decision Making With Service Portfolio Management' blueprint. Titlecard of 'Build a Security Governance and Management Plan' blueprint.

    Consider the challenges and solutions when identifying a multi-state reality for your business state

    A multi-state business will face unique challenges in navigating the redesign process with the goal of combining all related business states in governance.

    1. Divergent Governance Models
      Separate the governance groups that need to function differently, and bring them back together at the highest level.
    2. Reflecting the Organizational Structure
      Unlike single-state governance, multi-state organizations should model the governance framework in reflection of the organizational structure.
    3. Combining Implications
      Prioritize which implications are the most important and make sure they work first, then see what else fits (e.g. start with regulation, then insert lean guidelines).

    The multi-state business will not fit into one “box” – consider implications from the overlapping business states.

    As business needs change, ensure that you establish triggers to reassess the design of your governance framework.

    Leverage the outcomes of the Current State Assessment and Statement of Business Context to build the future state

    CASE STUDY

    Industry: Healthcare
    Source: Info-Tech

    Challenge

    Identifying the committees and processes that should be in place in the target state required a lot of different inputs.

    A number of high-profile senior management team members were still resistant to the overall idea of applying governance to their initiatives since they were clinician driven.

    The approach and target state, including the implementation plan, had to be approved and built out.

    Solution

    The information pulled together from the current state assessment, including best practices and jurisdictional scans, were tied together with the updated mandate and future state, and a list of recommended improvements were documented.

    The improvements were presented to the optimization committee and the governance committee members to ensure agreement on the approach and confirm the timeline for agreed improvements.

    Results

    A future state mapping of the new committee structure was created, as well as the revised membership requirements, responsibilities, and terms of reference.

    The approved recommendations were prioritized and turned into an implementation plan, with each improvement being assigned an owner who would be responsible for driving the effort to completion.

    Integration points in other processes, like SDLC, where change would be required were highlighted and included in the implementation plan.

    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:

    3.1

    Sample of activity 3.1 'Maintain as much of the existing framework as possible in the redesign'. Redesign the Governance Structure

    Identify committees that need to be added, ones that must be changed, and the no-longer-needed governing bodies in an optimized and streamlined structure. Draw it out in the governance structure map.

    3.2

    Sample of activity 3.2 'Utilize the IT Governance Terms of Reference to establish operational procedures for governing bodies'. Redesign the Governing Bodies

    Use the IT Governance Terms of Reference and the Committee Template to build a committee profile for each governing body identified. Use these activities to build out and establish the processes of the modified governing groups.

    Improve IT Governance to Drive Business Results

    PHASE 4

    Implement Governance Redesign

    Phase 4 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 4: Implement Governance Redesign

    Proposed Time to Completion: 2-3 weeks
    Step 4.1: Identify Steps for Implementation Step 4.2: Finalized Implementation Plan
    Start with an analyst kick-off call:
    • Identify major steps required to implement the governance redesign.
    • Outline the components and milestones of the implementation plan.
    • Review materials needed for the executive presentation.
    Review findings with analyst:
    • Review the major milestones identified in the implementation plan.
    • Discuss potential challenges and stakeholder objections.
    • Strategize for the executive presentation.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Then complete these activities…
    • Identify next steps for the redesign.
    • Establish a communication plan.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Review the implementation plan.
    • Assess any challenging milestones and build implementation strategies.
    • Finalize the executive presentation.
    With these tools & templates:
    • IT Governance Implementation Plan
    • Redesign IT Governance to Drive Optimal Business Results Executive Presentation Template
    With these tools & templates:
    • IT Governance Implementation Plan
    • Redesign IT Governance to Drive Optimal Business Results Executive Presentation Template

    Phase 4: Implement Governance Redesign

    1 2 3 4
    Align IT With the Business Context Assess the Current Governance Framework Redesign the Governance Framework Implement Governance Redesign

    Activities:

    • 4.1 Identify Next Steps for the Redesign
    • 4.2 Establish a Communication Plan
    • 4.3 Lead the Executive Presentation

    Outcomes:

    • Rationalize steps in the Implementation Plan tool.
    • Construct an executive presentation to facilitate transparency for the governing framework.

    Anticipate and overcome implementation obstacles for the redesign

    Often high-level organizational changes create challenges. We will help you break down the barriers to optimal IT governance by addressing key obstacles.

    Key Obstacles

    Solutions

    Identifying Steps The prioritization must be driven by the common view of what is important for the organization to succeed. Prioritize the IT governance next steps according to the value they are anticipated to provide to the business.
    Communicating the Redesign The redesign of IT governance will bring impactful changes to diverse stakeholders across the organization. This phase will help you plan communication strategies for the different stakeholders.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Don’t overlook the politics and culture of your organization while redesigning your governance framework.

    Create an implementation roadmap to organize a plan for the redesign

    Supporting Tool icon 4A Create an implementation and communication plan

    INSTRUCTIONS

    1. Identify Tasks
      Decide on the order of tasks for your implementation plan. Consider the dependencies of actions and plan the sequence accordingly.
    2. Determine Communication Method
      Identify the most appropriate and impactful method of communicating at each milestone identified in step 1.

    Download the IT Governance Implementation Plan to organize your customized implementation and communication plan.

    Screenshot of a table in the 'IT Governance Implementation Plan'.

    Outline next steps for governance redesign

    Associated Activity icon 4.1

    INPUT: Tasks Identified in the Future State Design

    OUTPUT: Identified Tasks for Implementation as Well as the Audience

    Materials: N/A

    Participants: IT Governance Redesign Owner

    INSTRUCTIONS

    Keep these questions in mind as you analyze and assess what steps to take first in the redesign implementation.

    1. What needs to happen?
      Use the identified changes from the redesign as your guiding list of tasks that need to occur. If they are larger tasks, break them down into smaller parts to make the milestones more achievable.
    2. What are the dependencies?
      Throughout the implementation of the redesign, certain tasks will need to occur to enable other tasks to be performed. Make sure to clearly identify what dependencies exist in the implementation process and clearly identify the order of the tasks.
    3. Who do the changes impact?
      Consider the groups and individuals that will be impacted by changes to the governance framework. This includes key business stakeholders, IT leaders, members of governing boards, and anyone who provides an input or requires an output from one of the committees.

    Use a big-bang approach to implement the IT governance redesign

    While there are other methods to implementing change, the big-bang approach is the most effective for governance redesign and will maintain the momentum of the change as well as the support needed to make it successful.

    Phased

    Parallel

    Big Bang

    Implementation of redesign occurs in steps over a significant period of time.

    Three arrows, each beginning where the previous one ends, separated.

    Components of the redesign are brought into the governance framework, while maintaining some of the old components.

    Three arrows, each beginning slightly after the previous one begins, overlapping.

    Implementation of redesign occurs all at once. This requires significant preparation.

    One large arrow, spanning the length of the other grouped arrows, circled to emphasize.
    • Some committees will be operating under a new structure while others are not, which will undermine the changes being made.
    • This method proliferates a lack of transparency and trust.
    • Releasing IT governance in parallel leads to members sitting on too many boards and spending too much time on governance.
    • There will be a lack of clarity on a committee’s authority.
    • This approach will lead to consistency and transparency in the new process.
    • The change will be clear and fully embedded in the organization with stronger boundaries and well-defined expectations.

    Determine the most effective and impactful communication mediums for relevant stakeholders

    Associated Activity icon 4.2 1 hour

    INSTRUCTIONS

    1. Consider the Individual or Group
      Consider the group and individuals identified in step 4.1. Determine the most appropriate mechanism for communicating with that person or group. Keep in mind: If they are local, how much influence they have and if they are already engaged in the redesign process.
    2. Consider the Message
      The type of message that you are communicating will vary in impact and importance depending on the task. Make sure that the communication medium reflects your message. Keep in mind: If the you are communicating an important or more personal issue, the medium should be more personal as well.

    Screenshot of the same table in the 'IT Governance Implementation Plan'.

    Communicate the changes that result from the redesign

    Plan the message first, then deliver it to your stakeholders through the most appropriate medium to avoid message avoidance or confusion.

    Communication Medium

    Face-to-Face Communication

    Face-to-face communication helps to ensure that the audience is receiving and understanding a clear message, and allows them to voice their concerns and clarify any confusion or questions.

    • Use one-on-one meetings for key stakeholders and large organizational meetings to introduce large changes in the redesign.
    Emails

    Use email to communicate information to broad audiences. In addition, use email as the mass feedback mechanism.

    • Use email to follow up on meetings, or to invite people to next ones, but not as the sole medium of communication.
    Internal Website or Drive

    Use an internal website or drive as an information repository.

    • Store meeting minutes, policies, procedures, terms of reference, and feedback online to ensure transparency.

    Message Delivery

    1. Plan Your Message
      Emphasize what the audience really needs to know and how the change will impact them.
    2. Test Your Message
      If possible, test your communications with a small audience (2-3 people) first to get feedback and adjust messages before delivering them more broadly.
    3. Deliver and Repeat Your Message
      “Tell them what you’re going to tell them, then tell them, then tell them what you told them.”
    4. Gather Feedback and Evaluate Communications
      Evaluate the effectiveness of the communications (through surveys, stakeholder interviews, or metrics) to ensure the message was delivered and received successfully and communication goals were met.

    Construct an executive presentation to facilitate transparency for the governing framework

    Supporting Tool icon 4B Present the redesign to the key business stakeholders

    INSTRUCTIONS

    1. Identify Stakeholders
      Determine which business stakeholders have been the most involved in the redesign process.
    2. Customize Presentation
      Use the deliverables that you have built throughout this redesign to communicate the changes to the structure, authority, processes, and memberships in the governance framework.
    3. Present to Executives
      Present the executive presentation to the key business stakeholders who have been involved in the redesign process.

    Info-Tech best Practice

    Use the Executive Presentation customizable deliverable to lead a boardroom-quality presentation outlining the process and outcomes of the IT governance redesign.

    Present the executive presentation

    Associated Activity icon 4.3 1 hour

    INSTRUCTIONS

    1. Input SoBC Outcomes
      Input the outcomes of the SoBC. Specify the state of the business you have identified through the process of Phase 1.
    2. Input Current State Framework and Guidelines
      Input the outcomes of the current state assessment. Explain the process you used to identify the current governance framework and how you determined the strengths, weaknesses, and guidelines.
    3. Input Redesigned Governance Framework
      Input the governance redesign outcomes. Explain the process you used to modify and reconstruct the governance framework to drive optimal business results. Show the new structure and committee profiles.

    Use the Redesign IT Governance to Drive Optimal Business Results Executive Presentation Template for more information.

    Implement the governance redesign to optimize governance and, in turn, business results

    CASE STUDY

    Industry: Healthcare
    Source: Info-Tech

    Challenge

    Members of the project management group and in the larger SDLC process identified a lack of clarity on how to best govern active projects and initiatives that were moving through the governance process during the changes to the governance framework.

    These projects had already begun under the old frameworks and applying the redesigned governance framework would lead to work duplication and wasted time.

    Solution

    The organization decided that instead of applying the redesign to all initiatives across the organization, it would only be applied to new initiatives and ones that were still working within the first part of the “gating” process, where revised intake information could still be provided.

    Active initiatives that fell into the grandfathered category were identified and could proceed based on the old process. Yet, those that did not receive this status were provided carry-over lead time to revise their documentation during the changes.

    Results

    The implementation plan and timeframes were approved and an official change-over date identified.

    A communication plan was provided, including the grandfathered approach to be used with in-flight initiatives.

    A review cycle was also established for three months after launch to ensure the process was working as expected and would be repeated annually.

    The revised process improved the cycle time by 30% and improved the ability of the organization to govern high-speed requests and decisions.

    Summary of accomplishment

    Insights

    • IT governance requires business leadership.
      Instead of IT managing and governing IT, engage business leaders to take responsibility for governing IT.
    • With great governance comes great responsibility.
      Involve relevant business leaders, who will be impacted by IT outcomes, to share governing authority of IT.
    • Establish IT-business fusion.
      In governance, alignment is not enough. Merge IT and the business through governance to ensure business success.

    Knowledge Gained

    • There must be an active understanding of the current and future state of the business for governance to address the changing needs of the business.
    • Take a proactive approach to revising your governance framework. Understand why you are making decisions before actually making them.
    • Keep the current and future goals in sight to build an optimized governance framework that maintains the minimum bar of oversight required.

    Processes Optimized

    • EDM01 – Establishing a Governance Framework
    • Understanding the four elements of governance:
      • Structure
      • Authority
      • Process
      • Members
    • Embedding the benefits realization criteria, risk optimization, and resource optimization in governance.

    Deliverables Completed

    • Statement of Business Context
    • Current State Assessment of IT Governance
    • Future State Design for IT Governance
    • IT Governance Implementation Plan

    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:

    4.1

    Sample of activity 4.1 'Outline next steps for governance redesign'. Build and Deploy the Implementation Plan

    Construct a list of tasks and consider the individuals or groups that those tasks will impact when implementing the governance redesign. Ensure consistent and transparent communication for successful outcomes.

    4.3

    Sample of activity 4.3 'Present the Executive Presentation'. Build the Executive Presentation

    Insert the state of business, current state, and future state design outcomes into a presentation to inform the key business stakeholders on the process and outcomes of the governance redesign.

    Research contributors and experts

    Deborah Eyzaguirre, IT Business Relationship Manager, UNT System

    Herbert Kraft, MIS Manager, Prairie Knights Casino

    Roslyn Kaman, CFO, Miles Nadal JCC

    Nicole Haggerty, Associate Professor of Information Systems, Ivey Business School

    Chris Austin, CTO, Ivey Business School

    Adriana Callerio, IT Director Performance Management, Molina Healthcare Inc.

    Joe Evers, Consulting Principal, JcEvers Consulting Corp

    Huw Morgan, IT Research Executive

    Joy Thiele, Special Projects Manager, Dunns Creek Baptist Church

    Rick Daoust, CIO, Cambrian College

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Bibliography

    A.T. Kearney. “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Governance.” A.T. Kearney, 2008. Web. Nov. 2016.

    Bertolini, Phil. “The Transformational Effect of IT Governance.” Government Finance Review, Dec. 2012. Web. Nov. 2016.

    CGI. “IT Governance and Managed Services – Creative a win-win relationship” CGI Group Inc., 2015. Web. Dec. 2016.

    De Haes, Steven, and Wim Van Grembergen. “An Exploratory Study into the Design of an IT Governance Minimum Baseline through Delphi Research.” Communications of the Association for Information Systems: Vol. 22 , Article 24. 2008. Web. Nov. 2016.

    Deloitte LLP. “The Role of Senior Leaders in IT Governance.” The Wall Street Journal, 22 Jun. 2015. Web. Oct. 2016.

    Dragoon, Alice. “Four Governance Best Practices.” CIO From IDG, 15 Aug. 2003. Web. Dec. 2016.

    du Preez, Gert. “Company Size Matters: Perspectives on IT Governance.” PricewaterhouseCoopers, Aug. 2011. Web. Nov. 2016.

    Hagen, Christian, et. al. “Building a Capability-Driven IT Organization.” A.T. Kearney, Jun. 2011. Web. Nov. 2016.

    Heller, Martha. “Five Best Practices for IT Governance.” CFO.com, 27 Aug. 2012. Web. Oct. 2016.

    Hoch, Detlev, and Payan, Miguel. “Establishing Good IT Governance in the Public Sector.” McKinsey Dusseldorf, Mar. 2008. Web. Oct. 2016.

    Horne, Andrew, and Brian Foster. “IT Governance Is Killing Innovation.” Harvard Business Review, 22 Aug. 2013. Web. Dec. 2016.

    ISACA. “COBIT 5: Enabling Processes.” ISACA, 2012. Web. Oct. 2016.

    IT Governance Institute. “An Executive View of IT Governance.” IT Governance Institute, in association with PricewaterhouseCoopers. 2009. Web. Nov. 2016.

    Bibliography continued

    IT Governance Institute. “IT Governance Roundtable: Defining IT Governance.” IT Governance Institute, 2009. Web. Nov. 2016.

    Macgregor, Stuart. “The linchpin between Corporate Governance and IT Governance.” The Open Group’s EA Forum Johannesburg and Cape Town, Nov. 2013. Web. Nov. 2016.

    Mallette, Debra. “Implementing IT Governance An Introduction.” ISACA San Francisco Chapter, 23 Sep. 2009. Web. Oct. 2016.

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “IT Governance Introduction.” MIT Centre for Information System Research, 2016. Web. Nov. 2016.

    Mueller, Lynn, et. al. “IBM IT Governance Approach – Business Performance through IT Execution.” IBM Redbooks, Feb. 2008. Web. Nov. 2016.

    National Computing Centre. “IT Governance: Developing a successful governance strategy.” The National Computing Centre, Nov. 2005. Web. Oct. 2016.

    Pittsburgh ISACA Chapter. “Practical Approach to COBIT 5.0.” Pittsburgh ISACA Chapter, 17 Sep. 2012. Web. Nov. 2016.

    PricewaterhouseCoopers. “Great by governance: Improve IT performance and Value While Managing Risks.” PricewaterhouseCoopers, Nov. 2014. Web. Dec. 2016.

    PricewaterhouseCoopers. “IT Governance in Practice: Insights from leading CIOs.” PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2006. Web. Nov. 2016.

    Routh, Richard L. “IT Governance Part 1 of 2.” Online video clip. YouTube. The Institute of CIO Excellence, 01 Aug. 2012. Web. Nov. 2016.

    Salleh, Noor Akma Mohd, et. al. “IT Governance in Airline Industry: A Multiple Case Study.” International Journal of Digital Society, Dec. 2010. Web. Nov. 2016.

    Bibliography continued

    Speckert, Thomas, et. al. “IT Governance in Organizations Facing Decentralization – Case Study in Higher Education.” Department of Computer and Systems Sciences. Stockholm University, 2014. Web. Nov. 2016.

    Thorp, John. The Information Paradox—Realizing the Business Benefits of Information Technology. Revised Edition, McGraw Hill, 2003 (written jointly with Fujitsu).

    Vandervost, Guido, et. al. “IT Governance for the CxO.” Deloitte, Nov. 2013. Web. Nov. 2016.

    Weill, Peter, and Jeanne W. Ross. “IT Governance: How Top Performers Manage IT Decision Rights for Superior Results.” Boston: Harvard Business School, 2004. Print. Oct. 2016.

    Wong, Daron, et. al. “IT Governance in Oil and Gas: CIO Roundtable, Priorities for Surviving and Thriving in Lean Times.” Online video clip. YouTube. IT Media Group, Jun. 2016. Web. Nov. 2016.

    Master Organizational Change Management Practices

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}188|cart{/j2store}
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    • Parent Category Name: Program & Project Management
    • Parent Category Link: /program-and-project-management
    • Organizational change management (OCM) is often an Achilles’ heel for IT departments and business units, putting projects and programs at risk – especially large, complex, transformational projects.
    • When projects that depend heavily on users and stakeholders adopting new tools, or learning new processes or skills, get executed without an effective OCM plan, the likelihood that they will fail to achieve their intended outcomes increases exponentially.
    • The root of the problem often comes down to a question of accountability: who in the organization is accountable for change management success? In the absence of any other clearly identifiable OCM leader, the PMO – as the organizational entity that is responsible for facilitating successful project outcomes – needs to step up and embrace this accountability.
    • As PMO leader, you need to hone an OCM strategy and toolkit that will help ensure not only that projects are completed but also that benefits are realized.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • The root of poor stakeholder adoption on change initiatives is twofold:
      • Project planning tends to fixate on technology and neglects the behavioral and cultural factors that inhibit user adoption;
      • Accountabilities for managing change and helping to realize the intended business outcomes post-project are not properly defined in advance.
    • Persuading people to change requires a “soft,” empathetic approach to keep them motivated and engaged. But don’t mistake “soft” for easy. Managing the people part of change is amongst the toughest work there is, and it requires a comfort and competency with uncertainty, ambiguity, and conflict.
    • Transformation and change are increasingly becoming the new normal. While this normality may help make people more open to change in general, specific changes still need to be planned, communicated, and managed. Agility and continuous improvement are good, but can degenerate into volatility if change isn’t managed properly.

    Impact and Result

    • Plan for human nature. To ensure project success and maximize benefits, plan and facilitate the non-technical aspects of organizational change by addressing the emotional, behavioral, and cultural factors that foster stakeholder resistance and inhibit user adoption.
    • Make change management as ubiquitous as change itself. Foster a project culture that is proactive about OCM. Create a process where OCM considerations are factored in as early as project ideation and where change is actively managed throughout the project lifecycle, including after the project has closed.
    • Equip project leaders with the right tools to foster adoption. Effective OCM requires an actionable toolkit that will help plant the seeds for organizational change. With the right tools and templates, the PMO can function as the hub for change, helping the business units and project teams to consistently achieve project and post-project success.

    Master Organizational Change Management Practices Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out how implementing an OCM strategy through the PMO can improve project outcomes and increase benefits realization.

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

    1. Prepare the PMO for change leadership

    Assess the organization’s readiness for change and evaluate the PMO’s OCM capabilities.

    • Drive Organizational Change from the PMO – Phase 1: Prepare the PMO for Change Leadership
    • Organizational Change Management Capabilities Assessment
    • Project Level Assessment Tool

    2. Plant the seeds for change during project planning and initiation

    Build an organic desire for change throughout the organization by developing a sponsorship action plan through the PMO and taking a proactive approach to change impacts.

    • Drive Organizational Change from the PMO – Phase 2: Plant the Seeds for Change During Project Planning and Initiation
    • Organizational Change Management Impact Analysis Tool

    3. Facilitate change adoption throughout the organization

    Ensure stakeholders are engaged and ready for change by developing effective communication, transition, and training plans.

    • Drive Organizational Change from the PMO – Phase 3: Facilitate Change Adoption Throughout the Organization
    • Stakeholder Engagement Workbook
    • Transition Plan Template
    • Transition Team Communications Template

    4. Establish a post-project benefits attainment process

    Determine accountabilities and establish a process for tracking business outcomes after the project team has packed up and moved onto the next project.

    • Drive Organizational Change from the PMO – Phase 4: Establish a Post-Project Benefits Attainment Process
    • Portfolio Benefits Tracking Tool

    5. Solidify the PMO’s role as change leader

    Institute an Organizational Change Management Playbook through the PMO that covers tools, processes, and tactics that will scale all of the organization’s project efforts.

    • Drive Organizational Change from the PMO – Phase 5: Solidify the PMO's Role as Change Leader
    • Organizational Change Management Playbook
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Master Organizational Change Management Practices

    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 OCM Capabilities

    The Purpose

    Assess the organization’s readiness for change and evaluate the PMO’s OCM capabilities.

    Estimate the relative difficulty and effort required for managing organizational change through a specific project.

    Create a rough but concrete timeline that aligns organizational change management activities with project scope.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A better understanding of the cultural appetite for change and of where the PMO needs to focus its efforts to improve OCM capabilities.

    A project plan that includes disciplined organizational change management from start to finish.

    Activities

    1.1 Assess the organization’s current readiness for change.

    1.2 Perform a change management SWOT analysis to assess the PMO’s capabilities.

    1.3 Define OCM success metrics.

    1.4 Establish and map out a core OCM project to pilot through the workshop.

    Outputs

    Organizational Change Management Capabilities Assessment

    A diagnosis of the PMO’s strengths and weaknesses around change management, as well as the opportunities and threats associated with driving an OCM strategy through the PMO

    Criteria for implementation success

    Project Level Assessment

    2 Analyze Change Impacts

    The Purpose

    Analyze the impact of the change across various dimensions of the business.

    Develop a strategy to manage change impacts to best ensure stakeholder adoption.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Improved planning for both your project management and organizational change management efforts.

    A more empathetic understanding of how the change will be received in order to rightsize the PMO’s OCM effort and maximize adoption.

    Activities

    2.1 Develop a sponsorship action plan through the PMO.

    2.2 Determine the relevant considerations for analyzing the change impacts of a project.

    2.3 Analyze the depth of each impact for each stakeholder group.

    2.4 Establish a game plan to manage individual change impacts.

    2.5 Document the risk assumptions and opportunities stemming from the impact analysis.

    Outputs

    Sponsorship Action Plan

    Organizational Change Management Capabilities Assessment

    Risk and Opportunity Assessment

    3 Establish Collaborative Roles and Develop an Engagement Plan

    The Purpose

    Define a clear and compelling vision for change.

    Define roles and responsibilities of the core project team for OCM.

    Identify potential types and sources of resistance and enthusiasm.

    Create a stakeholder map that visualizes relative influence and interest of stakeholders.

    Develop an engagement plan for cultivating support for change while eliciting requirements.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Begin to communicate a compelling vision for change.

    Delegate and divide work on elements of the transition plan among the project team and support staff.

    Begin developing a communications plan that appeals to unique needs and attitudes of different stakeholders.

    Cultivate support for change while eliciting requirements.

    Activities

    3.1 Involve the right people to drive and facilitate change.

    3.2 Solidify the vision of change to reinforce and sustain leadership and commitment.

    3.3 Proactively identify potential skeptics in order to engage them early and address their concerns.

    3.4 Stay one step ahead of potential saboteurs to prevent them from spreading dissent.

    3.5 Find opportunities to empower enthusiasts to stay motivated and promote change by encouraging others.

    3.6 Formalize the stakeholder analysis to identify change champions and blockers.

    3.7 Formalize the engagement plan to begin cultivating support while eliciting requirements.

    Outputs

    RACI table

    Stakeholder Analysis

    Engagement Plan

    Communications plan requirements

    4 Develop and Execute the Transition Plan

    The Purpose

    Develop a realistic, effective, and adaptable transition plan, including:Clarity around leadership and vision.Well-defined plans for targeting unique groups with specific messages.Resistance and contingency plans.Templates for gathering feedback and evaluating success.

    Clarity around leadership and vision.

    Well-defined plans for targeting unique groups with specific messages.

    Resistance and contingency plans.

    Templates for gathering feedback and evaluating success.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Execute the transition in coordination with the timeline and structure of the core project.

    Communicate the action plan and vision for change.

    Target specific stakeholder and user groups with unique messages.

    Deal with risks, resistance, and contingencies.

    Evaluate success through feedback and metrics.

    Activities

    4.1 Sustain changes by adapting people, processes, and technologies to accept the transition.

    4.2 Decide which action to take on enablers and blockers.

    4.3 Start developing the training plan early to ensure training is properly timed and communicated.

    4.4 Sketch a communications timeline based on a classic change curve to accommodate natural resistance.

    4.5 Define plans to deal with resistance to change, objections, and fatigue.

    4.6 Consolidate and refine communication plan requirements for each stakeholder and group.

    4.7 Build the communications delivery plan.

    4.8 Define the feedback and evaluation process to ensure the project achieves its objectives.

    4.9 Formalize the transition plan.

    Outputs

    Training Plan

    Resistance Plan

    Communications Plan

    Transition Plan

    5 Institute an OCM Playbook through the PMO

    The Purpose

    Establish post-project benefits tracking timeline and commitment plans.

    Institute a playbook for managing organizational change, including:

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A process for ensuring the intended business outcomes are tracked and monitored after the project is completed.

    Repeat and scale best practices around organizational change to future PMO projects.

    Continue to build your capabilities around managing organizational change.

    Increase the effectiveness and value of organizational change management.

    Activities

    5.1 Review lessons learned to improve organizational change management as a core PM discipline.

    5.2 Monitor capacity for change.

    5.3 Define roles and responsibilities.

    5.4 Formalize and communicate the organizational change management playbook.

    5.5 Regularly reassess the value and success of organizational change management.

    Outputs

    Lessons learned

    Organizational Change Capability Assessment

    Organizational Change Management Playbook

    Further reading

    Master Organizational Change Management Practices

    PMOs, if you don't know who is responsible for org change, it's you.

    Analyst Perspective

    Don’t leave change up to chance.

    "Organizational change management has been a huge weakness for IT departments and business units, putting projects and programs at risk – especially large, complex, transformational projects.

    During workshops with clients, I find that the root of this problem is twofold: project planning tends to fixate on technology and neglects the behavioral and cultural factors that inhibit user adoption; further, accountabilities for managing change and helping to realize the intended business outcomes post-project are not properly defined.

    It makes sense for the PMO to be the org-change leader. In project ecosystems where no one seems willing to seize this opportunity, the PMO can take action and realize the benefits and accolades that will come from coordinating and consistently driving successful project outcomes."

    Matt Burton,

    Senior Manager, Project Portfolio Management

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Our understanding of the problem

    This Research is Designed For:

    • PMO Directors who need to improve user adoption rates and maximize benefits on project and program activity.
    • CIOs who are accountable for IT’s project spend and need to ensure an appropriate ROI on project investments.

    This Research Will Help You:

    • Define change management roles and accountabilities among project stakeholders.
    • Prepare end users for change impacts in order to improve adoption rates.
    • Ensure that the intended business outcomes of projects are more effectively realized.
    • Develop an organizational change management toolkit and best practices playbook.

    This Research Will Also Assist:

    • Project managers and change managers who need to plan and execute changes affecting people and processes.
    • Project sponsors who want to improve benefits attainment.
    • Business analysts who need to analyze the impact of change.

    This Research Will Help Them:

    • Develop communications and training plans tailored to specific audiences.
      • Identify strategies to manage cultural and behavioral change.
    • Maximize project benefits by ensuring changes are adopted.
    • Capitalize upon opportunities and mitigate risks.

    Drive organizational change from the PMO

    Situation

    • As project management office (PMO) leader, you oversee a portfolio of projects that depend heavily on users and stakeholders adopting new tools, complying with new policies, following new processes, and learning new skills.
    • You need to facilitate the organizational change resulting from these projects, ensuring that the intended business outcomes are realized.

    Complication

    • While IT takes accountability to deliver the change, accountability for the business outcomes is opaque with little or no allocated resourcing.
    • Project management practices focus more on the timely implementation of projects than on the achievement of the desired outcomes thereafter or on the behavioral and cultural factors that inhibit change from taking hold in the long term.

    Resolution

    • Plan for human nature. To ensure project success and maximize benefits, plan and facilitate the non-technical aspects of organizational change by addressing the emotional, behavioral, and cultural factors that foster stakeholder resistance and inhibit user adoption.
    • Make change management as ubiquitous as change itself. Foster a project culture that is proactive about OCM. Create a process where OCM considerations are factored in as early as project ideation and change is actively managed throughout the project lifecycle, including after the project has closed.
    • Equip project leaders with the right tools to foster adoption. Effective OCM requires an actionable toolkit that will help plant the seeds for organizational change. With the right tools and templates, the PMO can function as a hub for change, helping business units and project teams to consistently achieve project and post-project success.
    Info-Tech Insight

    Make your PMO the change leader it’s already expected to be. Unless accountabilities for organizational change management (OCM) have been otherwise explicitly defined, you should accept that, to the rest of the organization – including its chief officers – the PMO is already assumed to be the change leader.

    Don’t shy away from or neglect this role. It’s not just the business outcomes of the organization’s projects that will benefit; the long-term sustainability of the PMO itself will be significantly strengthened by making OCM a core competency.

    Completed projects aren’t necessarily successful projects

    The constraints that drive project management (time, scope, and budget) are insufficient for driving the overall success of project efforts.

    For instance, a project may come in on time, on budget, and in scope, but

    • …if users and stakeholders fail to adopt…
    • …and the intended benefits are not achieved…

    …then that “successful project” represents a massive waste of the organization’s time and resources.

    A supplement to project management is needed to ensure that the intended value is realized.

    Mission (Not) Accomplished

    50% Fifty percent of respondents in a KPMG survey indicated that projects fail to achieve what they originally intended. (Source: NZ Project management survey)

    56% Only fifty-six percent of strategic projects meet their original business goals. (Source: PMI)

    70% Lack of user adoption is the main cause for seventy percent of failed projects. (Source: Collins, 2013)

    Improve project outcomes with organizational change management

    Make “completed” synonymous with “successfully completed” by implementing an organizational change management strategy through the PMO.

    Organizational change management is the practice through which the PMO can improve user adoption rates and maximize project benefits.

    Why OCM effectiveness correlates to project success:

    • IT projects are justified because they will make money, save money, or make people happier.
    • Project benefits can only be realized when changes are successfully adopted or accommodated by the organization.

    Without OCM, IT might finish the project but fail to realize the intended outcomes.

    In the long term, a lack of OCM could erode IT’s ability to work with the business.

    The image shows a bar graph, titled Effective change management correlates with project success, with the X-axis labelled Project Success (Percent of respondents that met or exceeded project objectives), and the Y-axis labelled OCM-Effectiveness, with an arrow pointing upwards. The graph shows that with higher OCM-Effectiveness, Project Success is also higher. The source is given as Prosci’s 2014 Best Practices in Change Management benchmarking report.

    What is organizational change management?

    OCM is a framework for managing the introduction of new business processes and technologies to ensure stakeholder adoption.

    OCM involves tools, templates, and processes that are intended to help project leaders analyze the impacts of a change during the planning phase, engage stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle, as well as train and transition users towards the new technologies and processes being implemented.

    OCM is a separate body of knowledge, but as a practice it is inseparable from both project management or business analysis.

    WHEN IS OCM NEEDED?

    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.

    CM can help improve project outcomes on 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.

    "What is the goal of change management? Getting people to adopt a new way of doing business." – BA, Natural Resources Company

    The benefits of OCM range from more effective project execution to improved benefits attainment

    82% of CEOs identify organizational change management as a priority. (D&B Consulting) But Only 18% of organizations characterize themselves as “Highly Effective” at OCM. (PMI)

    On average, 95% percent of projects with excellent OCM meet or exceed their objectives. (Prosci) VS For projects with poor OCM, the number of projects that meet objectives drops to 15%. (Prosci)

    82% of projects with excellent OCM practices are completed on budget. (Prosci) VS For projects with poor OCM, the number of projects that stay on budget drops to 51%. (Prosci)

    71% of projects with excellent OCM practices stay on schedule. (Prosci) VS For projects with poor OCM practices, only 16% stay on schedule. (Prosci)

    While critical to project success, OCM remains one of IT’s biggest weaknesses and process improvement gaps

    IT Processes Ranked by Effectiveness:

    1. Risk Management
    2. Knowledge Management
    3. Release Management
    4. Innovation
    5. IT Governance
    6. Enterprise Architecture
    7. Quality Management
    8. Data Architecture
    9. Application Development Quality
    10. Data Quality
    11. Portfolio Management
    12. Configuration Management
    13. Application Portfolio Management
    14. Business Process Controls Internal Audit
    15. Organizational Change Management
    16. Application Development Throughput
    17. Business Intelligence Reporting
    18. Performance Measurement
    19. Manage Service Catalog

    IT Processes Ranked by Importance:

    1. Enterprise Application Selection & Implementation
    2. Organizational Change Management
    3. Data Architecture
    4. Quality Management
    5. Enterprise Architecture
    6. Business Intelligence Reporting
    7. Release Management
    8. Portfolio Management
    9. Application Maintenance
    10. Asset Management
    11. Vendor Management
    12. Application Portfolio Management
    13. Innovation
    14. Business Process Controls Internal Audit
    15. Configuration Management
    16. Performance Measurement
    17. Application Development Quality
    18. Application Development Throughput
    19. Manage Service Catalog

    Based on 3,884 responses to Info-Tech’s Management and Governance Diagnostic, June 2016

    There’s no getting around it: change is hard

    While the importance of change management is widely recognized across organizations, the statistics around change remain dismal.

    Indeed, it’s an understatement to say that change is difficult.

    People are generally – in the near-term at least – resistant to change, especially large, transformational changes that will impact the day-to-day way of doing things, or that involve changing personal values, social norms, and other deep-seated assumptions.

    "There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things." – Niccolo Machiavelli

    70% - Change failure rates are extremely high. It is estimated that up to seventy percent of all change initiatives fail – a figure that has held steady since the 1990s. (McKinsey & Company)

    25% - In a recent survey of 276 large and midsize organizations, only twenty-five percent of respondents felt that the gains from projects were sustained over time. (Towers Watson)

    22% - While eighty-seven percent of survey respondents trained their managers to “manage change,” only 22% felt the training was truly effective. (Towers Watson)

    While change is inherently difficult, the biggest obstacle to OCM success is a lack of accountability

    Who is accountable for change success? …anyone?...

    To its peril, OCM commonly falls into a grey area, somewhere in between project management and portfolio management, and somewhere in between being a concern of IT and a concern of the business.

    While OCM is a separate discipline from project management, it is commonly thought that OCM is something that project managers and project teams do. While in some cases this might be true, it is far from a universal truth.

    The end result: without a centralized approach, accountabilities for key OCM tasks are opaque at best – and the ball for these tasks is, more often than not, dropped altogether.

    29% - Twenty-nine percent of change initiatives are launched without any formal OCM plan whatsoever.

    "That’s 29 percent of leaders with blind faith in the power of prayer to Saint Jude, the patron saint of desperate cases and lost causes." – Torben Rick

    Bring accountability to org-change by facilitating the winds of change through the PMO

    Lasting organizational change requires a leader. Make it the PMO.

    #1 Organizational resistance to change is cited as the #1 challenge to project success that PMOs face. (Source: PM Solutions)

    90% Companies with mature PMOs that effectively manage change meet expectations 90% of the time. (Source: Jacobs-Long)

    Why the PMO?

    A centralized approach to OCM is most effective, and the PMO is already a centralized project office and is already accountable for project outcomes.

    What’s more, in organizations where accountabilities for OCM are not explicitly defined, the PMO will likely already be assumed to be the default change leader by the wider organization.

    It makes sense for the PMO to accept this accountability – in the short term at least – and claim the benefits that will come from coordinating and consistently driving successful project outcomes.

    In the long term, OCM leadership will help the PMO to become a strategic partner with the executive layer and the business side.

    Short-term gains made by the PMO can be used to spark dialogues with those who authorize project spending and have the implicit fiduciary obligation to drive project benefits.

    Ultimately, it’s their job to explicitly transfer that obligation, along with the commensurate resourcing and authority for OCM activities.

    More than a value-added service, OCM competencies will soon determine the success of the PMO itself

    Given the increasingly dynamic nature of market conditions, the need for PMOs to provide change leadership on projects large and small is becoming a necessity.

    "With organizations demanding increasing value, PMOs will need to focus more and more on strategy, innovation, agility, and stakeholder engagement. And, in particular, developing expertise in organizational change management will be essential to their success." – PM Solutions, 2014

    28% PMOs that are highly agile and able to respond quickly to changing conditions are 28% more likely to successfully complete strategic initiatives (69% vs. 41%). (PMI)

    In other words, without heightened competencies around org-change, the PMO of tomorrow will surely sink like a stone in the face of increasingly unstable external factors and accelerated project demands.

    Use Info-Tech’s road-tested OCM toolkit to transform your PMO into a hub of change management leadership

    With the advice and tools in Info-Tech’s Drive Organizational Change from the PMO blueprint, the PMO can provide the right OCM expertise at each phase of a project.

    The graphic has an image of a windmill at centre, with PMO written directly below it. Several areas of expertise are listed in boxes emerging out of the PMO, which line up with project phases as follows (project phase listed first, then area of expertise): Initiation - Impact Assessment; Planning - Stakeholder Engagement; Execution - Transition Planning; Monitoring & Controlling - Communications Execution; Closing - Evaluation & Monitoring.

    Info-Tech’s approach to OCM is a practical/tactical adaptation of several successful models

    Business strategy-oriented OCM models such as John Kotter’s 8-Step model assume the change agent is in a position of senior leadership, able to shape corporate vision, culture, and values.

    • PMO leaders can work with business leaders, but ultimately can’t decide where to take the organization.
    • Work with business leaders to ensure IT-enabled change helps reinforce the organization’s target vision and culture.

    General-purpose OCM frameworks such as ACMP’s Standard for Change Management, CMI’s CMBoK, and Prosci’s ADKAR model are very comprehensive and need to be configured to PMO-specific initiatives.

    • Tailoring a comprehensive, general-purpose framework to PMO-enabled change requires familiarity and experience.

    References and Further Reading

    Info-Tech’s organizational change management model adapts the best practices from a wide range of proven models and distills it into a step-by-step process that can be applied to any IT-enabled project.

    Info-Tech’s OCM research is COBIT aligned and a cornerstone in our IT Management & Governance Framework

    COBIT Section COBIT Management Practice Related Blueprint Steps
    BAI05.01 Establish the desire to change. 1.1 / 2.1 / 2.2
    BAI05.02 Form an effective implementation team. 1.2
    BAI05.03 Communicate the desired vision. 2.1 / 3.2
    BAI05.03 Empower role players and identify short-term wins. 3.2 / 3.3
    BAI05.05 Enable operation and use. 3.1
    BAI05.06 Embed new approaches. 4.1 / 5.1
    BAI05.07 Sustain changes. 5.1

    COBIT 5 is the leading framework for the governance and management of enterprise IT.

    Screenshot of Info-Tech’s IT Management & Governance Framework.

    The image is a screenshot of Info-Tech's IT Management & Governance Framework (linked above). There is an arrow emerging from the screenshot, which offers a zoomed-in view of one of the sections of the framework, which reads BAI05 Organizational Change Management.

    Consider Info-Tech’s additional key observations

    Human behavior is largely a blind spot during the planning phase.

    In IT especially, project planning tends to fixate on technology and underestimate the behavioral and cultural factors that inhibit user adoption. Whether change is project-specific or continuous, it’s more important to instill the desire to change than to apply specific tools and techniques. Accountability for instilling this desire should start with the project sponsor, with direct support from the PMO.

    Don’t mistake change management for a “soft” skill.

    Persuading people to change requires a “soft,” empathetic approach to keep them motivated and engaged. But don’t mistake “soft” for easy. Managing the people part of change is amongst the toughest work there is, and it requires a comfort and competency with uncertainty, ambiguity, and conflict. If a change initiative is going to be successful (especially a large, transformational change), this tough work needs to be done – and the more impactful the change, the earlier it is done, the better.

    In “continuous change” environments, change still needs to be managed.

    Transformation and change are increasingly becoming the new normal. While this normality may help make people more open to change in general, specific changes still need to be planned, communicated, and managed. Agility and continuous improvement are good, but can degenerate into volatility if change isn’t managed properly. People will perceive change to be volatile and undesirable if their expectations aren’t managed through communications and engagement planning.

    Info-Tech’s centralized approach to OCM is cost effective, with a palpable impact on project ROI

    Info-Tech’s Drive Organizational Change from the PMO blueprint can be implemented quickly and can usually be done with the PMO’s own authority, without the need for additional or dedicated change resources.

    Implementation Timeline

    • Info-Tech’s easy-to-navigate OCM tools can be employed right away, when your project is already in progress.
    • A full-scale implementation of a PMO-driven OCM program can be accomplished in 3–4 weeks.

    Implementation Personnel

    • Primary: the PMO director (should budget 10%–15% of her/his project capacity for OCM activities).
    • Secondary: other PMO staff (e.g. project managers, business analysts, etc.).

    OCM Implementation Costs

    15% - The average costs for effective OCM are 10%–15% of the overall project budget. (AMR Research)

    Average OCM Return-on-Investment

    200% - Small projects with excellent OCM practices report a 200% return-on-investment. (Change First)

    650% - Large projects with excellent OCM practices report a 650% return-on-investment. (Change First)

    Company saves 2–4 weeks of time and $10,000 in ERP implementation through responsible OCM

    CASE STUDY

    Industry Manufacturing

    Source Info-Tech Client

    Situation

    A medium-sized manufacturing company with offices all over the world was going through a consolidation of processes and data by implementing a corporate-wide ERP system to replace the fragmented systems that were previously in place. The goal was to have consistency in process, expectations, and quality, as well as improve efficiency in interdepartmental processes.

    Up to this point, every subsidiary was using their own system to track data and sharing information was complicated and slow. It was causing key business opportunities to be compromised or even lost.

    Complication

    The organization was not very good in closing out projects. Initiatives went on for too long, and the original business benefits were usually not realized.

    The primary culprit was recognized as mismanaged organizational change. People weren’t aware early enough, and were often left out of the feedback process.

    Employees often felt like changes were being dictated to them, and they didn’t understand the wider benefits of the changes. This led to an unnecessary number of resistors, adding to the complexity of successfully completing a project.

    Resolution

    Implementing an ERP worldwide was something that the company couldn’t gamble on, so proper organizational change management was a focus.

    A thorough stakeholder analysis was done, and champions were identified for each stakeholder group throughout the organization.

    Involving these champions early gave them the time to work within their groups and to manage expectations. The result was savings of 2–4 weeks of implementation time and $10,000.

    Follow Info-Tech’s blueprint to transform your PMO into a hub for organizational change management

    Prepare the PMO for Change Leadership

    • Assess the organization’s readiness for change.
      • Perform an OCM capabilities assessment.
      • Chart an OCM roadmap for the PMO.
      • Undergo a change management SWOT analysis.
      • Define success criteria.
      • Org. Change Capabilities Assessment
    • Define the structure and scope of the PMO’s pilot OCM initiative.
      • Determine pilot OCM project.
      • Estimate OCM effort.
      • Document high-level project details.
      • Establish a timeline for org-change activities.
      • Assess available resources to support the PMO’s OCM initiative.
      • Project Level Assessment

    Plant the Seeds for Change During Project Planning and Initiation

    • Foster OCM considerations during the ideation phase.
      • Assess leadership support for change
      • Highlight the goals and benefits of the change
      • Refine your change story
      • Define success criteria
      • Develop a sponsorship action plan
      • Transition Team Communications Template
    • Perform an organizational change impact assessment.
      • Perform change impact survey.
      • Assess the depth of impact for the stakeholder group.
      • Determine overall adoptability of the OCM effort.
      • Review risks and opportunities.
      • Org. Change Management Impact Analysis Tool

    Facilitate Change Adoption Throughout the Organization

    • Ensure stakeholders are engaged and ready for change.
      • Involve the right people in change and define roles.
      • Define methods for obtaining stakeholder input.
      • Perform a stakeholder analysis.
      • Stakeholder Engagement Workbook
    • Develop and execute the transition plan.
      • Establish a communications strategy for stakeholder groups.
      • Define the feedback and evaluation process.
      • Assess the full range of support and resistance to change.
      • Develop an objections handling process.
      • Transition Plan Template
    • Establish HR and training plans.
      • Assess training needs. Develop training plan.
      • Training Plan

    Establish a Post-Project Benefits Attainment Process

    • Determine accountabilities for benefits attainment.
      • Conduct a post-implementation review of the pilot OCM project.
      • Assign ownership for realizing benefits after the project is closed.
      • Define a post-project benefits tracking process.
      • Implement a tool to help monitor and track benefits over the long term.
      • Project Benefits Tracking Tool

    Solidify the PMO’s Role as Change Leader

    • Institute an OCM playbook.
      • Review lessons learned to improve OCM as a core discipline of the PMO.
      • Monitor organizational capacity for change.
      • Define roles and responsibilities for OCM oversight.
      • Formalize the Organizational Change Management Playbook.
      • Assess the value and success of your practices relative to OCM effort and project outcomes.
      • Organizational Change Management 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

    Drive Organizational Change from the PMO

    Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4 Phase 5
    Best-Practice Toolkit

    1.1 Assess the organization’s readiness for change.

    1.2 Define the structure and scope of the PMO’s pilot OCM initiative.

    2.1 Foster OCM considerations during the ideation phase.

    2.2 Perform an organizational change impact assessment.

    3.1 Ensure stakeholders are engaged and ready for change.

    3.2 Develop and execute the transition plan.

    3.3 Establish HR and training plans.

    4.1 Determine accountabilities for benefits attainment. 5.1 Institute an OCM playbook.
    Guided Implementations
    • Scoping Call.
    • Review the PMO’s and the organization’s change capabilities.
    • Determine an OCM pilot initiative.
    • Define a sponsorship action plan for change initiatives.
    • Undergo a change impact assessment.
    • Perform a stakeholder analysis.
    • Prepare a communications strategy based on stakeholder types.
    • Develop training plans.
    • Establish a post-project benefits tracking process.
    • Implement a tracking tool.
    • Evaluate the effectiveness of OCM practices.
    • Formalize an OCM playbook for the organization’s projects.
    Onsite Workshop

    Module 1:

    Prepare the PMO for change leadership.

    Module 2:

    Plant the seeds for change during planning and initiation.

    Module 3:

    Facilitate change adoption throughout the organization.

    Module 4:

    Establish a post-project benefits attainment process.

    Module 5:

    Solidify the PMO’s role as change leader.

    Phase 1 Results:

    OCM Capabilities Assessment

    Phase 2 Results:

    Change Impact Analysis

    Phase 3 Results:

    Communications and Transition Plans

    Phase 4 Results:

    A benefits tracking process for sponsors

    Phase 5 Results:

    OCM Playbook

    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
    Activities

    Organize and Plan Workshop

    • Finalize workshop itinerary and scope.
    • Identify workshop participants.
    • Gather strategic documentation.
    • Engage necessary stakeholders.
    • Book interviews.

    Assess OCM Capabilities

    • Assess current organizational change management capabilities.
    • Conduct change management SWOT analysis.
    • Define change management success metrics.
    • Define core pilot OCM project.

    Analyze Impact of the Change

    • Analyse the impact of the change across multiple dimensions and stakeholder groups.
    • Create an impact management plan.
    • Analyze impacts to product with risk and opportunity assessments.

    Develop Engagement & Transition Plans

    • Perform stakeholder analysis to identify change champions and blockers.
    • Document comm./training requirements and delivery plan.
    • Define plans to deal with resistance.
    • Validate and test the transition plan.

    Institute an OCM Playbook

    • Define feedback and evaluation process.
    • Finalize communications, transition, and training plans.
    • Establish benefits tracking timeline and commitment plans.
    • Define roles and responsibilities for ongoing organizational change management.
    Deliverables
    • Workshop Itinerary
    • Workshop Participant List
    • Defined Org Change Mandate
    • Organizational Change Capabilities Assessment
    • SWOT Assessment
    • Value Metrics
    • Project Level Assessment/Project Definition
    • Project Sponsor Action Plan
    • Organizational Change Impact Analysis Tool
    • Risk Assessment
    • Opportunity Assessment
    • Stakeholder Engagement Workbook
    • Communications Plan
    • Training Plan
    • Resistance Plan
    • Transition Team
    • Communications Template
    • Evaluation Plan
    • Post-Project Benefits Tracking Timelines and Accountabilities
    • OCM Playbook

    Phase 1

    Prepare the PMO for Change Leadership

    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: Prepare the PMO for Change Leadership

    Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 1 week

    Step 1.1: Assess the organization’s readiness for change

    Start with an analyst kick off call:

    • Scoping call to discuss organizational change challenges and the PMO’s role in managing change.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Perform an assessment survey to define capability levels and chart an OCM roadmap.

    With these tools & templates:

    • Organizational Change Management Capabilities Assessment
    Step 1.2: Define the structure and scope of the PMO’s pilot OCM initiative

    Work with an analyst to:

    • Determine the appropriate OCM initiative to pilot over this series of Guided Implementations from the PMO’s project list.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Rightsize your OCM planning efforts based on project size, timeline, and resource availability.

    With these tools & templates:

    • Project Level Assessment Tool

    Step 1.1: Assess the organization’s readiness for change

    Phase 1 - 1.1

    This step will walk you through the following activities:
    • Perform an OCM capabilities assessment.
    • Chart an OCM roadmap for the PMO.
    • Undergo a change management SWOT analysis.
    • Define success criteria.
    This step involves the following participants:
    • Required: PMO Director
    • Recommended: PMO staff, project management staff, and other project stakeholders
    Outcomes of this step
    • An OCM roadmap for the PMO with specific recommendations.
    • An assessment of strengths, weakness, challenges, and threats in terms of the PMO’s role as organizational change leader.
    • Success metrics for the PMO’s OCM implementation.

    Project leaders who successfully facilitate change are strategic assets in a world of increasing agility and uncertainty

    As transformation and change become the new normal, it’s up to PMOs to provide stability and direction during times of transition and turbulence.

    Continuous change and transition are increasingly common in organizations in 2016.

    A state of constant change can make managing change more difficult in some ways, but easier in others.

    • Inundation with communications and diversity of channels means the traditional “broadcast” approach to communicating change doesn’t work (i.e. you can’t expect every email to get everyone’s attention).
    • People might be more open to change in general, but specific changes still need to be properly planned, communicated, and managed.

    By managing organizational change more effectively, the PMO can build credibility to manage both business and IT projects.

    "The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday’s logic." – Peter Drucker

    In this phase, we will gauge your PMO’s abilities to effectively facilitate change based upon your change management capability levels and your wider organization’s responsiveness to change.

    Evaluate your current capabilities for managing organizational change

    Start off by ensuring that the PMO is sensitive to the particularities of the organization and that it manages change accordingly.

    There are many moving parts involved in successfully realizing an organizational change.

    For instance, even with an effective change toolkit and strong leadership support, you may still fail to achieve project benefits due to such factors as a staff environment resistant to change or poor process discipline.

    Use Info-Tech’s Organizational Change Management Capabilities Assessment to assess your readiness for change across 7 categories:

    • Cultural Readiness
    • Leadership & Sponsorship
    • Organizational Knowledge
    • Change Management Skills
    • Toolkit & Templates
    • Process Discipline
    • KPIs & Metrics

    Download Info-Tech’s Organizational Change Management Capabilities Assessment.

    • The survey can be completed quickly in 5 to 10 minutes; or, if being done as a group activity, it can take up to 60 minutes or more.
    • Based upon your answers, you will get a report of your current change capabilities to help you prioritize your next steps.
    • The tool also provides a customized list of Info-Tech recommendations across the seven categories.

    Perform Info-Tech’s OCM capabilities questionnaire

    1.1.1 Anywhere from 10 to 60 minutes (depending on number of participants)

    • The questionnaire on Tab 2 of the Assessment consists of 21 questions across 7 categories.
    • The survey can be completed individually, by the PMO director or manager, or – even more ideally – by a group of project and business stakeholders.
    • While the questionnaire only takes a few minutes to complete, you may wish to survey a wider swath of business units, especially on such categories as “Cultural Readiness” and “Leadership Support.”

    The image is a screen capture of tab 2 of the Organizational Change Management Capabilities Assessment.

    Use the drop downs to indicate the degree to which you agree or disagree with each of the statements in the survey.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Every organization has some change management capability.

    Even if you find yourself in a fledgling or nascent PMO, with no formal change management tools or processes, you can still leverage other categories of change management effectiveness.

    If you can, build upon people-related assets like “Organizational Knowledge” and “Cultural Readiness” as you start to hone your OCM toolkit and process.

    Review your capability levels and chart an OCM roadmap for your PMO

    Tab 3 of the Assessment tool shows your capabilities graph.

    • The chart visualizes your capability levels across the seven categories of organization change covered in the questionnaire in order to show the areas that your organization is already strong in and the areas where you need to focus your efforts.

    The image is a screen capture of tab 3 of the Organizational Change Management Capabilities Assessment.

    Focus on improving the first capability dimension (from left/front to right/back) that rates below 10.

    Tab 4 of the Assessment tool reveals Info-Tech’s recommendations based upon your survey responses.

    • Use these recommendations to structure your roadmap and bring concrete definitions to your next steps.

    The image is a screen capture of tab 4 of the Organizational Change Management Capabilities Assessment.

    Use the red/yellow/green boxes to focus your efforts.

    The content in the recommendations boxes is based around these categories and the advice therein is designed to help you to, in the near term, bring your capabilities up to the next level.

    Use the steps in this blueprint to help build your capabilities

    Each of Info-Tech’s seven OCM capabilities match up with different steps and phases in this blueprint.

    We recommend that you consume this blueprint in a linear fashion, as each phase matches up to a different set of OCM activities to be executed at each phase of a project. However, you can use the legend below to locate how and where this blueprint will address each capability.

    Cultural Readiness 2.1 / 2.2 / 3.1 / 3.2 / 3.3
    Leadership Support 2.1 / 4.1 / 5.1
    Organizational Knowledge 2.1 / 3.1 / 3.2
    Change Management Skills 2.1 / 2.2 / 3.1 / 3.2 / 3.3
    Toolkit & Templates 2.1 / 2.2 / 3.1 / 3.2 / 3.3 / 4.1 / 5.1
    Process Discipline 2.1 / 2.2 / 3.1 / 3.2 / 3.3 / 4.1 / 5.1
    KPIs & Metrics 3.2 / 5.1

    Info-Tech Insight

    Organizational change must be planned in advance and managed through all phases of a project.

    Organizational change management must be embedded as a key aspect throughout the project, not merely a set of tactics added to execution phases.

    Perform a change management SWOT exercise

    1.1.2 30 to 60 minutes

    Now that you have a sense of your change management strengths and weaknesses, you can begin to formalize the organizational specifics of these.

    Gather PMO and IT staff, as well as other key project and business stakeholders, and perform a SWOT analysis based on your Capabilities Assessment.

    Follow these steps to complete the SWOT analysis:

    1. Have participants discuss and identify Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
    2. Spend roughly 60 minutes on this. Use a whiteboard, flip chart, or PowerPoint slide to document results of the discussion as points are made.
    3. Make sure results are recorded and saved either using the template provided on the next slide or by taking a picture of the whiteboard or flip chart.

    Use the SWOT Analysis Template on the next slide to document results.

    Use the examples provided in the SWOT analysis to kick-start the discussion.

    The purpose of the SWOT is to begin to define the goals of this implementation by assessing your change management capabilities and cultivating executive level, business unit, PMO, and IT alignment around the most critical opportunities and challenges.

    Sample SWOT Analysis

    Strengths

    • Knowledge, skills, and talent of project staff.
    • Good working relationship between IT and business units.
    • Other PMO processes are strong and well adhered to by project staff.
    • Motivation to get things done when priorities, goals, and action plans are clear.

    Weaknesses

    • Project leads lack formal training in change management.
    • IT tried to introduce org change processes in the past, but we failed. Staff were unsure of which templates to use and how/when/why to use them.
    • We can’t designate individuals as change agents. We lack sufficient resources.
    • We’ve had some fairly significant change failures in the past and some skepticism and pessimism has taken root in the business units.

    Opportunities

    • The PMO is strong and well established in the organization, with a history of facilitating successful process discipline.
    • The new incoming CEO has already paid lip service to change and transformation. We should be able to leverage their support as we formalize these processes.
    • We have good lines of project communication already in place via our bi-weekly project reporting meetings. We can add change management matters to the agenda of these meetings.

    Threats

    • Additional processes and documentation around change management could be viewed as burdensome overhead. Adoption is uncertain.
    • OCM success depends on multiple stakeholders and business units coming together; with so many moving parts, we can’t be assured that an OCM program will survive long term.

    Define the “how” and the “what” of change management success for your PMO

    1.1.3 30 to 60 minutes

    Before you move on to develop and implement your OCM processes, spend some time documenting how change management success will be defined for your organization and what conditions will be necessary for success to be achieved.

    With the same group of individuals who participated in the SWOT exercise, discuss the below criteria. You can make this a sticky note or a whiteboard activity to help document discussion points.

    OCM Measured Value Metrics Include:
    • Estimate % of expected business benefits realized on the past 3–5 significant projects/programs.
      • Track business benefits (costs reduced, productivity increased, etc.).
    • Estimate costs avoided/reduced (extensions, cancellations, delays, roll-backs, etc.).
      • Establish baseline by estimating average costs of projects extended to deal with change-related issues.
    What conditions are necessary for OCM to succeed? How will success be defined?
    • e.g. The PMO will need the support of senior leaders and business units.
    • e.g. 20% improvement in benefits realization numbers within the next 12 months.
    • e.g. The PMO will need to establish a portal to help with organization-wide communications.
    • e.g. 30% increase in adoption rates on new software and technology projects within the next 12 months.

    Document additional items that could impact an OCM implementation for your PMO

    1.1.4 15 to 45 minutes

    Use the table below to document any additional factors or uncertainties that could impact implementation success.

    These could be external factors that may impact the PMO, or they could be logistical considerations pertaining to staffing or infrastructure that may be required to support additional change management processes and procedures.

    "[A]ll bets are off when it comes to change. People scatter in all directions. Your past experiences may help in some way, but what you do today and how you do it are the new measures people will use to evaluate you." – Tres Roeder

    Consideration Description of Need Potential Resource Implications Potential Next Steps Timeline
    e.g. The PMO will need to train PMs concerning new processes. We will not only need to train PM staff in the new processes and documentation requirements, but we will also have to provide ongoing training, be it monthly, quarterly, or yearly. Members of PMO staff will be required to support this training. Analyze impact of redeploying existing resources vs. outsourcing. Q3 2016
    e.g. We will need to communicate new OCM requirements to the business and wider organization. The PMO will be taking on added communication requirements, needing to advertise to a wider audience than it has before. None Work with business side to expand the PMO’s communications network and look into leveraging existing communication portals. Next month

    Step 1.2: Define the structure and scope of the PMO’s pilot OCM initiative

    Phase 1 - 1.2

    This step will walk you through the following activities:
    • Determine pilot OCM project.
    • Estimate OCM effort.
    • Document high-level project details.
    • Establish a timeline for org change activities.
    • Assess available resources to support the PMO’s OCM initiative.
    This step involves the following participants:
    • Required: PMO Director
    • Recommended: PMO staff, project management staff, and other project stakeholders
    Outcomes of this step
    • Project definition for the PMO’s pilot OCM initiative.
    • A timeline that aligns the project schedule for key OCM activities.
    • Definition of resource availability to support OCM activities through the PMO.

    Organizational change discipline should align with project structure

    Change management success is contingent on doing the right things at the right time.

    In subsequent phases of this blueprint, we will help the PMO develop an OCM strategy that aligns with your organization’s project timelines.

    In this step (1.2), we will do some pre-work for you by determining a change initiative to pilot during this process and defining some of the roles and responsibilities for the OCM activities that we’ll develop in this blueprint.

    The image shows a sample project timeline with corresponding OCM requirements.

    Get ready to develop and pilot your OCM competencies on a specific project

    In keeping with the need to align organizational change management activities with the actual timeline of the project, the next three phases of this blueprint will move from discussing OCM in general to applying OCM considerations to a single project.

    As you narrow your focus to the organizational change stemming from a specific initiative, review the below considerations to help inform the decisions that you make during the activities in this step.

    Choose a pilot project that:

    • Has an identifiable sponsor who will be willing and able to participate in the bulk of the activities during the workshop.
    • Has an appropriate level of change associated with it in order to adequately develop a range of OCM capabilities.
    • Has a reasonably well-defined scope and timeline – you don’t want the pilot initiative being dragged out unexpectedly.
    • Has PMO/IT staff who will be assisting with OCM efforts and will be relatively familiar and comfortable with them in terms of technical requirements.

    Select a specific project that involves significant organizational change

    1.2.1 5 to 15 minutes

    The need for OCM rigor will vary depending on project size and complexity.

    While we recommend that every project has some aspect of change management to it, you can adjust OCM requirements accordingly, depending on the type of change being introduced.

    Incremental Change Transformational Change

    Organizational change management is highly recommended and beneficial for projects that require people to:

    • Adopt new tools and workflows.
    • Learn new skills.
    • Comply with new policies and procedures.
    • Stop using old tools and workflows.

    Organizational change management is required for projects that require people to:

    • Move into different roles, reporting structures, and career paths.
    • Embrace new responsibilities, goals, reward systems, and values
    • Grow out of old habits, ideas, and behaviors.
    • Lose stature in the organization.

    Phases 2, 3, and 4 of this blueprint will guide you through the process of managing organizational change around a specific project. Select one now that is currently in your request or planning stages to pilot through the activities in this blueprint. We recommend choosing one that involves a large, transformational change.

    Estimate the overall difficulty and effort required to manage organizational change

    1.2.2 5 minutes

    Use Info-Tech’s project levels to define the complexity of the project that you’ve chosen to pilot.

    Defining your project level will help determine how much effort and detail is required to complete steps in this blueprint – and, beyond this, these levels can help you determine how much OCM rigor to apply across each of the projects in your portfolio.

    Incremental Change Transformational Change
    Level 1 Level 2 Level 3
    • Low risk and complexity.
    • Routine projects with limited exposure to the business and low risk of negative impact.
    • Examples: infrastructure upgrades, application refreshes, etc.
    • Medium risk and complexity.
    • Projects with broader exposure that present a moderate level of risk to business operations.
    • Examples: Move or renovate locations, cloud migration, BYOD strategy, etc.
    • High risk and complexity.
    • Projects that affect multiple lines of business and have significant costs and/or risks.
    • Examples: ERP implementation, corporate merger, business model innovation, etc.

    For a more comprehensive assessment of project levels and degrees of risk, see Info-Tech’s Create Project Management Success blueprint – and in particular, our Project Level Assessment Tool.

    Record the goals and scope of the pilot OCM initiative

    1.2.3 15 to 30 minutes

    Description

    What is the project changing?

    How will it work?

    What are the implications of doing nothing?

    What are the phases in execution?

    Expected Benefits

    What is the desired outcome?

    What can be measured? How?

    When should it be measured?

    Goals

    List the goals.

    Align with business and IT goals.

    Expected Costs

    List the costs:

    Software costs

    Hardware costs

    Implementation costs

    Expected Risks

    List the risks:

    Business risks

    Technology risks

    Implementation risks

    Planned Project Activities & Milestones Timeline Owner(s) Status
    1. Example: Vendor Evaluation Finish by Q4-17 Jessie Villar In progress
    2. Example: Define Administrative Policies Finish by Q4-17 Gerry Anantha Starting Q2

    Know the “what” and “when” of org change activities

    The key to change management success is ensuring that the right OCM activities are carried out at the right time. The below graphic serves as a quick view of what OCM activities entail and when they should be done.

    The image is the sample project timeline previously shown, but with additional notes for each segment of the Gantt chart. The notes are as follows: Impact Assessment - Start assessing the impact of change during planning and requirements gathering stages; Stakeholder Engagement - Use requirements gathering and design activities as opportunities to engage stakeholders and users; Transition Planning - The development period provides time for the change manager to develop and refine the transition plan (including communications and training). Change managers need to collaborate with development teams to ensure scope and schedule stay aligned, especially in Agile environments); Communications Execution - Communications should occur early and often, beginning well before change affects people and continuing long enough to reinforce change by celebrating success; Training - Training needs to be well timed to coincide with implementation; Quick Wins - Celebrate early successes to show that change is working; Evaluation & Monitoring - Adoption of change is a key to benefits realization. Don’t declare the project over until adoption of change is proven.

    Rough out a timeline for the org change activities associated with your pilot project’s timeline

    1.2.4 20-30 minutes

    With reference to the graphic on the previous slide, map out a high-level timeline for your pilot project’s milestones and the corresponding OCM activities.
    • This is essentially a first draft of a timeline and will be refined as we develop your OCM discipline in the next phase of this blueprint.
    • The purpose of roughing something out at this time is to help determine the scope of the implementation, the effort involved, and to help with resource planning.
    Project Phase or Milestone Estimated Start Date Estimated End Date Associated OCM Requirement(s)
    e.g. Planning e.g. Already in progress e.g. July e.g. Impact Assessment
    e.g. Requirements & Design e.g. August e.g. October e.g. Stakeholder Engagement & Transition Planning

    Info-Tech Insight

    Proactive change management is easier to execute and infinitely more effective than managing change reactively. A reactive approach to OCM is bound to fail. The better equipped the PMO is to plan OCM activities in advance of projects, the more effective those OCM efforts will be.

    Assess the roles and resources that might be needed to help support these OCM efforts

    1.2.5 30 minutes

    The PMO leader will need to delegate responsibility for many to all of these OCM activities throughout the project lifecycle.

    Compile a list of PMO staff, project workers, and other stakeholders who will likely be required to support these processes at each step, keeping in mind that we will be doing a more thorough consideration of the resources required to support an OCM program in Phase 3.

    OCM Activity Resources Available to Support
    Impact Assessment
    Stakeholder Engagement
    Transition Planning
    Training
    Communications
    Evaluation and Monitoring

    Info-Tech Insight

    OCM processes require a diverse network to support them.

    While we advocate an approach to org change that is centralized through the PMO, this doesn’t change the fact that the PMO’s OCM processes will need to engage the entirety of the project eco-system.

    In addition to IT/PMO directors, org change processes will engage a group as varied as project sponsors, project managers, business analysts, communications leads, and HR/training leads.

    Ensure that you are considering resources and infrastructure beyond IT as you plan your OCM processes – and engage these stakeholders early in this planning process.

    Establish core transition team roles and a reporting structure

    1.2.6 30 minutes

    Once you’ve identified OCM resources and assessed their availability, start to sketch the structure of the core transition team.

    In many cases, the core team only has one or two people responsible for impact analysis and plan development in addition to you, the sponsor, who is accountable for leadership and benefits realization.

    For larger initiatives, the core team might include several co-sponsors or advisors from different departments or lines of business, along with a handful of staff working together on analysis and planning.

    Some team structure templates/examples:

    Small (e.g. Office 365)

    • Sponsor
    • PM/BA

    Medium-Large (e.g. business process initiative)

    • Sponsor
    • PM
    • BA
    • OCM Consultant

    Complex Transformational (e.g. business model initiative, company reorg)

    • Exec. Sponsor (CxO)
    • Steering Committee
    • Project Lead/Champion (VP)
    • Business Lead(s)
    • IT Lead
    • HR/Training Lead
    • OCM Consultant

    Ultimately, organizational change is a collaborative effort

    Effective organizational change involves overlapping responsibilities.

    In keeping with the eclectic network of stakeholders that is required to support OCM processes, Phase 2 is broken up into sections that will, by turn, engage project sponsors, project managers, business analysts, communications leads, and HR/training leads.

    At each step, our intention is to arm the PMO with a toolkit and a set of processes that will help foster a project culture that is proactive about change.

    "It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." – Harry Truman

    Project Step PMO Sponsor Project Manager Business Analyst Blueprint Reference
    Make a high-level case for change.

    A

    R R/C C 1.1
    Initiate project/change planning. A C R C 1.2
    Analyze full breadth and depth of impact. A C R R 1.3
    Assess communications and training requirements. A C R R 2.1
    Develop communications, training, and other transition plans. A R C R 2.2-3
    Approve and communicate transition plans. A C R C 2.4
    Analyze impact and progress. A C R R 3.1
    Revise project/change planning. A C R C 3.2
    Highlight and leverage successes. A R C C 3.3

    Update the Transition Team Communications Template

    1.2.7 10 minutes

    Participants
    • PMO leader
    • PMO staff
    Input
    • The outcomes of various activities in this step
    Output
    • Key sections of the Transition Team Communications Template completed

    Use Info-Tech’s Transition Team Communications Template to help communicate the outcomes of this step.

    • Use the template to document the goals, benefits, and milestones established in 1.2.3, to record the project timeline and schedule for OCM activities from 1.2.4, to document resources available for OCM activities (1.2.5), and to record the membership and reporting structure of the core transition team (1.2.6).

    Download Info-Tech’s Transition Team Communications Template.

    "Managers and user communities need to feel like they are a part of a project instead of feeling like the project is happening to them. It isn't just a matter of sending a few emails or putting up a page on a project website." Ross Latham

    Build organizational change management capabilities by bringing in required skills

    Case Study

    Industry Natural Resources

    Source Interview

    Challenge
    • Like many organizations, the company is undergoing increasing IT-enabled change.
    • Project managers tended to react to effects of change rather than proactively planning for change.

    "The hard systems – they’re easy. It’s the soft systems that are challenging... Be hard on the process. Be easy on the people." – Business Analyst, natural resources company

    Solution
    • Change management was especially challenging when projects were led by the business.
    • IT was often brought in late in business-led projects.
    • As a result, the organization incurred avoidable costs to deal with integration, retraining, etc.
    • The cost of managing change grows later in the project as more effort needs to be spent undoing (or “unfreezing”) the old state or remediating poorly executed change.
    Results
    • The company hired a business analyst with a background in organizational change to bring in the necessary skills.
    • The business analyst brought knowledge, experience, and templates based on best practices and is sharing these with the rest of the project management team.
    • As a result, organizational change management is starting earlier in projects when its effectiveness and value are maximized.

    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:

    1.1.1 Evaluate your current capabilities for managing organizational change

    Take Info-Tech’s OCM capabilities questionnaire and receive custom analyst recommendations concerning next steps.

    1.1.2 Perform a change management SWOT exercise

    Work with a seasoned analyst to assess your PMO’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to becoming an org change leader.

    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:

    1.1.3 Define success metrics for your PMO’s efforts to become an org change leader

    Work with an analyst to clarify how the success of this initiative will be measured and what conditions are necessary for success.

    1.2.2 Determine the appropriate OCM initiative to pilot at your organization

    Receive custom analyst insights on rightsizing your OCM planning efforts based on project size, timeline, and resource availability.

    1.2.4 Develop an OCM timeline that aligns with key project milestones

    Harness analyst experience to develop a project-specific timeline for the PMO’s change management activities to better plan your efforts and resources.

    Phase 2

    Plant the Seeds for Change During Project Planning and Initiation

    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: Plant the seeds for change during project planning and initiation

    Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 1 week

    Step 2.1: Foster OCM considerations during the ideation phase

    Discuss these issues with an analyst:

    • Disengaged or absent sponsors on change initiatives.
    • Lack of organizational desire for change.
    • How to customize an OCM strategy to suit the personality of the organization.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Develop a sponsorship action plan to help facilitate more engaged change sponsorship.
    • Build a process for making the case for change throughout the organization.

    With these tools & templates:

    • Activity 2.1.3: “Refine your change story”
    • Activity 2.1.4: “Develop a sponsorship action plan”
    • Transition Team Communications Template
    Step 2.2: Perform an organizational change impact analysis

    Work with an analyst to:

    • Perform an impact analysis to make your change planning more complete.
    • Assess the depth of change impacts across various stakeholder groups.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Assign accountability for managing change impacts.
    • Update the business case with risks and opportunities identified during the impact analysis.

    With these tools & templates:

    • Organizational Change Management Impact Analysis Tool

    Step 2.1: Foster OCM considerations during the ideation phase

    Phase 2 - 2.1

    This step will walk you through the following activities:
    • Assess leadership support for change.
    • Highlight the goals and benefits of the change.
    • Refine your change story.
    • Define success criteria.
    • Develop a sponsorship action plan.
    This step involves the following participants:
    • PMO Director
    • Project sponsor for the pilot OCM project
    • Additional project staff: project managers, business analysts, etc.
    Outcomes of this step
    • Strategy to shore up executive alignment around the need for change.
    • Increased definition around the need for change.
    • Increased engagement from project sponsors around change management and project outcomes.

    Accountability for change management begins in advance of the project itself

    As early as the request phase, project sponsors and requestors have a responsibility to communicate the need for the changes that they are proposing.

    Org Change Step #1: Make the case for change during the request phase

    Initiation→Planning→Execution→Monitoring & Controlling→Closing

    Even before project planning and initiation begin, sponsors and requestors have org change responsibilities around communicating the need for a change and demonstrating their commitment to that change.

    In this step, we will look at the OCM considerations that need to be factored in during project ideation.

    The slides ahead will cover what the PMO can do to help foster these considerations among project sponsors and requestors.

    While this project may already be in the planning phase, the activities in the slides ahead will help lay a solid OCM foundation as you move ahead into the impact assessment and stakeholder engagement steps in this phase.

    Strongly recommended: include the sponsor for your pilot OCM project in many of the following activities (see individual activity slides for direction).

    Info-Tech Insight

    Make active sponsorship a criteria when scoring new requests.

    Projects with active sponsors are far more likely to succeed than those where the sponsor cannot be identified or where she/he is unable or unwilling to champion the initiative throughout the organization.

    Consider the engagement level of sponsors when prioritizing new requests. Without this support, the likelihood of a change initiative succeeding is far diminished.

    What does effective sponsorship look like?

    Somewhere along the way a stereotype arose of the project sponsor as a disengaged executive who dreams up a project idea and – regardless of that idea’s feasibility or merit – secures funding, pats themselves on the back, and does not materialize again until the project is over to pat themselves on the back again.

    Indeed, it’s exaggerated, based partly on the fact that sponsors are almost always extremely busy individuals, with very demanding day jobs on top of their responsibilities as sponsors. The stereotype doesn’t capture the very real day-to-day project-level responsibilities of project sponsors.

    Leading change management institute, Prosci, has developed a checklist of 10 identifiable traits and responsibilities that PMO leaders and project managers should help to foster among project sponsors. As Prosci states, the checklist “can be used as an audit tool to see if you are utilizing best practices in how you engage senior leaders on your change initiatives.”

    Prosci’s Change Management Sponsor Checklist:

    Are your sponsors:

    • Aware of the importance they play in making changes successful?
    • Aware of their roles in supporting org change?
    • Active and visible throughout the project?
    • Building necessary coalitions for change success?
    • Communicating directly and effectively with employees?
    • Aware that the biggest mistake is failing to personally engage as the sponsor?
    • Prepared to help manage resistance?
    • Prepared to celebrate successes?
    • Setting clear priorities to help employees manage project and day-to-day work?
    • Avoiding trends and backing change that will be meaningful for the long term?

    (Source: Prosci’s Change Management Sponsor Checklist)

    Assess leadership support for change

    2.1.1 30 minutes

    Participants
    • PMO leader
    • Other PMO/PM staff
    Output
    • Leadership support strategy

    Many change initiatives require significant investments of political capital to garner approval, funding, and involvement from key executives. This process can take months or even years before the project is staffed and implementation begins.

    • In cases where leadership opposition or ambivalence to change is a critical success inhibitor, project sponsors or change leaders need a deliberate strategy for engaging and converting potential supporters.
    • You might need to recruit someone with more influence or authority to become sponsor or co-sponsor to convert supporters you otherwise could not.
    • Use the table below as an example to begin developing your executive engagement strategy (but keep it private).
    Executive/Stakeholder Degree of Support Ability to Influence Potential Contribution/Engagement Strategy
    Board of Directors Med High
    CEO
    CFO
    CIO
    CxO

    “The stakes of having poorly engaged executive sponsors are high, as are the consequences and costs. PMI research into executive sponsorship shows that one in three unsuccessful projects fail to meet goals due to poorly engaged executive sponsors.”

    PMI, 2014

    Highlight the goals and benefits of the change

    2.1.2 30-60 minutes

    Participants
    • PMO leader
    • PMO staff
    • Project sponsor

    Build desire for change.

    The project sponsor is accountable for defining the high-level scope and benefits of the project. The PMO needs to work with the sponsor during the ideation phase to help establish the need for the proposed change.

    Use the table below to begin developing a compelling vision and story of change. If you have not already defined high-level goals and deliverables for your project, download Info-Tech’s Light Project Request Form (a Detailed Project Request Form is also available).

    Why is there a need to change?
    How will change benefit the organization?
    How did we determine this is the right change?
    What would happen if we didn’t change?
    How will we measure success?

    See Info-Tech’s Optimize Project Intake, Approval, and Prioritization blueprint for more detailed advice on working with requestors to define requirements and business value of new requests.

    Stories are more compelling than logic and facts alone

    Crucial facts, data, and figures are made more digestible, memorable, and actionable when they are conveyed through a compelling storyline.

    While you certainly need high-level scope elements and a rigorous cost-benefit analysis in your business case, projects that require organizational change also need a compelling story or vision to influence groups of stakeholders.

    As the PMO works with sponsors to identify and document the goals and benefits of change, begin to sketch a narrative that will be compelling to the organization’s varied audiences.

    Structuring an effective project narrative:

    Research shows (Research and impacts cited in Torben Rick’s “Change Management Require[s] a Compelling Story,” 2014) that when managers and employees are asked about what most inspires them in their work, their responses are evenly split across five forms of impact:

    1. Impact on society – e.g. the organization’s role in the community.
    2. Impact on the customer – e.g. providing effective service.
    3. Impact on the company – e.g. contributing positively to the growth of the organization.
    4. Impact on the working team – e.g. creating an inclusive work environment.
    5. Impact on the individual – e.g. personal development and compensation.

    "Storytelling enables the individuals in an organization to see themselves and the organization in a different light, and accordingly take decisions and change their behavior in accordance with these new perceptions, insights, and identities." – Steve Denning

    Info-Tech Insight

    A micro-to-macro change narrative. A compelling org change story needs to address all five of these impacts in order to optimally engage employees in change. In crafting a narrative that covers both the micro and macro levels, you will be laying a solid foundation for adoption throughout the organization.

    Refine your change story

    2.1.3 45 to 60 minutes

    Participants
    • PMO leader
    • PMO staff
    • Project sponsor
    Input
    • 5 levels of change impact
    • Stakeholder groups
    Output
    • Improved change justification to help inform the request phase and the development of the business case.
    Materials
    • Whiteboard and markers

    Using a whiteboard to capture the discussion, address the 5 levels of change impact covered on the previous slide.

    1. Develop a list of the stakeholder groups impacted by this project.
      • The impacts will be felt differently by different groups, so develop a high-level list of those stakeholder groups that will be directly affected by the change.
      • Keep in mind, this activity is not an impact assessment. This activity is meant to elicit how the change will be perceived by the different stakeholder groups, not how it will actually impact them – i.e. this activity is about making the case for change, not actually managing the change.
    2. Brainstorm how the five impact levels will be perceived from the point of view of each stakeholder group.
      • Spend about 5 to 10 minutes per impact per stakeholder group.
      • The goal here isn’t to create a detailed plotline; your change story may evolve as the project evolves. A point or two per impact per group will suffice.
    3. As a group, prioritize the most prescient points and capture the results of your whiteboarding to help inform future artifacts.
      • The points developed during this activity should inform both the ad hoc conversations that PMO staff and the sponsor have with stakeholders, as well as formal project artifacts, such as the request, business case, charter, etc.

    When it comes to communicating the narrative, project sponsors make the most compelling storytellers

    Whatever story you develop to communicate the goals and the benefits of the change, ultimately it should be the sponsor who communicates this message to the organization at large.

    Given the competing demands that senior leaders face, the PMO still has a pivotal role to play in helping to plan and facilitate these communications.

    The PMO should help sponsors by providing insights to shape change messaging (refer to the characteristics outlined in the table below for assistance) and by developing a sponsorship action plan (Activity 2.1.4).

    Tips for communicating a change story effectively:
    Identify and appeal to the audience’s unique frames of reference. e.g. “Most of you remember when we…”
    Include concrete, vivid details to help visualize change. e.g. “In the future, when a sales rep visits a customer in Wisconsin, they’ll be able to process a $100,000 order in seconds instead of hours.”
    Connect the past, present, and future with at least one continuous theme. e.g. “These new capabilities reaffirm our long-standing commitment to customers, as well as our philosophy of continuously finding ways to be more responsive to their needs.”

    “[T]he sponsor is the preferred sender of messages related to the business reasons and organizational implications for a particular initiative; therefore, effective sponsorship is crucial in building an awareness of the need for change.

    Sponsorship is also critical in building the desire to participate and support the change with each employee and in reinforcing the change.”

    Prosci

    Base the style of your communications on the organization’s receptiveness to change

    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.

    Use the below dimensions to gauge your organization’s appetite for change. Analyzing this will help determine the form and force of communications.

    In the next slide, we will base aspects of your sponsorship action plan on whether an organization’s indicator is “high” or “low” across these three dimensions.

    • Organizations with 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 (Dimensions taken from Joanna Malgorzata Michalak’s “Cultural Catalysts and Barriers of Organizational Change Management: a Preliminary Overview,” 2010):

    Power Distance Refers to the acceptance that power is distributed unequally throughout the organization. Organizations with a high power distance indicator show that 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 towards 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.

    "Societies with a high indicator of power distance, individualism, and uncertainty avoidance create vital inertial forces against transformation." – Michalak

    Develop a sponsorship action plan

    2.1.4 45 to 60 minutes

    Participants
    • PMO leader
    • PMO staff
    • Project sponsor
    Use the table below to define key tasks and responsibilities for the project sponsor.
    1. Populate the first column with the stakeholder groups from Activity 2.1.3.
    2. With reference to the Sponsor Checklist, brainstorm key sponsorship responsibilities for this project across each of the groups.
    3. When gauging the frequency of each activity and the “Estimated Weekly Effort” required by the sponsor to complete them, consider the organization’s appetite for change.
      • Where indicators across the three dimensions are low, the sponsor’s involvement can be less hands-on and more collaborative in nature.
      • Where indicators across the three dimensions are high, the sponsor’s involvement should be hands-on and direct in her/his communications.
    Group Activity Est. Weekly Effort Comments/Frequency
    Project Team Ad hoc check-in on progress 30 mins Try to be visible at least once a week
    Attend status meetings 30 mins Every second Tuesday, 9 am
    Senior Managers Touch base informally 45 mins Aim for bi-weekly, one-on-one touchpoints
    Lead steering committee meetings 60 mins First Thursday of the month, 3 pm
    End Users Organization-wide emails Ad hoc, 20 mins As required, with PMO assistance

    "To manage change is to tell people what to do... but to lead change is to show people how to be." – Weick & Quinn

    Update the Transition Team Communications Template

    2.1.5 10 minutes

    Participants
    • PMO leader
    • PMO staff
    Input
    • The outcomes of various activities in this step
    Output
    • Key sections of the Transition Team Communications Template completed

    Use Info-Tech’s Transition Team Communications Template to help communicate the outcomes of this step.

    The following activities should be recorded in the template:

    Activity 2.1.2

    In addition, the outcome of Activity 2.1.4, the “Sponsorship Action Plan,” should be converted to a format such as Word and provided to the project sponsor.

    Download Info-Tech’s Transition Team Communications Template.

    "In most work situations, the meaning of a change is likely to be as important, if not more so, than the change itself."

    – Roethlisberger (cited in Burke)

    Step 2.2: Perform an organizational change impact assessment

    Phase 2 - 2.2

    This step will walk you through the following activities:
    • Perform change impact survey.
    • Assess the depth of impacts for different stakeholders and stakeholder groups.
    • Determine overall adoptability of the OCM effort.
    • Establish a game plan for managing individual impacts.
    • Review risks and opportunities.
    • Determine how the value of the change will be measured.
    This step involves the following participants:
    • PMO Director
    • Project sponsor for the pilot OCM project
    • Additional project staff: project managers, business analysts, members of the transition team, etc.
    Outcomes of this step:
    • A change impact analysis.
    • An adoptability rating for the change initiative to help the PMO plan its OCM efforts.
    • A better understanding of the risks and opportunities associated with the change to inform the business case.

    Analyze change impacts across multiple dimensions to ensure that nothing is overlooked

    Ensure that no stone is left unturned as you prepare for a comprehensive transition plan.

    In the previous step, we established a process and some accountabilities to help the PMO and project sponsors make the case for change during the ideation and initiation phase of a project.

    In this step, we will help with the project planning phase by establishing a process for analyzing how the change will impact various dimensions of the business and how to manage these impacts to best ensure stakeholder adoption.

    Brace for Impact…

    A thorough analysis of change impacts will help the PMO:

    • Bypass avoidable problems.
    • Remove non-fixed barriers to success.
    • Acknowledge and minimize the impact of unavoidable barriers.
    • Identify and leverage potential benefits.
    • Measure the success of the change.

    Assign the appropriate accountabilities for impact analysis

    In the absence of an assigned change manager, organizational change impact assessments are typically performed by a business analyst or the project manager assigned to the change initiative.

    • Indeed, as with all change management activities, making an individual accountable for performing this activity and communicating its outcomes is key to the success of your org change initiative.
    • At this stage, the PMO needs to assign or facilitate accountability for the impact analysis on the pilot OCM initiative or it needs to take this accountability on itself.

    Sample RACI for this activity. Define these accountabilities for your organization before proceeding with this step.

    Project Sponsor PMO PM or BA
    Survey impact dimensions I A R
    Analyze impacts across multiple stakeholder groups I A R
    Assess required OCM rigor I A/R C
    Manage individual impacts I A R

    Info-Tech Insight

    Bring perspective to an imperfect view.

    No individual has a comprehensive view of the potential impact of change.

    Impact assessment and analysis is most effective when multiple viewpoints are coordinated using a well-defined list of considerations that cover a wide breadth of dimensions.

    Revisit and refine the impact analysis throughout planning and execution, as challenges to adoption become more clear.

    Perform a change impact analysis to make your planning more complete

    Use Info-Tech’s Organizational Change Management Impact Analysis Tool to weigh all of the factors involved in a change and to formalize discipline around impact analysis.

    Info-Tech’s Organizational Change Management Impact Analysis Tool helps to document the change impact across multiple dimensions, enabling the PMO to review the analysis with others to ensure that the most important impacts are captured. The tool also helps to effectively monitor each impact throughout project execution.

    • Change impact considerations can include: products, services, states, provinces, cultures, time zones, legal jurisdictions, languages, colors, brands, subsidiaries, competitors, departments, jobs, stores, locations, etc.
    • Each of these dimensions is an MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive) list of considerations that could be impacted by the change. For example, a North American retail chain might consider “Time Zones” as a key dimension, which could break down as Newfoundland, Atlantic, Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific.

    Download Info-Tech’s Organizational Change Impact Analysis Tool.

    • Required Participants for this Step: PMO Leader; project manager or business analyst
    • Recommended Participants for this Step: Project Sponsor; IT/PMO staff

    Info-Tech Insight

    Anticipate the unexpected. Impact analysis is the cornerstone of any OCM strategy. By shining a light on considerations that might have otherwise escaped project planners and decision makers, an impact analysis is an essential component to change management and project success.

    Enter high-level project information on the “Set Up” tab

    2.2.1 15 minutes

    The “2. Set Up” tab of the Impact Tool is where you enter project-specific data pertaining to the change initiative.

    The inputs on this tab are used to auto-populate fields and drop-downs on subsequent tabs of the analysis.

    Document the stakeholders (by individual or group) associated with the project who will be subject to the impacts.

    You are allowed up to 15 entries. Try to make this list comprehensive. Missing any key stakeholders will threaten the value of this activity as a whole.

    If you find that you have more than 15 individual stakeholders, you can group individuals into stakeholder groups.

    Keep in mind...

    An impact analysis is not a stakeholder management exercise.

    Impact assessments cover:

    • How the change will affect the organization.
    • How individual impacts might influence the likelihood of adoption.

    Stakeholder management covers:

    • Resistance/objections handling.
    • Engagement strategies to promote adoption.

    We will cover the latter in the next step.

    “As a general principle, project teams should always treat every stakeholder initially as a recipient of change. Every stakeholder management plan should have, as an end goal, to change recipients’ habits or behaviors.”

    PMI, 2015

    Determine the relevant considerations for analyzing the change impacts of a project

    2.2.2 15 to 30 minutes

    Use the survey on tab 3 of the Impact Analysis Tool to determine the dimensions of change that are relevant.

    The impact analysis is fueled by the thirteen-question survey on tab 3 of the tool.

    This survey addresses a comprehensive assortment of change dimensions, ranging from customer-facing considerations, to employee concerns, to resourcing, logistical, and technological questions.

    Once you have determined the dimensions that are impacted by the change, you can go on to assess how individual stakeholders and stakeholder groups are affected by the change.

    This image is a screenshot of tab 3, Impact Survey, of the Impact Analysis Tool.

    Screenshot of tab “3. Impact Survey,” showing the 13-question survey that drives the impact analysis.

    Ideally, the survey should be performed by a group of project stakeholders together. Use the drop-downs in column K to record your responses.

    "A new system will impact roles, responsibilities, and how business is conducted within an organization. A clear understanding of the impact of change allows the business to design a plan and address the different levels of changes accordingly. This approach creates user acceptance and buy-in."

    – January Paulk, Panorama Consulting

    Impacts will be felt differently by different stakeholders and stakeholder groups

    As you assess change impacts, keep in mind that no impact will be felt the same across the organization. Depth of impact can vary depending on the frequency (will the impact be felt daily, weekly, monthly?), the actions necessitated by it (e.g. will it change the way the job is done or is it simply a minor process tweak?), and the anticipated response of the stakeholder (support, resistance, indifference?).

    Use the Organizational Change Depth Scale below to help visualize various depths of impact. The deeper the impact, the tougher the job of managing change will be.

    Procedural Behavioral Interpersonal Vocational Cultural
    Procedural change involves changes to explicit procedures, rules, policies, processes, etc. Behavioral change is similar to procedural change, but goes deeper to involve the changing tacit or unconscious habits. Interpersonal change goes beyond behavioral change to involve changing relationships, teams, locations, reporting structures, and other social interactions. Vocational change requires acquiring new knowledge and skills, and accepting the loss or decline in the value or relevance of previously acquired knowledge and skills. Cultural change goes beyond interpersonal and vocational change to involve changing personal values, social norms, and assumptions about the meaning of good vs. bad or right vs. wrong.
    Example: providing sales reps with mobile access to the CRM application to let them update records from the field. Example: requiring sales reps to use tablets equipped with a custom mobile application for placing orders from the field. Example: migrating sales reps to work 100% remotely. Example: migrating technical support staff to field service and sales support roles. Example: changing the operating model to a more service-based value proposition or focus.

    Determine the depth of each impact for each stakeholder group

    2.2.3 1 to 3 hours

    Tab “4. Impact Analysis” of the Analysis Tool contains the meat of the impact analysis activity.
    1. The “Impact Analysis” tab is made up of thirteen change impact tables (see next slide for a screenshot of one of these tables).
    • You may not need to use all thirteen tables. The number of tables you use coincides with the number of “yes” responses you gave in the previous tab.
    • If you no not need all thirteen impact tables (i.e. if you do not answer “yes” to all thirteen questions in tab 2, the unused/unnecessary tables will not auto-populate.)
  • Use one table per change impact. Each of your “yes” responses from tab 3 will auto-populate at the top of each change impact table. You should go through each of your “yes” responses in turn.
  • Analyze how each impact will affect each stakeholder or stakeholder group touched by the project.
    • Column B in each table will auto-populate with the stakeholder groups from the Set Up tab.
  • Use the drop-downs in columns C, D, and E to rate the frequency of each impact, the actions necessitated by each impact, and the anticipated response of each stakeholder group.
    • Each of the options in these drop-downs is tied to a ranking table that informs the ratings on the two subsequent tabs.
  • If warranted, you can use the “Comments” cells in column F to note the specifics of each impact for each stakeholder/group.
  • See the next slide for an accompanying screenshot of a change impact table from tab 4 of the Analysis Tool.

    Screenshot of “Impact Analysis” tab

    The image is a screenshot of the Impact Analysis tab.

    The stakeholder groups entered on the Set Up will auto-populate in column B of each table.

    Your “yes” responses from the survey tab will auto-populate in the cells to the right of the “Change Impact” cells.

    Use the drop-downs in this column to select how often the impact will be felt for each group (e.g. daily, weekly, periodically, one time, or never).

    “Actions” include “change to core job duties,” “change to how time is spent,” “confirm awareness of change,” etc.

    Use the drop-downs to hypothesize what the stakeholder response might be. For now, for the purpose of the impact analysis, a guess is fine. We will come back to build a communications plan based on actual responses in Phase 3 of this blueprint.

    Review your overall impact rating to help assess the likelihood of change adoption

    Use the “Overall Impact Rating” on tab 5 to help right-size your OCM efforts.

    Based upon your assessment of each individual impact, the Analysis Tool will provide you with an “Overall Impact Rating” in tab 5.

    • This rating is an aggregate of each of the individual change impact tables used during the analysis, and the rankings assigned to each stakeholder group across the frequency, required actions, and anticipated response columns.

    The image is a screenshot of tab 5, the Overall Process Adoption Rating. The image shows a semi-circle, where the left-most section is red, the centre yellow, and the right-most section green, with a dial positioned at the right edge of the yellow section.

    Projects in the red should have maximum change governance, applying a full suite of OCM tools and templates, as well as revisiting the impact analysis exercise regularly to help monitor progress.

    Increased communication and training efforts, as well as cross-functional partnerships, will also be key for success.

    Projects in the yellow also require a high level of change governance. Follow the steps and activities in this blueprint closely, paying close attention to the stakeholder engagement activities in the next step to help sway resistors and leverage change champions.

    In order to free up resources for those OCM initiatives that require more discipline, projects in green can ease up in their OCM efforts somewhat. With a high likelihood of adoption as is, stakeholder engagement and communication efforts can be minimized somewhat for these projects, so long as the PMO is in regular contact with key stakeholders.

    "All change is personal. Each person typically asks: 'What’s in it for me?'" – William T. Craddock

    Use the other outputs on tab 5 to help structure your OCM efforts

    In addition to the overall impact rating, tab 5 has other outputs that will help you assess specific impacts and how the overall change will be received by stakeholders.

    The image is a screenshot of tab 5.

    Top-Five Highest Risk Impacts table: This table displays the highest risk impacts based on frequency and action inputs on Tab 4.

    Top-Five Most Impacted Stakeholders table: Here you’ll find the stakeholders, ranked again based on frequency and action, who will be most impacted by the proposed changes.

    Top Five Supporters table: These are the 5 stakeholders most likely to support changes, based on the Anticipated Response column on Tab 4.

    The stakeholder groups entered on the Set Up Tab will auto-populate in column B of each table.

    In addition to these outputs, this tab also lists top five change resistors, and has an impact register and list of potential impacts to watch out for (i.e. your “maybe” responses from tab 3).

    Establish a game plan to manage individual change impacts

    2.2.4 60 to 90 minutes

    The final tab of the Analysis Tool can be used to help track and monitor individual change impacts.
    • Use the “Communications Plan” on tab 7 to come up with a high-level game plan for tracking communications about each change with the corresponding stakeholders.
    • Update and manage this tab as the communication events occur to help keep your implementation on track.

    The image is a screenshot of the Communications Plan, located on tab 7 of the Analysis Tool. There are notes emerging from each of the table headings, as follows: Communication Topic - Select from a list of topics identified on Tab 6 that are central to successful change, then answer the following; Audience/Format/Delivery - Which stakeholders need to be involved in this change? How are we going to meet with them?; Creator - Who is responsible for creating the change?; Communicator - Who is responsible for communicating the change to the stakeholder?; Intended Outcome - Why do you need to communicate with this stakeholder?; Level of Risk - What is the likelihood that you can achieve your attended outcome? And what happens if you don’t?

    Document the risk assumptions stemming from your impact analysis

    2.2.5 30 to 60 minutes

    Use the Analysis Tool to produce a set of key risks that need to be identified, communicated, mitigated, and tracked.

    A proper risk analysis often reveals risks and mitigations that are more important to other people in the organization than those managing the change. Failure to do a risk analysis on other people’s behalf can be viewed as negligence.

    In the table below, document the risks related to the assumptions being made about the upcoming change. What are the risks that your assumptions are wrong? Can steps be taken to avoid these risks?

    Risk Assumption Magnitude if Assumption Wrong Likelihood That Assumption Is Wrong Mitigation Strategy Assessment
    e.g. Customers will accept shipping fees for overweight items > 10 pounds Low High It's a percentage of our business, and usually accompanies a sharply discounted product. We need to extend discretionary discounting on shipping to supervisory staff to mitigate the risk of lost business. Re-assess after each quarter.

    "One strategy to minimize the impact is to determine the right implementation pace, which will vary depending on the size of the company and the complexity of the project" – Chirantan Basu

    Record any opportunities pertaining to the upcoming change

    2.2.6 30 to 60 minutes

    Use the change impacts to identify opportunities to improve the outcome of the change.

    Use the table below to brainstorm the business opportunities arising from your change initiative. Consider if the PMO can take steps to help improve the outcomes either through supporting the project execution or through providing support to the business.

    Opportunity Assumption Potential Value Likelihood That Assumption Is Wrong Leverage Strategy Assessment
    e.g. Customer satisfaction can increase as delivery time frames for the remaining custom products radically shrink and services extend greatly. High Medium Reset the expectations of this market segment so that they go from being surprised by good service to expecting it. Our competitors will not be able to react to this.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The bigger the change, the bigger the opportunity. Project and change management has traditionally focused on a defensive posture because organizations so often fail to mitigate risk. Good change managers also watch for opportunities to improve and exploit the outcomes of the change.

    Determine how to measure the value of the change

    2.2.7 15 to 30 minutes

    Describe the metrics that will be used to assess the management of this change.

    Now that you’ve assessed the impacts of the change, and the accompanying risks and opportunities, use the table below to document metrics that can be used to help assess the management of the change.

    • Don’t rely on the underlying project to determine the value of the change itself: It’s important to recognize the difference between change management and project management, and the establishment of value metrics is an obvious source of this differentiation.
    • For example, consider a project that is introducing a new method of remitting travel expenses for reimbursement.
      • The project itself would be justified on the efficiency of the new process.
      • The value of the change itself could be measured by the number of help desk calls looking for the new form, documentation, etc.
    Metric Calculation How to Collect Who to Report to Frequency
    Price overrides for new shipping costs It is entered as a line item on invoices, so it can be calculated as % of shipping fees discounted. Custom report from CRM (already developed). Project Steering Committee Project Steering Committee

    Document risks and other impact analysis considerations in the business case

    2.2.8 10 minutes

    Participants
    • PMO leader
    • Project Manager
    Input
    • The risks and issues identified through the impact analysis.
    Output
    • Comprehensive list of risks documented in the business case.
    Use the outcomes of the activities in this step to help inform your business case as well as any other risk management artifacts that your project managers may use.
    • Because long-term project success depends upon stakeholder adoption, high-risk impacts should be documented as considerations in the risk section of your business case.
    • In addition, the “Overall Impact Rating” graph and the “Impact Management Worksheet” could be used to help improve business cases as well as charters on some projects.

    If your organization doesn’t have a standard business case document, use one of Info-Tech’s templates. We have two templates to choose from, depending on the size of the project and the amount of rigor required:

    Download Info-Tech’s Comprehensive Business Case Template for large, complex projects or our Fast Track Business Case Template for smaller ones.

    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:

    2.1.3 Create a convincing sponsor-driven story to help build the case for change

    Work with an analyst to exercise your storytelling muscles, building out a process to help make the case for change throughout the organization.

    2.1.4 Develop a sponsorship action plan

    Utilize analyst experience to help develop a sponsorship action plan to help facilitate more engaged change project sponsors.

    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:

    2.2.3 Assess different change impacts across various stakeholder groups

    Get an analyst perspective on how each impact may affect different stakeholders in order to assist with the project and OCM planning process.

    2.2.4 Develop a proactive change impact management plan

    Rightsize your response to change impacts by developing a game plan to mitigate each one according to adoption likelihood.

    2.2.5 Use the results of the impact analysis to inform and improve the business case for the project

    Work with the analyst to translate the risks and opportunities identified during the impact analysis into points of consideration to help inform and improve the business case for the project.

    Phase 3

    Facilitate Change Adoption Throughout the Organization

    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: Facilitate Change Adoption Throughout the Organization

    Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 4 to 6 weeks

    Step 3.1: Ensure stakeholders are engaged and ready for change

    Discuss these issues with analyst:

    • Lack of alignment between IT and the business.
    • Organizational resistance to a command-and-control approach to change.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Develop a stakeholder engagement plan.

    With these tools & templates:

    • Stakeholder Engagement Workbook
    Step 3.2: Develop and execute the transition plan

    Discuss these issues with analyst:

    • Org change initiatives often fail due to the influence of resistors.
    • Failure to elicit feedback contributes to the feeling of a change being imposed.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Develop a communications strategy to address a variety of stakeholder reactions to change.

    With these tools & templates:

    • Transition Plan Template
    • Activity 3.2.7: “Objections Handling Template”
    Step 3.3: Establish HR and training plans

    Discuss these issues with analyst:

    • Training is often viewed as ineffective, contributing to change resistance rather than fostering adoption.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Rightsize training content based on project requirements and stakeholder sentiment.

    With these tools & templates:

    • “Training Requirements” tab in the Stakeholder Engagement Workbook
    • “Training Plan” section of the Transition Plan Template

    Step 3.1: Ensure stakeholders are engaged and ready for change

    Phase 3 - 3.1

    This step will walk you through the following activities:
    • Involve the right stakeholders in the change.
    • Define project roles and responsibilities.
    • Define elicitation methods for obtaining stakeholder input.
    • Perform a stakeholder analysis to assess influence, interest, and potential contribution.
    • Assess communications plan requirements.
    This step involves the following participants:
    • Required: PMO Director; project manager or business analyst
    • Recommended: Project Sponsor; the Transition Team; other IT/PMO staff
    Outcomes of this step
    • A stakeholder analysis.
    • Requirements for the communications plan.

    The nature of change is changing

    The challenge of managing change is complicated by forces that are changing change.

    Empowerment: Increased worker mobility, effect of millennials in the workforce, and lower average tenure means that people are less tolerant of a hierarchical, command-and-control approach to change.

    • Additionally, lower average tenure means you can’t assume everyone has the same context or background for change (e.g. they might not have been with the organization for earlier phases when project justification/rationale was established).

    Noise: Inundation with communications and diversity of channels means the traditional “broadcast” approach to communicating change doesn’t work (i.e. you can’t expect every email to get everyone’s attention).

    As a result, disciplines around organizational change tend to be less linear and deliberate than they were in the past.

    "People don’t resist change. They resist being changed."

    Peter Senge

    How to manage change in organizations of today and the future:

    • New realities require a more collaborative, engaging, open, and agile approach to change.
    • Communication is increasingly more of a two-way, ongoing, iterative engagement process.
    • Project leaders on change initiatives need to engage diverse audiences early and often.
    • Information about change needs to reach people and be easily findable where and when stakeholders need it.
    Info-Tech Insight

    Accountabilities for change management are still required. While change management needs to adopt more collaborative and organic approaches, org change success still depends on assigning appropriate accountabilities. What’s changed in the move to matrix structure is that accountabilities need to be facilitated more collaboratively.

    Leading change requires collaboration to ensure people, process, and technology factors are aligned

    In the absence of otherwise defined change leadership, the PMO needs to help navigate every technology-enabled change, even if it isn’t in the “driver’s seat.”

    PMO leaders and IT experts often find themselves asked to help implement or troubleshoot technology-related business projects that are already in flight.

    The PMO will end up with perceived or de facto responsibility for inadequate planning, communications, and training around technology-enabled change.

    IT-Led Projects

    Projects led by the IT PMO tend to be more vulnerable to underestimating the impact on people and processes on the business side.

    Make sure you engage stakeholders and representatives (e.g. “power users”) from user populations early enough to refine and validate your impact assessments.

    Business-Led Projects

    Projects led by people on the business side tend to be more vulnerable to underestimating the implications of technology changes.

    Make sure IT is involved early enough to identify and prepare for challenges and opportunities involving integration, user training, etc.

    "A major impediment to more successful software development projects is a corporate culture that results in a lack of collaboration because business executives view the IT departments as "order takers," a view disputed by IT leaders."

    – David Ramel (cited by Ben Linders)

    Foster change collaboration by initiating a stakeholder engagement plan through the PMO

    If project stakeholders aren’t on board, the organization’s change initiatives will be in serious trouble.

    Stakeholders will not only be highly involved in the process improvement initiative, but they also may be participants, so it’s essential that you get their buy-in for the initiative upfront.

    Use Info-Tech’s Stakeholder Engagement Workbook to help plan how stakeholders rate in terms of engagement with the project.

    Once you have identified where different stakeholders fall in terms of interests, influence, and support for/engagement with the change initiative, you can structure your communication plan (to be developed in step 3.2) based on where individuals and stakeholder groups fall.

    • Required participants for the activities in this step: PMO Leader; project manager or business analyst
    • Recommended participants for the activities in this step: Project Sponsor; IT/PMO staff

    Download Info-Tech’s Stakeholder Engagement Workbook.

    The engagement plan is a structured and documented approach for:

    • Gathering requirements by eliciting input and validating plans for change.
    • Cultivating sponsorship and support from key stakeholders early in the project lifecycle.

    Download Info-Tech’s Stakeholder Engagement Workbook.

    Involve the right people to drive and facilitate change

    Refer to your project level assessment from 1.2.2:

    • Level 1 projects tend to only require involvement from the project team, sponsors, and people affected.
    • Level 2 projects often benefit from broad support and capabilities in order to take advantage of opportunities.
    • Level 3 projects require broad support and capabilities in order to deal with risks and barriers.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The more transformational the change, the more it will affect the org chart – not just after the implementation, but also through the transition.

    Take time early in the project to define the reporting structure for the project/transition team, as well as any teams and roles supporting the transition.

    • Project manager: Has primary accountability for project success.
    • Senior executive project sponsor: Needed to “open doors” and signal organization’s commitment to the change.
    • Technology SMEs and architects: Responsible for determining and communicating requirements and risks of the technology being implemented or changed.
    • Business unit leads: Responsible for identifying and communicating impact on business functions, approving changes, and helping champion change.
    • Product/process owners: Responsible for identifying and communicating impact on business functions, approving changes, and helping champion change.
    • HR specialists: Most valuable when roles and organizational design are affected, i.e. change requires staff redeployment, substantial training (not just using a new system or tool but acquiring new skills and responsibilities), or termination.
    • Training specialists: If you have full-time training staff in the organization, you will eventually need them to develop training courses and material. Consulting them early will help with scoping, scheduling, and identifying the best resources and channels to deliver the training.
    • Communications specialists (internal): Valuable in crafting communications plan; required if communications function owns internal communications.

    Use the RACI table on the next slide to clarify who will be accountable, responsible, consulted, and informed for key tasks and activities around this change initiative.

    Define roles and responsibilities for facilitating change on your pilot OCM initiative

    3.1.1 60 minutes

    Perform a RACI exercise pertaining to your pilot change initiative to clarify who to include in the stakeholder engagement activity.

    Don’t reinvent the wheel: revisit the list of stakeholders and stakeholder groups from your impact assessment. The purpose of the RACI is to bring some clarity to project-specific responsibilities.

    Tasks PMO Project Manager Sr. Executives Technology SME Business Lead Process Owner HR Trainers Communications
    Meeting project objectives A R A R R
    Identifying risks and opportunities A R A C C C C I I
    Building the action plan A R C R R R R R R
    Planning and delivering communications A R C C C C C R A
    Planning and delivering training A R C C C C R A C
    Gathering and analyzing feedback and KPIs A R C C C C C R R

    Copy the results of this RACI exercise into tab 1 of the Stakeholder Engagement Workbook. In addition, it can be used to inform the designated RACI section in the Transition Plan Template. Revise the RACI Table there as needed.

    Formalize the stakeholder analysis to identify change champions and blockers

    Define key stakeholders (or stakeholder groups) who are affected by the project or are in positions to enable or block change.

    • Remember to consider customers, partners, and other external stakeholders.
    • People best positioned to provide insight and influence change positively are also best positioned to create resistance.
    • These people should be engaged early and often in the transition process – not just to make them feel included or part of the change, but because their insight could very likely identify risks, barriers, and opportunities that need to be addressed.

    The image is a screenshot of tab 3 of the Stakeholder Engagement Workbook.

    In tab three of the Stakeholder Engagement Workbook, compile the list of stakeholders who are touched by the change and whose adoption of the change will be key to project success.

    To save time, you can copy and paste your stakeholder list from the Set Up tab of the Organizational Change Management Impact Analysis Tool into the table below and edit the list as needed.

    Formal stakeholder analysis should be:

    • Required for Level 3 projects
    • Recommended for Level 2 projects
    • Optional for Level 1 projects

    Info-Tech Insight

    Resistance is, in many cases, avoidable. Resistance is commonly provided by people who are upset about not being involved in the communication. Missed opportunities are the same: they usually could have been avoided easily had somebody known in time. Use the steps ahead as an opportunity to ensure no one has been missed.

    Perform a stakeholder analysis to begin cultivating support while eliciting requirements

    3.1.2 60 minutes

    Use tab 4 of the Stakeholder Engagement Workbook to systematically assess each stakeholder's influence, interest, and potential contribution to the project as well as to develop plans for engaging each stakeholder or stakeholder group.

    The image is a screencapture of tab 4 of the Stakeholder Engagement Workbook.

    Use the drop-downs to select stakeholders and stakeholder groups. These will automatically populate based on your inputs in tab 3.

    Rate each stakeholder on a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of her/his influence in the organization. Not only do these rankings feed the stakeholder map that gets generated on the next slide, but they will help you identify change champions and resistors with influence.

    Similar to the ranking under “Influence,” rate the “Interest” and “Potential Contribution” to help identify stakeholder engagement.

    Document how you will engage each stakeholder and stakeholder group and document how soon you should communicate with them concerning the change. See the following slides for advice on eliciting change input.

    Use the elicitation methods on the following slides to engage stakeholders and gather change requirements.

    Elicitation methods – Observation

    Method Description Assessment and Best Practices Stakeholder Effort BA/PMO 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 that 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 business analysts 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 business analyst 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.

    Elicitation methods – Surveys

    Method Description Assessment and Best Practices Stakeholder Effort BA/PMO 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 that are 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 a 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. Medium 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 business analyst.

    Elicitation methods – Interviews

    Method Description Assessment and Best Practices Stakeholder Effort BA/PMO Effort

    Structured One-on-One Interview

    In a structured one-on-one interview, the business analyst has a fixed list of questions to ask the stakeholder and follows up where necessary. Structured interviews provide the opportunity to quickly hone in on areas of concern that were identified during process mapping or group elicitation techniques. They should be employed with purpose – to receive specific stakeholder feedback on proposed requirements or help identify systemic constraints. Generally speaking, they should take 30 minutes or less to complete. Low Medium

    Unstructured One-on-One Interview

    In an unstructured one-on-one interview, the business analyst allows the conversation to flow freely. 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 take 60 minutes or less to complete. 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).

    Elicitation methods – Focus Groups

    Method Description Assessment and Best Practices Stakeholder Effort BA/PMO 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 (the tendency to converge on a single POV). Medium Medium

    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.

    "Each person has a learning curve. Take the time to assess staff individually as some don’t adjust to change as well as others. Some never will." – CEO, Manufacturing Firm

    Refine your stakeholder analysis through the input elicitation process

    3.1.3 30 minutes

    Review all of these elicitation methods as you go through the workbook as a group. Be sure to document and discuss any other elicitation methods that might be specific to your organization.

    1. Schedule dates and a specific agenda for performing stakeholder elicitation activities.
    • If scheduling more formal methods such as a structured interview or survey, take the time to develop some talking points and questions (see the questionnaire and survey templates in the next step for examples).
  • Assign accountabilities for performing the elicitation exercises and set dates for updating the PMO on the results of these stakeholder elicitations.
  • As curator of the workbook, the PMO will need to refine the stakeholder data in tab 4 of the tool to get a more accurate stakeholder map on the next tab of the workbook.
  • Elicitation method Target stakeholder group(s) PMO staff responsible for eliciting input Next update to PMO
    One-on-one structured interview HR and Sales Karla Molina August 1

    Info-Tech Insight

    Engagement paves the way for smoother communications. The “engagement” approach (rather than simply “communication”) turns stakeholders and users into advocates who help boost your message, sustain change, and realize benefits without constant, direct intervention.

    Develop a stakeholder engagement strategy based on the output of your analysis

    Use the stakeholder map on tab 5 of the Workbook to inform your communications strategy and transition plan.

    Tab 5 of the Workbook provides an output – a stakeholder map – based on your inputs in the previous tab. Use the stakeholder map to inform your communications requirements considerations in the next tab of the workbook as well as your transition plan in the next step.

    The image is a screencapture of tab 5 of the Stakeholder Engagement Workbook.

    This is a screenshot of the “Stakeholder Analysis” from tab 5 of the Workbook. The four quadrants of the map are:

    • Engage (High Interest/High Influence)
    • Communicate – High Level (High Interest/Low Influence)
    • Passive (Low Interest/Low Influence)
    • Communicate – Low Level (Low Interest/High Influence)
    How to interpret each quadrant on the map:

    Top Quadrants: Supporters

    1. Engage: Capitalize on champions to drive the project/change.
    2. Communicate (high level): Leverage this group where possible to help socialize the program and to help encourage dissenters to support.

    Bottom Quadrant: Blockers

    1. Passive: Focus on increasing these stakeholders’ level of support.
    2. Communicate (low level): Pick your battles – focus on your noise makers first and then move on to your blockers.

    Document communications plan requirements based on results of engagement and elicitation

    3.1.4 60 minutes

    The image is a screencapture of the Communications Requirements tab in the Stakeholder Engagement Workbook

    Use the Communications Requirements tab in the Stakeholder Engagement Workbook.

    Do this as a 1–2 hour project team planning session.

    The table will automatically generate a list of stakeholders based on your stakeholder analysis.

    Update the assumptions that you made about the impact of the change in the Impact Analysis with results of stakeholder engagement and elicitation activities.

    Use the table on this tab to refine these assumptions as needed before solidifying your communications plan.

    Define the action required from each stakeholder or stakeholder group (if any) for change to be successful.

    Continually refine messages and methods for communicating with each stakeholder and stakeholder group.

    Note words that work well and words that don’t. For example, some buzzwords might have negative connotations from previous failed initiatives.

    Designate who is responsible for developing and honing the communications plan (see details in the following section on developing the transition plan).

    Step 3.2: Develop and execute the transition plan

    Phase 3 - 3.2

    This step will walk you through the following activities:
    • Create a communications timeline.
    • Establish communications strategy for stakeholder groups.
    • Determine communication delivery methods.
    • Define the feedback and evaluation process.
    • Assess the full range of support and resistance to change.
    • Prepare objections handling process.
    This step involves the following participants:
    • PMO Director
    • Transition Team
    • Project managers
    • Business analyst
    • Project Sponsor
    • Additional IT/PMO staff
    Outcomes of this step
    • A communications strategy
    • A stakeholder feedback process
    • An objections handling strategy
    • A transition plan

    Effective change requires strategic communications and rightsized training plans

    Develop and execute a transition plan through the PMO to ensure long-term adoption.

    In this step we will develop and introduce a plan to manage change around your project.

    After completing this section you will have a realistic, effective, and adaptable transition plan that includes:

    • Clarity around leadership and vision.
    • Well-defined plans for targeting unique groups with specific messages.
    • Resistance and contingency plans.
    • Templates for gathering feedback and evaluating success.

    These activities will enable you to:

    • Execute the transition in coordination with the timeline and structure of the core project.
    • Communicate the action plan and vision for change.
    • Target specific stakeholder and user groups with unique messages.
    • Deal with risks, resistance, and contingencies.
    • Evaluate success through feedback and metrics.

    "Everyone loves change: take what you know and replace it with a promise. Then overlay that promise with the memory of accumulated missed efforts, half-baked attempts, and roads of abandoned promises."

    Toby Elwin

    Assemble the core transition team to help execute this step

    Once the stakeholder engagement step has been completed, the PMO needs to facilitate the involvement of the transition team to help carry out transition planning and communications strategies.

    You should have already sketched out a core transition team in step 1.2.6 of this blueprint. As with all org change activities, ensuring that individuals are made accountable for the execution of the following activities will be key for the long-term success of your change initiative.

    • At this stage, the PMO needs to ensure the involvement of the transition team to participate in the following activities – or the PMO will need to take on the transition planning and communication responsibilities itself.

    Refer to the team structure examples from Activity 1.2.6 of this blueprint if you are still finalizing your transition team.

    Download Info-Tech’s Transition Plan Template to help capture and record the outcomes of the activities in this step.

    Create a high-level communications timeline

    3.2.1 30 minutes

    By now the project sponsor, project manager, and business analysts (or equivalent) should have defined project timelines, requirements, and other key details. Use these to start your communications planning process.

    If your members of the transition team are also part of the core project team, meet with them to elicit the project timeline and requirements.

    Project Milestone Milestone Time Frame Communications Activities Activity Timing Notes
    Business Case Approval
    • Key stakeholder communications
    Pilot Go-Live
    • Pilot launch activity communications
    • Org-wide status communications
    Full Rollout Approval
    • Key stakeholder communications
    Full Rollout
    • Full rollout activity communications
    • Org-wide status communications
    Benefits Assessment
    • Key stakeholder communications
    • Org-wide status communications

    Info-Tech Insight

    Communicate, communicate, communicate.

    Staff are 34% more likely to adapt to change quickly during the implementation and adoption phases when they are provided with a timeline of impending changes specific to their department. (Source: McLean & Company)

    Schedule time to climb out of the “Valley of Despair”

    Many change initiatives fail when leaders give up at the first sign of resistance.

    OCM experts use terms like “Valley of Despair” to describe temporary drops in support and morale that inevitably occur with any significant change. Don’t let these temporary drops derail your change efforts.

    Anticipate setbacks and make sure the project plan accommodates the time and energy required to sustain and reinforce the initiative as people move through stages of resistance.

    The image is a line graph. Segments of the line are labelled with numbers. The beginning of the line is labelled with 1; the descending segment of the line labelled 2; the lowest point is labelled 3; the ascending section is labelled 4; and the end of the graph is labelled 5.

    Based on Don Kelley and Daryl Conner’s Emotional Cycle of Change.

    Identify critical points in the change curve:

    1. Honeymoon of “Uninformed Optimism”: There is usually tentative support and even enthusiasm for change before people have really felt or understood what it involves.
    2. Backlash of “Informed Pessimism” (leading to “Valley of Despair”): As change approaches or begins, people realize they’ve overestimated the benefits (or the speed at which benefits will be achieved) and underestimated the difficulty of change.
    3. Valley of Despair and beginning of “Hopeful Realism”: Eventually, sentiment bottoms out and people begin to accept the difficulty (or inevitability) of change.
    4. Bounce of “Informed Optimism”: People become more optimistic and supportive when they begin to see bright spots and early successes.
    5. Contentment of “Completion”: Change has been successfully adopted and benefits are being realized.

    Tailor a communications strategy for each stakeholder group

    Leveraging the stakeholder analyses you’ve already performed in steps 2.2 and 3.1, customize your communications strategy for the individual stakeholder groups.

    Think about where each of the groups falls within the Organizational Change Depth Scale (below) to determine the type of communications approach required. Don’t forget: the deeper the change, the tougher the job of managing change will be.

    Procedural Behavioral Interpersonal Vocational Cultural

    Position

    • Changing procedures requires clear explanation of what has changed and what people must do differently.
    • Avoid making people think wherever possible. Provide procedural instructions when and where people need them to ensure they remember.

    Incentivize

    • Changing behaviors requires breaking old habits and establishing new ones by adjusting the contexts in which people work.
    • Consider a range of both formal and informal incentives and disincentives, including objective rewards, contextual nudges, cues, and informal recognition

    Empathize

    • Changing people’s relationships (without damaging morale) requires showing empathy for disrupting what is often a significant source of their well-being.
    • Show that efforts have been made to mitigate disruption, and sacrifice is shared by leadership.

    Educate

    • Changing people’s roles requires providing ways to acquire knowledge and skills they need to learn and succeed.
    • Consider a range of learning options that includes both formal training (external or internal) and ongoing self-directed learning.

    Inspire

    • Changing values and norms in the organization (i.e. what type of things are seen as “good” or “normal”) requires deep disruption and persistence.
    • Think beyond incentives; change the vocabularies in which incentives are presented.

    Base your communications approaches on our Organizational Change Depth Scale

    Use the below “change chakras” as a quick guide for structuring your change messages.

    The image is a human, with specific areas of the body highlighted, with notes emerging from them. Above the head is a cloud, labelled Cultural Change/Inspire-Shape ideas and aspirations. The head is the next highlighted element, with notes reading Vocational Change/Educate-Develop their knowledge and skills. The heart is the next area, labelled with Interpersonal Change/Empathize-Appeal to their hearts. The stomach is pictured, with the notes Behavioral Change/Incentivize-Appeal to their appetites and instincts. The final section are the legs, with notes reading Procedural Change/Position-Provide clear direction and let people know where and when they’re needed.

    Categorize stakeholder groups in terms of communications requirements

    3.2.2 30 minutes

    Use the table below to document where your various stakeholder groups fall within the depth scale.
    Depth Levels Stakeholder Groups Tactics
    Procedural Position: Provide explanation of what exactly has changed and specific procedural instructions of what exactly people must do differently to ensure they remember to make adjustments as effortlessly as possible.
    Behavioral Incentivize: Break old habits and establish new ones by adjusting the context of formal and informal incentives (including objective rewards, contextual nudges, cues, and informal recognition).
    Interpersonal Empathize: Offer genuine recognition and support for disruptions of personal networks (a significant source of personal well-being) that may result from changing work relationships. Show how leadership shares the burden of such sacrifices.
    Vocational Educate: Provide a range of learning options (formal and self-directed) to provide the knowledge and skills people need to learn and succeed in changed roles.
    Cultural Inspire: Frame incentives in a vocabulary that reflects any shift in what types of things are seen as “good” or “normal” in the organization.

    The deeper the impact, the more complex the communication strategy

    Interposal, vocational, and cultural changes each require more nuanced approaches when communicating with stakeholders.

    Straightforward → Complex

    When managing interpersonal, vocational, or cultural changes, you will be required to incorporate more inspirational messaging and gestures of empathy than you typically might in a business communication.

    Communications that require an appeal to people’s emotions can be, of course, very powerful, but they are difficult to craft. As a result, oftentimes messages that are meant to inspire do the exact opposite, coming across as farfetched or meaningless platitudes, rather than evocative and actionable calls to change.

    Refer to the tactics below for assistance when crafting more complex change communications that require an appeal to people’s emotions and imaginations.

    • Tell a story. Describe a journey with a beginning (who we are and how we got here) and a destination (our goals and expected success in the future).
    • Convey an intuitive sense of direction. This helps people act appropriately without being explicitly told what to do.
    • Appeal to both emotion and reason. Make people want to be part of the change.
    • Balance abstract ideas with concrete facts. Writers call this “moving up and down the ladder of abstraction.” Without concrete images and facts, the vision will be meaninglessly vague. Without abstract ideas and principles, the vision will lack power to unite people and inspire broad support.
    • Be concise. Make your messages easy to communicate and remember in any situation.

    "Instead of resisting any emotion, the best way to dispel it is to enter it fully, embrace it and see through your resistance."

    Deepak Chopra

    Fine-tune change communications for each stakeholder or audience

    3.2.3 60 to 90 minutes

    Use Info-Tech’s “Message Canvas” (see next slide) to help rationalize and elaborate the change vision for each group.

    Build upon the more high-level change story that you developed in step 1.1 by giving more specificity to the change for specific stakeholder groups.

    Questions to address in your communication strategy include: How will the change benefit the organization and its people? How have we confirmed there is a need for change? What would happen if we didn’t change? How will the change leverage existing strengths – what will stay the same? How will we know when we get to the desired state?

    Remember these guidelines to help your messages resonate:

    • People are busy and easily distracted. Tell people what they really need to know first, before you lose their attention.
    • Repetition is good. Remember the Aristotelian triptych: “Tell them what you’re going to tell them, then tell them, then tell them what you told them.”
    • Don’t use technical terms, jargon, or acronyms. Different groups in organizations tend to develop specialized vocabularies. Everybody grows so accustomed to using acronyms and jargon every day that it becomes difficult to notice how strange it sounds to outsiders. This is especially important when IT communicates with non-technical audiences. Don’t alienate your audience by talking at them in a strange language.
    • Test your message. Run focus groups or deliver communications to a test audience (which could be as simple as asking 2–3 people to read a draft) before delivering messages more broadly.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Change thy language, change thyself.

    Jargon, acronyms, and technical terms represent deeply entrenched cultural habits and assumptions.

    Continuing to use jargon or acronyms after a transition tends to drag people back to old ways of thinking and working.

    You don’t need to invent a new batch of buzzwords for every change (nor should you), but every change is an opportunity to listen for words and phrases that have lost their meaning through overuse and abuse.

    3.2.3 continued - Example “Message Canvas”

    The image is a screencapture of tab 6 of the Organizational Change Impact Analysis Tool, which is a message canvas

    If there are multiple messages or impacts that need to be communicated to a single group or audience, you may need to do multiple Message Canvases per group. Refer back to your Stakeholder Engagement Workbook to help inform the stakeholder groups and messages that this activity should address.

    Go to tab 6 of the Organizational Change Impact Analysis Toolfor multiple message canvas template boxes that you can use. These messages can then help inform your communication plan on tab 7 of that tool.

    Determine methods for communications delivery

    Review your options for communicating your change. This slide covers traditional methods of communication, while the following slides cover some options for multimedia mass-communications.

    Method Best Practices
    Email Email announcements are necessary for every organizational change initiative but are never sufficient. Treat email as a formalizing medium, not a medium of effective communication when organizational change is concerned. Use email to invite people to in-person meetings, make announcements across teams and geographical areas at the same time, and share formal details.
    Team Meeting Team meetings help sell change. Body language and other in-person cues are invaluable when trying to influence people. Team meetings also provide an opportunity to gauge a group’s response to an announcement and gives the audience an opportunity to ask questions and get clarification.
    One-on-One One-on-ones are more effective than team meetings in their power to influence and gauge individual responses, but aren’t feasible for large numbers of stakeholders. Use one-on-ones selectively: identify key stakeholders and influencers who are most able to either advocate change on your behalf or provide feedback (or both).
    Internal Site / Repository Internal sites and repositories help sustain change by making knowledge available after the implementation. People don’t retain information very well when it isn’t relevant to them. Much of their training will be forgotten if they don’t apply that knowledge for several weeks or months. Use internal sites and repositories for how-to guides and standard operating procedures.

    Review multimedia communication methods for reaching wider audiences in the organization

    Method Best Practices
    User Interfaces User interface (UI) design is overlooked as a communication method. Often a simple UI refinement with the clearer prompts or warnings is more effective and efficient than additional training and repeated email reminders.
    Social Media Social media is widely and deeply embraced by people publicly, and is increasingly useful within organizations. Look for ways to leverage existing internal social tools. Avoid trying to introduce new social channels to communicate change unless social transformation is within the scope of the core project’s goals; the social tool itself might become as much of an organizational change management challenge as the original project.
    Posters & Marketing Collateral Posters and other marketing collateral are common communication tools in retail and hospitality industries that change managers in other industries often don’t think of. Making key messages a vivid, visual part of people’s everyday environment is a very effective way to communicate. On the down side, marketing collateral requires professional design skills and can be costly to create. Professional copywriting is also advisable to ensure your message resonates.
    Video Videos are well worth the cost to produce when the change is transformational in nature, as in cultural changes. Videos are useful for both communicating the vision and as part of the training plan.

    Document communication methods and build the Communications Delivery Plan

    3.2.4 30 minutes

    1. Determine when communications need to be delivered for each stakeholder group.
    2. Select the most appropriate delivery methods for each group and for each message.
    • Meetings and presentations
    • Email/broadcast
    • Intranet and other internal channels (e.g. internal social network)
    • Open houses and workshops
  • Designate who will deliver the messages.
  • Develop plans to follow up for feedback and evaluation (Step 3.2.5).
  • The image is a screenshot of the Stakeholder/Audience section of the Transition Plan Template.

    This is a screenshot from the “Stakeholder/Audience” section of Info-Tech’s Transition Plan Template. Use the template to document your communication strategy for each audience and your delivery plan.

    "The role of project communication is to inspire, instigate, inform or educate and ultimately lead to a desired action. Project communication is not a well presented collection of words; rather it is something that propels a series of actions."

    Sidharth Thakur

    Info-Tech Insight

    Repetition is crucial. People need to be exposed to a message 7 times before it sticks. Using a variety of delivery formats helps ensure people will notice and remember key messages. Mix things up to keep employees engaged and looking forward to the next update.

    Define the feedback and evaluation process to ensure an agile response to resistance

    3.2.5 46 to 60 minutes

    1. Designate where/when on the roadmap the project team will proactively evaluate progress/success and elicit feedback in order to identify emerging challenges and opportunities.
    2. Create checklists to review at key milestones to ensure plans are being executed. Review…
    • Key project implementation milestones (i.e. confirm successful deployment/installation).
    • Quick wins identified in the impact analysis and determined in the transition plan (see the following slides for advice in leveraging quick wins).
  • Ensure there is immediate follow-up on communications and training:
    • Confirm understanding and acceptance of vision and action plan – utilize surveys and questionnaires to elicit feedback.
    • Validate people’s acquisition of required knowledge and skills.
    • Identify emerging/unforeseen challenges and opportunities.
  • "While creating and administering a survey represent(s) additional time and cost to the project, there are a number of benefits to be considered: 1) Collecting this information forces regular and systematic review of the project as it is perceived by the impacted organizations, 2) As the survey is used from project to project it can be improved and reused, 3) The survey can quickly collect feedback from a large part of the organization, increasing the visibility of the project and reducing unanticipated or unwelcome reactions."

    – Claire Schwartz

    Use the survey and questionnaire templates on the following two slides for assistance in eliciting feedback. Record the evaluation and feedback gathering process in the Transition Plan Template.

    Sample stakeholder questionnaire

    Use email to distribute a questionnaire (such as the example below) to project stakeholders to elicit feedback.

    In addition to receiving invaluable opinions from key stakeholders and the frontline workers, utilizing questionnaires will also help involve employees in the change, making them feel more engaged and part of the change process.

    Interviewee Date
    Stakeholder Group Interviewer
    Question Response Notes
    How do you think this change will affect you?
    How do you think this change will affect the organization?
    How long do you expect the change to take?
    What do you think might cause the project/change to fail?
    What do you think are the most critical success factors?

    Sample survey template

    Similar to a questionnaire, a survey is a great way to assess the lay of the land in terms of your org change efforts and the likelihood of adoption.

    Using a free online survey tool like Survey Monkey, Typeform, or Google Forms, surveys are quick and easy to generate and deploy. Use the below example as a template to build from.

    Use survey and questionnaire feedback as an occasion to revisit the Impact Analysis Tool and reassess the impacts and roadblocks based on hard feedback.

    To what degree do you agree or disagree with each of the following statements?

    1=Strongly Disagree, 2=Disagree, 3=Somewhat Disagree, 4=Somewhat Agree, 5=Agree, 6=Strongly Agree

    1. I understand why [this change] is happening.
    2. I agree with the decision to [implement this change].
    3. I have the knowledge and tools needed to successfully go through [this change].
    4. Leadership/management is fully committed to the change.
    5. [This change] will be a success.

    Rate the impact of this change.

    1=Very Negative, 2=Negative, 3=Somewhat Negative, 4=Somewhat Positive, 5=Positive, 6=Very Positive

    1. On you personally.
    2. On your team/department/unit.
    3. On the organization as a whole.
    4. On people leading the change.

    Develop plans to leverage support and deal with resistance, objections, and fatigue

    Assess the “Faces of Change” to review the emotions provoked by the change in order to proactively manage resistors and engage supporters.

    The slides that follow walk you through activities to assess the different “faces of change” around your OCM initiative and to perform an objections handling exercise.

    Assessing people’s emotional responses to the change will enable the PMO and transition team to:

    • Brainstorm possible questions, objections, suggestions, and concerns from each audience.
    • Develop responses to questions, objections, and concerns.
    • Revise the communications messaging and plan to include proactive objections handling.
    • Re-position objections and suggestions as questions to plan for proactively communicating responses and objections to show people that you understand their point of view.
    • Develop a plan with clearly defined responsibility for regularly updating and communicating the objections handling document. Active Subversion Quiet Resistance Vocal Skepticism Neutrality / Uncertainty Vocal Approval Quiet Support Active Leadership
    Hard Work Vs. Tough Work

    Carol Beatty’s distinction between “easy work,” “hard work,” and “tough work” can be revealing in terms of the high failure rate on many change initiatives. (“The Tough Work of Managing Change.” Queen’s University IRC. 2015.)

    • Easy work includes administrative tasks like scheduling meetings and training sessions or delivering progress reports.
    • Hard work includes more abstract efforts like estimating costs/benefit or defining requirements.
    • Tough work involves managing people and emotions, i.e. providing leadership through setbacks, and managing resistance and conflict.

    That is what makes organizational change “tough,” as opposed to merely hard. Managing change requires mental and emotional toughness to deal with uncertainty, ambiguity, and conflict.

    Assess the full range of support and resistance to change

    3.2.6 20 minutes

    Categorize the feedback received from stakeholder groups or individual stakeholders across the “faces of change” spectrum.

    Use the table below to document where different stakeholders and stakeholder groups fall within the spectrum.

    Response Symptoms Examples
    Active Subversion Publicly or privately disparaging the transition (in some cases privately disparaging while pretending to support); encouraging people to continue doing things the old way or to leave the organization altogether. Group/Name
    Quiet Resistance Refusing to adopt change, continuing to do things the old way (including seemingly trivial or symbolic things). Non-participative. Group/Name
    Vocal Skepticism Asking questions; questioning the why, what, and how of change, but continuing to show willingness to participate and try new things. Group/Name
    Neutrality / Uncertainty Non-vocal participation, perhaps with some negative body language, but continuing to show tacit willingness to try new things. Group/Name
    Vocal Approval Publicly and privately signaling buy-in for the change. Group/Name
    Quiet Support Actively helping to enable change to succeed without necessarily being a cheerleader or trying to rally others around the transition. Group/Name
    Active Leadership Visibly championing the change and helping to rally others around the transition. Group/Name

    Review strategies and tactics for engaging different responses

    Use the below tactics across the “faces of change” spectrum to help inform the PMO’s responses to sources of objection and resistance and its tactics for leveraging support.

    Response Engagement Strategies and Tactics
    Active Subversion Firmly communicate the boundaries of acceptable response to change: resistance is a natural response to change, but actively encouraging other people to resist change should not be tolerated. Active subversion often indicates the need to find a new role or depart the organization.
    Quiet Resistance Resistance is a natural response to change. Use the Change Curve to accommodate a moderate degree and period of resistance. Use the OCM Depth Scale to ensure communications strategies address the irrational sources of resistance.
    Vocal Skepticism Skepticism can be a healthy sign. Skeptics tend to be invested in the organization’s success and can be turned into vocal and active supporters if they feel their questions and concerns have been heard and addressed.
    Neutrality / Uncertainty Most fence-sitters will approve and support change when they start to see concrete benefits and successes, but are equally likely to become skeptics and resisters when they see signs of failure or a critical mass of skepticism, resistance, or simply ambivalence.
    Vocal Approval Make sure that espoused approval for change isn’t masking resistance or subversion. Engage vocal supporters to convert them into active enablers or champions of change.
    Quiet Support Engage quiet supporters to participate where their skills or social and political capital might help enable change across the organization. This could either be formal or informal, as too much formal engagement can invite minor disagreements and slow down change.
    Active Leadership Engage some of the active cheerleaders and champions of change to help deliver communications (and in some cases training) to their respective groups or teams.

    Don’t let speed bumps become roadblocks

    What If... Do This: To avoid:
    You aren’t on board with the change? Fake it to your staff, then communicate with your superiors to gather the information you need to buy in to the change. Starting the change process off on the wrong foot. If your staff believe that you don’t buy in to the change, but you are asking them to do so, they are not going to commit to it.
    When you introduce the change, a saboteur throws a tantrum? If the employee storms out, let them. If they raise uninformed objections in the meeting that are interrupting your introduction, ask them to leave and meet with them privately later on. Schedule an ad hoc one-on-one meeting. A debate at the announcement. It’s an introduction to the change and questions are good, but it’s not the time for debate. Leave this for the team meetings, focus groups, and one-on-ones when all staff have digested the information.
    Your staff don’t trust you? Don’t make the announcement. Find an Enthusiast or another manager that you trust to make the announcement. Your staff blocking any information you give them or immediately rejecting anything you ask of them. Even if you are telling the absolute truth, if your staff don’t trust you, they won’t believe anything you say.
    An experienced skeptic has seen this tried before and states it won’t work? Leverage their experience after highlighting how the situation and current environment is different. Ask the employee what went wrong before. Reinventing a process that didn’t work in the past and frustrating a very valuable segment of your staff. Don’t miss out on the wealth of information this Skeptic has to offer.

    Use the Objections Handling Template on the next slide to brainstorm specific objections and forms of resistance and to strategize about the more effective responses and mitigation strategies.

    Copy these objections and responses into the designated section of the Transition Plan Template. Continue to revise objections and responses there if needed.

    Objections Handling Template

    3.2.7 45 to 60 minutes

    Objection Source of Objection PMO Response
    We tried this two years ago. Vocal skepticism Enabling processes and technologies needed time to mature. We now have the right process discipline, technologies, and skills in place to support the system. In addition, a dedicated role has been created to oversee all aspects of the system during and after implementation.
    Why aren’t we using [another solution]? Uncertainty We spent 12 months evaluating, testing, and piloting solutions before selecting [this solution]. A comprehensive report on the selection process is available on the project’s internal site [here].

    Info-Tech Insight

    There is insight in resistance. The individuals best positioned to provide insight and influence change positively are also best positioned to create resistance. These people should be engaged throughout the implementation process. Their insights will very likely identify risks, barriers, and opportunities that need to be addressed.

    Make sure the action plan includes opportunities to highlight successes, quick wins, and bright spots

    Highlighting quick wins or “bright spots” helps you go from communicating change to more persuasively demonstrating change.

    Specifically, quick wins help:

    • Demonstrate that change is possible.
    • Prove that change produces positive results.
    • Recognize and reward people’s efforts.

    Take the time to assess and plan quick wins as early as possible in the planning process. You can revisit the impact assessment for assistance in identifying potential quick wins; more so, work with the project team and other stakeholders to help identify quick wins as they emerge throughout the planning and execution phases.

    Make sure you highlight bright spots as part of the larger story and vision around change. The purpose is to continue to build or sustain momentum and morale through the transition.

    "The quick win does not have to be profound or have a long-term impact on your organization, but needs to be something that many stakeholders agree is a good thing… You can often identify quick wins by simply asking stakeholders if they have any quick-win recommendations that could result in immediate benefits to the organization."

    John Parker

    Tips for identifying quick wins (Source: John Parker, “How Business Analysts can Identify Quick Wins,” 2013):
    • Brainstorm with your core team.
    • Ask technical and business stakeholders for ideas.
    • Observe daily work of users and listen to users for problems and opportunities; quick wins often come from the rank and file, not from the top.
    • Review and analyze user support trouble tickets; this can be a wealth of information.
    • Be open to all suggestions.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Stay positive. Our natural tendency is to look for what’s not working and try to fix it. While it’s important to address negatives, it’s equally important to highlight positives to keep people committed and motivated around change.

    Document the outcomes of this step in the Transition Plan Template

    3.2.8 45 minutes

    Consolidate and refine communication plan requirements for each stakeholder and group affected by change.

    Upon completion of the activities in this step, the PMO Director is responsible for ensuring that outcomes have been documented and recorded in the Transition Plan Template. Activities to be recorded include:

    • Stakeholder Overview
    • Communications Schedule Activity
    • Communications Delivery
    • Objections Handling
    • The Feedback and Evaluation Process

    Going forward, successful change will require that many responsibilities be delegated beyond the PMO and core transition team.

    • Delegate responsibilities to HR, managers, and team members for:
      • Advocating the importance of change.
      • Communicating progress toward project milestones and goals.
      • Developing HR and training plan.
    • Ensure sponsorship stays committed and active during and after the transition.
      • Leadership visibility throughout the execution and follow-up of the project is needed to remind people of the importance of change and the organization’s commitment to project success.

    Download Info-Tech’s Transition Plan Template.

    "Whenever you let up before the job is done, critical momentum can be lost and regression may follow." – John Kotter, Leading Change

    Step 3.3: Establish HR and Training Plans

    Phase 3 - 3.3

    This step will walk you through the following activities:
    • Analyze HR requirements for involvement in training.
    • Outline appropriate HR and training timelines.
    • Develop training plan requirements across different stakeholder groups.
    • Define training content.
    • Assess skills required to support the change and review options for filling HR gaps.
    This step involves the following participants:
    • PMO Director
    • Transition Team
    • HR Personnel
    • Project Sponsor
    Outcomes of this step
    • A training plan
    • Assessment of skill required to support the change

    Make sure skills, roles, and teams are ready for change

    Ensure that the organization has the infrastructure in place and the right skills availability to support long-term adoption of the change.

    The PMO’s OCM approach should leverage organizational design and development capabilities already in place.

    Recommendations in this section are meant to help the PMO and transition team understand HR and training plan activities in the context of the overall transition process.

    Where organizational design and development capabilities are low, the following steps will help you do just enough planning around HR, and training and development to enable the specific change.

    In some cases the need for improved OCM will reveal the need for improved organizational design and development capabilities.

    • Required Participants for this Step: PMO Leader; PMO staff; Project manager.
    • Recommended Participants for this Step: Project Sponsor; HR personnel.

    This section will walk you through the basic steps of developing HR, training, and development plans to support and enable the change.

    For comprehensive guidance and tools on role, job, and team design, see Info-Tech’s Transform IT Through Strategic Organizational Design blueprint.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Don’t make training a hurdle to adoption. Training and other disruptions take time and energy away from work. Ineffective training takes credibility away from change leaders and seems to validate the efforts of saboteurs and skeptics. The PMO needs to ensure that training sessions are as focused and useful as possible.

    Analyze HR requirements to ensure efficient use of HR and project stakeholder time

    3.3.1 30-60 minutes

    Refer back to Activity 3.2.4. Use the placement of each stakeholder group on the Organizational Change Depth Scale (below) to determine the type of HR and training approach required. Don’t impose training rigor where it isn’t required.

    Procedural Behavioral Interpersonal Vocational Cultural
    Simply changing procedures doesn’t generally require HR involvement (unless HR procedures are affected). Changing behaviors requires breaking old habits and establishing new ones, often using incentives and disincentives. Changing teams, roles, and locations means changing people’s relationships, which adds disruption to people’s lives and challenges for any change initiative. Changing people’s roles and responsibilities requires providing ways to acquire knowledge and skills they need to learn and succeed. Changing values and norms in the organization (i.e. what type of things are seen as “good” or “normal”) requires deep disruption and persistence.
    Typically no HR involvement. HR consultation recommended to help change incentives, compensation, and training strategies. HR consultation strongly recommended to help define roles, jobs, and teams. HR responsibility recommended to develop training and development programs. HR involvement recommended.

    22%

    In a recent survey of 276 large and midsize organizations, eighty-seven percent of survey respondents trained their managers to “manage change,” but only 22% felt the training was truly effective. (Towers Watson)

    Outline appropriate HR and training timelines

    3.3.2 15 minutes

    Revisit the high-level project schedule from steps 1.2.4 and 3.4.1 to create a tentative timeline for HR and training activities.

    Revise this timeline throughout the implementation process, and refine the timing and specifics of these activities as you move from the development to the deployment phase.

    Project Milestone Milestone Time Frame HR/Training Activities Activity Timing Notes
    Business Case Approval
    • Consulted to estimate timeline and cost
    Pilot Go-Live
    • Train groups affected by pilot
    Full Rollout Approval
    • Consulted to estimate timeline and cost
    Full Rollout
    • Train the trainers for full-scale rollout
    Benefits Assessment
    • Consulted to provide actual time and costs

    "The reason it’s going to hurt is you’re going from a state where you knew everything to one where you’re starting over again."

    – BA, Natural Resources Company

    Develop the training plan to ensure that the right goals are set, and that training is properly timed and communicated

    3.3.3 60 minutes

    Use the final tab in the Stakeholder Engagement Workbook, “7. Training Requirements,” to begin fleshing out a training plan for project stakeholders.

    The image is a screencapture of the final tab in the Stakeholder Engagement Workbook, titled Training Requirements.

    The table will automatically generate a list of stakeholders based on your stakeholder analysis.

    If your stakeholder list has grown or changed since the stakeholder engagement exercise in step 3.1, update the “Stakeholder List” tab in the tool.

    Estimate when training can begin, when training needs to be completed, and the total hours required.

    Training too early and too late are both common mistakes. Training too late hurts morale and creates risks. Training too early is often wasted and creates the need for retraining as knowledge and skills are lost without immediate relevance to their work.

    Brainstorm or identify potential opportunities to leverage for training (such as using existing resources and combining multiple training programs).

    Review the Change Management Impact Analysis to assess skills and knowledge required for each group in order for the change to succeed.

    Depending on the type of change being introduced, you may need to have more in-depth conversations with technical advisors, project management staff, and project sponsors concerning gaps and required content.

    Define training content and make key logistical decisions concerning training delivery for staff and users

    3.3.4 30-60 minutes

    Ultimately, the training plan will have to be put into action, which will require that the key logistical decisions are made concerning content and training delivery.

    The image is a screencapture of the Training Plan section of the Transition Plan Template.

    1. Use the “Training Plan” section in Info-Tech’s Transition Plan Template to document details of your training plan: schedules, resources, rooms, and materials required, etc.
    2. Designate who is responsible for developing the training content details. Responsibilities will include:
      • Developing content modules.
      • Determining the appropriate delivery model for each audience and content module (e.g. online course, classroom, outsourced, job shadowing, video tutorials, self-learning).
      • Finding and booking resources, locations, equipment, etc.

    “95% of learning leaders from organizations that are very effective at implementing important change initiatives find best practices by partnering with a company or an individual with experience in the type of change, twice as often as ineffective organizations.”

    Source: Implementing and Supporting Training for Important Change Initiatives.

    Training content should be developed and delivered by people with training experience and expertise, working closely with subject matter experts. In the absence of such individuals, partnering with experienced trainers is a cost that should be considered.

    Assess skills required to support the change that are currently absent or in short supply

    3.3.5 15 to 30 minutes

    The long-term success of the change is contingent on having the resources to maintain and support the tool, process, or business change being implemented. Otherwise, resourcing shortfalls could threaten the integrity of the new way of doing things post-change, threatening people’s trust and faith in the validity of the change as a whole.

    Use the table below to assess and record skills requirements. Refer to the tactics on the next slide for assistance in filling gaps.

    Skill Required Description of Need Possible Resources Recommended Next Steps Timeline
    Mobile Dev Users expect mobile access to services. We need knowledge of various mobile platforms, languages or frameworks, and UX/UI requirements for mobile.
    • Train web team
    • Outsource
    • Analyze current and future mobile requirements.
    Probably Q1 2015
    DBAs Currently have only one DBA, which creates a bottleneck. We need some DBA redundancy to mitigate risk of single point of failure.
    • Redeploy and train member of existing technology services team.
    • Hire or contract new resources.
    • Analyze impact of redeploying existing resources.
    Q3 2014

    Review your options for filling HR gaps

    Options: Benefits: Drawbacks:
    Redeploy staff internally
    • Retains firm-specific knowledge.
    • Eliminates substantial costs of recruiting and terminating employees.
    • Mitigates risk; reduces the number of unknowns that come with acquiring talent.
    • Employees could already be fully or over-allocated.
    • Employees might lack the skills needed for the new or enhanced positions.
    Outsource
    • Best for addressing short-term, urgent needs, especially when the skills and knowledge required are too new or unfamiliar to manage internally.
    • Risk of sharing sensitive information with third parties.
    • Opportunity cost of not investing in knowledge and skills internally.
    Contract
    • Best when you are uncertain how long needs for particular skills or budget for extra capacity will last.
    • Diminished loyalty, engagement, and organizational culture.
    • Similar drawbacks as with outsourcing.
    Hire externally
    • Best for addressing long-term needs for strategic or core skills.
    • Builds capacity and expertise to support growing organizations for the long term.
    • High cost of recruiting and onboarding.
    • Uncertainty: risk that new hires might have misrepresented their skills or won’t fit culturally.
    • Commitment to paying for skills that might diminish in demand and value over time.
    • Economic uncertainty: high cost of layoffs and buyouts.

    Report HR and training plan status to the transition team

    3.3.6 10 minutes (and ongoing thereafter)

    Ensure that any changes or developments made to HR and training plans are captured in the Transition Plan Template where applicable.
    1. Upon completion of the activities in this step, ensure that the “Training Plan” section of the template reflects outcomes and decisions made during the preceding activities.
    2. Assign ongoing RACI roles for informing the transition team of HR and training plan changes; similarly define accountabilities for keeping the template itself up to date.
    • Record these roles within the template itself under the “Roles & Responsibilities” section.
  • Be sure to schedule a date for eliciting training feedback in the “Training Schedule” section of the template.
    • A simple survey, such as those discussed in step 3.2, can go a long way in both helping stakeholders feel more involved in the change, and in making sure training mistakes and weaknesses are not repeated again and again on subsequent change initiatives.
  • Info-Tech Insight

    Try more ad hoc training methods to offset uncertain project timelines.

    One of the top challenges organizations face around training is getting it timed right, given the changes to schedule and delays that occur on many projects.

    One tactic is to take a more ad hoc approach to training, such as making IT staff available in centralized locations after implementation to address staff issues as they come up.

    This will not only help eliminate the waste that can come from poorly timed and ineffective training sessions, but it will also help with employee morale, giving individuals a sense that they haven’t been left alone to navigate unfamiliar processes or technologies.

    Adoption can be difficult for some, but the cause is often confusion and misunderstanding

    CASE STUDY

    Industry Manufacturing

    Source Info-Tech Client

    Challenge
    • The strategy team responsible for the implementation of a new operation manual for the subsidiaries of a global firm was monitoring the progress of newly acquired firms as the implementation of the manual began.
    • They noticed that one department in a distant location was not meeting the new targets or fulfilling the reporting requirements on staff progress.
    Solution
    • The strategy team representative for the subsidiary firm went to the manager leading the department that was slow to adopt the changes.
    • When asked, the manager insisted that he did not have the time or resources to implement all of these changes while maintaining the operation of the department.
    • With true business value in mind, the manager said, they chose to keep the plant running.
    Results
    • The representative from the strategy team was surprised to find that the manager was having such trouble fitting the changes into daily operations as the changes were the daily operations.
    • The representative took the time to go through the new operation manual with the manager and explain that the changes replaced daily operations and were not additions to them.

    "The cause of slow adoption is often not anger or denial, but a genuine lack of understanding and need for clarification. Avoid snap decisions about a lack of adoption until staff understand the details." – IT Manager

    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:

    3.1.2 Undergo a stakeholder analysis to ensure positive stakeholder engagement

    Move away from a command-and-control approach to change by working with the analyst to develop a strategy that engages stakeholders in the change, making them feel like they are a part of it.

    3.2.3 Develop a stakeholder sentiment-sensitive communications strategy

    Work with the analyst to fine-tune the stakeholder messaging across various stakeholder responses to change.

    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:

    3.2.5 Define a stakeholder feedback and evaluation process

    Utilize analyst experience and perspective in order to develop strategy for effectively evaluating stakeholder feedback early enough that resistance and suggestions can be accommodated with the OCM strategy and project plan.

    3.2.7 Develop a strategy to cut off resistance to change

    Utilize analyst experience and perspective in order to develop an objections handling strategy to deal with resistance, objections, and fatigue.

    3.3.4 Develop the training plan to ensure that the right goals are set, and that training is properly timed and communicated

    Receive custom analyst insights on rightsizing training content and timing your training sessions effectively.

    Phase 4

    Establish a Post-Project Benefits Attainment Process

    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: Establish a Post-Project Benefits Attainment Process

    Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 1 to 2 weeks

    Step 4.1: Determine accountabilities for benefits attainment

    Discuss these issues with analyst:

    • Accountability for tracking the business outcomes of the project post-completion is frequently opaque, with little or no allocated resourcing.
    • As a result, projects may get completed, but their ROI to the organization is not tracked or understood.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Perform a post-implementation project review of the pilot OCM initiative.
    • Assign post-project benefits tracking accountabilities.
    • Implement a benefits tracking process and tool.

    With these tools & templates:

    • Portfolio Benefits Tracking Tool
    • Activity 4.1.2: “Assign ownership for realizing benefits after the project is closed”
    • Activity 4.1.3: “Define a post-project benefits tracking process”

    Step 4.1: Determine accountabilities for benefits attainment

    Phase 4 - 4.1

    This step will walk you through the following activities:
    • Conduct a post-implementation review of pilot OCM project.
    • Assign ownership for realizing benefits after the project is closed.
    • Define a post-project benefits tracking process.
    • Implement a tool to help monitor and track benefits over the long term.
    This step involves the following participants:
    • PMO Director
    • Project Sponsor
    • Project managers
    • Business analyst
    • Additional IT/PMO staff
    Outcomes of this step
    • Appropriate assignment of accountabilities for tracking benefits after the project has closed
    • A process for tracking benefits over the long-run
    • A benefits tracking tool

    Project benefits result from change

    A PMO that facilitates change is one that helps drive benefits attainment long after the project team has moved onto the next initiative.

    Organizations rarely close the loop on project benefits once a project has been completed.

    • The primary cause of this is accountability for tracking business outcomes post-project is almost always poorly defined, with little or no allocated resourcing.
    • Even organizations that define benefits well often neglect to manage them once the project is underway. If benefits realization is not monitored, the organization will miss opportunities to close the gap on lagging benefits and deliver expected project value.
    • It is commonly understood that the project manager and sponsor will need to work together to shift focus to benefits as the project progresses, but this rarely happens as effectively as it should.

    With all this in mind, in this step we will round out our PMO-driven org change process by defining how the PMO can help to better facilitate the benefits realization process.

    This section will walk you through the basic steps of developing a benefits attainment process through the PMO.

    For comprehensive guidance and tools, see Info-Tech’s Establish the Benefits Realization Process.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Two of a kind. OCM, like benefits realization, is often treated as “nice to have” rather than “must do.” These two processes are both critical to real project success; define benefits properly during intake and let OCM take the reigns after the project kicks off.

    The benefits realization process spans the project lifecycle

    Benefits realization ensures that the benefits defined in the business case are used to define a project’s expected value, and to facilitate the delivery of this value after the project is closed. The process begins when benefits are first defined in the business case, continues as benefits are managed through project execution, and ends when the loop is closed and the benefits are actually realized after the project is closed.

    Benefits Realization
    Define Manage Realize
    Initial Request Project Kick Off *Solution Is Deployed
    Business Case Approved Project Execution Solution Maintenance
    PM Assigned *Project Close Solution Decommissioned

    *For the purposes of this step, we will limit our focus to the PMO’s responsibilities for benefits attainment at project close-out and in the project’s aftermath to ensure that responsibilities for tracking business outcomes post-project have been properly defined and resourced.

    Ultimate project success hinges on a fellowship of the benefits

    At project close-out, stewardship of the benefits tracking process should pass from the project team to the project sponsor.

    As the project closes, responsibility for benefits tracking passes from the project team to the project sponsor. In many cases, the PMO will need to function as an intermediary here, soliciting the sponsor’s involvement when the time comes.

    The project manager and team will likely move onto another project and the sponsor (in concert with the PMO) will be responsible for measuring and reporting benefits realization.

    As benefits realization is measured, results should be collated by the PMO to validate results and help flag lagging benefits.

    The activities that follow in this step will help define this process.

    The PMO should ensure the participation of the project sponsor, the project manager, and any applicable members of the business side and the project team for this step.

    Ideally, the CIO and steering committee members should be involved as well. At the very least, they should be informed of the decisions made as soon as possible.

    Initiation-Planning-Execution-Monitoring & Controlling-Closing

    Conduct post-implementation review for your pilot OCM project

    4.1.1 60 minutes

    The post-project phase is the most challenging because the project team and sponsor will likely be busy with other projects and work.

    Conducting a post-implementation review for every project will force sponsors and other stakeholders to assess actual benefits realization and identify lagging benefits.

    If the project is not achieving its benefits, a remediation plan should be created to attempt to capture these benefits as soon as possible.

    Agenda Item
    Assess Benefits Realization
    • Compare benefits realized to projected benefits.
    • Compare benefit measurements with benefit targets.
    Assess Quality
    • Performance
    • Availability
    • Reliability
    Discuss Ongoing Issues
    • What has gone wrong?
    • Frequency
    • Cause
    • Resolution
    Discuss Training
    • Was training adequate?
    • Is any additional training required?
    Assess Ongoing Costs
    • If there are ongoing costs, were they accounted for in the project budget?
    Assess Customer Satisfaction
    • Review stakeholder surveys.

    Assign ownership for realizing benefits after the project is closed

    4.1.2 45 to 60 minutes

    The realization stage is the most difficult to execute and oversee. The project team will have moved on, and unless someone takes accountability for measuring benefits, progress will not be measured. Use the sample RACI table below to help define roles and responsibilities for post-project benefits attainment.

    Process Step Responsible Accountable Consulted Informed
    Track project benefits realization and document progress Project sponsor Project sponsor PMO (can provide tracking tools and guidance), and directors or managers in the affected business unit who will help gather necessary metrics for the sponsor (e.g. report an increase in sales 3 months post-project) PMO (can collect data and consolidate benefits realization progress across projects)
    Identify lagging benefits and perform root cause analysis Project sponsor and PMO Project sponsor and PMO Affected business unit CIO, IT steering committee
    Adjust benefits realization plan as needed Project sponsor Project sponsor Project manager, affected business units Any stakeholders impacted by changes to plan
    Report project success PMO PMO Project sponsor IT and project steering committees

    Info-Tech Insight

    A business accountability: Ultimately, the sponsor must help close this loop on benefits realization. The PMO can provide tracking tools and gather and report on results, but the sponsor must hold stakeholders accountable for actually measuring the success of projects.

    Define a post-project benefits tracking process

    4.1.3 45 minutes

    While project sponsors should be accountable for measuring actual benefits realization after the project is closed, the PMO can provide monitoring tools and it should collect measurements and compare results across the portfolio.

    Steps in a benefits tracking process.

    1. Collate the benefits of all the projects in your portfolio. Document each project’s benefits, with the metrics, targets, and realization timelines of each project in a central location.
    2. Collect and document metric measurements. The benefit owner is responsible for tracking actual realization and reporting it to the individual(s) tracking portfolio results.
    3. Create a timeline and milestones for benefits tracking. Establish a high-level timeline for assessing benefits, and put reminders in calendars accordingly, to ensure that commitments do not fall off stakeholders’ radars.
    4. Flag lagging benefits for further investigation. Perform root cause analysis to then find out why a benefit is behind schedule, and what can be done to address the problem.

    "Checking the results of a decision against its expectations shows executives what their strengths are, where they need to improve, and where they lack knowledge or information."
    Peter Drucker

    Implement a tool to help monitor and track benefits over the long term

    4.1.4 Times will vary depending on organizational specifics of the inputs

    Download Info-Tech’s Portfolio Benefits Tracking Tool to help solidify the process from the previous step.

    1. Document each project’s benefits, with the metrics, targets, and realization timelines. Tab 1 of the tool is a data entry sheet to capture key portfolio benefit forecasts throughout the project.
    2. Collect and document metric measurements. Tab 2 is where the PMO, with data from the project sponsors, can track actuals month after month post-implementation.
    3. Flag lagging benefits for further investigation. Tab 3 provides a dashboard that makes it easy to flag lagging benefits. The dashboard produces a variety of meaningful benefit reports including a status indication for each project’s benefits and an assessment of business unit performance.

    Continue to increase accountability for benefits and encourage process participation

    Simply publishing a set of best practices will not have an impact unless accountability is consistently enforced. Increasing accountability should not be complicated. Focus on publicly recognizing benefit success. As the process matures, you should be able to use benefits as a more frequent input to your budgeting process.

    • Create an internal challenge. Publish the dashboard from the Portfolio Benefits Tracking Tool and highlight the top 5 or 10 projects that are on track to achieve benefits. Recognize the sponsors and project team members. Recognizing individuals for benefits success will get people excited and encourage an increased focus on benefits.
    • With executive level involvement, the PMO could help institute a bonus structure based on benefits realization. For instance, project teams could be rewarded with bonuses for achieving benefits. Decide upon a set post-project timeline for determining this bonus. For example, 6 months after every project goes live, measure benefits realization. If the project has realized benefits, or is on track to realize benefits, the PM should be given a bonus to split with the team.
    • Include level of benefits realization in the performance reviews of project team members.
    • As the process matures, start decreasing budgets according to the monetary benefits documented in the business case (if you are not already doing so). If benefits are being used as inputs to the budgeting process, sponsors will need to ensure that they are defined properly.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Don’t forget OCM best practices throughout the benefits tracking process. If benefits are lagging, the PMO should revisit phase 3 of this blueprint to consider how challenges to adoption are negatively impacting benefits attainment.

    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:

    4.1.2 Assign appropriate ownership and ensure adequate resourcing for realizing benefits after the project is closed

    Get custom insights into how the benefits tracking process should be carried out post-project at your organization to ensure that intended project outcomes are effectively monitored and, in the long run, achieved.

    4.1.4 Implement a benefits tracking tool

    Let our analysts customize a home-grown benefits tracking tool for your organization to ensure that the PMO and project sponsors are able to easily track benefits over time and effectively pivot on lagging benefits.

    Phase 5

    Solidify the PMO’s Role as Change Leader

    Phase 5 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 5: Solidify the PMO’s role as change leader

    Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 1 to 2 weeks

    Step 5.1: Institute an organizational change management playbook

    Discuss these issues with an analyst:

    • With the pilot OCM initiative complete, the PMO will need to roll out an OCM program to accommodate all of the organization’s projects.
    • The PMO will need to facilitate organization-wide OCM accountabilities – whether it’s the PMO stepping into the role of OCM leader, or other appropriate accountabilities being assigned.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Review the success of the pilot OCM initiative.
    • Define organizational roles and responsibilities for change management.
    • Formalize the Organizational Change Management Playbook.

    With these tools & templates:

    • Organizational Change Management Playbook
    • Activity 5.1.1: “Review lessons learned to improve organizational change management as a core discipline of the PMO”
    • Activity 5.1.3: “Define ongoing organizational roles and responsibilities for change management”

    Step 5.1: Institute an organizational change management playbook

    Phase 5 - 5.1

    This step will walk you through the following activities:
    • Review lessons learned to improve OCM as a core discipline of the PMO.
    • Monitor organizational capacity for change.
    • Define organizational roles and responsibilities for change management.
    • Formalize the Organizational Change Management Playbook.
    • Assess the value and success of the PMO’s OCM efforts.
    This step involves the following participants:
    • Required: PMO Director; PMO staff
    • Strongly recommended: CIO and other members of the executive layer
    Outcomes of this step
    • A well-defined organizational mandate for change management, whether through the PMO or another appropriate stakeholder group
    • Definition of organizational roles and responsibilities for change management
    • An OCM playbook
    • A process and tool for ongoing assessment of the value of the PMO’s OCM activities

    Who, in the end, is accountable for org change success?

    We return to a question that we started with in the Executive Brief of this blueprint: who is accountable for organizational change?

    If nobody has explicit accountability for organizational change on each project, the Officers of the corporation retained it. Find out who is assumed to have this accountability.

    On the left side of the image, there is a pyramid with the following labels in descending order: PMO; Project Sponsors; Officers; Directors; Stakeholders. The top three tiers of the pyramid have upward arrows connecting one section to the next; the bottom three tiers have downward pointing arrows, connecting one section to the next. On the right side of the image is the following text: If accountability for organizational change shifted to the PMO, find out and do it right. PMOs in this situation should proceed with this step. Officers of the corporation have the implicit fiduciary obligation to drive project benefits because they ultimately authorize the project spending. It’s their job to transfer that obligation, along with the commensurate resourcing and authority. If the Officers fail to make someone accountable for results of the change, they are failing as fiduciaries appointed by the Board of Directors. If the Board fails to hold the Officers accountable for the results, they are failing to meet the obligations they made when accepting election by the Shareholders.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Will the sponsor please stand up?

    Project sponsors should be accountable for the results of project changes. Otherwise, people might assume it’s the PMO or project team.

    Keep your approach to change management dynamic while building around the core discipline

    The PMO will need to establish an OCM playbook that can scale to a wide variety of projects. Avoid rigidity of processes and keep things dynamic as you build up your OCM muscles as an organization.

    Continually Develop

    Change Management Capabilities

    Progressively build a stable set of core capabilities.

    The basic science of human behavior underlying change management is unlikely to change. Effective engagement, communication, and management of uncertainty are valuable capabilities regardless of context and project specifics.

    Regularly Update

    Organizational Context

    Regularly update recurring activities and artifacts.

    The organization and the environment in which it exists will constantly evolve. Reusing or recycling key artifacts will save time and improve collaboration (by leveraging shared knowledge), but you should plan to update them on at least a quarterly or annual basis.

    Respond To

    Future Project Requirements

    Approach every project as unique.

    One project might involve more technology risk while another might require more careful communications. Make sure you divide your time and effort appropriately for each particular project to make the most out of your change management playbook.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Continuous Change. Continuous Improvement. Change is an ongoing process. Your approach to managing change should be continually refined to keep up with changes in technology, corporate strategy, and people involved.

    Review lessons learned to improve organizational change management as a core discipline of the PMO

    5.1.1 60 minutes

    1. With your pilot OCM initiative in mind, retrospectively brainstorm lessons learned using the template below. Info-Tech recommends doing this with the transition team. Have people spend 10-15 minutes brainstorming individually or in 2- to 3-person groups, then spend 15-30 minutes presenting and discussing findings collectively.

    What worked? What didn't work? What was missing?

    2. Develop recommendations based on the brainstorming and analysis above.

    Continue... Stop... Start...

    Monitor organizational capacity for change

    5.1.2 20 minutes (to be repeated quarterly or biannually thereafter)

    Perform the Organizational Change Management Capabilities Assessment in the wake of the OCM pilot initiative and lessons learned exercise to assess capabilities’ improvements.

    As your OCM processes start to scale out over a range of projects across the organization, revisit the assessment on a quarterly or bi-annual basis to help focus your improvement efforts across the 7 change management categories that drive the survey.

    • Cultural Readiness
    • Leadership & Sponsorship
    • Organizational Knowledge
    • Change Management Skills
    • Toolkit & Templates
    • Process Discipline
    • KPIs & Metrics

    The image is a bar graph, with the above mentioned change management categories on the Y-axis, and the categories Low, Medium, and High on the X-axis.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Continual OCM improvement is a collaborative effort.

    The most powerful way to drive continual improvement of your organizational change management practices is to continually share progress, wins, challenges, feedback, and other OCM related concerns with stakeholders. At the end of the day, the PMO’s efforts to become a change leader will all come down to stakeholder perceptions based upon employee morale and benefits realized.

    Define ongoing organizational roles and responsibilities for change management

    5.1.3 60 minutes

    1. Decide whether to designate/create permanent roles for managing change.
    • Recommended if the PMO is engaged in at least one project at any given time that generates organizational change.
  • Designate a principle change manager (if you choose to) – it is likely that responsibilities will be given to someone’s existing position (such as PM or BA).
    • Make sure any permanent roles are embedded in the organization (e.g. within the PMO, rather than trying to establish a one-person “Change Management Office”) and have leadership support.
  • Consider whether to build a team of permanent change champions – it is likely that responsibilities will be given to existing positions.
    • This type of role is increasingly common in organizations that are aggressively innovating and keeping up with consumer technology adoption. If your organization already has a program like this for engaging early adopters and innovators, build on what’s already established.
    • Work with HR to make sure this is aligned with any existing training and development programs.
  • Info-Tech Insight

    Avoid creating unnecessary fiefdoms.

    Make sure any permanent roles are embedded in the organization (e.g. within the PMO) and have leadership support.

    Copy the RACI table from Activity 3.1.1. and repurpose it to help define the roles and responsibilities.

    Include this RACI when you formalize your OCM Playbook.

    Formalize and communicate the Organizational Change Management Playbook

    5.1.4 45 to 60 minutes

    1. Formalize the playbook’s scope:
      1. Determine the size and type of projects for which organizational change management is recommended.
      2. Make sure you clearly differentiate organizational change management and enablement from technical change management (i.e. release management and acceptance).
    2. Refine and formalize tools and templates:
      1. Determine how you want to customize the structure of Info-Tech’s blueprint and templates, tailored to your organization in the future.
        1. For example:
          1. Establish a standard framework for analyzing context around organizational change.
      2. Add branding/design elements to the templates to improve their credibility and impact as internal documents.
      3. Determine where/how templates and other resources are to be found and make sure they will be readily available to anyone who needs them (e.g. project managers).
    3. Communicate the playbook to the project management team.

    Download Info-Tech’s Organizational Change Management Playbook.

    Regularly reassess the value and success of your practices relative to OCM effort and project outcomes

    5.1.5 20 minutes per project

    The image is a screencapture of the Value tab of the Organizational Change: Management Capabilities Assessment

    Use the Value tab in the Organizational Change Management Capabilities Assessment to monitor the value and success of OCM.

    Measure past performance and create a baseline for future success:

    • % of expected business benefits realized on previous 3–5 significant projects/programs.
      • Track business benefits (costs reduced, productivity increased, etc.).
    • Costs avoided/reduced (extensions, cancellations, delays, roll-backs, etc.)
      • Establish baseline by estimating average costs of projects extended to deal with change-related issues.

    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:

    5.1.3 Define ongoing organizational roles and responsibilities for change management

    As you scale out an OCM program for all of the organization’s projects based on your pilot initiative, work with the analyst to investigate and define the right accountabilities for ongoing, long-term OCM.

    5.1.4 Develop an Organizational Change Management Playbook

    Formalize a programmatic process for organizational change management in Info-Tech’s playbook template.

    Related research

    Develop a Project Portfolio Management Strategy

    Grow Your Own PPM Solution

    Optimize Project Intake, Approval, and Prioritization

    Develop a Resource Management Strategy for the New Reality

    Manage a Minimum-Viable PMO

    Establish the Benefits Realization Process

    Manage an Agile Portfolio

    Project Portfolio Management Diagnostic Program: The Project Portfolio Management Diagnostic Program is a low effort, high impact program designed to help project owners assess and improve their PPM practices. Gather and report on all aspects of your PPM environment in order to understand where you stand and how you can improve.

    Bibliography

    Basu, Chirantan. “Top Organizational Change Risks.” Chiron. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Beatty, Carol. “The Tough Work of Managing Change.” Queens University. 2015. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Brown, Deborah. “Change Management: Some Statistics.” D&B Consulting Inc. May 15, 2014. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Burke, W. Warner. Organizational Change: Theory and Practice. 4th Edition. London: Sage, 2008.

    Buus, Inger. “Rebalancing Leaders in Times of Turbulence.” Mannaz. February 8, 2013. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Change First. “Feedback from our ROI change management survey.” 2010. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Collins, Jeff. “The Connection between User Adoption and Project Management Success.” Innovative Management Solutions. Sept. 21, 2013. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Craddock, William. “Change Management in the Strategic Alignment of Project Portfolios.” PMI. 2015. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Denning, Steve. “The Four Stories you Need to Lead Deep Organizational Change.” Forbes. July 25, 2011. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Drucker, Peter. “What Makes an Effective Executive.” Harvard Business Review. June 2004. Web. June 14, 2016

    Elwin, Toby. “Highlight Change Management – An Introduction to Appreciative Inquiry.” July 6, 2012. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Enstrom, Christopher. “Employee Power: The Bases of Power Used by Front-Line Employees to Effect Organizational Change.” MA Thesis. University of Calgary. April 2003. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Ewenstein, Boris, Wesley Smith, and Ashvin Sologar. “Changing Change Management.” McKinsey & Company. July 2015. Web. June 14, 2016.

    International Project Leadership Academy. “Why Projects Fail: Facts and Figures.” Web. June 14, 2016.

    Jacobs-Long, Ann. “EPMO’s Can Make A Difference In Your Organization.” May 9, 2012. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Kotter, John. Leading Change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1996.

    Latham, Ross. “Information Management Advice 55 Change Management: Preparing for Change.” TAHO. March 2014. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Linders, Ben. “Finding Ways to Improve Business – IT Collaboration.” InfoQ. June 6, 2013. Web. June 14, 2016

    Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince, selections from The Discourses and other writings. Ed. John Plamenatz. London: Fontana/Collins, 1972.

    Michalak, Joanna Malgorzata. “Cultural Catalyst and Barriers to Organizational Change Management: a Preliminary Overview.” Journal of Intercultural Management. 2:2. November 2010. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Miller, David, and Mike Oliver. “Engaging Stakeholder for Project Success.” PMI. 2015. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Parker, John. “How Business Analysts Can Identify Quick Wins.” EnFocus Solutions. February 15, 2013. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Paulk, January. “The Fundamental Role a Change Impact Analysis Plays in an ERP Implementation.” Panorma Consulting Solutions. March 24, 2014. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Petouhoff, Natalie, Tamra Chandler, and Beth Montag-Schmaltz. “The Business Impact of Change Management.” Graziadio Business Review. 2006. Web. June 14, 2016.

    PM Solutions. “The State of the PMO 2014.” 2014. Web. June 14, 2016.

    PMI. “Pulse of the Profession: Enabling Organizational Change Throughout Strategic Initiatives.” March 2014. Web. June 14, 2016.

    PMI. “Pulse of the Profession: Executive Sponsor Engagement.” October 2014. Web. June 14, 2016.

    PMI. “Pulse of the Profession: the High Cost of Low Performance.” February 2014. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Powers, Larry, and Ketil Been. “The Value of Organizational Change Management.” Boxley Group. 2014. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Prosci. “Best Practices in Change Management – 2014 Edition: Executive Overview.” Web. June 14, 2016.

    Prosci. “Change Management Sponsor Checklist.” Web. June 14, 2016.

    Prosci. “Cost-benefit analysis for change management.” 2014. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Prosci. “Five Levers of Organizational Change.” 2016. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Rick, Torben. “Change Management Requires a Compelling Story.” Meliorate. October 3, 2014. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Rick, Torben. “The Success Rate of Organizational Change Initiatives.” Meliorate. October 13, 2014. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Schwartz, Claire. “Implementing and Monitoring Organizational Change: Part 3.” Daptiv Blogs. June 24, 2013. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Simcik, Shawna. “Shift Happens! The Art of Change Management.” Innovative Career Consulting, Inc. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Stewart Group. “Emotional Intelligence.” 2014. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Thakur, Sidharth. “Improve your Project’s Communication with These Inspirational Quotes.” Ed. Linda Richter. Bright Hub Project Management. June 9, 2012. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Training Folks. “Implementing and Supporting Training for Important Change Initiatives.” 2012. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Warren, Karen. “Make your Training Count: The Right Training at the Right Time.” Decoded. April 12, 2015. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Willis Towers Watson. “Only One-Quarter of Employers Are Sustaining Gains from Change Management Initiatives, Towers Watson Survey Finds.” August 29, 2013. Web. June 14, 2016.

    Improve Application Development Throughput

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    • Parent Category Name: Development
    • Parent Category Link: /development
    • The business is demanding more features at an increasing pace. It is expecting your development teams to keep up with its changing needs while maintaining high quality.
    • However, your development process is broken. Tasks are taking significant time to complete, and development handoffs are not smooth.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Lean development is independent of your software development lifecycle (SDLC) methodology. Lean development practices can be used in both Agile and Waterfall teams.
    • Lean isn’t about getting rid of sound development processes. Becoming lean means fine-tuning the integration of core practices like coding and testing.
    • Lean thinking motivates automation. By focusing on optimizing the development process, automation becomes a logical and necessary step toward greater maturity and improved throughput.

    Impact and Result

    • Gain a deep understanding of lean principles and associated behaviors. Become familiar with the core lean principles and the critical attitudes and mindsets required by lean. Understand how incorporating DevOps and Agile principles can help your organization.
    • Conduct a development process and tool review. Use a value-stream analysis of your current development process and tools to reveal bottlenecks and time-consuming or wasteful tasks. Analyze these insights to identify root causes and the impact to product delivery.
    • Incorporate the right tools and practices to become more lean. Optimize the key areas where you are experiencing the most pain and consuming the most resources. Look at how today’s best development and testing practices (e.g. version control, branching) and tools (e.g. automation, continuous integration) can improve the throughput of your delivery pipeline.

    Improve Application Development Throughput Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should make development teams leaner, 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. Conduct a current state analysis

    Acquire a holistic perspective of the development team, process, and tools to identify the bottlenecks and inefficiency points that are significantly delaying releases.

    • Improve Application Development Throughput – Phase 1: Conduct a Current State Analysis
    • Lean Implementation Roadmap Template
    • Lean Development Readiness Assessment

    2. Define the lean future state

    Identify the development guiding principles and artifact management practices and build automation and continuous integration processes and tools that best fit the context and address the organization’s needs.

    • Improve Application Development Throughput – Phase 2: Define the Lean Future State

    3. Create an implementation roadmap

    Prioritize lean implementation initiatives in a gradual, phased approach and map the critical stakeholders in the lean transformation.

    • Improve Application Development Throughput – Phase 3: Create an Implementation Roadmap
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Improve Application Development Throughput

    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 Conduct a Current State Analysis

    The Purpose

    Assess the current state of your development environment.

    Select a pilot project to demonstrate the value of your optimization.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Realization of the root causes behind the bottlenecks and inefficiencies in your current development process.

    Valuation of your current development tools.

    Selection of a pilot project that will be used to gather the metrics in order obtain buy-in for wider optimization initiatives.

    Activities

    1.1 Assess your readiness to transition to lean development.

    1.2 Conduct a SWOT analysis and value-stream assessment of your current development process.

    1.3 Evaluate your development tools.

    1.4 Select a pilot project.

    Outputs

    Lean development readiness assessment

    Current state analysis of development process

    Value assessment of existing development tools

    Pilot project selection

    2 Define Your Lean Future State

    The Purpose

    Establish your development guiding principles.

    Enhance the versioning and management of your development artifacts.

    Automatically build and continuously integrate your code.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Grounded and well-understood set of guiding principles that are mapped to development tasks and initiatives.

    Version control strategy of development artifacts, including source code, adapted to support lean development.

    A tailored approach to establish the right environment to support automated build, testing, and continuous integration tools.

    Activities

    2.1 Assess your alignment to the lean principles.

    2.2 Define your lean development guiding principles.

    2.3 Define your source code branching approach.

    2.4 Define your build automation approach.

    2.5 Define your continuous integration approach.

    Outputs

    Level of alignment to lean principles

    Development guiding principles

    Source code branching approach

    Build automation approach.

    Continuous integration approach

    3 Create Your Implementation Roadmap

    The Purpose

    Prioritize your optimization initiatives to build an implementation roadmap.

    Identify the stakeholders of your lean transformation.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Phased implementation roadmap that accommodates your current priorities, constraints, and enablers.

    Stakeholder engagement strategy to effectively demonstrate the value of the optimized development environment.

    Activities

    3.1 Identify metrics to gauge the success of your lean transformation.

    3.2 List and prioritize your implementation steps.

    3.3 Identify the stakeholders of your lean transformation.

    Outputs

    List of product, process, and tool metrics

    Prioritized list of tasks to optimize your development environment

    Identification of key stakeholders

    Deliver a Customer Service Training Program to Your IT Department

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    • Parent Category Name: Service Desk
    • Parent Category Link: /service-desk
    • The scope of service that the service desk must provide has expanded. With the growing complexity of technologies to support, it becomes easy to forget the customer service side of the equation. Meanwhile, customer expectations for prompt, frictionless, and exceptional service from anywhere have grown.
    • IT departments struggle to hire and retain talented service desk agents with the right mix of technical and customer service skills.
    • Some service desk agents don’t believe or understand that customer service is an integral part of their role.
    • Many IT leaders don’t ask for feedback from users to know if there even is a customer service problem.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • There’s a common misconception that customer service skills can’t be taught, so no effort is made to improve those skills.
    • Even when there is a desire to improve customer service, it’s hard for IT teams to make time for training and improvement when they’re too busy trying to keep up with tickets.
    • A talented service desk agent with both great technical and customer service skills doesn’t have to be a rare unicorn, and an agent without innate customer service skills isn’t a lost cause. Relevant and impactful customer service habits, techniques, and skills can be taught through practical, role-based training.
    • IT leaders can make time for this training through targeted, short modules along with continual on-the-job coaching and development.

    Impact and Result

    • Good customer service is critical to the success of the service desk. How a service desk treats its customers will determine its customers' satisfaction with not only IT but also the company as a whole.
    • Not every technician has innate customer service skills. IT managers need to provide targeted, practical training on what good customer service looks like at the service desk.
    • 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.

    Deliver a Customer Service Training Program to Your IT Department Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should deliver customer service training to your team, 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:

    • Deliver a Customer Service Training Program to Your IT Department – Executive Brief
    • Deliver a Customer Service Training Program to Your IT Department Storyboard

    1. Deliver customer service training to your IT team

    Understand the importance of customer service training, then deliver Info-Tech's training program to your IT team.

    • Customer Service Training for the Service Desk – Training Deck
    • Customer Focus Competency Worksheet
    • Cheat Sheet: Service Desk Communication
    • Cheat Sheet: Service Desk Written Communication
    [infographic]

    Improve Service Desk Ticket Intake

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    • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): N/A
    • member rating average dollars saved: N/A
    • member rating average days saved: N/A
    • Parent Category Name: Service Desk
    • Parent Category Link: /service-desk

    • Customers expect a consumer experience with IT. It won’t be long until this expectation expands to IT service support.
    • Messaging and threads are becoming central to how businesses organize information and conversations, but voice isn’t going away. It is still by far people’s favorite channel.
    • Tickets are becoming more complicated. BYOD, telework, and SaaS products present a perfect storm.
    • Traditional service metrics are not made for self service. Your mean-time-to-resolve will increase and first-contact resolution will decrease.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Bring the service desk to the people. Select channels that are most familiar to your users, and make it as easy possible to talk to a human.
    • Integrate channels. Users should have a consistent experience, and technicians should know user history.
    • Don’t forget the human aspect. People aren’t always good with technology. Allow them to contact a person if they are struggling.

    Impact and Result

    • Define which channels will be prioritized.
    • Identify improvements to these channels based on best practices and our members’ experiences.
    • Streamline your ticket intake process to remove unnecessary steps.
    • Prioritize improvements based on their value. Implement a set of improvements every quarter.

    Improve Service Desk Ticket Intake Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should improve your ticket intake, 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 and prioritize ticket channels

    Align your improvements with business goals and the shift-left strategy.

    • Improve Service Desk Ticket Intake – Phase 1: Define and Prioritize Ticket Channels
    • Service Desk Maturity Assessment
    • Service Desk Improvement Presentation Template

    2. Improve ticket channels

    Record potential improvements in your CSI Register, as you review best practices for each channel.

    • Improve Service Desk Ticket Intake – Phase 2: Improve Ticket Channels
    • Service Desk Continual Improvement Roadmap
    • Service Desk Ticket Intake Workflow Samples (Visio)
    • Service Desk Ticket Intake Workflow Samples (PDF)
    • Service Definition Checklist
    • Service Desk Site Visit Checklist Template

    3. Define next steps

    Streamline your ticket intake process and prioritize opportunities for improvement.

    • Improve Service Desk Ticket Intake – Phase 3: Define Next Steps
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Improve Service Desk Ticket Intake

    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 Optimize Ticket Channels

    The Purpose

    Brainstorm improvements to your systems and processes that will help you optimize.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Develop a single point of contact.

    Reduce the time before a technician can start productively working on a ticket.

    Enable Tier 1 and end users to complete more tickets.

    Activities

    1.1 Prioritize channels for improvement.

    1.2 Optimize the voice channel.

    1.3 Identify improvements for self service.

    1.4 Improve Tier 1 agents’ access to information.

    1.5 Optimize supplementary ticket channels.

    Outputs

    Action items to improve the voice channel.

    Populated CSI Register for self-service channels.

    Identified action items for the knowledgebase.

    Populated CSI Register for additional ticket channels.

    2 Streamline Ticket Intake

    The Purpose

    Create long-term growth by taking a sustainable approach to improvements.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Streamline your overall ticket intake process for incidents and service requests.

    Activities

    2.1 Map out the incident intake processes.

    2.2 Identify opportunities to streamline the incident workflow.

    2.3 Map out the request processes.

    2.4 Identify opportunities to streamline the request workflow.

    Outputs

    Streamlined incident intake process.

    Streamlined request intake process.

    Populated CSI Register for request intake.

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    Advisory Call Outline: Software Selection Engagement

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}609|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): N/A
    • member rating average dollars saved: N/A
    • member rating average days saved: N/A
    • Parent Category Name: Selection & Implementation
    • Parent Category Link: /selection-and-implementation
    • Selection takes forever. Traditional software selection drags on for years, sometimes in perpetuity.
    • IT is viewed as a bottleneck and the business has taken control of software selection.
    • “Gut feel” decisions rule the day. Intuition, not hard data, guides selection, leading to poor outcomes.
    • Negotiations are a losing battle. Money is left on the table by inexperienced negotiators.
    • Overall: Poor selection processes lead to wasted time, wasted effort, and applications that continually disappoint.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Adopt a formal methodology to accelerate and improve software selection results.
    • Improve business satisfaction by including the right stakeholders and delivering new applications on a truly timely basis.
    • Kill the “sacred cow” requirements that only exist because “it’s how we’ve always done it.”
    • Forget about “RFP” overload and hone in on the features that matter to your organization.
    • Skip the guesswork and validate decisions with real data.
    • Take control of vendor “dog and pony shows” with single-day, high-value, low-effort, rapid-fire investigative interviews.
    • Master vendor negotiations and never leave money on the table.

    Impact and Result

    • Improving software selection is a critical project that will deliver huge value.
    • Hit a home run with your business stakeholders: use a data-driven approach to select the right application vendor for their needs – fast.
    • Shatter stakeholder expectations with truly rapid application selections.
    • Boost collaboration and crush the broken telephone with concise and effective stakeholder meetings.
    • Lock in hard savings and do not pay list price by using data-driven tactics.

    Advisory Call Outline: Software Selection Engagement Research & Tools

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

    1. Advisory Call Outline

    Info-Tech's expert analyst guidance will help you save money, align stakeholders, and speed up the application selection process.

    • Advisory Call Outline: Software Selection Engagement Deck

    2. Workshop Overview

    Info-Tech's workshop will help you implement a repeatable, data-driven approach that accelerates software selection efforts.

    • Rapid Software Selection Workshop Overview
    [infographic]

    Create an Effective SEO Keyword Strategy

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}568|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 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

    Digital Marketers working with an outdated or bad SEO strategy often see:

    • Declining keyword ranking and traffic
    • Poor keyword strategy
    • On-page errors

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Most marketers fail in their SEO efforts because they focus on creating content for computers, not people.

    Impact and Result

    Using the SoftwareReviews methodology, digital marketers are able to break up their SEO project and data into bite-sized, actionable steps that focus on long-term improvement. Our methodology includes:

    • Competitive keyword research and identification of opportunities
    • On-page keyword strategy

    Create an Effective SEO Keyword Strategy Research & Tools

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

    1. Create an Effective SEO Keyword Strategy

    Update your on-page SEO strategy with competitively relevant keywords.

    • Create an Effective SEO Keyword Strategy Storyboard
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Create an Effective SEO Keyword Strategy
    Update your on-page SEO strategy with competitively relevant keywords.

    Analyst Perspective

    Most marketers fail in their SEO efforts because they focus on creating content for computers, not people.

    Leading search engine optimization methods focus on creating and posting relevant keyword-rich content, not just increasing page rank. Content and keywords should move a buyer along their journey, close a sale, and develop long-term relationships. Unfortunately, many SEO specialists focus on computers, not the buyer. What's even more concerning is that up to 70% of SaaS businesses have already been impacted by outdated and inefficient SEO techniques. Poor strategies often focus on ballooning SEO metrics in the short-term instead of building the company's long-term PageRank.

    Best-in-class digital marketers stop chasing the short-term highs and focus on long-term growth. This starts with developing a competitive keyword strategy and updating website content with the new keywords.

    SEO is a large topic, so we have broken the strategy into small, easy-to-implement steps, taking the guesswork out of how to use the data from SEO tools and giving CMOs a solid path to increase their SEO results.

    This is a picture of Terra Higginson

    Terra Higginson
    Marketing Research Director
    SoftwareReviews

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Digital marketers working with an outdated or bad SEO strategy often see:

    • Declining keyword ranking and traffic
    • Poor keyword strategy
    • On-page errors

    Search algorithms change all the time, which means that the strategy is often sitting on the sifting sands of technology, making SEO strategies quickly outdated.

    Common Obstacles

    Digital marketers are responsible for developing and implementing a competitive SEO strategy but increasingly encounter the following obstacles:

    • SEO practitioners that focus on gaming the system
    • Ever-changing SEO technology
    • Lack of understanding of the best SEO techniques
    • SEO techniques focus on the needs of computers, not people
    • Lack of continued investment

    SoftwareReviews' Approach

    Using the SoftwareReviews methodology, digital marketers are able to break up their SEO project and data into bite-sized, actionable steps that focus on long-term improvement. Our methodology includes:

    • Competitive keyword research and identification of opportunities
    • On-page keyword strategy

    Our methodology will take a focused step-by-step strategy in a series of phases that will increase PageRank and competitive positioning.

    SoftwareReviews' SEO Methodology

    In this blueprint, we will cover:

    Good SEO vs. Poor SEO Techniques

    The difference between good and bad SEO techniques.

    Common Good
    SEO Techniques

    Common Poor
    SEO Techniques

    • Writing content for people, not machines.
    • Using SEO tools to regularly adjust and update SEO content, keywords, and backlinks.
    • Pillar and content cluster strategy in addition to a basic on- and off-page strategy.
    • Keyword stuffing and content duplication.
    • A strategy that focuses on computers first and people second.
    • Low-quality or purchased backlinks.

    Companies With Great SEO…

    Keyword Strategy

    • Have identified a keyword strategy that carves out targets within the white space available between themselves and the competition.

    Error-Free Site

    • Have error-free sites without duplicate content. Their URLs and redirects are all updated. Their site is responsive, and every page loads in under two seconds.

    Pillar & Content Clusters

    • Employ a pillar and content cluster strategy to help move the buyer through their journey.

    Authentic Off-Page Strategy

    • Build an authentic backlink strategy that incorporates the right information on the right sites to move the buyer through their journey.

    SEO Terms Defined

    A glossary to define common Phase 1 SEO terms.

    Search Volume: this measures the number of times a keyword is searched for in a certain time period. Target keywords with a volume of between 100-100,000. A search volume greater than 100,000 will be increasingly difficult to rank (A Beginner's Guide to Keyword Search Volume, 2022, Semrush).

    Keyword Difficulty: the metric that quantifies how difficult it will be to rank for a certain keyword. The keyword difficulty percentage includes the number of competitors attempting to rank for the same keyword, the quality of their content, the search intent, backlinks, and domain authority (Keyword Difficulty: What Is It and Why Is It Important? 2022, Semrush).

    Intent: this metric focuses on the intent of the user's search. All search intent is categorized into Informational, Commercial, Navigational, and Transactional (What Is Search Intent? A Complete Guide, 2022, Semrush).

    On-Page SEO: refers to the practice of search engine optimizing elements of your site such as title tags, internal links, HTML code, URL optimization, on-page content, images, and user experience.

    Off-Page SEO: refers to the practice of optimizing brand awareness (What Is Off-Page SEO? A Comprehensive Guide, 2022, Semrush).

    H1: HTML code that tells a search engine the title of the page (neilpatel.com).

    SEO Tool: A subscription-based all-in-one search engine optimization MarTech tool.

    Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful… We believe Search should deliver the most relevant and reliable information available.
    – An excerpt from Google's mission statement

    Your Challenge

    Google makes over 4.5k algorithm changes per year1, directly impacting digital marketing search engine optimization efforts.

    Digital marketers with SEO problems will often see the following issues:

    • Keyword ranking – A decline in keyword ranking is alarming and results in decreased PageRank.
    • Bounce rate – Attracting the wrong audience to your site will increase the bounce rate because the H1 doesn't resonate with your audience.
    • Outdated keywords – Many companies are operating on a poor keyword strategy, or even worse, no keyword strategy. In addition, many marketers haven't updated their strategy to include pillar and cluster content.
    • Errors – Neglected sites often have a large number of errors.
    • Bad backlinks – Neglected sites often have a large number of toxic backlinks.

    The best place to hide a dead body is on page two of the search results.
    – Huffington Post

    Common Obstacles

    Digital marketers are responsible for developing and executing a competitive SEO strategy but increasingly encounter the following obstacles:

    • Inefficient and ineffective SEO practitioners.
    • Changing SEO technology and search engine algorithms.
    • Lack of understanding of the best-in-class SEO techniques.
    • Lack of a sustainable plan to manage the strategy and invest in SEO.

    SEO is a helpful activity when it's applied to people-first content. However, content created primarily for search engine traffic is strongly correlated with content that searchers find unsatisfying.
    – Google Search Central Blog

    Benefits of Proper SEO

    A good SEO keyword strategy will create long-term, sustainable SEO growth:

    • Write content for people, not algorithms – Good SEO prioritizes the needs of humans over the needs of computers, being ever thoughtful of the meaning of content and keywords.
    • Content that aligns with intent – Content and keyword intent will align with the buyer journey to help move prospects through the funnel.
    • Competitive keyword strategy – Find keyword white space for your brand. Keywords will be selected to optimize your ranking among competition with reasonable and sustainable targets.
    • Actionable and impactful fixes – By following the SoftwareReviews phases of SEO, you will be able to take a very large task and divide it into conquerable actions. Small improvements everyday lead to very large improvements over time.

    Digital Marketing SEO Stats

    61%
    61% of marketers believe that SEO is the key to online success.
    Source: Safari Digital

    437%
    Updating an existing title tag with an SEO optimised one can increase page clicks by more than 437%.
    Source: Safari Digital

    Good SEO Aligns With Search Intent

    What type of content is the user searching for? Align your keyword to the logical search objective.

    Informational

    This term categorizes search intent for when a user wants to inform or educate themselves on a specific topic.

    Commercial

    This term categorizes search intent for when a user wants to do research before making a purchase.

    Transactional

    This term categorizes search intent for when a user wants to purchase something.

    Navigational

    This term categorizes search intent for when a user wants to find a specific page.

    SoftwareReviews' Methodology toCreate an Effective SEO Strategy

    1. Competitive Analysis & Keyword Discovery 2. On-Page Keyword Optimization
    Phase Steps
    1. Make a list of keywords in your current SEO strategy – including search volume, keyword difficulty percentage, intent.
    2. Research the keywords of top competitors.
    3. Make a list of target keywords you would like to own – including the search volume, keyword difficulty percentage, and intent. Make sure that these keywords align with your buyer persona.
    1. List product and service pages, along with the URL and current ranking(s) for the keyword(s) for that URL.
    2. Create a new individual page strategy for each URL. Record the current keyword, rank, title tag, H1 tag, and meta description. Then, with keyword optimization in mind, develop the new title tag, new H1 tag, and new meta description. Build the target keywords into the pages and tags.
    3. Record the current ranking for the pages' keywords then reassess after three to six months.
    Phase Outcomes
    • Understanding of competitive landscape for SEO
    • A list of target new keywords
    • Keyword optimized product and service pages

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    Phase 1 Phase 2

    Call #1: Identify your current SEO keyword strategy.

    Call #2: Discuss how to start a competitive keyword analysis.

    Call #4: Discuss how to build the list of target keywords.

    Call #6: Discuss keyword optimization of the product & services pages.

    Call #8: (optional)

    Schedule a call to update every three to six months.

    Call #3: Discuss the results of the competitive keyword analysis.

    Call #5: Discuss which pages to update with new target keywords.

    Call #7: Review final page content and tags.

    Call #9: Schedule a call for SEO Phase 2: On-Page Technical Refinement.

    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 1 to 2 months.

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    Phase 1 Phase 2

    Call #1: Identify your current SEO keyword strategy.

    Call #2: Discuss how to start a competitive keyword analysis.

    Call #4: Discuss how to build the list of target keywords.

    Call #6: Discuss keyword optimization of the product & services pages.

    Call #8: (optional)

    Schedule a call to update every three to six months.

    Call #3: Discuss the results of the competitive keyword analysis.

    Call #5: Discuss which pages to update with new target keywords.

    Call #7: Review final page content and tags.

    Call #9: Schedule a call for SEO Phase 2: On-Page Technical Refinement.

    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 1 to 2 months.

    SoftwareReviews offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

    Included Within an Advisory Membership Optional Add-Ons
    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."

    Insight Summary

    People-First Content

    Best-in-class SEO practitioners focus on people-first content, not computer-first content. Search engine algorithms continue to focus on how to rank better content first, and a strategy that moves your buyers through the funnel in a logical and cohesive way will beat any SEO trick over the long run.

    Find White Space

    A good SEO strategy uses competitive research to carve out white space and give them a competitive edge in an increasingly difficult ranking algorithm. An understanding of the ideal client profile and the needs of their buyer persona(s) sit as a pre-step to any good SEO strategy.

    Optimize On-Page Keywords

    By optimizing the on-page strategy with competitively relevant keywords that target your ideal client profile, marketers are able to take an easy first step at improving the SEO content strategy.

    Understand the Strategy

    If you don't understand the strategy of your SEO practitioner, you are in trouble. Marketers need to work hand in hand with their SEO specialists to quickly uncover gaps, create a strategy that aligns with the buyer persona(s), and execute the changes.

    Quality Trumps Quantity

    The quality of the prospect that your SEO efforts bring to your site is more important than the number of people brought to your site.

    Stop Here and Ask Yourself:

    • Do I have an updated (completed within the last two years) buyer persona and journey?
    • Do I know who the ICP (ideal client profile) is for my product or company?

    If not, stop here, and we can help you define your buyer persona and journey, as well as your ideal client profile before moving forward with SEO Phase 1.

    The Steps to SEO Phase 1

    The Keyword Strategy

    1. Current Keywords
      • Identify the keywords your SEO strategy is currently targeting.
    2. Competitive Analysis
      • Research the keywords of competitor(s). Identify keyword whitespace.
    3. New Target Keywords
      • Identify and rank keywords that will result in more quality leads and less competition.
    4. Product & Service Pages
      • Identify your current product and service pages. These pages represent the easiest content to update on your site.
    5. Individual Page Update
      • Develop an SEO strategy for each of your product and service pages, include primary target keyword, H1, and title tags, as well as keyword-rich description.

    Resources Needed for Search Engine Optimization

    Consider the working skills required for search engine optimization.

    Required Skills/Knowledge

    • SEO
    • Web development
    • Competitive analysis
    • Content creation
    • Understanding of buyer persona and journey
    • Digital marketing

    Suggested Titles

    • SEO Analyst
    • Competitive Intelligence Analyst
    • Content Marketing Manager
    • Website Developer
    • Digital Marketing Manager

    Digital Marketing Software

    • CMS that allows you to easily access and update your content

    SEO Software

    • SEO tool

    Step 1: Current Keywords

    Use this sheet to record your current keyword research.

    Use your SEO tool to research keywords and find the following:
    Use a quality tool like SEMRush to obtain SEO data.

    1. Keyword difficulty
    2. Search volume
    3. Search intent

    This is a screenshot of the SEO tool SEMRush, which can be used to identify current keywords.

    Step 2: Competitive Analysis

    Use this sheet to guide the research on your competitors' keywords.

    Use your SEO tool to find the following:

    1. Top organic keywords
    2. Ranking of keywords
    3. Domain authority and trust
    4. Position changes

    This is a screenshot of the SEO tool SEMRush, which can be used to perform an competitive analysis

    Step 3: New Target Keywords

    Use this sheet to record target keywords that have a good volume but are less competitive. The new target keywords should align with your buyer persona and their journey.

    Use your SEO tool to research keywords and find the following:
    Use a quality tool like SEMRush to obtain SEO data.

    1. Keyword difficulty
    2. Search volume
    3. Search intent

    This is a screenshot of the SEO tool SEMRush, which can be used to identify new target keywords.

    Step 4: Product & Service Pages

    Duplicate this page so that you have a separate page for each URL from Step 4

    Use this sheet to identify your current product and service pages.

    Use your SEO tool to find the following:

    1. Current rank
    2. Current keywords

    This is a screenshot of the SEO tool SEMRush, showing where you can display product and service pages.

    Step 5: Individual Page Strategy

    Develop a keyword strategy for each of your product and service pages. Use a fresh page for each URL.

    Date last optimized:
    mm/dd/yyyy

    This is a screenshot of the SEO tool SEMRush, with an example of how you can use an individual page strategy to develop a keyword strategy.

    Bibliography

    Council, Y. "Council Post: The Rundown On Black Hat SEO Techniques And Why You Should Avoid Them." Forbes, 2022. Accessed September 2022.

    "Our approach – How Google Search works." Google Search. Accessed September 2022.

    "The Best Place to Hide a Dead Body is Page Two of Google." HuffPost, 2022. Accessed September 2022.

    Patel, Neil. "How to Create the Perfect H1 Tag for SEO." neilpatel.com. Accessed September 2022.

    Schwartz, B. "Google algorithm updates 2021 in review: Core updates, product reviews, page experience and beyond." Search Engine Land, 2022. Accessed September 2022.

    Schwartz, B. "Google algorithm updates 2021 in review: Core updates, product reviews, page experience and beyond." Search Engine Land, 2022. Accessed September 2022.

    Align Projects With the IT Change Lifecycle

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    • Coordinate IT change and project management to successfully push changes to production.
    • Manage representation of project management within the scope of the change lifecycle to gather requirements, properly approve and implement changes, and resolve incidents that arise from failed implementations.
    • Communicate effectively between change management, project management, and the business.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Improvement can be incremental. You do not have to adopt every recommended improvement right away. Ensure every process change you make will create value and slowly add improvements to ease buy-in.

    Impact and Result

    • Establish pre-set touchpoints between IT change management and project management at strategic points in the change and project lifecycles.
    • Include appropriate project representation at the change advisory board (CAB).
    • Leverage standard change resources such as the change calendar and request for change form (RFC).

    Align Projects With the IT Change Lifecycle Research & Tools

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

    1. Align Projects With the IT Change Lifecycle Deck – A guide to walk through integrating project touchpoints in the IT change management lifecycle.

    Use this storyboard as a guide to align projects with your IT change management lifecycle.

    • Align Projects With the IT Change Lifecycle Storyboard

    2. The Change Management SOP – This template will ensure that organizations have a comprehensive document in place that can act as a point of reference for the program.

    Use this SOP as a template to document and maintain your change management practice.

    • Change Management Standard Operating Procedure
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Align Projects With the IT Change Lifecycle

    Increase the success of your changes by integrating project touchpoints in the change lifecycle.

    Analyst Perspective

    Focus on frequent and transparent communications between the project team and change management.

    Benedict Chang

    Misalignment between IT change management and project management leads to headaches for both practices. Project managers should aim to be represented in the change advisory board (CAB) to ensure their projects are prioritized and scheduled appropriately. Advanced notice on project progress allows for fewer last-minute accommodations at implementation. Widespread access of the change calendar can also lead project management to effectively schedule projects to give change management advanced notice.

    Moreover, alignment between the two practices at intake allows for requests to be properly sorted, whether they enter change management directly or are governed as a project.

    Lastly, standardizing implementation and post-implementation across everyone involved ensures more successful changes and socialized/documented lessons learned for when implementations do not go well.

    Benedict Chang
    Senior Research Analyst, Infrastructure and Operations
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Common Obstacles

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    To align projects with the change lifecycle, IT leaders must:

    • Coordinate IT change and project management to successfully push changes to production.
    • Manage representation of project management within the scope of the change lifecycle to gather requirements, properly approve and implement changes, and resolve incidents that arise from failed implementations.
    • Communicate effectively between change management, project management, and the business.

    Loose definitions may work for clear-cut examples of changes and projects at intake, but grey-area requests end up falling through the cracks.

    Changes to project scope, when not communicated, often leads to scheduling conflicts at go-live.

    Too few checkpoints between change and project management can lead to conflicts. Too many checkpoints can lead to delays.

    Set up touchpoints between IT change management and project management at strategic points in the change and project lifecycles.

    Include appropriate project representation at the change advisory board (CAB).

    Leverage standard change resources such as the change calendar and request for change form (RFC).

    Info-Tech Insight

    Improvement can be incremental. You do not have to adopt every recommended improvement right away. Ensure every process change you make will create value, and slowly add improvements to ease buy-in.

    Info-Tech’s approach

    Use the change lifecycle to identify touchpoints.

    The image contains a screenshot of Info-Tech's approach.

    The Info-Tech difference:

    1. Start with your change lifecycle to define how change control can align with project management.
    2. Make improvements to project-change alignment to benefit the relationship between the two practices and the practices individually.
    3. Scope the alignment to your organization. Take on the improvements to the left one by one instead of overhauling your current process.

    Use this research to improve your current process

    This deck is intended to align established processes. If you are just starting to build IT change processes, see the related research below.

    Align Projects With the IT Change Lifecycle

    02 Optimize IT Project Intake, Approval, and Prioritization

    01 Optimize IT Change Management

    Increase the success of your changes by integrating project touchpoints in your change lifecycle.

    (You are here)

    Decide which IT projects to approve and when to start them.

    Right-size IT change management to protect the live environment.

    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

    Business Benefits

    • Fewer incidents and outages at project go-live
    • Upfront identification of project and change requirements
    • Higher rate of change and project success
    • Less rework
    • Fewer service desk calls related to failed go-lives
    • 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

    Collaboration

    Consistency

    Confidence

    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.

    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.

    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.

    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.

    1. Alignment at intake

    Define what is a change and what is a project.

    Both changes and projects will end up in change control in the end. Here, we define the intake.

    Changes and projects will both go to change control when ready to go live. However, defining the governance needed at intake is critical.

    A change should be governed by change control from beginning to end. It would typically be less than a week’s worth of work for a SME to build and come in at a nominal cost (e.g. <$20k over operating costs).

    Projects on the other hand, will be governed by project management in terms of scope, scheduling, resourcing, etc. Projects typically take over a week and/or cost more. However, the project, when ready to go live, should still be scheduled through change control to avoid any conflicts at implementation. At triage and intake, a project can be further scoped based on projected scale.

    This initial touchpoint between change control and project management is crucial to ensure tasks and request are executed with the proper governance. To distinguish between changes and projects at intake, list examples of each and determine what resourcing separates changes from projects.

    Need help scoping projects? Download the Project Intake Classification Matrix

    Change

    Project

    • Smaller scale task that typically takes a short time to build and test
    • Generates a single change request
    • Governed by IT Change Management for the entire lifecycle
    • Larger in scope
    • May generate multiple change requests
    • Governed by PMO
    • Longer to build and test

    Info-Tech Insight

    While effort and cost are good indicators of changes and projects, consider evaluating risk and complexity too.

    1 Define what constitutes a change

    1. As a group, brainstorm examples of changes and projects. If you wish, you may choose to also separate out additional request types such as service requests (user), operational tasks (backend), and releases.
    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 determine 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?
  • Record the definitions of requests and results in section 2.3 of the Change Management Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).
  • Change

    Project

    Service Request (Optional)

    Operational Task (Optional)

    Release (Optional)

    Changing Configuration

    New ERP

    Add new user

    Delete temp files

    Software release

    Download the Change Management Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).

    Input Output
    • List of examples of each category of the chart
    • Definitions for each category to be used at change intake
    Materials Participants
    • Whiteboard/flip charts (or shared screen if working remotely)
    • Service catalog (if applicable)
    • Sticky notes
    • Markers/pens
    • Change Management SOP
    • Change Manager
    • Project Managers
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board

    2. Alignment at build and test

    Keep communications open by pre-defining and communicating project milestones.

    CAB touchpoints

    Consistently communicate the plan and timeline for hitting these milestones so CAB can prioritize and plan changes around it. This will give change control advanced notice of altered timelines.

    RFCs

    Projects may have multiple associated RFCs. Keeping CAB appraised of the project RFC or RFCs gives them the ability to further plan changes.

    Change Calendar

    Query and fill the change calendar with project timelines and milestones to compliment the CAB touchpoints.

    Leverage the RFC to record and communicate project details

    The request for change (RFC) form does not have to be a burden to fill out. If designed with value in mind, it can be leveraged to set standards on all changes (from projects and otherwise).

    When looking at the RFC during the Build and Test phase of a project, prioritize the following fields to ensure the implementation will be successful from a technical and user-adoption point of view.

    Filling these fields of the RFC and communicating them to the CAB at go-live approval gives the approvers confidence that the project will be implemented successfully and measures are known for when that implementation is not successful.

    Download the Request for Change Form Template

    Communication Plan

    The project may be successful from a technical point of view, but if users do not know about go-live or how to interact with the project, it will ultimately fail.

    Training Plan

    If necessary, think of how to train different stakeholders on the project go-live. This includes training for end users interacting with the project and technicians supporting the project.

    Implementation Plan

    Write the implementation plan at a high enough level that gives the CAB confidence that the implementation team knows the steps well.

    Rollback Plan

    Having a well-formulated rollback plan gives the CAB the confidence that the impact of the project is well known and the impact to the business is limited even if the implementation does not go well.

    Provide clear definitions of what goes on the change calendar and who’s responsible

    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.

    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.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Make the calendar visible to as many parties as necessary. However, limit the number of personnel who can make active changes to the calendar to limit calendar conflicts.

    3. Alignment at approval

    How can project management effectively contribute to CAB?

    As optional CAB members

    Project SMEs may attend when projects are ready to go live and when invited by the change manager. Optional members provide details on change cross-dependencies, high-level testing, rollback, communication plans, etc. to inform prioritization and scheduling decisions.

    As project management representatives

    Project management should also attend CAB meetings to report in on changes to ongoing projects, implementation timelines, and project milestones. Projects are typically high-priority changes when going live due to their impact. Advanced notice of timeline and milestone changes allow the rest of the CAB to properly manage other changes going into production.

    As core CAB members

    The core responsibilities of CAB must still be fulfilled:

    1. Protect the live environment from poorly assessed, tested, and implemented changes.

    2. Prioritize changes in a way that fairly reflects change impact, urgency, and likelihood.

    3. Schedule deployments in a way the minimizes conflict and disruption.

    If you need to define the authority and responsibilities of the CAB, see Activity 2.1.3 of the Optimize IT Change Management blueprint.

    4. Alignment at implementation

    At this stage, the project or project phase is treated as any other change.

    Verification

    Once the change has been implemented, verify that all requirements are fulfilled.

    Review

    Ensure all affected systems and applications are operating as predicted.

    Update change ticket and change log

    Update RFC status and CMDB as well (if necessary).

    Transition

    Once the change implementation is complete, it’s imperative that the team involved inform and train the operational and support groups.

    If you need to define transitioning changes to production, download Transition Projects to the Service Desk

    5. Alignment at post-implementation

    Tackle the most neglected portion of change management to avoid making the same mistake twice.

    1. Define RFC statuses that need a PIR
    2. Conduct PIRs for failed changes. Successful changes can simply be noted and transitioned to operations.

    3. Conduct a PIR for every failed change
    4. It’s best to perform a PIR once a change-related incident is resolved.

    5. Avoid making the same mistake twice
    6. Include a root-cause analysis, mitigation actions/timeline, and lessons learned in the documentation.

    7. Report to CAB
    8. Socialize the findings of the PIR at the subsequent CAB meeting.

    9. Circle back on previous PIRs
    10. If a similar change is conducted, append the related PIR to avoid the same mistakes.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Include your PIR documentation right in the RFC for easy reference.

    Download the RFC template for more details on post-implementation reviews

    2 Implement your alignments stepwise

    1. As a group, decide on which implementations you need to make to align change management and project management.
    2. For each improvement, list a timeline for implementation.
    3. Update section 3.5 in the Change Management Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). to outline the responsibilities of project management within IT Change Management.

    The image contains a screenshot of the Change Management SOP

    Download the Change Management Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).

    Input Output
    • This deck
    • SOP update
    Materials Participants
    • Whiteboard/flip charts (or shared screen if working remotely)
    • Service catalog (if applicable)
    • Sticky notes
    • Markers/pens
    • Change Management SOP
    • Change Manager
    • Project Managers
    • Members of the Change Advisory Board

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Optimize IT Change Management

    Right-size IT change management to protect the live environment.

    Optimize IT Project Intake, Approval, and Prioritization

    Decide which IT projects to approve and when to start them.

    Maintain an Organized Portfolio

    Align portfolio management practices with COBIT (APO05: Manage Portfolio).

    Build a More Effective Brand Architecture

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    Neglecting to maintain the brand architecture can have the following consequences:

    • Inconsistent branding across product lines, services, and marketing communications.
    • Employee confusion regarding product lines, services, and brand structure.
    • Difficulties in launching new products or services or integrating acquired brands.
    • Poor customer experience in navigating the website or understanding the offerings.
    • Inability to differentiate from competitors.
    • Weak brand equity and a lack of brand loyalty.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Brand architecture is the way a company organizes and manages its portfolio of brands to achieve strategic goals. It encompasses the relationships between brands, from sub-brands to endorsed brands to independent brands, and how they interact with each other and with the master brand. With a clear brand architecture, businesses can optimize their portfolio, enhance their competitive position, and achieve sustainable growth and success in the long run.

    Impact and Result

    Establishing and upholding a well-defined brand architecture is critical to achieve:

    • Easy recognition and visibility
    • Consistent branding
    • Operational efficiency
    • Customer loyalty
    • Ability to easily adapt to changes
    • Competitive differentiation
    • Distinctive brand image
    • Business success

    Build a More Effective Brand Architecture Research & Tools

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

    1. Build a More Effective Brand Architecture Storyboard – Develop a brand architecture that supports your business goals, clarifies your brand portfolio, and enhances your overall brand equity.

    We recommend a two-step approach that involves defining or reimagining the brand architecture. This means choosing the right strategy by analyzing the current brand portfolio, identifying the core brand elements, and determining and developing the structure that fits with the brand and business goals. A well-thought-out brand architecture also facilitates the integration of new brands and new product launches.

    • Build a More Effective Brand Architecture Storyboard

    2. Brand Architecture Strategy Template – The brand architecture template is a tool for creating a coherent brand identity.

    Create a brand identity that helps you launch new products and services, prepare for acquisitions, and modify your brand strategy. Allocate resources more effectively and identify new opportunities for growth. A brand architecture can provide insights into how different brands fit together and contribute to the overall brand strategy.

    • Brand Architecture Strategy Template

    Infographic

    Workshop: Build a More Effective Brand 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 Brand Mind Mapping

    The Purpose

    The brand mind mapping workshop is an exercise that helps with visualizing brand architecture and improving coherence and effectiveness in brand portfolio management.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    This exercise can help businesses:

    Allocate their resources more effectively.

    Identify new opportunities for growth.

    Gain a competitive advantage in their market.

    Activities

    1.1 Brand Mind Mapping

    Outputs

    Visual representation of the brand architecture and its various components

    Further reading

    Build a More Effective Brand Architecture

    Strategically optimize your portfolio to increase brand recognition and value.

    Analyst perspective

    Brand Architecture

    Nathalie Vezina, Marketing Research Director, SoftwareReviews Advisory

    Nathalie Vezina
    Marketing Research Director
    SoftwareReviews Advisory

    This blueprint highlights common brand issues faced by companies, such as inconsistencies in branding and sub-branding due to absent or inadequate planning and documentation or non-compliance with the brand architecture. It emphasizes the importance of aligning or modifying the company's brand strategy with the existing architecture to create a consistent brand when launching new products, services, or divisions or preparing for acquisitions.

    Changing the brand architecture can be challenging, as it often requires significant resources, time, and effort. Additionally, there may be resistance from stakeholders who have become attached to the existing brand architecture and may not see the value in making changes. However, it's important for companies to address suboptimal brand architecture to ensure consistency and clarity in brand messaging and support business growth and success.

    This blueprint guides brand leaders on building and updating their brand architecture for optimal clarity, consistency, adaptability, and efficiency.

    Executive summary

    Your Challenge Common Obstacles SoftwareReviews’ Approach
    A company's brand architecture can help brand managers build a stronger brand that supports the company's goals and increases brand value. Failing to maintain the brand architecture can have the following consequences:
    • Inconsistent branding across product lines, services, and marketing communications
    • Employee confusion regarding product lines, services, and brand structure.
    • Difficulties in launching new products or services or integrating acquired brands.
    • Poor customer experience in navigating the website or understanding the offerings.
    • Inability to differentiate from competitors.
    • Weak brand equity and a lack of brand loyalty.
    Establishing and maintaining a clear brand architecture can pose significant issues for brand leaders. Despite these obstacles, defining the brand architecture can yield substantial benefits for businesses. Common constraints are:
    • Lack of knowledge on the subject, resulting in difficulties securing buy-in from stakeholders.
    • Siloed teams and competing priorities.
    • Limited resources and time constraints.
    • Resistance to change from employees or customers.
    • Inconsistent execution and adherence to brand guidelines.
    • Lack of communication and coordination when acquiring new brands.
    With focused and effective efforts and guidance, brand leaders can define or reimagine their brand architecture. Developing and maintaining a clear and consistent brand architecture involves:
    • Defining the brand architecture strategy.
    • Analyzing the current brand portfolio and identifying the core brand elements.
    • Determining and developing the proper brand structure.
    • Updating brand guidelines and messaging.
    • Rolling out the brand architecture across touchpoints and assets.
    • Facilitating the integration of new brands.
    • Monitoring and adjusting the architecture as needed for relevance to business goals.

    "[B]rand architecture is like a blueprint for a house...the foundation that holds all the pieces together, making sure everything fits and works seamlessly."
    Source: Verge Marketing

    The basics of brand architecture

    The significance of brand hierarchy organization

    Brand architecture is the hierarchical organization and its interrelationships. This includes shaping the brand strategy and structuring the company's product and service portfolio.

    A well-designed brand architecture helps buyers navigate a company's product offerings and creates a strong brand image and loyalty.

    A company's brand architecture typically includes three levels:

    • Master or parent brand
    • Sub-brands
    • Endorsed brands

    Choosing the right architecture depends on business strategy, products and services, and target audience. It should be reviewed periodically as the brand evolves, new products and services are launched, or new brands are acquired.

    "A brand architecture is the logical, strategic, and relational structure for your brands, or put another way, it is the entity's 'family tree' of brands, sub-brands, and named products."
    Source: Branding Strategy Insider

    Enhancing a company's brand hierarchy for better business outcomes

    Maximize brand strategy with a well-defined and managed brand architecture.

    Align brand architecture with business goals
    A well-defined brand architecture aligned with business objectives contributes to building brand recognition, facilitating brand extension, and streamlining brand portfolio management. In addition, it improves marketing effectiveness and customer experience.
    With a clear and consistent brand architecture, companies can strengthen their brand equity, increase awareness and loyalty, and grow in their competitive environment.

    Effectively engage with the desired buyers
    A clear and consistent brand architecture enables companies to align their brand identity and value proposition with the needs and preferences of their target audience, resulting in increased customer loyalty and satisfaction.
    Establishing a unique market position and reinforcing brand messaging and positioning allows companies to create a more personalized and engaging customer experience, driving business growth.

    Maintain a competitive edge
    An effective brand architecture allows companies to differentiate themselves from their competitors by establishing their unique position in the market. It also provides a structured framework for introducing new products or services under the same brand, leveraging the existing one.
    By aligning their brand architecture with their business objectives, companies can achieve sustainable growth and outperform their competitors in the marketplace.

    "A well-defined brand architecture provides clarity and consistency in how a brand is perceived by its audience. It helps to create a logical framework that aligns with a brand's overall vision and objectives."
    Source: LinkedIn

    Pitfalls of neglecting brand guidelines

    Identifying the negative effects on business and brand value.

    Deficient brand architecture can manifest in various ways.

    Here are some common symptoms:

    • Lack of clarity around the brand's personality and values
    • Inconsistent messaging and branding
    • Inability to differentiate from competitors
    • Weak brand identity
    • Confusion among customers and employees
    • Difficulty launching new products/services or integrating acquired brands
    • Lack of recognition and trust from consumers, leading to potential negative impacts on the bottom line

    Brand architecture helps to ensure that your company's brands are aligned with your business goals and objectives, and that they work together to create a cohesive and consistent brand image.

    The most common obstacles in developing and maintaining a clear brand architecture

    Establishing and maintaining a clear brand architecture requires the commitment of the entire organization and a collaborative effort.

    Lack of stakeholder buy-in > Resistance to change

    Siloed teams > Inconsistent execution

    Limited resources > Lack of education and communication

    Types of brand architectures

    Different approaches to structuring brand hierarchy

    Brand architecture is a framework that encompasses three distinct levels, each comprising a different type of branding strategy.

    Types of brand architectures

    Examples of types of brand architectures

    Well-known brands with different brand and sub-brands structures

    Examples of types of brand architectures

    Pros and cons of each architecture types

    Different approaches to organizing a brand portfolio

    The brand architecture impacts the cohesiveness, effectiveness, and market reach. Defining or redefining organization changes is crucial for company performance.

    Branded House Endorsed Brands House of Brands
    Other Designations
    • "Monolithic brands"
    • "Sub-brands"
    • "Freestanding brands"
    Description
    • Single brand name for all products/services
    • Creates a unique and powerful image that can easily be identified
    • The master brand name endorses a range of products/services marketed under different sub-brands
    • Decentralized brands
    • Can target diverse markets with separate brand names for each product/service
    Marketing & Comms
    • Highly efficient
    • Eliminates split branding efforts by product/service
    • Product differentiation and tailoring messages to specific customer segments are limited
    • Each brand has its unique identity
    • Benefit from the support and resources of the master brand
    • Allows for unique branding and messaging per products/services for specific customer segments
    • Can experiment with different offerings and strategies
    Impact on Sales
    • Good cross-selling opportunities by leveraging a strong brand name
    • Benefit from the master brand's credibility, building customer trust and increasing sales
    • Tailored marketing to specific segments can increase market share and profitability
    • Creates competitive advantage and builds loyalty
    Cost Effectiveness
    • Cost-effective
    • No separate branding efforts per product/service
    • Lack of economy of scale
    • Fragmentation of resources and duplication of effort
    • Lack of economy of scale
    • Fragmentation of resources and duplication of effort
    Reputation and Image
    • More control over the brand image, messages, and perception, leading to strong recognition
    • Increased vulnerability to negative events can damage the entire brand, products/services offered
    • Mitigated risk, protecting the master brand's reputation and financial performance
    • Negative events with one brand can damage the master and other brands, causing a loss of credibility
    • Reduced risk, safeguarding the master brand's reputation and financial performance
    • Each brand builds its own equity, enhancing the company's financial performance and value
    Consistency
    • Ensures consistency with the company's brand image, values, and messaging
    • Helps build trust and loyalty
    • Inconsistent branding and messaging can cause confusion and misunderstandings
    • Unclear link between master/endorsed brands
    • Reduces trust and brand loyalty
    • Difficult to establish a clear and consistent corporate identity
    • Can reduce overall brand recognition and loyalty

    Brand naming decision tree

    Create a naming process for brand alignment and resonance with the target audience

    To ensure a chosen name is effective and legally/ethically sound, consider the ease of pronunciation/spelling, the availability for registration of brand/domain name, any negative connotations/associations in any language/culture, and potential legal/ethical issues.

    Brand naming decision tree

    To ensure a chosen name is effective and legally/ethically sound, consider the ease of pronunciation/spelling, the availability for registration of brand/domain name, any negative connotations/associations in any language/culture, and potential legal/ethical issues.

    Advantages of defining brand architecture

    Maximize your brand potential with a clear architecture strategy.

    Clear offering

    Adaptability

    Consistent branding

    Competitive differentiation

    Operational efficiency

    Strong brand identity

    Customer loyalty

    Business success

    "Responding to external influences, all brands must adapt and change over time. A clear system can aid in managing the process, ensuring that necessary changes are implemented effectively and efficiently."
    Source: The Branding Journal

    SoftwareReviews' brand architecture creation methodology

    Develop and Implement a Robust Brand Architecture

    Phase Steps

    Step 1 Research and Analysis
    1.1 Define brand architecture strategy
    1.2 Brand audit
    1.3 Identify brand core elements

    Step 2 Development and Implementation
    2.1 Determine brand hierarchy
    2.2 Develop or update brand guidelines
    2.3 Roll out brand architecture

    Phase Outcomes
    • Brand current performance is assessed
    • Issues are highlighted and can be addressed
    • Brand structure is developed and implemented across touchpoints and assets
    • Adjustments are made on an ongoing basis for consistency and relevance to business goals

    Insight summary

    Brand Architecture: Organize and manage your portfolio of brands
    Brand architecture is the way a company organizes and manages its portfolio of brands to achieve strategic goals. It encompasses the relationships between brands, from sub-brands to endorsed brands to independent brands, and how they interact with each other and with the master brand. With a clear brand architecture, businesses can optimize their portfolio, enhance their competitive position, and achieve sustainable growth and success in the long run.

    Aligning brand architecture to business strategy
    Effective brand architecture aligns with the company's business strategy, marketing objectives, and customer needs. It provides clarity and coherence to the brand portfolio, helps customers navigate product offerings, and maximizes overall equity of the brand.

    Choosing between three types of brand architecture
    A company's choice of brand architecture depends on factors like product range, target markets, and strategic objectives. Each approach, Branded House, Endorsed, or House of Brands, has its own pros and cons, and the proper option relies on the company's goals, resources, and constraints.

    A logical brand hierarchy for more clarity
    The order of importance of brands in the portfolio, including the relationships between the master and sub-brands, and the positioning of each in the market is fundamental. A clear and logical hierarchy helps customers understand the value proposition of each brand and reduces confusion.

    A win-win approach
    Clear brand architecture can help customers easily navigate and understand the product offering, reinforce the brand identity and values, and improve customer loyalty and retention. Additionally, it can help companies optimize their marketing strategies, streamline their product development and production processes, and maximize their revenue and profitability.

    Brand architecture, an ongoing process
    Brand architecture is not a one-time decision but an ongoing process that requires regular review and adjustment. As business conditions change, companies may need to revise their brand portfolio, brand hierarchy, or brand extension and acquisition strategies to remain competitive and meet customer needs.

    Brand architecture creation tools

    This blueprint comes with tools to help you develop your brand architecture.

    Brand Architecture Toolkit

    This kit includes a Brand Architecture Mini-Audit, a Brand Architecture template, and templates for Brand Matrix, Ecosystem, and Development Strategy.

    Use this kit to develop a strong brand architecture that aligns with your business goals, clarifies your brand portfolio, and enhances overall brand equity.

    Brand Architecture Toolkit

    Brand Architecture

    Develop a robust brand architecture that supports your business goals, clarifies your brand portfolio, and enhances your overall brand equity.

    "A brand architecture is the logical, strategic, and relational structure for your brands, or put another way, it is the entity's 'family tree' of brands, sub-brands, and named products."
    Source: Branding Strategy Insider

    Consequences of Neglected Brand Guidelines

    When a company neglects its brand architecture and guidelines, it can result in a number of negative consequences, such as:

    • Lack of clarity around the brand's personality and values
    • Inconsistent messaging and branding
    • Inability to differentiate from competitors
    • Weak brand identity
    • Confusion among customers and employees
    • Difficulty launching new products/services or integrating acquired brands
    • Lack of recognition and trust from consumers, leading to potential negative impacts on the bottom line.

    Benefits of SoftwareReviews' Methodology

    By following SoftwareReviews' methodology to develop and maintain a brand architecture, businesses can:

    • Establish a unique market position and stand out from competitors
    • Ensure that marketing efforts are focused and effective
    • Create personalized and engaging customer experiences
    • Reinforce messaging and positioning
    • Increase customer loyalty and satisfaction
    • Build brand recognition and awareness

    Marq, formerly Lucidpress, surveyed over 400 brand management experts and found that "if the brand was consistent, revenue would increase by 10-20%."

    Methodology for Defining Brand Architecture

    Who benefits from this research?

    This research is designed for:

    • Organizations that value their brand and want to ensure that it is communicated effectively and consistently across all touchpoints.
    • Business owners, marketers, brand managers, creative teams, and anyone involved in the development and implementation of brand strategy.

    This research will also assist:

    • Sales and customer experience teams
    • Channel partners
    • Buyers

    This research will help you:

    • Establish a unique market position and stand out from competitors.
    • Create a more personalized and engaging customer experience.
    • Ensure that marketing efforts are focused and effective.
    • Reinforce brand messaging and positioning.

    This research will help them:

    • Increase customer loyalty and satisfaction
    • Build brand recognition and awareness
    • Drive business growth and profitability.

    SoftwareReviews 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."
    Included Within Advisory Membership Optional Add-Ons

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    Research & Analysis
    Call #1: Discuss brand architecture strategy (define objectives, scope and stakeholders). Call #3: Identify core brand components and ensure they align with the brand strategy. Call #5: Develop or update brand guidelines. Optional Calls:
    • Brand Diagnostic
    • Brand Strategy and Tactics
    • Brand Voice Guidelines
    • Asset Creation and Management
    • Brand Messaging
    Call #2: Conduct a brand audit. Call #4: Define and document the brand hierarchy. Call #6: Roll out the brand architecture and monitoring.

    A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with a SoftwareReviews Marketing Analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

    Your engagement managers will work with you to schedule analyst calls.

    Brand Mind Mapping Workshop Overview

    Total duration: 3-4 hours

    Activities
    Visually map out the different elements of your brand portfolio, including corporate brands, sub-brands, product brands, and their relationships with each other.

    The workshop also aims to explore additional elements, such as brand expansions, acquisitions, and extensions, and brand attributes and positioning.

    Deliverables
    Get a mind map that represents the brand architecture and its various components, which can be used to evaluate and improve the overall coherence and effectiveness of the brand portfolio. The mind map can also provide insights into how different brands fit together and contribute to the overall brand strategy.

    Participants

    • Business owners
    • Head of Branding and anyone involved with the brand strategy

    Tools

    • Brand Architecture Template, slides 7 and 8

    Brand Mind Mapping

    Contact your account representative for more information
    workshops@infotech.com | 1-888-670-8889

    Get started!

    Develop a brand architecture that supports your business goals, clarifies your brand portfolio, and enhances your overall brand equity.

    Develop and Implement a Robust Brand Architecture

    Step 1 Research and Analysis
    1.1 Define architecture strategy
    1.2 Perform brand audit
    1.3 Identify brand core elements

    Step 2 Development and Implementation
    2.1 Determine brand hierarchy
    2.2 Develop or update brand guidelines
    2.3 Roll out brand architecture

    Phase Outcome

    • Brand current performance is assessed
    • Issues are highlighted and can be addressed
    • Brand structure is developed and implemented across touchpoints and assets
    • Adjustments made on an ongoing basis for consistency and relevance to business goals

    Develop and implement a robust brand architecture

    Steps 1.1, 1.2 & 1.3 Define architecture strategy, audit brand, and identify core elements.

    Total duration: 2.5-4.5 hours

    Objective
    Define brand objectives (hierarchy, acquired brand inclusion, product distinction), scope, and stakeholders. Analyze the brand portfolio to identify gaps or inconsistencies. Identify brand components (name, logo, tagline, personality) and align them with the brand and business strategy.

    Output
    By completing these steps, you will assess your current brand portfolio and evaluate its consistency and alignment with the overall brand strategy.

    Participants

    • Business owners
    • Head of Branding and anyone involved with the brand strategy

    Tools

    • Diagnose Brand Health to Improve Business Growth Blueprint (optional)
    • Brand Awareness Strategy Template (optional)

    1.1 Define Brand Architecture Strategy
    (60-120 min.)

    Define

    Define brand objectives (hierarchy, inclusion of an acquired brand, product distinction), scope, and stakeholders.

    1.2 Conduct Brand Audit
    (30-60 min.)

    Assess

    Assess the state of your brand architecture using the "Brand architecture mini-audit checklist," slide 9 of the Brand Architecture Strategy Template. Check the boxes that correspond to the state of your brand architecture. Those left unchecked represent areas for improvement.

    For a more in-depth analysis of your brand performance, follow the instructions and use the tools provided in the Diagnose Brand Health to Improve Business Growth blueprint (optional).

    1.3 Identify Core Brand Elements
    (60-90 min.)

    Identify

    Define brand components (name, logo, tagline, personality). Align usage with strategy. You can develop your brand strategy, if not already existing, using the Brand Awareness Strategy Template (optional).

    Tip!

    Continuously monitor and adjust your brand architecture - it's not static and should evolve over time. You can also adapt your brand strategy as needed to stay relevant and competitive.

    Develop and implement a robust brand architecture

    Steps 2.1. 2.2 & 2.3 Develop brand hierarchy, guidelines, and rollout architecture.

    Total duration: 3.5-5.5 hours

    Objective
    Define your brand structure and clarify the role and market position of each. Create concise brand expression guidelines, implement them across all touchpoints and assets, and adjust as needed to stay aligned with your business goals.

    Output
    This exercise will help you establish and apply your brand structure, with a plan for ongoing updates and adjustments to maintain consistency and relevance.

    Participants

    • Business owners
    • Head of Branding and anyone involved with the brand strategy

    Tools

    • Brand Architecture Template
    • Brand Voice Guidelines
    • Brand Messaging Template
    • Asset Creation and Management List Template

    2.1 Determine Brand Hierarchy
    (30-60 min.)

    Analyze & Document

    In the Brand Architecture Strategy Template, complete the brand matrix, ecosystem, development strategy matrix, mind mapping, and architecture, to develop a strong brand architecture that aligns with your business goals and clarifies your brand portfolio and market position.

    2.2 Develop/Update Brand Guidelines
    (120-180 min.)

    Develop/Update

    Develop (or update existing) clear, concise, and actionable brand expression guidelines using the Brand Voice Guidelines and Brand Messaging Template.

    2.2 Rollout Brand Architecture
    Preparation (60-90 min.)

    Create & Implement

    Use the Asset Creation and Management List Template to implement brand architecture across touchpoints and assets.

    Monitor and Adjust

    Use slide 8, "Brand Strategy Development Matrix," of the Brand Architecture Strategy Template to identify potential and future brand development strategies to build or enhance your brand based on your current brand positioning and business goals. Monitor, and adjust as needed, for relevance to the brand and business strategy.

    Tip!

    Make your brand architecture clear and simple for your target audience, employees, and stakeholders. This will avoid confusion and help your audience understand your brand structure.

    Prioritizing clarity and simplicity will communicate your brand's value proposition effectively and create a strong brand that resonates with your audience and supports your business goals.

    Related SoftwareReviews research

    Diagnose Brand Health to Improve Business Growth

    Have a significant and well-targeted impact on business success and growth by knowing how your brand performs, identifying areas of improvement, and making data-driven decisions to fix them.

    • Increase brand awareness and equity.
    • Build trust and improve customer retention and loyalty.
    • Achieve higher and faster growth.

    Accelerate Business Growth and Valuation by Building Brand Awareness

    Successfully build awareness and help the business grow. Stand out from the competition and continue to grow in a sustainable way.

    • Get a clear understanding of the buyer's needs and your key differentiator.
    • Achieve strategy alignment and readiness.
    • Create and manage assets.

    Bibliography

    "Brand Architecture: Definition, Types, Strategies, and Examples." The Branding Journal, 2022.

    "Brand Architecture: What It Is and How to Build Your Brand's Framework." HubSpot, 2021.

    "Brand Architecture Framework." Verge Marketing, 2021.

    "Brand consistency-the competitive advantage and how to achieve it." Marq/Lucidpress, 2021.

    "Building brands for growth: A fresh perspective." McKinsey & Company. Accessed on 31 March 2023.

    Daye, Derrick. "Brand Architecture Strategy Guide." Branding Strategy Insider, The Blake Project, 13 May 2021.

    Todoran, Adrian. "Choosing the Perfect Brand Architecture Strategy for Your Business." LinkedIn, 2023.

    IT Asset Management (ITAM) Market Overview

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}62|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 8.5/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $12,999 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 24 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Asset Management
    • Parent Category Link: /asset-management
    • Data management is challenging at the best of times but managing assets that change on a daily basis are difficult without automation and a good asset tool.
    • For organizations moving beyond basic hardware inventory, knowing what to look for to prepare for future processes seems impossible.
    • Using price as the leading criteria or just as an add-on to your ITSM solution may frustrate your efforts, especially if managing complex licensing is part of your mandate.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • If the purchase is happening independent of process design or review, it’s easy to end up with a solution that doesn’t fit your environment.
    • The complexity of your environment should be a significant factor in choosing an IT asset management solution.
    • Imagining the possibilities and understanding the differences between IT asset tools will drive you to the right solution for long term gain in managing dynamic assets.

    Impact and Result

    • Regardless of whether your IT environment is on-premises, in the cloud, or a complex hybrid of the two, knowing where your asset funds are allocated is key to right-sizing costs and reducing risks of non-compliance or lost assets.
    • Choosing the right tools for the job will be key to your success.

    IT Asset Management (ITAM) Market Overview Research & Tools

    Start here: Read the Market Overview

    Read the Market Overview to understand what features and capabilities are available in ITAM tools. The right features match is key to making a data heavy and challenging process easier for your team.

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

    • IT Asset Management Market Overview

    1. Prepare your project plan and selection process

    Use the Info-Tech templates to identify and document your requirements, plan your project, and prepare to engage with vendors.

    • ITAM Project Charter Template
    • ITAM Demonstration Script Template
    • Proof of Concept Template
    • ITAM Vendor Evaluation Workbook
    [infographic]

    Make Sense of Strategic Portfolio Management

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}447|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): N/A
    • member rating average dollars saved: N/A
    • member rating average days saved: N/A
    • Parent Category Name: Portfolio Management
    • Parent Category Link: /portfolio-management
    • As an IT leader, you’re responsible for steering the realization of business strategy through wise investments in and responsible stewardship of assets, applications, portfolios, programs, products, and projects.
    • You need a tool to help align goals and facilitate processes across business units. You’re aware of a tool space called Strategic Portfolio Management, and it looks like it could help, but you’re unsure of how it’s different from some of the existing tools you already pay for and don’t use to their full functionality.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    As a software space, strategic portfolio management lacks a unified definition. In the same way that it took many years for project portfolio management to stabilize as a concept distinct from traditional enterprise project management, strategic portfolio management is experiencing a similar period of formational uncertainty. Unpacking what’s truly new and valuable in helping to define strategy and drive strategic outcomes versus what’s just repackaged as SPM is an important first step, but it's not an easy undertaking.

    Impact and Result

    In this concise publication, we will cut through the marketing to unpack what strategic portfolio management is, and what makes it distinct from similar capabilities. We’ll help to situate you in the space and assess the extent to which your tooling needs can be met by a strategic portfolio management offering.

    Make Sense of Strategic Portfolio Management Research & Tools

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

    1. Make Sense of Strategic Portfolio Management Storyboard – A guide to help you drive strategic outcomes.

    In this concise publication we introduce you to strategic portfolio management and consider the extent to which your organization can leverage an SPM application to help drive strategic outcomes.

    • Make Sense of Strategic Portfolio Management Storyboard

    2. Strategic Portfolio Management Needs Assessment Tool – Use this tool to determine if your organization can benefit from the features and functionality of an SPM approach.

    Use this Excel workbook to determine if your organization can benefit from the features and functionality of an SPM approach or whether you need something more like a traditional project portfolio management tool.

    • Strategic Portfolio Management Needs Assessment
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Make Sense of Strategic Portfolio Management

    Separate what's new and valuable from bloated claims on the hype cycle.

    Analyst Perspective

    Do you need strategic portfolio management, or do you need to do portfolio management more strategically?

    Travis Duncan, Research Director, PPM and CIO Strategy

    Travis Duncan
    Research Director, PPM and CIO Strategy
    Info-Tech Research Group

    While the market is eager to get users into what they're calling "strategic portfolio management," there's a lot of uncertainty out there about what this market is and how it's different from other, more established portfolio disciplines – most significantly, project portfolio management.

    Indeed, if you look at how the space is covered within the industry, you'll encounter a dog's breakfast of players, a comparison of apples and oranges: Jira in the same quadrants as Planisware, Smartsheets in the same profiles as Planview and ServiceNow. While each of the individual players is impressive, their areas of focus are unique and the extent to which they should be compared together under the category of strategic portfolio management is questionable.

    It speaks to some of the grey area within the SPM space more generally, which is at a bit of a crossroads: Will it formally shed the guardrails of its antecedents to become its own space, or will it devolve into a bait and switch through which capabilities that struggled to gain much traction beyond IT settings seek to infiltrate the business and grow their market share under a different name?

    Part of it is up to the rest of us as users and potential customers. Clarifying what we need before we jump into something simply because our prior attempts failed will help determine whether we need a unique space for strategic portfolio management or whether we simply need to do portfolio management more strategically.

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge Common Obstacles Info-Tech's Approach
    • As an IT leader, you're responsible for steering the realization of business strategy through wise investments in/ and responsible stewardship of: assets, applications, portfolios, programs, products, and projects.
    • You need a tool to help align goals and facilitate processes and communications across business units. You're aware of a tool space called strategic portfolio management, and it looks like it could help, but you're unsure of how it's different from some of the existing tools you already license.
    • As a software space, strategic portfolio management lacks a unified definition. Unpacking what's truly new in helping to define strategy and drive strategic outcomes versus what's just repackaged as SPM is no small undertaking.
    • Because SPM can span different business units, ways of working, and roles, getting buy-in, alignment, and adoption can be even more precarious than it is when implementing other types of solutions.
    • In this concise publication, we will cut through the marketing to unpack what strategic portfolio management is and what makes it distinct from similar capabilities.
    • Assess the extent to which your tooling needs can be met by a strategic portfolio management offering or the extent to which you may need to look at other software categories.
    • With a better understanding of the space, we hope to help facilitate better internal discussions around the value of SPM for your business needs.

    Info-Tech Insight
    In the same way that it took many years for PPM to stabilize as a concept distinct from traditional enterprise project management, strategic portfolio management is experiencing a similar period of formational uncertainty. In a space that can be all things to all users, clarify your actual needs before jumping onto a bandwagon and ending up with something that you don't need, and that the organization can't adopt.

    Strategic portfolio management is enterprise portfolio management

    Evolved from various other capabilities and vendor solutions, strategic portfolio management (SPM) seeks to connect strategy to execution.

    While the concept of 'strategic portfolio management' has been written about within project portfolio management circles for nearly 20 years, SPM, as a distinct organizational competence and software category, is a relatively new and largely vendor-driven capability.

    First emerging in the discourse during the mid-to-late 2010s, SPM has evolved from its roots in traditional enterprise project portfolio management. Though, as we will discuss, it has other antecedents not limited to PPM.

    In this publication, we'll unpack what SPM is, how it is distinct (and, in turn, how it is not distinct) from PPM and other capabilities, and we will consider the extent to which your organization can and should leverage an SPM application to help drive strategic outcomes.

    –The increasing need to deliver value from digital initiatives is giving rise to strategic portfolio management, a digital investment management discipline that enables strategy realization in complex dynamic environments."
    – OnePlan, "Is Strategic Portfolio Management the Future of PPM?"

    Only 2% of business leaders are confident that they will achieve 80% to 100% of their strategic objectives.
    Source: Smith, 2022

    Put strategic portfolio management in context

    SPM is a new stage in the history of project portfolio management more generally. While it's emerging as a distinct capability, and it borrows from capabilities beyond PPM, unpacking its distinctiveness is best done by first understanding its source.

    Understand the recent triggers for strategic portfolio management

    Triggers for the emergence of strategic portfolio management in the discourse include the pace of technology-introduced change, the waning of enterprise project management, and challenges around enterprise PPM tool adoption.

    Spot the difference?

    Scope, focus, and audience are just a few of the factors distinguishing what the market calls "SPM" from traditional PPM.

    Project Portfolio Management Differentiator Strategic Portfolio Management
    Work-Level (Tactical) Primary Orientation High-Level (Strategic)
    CIO Accountable for Outcomes CxO
    Project Manager Responsible for Outcomes Product Management Organization
    Project Managers, PMO Staff Targeted Users Business Leaders, ePMO Staff
    Project Portfolio(s) Essential Scope Multi-Portfolio (Project, Application, Product, Program, etc.)
    IT Project Delivery and Business Results Delivery Core Focus Business Strategy and Change Delivery
    Project Scope Change Impact Sensitivity Enterprise Scope
    IT and/or Business Benefit Language of Value Value Stream
    Project Timelines Main View Strategy Roadmaps
    Resource Capacity Primary Currency Money
    Work-Assignment Details Modalities of Planning Value Milestones & OKRs
    Work Management Modalities of Execution Governance (Project, Product, Strategy, Program, etc.)
    Project Completion Definitions of "Done" Business Capability Realization

    Info-Tech Insight
    The distinction between the two capabilities is not necessarily as black and white as the table above would have it (some "PPM" tools offer what we're identifying above as "SPM" capabilities), but it can be helpful to think in these binaries when trying to distinguish the two capabilities. At the very least, SPM broadens its scope to target more executive and business users, and functions best when it's speaking at a higher level, to a business audience.

    Strategic portfolio management offers a more holistic view of the enterprise

    At its best, strategic portfolio management can accommodate various paradigms of work management and incorporate different types of portfolio management.

    Perhaps the biggest evolution from traditional PPM that strategic portfolio management promises is that it casts a wider net in terms of the types of work it tracks (and how it tracks that work) and the types of portfolios it accommodates.

    Not bound to the concepts of "projects" and a "project portfolio" specifically, SPM broadens its scope to encompass capabilities like product and product portfolio management, enterprise architecture management, security and risk management, and more.

    • Where a PPM solution only shows one piece of the puzzle, SPM looks at the entire investment ecosystem, tracking strategic goals, the ideas generated to help achieve those goals, and all the various kinds of investments made in the service of those goals.
    • what's more, where traditional PPM tools required users to adhere to a certain way of working and managing tasks, SPM is more flexible, relying on integrations across various ways of working to provide higher-level insight on the progress of work and the achievement of goals.

    Deliver business strategy and change effectively

    Info-Tech's Strategic Portfolio Management Framework

    "An SPM tool will capture business strategy, business capabilities, operating models, the enterprise architecture and the project portfolio with unmatched visibility into how they all relate. This will give...a robust understanding of the impact of a proposed IT change " and enable IT and business to act like cocreators driving innovation."
    – Paula Ziehr

    You might need a strategic portfolio management tool if–

    If you find yourself facing any of these situations, it might be time to step away from your PPM tool and into an SPM approach:

    • Your organization is facing a large implementation that will cross multiple departmental units and requires alignment across senior leadership (e.g. a digital transformation initiative).
    • You currently have disparate systems tracking different portfolios (project, product, applications, etc.) and types of investments, but lack insight into the whole in terms of how work efforts and investments tie back to strategy realization.
    • You are an ePMO or a strategy realization office that doesn't manage work necessarily, but that rather ensures that the work, assets, and capabilities that are funded connect to strategy and drive the realization of strategy.

    Sixty one percent of leaders acknowledge their companies struggle to bridge the gap between creating a strategy and executing on that strategy.
    Source: StrategyBlocks, 2020

    Get to know your strategic portfolio management stakeholders

    In terms of users, SPM's focus is further up the org chart than most applications, relying on high-level but usable outputs to help drive decision making.

    ePMO or Strategy Realization Office Senior Leadership and Executive Stakeholders Business Leads and IT Directors and Managers
    SPM tools are best facilitated through enterprise PMOs or strategy realization offices. After all, in enterprises, these are the entities charged with the planning, execution, and tracking of strategy.

    Their roles within the tool typically entail:

    • Helping to facilitate processes and collect data.
    • Data quality and curation.
    • Report distribution and consumption.
    As those with the accountability and authority to drive the organization's strategy, you could argue that these stakeholders are the primary stakeholders for an SPM tool.

    Their roles within the tool typically entail:

    • Using strategy map and ideation functionalities.
    • Using reports to steward strategy realization.
    SPM targets more business users as well as senior IT managers and directors.

    Their roles within the tool typically entail:

    • Using strategy map and ideation functionalities.
    • Providing updates to ePMOs on progress.

    What should you look for in a strategic portfolio management tool? (1 of 2)

    Standard features for SPM include:

    Name Description
    Analytics and Reporting SPM should provide access to real-time dashboards and data interpretation, which can be exported as reports in a range of formats.
    Strategy Mapping and Road Mapping SPM should provide access to up-to-date timeline views of strategies and initiatives, including the ability to map such things as dependencies, market needs, funding, priorities, governance, and accountabilities.
    Value Tracking and Measurement SPM should include the ability to forecast, track, and measure return on investment for strategic investments. This includes accommodations for various paradigms of value delivery (e.g. traditional value delivery and measurement, OKRs, as well as value mapping and value streams).
    Ideation and Innovation Management SPM should include the ability to facilitate innovation management processes across the organization, including the ability to support stage gates from ideation through to approval; to articulate, socialize, and test ideas; perform impact assessments; create value canvas and OKR maps; and prioritize.
    Multi-Portfolio Management SPM should include the ability to perform various modalities of portfolio management and portfolio optimization, including project portfolio management, applications portfolio management, asset portfolio management, etc.
    Interoperability/APIs An SPM tool should enable seamless integration with other applications for data interoperability.

    What should you look for in a strategic portfolio management tool? (2 of 2)

    Advanced features for SPM can include:

    Name Description
    Product Management SPM can include product-management-specific functionality, including the ability to connect product families, roadmaps, and backlogs to enterprise goals and priorities, and track team-level activities at the sprint, release, and campaign levels.
    Enterprise Architecture Management SPM can include the ability to define and map the structure and operation of an organization in order to effectively coordinate various domains of architecture and governance (e.g. business architecture, data architecture, application architecture, security architecture, etc.) in order to effectively plan and introduce change.
    Security and Risk Management SPM can include the ability to identify and track enterprise risks and ensure compliance controls are met.
    Lean Portfolio Management SPM can include the ability to plan and report on portfolio performance independent from task level details of product, program, or project delivery.
    Investment and Financial Management SPM can include the ability to forecast, track, and report on financials at various levels (strategy, product, program, project, etc.).
    Multi-Methodology Delivery SPM can include the ability to plan and execute work in a way that accommodates various planning and delivery paradigms (predictive, iterative, Kanban, lean, etc.).

    What's promising within the space?

    As this space continues to stabilize, the following are some promising associations for business and IT enablement.

    1. SPM accommodates various ways of working.
    • Where traditional PPM and work management tools required that users change their processes and tasking paradigms to fit within the tool's rigid task management and data structures, the best SPM tools are those that are adaptable to various ways of working and can accommodate many tasking and work management models.
    • Sometimes this is done through extensive integrations and APIs that pull data from existing work management applications into a single view within the SPM tool, and other times, this is done by abstracting the task-level details into a higher-level reporting structure (it can depend on the solution). In any event, the best SPMs are bound to one work management model.
    2. SPM puts the focus on value and change.
    • With its focus on the planning and execution of strategy, SPM can't avoid putting a spotlight on value and value realization. The best SPM tools include the ability to forecast, track, and measure return on investment for strategic investments, and they accommodate for various paradigms of value delivery (e.g. traditional value delivery and measurement, OKRs, as well as value mapping and value streams).
    • Of course, you can't realize value without successfully fostering change. And while SPM tools don't necessarily offer functionality explicitly identifiable as organizational change management, they can act as agents of change in putting the spotlight on the execution of change at the executive level.
    3. SPM fosters a coherent approach to demand management.
    • With its goal of ensuring that strategy informs the organization of portfolios and guides the selection of projects and delivery of products, SPM can potentially bring some order to what is often a chaotic demand-management landscape, ensuring that planned and in-progress work is well justified from an ROI perspective.

    What's of concern within the space?

    As a progeny from other capabilities, SPM has some risks and connotations potential users should be wary of.

    1. The space is rife with IT buzzwords and, as a concept, is sometimes used as a repackaging of failing concepts.
    • You don't need to spend too much time engaging with the literature around SPM before you notice the marketing appeals heavily to concepts like "digitalization," "digital transformation," "continual innovation," "agility/Agile," and the like. While these are all important concepts, and the pursuit of them is worthwhile in many cases, there's no denying they're used as consultant and vendor buzzwords, deployed to excite our imaginations, without necessarily providing much meat around what they mean or how they're deployed and successfully sustained.
    • Indeed, many concepts and capabilities that appear in relation to SPM are on the downward swing of industry hype cycles, suggesting that SPM may be being used by vendors and consultants as another attempt to repackage and capitalize on these concepts even as practitioners grow weary and suspicious of the marketing claims built up around them.
    2. Some solutions that identify as SPM are not.
    • Because it's on the upward swing of its place in the hype cycle, many established PPM and service management vendors are applying the 'strategic portfolio management" label to their products without necessarily doing anything different from a functionality perspective to fit within the space. As a result, SPM vendor landscapes can compare work management, project management, demand management tools, and more. Users who want SPM functionality need to stay frosty to ensure they get what they pay for.
    3. SPM tools may have a capacity blind spot.
    • The biggest barrier to getting things done and done well in modern enterprises is approving more work than you have the capacity to deliver. While SPM offerings can help with better demand management, not many of them cover the capacity side with the same level of improvement.

    Does your organization need a strategic portfolio management tool?

    Use Info-Tech's Strategic Portfolio Management Needs Assessment to gauge your readiness for SPM.

    • As noted in previous places in this deck, there is often a grey area in the market between project portfolio management tools and strategic portfolio management tools.
    • Some PPM tools offer SPM functionality, while some SPM tools avoid traditional PPM outcomes and stay at a higher, strategic level.
    • Depending on the scope of your PMO or portfolio optimization needs, you may need a tool that has just one, or both, of these capabilities.
    • Use Info-Tech's Strategic Portfolio Management Needs Assessment to help you assess whether you require a high-level strategy management tool, a more low-level project portfolio management tool, or a mix of both.

    Download Info-Tech's Strategic Portfolio Management Needs Assessment

    1.1 Assess your needs

    10 to 20 minutes

    1. The Strategic Portfolio Management Needs Assessment is a 41-question survey broken up into three parts: (1) PMO Type, (2) Features and Functionality, (3) Roles.
    2. Go through each section using the provided dropdowns to help identify the orientation of your PMO, the feature and functionality needs of your office, as well as the roles whose needs will need to be serviced through the potential tool implementation.

    This screenshot shows a sample output from the assessment. Based upon your inputs, you'll be grouped within three ranges:

    1. Green: Based upon your inputs, you will benefit from an SPM tool.
    2. Yellow: You may benefit from an SPM tool, but you may also require something more traditional. Clarify your requirements before proceeding.
    3. Red: you're unlikely to leverage many of the benefits of an SPM tool at this time. Look for a more tactical solution.

    Sample Output from the assessment tool

    Input Output
    • Understanding of existing project management, project portfolio management, and work management applications.
    • Recommendation on PPM/SPM tool type
    Materials Participants
    • Strategic Portfolio Management Needs Assessment tool
    • Portfolio managers and/or ePMO directors
    • Project managers and product managers
    • Business stakeholders

    Explore the SPM vendor landscape

    Use Info-Tech's application selection resources to help find the right solution for your organization.

    If the analysis in the previous slides suggested you can benefit from an SPM tool, you can quick-start your vendor evaluation process with SoftwareReviews.

    SoftwareReviews has extensive coverage of not just the SPM space, but of the project portfolio management (pictured to the top right) and project management spaces as well. So, from the tactical to the strategic, SoftwareReviews can help you find the right tools.

    Further, as you settle in on a shortlist, you can begin your vendor analysis using our rapid application selection methodology (see framework on bottom right). For more information see our The Rapid Application Selection Framework blueprint.

    Info-Tech's Rapid Application Selection Framework

    Info-Tech's Rapid Application Selection Framework (RASF)

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Develop a Project Portfolio Management Strategy
    Drive IT project throughput by throttling resource capacity.

    Prepare an Actionable Roadmap for your PMO
    Turn planning into action with a realistic PMO timeline.

    Maintain an Organized Portfolio
    Align portfolio management practices with COBIT (APO05: Manage Portfolio)

    Bibliography

    Angliss, Katy, and Pete Harpum. Strategic Portfolio Management: In the Multi-Project and Program Organization. Book. Routledge. 30 Dec. 2022.

    Anthony, James. "95 Essential Project Management Statistics: 2022 Market Share & Data Analysis." Finance Online. 2022. Web. Accessed 21 March 2022

    Banham, Craig. "Integrating strategic planning with portfolio management." Sopheon. Webinar. Accessed 6 Feb. 2023.

    Garfein, Stephen J. "Executive Guide to Strategic Portfolio Management: roadmap for closing the gap between strategy and results." PMI. Conference Paper. Oct. 2007. Accessed 6 Feb. 2023.

    Garfein, Stephen J. "Strategic Portfolio Management: A smart, realistic and relatively fast way to gain sustainable competitive advantage." PMI. Conference Paper. 2 March 2005. Accessed 6 Feb. 2023.

    Hontar, Yulia. "Strategic Portfolio Management." PPM Express. Blog 16 June 2022. Accessed 6 Feb. 2023.

    Milsom, James. "6 Strategic Portfolio Management Trends for 2023." i-nexus. Blog. 25 Jan. 2022. Accessed 6 Feb. 2023.

    Milsom, James. "Strategic Portfolio Management 101." i-nexus. 8 Dec. 2021. Blog . Accessed 6 Feb. 2023.

    OnePlan, "Is Strategic Portfolio Management the Future of PPM?" YouTube. 17 Nov. 2022. Accessed 6 Feb. 2023.

    OnePlan. "Strategic Portfolio Management for Enterprise Agile." YouTube. 27 May 2022. Accessed 6 Feb. 2023.

    Piechota, Frank. "Strategic Portfolio Management: Enabling Successful Business Outcomes." Shibumi. Blog . 31 May 2022. Accessed 6 Feb. 2023.

    ServiceNow. "Strategic Portfolio Management—The Thing You've Been Missing." ServiceNow. Whitepaper. 2021. Accessed 6 Feb. 2023.

    Smith, Shepherd, "50+ Eye-Opening Strategic Planning Statistics" ClearPoint Strategy. Blog. 13 Sept. 2022. Accessed 6 Feb. 2023.

    SoftwareAG. "What is Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM)?" SoftwareAG. Blog. Accessed 6 Feb. 2023.

    Stickel, Robert. "What It Means to be Adaptive." OnePlan. Blog. 24 May 2021. Accessed 6 Feb. 2023.

    UMT360. "What is Strategic Portfolio Management?" YouTube. Webinar. 22 Oct. 2020. Accessed 6 Feb. 2023.

    Wall, Caroline. "Elevating Strategy Planning through Strategic Portfolio Management." StrategyBlocks. Blog. 26 Feb. 2020. Accessed 6 Feb. 2023.

    Westmoreland, Heather. "What is Strategic Portfolio Management." Planview. Blog. 19 Oct 2002. Accessed 6 Feb. 2023.

    Wiltshire, Andrew. "Shibumi Included in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Strategic Portfolio Management for the 2nd Straight Year." Shibumi. Blog. 20 Apr. 2022. Accessed 6 Feb. 2023.

    Ziehr, Paula. "Keep your eye on the prize: Align your IT investments with business strategy." SoftwareAG. Blog. 5 Jul. 2022. Accessed 6 Feb. 2023.

    Reimagine Learning in the Face of Crisis

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    • Parent Category Name: Train & Develop
    • Parent Category Link: /train-and-develop
    • As organizations re-evaluate their priorities and shift to new ways of working, leaders and employees are challenged to navigate unchartered territory and to adjust quickly to ever-evolving priorities.
    • Learning how to perform effectively through the crisis and deliver on new priorities is crucial to the success of all employees and the organization.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    The most successful organizations recognize that learning is critical to adjusting quickly and effectively to their new reality. This requires L&D to reimagine their approach to deliver learning that enables the organization’s immediate and evolving priorities.

    Impact and Result

    • L&D teams should focus on how to support employees and managers to develop the critical competencies they need to successfully perform through the crisis, enabling organizations to survive and thrive during and beyond the crisis.
    • Ensure learning needs align closely with evolving organizational priorities, collaborate cross-functionally, and curate content to provide the learning employees and leaders need most, when they need it.

    Reimagine Learning in the Face of Crisis Research & Tools

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

    1. Prioritize

    Involve key stakeholders, identify immediate priorities, and conduct high-level triage of L&D.

    • Reimagine Learning in the Face of Crisis Storyboard
    • Reimagine Learning in the Face of Crisis Workbook

    2. Reimagine

    Determine learning needs and ability to realistically deliver learning. Leverage existing or curate learning content that can support learning needs.

    3. Transform

    Identify technical requirements for the chosen delivery method and draft a four- to six-week action plan.

    • How to Curate Guide
    • Tips for Building an Online Learning Community
    • Ten Tips for Adapting In-Person Training During a Crisis
    • Tips for Remote Learning in the Face of Crisis
    [infographic]

    Build a Winning Business Process Automation Playbook

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    • Parent Category Name: Business Analysis
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    • Organizations often have many business processes that rely on manual, routine, and repetitive data collection and processing work. These processes need to be automated to meet strategic priorities.
    • Your stakeholders may have decided to invest in process automation solutions. They may be ready to begin the planning and delivery of their first automated processes.
    • However, if your processes are costly, slow, defective, and do not generate the value end users want, automation will only magnify these inefficiencies.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Put the user front and center. Aim to better understand the end user and their operational environment. Use cases, data models, and quality factors allow you to visualize the human-computer interactions from an end-user perspective and initiate a discussion on how technology and process improvements can be better positioned to help your end users.
    • Build for the future. Automation sets the technology foundations and process governance and management building blocks in your organization. Expect that more automation will be done using earlier investments.
    • Manage automations as part of your application portfolio. Automations are add-ons to your application portfolio. Unmanaged automations, like applications, will sprawl and reduce in value over time. A collaborative rationalization practice pinpoints where automation is required and identifies which business inefficiencies should be automated next.

    Impact and Result

    • Clarify the problem being solved. Gain a grounded understanding of your stakeholders’ drivers for business process automation. Discuss current business operations and systems to identify automation candidates.
    • Optimate your processes. Apply good practices to first optimize (opti-) and then automate (-mate) key business processes. Take a user-centric perspective to understand how users interact with technology to complete their tasks.
    • Deliver minimum viable automations (MVAs). Maximize the learning of automation solutions and business operational changes through small, strategic automation use cases. This sets the foundations for a broader automation practice.

    Build a Winning Business Process Automation Playbook Research & Tools

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

    1. Business Process Automation Deck – A step-by-step document that walks you through how to optimize and automate your business processes.

    This blueprint helps you develop a repeatable approach to understand your process challenges and to optimize and automate strategic business processes.

    • Build a Winning Business Process Automation Playbook – Phases 1-3

    2. Business Process Automation Playbook – A repeatable set of practices to assess, optimize, and automate your business processes.

    This playbook template gives your teams a step-by-step guide to build a repeatable and standardized framework to optimize and automate your processes.

    • Business Process Automation Playbook

    3. Process Interview Template – A structured approach to interviewing stakeholders about their business processes.

    Info-Tech's Process Interview Template provides a number of sections that you can populate to help facilitate and document your stakeholder interviews.

    • Process Interview Template

    4. Process Mapping Guide – A guide to mapping business processes using BPMN standards.

    Info-Tech's Process Mapping Guide provides a thorough framework for process mapping, including the purpose and benefits, the best practices for facilitation, step-by-step process mapping instructions, and process mapping naming conventions.

    • Process Mapping Guide

    Infographic

    Workshop: Build a Winning Business Process Automation Playbook

    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 Automation Opportunities

    The Purpose

    Understand the goals and visions of business process automation.

    Develop your guiding principles.

    Build a backlog of automation opportunities

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Business process automation vision, expectations, and objectives.

    High-priority automation opportunities identified to focus on.

    Activities

    1.1 State your objectives and metrics.

    1.2 Build your backlog.

    Outputs

    Business process automation vision and objectives

    Business process automation guiding principles

    Process automation opportunity backlog

    2 Define Your MVAs

    The Purpose

    Assess and optimize high-strategic-importance business process automation use cases from the end user’s perspective.

    Shortlist your automation solutions.

    Build and plan to deliver minimum viable automations (MVAs).

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Repeatable framework to assess and optimize your business process.

    Selection of the possible solutions that best fit the business process use case.

    Maximized learning with a low-risk minimum viable automation.

    Activities

    2.1 Optimize your processes.

    2.2 Automate your processes.

    2.3 Define and roadmap your MVAs.

    Outputs

    Assessed and optimized business processes with a repeatable framework

    Fit assessment of use cases to automation solutions

    MVA definition and roadmap

    3 Deliver Your MVAs

    The Purpose

    Modernize your SDLC to support business process automation delivery.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    An SDLC that best supports the nuances and complexities of business process automation delivery.

    Activities

    3.1 Deliver your MVAs

    Outputs

    Refined and enhanced SDLC

    Develop the Right Message to Engage Buyers

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    Sixty percent of marketers find it hard to produce high-quality content consistently. SaaS marketers have an even more difficult job due to the technical nature of content production. Without an easy content development strategy, marketers have an insurmountable task of continually creating interesting content for an audience they don’t understand.

    Globally, B2B SaaS marketers without the ability to consistently produce and activate quality content will experience:

    • High website bounce rates and low time on site
    • Low page views
    • A low percentage of return visitors
    • Low conversions
    • Low open and click-through rates on email campaigns

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Marketing content that identifies the benefit of the product along with a deep understanding of the buyer pain points, desired value, and benefit proof points is a key driver in delivering value to a prospect, thereby increasing marketing metrics such as open rates, time on site, page views, and click-through rates.

    Impact and Result

    Marketers that activate the SoftwareReviews message mapping architecture will be able to crack the code on the formula for improving open and click-through rates.

    By applying the SoftwareReviews message mapping architecture, clients will be able to:

    • Quickly diagnose the current state of their content marketing effectiveness compared to industry metrics.
    • Compare their current messaging approach versus the key elements of the Message Map Architecture.
    • Create more compelling and relevant content that aligns with a buyer’s needs and journey.
    • Shrink marketing and sales cycles.
    • Increase the pace of content production.

    Develop the Right Message to Engage Buyers Research & Tools

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

    1. Develop the Right Message to Engage Buyers Executive Brief – A mapping architecture to enable marketers to crack the code on the formula for improving open and click-through rates.

    Through this blueprint marketers will learn how to shift content away from low-performing content that only focuses on the product and company to high-performing customer-focused content that answers the “What’s in it for me?” question for a buyer, increasing engagement and conversions.

    Infographic

    Further reading

    Develop the Right Message to Engage Buyers

    Drive higher open rates, time-on-site, and click-through rates with buyer-relevant messaging.

    Analyst Perspective

    Develop the right message to engage buyers.

    Marketers only have seven seconds to capture a visitor's attention but often don't realize that the space between competitors and their company is that narrow. They often miss the mark on content and create reams of product and company-focused messaging that result in high bounce rates, low page views, low return visits, low conversions, and low click-through rates.

    We wouldn't want to sit in a conversation with someone who only speaks about themselves, so why would it be any different when we buy something? Today's marketers must quickly hook their visitors with content that answers the critical question of "What's in it for me?"

    Our research finds that leading content marketers craft messaging that lets their audience ”know they know them,” points out what’s in it for them, and includes proof points of promised value. This simple, yet often missed approach, we call Message Mapping, which helps marketers grab a visitor’s initial attention and when applied throughout the customer journey will turn prospects into customers, lifelong buyers, advocates, and referrals.

    Photo of Terra Higginson, Marketing Research Director, SoftwareReviews.

    Terra Higginson
    Marketing Research Director
    SoftwareReviews

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Globally, B2B SaaS marketers without the ability to consistently produce and activate quality content will experience:

    • High website bounce rates and low time on site
    • Low page views
    • A low percentage of return visitors
    • Low conversions
    • Low open and click-through rates on email campaigns
    Sixty percent of marketers find it hard to produce high-quality content consistently. SaaS marketers have an even more difficult job due to the technical nature of content production. Without an easy content development strategy, marketers have an insurmountable task of continually creating interesting content for an audience they don’t understand.
    Common Obstacles

    Marketers struggle to create content that quickly engages the buyer because they lack:

    • Resources to create a high volume of quality content.
    • True buyer understanding.
    • Experience in how to align technical messaging with the buyer persona.
    • Easy-to-deploy content strategy tools.
    Even though most marketers will say that it’s important to produce interesting content, only 58% of B2B markers take the time to ask their customers what’s important to them. Without a true and deep understanding of buyers, marketers continue to invest their time and resources in an uninteresting product and company-focused diatribe.
    SoftwareReviews’ Approach

    By applying the SoftwareReviews’ message mapping architecture, clients will be able to:

    • Quickly diagnose the current state of their content marketing effectiveness compared to industry metrics.
    • Compare their current messaging approach against the key elements of the Message Map Architecture.
    • Create more compelling and relevant content that aligns with a buyer’s needs and journey.
    • Shrink marketing and sales cycles.
    • Increase the pace of content production.
    Marketers that activate the SoftwareReviews message mapping architecture will be able to crack the code on the formula for improving open and click-through rates.

    SoftwareReviews Insight

    Marketing content that identifies the benefit of the product, along with a deep understanding of the buyer pain points, desired value, and benefit proof-points, is a key driver in delivering value to a prospect, thereby increasing marketing metrics such as open rates, time on site, page views, and click-through rates.

    Your Challenge

    65% of marketers find it challenging to produce engaging content.

    Globally, B2B SaaS marketers without the ability to consistently produce and activate quality content will experience:

    • High website bounce rates and low time on site
    • Low page views
    • A low percentage of return visitors
    • Low conversions
    • Low open and click-through rates on email campaigns

    A staggering 60% of marketers find it hard to produce high-quality content consistently and 62% don’t know how to measure the ROI of their campaigns according to OptinMonster.

    SaaS marketers have an even more difficult job due to the technical nature of content production. Without an easy content development strategy, marketers have an insurmountable task of continually creating interesting content for an audience they don’t understand.


    Over 64% of marketers want to learn how to build a better content
    (Source: OptinMonster, 2021)

    Benchmark your content marketing

    Do your content marketing metrics meet the industry-standard benchmarks for the software industry?
    Visualization of industry benchmarks for 'Bounce Rate', 'Organic CTR', 'Pages/Session', 'Average Session Duration', '% of New Sessions', 'Email Open Rate', 'Email CTR', and 'Sales Cycle Length (Days)' with sources linked below.
    GrowRevenue, MarketingSherpa, Google Analytics, FirstPageSage, Google Analytics, HubSpot
    • Leaders will measure content marketing performance against these industry benchmarks.
    • If your content performance falls below these benchmarks, your content architecture may be missing the mark with prospective buyers.

    Common flaws in content messaging

    Why do marketers have a hard time consistently producing messaging that engages the buyer?

    Mistake #1

    Myopic Focus on Company and Product

    Content suffers a low ROI due to a myopic focus on the company and the product. This self-focused content fails to engage prospects and move them through the funnel.

    Mistake #2

    WIIFM Question Unanswered

    Content never answers the fundamental “What’s in it for me?” question due to a lack of true buyer understanding. This leads to an inability to communicate the value proposition to the prospect.

    Mistake #3

    Inability to Select the Right Content Format

    Marketers often guess what kind of content their buyers prefer without any real understanding or research behind what buyers would actually want to consume.

    Leaders Will Avoid the “Big Three” Pitfalls
    • While outdated content, poor content organization on your website, and poor SEO are additional strategic factors (outside the scope of this research), poor messaging structure will doom your content marketing strategy.
    • Leaders will be vigilant to diagnose current messaging structure and avoid:
      1. Making messaging all about you and your company.
      2. Failing to describe what’s in it for your prospects.
      3. Often guessing at what approach to use when structuring your messaging.

    Implications of poor content

    Without quality content, the sales and marketing cycles elongate and content marketing metrics suffer.
    • Lost sales: Research shows that B2B buyers are 57-70% done with their buying research before they ever contact sales.(Worldwide Business Research, 2022)
    • The buyer journey is increasingly digital: Research shows that 67% of the buyer's journey is now done digitally.(Worldwide Business Research, 2022)
    • Wasted time: In a Moz study of 750,000 pieces of content, 50% had zero backlinks, indicating that no one felt these assets were interesting enough to reference or share. (Moz, 2015)
    • Wasted money: SaaS companies spend $342,000 to $1,080,000 per year (or more) on content marketing. (Zenpost, 2022) The wrong content will deliver a poor ROI.

    50% — Half of the content produced has no backlinks. (Source: Moz, 2015)

    Content matters more than ever since 67% of the buyer's journey is now done digitally. (Source: Worldwide Business Research, 2022)

    Benefits of good content

    A content mapping approach lets content marketers:
    • Create highly personalized content. Content mapping helps marketers to create highly targeted content at every stage of the buyer’s journey, helping to nurture leads and prospects toward a purchase decision.
    • Describe “What’s in it for me?” to buyers. Remember that you aren’t your customer. Good content quickly answers the question “What’s in it for me?” (WIIFM) developed from the findings of the buyer persona. WIIFM-focused content engages a prospect within seven seconds.
    • Increase marketing ROI. Content marketing generates leads three times greater than traditional marketing (Patel, 2016).
    • Influence prospects. Investing in a new SaaS product isn’t something buyers do every day. In a new situation, people will often look to others to understand what they should do. Good content uses the principles of authority and social proof to build the core message of WIIFM. Authority can be conferred with awards and accolades, whereas social proof is given through testimonials, case studies, and data.
    • Build competitive advantage. Increase competitive advantage by providing content that aligns with the ideal client profile. Fifty-two percent of buyers said they were more likely to buy from a vendor after reading its content (1827 Marketing, 2022).
    Avoid value claiming. Leaders will use client testimonials as proof points because buyers believe peers more than they believe you.

    “… Since 95 percent of the people are imitators and only 5 percent initiators, people are persuaded more by the actions of others than by any proof we can offer. (Robert Cialdini, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion)

    Full slide: 'Message Map Architecture'.

    Full slide: 'Message Map Template' with field descriptions and notes.

    Full slide: 'Message Map Template' with field descriptions, no notes.

    Full slide: 'Message Map Template' with blank fields.

    Full slide: 'Message Map Template' with 'Website Example segment.com' filled in fields.

    Full slide: 'Website Example segment.com' the website as it appears online with labels on the locations of elements of the message map.

    Full slide: 'Website Example segment.com' the website as it appears online with labels on the locations of elements of the message map.

    Full slide: 'Website Example segment.com' the website as it appears online with labels on the locations of elements of the message map.

    Full slide: 'Website Example segment.com' the website as it appears online with labels on the locations of elements of the message map.

    Email & Social Post Example

    Use the message mapping architecture to create other types of content.

    Examples of emails and social media posts as they appear online with labels on the locations of elements of the message map.

    Insight Summary

    Create Content That Matters

    Marketing content that identifies the benefit of the product along with a deep understanding of the buyer pain points, desired value, and benefit proof-points is a key driver in delivering value to a prospect, thereby increasing marketing metrics such as open rates, time on site, page views, and click-through rates.

    What’s in It for Me?

    Most content has a focus on the product and the company. Content that lacks a true and deep understanding of the buyer suffers low engagement and low conversions. Our research shows that all content must answer ”What’s in it for me?” for a prospect.

    Social Proof & Authority

    Buyers that are faced with a new and unusual buying experience (such as purchasing SaaS) look at what others say about the product (social proof) and what experts say about the product (authority) to make buying decisions.

    Scarcity & Loss Framing

    Research shows that scarcity is a strong principle of influence that can be used in marketing messages. Loss framing is a variation of scarcity and can be used by outlining what a buyer will lose instead of what will be gained.

    Unify the Experience

    Use your message map to structure all customer-facing content across Sales, Product, and Marketing and create a unified and consistent experience across all touchpoints.

    Close the Gap

    SaaS marketers often find the gap between product and company-focused content and buyer-focused content to be so insurmountable that they never manage to overcome it without a framework like message mapping.

    Related SoftwareReviews Research

    Sample of 'Create a Buyer Persona and Journey' blueprint.

    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.
    Sample of 'Diagnose Brand Health to Improve Business Growth' blueprint.

    Diagnose Brand Health to Improve Business Growth

    Have a significant and well-targeted impact on business success and growth by knowing how your brand performs, identifying areas of improvement, and making data-driven decisions to fix it.
    • Importance of brand is recognized, endorsed, and prioritized.
    • Support and resources allocated.
    • All relevant data and information collected in one place.
    • Ability to make data-driven recommendations and decisions on how to improve.
    Sample of 'Build a More Effective Go-to-Market Strategy' blueprint.

    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

    Arakelyan, Artash. “How SaaS Companies Increase Their ROI With Content Marketing.” Clutch.co, 27 July 2018. Accessed July 2022.

    Bailyn, Evan. “Average Session Duration: Industry Benchmarks.” FirstPageSage, 16 March 2022. Accessed July 2022.

    Burstein, Daniel. “Marketing Research Chart: Average clickthrough rates by industry.” MarketingSherpa, 1 April 2014. Accessed July 2022.

    Cahoon, Sam. “Email Open Rates By Industry (& Other Top Email Benchmarks).” HubSpot, 10 June 2021. Accessed July 2022.

    Cialdini, Robert. Influence: Science and Practice. 5th ed. Pearson, 29 July 2008. Print.

    Cialdini, Robert. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Revised ed. Harper Business, 26 Dec. 2006. Print.

    Content Marketing—Statistics, Evidence and Trends.” 1827 Marketing, 7 Jan. 2022. Accessed July 2022.

    Devaney, Erik. “Content Mapping 101: The Template You Need to Personalize Your Marketing.” HubSpot, 21 April 2022. Accessed July 2022.

    Hiscox Business Insurance. “Growing Your Business--and Protecting It Every Step of the Way.” Inc.com. 25 April 2022. Accessed July 2022.

    Hurley Hall, Sharon. “85 Content Marketing Statistics To Make You A Marketing Genius.” OptinMonster, 14 Jan. 2021. Accessed July 2022.

    Patel, Neil. “38 Content Marketing Stats That Every Marketer Needs to Know.” NeilPatel.com, 21 Jan. 2016. Web.

    Prater, Meg. “SaaS Sales: 7 Tips on Selling Software from a Top SaaS Company.” HubSpot, 9 June 2021. Web.

    Polykoff, Dave. “20 SaaS Content Marketing Statistics That Lead to MRR Growth in 2022.” Zenpost blog, 22 July 2022. Web.

    Rayson, Steve. “Content, Shares, and Links: Insights from Analyzing 1 Million Articles.” Moz, 8 Sept. 2015. Accessed July 2022.

    “SaaS Content Marketing: How to Measure Your SaaS Content’s Performance.” Ken Moo, 9 June 2022. Accessed July 2022.

    Taylor Gregory, Emily. “Content marketing challenges and how to overcome them.” Longitude, 14 June 2022. Accessed July 2022.

    Visitors Benchmarking Channels. Google Analytics, 2022. Accessed July 2022.

    WBR Insights. “Here's How the Relationship Between B2B Buying, Content, and Sales Reps Has Changed.” Worldwide Business Research, 2022. Accessed July 2022.

    “What’s a good bounce rate? (Here’s the average bounce rate for websites).” GrowRevenue.io, 24 Feb. 2020. Accessed July 2022.

    Reduce Time to Consensus With an Accelerated Business Case

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    • Enterprise application initiatives are complex, expensive, and require a significant amount of planning before initiation.
    • A financial business case is sometimes used to justify these initiatives.
    • Once the business case (and benefits therein) are approved, the case is forgotten, eliminating a critical check and balance of benefit realization.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    1. Frame the conversation.

    Understand the audience and forum for the business case to best frame the conversation.

    2. Time-box the process of building the case.

    More time should be spent on performing the action rather than building the case.

    3. The business case is a living document.

    The business case creates the basis for review of the realization of the proposed business benefits once the procurement is complete.

    Impact and Result

    • Understand the drivers for decision making in your organization, and the way initiatives are evaluated.
    • Compile a compelling business case that provides decision makers with sufficient information to make decisions confidently.
    • Evaluate proposed enterprise application initiatives “apples-to-apples” using a standardized and repeatable methodology.
    • Provide a mechanism for tracking initiative performance during and after implementation.

    Reduce Time to Consensus With an Accelerated Business Case Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should build a business case for enterprise application investments, 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. Gather the required information

    Complete the necessary preceding tasks to building the business case. Rationalize the initiative under consideration, determine the organizational decision flow following a stakeholder assessment, and conduct market research to understand the options.

    • Reduce Time to Consensus With an Accelerated Business Case – Phase 1: Gather the Required Information
    • Business Case Readiness Checklist
    • Business Case Workbook
    • Request for Information Template
    • Request for Quotation Template

    2. Conduct the business case analysis

    Conduct a thorough assessment of the initiative in question. Define the alternatives under consideration, identify tangible and intangible benefits for each, aggregate the costs, and highlight any risks.

    • Reduce Time to Consensus With an Accelerated Business Case – Phase 2: Conduct the Business Case Analysis

    3. Make the case

    Finalize the recommendation based on the analysis and create a business case presentation to frame the conversation for key stakeholders.

    • Reduce Time to Consensus With an Accelerated Business Case – Phase 3: Make the Case
    • Full-Form Business Case Presentation Template
    • Summary Business Case Presentation Template
    • Business Case Change Log
    • Business Case Close-Out Form
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Reduce Time to Consensus With an Accelerated Business Case

    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 Plan for Business Case Development

    The Purpose

    Complete the necessary preceding tasks to building a strong business case.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Alignment with business objectives.

    Stakeholder buy-in.

    Activities

    1.1 Map the decision flow in your organization.

    1.2 Define the proposed initiative.

    1.3 Define the problem/opportunity statement.

    1.4 Clarify goals and objectives expected from the initiative.

    Outputs

    Decision traceability

    Initiative summary

    Problem/opportunity statement

    Business objectives

    2 Build the Business Case Model

    The Purpose

    Put together the key elements of the business case including alternatives, benefits, and costs.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Rationalize the business case.

    Activities

    2.1 Design viable alternatives.

    2.2 Identify the tangible and intangible benefits.

    2.3 Assess current and future costs.

    2.4 Create the financial business case model.

    Outputs

    Shortlisted alternatives

    Benefits tracking model

    Total cost of ownership

    Impact analysis

    3 Enhance the Business Case

    The Purpose

    Determine more integral factors in the business case such as ramp-up time for benefits realization as well as risk assessment.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Complete a comprehensive case.

    Activities

    3.1 Determine ramp-up times for costs and benefits.

    3.2 Identify performance measures and tracking.

    3.3 Assess initiative risk.

    Outputs

    Benefits realization schedule

    Performance tracking framework

    Risk register

    4 Prepare the Business Case

    The Purpose

    Finalize the recommendation and formulate the business case summary and presentation.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Prepare the business case presentation.

    Activities

    4.1 Choose the alternative to be recommended.

    4.2 Create the detailed and summary business case presentations.

    4.3 Present and incorporate feedback.

    4.4 Monitor and close out.

    Outputs

    Final recommendation

    Business case presentation

    Final sign-off

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    Navigate the Digital ID Ecosystem to Enhance Customer Experience

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    • Amid the pandemic-fueled surge in online services, organizations require secure solutions to safeguard digital interactions. These solutions must be uniform, interoperable, and fortified against security threats.
    • Although the digital identity ecosystem has garnered significant attention and investment, many organizations remain uncertain about its potential for authentication and the authorization required for B2B and B2C transactions, and in turn reducing their cost of operations and transferring their data risks.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Limited / lack of understanding of the global digital ID ecosystem and its varying approaches across countries handicaps businesses in defining the benefits digital ID can bring to customer interactions and overall business management.
    • In addition, key obstacles exist in balancing customer privacy, data security, and regulatory requirements while pursuing excellent end-user experience and high customer adoption.
    • Info-Tech Insight: Focusing on customer touchpoints and transforming them are key to excellent experience and increasing their life-time value (LTV) to them and to your organization. Digital ID is that tool of transformation.

    Impact and Result

    • Digital ID has many dimensions, and its ecosystem's sustainability lies in the key principles it is built on. Understanding the digital identity ecosystem and its responsibilities is crucial to formulating an approach to adopt it. Also, focusing on key success factors drives digital ID adoption.
    • Before embarking on the digital identity adoption journey, it is essential to assess your readiness. It is also necessary to understand the risks and challenges. Specific steps to digital ID adoption can help realize the potential of digital identity and enhance the customers' experience.

    Navigate the Digital ID Ecosystem to Enhance Customer Experience Research & Tools

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

    1. Navigate the Digital ID Ecosystem to Enhance Customer Experience Storyboard – Learn how to adopt Digital ID to drive benefits, enhance customer experience, improve efficiency, manage data risks, and uncover new opportunities.

    This research focuses on verified digital identity ecosystems and explores risks, opportunities, and challenges of relying on verified digital IDs and also how adopting digital identity initiatives can improve customer experience and operational efficiency. It covers:

  • Definition and dimensions of digital identity
  • Key responsibilities and principles of digital identity ecosystem
  • Success factors for digital identity adoption
  • Global evolution and unique approaches in Estonia, India, Canada, UK, and Australia
  • Industries that benefit most from digital ID development
  • Key use cases of digital ID
  • Benefits to governments, ID providers, ID consumers, and end users
  • Readiness checklist and ten steps to digital ID adoption
  • Risks and challenges of digital identity adoption
  • Key recommendations to realize potential of digital identity
  • Taxonomy and definitions of terms in the digital identity ecosystem
    • Navigate the Digital ID Ecosystem to Enhance Customer Experience Storyboard
    • Familiarize Yourself With the Digital ID Ecosystem Taxonomy
    • Assess Your Digital ID Adoption Readiness

    Infographic

    Further reading

    Navigate the Digital ID Ecosystem to Enhance Customer Experience

    Beyond the hype: How it can help you become more customer-focused?

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Common Obstacles

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    Amid the pandemic-fueled surge of online services, organizations require secure solutions to safeguard digital interactions. These solutions must be uniform, interoperable, and fortified against security threats.

    Although the digital identity ecosystem has garnered significant attention and investment, many organizations remain uncertain about its potential for authentication and authorization required for B2B and B2C transactions.

    They still wonder if digital ID can help reduce cost of operations and transfer data risks.

    Limited or lack of understanding of the global Digital ID ecosystem and its varying approaches across countries handicap businesses in defining the potential benefits Digital ID can bring to customer interactions and overall business management.

    In addition, key obstacles exist in balancing customer privacy (including the right to be forgotten), data security, and regulatory requirements while pursuing desired end-user experience and high customer adoption.

    Digital ID has many dimensions, and its ecosystem's sustainability lies in the key principles it is built on. Understanding the digital identity ecosystem and its responsibilities is crucial to formulate an approach to adopt it. Also, focusing on key success factors drives digital ID adoption.

    Before embarking on the digital identity adoption journey, it is essential to assess your readiness. It is also necessary to understand the risks and challenges. Specific steps to digital ID adoption can help realize the potential of digital identity and enhance the customers' experience.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Focusing on customer touchpoints and transforming them is key to excellent user experience and increasing their lifetime value (LTV) to them and to your organization. Digital ID is that tool of transformation.

    Analyst Perspective

    Manish Jain.

    Manish Jain

    Principal Research Director

    Analyst Profile

    “I just believed. I believed that the technology would change people's lives. I believed putting real identity online - putting technology behind real identity - was the missing link.”

    - Sheryl Sandberg (Brockes, Emma. “Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg: who are you calling bossy?” The Guardian, 5 April 2014)

    Sometimes dismissed as mere marketing gimmicks, digital identity initiatives are anything but. While some argue that any online credential is a "Digital ID," rendering the hype around it pointless, the truth is that a properly built digital ID ecosystem has the power to transform laggard economies into global digital powerhouses. Moreover, digital IDs can help businesses transfer some of their cybersecurity risks and unlock new revenue channels by enabling a foundation for secure and efficient value delivery.

    In addition, digital identity is crucial for digital and financial inclusion, simplifying onboarding processes and opening up new opportunities for previously underserved populations. For example, in India, the Aadhaar digital ID ecosystem brought over 481 million1 people into the formal economy by enabling access to financial services. Similarly, in Indonesia, the e-KIP digital ID program paved the way for 10 million new bank accounts, 94% of which were for women2.

    However, digital identity initiatives also come with valid concerns, such as the risk of a single point of failure and the potential to widen the digital divide.

    This research focuses on the verified digital identity ecosystem, exploring the risks, opportunities, and challenges organizations face relying on these verified digital IDs to know their customers before delivering value. By understanding and adopting digital identity initiatives, organizations can unlock their full potential and provide a seamless customer experience while ensuring operational efficiency.

    1 India Aadhaar PMJDY (https://pmjdy.gov.in/account)
    2 Women’s World Banking, 2020.

    Digital Identity Ecosystem and vital ingredients of adoption

    Digital Identity Ecosystem.

    What is digital identity?

    Definitions may vary, depending on the focus.

    “Digital identity (ID) is a set of attributes that links a physical person with their online interactions. Digital ID refers to one’s online persona - an online footprint. It touches important aspects of one’s everyday life, from financial services to health care and beyond.” - DIACC Canada

    “Digital identity is a digital representation of a person. It enables them to prove who they are during interactions and transactions. They can use it online or in person.” - UK Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework

    “Digital identity is an electronic representation of an entity (person or other entity such as a business) and it allows people and other entities to be recognized online.” - Australia Trusted Digital Identity Framework

    A digital identity is primarily an electronic form of identity representing an entity uniquely , while abstracting all other identity attributes of the entity. In addition to an electronic form, it may also exist in a physical form (identity certificate), linked through an identifier representing the same entity.

    Digital identity has many dimensions*, and in turn categories

    Trust

    • Verified (Govt. issued IDs)
    • Unverified (Email Id)

    Subject

    • Individual
    • Organization
    • Device
    • Service

    Usability

    • Single-purpose (Disposable)
    • Multi-purpose (Reusable)

    Provider

    • Sovereign Government
    • Provincial Government
    • Local Government
    • Public Organization
    • Private Organization
    • Self

    Jurisdiction

    • Global (Passport)
    • National (DL)
    • State/Provincial (Health Card)
    • Local (Voting Card)
    • Private (Social)

    Form

    • Physical Card
    • Virtual Identifier
    • Online/App Account
    • PKI Keys
    • Tokens

    Governance

    • Sovereign
    • Federated
    • Decentralized
    • Trust Framework -based
    • Self-sovereign

    Expiry

    • Permanent (Lifetime, Years)
    • Temporary (Minutes, Hours)
    • Revocable

    Usage Mode

    • online only
    • offline only
    • Online/offline

    Purpose

    • Authorization (driver’s license, passport, employment)
    • Authentication (birth certificate, social security number)
    • Activity Linking (preferences, habits, and priorities)
    • Historical Record (Resume, educational financial, health history)
    • Social Interactions (Social Media)
    • Machine Connectivity

    Info-Tech Insight

    Digital ID has taken different meanings for different people, serving different purposes in different environments. Based on various aspects of Digital Identification, it can be categorized in several types. However, most of the time when people refer to a form of identification as Digital ID, they refer to a verified id with built-in trust either from the government OR the eco-system.

    * Please refer to Taxonomy for the definition of each of the dimensions

    Understanding a digital identity ecosystem is key to formulating your approach to adopt it

    The image contains a screenshot of a digital identity ecosystem diagram.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Digital identity ecosystems comprise many entities playing different roles, and sometimes more than one. In addition, variations in approach by jurisdictions drive how many active players are in the ecosystem for that jurisdiction.

    For example, in countries like Estonia and India, government plays the role of trust and governance authority as well as ID provider, but didn’t start with any Digital ID wallet. In contrast, in Ukraine, Diia App is primarily a Digital ID Wallet. Similarly, in the US, different states are adopting private Digital ID Wallet providers like Apple.

    Digital ID ecosystem’s sustainability lies in the key principles it is built on

    Social, economic, and legal alignment with target stakeholders
    Transparent governance and operation
    Legally auditable and enforceable
    Robust and Resilient – High availability
    Security – At rest, in progress, and in transit
    Privacy and Control with users
    Omni-channel Convenience – User and Operations
    Minimum data transfer between entities
    Technical interoperability enabled through open standards and protocol
    Scalable and interoperable at policy level
    Cost effective – User and operations
    Inclusive and accessible

    Info-Tech Insight

    A transparent, resilient, and auditable digital ID system must be aligned with socio-economic realities of the target stakeholders. It not only respects their privacy and security of their data by minimizing the data transfer between entities, but also drives desired customer experience by providing an omni-channel, interoperable, scalable, and inclusive ecosystem while still being cost-effective for the collaborators.

    Source: Adapted from Canada PCTF, UK Trust framework, European Commission, Australia TDIF, and others

    Focus on key success factors to drive the digital ID adoption

    Digital ID success factors

    Legislative regulatory framework – Removes uncertainty
    Security & Privacy Assurance- builds trust
    Smooth user experience – Drives preferences
    Transparent ecosystem – Drives inclusivity
    Multi-channel – Drive consistent experience online / offline
    Inter-operability thorough open standards
    Digital literacy – Education and awareness
    Multi-purpose & reusable – Reduce consumer burden
    Collaborative ecosystem –Build network effect

    Source: Adapted from Canada PCTF, UK digital identity & attributes trust framework , European eIDAS, and others

    Info-Tech Insight

    Driving adoption of Digital ID requires affirmative actions from all ecosystem players including governing authorities, identity providers, and identity consumers (relying parties).

    These nine success factors can help drive sustainable adoption of the Digital ID.

    Among many responsibilities the ecosystem players have, identity governance is the key to sustainability

    • Digital identity provision
      • Creating identity attributes
      • Create a reusable identity and attribute service
      • Create a digital identity
      • Assess and manage quality of an identity and attributes
      • Making identity provision inclusive and accessible
    • Digital identity resolution
      • Enabling inclusive access to products and services through digital identity
      • Authenticate and authorize identity subjects before permitting access to their identity and attributes
    • Digital identity governance
      • Manage digital identity and attributes
      • Make Identity service interoperable, and sharable
      • Recover digital identity and attribute accounts
      • Notifying users on accessing identity or making changes on more attributes
      • Report and audit – exclusion, accessibility
      • Retiring an identity or attribute service
      • Respond to complaints and disputes
    • Enterprise risk management and governance
    The image contains a screenshot of a diagram to demonstrate how identity governance is the key to sustainability.
    • Privacy and security
      • Use encryption
      • Privacy compliance framework
      • Consumer Privacy Protection laws (CPPA, GDPR etc.)
      • Acquiring and managing user consents & agreements
      • Prohibited processing of personal data
      • Security controls and governance
    • Information management
      • Record management
      • Archival
      • Disposal (on expiry or to comply with regulations)
      • CIA (confidentiality, integrity, availability)
    • Fraud management
      • Fraud monitoring and reporting
      • Fraud intelligence and analysis
      • Sharing threat indicators
      • Legal, policies and procedures for fraud management
    • Incident response
      • Respond to fraud incidents
      • Respond to a service delivery incident
      • Responding to data breaches
      • Performing and participating in investigation

    Global evolution of digital ID is following the socio-economic aspirations of countries

    The image contains a screenshot of a graph that demonstrates global evolution of digital ID.

    Source: Adapted from the book: Identification Revolution: Can Digital ID be harnessed for Development? (Gelb & Metz), 2018

    Info-Tech Insight

    The world became global a long time ago; however, it sustained economic progress without digital IDs for most of the world's population.

    With the pandemic, when political rhetoric pointed to the demand for localized supply chains, economies became irreversibly digital. In this digital economy, the digital ID ecosystem is the fulcrum of sustainable growth.

    At a time in overlapping jurisdictions, multiple digital IDs can exist. For example, one is issued by a local municipality, one by the province, and another by the national government.

    Global footprint of digital ID is evolving rapidly, but varies in approach

    The image contains a screenshot of a Global footprint of digital ID.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Countries’ approach to the digital ID is rooted in their socio-economic environment and global aspirations.

    Emerging economies with large underserved populations prioritize fast implementation of digital ID through centralized systems.

    Developed economies with smaller populations, low trust in government, and established ID systems prioritize developing trust frameworks to drive decentralized full-scale implementation.

    There is no right way except the one which follows Digital ID principles and aligns with a country’s and its people’s aspirations.

    Estonia's e-identity is the key to its digital agenda 2030

    • Regulatory Body and Operational Governance: Estonian Information System Authority (RIA).
    • Identity Providers: Government of Estonia; Private sector doesn’t issue IDs but can leverage Digital ID ecosystem.
    • Decentralized Approach: Permissioned Blockchain Architecture with built-in data traceability implemented on KSI (Keyless Signature Infrastructure).
    • X-Road – Secure, interoperable open-source data exchange platform between collection point where Data is stored.
    • Digital Identity Form: e-ID
    • Key Use cases:
      • Financial, Telecom: e-KYC, e-Banking
      • Digital Authentication: ID Card, Mobile ID, Smart ID, Digital Signatures
      • E-governance: e-Voting, e-Residency, e-Services Registries, e-Business Register
      • Smart City and mobility: Freight Transportation, Passenger Mobility
      • Healthcare: e-Health Record, e-Prescription, e-Ambulance
    • ID-card
    • Smart ID
    • Mobile ID
    • e-Residency

    Uniqueness

    Estonia pioneered the digital ID implementation with a centralized approach and later transitioned to a decentralized ecosystem driving trust to attract non-citizens into Estonia’s digital economy.

    99% Of Estonian residents have an ID card enabling use of electronic ID

    1.4 B Digital signatures given (2021)

    99% Public Services available as e-Services

    17K+ Productive years saved (five working days/citizen/year saved accessing public services)

    25K E-resident companies contributed more than €32 million in tax

    *Source: https://e-estonia.com/wp-content/uploads/e-estonia-211022_eng.pdf ;

    https://www.e-resident.gov.ee/dashboard

    The image contains a timeline of events from 2001-2020 for Estonia..

    India’s Aadhaar is the foundation of its digital journey through “India stack”

    • Regulatory Accountability and Operational Governance: Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).
    • Identity Provider: Govt. of India.
    • Digital Identity Form: Physical and electronic ID Card; Online (Identifier + OTP), and offline (identifier + biometric) usage; mAadhaar App & Web Portal
    • India Stack: a set of open APIs and digital assets to leverage Aadhaar in identity, data, and payments at scale.
    • Key Use cases:
      • Financial, Telecom: eKYC, Unified Payments Interface (UPI)
      • Digital Wallet: Digi Locker
      • Digital Authentication: eSign, and Aadhaar Auth.
      • Public Welfare: Public Distribution of Service, Social Pension, Employment Guarantee
      • Public service access: Enrollment to School, Healthcare

    1.36B People enrolled

    80% Beneficiaries feel Aadhaar has made PDS, employment guarantee and social pensions more reliable

    91.6% Are very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with Aadhaar

    14B eKYC transactions done by 218 eKYC authentication agencies (KUA)

    Source: https://uidai.gov.in/aadhaar_dashboard/india.php; https://www.stateofaadhaar.in/

    World Bank Report on Private Sector Impacts from ID

    Uniqueness

    “The Aadhaar digital identity system could reduce onboarding costs for Indian firms from 1,500 rupees to as low as an estimated 10 rupees.”

    -World Bank Report on Private Sector Impacts from ID

    With lack of public trust in private sector, government brought in private sector executives in public ecosystem to lead the largest identity program globally and build the India stack to leverage the power of Digital Identity.

    The image contains a screenshot of India's Aadhaar timeline from 2009-2022.

    Ukraine’s Diia is a resilient act to preserve their identities during threat to their existence

    Regulatory Accountability and Operational Governance: Ministry of Digital Transformation.

    Identity provider: Federated govt. agencies.

    Digital identity form: Diia App & Portal as a digital wallet for all IDs including digital driving license.

    • Key use cases:
      • eGovernance – Issuing license and permits, business registration, vaccine certificates.
      • Public communication: air-raid alerts, notifications, court decisions and fines.
      • Financial, Telecom: KYC compliance, mobile donations.
      • eBusiness: Diia City legal framework for IT industry, Diia Business Portal for small and medium businesses.
      • Digital sharing and authentication: Diia signature and Diia QR.
      • Public service access: Diia Education Portal for digital education and digital skills development, healthcare.

    18.5M People downloaded the Diia app.

    14 Digital IDs provided by other ID providers are available through Diia.

    70 Government services are available through Diia.

    ~1M Private Entrepreneurs used Diia to register their companies.

    1300 Tons of paper estimated to be saved by reducing paper applications for new IDs and replacements.

    Source:

    • Ukraine Govt. Website for Invest and trade
    • Diia Case study prepared for the office of Canadian senator colin deacon.

    Uniqueness

    “One of the reasons for the Diia App's popularity is its focus on user experience. In September 2022, the Diia App simplified 25 public services and digitized 16 documents. The Ministry of Digital Transformation aims to make 100% of all public services available online by 2024.”

    - Vladyslava Aleksenko

    Project Lead—digital Identity, Ukraine

    The image contains a screenshot of the timeline for Diia.

    Canada’s PCTF (Pan Canadian Trust Framework) driving the federated digital identity ecosystem

    • Regulatory Accountability: Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS); Canadian Digital Service (CDS); Office of CIO
    • Standard Setting: Digital Identification and Authentication Council of Canada (DIACC)
    • Frameworks:
      • Treasury Board Directive on Identity Management
      • Pan Canadian Trust Framework (PCTF)
      • Voilà Verified Trustmark Program: ISO aligned compliance certification program on PCTF
      • Governing / Certificate Authority: Trustmark Oversight Board (TOB) and DIACC accredited assessor
      • Operational Governance: Federated between identity providers and identity consumers
      • Identity Providers: Public and Private Sector
      • Other entities involved: Digital ID Lab (Voila Verified Auditor); Kuma (Accredited Assessor)
    The image contains a screenshot of PCTF Components.

    82% People supportive of Digital ID.

    2/3 Canadians prefer public-private partnership for Pan-Canadian digital ID framework.

    >40% Canadians prefer completing various tasks and transactions digitally.

    75% Canadians are willing to share personal information for better experience.

    >80% Trust government, healthcare providers, and financial institutions with their personal information.

    Source: DIACC Survey 2021

    Uniqueness

    Although a few provinces in Canada started their Digital ID journey already, federally, Canada lacked an approach.

    Now Canada is developing a federated Digital ID ecosystem driven through the Pan-Canadian Trust Framework (PCTF) led by a non-profit (DIACC) formed with public and private partnership.

    The image contains a screenshot of Canada's PCTF timeline from 2002-2025.

    Australia’s digital id is pivotal to its vision to become one of the Top-3 digital governments globally by 2025*

    * Australia Digital Government Strategy 2021
    • Regulatory responsibility and standard: Digital Transformation Agency (DTA)’s Digital Identity
    • Operational support and oversight: Service Australia, Interim Oversight Authority (IOA).
    • Accredited identity providers (by 2022): Australian Taxation Office (ATO)’s myGovID, Australia Post’s Digital ID, MasterCard’s ID, OCR Labs App
    • Framework: Trusted Digital Identity Framework (TDIF)
      • Digital Identity Exchange
      • Identity Service Providers and Attribute Verification Service
      • Attribute Service Providers
      • Credential Service Providers
      • Relying Parties
    • Others: States such as NSW, Victoria, and Queensland have their own digital identity programs

    8.6M People using myGovID by Jun-2022

    117 Services accessible through Digital Id System

    The image contains a screenshot diagram of Digital Identity.

    Uniqueness

    Australia started its journey of Digital ID with a centralized Digital ID ecosystem.

    However, now it preparing to transition to a centrally governed Trust framework-based ecosystem expanding to private sector.

    The image contains a screenshot of Australia's Digital id timeline from 2014-2022.

    UK switches gear to the Trust Framework approach to build a public-private digital ID ecosystem

    • Government: Ministry of Digital Infrastructure / Department of Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport
    • Governing Body / Certificate Authority / Operational Governance: TBD
    • Approach: Trust Framework-based UK Digital Identity and attributes trust framework (UKDIATF)
    • Identity providers: Transitioning from “GOV.UK Verify” to a federated digital identity system aligned with “Trust Framework” – enabling both government (“One Login for Government”) and private sector identity providers.
    The image contains a screenshot of the Trust Framework.

    Uniqueness

    UK embarked its Digital ID journey through Gov.UK Verify but decided to scrap it recently.

    It is now preparing to build a trust framework-based federated digital ID ecosystem with roles like schema-owners and orchestration service providers for private sector and drive the collaboration between industry players.

    The image contains a screenshot of UK timeline from 2011-2023.

    Digital ID will transform all industries, though financial services and e-governance will gain most

    Cross Industry

    Financial Services

    Insurance

    E-governance

    Healthcare & Lifesciences

    Travel and Tourism

    E-Commerce

    • Onboarding (customer, employee, patient, etc.)
    • Fraud-prevention (identity theft)
    • Availing restricted services (buying liquor)
    • Secure-sharing of credentials and qualifications (education, experience, gig worker)
    • For businesses, customer 360
    • For businesses, reliable data-driven decision making with lower frequency of ‘astroturfing’ (false identities) and ‘ballot-stuffing’ (duplicate identities)
    • Account opening
    • Asset transfer
    • Payments
    • For businesses, risk management - know your customer (KYC), anti-money laundering (AML), customer due diligence (CDD)
    • Insurance history
    • Insurance claim
    • Public distribution schemes (PDS)
    • Subsidy payments (direct to consumer)
    • Obtain government benefits (maternity, pension, employment guarantee / insurance payments)
    • Tax filing
    • Issuing credentials (birth certificate, passport)
    • Voting
    • For businesses, availing governments supports
    • For SMB businesses, easier regulatory compliance
    • Digital health
    • Out of state public healthcare
    • Secure access to health and diagnostic records
    • For businesses, data sharing between providers and with payers
    • Travel booking
    • Cross-border travel
    • Car rental
    • Secure peer-to-peer sales
    • Secure peer-to-peer sales

    USE CASE

    Car rental

    INDUSTRY: Travel & Tourism

    Source: Info-Tech Research Group

    Challenge

    Solution

    Results

    Verifying the driver’s license (DL) is the first step a car rental company takes before handing over the keys.

    While the rental company only need to know the validity of the DL and if it belongs to the presenter, is bears the liability of much more data presented to them through the DL.

    For customers, it is impossible to rent a car if they forget their DL. If the customer has their driver’s license, they compromise their privacy and security as they hand over their license to the representative.

    The process is not only time consuming, it also creates unnecessary risks to both the business and the renter.

    A digital id-based rental process allows the renter to present the digital id online or in person.

    As the customer approaches the car rental they present their digital id on the mobile app, which has already authenticated the presenter though the biometrics or other credentials.

    The customer selects the purpose of the business as “Car Rental”, and only the customer’s name, photo, and validity of the DL appear on the screen for the representative to see (selective disclosures).

    If the car pick-up is online, only this information is shared with the car rental company, which in turn shares the car and key location with the renter.

    A digital identity-based identity verification can ensure a rental company has access to the minimum data it needs to comply with local laws, which in turn reduces its data leak risk.

    It also reduces customer risks linked to forgetting the DL, and data privacy.

    Digital identity also reduces the risk originated from identity fraud leading to stolen cars.

    USE CASE

    e-Governance public distribution service

    INDUSTRY: Government

    Source: Info-Tech Research Group

    Challenge

    Solution

    Results

    In both emerging and developed economies, public distribution of resources – food, subsidies, or cash – is a critical process through which many people (especially from marginalized sections) survive on.

    They often either don’t have required valid proof of identity or fall prey to low-level corruption when someone defrauds them by claiming the benefit.

    As a result, they either completely miss out on claiming government-provided social benefits OR only receive a part of what they are eligible for.

    A Digital ID based public distribution can help created a Direct Benefit Transfer ecosystem.

    Here beneficiaries register (manually OR automatically from other government records) for the benefits they are eligible for.

    On the specific schedule, they receive their benefit – monetary benefit in their bank accounts, and non-cash benefits, in person from authorized points-of-sales (POS), without any middleman with discretionary decision powers on the distribution.

    India launched its Financial Inclusion Program (Prime Minister's Public Finance Scheme) in 2014.

    The program was linked with India’s Digital Id Aadhaar to smoothen the otherwise bureaucratic and discretionary process for opening a bank account.

    In last eight years, ~481M (Source: PMJDY) beneficiaries have opened a bank account and deposited ~ ₹1.9Trillion (USD$24B), a part of which came as social benefits directly deposited to these accounts from the government of India.

    USE CASE

    Real-estate investment and sale

    INDUSTRY: Asset Management

    Source: Info-Tech Research Group

    Challenge

    Solution

    Results

    “Impersonators posing as homeowners linked to 32 property fraud cases in Ontario and B.C.” – Global News Canada1

    “The level of fraud in the UK is such that it is now a national security threat” – UK Finance Lobby Group2

    Real estate is the most expensive investment people make in their lives. However, lately it has become a soft target for title fraud. Fraudsters steal the title to one’s home and sell it or apply for a new mortgage against it.

    At the root cause of these fraud are usually identity theft when a fraudster steals someone’s identity and impersonates them as the title owner.

    Digital identity tagged to the home ownership / title record can reduce the identity fraud in title transfer.

    When a person wants to sell their house OR apply for a new mortgage on house, multiple notifications will be triggered to their contact attributes on digital ID – phone, email, postal address, and digital ID Wallet, if applicable.

    The homeowner will be mandated to authorize the transaction on at least two channels they had set as preferred, to ensure that the transaction has the consent of the registered homeowner.

    This process will stop any fraud transactions until at least two modes are compromised.

    Even if two modes are compromised, the real homeowner will receive the notification on offline communication modes, and they can then alert the institution or lawyer to block the transaction.

    It will especially help elderly people, who are more prone to fall prey to identity frauds when somebody uses their IDs to impersonate them.

    1 Global News (https://globalnews.ca/news/9437913/homeowner-impersonators-lined-32-fraud-cases-ontario-bc/)

    2 UK Finance Lobby Group (https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/system/files/Half-year-fraud-update-2021-FINAL.pdf)

    Adopting digital ID benefits everybody – governments, id providers, id consumers, and end users

    Governments & identity providers

    (public & private)

    Customers and end users

    (subjects)

    Identity consumer

    (relying parties)

    • Growth in GDP
    • Save costs of providing identity
    • Unlock new revenue source by economic expansion
    • Choice and convenience
    • Control of what data is shared
    • Experience driven by simplicity and data minimalization
    • Reduced cost of availing services
    • Operational efficiency
    • Overall cost efficiency of delivering service and products
    • Reduce risk of potential litigation
    • Reduce risk of fraud
    • Enhanced customer experience leading to increased lifetime value
    • Streamlined storage and access
    • Encourage innovation

    Digital ID will transform all industries, though financial services and e-governance will gain most

    Governments and identity providers (public and private)

    • Growth in GDP by reducing bureaucracy and discretion from the governance processes.
      • As per a McKinsey report, digital ID could unlock the economic value equivalent of 3%-13% of GDP across seven focus countries (Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, China, UK, USA) in 2030.
      • “Estonia saves two percent of GDP by signing things digitally; imagine if it could go global.” - aavi Rõivas, Prime Minister of the Republic of Estonia (International Peace Institute)
    • Unlock new revenue source by economic expansion.
      • Estonia earned €32 million in tax revenue from e-resident companies (e-Estonia).
    • Save costs of providing identity in collaboration with 3rd parties and reduce fraud.
      • Canada estimates savings of $482 million for provincial and federal governments, and $4.5 billion for private sector organizations through digital id adoption (2022 Budget Statement).

    Digital ID brings end users choice, convenience, control, and cost-saving, driving overall experience

    Customers and end users (subjects)

    • Choice: Citizens have the choice and convenience to interact safely and conveniently online and offline.
    • Convenience: No compulsion to make physical trips to access service, as end users can identify themselves safely and reliably online, as they do offline.
    • Control: A decentralized, privacy enhancing solution – neither government nor private companies control your digital ID. How and when you use digital ID is entirely up to you.
    • Cost Saving: Save costs of availing service by reducing the offline documentation.
    • Experience: Improved experience while availing service without a need to present multiple documents every time.

    Digital id benefits identity consumers by enhancing multiple dimensions of their value streams

    Identity consumer (relying parties)

    • Operational efficiency: Eliminating unnecessary steps and irrelevant data from the value stream increases overall operational efficiency.
    • Cost efficiency: Helps businesses to reduce overall cost of operations like regulatory requirements.
      • World Bank estimated that the Aadhaar could reduce onboarding costs for Indian firms from ₹1,500/- ($23) to as low as an estimated ₹10/- ($0.15) (*World Bank ID4D)
    • Reduce risk of potential litigation issues: Encourage data minimization.
    • Privacy and security: Businesses can reduce the risk of fraud to organizations and users and can significantly boost the privacy and security of their IT assets.
    • Enhanced customer experience: The decrease in the number of touchpoints and faster turnaround.
    • Streamlined storage and access: Store all available data in a single place, and when required.
    • Encourage innovation: Reduce efforts required in authentication and authorization of users.

    Before embarking on the digital identity adoption journey, assess your readiness

    Legislative coverage

    Does your target jurisdiction have adequate legislative framework to enable uses of digital identities in your industry?

    Trust framework

    If the Digital ID ecosystem in your target jurisdiction is trust framework-based, do you have adequate understanding of it?

    Customer touch-points

    Do you have exact understanding of value stream and customer touch-points where you interact with user identity?

    Relevant identity attributes

    Do you have exact understanding of the identity attributes that your business processes need to deliver customer value?

    Regulatory compliance

    Do you have required systems to ensure your compliance with industry regulations around customer PII and identity?

    Interoperability with IMS

    Is your existing identity management system interoperable with Open-source Digital Identity ecosystem?

    Enterprise governance

    Have you established an integrated enterprise governance framework covering business processes, technical systems, and risk management?

    Communication strategy

    Do have a clear strategy (mode, method, means) to communicate with your target customer and persuade them to adopt digital identity?

    Security operations center

    Do you have security operations center coordinating detection, response, resolution, and communication of potential data breaches?

    Ten steps to adopt to enhance the customer experience

    Considering the complexity of digital identity adoption, and its impact on customer experience, it is vital to assess the ecosystem and adopt an MVP approach before a big-bang launch.

    Diagram to help assess the ecosystem.

    1. Define the use case and identify the customer touchpoint in the value stream which can be improved with a verified digital identity.
    2. Ensure your organization is ready to adopt digital identity (Refer to Digital identity adoption readiness),
    3. Identify an Identity Service Provider (Government, private sector), if there are options.
    4. Understand its technical requirements and assess, to the finer detail, your technical landscape for interoperability.
    5. Set-up a business contract for terms of usages and liabilities.
    6. Create and execute a Minimum Viable Program (MVP) of integration which can be tested with real customers.
    7. Extend MVP to the complete solution and define key success metrics.
    8. Canary-launch with a segment of target customers before a full launch.
    9. Educate customers on the usages and benefits, and adapt your communication plan taking feedback
    10. Monitor and continuously improve the solution based on the feedback from ecosystem partners and end-customers, and regulatory changes.

    Understand and manage the risks and challenges of digital identity adoption

    Digital ID adoption is a major change for everyone in the ecosystem.

    Manage associated risks to avoid the derailing of integration with your business processes and a negative impact on customer experience.

    Manage Risks.

    1. Privacy and security risks – Customer’s sensitive data may get centralized with the identity provider.
    2. Single point of failure while relying a specific IDs; it also increases the impact of identity theft and fraud risk.
    3. Centralization and control risks – Identity provider or identity service broker / orchestrator may control who can participate.
    4. Not universal, interoperability risks – if purpose-specific.
    5. Impact omni-channel experience - Not always available (legal / printable) for offline use.
    6. Exclusion and discrimination risks – Specific data requirements may exclude a group of people.
    7. Scope for misuse and misinterpretation if compromised and not reclaimed in timely manner.
    8. Adoption and usability risks – Subjects / relying parties may not see benefit due to lack of awareness or suspicion.
    9. Liability Agreement gaps between identity provider and identity consumer (relying party).

    Recommendations to help you realize the potential of digital identity into your value streams

    1

    Customer-centricity

    Digital identity initiative should prioritize customer experience when evaluating its fit in the value stream. Adopting it should not sacrifice end-user experience to gain a few brownie points.

    See Info-Tech’s Adopt Design Thinking in Your Organization blueprint, to ensure customer remains at the center of your Digital Adoption initiative.

    2

    Privacy and security

    Adopting digital identity reduces data risk by minimizing data transfer between providers and consumers. However, securing identity attributes in value streams still requires strengthening enterprise security systems and processes.

    See Info-Tech’s Assess and Govern Identity Security blueprint for the actions you may take to secure and govern digital identity.

    3

    Inclusion and awareness

    Adopting digital identity may alter customer interaction with an organization. To avoid excluding target customer segments, design digital identity accordingly. Educating and informing customers about the changes can facilitate faster adoption.

    See Info-Tech’s Social Media blueprint and IT Diversity & Inclusion Tactics to make inclusion and awareness part of digital adoption

    4

    Quantitative success metrics

    To measure the success of a digital ID adoption program, it's essential to use quantitative metrics that align with business KPIs. Some measurable KPIs may include:

    • Reduction in number of IDs business used to serve 90% of customers
    • Reduction in overall cost of operation
      • Reduction in cost of user authentication
    • Reduction in process cycle time (less time required to complete a task – e.g. KYC)

    Taxonomy – Digital ID ecosystem

    (Alphabetical order)

    Continues..

    Attributes: An identity attribute is a statement or information about a specific aspect of entity’s identity ,substantiating they are who they claim to be, own, or have.

    Attribute (or Credential) provider: An attribute or credential provider could be an organization which issues the primary attribute or credential to a subject or entity. They are also responsible for identity-attribute binding, credential maintenance, suspension, recovery, and authentication.

    Attribute (or Credential) service provider: An attribute service provider could be an organization which originally vetted user’s credentials and certified a specific attribute of their identity. It could also be a software, such as digital wallet, which can store and share a user’s attribute with a third party once consented by the user. (Source: UK Govt. Trust Framework)

    Attribute binding: This is a process an attribute service providers uses to link the attributes they created to a person or an organization through an identifier. This process makes attributes useful and valuable for other entities using these attributes. For example, when a new employee joins a company, they are given a unique employee number (an identifier), which links the person with their job title and other aspects (attributes) of his job. (Source: UK Govt. Trust Framework)

    Authentication service provider: An organization which is responsible for creating and managing authenticators and their lifecycle (issuance, suspension, recovery, maintenance, revocation, and destruction of authenticators). (Source: DIACC)

    Authenticator: Information or biometric characteristics under the control of an individual that is a specific instance of something the subject has, knows, or does. E.g. private signing keys, user passwords, or biometrics like face, fingerprints. (Source: Canada PCTF)

    Authentication (identity verification): The process of confirming or denying that the identity presented relates to the subject who is making the claim by comparing the credentials presented with the ones presented during identity proofing.

    Authorization: The process of validating if the authenticated entity has permission to access a resource (service or product).

    Biometrics attributes: Human attributes like retina (iris), fingerprint, heartbeat, facial, handprint, thumbprint, voice print.

    Centralized identity: Digital identities which are fully governed by a centralized government entity. It may have enrollment or registration agencies, private or public sector, to issue the identities, and the technical system may still be decentralized to keep data federated.

    Certificate Authority (CA or accredited assessors): An organization or an entity that conducts assessments to validate the framework compliance of identity or attribute providers (such as websites, email addresses, companies, or individual persons) serving other users, and binding them to cryptographic keys through the issuance of electronic documents known as digital certificates.

    Taxonomy – Digital ID ecosystem

    (Alphabetical order)

    Continues..

    Collective (non-resolvable) attributes: Nationality, domicile, citizenship, immigration status, age group, disability, income group, membership, (outstanding) credit limit, credit score range.

    Contextual identity: A type of identity which establishes an entity’s existence in a specific context – real or virtual. These can be issued by public or private identity providers and are governed by the organizational policies. E.g. employee ID, membership ID, social media ID, machine ID.

    Credentials: A physical or a digital representation of something that establishes an entity’s eligibility to do something for which it is seeking permission, or an association/affiliation with another, generally well-known entity. E.g. Passport, DL, password. In the context of Digital Identity, every identity needs to be attached with a credential to ensure that the subject of the identity can control how and by whom that identity can be used.

    Cryptographic hash function: A hash function is a one-directional mathematical operation performed on a message of any length to get a unique, deterministic, and fixed size numerical string (the hash) which can’t be reverse engineered to get the input data without deploying disproportionate resources. It is the foundation of modern security solutions in DLT / blockchain as they help in verifying the integrity and authenticity of the message.

    Decentralized identity (DID) or self-sovereign identity: This is a way to give back the control of identity to the subject whose identity it is, using an identity wallet in which they collect verified information about themselves from certified issuers (such as the government). By controlling what information is shared from the wallet to requesting third parties (e.g. when registering for a new online service), the user can better manage their privacy, such as only presenting proof that they’re over 18 without needing to reveal their date of birth. Source: (https://www.gsma.com/identity/decentralised-identity)

    Digital identity wallet: A type of digital wallet refers to a secure, trusted software applications (native mobile app, mobile web apps, or Rivas-hosted web applications) based on common standards, allowing a user to store and use their identity attributes, identifiers, and other credentials without loosing or sharing control of them. This is different than Digital Payment Wallets used for financial transactions. (Source: https://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/photos/1440x300/2022/feb/eID_WB_presentation_BS.pdf)

    Digital identity: A digital identity is primarily an electronic form of identity representing an entity uniquely , while abstracting all other identity attributes of the entity. In addition to an electronic form, it may also exist in a physical form (identity certificate), linked through an identifier representing the same entity. E.g. Estonia eID , India Aadhar, digital citizenship ID.

    Digital object architecture: DOA is an open architecture for interoperability among various information systems, including ID wallets, identity providers, and consumers. It focuses on digital objects and comprises three core components: the identifier/resolution system, the repository system, and the registry system. There are also two protocols that connect these components. (Source: dona.net)

    Digital signature: A digital signature is an electronic, encrypted stamp of authentication on digital information such as email messages, macros, or electronic documents. A signature confirms that the information originated from the signer and has not been altered. (Source: Microsoft)

    Taxonomy – Digital ID ecosystem

    (Alphabetical order)

    Continues..

    Entity (or Subject): In the context of identity, an entity is a person, group, object, or a machine whose claims need to be ascertained and identity needs to be established before his request for a service or products can be fulfilled. An entity can also be referred to as a subject whose identity needs to be ascertained before delivering a service.

    Expiry: This is another dimension of an identity and determines the validity of an ID. Most of the identities are longer term, but there can be a few like digital tokens and URLs which can be issued for a few hours or even minutes. There are some which can be revoked after a pre-condition is met.

    Federated identity: Federated identity is an agreement between two organizations about the definition and use of identity attributes and identifiers of a consumer entity requesting a service. If successful, it allows a consumer entity to get authenticated by one organization (identity provider) and then authorized by another organization. E.g. accessing a third-party website using Google credentials.

    Foundational identity: A type of identity which establishes an entity’s existence in the real world. These are generally issued by public sector / government agencies, governed by a legal farmwork within a jurisdiction, and are widely accepted at least in that jurisdiction. E.g. birth certificate, citizenship certificate.

    Governance: This is a dimension of identity that covers the governance model for a digital ID ecosystem. While traditionally it has been under the sovereign government or a federated structure, in recent times, it has been decentralized through DLT technologies or trust-framework based. It can also be self-sovereign, where individuals fully control their data and ID attributes.

    Identifier: A digital identifier is a string of characters that uniquely represents an entity’s identity in a specific context and scope even if one or more identity attributes of the subject change over time. E.g. driver’s license, SSN, SIN, email ID, digital token, user ID, device ID, cookie ID.

    Identity: An identity is an instrument used by an entity to provide the required information about itself to another entity in order to avail a service, access a resource, or exercise a privilege. An identity formed by 1-n identity attributes and a unique identifier.

    Identity and access management (IAM): IAM is a set of frameworks, technologies, and processes to enable the creation, maintenance, and use of digital identity, ensuring that the right people gain access to the right materials and records at the right time. (Source: https://iam.harvard.edu/)

    Identity consumer (Relying party): An organization, or an entity relying on identity provider to mitigate IT risks around knowing its customers before delivering the end-user value (product/service) without deteriorating end-user experience. E.g. Canada Revenue Agency using SecureKey service and relying on Banking institutions to authenticate users; Telecom service providers in India relying on Aadhaar identity system to authenticate the customer's identity.

    Identity form: A dimension of identity that defines its forms depending on the scope it wants to serve. It can be a physical card for offline uses, a virtual identifier like a number, or an app/account with multiple identity attributes. Cryptographic keys and tokens can also be forms of identity.

    Taxonomy – Digital ID ecosystem

    (Alphabetical order)

    Continues...

    Identity infrastructure provider: Organizations involved in creating and maintaining technological infrastructure required to manage the lifecycle of digital identities, attributes, and credentials. They implement functions like security, privacy, resiliency, and user experience as specified in the digital identity policy and trust framework.

    Identity proofing: A process of asserting the identification of a subject at a useful identity assurance level when the subject provides evidence to a credential service provider (CSP), reliably identifying themselves. (Source: NIST Special Publication 800-63A)

    Identity provider (Attestation authority): An organization or an entity validating the foundation or contextual claims of a subject and establishing identifier(s) for a subject. E.g. DMV (US) and MTA (Canada) issuing drivers’ licenses; Google / Facebook issuing authentication tokens for their users logging in on other websites.

    Identity validation: The process of confirming or denying the accuracy of identity information of a subject as established by an authorized party. It doesn’t ensure that the presenter is using their own identity.

    Identity verification (Authentication): The process of confirming or denying that the identity presented relates to the subject who is making the claim by comparing the credentials presented with the ones presented during identity proofing.

    Internationalized resource identifier (IRI): IRIs are equivalent to URIs except that IRIs also allow non-ascii characters in the address space, while URIs only allow us-ascii encoding. (Source: w3.org)

    Jurisdiction: A dimension of identity that covers the physical area or virtual space where an identity is legally acceptable for the purpose defined under law. It can be global, like it is for passport, or it can be local within a municipality for specific services. For unverified digital IDs, it can be the social network.

    Multi-factor Authentication (MFA): Multi-factor authentication is a layered approach to securing digital assets (data and applications), where a system requires a user to present a combination of two or more credentials to verify a user’s identity for login. These factors can be a combination of (i) something you know like a password/PIN; (ii) something you have like a token on mobile device; and (iii) something you are like a biometric. (Adapted from https://www.cisa.gov/publication/multi-factor-authentication-mfa)

    Oauth (Open authorization): OAuth is a standard authorization protocol and used for access delegation. It allows internet users to access websites by using credentials managed by a third-party authorization server / Identity Provider. It is designed for HTTP and allows access tokens to be issued by an authorization server to third-party websites. E.g. Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn use Oauth to delegate access.

    OpenID: OpenID is a Web Authentication Protocol and implements reliance authentication mechanism. It facilitates the functioning of federated identity by allowing a user to use an existing account (e.g. Google, Facebook, Yahoo) to sign into third-party websites without needing to create new credentials. (Source: https://openid.net/).

    Taxonomy – Digital ID ecosystem

    (Alphabetical order)

    Continues...

    Personally identifiable information (PII): PII is a set of attributes which can be used, through direct or indirect means, to infer the real-world identity of the individual whose information is input. E.g. National ID (SSN/SIN/Aadhar) DL, name, date of birth, age, address, age, identifier, university credentials, health condition, email, domain name, website URI (web resolvable) , phone number, credit card number, username/password, public key / private key. (Source: https://www.dol.gov)

    Predicates: The mathematical or logical operations such as equality or greater than on attributes (e.g. prove your salary is greater than x or your age is greater than y) to prove a claim without sharing the actual values.

    Purpose: This dimension of a digital id defines for what purpose digital id can be used. It can be one or many of these – authentication, authorization, activity linking, historical record keeping, social interactions, and machine connectivity for IoT use cases.

    Reliance authentication: Relying on a third-party authentication before providing a service. It is a method followed in a federated entity system.

    Risk-based authentication: A mechanism to protect against account compromise or identity theft. It correlates an authentication request with transitional facts like requester’s location, past frequency of login, etc. to reduce the risk of potential fraud.

    Scheme in trust framework: A specific set of rules (standard and custom) around the use of digital identities and attributes as agreed by one or more organizations. It is useful when those organizations have similar products, services, business processes. (Source: UK Govt. Trust Framework). E.g. Many credit unions agree on how they will use the identity in loan origination and servicing.

    Selective disclosure (Assertion): A way to present one’s identity by sharing only a limited amount information that is critical to make an authentication / authorization decision. E.g. when presenting your credentials, you could share something proving you are 18 years or above, but not share your name, exact age, address, etc.

    Trust: A dimension of an identity, which essentially is a belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of that identity. While in the physical world all acceptable form of identities come with a verified trust, in online domain, it can be unverified. Also, where an identity is only acceptable as per the contract between two entities, but not widely.

    Trust framework: The trust framework is a set of rules that different organizations agree to follow to deliver one or more of their services. This includes legislation, standards, guidance, and the rules in this document. By following these rules, all services and organizations using the trust framework can describe digital identities and attributes they’ve created in a consistent way. This should make it easier for organizations and users to complete interactions and transactions or share information with other trust framework participants. (Source: UK Govt. Trust Framework)

    Taxonomy – Digital ID ecosystem

    (Alphabetical order)

    Continues...

    Uniform resource identifier (URI): A universal name in registered name spaces and addresses referring to registered protocols or name spaces.

    Uniform resource locator (URL): A type of URI which expresses an address which maps onto an access algorithm using network protocols. (Source: https://www.w3.org/)

    Uniform resource name (URN): A type of URI that includes a name within a given namespace but may not be accessible on the internet.

    Usability: A dimension of identity that defines how many times it can be used. While most of the identities are multi-use, a few digital identities are in token form and can be used only once to authenticate oneself.

    Usage mode: A dimension of identity that defines the service mode in which a digital ID can be used. While all digital IDs are made for online usage, many can also be used in offline interactions.

    Verifiable credentials: This W3C standard specification provides a standard way to express credentials on the Web in a way that is cryptographically secure, privacy-respecting, and machine-verifiable. (Source: https://www.w3.org/TR/vc-data-model/)

    X.509 Certificates: X.509 certificates are standard digital documents that represent an entity providing a service to another entity. They're issued by a certification authority (CA), subordinate CA, or registration authority. These certificates play an important role in ascertaining the validity of an identity provider and in turn the identities issued by it. (Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/iot-hub/reference-x509-certificates)

    Zero-knowledge proofs: A method by which one party (the prover) can prove to another party (the verifier) that something is true, without revealing any information apart from the fact that this specific statement is true. (Source: 1989 SIAM Paper)

    Zero-trust security: A cybersecurity paradigm focused on resource protection and the premise that trust is never granted implicitly but must be continually evaluated. It evaluates each access request as if it is a fraud attempt, and grants access only if it passes the authentication and authorization test. (Source: Adapted from NIST, SP 800-207: Zero Trust Architecture, 2020)

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Build a Zero Trust Roadmap
    Leverage an iterative and repeatable process to apply zero trust to your organization.

    Assess and Govern Identity Security
    Strong identity security and governance are the keys to the zero-trust future.

    Adopt Design Thinking in Your Organization
    Innovation needs design thinking to ensure customer remains at the center of everything the organization does.

    Social Media
    Leveraging Social Media to connect with your customers and educate them to drive the value proposition of your efforts.

    IT Diversity & Inclusion Tactics
    Equip your teams to create an inclusive environment and mobilize inclusion efforts across the organization.


    Research Contributors and Experts

    David Wallace

    David Wallace
    Executive Counselor

    Erik Avakian

    Erik Avakian
    Technical Counselor, Data Architecture and Governance

    Matthew Bourne

    Matthew Bourne
    Managing Partner, Public Sector Global Services

    Mike Tweedie

    Mike Tweedie
    Practice Lead, CIO Research Development

    Aaron Shum

    Aaron Shum
    Vice President, Security & Privacy

    Works Cited

    India Aadhaar PMJDY (https://pmjdy.gov.in/account)
    Theis, S., Rusconi, G., Panggabean, E., Kelly, S. (2020). Delivering on the Potential of Digitized G2P: Driving Women’s Financial Inclusion and Empowerment through Indonesia’s Program Keluarga Harapan. Women’s World Banking.
    DIACC Canada (https://diacc.ca/the-diacc/)
    UK digital identity & attributes trust framework alpha v2 (0.2) - GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-digital-identity-attributes-trust-framework-updated-version/uk-digital-identity-and-attributes-trust-framework-alpha-version-2)
    Australia Trusted Digital Identity Framework (https://www.digitalidentity.gov.au/tdif#changes)
    eIDAS (https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/eidas-regulation)
    Europe Digital Wallet – POTENTIAL (https://www.digital-identity-wallet.eu/)
    Canada PCTF (https://diacc.ca/trust-framework/)
    Identification Revolution: Can Digital ID be harnessed for Development? (Gelb & Metz), 2018
    e-Estonia website (https://e-estonia.com/solutions/e-identity/id-card/)
    Aadhaar Dashboard (https://uidai.gov.in/)
    DIACC Website (https://diacc.ca/the-diacc/)
    Australia Digital ID website (https://www.digitalidentity.gov.au/tdif#changes)
    UK Policy paper - digital identity & attributes trust framework (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-digital-identity-attributes-trust-framework-updated-version/uk-digital-identity-and-attributes-trust-framework-alpha-version-2)
    Ukraine Govt. website (https://ukraine.ua/invest-trade/digitalization/)
    Singapore SingPass Website (https://www.tech.gov.sg/products-and-services/singpass/)
    Norway BankID Website (https://www.bankid.no/en/private/about-us/)
    Brazil National ID Card website (https://www.gov.br/casacivil/pt-br/assuntos/noticias/2022/julho/nova-carteira-de-identidade-nacional-modelo-unico-a-partir-de-agosto)
    Indonesia Coverage in Professional Security Magazine (https://www.professionalsecurity.co.uk/products/id-cards/indonesian-cards/)
    Philippine ID System (PhilSys) website (https://www.philsys.gov.ph/)
    China coverage on eGovReview (https://www.egovreview.com/article/news/559/china-announces-plans-national-digital-ids)
    Thales Group Website - DHS’s Automated Biometric Identification System IDENT (https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/markets/digital-identity-and-security/government/customer-cases/ident-automated-biometric-identification-system)
    FranceConnect (https://franceconnect.gouv.fr/)
    Germany: Office for authorization cert. (https://www.personalausweisportal.de/Webs/PA/DE/startseite/startseite-node.html)
    Italian Digital Services Authority (https://www.spid.gov.it/en/)
    Monacco Mconnect (https://mconnect.gouv.mc/en)
    Estonia eID (https://e-estonia.com/wp-content/uploads/e-estonia-211022_eng.pdf)
    E-Residency Dashboard (https://www.e-resident.gov.ee/dashboard)
    Unique ID authority of India (https://uidai.gov.in/aadhaar_dashboard/india.php)
    State of Aadhaar (https://www.stateofaadhaar.in/)
    World Bank (https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/219201522848336907/pdf/Private-Sector-Economic-Impacts-from-Identification-Systems.pdf)
    WorldBank - ID4D 2022 Annual Report (https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/099437402012317995/idu00fd54093061a70475b0a3b50dd7e6cdfe147)
    Ukraine Govt. Website for Invest and trade (https://ukraine.ua/invest-trade/digitalization/)
    Diia Case study prepared for the office of Canadian senator colin deacon (https://static1.squarespace.com/static/63851cbda1515c69b8a9a2b9/t/6398f63a9d78ae73d2fd5725/1670968891441/2022-case-study-report-diia-mobile-application.pdf)
    Canadian Digital Identity Research (https://diacc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/DIACC-2021-Research-Report-ENG.pdf)
    Voilà Verified Trustmark (https://diacc.ca/voila-verified/)
    Digital Identity, 06A Federation Onboarding Guidance paper, March 2022 (https://www.digitalidentity.gov.au/sites/default/files/2022-04/TDIF%2006A%20Federation%20Onboarding%20Guidance%20-%20Release%204.6%20%28Doc%20Version%201.2%29.pdf)
    UK digital identity & attributes trust framework alpha v2 (0.2) - GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-digital-identity-attributes-trust-framework-updated-version/uk-digital-identity-and-attributes-trust-framework-alpha-version-2)
    A United Nations Estimate of KYC/AML (https://www.imf.org/Publications/fandd/issues/2018/12/imf-anti-money-laundering-and-economic-stability-straight)
    India Aadhaar PMJDY (https://pmjdy.gov.in/account)
    Global News (https://globalnews.ca/news/9437913/homeowner-impersonators-lined-32-fraud-cases-ontario-bc/)
    UK Finance Lobby Group (https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/system/files/Half-year-fraud-update-2021-FINAL.pdf) McKinsey Digital ID report ( https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/digital-identification-a-key-to-inclusive-growth) International Peace Institute ( https://www.ipinst.org/2016/05/information-technology-and-governance-estonia#7)
    E-Estonia Report (https://e-estonia.com/wp-content/uploads/e-estonia-211022_eng.pdf)
    2022 Budget Statement (https://diacc.ca/2022/04/07/2022-budget-statement/)
    World Bank ID4D - Private Sector Economic Impacts from Identification Systems 2018 (https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/219201522848336907/Private-Sector-Economic-Impacts-from-Identification-Systems.pdf)
    DIACC Canada (https://diacc.ca/the-diacc/)
    UK digital identity & attributes trust framework alpha v2 (0.2) - GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-digital-identity-attributes-trust-framework-updated-version/uk-digital-identity-and-attributes-trust-framework-alpha-version-2)
    https://www.gsma.com/identity/decentralised-identity
    https://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/photos/1440x300/2022/feb/eID_WB_presentation_BS.pdf
    Microsoft Digital signatures and certificates (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/digital-signatures-and-certificates-8186cd15-e7ac-4a16-8597-22bd163e8e96)
    https://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/photos/1440x300/2022/feb/eID_WB_presentation_BS.pdf
    https://www.dona.net/digitalobjectarchitecture
    IAM (https://iam.harvard.edu/)
    NIST Special Publication 800-63A (https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-3/sp800-63a.html)
    https://www.cisa.gov/publication/multi-factor-authentication-mfa
    https://openid.net/
    U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR (https://www.dol.gov/)
    UK govt. trust framework (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-digital-identity-attributes-trust-framework-updated-version/uk-digital-identity-and-attributes-trust-framework-alpha-version-2)
    https://www.w3.org/
    Verifiable Credentials Data Model v1.1 (https://www.w3.org/TR/vc-data-model/)
    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/iot-hub/reference-x509-certificates

    Create an Agile-Friendly Project Gating and Governance Approach

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    • Parent Category Name: Development
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    • Organizations often apply gating and governance to IT projects to ensure resources are being used efficiently and effectively.
    • Agile project teams often complain that traditional project gating and governance interfere with their ability to delivery because traditional gating and governance were designed for Waterfall delivery methods.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Imposing a traditional gating and governance approach on an Agile project can eliminate the advantages that Agile delivery methods offer. Make sure to rework your traditional project gating and governance approach to be Agile friendly.

    Impact and Result

    • Create a project gating and governance approach that is Agile friendly and helps your organization realize the most benefit from its Agile transformation.
    • Oversee your Agile projects with confidence by adjusting the level of support and oversight they receive based on their Agilometer score.
    • Define a revised set of project gating artifacts that support Agile delivery methods.
    • Adopt a “trust but verify” approach to Agile project gating that will reduce risk and help ensure value delivery.

    Create an Agile-Friendly Project Gating and Governance Approach Research & Tools

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

    1. Create an Agile-Friendly Project Gating and Governance Approach Deck – A step-by-step guide to creating an Agile-friendly project gating and governance approach that will support Agile delivery methods in your organization.

    This deck is a guide to creating your own Agile-friendly project gating and governance approach using Info-Tech’s Agile Gating Framework.

    • Create an Agile-Friendly Project Gating and Governance Approach – Phases 1-3

    2. Your Gates 3 and 3A Checklists – The Gates 3 and 3A Checklists are used to determine when a project is ready to enter and exit the Risk Reduction & Value Confirmation phase.

    Modify Info-Tech’s Gates 3 and 3A Checklists to meet your organization’s needs, and then use them to determine when Agile projects are ready to enter and exit the RRVC phase.

    • Gates 3 and 3A Checklists

    3. Your Agilometer – The Agilometer is used to determine a project’s readiness to use an Agile delivery method.

    Modify Info-Tech’s Agilometer to meet your organization’s needs, and then use it to determine the level of support and oversight the project will need.

    • Agilometer

    4. Your Agile Project Status Report – An Agile Status Report will be used to monitor project progress.

    Modify Info-Tech’s Agile Project Status Report to meet your organization’s needs, and then use it to monitor in-flight Agile projects.

    • Agile Project Status Report

    5. Project Burndown Chart – A tool to let you monitor project burndown over time.

    Use Info-Tech’s Project Burndown Chart to monitor the progress of your in-flight Agile projects.

    • Project Burndown Chart

    6. Traditional to Agile Gating Artifact Mapping – A tool to help you rework your project gating artifacts to be Agile-friendly.

    Use Info-Tech’s Traditional to Agile Gating Artifact Mapping tool to modify your gating artifacts for Agile projects.

    • Traditional to Agile Gating Artifact Mapping
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Create an Agile-Friendly Project Gating and Governance Approach

    Use Info-Tech’s Agile Gating Framework as a guide to gating your Agile projects using a “trust but verify” approach.

    Table of Contents

    Analyst Perspective

    Executive Summary

    Phase 1: Establish Your Gating and Governance Purpose

    Phase 2: Understand and Adapt Info-Tech’s Agile Gating Framework

    Phase 3: Complete Your Agile Gating Framework

    Where Do I Go Next?

    Bibliography

    Facilitator Slides

    Analyst Perspective

    Make your gating and governance process Agile friendly by following a “trust but verify” approach

    Most project gating and governance approaches are designed for traditional (Waterfall) delivery methods. However, Agile delivery methods call for a different way of working that doesn’t align well with these approaches.

    Applying traditional project gating and governance to Agile projects is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Not only will it make Agile project delivery less efficient, but in the extreme, it can lead to outright project failure and even derail your organization’s Agile transformation.

    If you want Agile to successfully take root in your organization, be prepared to rethink your current gating and governance practices. This document presents a framework that you can use to rework your approach to provide both effective oversight and support for your Agile projects.

    Photo of Alex Ciraco, Principal Research Director, Application Delivery and Management, Info-Tech Research Group. Alex Ciraco
    Principal Research Director,
    Application Delivery and Management
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge
    • Many government organizations are adopting Agile project delivery methods because they have proven to be more effective than traditional delivery approaches at responding to today’s fast pace of change.
    • Government organizations have an obligation to govern projects to ensure effective use of public resources, regardless of the delivery method being used.
    Common Obstacles
    • Most government gating and governance frameworks were designed around traditional (often called “Waterfall”) delivery methods.
    • Agile and Waterfall work in completely different ways, so imposing traditional gating and governance frameworks on Agile projects will stifle progress and can even lead to project failure.
    • Government organizations must adjust their gating and governance frameworks to accommodate Agile delivery methods.
    Info-Tech’s Approach
    • Begin by understanding the fundamental purpose of project gating and governance.
    • Next, understand the major differences between Agile and Waterfall delivery methods.
    • Then, armed with this knowledge, use Info-Tech’s Agile Gating Framework to redefine your gating and governance approach to be Agile friendly.
    Info-Tech Insight

    Imposing a traditional governance approach on an Agile project can eliminate the advantages that Agile delivery methods offer. Make sure to rework your project gating and governance approach to be Agile friendly.

    Info-Tech’s methodology for Creating an Agile-Friendly Project Gating and Governance Approach

    1. Establish Your Gating and Governance Purpose 2. Understand and Adapt Info-Tech’s Agile Gating Framework 3. Complete your Agile Gating Framework
    Phase Steps

    1.1 Understand How We Gate and Govern Projects

    1.2 Compare Traditional to Agile Delivery

    1.3 Realize What Traditional Gating Looks Like and Why

    2.1 Understand How Agile Manages Risk and Ensures Value Delivery

    2.2 Introducing Info-Tech’s Agile Gating Framework

    2.3 Create Your Agilometer

    2.4 Create an Agile-Friendly Project Status Report

    2.5 Select Your Agile Health Check Tool

    3.1 Map Your Traditional Gating Artifacts to Agile Delivery

    3.2 Determine Your Now, Next, Later Roadmap for Implementation

    Phase Outcomes
    1. Your gating/governance purpose statement
    2. A fundamental understanding of the difference between traditional and Agile delivery methods.
    1. An understanding of Info-Tech’s Agile Gating Framework
    2. Your Gates 3 and 3A checklists
    3. Your Agilometer tool
    4. Your Agile project status report template
    5. Your Agile health check tool
    1. Artifact map for your Agile gating framework
    2. Roadmap for Agile gating implementation

    Key Deliverables

    Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals, including:

    Agilometer Tool

    Create your customized Agilometer tool to determine project support and oversight needs.
    Sample of the 'Agilometer Tool' deliverable.

    Gates 3 and 3A Checklists

    Create your customized checklists for projects at Gates 3 and 3A.
    Sample of the 'Gates 3 and 3A Checklists' deliverable.

    Agile-Friendly Project Status Report

    Create your Agile-friendly project status report to monitor progress.
    Sample of the 'Agile-Friendly Project Status Report' deliverable.

    Artifact Mapping Tool

    Map your traditional gating artifacts to their Agile replacements.
    Sample of the 'Artifact Mapping Tool' deliverable.

    Create an Agile-Friendly Project Gating and Governance Approach

    Phase 1

    Establish your gating and governance purpose

    Phase 1

    1.1 Understand How We Gate and Govern Projects

    1.2 Compare Traditional to Agile Delivery

    1.3 Realize What Traditional Gating Looks Like And Why

    Phase 2

    2.1 Understand How Agile Manages Risk and Ensures Value Delivery

    2.2 Introducing Info-Tech’s Agile Gating Framework

    2.3 Create Your Agilometer

    2.4 Create Your Agile-Friendly Project Status Report

    2.5 Select Your Agile Health Check Tool

    Phase 3

    3.1 Map Your Traditional Gating Artifacts to Agile Delivery

    3.2 Determine Your Now, Next, Later Roadmap for Implementation

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Understand why gating and governance are so important to your organization.
    • Compare and contrast traditional to Agile delivery.
    • Identify what form traditional gating takes in your organization.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • PMO/Gating Body
    • Delivery Managers
    • Delivery Teams
    • Other Interested Parties

    Agile gating–related facts and figures

    73% of organizations created their project gating framework before adopting or considering Agile delivery practices. (Athens Journal of Technology and Engineering)

    71% of survey respondents felt an Agile-friendly gating approach improves both productivity and product quality. (Athens Journal of Technology and Engineering)

    Moving to an Agile-friendly gating approach has many benefits:
    • Faster response to change
    • Improved productivity
    • Higher team morale
    • Better product quality
    • Faster releases
    (Journal of Product Innovation Management)

    Traditional gating approaches can undermine an Agile project

    • Most existing gating and governance frameworks (often referred to as phase-gate) impose requirements on projects that are anti-patterns to an Agile delivery approach
    • For example, any gating approach that requires a project to deliver a detailed requirements document before coding can begin will make it difficult or impossible for the project to use an Agile delivery method.
    • The same can be said for other common phase-gate requirements including:
      • Imposing a formal (and onerous) change control process on project requirements.
      • Requiring a detailed design document and/or detailed user acceptance test plan at the beginning of the project.
      • Asking the project to produce a detailed project plan.
    (DZone)
    Don’t make the mistake of asking an Agile project to follow a traditional phase-gate approach to project delivery!

    Before reworking your gating approach, you need to consider two important questions

    Answering these questions will help guide your new gating process to both be Agile friendly and meet your organization’s needs

    1. What is the fundamental purpose of gating? By examining the fundamental purpose of gating, you will be better able to adjust your approach to achieve the desired outcomes in an Agile context.
    2. How does Agile delivery differ from traditional? By understanding how Agile delivery differs from traditional, you will be better able to adjust your gating approach to support Agile delivery methods.

    Stock image of speech bubbles hanging on string with a question mark and lightbulb drawn on them.

    Implement the Next-Generation IT Operating Model

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    • Parent Category Name: IT Strategy
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    IT is being challenged to change how it operates to better support evolving organizations by:

    • Considering the needs of customers, end users, and organizational stakeholders simultaneously.
    • Leveraging resources strategically to support the various IT and digital services being offered.
    • Creating a digital services enablement office that can design, monitor, and continuously enhance services.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • The role of IT is changing, and with that, how IT needs to operate to deliver value is also changing. Don’t get left behind with an irrelevant IT operating model.
    • Elevate your reputation as a leader beyond the CIO role. Mature your organization’s digital services by considering the customer experience first.
    • As recessions, disasters, and pandemics hit, don’t adopt old ways of operating with 2008 centralized models. Embrace a hybrid IT where value sets your organization apart.

    Impact and Result

    • Embrace the Exponential IT Operating Model so you can:
      • Say “yes” to stakeholders trying to provide a better experience for customers and consumers.
      • Leverage data more effectively across your organization.
      • Consider how to integrate and deliver services using resources effectively and strategically.

    Implement the Next-Generation IT Operating Model Research & Tools

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

    1. Implement the Next-Generation IT Operating Model Deck – The next generation operating model for organizations embracing exponential IT.

    This research piece is for any IT leaders looking to support the organization in its post-transformation state by focusing on the customer experience when operating. CIOs struggling with outdated IT operating models can demonstrate true partnership with this digital services next-generation IT operating model.

    • Implement the Next-Generation IT Operating Model Storyboard

    2. Exponential IT Operating Model Readiness Assessment – A tool to assess your organization’s readiness to adopt this next generation of IT operating models.

    Use this tool to determine whether your organization has the fundamental components necessary to support the adoption of an Exponential IT operating model.

    • Exponential IT Operating Model Readiness Assessment

    3. Career Vision Roadmap Tool – A template to create a simple visual roadmap of your desired career progression from CIO to chief digital services officer (CDSO).

    Use this template to create a roadmap on how to transform your career from CIO to CDSO leveraging key strengths and relationships. Focus on opportunities to demonstrate IT’s maturity and the customer experience at the forefront of your decisions.

    • Career Vision Roadmap
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Implement the Next-Generation IT Operating Model

    The operating model for organizations embracing Exponential IT and transforming into technology-first enterprises.

    Analyst Perspective

    Be the organization that can thrive in an exponential IT world.

    A picture of Carlene McCubbin A picture of Brittany Lutes

    Carlene McCubbin
    Research Practice Lead
    CIO Organizational
    Transformation Practice
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Brittany Lutes
    Research Director,
    CIO Organization Transformation Practice
    Info-Tech Research Group

    IT leaders are increasingly expected to be responsible for understanding and delivering high-value customer experiences. This evolution depends on the distribution and oversight of IT capabilities that are embedded throughout the organizational structure.

    Defining digital strategic objectives, establishing governance frameworks for an autonomous culture, and enabling the organization to act on insightful data are all impossible without a new way of operating that involves the oversight and accountability of advancing IT roles. Through exponential change, functional groups can lose clarity regarding their responsibilities, creating a sense of ambiguity and disorder.

    But adopting a new way of working that supports an exponential IT organization does not have to be difficult. Leveraging Info-Tech Research Group's next-generation operating model, you can clearly demonstrate how the organization will collaborate to deliver on the various digital and IT services. This is no longer just an IT operating model, but a technology-first enterprise model.

    Included in this blueprint:

    Exponential IT Model

    Defines how the Exponential IT model operates and delivers value to the organization.
    This is done by exploring:

    • Exponential IT cultural norms and behaviors
    • Opportunities and risks of the Exponential IT model
    • A breakdown of the embedded, integrated, and centralized aspects of the model
    • Operating model value stream stages
    • An assessment on whether the Exponential IT operating model is right for your organization

    Changing Role of IT Leader

    Defines how chief information officers (CIOs) can operate or elevate their role in this changing operating model.

    • Identifies why the C-suite is changing – again
    • How IT leaders should consider where they will add value in the new operating model
    • Outlines examples of future organization-wide structures and where IT roles are positioned
    • Supports IT leaders in developing themselves to operate in this structure

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    IT is challenged to change how it operates to better support evolving organizations. IT must:

    • Consider the needs of customers, end users, and organization stakeholders simultaneously.
    • Leverage resources strategically to support the various IT and digital services being offered.
    • Create a digital services enablement office to design, monitor, and enhance services continuously.

    While many organizations have projects that support a digital strategy, few have an operating model that supports this digital services strategy.

    Common Obstacles

    Organizations struggle to support the definition and ongoing maintenance of services because:

    • The organization's Digital and IT services offerings are not clear.
    • The functional team accountable to deliver on each IT or Digital service is ambiguous.
    • There are insufficient resources to support all the IT and Digital services being offered.
    • C-suite leaders required to support the services are missing or in the wrong role to effectively lead.
    • Technology has not been standardized to ensure consistency and effectiveness.

    Info-Tech's Approach

    Embrace the IT operating model that focuses on the enablement and delivery of Digital and IT services by:

    • Having technology stakeholders actively collaborate to decide on priorities and deliver on objectives.
    • Leveraging data more effectively across the organization to understand and meet user needs.
    • Ensuring technology architecture and security standards are well-established and followed by all throughout the organization.
    • Allocating dedicated and skilled resources to ensure services can be continuously delivered.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The first IT operating model where customer engagement with IT and Digital Services is at the forefront.

    What is an operating model?

    An IT operating model is a visual representation of the way your IT organization will function using a clear and coherent blueprint. This visualization demonstrates how capabilities are organized and aligned to deliver on the business mission and strategic and technological objectives.

    The should visualize the optimization and alignment of the IT organization to deliver the capabilities required to achieve business goals. Additionally, it should demonstrate the workflow so key stakeholders can understand where inputs flow in and outputs flow out of the IT organization. Investing time in the front-end to get the operating model right is critical. This will give you a framework to rationalize future organizational changes, allowing you to be more iterative and your model to change as the business changes.

    An image of a sample Operating Model


    From computerization to digitization to the new frontier in autonomization, IT has progressively matured, enabling it to actively lead this next stage of business transformation.

    EXPONENTIAL RISK
    Autonomous processes will integrate with human-led processes, creating risks to business continuity, information security, and quality of delivery. Supplier power will exacerbate business risks.

    EXPONENTIAL REWARD
    The efficiency gains and new value chains created through artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and additive manufacturing will be very significant. Most of this value will be realized through the augmentation of human labor.

    EXPONENTIAL DEMAND
    Autonomous solutions for productivity and back-office applications will eventually become commoditized and provided by a handful of large vendors. There will, however, be a proliferation of in-house algorithms and workflows to autonomize the middle and front office, offered by a busy landscape of industry-centric capability vendors.

    EXPONENTIAL IT

    Exponential IT involves IT leading the cognitive re-engineering of the organization with evolved practices for:

    • IT governance
    • Asset management
    • Vendor management
    • Data management
    • Business continuity management
    • Information security management

    To learn more about IT's journey into autonomization, check out Info-Tech Research Group's Adopt an Exponential IT Mindset blueprint.

    The IT operating model must evolve to respond to exponential change

    • Ensuring customers are not an afterthought to IT leaders. Customers inform how and where IT leaders invest resources to realize organizational objectives.
    • Adopting a formalized approach to service definition and delivery to eliminate silos.
    • Leveraging data throughout the organization to better inform and enable the various digital services in meeting customer demands.
    • Responding to employee demands for development and training opportunities by applying skills in new settings.
    • Having cross-collaboration mechanisms built into the ways of operating to reduce silos across the organization.
    • Enabling services through a strong set of governance and risk mandates and practices.
    • Eliminating the need for IT capabilities to only be within an IT department.

    IT can no longer be just a service provider:

    78% of IT leaders with established digital strategies and 45% of IT leaders with emerging digital strategies are driven by customer experiences.
    Source: Foundry "Digital Business Study,"2023

    40% - The number of CIOs that are responsible for creating new products or services to support revenue generation.
    Source: Foundry, "The State of the CIO," 2023

    This change requires a breakdown of traditional IT-business divisions

    CIOs must recognize that separating IT from the business is restrictive

    • Many organizations have recently completed or are in the process of completing a digital transformation focused on enhanced employee and customer experiences.
    • Post-transformation organizations must change how they operate to continue to deliver on those enhanced experiences, especially for the customer.
    • There must no longer be a wall between IT and the business, but a unified organization offering digital services that include IT components. Already, 81% of work is being performed across the functional boundaries created in an organization (Deloitte, 2023).
    • Effectively designing, delivering, and maintaining these services depends on a Digital Services functional layer, expanding IT's involvement into how the business delivers worthwhile experiences to customers.
    • This Digital Services functional layer will consider whether the new services are better owned by the IT group or another area of the organization.
    • CIOs need to be prepared to adopt a new way of operating or be left to manage a smaller subset of IT functions.

    "I think we've done the IT industry a disservice by constantly referring to IT and the business, artificially creating this wedge."
    – David Vidoni, VP of IT at Pegasystems
    Source: Dan Roberts, CIO, 2023

    Four trends driving an Exponential IT organization include:

    Emerging Technologies

    • 67% of respondents to KPMG's 2022 Global Tech Survey indicated they intend to embrace emerging platforms by the end of 2024.(1)
    • The technology landscape is constantly shifting with artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, 5G cellular networks, and next-generation robotics. Each of these technologies requires new capabilities and a new way in which those capabilities are organized.

    Enhanced Customer Experiences

    • 24% of CIOs have been tasked by their CEO to increase the customer experience.(3)
    • Organizations realize that to gain and retain customers, it has become necessary to consistently evaluate service offerings and identify opportunities for enhancement or new services.

    Digital Trust

    • 1/3 of CISOs plan to increase their GRC focus during the next year and 36% have already begun to implement Zero Trust components.(2)
    • Risk and security capabilities mature focusing on defined enterprise accountability, consideration of ethics and inclusivity and proactive security controls.

    Embedded Technology & Skills

    • Spending on embedded software is expected to increase to $21.5 billion by 2027.(4)
    • The technology strategy no longer resides solely within IT. The organization must take ownership of this strategy while they define their digital strategies. Technology services are also embedded.

    (1) "Global Tech Survey," KPMG, 2022
    (2) "Global Digital Trust Insights Report," PwC, 2023
    (3) "State of IT Report," Foundry, 2023
    (4) "Global surge in embedded software demand; here is why," DAC Digital, 2023

    Application of the Four Key Trends on your Exponential IT operating model:

    Respond to Emerging Technology In response to changing customer demands, organizations need to actively seek, assess, and integrate emerging technology offerings easily and effectively. By governing data at an enterprise level and implementing the necessary guardrails in the form of architecture and security standards at the technology layer, it becomes easier to adopt new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI). This should be tied to any mandated objectives.
    Build Digital Trust Capabilities Finding and hiring the right security professionals has long been a challenge for organizations. In the Exponential IT model, focus on security oversight increases and fewer operational resources are required. The model sees governing IT security processes and vendor delivery as priorities to enable the right technology without exposing the organization to undue risk. There should be more security-related capabilities in your Exponential IT model.
    Elevate the Customer Experience Evolving the organization's digital offering requires understanding of and active response to the changing demands of customers. This is accomplished by leveraging information from organization-wide data sources and the modular components of the organization's current digital offerings. The components can be reconfigured (or new ones added) to create digital services for the customer.
    Formalize Embedded Business Technology & Roles Technology is actively included in the organization's business (digital) strategy. This ensures that technology remains an embedded component of how the organization competes in the market, supplies invaluable services, and delivers on strategic objectives. The separation of IT from the organization becomes redundant.
    Visualize your IT Operating Model.

    Adopting an Exponential IT operating model is typically influenced by resonating with the following drivers:

    Culture

    IT Strategy & Objectives

    Organization Operating Model

    Organization Size & Structure

    Perception of IT

    Risk Appetite

    A cooperative and innovative culture where the organization does not feel constrained by current processes. Establishing a growth mindset across all the organization's groups is reflected by the trust service owners receive.

    Focused on delivering the best customer experience. The roadmap would include ample opportunities to better support the customer in obtaining or exceeding the degree of value they receive from the organization.

    Empowering service owners across the organization to be accountable for the delivery and value of their services. Lots of collaboration among stakeholders who know what services are offered and how those services leverage technology.

    More appropriate for larger organizations due to the resources required to design and enable successful services. IT resources would also be pooled by skills.

    IT is not a service provider but an equal that enables the organization's success. Without IT involvement, digital services may be omitted and opportunities to enhance the customer experience would be missed.

    While innovation and new service offerings are critical to success, there are functional groups that remain focused on defining the level of risk tolerance that supports the appropriate risk appetite to consider new service offerings.

    Section 1: The Next-Generation Operating Model

    The Technology Value Trinity

    Delivery of Business Value & Strategic Needs

    I&T OPERATING MODEL

    DIGITAL & TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY

    I&T GOVERNANCE

    The model for how IT is organized to deliver on business needs and strategies.

    The identification of objectives and initiatives necessary to achieve business goals.

    Ensures the organization and its customers extract maximum value from the use of information and technology.

    All three elements of the Technology Value Trinity work together to deliver business value and achieve strategic needs. As one changes, the others must change as well.
    How do these three elements relate?

    • I&T Operating Model aligns resources, processes, measures, stakeholders, value streams, and decision rights to enable the delivery of your strategy and priorities. This is done by strategically structuring IT capabilities in a way that enables the organization's vision and considers the context in which the model will operate.
    • Digital and IT Strategy tells you what you must achieve to be successful. For an Exponential IT organization, customer demands and digital service offerings would drive strategic decisions.
    • I&T Governance is the confirmation of IT's goals and strategy, which ensures the alignment of IT and business strategy. This is the mechanism by which you continuously prioritize work so that what is delivered aligns with the strategy.

    Strategy, operating models, and governance are too often considered separate practices – strategies are defined without clarity on how to support. A significant change to your strategy necessitates a change to your operating model, which in turn necessitates a change to your governance and organizational structure.

    The Exponential IT operating model delivers value across seven components

    Exponential IT

    Capabilities

    Products, Services and Technology

    Performance Measures

    Stakeholder Engagement & Collaboration

    Decision Rights & Authority

    Value Streams

    Sourcing

    IT capabilities in the Exponential IT model are spread across the organization. The result removes the separation between IT and the organization. Instead, the organization takes accountability for ensuring technology capabilities are delivered.

    Digital service offerings dominate this model, focusing on providing better experiences for customers. Some technology platforms are specific to a service such as access management, while others span service offerings such as architecture or security.

    This model's success is measured by the overall ability to satisfy the customer experience through designing and delivering the right digital service offerings. Service owners are responsible for continuously monitoring and advancing the delivery of the service.

    The end-customer is the main stakeholder for this operating model, where understanding their needs and demands informs the design, maintenance, and improvement of all services. There is no longer IT vs. the business but an organizational perspective of services.

    This model's decision-making spans the organization. The service owners of digital offerings have authority and autonomy deciding which services to design, how they should be integrated with other services, and how those services will continually deliver value to customers.

    Exponential IT's five core value streams are:

    1. Identifying and prioritizing customer needs
    2. Designing IT and Digital Services
    3. Enabling IT & Digital Service success
    4. Assigning skilled employees to deliver services
    5. Owning & managing services

    Internal resource pools might need to be supplemented with contract resources when demand exceeds capacity, requiring a strong partnership with the Vendor Management Team. Service owners will also need to engage and manage the performance of their vendor solution partners.

    Organizations adopting the Exponential IT Model will experience new norms and behaviors

    Customer-Centric
    Dedicated to the customer experience and making sure that the end customer is considered first and foremost.

    "Yes" Approach
    The organization can say yes to emerging technology and customer desires because it has organized itself to be agile in its digital service offerings.

    Digital Service Ownership
    Digital service offerings are owned and managed across the organization ensuring the continuous delivery of value to customers.

    Employee Development
    Resources are organized into pods based on specific skills or functions increasing the likelihood of adopting new skills.

    Autonomization
    Centralized and accessible data provides service owners autonomy when making informed decisions that support enhanced customer experiences.

    Exponential IT is an embedded model approach

    Info-Tech has identified seven common IT operating model archetypes. Each model represents a different approach to who delivers technology services and how. Each model is designed to drive different outcomes, as the way your organization is structured will dictate the way it behaves. The Exponential IT model is an emerging archetype which capitalizes on embedded delivery.

    An image of the exponential IT embedded model approach.

    Centralized

    Shifted

    Embedded

    Owned and operated by leadership within IT. IT takes full responsibility of the functional areas and maintains control over the outcomes.

    Can be owned/operated by a variety of leadership roles throughout the organization. This can shift from IT ownership to other organizational leadership. Decisions about ownership are often made to enable quick response or mitigate risks.

    Owned/operated by leadership outside of traditional IT. Another area of the organization has taken authoritative power over the outcome of this functional area for a quicker response.

    Even as an embedded IT operating model, shifted and centralized IT functions as support

    1. Embedded functions required for scaled autonomation
      Definition and oversight of the organization's strategic direction demonstrated through a customer-first culture, data insights, and a well-defined risk appetite.
    2. Integrated design and optimization of the digital service offering
      Actively considers the customer experience and designs the appropriate services to be delivered. Considers all aspects in the design and delivery of services by exploring opportunities to integrate components to enhance customer experiences or architecting new service offerings to eliminate gaps.
    3. Centralized standards for IT technology, security & resources
      Technology functions continue to deliver exceptional services to the enterprise including clear standards for technology and solution architecture, application of security requirements, and resources to enable various service offerings.

    Opportunities and risks of the Exponential IT model

    Opportunities

    Risks
    • Focused on the end-customer experience and how to ensure that customer remains satisfied and loyal to the organization.
    • The capability center allows resources to be used strategically according to where they would most improve the customer experience.
    • Services are owned by the most appropriate areas within the organization—sometimes IT and other times not. In either case, services should always possess technological knowledge.
    • The organization's transformation strategy is not just driving IT's strategy but how IT should be organized and operating. This eliminates disconnect from larger strategic objectives.
    • Data intelligence and customer insights enable the shifted and centralized areas of the operating model to deliver effective and valuable experiences for all stakeholders.
    • Requires a high degree of maturity to support a variety of individuals in owning IT and digital capabilities.
    • Organizational buy-in to this operating model archetype is a must. IT cannot select this operating model without that support.
    • Processes around how all IT and Digital Services consider security and technology standards need to be well-documented and enforceable.
    • Depending on which leaders oversee the three areas of the model (embedded, shifted, or centralized), power struggles could occur which negatively impact services.
    • This model will demand governance, risk, and culture to be at the forefront of how it operates. If an accountability framework does not exist, expect this model to fail.

    The Exponential IT operating model blends embedded, shifted and centralized delivery to balance agility & risk

    An image of the Exponential IT Operating Model.

    The Exponential IT model commands a new placement and significance of IT capabilities

    Using capabilities for the operating model

    • Capabilities are focused on the entire system that would be in place to satisfy a particular need. This not only includes the people who are able to complete a specific task, but the technology, processes, and resources required to deliver.
    • Focusing on capabilities rather than the individuals in organizational redesign enables a more objective and holistic view of what your organization is striving toward.
    • Capabilities deliver on specific need(s) and how they are organized changes the way those needs are delivered.
    The Exponential IT principles as an image: Strategy and Governance, Financial Management, Service Planning and Architecture, People and Resources, Security and Risk, Applications, Data and Analytics, Infrastructure and Operations, and PPM and Projects.

    1. Embedded functions required for autonomization

    Overview of the function:

    • Focuses on a single strategy and roadmap for the organization that actively includes technology.
    • Governance, risk, compliance, and general oversight are defined and embedded throughout the organization.
    • Ensures that quality data is being generated to help inform the defined digital service offering.
    • Readies the organization to adopt emerging technology quickly and with minimal disruption to other digital service offerings.
    • A team of technical experts that decides what information should exist for operational efficiency or service innovation.

    Embedded functions required for autonomization

    2. Integrated design and optimization of the digital service offering

    Overview of the function:

    • Analyzes and responds to insights about the customer experience.
    • Maintains the portfolio of the organization's digital service offerings.
    • Considers what is necessary to operate efficiently as an organization while simultaneously exploring emerging technology to optimize new or existing digital services.
    • Requires the expertise and involvement of both business-minded and technology-skilled resources.
    • The differentiating factor from other IT operating models is how it holistically considers all the components throughout the organization and how they are connected.

    Integrated design and optimization of the digital service offering

    3. Centralized standards for IT technology, security & resources

    Overview of the function:

    • Compared with other IT operating model archetypes, the Exponential IT model has fewer capabilities that are centralized within the technology function of an organization.
    • Architecture and standards are the foundation of successful embedded delivery, ensuring reuse, improved integration, and a unified experience. This includes technology, risk, data, AI and security architecture, models, and standards.
    • Employee resources are also organized in pods to be leveraged based on greatest need and skills availability.
    • This lets the organization be more agile when innovating and implementing new digital service offerings.

    Centralized standards for IT technology, security & resources

    Exponential IT explores new value stream stages

    Customer Perspective

    The organization is continually anticipating their wants and needs and establishing mechanisms to vocalize those needs.

    Customer receives the right IT and digital services to respond to their needs.

    The service is easy to use and continuously responds to wants and needs.

    The service is meeting expectations or exceeding them.

    There is a dedicated service owner who can hear demands and feedback, then action desirable outcomes.

    Value Stream Stages

    An image of the Value Stream

    Organizational Perspective

    Expected Outcome

    Customers' wants and needs are understood and at times anticipated before the customer requests them.

    Assess needs to determine if service is already offered or needs to be created. Design services that will enhance the customer experience.

    Look for opportunities to integrate processes and resources to increase the performance of IT and Digital Services.

    Ensure that the right employees with the right skills are working to develop or enhance service offering.

    The service owner manages the ongoing lifecycle of the service and establishes a roadmap on how value will continue to be delivered.

    Critical Processes

    • Customer experience
    • Research and innovation
    • Stakeholder management
    • Research and innovation
    • Service design & portfolio management
    • Performance management
    • Continuous improvement
    • Integration planning
    • Service management
    • Resource planning and allocation
    • Service strategy & roadmap
    • Service governance
    • Service performance management

    Metrics

    • Customer satisfaction score
    • Service-to-need alignment
    • Gaps in service portfolio
    • Speed to design services
    • Service performance
    • Service adoption
    • Time to resolve customer demand
    • Frequency by which service requires enhancements
    • Service satisfaction
    • Alignment of service strategy to organization strategy

    1.1 Assess if the Exponential IT operating model is right for your organization

    1 hour

    1. Begin by downloading the Exponential IT Operating Model Assessment.
    2. Review the questions within each of the operating model components. For each question, use the drop-down menu to determine your level of agreement.
    3. The more your organization agrees with the statements, the more likely your organization is prepared to implement an Exponential IT operating model.
    4. The less your organization agrees with the statements, the more likely you should adopt a different IT operating model.
    5. For support implementing the Exponential IT or another IT operating model, explore the Visualize Your IT Operating Model blueprint (coming soon).

    Input

    • Desire to change the organization's IT & Digital operating model

    Output

    • Desire to implement the IT & Digital Service Enablement operating model

    Materials

    • Exponential IT Operating Model Assessment

    Participants

    • Executive IT leadership
    • Business leadership

    Explore other Info-Tech research to support your organization transformation initiatives

    Visualize the IT Operating Model blueprint (coming soon)

    Visualize the IT Operating Model blueprint (coming soon)

    Redesign Your IT Organizational Structure

    Redesign Your IT Organizational Structure

    Section 2: Elevating the CIO Role

    The next generation of IT C-suite roles are here

    As the operating model changes and becomes increasingly embedded into the organization's delivery of IT and Digital Services, new C-suite roles are being defined

    • One of the most critical roles being defined in this change is the Chief Digital Services Officer (CDSO) who focuses on all components of the digital experience from the lens of the customer.
    • There are two directions from which the CDSO role is typically approached as it gains popularity:
      • CIOs evolve beyond just information and technology—focusing on how IT & Digital Services enhance the customer experience
      • Business leaders who have technical know-how increase their involvement and responsibility over IT related functions
    • IT leaders need to consider where they would rather sit: focused only on technology and remaining a service provider to the organization, or embedding technology into the services, products, and organization in general?

    60%

    The number of APAC CIOs who can anticipate their job to be challenged by their peers within the organization.

    Source: Singh, Yashvendra, CIO, 2023.

    Info-Tech Insight

    This is not about making the CIO report to someone else but allowing the CIO to elevate their role into that of a CDSO.

    Increasing IT leadership's span of control throughout the organization

    As maturity increases so does span of control, ownership & executive influence

    Organizations hoping to fully adopt the Exponential IT operating model require a shift in leadership expectations. Notably, these leaders will have oversight and accountability for functions beyond the traditional IT group.

    As the organization matures its governance, security, and data management practices, increasing how it delivers high-impact experiences to customers, it would have one leader who owns all the components to ensure clear alignment with goals and business strategy.

    An image of a graph where the X axis is labeled Span of Control & Influence, and the Y axis is Organization Maturity.

    Emerging Exponential IT organizations will have distributed authority

    • Organizations beginning their transition toward an exponential model often continue to have distributed leaders providing oversight of distinct functional areas.
    • Their spans of control are smaller, but very clearly defined, eliminating confusion through a transparent accountability framework.
    • Each leader strives toward optimization and efficiency regarding IT capabilities, for which they are responsible.
    1. Distributed Leadership
      Embedded functions required for scaled autonomation
      Distributed leaders identify the ways technology will enable them to advance enterprise objectives while maintaining autonomy over their own functions. They may oversee technology.
    2. Experience Officer
      Integrated design and optimization of the digital service offering
      An Experience Officer will help consider the insights gained from enterprise data and make informed decisions around enterprise service offerings. They actively explore new ways to deliver high-value experiences.
    3. Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
      Centralized standards for IT technology, security & resources
      A CTO will continue to oversee the core technology, including infrastructure and service management functions.

    Established organizations will be driven by a digital transformation journey

    • Organizations that have begun to deliver on their transformation journey will typically see two distinct C-suite leaders emerge—the CIO and the CDO.
    • The Chief Digital Officer (CDO) often explores ways to optimize the integration and management of data to enable insightful decision making from the organization.
    • The Chief Information Officer (CIO), however, considers mechanisms to standardize how new technologies can be integrated with the architecture.
    • While both leaders have distinct responsibilities, their roles intersect at the customer experience.

    An image of the digital transformation journey

    Advanced organizations will be managed by a single emerging role

    • A single leader will oversee all the functional areas where value is delivered and enabled by IT capabilities.
    • Through a large span of control, this leader can holistically consider opportunities to optimize the customer experience and ensure recommendations are actioned to deliver on that enhanced experience.
    • This leader's span of control will require a strong understanding of both strategic and operational functions to authoritatively oversee all aspects for which they are responsible.

    CDSO – Chief Digital Service Officer

    1. Embedded functions required for scaled autonomation
      The CDSO will set, oversee, and manage the delivery of an enterprise's digital strategy, ensuring accountability through good governance and data practices.
    2. Integrated design and optimization of the digital service offering
      They ensure that the enterprise holistically considers the various services that could be offered to exceed customer expectations through high-impact experiences.
    3. Centralized standards for IT technology, security & resources
      They also ensure stable and secure architecture standards to enable consistency across the organization and a seamless ability to integrate new technology to support service offerings.

    Evolution of the IT C-suite now includes the CDSO

    Chief Digital Service Officer

    Chief Information Officer

    Chief Digital Officer

    Chief Technology Officer

    Chief Experience Officer

    Main Stakeholder(s):

    • Board
    • CEO/Executive Leadership
    • Organization Leadership
    • Service Owners
    • Customers & End Users

    Main Responsibilities:

    • Oversight of the entire portfolio of IT and Digital Services
    • Use of information & technology to meet organizational objectives

    *Some leaders in this role are being called Chief Digital Information Officer.

    Main Stakeholder(s):

    • Board
    • CEO/Executive Leadership
    • Organization Leadership
    • End Users

    Main Responsibilities:

    • Oversight of the information and technology required to support and enable the organization

    Main Stakeholder(s):

    • Board
    • CEO/Executive Leadership
    • Customers & End Users

    Main Responsibilities:

    • Oversight on transforming how the organization uses technology, often considering customer perspectives

    Main Stakeholder(s):

    • Organization Leadership
    • Customers & End Users

    Main Responsibilities:

    • Collaborating with the CIO, the CTO leads the organization's ability to integrate and adopt necessary technology products and services

    Main Stakeholder(s):

    • Customers & End Users

    Main Responsibilities:

    • Establish the customer experience strategy
    • Create policies to support that strategy
    • Collaborate with other organizational leaders to integrate any activities around the customer experience

    Examples of what the emerging organizational structure can look like

    An image of three hierarchies, showing what the emerging organizational structure can look like.

    This is more than a new title for IT leaders

    It's about establishing a business first perspective

    • IT leaders exploring this new way of operating are not just adopting the new title of CDSO or CDIO.
    • These leaders must change how information, technology, and digital experiences are consumed across the various stakeholders – especially the end customer.
    • IT leaders who pursue this new IT operating model choose to be more than order takers for an organization.
    • They are:
      • Partners in defining the organization's digital service offerings
      • Recognizing the benefits of distributing decision-making authority for IT-related aspects to others throughout the organization
      • Prioritizing capabilities like portfolio management, architecture, vendor management, relationship management, cloud and user experience

    "'For me, the IT portfolio for the next few years and the IT architecture have taken the place that IT strategy used to have,' he adds. This view doesn't position IT outside of the organization, but rather gives it central importance in the company."
    – Bernd Rattey, Group CIO and CDO of Deutsche Bahn (DB), qtd. by Jens Dose, CIO, 2023

    1.2 Plan your career move to CDSO

    1-3 hours

    • Create a roadmap on how to move from your current role to CDSO by identifying current strengths and opportunities to improve.
    • Download the Career Vision Roadmap Tool from the website. An example of this is on the next slide.
    • Document the tagline. This is your overarching career focus and goal – what is your passion? Think beyond titles to what you want to be doing, the atmosphere you want to be in, and what you want to add value to.
    • Document the current role: what are the strengths, achievements and opportunities?
    • Consider the CDSO role: how will you build stronger relationships and competencies to elevate your profile within the organization? What is an example of what someone would display in this role?
    • Define specific roles or stakeholders that you should develop a stronger relationship with.

    Download the Career Vision Roadmap Tool

    Input

    • Desire to implement the IT & Digital Service Enablement Operating Model

    Output

    • Roadmap to elevate from a CIO to a CDSO

    Materials

    • Career Vision Roadmap
    • IT & Digital Services Enablement operating model archetype
    • CDSO job profile

    Participants

    • CIO (or any other role aspiring to eventually become a CDSO)
    • Individual activity

    Career Vision Roadmap:
    Executive Leader
    Akbar K.

    Sample

    To provide customers with an exceptional experience by ensuring all IT and Digital Services consider and anticipate their needs or wants. Enable IT and Digital Services to be successful through clear leadership, strong collaboration, and continuous improvement or innovation.

    CIO

    1. Establish technology standards that enable the organization to consistently and securely integrate platforms or solutions.
    2. Lead the project team that defined and standardized the organization's reference architecture.
    3. Need to work on listening to a variety of stakeholder demands rather than only specific roles/titles.

    Transition

    • Strengths: Technology acumen, budget planning, allocating resources
    • Enhance: Stakeholder relationship management.
    • Work with current CDO to define and implement more digital transformation initiatives.

    CDSO

    • Being responsive to customer expectations and communicating clear and realistic timelines.
    • Establish trust among the organization that services will deliver expected value.
    • Empowering service owners to manage and oversee the delivery of their services.

    Network Opportunities

    • Connect with board members and understand each of their key areas of priority.
    • Begin to interact with end customers and define ways that will enhance their customer experience.
    • Chief Digital Officer

    Actions now in line with aspiration

    Appendix: Capabilities & Capability Model

    IT and digital capabilities

    Using capabilities for the operating model:

    • Capabilities are focused on the entire system that would be in place to satisfy a particular need. This not only includes people who have skills to complete a specific task, but also the technology, processes, and resources required to deliver.
    • Focusing on capabilities rather than the individuals in organizational redesign enables a more objective and holistic view of what your organization is striving toward.
    • Capabilities deliver on specific need(s) and how they are organized changes the way those need(s) are delivered.

    An image of the IT Management and Governance Framework.

    Strategic Direction

    • IT Governance
    • Strategic Planning
    • Digital Strategy
    • Performance Measurement
    • IT Management & Policies
    • Organizational Quality Management
    • R&D and Innovation
    • Stakeholder Management

    People & Resources

    • Strategic Communications
    • People Resource Management
    • Workforce Strategy & Planning
    • Organizational Change Enablement
    • Adoption & Training
    • Financial/Budget Management
    • Vendor Portfolio Management
    • Vendor Selection & Contract Management
    • Vendor Performance Management

    Architecture & Integration

    • Enterprise Architecture Delivery
    • Business Architecture Delivery
    • Solution Architecture Delivery
    • Technology Architecture
    • Data Architecture
    • Security Architecture
    • Process Integration
    • Integration Planning

    Service Planning

    • Service Governance
    • Service Strategy & Roadmap
    • Service Management
    • Service Governance
    • Service Performance Measurement
    • Service Design & Planning
    • Service Orchestration

    Security & Risk

    • Security Strategic Planning
    • Risk Management
    • External Compliance Management
    • Security Response & Recovery Management
    • Security Management
    • Controls & Internal Audit Planning
    • Security Defense Operations
    • Security Administration
    • Cybersecurity Threat Intelligence
    • Integrated Physical/IT Security
    • OT/IoT Security
    • Data Protection & Privacy

    Application Delivery

    • Application Lifecycle Management
    • Systems Integration Management
    • Application Development
    • User Experience
    • Quality Assurance & UAT
    • Application Maintenance
    • Low Code Development

    Project Portfolio Management

    • Demand Management
    • Requirement Analysis Management
    • Portfolio Management
    • Project Management

    Data & Business Intelligence (BI)

    • Reporting & Analytics
    • Data Management
    • Data Quality
    • Data Integration
    • Enterprise Content Management
    • Data Governance
    • Data Strategy
    • AI/ML Management

    Service Delivery

    • Operations Management
    • Service Desk Management
    • Incident Management
    • Problem Management
    • Service Enhancements
    • Operational Change Enablement
    • Release Management
    • Automation Management

    Infrastructure & Operations

    • Asset Management
    • Infrastructure Portfolio Strategic Planning
    • Availability & Capacity Management
    • Network & Infrastructure Management
    • Configuration Management
    • Cloud Orchestration
    An image of the summary slide for this blueprint, with the headings: Centralized; Shifted; and Embedded.

    Research Contributors and Experts

    Donna Bales
    Principal Research Director
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Scott Bickley
    Practice Lead – Vendor Management Practice
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Christine Coz
    Executive Counselor – Executive Services
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Valence Howden
    Principal Research Director
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Duraid Ibrahim
    Executive Counselor – Executive Services
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Chris Goodhue
    Managing Partner– Executive Services
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Carlene McCubbin
    Practice Lead – CIO Practice
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Mike Tweedie
    Practice Lead – CIO Practice
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Vicki van Alphen
    Executive Counselor – Executive Services
    Info-Tech Research Group

    *Plus an additional 5 industry experts who anonymously contributed to this research piece.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Adopt an Exponential IT Mindset

    • To succeed in the coming business transformation, IT will have to adopt different priorities in its mission, governance, capabilities, and partnerships.
    • CIOs will have to provide exceptionally mature services while owning business targets.

    Become a Transformational CIO

    • Business transformations are happening, but CIOs are often involved only when it comes time to implement change. This makes it difficult for the CIO to be perceived as an organizational leader.
    • Elevate your stature as a business leader.
    • Create a high-powered IT organization that is focused on driving lasting change, improving client experiences, and encouraging collaboration across the entire enterprise.

    Define Your Digital Business Strategy

    • Design a strategy that applies innovation to your business model, streamline and transform processes, and make use of technologies to enhance interactions with customers and employees.
    • Pre-pandemic digital strategies have been primarily focused on automation. However, your post-pandemic digital strategy must focus on driving resilience for growth opportunities.

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    Spacey, John. "16 Examples of IT Services." Simplicable, 28 January 2018. https://simplicable.com/IT/it-services

    Create an Architecture for AI

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    • Parent Category Name: Data Management
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    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

    Leadership Workshop Overview

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    • Parent Category Name: Leadership Development Programs
    • Parent Category Link: /leadership-development-programs

    Leadership has evolved over time. The velocity of change has increased and leadership for the future looks different than the past.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Development of the leadership mind should never stop. This program will help IT leaders continue to craft their leadership competencies to navigate the ever-changing world in which we operate.

    Impact and Result

    • Embrace and lead change through active sharing, transparency, and partnerships.
    • Encourage growth mindset to enhance innovative ideas and go past what has always been done.
    • Actively delegate responsibilities and opportunities that engage and develop team members to build on current skills and prepare for the future.

    Leadership Workshop Overview Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Workshop Overview

    Read our concise Workshop Overview to find out how this program can support the development needs of your IT leadership teams.

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

    • Info-Tech Leadership Workshop Overview
    [infographic]

    Master the Public Cloud IaaS Acquisition Models

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    • Parent Category Name: Vendor Management
    • Parent Category Link: /vendor-management

    Understanding the differences in IaaS platform agreements, purchasing options, associated value, and risks. What are your options for:

    • Upfront or monthly payments
    • Commitment discounts
    • Support options
    • Migration planning and support

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    IaaS platforms offer similar technical features, but they vary widely on their procurement model. By fully understanding the procurement differences and options, you will be able to purchase wisely, save money both long and short term, and mitigate investment risk.

    Most vendors have similar processes and options to buy. Finding a transparent explanation and summary of each platform in a side-by-side review is difficult.

    • Are vendor reps being straight forward?
    • What are the licensing requirements?
    • What discounts or incentives can I negotiate?
    • How much do I have to commit to and for how long?

    Impact and Result

    This project will provide several benefits for both IT and the business. It includes:

    • Best IaaS platform to support current and future procurement requirements.
    • Right-sized cloud commitment tailored to the organization’s budget.
    • Predictable and controllable spend model.
    • Flexible and reliable IT infrastructure that supports the lines of business.
    • Reduced financial and legal risk.

    Master the Public Cloud IaaS Acquisition Models Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to learn how the public cloud IaaS procurement models compare. Review Info-Tech’s methodology and understand the top three platforms, features, and benefits to support and inform the IaaS vendor choice.

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

    1. Educate

    Learn the IaaS basics, terminologies, purchasing options, licensing requirements, hybrid options, support, and organization requirements through a checklist process.

    • Master the Public Cloud IaaS Acquisition Models – Phase 1: Educate
    • Public Cloud Procurement Checklist
    • Microsoft Public Cloud Licensing Guide

    2. Evaluate

    Review and understand the features, downsides, and differences between the big three players.

    • Master the Public Cloud IaaS Acquisition Models – Phase 2: Evaluate
    • Public Cloud Procurement Comparison Summary

    3. Execute

    Decide on a primary vendor that meets requirements, engage with a reseller, negotiate pricing incentives, migration costs, review, and execute the agreement.

    • Master the Public Cloud IaaS Acquisition Models – Phase 3: Execute
    • Public Cloud Acquisition Executive Summary Template

    Infographic

    Extend Agile Practices Beyond IT

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    • Parent Category Name: Architecture & Strategy
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    • Your organization has started to realize benefits from adopting Agile principles and practices. However, these advances are contained within your IT organization.
    • You are seeking to extend Agile development beyond IT into other areas of the organization. You are looking for a coordinated approach aligned to business priorities.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Not all lessons from scaling Agile to IT are transferable. IT Agile scaling processes are tailored to IT’s scope, team, and tools, which may not account for diverse attributes within your organization.
    • Control may be necessary for coordination. With increased time-to-value, enforcing consistent cadences, reporting, and communication is a must if teams are not disciplined or lack good governance.
    • Extend Agile in departments tolerant to change. Incrementally roll out Agile in departments where its principles are accepted (e.g. a culture that embraces failures as lessons).

    Impact and Result

    • Complete an assessment of your prior efforts to scale Agile across IT to gauge successful, consistent adoption. Identify the business objectives and the group drivers that are motivating the extension of Agile to the business.
    • Understand the challenges that you may face when extending Agile to business partners. Investigate the root causes of existing issues that can derail your efforts.
    • Ideate solutions to your scaling challenges and envision a target state for your growing Agile environment. Your target state should realize new opportunities to drive more business value and eliminate current activities driving down productivity.
    • Coordinate the implementation and execution of your scaling Agile initiatives with an implementation action plan. This collaborative document will lay out the process, roles, goals, and objectives needed to successfully manage your Agile environment.

    Extend Agile Practices Beyond IT Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should extend Agile practices to improve product delivery, 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. Assess your readiness to scale agile vertically

    Assess your readiness to scale Agile vertically by identifying and mitigating potential Agile maturity gaps remaining after scaling Agile across your IT organization.

    • Extend Agile Practices Beyond IT – Phase 1: Assess Your Readiness to Scale Agile Vertically
    • Agile Maturity Assessment Tool

    2. Establish an enterprise scaled agile framework

    Complete an overview of various scaled Agile models to help you develop your own customized delivery framework.

    • Extend Agile Practices Beyond IT – Phase 2: Establish an Enterprise Scaled Agile Framework
    • Framework Selection Tool

    3. Create your implementation action plan

    Determine the effort and steps required to implement your extended delivery framework.

    • Extend Agile Practices Beyond IT – Phase 3: Create Your Implementation Action Plan
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Extend Agile Practices Beyond 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 Assess Current State of Agile Maturity

    The Purpose

    Assess your readiness to scale Agile vertically.

    Identify and mitigate potential Agile maturity gaps remaining after scaling Agile across your IT organization.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    IT Agile maturity gaps identified and mitigated to ensure successful extension of Agile to the business

    Activities

    1.1 Characterize your Agile implementation using the CLAIM model.

    1.2 Assess the maturity of your Agile teams and organization.

    Outputs

    Maturity gaps identified with mitigation requirements

    2 Establish an Enterprise Scaled Agile Framework

    The Purpose

    Complete a review of scaled Agile models to help you develop your own customized delivery framework.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A customized Agile delivery framework

    Activities

    2.1 Explore various scaled frameworks.

    2.2 Select an appropriate scaled framework for your enterprise.

    2.3 Define the future state of your team and the communication structure of your functional business group.

    Outputs

    Blended framework delivery model

    Identification of team and communication structure impacts resulting from the new framework

    3 Create Your Implementation Action Plan

    The Purpose

    Create your implementation action plan for the new Agile delivery framework.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A clearly defined action plan

    Activities

    3.1 Define your value drivers.

    3.2 Brainstorm the initiatives that must be completed to achieve your target state.

    3.3 Estimate the effort of your Agile initiatives.

    3.4 Define your Agile implementation action plan.

    Outputs

    List of target state initiatives

    Estimation of effort to achieve target state

    An implementation action 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.

      Select an EA Tool Based on Business and User Need

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}274|cart{/j2store}
      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 10.0/10 Overall Impact
      • member rating average dollars saved: $62,999 Average $ Saved
      • member rating average days saved: 18 Average Days Saved
      • Parent Category Name: Architecture Domains
      • Parent Category Link: /architecture-domains
      • A mature EA function is increasingly becoming an organizational priority to drive innovation, provide insight, and define digital capabilities.
      • Proliferation of digital technology has increased complexity, straining the EA function to deliver insights.
      • An EA tool increases the efficiency with which the EA function can deliver insights, but a large number of organizations have not a selected an EA tool that suits their needs.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • EA tool value largely comes from tying organizational context and requirements to the selection process.
      • Organizations that have selected an EA tool often fail to have it adopted and show its true value. To ensure successful adoption and value delivery, the EA tool selection process must account for the needs of business stakeholders and tool users.

      Impact and Result

      • Link the need for the EA tool to your organization’s EA value proposition. The connection enables the EA tool to address the future needs of stakeholders and the design style of the EA team.
      • Use Info-Tech’s EA Solution Recommendation Tool to create a shortlist of EA tools that is suited to the preferences of the organization.
      • Gather additional information on the shortlist of EA tool vendors to narrow down the selection using the EA Tool Request for Information Template.

      Select an EA Tool Based on Business and User Need Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should procure an EA tool in the digital age, 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:

      • Select an EA Tool Based on Business and User Need – Executive Brief
      • Select an EA Tool Based on Business and User Need – Phases 1-3

      1. Make the case

      Decide if an EA tool is needed in your organization and define the requirements of EA tool users.

      • Select an EA Tool Based on Business and User Need – Phase 1: Make the Case
      • EA Value Proposition Template
      • EA Tool User Requirements Template

      2. Shortlist EA tools

      Determine your organization’s preferences in terms of product capabilities and vendor characteristics.

      • Select an EA Tool Based on Business and User Need – Phase 2: Shortlist EA Tools
      • EA Solution Recommendation Tool

      3. Select and communicate the process

      Gather information on shortlisted vendors and make your final decision.

      • Select an EA Tool Based on Business and User Need – Phase 3: Select and Communicate the Process
      • EA Tool Request for Information Template
      • EA Tool Demo Script Template
      • Request for Proposal (RFP) Template
      • EA Tool Selection Process Template
      [infographic]

      Build a Digital Workspace Strategy

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}294|cart{/j2store}
      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 10.0/10 Overall Impact
      • member rating average dollars saved: $12,399 Average $ Saved
      • member rating average days saved: 10 Average Days Saved
      • Parent Category Name: End-User Computing Strategy
      • Parent Category Link: /end-user-computing-strategy
      • IT must figure out what a digital workspace is, why they’re building one, and what type they want.
      • Remote work creates challenges that cannot be solved by technology alone.
      • Focusing solely on technology risks building something the business doesn’t want or can’t use.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      Building a smaller digital workspace doesn’t mean that the workspace will have a smaller impact on the business.

      Impact and Result

      • Partner with the business to create a team of digital workspace champions.
      • Empower employees with a tool that makes remote work easier.

      Build a Digital Workspace Strategy Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should partner with the business for building a digital workspace, 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 digital workspace you want to build

      Create a list of benefits that the organization will find compelling and build a cross-functional team to champion the workspace.

      • Build a Digital Workspace Strategy – Phase 1: Identify the Digital Workspace You Want to Build
      • Digital Workspace Strategy Template
      • Digital Workspace Executive Presentation Template

      2. Identify high-level requirements

      Design the digital workspace’s value proposition to drive your requirements.

      • Build a Digital Workspace Strategy – Phase 2: Identify High-Level Requirements
      • Sample Digital Workspace Value Proposition
      • Flexible Work Location Policy
      • Flexible Work Time Policy
      • Flexible Work Time Off Policy
      • Mobile Device Remote Wipe Waiver Template
      • Mobile Device Connectivity & Allowance Policy
      • General Security – User Acceptable Use Policy

      3. Identify initiatives and a high-level roadmap

      Take an agile approach to building your digital workspace.

      • Build a Digital Workspace Strategy – Phase 3: Identify Initiatives and a High-Level Roadmap
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Build a Digital Workspace 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 the Digital Workspace You Want to Build

      The Purpose

      Ensure that the digital workspace addresses real problems the business is facing.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Defined benefits that will address business problems

      Identified strategic business partners

      Activities

      1.1 Identify the digital workspace’s direction.

      1.2 Prioritize benefits and define a vision.

      1.3 Assemble a team of digital workspace champions.

      Outputs

      Vision statement

      Mission statement

      Guiding principles

      Prioritized business benefits

      Metrics and key performance indicators

      Service Owner, Business Owner, and Project Sponsor role definitions

      Project roles and responsibilities

      Operational roles and responsibilities

      2 Identify Business Requirements

      The Purpose

      Drive requirements through a well-designed value proposition.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Identified requirements that are based in employees’ needs

      Activities

      2.1 Design the value proposition.

      2.2 Identify required policies.

      2.3 Identify required level of input from users and business units.

      2.4 Document requirements for user experiences, processes, and services.

      2.5 Identify in-scope training and culture requirements.

      Outputs

      Prioritized functionality requirements

      Value proposition for three business roles

      Value proposition for two service provider roles

      Policy requirements

      Interview and focus group plan

      Business process requirements

      Training and culture initiatives

      3 Identify IT and Service Provider Requirements

      The Purpose

      Ensure that technology is an enabler.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Documented requirements for IT and service provider technology

      Activities

      3.1 Identify systems of record requirements.

      3.2 Identify requirements for apps.

      3.3 Identify information storage requirements.

      3.4 Identify management and security integrations.

      3.5 Identify requirements for internal and external partners.

      Outputs

      Requirements for systems for record

      Prioritized list of apps

      Storage system requirements

      Data and security requirements

      Outsourcing requirements

      Secrets of SAP S-4HANA Licensing

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      • Parent Category Name: Vendor Management
      • Parent Category Link: /vendor-management
      • With the relatively slow uptake of the S/4HANA platform, the pressure is immense for SAP to maintain revenue growth.
      • SAP’s definitions and licensing rules are complex and vague, making it extremely difficult to purchase with confidence while remaining compliant.
      • Aggressive audit tactics may be used to speed up the move to HANA.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Mapping SAP products to HANA can be highly complex, leading to overspending and an inability to reduce future spend.
      • The deployment model chosen will directly impact commercial pathways forward.
      • Beware of digital (indirect) access licensing and compliance concerns.
      • Without having a holistic negotiation strategy, it is easy to hit a common obstacle and land into SAP’s playbook, requiring further spend.

      Impact and Result

      • Build a business case to evaluate S/4HANA.
      • Understand the S/4HANA roadmap and map current functionality to ensure compatibility.
      • Understand negotiating pricing and commercial terms.
      • Learn the “SAP way” of conducting business, which includes a best-in-class sales structure, unique contracts, and license use policies combined with a hyper-aggressive compliance function.

      Secrets of SAP S/4HANA Licensing Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should explore the secrets of SAP S/4HANA licensing, 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 requirements

      Determining SAP’s fit within your organization is critical. Start off by building a business case to assess overarching drivers and justification for change, any net new business benefits and long-term sustainability. Oftentimes the ROI is negative, but the investment sets the stage for long-term growth.

      2. Evaluate licensing options

      Your deployment model is more important than you think. Selecting a deployment model will dictate your licensing options followed by your contractual pathways forward.

      • SAP License Summary and Analysis Tool
      • SAP Digital Access Licensing Pricing Tool

      3. Negotiation and license management

      Know what’s in the contract. Each customer agreement is different and there may be existing terms that are beneficial. Depending on how much is spent, anything can be up for negation.

      • SAP S/4HANA Terms and Conditions Evaluator
      [infographic]

      Document Business Goals and Capabilities for Your IT Strategy

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      • Parent Category Name: IT Strategy
      • Parent Category Link: /it-strategy
      • As a strategic driver, IT needs to work with the business. Yet, traditionally IT has not worked hand-in-hand with the business. IT does not know what information it needs from the business to execute on its initiatives.
      • A faster time to new investment decisions mean that IT needs a repeatable and efficient process to understand what the business needs.
      • CIOs must execute strategic initiatives to create an IT function that can support the business. Most CIOs fail because of low business support.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Understanding the business context is a must for all strategic IT initiatives. At its core, each strategic IT project requires answers to a specific set of questions regarding the business.
      • An effective CIO understands which part of the business context applies to which strategic IT project and, in turn, what questions to ask to uncover those insights.

      Impact and Result

      • Uncover what IT knows and needs to know about the business context. This is a necessary first step to begin each of Info-Tech’s strategic IT initiatives, which any CIO should complete.
      • Conduct efficient and repeatable business context discovery activities to uncover business context gaps.
      • Document the business context you have uncovered and streamline the process for executing on Info-Tech’s strategic CIO blueprints.

      Document Business Goals and Capabilities for Your IT Strategy Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should define the business context, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand how we can support you in completing key CIO strategic initiatives.

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

      1. Identify and document the business needs of the organization

      Define the business context needed to complete strategic IT initiatives.

      • Document Business Goals and Capabilities for Your IT Strategy – Storyboard
      • Business Context Discovery Tool
      • Business Context Discovery Record Template
      • PESTLE Analysis Template
      • Strategy Alignment Map Template
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Document Business Goals and Capabilities for Your IT 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 the Missing Business Context (pre-work)

      The Purpose

      Conduct analysis and facilitate discussions to uncover business needs for IT.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      A baseline understanding of what business needs mean for IT

      Activities

      1.1 Define the strategic CIO initiatives our organization will pursue.

      1.2 Complete the Business Context Discovery Tool.

      1.3 Schedule relevant interviews.

      1.4 Select relevant Info-Tech diagnostics to conduct.

      Outputs

      Business context scope

      Completed Business Context Discovery Tool

      Completed Info-Tech diagnostics

      2 Uncover and Document the Missing Context

      The Purpose

      Analyze the outputs from step 1 and uncover the business context gaps.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      A thorough understanding of business needs and why IT should pursue certain initiatives

      Activities

      2.1 Conduct group or one-on-one interviews to identify the missing pieces of the business context.

      Outputs

      Documentation of answers to business context gaps

      3 Uncover and Document the Missing Context

      The Purpose

      Analyze the outputs from step 1 and uncover the business context gaps.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      A thorough understanding of business needs and why IT should pursue certain initiatives

      Activities

      3.1 Conduct group or one-on-one interviews to identify the missing pieces of the business context.

      Outputs

      Documentation of answers to business context gaps

      4 Review Business Context and Next Steps

      The Purpose

      Review findings and implications for IT’s strategic initiative.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      A thorough understanding of business needs and how IT’s strategic initiatives addresses those needs

      Activities

      4.1 Review documented business context with IT team.

      4.2 Discuss next steps for strategic CIO initiative execution.

      Outputs

      Finalized version of the business context

      Optimize Applications Release Management

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      • Parent Category Name: Testing, Deployment & QA
      • Parent Category Link: /testing-deployment-and-qa
      • 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

      Get the Most Out of Your SAP

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      • Parent Category Name: Optimization
      • Parent Category Link: /optimization
      • SAP systems are changed rarely and changing them has significant impact on an organization.
      • Research shows that even newly installed systems often fail to realize their full potential benefit to the organization.
      • Business process improvement is rarely someone’s day job.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      A properly optimized SAP business process will reduce costs and increase productivity.

      Impact and Result

      • Build an ongoing optimization team to conduct application improvements.
      • Assess your SAP application(s) and the environment in which they exist. Take a business first strategy to prioritize optimization efforts.
      • Validate SAP capabilities, user satisfaction, issues around data, vendor management, and costs to build out an optimization strategy.
      • Pull this all together to develop a prioritized optimization roadmap.

      Get the Most Out of Your SAP Research & Tools

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

      1. Get the Most Out of Your SAP Storyboard – A guide to optimize your SAP.

      SAP is a core tool that the business leverages to accomplish its goals. Use this blueprint to strategically re-align business goals, identify business application capabilities, complete a process assessment, evaluate user adoption, and create an optimization plan that will drive a cohesive technology strategy that delivers results.

      • Get the Most Out of Your SAP – Phases 1-4

      2. Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook – A tool to document and assist with optimizing your SAP.

      The Get the Most out of Your SAP Workbook serves as the holding document for the different elements for the Get the Most out of Your SAP blueprint. Use each assigned tab to input the relevant information for the process of optimizing your SAP.

      • Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      Infographic

      Workshop: Get the Most Out of Your SAP

      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 SAP Application Vision

      The Purpose

      Get the most out of your SAP.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Develop an ongoing SAP optimization team.

      Re-align SAP and business goals.

      Understand your current system state capabilities and processes.

      Validate user satisfaction, application fit, and areas of improvement to optimize your SAP.

      Take a 360-degree inventory of your SAP and related systems.

      Realign business and technology drivers. Assess user satisfaction.

      Review the SAP marketplace.

      Complete a thorough examination of capabilities and processes.

      Manage your vendors and data.

      Pull this all together to prioritize optimization efforts and develop a concrete roadmap.

      Activities

      1.1 Determine your SAP optimization team.

      1.2 Align organizational goals.

      1.3 Inventory applications and interactions.

      1.4 Define business capabilities.

      1.5 Explore SAP-related costs.

      Outputs

      SAP optimization team

      SAP business model

      SAP optimization goals

      SAP system inventory and data flow

      SAP process list

      SAP and related costs

      2 Map Current-State Capabilities

      The Purpose

      Map current-state capabilities.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Complete an SAP process gap analysis to understand where the SAP is underperforming.

      Review the SAP application portfolio assessment to understand user satisfaction and data concerns.

      Undertake a software review survey to understand your satisfaction with the vendor and product.

      Activities

      2.1 Conduct gap analysis for SAP processes.

      2.2 Perform an application portfolio assessment.

      2.3 Review vendor satisfaction.

      Outputs

      SAP process gap analysis

      SAP application portfolio assessment

      ERP software reviews survey

      3 Assess SAP

      The Purpose

      Assess SAP.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Learn the processes that you need to focus on.

      Uncover underlying user satisfaction issues to address these areas.

      Understand where data issues are occurring so that you can mitigate this.

      Investigate your relationship with the vendor and product, including that relative to others.

      Identify any areas for cost optimization (optional).

      Activities

      3.1 Explore process gaps.

      3.2 Analyze user satisfaction.

      3.3 Assess data quality.

      3.4 Understand product satisfaction and vendor management.

      3.5 Look for SAP cost optimization opportunities (optional).

      Outputs

      SAP process optimization priorities

      SAP vendor optimization opportunities

      SAP cost optimization

      4 Build the Optimization Roadmap

      The Purpose

      Build the optimization roadmap.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Understanding where you need to improve is the first step, now understand where to focus your optimization efforts.

      Activities

      4.1 SAP process gap analysis

      4.2 SAP application portfolio assessment

      4.3 SAP software reviews survey

      Outputs

      ERP optimization roadmap

      Further reading

      Get the Most Out of Your SAP

      In today’s connected world, the continuous optimization of enterprise applications to realize your digital strategy is key.

      EXECUTIVE BRIEF

      Analyst Perspective

      Focus optimization on organizational value delivery.

      The image contains a picture of Chad Shortridge.

      Chad Shortridge

      Senior Research Director, Enterprise Applications

      Info-Tech Research Group

      The image contains a picture of Lisa Highfield.

      Lisa Highfield

      Research Director, Enterprise Applications

      Info-Tech Research Group

      Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a core tool that the business leverages to accomplish its goals. An ERP that is doing its job well is invisible to the business. The challenges come when the tool is no longer invisible. It has become a source of friction in the functioning of the business.

      SAP systems are expensive, benefits can be difficult to quantify, and issues with the products can be difficult to understand. Over time, technology evolves, organizational goals change, and the health of these systems is often not monitored. This is complicated in today’s digital landscape with multiple integrations points, siloed data, and competing priorities.

      Too often organizations jump into selecting replacement systems without understanding the health of their systems. We can do better than this.

      IT leaders need to take a proactive approach to continually monitor and optimize their enterprise applications. Strategically re-align business goals, identify business application capabilities, complete a process assessment, evaluate user adoption, and create an optimization plan that will drive a cohesive technology strategy that delivers results.

      Executive Summary

      Your Challenge

      Common Obstacles

      Info-Tech’s Approach

      Your SAP ERP systems are critical to supporting the organization’s business processes. They are expensive. Direct benefits and ROI can be hard to measure.

      SAP application portfolios are often behemoths to support. With complex integration points and unique business processes, stabilization is the norm.

      Application optimization is essential to staying competitive and productive in today’s digital environment.

      Balancing optimization with stabilization is one of the most difficult decisions for ERP application leaders.

      Competing priorities and often unclear ERP strategies make it difficult to make decisions about what, how, and when to optimize.

      Enterprise applications involve large numbers of processes, users, and evolving vendor roadmaps.

      Teams do not have a framework to illustrate, communicate, and justify the optimization effort in the language your stakeholders understand.

      In today’s rapidly changing SAP landscape it is imperative to evaluate your applications for optimization, no matter what your strategy is moving forward.

      Assess your SAP applications and the environment in which they exist. Take a business-first strategy to prioritize optimization efforts.

      Validate ERP capabilities, user satisfaction, issues around data, vendor management, and costs to build out an overall roadmap and optimization strategy.

      Pull this all together to prioritize optimization efforts and develop a concrete roadmap.

      Info-Tech Insight

      SAP ERP environments are changing, but we cannot stand still on our optimization efforts. Understand your product(s), processes, user satisfaction, integration points, and the availability of data to business decision makers. Examine these areas to develop a personalized SAP optimization roadmap that fits the needs of your organization. Incorporate these methodologies into an ongoing optimization strategy aimed at enabling the business, increasing productivity, and reducing costs.

      The image contains an Info-Tech Thought model on get the most out of your ERP.

      Insight summary

      Continuous assessment and optimization of your SAP ERP systems is critical to the success of your organization.

      • Applications and the environments in which they live are constantly evolving.
      • This blueprint provides business and application managers with a method to complete a health assessment of their ERP systems to identify areas for improvement and optimization.
      • Put optimization practices into effect by:
        • Aligning and prioritizing key business and technology drivers.
        • Identifying ERP process classification and performing a gap analysis.
        • Measuring user satisfaction across key departments.
        • Evaluating vendor relations.
        • Understanding how data plays into the mix.
        • Pulling it all together into an optimization roadmap.

      SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems facilitate the flow of information across business units. It allows for the seamless integration of systems and creates a holistic view of the enterprise to support decision making. In many organizations, the SAP system is considered the lifeblood of the enterprise. Problems with this key operational system will have a dramatic impact on the ability of the enterprise to survive and grow. ERP implementation should not be a one-and-done exercise. There needs to be ongoing optimization to enable business processes and optimal organizational results.

      SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP)

      The image contains a diagram of the SAP enterprise resource planning. The diagram includes a circle with smaller circles all around it. The inside of the circle contains SAP logos. The circles around the big circle are labelled: Human Resources Management, Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, Asset Management, Logistics, Supply Chain Management, Manufacturing, R&D and Engineering, and Finance.

      What is SAP?

      SAP ERP systems facilitate the flow of information across business units. They allow for the seamless integration of systems and create a holistic view of the enterprise to support decision making.

      In many organizations, the ERP system is considered the lifeblood of the enterprise. Problems with this key operational system will have a dramatic impact on the ability of the enterprise to survive and grow.

      An ERP system:

      • Automates processes, reducing the amount of manual, routine work.
      • Integrates with core modules, eliminating the fragmentation of systems.
      • Centralizes information for reporting from multiple parts of the value chain to a single point.

      SAP use cases:

      Product-Centric

      Suitable for organizations that manufacture, assemble, distribute, or manage material goods.

      Service-Centric

      Suitable for organizations that provide and manage field services and/or professional services.

      SAP Fast Facts

      Product Description

      • SAP has numerous ERP products. Products can be found under ERP, Finance, Customer Relations and Experience, Supply Chain Management, Human Resources, and Technology Platforms.
      • SAP offers on-premises and cloud solutions for its ERP. In 2011, SAP released the HANA in-memory database. SAP ECC 6.0 reaches the end of life in 2027 (2030 extended support).
      • Many organizations are facing mandatory transformation. This is an excellent opportunity to examine ERP portfolios for optimization opportunities.
      • Now is the time to optimize to ensure you are prepared for the journey ahead.
      The image contains a timeline of the evolution of SAP ERP. The timeline is ordered: SAP R1-R3 1972-1992, SAP ECC 2003-2006, ERP Business Suite 2000+, SAP HANA In-Memory Database 2011, S/4 2015.

      Vendor Description

      • SAP SE was founded in 1972 by five former IBM employees.
      • The organization is focused on enterprise software that integrates all business processes and enables data processing in real-time.
      • SAP stands for Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing.
      • SAP offers more than 100 solutions covering all business functions.
      • SAP operates 65 data centers at 35 locations in 16 countries.

      Employees

      105,000

      Headquarters

      Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

      Website

      sap.com

      Founded

      1972

      Presence

      Global, Publicly Traded

      SAP by the numbers

      Only 72% of SAP S/4HANA clients were satisfied with the product’s business value in 2022. This was 9th out of 10 in the enterprise resource planning category.

      Source: SoftwareReviews

      As of 2022, 65% of SAP customers have not made the move to S/4HANA. These customers will continue to need to optimize the current ERP to meet the demanding needs of the business.

      Source: Statista

      Organizations will need to continue to support and optimize their SAP ERP portfolios. As of 2022, 42% of ASUG members were planning a move to S/4HANA but had not yet started to move.

      Source: ASUG

      Your challenge

      This research is designed to help organizations who need to:

      • Understand the multiple deployment models and the roadmap to successfully navigate a move to S/4HANA.
      • Build a business case to understand the value behind a move.
      • Map functionality to ensure future compatibility.
      • Understand the process required to commercially navigate a move to S/4HANA.
      • Avoid a costly audit due to missed requirements or SAP whiteboarding sessions.

      HANA used to be primarily viewed as a commercial vehicle to realize legacy license model discounts. Now, however, SAP has built a roadmap to migrate all customers over to S/4HANA. While timelines may be delayed, the inevitable move is coming.

      30-35% of SAP customers likely have underutilized assets. This can add up to millions in unused software and maintenance.

      – Upperedge

      SAP challenges and dissatisfaction

      Drivers of Dissatisfaction

      Organizational

      People and teams

      Technology

      Data

      Competing priorities

      Knowledgeable staff/turnover

      Integration issues

      Access to data

      Lack of strategy

      Lack of internal skills

      Selecting tools and technology

      Data hygiene

      Budget challenges

      Ability to manage new products

      Keeping pace with technology changes

      Data literacy

      Lack of training

      Update challenges

      One view of the customer

      Finance, IT, Sales, and other users of the ERP system can only optimize ERP with the full support of each other. The cooperation of the departments is crucial when trying to improve ERP technology capabilities and customer interaction.

      Info-Tech Insight

      While technology is the key enabler of building strong customer experiences, there are many other drivers of dissatisfaction. IT must stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the business to develop a technology framework for ERP.

      Where are applications leaders focusing?

      Big growth numbers

      Year-over-year call topic requests

      Other changes

      Year-over-year call topic requests

      The image contains a graph to demonstrate year-over-year call topic requests. Year 1 has 79%, Year 2 76%, Year 3 65% requests, and Year 4 has 124% requests. The image contains a graph to demonstrate other changes in year-over-year call topic requests. Year 1 has -25%, Year 2 has 4%, and Year 3 has 13%.

      We are seeing applications leaders’ priorities change year over year, driven by a shift in their approach to problem solving. Leaders are moving from a process-centric approach to a collaborative approach that breaks down boundaries and brings teams together.

      Software development lifecycle topics are tactical point solutions. Organizations have been “shifting left” to tackle the strategic issues such as product vision and Agile mindset to optimize the whole organization.

      The S/4HANA journey

      Optimization can play a role in your transition to S/4HANA.

      • The business does not stop. Satisfy ongoing needs for business enablement.
      • Build out a collaborative SAP optimization team across the business and IT.
      • Engage the business to understand requirements.
      • Discover applications and processes.
      • Explore current-state capabilities and future-state needs.
      • Evaluate optimization opportunities. Are there short-term wins? What are the long-term goals?
      • Navigate the path to S/4HANA and develop some timelines and stage gates.
      • Set your course and optimization roadmap.
      • Capitalize on the methodologies for an ongoing optimization effort that can be continued after the S/4HANA go-live date.

      Many organizations may be coming up against changes to their SAP ERP application portfolio.

      Some challenges organizations may be dealing with include:

      • Heavily customized instances
      • Large volumes of data
      • Lack of documentation
      • Outdated business processes
      • Looming end of life

      Application optimization is risky without a plan

      Avoid these common pitfalls:

      • Not pursuing optimization because you are migrating to S/4HANA.
      • Not considering how this plays into the short-, medium-, and long-term ERP strategy.
      • Not considering application optimization as a business and IT partnership, which requires the continuous formal engagement of all participants.
      • Not having a good understanding of your current state, including integration points and data.
      • Not adequately accommodating feedback and changes after digital applications are deployed and employed.
      • Not treating digital applications as a motivator for potential future IT optimization efforts and incorporating digital assets in strategic business planning.
      • Not involving department leads, management, and other subject-matter experts to facilitate the organizational change digital applications bring.

      “[A] successful application [optimization] strategy starts with the business need in mind and not from a technological point of view. No matter from which angle you look at it, modernizing a legacy application is a considerable undertaking that can’t be taken lightly. Your best approach is to begin the journey with baby steps.”

      – Medium

      Info-Tech’s methodology for getting the most out of your ERP

      1. Map Current-State Capabilities

      2. Assess Your Current State

      3. Identify Key Optimization Areas

      4. Build Your Optimization Roadmap

      Phase Steps

      1. Identify stakeholders and build your SAP optimization team.
      2. Build an SAP strategy model.
      3. Inventory current system state.
      4. Define business capabilities.
      1. Conduct a gap analysis for ERP processes.
      2. Assess user satisfaction.
      3. Review your satisfaction with the vendor and product.
      1. Identify key optimization areas.
      2. Evaluate product sustainability over the short, medium, and long term.
      3. Identify any product changes anticipated over short, medium, and long term.
      1. Prioritize optimization opportunities.
      2. Identify key optimization areas.
      3. Compile optimization assessment results.

      Phase Outcomes

      1. Stakeholder map
      2. SAP optimization team
      3. SAP business model
      4. Strategy alignment
      5. Systems inventory and diagram
      6. Business capabilities map
      7. Key SAP processes list
      1. Gap analysis for SAP-related processes
      2. Understanding of user satisfaction across applications and processes
      3. Insight into SAP data quality
      4. Quantified satisfaction with the vendor and product
      5. Understanding SAP costs
      1. List of SAP optimization opportunities
      1. SAP optimization roadmap

      Blueprint deliverables

      Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals:

      Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      Identify and prioritize your SAP optimization goals.

      The image contains screenshots of the SAP Workbook.

      Application Portfolio Assessment

      Assess IT-enabled user satisfaction across your SAP portfolio.

      The image contains a screenshot of the Application Portfolio Assessment.

      Key deliverable:

      The image contains a screenshot of the SAP Organization Roadmap.

      SAP Optimization Roadmap

      Complete an assessment of processes, user satisfaction, data quality, and vendor management.

      The image contains screenshots further demonstrating SAP deliverables.

      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 challenge.

      Call #2:

      • Build the SAP team.
      • Align organizational goals.

      Call #3:

      • Map current state.
      • Inventory SAP capabilities and processes.
      • Explore SAP-related costs.

      Call #4: Understand product satisfaction and vendor management.

      Call #5: Review APA results.

      Call #6: Understand SAP optimization opportunities.

      Call #7: Determine the right SAP path for your organization.

      Call #8:

      Build out optimization roadmap and next steps.

      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 8 to 12 calls over the course of 4 to 6 months.

      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

      Define Your SAP Application Vision

      Map Current State

      Assess SAP

      Build Your Optimization Roadmap

      Next Steps and Wrap-Up (offsite)

      Activities

      1.1 Identify Stakeholders and Build Your Optimization Team

      1.2 Build an SAP Strategy Model

      1.3 Inventory Current System State

      1.4 Define Optimization Timeframe

      1.5 Understand SAP Costs

      2.1 Assess SAP Capabilities

      2.2 Review Your Satisfaction With the Vendor/Product and Willingness for Change

      3.1 Prioritize Optimization Opportunities

      3.2 Discover Optimization Initiatives

      4.1 Build Your Optimization 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

      1. SAP optimization team
      2. SAP business model
      3. SAP optimization goals
      4. System inventory and data flow
      5. Application and business capabilities list
      6. SAP optimization timeline
      1. SAP capability gap analysis
      2. SAP user satisfaction (application portfolio assessment)
      3. SAP SoftwareReviews survey results
      4. SAP current costs
      1. Product and vendor satisfaction opportunities
      2. Capability and feature optimization opportunities
      3. Process optimization opportunities
      4. Integration optimization opportunities
      5. Data optimization opportunities
      6. SAP cost-saving opportunities
      1. SAP optimization roadmap

      Phase 1

      Map Current-State Capabilities

      Phase 1

      Phase 2

      Phase 3

      Phase 4

      1.1 Identify Stakeholders and Build Your Optimization Team

      1.2 Build an SAP Strategy Model

      1.3 Inventory Current System State

      1.4 Define Optimization Timeframe

      1.5 Understand SAP Costs

      2.1 Assess SAP Capabilities

      2.2 Review Your Satisfaction With the Vendor/Product and Willingness for Change

      3.1 Prioritize Optimization Opportunities

      3.2 Discover Optimization Initiatives

      4.1 Build Your Optimization Roadmap

      This phase will guide you through the following activities:

      • Align your organizational goals
      • Gain a firm understanding of your current state
      • Inventory ERP and related applications
      • Confirm the organization’s capabilities

      This phase involves the following participants:

      • CFO
      • Department Leads – Finance, Procurement, Asset Management
      • Applications Director
      • Senior Business Analyst
      • Senior Developer
      • Procurement Analysts

      Step 1.1

      Identify Stakeholders and Build Your Optimization Team

      Activities

      1.1.1 Identify stakeholders critical to success

      1.1.2 Map your SAP optimization stakeholders

      1.1.3 Determine your SAP optimization team

      This step will guide you through the following activities:

      • Identify ERP drivers and objectives
      • Explore ERP challenges and pain points
      • Discover ERP benefits and opportunities
      • Align the ERP foundation with the corporate strategy

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Stakeholders
      • Project sponsors and leaders

      Outcomes of this step

      • Stakeholder map
      • SAP Optimization Team

      ERP optimization stakeholders

      • Understand the roles necessary to get the most out of your SAP.
      • Understand the role of each player within your project structure. Look for listed participants on the activities slides to determine when each player should be involved.

      Title

      Role Within the Project Structure

      Organizational Sponsor

      • Owns the project at the management/C-suite level
      • Responsible for breaking down barriers and ensuring alignment with your organizational strategy
      • CIO, CFO, COO, or similar

      Project Manager

      • The IT individual(s) that oversee day-to-day project operations
      • Responsible for preparing and managing the project plan and monitoring the project team’s progress
      • Applications Manager or other IT Manager, Business Analyst, Business Process Owner, or similar

      Business Unit Leaders

      • Works alongside the IT Project Manager to ensure the strategy is aligned with business needs
      • In this case, likely to be a marketing, sales, or customer service lead
      • Sales Director, Marketing Director, Customer Care Director, or similar

      Optimization Team

      • Comprised of individuals whose knowledge and skills are crucial to project success
      • Responsible for driving day-to-day activities, coordinating communication, and making process and design decisions; can assist with persona and scenario development for ERP
      • Project Manager, Business Lead, ERP Manager, Integration Manager, Application SMEs, Developers, Business Process Architects, and/or similar SMEs

      Steering Committee

      • Comprised of the C-suite/management-level individuals that act as the project’s decision makers
      • Responsible for validating goals and priorities, defining the project scope, enabling adequate resourcing, and managing change
      • Project Sponsor, Project Manager, Business Lead, CFO, Business Unit SMEs, or similar

      Info-Tech Insight

      Do not limit project input or participation. Include subject-matter experts and internal stakeholders at stages within the project. Such inputs can be solicited on a one-off basis as needed. This ensures you take a holistic approach to create your ERP optimization strategy.

      1.1.1 Identify SAP optimization stakeholders

      1 hour

      1. Hold a meeting to identify the SAP optimization stakeholders.
      2. Use next slide as a guide.

      Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      The image contains a screenshot from the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      Understand how to navigate the complex web of stakeholders in ERP

      Identify which stakeholders to include and what their level of involvement should be during requirements elicitation based on relevant topic expertise.

      Sponsor

      End User

      IT

      Business

      Description

      An internal stakeholder who has final sign-off on the ERP project.

      Front-line users of the ERP technology.

      Back-end support staff who are tasked with project planning, execution, and eventual system maintenance.

      Additional stakeholders that will be impacted by any ERP technology changes.

      Examples

      • CEO
      • CIO/CTO
      • COO
      • CFO
      • Warehouse personnel
      • Sales teams
      • HR admins
      • Applications manager
      • Vendor relationship manager(s)
      • Director, Procurement
      • VP, Marketing
      • Manager, HR

      Value

      Executive buy-in and support is essential to the success of the project. Often, the sponsor controls funding and resource allocation.

      End users determine the success of the system through user adoption. If the end user does not adopt the system, the system is deemed useless and benefits realization is poor.

      IT is likely to be responsible for more in-depth requirements gathering. IT possesses critical knowledge around system compatibility, integration, and data.

      Involving business stakeholders in the requirements gathering will ensure alignment between HR and organizational objectives.

      Large-scale ERP projects require the involvement of many stakeholders from all corners and levels of the organization, including project sponsors, IT, end users, and business stakeholders. Consider the influence and interest of stakeholders in contributing to the requirements elicitation process and involve them accordingly.

      EXAMPLE: Stakeholder involvement during selection

      The image contains an example of stakeholder involvement during selection. The graph is comparing influence and interest. In the lowest section of both influence and interest, it is labelled Monitor. With low interest but high influence that is labelled Keep Satisfied. In low influence but high interest it is labelled Keep Informed. The section that is high in both interest and influence that is labelled Involve closely.

      Activity 1.1.2 Map your SAP optimization stakeholders

      1 hour

      1. Use the list of SAP optimization stakeholders.
      2. Map each stakeholder on the quadrant based on their expected influence and involvement in the project.
      3. [Optional] Color code the users using the scale below to quickly identify the group that the stakeholder belongs to.

      The image contains an example of a colour scheme. Sponsor is coloured blue, End user is purple, IT is yellow, and Business is light blue.

      Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      The image contains a screenshot of an example map on organization's stakeholders.

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      Map the organization’s stakeholders

      The image contains a larger version of the image from the previous slide where there is a graph comparing influence and involvement and has a list of stakeholders in a legend on the side.

      The SAP optimization team

      Consider the core team functions when putting together the project team. Form a cross-functional team (i.e. across IT, Marketing, Sales, Service, Operations) to create a well-aligned ERP optimization strategy. Don’t let your project team become too large when trying to include all relevant stakeholders. Carefully limiting the size of the project team will enable effective decision making while still including functional business units such as Marketing, Sales, Service, and Finance as well as IT.

      Required Skills/Knowledge

      Suggested Project Team Members

      Business

      • Department leads
      • Business process leads
      • Business analysts
      • Subject matter experts
      • SMEs/Business process leads –All functional areas; example: Strategy, Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, Finance, HR

      IT

      • Application development
      • Enterprise integration
      • Business processes
      • Data management
      • Product owner
      • ERP application manager
      • Business process manager
      • Integration manager
      • Application developer
      • Data stewards

      Other

      • Operations
      • Administrative
      • Change management
      • COO
      • CFO
      • Change management officer

      1.1.3 Determine your SAP optimization team

      1 hour

      1. Have the project manager and other key stakeholders discuss and determine who will be involved in the SAP optimization project.
      • The size of the team will depend on the initiative and size of your organization.
      • Key business leaders in key areas and IT representatives should be involved.

      Note: Depending on your initiative and the size of your organization, the size of this team will vary.

      Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      The image contains a screenshot of the section ERP Optimization Team in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      Step 1.2

      Build an SAP Strategy Model

      Activities

      1.2.1 Explore environmental factors and technology drivers

      1.2.2 Consider potential barriers and challenges

      1.2.3 Discuss enablers of success

      1.2.4 Develop your SAP optimization goals

      This step will guide you through the following activities:

      • Identify ERP drivers and objectives
      • Explore ERP challenges and pain points
      • Discover ERP benefits and opportunities
      • Align the ERP foundation with the corporate strategy

      This step involves the following participants:

      • SAP Optimization Team

      Outcomes of this step

      • ERP business model
      • Strategy alignment

      Align your SAP strategy with the corporate strategy

      Corporate Strategy

      Unified ERP Strategy

      IT Strategy

      Your corporate strategy:

      • Conveys the current state of the organization and the path it wants to take.
      • Identifies future goals and business aspirations.
      • Communicates the initiatives that are critical for getting the organization from its current state to the desired future state.
      • The ideal ERP strategy is aligned with overarching organizational business goals and with broader IT initiatives.
      • Include all affected business units and departments in these conversations.
      • The ERP optimization can be and should be linked, with metrics, to the corporate strategy and ultimate business objectives

      Your IT strategy:

      • Communicates the organization’s budget and spending on ERP.
      • Identifies IT initiatives that will support the business and key ERP objectives.
      • Outlines staffing and resourcing for ERP initiatives.

      ERP projects are more successful when the management team understands the strategic importance and the criticality of alignment. Time needs to be spent upfront aligning business strategies with ERP capabilities. Effective alignment between IT and the business should happen daily. Alignment doesn’t just need to occur just at the executive level but at each level of the organization.

      ERP Business Model Template

      The image contains a screenshot of a ERP Business Model Template.

      Conduct interviews to elicit the business context

      Stakeholder Interviews

      Begin by conducting interviews of your executive team. Interview the following leaders:

      1. Chief Information Officer
      2. Chief Executive Officer
      3. Chief Financial Officer
      4. Chief Revenue Officer/Sales Leader
      5. Chief Operating Officer/Supply Chain & Logistics Leader
      6. Chief Technology Officer/Chief Product Officer

      INTERVIEWS MUST UNCOVER

      1. Your organization’s top three business goals
      2. Your organization’s top ten business initiatives
      3. Your organization’s mission and vision

      Understand the ERP drivers and organizational objectives

      Business Needs

      Business Drivers

      Technology Drivers

      Environmental Factors

      Definition

      A business need is a requirement associated with a particular business process.

      Business drivers can be thought of as business-level goals. These are tangible benefits the business can measure such as customer retention, operation excellence, and financial performance.

      Technology drivers are technological changes that have created the need for a new ERP enablement strategy. Many organizations turn to technology systems to help them obtain a competitive edge.

      These external considerations are factors that take place outside of the organization and impact the way business is conducted inside the organization. These are often outside the control of the business.

      Examples

      • Audit tracking
      • Authorization levels
      • Business rules
      • Data quality
      • Customer satisfaction
      • Branding
      • Time-to-resolution
      • Deployment model (i.e. SaaS)
      • Integration
      • Reporting capabilities
      • Fragmented technologies
      • Economic and political factors
      • Competitive influencers
      • Compliance regulations

      Info-Tech Insight

      One of the biggest drivers for ERP adoption is the ability to make quicker decisions from timely information. This driver is a result of external considerations. Many industries today are highly competitive, uncertain, and rapidly changing. To succeed under these pressures, there needs to be timely information and visibility into all components of the organization.

      1.2.1 Explore environmental factors and technology drivers

      30 minutes

      1. Identify business drivers that are contributing to the organization’s need for ERP.
      2. Understand how the company is running today and what the organization’s future will look like. Try to identify the purpose for becoming an integrated organization. Use a whiteboard or flip charts and markers to capture key findings.
      3. Consider external considerations, organizational drivers, technology drivers, and key functional requirements.

      Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      The image contains a diagram on exploring the environmental factors and technology drivers.

      External Considerations

      Organizational Drivers

      Technology Considerations

      Functional Requirements

      • Funding constraints
      • Regulations
      • Compliance
      • Scalability
      • Operational efficiency
      • Data accuracy
      • Data quality
      • Better reporting
      • Information availability
      • Integration between systems
      • Secure data

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      Create a realistic ERP foundation by identifying the challenges and barriers the project will bestow

      There are several different factors that may stifle the success of an ERP implementation. Organizations that are creating an ERP foundation must scan their current environment to identify internal barriers and challenges.

      Common Internal Barriers

      Management Support

      Organizational Culture

      Organizational Structure

      IT Readiness

      Definition

      The degree of understanding and acceptance toward ERP systems.

      The collective shared values and beliefs.

      The functional relationships between people and departments in an organization.

      The degree to which the organization’s people and processes are prepared for a new ERP system.

      Questions

      • Is an ERP project recognized as a top priority?
      • Will management commit time to the project?
      • Are employees resistant to change?
      • Is the organization highly individualized?
      • Is the organization centralized?
      • Is the organization highly formalized?
      • Is there strong technical expertise?
      • Is there strong infrastructure?

      Impact

      • Funding
      • Resources
      • Knowledge sharing
      • User acceptance
      • Flow of knowledge
      • Quality of implementation
      • Need for reliance on consultants

      ERP Business Model

      Organizational Goals

      Enablers

      Barriers

      • Efficiency
      • Effectiveness
      • Integrity
      • One source of truth for data
      • One team
      • Customer service, external and internal
      • Cross-trained employees
      • Desire to focus on value-add activities
      • Collaborative
      • Top-level executive support
      • Effective change management process
      • Organizational silos
      • Lack of formal process documentation
      • Funding availability
      • What goes first? Organizational priorities

      What does success look like?

      Top 15 critical success factors for ERP system implementation

      The image contains a graph that demonstrates the top 15 critical success factors for ERP system implementation. The top 15 are: Top management support and commitment, Interdepartmental communication and cooperations throughout the institution, Commitment to business process re-engineering to do away with redundant processes, Implementation project management from initiation to closing, Change management program to ensure awareness and readiness for possible changes, Project team competence, Education and training for stakeholders, Project champion to lead implementation, Project mission and goals for the system with clear objectives agreed upon, ERP expert consultant use to guide the implementation process, Minimum level of customization to use ERP functionalities to maximum, Package selection, Understanding the institutional culture, Use involvement and participation throughout implementation, ERP vendor support and partnership.

      Source: Epizitone and Olugbara, 2020; CC BY 4.0

      Info-Tech Insight

      Complement your ability to deliver on your critical success factors with the capabilities of your implementation partner to drive a successful ERP implementation.

      “Implementation partners can play an important role in successful ERP implementations. They can work across the organizational departments and layers creating a synergy and a communications mechanism.” – Ayogeboh Epizitone, Durban University of Technology

      1.2.2 Consider potential barriers and challenges

      1-3 hours

      • Open tab “1.2 Strategy & Goals,” in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.
      • Identify barriers to ERP optimization success.
      • Review the ERP critical success factors and how they relate to your optimization efforts.
      • Discuss potential barriers to successful ERP optimization.

      Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      The image contains the same diagram as shown previously, where it demonstrated the environmental factors in relation to the ERP strategy. The same diagram is used and highlights the barriers section.

      Functional Gaps

      Technical Gaps

      Process Gaps

      Barriers to Success

      • No online purchase order for requisitions
      • Inconsistent reporting – data quality concerns
      • Duplication of data
      • Lack of system integration
      • Cultural mindset
      • Resistance to change
      • Lack of training
      • Funding

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      1.2.3 Discuss enablers of success

      1-3 hours

      1. Open tab “1.2 Strategy & Goals,” in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.
      2. Identify barriers to ERP optimization success.
      3. Review the ERP critical success factors and how they relate to your optimization efforts.
      4. Discuss potential barriers to successful ERP optimization.

      Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      The image contains the same diagram as shown previously, where it demonstrated the environmental factors in relation to the ERP strategy. The same diagram is used and highlights the enablers and organizational goals sections.

      Business Benefits

      IT Benefits

      Organizational Benefits

      Enablers of Success

      • Business-IT alignment
      • Compliance
      • Scalability
      • Operational efficiency
      • Data accuracy
      • Data quality
      • Better reporting
      • Change management
      • Training
      • Alignment with strategic objectives

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      The Business Value Matrix

      Rationalizing and quantifying the value of SAP

      Benefits can be realized internally and externally to the organization or department and have different drivers of value.

      • Financial benefits refer to the degree to which the value source can be measured through monetary metrics and are often quite tangible.
      • Human benefits refer to how an application can deliver value through a user’s experience.
      • Inward refers to value sources that have an internal impact and improve your organization’s effectiveness and efficiency in performing its operations.
      • Outward refers to value sources that come from your interaction with external factors, such as the market or your customers.

      Organizational Goals

      • Increased Revenue
      • Application functions that are specifically related to the impact on your organization’s ability to generate revenue and deliver value to your customers.

      • Reduced Costs
      • Reduction of overhead. The ways in which an application limits the operational costs of business functions.

      • Enhanced Services
      • Functions that enable business capabilities that improve the organization’s ability to perform its internal operations.

      • Reach Customers
      • Application functions that enable and improve the interaction with customers or produce market information and insights.

      Business Value Matrix

      The image contains a screenshot of a Business Value Matrix. It includes: Reach Customers, Increase Revenue or Deliver Value, Reduce Costs, and Enhance Services.

      Link SAP capabilities to organizational value

      The image contains screenshots that demonstrate linking SAP capabilities to organizational value.

      1.2.4 Define your SAP optimization goals

      30 minutes

      1. Discuss the ERP business model and ERP critical success factors.
      2. Through the lens of corporate goals and objectives think about supporting ERP technology. How can the ERP system bring value to the organization? What are the top things that will make this initiative a success?
      3. Develop five to ten optimization goals that will form the basis for the success of this initiative.

      Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      The image contains an example of the activity describe above on defining your SAP optimization goals.

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      Step 1.3

      Inventory Current System State

      Activities

      1.3.1 Inventory SAP applications and interactions

      1.3.2 Draw your SAP system diagram

      1.3.3 Inventory your SAP modules and business capabilities (or business processes)

      1.3.4 Define your key SAP optimization modules and business capabilities

      This step will guide you through the following activities:

      • Inventory of applications
      • Mapping interactions between systems

      This step involves the following participants:

      • SAP Optimization Team
      • Enterprise Architect
      • Data Architect

      Outcomes of this step

      • Systems inventory
      • Systems diagram

      1.3.1 Inventory SAP applications and interfaces

      1-3+ hours

      1. Enter your SAP systems, SAP extended applications, and integrated applications within scope.
      2. Include any abbreviated names or nicknames.
      3. List the application type or main function.
      4. List the modules the organization has licensed.
      5. List any integrations.

      Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      The image contains a screenshot of the SAP application inventory.

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      ERP Data Flow

      The image contains an example ERP Data Flow with a legend.

      Be sure to include enterprise applications that are not included in the ERP application portfolio. Popular systems to consider for POIs include billing, directory services, content management, and collaboration tools.

      ERP – enterprise resource planning

      Email – email system such as Microsoft Exchange

      Calendar – calendar system such as Microsoft Outlook

      WEM – web experience management

      ECM – enterprise content management

      When assessing the current application portfolio that supports your ERP, the tendency will be to focus on the applications under the ERP umbrella. These relate mostly to marketing, sales, and customer service. Be sure to include systems that act as input to, or benefit due to outputs from, ERP or similar applications.

      1.3.2 Draw your SAP system diagram

      1-3+ hours

      1. From the SAP application inventory, diagram your network.
      2. Include:

      • Any internal or external systems
      • Integration points
      • Data flow

      The image contains a screenshot of the example ERP Systems Diagram.

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      Sample SAP and integrations map

      The image contains a screenshot of a sample SAP and integrations map.

      Business capability map (Level 0)

      The image contains a screenshot of the business capability map, level 0. The capability map includes: Products and Services Development, Revenue Generation, Demand Fulfillment, and Enterprise Management and Planning.

      In business architecture, the primary view of an organization is known as a business capability map. A business capability defines what a business does to enable value creation, rather than how.

      Business capabilities:

      • Represent stable business functions.
      • Are unique and independent of each other.
      • Will typically have a defined business outcome.

      A business capability map provides details that help the business architecture practitioner direct attention to a specific area of the business for further assessment.

      ERP process mapping

      The image contains screenshots to demonstrate the ERP process mapping. One of the screenshots is of the business capability map, level 0, the second screenshot contains the objectives , value streams, capabilities, and processes. The third image contains a screenshot of the SAP screenshot with the circles around it as previously shown.

      The operating model

      An operating model is a framework that drives operating decisions. It helps to set the parameters for the scope of ERP and the processes that will be supported. The operating model will serve to group core operational processes. These groupings represent a set of interrelated, consecutive processes aimed at generating a common output. From your developed processes and your SAP license agreements you will be able to pinpoint the scope for investigation including the processes and modules.

      APQC Framework

      Help define your inventory of sales, marketing, and customer services processes.

      Operating Processes

      1. Develop vision and strategy 2. Develop and manage products and services 3. Market and sell products and services 4. Deliver physical products 5. Deliver services

      Management and Support Processes

      6.Manage customer service

      7. Develop and manage human capital

      8. Manage IT

      9. Manage financial resources

      10. Acquire, construct, and manage assets

      11. Manage enterprise risk, compliance, remediation, and resiliency

      12. Manage external relationships

      13. Develop and manage business capabilities

      Source: APQC

      If you do not have a documented process model, you can use the APQC Framework to help define your inventory of sales business processes. APQC’s Process Classification Framework is a taxonomy of cross-functional business processes intended to allow the objective comparison of organizational performance within and among organizations.

      APQC’s Process Classification Framework

      The value stream

      Value stream defined:

      Value Streams

      Design Product

      Produce Product

      Sell Product

      Customer Service

      • Manufacturers work proactively to design products and services that will meet consumer demand.
      • Products are driven by consumer demand and government regulations.
      • Production processes and labor costs are constantly analyzed for efficiencies and accuracies.
      • Quality of product and services are highly regulated through all levels of the supply chain.
      • Sales networks and sales staff deliver the product from the organization to the end consumer.
      • Marketing plays a key role throughout the value stream, connecting consumers’ wants and needs to the products and services offered.
      • Relationships with consumers continue after the sale of products and services.
      • Continued customer support and data mining is important to revenue streams.

      Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities in the marketplace. Those activities are dependent on the specific industry segment in which an organization operates.

      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.

      Process mapping hierarchy

      The image contains a screenshot of the PCF levels explained. The levels are 1-5. The levels are: Category, Process Group, Process, Activity, and Task.

      Source: APQC

      APQC provides a process classification framework. It allows organizations to effectively define their processes and manage them appropriately.

      APQC’s Process Classification Framework

      Cross-industry classification framework

      Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4

      Market and sell products and services

      Understand markets, customers, and capabilities

      Perform customer and market intelligence analysis

      Conduct customer and market research

      Market and sell products and services

      Develop a sales strategy

      Develop a sales forecast

      Gather current and historic order information

      Deliver services

      Manage service delivery resources

      Manage service delivery resource demand

      Develop baseline forecasts

      ? ? ? ?

      Info-Tech Insight

      Focus your initial assessment on the level 1 processes that matter to your organization. This allows you to target your scant resources on the areas of optimization that matter most to the organization and minimize the effort required from your business partners. You may need to iterate the assessment as challenges are identified. This allows you to be adaptive and deal with emerging issues more readily and become a more responsive partner to the business.

      SAP modules and process enablement

      Cloud/Hardware

      Fiori

      Analytics

      Integrations

      Extended Solutions

      R&D Engineering

      • Enterprise Portfolio and Project Management
      • Product Development Foundation
      • Enterprise Portfolio and Project Management
      • Product Lifecycle Management
      • Product Compliance
      • Enterprise Portfolio and Project Management
      • Product Safety and Stewardship
      • Engineering Record

      Sourcing and Procurement

      • Procurement Analytics
      • Sourcing & Contract Management
      • Operational Procurement
      • Invoice Management
      • Supplier Management

      Supply Chain

      • Inventory
      • Delivery & Transportation
      • Warehousing
      • Order Promising

      Asset Management

      • Maintenance Operations
      • Resource Scheduling
      • Env, Health and Safety
      • Maintenance Management
      The image contains a diagram of the SAP enterprise resource planning. The diagram includes a circle with smaller circles all around it. The inside of the circle contains SAP logos. The circles around the big circle are labelled: Human Resources Management, Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, Asset Management, Logistics, Supply Chain Management, Manufacturing, R&D and Engineering, and Finance.

      Finance

      • Financial Planning and Analysis
      • Accounting and Financial Close
      • Treasury Management
      • Financial Operations
      • Governance, Risk & Compliance
      • Commodity Management

      Human Resources

      • Core HR
      • Payroll
      • Timesheets
      • Organization Management
      • Talent Management

      Sales

      • Sales Support
      • Order and Contract Management
      • Agreement Management
      • Performance Management

      Service

      • Service Operations and Processes
      • Basic Functions
      • Workforce Management
      • Case Management
      • Professional Services
      • Service Master Data Management
      • Service Management

      Beyond the core

      The image contains a screenshot of a diagram to demonstrate beyond the core. In the middle of the image is S/4 Core, and the BTP: Business Technology Platform. Surrounding it are: SAP Fieldglass, SAP Concur, SAP Success Factors, SAP CRM SAO Hybris, SAP Ariba. On the left side of the image are: Business Planning and Consolidations, Transportation Management System, Integrated Business Planning, Extended Warehouse Management.

      1.3.3 Inventory your SAP modules and business capabilities

      1-3+ hours

      1. Look at the major functions or processes within the scope of ERP.
      2. From the inventory of current systems, choose the submodules or processes that you want to investigate and are within scope for this optimization initiative.
      3. Use tab 1.3 “SAP Capabilities” in Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook for a list of common SAP Level 1 and Level 2 modules/business capabilities.
      4. List the top modules, capabilities, or processes that will be within the scope of this optimization initiative.

      Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      The image contains a screenshot of an example of what to do for the activity 1.3.3.

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      1.3.4 Define your key SAP optimization modules and business capabilities

      1-3+ hours

      1. Look at the major functions or processes within the scope of ERP.
      2. From the inventory of current systems, choose the submodules or processes for this optimization initiative. Base this on those that are most critical to the business, those with the lowest levels of satisfaction, or those that perhaps need more knowledge around them.

      Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      The image contains a screenshot of the Key SAP Optimization Capabilities.

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      Step 1.4

      Define Optimization Timeframe

      Activities

      1.4.1 Define SAP key dates and SAP optimization roadmap timeframe and structure

      This step will guide you through the following activities:

      • Defining key dates related to your optimization initiative
      • Identifying key building blocks for your optimization roadmap

      This step involves the following participants:

      • SAP Optimization Team
      • Vendor Management

      Outcomes of this step

      • Optimization Key Dates
      • Optimization Roadmap Timeframe and Structure

      1.4.1 Optimization roadmap timeframe and structure

      1-3+ hours

      1. Record key items and dates relevant to your optimization initiatives, such as any products reaching end of life or end of contract or budget proposal submission deadlines.
      2. Enter the expected Optimization Initiative Start Date.
      3. Enter the Roadmap Length. This is the total amount of time you expect to participate in the SAP optimization initiative.
      4. This includes short-, medium- and long-term initiatives.
      5. Enter your Roadmap Date markers: how you want dates displayed on the roadmap.
      6. Enter Column time values: what level of granularity will be helpful for this initiative?
      7. Enter the sprint or cycle timeframe; use this if following Agile.

      Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      The image contains a screenshot of the Optimization Roadmap Timeframe and Structure.

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      Step 1.5

      Understand SAP Costs

      Activities

      1.5.1 Document costs associated with SAP

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Define your SAP direct and indirect costs
      • List your SAP expense line items

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Finance Representatives
      • SAP Optimization Team

      Outcomes of this step

      • Current SAP and related costs

      1.5.1 Document costs associated with SAP

      1-3 hours

      Before you can make changes and optimization decisions, you need to understand the high-level costs associated with your current application architecture. This activity will help you identify the types of technology and people costs associated with your current systems.

      1. Identify the types of technology costs associated with each current system:
        1. System Maintenance
        2. Annual Renewal
        3. Licensing
      2. Identify the cost of people associated with each current system:
        1. Full-Time Employees
        2. Application Support Staff
        3. Help Desk Tickets

      Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      The image contains a screenshot of the activity 1.5.1 on documenting costs associated with SAP.

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      Phase 2

      Assess Your Current State

      Phase 1

      Phase 2

      Phase 3

      Phase 4

      1.1 Identify Stakeholders and Build Your Optimization Team

      1.2 Build an SAP Strategy Model

      1.3 Inventory Current System State

      1.4 Define Optimization Timeframe

      1.5 Understand SAP Costs

      2.1 Assess SAP Capabilities

      2.2 Review Your Satisfaction With the Vendor/Product and Willingness for Change

      3.1 Prioritize Optimization Opportunities

      3.2 Discover Optimization Initiatives

      4.1 Build Your Optimization Roadmap

      This phase will walk you through the following activities:

      • Determine process relevance
      • Perform a gap analysis
      • Perform a user satisfaction survey
      • Assess software and vendor satisfaction

      This phase involves the following participants:

      • SAP Optimization Team
      • Users across functional areas of your ERP and related technologies

      Step 2.1

      Assess SAP Capabilities

      Activities

      2.1.1 Rate capability relevance to organizational goals

      2.1.2 Complete an SAP application portfolio assessment

      2.1.3 (Optional) Assess SAP process maturity

      This step will guide you through the following activities:

      • Capability relevance
      • Process gap analysis
      • Application Portfolio Assessment

      This step involves the following participants:

      • SAP Users

      Outcomes of this step

      • SAP Capability Assessment

      Benefits of the Application Portfolio Assessment

      The image contains a screenshot of the activity of assessing the health of the application portfolio.

      Assess the health of the application portfolio

      • Get a full 360-degree view of the effectiveness, criticality, and prevalence of all relevant applications to get a comprehensive view of the health of the applications portfolio.
      • Identify opportunities to drive more value from effective applications, retire nonessential applications, and immediately address at-risk applications that are not meeting expectations.
      The image contains a screenshot of the activity on providing targeted department feedback.

      Provide targeted department feedback

      • Share end-user satisfaction and importance ratings for core IT services, IT communications, and business enablement to focus on the right end-user groups or lines of business, and ramp up satisfaction and productivity.
      The image contains a screenshot of the activity on gaining insight into the state of data quality.

      Gain insight into the state of data quality

      • Data quality is one of the key issues causing poor CRM user satisfaction and business results. This can include the relevance, accuracy, timeliness, or usability of the organization’s data.
      • Targeted, open-ended feedback around data quality will provide insight into where optimization efforts should be focused.

      2.1.1 Complete a current-state assessment (via the Application Portfolio Assessment)

      3 hours

      Option 1: Use Info-Tech’s Application Portfolio Assessment to generate your user satisfaction score. This tool not only measures application satisfaction but also elicits great feedback from users regarding the support they receive from the IT team around SAP.

      1. Download the ERP Application Inventory Tool.
      2. Complete the “Demographics” tab (tab 2).
      3. Complete the “Inventory” tab (tab 3).
        1. Complete the inventory by treating each module within your SAP system as an application.
        2. Treat every department as a separate column in the department section. Feel free to add, remove, or modify department names to match your organization.
        3. Include data quality for all applications applicable.

      Option 2: Create a survey manually.

      1. Use tab (Reference) 2.1 “APA Questions” as a guide for creating your survey.
      2. Send out surveys to end users.
      3. Modify tab 2.1, “SAP Assessment,” if required.

      Record Results

      Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      The image contains a screenshot of the Application Portfolio Assessment.

      Download the ERP Application Inventory Tool

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      Sample Report from Application Portfolio Assessment.

      The image contains a screenshot of a sample report from the Application Portfolio Assessment.

      2.1.2 (Optional) Assess SAP process and technical maturity

      1-3 hours

      1. As with any ERP system, the issues encountered may not be related to the system itself but processes that have developed over time.
      2. Use this opportunity to interview key stakeholders to learn about deeper capability processes.
      • Identify key stakeholders.
      • Hold sessions to document deeper processes.
      • Discuss processes and technical enablement in each area.

      Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      The image contains an example of the process maturity activity.

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      Process Maturity Assessment

      The image contains a screenshot of the Process Maturity Assessment.

      Step 2.2

      Review Your Satisfaction With the Vendor/Product and Willingness for Change

      Activities

      2.2.1 Rate your vendor and product satisfaction

      2.2.2 Review SAP product scores (if applicable)

      2.2.3 Evaluate your product satisfaction

      2.2.4 Check your business process change tolerance

      This step will guide you through the following activities:

      • Rate your vendor and product satisfaction
      • Compare with survey data from SoftwareReviews

      This step involves the following participants:

      • SAP Product Owner(s)
      • Procurement Representative
      • Vendor Contracts Manager

      Outcomes of this step

      • Quantified satisfaction with vendor and product

      2.2.1 Rate your vendor and product satisfaction

      30 minutes

      Use Info-Tech’s vendor satisfaction survey to identify optimization areas with your ERP product(s) and vendor(s).

      1. Option 1 (recommended): Conduct a satisfaction survey using SoftwareReviews. This option allows you to see your results in the context of the vendor landscape.
      2. Option 2: Use the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook to review your satisfaction with your SAP software.

      Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      The image contains a screenshot of the activity Vendor Optimization.

      SoftwareReviews’ Enterprise Resource Planning Category

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      2.2.2 Review SAP product scores (if applicable)

      30 minutes

      1. Download the scorecard for your SAP product from the SoftwareReviews website. (Note: Not all products are represented or have sufficient data, so a scorecard may not be available.)
      2. Use the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook tab 2.2 “Vend. & Prod. Sat” to record the scorecard results.
      3. Use your Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook to flag areas where your score may be lower than the product scorecard. Brainstorm ideas for optimization.

      Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      The image contains a screenshot of the activity 2.2.2 review SAP product scores.

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      SoftwareReviews’ Enterprise Resource Planning Category

      2.2.3 How does your satisfaction compare with your peers?

      Use SoftwareReviews to explore product features, vendor experience, and capability satisfaction.

      The image contains two screenshots of SoftwareReviews. One is of the ERP Mid-Market, and the second is of the ERP Enterprise.

      Source: SoftwareReviews ERP Mid-Market, April 2022

      Source: SoftwareReviews ERP Enterprise, April 2022

      2.2.4 Check your business process change tolerance

      1 hours

      1. As a group, review the level 0 business capabilities on the previous slide.
      2. Assess the department’s willingness for change and the risk of maintaining the status quo.
      3. Color-code the level 0 business capabilities based on:
      • Green – Willing to follow best practices
      • Yellow – May be challenging or unique business model
      • Red – Low tolerance for change
    • For clarity, move to level 1 if specific areas need to be called out and use the same color code.
    • Input Output
      • Business process capability map
      • Heat map of risk areas that require more attention for validating best practices or minimizing customization
      Materials Participants
      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook
      • Implementation team
      • CIO
      • Key stakeholders

      Download Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook for additional process levels

      Heat map representing desire for best practice or those having the least tolerance for change

      The image contains a screenshot of a heat map to demonstrate desire for best practice or those having the least tolerance for change.

      Determine the areas of risk to conform to best practice and minimize customization. These will be areas needing focus from the vendor supporting change and guiding best practice. For example: Must be able to support our unique process manufacturing capabilities and enhance planning and visibility to detailed costing.

      Phase 3

      Identify Key Optimization Opportunities

      Phase 1

      Phase 2

      Phase 3

      Phase 4

      1.1 Identify Stakeholders and Build Your Optimization Team

      1.2 Build an SAP Strategy Model

      1.3 Inventory Current System State

      1.4 Define Optimization Timeframe

      1.5 Understand SAP Costs

      2.1 Assess SAP Capabilities

      2.2 Review Your Satisfaction With the Vendor/Product and Willingness for Change

      3.1 Prioritize Optimization Opportunities

      3.2 Discover Optimization Initiatives

      4.1 Build Your Optimization Roadmap

      This phase will walk you through the following activities:

      • Identify key optimization areas
      • Create an optimization roadmap

      This phase involves the following participants:

      • SAP Optimization Team

      Assessing application business value

      In this context…business value is

      the value of the business outcome that the application produces. Additionally, it is how effective the application is at producing that outcome.

      Business value is not

      the user’s experience or satisfaction with the application.

      The image contains a screenshot of a Venn Diagram. In the left circle, labelled The Business it contains the following text: Keepers of the organization’s mission, vision, and value statements that define IT success. The business maintains the overall ownership and evaluation of the applications. In the right circle labelled IT, it contains the following text: Technical subject-matter experts of the applications they deliver and maintain. Each IT function works together to ensure quality applications are delivered to stakeholder expectations. The middle space is labelled: Business Value of Applications.

      First, the authorities on business value need to define and weigh their value drivers that describe the priorities of the organization. This will allow the applications team to apply a consistent, objective, and strategically aligned evaluation of applications across the organization.

      Brainstorm IT initiatives to enable high areas of opportunity to support the business

      Brainstorm ERP optimization initiatives in each area. Ensure you are looking for all-encompassing opportunities within the context of IT, the business, and SAP systems.

      Capabilities are what the system and business does that creates value for the organization. Optimization initiatives are projects with a definitive start and end date, and they enhance, create, maintain, or remove capabilities with the goal of increasing value.

      The image contains a Venn Diagram with 3 circles. The circles are labelled as: Process, Technology, and Organization.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Enabling a high-performing organization requires excellent management practices and continuous optimization efforts. Your technology portfolio and architecture are important, but we must go deeper. Taking a holistic view of ERP technologies in the environments in which they operate allows for the inclusion of people and process improvements – this is key to maximizing business results. Using a formal ERP optimization initiative will drive business-IT alignment, identify IT automation priorities, and dig deep into continuous process improvement.

      Address process gaps:

      • ERP and related technologies are invaluable to the goal of organizational enablement, but they must have supported processes driven by business goals.
      • Identify areas where capabilities need to be improved and work toward optimization.

      Support user satisfaction:

      • The best technology in the world won’t deliver business results if it’s not working for the users who need it.
      • Understand concerns, communicate improvements, and support users in all roles.

      Improve data quality:

      • Data quality is unique to each business unit and requires tolerance, not perfection.
      • Implement data quality initiatives that are aligned with overall business objectives and aimed at addressing data practices and the data itself.

      Proactively manage vendors:

      • Vendor management is a critical component of technology enablement and IT satisfaction.
      • Assess your current satisfaction against that of your peers and work toward building a process that is best fit for your organization.

      Step 3.1

      Prioritize Optimization Opportunities

      Activities

      3.1.1 Prioritize optimization capability areas

      This step will guide you through the following activities:

      • Explore existing process gaps
      • Identify the impact of processes on user satisfaction
      • Identify the impact of data quality on user satisfaction
      • Review your overall product satisfaction and vendor management

      This step involves the following participants:

      • SAP Optimization Team

      Outcomes of this step

      • Application optimization plan

      The Business Value Matrix

      Rationalizing and quantifying the value of SAP

      Benefits can be realized internally and externally to the organization or department and have different drivers of value.

      • Financial benefits refer to the degree to which the value source can be measured through monetary metrics and are often quite tangible.
      • Human benefits refer to how an application can deliver value through a user’s experience.
      • Inward refers to value sources that have an internal impact and improve your organization’s effectiveness and efficiency in performing its operations.
      • Outward refers to value sources that come from your interaction with external factors, such as the market or your customers.

      Organizational Goals

      • Increased Revenue
      • Application functions that are specifically related to the impact on your organization’s ability to generate revenue and deliver value to your customers.

      • Reduced Costs
      • Reduction of overhead. The ways in which an application limits the operational costs of business functions.

      • Enhanced Services
      • Functions that enable business capabilities that improve the organization’s ability to perform its internal operations.

      • Reach Customers
      • Application functions that enable and improve the interaction with customers or produce market information and insights.

      Business Value Matrix

      The image contains a screenshot of a Business Value Matrix. It includes: Reach Customers, Increase Revenue or Deliver Value, Reduce Costs, and Enhance Services.

      Prioritize SAP optimization areas that will bring the most value to the organization

      Review your ERP capability areas and rate them according to relevance to organizational goals. This will allow you to eliminate optimization ideas that may not bring value to the organization.

      The image contains a screenshot of a graph that compares satisfaction by relevance to organizational goals to demonstrate high priority.

      3.1.1 Prioritize and rate optimization capability areas

      1-3 hours

      1. From the SAP capabilities, discuss areas of scope for the SAP optimization initiative.
      2. Discuss the four areas of the business value matrix and identify how each module, along with organizational goals, can bring value to the organization.
      3. Rate each of your SAP capabilities for the level of importance to your organization. The levels of importance are:
      • Crucial
      • Important
      • Secondary
      • Unimportant
      • Not applicable

      Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      The image contains a screenshot of activity 3.1.1.

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      Step 3.2

      Discover Optimization Initiatives

      Activities

      3.2.1 Discover product and vendor satisfaction opportunities

      3.2.2 Discover capability and feature optimization opportunities

      3.2.3 Discover process optimization opportunities

      3.2.4 Discover integration optimization opportunities

      3.2.5 Discover data optimization opportunities

      3.2.6 Discover SAP cost-saving opportunities

      This step will guide you through the following activities:

      • Explore existing process gaps
      • Identify the impact of processes on user satisfaction
      • Identify the impact of data quality on user satisfaction
      • Review your overall product satisfaction and vendor management

      This step involves the following participants:

      • SAP Optimization Team

      Outcomes of this step

      • Application optimization plan

      Satisfaction with SAP product

      The image contains three screenshots to demonstrate satisfaction with sap product.

      Improving vendor management

      Create a right-size, right-fit strategy for managing the vendors relevant to your organization.

      The image contains a diagram to demonstrate lower strategic value, higher vendor spend/switching costs, higher strategic value, and lower vendor spend/switching costs.

      Info-Tech Insight

      A vendor management initiative (VMI) is an organization’s formalized process for evaluating, selecting, managing, and optimizing third-party providers of goods and services.

      The amount of resources you assign to managing vendors depends on the number and value of your organization’s relationships. Before optimizing your vendor management program around the best practices presented in Info-Tech’s Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative blueprint, assess your current maturity and build the process around a model that reflects the needs of your organization.

      Note: Info-Tech uses VMI interchangeably with the terms “vendor management office (VMO),” “vendor management function,” “vendor management process,” and “vendor management program.”

      Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative

      3.2.1 Discover product and vendor satisfaction

      1-2 hours

      1. Use tab 3.1 “Optimization Priorities” and tab 2.2 “Vend. & Prod. Sat” to review the capabilities and features of your SAP system.
      2. Answer the following questions:
        1. Document overall product satisfaction.
        2. How does your satisfaction compare with your peers?
        3. Is the overall system fit for use?
        4. Do you have a proactive vendor management strategy in place?
        5. Is the product dissatisfaction at the point that you need to evaluate if it is time to replace the product?
        6. Could your vendor or Systems Integrator help you achieve better results?
      3. Review the Value Effort Matrix for each initiative.

      Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      Examples from Application Portfolio Assessment

      The image contains screenshots from the Application Portfolio Assessment.

      3.2.2 Discover capability and feature optimization opportunities

      1-2 hours

      1. Use tab 3.1 “Optimization Priorities” and tab 2.2 “Vend. & Prod. Sat” to review the capabilities and features of your SAP system.
      2. Answer the following questions:
        1. What capabilities and features are performing the worst?
        2. Do other organizations and users struggle with these areas?
        3. Why is it not performing well?
        4. Is there an opportunity for improvement?
        5. What are some optimization initiatives that could be undertaken?
      3. Review the Value Effort Matrix for each initiative.

      Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      Process optimization: the hidden goldmine

      In ~90% of SAP business process analysis reports, SAP identified significant potential for improving the existing SAP implementation, i.e. the large majority of customers are not yet using their SAP Business Suite to the full extent.

      Goals of Process Improvement

      Process Improvement Sample Areas

      Improvement Possibilities

      • Optimize business and improve value drivers
      • Reduce TCO
      • Reduce process complexity
      • Eliminate manual processes
      • Increase efficiencies
      • Support digital transformation and enablement
      • Order to cash
      • Procure to pay
      • Order to replenish
      • Plan to produce
      • Request to settle
      • Make to order
      • Make to stock
      • Purchase to order
      • Increase number of process instances processed successfully end-to-end
      • Increase number of instances processed in time
      • Increase degree of process automation
      • Speed up cycle times of supply chain processes
      • Reduce number of process exceptions
      • Apply internal best practices across organizational units

      3.2.3 Discover process optimization opportunities

      1-2 hours

      1. Use exercise 2.13 and tab 2.1 “SAP Current State Assessment” to assess process optimization opportunities.
      2. List underperforming capabilities around process.
      3. Answer the following:
        1. What is the state of the current processes?
        2. Is there an opportunity for process improvement?
        3. What are some optimization initiatives that could be undertaken in this area?

      Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      Integration provides long-term usability

      Balance the need for secure, compliant data availability with organizational agility.

      The Benefits of Integration

      The Challenges of Integration

      • The largest benefit is the extended use of data. The ERP data can be used in the enterprise-level business intelligence suite rather than the application-specific analytics.
      • Enhanced data security. Integrated approaches lend themselves to auditable processes such as sign-on and limiting the email movement of data.
      • Regulatory compliance. Large multi-site organizations have many layers of regulation. A clear understanding of where orders, deliveries, and payments were made streamlines the audit process.
      • Extending a single instance ERP to multiple sites. The challenge for data management is the same as any SaaS application. The connection and data replication present challenges.
      • Combining data from equally high-volume systems. For SAP it is recommended that one instance is set to primary and all other sites are read-only to maintain data integrity.
      • Incorporating data from the separate system(s). The proprietary and locked-in nature of the data collection and definitions for ERP systems often limit the movement of data between separate systems.

      Common integration and consolidation scenarios

      Financial Consolidation

      Data Backup

      Synchronization Across Sites

      Legacy Consolidation

      • Require a holistic view of data format and accounting schedules.
      • Use a data center as the main repository to ensure all geographic locations have equal access to the necessary data.
      • Set up synchronization schedules based on data usage, not site location.
      • Carefully define older transactions. Only active transactions should be brought in the ERP. Send older data to storage.
      • Problem: Controlling financial documentation across geographic regions.
        Most companies are required to report in each region where they maintain a presence. Stakeholders and senior management also need a holistic view. This leads to significant strain on the financial department to consolidate both revenue and budget allocations for cross-site projects across the various geographic locations on a regular basis.
      • Solution: For enterprises with a single vendor, SAP-only portfolios, SAP can offer integration tools. For those needing to integrate with other ERPs, the use of a connector may be required to send financial data to the main system. The format and accounting calendar for transactions should match the primary ERP system to allow consolidation. The local-specific format should be a role-based customization at the level of the site’s specific instance.
      • Problem: ERP systems generate high volumes of data. Most systems have a defined schedule of back-up during off-hours. Multi-instance brings additional issues through lack of defined off-hours, higher volume of data, and the potential for cross-site or instance data relationships. This leads to headaches for both the database administrator and business analysts.
      • Solution: The best solution is an off-site data center with high availability. This may include cloud storage or hosted data centers. Regardless of where the data is stored, centralize the data and replicate to each site. Ensure that the data center can mirror the database and binary large object (BLOB) storage that exists for each site.
      • Problem: Providing access to up-to-date transactions requires copying of both contextual information (permissions, timestamp, location, history) and the transaction itself across multiple sites to allow local copies to be used for analysis and audits. The sheer volume of information makes timely synchronization difficult.
      • Solution: Not all data needs to be synchronized in a timely fashion. In SAP, administrators can use NetWeaver to maintain and alter global data synchronization through the Master Data Management module. Permissions can be given to users to perform on-demand synchronization of data attached to that user.
      • The Problem: Subsidiaries and acquired companies often have a Tier 2 ERP product. Prior to fully consolidating the processes many enterprises will want to migrate data to their ERP system to build compliance and audit trails. Migration of data often breaks historical linkages between transactions.
      • Solution: SAP offers tools to integrate data across applications that can be used as part of a data migration strategy. The process of data migration should be combined with data warehousing to ensure a cost-effective process. For most enterprises, the lack of experience in data migration will necessitate the use of consultants and independent software vendors (ISV).

      For more information: Implement a Multi-site ERP

      3.2.4 Discover integration optimization opportunities

      1-2 hours

      1. Use tab 1.3.1 “SAP Application Inventory” to discuss integrations and how they are related to capability areas that are not performing well.
      2. List capabilities that might be affected by integration issues. Think about exercise 3.2.1 and discuss how integrations could be affecting overall product satisfaction.
      3. Answer the following:
        1. Are there some areas where integration could be improved?
        2. Is there an opportunity for process improvement?
        3. What are some optimization initiatives that could be undertaken in this area?

      Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      System and data optimization

      Consolidating your business and technology requires an overall system and data migration plan.

      The image contains a screenshot of a diagram that demonstrates three different integrations: system, organization, and data.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Have an overall data migration plan before beginning your systems consolidation journey to S/4HANA.

      Use a data strategy that fixes the enterprise-wide data management issues

      Your data management must allow for flexibility and scalability for future needs.

      IT has several concerns around ERP data and wide dissemination of that data across sites. Large organizations can benefit from building a data warehouse or at least adopting some of the principles of data warehousing. The optimal way to deal with the issue of integration is to design a metadata-driven data warehouse that acts as a central repository for all ERP data. They serve as the storage facility for millions of transactions, formatted to allow analysis and comparison.

      Key considerations:

      • Technical: At what stage does data move to the warehouse? Can processes be automated to dump data or to do a scheduled data movement?
      • Process: Data integration requires some level of historical context for all data. Ensure that all data has multiple metadata tags to future-proof the data.
      • People: Who will be accessing the data and what are the key items that users will need to adapt to the data warehouse process?

      Info-Tech Insight

      Data warehouse solutions can be expensive. See Info-Tech’s Build a Data Warehouse on a Solid Foundation for guidance on what options are available to meet your budget and data needs.

      Optimizing SAP data, additional considerations

      Data Quality Management

      Effective Data Governance

      Data-Centric Integration Strategy

      Extensible Data Warehousing

      • Prevention is ten times cheaper than remediation. Stop fixing data quality with band-aid solutions and start fixing at the source of the problem.
      • Data quality is unique to each business unit and requires tolerance, not perfection. If the data allows the business to operate at the desired level, don’t waste time fixing data that may not need to be fixed.
      • Implement a set of data quality initiatives that are aligned with overall business objectives and aimed at addressing data practices and the data itself.
      • Develop a prioritized data quality improvement project roadmap and long-term improvement strategy.
      • Build related practices with more confidence and less risk after achieving an appropriate level of data quality.
      • Data governance enables data-driven insight. Think of governance as a structure for making better use of data.
      • Collaboration is critical. The business may own the data, but IT understands the data. Data governance will not work unless the business and IT work together.
      • Data governance powers the organization up the data value chain through policies and procedures, master data management, data quality, and data architecture.
      • Create a roadmap to prioritize initiatives and delineate responsibilities among data stewards, data owners, and the data governance steering committee.
      • Ensure buy-in from business and IT stakeholders. Communicate initiatives to end users and executives to reduce resistance.
      • Every enterprise application involves data integration. Any change in the application and database ecosystem requires you to solve a data integration problem.
      • Data integration is becoming more and more critical for downstream functions of data management and for business operations to be successful. Poor integration holds back these critical functions.
      • Build your data integration practice with a firm foundation in governance and a reference architecture. Ensure that your process is scalable and sustainable.
      • Support the flow of data through the organization and meet the organization’s requirements for data latency, availability, and relevancy.
      • Data availability must be frequently reviewed and repositioned to continue to grow with the business.
      • A data warehouse is a project, but successful data warehousing is a program. An effective data warehouse requires planning beyond the technology implementation.
      • Governance, not technology, needs to be the core support system for enabling a data warehouse program.
      • Leverage an approach that focuses on constructing a data warehouse foundation that can address a combination of operational, tactical, and ad hoc business needs.
      • Invest time and effort to put together pre-project governance to inform and guide your data warehouse implementation.
      • Select the most suitable architecture pattern to ensure the data warehouse is “built right” at the very beginning.

      Restore Trust in Your Data Using a Business-Aligned Data Quality Management Approach

      Establish Data Governance

      Build a Data Integration Strategy

      Build an Extensible Data Warehouse Foundation

      Data Optimization

      Organizations are faced with challenges associated with changing data landscapes.

      Data migrations should not be taken lightly. It requires an overall data governance to assure data integrity for the move to S/4HANA and beyond.

      Have a solid plan before engaging S/4HANA Migration Cockpit.

      Develop a Master Data Management Strategy and Roadmap

      • Master data management (MDM) is complex in practice and requires investments in governance, technology, and planning.
      • Develop a MDM strategy and initiative roadmap using Info-Tech’s MDM framework, which takes data governance, architecture, and other critical data capabilities into consideration.

      Establish Data Governance

      • Ensure your data governance program delivers measurable business value by aligning the associated data governance initiatives with the business architecture.
      • Data governance must continuously align with the organization’s enterprise governance function. It should not be perceived as a pet project of IT but rather as an enterprise-wide, business-driven initiative.
      The image contains a screenshot of the S/4HANA Migration Cockpit.

      3.2.5 Discover data optimization opportunities

      1-2 hours

      1. Use your APA or user satisfaction survey to understand issues related to data.
        Note: Data issues happen for a number of reasons:
      • Poor underlying data in the system
      • More than one source of truth
      • Inability to consolidate data
      • Inability to measure KPIs effectively
      • Reporting that is cumbersome or non-existent
    • List underperforming capabilities related to data.
    • Answer the following:
      1. What are some underlying issues?
      2. Is there an opportunity for data improvement?
      3. What are some optimization initiatives that could be undertaken in this area?

      Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      SAP cost savings

      SAP cost savings does not have to be complicated.

      Look for quick wins:

      • Evaluate user licensing:
        • Ensure you are not double paying for employees or paying for employees who are no longer with the organization.
        • Verify user activity – if users are accessing the system very infrequently it does not make sense to license them as full users.
        • Audit your user classifications – ensure title positions and associated licenses are up to date.
      • Curb data sprawl.
      • Consolidate applications.

      30-35% of SAP customers likely have underutilized assets. This can add up to millions in unused software and maintenance.

      -Riley et al.

      20% Only 20 percent of companies manage to capture more than half the projected benefits from ERP systems.

      -McKinsey
      The image contains a screenshot of the Explore the Secrets of SAP Software Contracts to Optimize Spend and Reduce Compliance Risk.

      Explore the Secrets of SAP Software Contracts to Optimize Spend and Reduce Compliance Risk

      The image contains a screenshot of Secrets of SAP S/4HANA Licensing.

      Secrets of SAP S/4HANA Licensing

      License Optimization

      With the relatively slow uptake of the S/4HANA platform, the pressure is immense for SAP to maintain revenue growth.

      SAP’s definitions and licensing rules are complex and vague, making it extremely difficult to purchase with confidence while remaining compliant.

      Without having a holistic negotiation strategy, it is easy to hit a common obstacle and land into SAP’s playbook, requiring further spend.

      Price Benchmarking & Negotiation

      • Use price benchmarking and negotiation intelligence to secure a market-competitive price.
      • Understand negotiation tactics that can be used to better your deal.

      Secrets of SAP S/4HANA Licensing:

      • Build a business case to evaluate S/4HANA.
      • Understand the S/4HANA roadmap and map current functionality to ensure compatibility.

      SAP’s 2025 Support End of Life Date Delayed…As Predicted Here First

      • The math simply did not add up for SAP.
      • Extended support post 2027 is a mixed bag.

      3.2.6 Discover SAP cost-saving opportunities

      1-2 hours

      1. Use tab 1.5 “Current Costs” as an input for this exercise.
      2. Look for opportunities to cut SAP costs, both quick-wins and long-term strategy.
      3. Review Info-Tech’s SAP vendor management resources to understand cost-saving strategies:
      4. List cost-savings initiatives and opportunities.

      Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      Other optimization opportunities

      There are many opportunities to improve your SAP portfolio. Choose the ones that are right for your business:

      • Artificial intelligence (AI) (and management of the AI lifecycle)
      • Machine learning (ML)
      • Augment business interactions
      • Automatically execute sales pipelines
      • Process mining
      • SAP application monitoring
      • Be aware of the SAP product roadmap
      • Implement and take advantage of SAP tools and product offerings

      Phase 4

      Build Your Optimization Roadmap

      Phase 1

      Phase 2

      Phase 3

      Phase 4

      1.1 Identify Stakeholders and Build Your Optimization Team

      1.2 Build an SAP Strategy Model

      1.3 Inventory Current System State

      1.4 Define Optimization Timeframe

      1.5 Understand SAP Costs

      2.1 Assess SAP Capabilities

      2.2 Review Your Satisfaction With the Vendor/Product and Willingness for Change

      3.1 Prioritize Optimization Opportunities

      3.2 Discover Optimization Initiatives

      4.1 Build Your Optimization Roadmap

      This phase will walk you through the following activities:

      • Review the different options to solve the identified pain points
      • Build out a roadmap showing how you will get to those solutions
      • Build a communication plan that includes the stakeholder presentation

      This phase involves the following participants:

      • Primary stakeholders in each value stream supported by the ERP
      • ERP applications support team

      Get the Most Out of Your SAP

      Step 4.1

      4.1 Build Your Optimization Roadmap

      Activities

      4.1.1 Pick your path

      4.1.2 Pick the right SAP migration path

      4.1.3 Build a roadmap

      4.1.4 Build a visual roadmap

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Review the different options to solve the identified pain points then build out a roadmap of how to get to that solution.

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Primary stakeholders in each value stream supported by the ERP
      • ERP applications support team

      Outcomes of this step

      • A strategic direction is set
      • An initial roadmap is laid out

      Choose the right path for your organization

      There are several different paths you can take to achieve your ideal future state. Make sure to pick the one that suits your needs as defined by your current state.

      The image contains a diagram to demonstrate the different paths that can be taken. The pathways are: Optimize current system, augment current system, consolidate current systems, upgrade system, and replace system.

      Explore the options for achieving your ideal future state

      CURRENT STATE

      STRATEGY

      There is significant evidence of poor user satisfaction, inefficient processes, lack of data usage, poor integrations, and little vendor management. Look for opportunities to improve the system.

      OPTIMIZE CURRENT SYSTEM

      Your existing application is, for the most part, functionally rich but may need some tweaking. Spend time and effort building and enhancing additional functionalities or consolidating and integrating interfaces.

      AUGMENT CURRENT SYSTEM

      Your ERP application portfolio consists of multiple apps serving the same functions. Consolidating applications with duplicate functionality is more cost efficient and makes integration and data sharing simpler.

      CONSOLIDATE CURRENT SYSTEMS

      The current system is reaching end of life and the software vendor offers a fit-for-use upgrade or system to which you can migrate. Prepare your migration strategy to move forward on the product roadmap.

      UPGRADE SYSTEM

      The current SAP system and future SAP roadmap are not fit for use. Vendor satisfaction is at an all-time low. Revisit your ERP strategy as you move into requirements gathering and selection.

      REPLACE SYSTEM

      Option: Optimize your current system

      Look for process, workflow, data usage, and vendor relation improvements.

      MAINTAIN CURRENT SYSTEM

      Keep the system but look for optimization opportunities.

      Your existing application portfolio satisfies both functionality and integration requirements. The processes surrounding it likely need attention, but the system should be considered for retention.

      Maintaining your current system entails adjusting current processes and/or adding new ones and involves minimal cost, time, and effort.

      INDICATORS

      POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

      People

      • User satisfaction is in the mid-range
      • There is an opportunity to rectify problems
      • Contact vendor to inquire about employee training opportunities
      • Build a change management strategy

      Process

      • Processes are old and have not been optimized
      • There are many manual processes and workarounds
      • Low process maturity or undocumented inconsistent processes
      • Explore process reengineering and process improvement opportunities
      • Evaluate and standardize processes

      Technology

      • No major capability gaps
      • Supported for 5+ years
      • Explore opportunities outside of the core technology including workflows, integrations, and reporting

      Alternative 1: Optimize your current system

      MAINTAIN CURRENT SYSTEM

      • Keep your SAP system running
      • Invest in resolving current challenges
      • Automate manual processes where appropriate
      • Improve/modify current system
      • Evaluate current system against requirements/processes
      • Reimplement functionality

      Alternative Overview

      Initial Investment ($)

      Medium

      Risk

      Medium

      Change Management Required

      Medium

      Operating Costs ($)

      Low

      Alignment With Organizational Goals and ERP Strategy

      Medium-Low

      Key Considerations

      • Now that I know my needs, where is the current system underused?
      • Do we have specialized needs?
      • Which functions can best enable the business?

      Advantages

      • Less cost investment than upgrading or replacing the system
      • Less technology risk
      • The current system has several optimization initiatives that can be implemented
      • Familiarity with the system; IT and business users know the system well
      • Least amount of changes
      • Integrations will be able to be maintained and will mean less complexity
      • Will allow us to leverage current investments and build on our current confidence in the solution
      • Allow us to review processes and engineer some workflow and process improvements

      Disadvantages

      • The system may need some augmentation to handle some improvement areas
      • Build some items from scratch
      • Less user-friendly
      • Need to reimplement and reconfigure some modules
      • Lots of workarounds – more staff needed to support current processes
      • Increase customization (additional IT development investment)
      • System gaps would remain
      • System feels “hard” to use
      • Workarounds still needed
      • Hard to overcome “negative” experience with the current system
      • Some functional gaps will remain
      • Less system development and support from the vendor as the product ages.
      • May become a liability and risk area in the future

      For what time frame does this make sense?

      Short Term

      Medium Term

      Long Term

      Option: Augment your current system

      Use augmentation to resolve your existing technology and data pain points.

      AUGMENT CURRENT SYSTEM

      Add to the system.

      Your existing application is for the most part functionally rich but may need some tweaking. Spend time and effort enhancing your current system.

      You will be able to add functions by leveraging existing system features. Augmentation requires limited investment and less time and effort than a full system replacement.

      INDICATORS

      POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

      Technology Pain Points

      • Lack of reporting functions
      • Lacking functional depth in key process areas
      • Add point solutions or enable modules to address missing functionality

      Data Pain Points

      • Poor data quality
      • Lack of data for processing and reporting
      • Single-source data entry
      • Add modules or augment processes to capture data

      Alternative 2: Augment current solution

      AUGMENT CURRENT SYSTEM

      Maintain core system.

      Invest in SAP modules or extended functionality.

      Add functionality with bolt-on targeted “best of breed” solutions.

      Invest in tools to make the SAP portfolio and ecosystem work better.

      Alternative Overview

      Initial Investment ($)

      High

      Risk

      High

      Change Management

      High

      Operating Costs ($)

      High

      Alignment With Organizational Goals and ERP Strategy

      High

      Key Considerations

      • Now that I know my needs, where is the current system underused?
      • Do we have specialized needs?
      • Which functions can best enable the business?

      Advantages

      • Meet specific business needs – right solution for each component
      • Well-aligned to specific business needs
      • Higher morale – best solution with improved user interface
      • Allows you to find the right solution for the unique needs of the organization
      • Allows you to incorporate a light change management strategy that can include training for the end users and IT
      • Incorporate best practice processes
      • Leverage out-of-the-box functionality

      Disadvantages

      • Multiple technological solutions
      • Lots of integrations
      • Out-of-sync upgrades
      • Extra costs – potential less negotiation leverage
      • Multiple solutions to support
      • Multiple vendors
      • Less control over upgrades – including timing (potential out of sync)
      • More training – multiple products, multiple interfaces
      • Confusion – which system to use when
      • Need more HR specialization
      • More complexity in reporting
      • More alignment with JDE E1 information

      For what time frame does this make sense?

      Short Term

      Medium Term

      Long Term

      Option: Consolidate systems

      Consolidate and integrate your current systems to address your technology and data pain points.

      CONSOLIDATE AND INTEGRATE SYSTEMS

      Get rid of one system, combine two, or connect many.

      Your ERP application portfolio consists of multiple apps serving the same functions.

      Consolidating your systems eliminates the need to manage multiple pieces of software that provide duplicate functionality. Reducing the number of ERP applications makes integration and data sharing simpler.

      INDICATORS

      POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

      Technology Pain Points

      • Disparate and disjointed systems
      • Multiple systems supporting the same function
      • Unused software licenses
      • System consolidation
      • System and module integration
      • Assess usage and consolidate licensing

      Data Pain Points

      • Multiple versions of same data
      • Duplication of data entry in different modules or systems
      • Poor data quality
      • Centralize core records
      • Assign data ownership
      • Single-source data entry

      Alternative 3: Consolidate systems

      AUGMENT CURRENT SYSTEM

      Get rid of old disparate on-premise solutions.

      Consolidate into an up-to-date ERP solution.

      Standardize across the organization.

      Alternative Overview

      Initial Investment ($)

      High

      Risk

      Med

      Change Management

      Med

      Operating Costs ($)

      Med

      Alignment With Organizational Goals and ERP Strategy

      High

      Key Considerations

      • Now that I know my needs, where is the current system underused?
      • Do we have specialized needs?
      • Which functions can best enable the business?

      Advantages

      • Aligns the technology across the organization
      • Streamlining of processes
      • Opportunity for decreased costs
      • Easier to maintain
      • Modernizes the SAP portfolio
      • Easier to facilitate training
      • Incorporate best practice processes
      • Leverage out-of-the-box functionality

      Disadvantages

      • Unique needs of some business units may not be addressed
      • Will require change management and training
      • Deeper investment in SAP

      For what time frame does this make sense?

      Short Term

      Medium Term

      Long Term

      Option: Upgrade System

      Upgrade your system to address gaps in your existing processes and various pain points.

      REPLACE CURRENT SYSTEM

      Move to a new SAP solution

      You’re transitioning from an end-of-life legacy system. Your existing system offers poor functionality and poor integration. It would likely be more cost- and time-efficient to replace the application and its surrounding processes altogether. You are satisfied with SAP overall and want to continue to leverage your SAP relationships and investments.

      INDICATORS

      POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

      Technology Pain Points

      • Obsolete or end-of-life technology portfolio
      • Lack of functionality and poor integration
      • Not aligned with technology direction or enterprise architecture plans
      • Evaluate the ERP technology landscape
      • Determine if you need to replace the current system with a point solution or an all-in-one solution
      • Align ERP technologies with enterprise architecture

      Data Pain Points

      • Limited capability to store and retrieve data
      • Understand your data requirements

      Process Pains

      • Insufficient tools to manage workflow
      • Review end-to-end processes
      • Assess user satisfaction

      Alternative 4: Upgrade System

      UPGRADE SYSTEM

      Upgrade your current SAP systems with SAP product replacements.

      Invest in SAP with the appropriate migration path for your organization.

      Alternative Overview

      Initial Investment ($)

      High

      Risk

      Med

      Change Management

      Med

      Operating Costs ($)

      Med

      Alignment With Organizational Goals and ERP Strategy

      High

      Key Considerations

      • Now that I know my needs, where is the current system underused?
      • Do we have specialized needs?
      • Which functions can best enable the business?

      Advantages

      • Aligns the technology across the organization
      • Opportunity for business transformation
      • Allows you to leverage your SAP and SI relationships
      • Modernizes your ERP portfolio
      • May offer you advantages around business transformation and process improvement
      • Opportunity for new hosting options
      • May offer additional opportunities for consolidation or business enablement

      Disadvantages

      • Big initiative
      • Costly
      • Adds business risk during ERP upgrade
      • May require a high amount of change management
      • Organization will have to build resources to support the replacement and ongoing support of the new product
      • Training will be required across business and IT
      • Integrations with other applications may need to be rebuilt

      For what time frame does this make sense?

      Short Term

      Medium Term

      Long Term

      Option: Replace your current system

      Replace your system to address gaps in your existing processes and various pain points.

      REPLACE CURRENT SYSTEM

      Start from scratch.

      You’re transitioning from an end-of-life legacy system. Your existing system offers poor functionality and poor integration. It would likely be more cost and time efficient to replace the application and its surrounding processes all together.

      INDICATORS

      POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

      Technology Pain Points

      • Lack of functionality and poor integration
      • Obsolete technology
      • Not aligned with technology direction or enterprise architecture plans
      • Dissatisfaction with SAP and SI
      • Evaluate the ERP technology landscape
      • Determine if you need to replace the current system with a point solution or an all-in-one solution
      • Align ERP technologies with enterprise architecture

      Data Pain Points

      • Limited capability to store and retrieve data
      • Understand your data requirements

      Process Pains

      • Insufficient tools to manage workflow
      • Review end-to-end processes
      • Assess user satisfaction

      Alternative 5: Replace SAP with another ERP solution

      AUGMENT CURRENT SYSTEM

      Get rid of old disparate on-premises solutions.

      Consolidate into an up-to-date ERP solution.

      Standardize across the organization.

      Alternative Overview

      Initial Investment ($)

      High

      Risk

      Med

      Change Management

      Med

      Operating Costs ($)

      Med

      Alignment With Organizational Goals and ERP Strategy

      High

      Key Considerations

      • Do we have the appetite to walk away from SAP?
      • What opportunities are we looking for?
      • Are other ERP solutions better for our business?

      Advantages

      • Allows you to explore ERP options outside of SAP
      • Aligns the technology across the organization
      • Opportunity for business transformation
      • Allows you to move away from SAP
      • Modernizes your ERP portfolio
      • May offer you advantages around business transformation and process improvement
      • Opportunity for new hosting options
      • May offer additional opportunities for consolidation or business enablement

      Disadvantages

      • Big initiative
      • Costly
      • Adds business risk during ERP replacement
      • Relationships will have to be rebuilt with ERP vendor and SIs
      • May require a high amount of change management
      • Organization will have to build resources to support the replacement and ongoing support of the new product
      • Training will be required across business and IT
      • Integrations with other applications may need to be rebuilt

      For what time frame does this make sense?

      Short Term

      Medium Term

      Long Term

      Activity 4.1.1: Pick your path

      1.5 hours

      For each given path selected, identify:

      • Advantage
      • Disadvantages
      • Initial Investment ($)
      • Risk
      • Change Management
      • Operating Costs ($)
      • Alignment With ERP Objectives
      • Key Considerations
      • Timeframe

      Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      The image contains a screenshot of activity 4.1.1 pick your path.

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      Pick the right SAP migration path for your organization

      There are three S/4HANA paths you can take to achieve your ideal future state. Make sure to pick the one that suits your needs as defined by your current state and meets your overall long-term roadmap.

      The image contains a diagram of the pathways that can be take from current state to future state. The options are: BEST PRACTICE QUICK WIN
(Public Cloud), AUGMENT BEST PRACTICE (Private Cloud), OWN FULL SOLUTION (On Premise)

      SAP S/4 HANA offerings can be confusing

      The image contains a screenshot that demonstrates the SAP S/4 Offerings.

      What is the cloud, how is it deployed, and how is service provided?

      The image contains a screenshot from the National Institute of Standards and Technology that describes the Cloud Characteristics, Service Model, and Delivery Model.

      A workload-first approach will allow you to take full advantage of the cloud’s strengths

      • Under all but the most exceptional circumstances good cloud strategies will incorporate different service models. Very few organizations are “IaaS shops” or “SaaS shops,” even if they lean heavily in a one direction.
      • These different service models (including non-cloud options like colocation and on-premises infrastructure) each have different strengths. Part of your cloud strategy should involve determining which of the services makes the most sense for you.
      • Own the cloud by understanding which cloud (or non-cloud!) offering makes the most sense for you, given your unique context.

      See Info-Tech’s Define Your Cloud Vision for more information.

      Cloud service models

      • This research focuses on five key service models, each of which has its own strengths and weaknesses. Moving right from “on-prem” customers gradually give up more control over their environments to cloud service providers.
      • An entirely premises-based environment means that the customer is responsible for everything ranging from the dirt under the datacenter to application-level configurations. Conversely, in a SaaS environment, the provider is responsible for everything but those top-level application configurations.
      • A managed service provider or other third-party can manage any or of the components of the infrastructure stack. A service provider may, for example, build a SaaS solution on top of another provider’s IaaS or offer configuration assistance with a commercially available SaaS.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Not all workloads fit well in the cloud. Many environments will mix service models (e.g. SaaS for some workloads, some in IaaS, some on-premises) and this can be perfectly effective. It must be consistent and intentional, however.

      The image contains a screenshot of cloud service models: On-prem, CoLo, laaS, PaaS, and SaaS

      Option: Best Practice Quick Win

      S/4HANA Cloud, Essentials

      Updates

      4 times a year

      License Model

      Subscription

      Server Platform

      SAP

      Platform Management

      SAP only

      Pre-Set Templates (industries)

      Not allowed

      Single vs. Multi-Tenant

      Multi-client

      Maintenance ALM Tool

      SAP ALM

      New Implementation

      This is a public cloud solution for new clients adopting SAP that are mostly looking for full functionality within best practice.

      Consider a full greenfield approach. Even for mid-size existing customers looking for a best-practice overhaul.

      Functionality is kept to the core. Any specialties or unique needs would be outside the core.

      Regional localization is still being expanded and must be evaluated early if you are a global company.

      Option: Augment Best Practice

      S/4HANA Cloud, Extended Edition

      Updates

      Every 1-2 years or up to client’s schedule

      License Model

      Subscription

      Server Platform

      AZURE, AWS, Google

      Platform Management

      SAP only

      Pre-Set Templates (industries)

      Coded separately

      Single vs. Multi-Tenant

      Single tenant

      Maintenance ALM Tool

      SAP ALM or SAP Solution Manager

      New Implementation With Client Specifics

      No longer available to new customers from January 25, 2022, though available for renewals.

      Replacement is called SAP Extended Services for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition.

      This offering is a grey area, and the extended offerings are being defined.

      New S/4HANA Cloud extensibility is being offered to early adopters, allowing for customization within a separate system landscape (DTP) and aiming for an SAP Central Business Configuration solution for the cloud. A way of fine-tuning to meet customer-specific needs.

      Option: Augment Best Practice (Cont.)

      S/4HANA Cloud, Private Edition

      Updates

      Every 1-5 years or up to client’s schedule

      License Model

      Subscription

      Server Platform

      AZURE, AWS, Google

      Platform Management

      SAP only

      Pre-Set Templates (industries)

      Allowed

      Single vs. Multi-Tenant

      Single tenant

      Maintenance ALM Tool

      SAP ALM or SAP Solution Manager

      New Implementation With Client Specifics

      This is a private cloud solution for existing or new customers needing more uniqueness, though still looking to adopt best practice.

      Still considered a new implementation with data migration requirements that need close attention.

      This offering is trying to move clients to the S/4HANA Cloud with close competition with the Any Premise product offering. Providing client specific scalability while allowing for standardization in the cloud and growth in the digital strategy. All customizations and ABAP functionality must be revisited or revamped to fit standardization.

      Option: Own Full Solution

      S/4HANA Any Premise

      Updates

      Client decides

      License Model

      Perpetual or subscription

      Server Platform

      AZURE, AWS, Google, partner's or own server room

      Platform Management

      Client and/or partner

      Pre-Set Templates (industries)

      Allowed

      Single vs. Multi-Tenant

      Single tenant

      Maintenance ALM Tool

      SAP Solution Manager

      Status Quo Migration to S/4HANA

      This is for clients looking for a quick transition to S/4HANA with minimal risks and without immediate changes to their operations.

      Though knowing the direction with SAP is toward its cloud solution, this may be a long costly path to getting the that end state.

      The Any Premise version carries over existing critical ABAP functionalities, and the SAP GUI can remain as the user interface.

      Activity 4.1.2 (Optional) Evaluate optimization initiatives

      1 hour

      1. If there is an opportunity to optimize the current SAP environment or prepare for the move to a new platform, continue with this step.
      2. Valuate your optimization initiatives from tab 3.2 “Optimization Initiatives.”

      Consider: relevance to achieving goals, number of users, importance to role, satisfaction with features, usability, data quality

      Value Opportunities: increase revenue, decrease costs, enhanced services, reach customers

      Additional Factors:

      • Current to Future Risk Profile
      • Number of Departments to Benefit
      • Importance to Stakeholder Relations
      • Resources: Do we have resources available and the skillset?
      • Cost
      • Overall Effort Rating
      • "Gut Check: Is it achievable? Have we done it or something similar before? Are we willing to invest in it?"

      Prioritize

      • Relative priority
      • Determine if this will be included in your optimization roadmap
      • Decision to proceed
      • Next steps

      Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      Activity 4.1.3 Roadmap building blocks: SAP migration

      1 hour

      Migration paths: Determine your migration path and next steps using the Activity 4.1.1 “SAP System Options.”

      1. Identify initiatives and next steps.
      2. For each item on your roadmap, assign an owner who will be accountable to the completion of the roadmap item.
      3. Wherever possible, assign a start date, month, or quarter. The more specific you can be the better.
      4. Identify completion dates to create a sense of urgency. If you are struggling with start dates, it can help to start with a finish date and “back in” to a start date based on estimated efforts.
      5. Include periphery tasks such as communication strategy.

      Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      Note: Your roadmap should be treated as a living document that is updated and shared with the stakeholders on a regular schedule.

      The image contains a diagram of the pathways that can be take from current state to future state. The options are: BEST PRACTICE QUICK WIN
(Public Cloud), AUGMENT BEST PRACTICE (Private Cloud), OWN FULL SOLUTION (On Premise)

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      Activity 4.1.4 Roadmap building blocks: SAP optimization

      1 hour

      Optimization initiatives: Determine which if any to proceed with.

      1. Identify initiatives.
      2. For each item on your roadmap, assign an owner who will be accountable to the completion of the roadmap item.
      3. Wherever possible, assign a start date, month, or quarter. The more specific you can be the better.
      4. Identify completion dates to create a sense of urgency. If you are struggling with start dates, it can help to start with a finish date and “back in” to a start date based on estimated efforts.
      5. Include periphery tasks such as communication strategy.

      Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

      Note: Your roadmap should be treated as a living document that is updated and shared with the stakeholders on a regular schedule.

      The image contains a screenshot of activity 4.1.4 SAP optimization.

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      SAP optimization roadmap

      Initiative

      Owner

      Start Date

      Completion Date

      Create final workshop deliverable

      Info-Tech

      16 September 2021

      Review final deliverable

      Workshop sponsor

      Present to executive team

      October 2021

      Build business case

      CFO, CIO, Directors

      3 weeks to build

      3-4 weeks process time

      Build an RFI for initial costings

      1-2 weeks

      Stage 1 approval for requirements gathering

      Executive committee

      Milestone

      Determine and acquire BA support for next step

      1 week

      Requirements gathering – level 2 processes

      Project team

      1 week

      Build RFP (based on informal approval)

      CFO, CIO, Directors

      4th calendar quarter 2022

      Possible completion: January 2023

      2-4 weeks

      Data strategy optimization

      The image contains a graph to demonstrate the data strategy optimization.

      Activity 4.1.5 (Optional) Build a visual SAP roadmap

      1 hour

      1. For some, a visual representation of a roadmap is easier to comprehend. Consider taking the roadmap built in 4.1.4 and creating a visual.
      2. Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook.

        The image contains a screenshot of activity 4.1.5 build a visual SAP roadmap.

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your SAP Workbook

      SAP strategy roadmap

      The image contains a screenshot of the SAP strategy roadmap.

      Implementations Partners

      • Able to consult, migrate, implement, and manage the SAP S/4HANA business suite across industries.
      • Able to transform the enterprise’s core business system to achieve the desired outcome.
      • Capable in strategic planning, building business cases, developing roadmaps, cost and time analysis, deployment model (on-prem, cloud, hybrid model), database conversion, database and operational support, and maintenance services.

      Info-Tech Insight

      It is becoming a common practice for implementation partners to engage in a two- to three-month Discovery Phase or Phase 0 to prepare an implementation roadmap. It is important to understand how this effort is tied to the overall service agreement.

      The image contains several logos of the implementation partners: Atos, Accenture, Cognizant, EY, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, LTI, Capgemini, Wipro, IBM, tos.

      Summary of Accomplishment

      Get the Most Out of Your SAP

      ERP technology is critical to facilitating an organization’s flow of information across business units. It allows for seamless integration of systems and creates a holistic view of the enterprise to support decision making. ERP implementation should not be a one-and-done exercise. There needs to be an ongoing optimization to enable business processes and optimal organizational results.

      Get the Most Out of Your SAP allows organizations to proactively implement continuous assessment and optimization of their enterprise resource planning system, including:

      • Alignment and prioritization of key business and technology drivers.
      • Identification of processes, including classification and gap analysis.
      • Measurement of user satisfaction across key departments.
      • Improved vendor relations.
      • Data quality initiatives.

      This formal SAP optimization initiative will drive business-IT alignment, identify IT automation priorities, and dig deep into continuous process improvement.

      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

      Research Contributors

      The image contains a picture of Ben Dickie.

      Ben Dickie

      Research Practice Lead

      Info-Tech Research Group

      Ben Dickie is a Research Practice Lead at Info-Tech Research Group. His areas of expertise include customer experience management, CRM platforms, and digital marketing. He has also led projects pertaining to enterprise collaboration and unified communications.

      The image contains a picture of Scott Bickley.

      Scott Bickley

      Practice Lead and Principal Research Director

      Info-Tech Research Group

      Scott Bickley is a Practice Lead and Principal Research Director at Info-Tech Research Group focused on vendor management and contract review. He also has experience in the areas of IT asset management (ITAM), software asset management (SAM), and technology procurement along with a deep background in operations, engineering, and quality systems management.

      The image contains a picture of Andy Neil.

      Andy Neil

      Practice Lead, Applications

      Info-Tech Research Group

      Andy is a Senior Research Director, Data Management and BI, at Info-Tech Research Group. He has over 15 years of experience in managing technical teams, information architecture, data modeling, and enterprise data strategy. He is an expert in enterprise data architecture, data integration, data standards, data strategy, big data, and the development of industry standard data models.

      Bibliography

      Armel, Kate. "New Article: Data-Driven Estimation, Management Lead to High Quality." QSM: Quantitative Software Management, 14 May 2013. Accessed 4 Feb. 2021.

      Enterprise Resource Planning. McKinsey, n.d. Accessed 13 Apr. 2022.

      Epizitone, Ayogeboh. Info-Tech Interview, 10 May 2021.

      Epizitone, Ayogeboh, and Oludayo O. Olugbara. “Principal Component Analysis on Morphological Variability of Critical Success Factors for Enterprise Resource Planning.” International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications (IJACSA), vol. 11, no. 5, 2020. Web.

      Gheorghiu, Gabriel. "The ERP Buyer’s Profile for Growing Companies." Selecthub, 2018. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021.

      Karlsson, Johan. "Product Backlog Grooming Examples and Best Practices." Perforce, 18 May 2018. Accessed 4 Feb. 2021.

      Lichtenwalter, Jim. “A look back at 2021 and a look ahead to 2022.” ASUG, 23 Jan. 2022. Web.

      “Maximizing the Emotional Economy: Behavioral Economics." Gallup, n.d. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021.

      Mell, Peter, and Timothy Grance. “The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing.” National Institute of Standards and Technology. Sept. 2011. Web.

      Norelus, Ernese, Sreeni Pamidala, and Oliver Senti. "An Approach to Application Modernization: Discovery and Assessment Phase," Medium, 24 Feb 2020. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021.

      “Process Frameworks." APQC, n.d. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021.

      “Quarterly number of SAP S/4HANA subscribers worldwide, from 2015 to 2021.” Statista, n.d. Accessed 13 Apr. 2022.

      Riley, L., C.Hanna, and M. Tucciarone. “Rightsizing SAP in these unprecedented times.” Upperedge, 19 May 2020.

      Rubin, Kenneth S. Essential Scrum: A Practical Guide to the Most Popular Agile Process. Pearson Education, 2012.

      “SAP S/4HANA Product Scorecard Report.” SoftwareReviews, n.d. Accessed 18 Apr. 2022.

      Saxena, Deepak, and Joe Mcdonagh. "Evaluating ERP Implementations: The Case for a Lifecycle-based Interpretive Approach." The Electronic Journal of Information Systems Evaluation, vol. 22, no. 1, 2019, pp. 29-37. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021.

      Smith, Anthony. "How To Create A Customer-Obsessed Company Like Netflix." Forbes, 12 Dec. 2017. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021.

      Master the MSA for Your Managed Services Providers

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      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 9.7/10 Overall Impact
      • member rating average dollars saved: $9,869 Average $ Saved
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      • Parent Category Name: Vendor Management
      • Parent Category Link: /vendor-management
      • 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]

      Availability and Capacity Management

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      • Up-Sell: {j2store}10|upsells{/j2store}
      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 8.0/10.0
      • member rating average dollars saved: $2,950
      • member rating average days saved: 10
      • Parent Category Name: Infra and Operations
      • Parent Category Link: /infra-and-operations
      Develop your availability and capacity management plant and align it with exactly what the business expects.

      Activate Your Augmented Reality Initiative

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}465|cart{/j2store}
      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 10.0/10 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: Customer Relationship Management
      • Parent Category Link: /customer-relationship-management
      • Augmented reality is a new technology and use cases are still emerging. Organizations have to work hard to stay ahead of the curve and predict how they will be impacted.
      • There are limited off-the-shelf augmented reality solutions in terms of business applications. IT not only needs to understand the emerging augmented reality hardware, but also the plethora of development platforms.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Augmented reality presents a new avenue to solve problems that cannot be addressed efficiently with existing technology. It is a new tool that will impact the way you work.
      • Beyond addressing existing problems, augmented reality will provide the ability to differently execute business processes. Current processes have been designed with existing systems and capabilities in mind. Augmented reality impacts organizational design processes that are more complex.
      • As a technology with an evolving set of use cases, IT and the business must anticipate some of the challenges that may arise with the use of augmented reality (e.g. health and safety, application development, regulatory).

      Impact and Result

      • Our methodology addresses the possible issues by using a case-study approach to demonstrate the “art of the possible” for augmented reality.
      • With an understanding of augmented reality, it is possible to find applicable use cases for this emerging technology and get a leg up on competitors.
      • By utilizing Info-Tech’s Augmented Reality Use Case Picklist and the Augmented Reality Stakeholder Presentation Template, the IT team and their business stakeholders can confidently approach augmented reality adoption.

      Activate Your Augmented Reality Initiative Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why your organization should care about augmented reality’s potential to transform the workplace and how Info-Tech will support you as you identify and build your augmented reality use case.

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

      1. Understand augmented reality

      Analyze the four key benefits of augmented reality to understand how the technology can resolve industry issues.

      • Activate Your Augmented Reality Initiative – Phase 1: Understand Augmented Reality
      • Augmented Reality Glossary

      2. Finding space for augmented reality

      Develop and prioritize use cases for augmented reality using Info-Tech’s AR Initiative Framework.

      • Activate Your Augmented Reality Initiative – Phase 2: Finding Space for Augmented Reality
      • Augmented Reality Use Case Picklist

      3. Communicate project decisions to stakeholders

      Present the augmented reality initiative to stakeholders and understand the way forward for the AR initiative.

      • Activate Your Augmented Reality Initiative – Phase 3: Communicate Project Decisions to Stakeholders
      • Augmented Reality Stakeholder Presentation Template
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Activate Your Augmented Reality Initiative

      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 Augmented Reality and Its Use Cases

      The Purpose

      Understand the fundamentals of augmented reality technology and its real-world business applications.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      A prioritized list of augmented reality use cases.

      Activities

      1.1 Introduce augmented reality technology.

      1.2 Understand augmented reality use cases.

      1.3 Review augmented reality case studies.

      Outputs

      An understanding of the history and current state of augmented reality technology.

      An understanding of “the art of the possible” for augmented reality.

      An enhanced understanding of augmented reality.

      2 Conduct an Environmental Scan and Internal Review

      The Purpose

      Examine where the organization stands in the current competitive environment.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Understanding of what is needed from an augmented reality initiative to differentiate your organization from its competitors.

      Activities

      2.1 Environmental analysis (PEST+SWOT).

      2.2 Competitive analysis.

      2.3 Listing of interaction channels and disposition.

      Outputs

      An understanding of the internal and external propensity for augmented reality.

      An understanding of comparable organizations’ approach to augmented reality.

      A chart with the disposition of each interaction channel and its applicability to augmented reality.

      3 Parse Critical Technology Drivers

      The Purpose

      Determine which business processes will be affected by augmented reality.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Understanding of critical technology drivers and their KPIs.

      Activities

      3.1 Identify affected process domains.

      3.2 Brainstorm impacts of augmented reality on workflow enablement.

      3.3 Distill critical technology drivers.

      3.4 Identify KPIs for each driver.

      Outputs

      A list of affected process domains.

      An awareness of critical technology drivers for the augmented reality initiative.

      Create Stakeholder-Centric Architecture Governance

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      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 8.0/10 Overall Impact
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      • Parent Category Name: Strategy & Operating Model
      • Parent Category Link: /strategy-and-operating-model
      • Traditional enterprise architecture management (EAM) caters to only 10% – the IT people, and not to the remaining 90% of the organization.
      • EAM practices do not scale well with the agile way of working and are often perceived as "bottlenecks” or “restrictors of design freedom.”
      • The organization scale does not justify a full-fledged EAM with many committees, complex processes, and detailed EA artifacts.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      Architecture is a competency, not a function. Project teams, including even business managers outside of IT, can assimilate “architectural thinking.”

      Impact and Result

      Increase business value through the dissemination of architectural thinking throughout the organization. Maturing your EAM practices beyond a certain point does not help.

      Create Stakeholder-Centric Architecture Governance Research & Tools

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

      1. Start here

      Improve benefits from your enterprise architecture efforts through the dissemination of architecture thinking throughout your organization.

      • Create Stakeholder-Centric Architecture Governance Storyboard
      [infographic]

      Select Software With the Right Satisfaction Drivers in Mind

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      • member rating average dollars saved: N/A
      • member rating average days saved: N/A
      • Parent Category Name: Selection & Implementation
      • Parent Category Link: /selection-and-implementation
      • Software selection needs to provide satisfaction. Across the board, satisfaction is easy to achieve in the short term, but long-term satisfaction is much harder to attain. It’s not clear what leads to long-term satisfaction, and it’s even more difficult to determine which software continuously delivers on key satisfaction drivers to support the business.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Software satisfaction drops over time. After the initial purchase, the novelty factor of new software begins to wane, and only long-term satisfaction drivers sustain satisfaction after five years.
      • Surface-level satisfaction has immediate effects, but it only provides satisfaction in the short term. Deep satisfaction has a lasting impact that can shape organizational satisfaction and productivity in meaningful ways.
      • Empower IT decision makers with knowledge about what drives satisfaction in the top five and bottom five software vendors in spotlighted categories.

      Impact and Result

      • Reorient discussion around how software is implemented around satisfaction rather than what’s in fashion.
      • Identify software satisfaction drivers that provide deep satisfaction to get the most out of software over the long term.
      • Appreciate the best from the rest and learn which software categories and brands buck the trend of declining satisfaction.

      Select Software With the Right Satisfaction Drivers in Mind Research & Tools

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

      1. Understand what drives user satisfaction

      Gain insight on the various factors that influence software satisfaction.

      • Select Software With the Right Satisfaction Drivers in Mind Storyboard

      2. Learn what provides deep satisfaction

      Reduce the size of your RFPs or skip them entirely to limit time spent watching vendor dog and pony shows.

      3. Appreciate what separates the best from the rest

      Narrow the field to four contenders prior to in-depth comparison and engage in accelerated enterprise architecture oversight.

      [infographic]

      Enterprise Application Selection and Implementation

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      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 9.0/10
      • member rating average dollars saved: $37,356
      • member rating average days saved: 34
      • Parent Category Name: Applications
      • Parent Category Link: /applications

      The challenge

      • Large scale implementations are prone to failure. This is probably also true in your company. Typically large endeavors like this overrun the budget, are late to deliver, or are abandoned altogether. It would be best if you manage your risks when starting such a new project.

      Our advice

      Insight

      • Large-scale software implementations continue to fail at very high rates. A recent report by McKinsey & Company estimates that 66% go over budget, 33% over time, and 17% delivered less value than expected. Most companies will survive a botched implementation, but 17% threatened the existence of the company involved.
      • With all the knowledge sharing that we have today with oodles of data at our disposal, we should expect IT-providers to have clear, standardized frameworks to handle these implementations. But projects that overrun by more than 200% still occur more often than you may think.
      • When you solicit a systems integrator (SI), you want to equip yourself to manage the SI and not be utterly dependent on their methodology.

      Impact and results 

      • You can assume proper accountability for the implementation and avoid over-reliance on the systems integrator.
      • Leverage the collective knowledge and advice of additional IT professionals
      • Review the pitfalls and lessons learned from failed integrations.
      • Manage risk at every stage.
      • Perform a self-assessment at various stages of the integration path.

      The roadmap

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

      Executive Summary

      Determine the rations for your implementation

      See if a custom-of-the-shelf process optimization makes sense.

      • Storyboard: Govern and Manage an Enterprise Software Implementation (ppt)

      Prepare

      Determine the right (level of) governance for your implementation.

      • Large Software Implementation Maturity Assessment Tool (xls)
      • Project Success Measurement Tool (xls)
      • Risk Mitigation Plan Template (xls)

      Plan and analyze

      Prepare for the overall implementation journey and gather your requirements. Then conduct a stage-gate assessment of this phase.

      • Project Phases Entry and Exit Criteria Checklist Tool (xls)
      • Project Lessons Learned Document (doc)

      Design, build and deploy

      Conduct a stage-gate assessment after every step below.

      • Make exact designs of the software implementation and ensure that all stakeholders and the integrator completely understand.
      • Build the solution according to the requirements and designs.
      • Thoroughly test and evaluate that the implementation meets your business expectations. 
      • Then deploy

      Initiate your roadmap

      Review your dispositions to ensure they align with your goals. 

      • Build an Application Rationalization Framework – Phase 4: Initiate Your Roadmap (ppt)
      • Disposition Prioritization Tool (xls)

      Portfolio Management

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      • member rating average days saved: 30
      • Parent Category Name: Applications
      • Parent Category Link: /applications

      The challenge

      • Typically your business wants much more than your IT development organization can deliver with the available resources at the requested quality levels.
      • Over-damnd has a negative influence on delivery throughput. IT starts many projects (or features) but has trouble delivering most of them within the set parameters of scope, time, budget, and quality. Some requested deliverables may even be of questionable value to the business.
      • You may not have the right project portfolio management (PPM) strategy to bring order in IT's delivery activities and to maximize business value.

      Our advice

      Insight

      • Many in IT mix PPM and project management. Your project management playbook does not equate to the holistic view a real PPM practice gives you.
      • Some organizations also mistake PPM for a set of processes. Processes are needed, but a real strategy works towards tangible goals.
      • PPM works at the strategic level of the company; hence executive buy-in is critical. Without executive support, any effort to reconcile supply and demand will be tough to achieve.

      Impact and results 

      • PPM is a coherent business-aligned strategy that maximizes business value creation across the entire portfolio, rather than in each project.
      • Our methodology tackles the most pressing challenge upfront: get executive buy-in before you start defining your goals. With senior management behind the plan, implementation will become easier.
      • Create PPM processes that are a cultural fit for your company. Define your short and long-term goals for your strategy and support them with fully embedded portfolio management processes.

      The roadmap

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

      Get started.

      Read our executive brief to understand why you should develop a PPM strategy and understand how our methodology can help you. We show you how we can support you.

      Obtain executive buy-in for your strategy

      Ensure your strategy is a cultural fit or cultural-add for your company.

      • Develop a Project Portfolio Management Strategy – Phase 1: Get Executive Buy-In for Your PPM Strategy (ppt)
      • PPM High-Level Supply-Demand Calculator (xls)
      • PPM Strategic Plan Template (ppt)
      • PPM Strategy-Process Goals Translation Matrix Template (xls)

      Align the PPM processes to your company's strategic goals

      Use the advice and tools in this stage to align the PPM processes.

      • Develop a Project Portfolio Management Strategy – Phase 2: Align PPM Processes to Your Strategic Goals (ppt)
      • PPM Strategy Development Tool (xls)

      Refine and complete your plan

      Use the inputs from the previous stages and add a cost-benefit analysis and tool recommendation.

      • Streamline Application Maintenance – Phase 3: Optimize Maintenance Capabilities (ppt)

      Streamline your maintenance delivery

      Define quality standards in maintenance practices. Enforce these in alignment with the governance you have set up. Show a high degree of transparency and open discussions on development challenges.

      • Develop a Project Portfolio Management Strategy – Phase 3: Complete Your PPM Strategic Plan (ppt)
      • Project Portfolio Analyst / PMO Analyst (doc)

       

       

      Develop a Master Data Management Practice and Platform

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      • Parent Category Name: Data Management
      • Parent Category Link: /data-management
      • The volume of enterprise data is growing rapidly and comes from a wide variety of internal and external data sources (e.g. ERP, CRM). When data is located in different systems and applications, coupled with degradation and proliferation, this can lead to inaccurate, inconsistent, and redundant data being shared across departments within an organization.
      • Data kept in separate soiled sources can result in poor stakeholder decision making and inefficient business processes. Some common master data problems include:
        • The lack of a clean customer list results in poor customer service.
        • Hindering good analytics and business predictions, such as incorrect supply chain decisions when having duplicate product and vendor data between plants.
        • Creating cross-group consolidated reports from inconsistent local data that require too much manual effort and resources.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Everybody has master data (e.g. customer, product) but not master data problems (e.g. duplicate customers and products). MDM is complex in practice and requires investments in data governance, data architecture, and data strategy. Identifying business outcomes based on quality master data is essential before you pull the trigger on an MDM solution.

      Impact and Result

      This blueprint can help you:

      • Build a list of business-aligned data initiatives and capabilities that address master data problem and realize business strategic objectives.
      • Design a master data management practice based on the required business and data process.
      • Design a master data management platform based on MDM implementation style and prioritized technical capabilities.

      Develop a Master Data Management Practice and Platform Research & Tools

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

      1. Develop a Master Data Management Practice and Platform Deck – A clear blueprint that provides a step-by-step approach to aid in the development of your MDM practice and platform.

      This blueprint will help you achieve a single view of your most important data assets by following our two-phase methodology:

    • Build a vision for MDM
    • Build an MDM practice and platform
      • Develop a Master Data Management Practice and Platform – Phases 1-2

      2. Master Data Management Readiness Assessment Tool – A tool to help you make the decision to stop the MDM project now or to continue the path to MDM.

      This tool will help you determine if your organization has a master data problem and if an MDM project should be undertaken.

      • Master Data Management Readiness Assessment Tool

      3. Master Data Management Business Needs Assessment Tool – A tool to help you identify and document the various data sources in the organization and determine which data should be classified as master data.

      The tool will help you identify the sources of data within the business unit and use the typical properties of master data to determine which data should be classified as master data.

      • Master Data Management Business Needs Assessment Tool

      4. Master Data Management Business Case Presentation Template – A template to communicate MDM basics, benefits, and approaches to obtain business buy-in for the MDM project.

      The template will help you communicate your organization's specific pains surrounding poor management of master data and identify and communicate the benefits of effective MDM. Communicate Info-Tech's approach for creating an effective MDM practice and platform.

      • Master Data Management Business Case Presentation Template

      5. Master Data Management Project Charter Template – A template to centralize the critical information regarding to objectives, staffing, timeline, and expected outcome of the project.

      The project charter will help you document the project sponsor of the project. Identify purpose, goals, and objectives. Identify the project risks. Build a cross-functional project team and assign responsibilities. Define project team expectations and meeting frequency. Develop a timeline for the project with key milestones. Identify metrics for tracking success. Receive approval for the project.

      • Master Data Management Project Charter Template

      6. Master Data Management Architecture Design Template – An architecture design template to effectively document the movement of data aligned with the business process across the organization.

      This template will assist you:

    • Document the current state and achieve a common understanding of the business process and movement of data across the company.
    • Identify the source of master data and what other systems will contribute to the MDM system.
    • Document the target architectural state of the organization.
      • Master Data Management Architecture Design Template

      7. Master Data Management Practice Pattern Template – Pre-built practice patterns to effectively define the key services and outputs that must be delivered by establishing core capabilities, accountabilities, roles, and governance for the practice.

      The master data management practice pattern describes the core capabilities, accountabilities, processes, essential roles, and the elements that provide oversight or governance of the practice, all of which are required to deliver on high value services and deliverables or output for the organization.

      • Master Data Management Practice Pattern Template

      8. Master Data Management Platform Template – A pre-built platform template to illustrate the organization’s data environment with MDM and the value MDM brings to the organization.

      This template will assist you:

    • Establish an understanding of where MDM fits in an organization’s overall data environment.
    • Determine the technical capabilities that is required based on organization’s data needs for your MDM implementation.
      • Master Data Management Platform Template

      Infographic

      Workshop: Develop a Master Data Management Practice and Platform

      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 Develop a Vision for the MDM Project

      The Purpose

      Identification of MDM and why it is important.

      Differentiate between reference data and master data.

      Discuss and understand the key challenges and pains felt by the business and IT with respect to master data, and identify the opportunities MDM can provide to the business.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Identification of what is and is not master data.

      Understand the value of MDM and how it can help the organization better monetize its data.

      Knowledge of how master data can benefit both IT and the business.

      Activities

      1.1 Establish business context for master data management.

      1.2 Assess the value, benefits, challenges, and opportunities associated with MDM.

      1.3 Develop the vision, purpose, and scope of master data management for the business.

      1.4 Identify MDM enablers.

      1.5 Interview business stakeholders.

      Outputs

      High-level data requirements

      Identification of business priorities

      Project vision and scope

      2 Document the Current State

      The Purpose

      Recognize business drivers for MDM.

      Determine where master data lives and how this data moves within the organization.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Streamline business process, map the movement of data, and achieve a common understanding across the company.

      Identify the source of master data and what other systems will contribute to the MDM system.

      Activities

      2.1 Evaluate the risks and value of critical data.

      2.2 Map and understand the flow of data within the business.

      2.3 Identify master data sources and users.

      2.4 Document the current architectural state of the organization.

      Outputs

      Data flow diagram with identified master data sources and users

      Business data glossary

      Documented current data state.

      3 Document the Target State

      The Purpose

      Document the target data state of the organization surrounding MDM.

      Identify key initiatives and metrics.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Recognition of four MDM implementation styles.

      Identification of key initiatives and success metrics.

      Activities

      3.1 Document the target architectural state of the organization.

      3.2 Develop alignment of initiatives to strategies.

      3.3 Consolidate master data management initiatives and strategies.

      3.4 Develop a project timeline and define key success measures.

      Outputs

      Documented target state surrounding MDM.

      Data and master data management alignment and strategies

      4 Develop an MDM Practice and Platform

      The Purpose

      Get a clear picture of what the organization wants to get out of MDM.

      Identify master data management capabilities, accountabilities, process, roles, and governance.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Prioritized master data management capabilities, accountabilities, process, roles, and governance.

      Activities

      4.1 Identify master data management capabilities, roles, process, and governance.

      4.2 Build a master data management practice and platform.

      Outputs

      Master Data Management Practice and Platform

      Further reading

      Develop a Master Data Management Practice and Platform

      Are you sure you have a master data problem?

      Analyst Perspective

      The most crucial and shared data assets inside the firm must serve as the foundation for the data maturing process. This is commonly linked to your master data (such as customers, products, employees, and locations). Every organization has master data, but not every organization has a master data problem.

      Don't waste time or resources before determining the source of your master data problem. Master data issues are rooted in the business practices of your organization (such as mergers and acquisitions and federated multi-geographic operations). To address this issue, you will require a master data management (MDM) solution and the necessary architecture, governance, and support from very senior champions to ensure the long-term success of your MDM initiative. Approaching MDM with a clear blueprint that provides a step-by-step approach will aid in the development of your MDM practice and platform.

      Ruyi Sun

      Ruyi Sun
      Research Specialist
      Data & Analytics Practice
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Rajesh Parab

      Rajesh Parab
      Research Director
      Data & Analytics Practice
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Executive Summary

      Your Challenge

      Common Obstacles

      Info-Tech’s Approach

      Your organization is experiencing data challenges, including:

      • Too much data volume, variety, and velocity, from more and more sources.
      • Duplicate and disorganized data across multiple systems and applications.
      • Master data is pervasive throughout the business and is often created and captured in highly disparate sources that often are not easily shared across business units and applications.

      MDM is useful in situations such as a business undergoing a merger or acquisition, where a unique set of master data needs to be created to act as a single source of truth. However, having a unified view of the definitions and systems of record for the most critical data in your organization can be difficult to achieve. An organization might experience some pain points:

      • Failure to identify master data problem and organization’s data needs.
      • Conflicting viewpoints and definitions of data assets across business units.
      • Recognize common business operating models or strategies with master data problems.
      • Identify the organization’s problem and needs out of its master data and align to strategic business needs.
      • Define the architecture, governance, and support.
      • Create a practice and platform for the organization’s MDM program.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Everybody has master data (e.g. customer, product) but not a master data problem (e.g. duplicate customers and products). MDM is complex in practice and requires investments in data governance, data architecture, and data strategy. Identifying business outcomes based on quality master data is essential before you pull the trigger on an MDM solution.

      What is master data and master data management?

      • Master data domains include the most important data assets of an organization. For this data to be used across an enterprise in consistent and value-added ways, the data must be properly managed. Some common master data entities include customer, product, and employees.
      • Master data management (MDM) is the control over master data values to enable consistent, shared, contextual use across systems, of the most accurate, timely, and relevant version of truth about essential business entities (DAMA DMBOK).
      • The fundamental objective of MDM is to enable the business to see one view of critical data elements across the organization.
      • MDM systems will detect and declare relationships between data, resolve duplicate records, and make data available to the people, processes, and applications that need it. The end goal of an MDM implementation is to make sure your investment in MDM technology delivers the promised business results. By supplementing the technology with rules, guidelines, and standards around enterprise data you will ensure data continues to be synchronized across data sources on an ongoing basis.

      The image contains a screenshot of Info-Tech's Data Management Framework.

      Info-Tech’s Data Management Framework Adapted from DAMA-DMBOK and Advanced Knowledge Innovations Global Solutions. See Create a Data Management Roadmap blueprint for more information.

      Why manage master data?

      Master data drives practical insights that arise from key aspects of the business.

      Customer Intimacy

      Innovation Leadership

      Risk Management

      Operational Excellence

      Improve marketing and the customer experience by using the right data from the system of record to analyze complete customer views of transactions, sentiments, and interactions.

      Gain insights on your products, services, usage trends, industry directions, and competitor results, and use these data artifacts to support decisions on innovations, new products, services, and pricing.

      Maintain more transparent and accurate records and ensure that appropriate rules are followed to support audit, compliance, regulatory, and legal requirements. Monitor data usage to avoid fraud.

      Make sure the right solution is delivered rapidly and consistently to the right parties for the right price and cost structure. Automate processes by using the right data to drive process improvements.

      85% of customers expect consistent interactions across departments (Salesforce, 2022).

      Top-decile economic performers are 20% more likely to have a common source of data that serves as the single source of truth across the organization compared to their peers (McKinsey & Company, 2021).

      Only 6% of board members believe they are effective in managing risk (McKinsey & Company, 2018).

      32% of sales and marketing teams consider data inconsistency across platforms as their biggest challenge (Dun & Bradstreet, 2022).

      Your Challenge

      Modern organizations have unprecedented data challenges.

      • The volume of enterprise data is growing rapidly and comes from a wide variety of internal and external data sources (e.g. ERP, CRM). When data is located in different systems and applications, coupled with degradation and proliferation, this can lead to inaccurate, inconsistent, and redundant data being shared across departments within an organization.
      • For example, customer information may not be identical in the customer service system, shipping system, and marketing management platform because of manual errors or different name usage (e.g. GE or General Electric) when input by different business units.
      • Data kept in separate soiled sources can also result in poor stakeholder decision making and inefficient business processes. Some issues include:
        • The lack of clean customer list results in poor customer service.
        • Hindering good analytics and business predictions, such as incorrect supply chain decision when having duplicate product and vendor data between plants.
        • Creating cross-group consolidated reports from duplicate and inconsistent local data requires too much manual effort and resources.

      On average, 25 different data sources are used for generating customer insights and engagement.

      On average, 16 different technology applications are used to leverage customer data.

      Source: Deloitte Digital, 2020

      Common Obstacles

      Finding a single source of truth throughout the organization can be difficult.

      Changes in business process often come with challenges for CIOs and IT leaders. From an IT perspective, there are several common business operating models that can result in multiple sets of master data being created and held in various locations. Some examples could be:

      • Integrate systems following corporate mergers and acquisitions
      • Enterprise with multi-product line
      • Multinational company or multi-geographic operations with various ERP systems
      • Digital transformation projects such as omnichannel

      In such situations, implementing an MDM solution helps achieve harmonization and synchronization of master data and provide a single, reliable, and precise view of the organization. However, MDM is a complex system that requires more than just a technical solution. An organization might experience the following pain points:

      • Failure to identify master data problem and organization’s data needs.
      • Conflicting viewpoints and definitions of data assets that should reside in MDM across business units.

      Building a successful MDM initiative can be a large undertaking that takes some preparation before starting. Understanding the fundamental roles that data governance, data architecture, and data strategy play in MDM is essential before the implementation.

      “Only 3 in 10 of respondents are completely confident in their company's ability to deliver a consistent omnichannel experience.”

      Source: Dun & Bradstreet, 2022

      The image contains an Info-Tech Thought Model of the Develop a Master Data Management Practice & Platform.

      Insight summary

      Overarching insight

      Everybody has master data (e.g. customer, product) but not a master data problem (e.g. duplicate customers and products). MDM is complex in practice and requires investments in data governance, data architecture, and data strategy. Figuring out what the organization needs out of its master data is essential before you pull the trigger on an MDM solution.

      Phase 1 insight

      A master data management solution will assist you in solving master data challenges if your organization is large or complex, such as a multinational corporation or a company with multiple product lines, with frequent mergers and acquisitions, or adopting a digital transformation strategy such as omnichannel.

      Organizations often have trouble getting started because of the difficulty of agreeing on the definition of master data within the enterprise. Reference data is an easy place to find that common ground.

      While the organization may have data that fits into more than one master data domain, it does not necessarily need to be mastered. Determine what master data entities your organization needs.

      Although it is easy to get distracted by the technical aspects of the MDM project – such as extraction and consolidation rules – the true goal of MDM is to make sure that the consumers of master data (such as business units, sales) have access to consistent, relevant, and trusted shared data.

      Phase 2 insight

      An organization with activities such as mergers and acquisitions or multi-ERP systems poses a significant master data challenge. Prioritize your master data practice based on your organization’s ability to locate and maintain a single source of master data.

      Leverage modern capabilities such as artificial intelligence or machine learning to support large and complex MDM deployments.

      Blueprint Overview

      1. Build a Vision for MDM

      2. Build an MDM Practice and Platform

      Phase Steps

      1. Assess Your Master Data Problem
      2. Identify Your Master Data Domains
      3. Create a Strategic Vision
      1. Document Your Organization’s Current Data State
      2. Document Your Organization’s Target Data State
      3. Formulate an Actionable MDM Practice and Platform

      Phase Participants

      CIO, CDO, or IT Executive

      Head of the Information Management Practice

      Business Domain Representatives

      Enterprise Architecture Domain Architects

      Information Management MDM Experts

      Data Stewards or Data Owners

      Phase Outcomes

      This step identifies the essential concepts around MDM, including its definitions, your readiness, and prioritized master data domains. This will ensure the MDM initiatives are aligned to business goals and objectives.

      To begin addressing the MDM project, you must understand your current and target data state in terms of data architecture and data governance surrounding your MDM strategy. With all these considerations in mind, design your organizational MDM practice and platform.

      Blueprint deliverables

      Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals:

      1. MDM Readiness Assessment ToolThe image contains a screenshot of the MDM Readiness Assessment Tool. 2. Business Needs Assessment Tool The image contains a screenshot of the Business Needs Assessment Tool.
      3. Business Case Presentation Template The image contains a screenshot of the Business Case Presentation Template. 4. Project Charter Template The image contains a screenshot of the Project Charter Template.
      5. Architecture Design Template The image contains a screenshot of the Architecture Design Template.

      Key deliverable:

      6. MDM Practice Pattern Template

      7. MDM Platform Template

      Define the intentional relationships between the business and the master data through a well-thought-out master data platform and practice.

      The image contains a screenshot to demonstrate the intentional relationships between the business and the master data.

      Measure the value of this blueprint

      Refine the metrics for the overall Master Data Management Practice and Platform.

      In phase 1 of this blueprint, we will help you establish the business context and master data needs.

      In phase 2, we will help you document the current and target state of your organization and develop a practice and platform so that master data is well managed to deliver on those defined metrics.

      Sample Metrics

      Method of Calculation

      Master Data Sharing Availability and Utilization

      # of Business Lines That Use Master Data

      Master Data Sharing Volume

      # of Master Entities

      # of Key Elements, e.g. # of Customers With Many Addresses

      Master Data Quality and Compliance

      # of Duplicate Master Data Records

      Identified Sources That Contribute to Master Data Quality Issues

      # of Master Data Quality Issues Discovered or Resolved

      # of Non-Compliance Issues

      Master Data Standardization/Governance

      # of Definitions for Each Master Entity

      # of Roles (e.g. Data Stewards) Defined and Created

      Trust and Satisfaction

      Trust Indicator, e.g. Confidence Indicator of Golden Record

      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: Identify master data problem and assess your organizational readiness for MDM.

      Call #2: Define master data domains and priorities.

      Call #3: Determine business requirements for MDM.

      Call #4: Develop a strategic vision for the MDM project.

      Call #5: Map and understand the flow of data within the business.

      Call #6: Document current architectural state.

      Call #7: Discover the MDM implementation styles of MDM and document target architectural state.

      Call #8: Create MDM data practice and platform.

      Call #9: Summarize results and plan next steps.

      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 8 to 12 calls over the course of 4 to 6 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 Day 5

      Develop a Vision for the MDM Project

      Document the
      Current State

      Document the
      Target State

      Develop a MDM Practice and Platform

      Next Steps and
      Wrap-Up (offsite)

      Activities

      • Establish business context for master data management.
      • Assess the readiness, value, benefits, challenges, and opportunities associated with MDM.
      • Develop the vision, purpose, and scope of master data management for the business.
      • Identify master data management enablers.
      • Interview business stakeholders.
      • Evaluate the risks and value of critical data.
      • Map and understand the flow of data within the business.
      • Identify master data sources and users.
      • Document the current architectural state of the organization
      • Document the target data state of the organization.
      • Develop alignment of initiatives to strategies.
      • Consolidate master data management initiatives and strategies.
      • Develop a project timeline and define key success measures.
      • Identify master data management capabilities, roles, process, and governance.
      • Build a master data management practice and platform.
      • Complete in-progress deliverables from previous four days.
      • Set up review time for workshop deliverables and to discuss next steps.

      Deliverables

      1. High-level data requirements
      2. Identification of business priorities
      3. Project vision and scope
      1. Data flow diagram with identified master data sources and users
      2. Business data glossary
      3. Documented current data state
      1. Documented target state surrounding MDM
      2. Data and master data management alignment and strategies
      1. Master Data Management Practice and Platform
      1. Master Data Management Strategy for continued success

      Phase 1: Build a Vision for MDM

      Develop a Master Data Management Practice and Platform

      Step 1.1

      Assess Your Master Data Problem

      Objectives

      1. Build a solid foundation of knowledge surrounding MDM.

      2. Recognize MDM problems that the organization faces in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, omnichannel, multi-product line, and multi-ERP setups.

      This step involves the following participants:

      CIO, CDO, or IT Executive

      Head of Information Management

      Outcomes of this step

      An understanding of master data, MDM, and the prerequisites necessary to create an MDM program.

      Determine if there is a need for MDM in the organization.

      Understand your data – it’s not all transactional

      Info-Tech analyzes the value of data through the lenses of its four distinct classes: Master, Transactional, Operational, and Reference.

      Master

      Transactional

      Operational

      Reference

      • Addresses critical business entities that fall into four broad groupings: party (customers, suppliers); product (products, policies); location (physical spaces and segmentations); and financial (contracts, transactions).
      • This data is typically critical to the organization, less volatile, and more complex in nature; it contains many data elements and is used across systems.
      • Transactional data refers to data generated when dealing with external parties, such as clients and suppliers.
      • Transactional data may be needed on a per-use basis or through several activities.
      • The data can also be accessed in real-time if needed.
      • Operational data refers to data that is used to support internal business activities, processes, or workflows.
      • This data is generated during a one-time activity or multiple times through a data hub or orchestration layer.
      • Depending on the need for speed, there can be a real-time aspect to the situation.
      • Examples: scheduling service data or performance data.
      • Reference data refers to simple lists of data that are typically static and help categorize other data using code tables.
      • Examples: list of countries or states, postal codes, general ledger chart of accounts, currencies, or product code.

      Recognize the fundamental prerequisites for MDM before diving into more specific readiness requirements

      Organizational buy-in

      • Ensure there is someone actively invested and involved in the progress of the project. Having senior management support, especially in the form of an executive sponsor or champion, is necessary to approve MDM budgets and resourcing.
      • MDM changes business processes and practices that affect many departments, groups, and people – this type of change may be disruptive so sponsorship from the top ensures your project will keep moving forward even during difficulties.
      • Consider developing a cross-functional master data team involving stakeholders from management, IT, and the business units. This group can ensure that the MDM initiative is aligned with and supports larger organizational needs and everyone understands their role.

      Understanding the existing data environment

      • Knowing the state of an organization’s data architecture, and which data sources are linked to critical business processes, is essential before starting an MDM project.
      • Identify the areas of data pain within your organization and establish the root cause. Determine what impact this is having on the business.

      Before starting to look at technology solutions, make sure you have organizational buy-in and an understanding of the existing data environment. These two prerequisites are the foundation for MDM success.

      Master data management provides opportunities to use data for analytical and operational purposes with greater accuracy

      MDM can be approached in two ways: analytical and operational.

      Think of it in the context of your own organization:

      • How will MDM improve the ability for accurate data to be shared across business processes (Operational MDM)?
      • How will MDM improve the quality of reports for management reporting and executive decision making (Analytical MDM)?

      An investment in MDM will improve the opportunities for using the organization’s most valuable data assets, including opportunities like:

      • Data is more easily shared across the organization’s environment with greater accuracy and trust.
      • Multiple instances of the same data are consistent.
      • MDM enables the ability to find the right data more quickly.

      9.5% of revenue was at risk when bad experiences were offered to customers.

      Source: Qualtrics XM Institute, 2022

      Master data management drives better customer experience

      85% In a survey of nearly 17,000 consumers and business buyers, 85% of customers expect consistent interactions across departments.

      Source: Salesforce, 2022

      Yet, 60% of customer say it generally feels like sales, service, and marketing teams do not share information.

      Source: Salesforce, 2022

      What is a business without the customer? Positive customer service experience drives customer retention, satisfaction, and revenue growth, and ultimately, determines the success of the organization. Effective MDM can improve customer experiences by providing consistent interactions and the ability to meet customer expectations.

      61% of customers say they would switch to a competitor after just one bad customer service experience.

      Source: Zendesk, 2022

      Common business operating models or strategies with master data problems

      Mergers and acquisitions (M&A)

      M&A involves activities related to the consolidation of two companies. From IT’s perspective, whether the organization maintains different IT systems and applications in parallel or undergoes data integration process, it is common to have multiple instances of the same customer or product entity across different systems between companies, leading to incomplete, duplicate, and conflicting data sets. The organization may face challenges in both operational and analytical aspects. For many, the objective is to create a list of master data to have a single view of the organization.

      Multiple-instance ERP or multinational organizations

      Multiple-instance ERP solutions are commonly used by businesses that operate globally to accommodate each country’s needs or financial systems (Brightwork Research). With MDM, having a single source of truth could be a great advantage in certain business units to collaborate globally, such as sharing inventory coding systems to allow common identity and productive resource allocation and shared customer information for analytical purposes.

      Common business operating models or strategies with master data problems (cont.)

      Multiple product lines of business

      An example for firms that sells multiple product lines could be Nike’s multiple product lines including footwear, clothing, and equipment. Keeping track of many product lines is a constant challenge for organizations in terms of inventory management, vendor database, and a tracking system. The ability to track and maintain your product data accurately and consistently is crucial for a successful supply chain (whether in a warehouse, distribution center, or retail office), which leads to improved customer satisfaction and increased sales.

      Info-Tech Insight
      A master data management solution will assist you in solving master data challenges if your organization is large or complex such as a multinational corporation or a company with multiple product lines, frequent mergers and acquisitions, or adopting a digital transformation strategy such as omnichannel.

      Omni-channel

      In e-commerce and retail industry, omnichannel means a business strategy that offers seamless shopping experiences across all channels, such as in-store, mobile, and online (Oracle). This also means the company needs to provide consistent information on orders, inventory, pricing, and promotions to customers and keep the customer records up to date. The challenges of omnichannel include having to synchronize data across channels and systems such as ERP, CRM, and social media. MDM becomes a solution for the success of an omnichannel strategy that refers to the same source of truth across business functions and channels.

      Assess business model using Info-Tech’s MDM Readiness Assessment Tool

      30 Minutes

      • The MDM Readiness Assessment Tool will help you make the decision to stop the MDM project now or to continue on the path to MDM.
      • Not all organizations need MDM. Don’t waste precious IT time and resources if your organization does not have a master data problem.

      The image contains screenshots of the MDM Readiness Assessment Tool.

      Download the MDM Readiness Assessment Tool

      Input Output
      • List of key MDM decision points
      • MDM readiness
      Materials Participants
      • Master Data Management Readiness Assessment Tool
      • Head of Information Management
      • CIO, CDO, or IT Executive

      Step 1.2

      Identify the Master Data Domains

      Objectives

      Determine which data domain contains the most critical master data in the organization for an MDM strategy.

      This step involves the following participants:

      Business Domain Representatives

      Data Stewards or Data Owners

      Information Management Team

      Outcomes of this step

      Determine the ideal data domain target for the organization based on where the business is experiencing the largest pains related to master data and where it will see the most benefit from MDM.

      Reference data makes tackling master data easier

      Reference data serves as a great starting place for an MDM project.

      • Reference data is the simple lists of data that are typically static and help categorize other data using code tables. Examples include lists of countries or states, postal codes, general ledger charts of accounts, currencies, or product codes.
      • Loading information into the warehouse or an MDM hub usually requires reconciling reference data from multiple sources. By getting reference data in order first, MDM will be easier to implement.
      • Reference data also requires a relatively small investment with good returns so the value of the project can easily be demonstrated to stakeholders.
      • One example of how reference data makes master data easier to tackle is a master list of an organization’s customers that needs an attribute of an address. By maintaining a list of postal codes or cities as reference data, this is made much easier to manage than simply allowing free text.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Organizations often have trouble getting started because of the difficulty of agreeing on the definition of master data within the enterprise. Reference data is an easy place to find that common ground.

      There are several key considerations when defining which data is master data in the organization

      A successful implementation of MDM depends on the careful selection of the data element to be mastered. As departments often have different interests, establishing a standard set of data elements can lead to a lot of discussion. When selecting what data should be considered master data, consider the following:

      • Complexity. As the number of elements in a set increases, the likelihood that the data is master data also increases.
      • Volatility. Master data tends to be less volatile. The more volatile data is, the more likely it is transactional data.
      • Risk. The more likely data may have a risk associated with it, the more likely it should be managed with MDM.
      • Value. The more valuable a data set is to the organization, the greater the chance it is master data.
      • Sharing. If the data set is used in multiple systems, it likely should be managed with an MDM system.

      Begin by documenting the existing data sources within the organization.

      Use Info-Tech’s Master Data Management Business Needs Assessment Tool to determine master data sources.

      Info-Tech Insight

      While the organization may have data that fits into more than one master data domain, it does not necessarily need to be mastered. Determine what master data entities your organization needs.

      Master data also fall into these four areas

      More perspectives to consider and define which data is your master data.

      Internally Created Entities

      Externally Created Entities

      Large Non-Recurring Transactions

      Categories/Relationships/ Hierarchies/Aggregational Patterns

      • Business objects and concepts at the core of organizational activities that are created and maintained only by this organization.
      • Examples: customers, suppliers, products, projects
      • Business objects and concepts at the core of organizational activities that are created outside of this organization, but it keeps its own master list of these entities with additional attributions.
      • Examples: equipment, materials, industry classifications
      • Factual records reflecting the organization’s activities.
      • Examples: large purchases, large sales, measuring equipment data, student academic performance
      • Lateral and hierarchical relationships across master entities.
      • Organization-wide standards for data / information organization and aggregation.
      • Examples: classifications of equipment and materials, legal relationships across legal entities, sales regions or sub-regions

      Master data types can be divided into four main domains

      Parties

      • Data about individuals, organizations, and the roles they play in business relationships.
      • In the commercial world this means customer, employee, vendor, partner, and competitor data.

      Product

      • Can focus on organization's internal products or services or the entire industry, including competitor products and services.
      • May include information about part/ingredient usage, versions, patch fixes, pricing, and bundles.

      Financial

      • Data about business units, cost centers, profit centers, general ledger accounts, budgets, projections, and projects
      • Typically, ERP systems serve as the central hub for this.

      Locations

      • Often seen as the domain that encompasses other domains. Typically includes geopolitical data such as sales territories.
      • Provides ability to track and share reference information about different geographies and create hierarchical relationships based on information.

      Single Domain vs. Multi-Domain

      • By focusing on a single master data domain, organizations can start with smaller, more manageable steps, rather than trying to tackle everything at once.
      • MDM solutions can be domain-specific or be designed to support multiple domains.
      • Multi-domain MDM is a solution that manages multiple types of master data in one repository. By implementing multi-domain from the beginning, an organization is better able to support growth across all dimensions and business units.

      Use Info-Tech’s Master Data Management Business Needs Assessment Tool to determine master data priorities

      2 hours

      Use the Master Data Management Business Needs Assessment Tool to assist you in determining the master data domains present in your organization and the suggested domain(s) for your MDM solution.

      The image contains screenshots of the Master Data Management Business Needs Assessment Tool.

      Download the MDM Business Needs Assessment Tool

      Input Output
      • Current data sources within the organization
      • Business requirements of master data
      • Prioritized list of master data domains
      • Project scope
      Materials Participants
      • Master Data Management Business Needs Assessment Tool
      • Data Stewards or Data Custodians
      • Information Management Team

      Step 1.3

      Create a Strategic Vision for Your MDM Program

      Objectives

      1. Understand the true goal of MDM – ensuring that the needs of the master data users in the organization are fulfilled.

      2. Create a plan to obtain organizational buy-in for the MDM initiative.

      3. Organize and officialize your project by documenting key metrics, responsibilities, and goals for MDM.

      This step involves the following participants:

      CEO, CDO, or CIO

      Business Domain Representatives

      Information Management Team

      Outcomes of this step

      Obtain business buy-in and direction for the MDM initiative.

      Create the critical foundation plans that will guide you in evaluating, planning, and implementing your immediate and long-term MDM goals.

      MDM is not just IT’s responsibility

      Make sure the whole organization is involved throughout the project.

      • Master data is created for the organization as a whole, so get business input to ensure IT decisions fit with corporate goals and objectives.
      • The ownership of master data is the responsibility of the business. IT is responsible for the MDM project’s technology, support, platforms, and infrastructure; however, the ownership of business rules and standards reside with the business.
      • MDM requires IT and the business to form a partnership. While IT is responsible for the technical component, the business will be key in identifying master data.
      • MDM belongs to the entire organization – not a specific department – and should be created with the needs of the whole organization in mind. As such, MDM needs to be aligned with company’s overall data strategy. Data strategy planning involves identifying and translating business objectives and capability goals into strategies for improving data usage by the business and enhancing the capabilities of MDM.

      Keep the priorities of the users of master data at the forefront of your MDM initiative.

      • To fully satisfy the needs of the users of master data, you have to know how the data is consumed. Information managers and architects must work with business teams to determine how organizational objectives are achieved by using master data.
      • Steps to understanding the users of master data and their needs:
      1. Identify and document the users of master data – some examples include business units such as marketing, sales, and innovation teams.
      2. Interview those identified to understand how their strategic goals can be enabled by MDM. Determine their needs and expectations.
      3. Determine how changes to the master data management strategy will bring about improvements to information sharing and increase the value of this critical asset.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Although it is easy to get distracted by the technical aspects of the MDM project – such as extraction and consolidation rules – the true goal of MDM is to make sure that the consumers of master data (such as business units, sales reps) have access to consistent, relevant, and trusted shared data.

      Interview business stakeholders to understand how IT’s implementation of MDM will enable better business decisions

      1 hours

      Instructions

      1. Identify which members of the business you would like to interview to gather an understanding of their current data issues and desired data usage. (Recommendation: Gather a diverse set of individuals to help build a broader and more holistic knowledge of data consumption wants or requirements.)
      2. Prepare your interview questions.
      3. Interview the identified members of the business.
      4. Debrief and document results.

      Tactical Tips

      • Include members of your team to help heighten their knowledge of the business.
      • Identify a team member to operate as the formal scribe.
      • Keep the discussion as free flowing as possible; it will likely enable the business to share more. Don’t get defensive – one of the goals of the interviews is to open communication lines and identify opportunities for change, not create tension between IT and the business.
      Input Output
      • Current master data pain points and issues
      • Desired master data usage
      • Prioritized list of master data management enablers
      • Understanding of organizational strategic plan
      Materials Participants
      • Interview questions
      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Information Management Team
      • Business Line Representatives

      Info-Tech Insight

      Prevent the interviews from being just a venue for the business to complain about data by opening the discussion of having them share current concerns and then focus the second half on what they would like to do with data and how they see master data assets supporting their strategic plans.

      Ensure buy-in for the MDM project by aligning the MDM vision and the drivers of the organization

      MDM exists to enable the success of the organization as a whole, not just as a technology venture. To be successful in the MDM initiative, IT must understand how MDM will help the critical aspects of the business. Likewise, the business must understand why it is important to them to ensure long-term support of the project.

      The image contains a screenshot example of the text above.

      “If an organization only wants to look at MDM as a tech project, it will likely be a failure. It takes a very strong business and IT partnership to make it happen.”

      – Julie Hunt, Software Industry Analyst, Hub Designs Magazine

      Use Info-Tech’s Master Data Management Business Case Presentation Template to help secure business buy-in

      1-2 hours

      The image contains screenshots of the Master Data Management Business Case Presentation Template.

      Objectives

      • This presentation should be used to help obtain momentum for the ongoing master data management initiative and continued IT- business collaboration.
      • Master data management and the state of processes around data can be a sensitive business topic. To overcome issues of resistance from the operational or strategic levels, create a well-crafted business case.
      Input Output
      • Business requirements
      • Goals of MDM
      • Pain points of inadequate MDM
      • Awareness built for MDM project
      • Target data domains
      • Project scope
      Materials Participants
      • Master Data Management Business Case Presentation Template
      • Data Stewards or Data Custodians
      • CEO, CDO, or CIO
      • Information Management Team

      Download the MDM Business Case Presentation Template

      Use Info-Tech’s project charter to support your team in organizing their master data management plans

      Use this master document to centralize the critical information regarding the objectives, staffing, timeline, budget, and expected outcome of the project.

      1. MDM Vision and Mission

      Overview

      Define the value proposition behind addressing master data strategies and developing the organization's master data management practice.

      Consider

      Why is this project critical for the business?

      Why should this project be done now, instead of delayed further down the road?

      2. Goals or Objectives

      Overview

      Your goals and objectives should be practical and measurable. Goals and objectives should be mapped back to the reasons for MDM that we identified in the Executive Brief.

      Example Objectives

      Align the organization’s IT and business capabilities in MDM to the requirements of the organization’s business processes and the data that supports it.

      3. Expected Outcomes

      Overview

      Master data management as a concept can change based on the organization and with definitions and expectations varying heavily for individuals. Ensure alignment at the outset of the project by outlining and attaining agreement on the expectations and expected outcomes (deliverables) of the project.

      Recommended Outcomes

      Outline of an action plan

      Documented data strategies

      4. Outline of Action Plan

      Overview

      Document the plans for your project in the associated sections of the project charter to align with the outcomes and deliverables associated with the project. Use the sample material in the charter and the “Develop Your Timeline for the MDM Project” section to support developing your project plans.

      Recommended Project Scope

      Align master data MDM plan with the business.

      Document current and future architectural state of MDM.

      Download the MDM Project Charter Template

      5. Identify the Resourcing Requirements

      Overview

      Create a project team that has representation of both IT and the business (this will help improve alignment and downstream implementation planning).

      Business Roles to Engage

      Data owners (for subject area data)

      Data stewards who are custodians of business data (related to subject areas evaluated)

      Data scientists or other power users who are heavy consumers of data

      IT Roles to Engage

      Data architect(s)

      Any data management professionals who are involved in modeling data, managing data assets, or supporting the systems in which the data resides.

      Database administrators or data warehousing architects with a deep knowledge of data operations.

      Individuals responsible for data governance.

      Phase 2: Build the MDM Practice and Platform

      Develop a Master Data Management Practice and Platform

      Step 2.1

      Document the Current Data State

      Objectives

      1. Understand roles that data strategy, data governance, and data architecture play in MDM.

      2. Document the organization’s current data state for MDM.

      This step involves the following participants:

      Data Stewards or Data Custodians

      Data or Enterprise Architect

      Information Management Team

      Outcomes of this step

      Document the organization’s current data state, understanding the business processes and movement of data across the company.

      Effective data governance will create the necessary roles and rules within the organization to support MDM

      • A major success factor for MDM falls under data governance. If you don’t establish data governance early on, be prepared to face major obstacles throughout your project. Governance includes data definitions, data standards, access rights, and quality rules and ensures that MDM continues to offer value.
      • Data governance involves an organizational committee or structure that defines the rules of how data is used and managed – rules around its quality, processes to remediate data errors, data sharing, managing data changes, and compliance with internal and external regulations.
      • What is required for governance of master data? Defined roles, including data stewards and data owners, that will be responsible for creating the definitions relevant to master data assets.

      The image contains a screenshot of the Data Governance Key to Data Enablement.

      For more information, see Info-Tech Research Group’s Establish Data Governance blueprint.

      Ensure MDM success by defining roles that represent the essential high-level aspects of MDM

      Regardless of the maturity of the organization or the type of MDM project being undertaken, all three representatives must be present and independent. Effective communication between them is also necessary.

      Technology Representative

      Governance Representative

      Business Representative

      Role ensures:

      • MDM technology requirements are defined.
      • MDM support is provided.
      • Infrastructure to support MDM is present.

      Role ensures:

      • MDM roles and responsibilities are clearly defined.
      • MDM standards are adhered to.

      Role ensures:

      • MDM business requirements are defined.
      • MDM business matching rules are defined.

      The following roles need to be created and maintained for effective MDM:

      Data Owners are accountable for:

      • Data created and consumed.
      • Ensuring adequate data risk management is in place.

      Data Stewards are responsible for:

      • The daily and routine care of all aspects of data systems.
      • Supporting the user community.
      • Collecting, collating, and evaluating issues and problems with data.
      • Managing standard business definitions and metadata for critical data elements.

      Another crucial aspect of implementing MDM governance is defining match rules for master data

      • Matching, merging, and linking data from multiple systems about the same item, person, group, etc. attempts to remove redundancy, improve data quality, and provide information that is more comprehensive.
      • Matching is performed by applying inference rules. Data cleansing tools and MDM applications often include matching engines used to match data.
        • Engines are dependent on clearly defined matching rules, including the acceptability of matches at different confidence levels.
      • Despite best efforts, match decisions sometimes prove to be incorrect. It is essential to maintain the history of matches so that matches can be undone when they are discovered to be incorrect.
      • Artificial intelligence (AI) for match and merge is also an option, where the AI engine can automatically identify duplicate master data records to create a golden record.

      Match-Merge Rules vs. Match-Link Rules

      Match-Merge Rules

      • Match records and merge the data from these records into a single, unified, reconciled, and comprehensive record. If rules apply across data sources, create a single unique and comprehensive record in each database.
      • Complex due to the need to identify so many possible circumstances, with different levels of confidence and trust placed on data values in different fields from different sources.
      • Challenges include the operational complexity of reconciling the data and the cost of reversing the operation if there is a false merge.

      Match-Link Rules

      • Identify and cross-reference records that appear to relate to a master record without updating the content of the cross-referenced record.
      • Easier to implement and much easier to reverse.
      • Simple operation; acts on the cross-reference table and not the individual fields of the merged master data record, even though it may be more difficult to present comprehensive information from multiple records.

      Data architecture will assist in producing an effective data integration model for the technology underlying MDM

      Data quality is directly impacted by architecture.

      • With an MDM architecture, access, replication, and flow of data are controlled, which increases data quality and consistency.
      • Without an MDM architecture, master data occurs in application silos. This can cause redundant and inconsistent data.

      Before designing the MDM architecture, consider:

      • How the business is going to use the master data.
      • Architectural style (this is often dependent on the existing IT architecture, but generally, organizations starting with MDM find a hub architecture easiest to work with).
      • Where master data is entered, updated, and stored.
      • Whether transactions should be processed as batch or real-time.
      • What systems will contribute to the MDM system.
      • Implementation style. This will help ensure the necessary applications have access to the master data.

      “Having an architectural oversight and reference model is a very important step before implementing the MDM solutions.”

      – Selwyn Samuel, Director of Enterprise Architecture

      Document the organization’s data architecture to generate an accurate picture of the current data state

      2-3 hours

      Populate the template with your current organization's data components and the business flow that forms the architecture.

      Think about the source of master data and what other systems will contribute to the MDM system.

      The image contains a screenshot of the MDM Architecture Design Template.

      Input Output
      • Business process streamline
      • Current data state
      Materials Participants
      • MDM Architecture Design Template ArchiMate file
      • Enterprise Architect
      • Data Architect

      Download the MDM Architecture Design Template ArchiMate file

      Step 2.2

      Document the Target Data State

      Objectives

      1. Understand four implementation styles for MDM deployments.

      2. Document target MDM implementation systems.

      This step involves the following participants:

      Data Stewards or Data Custodians

      Data or Enterprise Architect

      Information Management Team

      Outcomes of this step

      Document the organization’s target architectural state surrounding MDM, identifying the specific MDM implementation style.

      How the organization’s data flows through IT systems is a convenient way to define your MDM state

      Understanding the data sources present in the organization and how the business organizes and uses this data is critical to implementing a successful MDM strategy.

      Operational MDM

      • As you manage data in an operational MDM system, the data gets integrated back into the systems that were the source of the data in the first place. The “best records” are created from a combination of data elements from systems that create relevant data (e.g. billing system, call center, reservation system) and then the data is sent back to the systems to update it to the best record. This includes both batch and real-time processing data.

      Analytical MDM

      • Generates “best records” the same way that operational MDM does. However, the data doesn’t go back to the systems that generated the data but rather to a repository for analytics, decision management, or reporting system purposes.

      Discovery of master data is the same for both approaches, but the end use is very different.

      The approaches are often combined by technologically mature organizations, but analytical MDM is generally more expensive due to increased complexity.

      Central to an MDM program is the implementation of an architectural framework

      Info-Tech Research Group’s Reference MDM Architecture uses a top-down approach.

      A top-down approach shows the interdependent relationship between layers – one layer of functionality uses services provided by the layers below, and in turn, provides services to the layers above.

      The image contains a screenshot of the Architectural Framework.

      Info-Tech Research Group’s Reference MDM Architecture can meet the unique needs of different organizations

      The image contains a screenshot of Info-Tech Research Group's Reference MDM Architecture.

      The MDM service layers that make up the hub are:

      • Virtual Registry. The virtual registry is used to create a virtual view of the master data (this layer is not necessary for every MDM implementation).
      • Interface Services. The interface services work directly with the transport method (e.g. Web Service, Pub/Sub, Batch/FTP).
      • Rules Management. The rules management layer manages business rules and match rules set by the organization.
      • Lifecycle Management. This layer is responsible for managing the master data lifecycle. This includes maintaining relationships across domains, modeling classification and hierarchies within the domains, helping with master data quality through profiling rules, deduplicating and merging data to create golden records, keeping authoring logs, etc.
      • Base Services. The base services are responsible for managing all data (master, history, metadata, and reference) in the MDM hub.
      • Security. Security is the base layer and is responsible for protecting all layers of the MDM hub.

      An important architectural decision concerns where master data should live

      All MDM architectures will contain a system of entry, a system of record, and in most cases, a system of reference. Collectively, these systems identify where master data is authored and updated and which databases will serve as the authoritative source of master data records.

      System of Entry (SOE)

      System of Record (SOR)

      System of Reference (SORf)

      Any system that creates master data. It is the point in the IT architecture where one or more types of master data are entered. For example, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) application is used as a system of entry for information about business entities like products (product master data) and suppliers (supplier master data).

      The system designated as the authoritative data source for enterprise data. The true system of record is the system responsible for authoring and updating master data and this is normally the SOE. An ideal MDM system would contain and manage a single, up-to-date copy of all master data. This database would provide timely and accurate business information to be used by the relevant applications. In these cases, one or more SOE applications (e.g. customer relationship management or CRM) will be declared the SOR for certain types of data. The SOR can be made up of multiple physical subsystems.

      A replica of master data that can be synchronized with the SOR(s). It is updated regularly to resolve discrepancies between data sets, but will not always be completely up to date. Changes in the SOR are typically batched and then transmitted to the SORf. When a SORf is implemented, it acts as the authoritative source of enterprise data, given that it is updated and managed relative to the SOR. The SORf can only be used as a read-only source for data consumers.

      Central to an MDM program is the implementation of an architectural framework

      These styles are complementary and see increasing functionality; however, organizations do not need to start with consolidation.

      Consolidation

      Registry

      Coexistence

      Transactional

      What It Means

      The MDM is a system of reference (application systems serve as the systems of record). Data is created and stored in the applications and sent (generally in batch mode) to a centralized MDM system.

      The MDM is a system of reference. Master data is created and stored in the

      application systems, but key master data identifiers are linked with the MDM system, which allows a view of master data records to be assembled.

      The MDM is a system of reference. Master data is created and stored in application systems; however, an authoritative record of master data is also created (through matching) and stored in the MDM system.

      The MDM is a genuine source of record. All master data records are centrally authored and materialized in the MDM system.

      Use Case

      This style is ideal for:

      • Organizations that want to have access to master data for reporting.
      • Organizations that do not need real-time access to master data.

      This style is ideal for:

      • A view of key master data identifiers.
      • Near real-time master data reference.
      • Organizations that need access to key master data for operational systems.
      • Organizations facing strict data replication regulations.

      This style is ideal for:

      • A complete view of each master data entity.
      • Deployment of workflows for collaborative authoring.
      • A central reference system for master data.

      This style is ideal for:

      • Organizations that want true master data management.
      • Organizations that need complete, accurate, and consistent master data at all times.
      • Transactional access to master data records.
      • Tight control over master data.

      Method of Use

      Analytical

      Operational

      Analytical, operational, or collaborative

      Analytical, operational, or collaborative

      Consolidation implementation style

      Master data is created and stored in application systems and then placed in a centralized MDM hub that can be used for reference and reporting.

      The image contains a screenshot of the architectural framework and MDM hub.

      Advantages

      • Prepares master data for enterprise data warehouse and reporting by matching/merging.
      • Can serve as a basis for coexistence or transactional MDM.

      Disadvantages

      • Does not provide real-time reference because updates are sent to the MDM system in batch mode.
      • New data requirements will need to be managed at the system of entry.

      Registry implementation style

      Master data is created and stored in applications. Key identifiers are then linked to the MDM system and used as reference for operational systems.

      The image contains a screenshot of the architectural framework with a focus on registry implementation style.

      Advantages

      • Quick to deploy.
      • Can get a complete view of key master data identifiers when needed.
      • Data is always current since it is accessed from the source systems.

      Disadvantages

      • Depends on clean data at the source system level.
      • Can be complex to manage.
      • Except for the identifiers persisting in the MDM system, all master data records remain in the applications, which means there is not a complete view of all master data records.

      Coexistence implementation style

      Master data is created and stored in existing systems and then synced with the MDM system to create an authoritative record of master data.

      The image contains a screenshot of the architectural framework with a focus on the coexistence implementation style.

      Advantages

      • Easier to deploy workflows for collaborative authoring.
      • Creates a complete view for each master data record.
      • Increased master data quality.
      • Allows for data harmonization across systems.
      • Provides organizations with a central reference system.

      Disadvantages

      • Master data is altered in both the MDM system and source systems. Data may not be up to date until synchronization takes place.
      • Higher deployment costs because all master data records must be harmonized.

      Transactional implementation style

      All master data records are materialized in the MDM system, which provides the organization with a single, complete source of master data at all times.

      The image contains a screenshot of the architectural framework with a focus on the transactional implementation style.

      Advantages

      • Functions as a system of record, providing complete, consistent, accurate, and up-to-date data.
      • Provides a single location for updating and managing master data.

      Disadvantages

      • The implementation of this style may require changes to existing systems and business processes.
      • This implementation style comes with increased cost and complexity.

      All organizations are different; identify the architecture and implementation needs of your organization

      Architecture is not static – it must be able to adapt to changing business needs.

      • The implementation style an organization chooses is dependent on organizational factors such as the purpose of MDM and method of use.
      • Some master data domains may require that you start with one implementation style and later graduate to another style while retaining the existing data model, metadata, and matching rules. Select a starting implementation style that will best suit the organization.
      • Organizations with multi-domain master data may have to use multiple implementation styles. For example, data domain X may require the use of a registry implementation, while domain Y requires a coexistence implementation.

      Document your target data state surrounding MDM

      2-3 hours

      Populate the template with your target organization’s data architecture.

      Highlight new capabilities and components that MDM introduced based on MDM implementation style.

      The image contains a screenshot of the MDM Architecture Design Template.

      Input Output
      • Business process streamline
      • MDM architectural framework
      • Target data state
      Materials Participants
      • MDM Architecture Design Template ArchiMate File
      • Enterprise Architect
      • Data Architect
      • Head of Data

      Step 2.3

      Develop MDM Practice and Platform

      Objectives

      1. Review Info-Tech’s practice pattern and design your master data management practice.

      2. Design your master data management platform.

      3. Consider next steps for the MDM project.

      This step involves the following participants:

      Data Stewards or Data Custodians

      Data or Enterprise Architect

      Information Management Team

      Outcomes of this step

      Define the key services and outputs that must be delivered by establishing core capabilities, accountabilities, roles, and governance for the practice and platform.

      What does a master data management practice pattern look like?

      The master data management practice pattern describes the core capabilities, accountabilities, processes, and essential roles and the elements that provide oversight or governance of the practice, all of which are required to deliver on high-value services and deliverables or output for the organization.

      The image contains a screenshot to demonstrate the intentional relationships between the business and the master data.

      Download the Master Data Management Practice Pattern Template ArchiMate File

      Master data management data practice setup

      • Define the practice lead’s accountabilities and responsibilities.
      • Assign the practice lead.
      • Design the practice, defining the details of the practice (including the core capabilities, accountabilities, processes, and essential roles; the elements that provide oversight or governance of the practice; and the practice’s services and deliverables or output for the organization).
      • Define services and accountabilities:
      1. Define deployment and engagement model
      2. Define practice governance and metrics
      3. Define processes and deliverables
      4. Summarize capabilities
      5. Use activity slide to assign the skills to the role

      General approach to setting up data practices

      Guidelines for designing and establishing your various data practices.

      Understand master data management practice pattern

      A master data management practice pattern includes key services and outputs that must be delivered by establishing core capabilities, accountabilities, roles, and governance for the practice.

      Assumption:

      The accountabilities and responsibilities for the master data management practice have been established and assigned to a practice lead.

      1. Download and review Master Data Management Practice Pattern (Level 1 – Master Data Management Practice Pattern).
      2. Review and update master data management processes for your organization.

      Download the Master Data Management Practice Pattern Template ArchiMate File

      Info-Tech Insight

      An organization with heavy merger and acquisition activity poses a significant master data challenge. Prioritize your master data practice based on your organization’s ability to locate and maintain a single source of master data.

      The image contains a screenshot of the Master Data Management Process.

      Initiate your one-time master data management practice setup

      1. Ensure data governance committees are established.
      2. Align master data management working group responsibilities with data governance committee.
      3. Download and review Master Data Management Practice Pattern Setup (Level 1 – Master Data Management Practice Setup).
      4. Start establishing your master data practice:
      5. 4.1 Define services and accountabilities

        4.2 Define processes and deliverables by stakeholder

        4.3 Design practice operating model

        4.4 Perform skills inventory and design roles

        4.5 Determine practice governance and metrics

        4.6 Summarize practice capabilities

      6. Define key master data management deliverable and processes.

      The image contains a screenshot of the Process Template MDM Conflict Resolution.

      Download and Update:

      Process Template: MDM Conflict Resolution

      MDM operating model

      The operating model is a visualization of how MDM commonly operates and the value it brings to the organization. It illustrates the master data flow, which works from left to right, from source system to consumption layer. Another important component of the model is the business data glossary, which is part of your data governance plan, to define terminology and master data’s key characteristics across business units.

      The image contains a screenshot of the MDM Operating Model.

      Choosing the appropriate technology capabilities

      An MDM platform should include certain core technical capabilities:

      • Master data hub: Functions as a system of reference, providing an authoritative source of data in read-only format to systems downstream.
      • Data modeling: Ability to model complex relationships between internal application sources and other parties.
      • Workflow management: Ability to support flexible and comprehensive workflow-based capabilities.
      • Relationship and hierarchies: Ability to determine relationships and identify hierarchies within the same domain or across different domains of master data.
      • Information quality: Ability to profile, cleanse, match, link, identify, and reconcile master data in different data sources to create and maintain the “golden record.”
      • Loading, integration, synchronization: Ability to load data quality tools and integrate so there is a bidirectional flow of data. Enable data migration and updates that prevent duplicates within the incoming data and data found in the hub.
      • Security: Ability to control access of MDM and the ability to report on activities. Ability to configure and manage different rules and visibilities.
      • Ease of use: Including different user interfaces for technical and business roles.
      • Scalability and high performance/high availability: Ability to expand or shrink depending on the business needs and maintain a high service level.

      Other requirements may include:

      • MDM solution that can handle multiple domains on a single set of technology and hardware.
      • Offers a broad set of data integration connectors out of the box.
      • Offers flexible deployments (on-premises, cloud, as-a-service).
      • Supports all architectural implementation styles: registry, consolidation, coexistence, and transactional.
      • Data governance tools: workflow and business process management (BPM) functionality to link data governance with operational MDM.
      • Uses AI to automate MDM processes.

      Info-Tech Research Group’s MDM platform

      The image contains a screenshot of Info-Tech's MDM Platform.

      Info-Tech Research Group’s MDM platform summarizes an organization’s data environment and the technical capabilities that should be taken into consideration for your organization's MDM implementation.

      Design your master data management platform

      2-3 hours

      Instructions

      Download the Master Data Management Platform Template.

      The platform is not static. Adapt the template to your own needs based on your target data state, required technical capabilities, and business use cases.

      The image contains a screenshot of Info-Tech's MDM Platform.

      Input Output
      • Technology capabilities
      • Target data state
      • Master Data Management Platform
      Materials Participants
      • Master Data Management Platform Template
      • Data Architect
      • Enterprise Architect
      • Head of Data

      Download the MDM Platform Template

      Next steps for the MDM project

      There are several deployment options for MDM platforms; pick the one best suited to the organization’s business needs:

      On-Premises Solutions

      Cloud Solutions

      Hybrid Solutions

      Embrace the technology

      MDM has traditionally been an on-premises initiative. On-premises solutions have typically had different instances for various divisions. On-premises solutions offer interoperability and consistency.

      Many IT teams of larger companies prefer an on-premises implementation. They want to purchase a perpetual MDM software license, install it on hardware systems, configure and test the MDM software, and maintain it on an ongoing basis.

      Cloud MDM solutions can be application-specific or platform-specific, which involves using a software platform or web-based portal interface to connect internal and external data. Cloud is seen as a more cost-effective MDM solution as it doesn’t require a large IT staff to configure the system and can be paid for through a monthly subscription. Because many organizations are averse to storing their master data outside of their firewalls, some cloud MDM solutions manage the data where it resides (either software as a service or on-premises), rather than maintaining it in the cloud.

      MDM system resides both on premises and in the cloud. As many organizations have some applications on premises and others in the cloud, having a hybrid MDM solution is a realistic option for many. MDM can be leveraged from either on-premises or in the cloud solutions, depending on the current needs of the organization.

      • Vendor-supplied MDM solutions often provide complete technical functionality in the package and various deployment options.
      • Consider leverage Info-Tech’s SoftwareReviews to accelerate and improve your software selection process.

      Capitalizing on trends in the MDM technology space would increase your competitive edge

      AI improves master data management.

      • With MDM technology improving every year, there are a greater number of options to choose from than ever before. AI is one of the hottest trends in MDM.
      • By using machine learning (ML) techniques, AI can automate many activities surrounding MDM to ease manual processes and improve accuracy, such as automating master data profiling, managing workflow, identifying duplication, and suggesting match and merge proposals.
      • Some other powerful applications include product categorization and hierarchical management. The product is assigned to the correct level of the category hierarchy based on the probability that a block of words in a product title or description belongs to product categories (Informatica, 2021).

      Info-Tech Insight

      Leverage modern capabilities such as AI and ML to support large and complex MDM deployments.

      The image contains a screenshot of the AI Activities in MDM.

      Informatica, 2021

      Related Info-Tech Research

      Build Your Data Quality Program

      • Data needs to be good, but truly spectacular data may go unnoticed. Provide the right level of data quality, with the appropriate effort, for the correct usage. This blueprint will help you determine what “the right level of data quality” means and create a plan to achieve that goal for the business.

      Build a Data Architecture Roadmap

      • Optimizing data architecture requires a plan, not just a data model.

      Create a Data Management Roadmap

      • Streamline your data management program with our simplified framework.

      Related Info-Tech Research

      Build a Robust and Comprehensive Data Strategy

      • Formulate a data strategy that stitches all of the pieces together to better position you to unlock the value in your data.

      Build Your Data Practice and Platform

      • The true value of data comes from defining intentional relationships between the business and the data through a well-thought-out data platform and practice.

      Establish Data Governance

      • Establish data trust and accountability with strong governance.

      Research Authors and Contributors

      Authors:

      Name

      Position

      Company

      Ruyi Sun

      Research Specialist, Data & Analytics

      Info-Tech Research Group

      Rajesh Parab

      Research Director, Data & Analytics

      Info-Tech Research Group

      Contributors:

      Name

      Position

      Company

      Selwyn Samuel

      Director of Enterprise Architecture

      Furniture manufacturer

      Julie Hunt

      Consultant and Author

      Hub Designs Magazine and Julie Hunt Consulting

      David Loshin

      President

      Knowledge Integrity Inc.

      Igor Ikonnikov

      Principal Advisory Director

      Info-Tech Research Group

      Irina Sedenko

      Advisory Director

      Info-Tech Research Group

      Anu Ganesh

      Principal Research Director

      Info-Tech Research Group

      Wayne Cain

      Principal Advisory Director

      Info-Tech Research Group

      Reddy Doddipalli

      Senior Workshop Director

      Info-Tech Research Group

      Imad Jawadi

      Senior Manager, Consulting

      Info-Tech Research Group

      Andy Neill

      Associate Vice President

      Info-Tech Research Group

      Steve Wills

      Practice Lead

      Info-Tech Research Group

      Bibliography

      “DAMA Guide to the Data Management Body of Knowledge (DAMA-DMBOK Guide).” First Edition. DAMA International. 2009. Digital. April 2014.
      “State of the Connected Customer, Fifth Edition.” Salesforce, 2022. Accessed Jan. 2023.
      “The new digital edge: Rethinking strategy for the postpandemic era.” McKinsey & Company, 26 May. 2021. Assessed Dec. 2022.
      “Value and resilience through better risk management.” Mckinsey & Company, 1 Oct. 2018. Assessed Dec. 2022.
      “Plotting a course through turbulent times (9TH ANNUAL B2B SALES & MARKETING DATA REPORT)” Dun & Bradstreet, 2022. Assessed Jan. 2023.
      ““How to Win on Customer Experience.”, Deloitte Digital, 2020. Assessed Dec. 2022.
      “CX Trends 2022.”, Zendesk, 2022. Assessed Jan. 2023
      .”Global consumer trends to watch out for in 2023.” Qualtrics XM Institute, 8 Nov. 2022. Assessed Dec. 2022
      “How to Understand Single Versus Multiple Software Instances.” Brightwork Research & Analysis, 24 Mar. 2021. Assessed Dec. 2022
      “What is omnichannel?” Oracle. Assessed Dec. 2022
      “How AI Improves Master Data Management (MDM).” Informatica, 30 May. 2021. Assessed Dec. 2022

      Data and Analytics Trends 2023

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}208|cart{/j2store}
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      • Parent Category Name: Business Intelligence Strategy
      • Parent Category Link: /business-intelligence-strategy

      Data is a unique resource that keeps growing, presenting opportunities along the way. CIOs and IT leaders can use rapidly evolving technologies and capabilities to harness this data and its value for the organization.

      IT leaders must prepare their teams and operations with the right knowledge, capabilities, and strategies to make sure they remain competitive in 2023 and beyond. Nine trends that expand on the three common Vs of data – volume, velocity, and variety – can help guide the way.

      Focus on trends that align with your opportunities and challenges

      The path to becoming more competitive in a data-driven economy differs from one company to the next. IT leaders should use the data and analytics trends that align most with their organizational goals and can lead to positive business outcomes.

      1. Prioritize your investments: Conduct market analysis and prioritize the data and analytics investments that will be critical to your business.
      2. Build a robust strategy: Identify a clear path between your data vision and business outcomes to build a strategy that’s a good fit for your organization.
      3. Inspire practical innovation: Follow a pragmatic approach to implementing trends that range from data gravity and democratization to data monetization and augmented analytics.

      Data and Analytics Trends 2023 Research & Tools

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

      1. Data and Analytics Trends Report 2023 – A report that explores nine data use cases for emerging technologies that can improve on capabilities needed to compete in the data-driven economy.

      Data technologies are rapidly evolving. Understanding data's art of the possible is critical. However, to adapt to these upcoming data trends, a solid data management foundation is required. This report explores nine data trends based on the proven framework of data V's: Volume, Velocity, Variety, Veracity, Value, Virtue, Visualization, Virality, and Viscosity.

      • Data and Analytics Trends Report 2023
      [infographic]

      Further reading

      Data and Analytics Trends Report 2023

      SOONER OR LATER, YOU WILL BE IN THE DATA BUSINESS!

      Nine Data Trends for 2023

      In this report, we explore nine data use cases for emerging technologies that can improve on capabilities needed to compete in the data-driven economy. Use cases combine emerging data trends and modernization of existing capabilities.

      1. VOLUME
        • Data Gravity
      2. VELOCITY
      • Democratizing Real-Time Data
    • VARIETY
      • Augmented Data Management
    • VERACITY
      • Identity Authenticity
    • VALUE
      • Data Monetization
    • VIRTUE
      • Adaptive Data Governance
    • VISUALIZATION
      • AI-Driven Storytelling & Augmented Analytics
    • VIRALITY
      • Data Marketplace
    • VISCOSITY
      • DevOps – DataOps – XOps

      VOLUME

      Data Gravity

      Trend 01 Demand for storage and bandwidth continues to grow

      When organizations begin to prioritize data, they first consider the sheer volume of data, which will influence data system design. Your data systems must consider the existing and growing volume of data by assessing industry initiatives such as digital transformation, Industry 4.0, IoT, consumer digital footprint, etc.

      The largest data center in the world is a citadel in Reno, Nevada, that stretches over 7.2 million square feet!

      Source: Cloudwards, 2022

      IoT devices will generate 79.4 zettabytes of data
      by 2025.

      Source: IDC, 2019

      There were about 97
      zettabytes of data generated worldwide in 2022.

      Source: “Volume of Data,” Statista, 2022

      VOLUME

      Data Gravity

      Data attracts more data and an ecosystem of applications and services

      SharePoint, OneDrive, Google Drive, and Dropbox offer APIs and integration opportunities for developers to enhance their products.

      Social media platforms thought about this early by allowing for an ecosystem of filters, apps, games, and effects that engage their users with little to no additional effort from internal resources.

      The image contains four logos. SharePoint, OneDrive, Google Drive, and Dropbox.

      VOLUME

      Data Gravity

      Focus on data gravity and avoid cloud repatriation

      Data gravity is the tendency of data to attract applications, services, and other data. A growing number of cloud migration decisions will be made based on the data gravity concept. It will become increasingly important in data strategies, with failure potentially resulting in costly cloud repatriations.

      Emerging technologies and capabilities:

      Data Lakehouse, Data Mesh, Data Fabric, Hybrid Data, Cloud Data, Edge Computing

      47%

      Centralized cloud storage going down in 2 years

      22%
      25%

      Hybrid storage (centralized + edge) going up in 2 years

      47%

      Source: CIO, 2022

      VOLUME

      Data Gravity

      What worked for terabytes is ineffective for petabytes

      When compared to on-premises infrastructure, cloud computing is less expensive and easier to implement. However, poor data replication and data gravity can significantly increase cloud costs to the point of failure. Data gravity will help organizations make better cloud migration decisions.

      It is also critical to recognize changes in the industry landscape. The goal of data processing and analytics is to generate the right data for users to act on. In most cases, the user is a human being, but in the case of autonomous driving (AD), the car takes on the role of the user (DXC Technology).

      To avoid cloud repatriation, it will become prudent for all organizations to consider data gravity and the timing of cloud migration.

      The image contains a diagram on data gravity.

      VELOCITY

      Democratizing Real-Time Data

      Trend 02 Real-time analytics presents an important differentiator

      The velocity element of data can be assessed from two standpoints: the speed at which data is being generated and how fast the organization needs to respond to the incoming information through capture, analysis, and use. Traditionally data was processed in a batch format (all at once or in incremental nightly data loads). There is a growing demand to process data continuously using streaming data-processing techniques.

      Emerging technologies and capabilities:

      Edge Computing

      Google announced it has a quantum computer that is 100 million times faster than any classical computer in its lab.

      Source: Science Alert, 2015

      The number of qubits in quantum computers has been increasing dramatically, from 2 qubits in 1998 to 128 qubits in 2019.

      Source: Statista, 2019

      IBM released a 433-qubit quantum chip named Osprey in 2022 and expects to surpass 1,000 qubits with its next chip, Condor, in 2023.

      Source: Nature, 2023

      VELOCITY

      Democratizing Real-Time Data

      Make data accessible to everyone in real time

      • 90% of an organization’s data is replicated or redundant.
      • Build API and web services that allow for live access to data.
      • Most social media platforms, like Twitter and Facebook, have APIs that offer access to incredible amounts of data and insights.

      VELOCITY

      Democratizing Real-Time Data

      Trend in Data Velocity

      Data democratization means data is widely accessible to all stakeholders without bottlenecks or barriers. Success in data democratization comes with ubiquitous real-time analytics. Google highlights a need to address democratization in two different frames:

      1. Democratizing stream analytics for all businesses to ensure real-time data at the company level.
      2. Democratizing stream analytics for all personas and the ability of all users to generate real-time insights.

      Emerging technologies and capabilities:

      Data Lakehouse, Streaming API Ecosystem, Industry 4.0, Zero-Copy Cloning

      Nearly 70% of all new vehicles globally will be connected to the internet by 2023.

      Source: “Connected light-duty vehicles,” Statista, 2022

      VELOCITY

      Democratizing Real-Time Data

      Enable real-time processing with API

      In the past, data democratization has largely translated into a free data set and open data portals. This has allowed the government to freely share data with the public. Also, the data science community has embraced the availability of large data sets such as weather data, stock data, etc. In the future, more focus will be on the combination of IoT and steaming analytics, which will provide better responsiveness and agility.

      Many researchers, media companies, and organizations now have easy access to the Twitter/Facebook API platform to study various aspects of human behavior and sentiments. Large technology companies have already democratized their data using real-time APIs.

      Thousands of sources for open data are available at your local municipalities alone.

      6G will push Wi-Fi connectivity to 1 terabyte per second! This is expected to become commercially available by 2030.

      VARIETY

      Augmented Data Management

      Trend 03 Need to manage unstructured data

      The variety of data types is increasingly diverse. Structured data often comes from relational databases, while unstructured data comes from several sources such as photos, video, text documents, cell phones, etc. The variety of data is where technology can drive business value. However, unstructured data also poses a risk, especially for external data.

      The number of IoT devices could rise to 30.9 billion by 2025.

      Source: “IoT and Non-IoT Connections Worldwide,” Statista, 2022

      The global edge computing market is expected to reach $250.6 billion by 2024.

      Source: “Edge Computing,” Statista, 2022

      Genomics research is expected to generate between 2 and 40 exabytes of data within the next decade.

      Source: NIH, 2022

      VARIETY

      Augmented Data Management

      Employ AI to automate data management

      New tools will enhance many aspects of data management:

      • Data preparation, integration, cataloging, and quality
      • Metadata management
      • Master data management

      Enabling AI-assisted decision-making tools

      The image contains logos of the AI-assisted decision-making tools. Informatica, collibra, OCTOPAI.

      VARIETY

      Augmented Data Management

      Trend in Data Variety

      Augmented data management will enhance or automate data management capabilities by leveraging AI and related advanced techniques. It is quite possible to leverage existing data management tools and techniques, but most experts have recognized that more work and advanced patterns are needed to solve many complex data problems.

      Emerging technologies and capabilities:

      Data Factory, Data Mesh, Data Fabric, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning

      VARIETY

      Augmented Data Management

      Data Fabric vs. Data Mesh: The Data Journey continues at an accelerated pace

      Data Fabric

      Data Mesh

      Data fabric is an architecture that facilitates the end-to-end integration of various data pipelines and cloud environments using intelligent and automated systems. It’s a data integration pattern to unify disparate data systems, embed governance, strengthen security and privacy measures, and provide more data accessibility to workers and particularly to business users.

      The data mesh architecture is an approach that aligns data sources by business domains, or functions, with data owners. With data ownership decentralization, data owners can create data products for their respective domains, meaning data consumers, both data scientists and business users, can use a combination of these data products for data analytics and data science.

      More Unstructured Data

      95% of businesses cite the need to manage unstructured data as a problem for their business.

      VERACITY

      Identity Authenticity

      Trend 04 Veracity of data is a true test of your data capabilities

      Data veracity is defined as the accuracy or truthfulness of a data set. More and more data is created in semi-structured and unstructured formats and originates from largely uncontrolled sources (e.g. social media platforms, external sources). The reliability and quality of the data being integrated should be a top concern. The veracity of data is imperative when looking to use data for predictive purposes. For example, energy companies rely heavily on weather patterns to optimize their service outputs, but weather patterns have an element of unpredictability.

      Data quality affects overall labor productivity by as much as 20%, and 30% of operating expenses are due to insufficient data.

      Source: Pragmatic Works, 2017

      Bad data costs up to
      15% to 25% of revenue.

      Source: MIT Sloan Management Review, 2017

      VERACITY

      Identity Authenticity

      Veracity of data is a true test of your data capabilities

      • Stop creating your own identity architectures and instead integrate a tried-and-true platform.
      • Aim for a single source of truth for digital identity.
      • Establish data governance that can withstand scrutiny.
      • Imagine a day in the future where verified accounts on social media platforms are available.
      • Zero-trust architecture should be used.

      VERACITY

      Identity Authenticity

      Trend in Data Veracity

      Veracity is a concept deeply linked to identity. As the value of the data increases, a greater degree of veracity is required: We must provide more proof to open a bank account than to make friends on Facebook. As a result, there is more trust in bank data than in Facebook data. There is also a growing need to protect marginalized communities.

      Emerging technologies and capabilities:

      Zero Trust, Blockchain, Data Governance, IoT, Cybersecurity

      The image contains a screenshot of Info-Tech's blueprint slide on Zero Trust.

      VERACITY

      Identity Authenticity

      The identity discussion is no longer limited to people or organizations. The development of new technologies, such as the IoT phenomenon, will lead to an explosion of objects, from refrigerators to shipping containers, coming online as well. If all these entities start communicating with each other, standards will be needed to establish who or what they are.

      IDENTITY
      IS

      Age

      Gender

      Address

      Fingerprint

      Face

      Voice

      Irises

      IDENTITY
      KNOWS

      Password

      Passphrase

      PIN

      Sequence

      IDENTITY
      HAS

      Access badge

      Smartcard

      Security token

      Mobile phone

      ID document

      IDENTITY
      DOES

      Motor skills

      Handwriting

      Gestures

      Keystrokes

      Applications use

      The IoT market is expected to grow 18% to 14.4 billion in 2022 and 27 billion by 2025.

      Source: IoT Analytics, 2022

      VALUE

      Data Monetization

      Trend 05 Not Many organization know the true value of their data

      Data can be valuable if used effectively or dangerous if mishandled. The rise of the data economy has created significant opportunities but also has its challenges. It has become urgent to understand the value of data, which may vary for stakeholders based on their business model and strategy. Organizations first need to understand ownership of their data by establishing a data strategy, then they must improve data maturity by developing a deeper understanding of data value.

      94% of enterprises say data is essential to business growth.

      Source: Find stack, 2021

      VALUE

      Data Monetization

      Start developing your data business

      • Blockbuster ran its business well, but Netflix transformed the video rental industry overnight!
      • Big players with data are catching up fast.
      • You don’t have to be a giant to monetize data.
      • Data monetization is probably closer than you think.
      • You simply need to find it, catalog it, and deliver it.

      The image contains logos of companies related to data monetization as described in the text above. The companies are Amazon Prime, Netflix, Disney Plus, Blockbuster, and Apple TV.

      VALUE

      Data Monetization

      Trend in Data Value

      Data monetization is the transformation of data into financial value. However, this does not imply selling data alone. Monetary value is produced by using data to improve and upgrade existing and new products and services. Data monetization demands an organization-wide strategy for value development.

      Emerging technologies and capabilities:

      Data Strategy, Data Monetization Strategy, Data Products

      Netflix uses big data to save $1 billion per year on customer retention.

      Source: Logidots, 2021

      VALUE

      Data Monetization

      Data is a strategic asset

      Data is beyond currency, assets, or commodities and needs to be a category
      of its own.

      • Data always outlives people, processes, and technology. They all come and go while data remains.
      • Oil is a limited resource. Data is not. Unlike oil, data is likely to grow over time.
      • Data is likely to outlast all other current popular financial instruments, including currency, assets, or commodities.
      • Data is used internally and externally and can easily be replicated or combined.

      Data monetization is currently in the speculative territory, which is unacceptable. It should instead be guided by sound data management theory.

      VIRTUE

      Adaptive Data Governance

      Trend 06 Five Core Virtues: Resilience, Humility, Grit, Liberal Education, Empathy (Forbes, 2020)

      We have become more and more dependent on data, analytics, and organizational protection policies. Data virtue is about leveraging data securely and ethically. This topic has become more critical with the advent of GDPR, the right to be forgotten, and related regulations. Data governance, which seeks to establish an oversight framework that manages the creation, acquisition, integrity, security, compliance, and quality of data, is essential for any organization that makes decisions about data.

      Cultural obstacles are the greatest barrier to becoming data-driven, according to 91.9% of executives.

      Source: Harvard Business Review, 2022

      Fifty million Facebook profiles were harvested for Cambridge Analytica in a major data breach.

      Source: The Guardian, 2018

      VIRTUE

      Adaptive Data Governance

      Encourage noninvasive and automated data governance

      • Data governance affects the entire organization, not just data.
      • The old model for data governance was slow and clumsy.
      • Adaptive data governance encourages faster decision making and a more collaborative approach to governance.
      • Agile data governance allows for faster and more flexible decision making.
      • Automated data governance will simplify execution across the organization.
      • It is great for compliance, quality, impact tracking, and cross-referencing and offers independence to data users.

      VIRTUE

      Adaptive Data Governance

      Trend in Data Virtue

      Adaptive data governance encourages a flexible approach that allows an organization to employ multiple data governance strategies depending on changing business situations. The other aspect of adaptive data governance is moving away from manual (and often slow) data governance and toward aggressive automation.

      Emerging technologies and capabilities:

      AI-Powered Data Catalog and Metadata Management,
      Automated Data Policy Enforcement

      “To effectively meet the needs and velocity of digital organizations and modern practices, IT governance must be embedded and automated where possible to drive success and value.”

      Source: Valence Howden, Info-Tech Research Group

      “Research reveals that the combination of AI and big data technologies can automate almost 80% of all physical work, 70% of data processing, and 64% of data collection tasks.”

      Source: Forbes, 2021

      VIRTUE

      Data Governance Automation

      Simple and easy Data Governance

      Tools are not the ultimate answer to implementing data governance. You will still need to secure stakeholders' buy-in and engagement in the data process. Data governance automation should be about simplifying the execution of roles and responsibilities.

      “When you can see where your data governance strategy can be improved, it’s time to put in place automation that help to streamline processes.”

      Source: Nintex, 2021

      VISUALIZATION

      AI-Driven Storytelling & Augmented Analytics

      Trend 07 Automated and augmented data storytelling is not that far away

      Today, data storytelling is led by the user. It’s the manual practice of combining narrative with data to deliver insights in a compelling form to assist decision makers in engaging with data and analytics. A story backed by data is more easily consumed and understood than a dashboard, which can be overwhelming. However, manual data storytelling has some major shortcomings.

      Problem # 1: Telling stories on more than just the insights noticed by people

      Problem # 2: Poor data literacy and the limitations of manual self-service

      Problem # 3: Scaling data storytelling across the business

      VISUALIZATION

      AI-Driven Storytelling & Augmented Analytics

      Use AI to enhance data storytelling

      • Tableau, Power BI, and many other applications already use
        AI-driven analytics.
      • Power BI and SharePoint can use AI to generate visuals for any SharePoint list in a matter of seconds.

      VISUALIZATION

      AI-Driven Storytelling & Augmented Analytics

      Trend in Data Visualization

      AI and natural language processing will drive future visualization and data storytelling. These tools and techniques are improving rapidly and are now designed in a streamlined way to guide people in understanding what their data means and how to act on it instead of expecting them to do self-service analysis with dashboards and charts and know what to do next. Ultimately, being able to understand how to translate emotion, tropes, personal interpretation, and experience and how to tell what’s most relevant to each user is the next frontier for augmented and automated analytics

      Emerging technologies and capabilities:

      AI-Powered Data Catalog and Metadata Management,
      Automated Data Policy Enforcement

      VISUALIZATION

      Data Storytelling

      Augmented data storytelling is not that far away

      Emotions are a cornerstone of human intelligence and decision making. Mastering the art of storytelling is not easy.

      Industry experts predict the combination of data storytelling with augmented and automated techniques; these capabilities are more than capable of generating and automating parts of a data story’s creation for end users.

      The next challenge for AI is translating emotion, tropes, personal interpretation, and experience into what is most essential to end users.

      Source: Yellowfin, 2021

      VIRALITY

      Data Marketplace

      Trend 08 Missing data marketplace

      Data virality measures data spread and popularity. However, for data virality to occur, an ecosystem comparable to that of traditional or modern digital marketplaces is required. Organizations must reevaluate their data strategies to ensure investment in appropriate data domains by understanding data virality. Data virality is the exact opposite of dark data.

      Dark data is “all the information companies collect in their regular business processes, don’t use, have no plans to use, but will never throw out.”

      Source: Forbes, 2019

      VIRALITY

      Data Marketplace

      Make data easily accessible

      • Making data accessible to a broader audience is the key to successful virality.
      • Data marketplaces provide a location for you to make your data public.
      • Why do this? Contributing to public data marketplaces builds credibility, just like contributing to public GitHub projects.
      • Big players like Microsoft, Amazon, and Snowflake already do this!
      • Snowflake introduced zero-copy cloning, which allows users to interact with source data without compromising the integrity of the original source.

      The image contains the logos of Microsoft, Amazon, and Snowflake.

      VIRALITY

      Data Marketplace

      Trend in Data Virality

      The data marketplace can be defined as a dynamic marketplace where users decide what has the most value. Companies can gauge which data is most popular based on usage and decide where to invest. Users can shop for data products within the marketplace and then join these products with other ones they’ve created to launch truly powerful data-driven projects.

      Emerging technologies and capabilities:

      AI-Powered Data Catalog and Metadata Management,
      Automated Data Policy Enforcement

      The image contains a screenshot of Info-Tech's Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) Framework.

      “Data is like garbage. You’d better know what you are going to do with it before you collect it.”

      – Mark Twain

      VIRALITY

      Data Marketplace

      Journey from siloed data platforms to dynamic data marketplaces

      Data remains a complex topic due to many missing foundational components and infrastructure. Interoperability, security, quality, discoverability, speed, and ease are some of those missing foundational components that most organizations face daily.

      Data lacks an ecosystem that is comparable to those of traditional assets or commodities. Data must be available in open or closed data marketplaces to measure its value. These data marketplaces are still in their infancy.

      “Data markets are an important component of the data economy that could unleash the full potential of data generated by the digital economy and human activity in general.”

      Source: ITU Journal, 2018

      VISCOSITY

      DevOps – DataOps – XOps

      Trend 09 Increase efficiency by removing bottlenecks

      Compared to water, a fluid with a high viscosity flows more slowly, like honey. Data viscosity measures the resistance to flow in a volume of data. The data resistance may come from other Vs (variety, velocity, etc.).

      VISCOSITY

      DevOps – DataOps – XOps

      Increase efficiency by removing bottlenecks

      Consider XOps for a second. It makes no difference what X is. What's important is matching operational requirements to enterprise capabilities.

      • For example, Operations must meet the demands of Sales – hence SalesOps
        or S&Op.
      • Development resources must meet the demands of Operations – hence DevOps.
      • Finally, Data must also meet the demand of Operations.

      These Operations guys are demanding!!

      VISCOSITY

      DevOps – DataOps – XOps

      Trend in Data Viscosity

      The merger of development (Dev) and IT Operations (Ops) started in software development with the concept of DevOps. Since then, new Ops terms have formed rapidly (AIOps, MLOps, ModelOps, PlatformOps, SalesOps, SecOps, etc.). All these methodologies come from Lean manufacturing principles, which seek to identify waste by focusing on eliminating errors, cycle time, collaboration, and measurement. Buzzwords are distractions, and the focus must be on the underlying goals and principles. XOps goals should include the elimination of errors and improving efficiencies.

      Emerging technologies and capabilities:

      Collaborative Data Management, Automation Tools

      VISCOSITY

      DataOps → Data Observability

      Data observability, a subcomponent of DataOps, is a set of technical practices, cultural norms, and architecture that enables low error rates. Data observability focuses on error rates instead of only measuring data quality at a single point in time.

      Data Quality Dimensions

      • Uniqueness
      • Timeliness
      • Validity
      • Accuracy
      • Consistency

      ERROR RATES

      Lateness: Missing Your SLA

      System Processing Issues

      Code Change That Broke Something

      Data Quality

      What’s next? Go beyond the buzzwords.

      Avoid following trends solely for the sake of following them. It is critical to comprehend the concept and apply it to your industry. Every industry has its own set of problems and opportunities.

      Highlight the data trends (or lack thereof) that have been most beneficial to you in your organizations. Follow Info-Tech’s approach to building a data practice and platform to develop your data capabilities through the establishment of data goals.

      The image contains a screenshot of Info-Tech's Build Your Data Pracrice and Platform.

      Research Authors

      Rajesh Parab Chris Dyck

      Rajesh Parab

      Director, Research & Advisory

      Data and Analytics

      Chris Dyck

      Research Lead

      Data and Analytics

      “Data technologies are rapidly evolving. Understanding what’s possible is critical. Adapting to these upcoming data trends requires a solid data management foundation.”

      – Rajesh Parab

      Contributing Experts

      Carlos Thomas John Walsh

      Carlos Thomas

      Executive Counselor

      Info-Tech Research Group

      John Walsh

      Executive Counselor

      Info-Tech Research Group

      Bibliography

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      Accessed Oct. 2022.
      Burciaga, Aaron. “Five Core Virtues For Data Science And Artificial Intelligence.” Forbes, 27 Feb. 2020. Accessed Aug. 2022.
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      The Guardian, 17 March 2018. Accessed Aug. 2022.
      Carlier, Mathilde. “Connected light-duty vehicles as a share of total vehicles in 2023.” Statista, 31 Mar. 2021. Accessed Oct. 2022.
      Carter, Rebekah. “The Ultimate List of Big Data Statistics for 2022.” Findstack, 22 May 2021. Accessed Oct. 2022.
      Castelvecchi, Davide. “Underdog technologies gain ground in quantum-computing race.” Nature, 6 Nov. 2023. Accessed Feb. 2023.
      Clark-Jones, Anthony, et al. “Digital Identity:” UBS, 2016. Accessed Aug 2022.
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      Demchenko, Yuri, et al. “Data as Economic Goods: Definitions, Properties, Challenges, Enabling Technologies for Future Data Markets.“ ITU Journal: ICT Discoveries, Special Issue, no. 2, vol. 23, Nov. 2018. Accessed Aug 2022.
      Feldman, Sarah. ”20 Years of Quantum Computing Growth.” Statista, 6 May 2019. Accessed Oct. 2022.
      “Genomic Data Science.” NIH, National Human Genome Research Institute, 5 April 2022. Accessed Oct. 2022.

      Bibliography

      Hasbe, Sudhir, and Ryan Lippert. “The democratization of data and insights: making real-time analytics ubiquitous.” Google Cloud, 15 Jan. 2021.
      Accessed Aug. 2022.
      Helmenstine, Anne. “Viscosity Definition and Examples.” Science Notes, 3 Aug. 2021. Accessed Aug. 2022.
      “How data storytelling and augmented analytics are shaping the future of BI together.” Yellowfin, 19 Aug. 2021. Accessed Aug. 2022.
      “How Netflix Saves $1B Annually using AI?” Logidots, 24 Sept. 2021. Accessed Oct. 2022
      Hui, Kenneth. “The AWS Love/Hate Relationship with Data Gravity.” Cloud Architect Musings, 30 Jan. 2017. Accessed Aug 2022.
      ICD. “The Growth in Connected IoT Devices Is Expected to Generate 79.4ZB of Data in 2025, According to a New IDC Forecast.” Business Wire, 18 June 2019. Accessed Oct 2022.
      Internet of Things (IoT) and non-IoT active device connections worldwide from 2010 to 2025” Statista, 27 Nov. 2022. Accessed Nov. 2022.
      Koch, Gunter. “The critical role of data management for autonomous driving development.” DXC Technology, 2021. Accessed Aug. 2022.
      Morris, John. “The Pull of Data Gravity.” CIO, 23 Feb. 2022. Accessed Aug. 2022.
      Nield, David. “Google's Quantum Computer Is 100 Million Times Faster Than Your Laptop.” ScienceAlert, 9 Dec. 2015. Accessed Oct. 2022.
      Redman, Thomas C. “Seizing Opportunity in Data Quality.” MIT Sloan Management Review, 27 Nov. 2017. Accessed Oct. 2022.
      Segovia Domingo, Ana I., and Álvaro Martín Enríquez. “Digital Identity: the current state of affairs.” BBVA Research, 2018. Accessed Aug. 2022.

      Bibliography

      “State of IoT 2022: Number of connected IoT devices growing 18% to 14.4 billion globally.” IOT Analytics, 18 May 2022. Accessed. 14 Nov. 2022.
      Strod, Eran. “Data Observability and Monitoring with DataOps.” DataKitchen, 10 May 2021. Accessed Aug. 2022.
      Sujay Vailshery, Lionel. “Edge computing market value worldwide 2019-2025.” Statista, 25 Feb. 2022. Accessed Oct 2022.
      Sujay Vailshery, Lionel. “IoT and non-IoT connections worldwide 2010-2025.” Statista, 6 Sept. 2022. Accessed Oct. 2022.
      Sumina, Vladimir. “26 Cloud Computing Statistics, Facts & Trends for 2022.” Cloudwards, 7 June 2022. Accessed Oct. 2022.
      Taulli, Tom. “What You Need To Know About Dark Data.” Forbes, 27 Oct. 2019. Accessed Oct. 2022.
      Taylor, Linnet. “What is data justice? The case for connecting digital rights and freedoms globally.“ Big Data & Society, July-Dec 2017. Accessed Aug 2022.
      “Twitter: Data Collection With API Research Paper.” IvyPanda, 28 April 2022. Accessed Aug. 2022.
      “Using governance automation to reduce data risk.” Nintex, 15 Nov. 2021. Accessed Oct. 2022
      “Volume of data/information created, captured, copied, and consumed worldwide from 2010 to 2020, with forecasts from 2021 to 2025.” Statista, 8 Sept. 2022. Accessed Oct 2022.
      Wang, R. “Monday's Musings: Beyond The Three V's of Big Data – Viscosity and Virality.” Forbes, 27 Feb. 2012. Accessed Aug 2022.
      “What is a data fabric?” IBM, n.d. Accessed Aug 2022.
      Yego, Kip. “Augmented data management: Data fabric versus data mesh.” IBM, 27 April 2022. Accessed Aug 2022.

      Corporate security consultancy

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      Engage our corporate security consultancy firm to discover any weaknesses within your company’s security management. Tymans Group has extensive expertise in helping small and medium businesses set up clear security protocols to safeguard their data and IT infrastructure. Read on to discover how our consulting firm can help improve corporate security within your company.

      Why should you hire a corporate security consultancy company?

      These days, corporate security includes much more than just regulating access to your physical location, be it an office or a store. Corporate security increasingly deals in information and data security, as well as general corporate governance and responsibility. Proper security protocols not only protect your business from harm, but also play an important factor in your overall success. As such, corporate security is all about setting up practical and effective strategies to protect your company from harm, regardless of whether the threat comes from within or outside. As such, hiring a security consulting firm to improve corporate security and security management within your company is not an unnecessary luxury, but a must.

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      As a consultancy firm, Tymans Group can help your business to identify possible threats and help set up strategies to avoid them. However, as not all threats can be avoided, our corporate security consultancy firm also helps you set up protocols to mitigate and manage them, as well as help you develop effective incident management protocols. All solutions are practical, people-oriented and based on our extensive experience and thus have proven effectiveness.

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      Industry-Specific Digital Transformation

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      • Parent Category Name: Innovation
      • Parent Category Link: /innovation

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

      Infographic

      2020 Applications Priorities Report

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      • Parent Category Name: Optimization
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      • Although IT may have time to look at trends, it does not have the capacity to analyze the trends and turn them into initiatives.
      • IT does not have time to parse trends for initiatives that are relevant to them.
      • The business complains that if IT does not pursue trends the organization will get left behind by cutting-edge competitors. At the same time, when IT pursues trends, the business feels that IT is unable to deal with the basic issues.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Take advantage of a trend by first understanding why it is happening and how it is actionable. Build momentum now. Breaking a trend into bite-sized initiatives and building them into your IT foundations enables the organization to maintain pace with competitors and make the technological leap.
      • The concepts of shadow IT and governance are critical. As it becomes easier for the business to purchase its own applications, it will be essential for IT to embrace this form of user empowerment. With a diminished focus on vendor selection, IT will drive the most value by directing its energy toward data and integration governance.

      Impact and Result

      • Determine how to explore, adopt, and optimize the technology and practice initiatives in this report by understanding which core objective(s) each initiative serves:
        • Optimize the effectiveness of the IT organization.
        • Boost the productivity of the enterprise.
        • Enable business growth through technology.

      2020 Applications Priorities Report Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief for a summary of the priorities and themes that an IT organization should focus on this year.

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

      1. Read the 2020 Applications Priorities Report

      Use Info-Tech's 2020 Applications Priorities Report to learn about the five initiatives that IT should prioritize for the coming year.

      • 2020 Applications Priorities Report Storyboard
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      Security strategy

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      Disaster Recovery Planning

      Create a disaster recovey plan that is right for your company

      Read more

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      Build your right-sized IT Risk Management Program

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      If you engage our risk management consultancy company you get access to various guides and documents to help you set up risk management protocols within you company. Additionally, you can book a one-hour online talk with our risk management consulting firm’s CEO Gert Taeymans to discuss any problems you may be facing or request an on-site appointment in which our experts analyze your problems. The talk can discuss any topic, from IT risk control to external audits and even corporate security consultancy. If you have any questions about our risk management and consulting services for your company, we are happy to answer them. Just contact our risk management consulting firm through the online form and we will get in touch with as soon as possible.

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      Standardize the Service Desk

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      • Parent Category Name: Service Desk
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      • Not everyone embraces their role in service support. Specialists would rather work on projects than provide service support.
      • The Service Desk lacks processes and workflows to provide consistent service. Service desk managers struggle to set and meet service-level expectations, which further compromises end-user satisfaction.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Service desk improvement is an exercise in organizational change. Engage specialists across the IT organization in building the solution. Establish a single service-support team across the IT group and enforce it with a cooperative, customer-focused culture.
      • Don’t be fooled by a tool that’s new. A new service desk tool alone won’t solve the problem. Service desk maturity improvements depend on putting in place the right people and processes to support the technology.

      Impact and Result

      • Create a consistent customer service experience for service desk patrons, and increase efficiency, first-call resolution, and end-user satisfaction with the Service Desk.
      • Decrease time and cost to resolve service desk tickets.
      • Understand and address reporting needs to address root causes and measure success and build a solid foundation for future IT service improvements.

      Standardize the Service Desk Research & Tools

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

      1. Standardize the Service Desk Research – A step-by-step document that helps you improve customer service by driving consistency in your support approach and meet SLAs.

      Use this blueprint to standardize your service desk by assessing your current capability and laying the foundations for your service desk, design an effective incident management workflow, design a request fulfillment process, and apply the discussions and activities to make an actionable plan for improving your service desk.

      • Standardize the Service Desk – Phases 1-4

      2. Service Desk Maturity Assessment – An assessment tool to help guide process improvement efforts and track progress.

      This tool is designed to assess your service desk process maturity, identify gaps, guide improvement efforts, and measure your progress.

      • Service Desk Maturity Assessment

      3. Service Desk Project Summary – A template to help you organize process improvement initiatives using examples.

      Use this template to organize information about the service desk challenges that the organization is facing, make the case to build a right-sized service desk to address those challenges, and outline the recommended process changes.

      • Service Desk Project Summary

      4. Service Desk Roles and Responsibilities Guide – An analysis tool to determine the right roles and build ownership.

      Use the RACI template to determine roles for your service desk initiatives and to build ownership around them. Use the template and replace it with your organization's information.

      • Service Desk Roles and Responsibilities Guide

      5. Incident Management and Service Desk Standard Operating Procedure – A template designed to help service managers kick-start the standardization of service desk processes.

      The template will help you identify service desk roles and responsibilities, build ticket management processes, put in place sustainable knowledgebase practices, document ticket prioritization scheme and SLO, and document ticket workflows.

      • Incident Management and Service Desk SOP

      6. Ticket and Call Quality Assessment Tool – An assessment tool to check in on ticket and call quality quarterly and improve the quality of service desk data.

      Use this tool to help review the quality of tickets handled by agents and discuss each technician's technical capabilities to handle tickets.

      • Ticket and Call Quality Assessment Tool

      7. Workflow Library – A repository of typical workflows.

      The Workflow Library provides examples of typical workflows that make up the bulk of the incident management and request fulfillment processes at the service desk.

      • Incident Management and Service Desk Workflows (Visio)
      • Incident Management and Service Desk Workflows (PDF)

      8. Service Desk Ticket Categorization Schemes – A repository of ticket categories.

      The Ticket Categorization Schemes provide examples of ticket categories to organize the data in the service desk tool and produce reports that help managers manage the service desk and meet business requirements.

      • Service Desk Ticket Categorization Schemes

      9. Knowledge Manager – A job description template that includes a detailed explication of the responsibilities and expectations of a Knowledge Manager role.

      The Knowledge Manager's role is to collect, synthesize, organize, and manage corporate information in support of business units across the enterprise.

      • Knowledge Manager

      10. Knowledgebase Article Template – A comprehensive record of the incident management process.

      An accurate and comprehensive record of the incident management process, including a description of the incident, any workarounds identified, the root cause (if available), and the profile of the incident's source, will improve incident resolution time.

      • Knowledgebase Article Template

      11. Sample Communication Plan – A sample template to guide your communications around the integration and implementation of your overall service desk improvement initiatives.

      Use this template to develop a communication plan that outlines what stakeholders can expect as the process improvements recommended in the Standardize the Service Desk blueprint are implemented.

      • Sample Communication Plan

      12. Service Desk Roadmap – A structured roadmap tool to help build your service desk initiatives timeline.

      The Service Desk Roadmap helps track outstanding implementation activities from your service desk standardization project. Use the roadmap tool to define service desk project tasks, their owners, priorities, and timeline.

      • Service Desk Roadmap
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Standardize the Service Desk

      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 Lay Service Desk Foundations

      The Purpose

      Discover your challenges and understand what roles, metrics, and ticket handling procedures are needed to tackle the challenges.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Set a clear understanding about the importance of service desk to your organization and service desk best practices.

      Activities

      1.1 Assess current state of the service desk.

      1.2 Review service desk and shift-left strategy.

      1.3 Identify service desk metrics and reports.

      1.4 Identify ticket handling procedures

      Outputs

      Current state assessment

      Shift-left strategy and implications

      Service desk metrics and reports

      Ticket handling procedures

      2 Design Incident Management

      The Purpose

      Build workflows for incident and critical incident tickets.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Distinguish incidents from service requests.

      Ticket categorization facilitates ticket. routing and reporting.

      Develop an SLA for your service desk team for a consistent service delivery.

      Activities

      2.1 Build incident and critical incident management workflows.

      2.2 Design ticket categorization scheme and proper ticket handling guidelines.

      2.3 Design incident escalation and prioritization guidelines.

      Outputs

      Incident and critical incident management workflows

      Ticket categorization scheme

      Ticket escalation and prioritization guidelines

      3 Design Request Fulfilment

      The Purpose

      Build service request workflows and prepare self-service portal.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Standardize request fulfilment processes.

      Prepare for better knowledge management and leverage self-service portal to facilitate shift-left strategy.

      Activities

      3.1 Build service request workflows.

      3.2 Build a targeted knowledgebase.

      3.3 Prepare for a self-serve portal project.

      Outputs

      Distinguishing criteria for requests and projects

      Service request workflows and SLAs

      Knowledgebase article template, processes, and workflows

      4 Build Project Implementation Plan

      The Purpose

      Now that you have laid the foundation of your service desk, put all the initiatives into an action plan.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Discuss priorities, set timeline, and identify effort for your service desk.

      Identify the benefits and impacts of communicating service desk initiatives to stakeholders and define channels to communicate service desk changes.

      Activities

      4.1 Build an implementation roadmap.

      4.2 Build a communication plan

      Outputs

      Project implementation and task list with associated owners

      Project communication plan and workshop summary presentation

      Further reading

      Analyst Perspective

      "Customer service issues are rarely based on personality but are almost always a symptom of poor and inconsistent process. When service desk managers are looking to hire to resolve customer service issues and executives are pushing back, it’s time to look at improving process and the support strategy to make the best use of technicians’ time, tools, and knowledge sharing. Once improvements have been made, it’s easier to make the case to add people or introduce automation.

      Replacing service desk solutions will also highlight issues around poor process. Without fixing the baseline services, the new solution will simply wrap your issues in a prettier package.

      Ultimately, the service desk needs to be the entry point for users to get help and the rest of IT needs to provide the appropriate support to ensure the first line of interaction has the knowledge and tools they need to resolve quickly and preferably on first contact. If your plans include optimization to self-serve or automation, you’ll have a hard time getting there without standardizing first."

      Sandi Conrad

      Principal Research Director, Infrastructure & Operations Practice

      Info-Tech Research Group

      A method for getting your service desk out of firefighter mode

      This Research Is Designed For:

      • The CIO and senior IT management who need to increase service desk effectiveness and timeliness and improve end-user satisfaction.
      • The service desk manager who wants to lead the team from firefighting mode to providing consistent and proactive support.

      This Research Will Also Assist:

      • Service desk teams who want to increase their own effectiveness and move from a help desk to a service desk.
      • Infrastructure and applications managers who want to decrease reactive support activities and increase strategic project productivity by shifting repetitive and low-value work left.

      This Research Will Help You:

      • Create a consistent customer service experience for service desk patrons.
      • Increase efficiency, first-call resolution, and end-user satisfaction with the Service Desk.
      • Decrease time and cost to resolve service desk tickets.
      • Understand and address reporting needs to address root causes and measure success.
      • Build a solid foundation for future IT service improvements.

      Executive Summary

      Situation

      • The CIO and senior IT management who need to increase service desk effectiveness and timeliness and improve end-user satisfaction.
      • If only the phone could stop ringing, the Service Desk could become proactive, address service levels, and improve end-user IT satisfaction.

      Complication

      • Not everyone embraces their role in service support. Specialists would rather work on projects than provide service support.
      • The Service Desk lacks processes and workflows to provide consistent service. Service desk managers struggle to set and meet service-level expectations, which further compromises end-user satisfaction.

      Resolution

      • Go beyond the blind adoption of best-practice frameworks. No simple formula exists for improving service desk maturity. Use diagnostic tools to assess the current state of the Service Desk. Identify service support challenges and draw on best-practice frameworks intelligently to build a structured response to those challenges.
      • An effective service desk must be built on the right foundations. Understand how:
        • Service desk structure affects cost and ticket volume capacity.
        • Incident management workflows can improve ticket handling, prioritization, and escalation.
        • Request fulfillment processes create opportunities for streamlining and automating services.
        • Knowledge sharing supports the processes and workflows essential to effective service support.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Service desk improvement is an exercise in organizational change. Engage specialists across the IT organization in building the solution. Establish a single service-support team across the IT group and enforce it with a cooperative, customer-focused culture. Don’t be fooled by a tool that’s new. A new service desk tool alone won’t solve the problem. Service desk maturity improvements depend on putting in place the right people and processes to support the technology

      Directors and executives understand the importance of the service desk and believe IT can do better

      A double bar graph is depicted. The blue bars represent Effectiveness and the green bars represent Importance in terms of service desk at different seniority levels, which include frontline, manager, director, and executive.

      Source: Info-Tech, 2019 Responses (N=189 organizations)

      Service Desk 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

      Service Desk 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

      Info-Tech Research Group’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 the service desk as an area to leverage.

      Business stakeholders consistently rank the service desk as one of the top five most important services that IT provides

      Since 2013, Info-Tech has surveyed over 40,000 business stakeholders as part of our CIO Business Vision program.

      Business stakeholders ranked the following 12 core IT services in terms of importance:

      Learn more about the CIO Business Vision Program.
      *Note: IT Security was added to CIO Business Vision 2.0 in 2019

      Top IT Services for Business Stakeholders

      1. Network Infrastructure
      2. IT Security*
      3. Data Quality
      4. Service Desk
      5. Business Applications
      6. Devices
      7. Client-Facing Technology
      8. Analytical Capability
      9. IT Innovation Leadership
      10. Projects
      11. Work Orders
      12. IT Policies
      13. Requirements Gathering
      Source: Info-Tech Research Group, 2019 (N=224 organizations)

      Having an effective and timely service desk correlates with higher end-user satisfaction with all other IT services

      A double bar graph is depicted. The blue bar represents dissatisfied ender user, and the green bar represents satisfied end user. The bars show the average of dissatisfied and satisfied end users for service desk effectiveness and service desk timeliness.

      On average, organizations that were satisfied with service desk effectiveness rated all other IT processes 46% higher than dissatisfied end users.

      Organizations that were satisfied with service desk timeliness rated all other IT processes 37% higher than dissatisfied end users.
      “Satisfied” organizations had average scores =8.“Dissatisfied" organizations had average scores “Dissatisfied" organizations had average scores =6. Source: Info-Tech Research Group, 2019 (N=18,500+ respondents from 75 organizations)

      Standardize the service desk the Info-Tech way to get measurable results

      More than one hundred organizations engaged with Info-Tech, through advisory calls and workshops, for their service desk projects in 2016. Their goal was either to improve an existing service desk or build one from scratch.

      Organizations that estimate the business impact of each project phase help us shed light on the average measured value of the engagements.

      "The analysts are an amazing resource for this project. Their approach is very methodical, and they have the ability to fill in the big picture with detailed, actionable steps. There is a real opportunity for us to get off the treadmill and make real IT service management improvements"

      - Rod Gula, IT Director

      American Realty Advisors

      Three circles are depicted. The top circle shows the sum of measured value dollar impact which is US$1,659,493.37. The middle circle shows the average measured value dollar impact which is US$19,755.87. The bottom circle shows the average measured value time saved which is 27 days.

      Info-Tech’s approach to service desk standardization focuses on building service management essentials

      This image depicts all of the phases and steps in this blueprint.

      Info-Tech draws on the COBIT framework, which focuses on consistent delivery of IT services across the organization

      This image depicts research that can be used to improve IT processes. Service Desk is circled to demonstrate which research is being used.

      The service desk is the foundation of all other service management processes.

      The image shows how the service desk is a foundation for other service management processes.

      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

      Standardize the Service Desk – project overview

      This image shows the project overview of this blueprint.

      Info-Tech delivers: Use our tools and templates to accelerate your project to completion

      Project Summary

      Image of template.

      Service Desk Standard Operating Procedures

      Image of tool.

      Service Desk Maturity Assessment Tool

      Image of tool.

      Service Desk Implementation Roadmap

      Image of tool Incident, knowledge, and request management workflows

      Incident, knowledge, and request management workflows

      The project’s key deliverable is a service desk standard operating procedure

      Benefits of documented SOPs:

      Improved training and knowledge transfer: Routine tasks can be delegated to junior staff (freeing senior staff to work on higher priority tasks).

      IT automation, process optimization, and consistent operations: Defining, documenting, and then optimizing processes enables IT automation to be built on sound processes, so consistent positive results can be achieved.

      Compliance: Compliance audits are more manageable because the documentation is already in place.

      Transparency: Visually documented processes answer the common business question of “why does that take so long?”

      Cost savings: Work solved at first contact or with a minimal number of escalations will result in greater efficiency and more cost-effective support. This will also lead to better customer service.

      Impact of undocumented/undefined SOPs:

      Tasks will be difficult to delegate, key staff become a bottleneck, knowledge transfer is inconsistent, and there is a longer onboarding process for new staff

      IT automation built on poorly defined, unoptimized processes leads to inconsistent results.

      Documenting SOPs to prepare for an audit becomes a major time-intensive project.

      Other areas of the organization may not understand how IT operates, which can lead to confusion and unrealistic expectations.

      Support costs are highest through inefficient processes, and proactive work becomes more difficult to schedule, making the organization vulnerable to costly disruptions.

      Workshop Overview

      Image depicts workshop overview occurring over four days.

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

      Phase 1

      Lay Service Desk Foundations

      Step 1.1:Assess current state

      Image shows the steps in phase 1. Highlight is on step 1.1

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • 1.1.1 Outline service desk challenges
      • 1.1.2 Assess the service desk maturity

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Project Sponsor
      • IT Director, CIO
      • IT Managers and Service Desk Manager(s)
      • Representation from tier 2 and tier 3 specialists

      Outcomes

      Alignment on the challenges that the service desk faces, an assessment of the current state of service desk processes and technologies, and baseline metrics against which to measure improvements.

      Deliverables

      • Service Desk Maturity Assessment

      Standardizing the service desk benefits the whole business

      The image depicts 3 circles to represent the service desk foundations.

      Embrace standardization

      • Standardization prevents wasted energy on reinventing solutions to recurring issues.
      • Standardized processes are scalable so that process maturity increases with the size of your organization.

      Increase business satisfaction

      • Improve confidence that the service desk can meet service levels.
      • Create a single point of contact for incidents and requests and escalate quickly.
      • Analyze trends to forecast and meet shifting business requirements.

      Reduce recurring issues

      • Create tickets for every task and categorize them accurately.
      • Generate reliable data to support root-cause analysis.

      Increase efficiency and lower operating costs

      • Empower end users and technicians with a targeted knowledgebase (KB).
      • Cross-train to improve service consistency.

      Case Study: The CIO of Westminster College took stock of existing processes before moving to empower the “helpless desk”

      Scott Lowe helped a small staff of eight IT professionals formalize service desk processes and increase the amount of time available for projects.

      When he joined Westminster College as CIO in 2006, the department faced several infrastructure challenges, including:

      • An unreliable network
      • Aging server replacements and no replacement plan
      • IT was the “department of no”
      • A help desk known as the “helpless desk”
      • A lack of wireless connectivity
      • Internet connection speed that was much too slow

      As the CIO investigated how to address the infrastructure challenges, he realized people cared deeply about how IT spent its time.

      The project load of IT staff increased, with new projects coming in every day.

      With a long project list, it became increasingly important to improve the transparency of project request and prioritization.

      Some weeks, staff spent 80% of their time working on projects. Other weeks, support requirements might leave only 10% for project work.

      He addressed the infrastructure challenges in part by analyzing IT’s routine processes.

      Internally, IT had inefficient support processes that reduced the amount of time they could spend on projects.

      They undertook an internal process analysis effort to identify processes that would have a return on investment if they were improved. The goal was to reduce operational support time so that project time could be increased.

      Five years later, they had a better understanding of the organization's operational support time needs and were able to shift workloads to accommodate projects without compromising support.

      Common challenges experienced by service desk teams

      Unresolved issues

      • Tickets are not created for all incidents.
      • Tickets are lost or escalated to the wrong technicians.
      • Poor data impedes root-cause analysis of incidents.

      Lost resources/accountability

      • Lack of cross-training and knowledge sharing.
      • Lack of skills coverage for critical applications and services.
      • Time is wasted troubleshooting recurring issues.
      • Reports unavailable due to lack of data and poor categorization.

      High cost to resolve

      • Tier 2/3 resolve issues that should be resolved at tier 1.
      • Tier 2/3 often interrupt projects to focus on service support.

      Poor planning

      • Lack of data for effective trend analysis leads to poor demand planning.
      • Lack of data leads to lost opportunities for templating and automation.

      Low business satisfaction

      • Users are unable to get assistance with IT services quickly.
      • Users go to their favorite technician instead of using the service desk.

      Outline the organization’s service desk challenges

      1.1.1 Brainstorm service desk challenges

      Estimated Time: 45 minutes

      A. As a group, outline the areas where you think the service desk is experiencing challenges or weaknesses. Use sticky notes or a whiteboard to separate the challenges into People, Process, and Technology so you have a wholistic view of the constraints across the department.

      B. Think about the following:

      • What have you heard from users? (e.g. slow response time)
      • What have you heard from executives? (e.g. poor communication)
      • What should you start doing? (e.g. documenting processes)
      • What should you stop doing? (e.g. work that is not being entered as tickets)

      C. Document challenges in the Service Desk Project Summary.

      Participants:

      • CIO
      • IT Managers
      • Service Desk Manager
      • Service Desk Agents

      Assess current service desk maturity to establish a baseline and create a plan for service desk improvement

      A current-state assessment will help you build a foundation for process improvements. Current-state assessments follow a basic formula:

      1. Determine the current state of the service desk.
      2. Determine the desired state of the service desk.
      3. Build a practical path from current to desired state.
      Image depicts 2 circles and a box. The circle on the 1. left has assess current state. The circle on the right has 2. assess target state. The box has 3. build a roadmap.

      Ideally, the current-state assessment should align the delivery of IT services with organizational needs. The assessment should achieve the following goals:

      1. Identify service desk pain points.
      2. Map each pain point to business services.
      3. Assign a broad business value to the resolution of each pain point.
      4. Map each pain point to a process.

      Expert Insight

      Image of expert.

      “How do you know if you aren’t mature enough? Nothing – or everything – is recorded and tracked, customer satisfaction is low, frustration is high, and there are multiple requests and incidents that nobody ever bothers to address.”

      Rob England

      IT Consultant & Commentator

      Owner Two Hills

      Also known as The IT Skeptic

      Assess the process maturity of the service desk to determine which project phase and steps will bring the most value

      1.1.2 Measure which activity will have the greatest impact

      The Service Desk Maturity Assessmenttool helps organizations assess their service desk process maturity and focus the project on the activities that matter most.

      The tool will help guide improvement efforts and measure your progress.

      • The second tab of the tool walks through a qualitative assessment of your service desk practices. Questions will prompt you to evaluate how you are executing key activities. Select the answer in the drop-down menus that most closely aligns with your current state.
      • The third tab displays your rate of process completeness and maturity. You will receive a score for each phase, an overall score, and advice based on your performance.
      • Document the results of the efficiency assessment in the Service Desk Project Summary.

      The tool is intended for periodic use. Review your answers each year and devise initiatives to improve the process performance where you need it most.

      Where do I find the data?

      Consult:

      • Service Manager
      • Service Desk Tools
      Image is the service desk tools.

      Step 1.2:Review service support best practices

      Image shows the steps in phase 1. Highlight is on step 1.2.

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      1. 1.2.1 Identify roles and responsibilities in your organization
      2. 1.2.2 Map out the current and target structure of the service desk

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Project Sponsor
      • IT Director, CIO
      • IT Managers and Service Desk Manager(s)
      • Representation from tier 2 and tier 3 specialists

      Outcomes

      Identifying who is accountable for different support practices in the service desk will allow workload to be distributed effectively between functional teams and individuals. Closing the gaps in responsibilities will enable the execution of a shift-left strategy.

      Deliverables

      • Roles & responsibilities guide
      • Service desk structure

      Everyone in IT contributes to the success of service support

      Regardless of the service desk structure chosen to meet an organization’s service support requirements, IT staff should not doubt the role they play in service support.

      If you try to standardize service desk processes without engaging specialists in other parts of the IT organization, you will fail. Everyone in IT has a role to play in providing service support and meeting service-level agreements.

      Service Support Engagement Plan

      • Identify who is accountable for different service support processes.
      • Outline the different responsibilities of service desk agents at tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3 in meeting service-level agreements for service support.
      • Draft operational-level agreements between specialty groups and the service desk to improve accountability.
      • Configure the service desk tool to ensure ticket visibility and ownership across queues.
      • Engage tier 2 and tier 3 resources in building workflows for incident management, request fulfilment, and writing knowledgebase articles.
      • Emphasize the benefits of cooperation across IT silos:
        • Better customer service and end-user satisfaction.
        • Shorter time to resolve incidents and implement requests.
        • A higher tier 1 resolution rate, more efficient escalations, and fewer interruptions from project work.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Specialists tend to distance themselves from service support as they progress through their career to focus on projects.

      However, their cooperation is critical to the success of the new service desk. Not only do they contribute to the knowledgebase, but they also handle escalations from tiers 1 and 2.

      Clear project complications by leveraging roles and responsibilities

      R

      Responsible: This person is the staff member who completes the work. Assign at least one Responsible for each task, but this could be more than one.

      A

      Accountable: This team member delegates a task and is the last person to review deliverables and/or task. Sometimes Responsible and Accountable can be the same staff. Make sure that you always assign only one Accountable for each task and not more.

      C

      Consulted: People who do not carry out the task but need to be consulted. Typically, these people are subject matter experts or stakeholders.

      I

      Informed: People who receive information about process execution and quality and need to stay informed regarding the task.

      A RACI analysis is helpful with the following:

      • Workload Balancing: Allowing responsibilities to be distributed effectively between functional teams and individuals.
      • Change Management: Ensuring key functions and processes are not overlooked during organizational changes.
      • Onboarding: New employees can identify their own roles and responsibilities.

      A RACI chart outlines which positions are Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed

      Image shows example of RACI chart

      Create a list of roles and responsibilities in your organization

      1.2.1 Create RACI matrix to define responsibilities

      1. Use the Service Desk Roles and Responsibilities Guidefor a better understanding of the roles and responsibilities of different service desk tiers.
      2. In the RACI chart, replace the top row with specific roles in your organization.
      3. Modify or expand the process tasks, as needed, in the left column.
      4. For each role, identify the responsibility values that the person brings to the service desk. Fill out each column.
      5. Document in the Service Desk SOP. Schedule a time to share the results with organization leads.
      6. Distribute the chart between all teams in your organization.

      Notes:

      • Assign one Accountable for each task.
      • Have at least one Responsible for each task.
      • Avoid generic responsibilities, such as “team meetings.”
      • Keep your RACI definitions in your documents, as they are sometimes tough to remember.

      Participants

      • CIO
      • IT Managers
      • Service Desk Manager
      • Service Desk Agents

      What You'll Need

      • Service Desk SOP
      • Roles and Responsibilities Guide
      • Flip Chart
      • Whiteboard

      Build a single point of contact for the service desk

      Regardless of the service desk structure chosen to meet your service support requirements, end users should be in no doubt about how to access the service.

      Provide end users with:

      • A single phone number.
      • A single email address.
      • A single web portal for all incidents and requests.

      A single point of contact will ensure:

      • An agent is available to field incidents and requests.
      • Incidents and requests are prioritized according to impact and urgency.
      • Work is tracked to completion.

      This prevents ad hoc ticket channels such as shoulder grabs or direct emails, chats, or calls to a technician from interrupting work.

      A single point of contact does not mean the service desk is only accessible through one intake channel, but rather all tickets are directed to the service desk (i.e. tier 1) to be resolved or redirected appropriately.

      Image depicts 2 boxes. The smaller box labelled users and the larger box labelled Service Desk Tier 1. There are four double-sided arrows. The top is labelled email, the second is walk-in, the third is phone, the fourth is web portal.

      Directors and executives understand the importance of the service desk and believe IT can do better

      A double bar graph is depicted. The blue bars represent Effectiveness and the green bars represent Importance in terms of service desk at different seniority levels, which include frontline, manager, director, and executive.

      Source: Info-Tech, 2019 Responses (N=189 organizations)

      Service Desk 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

      Service Desk 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

      Info-Tech Research Group’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 the service desk as an area to leverage.

      Business stakeholders consistently rank the service desk as one of the top five most important services that IT provides

      Since 2013, Info-Tech has surveyed over 40,000 business stakeholders as part of our CIO Business Vision program.

      Business stakeholders ranked the following 12 core IT services in terms of importance:

      Learn more about the CIO Business Vision Program.
      *Note: IT Security was added to CIO Business Vision 2.0 in 2019

      Top IT Services for Business Stakeholders

      1. Network Infrastructure
      2. IT Security*
      3. Data Quality
      4. Service Desk
      5. Business Applications
      6. Devices
      7. Client-Facing Technology
      8. Analytical Capability
      9. IT Innovation Leadership
      10. Projects
      11. Work Orders
      12. IT Policies
      13. Requirements Gathering
      Source: Info-Tech Research Group, 2019 (N=224 organizations)

      Having an effective and timely service desk correlates with higher end-user satisfaction with all other IT services

      A double bar graph is depicted. The blue bar represents dissatisfied ender user, and the green bar represents satisfied end user. The bars show the average of dissatisfied and satisfied end users for service desk effectiveness and service desk timeliness.

      On average, organizations that were satisfied with service desk effectiveness rated all other IT processes 46% higher than dissatisfied end users.

      Organizations that were satisfied with service desk timeliness rated all other IT processes 37% higher than dissatisfied end users.
      “Satisfied” organizations had average scores =8.“Dissatisfied" organizations had average scores “Dissatisfied" organizations had average scores =6. Source: Info-Tech Research Group, 2019 (N=18,500+ respondents from 75 organizations)

      Standardize the service desk the Info-Tech way to get measurable results

      More than one hundred organizations engaged with Info-Tech, through advisory calls and workshops, for their service desk projects in 2016. Their goal was either to improve an existing service desk or build one from scratch.

      Organizations that estimate the business impact of each project phase help us shed light on the average measured value of the engagements.

      "The analysts are an amazing resource for this project. Their approach is very methodical, and they have the ability to fill in the big picture with detailed, actionable steps. There is a real opportunity for us to get off the treadmill and make real IT service management improvements"

      - Rod Gula, IT Director

      American Realty Advisors

      Three circles are depicted. The top circle shows the sum of measured value dollar impact which is US$1,659,493.37. The middle circle shows the average measured value dollar impact which is US$19,755.87. The bottom circle shows the average measured value time saved which is 27 days.

      Info-Tech’s approach to service desk standardization focuses on building service management essentials

      This image depicts all of the phases and steps in this blueprint.

      Info-Tech draws on the COBIT framework, which focuses on consistent delivery of IT services across the organization

      This image depicts research that can be used to improve IT processes. Service Desk is circled to demonstrate which research is being used.

      The service desk is the foundation of all other service management processes.

      The image shows how the service desk is a foundation for other service management processes.

      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

      Standardize the Service Desk – project overview

      This image shows the project overview of this blueprint.

      Info-Tech delivers: Use our tools and templates to accelerate your project to completion

      Project Summary

      Image of template.

      Service Desk Standard Operating Procedures

      Image of tool.

      Service Desk Maturity Assessment Tool

      Image of tool.

      Service Desk Implementation Roadmap

      Image of tool Incident, knowledge, and request management workflows

      Incident, knowledge, and request management workflows

      The project’s key deliverable is a service desk standard operating procedure

      Benefits of documented SOPs:

      Improved training and knowledge transfer: Routine tasks can be delegated to junior staff (freeing senior staff to work on higher priority tasks).

      IT automation, process optimization, and consistent operations: Defining, documenting, and then optimizing processes enables IT automation to be built on sound processes, so consistent positive results can be achieved.

      Compliance: Compliance audits are more manageable because the documentation is already in place.

      Transparency: Visually documented processes answer the common business question of “why does that take so long?”

      Cost savings: Work solved at first contact or with a minimal number of escalations will result in greater efficiency and more cost-effective support. This will also lead to better customer service.

      Impact of undocumented/undefined SOPs:

      Tasks will be difficult to delegate, key staff become a bottleneck, knowledge transfer is inconsistent, and there is a longer onboarding process for new staff

      IT automation built on poorly defined, unoptimized processes leads to inconsistent results.

      Documenting SOPs to prepare for an audit becomes a major time-intensive project.

      Other areas of the organization may not understand how IT operates, which can lead to confusion and unrealistic expectations.

      Support costs are highest through inefficient processes, and proactive work becomes more difficult to schedule, making the organization vulnerable to costly disruptions.

      Workshop Overview

      Image depicts workshop overview occurring over four days.

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

      Phase 1

      Lay Service Desk Foundations

      Step 1.1:Assess current state

      Image shows the steps in phase 1. Highlight is on step 1.1

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • 1.1.1 Outline service desk challenges
      • 1.1.2 Assess the service desk maturity

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Project Sponsor
      • IT Director, CIO
      • IT Managers and Service Desk Manager(s)
      • Representation from tier 2 and tier 3 specialists

      Outcomes

      Alignment on the challenges that the service desk faces, an assessment of the current state of service desk processes and technologies, and baseline metrics against which to measure improvements.

      Deliverables

      • Service Desk Maturity Assessment

      Standardizing the service desk benefits the whole business

      The image depicts 3 circles to represent the service desk foundations.

      Embrace standardization

      • Standardization prevents wasted energy on reinventing solutions to recurring issues.
      • Standardized processes are scalable so that process maturity increases with the size of your organization.

      Increase business satisfaction

      • Improve confidence that the service desk can meet service levels.
      • Create a single point of contact for incidents and requests and escalate quickly.
      • Analyze trends to forecast and meet shifting business requirements.

      Reduce recurring issues

      • Create tickets for every task and categorize them accurately.
      • Generate reliable data to support root-cause analysis.

      Increase efficiency and lower operating costs

      • Empower end users and technicians with a targeted knowledgebase (KB).
      • Cross-train to improve service consistency.

      Case Study: The CIO of Westminster College took stock of existing processes before moving to empower the “helpless desk”

      Scott Lowe helped a small staff of eight IT professionals formalize service desk processes and increase the amount of time available for projects.

      When he joined Westminster College as CIO in 2006, the department faced several infrastructure challenges, including:

      • An unreliable network
      • Aging server replacements and no replacement plan
      • IT was the “department of no”
      • A help desk known as the “helpless desk”
      • A lack of wireless connectivity
      • Internet connection speed that was much too slow

      As the CIO investigated how to address the infrastructure challenges, he realized people cared deeply about how IT spent its time.

      The project load of IT staff increased, with new projects coming in every day.

      With a long project list, it became increasingly important to improve the transparency of project request and prioritization.

      Some weeks, staff spent 80% of their time working on projects. Other weeks, support requirements might leave only 10% for project work.

      He addressed the infrastructure challenges in part by analyzing IT’s routine processes.

      Internally, IT had inefficient support processes that reduced the amount of time they could spend on projects.

      They undertook an internal process analysis effort to identify processes that would have a return on investment if they were improved. The goal was to reduce operational support time so that project time could be increased.

      Five years later, they had a better understanding of the organization's operational support time needs and were able to shift workloads to accommodate projects without compromising support.

      Common challenges experienced by service desk teams

      Unresolved issues

      • Tickets are not created for all incidents.
      • Tickets are lost or escalated to the wrong technicians.
      • Poor data impedes root-cause analysis of incidents.

      Lost resources/accountability

      • Lack of cross-training and knowledge sharing.
      • Lack of skills coverage for critical applications and services.
      • Time is wasted troubleshooting recurring issues.
      • Reports unavailable due to lack of data and poor categorization.

      High cost to resolve

      • Tier 2/3 resolve issues that should be resolved at tier 1.
      • Tier 2/3 often interrupt projects to focus on service support.

      Poor planning

      • Lack of data for effective trend analysis leads to poor demand planning.
      • Lack of data leads to lost opportunities for templating and automation.

      Low business satisfaction

      • Users are unable to get assistance with IT services quickly.
      • Users go to their favorite technician instead of using the service desk.

      Outline the organization’s service desk challenges

      1.1.1 Brainstorm service desk challenges

      Estimated Time: 45 minutes

      A. As a group, outline the areas where you think the service desk is experiencing challenges or weaknesses. Use sticky notes or a whiteboard to separate the challenges into People, Process, and Technology so you have a wholistic view of the constraints across the department.

      B. Think about the following:

      • What have you heard from users? (e.g. slow response time)
      • What have you heard from executives? (e.g. poor communication)
      • What should you start doing? (e.g. documenting processes)
      • What should you stop doing? (e.g. work that is not being entered as tickets)

      C. Document challenges in the Service Desk Project Summary.

      Participants:

      • CIO
      • IT Managers
      • Service Desk Manager
      • Service Desk Agents

      Assess current service desk maturity to establish a baseline and create a plan for service desk improvement

      A current-state assessment will help you build a foundation for process improvements. Current-state assessments follow a basic formula:

      1. Determine the current state of the service desk.
      2. Determine the desired state of the service desk.
      3. Build a practical path from current to desired state.
      Image depicts 2 circles and a box. The circle on the 1. left has assess current state. The circle on the right has 2. assess target state. The box has 3. build a roadmap.

      Ideally, the current-state assessment should align the delivery of IT services with organizational needs. The assessment should achieve the following goals:

      1. Identify service desk pain points.
      2. Map each pain point to business services.
      3. Assign a broad business value to the resolution of each pain point.
      4. Map each pain point to a process.

      Expert Insight

      Image of expert.

      “How do you know if you aren’t mature enough? Nothing – or everything – is recorded and tracked, customer satisfaction is low, frustration is high, and there are multiple requests and incidents that nobody ever bothers to address.”

      Rob England

      IT Consultant & Commentator

      Owner Two Hills

      Also known as The IT Skeptic

      Assess the process maturity of the service desk to determine which project phase and steps will bring the most value

      1.1.2 Measure which activity will have the greatest impact

      The Service Desk Maturity Assessmenttool helps organizations assess their service desk process maturity and focus the project on the activities that matter most.

      The tool will help guide improvement efforts and measure your progress.

      • The second tab of the tool walks through a qualitative assessment of your service desk practices. Questions will prompt you to evaluate how you are executing key activities. Select the answer in the drop-down menus that most closely aligns with your current state.
      • The third tab displays your rate of process completeness and maturity. You will receive a score for each phase, an overall score, and advice based on your performance.
      • Document the results of the efficiency assessment in the Service Desk Project Summary.

      The tool is intended for periodic use. Review your answers each year and devise initiatives to improve the process performance where you need it most.

      Where do I find the data?

      Consult:

      • Service Manager
      • Service Desk Tools
      Image is the service desk tools.

      Step 1.2:Review service support best practices

      Image shows the steps in phase 1. Highlight is on step 1.2.

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      1. 1.2.1 Identify roles and responsibilities in your organization
      2. 1.2.2 Map out the current and target structure of the service desk

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Project Sponsor
      • IT Director, CIO
      • IT Managers and Service Desk Manager(s)
      • Representation from tier 2 and tier 3 specialists

      Outcomes

      Identifying who is accountable for different support practices in the service desk will allow workload to be distributed effectively between functional teams and individuals. Closing the gaps in responsibilities will enable the execution of a shift-left strategy.

      Deliverables

      • Roles & responsibilities guide
      • Service desk structure

      Everyone in IT contributes to the success of service support

      Regardless of the service desk structure chosen to meet an organization’s service support requirements, IT staff should not doubt the role they play in service support.

      If you try to standardize service desk processes without engaging specialists in other parts of the IT organization, you will fail. Everyone in IT has a role to play in providing service support and meeting service-level agreements.

      Service Support Engagement Plan

      • Identify who is accountable for different service support processes.
      • Outline the different responsibilities of service desk agents at tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3 in meeting service-level agreements for service support.
      • Draft operational-level agreements between specialty groups and the service desk to improve accountability.
      • Configure the service desk tool to ensure ticket visibility and ownership across queues.
      • Engage tier 2 and tier 3 resources in building workflows for incident management, request fulfilment, and writing knowledgebase articles.
      • Emphasize the benefits of cooperation across IT silos:
        • Better customer service and end-user satisfaction.
        • Shorter time to resolve incidents and implement requests.
        • A higher tier 1 resolution rate, more efficient escalations, and fewer interruptions from project work.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Specialists tend to distance themselves from service support as they progress through their career to focus on projects.

      However, their cooperation is critical to the success of the new service desk. Not only do they contribute to the knowledgebase, but they also handle escalations from tiers 1 and 2.

      Clear project complications by leveraging roles and responsibilities

      R

      Responsible: This person is the staff member who completes the work. Assign at least one Responsible for each task, but this could be more than one.

      A

      Accountable: This team member delegates a task and is the last person to review deliverables and/or task. Sometimes Responsible and Accountable can be the same staff. Make sure that you always assign only one Accountable for each task and not more.

      C

      Consulted: People who do not carry out the task but need to be consulted. Typically, these people are subject matter experts or stakeholders.

      I

      Informed: People who receive information about process execution and quality and need to stay informed regarding the task.

      A RACI analysis is helpful with the following:

      • Workload Balancing: Allowing responsibilities to be distributed effectively between functional teams and individuals.
      • Change Management: Ensuring key functions and processes are not overlooked during organizational changes.
      • Onboarding: New employees can identify their own roles and responsibilities.

      A RACI chart outlines which positions are Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed

      Image shows example of RACI chart

      Create a list of roles and responsibilities in your organization

      1.2.1 Create RACI matrix to define responsibilities

      1. Use the Service Desk Roles and Responsibilities Guidefor a better understanding of the roles and responsibilities of different service desk tiers.
      2. In the RACI chart, replace the top row with specific roles in your organization.
      3. Modify or expand the process tasks, as needed, in the left column.
      4. For each role, identify the responsibility values that the person brings to the service desk. Fill out each column.
      5. Document in the Service Desk SOP. Schedule a time to share the results with organization leads.
      6. Distribute the chart between all teams in your organization.

      Notes:

      • Assign one Accountable for each task.
      • Have at least one Responsible for each task.
      • Avoid generic responsibilities, such as “team meetings.”
      • Keep your RACI definitions in your documents, as they are sometimes tough to remember.

      Participants

      • CIO
      • IT Managers
      • Service Desk Manager
      • Service Desk Agents

      What You'll Need

      • Service Desk SOP
      • Roles and Responsibilities Guide
      • Flip Chart
      • Whiteboard

      Build a tiered generalist service desk to optimize costs

      A tiered generalist service desk with a first-tier resolution rate greater than 60% has the best operating cost and customer satisfaction of all competing service desk structural models.

      Image depicts a tiered generalist service desk example. It shows a flow from users to tier 1 and to tiers 2 and 3.

      The success of a tiered generalist model depends on standardized, defined processes

      Image lists the processes and benefits of a successful tiered generalist service desk.

      Define the structure of the service desk

      1.2.2 Map out the current and target structure of the service desk

      Estimated Time: 45 minutes

      Instructions:

      1. Using the model from the previous slides as a guide, discuss how closely it matches the current service desk structure.
      2. Map out a similar diagram of your existing service desk structure, intake channels, and escalation paths.
      3. Review the structure and discuss any changes that could be made to improve efficiency. Revise as needed.
      4. Document the outcome in the Service Desk Project Summary.

      Image depicts a tiered generalist service desk example. It shows a flow from users to tier 1 and to tiers 2 and 3.

      Participants

      • CIO
      • IT Managers
      • Service Desk Manager
      • Service Desk Agents

      Use a shift-left strategy to lower service support costs, reduce time to resolve, and improve end-user satisfaction

      Shift-left strategy:

      • Shift service support tasks from specialists to generalists.
      • Implement self-service.
      • Automate incident resolution.
      Image shows the incident and service request resolution in a graph. It includes metrics of cost per ticket, average time to resolve, and end-user satisfaction.

      Work through the implications of adopting a shift-left strategy

      Overview:

      Identify process gaps that you need to fill to support the shift-left strategy and discuss how you could adopt or improve the shift-left strategy, using the discussion questions below as a guide.

      Which process gaps do you need to fill to identify ticket trends?

      • What are your most common incidents and service requests?
      • Which tickets could be resolved at tier 1?
      • Which tickets could be resolved as self-service tickets?
      • Which tickets could be automated?

      Which processes do you most need to improve to support a shift-left strategy?

      • Which incident and request processes are well documented?
      • Do you have recurring tickets that could be automated?
      • What is the state of your knowledgebase maintenance process?
      • Which articles do you most need to support tier 1 resolution?
      • What is the state of your web portal? How could it be improved to support self-service?

      Document in the Project Summary

      Step 1.3: Identify service desk metrics and reports

      Image shows the steps in phase 1. Highlight is on step 1.3.

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • 1.3 Create a list of required reports to identify relevant metrics

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Project Sponsor
      • IT Managers and Service Desk Manager(s)
      • Representation from tier 2 and tier 3 specialists

      Outcomes

      Managers and analysts will have service desk metrics and reports that help set expectations and communicate service desk performance.

      Deliverables

      • A list of service desk performance metrics and reports

      Engage business unit leaders with data to appreciate needs

      Service desk reports are an opportunity to communicate the story of IT and collect stakeholder feedback. Interview business unit leaders and look for opportunities to improve IT services.

      Start with the following questions:

      • What are you hearing from your team about working with IT?
      • What are the issues that are contributing to productivity losses?
      • What are the workarounds your team does because something isn’t working?
      • Are you able to access the information you need?

      Work with business unit leaders to develop an action plan.

      Remember to communicate what you do to address stakeholder grievances.

      The service recovery paradox is a situation in which end users think more highly of IT after the organization has corrected a problem with their service compared to how they would regard the company if the service had not been faulty in the first place.

      The point is that addressing issues (and being seen to address issues) will significantly improve end-user satisfaction. Communicate that you’re listening and acting, and you should see satisfaction improve.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Presentation is everything:

      If you are presenting outside of IT, or using operational metrics to create strategic information, be prepared to:

      • Discuss trends.
      • Identify organizational and departmental impacts.
      • Assess IT costs and productivity.

      For example, “Number of incidents with ERP system has decreased by 5% after our last patch release. We are working on the next set of changes and expect the issues to continue to decrease.”

      Engage technicians to ensure they input quality data in the service desk tool

      You need better data to address problems. Communicate to the technical team what you need from them and how their efforts contribute to the usefulness of reports.

      Tickets MUST:

      • Be created for all incidents and service requests.
      • Be categorized correctly, and categories updated when the ticket is resolved.
      • Be closed after the incidents and service requests are resolved or implemented.

      Emphasize that reports are analyzed regularly and used to manage costs, improve services, and request more resources.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Service Desk Manager: Technical staff can help themselves analyze the backlog and improve service metrics if they’re looking at the right information. Ensure their service desk dashboards are helping them identify high-priority and quick-win tickets and anticipate potential SLA breaches.

      Produce service desk reports targeted to improve IT services

      Use metrics and reports to tell the story of IT.

      Metrics should be tied to business requirements and show how well IT is meeting those requirements and where obstacles exist.

      Tailor metrics and reports to specific stakeholders.

      Technicians require mostly real-time information in the form of a dashboard, providing visibility into a prioritized list of tickets for which they are responsible.

      Supervisors need tactical information to manage the team and set client expectations as well as track and meet strategic goals.

      Managers and executives need summary information that supports strategic goals. Start by looking at executive goals for the support team and then working through some of the more tactical data that will help support those goals.

      One metric doesn’t give you the whole picture

      • Don’t put too much emphasis on a single metric. At best, it will give you a distorted picture of your service desk performance. At worst, it will distort the behavior of your agents as they may adopt poor practices to meet the metric.
      • The solution is to use tension metrics: metrics that work together to give you a better sense of the state of operations.
      • Tension metrics ensure a balanced focus toward shared goals.

      Example:

      First-call resolution (FCR), end-user satisfaction, and number of tickets reopened all work together to give you a complete picture. As FCR goes up, so should end-user satisfaction, as number of tickets re-opened stays steady or declines. If the three metrics are heading in different directions, then you know you have a problem.

      Rely on internal metrics to measure and improve performance

      External metrics provide useful context, but they represent broad generalizations across different industries and organizations of different sizes. Internal metrics measured annually are more reliable.

      Internal metrics provide you with information about your actual performance. With the right continual improvement process, you can improve those metrics year over year, which is a better measure of the performance of your service desk.

      Whether a given metric is the right one for your service desk will depend on several different factors, not the least of which include:

      • The maturity of your service desk processes.
      • Your ticket volume.
      • The complexity of your tickets.
      • The degree to which your end users are comfortable with self-service.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Take external metrics with a grain of salt. Most benchmarks represent what service desks do across different industries, not what they should do. There also might be significant differences between different industries in terms of the kinds of tickets they deal with, differences which the overall average obscures.

      Use key service desk metrics to build a business case for service support improvements

      The right metrics can tell the business how hard IT works and how many resources it needs to perform:

      1. End-User Satisfactions:
        • The most important metric for measuring the perceived value of the service desk. Determine this based on a robust annual satisfaction survey of end users and transactional satisfaction surveys sent with a percentage of tickets.
      2. Ticket Volume and Cost per Ticket:
        • A key indicator of service desk efficiency, computed as the monthly operating expense divided by the average ticket volume per month.
      3. First-Contact Resolution Rate:
        • The biggest driver of end-user satisfaction. Depending on the kind of tickets you deal with, you can measure first-contact, first-tier, or first-day resolution.
      4. Average Time to Resolve (Incident) or Fulfill (Service Requests):
        • An assessment of the service desk's ability to resolve tickets effectively, measuring the time elapsed between the moment the ticket status is set to “open” and the moment it is set to “resolved.”

      Info-Tech Insight

      Metrics should be tied to business requirements. They tell the story of how well IT is meeting those requirements and help identify when obstacles get in the way. The latter can be done by pointing to discrepancies between the internal metrics you expected to reach but didn’t and external metrics you trust.

      Use service desk metrics to track progress toward strategic, operational, and tactical goals

      Image depicts a chart to show the various metrics in terms of strategic goals, tactical goals, and operational goals.

      Cost per ticket and customer satisfaction are the foundation metrics of service support

      Ultimately, everything boils down to cost containment (measured by cost per ticket) and quality of service (measured by customer satisfaction).

      Cost per ticket is a measure of the efficiency of service support:

      • A higher than average cost per ticket is not necessarily a bad thing, particularly if accompanied by higher-than-average quality levels.
      • Conversely, a low cost per ticket is not necessarily good, particularly if the low cost is achieved by sacrificing quality of service.

      Cost per ticket is the total monthly operating expense of the service desk divided by the monthly ticket volume. Operating expense includes the following components:

      • Salaries and benefits for desktop support technicians
      • Salaries and benefits for indirect personnel (team leads, supervisors, workforce schedulers, dispatchers, QA/QC personnel, trainers, and managers)
      • Technology expense (e.g. computers, software licensing fees)
      • Telecommunications expenses
      • Facilities expenses (e.g. office space, utilities, insurance)
      • Travel, training, and office supplies
      Image displays a pie chart that shows the various service desk costs.

      Create a list of required reports to identify metrics to track

      1.3.1 Start by identifying the reports you need, then identify the metrics that produce them

      1. Answer the following questions to determine the data your reports require:
        • What strategic initiatives do you need to track?
          • Example: reducing mean time to resolve, meeting SLAs
        • What operational areas need attention?
          • Example: recurring issues that need a permanent resolution
        • What kind of issues do you want to solve?
          • Example: automate tasks such as password reset or software distribution
        • What decisions or processes are held up due to lack of information?
          • Example: need to build a business case to justify infrastructure upgrades
        • How can the data be used to improve services to the business?
          • Example: recurring issues by department
      2. Document report and metrics requirements in Service Desk SOP.
      3. Provide the list to your tool administrator to create reports with auto-distribution.

      Participants

      • CIO
      • IT Managers
      • Service Desk Manager
      • Service Desk Agents

      What You'll Need

      • Service Desk SOP
      • Flip Chart
      • Whiteboard

      Step 1.4: Review ticket handling procedures

      Image shows the steps in phase 1. Highlight is on step 1.4.

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • 1.4.1 Review ticket handling practices
      • 1.4.2 Identify opportunities to automate ticket creation and reduce recurring tickets

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Project Sponsor
      • IT Managers and Service Desk Manager(s)
      • Representation from tier 2 and tier 3 specialists

      Outcomes

      Managers and analysts will have best practices for ticket handling and troubleshooting to support ITSM data quality and improve first-tier resolution.

      DELIVERABLES

      • List of ticket templates and recurring tickets
      • Ticket and Call QA Template and ticket handling best practices

      Start by reviewing the incident intake process to find opportunities for improvement

      If end users are avoiding your service desk, you may have an intake problem. Create alternative ways for users to seek help to manage the volume; keep in mind not every request is an emergency.

      Image shows the various intake channels and the recommendation.

      Identify opportunities for improvement in your ticket channels

      The two most efficient intake channels should be encouraged for the majority of tickets.

      • Build a self-service portal.
        • Do users know where to find the portal?
        • How many tickets are created through the portal?
        • Is the interface easy to use?
      • Deal efficiently with email.
        • How quickly are messages picked up?
        • Are they manually transferred to a ticket or does the service desk tool automatically create a ticket?

      The two most traditional and fastest methods to get help must deal with emergencies and escalation effectively.

      • Phone should be the fastest way to get help for emergencies.
        • Are enough agents answering calls?
        • Are voicemails picked up on time?
        • Are the automated call routing prompts clear and concise?
      • Are walk-ins permitted and formalized?
        • Do you always have someone at the desk?
        • Is your equipment secure?
        • Are walk-ins common because no one picks up the phone or is the traffic as you’d expect?

      Ensure technicians create tickets for all incidents and requests

      Why Collect Ticket Data?

      If many tickets are missing, help service support staff understand the need to collect the data. Reports will be inaccurate and meaningless if quality data isn’t entered into the ticketing system.

      Image shows example of ticket data

      Set ticket handling expectations to drive a consistent process

      Set expectations:

      • Create and update tickets, but not at the expense of good customer service. Agents can start the ticket but shouldn’t spend five minutes creating the ticket when they should be troubleshooting the problem.
      • Update the ticket when the issue is resolved or needs to be escalated. If agents are escalating, they should make sure all relevant information is passed along to the next technician.
      • Update user of ETA if issue cannot be resolved quickly.
      • Ticket templates for common incidents can lead to fast creation, data input, and categorizations. Templates can reduce the time it takes to create tickets from two minutes to 30 seconds.
      • Update categories to reflect the actual issue and resolution.
      • Reference or link to the knowledgebase article as the documented steps taken to resolve the incident.
      • Validate incident is resolved with client; automate this process with ticket closure after a certain time.
      • Close or resolve the ticket on time.

      Use the Ticket and Call Quality Assessment Tool to improve the quality of service desk data

      Build a process to check-in on ticket and call quality monthly

      Better data leads to better decisions. Use the Ticket and Call Quality Assessment Toolto check-in on the ticket and call quality monthly for each technician and improve service desk data quality.

      1. Fill tab 1 with technician’s name.
      2. Use either tab 2 (auto-scoring) or tab 3 (manual scoring) to score the agent. The assessment includes ticket evaluation, call evaluation, and overall metric.
      3. Record the results of each review in the score summary of tab 1.
      Image shows tool.

      Use ticket templates to make ticket creation, updating, and resolution more efficient

      A screenshot of the Ticket and Call Quality Assessment Tool

      Implement measures to improve ticket handling and identify ticket template candidates

      1.4.1 Identify opportunities to automate ticket creation

      1. Poll the team and discuss.
        • How many members of the team are not creating tickets? Why?
        • How can we address those barriers?
        • What are the expectations of management?
      2. Brainstorm five to ten good candidates for ticket templates.
        • What data can auto-fill?
        • What will help process the ticket faster?
        • What automations can we build to ensure a fast, consistent service?
        • Note:
          • Ticket template name
          • Information that will auto-fill from AD and other applications
          • Categories and resolution codes
          • Automated routing and email responses
      3. Document ticket template candidates in the Service Desk Roadmap to capture the actions.

      Participants

      • Service Desk Manager
      • Service Desk Agents

      What You'll Needs

      • Flip Chart
      • Whiteboard

      Phase 2

      Design Incident Management Processes

      Step 2.1: Build incident management workflows

      Image shows the steps in phase 2. Highlight is on step 2.1.

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • 2.1.1 Review incident management challenges
      • 2.1.2 Define the incident management workflow
      • 2.1.3 Define the critical incident management workflow
      • 2.1.4 Design critical incident communication plan

      This step involves the following participants:

      • IT Managers
      • Service Desk Manager(s)
      • Representation from tier 2 and tier 3 specialists

      Outcomes

      Workflows for incident management and critical incident management will improve the consistency and quality of service delivery and prepare the service desk to negotiate reliable service levels with the organization.

      DELIVERABLES

      • Incident management workflows
      • Critical incident management workflows
      • Critical incident communication plan

      Communicate the great incident resolution work that you do to improve end-user satisfaction

      End users think more highly of IT after the organization has corrected a problem with their service than they would have had the service not been faulty in the first place.

      Image displays a graph to show the service recovery paradox

      Info-Tech Insight

      Use the service recovery paradox to your advantage. Address service desk challenges explicitly, develop incident management processes that get services back online quickly, and communicate the changes.

      If you show that the service desk recovered well from the challenges end users raised, you will get greater loyalty from them.

      Assign incident roles and responsibilities to promote accountability

      The role of an incident coordinator or manager can be assigned to anyone inside the service desk that has a strong knowledge of incident resolution, attention to detail, and knows how to herd cats.

      In organizations with high ticket volumes, a separate role may be necessary.

      Everyone must recognize that incident management is a cross-IT organization process and it does not have to be a unique service desk process.

      An incident coordinator is responsible for:

      • Improving incident management processes.
      • Tracking metrics and producing reports.
      • Developing and maintaining the incident management system.
      • Developing and maintaining critical incident processes.
      • Ensuring the service support team follows the incident management process.
      • Gathering post-mortem information from the various technical resources on root cause for critical or severity 1 incidents.

      The Director of IT Services invested in incident management to improve responsiveness and set end-user expectations

      Practitioner Insight

      Ben Rodrigues developed a progressive plan to create a responsive, service-oriented culture for the service support organization.

      "When I joined the organization, there wasn’t a service desk. People just phoned, emailed, maybe left [sticky] notes for who they thought in IT would resolve it. There wasn’t a lot of investment in developing clear processes. It was ‘Let’s call somebody in IT.’

      I set up the service desk to clarify what we would do for end users and to establish some SLAs.

      I didn’t commit to service levels right away. I needed to see how many resources and what skill sets I would need. I started by drafting some SLA targets and plugging them into our tracking application. I then monitored how we did on certain things and established if we needed other skill sets. Then I communicated those SOPs to the business, so that ‘if you have an issue, this is where you go, and this is how you do it,’ and then shared those KPIs with them.

      I had monthly meetings with different function heads to say, ‘this is what I see your guys calling me about,’ and we worked on something together to make some of the pain disappear."

      -Ben Rodrigues

      Director, IT Services

      Gamma Dynacare

      Sketch out incident management challenges to focus improvements

      Common Incident Management Challenges

      End Users

      • No faith in the service desk beyond speaking with their favorite technician.
      • No expectations for response or resolution time.
      • Non-IT staff are disrupted as people ask their colleagues for IT advice.

      Technicians

      • No one manages and escalates incidents.
      • Incidents are unnecessarily urgent and more likely to have a greater impact.
      • Agents are flooded with requests to do routine tasks during desk visits.
      • Specialist support staff are subject to constant interruptions.
      • Tickets are lost, incomplete, or escalated incorrectly.
      • Incidents are resolved from scratch rather than referring to existing solutions.

      Managers

      • Tickets are incomplete or lack historical information to address complaints.
      • Tickets in system don’t match the perceived workload.
      • Unable to gather data for budgeting or business analysis.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Consistent incident management processes will improve end-user satisfaction with all other IT services.

      However, be prepared to overcome these common obstacles as you put the process in place, including:

      • Absence of management or staff commitment.
      • Lack of clarity on organizational needs.
      • Outdated work practices.
      • Poorly defined service desk goals and responsibilities.
      • Lack of a reliable knowledgebase.
      • Inadequate training.
      • Resistance to change.

      Prepare to implement or improve incident management

      2.1.1 Review incident management challenges and metrics

      1. Review your incident management challenges and the benefits of addressing them.
      2. Review the level of service you are providing with the current resources. Define clear goals and deliverables for the improvement initiative.
      3. Decide how the incident management process will interface with the service desk. Who will take on the responsibility for resolving incidents? Specifically, who will:
        • Log incidents.
        • Perform initial incident troubleshooting.
        • Own and monitor tickets.
        • Communicate with end users.
        • Update records with the resolution.
        • Close incidents.
        • Implement next steps (e.g. initiate problem management).
      4. Document recommendations and the incident management process requirements in the Service Desk SOP.

      Participants

      • Service Desk Manager
      • Service Desk Agents

      What You’ll Need

      • Service Desk SOP
      • Flip Chart
      • Whiteboard

      Distinguish between different kinds of tickets for better SLAs

      Different ticket types are associated with radically different prioritization, routing, and service levels. For instance, most incidents are resolved within a business day, but requests take longer to implement.

      If you fail to distinguish between ticket types, your metrics will obscure service desk performance.

      Common Service Desk Tickets

      • Incidents
        • An unanticipated interruption of a service.
          • The goal of incident management is to restore the service as soon as possible, even if the resolution involves a workaround.
      • Problems
        • The root cause of several incidents.
          • The goal of problem management is to detect the root cause and provide long-term resolution and prevention.
      • Requests
        • A generic description for small changes or service access
          • Requests are small, frequent, and low risk. They are best handled by a process distinct from incident, change, and project management.
      • Changes
        • Modification or removal of anything that could influence IT services.
          • The scope includes significant changes to architectures, processes, tools, metrics, and documentation.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Organizations sometimes mistakenly classify small projects as service requests, which can compromise your data, resulting in a negative impact to the perceived value of the service desk.

      Separate incidents and service requests for increased customer service and better-defined SLAs

      Defining the differences between service requests and incidents is not just for reporting purposes. It also has a major impact on how service is delivered.

      Incidents are unexpected disruptions to normal business processes and require attempts to restore services as soon as possible (e.g. the printer is not working).

      Service requests are tasks that don’t involve something that is broken or has an immediate impact on services. They do not require immediate resolution and can typically be scheduled (e.g. new software).

      Image shows a chart on incidents and service requests.

      Focus on the big picture first to capture and streamline how your organization resolves incidents

      Image displays a flow chart to show how to organize resolving incidents.

      Document your incident management workflow to identify opportunities for improvement

      Image shows a flow cart on how to organize incident management.

      Workflow should include:

      • Ticket creation and closure
      • Triage
      • Troubleshooting
      • Escalations
      • Communications
      • Change management
      • Documentation
      • Vendor escalations

      Notes:

      • Notification and alerts should be used to set or reset expectations on delivery or resolution
      • Identify all the steps where a customer is informed and ensure we are not over or under communicating

      Collaborate to define each step of the incident management workflow

      2.1.2 Define the incident management workflow

      Estimated Time: 60 minutes

      Option 1: Whiteboard

      1. Discuss the workflow and draw it on the whiteboard.
      2. Assess whether you are using the best workflow. Modify it if necessary.
      3. Engage the team in refining the process workflow.
      4. Transfer data to Visio and add to the SOP.

      Option 2: Tabletop Exercise

      1. Distribute index cards to each member of the team.
      2. Have each person write a single task they perform on the index card. Be granular. Include the title or the name of the person responsible.
      3. Mark cards that are decision points. Use a card of a different color or use a marker to make a colored dot.
      4. Arrange the index cards in order, removing duplicates.
      5. Assess whether you are using the best workflow. Engage the team to refine it if necessary.
      6. Transfer data to Visio and add to the Service Desk SOP.

      Participants

      • Service Manager
      • Service Desk Support
      • Applications or Infrastructure Support

      What You’ll Need

      • Flip Chart Paper
      • Sticky Notes
      • Pens
      • Service Desk SOP
      • Project Summary

      Formalize the process for critical incident management to reduce organizational impact

      Discuss these elements to see how the organization will handle them.

      • Communication plan:
        • Who communicates with end users?
        • Who communicates with the executive team?
      • It’s important to separate the role of the technician trying to solve a problem with the need to communicate progress.
      • Change management:
      • Define a separate process for regular and emergency change management to ensure changes are timely and appropriate.
      • Business continuity plan:
      • Identify criteria to decide when a business continuity plan (BCP) must be implemented during a critical incident to minimize the business impact of the incident.
      • Post-mortems:
      • Formalize the process of discussing and documenting lessons learned, understanding outstanding issues, and addressing the root cause of incidents.
      • Source of incident notification:
      • Does the process change if users notify the service desk of an issue or if the systems management tools alert technicians?

      Critical incidents are high-impact, high-urgency events that put the effectiveness and timeliness of the service desk center stage.

      Build a workflow that focuses on quickly bringing together the right people to resolve the incident and reduces the chances of recurrence.

      Document your critical incident management workflow to identify opportunities for improvement

      Image shows a flow cart on how to organize critical incident management.

      Workflow should include:

      • Ticket creation and closure
      • Triage
      • Troubleshooting
      • Escalations
      • Communications plan
      • Change management
      • Disaster recovery or business continuity plan
      • Documentation
      • Vendor escalations
      • Post-mortem

      Collaborate to define each step of the critical incident management workflow

      2.1.3 Define the critical incident management workflow

      Estimated Time: 60 minutes

      Option 1: Whiteboard

      1. Discuss the workflow and draw it on the whiteboard.
      2. Assess whether you are using the best workflow. Modify it if necessary.
      3. Engage the team in refining the process workflow.
      4. Transfer data to Visio and add to the SOP.

      Option 2: Tabletop Exercise

      1. Distribute index cards to each member of the team.
      2. Have each person write a single task they perform on the index card. Be granular. Include the title or the name of the person responsible.
      3. Mark cards that are decision points. Use a card of a different color or use a marker to make a colored dot.
      4. Arrange the index cards in order, removing duplicates.
      5. Assess whether you are using the best workflow. Engage the team to refine it if necessary.
      6. Transfer data to Visio and add to the Service Desk SOP.

      Participants

      • Service Manager
      • Service Desk Support
      • Applications or Infrastructure Support

      What You’ll Need

      • Flip Chart Paper
      • Sticky Notes
      • Pens
      • Service Desk SOP

      Establish a critical incident management communication plan

      When it comes to communicating during major incidents, it’s important to get the information just right. Users don’t want too little, they don’t want too much, they just want what’s relevant to them, and they want that information at the right time.

      As an IT professional, you may not have a background in communications, but it becomes an important part of your job. Broad guidelines for good communication during a critical incident are:

      1. Communicate as broadly as the impact of your incident requires.
      2. Communicate as much detail as a specific audience requires, but no more than necessary.
      3. Communicate as far ahead of impact as possible.

      Why does communication matter?

      Sending the wrong message, at the wrong time, to the wrong stakeholders, can result in:

      • Drop in customer satisfaction.
      • Wasted time and resources from multiple customers contacting you with the same issue.
      • Dissatisfied executives kept in the dark.
      • Increased resolution time if the relevant providers and IT staff are not informed soon enough to help.

      Info-Tech Insight

      End users understand that sometimes things break. What’s important to them is that (1) you don’t repeatedly have the same problem, (2) you keep them informed, and (3) you give them enough notice when their systems will be impacted and when service will be returned.

      Automate communication to save time and deliver consistent messaging to the right stakeholders

      In the middle of resolving a critical incident, the last thing you have time for is worrying about crafting a good message. Create a series of templates to save time by providing automated, tailored messages for each stage of the process that can be quickly altered and sent out to the right stakeholders.

      Once templates are in place, when the incident occurs, it’s simply a matter of:

      1. Choosing the relevant template.
      2. Updating recipients and messaging if necessary.
      3. Adding specific, relevant data and fields.
      4. Sending the message.

      When to communicate?

      Tell users the information they need to know when they need to know it. If a user is directly impacted, tell them that. If the incident does not directly affect the user, the communication may lead to decreased customer satisfaction or failure to pay attention to future relevant messaging.

      What to say?

      • Keep messaging short and to the point.
      • Only say what you know for sure.
      • Provide only the details the audience needs to know to take any necessary action or steps on their side and no more. There’s no need to provide details on the reason for the failure before it’s resolved, though this can be done after resolution and restoration of service.

      You’ll need distinct messages for distinct audiences. For example:

      • To incident resolvers: “Servers X through Y in ABC Location are failing intermittently. Please test the servers and all the connections to determine the exact cause so we can take corrective action ASAP.”
      • To the IT department head: “Servers X through Y in ABC Location are failing intermittently. We are beginning tests. We will let you know when we have determined the exact cause and can give you an estimated completion time.”
      • To executives: “We’re having an issue with some servers at ABC Location. We are testing to determine the cause and will let you know the estimated completion time as soon as possible.”
      • To end users: “We are experience some service issues. We are working on a resolution diligently and will restore service as soon as possible.”

      Map out who will need to be contacted in the event of a critical incident

      2.1.4 Design the critical incident communication plan

      • Identify critical incidents that require communication.
      • Identify stakeholders who will need to be informed about each incident.
      • For each audience, determine:
        1. Frequency of communication
        2. Content of communication
      Use the sample template to the right as an example.

      Some questions to assist you:

      • Whose work will be interrupted, either by their services going down or by their workers having to drop everything to solve the incident?
      • What would happen if we didn’t notify this person?
      • What level of detail do they need?
      • How often would they want to be updated?
      Document outcomes in the Service Desk SOP. Image shows template of unplanned service outage.

      Measure and improve customer satisfaction with the use of relationship and transactional surveys

      Customer experience programs with a combination of relationship and transactional surveys tend to be more effective. Merging the two will give a wholistic picture of the customer experience.

      Relationship Surveys

      Relationship surveys focus on obtaining feedback on the overall customer experience.

      • Inform how well you are doing or where you need improvement in the broad services provided.
      • Provide a high-level perspective on the relationship between the business and IT.
      • Help with strategic improvement decisions.
      • Should be sent over a duration of time and to the entire customer base after they’ve had time to experience all the services provided by the service desk. This can be done as frequently as per quarter or on a yearly basis.
      • E.g. An annual satisfaction survey such as Info-Tech’s End User Satisfaction Diagnostic.

      Transactional Surveys

      Transactional surveys are tied to a specific interaction or transaction your end users have with a specific product or service.

      • Help with tactical improvement decisions.
      • Questions should point to a specific interaction.
      • Usually only a few questions that are quick and easy to complete following the transaction.
      • Since transactional surveys allow you to improve individual relationships, they should be sent shortly after the interaction with the service desk has occurred.
      • E.g. How satisfied are you with the way your ticket was resolved?

      Add transactional end-user surveys at ticket close to escalate unsatisfactory results

      A simple quantitative survey at the closing of a ticket can inform the service desk manager of any issues that were not resolved to the end user’s satisfaction. Take advantage of workflows to escalate poor results immediately for quick follow-up.

      Image shows example of survey question with rating.

      If a more complex survey is required, you may wish to include some of these questions:

      Please rate your overall satisfaction with the way your issue was handled (1=unsatisfactory, 5=fantastic)

      • The professionalism of the analyst.
      • The technical skills or knowledge of the analyst.
      • The timeliness of the service provided.
      • The overall service experience.

      Add an open-ended, qualitative question to put the number in context, and solicit critical feedback:

      What could the service desk have done to improve your experience?

      Define a process to respond to both negative and positive feedback

      Successful customer satisfaction programs respond effectively to both positive and negative outcomes. Late or lack of responses to negative comments may increase customer frustration, while not responding at all to the positive comments may give the perception of indifference. If customers are taking the time to fill out the survey, good or bad, they should be followed up with

      Take these steps to handle survey feedback:

      1. Assign resources to receive, read, and track responses. The entire team doesn’t need to receive every response, while a single resource may not have capacity to respond in a timely manner. Decide what makes the most sense in your environment.
      2. Respond to negative feedback: It may not be possible to respond to every customer that fills out a survey. Set guidelines for responding to negative surveys with no details on the issue; don’t spend time guessing why they were upset, simply ask the user why they were unsatisfied. The critical piece of taking advantage of the service recovery paradox is in the follow-up to the customer.
      3. Investigate and improve: Make sure you investigate the issue to ensure that it is a justified complaint or whether the issue is a symptom of another issue’s root cause. Identify remediation steps to ensure the issue does not repeat itself, and then communicate to the customer the action you have taken to improve.
      4. Act on positive feedback as well: If it’s easy for customers to provide feedback, then make room in your process for handling the positive results. Appreciate the time and effort your customers take to give kudos and use it as a tool to build a long-term relationship with that user. Saying thank you goes a long way and when customers know their time matters, they will be encouraged to fill out those surveys. This is also a good way to show what a great job the service desk team did with the interaction.

      Analyze survey feedback month over month to complement and justify metric results already in place

      When you combine the tracking and analysis of relationship and transactional survey data you will be able to dive into specific issues, identify trends and patterns, assess impact to users, and build a plan to make improvements.

      Once the survey data is centralized, categorized, and available you can start to focus on metrics. At a minimum, for transactional surveys, consider tracking:

      • Breakdown of satisfaction scores with trends over time
      • Unsatisfactory surveys that are related to incidents and service requests
      • Total surveys that have been actioned vs pending

      For relationship surveys, consider tracking:

      • Satisfaction scores by department and seniority level
      • Satisfaction with IT services, applications, and communication
      • Satisfaction with IT’s business enablement

      Scores of overall satisfaction with IT

      Image Source: Info-Tech End User Satisfaction Report

      Prioritize company-wide improvement initiatives by those that have the biggest impact to the entire customer base first and then communicate the plan to the organization using a variety of communication channels that will draw your customers in, e.g. dashboards, newsletters, email alerts.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Consider automating or using your ITSM notification system as a direct communication method to inform the service desk manager of negative survey results.

      Step 2.2: Design ticket categorization

      Image shows the steps in phase 2. Highlight is on step 2.2

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • 2.2.1 Assess ticket categorization
      • 2.2.2 Enhance ticket categories with resolution and status codes

      This step involves the following participants:

      • IT Managers
      • Service Desk Manager(s)
      • Representation from tier 2 and tier 3 specialists

      Outcomes

      The reviewed ticket categorization scheme will be easier to use and deploy more consistently, which will improve the categorization of data and the reliability of reports.

      DELIVERABLES

      • Optimized ticket categorization

      Design a ticket classification scheme to produce useful reports

      Reliable reports depend on an effective categorization scheme.

      Too many options cause confusion; too few options provide little value. As you build the classification scheme over the next few slides, let call routing and reporting requirements be your guide.

      Effective classification schemes are concise, easy to use correctly, and easy to maintain.

      Image shows example of a ticket classification scheme.

      Keep these guidelines in mind:

      • A good categorization scheme is exhaustive and mutually exclusive: there’s a place for every ticket and every ticket fits in only one place.
      • As you build your classification scheme, ensure the categories describe the actual asset or service involved based on final resolution, not how it was reported initially.
      • Pre-populate ticket templates with relevant categories to dramatically improve reporting and routing accuracy.
      • Use a tiered system to make the categories easier to navigate. Three tiers with 6-8 categories per tier provides up to 512 sub-categories, which should be enough for the most ambitious team.
      • Track only what you will use for reporting purposes. If you don’t need a report on individual kinds of laptops, don’t create a category beyond “laptops.”
      • Avoid “miscellaneous” categories. A large portion of your tickets will eventually end up there.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Don’t do it alone! Collaborate with managers in the specialized IT groups responsible for root-cause analysis to develop a categorization scheme that makes sense for them.

      The first approach to categorization breaks down the IT portfolio into asset types

      WHY SHOULD I START WITH ASSETS?

      Start with asset types if asset management and configuration management processes figure prominently in your practice or on your service management implementation roadmap.

      Image displays example of asset types and how to categorize them.

      Building the Categories

      Ask these questions:

      • Type: What kind of asset am I working on?
      • Category: What general asset group am I working on?
      • Subcategory: What particular asset am I working on?

      Need to make quick progress? Use Info-Tech Research Group’s Service Desk Ticket Categorization Schemes template.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Think about how you will use the data to determine which components need to be included in reports. If components won’t be used for reporting, routing, or warranty, reporting down to the component level adds little value.

      The second approach to categorization breaks down the IT portfolio into types of services

      WHY SHOULD I START WITH SERVICES?

      Start with asset services if service management generally figures prominently in your practice, especially service catalog management.

      Image displays example of service types and how to categorize them.

      Building the Categories

      Ask these questions:

      • Type: What kind of service am I working on?
      • Category: What general service group am I working on?
      • Subcategory: What particular service am I working on?

      Need to make quick progress? Use Info-Tech Research Group’s Service Desk Ticket Categorization Schemes template.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Remember, ticket categories are not your only source of reports. Enhance the classification scheme with resolution and status codes for more granular reporting.

      Improve the categorization scheme to enhance routing and reporting

      2.2.1 Assess whether the service desk can improve its ticket categorization

      1. As a group, review existing categories, looking for duplicates and designations that won’t affect ticket routing. Reconcile duplicates and remove non-essential categories.
      2. As a group, re-do the categories, ensuring that the new categorization scheme will meet the reporting requirements outlined earlier.
        • Are categories exhaustive and mutually exclusive?
        • Is the tier simple and easy to use (i.e. 3 tiers x 8 categories)?
      3. Test against recent tickets to ensure you have the right categories.
      4. Record the ticket categorization scheme in the Service Desk Ticket Categorization Schemes template.

      A screenshot of the Service Desk Ticket Categorization Schemes template.

      Participants

      • Service Desk Manager
      • Service Desk Agents

      What You’ll Need

      • Flip Chart
      • Whiteboard
      • Service Desk Ticket Categorization Scheme

      Enhance the classification scheme with resolution and status codes for more granular reporting

      Resolution codes differ from detailed resolution notes.

      • A resolution code is a field within the ticketing system that should be updated at ticket close to categorize the primary way the ticket was resolved.
      • This is important for reporting purposes as it adds another level to the categorization scheme and can help you identify knowledgebase article candidates, training needs, or problems.

      Ticket statuses are a helpful field for both IT and end users to identify the current status of the ticket and to initiate workflows.

      • The most common statuses are open, pending/in progress, resolved, and closed (note the difference between resolved and closed).
      • Waiting on user or waiting on vendor are also helpful statuses to stop the clock when awaiting further information or input.

      Common Examples:

      Resolution Codes

      • How to/training
      • Configuration change
      • Upgrade
      • Installation
      • Data import/export/change
      • Information/research
      • Reboot

      Status Fields

      • Declined
      • Open
      • Closed
      • Waiting on user
      • Waiting on vendor
      • Reopened by user

      Identify and document resolution and status codes

      2.2.2 Enhance ticket categories with resolution codes

      Discuss:

      • How can we use resolution information to enhance reporting?
      • Are current status fields telling the right story?
      • Are there other requirements like project linking?

      Draft:

      1. Write out proposed resolution codes and status fields and critically assess their value.
      2. Resolutions can be further broken down by incident and service request if desired.
      3. Test resolution codes against a few recent tickets.
      4. Record the ticket categorization scheme in the Service Desk SOP.

      Participants

      • CIO
      • Service Desk Manager
      • Service Desk Technician(s)

      What You’ll Need

      • Whiteboard or Flip Chart
      • Markers

      Step 2.3: Design incident escalation and prioritization

      Image shows the steps in phase 2. Highlight is on step 2.3.

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • 2.3.1 Build a small number of rules to facilitate prioritization
      • 2.3.2 Define escalation rules
      • 2.3.3 Define automated escalations
      • 2.3.4 Provide guidance to each tier around escalation steps and times

      This step involves the following participants:

      • IT Managers
      • Service Desk Manager(s)
      • Representation from tier 2 and tier 3 specialists

      Outcomes

      The reviewed ticket escalation and prioritization will streamline queue management, improve the quality of escalations, and ensure agents work on the right tickets at the right time.

      DELIVERABLES

      • Optimized ticket prioritization scheme
      • Guidelines for ticket escalations
      • List of automatic escalations

      Build a ticket prioritization matrix to make escalation assessment less subjective

      Most IT leaders agree that prioritization is one of the most difficult aspects of IT in general. Set priorities based on business needs first.

      Mission-critical systems or problems that affect many people should always come first (i.e. Severity Level 1).

      The bulk of reported problems, however, are often individual problems with desktop PCs (i.e. Severity Level 3 or 4).

      Some questions to consider when deciding on problem severity include:

      • How is productivity affected?
      • How many users are affected?
      • How many systems are affected?
      • How critical are the affected systems to the organization?

      Decide how many severity levels the organization needs the service desk to have. Four levels of severity are ideal for most organizations.

      Image shows example ticket prioritization matrix

      Collect the ticket prioritization scheme in one diagram to ensure service support aligns to business requirements

      Image shows example ticket prioritization matrix

      Prioritize incidents based on severity and urgency to foreground critical issues

      2.3.1 Build a clearly defined priority scheme

      Estimated Time: 60 minutes

      1. Decide how many levels of severity are appropriate for your organization.
      2. Build a prioritization matrix, breaking down priority levels by impact and urgency.
      3. Build out the definitions of impact and urgency to complete the prioritization matrix.
      4. Run through examples of each priority level to make sure everyone is on the same page.

      Image shows example ticket prioritization matrix

      Document in the SOP

      Participants

      • Service Managers
      • Service Desk Support
      • Applications or Infrastructure Support

      What You'll Need

      • Flip Chart Paper
      • Sticky Notes
      • Pens
      • Service Desk SOP

      Example of outcome from 2.3.1

      Define response and resolution targets for each priority level to establish service-level objectives for service support

      Image shows example of response and resolution targets.

      Build clear rules to help agents determine when to escalate

      2.3.2 Assign response, resolution, and escalation times to each priority level

      Estimated Time: 60 minutes

      Instructions:

      For each incident priority level, define the associated:

      1. Response time – time from when incident record is created to the time the service desk acknowledges to the customer that their ticket has been received and assigned.
      2. Resolution time – time from when the incident record is created to the time that the customer has been advised that their problem has been resolved.
      3. Escalation time – maximum amount of time that a ticket should be worked on without progress before being escalated to someone else.

      Participants

      • Service Managers
      • Service Desk Support
      • Applications or Infrastructure Support

      What You'll Need

      • Flip Chart Paper
      • Sticky Notes
      • Pens

      Image shows example of response and resolution targets

      Use the table on the previous slide as a guide.

      Discuss the possible root causes for escalation issues

      WHY IS ESCALATION IMPORTANT?

      Escalation is not about admitting defeat, but about using your resources properly.

      Defining procedures for escalation reduces the amount of time the service desk spends troubleshooting before allocating the incident to a higher service tier. This reduces the mean time to resolve and increases end-user satisfaction.

      You can correlate escalation paths to ticket categories devised in step 2.2.

      Image shows example on potential root causes for escalation issues.

      Build decision rights to help agents determine when to escalate

      2.3.3 Provide guidance to each tier around escalation steps and times

      Estimated Time: 60 minutes

      Instructions

      1. For each support tier, define escalation rules for troubleshooting (steps that each tier should take before escalation).
      2. For each support tier, define maximum escalation times (maximum amount of time to work on a ticket without progress before escalating).
      Example of outcome from step 2.3.3 to determine when to escalate issues.

      Create a list of application specialists to get the escalation right the first time

      2.3.4 Define automated escalations

      Estimated Time: 60 minutes

      1. Identify applications that will require specialists for troubleshooting or access rights.
      2. Identify primary and secondary specialists for each application.
      3. Identify vendors that will receive escalations either immediately or after troubleshooting.
      4. Set up application groups in the service desk tool.
      5. Set up workflows in the service desk tool where appropriate.
      6. Document the automated escalations in the categorization scheme developed in step 2.2 and in the Service Desk Roles and Responsibilities Guide.

      A screenshot of the Service Desk Roles and Responsibilities Guide

      Participants

      • Service Managers
      • Service Desk Support
      • Applications or Infrastructure Support

      What You'll Need

      • Flip Chart Paper
      • Sticky Notes
      • Pens

      Phase 3

      Design Request Fulfilment Processes

      Step 3.1: Build request workflows

      Image shows the steps in phase 3. Highlight is on step 3.1.

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • 3.1.1 Distinguish between requests and small projects
      • 3.1.2 Define service requests with SLAs
      • 3.1.3 Build and critique request workflows

      This step involves the following participants:

      • IT Managers
      • Service Desk Manager(s)
      • Representation from tier 2 and tier 3 specialists

      Outcomes

      Workflows for service requests will improve the consistency and quality of service delivery and prepare the service desk to negotiate reliable service levels with the organization.

      DELIVERABLES

      • Workflows for the most common service requests
      • An estimated service level for each service request
      • Request vs. project criteria

      Standardize service requests for more efficient delivery

      Definitions:

      • An incident is an unexpected disruption to normal business processes and requires attempts to restore service as soon as possible (e.g. printer not working).
      • A service request is a request where nothing is broken or impacting a service and typically can be scheduled rather than requiring immediate resolution (e.g. new software application).
      • Service requests are repeatable, predictable, and easier to commit to SLAs.
      • By committing to SLAs, expectations can be set for users and business units for service fulfillment.
      • Workflows for service requests should be documented and reviewed to ensure consistency of fulfillment.
      • Documentation should be created for service request procedures that are complex.
      • Efficiencies can be created through automation such as with software deployment.
      • All service requests can be communicated through a self-service portal or service catalog.

      PREPARE A FUTURE SERVICE CATALOG

      Standardize requests to develop a consistent offering and prepare for a future service catalog.

      Document service requests to identify time to fulfill and approvals.

      Identify which service requests can be auto-approved and which will require a workflow to gain approval.

      Document workflows and analyze them to identify ways to improve SLAs. If any approvals are interrupting technical processes, rearrange them so that approvals happen before the technical team is involved.

      Determine support levels for each service offering and ensure your team can sustain them.

      Where it makes sense, automate delivery of services such as software deployment.

      Distinguish between service requests and small projects to ensure agents and end users follow the right process

      The distinction between service requests and small projects has two use cases, which are two sides of the same resourcing issue.

      • Service desk managers need to understand the difference to ensure the right approval process is followed. Typically, projects have more stringent intake requirements than requests do.
      • PMOs need to understand the difference to ensure the right people are doing the work and that small, frequent changes are standardized, automated, and taken out of the project list.

      What’s the difference between a service request and a small project?

      • The key differences involve resource scope, frequency, and risk.
      • Requests are likely to require fewer resources than projects, be fulfilled more often, and involve less risk.
      • Requests are typically done by tier 1 and 2 employees throughout the IT organization.
      • A request can turn into a small project if the scope of the request grows beyond the bounds of a normal request.

      Example: A mid-sized organization goes on a hiring blitz and needs to onboard 150 new employees in one quarter. Submitting and scheduling 150 requests for onboarding new employees would require much more time and resources.

      Projects are different from service requests and have different criteria

      A project, by terminology, is a temporary endeavor planned around producing a specific organizational or business outcome.

      Common Characteristics of Projects:

      • Time sensitive, temporary, one-off.
      • Uncertainty around how to create the unique thing, product, or service that is the project’s goal.
      • Non-repetitive work and sizeable enough to introduce heightened risk and complexity.
      • Strategic focus, business case-informed capital funding, and execution activities driven by a charter.
      • Introduces change to the organization.
      • Multiple stakeholders involved and cross-functional resourcing.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Projects require greater risk, effort, and resources than a service request and should be redirected to the PMO.

      Standard service requests vs. non-standard service requests: criteria to make them distinct

      • If there is no differentiation between standard and non-standard requests, those tickets can easily move into the backlog, growing it very quickly.
      • Create a process to easily identify non-standard requests when they enter the ticket queue to ensure customers are made aware of any delay of service, especially if it is a product or service currently not offered. This will give time for any approvals or technical solutioning that may need to occur.
      • Take recurring non-standard requests and make them standard. This is a good way to determine if there are any gaps in services offered and another vehicle to understand what your customers want.

      Standard Requests

      • Very common requests, delivered on an on-going basis
      • Defined process
      • Measured in hours or days
      • Uses service catalog, if it exists
      • Formalized and should already be documented
      • The time to deal with the request is defined

      Non-Standard Requests

      • Higher level complexity than standard requests
      • Cannot be fulfilled via service catalog
      • No defined process
      • Not supplied by questions that Service Request Definition (SRD) offers
      • Product or service is not currently offered, and it may need time for technical review, additional approvals, and procurement processes

      The right questions can help you distinguish between standard requests, non-standard requests, and projects

      Where do we draw the line between a standard and non-standard request and a project?

      The service desk can’t and shouldn’t distinguish between requests and projects on its own. Instead, engage stakeholders to determine where to draw the line.

      Whatever criteria you choose, define them carefully.

      Be pragmatic: there is no single best set of criteria and no single best definition for each criterion. The best criteria and definitions will be the ones that work in your organizational context.

      Common distinguishing factors and thresholds:

      Image shows table of the common distinguishing factors and thresholds.

      Distinguish between standard and non-standard service requests and projects

      3.1.1 Distinguish between service requests and projects

      1. Divide the group into two small teams.
      2. Each team will brainstorm examples of service requests and small projects.
      3. Identify factors and thresholds that distinguish between the two groups of items.
      4. Bring the two groups together and discuss the two sets of criteria.
      5. Consolidate one set of criteria that will help make the distinction between projects and service requests.
      6. Capture the table in the Service Desk SOP.

      Image shows blank template of the common distinguishing factors and thresholds.

      Participants

      • Service Desk Manager
      • Service Desk Agents

      What You'll Need

      • Service Desk SOP
      • Flip Chart
      • Whiteboard

      Distinguishing factors and thresholds

      Don’t standardize request fulfilment processes alone

      Everyone in IT contributes to the fulfilment of requests, but do they know it?

      New service desk managers sometimes try to standardize request fulfilment processes on their own only to encounter either apathy or significant resistance to change.

      Moving to a tiered generalist service desk with a service-oriented culture, a high first-tier generalist resolution rate, and collaborative T2 and T3 specialists can be a big change. It is critical to get the request workflows right.

      Don’t go it alone. Engage a core team of process champions from all service support. With executive support, the right process building exercises can help you overcome resistance to change.

      Consider running the process building activities in this project phase in a working session or a workshop setting.

      Info-Tech Insight

      If they build it, they will come. Service desk improvement is an exercise in organizational change that crosses IT disciplines. Organizations that fail to engage IT specialists from other silos often encounter resistance to change that jeopardizes the process improvements they are trying to make. Overcome resistance by highlighting how process changes will benefit different groups in IT and solicit the feedback of specialists who can affect or be affected by the changes.

      Define standard service requests with SLAs and workflows

      WHY DO I NEED WORKFLOWS?

      Move approvals out of technical IT processes to make them more efficient. Evaluate all service requests to see where auto-approvals make sense. Where approvals are required, use tools and workflows to manage the process.

      Example:

      Image is an example of SLAs and workflows.

      Approvals can be the main roadblock to fulfilling service requests

      Image is example of workflow approvals.

      Review the general standard service request and inquiry fulfillment processes

      As standard service requests should follow standard, repeatable, and predictable steps to fulfill, they can be documented with workflows.

      Image is a flow chart of service and inquiry request processes.

      Review the general standard service request and inquiry fulfillment processes

      Ensure there is a standard and predictable methodology for assessing non-standard requests; inevitably those requests may still cause delay in fulfillment.

      Create a process to ensure reasonable expectations of delivery can be set with the end user and then identify what technology requests should become part of the existing standard offerings.

      Image is a flowchart of non-standard request processes

      Document service requests to ensure consistent delivery and communicate requirements to users

      3.1.2 Define service requests with SLAs

      1. On a flip chart, list standard service requests.
      2. Identify time required to fulfill, including time to schedule resources.
      3. Identify approvals required; determine if approvals can be automated through defining roles.
      4. Discuss opportunities to reduce SLAs or automate, but recognize that this may not happen right away.
      5. Discuss plans to communicate SLAs to the business units, recognizing that some users may take a bit of time to adapt to the new SLAs.
      6. Work toward improving SLAs as new opportunities for process change occur.
      7. Document SLAs in the Service Desk SOP and update as SLAs change.
      8. Build templates in the service desk tool that encapsulate workflows and routing, SLAs, categorization, and resolution.

      Participants

      • Service Desk Managers
      • Service Desk Agents

      What You'll Need

      • Service Desk SOP
      • Flip Chart
      • Whiteboard

      Info-Tech Insight

      These should all be scheduled services. Anything that is requested as a rush needs to be marked as a higher urgency or priority to track end users who need training on the process.

      Analyze service request workflows to improve service delivery

      3.1.3 Build and critique request workflows

      1. Divide the group into small teams.
      2. Each team will choose one service request from the list created in the previous module and then draw the workflow. Include decision points and approvals.
      3. Discuss availability and technical support:
        • Can the service be fulfilled during regular business hours or 24x7?
        • Is technical support and application access available during regular business hours or 24x7?
      4. Reconvene and present workflows to the group.
      5. Document workflows in Visio and add to the Service Desk SOP. Where appropriate, enter workflows in the service desk tool.

      Critique workflows for efficiencies and effectiveness:

      • Do the workflows support the SLAs identified in the previous exercise?
      • Are the workflows efficient?
      • Is the IT staff consistently following the same workflow?
      • Are approvals appropriate? Is there too much bureaucracy or can some approvals be removed? Can they be preapproved?
      • Are approvals interrupting technical processes? If so, can they be moved?

      Participants

      • Service Desk Managers
      • Service Desk Agents

      What You'll Need

      • Service Desk SOP
      • Project Summary
      • Flip Chart
      • Whiteboard

      Step 3.2: Build a targeted knowledgebase

      Image shows the steps in phase 3. Highlight is on step 3.2.

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • 3.2.1 Design knowledge management processes
      • 3.2.2 Create actionable knowledgebase articles

      This step involves the following participants:

      • IT Managers
      • Service Desk Manager(s)
      • Representation from tier 2 and tier 3 specialists

      Outcomes

      The section will introduce service catalogs and get the organization to envision what self-service tools it might include.

      DELIVERABLES

      • Knowledgebase policy and process

      A knowledgebase is an essential tool in the service management toolbox

      Knowledge Management

      Gathering, analyzing, storing & sharing knowledge to reduce the need to rediscover known solutions.

      Knowledgebase

      Organized repository of IT best practices and knowledge gained from practical experiences.

      • End-User KB
      • Give end users a chance to resolve simple issues themselves without submitting a ticket.

      • Internal KB
      • Shared resource for service desk staff and managers to share and use knowledge.

      Use the knowledgebase to document:

      • Steps for pre-escalation troubleshooting.
      • Known errors.
      • Workarounds or solutions to recurring issues.
      • Solutions that require research or complex troubleshooting.
      • Incidents that have many root causes. Start with the most frequent solution and work toward less likely issues.

      Draw on organizational goals to define the knowledge transfer target state

      Image is Info-Tech’s Knowledge Transfer Maturity Model
      *Source: McLean & Company, 2013; N=120

      It’s better to start small than to have nothing at all

      Service desk teams are often overwhelmed by the idea of building and maintaining a comprehensive integrated knowledgebase that covers an extensive amount of information.

      Don’t let this idea stop you from building a knowledgebase! It takes time to build a comprehensive knowledgebase and you must start somewhere.

      Start with existing documentation or knowledge that depends on the expertise of only a few people and is easy to document and you will already see the benefits.

      Then continue to build and improve from there. Eventually, knowledge management will be a part of the culture.

      Engage the team to build a knowledgebase targeted on your most important incidents and requests

      WHERE DO I START?

      Inventory and consolidate existing documentation, then evaluate it for audience relevancy, accuracy, and usability. Use the exercise and the next slides to develop a knowledgebase template.

      Produce a plan to improve the knowledgebase.

      • Identify the current top five or ten incidents from the service desk reports and create related knowledgebase articles.
      • Evaluate for end-user self-service or technician resolution.
      • Note any resolutions that require access rights to servers.
      • Assign documentation creation tasks for the knowledgebase to individual team members each week.
      • Apply only one incident per article.
      • Set goals for each technician to submit one or two meaningful articles per month.
      • Assign a knowledge manager to monitor creation and edit and maintain the database.
      • Set policy to drive currency of the knowledgebase. See the Service Desk SOP for an example of a workable knowledge policy.

      Use a phased approach to build a knowledgebase

      Image is an example of a phased approach to build a knowledge base

      Use a quarterly, phased approach to continue to build and maintain your knowledgebase

      Continual Knowledgebase Maintenance:

      • Once a knowledgebase is in place, future articles should be written using established templates.
      • Articles should be regularly reviewed and monitored for usage. Outdated information will be retired and archived.
      • Ticket trend analysis should be done on an ongoing basis to identify new articles.
      • A proactive approach will anticipate upcoming issues based on planned upgrades and maintenance or other changes, and document resolution steps in knowledgebase articles ahead of time.

      Every Quarter:

      1. Conduct a ticket trend analysis. Identify the most important and common tickets.
      2. Review the knowledgebase to identify relevant articles that need to be revised or written.
      3. Use data from knowledge management tool to track expiring content and lesser used articles.
      4. Assign the task of writing articles to all IT staff members.
      5. Build and revise ticket templates for incident and service requests.

      Assign a knowledge manager role to ensure accountability for knowledgebase maintenance

      Assign a knowledge manager to monitor creation and edit and maintain database.

      Knowledge Manager/Owner Role:

      • Has overall responsibility for the knowledgebase.
      • Ensures content is consistent and maintains standards.
      • Regularly monitors and updates the list of issues that should be added to the knowledgebase.
      • Regularly reviews existing knowledgebase articles to ensure KB is up to date and flags content to retire or review.
      • Assigns content creation tasks.
      • Optimizes knowledgebase structure and organization.
      • See Info-Tech’s knowledge manager role description if you need a hand defining this position.

      The knowledge manager role will likely be a role assigned to an existing resource rather than a dedicated position.

      Develop a template to ensure knowledgebase articles are easy to read and write

      A screenshot of the Knowledgebase Article Template

      QUICK TIPS

      • Use non-technical language whenever possible to help less-technical readers.
      • Identify error messages and use screenshots where it makes sense.
      • Take advantage of social features like voting buttons to increase use.
      • Use Info-Tech’s Knowledge Base Article Template to get you started.

      Analyze the necessary features for your knowledgebase and compare them against existing tools

      Service desk knowledgebases range in complexity from simple FAQs to fully integrated software suites.

      Options include:

      • Article search with negative and positive filters.
      • Tagging, with the option to have keywords generate top matches.
      • Role-based permissions (to prevent unauthorized deletions).
      • Ability to turn a ticket resolution into a knowledgebase article (typically only available if knowledgebase tool is part of the service desk tool).
      • Natural language search.
      • Partitioning so relevant articles only appear for specific audiences.
      • Editorial workflow management.
      • Ability to set alerts for scheduled article review.
      • Article reporting (most viewed, was it useful?).
      • Rich text fields for attaching screenshots.

      Determine which features your organization needs and check to see if your tools have them.

      For more information on knowledgebase improvement, refer to Info-Tech’s Optimize the Service Desk With a Shift-Left Strategy.

      Document your knowledge management maintenance workflow to identify opportunities for improvement

      Workflow should include:

      • How you will identify top articles that need to be written
      • How you will ensure articles remain relevant
      • How you will assign new articles to be written, inclusive of peer review
      Image of flowchart of knowledgebase maintenance process.

      Design knowledgebase management processes

      3.2.1 Design knowledgebase management processes

      1. Assign a knowledge manager to monitor creation and edit and maintain the database. See Info-Tech’s knowledge manager role description if you need a hand defining this position.
      2. Discuss how you can use the service desk tool to integrate the knowledgebase with incident management, request fulfilment, and self-service processes.
      3. Discuss the suitability of a quarterly process to build and edit articles for a target knowledgebase that covers your most important incidents and requests.
      4. Set knowledgebase creation targets for tier 1, 2, and 3 analysts.
      5. Identify relevant performance metrics.
      6. Brainstorm elements that might be used as an incentive program to encourage the creation of knowledgebase articles and knowledge sharing more generally.
      7. Set policy to drive currency of knowledgebase. See the Service Desk SOP for an example of a workable knowledge policy.

      Participants

      • Service Desk Manager
      • Service Desk Agents

      What You’ll Need

      • Service Desk SOP
      • Flip Chart
      • Whiteboard

      Create actionable knowledgebase articles

      3.2.2 Run a knowledgebase working group

      Write and critique knowledgebase articles.

      1. On a whiteboard, build a list of potential knowledgebase articles divided by audience: Technician or End User.
      2. Each team member chooses one topic and spends 20 minutes writing.
      3. Each team member either reads the article and has the team critique or passes to the technician to the right for peer review. If there are many participants, break into smaller groups.
      4. Set a goal with the team for how, when, and how often knowledgebase articles will be created.
      5. Capture knowledgebase processes in the Service Desk SOP.

      Audience: Technician

      • Password update
      • VPN printing
      • Active directory – policy, procedures, naming conventions
      • Cell phones
      • VPN client and creation set-up

      Audience: End users

      • Set up email account
      • Password creation policy
      • Voicemail – access, change greeting, activities
      • Best practices for virus, malware, phishing attempts
      • Windows 10 tips and tricks

      Participants

      • Service Desk Manager
      • Service Desk Agents

      What You’ll Need

      • Service Desk SOP
      • Flip Chart
      • Whiteboard

      Step 3.3: Prepare for a self-service portal project

      Image shows the steps in phase 3. Highlight is on step 3.3.

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • 3.3.1 Develop self-service tools for the end user
      • 3.3.2 Make a plan for creating or improving the self-service portal

      This step involves the following participants:

      • IT Managers
      • Service Desk Manager(s)
      • Representation from tier 2 and tier 3 specialists

      Outcomes

      The section prepares you to tackle a self-service portal project once the service desk standardization is complete.

      DELIVERABLES

      • High-level activities to create a self-service portal

      Design the self-service portal with the users’ computer skills in mind

      A study by the OECD offers a useful reminder of one of usability’s most hard-earned lessons: you are not the user.

      • There is an important difference between IT professionals and the average user that’s even more damaging to your ability to predict what will be a good self-service tool: skills in using computers, the internet, and technology in general.
      • An international research study explored the computer skills of 215,942 people aged 16-65 in 33 countries.
      • The results show that across 33 rich countries, only 5% of the population has strong computer-related abilities and only 33% of people can complete medium-complexity computer tasks.
      • End users are skilled, they just don’t have the same level of comfort with computers as the average IT professional. Design your self-service tools with that fact in mind.
      Image is of a graph showing the ability of computer skills from age 16-65 among various countries.

      Take an incremental and iterative approach to developing your self-service portal

      Use a web portal to offer self-serve functionality or provide FAQ information to your customers to start.

      • Don’t build from scratch. Ideally, use the functionality included with your ITSM tool.
      • If your ITSM tool doesn’t have an adequate self-service portal functionality, then harness other tools that IT already uses. Common examples include Microsoft SharePoint and Google Forms.
      • Make it as easy as possible to access the portal:
        • Deploy an app to managed devices or put the app in your app store.
        • Create a shortcut on people’s start menus or home screens.
        • Print the URL on swag such as mousepads.
      • Follow Info-Tech’s approach to developing your user facing service catalog.

      Some companies use vending machines as a form of self serve. Users can enter their purchase code and “buy” a thin client, mouse, keyboard, software, USB keys, tablet, headphones, or loaners.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Building the basics first will provide your users with immediate value. Incrementally add new features to your portal.

      Optimize the portal: self-service should be faster and more convenient than the alternative

      Design the portal by demand, not supply

      Don’t build a portal framed around current offerings and capabilities just for the sake of it. Build the portal based on what your users want and need if you want them to use it.

      Make user experience a top priority

      The portal should be designed for users to self-serve, and thus self-service must be seamless, clear, and attractive to users.

      Speak your users’ language

      Keep in mind that users may not have high technical literacy or be familiar with terminology that you find commonplace. Use terms that are easy to understand.

      Appeal to both clickers and searchers

      Ensure that users can find what they’re looking for both by browsing the site and by using search functionality.

      Use one central portal for all departments

      If multiple departments (i.e. HR, Finance) use or will use a portal, set up a shared portal so that users won’t have to guess where to go to ask for help.

      You won’t know unless you test

      You will know how to navigate the portal better than anyone, but that doesn’t mean it’s intuitive for a new user. Test the portal with users to collect and incorporate feedback.

      Self-service portal examples (1/2)

      Image is of an example of the self-service portal

      Image source: Cherwell Service Management

      Self-service examples (2/2)

      Image is of an example of the self-service portal

      Image source: Team Dynamix

      Keep the end-user facing knowledgebase relevant with workflows, multi-device access, and social features

      Workflows:

      • Easily manage peer reviews and editorial and relevance review.
      • Enable links and importing between tickets and knowledgebase articles.
      • Enable articles to appear based on ticket content.

      Multi-device access:

      • Encourage users to access self-service.
      • Enable technicians to solve problems from anywhere.

      Social features:

      • Display most popular articles first to solve trending issues.
      • Enable voting to improve usability of articles.
      • Allow collaboration on self-service.

      For more information on building self-service portal, refer to Info-Tech’s Optimize the Service Desk with a Shift-Left Strategy

      Draft a high-level project plan for a self-service portal project

      3.3.1 Draft a high-level project plan for a self-service portal project

      1. Identify stakeholders who can contribute to the project.
        • Who will help with FAQ creation?
        • Who can design the self-service portal?
        • Who needs to sign off on the project?
      2. Identify the high-level tasks that need to be done.
        • How many FAQs need to be created?
        • How will we design the service catalog’s web portal?
        • What might a phased approach look like?
        • How can we break down the project into design, build, and implementation tasks?
        • What is the rough timeline for these tasks?
      3. Capture the high-level activities in the Service Desk Roadmap.

      Participants

      • Service Desk Manager
      • Service Desk Agents

      What You’ll Need

      • Flip Chart
      • Whiteboard
      • Implementation Roadmap

      Once you have a service portal, you can review the business requirements for a service catalog

      A service catalog is a communications device that lists the IT services offered by an organization. The service catalog is designed to enable the creation of a self-service portal for the end user. The portal augments the service desk so analysts can spend time managing incidents and providing technical support.

      The big value comes from workflows:

      • Improved economics and a means to measure the costs to serve over time.
      • Incentive for adoption because things work better.
      • Abstracts delivery from offer to serve so you can outsource, insource, crowdsource, slow, speed, reassign, and cover absences without involving the end user.

      There are three types of catalogs:

      • Static:Informational only, so can be a basic website.
      • Routing and workflow: Attached to service desk tool.
      • Workflow and e-commerce: Integrated with service desk tool and ERP system.
      Image is an example of service catalog

      Image courtesy of University of Victoria

      Understand the time and effort involved in building a service catalog

      A service catalog will streamline IT service delivery, but putting one together requires a significant investment. Service desk standardization comes first.

      • Workflows and back-end services must be in place before setting up a service catalog.
      • Think of the catalog as just the delivery mechanism for service you currently provide. If they aren’t running well and delivery is not consistent, you don’t want to advertise SLAs and options.
      • Service catalogs require maintenance.
      • It’s not a one-time investment – service catalogs must be kept up to date to be useful.
      • Service catalog building requires input from VIPs.
      • Architects and wordsmiths are not the only ones that spend effort on the service catalog. Leadership from IT and the business also provide input on policy and content.

      Sample Service Catalog Efforts

      • A college with 17 IT staff spent one week on a simple service catalog.
      • A law firm with 110 IT staff spent two months on a service catalog project.
      • A municipal government with 300 IT people spent over seven months and has yet to complete the project.
      • A financial organization with 2,000 IT people has spent seven months on service catalog automation alone! The whole project has taken multiple years.

      “I would say a client with 2,000 users and an IT department with a couple of hundred, then you're looking at six months before you have the catalog there.”

      – Service Catalog Implementation Specialist,

      Health Services

      Draft a high-level project plan for a self-service portal project

      3.2.2 Make a plan for creating or improving the self-service portal

      Identify stakeholders who can contribute to the project.

      • Who will help with FAQs creation?
      • Who can design the self-service portal?
      • Who needs to sign off on the project?

      Evaluate tool options.

      • Will you stick with your existing tool or invest in a new tool?

      Identify the high-level tasks that need to be done.

      • How will we design the web portal?
      • What might a phased approach look like?
      • What is the rough timeline for these tasks?
      • How many FAQs need to be created?
      • Will we have a service catalog, and what type?

      Document the plan and tasks in the Service Desk Roadmap.

      Examples of publicly posted service catalogs:

      University of Victoria is an example of a catalog that started simple and now includes multiple divisions, notifications, systems status, communications, e-commerce, incident registration, and more.

      Indiana University is a student, faculty, and staff service catalog and self-service portal that goes beyond IT services.

      If you are ready to start building a service catalog, use Info-Tech’s Design and Build a User-Facing Service Catalog blueprint to get started.

      Phase 4

      Plan the Implementation of the Service Desk

      Step 4.1: Build communication plan

      Image shows the steps in phase 4. Highlight is on step 4.1.

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • 4.1.1 Create the communication plan

      This step involves the following participants:

      • CIO
      • IT Director
      • IT Managers
      • Service Desk Manager(s)
      • Representation from tier 2 and tier 3 specialists

      Outcomes

      The communication plan and project summary will help project managers outline recommendations and communicate their benefits.

      DELIVERABLES

      • Communication plan
      • Project summary

      Effectively communicate the game plan to IT to ensure the success of service desk improvements

      Communication is crucial to the integration and overall implementation of your service desk improvement.

      An effective communication plan will:

      • Gain support from management at the project proposal phase.
      • Create end-user buy-in once the program is set to launch.
      • Maintainthe presence of the program throughout the business.
      • Instill ownership throughout the business, from top-level management to new hires.

      Build a communication plan to:

      1. Communicate benefits to IT:
        • Share the standard operating procedures for training and feedback.
        • Train staff on policies as they relate to end users and ensure awareness of all policy changes.
        • As changes are implemented, continue to solicit feedback on what is and is not working and communicate adjustments as appropriate.
      2. Train technicians:
        • Make sure everyone is comfortable communicating changes to customers.
      3. Measure success:
        • Review SLAs and reports. Are you consistently meeting SLAs?
        • Is it safe to communicate with end users?

      Create your communication plan to anticipate challenges, remove obstacles, and secure buy-in

      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?
      3 gears are depicted. The top gear is labelled managers with an arrow going clockwise. The middle gear is labelled technical staff with an arrow going counterclockwise. The bottom gear is labelled end users with an arrow going clockwise

      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?

      Create a communication plan to outline the project benefits

      Improved business satisfaction:

      • Improve confidence that the service desk can solve issues within the service-level agreement.
      • Channel incidents and requests through the service desk.
      • Escalate incidents quickly and accurately.

      Fewer recurring issues:

      • Tickets are created for every incident and categorized correctly.
      • Reports can be used for root-cause analysis.

      Increased efficiency or lower cost to serve:

      • Use FAQs to enable end users to self-solve.
      • Use knowledgebase to troubleshoot once, solve many times.
      • Cross-train to improve service consistency.

      Enhanced demand planning:

      • Trend analysis and reporting improve IT’s ability to forecast and address the demands of the business.

      Organize the information to manage the deployment of key messages

      Example of how to organize and manage key messages

      Create the communication plan

      4.1.1 Create the communication plan

      Estimated Time: 45 minutes

      Develop a stakeholder analysis.

      1. Identify everyone affected by the project.
      2. Assess their level of interest, value, and influence.
      3. Develop a communication strategy tailored to their level of engagement.

      Craft key messages tailored to each stakeholder group.

      Finalize the communication plan.

      1. Examine your roadmap and determine the most appropriate timing for communications.
      2. Assess when communications must happen with executives, business unit leaders, end users, and technicians.
      3. Identify any additional communication challenges that have come up.
      4. Identify who will send out the communications.
      5. Identify multiple methods for getting the messages out (newsletters, emails, posters, company meetings).
      6. For inspiration, you can refer to the Sample Communication Plan for the project.

      Participants

      • CIO
      • IT Managers
      • Service Desk Manager
      • Service Desk Agents

      Step 4.2: Build implementation roadmap

      Image shows the steps in phase 4. Highlight is on step 4.2.

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • 4.2.1 Build implementation roadmap

      This step involves the following participants:

      • CIO
      • IT Director
      • IT Managers
      • Service Desk Manager
      • Representation from tier 2 and tier 3 specialists

      Outcomes

      The implementation plan will help track and categorize the next steps and finalize the project.

      DELIVERABLES

      • Implementation roadmap

      Collaborate to create an implementation plan

      4.2.1 Create the implementation plan

      Estimated Time: 45 minutes

      Determine the sequence of improvement initiatives that have been identified throughout the project.

      The purpose of this exercise is to define a timeline and commit to initiatives to reach your goals.

      Instructions:

      1. Review the initiatives that will be taken to improve the service desk and revise tasks, as necessary.
      2. Input each of the tasks in the data entry tab and provide a description and rationale behind the task.
      3. Assign an effort, priority, and cost level to each task (high, medium, low).
      4. Assign ownership to each task.
      5. Identify the timeline for each task based on the priority, effort, and cost (short, medium, and long term).
      6. Highlight risk for each task if it will be deferred.
      7. Track the progress of each task with the status column.

      Participants

      • CIO
      • IT Managers
      • Service Desk Manager
      • Service Desk Agents

      A screenshot of the Roadmap tool.

      Document using the Roadmap tool.

      Related Info-Tech Research

      Standardize the Service Desk

      ImplementHardware and Software Asset Management

      Optimize Change Management Incident and Problem Management Build a Continual Improvement Plan for the Service Desk

      The Standardize blueprint reviews service desk structures and metrics and builds essential processes and workflows for incident management, service request fulfillment, and knowledge management practices.

      Once the service desk is operational, there are three paths to basic ITSM maturity:

      • Having the incident management processes and workflows built allows you to:
        • Introduce Change Management to reduce change-related incidents.
        • Introduce Problem Management to reduce incident recurrence.
        • Introduce Asset Management to augment service management processes with reliable data.

      Solicit targeted department feedback on core IT service capabilities, IT communications, and business enablement. Use the results to assess the satisfaction of end users, with each service broken down by department and seniority level.

      Works cited

      “Help Desk Staffing Models: Simple Analysis Can Save You Money.” Giva, Inc., 2 Sept. 2009. Web.

      Marrone et al. “IT Service Management: A Cross-national Study of ITIL Adoption.” Communications of the Association for Information Systems: Vol. 34, Article 49. 2014. PDF.

      Rumburg, Jeff. “Metric of the Month: First Level Resolution Rate.” MetricNet, 2011. Web.

      “Service Recovery Paradox.” Wikipedia, n.d. Web.

      Tang, Xiaojun, and Yuki Todo. “A Study of Service Desk Setup in Implementing IT Service Management in Enterprises.” Technology and Investment: Vol. 4, pp. 190-196. 2013. PDF.

      “The Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC).” Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2016. Web.

      Contributors

      • Jason Aqui, IT Director, Bellevue College
      • Kevin Sigil, IT Director, Southwest Care Centre
      • Lucas Gutierrez, Service Desk Manager, City of Santa Fe
      • Rama Dhuwaraha, CIO, University of North Texas System
      • Annelie Rugg, CIO, UCLA Humanities
      • Owen McKeith, Manager IT Infrastructure, Canpotex
      • Rod Gula, IT Director, American Realty Association
      • Rosalba Trujillo, Service Desk Manager, Northgate Markets
      • Jason Metcalfe, IT Manager, Mesalabs
      • Bradley Rodgers, IT Manager, SecureTek
      • Daun Costa, IT Manager, Pita Pit
      • Kari Petty, Service Desk Manager, Mansfield Oil
      • Denis Borka, Service Desk Manager, PennTex Midstream
      • Lateef Ashekun, IT Manager, City of Atlanta
      • Ted Zeisner, IT Manager, University of Ottawa Institut de Cardiologie

      Build an Extensible Data Warehouse Foundation

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      • member rating average dollars saved: N/A
      • member rating average days saved: N/A
      • Parent Category Name: Big Data
      • Parent Category Link: /big-data
      • Data warehouse implementation is a costly and complex undertaking, and can end up not serving the business' needs appropriately.
      • Too heavy a focus on technology creates a data warehouse that isn’t sustainable and ends up with poor adoption.
      • Emerging data sources and technologies add complexity to how the appropriate data is made available to business users.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • A data warehouse is a project; but successful data warehousing is a program. An effective data warehouse requires planning beyond the technology implementation.
      • Governance, not technology needs to be the core support system for enabling a data warehouse program.
      • Understand business processes at the operational, tactical, and ad hoc levels to ensure a fit-for-purpose DW is built.

      Impact and Result

      • Leverage an approach that focuses on constructing a data warehouse foundation that is able to address a combination of operational, tactical, and ad hoc business needs.
      • Invest time and effort to put together pre-project governance to inform and provide guidance to your data warehouse implementation.
      • Develop “Rosetta Stone” views of your data assets to facilitate data modeling.
      • Select the most suitable architecture pattern to ensure the data warehouse is “built right” at the very beginning.

      Build an Extensible Data Warehouse Foundation Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why the data warehouse is becoming an important tool for driving business value, 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 for the data warehouse foundation project

      Begin the data warehouse foundation by defining the project and governance teams, as well as reviewing supporting data management practices.

      • Build an Extensible Data Warehouse Foundation – Phase 1: Prepare for the Data Warehouse Foundation Project
      • Data Warehouse Foundation Project Plan Template
      • Data Warehouse Work Breakdown Structure Template
      • Data (Warehouse) Architect
      • Data Integration Specialist
      • Business Intelligence Specialist
      • Director of Data Warehousing/Business Intelligence
      • Data Warehouse Program Charter Template
      • Data Warehouse Steering Committee Charter Template

      2. Establish the business drivers and data warehouse strategy

      Using the business activities as a guide, develop a data model, data architecture, and technology plan for a data warehouse foundation.

      • Build an Extensible Data Warehouse Foundation – Phase 2: Establish the Business Drivers and Data Warehouse Strategy
      • Business Data Catalog
      • Data Classification Inventory Tool
      • Data Warehouse Architecture Planning Tool
      • Master Data Mapping Tool

      3. Plan for data warehouse governance

      Start developing a data warehouse program by defining how users will interact with the new data warehouse environment.

      • Build an Extensible Data Warehouse Foundation – Phase 3: Plan for Data Warehouse Governance
      • Data Warehouse Standard Operating Procedures Template
      • Data Warehouse Service Level Agreement
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Build an Extensible Data Warehouse Foundation

      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 Data Warehouse Foundation Project

      The Purpose

      Identify the members of the foundation project team.

      Define overarching statements and define success factors/risks.

      Outline basic project governance.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Defined membership, roles, and responsibilities involved in the foundation project.

      Establishment of a steering committee as a starting point for the data warehouse program.

      Activities

      1.1 Identify foundation project team and create a RACI chart.

      1.2 Understand what a data warehouse can and cannot enable.

      1.3 Define critical success factors, key performance metrics, and project risks.

      1.4 Develop rough timelines for foundation project completion.

      1.5 Define the current and future states for key data management practices.

      Outputs

      Job Descriptions and RACI

      Data Warehouse Steering Committee Charter

      Data Warehouse Foundation Project Plan

      Work Breakdown Structure

      2 Establish the Business Drivers and Data Warehouse Strategy

      The Purpose

      Define the information needs of the business and its key processes.

      Create the components that will inform an appropriate data model.

      Design a data warehouse architecture model.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Clear definition of business needs that will directly inform the data and architecture models.

      Activities

      2.1 Understand the most fundamental needs of the business.

      2.2 Define the data warehouse vision, mission, purpose, and goals.

      2.3 Detail the most important operational, tactical, and ad hoc activities the data warehouse should support.

      2.4 Link the processes that will be central to the data warehouse foundation.

      2.5 Walk through the four-column model and business entity modeling as a starting point for data modeling.

      2.6 Create data models using the business data glossary and data classification.

      2.7 Identify master data elements to define dimensions.

      2.8 Design lookup tables based on reference data.

      2.9 Create a fit-for-purpose data warehousing model.

      Outputs

      Data Warehouse Program Charter

      Data Warehouse Vision and Mission

      Documentation of Business Processes

      Business Entity Map

      Business Data Glossary

      Data Classification Scheme

      Data Warehouse Architecture Model

      3 Plan for Data Warehouse Governance

      The Purpose

      Create a plan for governing your data warehouse efficiently and effectively.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Documentation of current standard operating procedures.

      Identified members of a data warehouse center of excellence.

      Activities

      3.1 Develop a technology capability map to visualize your desired state.

      3.2 Establish a data warehouse center of excellence.

      3.3 Create a data warehouse foundation roadmap.

      3.4 Define data warehouse service level agreements.

      3.5 Create standard operating procedures.

      Outputs

      Technology Capability Map

      Project Roadmap

      Service Level Agreement

      Data Warehouse Standard Operating Procedure Workbook

      Optimize Your SQA Practice Using a Full Lifecycle Approach

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      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 10.0/10 Overall Impact
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      • member rating average days saved: Read what our members are saying
      • Parent Category Name: Testing, Deployment & QA
      • Parent Category Link: /testing-deployment-and-qa
      • Your software quality assurance (SQA) program is using the wrong set of metrics to measure how process improvements influence product quality improvements.
      • Roles & responsibilities and quality assurance initiatives are not well defined and need to be allocated to individuals that can be held responsible for quality-related issues.
      • You are finding it hard to determine a causation between SQA process improvements and an improvement in product quality.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Your product is only as good as your process. A robust development and SQA process creates artifacts that are highly testable, easily maintained, and strongly traceable across the development lifecycle, ensuring that the product delivered meets expectations set out by the business.
      • A small issue within your development process can have a ripple effect on the level of product quality. Discover what you don’t know and identify areas within your SQA practice that require attention.

      Impact and Result

      • SQA must be viewed as more than defect analysis and testing. Instead, place greater emphasis on preventative measures to ensure application quality across the entire development lifecycle.
      • IT must create a comprehensive SQA plan that delineates roles and responsibilities as they relate to quality assurance. Ensure tasks and procedures improve process efficiency and quality, and formalize metrics that help to implement a continuous improvement cycle for SQA.
      • Our methodology provides simple-to-follow steps to develop an SQA plan that provides clear insight into your current quality assurance practices.
      • Establish a synchronous relationship between the business and IT to help stakeholders understand the importance and relative value of quality assurance tasks to current costs.

      Optimize Your SQA Practice Using a Full Lifecycle Approach Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should optimize your SQA practice using a full lifecycle approach, 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 SQA capabilities

      Evaluate and understand your current SQA capabilities, as well as the degree to which metric objectives are being met.

      • Optimize Your SQA Practice Using a Full Lifecycle Approach – Phase 1: Assess Your Current SQA Capabilities
      • Software Quality Assurance Current State Assessment Tool
      • Software Quality Assurance Assessment Workbook

      2. Define SQA target state processes

      Identify and define SQA processes and metrics needed to meet quality objectives set by development teams and the business.

      • Optimize Your SQA Practice Using a Full Lifecycle Approach – Phase 2: Define SQA Target State Processes

      3. Determine optimization initiatives for improving your SQA practice

      Build your SQA plan and optimization roadmap.

      • Optimize Your SQA Practice Using a Full Lifecycle Approach – Phase 3: Determine Optimization Initiatives
      • Software Quality Assurance Plan Template
      • Software Quality Assurance Optimization Roadmap Tool
      • Software Quality Assurance Communication Template
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Optimize Your SQA Practice Using a Full Lifecycle Approach

      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 Current SQA Capabilities

      The Purpose

      To help you assess and understand your current SQA capabilities as well as the degree to which metric objectives are being met.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      An analysis of current SQA practices to provide insight into potential inefficiencies, opportunities, and to provide the business with sufficient rationale for improving current quality assurance initiatives.

      Activities

      1.1 Conduct a high-level assessment of where to focus your current state analysis.

      1.2 Document your high-level development process.

      1.3 Create a RACI chart to understand roles and responsibilities.

      1.4 Perform a SIPOC-MC analysis for problem areas identified in your SDLC.

      1.5 Identify the individual control points involved with passing software artifacts through SDLC stages being assessed.

      1.6 Identify problem areas within your SDLC as they relate to SQA.

      Outputs

      Understanding of current overall development process and where it is most weak in the context of quality assurance

      Understanding of assigned roles and responsibilities across development teams, including individuals who are involved with making quality-related decisions for artifact hand-off

      Identification of problem areas within SQA process for further analysis

      2 Define SQA Target State Processes

      The Purpose

      To help you identify and define SQA processes and metrics needed to meet quality objectives set out by development teams and the business.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      A revised list of key SQA tasks along with metrics and associated tolerance limits used universally for all development projects.

      Activities

      2.1 Establish SQA metrics and tolerance limits across your SDLC.

      2.2 Determine your target state for SQA processes within the define/design stage of the SDLC.

      2.3 Determine your target state for SQA processes within the development stage of the SDLC.

      2.4 Determine your target state for SQA processes within the testing stage of the SDLC.

      2.5 Determine your target state for SQA processes within the deploy/release stage of the SDLC.

      Outputs

      Identification of the appropriate metrics and their associated tolerance limits to provide insights into meeting quality goals and objectives during process execution

      Identification of target state SQA processes that are required for ensuring quality across all development projects

      3 Prioritize SQA Optimization Initiatives and Develop Optimization Roadmap

      The Purpose

      Based on discovered inefficiencies, define optimization initiatives required to improve your SQA practice.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Optimization initiatives and associated tasks required to address gaps and improve SQA capabilities.

      Activities

      3.1 Determine optimization initiatives for improving your SQA process.

      3.2 Gain the full scope of effort required to implement your SQA optimization initiatives.

      3.3 Identify the enablers and blockers of your SQA optimization.

      3.4 Define your SQA optimization roadmap.

      Outputs

      Prioritized list of optimization initiatives for SQA

      Assessment of level of effort for each SQA optimization initiative

      Identification of enablers and blockers for optimization initiatives

      Identification of roadmap timeline for implementing optimization initiatives

      Manage Poor Performance While Working From Home

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      • Parent Category Name: Manage & Coach
      • Parent Category Link: /manage-coach
      • For many, emergency WFH comes with several new challenges such as additional childcare responsibilities, sudden changes in role expectations, and negative impacts on wellbeing. These new challenges, coupled with previously existing ones, can result in poor performance. Owing to the lack of physical presence and cues, managers may struggle to identify that an employee’s performance is suffering. Even after identifying poor performance, it can be difficult to address remotely when such conversations would ideally be held in person.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Poor performance must be managed, despite the pandemic. Evaluating root causes of performance issues is more important than ever now that personal factors such as lack of childcare and eldercare for those working from home are complicating the issue.

      Impact and Result

      • Organizations need to have a clear process for improving performance for employees working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Provide managers with resources to help them identify performance issues and uncover their root causes as part of addressing overall performance. This will allow managers to connect employees with the required support while working with them to improve performance.

      Manage Poor Performance While Working From Home Research & Tools

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

      1. Follow the remote performance improvement process

      Determine how managers can identify poor performance remotely and help them navigate the performance improvement process while working from home.

      • Manage Poor Performance While Working From Home Storyboard
      • Manage Poor Performance While Working From Home: Manager Guide
      • Manage Poor Performance While Working From Home: Infographic

      2. Clarify roles and leverage resources

      Clarify roles and responsibilities in the performance improvement process and tailor relevant resources.

      • Wellness and Working From Home
      [infographic]

      Further reading

      Manage Poor Performance While Working From Home

      Assess and improve remote work performance with our ready-to-use tools.

      Executive Summary

      McLean & Company Insight

      Poor performance must be managed, despite the pandemic. Evaluating root causes of performance issues is more important than ever now that personal factors such as lack of childcare and eldercare for those working from home are complicating the issue.

      Situation

      COVID-19 has led to a sudden shift to working from home (WFH), resulting in a 72% decline in in-office work (Ranosa, 2020). While these uncertain times have disrupted traditional work routines, employee performance remains critical, as it plays a role in determining how organizations recover. Managers must not turn a blind eye to performance issues but rather must act quickly to support employees who may be struggling.

      Complication

      For many, emergency WFH comes with several new challenges such as additional childcare responsibilities, sudden changes in role expectations, and negative impacts on wellbeing. These new challenges, coupled with previously existing ones, can result in poor performance. Owing to the lack of physical presence and cues, managers may struggle to identify that an employee’s performance is suffering. Even after identifying poor performance, it can be difficult to address remotely when such conversations would ideally be held in person.

      Solution

      Organizations need to have a clear process for improving performance for employees working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Provide managers with resources to help them identify performance issues and uncover their root causes as part of addressing overall performance. This will allow managers to connect employees with the required support while working with them to improve performance.

      Manage Poor Performance While Working From Home is made up of the following resources:

      1

      Identify

      2

      Initiate

      3

      Deploy

      4

      a) Follow Up
      b) Decide
      Storyboard

      This storyboard is organized by the four steps of the performance improvement process: identify, initiate, deploy, and follow up/decide. These will appear on the left-hand side of the slides as a roadmap.

      The focus is on how HR can design the process for managing poor performance remotely and support managers through it while emergency WFH measures are in place. Key responsibilities, email templates, and relevant resources are included at the end.

      Adapt the process as necessary for your organization.

      Manager Guide

      The manager guide contains detailed advice for managers on navigating the process and focuses on the content of remote performance discussions.

      It consists of the following sections:

      • Identifying poor performance.
      • Conducting performance improvement discussions.
      • Uncovering and addressing root causes of poor performance.
      Manager Infographic

      The manager infographic illustrates the high-level steps of the performance improvement process for managers in a visually appealing and easily digestible manner.

      This can be used to easily outline the process, providing managers with a resource to quickly reference as they navigate the process with their direct reports.

      In this blueprint, “WFH” and “remote working” are used interchangeably.

      This blueprint will not cover the performance management framework; it is solely focused on managing performance issues.

      For information on adjusting the regular performance management process during the pandemic, see Performance Management for Emergency Work-From-Home.

      Identify how low performance is normally addressed

      A process for performance improvement is not akin to outlining the steps of a performance improvement plan (PIP). The PIP is a development tool used within a larger process for performance improvement. Guidance on how to structure and use a PIP will be provided later in this blueprint.

      Evaluate how low performance is usually brought to the attention of HR in a non-remote situation:
      • Do managers approach HR for an employee transfer or PIP without having prior performance conversations with the employee?
      • Do managers come to HR when they need support in developing an employee in order to meet expectations?
      • Do managers proactively reach out to HR to discuss appropriate L&D for staff who are struggling?
      • Do some departments engage with the process while others do not?
      Poor performance does not signal the immediate need to terminate an employee. Instead, managers should focus on helping the struggling employee to develop so that they may succeed.
      Evaluate how poor performance is determined:
      • Do managers use performance data or concrete examples?
      • Is it based on a subjective assessment by the manager?
      Keep in mind that “poor performance” now might look different than it did before the pandemic. Employees must be aware of the current expectations placed on them before they can be labeled as underperforming – and the performance expectations must be assessed to ensure they are realistic.

      For information on adjusting performance expectations during the pandemic, see Performance Management for Emergency Work-From-Home.

      The process for non-union and union employees will likely differ. Make sure your process for unionized employees aligns with collective agreements.

      Determine how managers can identify poor performance of staff working remotely

      1

      Identify

      2

      Initiate

      3

      Deploy

      4

      a) Follow Up
      b) Decide
      Identify: Determine how managers can identify poor performance.
      In person, it can be easy to see when an employee is struggling by glancing over at their desk and observing body language. In a remote situation, this can be more difficult, as it is easy to put on a brave face for the half-hour to one-hour check-in. Advise managers on how important frequent one-one-ones and open communication are in helping identify issues when they arise rather than when it’s too late.

      Managers must clearly document and communicate instances where employees aren’t meeting role expectations or are showing other key signs that they are not performing at the level expected of them.

      What to look for:
      • PM data/performance-related assessments
      • Continual absences
      • Decreased quality or quantity of output
      • Frequent excuses (e.g. repeated internet outages)
      • Lack of effort or follow-through
      • Missed deadlines
      • Poor communication or lack of responsiveness
      • Failure to improve
      It’s crucial to acknowledge an employee might have an “off week” or need time to adjust to working from home, which can be addressed with performance management techniques. Managers should move into the process for performance improvement when:
      • Performance fluctuates frequently or significantly.
      • Performance has dropped for an extended period of time.
      • Expectations are consistently not being met.

      While it’s important for managers to keep an eye out for decreased performance, discourage them from over-monitoring employees, as this can lead to a damaging environment of distrust.

      Support managers in initiating performance conversations and uncovering root causes

      1

      Identify

      2

      Initiate

      3

      Deploy

      4

      a) Follow Up
      b) Decide
      Initiate: Require that managers have several conversations about low performance with the employee.
      Before using more formal measures, ensure managers take responsibility for connecting with the employee to have an initial performance conversation where they will make the performance issue known and try to diagnose the root cause of the issue.

      Coach managers to recognize behaviors associated with the following performance inhibitors:

      Personal Factors

      Personal factors, usually outside the workplace, can affect an employee’s performance.

      Lack of clarity

      Employees must be clear on performance expectations before they can be labeled as a poor performer.

      Low motivation

      Lack of motivation to complete work can impact the quality of output and/or amount of work an employee is completing.

      Inability

      Resourcing, technology, organizational change, or lack of skills to do the job can all result in the inability of an employee to perform at their best.

      Poor people skills

      Problematic people skills, externally with clients or internally with colleagues, can affect an employee’s performance or the team’s engagement.

      Personal factors are a common performance inhibitor due to emergency WFH measures. The decreased divide between work and home life and the additional stresses of the pandemic can bring up new cases of poor performance or exacerbate existing ones. Remind managers that all potential root causes should still be investigated rather than assuming personal factors are the problem and emphasize that there can be more than one cause.

      Ensure managers continue to conduct frequent performance conversations

      Once an informal conversation has been initiated, the manager should schedule frequent one-on-one performance conversations (above and beyond performance management check-ins).

      1

      Identify

      2

      Initiate

      3

      Deploy

      4

      a) Follow Up
      b) Decide
      Explain to managers the purpose of these discussions is to:
      • Continue to probe for root causes.
      • Reinforce role expectations and performance targets.
      • Follow up on any improvements.
      • Address the performance issue and share relevant resources (e.g. HR or employee assistance program [EAP]).
      Given these conversations will be remote, require managers to:
      • Use video whenever possible to read physical cues and body language.
      • Bookend the conversation. Starting each meeting by setting the context for the discussion and finishing with the employee reiterating the key takeaways back will ensure there are no misunderstandings.
      • Document the conversation and share with HR. This provides evidence of the conversations and helps hold managers accountable.
      What is HR’s role? HR should ensure that the manager has had multiple conversations with the employee before moving to the next step. Furthermore, HR is responsible for ensuring manages are equipped to have the conversations through coaching, role-playing, etc.

      For more information on the content of these conversations or for material to leverage for training purposes, see Manage Poor Performance While Working From Home: Manager Guide.

      McLean & Company Insight

      Managers are there to be coaches, not therapists. Uncovering the root cause of poor performance will allow managers to pinpoint supports needed, either within their expertise (e.g. coaching, training, providing flexible hours) or by directing the employee to proper external resources such as an EAP.

      Help managers use formal performance improvement tools with remote workers

      1

      Identify

      2

      Initiate

      3

      Deploy

      4

      a) Follow Up
      b) Decide
      Deploy: Use performance improvement tools.
      If initial performance conversations were unsuccessful and performance does not improve, refer managers to performance improvement tools:
      • Suggest any other available support and resources they have not yet recommended (e.g. EAP).
      • Explore options for co-creation of a development plan to increase employee buy-in. If the manager has been diligent about clarifying role expectations, invite the employee to put together their own action plan for meeting performance goals. This can then be reviewed and finalized with the manager.
      • Have the manager use a formal PIP for development and to get the employee back on track. Review the development plan or PIP with the manager before they share it with the employee to ensure it is clear and has time bound, realistic goals for improvement.
      Using a PIP solely to avoid legal trouble and terminate employees isn’t true to its intended purpose. This is what progressive discipline is for.In the case of significant behavior problems, like breaking company rules or safety violations, the manager will likely need to move to progressive discipline. HR should advise managers on the appropriate process.

      When does the issue warrant progressive discipline? If the action needs to stop immediately, (e.g. threatening or inappropriate behavior) and/or as outlined in the collective agreement.

      Clarify remote PIP stages and best practices

      1

      Identify

      2

      Initiate

      3

      Deploy

      4

      a) Follow Up
      b) Decide
      Sample Stages:
      1. Written PIP
      • HR reviews and signs off on PIP
      • Manager holds meeting to provide employee with PIP
      • Employee reviews the PIP
      • Manager and employee provide e-signatures
      • Signed PIP is given to HR
      2. Possible Extension
      3. Final Notice
      • Manager provides employee with final notice if there has been no improvement in agreed time frame
      • Copy of signed final notice letter given to HR

      Who is involved?

      The manager runs the meeting with the employee. HR should act as a support by:

      • Ensuring the PIP is clear, aligned with the performance issue, and focused on development, prior to the meeting.
      • Pointing to resources and making themselves available prior to, during, and after the meeting.
        • When should HR be involved? HR should be present in the meeting if the manager has requested it or if the employee has approached HR beforehand with concerns about the manager. Keep in mind that if the employee sees HR has been unexpectedly invited to the video call, it could add extra stress for them.
      • Reviewing documentation and ensuring expectations and the action plan are reasonable and realistic.

      Determine the length of the PIP

      • The length of the initial PIP will often depend on the complexity of the employee’s role and how long it will reasonably take to see improvements. The minimum (before a potential extension) should be 30-60 days.
      • Ensure the action plan takes sustainment into account. Employees must be able to demonstrate improvement and sustain improved performance in order to successfully complete a PIP.

      Timing of delivery

      Help the manager determine when the PIP meeting will occur (what day, time of day). Take into account the schedule of the employee they will be meeting with (e.g. avoid scheduling right before an important client call).

      1

      Identify

      2

      Initiate

      3

      Deploy

      4

      a) Follow Up
      b) Decide

      Follow up: If the process escalated to step 3 and is successful.

      What does success look like? Performance improvement must be sustained after the PIP is completed. It’s not enough to simply meet performance improvement goals and expectations; the employee must continue to perform.

      Have the manager schedule a final PIP review with the employee. Use video, as this enables the employee and manager to read body language and minimize miscommunication/misinterpretation.

      • If performance expectations have been met, instruct managers to document this in the PIP, inform the employee they are off the PIP, and provide it to HR.

      The manager should also continue check-ins with the employee to ensure sustainment and as part of continued performance management.

      • Set a specific timeline, e.g. every two weeks or every month. Choose a cadence that works best for the manager and employee.

      OR

      Decide: Determine action steps if the process is unsuccessful.

      If at the end of step 3 performance has not sufficiently improved, the organization (HR and the manager) should either determine if the employee could/should be temporarily redeployed while the emergency WFH is still in place, if a permanent transfer to a role that is a better fit is an option, or if the employee should be let go.

      See the Complete Manual for COVID-19 Layoffs blueprint for information on layoffs in remote environments.

      Managers, HR, and employees all have a role to play in performance improvement

      Managers
      • Identify the outcomes the organization is looking for and clearly outline and communicate the expectations for the employee’s performance.
      • Diagnose root cause(s) of the performance issue.
      • Support employee through frequent conversations and feedback.
      • Coach for improved performance.
      • Visibly recognize and broadcast employee achievements.
      Employees
      • Have open and honest conversations with their manager, acknowledge their accountability, and be receptive to feedback.
      • Set performance goals to meet expectations of the role.
      • Prepare for frequent check-ins regarding improvement.
      • Seek support from HR as required.
      HR
      • Provide managers with a process, training, and support to improve employee performance.
      • Coach managers to ensure employees have been made aware of their role expectations and current performance and given specific recommendations on how to improve.
      • Reinforce the process for improving employee performance to ensure that adequate coaching conversations have taken place before the formal PIP.
      • Coach employees on how to approach their manager to discuss challenges in meeting expectations.

      HR should conduct checkpoints with both managers and employees in cases where a formal PIP was initiated to ensure the process for performance improvement is being followed and to support both parties in improving performance.

      Email templates

      Use the templates found on the next slides to draft communications to employees who are underperforming while working from home.

      Customize all templates with relevant information and use them as a guide to further tailor your communication to a specific employee.

      Customization Recommendations

      Review all slides and adjust the language or content as needed to suit the needs of the employee, the complexity of their role, and the performance issue.

      • The pencil icon to the left denotes slides requiring customization of the text. Customize text in grey font and be sure to convert all font to black when you are done.

      Included Templates

      1. Performance Discussion Follow-Up
      2. PIP Cover Letter

      This template is not a substitute for legal advice. Ensure you consult with your legal counsel, labor relations representative, and union representative to align with collective agreements and relevant legislation.

      Sample Performance Discussion Follow-Up

      Hello [name],

      Thank you for the commitment and eagerness in our meeting yesterday.

      I wanted to recap the conversation and expectations for the month of [insert month].

      As discussed, you have been advised about your recent [behavior, performance, attendance, policy, etc.] where you have demonstrated [state specific issue with detail of behavior/performance of concern]. As per our conversation, we’ll be working on improvement in this area in order to meet expectations set out for our employees.

      It is expected that employees [state expectations]. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me if there is further clarification needed or you if you have any questions or concerns. The management team and I are committed to helping you achieve these goals.

      We will do a formal check-in on your progress every [insert day] from [insert time] to review your progress. I will also be available for daily check-ins to support you on the right track. Additionally, you can book me in for desk-side coaching outside of my regular desk-side check-ins. If there is anything else I can do to help support you in hitting these goals, please let me know. Other resources we discussed that may be helpful in meeting these objectives are [summarize available support and resources]. By working together through this process, I have no doubt that you can be successful. I am here to provide support and assist you through this.

      If you’re unable to show improvements set out in our discussion by [date], we will proceed to a formal performance measure that will include a performance improvement plan. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns; I am here to help.

      Please acknowledge this email and let me know if you have any questions.

      Thank you,

      PIP Cover Letter

      Hello [name] ,

      This is to confirm our meeting on [date] in which we discussed your performance to date and areas that need improvement. Please find the attached performance improvement plan, which contains a detailed action plan that we have agreed upon to help you meet role expectations over the next [XX days]. The aim of this plan is to provide you with a detailed outline of our performance expectations and provide you the opportunity to improve your performance, with our support.

      We will check in every [XX days] to review your progress. At the end of the [XX]-day period, we will review your performance against the role expectations set out in this performance improvement plan. If you don’t meet the performance requirements in the time allotted, further action and consequences will follow.

      Should you have any questions about the performance improvement plan or the process outlined in this document, please do not hesitate to discuss them with me.

      [Employee name], it is my personal objective to help you be a fully productive member of our team. By working together through this performance improvement plan, I have no doubt that you can be successful. I am here to provide support and assist you through the process. At this time, I would also like to remind you about the [additional resources available at your organization, for example, employee assistance program or HR].

      Please acknowledge this email and let me know if you have any questions.

      Thank you,

      Prepare and customize manager guide and resources

      Sample of Manage Poor Performance While Working From Home: Manager Guide. Manage Poor Performance While Working From Home: Manager Guide

      This tool for managers provides advice on navigating the process and focuses on the content of remote performance discussions.

      Sample of Set Meaningful Employee Performance Measures. Set Meaningful Employee Performance Measures

      See this blueprint for information on setting holistic measures to inspire employee performance.

      Sample of Manage Poor Performance While Working From Home: Infographic. Manage Poor Performance While Working From Home: Infographic

      This tool illustrates the high-level steps of the performance improvement process.

      Sample of Wellness and Working From Home: Infographic. Wellness and Working From Home: Infographic

      This tool highlights tips to manage physical and mental health while working from home.

      Sample of Build a Better Manager: Team Essentials. Build a Better Manager: Team Essentials

      See this solution set for more information on kick-starting the effectiveness of first-time IT managers with essential management skills.

      Sample of Leverage Agile Goal Setting for Improved Employee Engagement & Performance. Leverage Agile Goal Setting for Improved Employee Engagement & Performance

      See this blueprint for information on dodging the micromanaging foul and scoring with agile short-term goal setting.

      Bibliography

      Arringdale, Chris. “6 Tips For Managers Trying to Overcome Performance Appraisal Anxiety.” TLNT. 18 September 2015. Accessed 2018.

      Borysenko, Karlyn. “What Was Management Thinking? The High Cost of Employee Turnover.” Talent Management and HR. 22 April 2015. Accessed 2018.

      Cook, Ian. “Curbing Employee Turnover Contagion in the Workplace.” Visier. 20 February 2018. Accessed 2018.

      Cornerstone OnDemand. Toxic Employees in the Workplace. Santa Monica, California: Cornerstone OnDemand, 2015. Web.

      Dewar, Carolyn and Reed Doucette. “6 elements to create a high-performing culture.” McKinsey & Company. 9 April 2018. Accessed 2018.

      Eagle Hill. Eagle Hill National Attrition Survey. Washington, D.C.: Eagle Hill, 2015. Web.

      ERC. “Performance Improvement Plan Checklist.” ERC. 21 June 2017. Accessed 2018.

      Foster, James. “The Impact of Managers on Workplace Engagement and Productivity.” Interact. 16 March 2017. Accessed 2018.

      Godwins Solicitors LLP. “Employment Tribunal Statistics for 2015/2016.” Godwins Solicitors LLP. 8 February 2017. Accessed 2018.

      Mankins, Michael. “How to Manage a Team of All-Stars.” Harvard Business Review. 6 June 2017. Accessed 2018.

      Maxfield, David, et al. The Value of Stress-Free Productivity. Provo, Utah: VitalSmarts, 2017. Web.

      Murphy, Mark. “Skip Your Low Performers When Starting Performance Appraisals.” Forbes. 21 January 2015. Accessed 2018.

      Quint. “Transforming into a High Performance Organization.” Quint Wellington Redwood. 16 November 2017. Accessed 2018.

      Ranosa, Rachel. "COVID -19: Canadian Productivity Booms Despite Social Distancing." Human Resources Director, 14 April 2020. Accessed 2020.

      Develop Necessary Documentation for GDPR Compliance

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      • member rating average days saved: Read what our members are saying
      • Parent Category Name: Governance, Risk & Compliance
      • Parent Category Link: /governance-risk-compliance
      • It can be an overwhelming challenge to understand what documentation is required under the GDPR.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Hiring the right data protection officer (DPO) isn’t always easy. The person you think might be best may result in a conflict of interest. Be aware of all requirements and be objective when hiring for this role.
      • Keep retention to the bare minimum. Limiting the amount of data you are responsible for limits your liability for protecting it.
      • Under the GDPR, cookies constitute personal data. They require a standalone policy, separate from the privacy policy. Ensure pop-up cookie notification banners require active consent and give users the clear opportunity to reject them.

      Impact and Result

      • Save time developing documents by leveraging ready-to-go templates for the DPO job description, retention documents, privacy notice, and cookie policy.
      • Establishing GDPR-compliance documentation will set the foundation for an overall compliant program.

      Develop Necessary Documentation for GDPR Compliance Research & Tools

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

      1. Hire a data protection officer

      Understand the need for a DPO and what qualities to look for in a strong candidate.

      • Develop Necessary Documentation for GDPR Compliance Storyboard
      • Data Protection Officer Job Description Template

      2. Define retention requirements

      Understand your data retention requirements under the GDPR. Develop the necessary documentation.

      • Data Retention Policy Template
      • Data Retention Schedule Tool – GDPR

      3. Develop privacy and cookie policies

      Understand your website or application’s GDPR requirements to inform users on how you process their personal data and how cookies are used. Develop the necessary documentation.

      • Privacy Notice Template – External Facing
      • Cookie Policy Template – External Facing
      [infographic]

      Identify and Manage Financial Risk Impacts on Your Organization

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      • member rating average dollars saved: N/A
      • member rating average days saved: N/A
      • Parent Category Name: Vendor Management
      • Parent Category Link: /vendor-management
      • As vendors become more prevalent in organizations, organizations increasingly need to understand and manage the potential financial impacts of vendors’ actions.
      • It is only a matter of time until a vendor mistake impacts your organization. Make sure you are prepared to manage the adverse financial consequences.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • 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.

      Impact and Result

      • Vendor management practices educate organizations on the different potential financial impacts that vendors may incur and suggest systems to 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 financial impacts with our Financial Risk Impact Tool.

      Identify and Manage Financial 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 Financial Risk Impact on Your Organization Deck – Use the research to better understand the negative financial impacts of vendor actions.

      Use this research to identify and quantify the potential financial impacts of vendors’ poor performance. Use Info-Tech’s approach to look at the financial impact from various perspectives to better prepare for issues that may arise.

      • Identify and Manage Financial Risk Impacts on Your Organization Storyboard

      2. “What If” Financial Risk Impact Tool – Use this tool to help identify and quantify the financial 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.

      • Financial Risk Impact Tool
      [infographic]

      Further reading

      Identify and Manage Financial Risk Impacts on Your Organization

      Good vendor management practices help organizations understand the costs of negative vendor actions.

      Analyst Perspective

      Vendor actions can have significant financial consequences for your organization.

      Photo of Frank Sewell, Research Director, Vendor Management, Info-Tech Research Group.

      Vendors are becoming more influential and essential to the operation of organizations. Often the sole risk consideration of a business is whether the vendor meets a security standard, but vendors can negatively impact organizations’ budgets in various ways. Fortunately, though inherent risk is always present, organizations can offset the financial impacts of high-risk vendors by employing due diligence in their vendor management practices to help manage the overall risks.

      Frank Sewell
      Research Director, Vendor Management
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Executive Summary

      Your Challenge

      As vendors become more prevalent in organizations, organizations increasingly need to understand and manage the potential financial impacts of vendors’ actions.

      It is only a matter of time until a vendor mistake impacts your organization. Make sure you are prepared to manage the adverse financial consequences.

      Common Obstacles

      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.

      Info-Tech’s Approach

      Vendor management practices educate organizations on the different potential financial impacts that vendors may incur and suggest systems to 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 financial impacts with our Financial Risk Impact Tool.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Companies without good vendor management risk initiatives will take on more risk than they should. Solid vendor management practices are imperative –organizations must evolve to ensure that vendors deliver services according to performance objectives and that risks are managed accordingly.

      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.

      Financial risk impact

      Potential losses to the organization due to financial risks

      In this blueprint, we’ll explore financial risks and their impacts.

      Identifying negative actions is paramount to assessing the overall financial impact on your organization, starting in the due diligence phase of the vendor assessment and continuing throughout the vendor lifecycle.

      Cube with each multiple colors on each face, similar to a Rubix cube, and the vendor risk component 'Financial' highlighted.

      Unbudgeted financial risk impact

      The costs of adverse vendor actions, such as a breach or an outage, are increasing. By knowing these potential costs, leaders can calculate how to avoid them throughout the lifecycle of the relationship.

      Loss of business represents the largest share of the breach

      38%

      Avg. $1.59M
      Global average cost of a vendor breach

      $4.2M

      Percentage of breaches in 2020 caused by business associates

      40.2%

      23.2% YoY
      (year over year)
      (Source: “Cost of a Data Breach Report 2021,” IBM, 2021) (Source: “Vendor Risk Management – A Growing Concern,” Stern Security, 2021)

      Example: Hospital IT System Outage

      Hospitals often rely on vendors to manage their data center environments but rarely understand the downstream financial impacts if that vendor fails to perform.

      For example, a vendor implements a patch out of cycle with no notice to the IT group. Suddenly all IT systems are down. It takes 12 hours for the IT teams to return systems to normal. The downstream impacts are substantial.

      • There is no revenue capture during outage (patient registration, payments).
        • The financial loss is significant, impacting cash on hand and jeopardizing future projects.
      • Clinicians cannot access the electronic health record (EHR) system and shift to downtime paper processes.
        • This can cause potential risks to patient health, such as unknown drug interactions.
        • This could also incur lawsuits, fines, and penalties.
      • Staff must manually add the paper records into the EHR after the incident is corrected.
        • Staff time is lost on creating paper records and overtime is required to reintroduce those records into EMR.
      • Staff time and overtime pay on troubleshooting and solving issues take away from normal operations and could cause delays, having downstream effects on the timing of other projects.

      Insight Summary

      Assessing financial impacts is an ongoing, educative, and collaborative multidisciplinary process that vendor management initiatives are uniquely designed to coordinate and manage for organizations.

      Insight 1 Vendors are becoming more and more crucial to organizations’ overall operations, and most organizations have a poor understanding of the potential impacts they represent.

      Is your vendor solvent? Do they have enough staff to accommodate your needs? Has their long-term planning been affected by changes in the market? Are they unique in their space?

      Insight 2 Financial impacts from other risk types deserve just as much focus as security alone, if not more.

      Examples include penalties and fines, loss of revenue due to operational impacts, vendor replacement costs, hidden costs in poorly understood contracts, and lack of contractual protections.

      Insight 3 There is always an inherent risk in working with a vendor, but organizations should financially quantify how much each risk may impact their budget.

      A significant concern for organizations is quantifying different types of risks. When a risk occurs, the financial losses are often poorly understood, with unbudgeted financial impacts.

      Three stages of vendor financial risk assessment

      Assess risk throughout the complete vendor lifecycle

      1. Pre-Relationship Due Diligence: The initial pre-relationship due diligence stage is a crucial point to establish risk management practices. Vendor management practices ensure that a potential vendor’s risk is categorized correctly by facilitating the process of risk assessment.
      2. Monitor & Manage: Once the relationship is in place, organizations should enact ongoing management efforts to ensure they are both getting their value from the vendor and appropriately addressing any newly identified risks.
      3. Termination: When the termination of the relationship arrives, the organization should validate that adequate protections that were established while forming a contract in the pre-relationship stage remain in place.

      Inherent risks from negative actions are pervasive throughout the entire vendor lifecycle. Collaboratively understanding those risks and working together to put proper management in place enables organizations to get the most value out of the relationship with the least amount of risk.

      Flowchart for 'Assessing Financial Risk Impacts', beginning with 'New Vendor' to 'Sourcing' to the six components of 'Vendor Management'. After a gamut of assessments such as ''What If' Game' one can either 'Accept' to move on to 'Pre-Relationship', 'Monitor & Manage', and eventually to 'Termination', or not accept and circle back to 'Sourcing'.

      Stage 1: Pre-relationship assessment

      Do these as part of your due diligence

      • Review and negotiate contract terms and conditions.
        • Ensure that you have the protections to make you whole in the event of an incident, in the event that another entity purchases the vendor, and throughout the entire lifecycle of your relationship with the vendor.
        • Make sure to negotiate your post-termination protections in the initial agreement.
      • Perform a due-diligence financial assessment.
        • Make sure the vendor is positioned in the market to be able to service your organization.
      • Perform an initial risk assessment.
        • Identify and understand all potential factors that may cause financial impacts to your organization.
        • Include total cost of ownership (TCO) and return of investment (ROI) as potential impact offsets.
      • Review case studies – talk to other customers.
        • Research who else has worked with the vendor to get “the good, the bad, and the ugly” stories to form a clear picture of a potential relationship with the vendor.
      • Use proofs of concept.
        • It is essential to know how the vendor and their solutions will work in the environment before committing resources and to incorporate them into organizational strategic plans.
      • Limit vendors’ ability to increase costs over the years. It is not uncommon for a long-term relationship to become more expensive than a new one over time when the increases are unmanaged.
      • Vendor audits can be costly and a significant distraction to your staff. Make sure to contractually limit them.
      • Many vendors enjoy significant revenue from unclear deliverables and vague expectations that lead to change requests at unknown rates – clarifying expectations and deliverables and demanding negotiated rate sheets before engagement will save budget and strengthen the relationship.

      Visit Info-Tech’s VMO ROI Calculator and Tracker

      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 financial risk profile on the specific vendor solution

      Materials: Whiteboard/flip charts, Financial Risk Impact Tool to help drive discussion

      Participants: Vendor Management – Coordinator, IT Operations, Legal/Compliance/Risk Manager, Finance/Procurement

      Vendor management professionals are in an excellent position to collaboratively 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 Financial Risk Impact Tool to prompt discussion on potential risks. Keep this discussion flowing organically to explore all potential risks 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 Financial Risk Impact Tool

      Stage 2.1: Monitor the financial risk

      Ongoing monitoring activities

      Never underestimate the value of keeping the relationship moving forward.

      Examples of items and activities to monitor include;

      Stock photo of a worker being trained on a computer.
      • Fines
      • Data leaks
      • Performance
      • Credit monitoring
      • Viability/solvency
      • Resource capacity
      • Operational impacts
      • Regulatory penalties
      • Increases in premiums
      • Security breaches (infrastructure)

      Info-Tech Insight

      Many organizations do not have the resources to dedicate to annual risk assessments of all vendors.

      Consider timing ongoing risk assessments to align with contract renewal, when you have the most leverage with the vendor.

      Visit Info-Tech’s Risk Register Tool

      Stage 2.2: Manage the financial risk

      During the lifecycle of the vendor relationship

      • Renew risk assessments annually.
      • Focus your efforts on highly ranked risks.
      • Is there a new opportunity to negotiate?
      • Identify and classify individual vendor risk.
      • Are there better existing contracts in place?
      • Review financial health checks at the same time.
      • Monitor and schedule contract renewals and new service/module negotiations.
      • Perform business alignment meetings to reassess the relationship.
      • Ongoing operational meetings should be supplemental, dealing with day-to-day issues.
      • Develop performance metrics and hold vendors accountable to established service levels.
      Stock image of a professional walking an uneven line over the words 'Risk Management'.

      Stage 3: Termination

      An essential and often overlooked part of the vendor lifecycle is the relationship after termination

      • The risk of a vendor keeping your data for “as long as they want” is high.
        • Data retention becomes a “forever risk” in today’s world of cyber issues if you do not appropriately plan.
      • Ensure that you always know where data resides and where people are allowed to access that data.
        • If there is a regulatory need to house data only in specific locations, ensure that it is explicit in agreements.
      • Protect your data through language in initial agreements that covers what needs to happen when the relationship with the vendor terminates.
        • Typically, all the data that the vendor has retained is returned and/or destroyed at your sole discretion.
      Stock image of a sign reading 'Closure'.

      Related Info-Tech Research

      Stock photo of two co-workers laughing. Design and Build an Effective Contract Lifecycle Management Process
      • Achieve measurable savings in contract time processing, financial risk avoidance, and dollar savings
      • Understand how to identify and mitigate risk to save the organization time and money.
      Stock image of reports and file folders. Identify and Reduce Agile Contract Risk
      • Manage Agile contract risk by selecting the appropriate level of protections for an Agile project.
      • Focus on the correct contract clauses to manage Agile risk.
      Stock photo of three co-workers gathered around a computer screen. Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative
      • Vendor management must be an IT strategy. Solid vendor management is an imperative – IT organizations must develop capabilities to ensure that services are delivered by vendors according to service level objectives and that risks are mitigated according to the organization's risk tolerance.
      • Gain visibility into your IT vendor community. Understand how much you spend with each vendor and rank their criticality and risk to focus on the vendors you should be concentrating on for innovative solutions.

      Mergers & Acquisitions: The Sell Blueprint

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}324|cart{/j2store}
      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): N/A
      • member rating average dollars saved: N/A
      • member rating average days saved: N/A
      • 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

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      Ravid, Barak. “How divestments can re-energize the technology growth story.” EY, 14 July 2021. Web.

      Ravid, Barak. “Tech execs focus on growth amid increasingly competitive M&A market.” EY, 28 April 2021. Web.

      Resch, Scott. “5 Questions with a Mergers & Acquisitions Expert.” CIO, 25 June 2019. Web.

      Salsberg, Brian. “Four tips for estimating one-time M&A integration costs.” EY, 17 Oct. 2019. Web.

      Samuels, Mark. “Mergers and acquisitions: Five ways tech can smooth the way.” ZDNet, 15 Aug. 2018. Web.

      “SAP Divestiture Projects: Options, Approach and Challenges.” Cognizant, May, 2014. Web.

      Steeves, Dave. “7 Rules for Surviving a Merger & Acquisition Technology Integration.” Steeves and Associates, 5 Feb. 2020. Web.

      Tanaszi, Margaret. “Calculating IT Value in Business Terms.” CSO, 27 May 2004. Web.

      “The CIO Playbook. Nine Steps CIOs Must Take For Successful Divestitures.” SNP, 2016. Web.

      “The Role of IT in Supporting Mergers and Acquisitions.” Cognizant, Feb. 2015. Web.

      Torres, Roberto. “M&A playbook: How to prepare for the cost, staff and tech hurdles.” CIO Dive, 14 Nov. 2019. Web.

      “Valuation Methods.” Corporate Finance Institute, n.d. Web.

      Weller, Joe. “The Ultimate Guide to the M&A Process for Buyers and Sellers.” Smartsheet, 16 May 2019. Web.

      Prepare for the Upgrade to Windows 11

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}166|cart{/j2store}
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      • Parent Category Name: End-User Computing Devices
      • Parent Category Link: /end-user-computing-devices
      • Windows 10 is going EOL in 2025.That is closer than you think.
      • Many of your endpoints are not eligible for the Windows 11 upgrade. You can’t afford to replace all your endpoints this year. How do you manage this Microsoft initiated catastrophe?
      • You want to stay close to the leading edge of technology and services, but how do you do that while keeping your spending in check and within budget?

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      Windows 11 is a step forward in security, which is one of the primary reasons for the release of the new operating system. Windows 11 comes with a list of hardware requirements that enable the use of tools and features that, when combined, will reduce malware infections.

      Impact and Result

      Windows 11 hardware requirements will result in devices that are not eligible for the upgrade. Companies will be left to spend money on replacement devices. Following the Info-Tech guidance will help clients properly budget for hardware replacements before Windows 10 is no longer supported by Microsoft. Eligible devices can be upgraded, but Info-Tech guidance can help clients properly plan the upgrade using the upgrade ring approach.

      Prepare for the Upgrade to Windows 11 Research & Tools

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

      1. Prepare for the Upgrade to Windows 11 Deck – A look into some of the pros and cons of Microsoft’s latest desktop operating system, along with guidance on moving forward with this inevitable upgrade.

      Discover the reason for the release of Windows 11, what you require to be eligible for the upgrade, what features were added or updated, and what features were removed. Our guidance will assist you with a planned and controlled rollout of the Windows 11 upgrade. We also provide guidance on how to approach a device refresh plan if some devices are not eligible for Windows 11. The upgrade is inevitable, but you have time, and you have options.

      • Prepare for the Upgrade to Windows 11 Storyboard

      2. What Are My Options If My Devices Cannot Upgrade to Windows 11? – Build a Windows 11 Device Replacement budget with our Hardware Asset Management Budgeting Tool.

      This tool will help you budget for a hardware asset refresh and to adjust the budget as necessary to accommodate any unexpected changes. The tool can easily be modified to assist in developing and justifying the budget for hardware assets for a Windows 11 project. Follow the instructions on each tab and feel free to play with the HAM budgeting tool to fit your needs.

      • HAM Budgeting Tool
      [infographic]

      Further reading

      Prepare for the Upgrade to Windows 11

      The upgrade is inevitable, but you have time, and you have options.

      Analyst Perspective

      Upgrading to Windows 11 is easy, and while it should be properly investigated and planned, it should absolutely be an activity you undertake.

      “You hear that Mr. Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability.” ("The Matrix Quotes" )

      The fictitious Agent Smith uttered those words to Keanu Reeves’ character, Neo, in The Matrix in 1999, and while Agent Smith was using them in a very sinister and figurative context, the words could just as easily be applied to the concept of upgrading to the Windows 11 operating system from Microsoft in 2022.

      There have been two common, recurring themes in the media since late 2019. One is the global pandemic and the other is cyber-related crime. Microsoft is not in a position to make an impact on a novel coronavirus, but it does have the global market reach to influence end-user technology and it appears that it has done just that. Windows 11 is a step forward in endpoint security and functionality. It also solidifies the foundation for future innovations in end-user operating systems and how they are delivered. Windows-as-a-Service (WAAS) is the way forward for Microsoft. Windows 10 is living on borrowed time, with a defined end of support date of October 14, 2025. Upgrading to Windows 11 is easy, and while it should be properly investigated and planned, it should absolutely be an activity you undertake.

      It is inevitable!

      P.J. Ryan

      Research Director, Infrastructure & Operations

      Info-Tech Research Group

      Executive Summary

      Your Challenge

      • Windows 10 is going EOL in 2025. That is closer than you think.
      • Many of your endpoints are not eligible for the Windows 11 upgrade. You can’t afford to replace all your endpoints this year. How do you manage this Microsoft-initiated catastrophe?
      • You want to stay close to the leading edge of technology and services, but how do you do that while keeping your spending in check and within budget?

      Common Obstacles

      • The difference between Windows 10 and Windows 11 is not clear. Windows 11 looks like Windows 10 with some minor changes, mostly cosmetic. Many online users don’t see the need. Why upgrade? What are the benefits?
      • The cost of upgrading devices just to be eligible for Windows 11 is high.
      • Your end users don’t like change. This is not going to go over well!

      Info-Tech's Approach

      • Spend wisely. Space out your endpoint replacements and upgrades over several years. You do not have to upgrade everything right away.
      • Be patient. Windows 11 contained some bugs when it was initially released. Microsoft fixed most of the issues through monthly quality updates, but you should ensure that you are comfortable with the current level of functionality before you upgrade.
      • Use the upgrade ring approach. Test your applications with a small group first, and then stage the rollout to increasingly larger groups over time.

      Info-Tech Insight

      There is a lot of talk about Windows 11, but this is only an operating system upgrade, and it is not a major one. Understand what is new, what is added, and what is missing. Check your devices to determine how many are eligible and ineligible. Many organizations will have to spend capital on endpoint upgrades. Solid asset management practices will help.

      Insight summary

      Windows 11 is a step forward in security, which is one of the primary reasons for the release of the new operating system.

      Windows 11 comes with a list of hardware requirements that enable the use of tools and features that, when combined, will reduce malware infections.

      The hardware requirements for Windows 11 enable security features such as password-less logon, disk encryption, increased startup protection with secure boot, and virtualization-based security.

      Many organizations will have to spend capital on endpoint upgrades.

      Microsoft now insists that modern hardware is required for Windows 11 for not only security but also for improved stability. That same hardware requirement will mean that many devices that are only three or four years old (as well as older ones) may not be eligible for Windows 11.

      Windows 11 is a virtualization challenge for some providers.

      The hardware requirements for physical devices are also required for virtual devices. The TPM module appears to be the biggest challenge. Oracle VirtualBox and Citrix Hypervisor as well as AWS and Google are unable to support Windows 11 virtual devices as of the time of writing.

      Windows 10 will be supported by Microsoft until October 2025.

      That will remove some of the pressure felt due to the ineligibility of many devices and the need to refresh them. Take your time and plan it out, keeping within budget constraints. Use the upgrade ring approach for systems that are eligible for the Windows 11 upgrade.

      New look and feel, and a center screen taskbar.

      Corners are rounded, some controls look a little different, but overall Windows 11 is not a dramatic shift from Windows 10. It is easier to navigate and find features. Oh, and yes, the taskbar (and start button) is shifted to the center of the screen, but you can move them back to the left if desired.

      The education industry gets extra attention with the release of Windows 11.

      Windows 11 comes with multiple subscription-based education offerings, but it also now includes a new lightweight SE edition that is intended for the K-8 age group. Microsoft also released a Windows 11 Education SE specific laptop, at a very attractive price point. Other manufacturers also offer Windows 11 SE focused devices.

      Why Windows 11?

      Windows 10 was supposed to be the final desktop OS from Microsoft, wasn’t it?

      Maybe. It depends who you ask.

      Jerry Nixon, a Microsoft developer evangelist, gained notoriety when he uttered these words while at a Microsoft presentation as part of Microsoft Ignite in 2015: “Right now we’re releasing Windows 10, and because Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, we’re all still working on Windows 10,” (Hachman). Microsoft never officially made that statement. Interestingly enough, it never denied the comments made by Jerry Nixon either.

      Perhaps Microsoft released a new operating system as a financial grab, a way to make significant revenue?

      Nope.

      Windows 11 is a free upgrade or is included with any new computer purchase.

      Market share challenges?

      Doubtful.

      It’s true that Microsoft's market share of desktop operating systems is dropping while Apple OS X and Google Chrome OS are rising.

      In fact, Microsoft has relinquished over 13% of the market share since 2012 and Apple has almost doubled its market share. BUT:

      Microsoft is still holding 75.12% of the market while Apple is in the number 2 spot with 14.93% (gs.statcounter.com).

      The market share is worth noting for Microsoft but it hardly warrants a new operating system.

      New look and feel?

      Unlikely

      New start button and taskbar orientation, new search window, rounded corners, new visual look on some controls like the volume bar, new startup sound, new Windows logo, – all minor changes. Updates could achieve the same result.

      Security?

      Likely the main reason.

      Windows 11 comes with a list of hardware requirements that enable the use of tools and features that, when combined, will reduce malware infections.

      The hardware requirements for Windows 11 enable security features such as password-less logon, disk encryption, increased startup protection with secure boot, and virtualization-based security.

      The features are available on all Windows 11 physical devices, due to the common hardware requirements.

      Windows 11 hardware-based security

      These hardware options and features were available in Windows 10 but not enforced. With Windows 11, they are no longer optional. Below is a description and explanation of the main features.

      Feature What it is How it works
      TPM 2.0 (Trusted Platform Module) Chip TPM is a chip on the motherboard of the computer. It is used to store encryption keys, certificates, and passwords. TPM does this securely with tamper-proof prevention. It can also generate encryption keys and it includes its own unique encryption key that cannot be altered (helpdeskgeek.com). You do not need to enter your password once you setup Windows Hello, so the password is no longer easy to capture and steal. It is set up on a device per device basis, meaning if you go to a different device to sign in, your Windows Hello authentication will not follow you and you must set up your Hello pin or facial recognition again on that particular device. TPM (Trusted Platform Module) can store the credentials used by Windows Hello and encrypt them on the module.
      Windows Hello Windows Hello is an alternative to using a password for authentication. Users can use a pin, a fingerprint, or facial recognition to authenticate.
      Device Encryption Device encryption is only on when your device is off. It scrambles the data on your disk to make it unreadable unless you have the key to unscramble it. If your endpoint is stolen, the contents of the hard drive will remain encrypted and cannot be accessed by anyone unless they can properly authenticate on the device and allow the system to unscramble the encrypted data.
      UEFI Secure Boot Capable UEFI is an acronym for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface. It is an interface between the operating system and the computer firmware. Secure Boot, as part of the firmware interface, ensures that only unchangeable and approved software and drivers are loaded at startup and not any malware that may have infiltrated the system (Lumunge). UEFI, with Secure Boot, references a database containing keys and signatures of drivers and runtime code that is approved as well as forbidden. It will not let the system boot up unless the signature of the driver or run-time code that is trying to execute is approved. This UEFI Secure boot recognition process continues until control is handed over to the operating system.
      Virtualization Based Security (VBS) and Hypervisor-Protected Code Integrity (HVCI) VBS is security based on virtualization capabilities. It uses the virtualization features of the Windows operating system, specifically the Hyper-V hypervisor, to create and isolate a small chunk of memory that is isolated from the operating system. HVCI checks the integrity of code for violations. The Code Integrity check happens in the isolated virtual area of memory protected by the hypervisor, hence the acronym HVCI (Hypervisor Protected Code Integrity) (Murtaza). In the secure, isolated region of memory created by VBS with the hypervisor, Windows will run checks on the integrity of the code that runs various processes. The isolation protects the stored item from tampering by malware and similar threats. If they run incident free, they are released to the operating system and can run in the standard memory space. If issues are detected, the code will not be released, nor will it run in the standard memory space of the operating system, and damage or compromise will be prevented.

      How do all the hardware-based security features work?

      This scenario explains how a standard boot up and login should happen.

      You turn on your computer. Secure Boot authorizes the processes and UEFI hands over control to the operating system. Windows Hello works with TPM and uses a pin to authenticate the user and the operating systems gives you access to the Windows environment.

      Now imagine the same process with various compromised scenarios.

      You turn on your computer. Secure Boot does not recognize the signature presented to it by the second process in the boot sequence. You will be presented with a “Secure Boot Violation” message and an option to reboot. Your computer remains protected.

      You boot up and get past the secure boot process and UEFI passes control over to the Windows 11 operating system. Windows Hello asks for your pin, but you cannot remember the pin and incorrectly enter it three times before admitting temporary defeat. Windows Hello did not find a matching pin on the TPM and will not let you proceed. You cannot log in but in the eyes of the operating system, it has prevented an unauthorized login attempt.

      You power up your computer, log in without issue, and go about your morning routine of checking email, etc. You are not aware that malware has infiltrated your system and modified a page in system memory to run code and access the operating system kernel. VBS and HVCI check the integrity of that code and detect that it is malicious. The code remains isolated and prevented from running, protecting your system.

      TPM, Hello, UEFI with Secure Boot, VBS and HVCI all work together like a well-oiled machine.

      “Microsoft's rationale for Windows 11's strict official support requirements – including Secure Boot, a TPM 2.0 module, and virtualization support – has always been centered on security rather than raw performance.” – Andrew Cunningham, arstechnica.com

      “Windows 11 raises the bar for security by requiring hardware that can enable protections like Windows Hello, Device Encryption, virtualization-based security (VBS), hypervisor-protected code integrity (HVCI), and Secure Boot. These features in combination have been shown to reduce malware by 60% on tested devices.” – Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, Computerworld

      Can any device upgrade to Windows 11?

      In addition to the security-related hardware requirements listed previously, which may exclude some devices from Windows 11 eligibility, Windows 11 also has a minimum requirement for other hardware components.

      Windows 7 and Windows 10 were publicized as being backward compatible and almost any hardware would be able to run those operating systems. That changed with Windows 11. Microsoft now insists that modern hardware is required for Windows 11 for not only security but also improved stability.

      Software Requirement

      You must be running Windows 10 version 2004 or greater to be eligible for a Windows 11 upgrade (“Windows 11 Requirements”).

      Complete hardware requirements for Windows 11

      • 1 GHz (or faster) compatible 64-bit processor with two or more cores
      • 4 GB RAM
      • 64 GB or more of storage space
      • Compatible with DirectX 12 or later with WDDM 2.0 driver
        • DirectX connects the hardware in your computer with Windows. It allows software to display graphics using the video card or play audio, as long as that software is DirectX compatible. Windows 11 requires version 12 (“What are DirectX 12 compatible graphics”).
        • WDDM is an acronym for Windows Display Driver Model. WDDM is the architecture for the graphics driver for Windows (“Windows Display Driver Model”).
        • Version 2.0 of WDDM is required for Windows 11.
      • 720p display greater than 9" diagonally with 8 bits per color channel
      • UEFI Secure Boot capable
      • TPM 2.0 chip
      • (“Windows 11 Requirements”)

      Windows 11 may challenge your virtual environment

      When Windows 11 was initially released, some IT administrators experienced issues when trying to install or upgrade to Windows 11 in the virtual world.

      The Challenge

      The issues appeared to be centered around the Windows 11 hardware requirements, which must be detected by the Windows 11 pre-install check before the operating system will install.

      The TPM 2.0 chip requirement was indeed a challenge and not offered as a configuration option with Citrix Hypervisor, the free VMware Workstation Player or Oracle VM VirtualBox when Windows 11 was released in October 2021, although it is on the roadmap for Oracle and Citrix Hypervisor. VMware provides alternative products to the free Workstation Player that do support a virtual TPM. Oracle and Citrix reported that the feature would be available in the future and Windows 11 would work on their platforms.

      Short-Term Solutions

      VMware and Microsoft users can add a vTPM hardware type when configuring a virtual Windows 11 machine. Microsoft Azure does offer Windows 11 as an option as a virtual desktop. Citrix Desktop-As-A-Service (DAAS) will connect to Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud and is only limited by the features of the hosting cloud service provider.

      Additional Insight

      According to Microsoft, any VM running Windows 11 must meet the following requirements (“Virtual Machine Support”):

      • It must be a generation 2 VM, and upgrading a generation 1 VM to Windows 11 (in-place) is not possible
      • 64 GB of storage or greater
      • Secure Boot capable with the virtual TPM enabled
      • 4 GB of memory or greater
      • 2 or more virtual processors
      • The CPU of the physical computer that is hosting the VM must meet the Windows 11 (“Windows Processor Requirements”)

      What’s new or updated in Windows 11?

      The following two slides highlight some of the new and updated features in Windows 11.

      Security

      The most important change with Windows 11 is what you cannot see – the security. Windows 11 adds requirements and controls to make the user and device more secure, as described in previous slides.

      Taskbar

      The most prominent change in relation to the look and feel of Windows 11 is the shifting of the taskbar (and Start button) to the center of the screen. Some users may find this more convenient but if you do not and prefer the taskbar and start button back on the left of your screen, you can change it in taskbar settings.

      Updated Apps

      Paint, Photos, Notepad, Media Player, Mail, and other standard Windows apps have been updated with a new look and in some cases minor enhancements.

      User Interface

      The first change users will notice after logging in to Windows 11 is the new user interface – the look and feel. You may not notice the additional colors added to the Windows palette, but you may have thought that the startup sound was different, and the logo also looks different. You would be correct. Other look-and-feel items that changed include the rounded corners on windows, slightly different icons, new wallpapers, and controls for volume and brightness are now a slide bar. File explorer and the settings app also have a new look.

      Microsoft Teams

      Microsoft Teams is now installed on the taskbar by default. Note that this is for a personal Microsoft account only. Teams for Work or School will have to be installed separately if you are using a work or school account.

      What’s new or updated in Windows 11?

      Snap Layouts

      Snap layouts have been enhanced and snap group functionality has been added. This will allow you to quickly snap one window to the side of the screen and open other Windows in the other side. This feature can be accessed by dragging the window you wish to snap to the left or right edge of the screen. The window should then automatically resize to occupy that half of the screen and allow you to select other Windows that are already open to occupy the remaining space on the screen. You can also hover your mouse over the maximize button in the upper right-hand corner of the window. A small screen with multiple snap layouts will appear for your selection. Multiple snapped Windows can be saved as a “Snap Group” that will open together if one of the group windows are snapped in the future.

      Widgets

      Widgets are expanding. Microsoft started the re-introduction of widgets in Windows 10, specifically focusing on the weather. Widgets now include other services such as news, sports, stock prices, and others.

      Android Apps

      Android apps can now run in Windows 11. You will have to use the Amazon store to access and install Android apps, but if it is available in the Amazon store, you can install it on Windows 11.

      Docking

      Docking has improved with Windows 11. Windows knows when you are docked and will minimize apps when you undock so they are not lost. They will appear automatically when you dock again.

      This is not intended to be an inclusive list but does cover some of the more prominent features.

      What’s missing from Windows 11?

      The following features are no longer found in Windows 11:

      • Backward compatibility
        • The introduction of the hardware requirements for Windows 11 removed the backward compatibility (from a hardware perspective) that made the transition from previous versions of Windows to their successor less of a hardware concern. If a computer could run Windows 7, then it could also run Windows 10. That does not automatically mean it can also run Windows 11.
      • Internet Explorer
        • Internet Explorer is no longer installed by default in Windows 11. Microsoft Edge is now the default browser for Windows. Other browsers can also be installed if preferred.
      • Tablet mode
        • Windows 11 does not have a "tablet" mode, but the operating system will maximize the active window and add more space between icons to make selecting them easier if the 2-in-1 hardware detects that you wish to use the device as a tablet (keyboard detached or device opened up beyond 180 degrees, etc.).
      • Semi-annual updates
        • It may take six months or more to realize that semi-annual feature updates are missing. Microsoft moved to an annual feature update schema but continued with monthly quality updates with Windows 11.
      • Specific apps
        • Several applications have been removed (but can be manually added from the Microsoft Store by the user). They include:
          • OneNote for Windows 10
          • 3D Viewer
          • Paint 3D
          • Skype
      • Cortana (by default)
        • Cortana is missing from Windows 11. It is installed but not enabled by default. Users can turn it on if desired.

      Microsoft included a complete list of features that have been removed or deprecated with Windows 11, which can be found here Windows 11 Specs and System Requirements.

      Windows 11 editions

      • Windows 11 is offered in several editions:
        • Windows 11 Home
        • Windows 11 Pro
        • Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
        • Windows 11 Enterprise Windows 11 for Education
        • Windows 11 SE for Education
      • Windows 11 hardware requirements and security features are common throughout all editions.
      • The new look and feel along with all the features mentioned previously are common to all editions as well.
      • Windows Home
        • Standard offering for home users
      • Pro versus Pro for Workstations
        • Windows 11 Pro and Pro for Workstations are both well suited for the business environment with available features such as support for Active Directory or Azure Active Directory, Windows Autopilot, OneDrive for Business, etc.
        • Windows Pro for Workstations is designed for increased demands on the hardware with the higher memory limits (2 TB vs. 6 TB) and processor count (2 CPU vs. 4 CPU).
        • Windows Pro for Workstations also features Resilient File System, Persistent Memory, and SMB Direct. Neither of these features are available in the Windows 11 Pro edition.
        • Windows 11 Pro and Pro for Workstations are both very business focused, although Pro may also be a common choice for non-business users (Home and Education).
      • Enterprise Offerings
        • Enterprise licenses are subscription based and are part of the Microsoft 365 suite of offerings.
        • Windows 11 Enterprise is Windows 11 Pro with some additional addons and functionality in areas such as device management, collaboration, and security services.
        • The level of the Microsoft 365 Enterprise subscription (E3 or E5) would dictate the additional features and functionality, such as the complete Microsoft Defender for Endpoint suite or the Microsoft phone system and Audio Conferencing, which are only available with the E5 subscription.

      Windows 11 Education Editions

      With the release of a laptop targeted specifically at the education market, Microsoft must be taking notice of the Google Chrome educational market penetration, especially with headlines like these.

      “40 Million Chromebooks in Use in Education” (Thurrott)

      “The Unprecedented Growth of the Chromebook Education Market Share” (Carklin)

      “Chromebooks Gain Market Share as Education Goes Online” (Hruska)

      “Chromebooks Gain Share of Education Market Despite Shortages” (Mandaro)

      “Chromebook sales skyrocketed in Q3 2020 with online education fueling demand” (Duke)

      • Education licenses are subscription based and are part of the Microsoft 365 suite of offerings. Educational pricing is one benefit of the Microsoft 365 Education model.
      • Windows 11 Education is Windows 11 Pro with some additional addons and functionality similar to the Enterprise offerings for Windows 11 in areas such as device management, collaboration, and security services. Windows 11 Education also adds some education specific settings such as Classroom Tools, which allow institutions to add new students and their devices to their own environment with fewer issues, and includes OneNote Class Notebook, Set Up School PCs app, and Take a Test app.
      • The level of the Microsoft 365 Education subscription (A3 or A5) would dictate the additional features and functionality, such as the complete Microsoft Defender for Endpoint suite or the Microsoft phone system and Audio Conferencing, which are only available with the A5 subscription.
      • Windows 11 SE for Education:
        • A cloud-first edition of Windows 11 specifically designed for the K-8 education market.
        • Windows 11 SE is a light version of Windows 11 that is designed to run on entry-level devices with better performance and security on that hardware.
        • Windows 11 SE requires Intune for Education and only IT admins can install applications.
      • Microsoft and others have come out with Windows SE specific devices at a low price point.
        • The Microsoft Surface Laptop SE comes pre-loaded with Windows 11 SE and can be purchased for US$249.00.
        • Dell, Asus, Acer, Lenovo, and others also offer Windows 11 SE specific devices (“Devices for Education”).

      Initial Reactions

      Below you can find some actual initial reactions to Windows 11.

      Initial reactions are mixed, as is to be expected with any new release of an operating system. The look and feel is new, but it is not a huge departure from the Windows 10 look and feel. Some new features are well received such as the snap feature.

      The shift of the taskbar (and start button) is the most popular topic of discussion online when it comes to Windows 11 reactions. Some love it and some do not. The best part about the shift of the taskbar is that you can adjust it in settings and move it back to its original location.

      The best thing about reactions is that they garner attention, and thanks in part to all the online reactions and comments, Microsoft is continually improving Windows 11 through quality updates and annual feature releases.

      “My 91-year-old Mum has found it easy!” Binns, Paul ITRG

      “It mostly looks quite nice and runs well.” Jmbpiano, Reddit user

      “It makes me feel more like a Mac user.” Chang, Ben Info-Tech

      “At its core, Windows 11 appears to be just Windows 10 with a fresh coat of paint splashed all over it.” Rouse, Rick RicksDailyTips.com

      “Love that I can snap between different page orientations.” Roberts, Jeremy Info-Tech

      “I finally feel like Microsoft is back on track again.” Jawed, Usama Neowin

      “A few of the things that seemed like issues at first have either turned out not to be or have been fixed with patches.” Jmbpiano, Reddit user

      “The new interface is genuinely intuitive, well-designed, and colorful.” House, Brett AnandTech

      “No issues. Have it out on about 50 stations.” Sandrews1313, Reddit User

      “The most striking change is to the Start menu.” Grabham, Dan pocket-lint.com

      How do I upgrade to Windows 11?

      The process is very similar to applying updates in Windows 10.

      • Windows 11 is offered as an upgrade through the standard Windows 10 update procedure. Windows Update will notify you when the Windows 11 upgrade is ready (assuming your device is eligible for Windows 11).
        • Allow the update (upgrade in this case) to proceed, reboot, and your endpoint will come back to life with Windows 11 installed and ready for you.
      • A fresh install can be delivered by downloading the required Windows 11 installation media from the Microsoft Software Download site for Windows 11.
      • Business users can control the timing and schedule of the Windows 11 rollout to corporate endpoints using Microsoft solutions such as WSUS, Configuration Manager, Intune and Endpoint Manager, or by using other endpoint management solutions.
      • WSUS and Configuration Manager will have to sync the product category for Windows 11 to manage the deployment.
      • Windows Update for Business policies will have to use the target version capability rather than using the feature update referrals alone.
      • Organizations using Intune and a Microsoft 365 E3 license will be able to use the Feature Update Deployments page to select Windows 11.
      • Other modern endpoint management solutions may also allow for a controlled deployment.

      Info-Tech Insight

      The upgrade itself may be a simple process but be prepared for the end-user reactions that will follow. Some will love it but others will despise it. It is not an optional upgrade in the long run, so everyone will have to learn to accept it.

      When can I upgrade to Windows 11?

      You can upgrade right now BUT there is no need to rush. Windows 11 was released in October 2021 but that doesn’t mean you have to upgrade everyone right away. Plan this out.

      • Build deployment rings into your Windows 11 upgrade approach: This approach, also referred to as Canary Releases or deployment rings, allows you to ensure that IT can support users if there's a major problem with the upgrade. Instead of disrupting all end users, you are only disrupting a portion of end users.
        • Deploy the initial update to your test environment.
        • After testing is successful or changes have been made, deploy Windows 11 to your pilot group of users.
        • After the pilot group gives you the thumbs up, deploy to the rest of production in phases. Phases are sometimes by office/location, sometimes by department, sometimes by persona (i.e. defer people that don't handle updates well), and usually by a combination of these factors.
        • Increase the size of each ring as you progress.
      • Always back up your data before any upgrade.

      Deployment Ring Example

      Pilot Ring - Individuals from all departments - 10 users

      Ring #1 - Dev, Finance - 20 Users

      Ring #2 - Research - 100 Users

      Ring #3 - Sales, IT, Marketing - 500 Users

      Upgrade your eligible devices and users to Windows 11

      Build Windows 11 Deployment Rings

      Instructions:

      1. Identify who will be in the pilot group. Use individuals instead of user groups.
      2. Identify how many standard rings you need. This number will be based on the total number of employees per office.
      3. Map groups to rings. Define which user groups will be in each ring.
      4. Allow some time to elapse between upgrades. Allow the first group to work with Windows 11 and identify any potential issues that may arise before upgrading the next group.
      5. Track and communicate. Record all information into a spreadsheet like the one on the right. This will aid in communication and tracking.
      Ring Department or Group Total Users Delay Time Before Next Group
      Pilot Ring Individuals from all departments 10 Three weeks
      Ring 1 Dev Finance 20 Two weeks
      Ring 2 Research 100 One week
      Ring 3 Sales, IT Marketing 500 N/A

      What are my options if my devices cannot upgrade to Windows 11?

      Don’t rush out to replace all the ineligible endpoint devices. You have some time to plan this out. Windows 10 will be available and supported by Microsoft until October 2025.

      Use asset management strategies and budget techniques in your Windows 11 upgrade approach:

      • Start with current inventory and determine which devices will not be eligible for upgrade to Windows 11.
      • Prioritize the devices for replacement, taking device age, the role of the user the device supports, and delivery times for remote users into consideration.
      • Take this opportunity to review overall device offerings and end-user compute strategy. This will help decide which devices to offer going forward while improving end-user satisfaction.
      • Determine the cost for replacement devices:
        • Compare vendor offerings using an RFP process.
      • Use the hardware asset management planning spreadsheet on the next slide to budget for the replacements over the coming months leading up to October 2025.

      Leverage Info-Tech research to improve your end-user computing strategy and hardware asset management processes:

      New to End User Computing Strategies? Start with Modernize and Transform Your End-User Computing Strategy.

      New to IT asset management? Use Info-Tech’s Implement Hardware Asset Management blueprint.

      Use Info-Tech’s HAM Budgeting Tool to plan your hardware asset budget

      Build a Windows 11 Device Replacement Budget

      The link below will open up a hardware asset management (HAM) budgeting tool. This tool can easily be modified to assist in developing and justifying the budget for hardware assets for the Windows 11 project. The tool will allow you to budget for hardware asset refresh and to adjust the budget as needed to accommodate any changes. Follow the instructions on each tab to complete the tool.

      A sample of a possible Windows 11 budgeting spreadsheet is shown on the right, but feel free to play with the HAM budgeting tool to fit your needs.

      HAM Budgeting Tool

      Windows 11 Replacement Schedule
      2022 2023 2024 2025
      Department Total to replace Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Left to allocate
      Finance 120 20 20 20 10 10 20 20 0
      HR 28 15 13 0
      IT 30 15 15 0
      Research 58 8 15 5 20 5 5 0
      Planning 80 10 15 15 10 15 15 0
      Other 160 5 30 5 15 15 30 30 30 0
      Totals 476 35 38 35 35 35 35 38 35 50 35 35 35 35 0

      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?

      Implement Hardware Asset Management

      This project will help you analyze the current state of your HAM program, define assets that will need to be managed, and build and involve the ITAM team from the beginning to help embed the change. It will also help you define standard policies, processes, and procedures for each stage of the hardware asset lifecycle, from procurement through to disposal.

      Bibliography

      aczechowski, et al. “Windows 11 Requirements.” Microsoft, 3 June 2022. Accessed 13 June 2022.

      Binns, Paul. Personal interview. 07 June 2022.

      Butler, Sydney. “What Is Trusted Platform Module (TPM) and How Does It Work?” Help Desk Geek, 5 August 2021. Accessed 18 May 2022.

      Carklin, Nicolette. “The Unprecedented Growth of the Chromebook Education Market Share.” Parallels International GmbH, 26 October 2021. Accessed 19 May 2022.

      Chang, Ben. Personal interview. 26 May 2022.

      Cunningham, Andrew. “Why Windows 11 has such strict hardware requirements, according to Microsoft.” Ars Technica, 27 August 2021. Accessed 19 May 2022.

      Dealnd-Han, et al. “Windows Processor Requirements.” Microsoft, 9 May 2022. Accessed 18 May 2022.

      “Desktop Operating Systems Market Share Worldwide.” Statcounter Globalstats, June 2021–June 2022. Accessed 17 May 2022.

      “Devices for education.” Microsoft, 2022. Accessed 13 June 2022.

      Duke, Kent. “Chromebook sales skyrocketed in Q3 2020 with online education fueling demand.” Android Police, 16 November 2020. Accessed 18 May 2022.

      Grabham, Dan. “Windows 11 first impressions: Our initial thoughts on using Microsoft's new OS.” Pocket-Lint, 24 June 2021. Accessed 3 June 2022.

      Hachman, Mark. “Why is there a Windows 11 if Windows 10 is the last Windows?” PCWorld, 18 June 2021. Accessed 17 May 2022.

      Howse, Brett. “What to Expect with Windows 11: A Day One Hands-On.” Anandtech, 16 November 2020. Accessed 3 June 2022.

      Hruska, Joel. “Chromebooks Gain Market Share as Education Goes Online.” Extremetech, 26 October 2020. Accessed 19 May 2022.

      Jawed, Usama. “I am finally excited about Windows 11 again.” Neowin, 26 February 2022. Accessed 3 June 2022.

      Jmbpiano. “Windows 11 - What are our initial thoughts and feelings?” Reddit, 22 November 2021. Accessed 3 June 2022.

      Lumunge, Erick. “UEFI and Legacy boot.” OpenGenus, n.d. Accessed 18 May 2022.

      Bibliography

      Mandaro, Laura. “Chromebooks Gain Share of Education Market Despite Shortages.” The Information, 9 September 2020. Accessed 19 May 2022.

      Murtaza, Fawad. “What Is Virtualization Based Security in Windows?” Valnet Inc, 24 October 2021. Accessed 17 May 2022.

      Roberts, Jeremy. Personal interview. 27 May 2022.

      Rouse, Rick. “My initial thoughts about Windows 11 (likes and dislikes).” RicksDailyTips.com, 5 September 2021. Accessed 3 June 2022.

      Sandrews1313. “Windows 11 - What are our initial thoughts and feelings?” Reddit, 22 November 2021. Accessed 3 June 2022.

      “The Matrix Quotes." Quotes.net, n.d. Accessed 18 May 2022.

      Thurrott, Paul.” Google: 40 Million Chromebooks in Use in Education.” Thurrott, 21 January 2020. Accessed 18 May 2022.

      Vaughan-Nichols, Steven J. “The real reason for Windows 11.” Computerworld, 6 July 2021, Accessed 19 May 2022.

      “Virtual Machine Support.” Microsoft,3 June 2022. Accessed 13 June 2022.

      “What are DirectX 12 compatible graphics and WDDM 2.x.” Wisecleaner, 20 August 2021. Accessed 19 May 2022.

      “Windows 11 Specs and System Requirements.” Microsoft, 2022. Accessed 13 June 2022.

      “Windows Display Driver Model.” MiniTool, n.d. Accessed 13 June 2022.

      Marketing Management Suite Software Selection Guide

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}552|cart{/j2store}
      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 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
      • 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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      Lardinois, Frederic. "Microsoft's Q4 earnings beat Street with $22.6B in revenue, $0.69 EPS." TechCrunch, 19 July 2016. Web.
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      Looking Back, Moving Forward: The Evolution of Maropost for Marketing." Maropost Blog, 21 May 2019. Accessed Oct 2022.
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      Miller, Ron. "Adobe to acquire Magento for $1.68B" TechCrunch, 21 May 2018. Accessed Nov 2022.
      Miller, Ron. "SAP continues to build out customer experience business with Emarys acquisition." TechCrunch, 1 Oct. 2020. Web.
      Miller, Ron. "SugarCRM moves into marketing automation with Salesfusion acquisition." TechCrunch, 16 May 2019.
      Novet, Jordan. "Adobe confirms it's buying Marketo for $4.75 billion." CNBC, 20 Sept 2018. Accessed Dec 2022.
      "Oracle Corp." Encyclopedia.com, n.d. Web.
      Phillips, James. "April 2019 Release launches with new AI, mixed reality, and 350+ feature updates." Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog. Microsoft, 2 April 2019. Web.
      S., Aravindhan. "Announcing an important update to Zoho CRM-Zoho Campaigns integration." Zoho Campaigns Community Learning, Zoho, 1 Dec. 2021. Web.
      Salesforce. "The History of Salesforce." Salesforce, 19 March 2020. Web.
      "Salesfusion Integrates With NetSuite CRM to Simplify Sales and Marketing Alignment" GlobeNewswire, 6 May 2016. Accessed Oct 2022. Press release.
      "Salesfusion Integrates With NetSuite CRM to Simplify Sales and Marketing Alignment." Marketwired, 6 May 2016. Web.
      "Salesfusion is Now Sugar Market: The Customer FAQ." SugarCRM Blog, 31 July 2019. Web.
      "Salesfusion's Marketing Automation Platform Drives Awareness and ROI for Education Technology Provider" GlobeNewswire, 25 June 2015. Accessed Nov 2022. Press release.
      SAP. "SAP History." SAP, n.d. Web.
      "State of Marketing." 5th Edition, Salesforce, 15 Jan 2019. Accessed Oct 2022.
      "Success selects Maropost Marketing Cloud for Marketing Automation." Apps Run The World, 10 Jan 2015. Accessed Nov 2022.
      "SugarCRM Acquires SaaS Marketing Automation Innovator Salesfusion." SugarCRM, 16 May 2019. Press release.
      Sundaram, Vijay. "Introducing Zoho One." Zoho Blog, 25 July 2017. Web.
      "The State of MarTech: Is you MarTech stack working for you?" American Marketing Association, 29 Nov 2021. Accessed Oct 2022.
      "Top Marketing Automation Statistics for 2022." Oracle, 15 Jan 2022. Accessed Oct 2022.
      Trefis Team. "Oracle Energizes Its Marketing Cloud With New Features." Forbes, 7 April 2015. Accessed Oct 2022.
      Vivek, Kumar, et al. "Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (on-premises) Help, version 9.x." Learn Dynamics 365, Microsoft, 9 Jan 2023. Web.
      "What's new with HubSpot? Inbound 2022 feature releases" Six and Flow, 9 July 2022. Accessed Nov 2022.
      Widman, Jeff. "Salesforce.com Launches The Service Cloud,, A Customer Service SaaS Application." TechCrunch, 15 Jan. 2009. Web.
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      "Zoho Launches Zoho Campaigns." Business Wire, 14 Aug. 2012. Press release.
      Zoho. "About Us." Zoho, n.d. Web.

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      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
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      Reinforce End-User Security Awareness During Your COVID-19 Response

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      Without the control over the areas in which employees are working, businesses are opening themselves up to a greater degree of risk during the pandemic. How does a business raise awareness for employees who are going to be working remotely?

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • An expanding remote workforce requires training efforts to evolve to include the unique security threats that face remote end users.
      • By presenting security as a personal and individualized issue, you can make this new personal focus a driver for your organizational security awareness and training program.

      Impact and Result

      • Teach remote end users how to recognize current cyberattacks before they fall victim and turn them into active barriers against cyberattacks.
      • Use Info-Tech’s blueprint and materials to build a customized training program that uses best practices.

      Reinforce End-User Security Awareness During Your COVID-19 Response Research & Tools

      Start here

      COVID-19 is forcing many businesses to expand their remote working capabilities further than before. Using this blueprint, see how to augment your existing training or start from scratch during a remote work situation.

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

      • Reinforce End-User Security Awareness During Your COVID-19 Response Storyboard
      • Security Awareness and Training Program Development Tool
      • Security Awareness and Training Metrics Tool
      • End-User Security Knowledge Test Template

      1. Training Materials

      Use Info-Tech’s training materials to get you started on remote training and awareness.

      • Training Materials – Phishing
      • Training Materials – Incident Response
      • Training Materials – Cyber Attacks
      • Training Materials – Web Usage
      • Training Materials – Physical Computer Security
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      • Security Training Email Templates
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      Mergers & Acquisitions: The Buy Blueprint

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      • Parent Category Name: IT Strategy
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      There are four key scenarios or entry points for IT as the acquiring organization in M&As:

      • IT can suggest an acquisition to meet the business objectives of the organization.
      • IT is brought in to strategy plan the acquisition from both the business’ and IT’s perspectives.
      • IT participates in due diligence activities and valuates the organization potentially being acquired.
      • IT needs to reactively prepare its environment to enable the integration.

      Consider the ideal scenario for your IT organization.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      Acquisitions 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 growth/integration 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 Buy Blueprint Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out how your organization can excel its growth 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

      2. Discovery & Strategy

      Create a standardized approach for how your IT organization should address acquisitions.

      • One-Pager: M&A Discovery & Strategy – Buy
      • Case Study: M&A Discovery & Strategy – Buy

      3. Due Diligence & Preparation

      Evaluate the target organizations to minimize risk and have an established integration project plan.

      • One-Pager: M&A Due Diligence & Preparation – Buy
      • Case Study: M&A Due Diligence & Preparation – Buy
      • IT Due Diligence Charter
      • Technical Debt Business Impact Analysis Tool
      • IT Culture Diagnostic
      • M&A Integration Project Management Tool (SharePoint)
      • SharePoint Template: Step-by-Step Deployment Guide
      • M&A Integration Project Management Tool (Excel)
      • Resource Management Supply-Demand Calculator

      4. Execution & Value Realization

      Deliver on the integration project plan successfully and communicate IT’s transaction value to the business.

      • One-Pager: M&A Execution & Value Realization – Buy
      • Case Study: M&A Execution & Value Realization – Buy

      Infographic

      Workshop: Mergers & Acquisitions: The Buy 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 acquiring.

      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 Identify the rationale for the company's decision to pursue an acquisition.

      1.4 Assess the IT/digital strategy.

      1.5 Identify pain points and opportunities tied to the acquisition.

      1.6 Create the IT vision and mission statements 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 integration strategy.

      1.11 Conduct a RACI.

      1.12 Create the communication plan.

      1.13 Prepare to assess target organization(s).

      Outputs

      Business perspectives of IT

      Stakeholder network map for M&A transactions

      Business context implications for IT

      IT’s acquiring strategic direction

      Governance structure

      M&A program metrics

      IT valuation framework

      Integration strategy

      RACI

      Communication plan

      Prepared to assess target organization(s)

      2 Mid-Transaction Due Diligence & Preparation

      The Purpose

      Establish the transaction foundation.

      Discover the motivation for integration.

      Assess the target organization(s).

      Create the valuation framework.

      Plan the integration roadmap.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      All major stakeholders are on the same page.

      Methodology identified to assess organizations during due diligence.

      Methodology can be reused for multiple organizations.

      Integration 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 acquisition.

      2.3 Establish the integration 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 Conduct a technical debt assessment.

      2.7 Assess the current culture and identify the goal culture.

      2.8 Identify the needed workforce supply.

      2.9 Create the valuation framework.

      2.10 Establish the integration roadmap.

      2.11 Establish and align project metrics with identified tasks.

      2.12 Estimate integration costs.

      Outputs

      Stakeholder map

      IT strategy assessment

      IT operating model and IT governance structure defined

      Business context implications for IT

      Integration strategy

      Due diligence charter

      Data room artifacts

      Technical debt assessment

      Culture assessment

      Workforce supply identified

      IT valuation framework

      Integration roadmap and associated resourcing

      3 Post-Transaction Execution & Value Realization

      The Purpose

      Establish the transaction foundation.

      Discover the motivation for integration.

      Plan the integration roadmap.

      Prepare employees for the transition.

      Engage in integration.

      Assess the transaction outcomes.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      All major stakeholders are on the same page.

      Integration activities are planned and assigned.

      Employees are set up for a smooth and successful transition.

      Integration strategy and roadmap 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 determine IT transaction team.

      3.2 Gather and evaluate the M&A strategy, future-state operating model, and governance.

      3.3 Review the business rationale for the acquisition.

      3.4 Establish the integration strategy.

      3.5 Prioritize integration tasks.

      3.6 Establish the integration roadmap.

      3.7 Establish and align project metrics with identified tasks.

      3.8 Estimate integration costs.

      3.9 Assess the current culture and identify the goal culture.

      3.10 Identify the needed workforce supply.

      3.11 Create an employee transition plan.

      3.12 Create functional workplans for employees.

      3.13 Complete the integration by regularly updating the project plan.

      3.14 Begin to rationalize the IT environment where possible and necessary.

      3.15 Confirm integration costs.

      3.16 Review IT’s transaction value.

      3.17 Conduct a transaction and integration SWOT.

      3.18 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

      Integration strategy

      Integration roadmap and associated resourcing

      Culture assessment

      Workforce supply identified

      Employee transition plan

      Employee functional workplans

      Updated integration project plan

      Rationalized IT environment

      SWOT of transaction

      M&A Buy Playbook refined for future transactions

      Further reading

      Mergers & Acquisitions: The Buy Blueprint

      For IT leaders who want to have a role in the transaction process when their business is engaging in an M&A purchase.

      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 acquiring organization in M&As:

      • IT can suggest an acquisition to meet the business objectives of the organization.
      • IT is brought in to strategy plan the acquisition from both the business’ and IT’s perspectives.
      • IT participates in due diligence activities and valuates the organization potentially being acquired.
      • IT needs to reactively prepare its environment to enable the integration.

      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 are 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 growth/integration 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)

      Virtual deal-making will be the preferred method of 55% of organizations in the post-pandemic world. (Wall Street Journal, 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).
        • Weak integration teams contribute to the failure of 70% of M&A integrations (The Wall Street Journal, 2019).
        • 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 integration 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)

      40% of acquiring businesses discovered a cybersecurity problem at an acquisition.” (Source: Okta)

      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 an acquisition to meet the business objectives of the organization.
      2. Business Partner: IT is brought in to strategy plan the acquisition from both the business’ and IT’s perspective.
      3. Trusted Operator: IT participates in due diligence activities and valuates the organization potentially being acquired.
      4. Firefighter: IT reactively engages in the integration with little time to prepare.

      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.

      Buying vs. selling

      The M&A process approach differs depending on whether you are the executive IT leader on the buy side or sell side

      This blueprint is only focused on the buy side:

      • 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.

      The sell side is focused on:

      • 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.

      For more information on divestitures or selling your entire organization, check out Info-Tech’s Mergers & Acquisitions: The Sell 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 Buying 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 Acquisition
      1. Assess the Target Organization
      2. Prepare to Integrate
      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 acquisitions.

      Evaluate the target organizations successfully and establish an integration project plan.

      Deliver on the integration project plan successfully and communicate IT’s transaction value to the business.

      Potential metrics for each phase

      1. Proactive

      2. Discovery & Strategy

      3. Due Diligence & Preparation

      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 integration
      • $ Accurate IT budget estimates
      • % Revenue growth directly tied to IT delivery
      • % Profit margin growth

      The IT executive’s role in the buying transaction is critical

      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

        87% of respondents to a Deloitte survey effectively conducted a virtual deal, with a focus on cybersecurity and integration (Deloitte, 2020).
      • Faster Integration

        Integration costs range from as low as $4 million to as high as $3.8 billion, making the process an investment for the organization (CIO Dive).
      • 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 valuate the potential organization being purchased and ensure risk management concerns are brought to the business’ attention immediately.
      • Create a comprehensive list of items that IT needs to do during the integration that can be prioritized and actioned.

      Business Benefits

      • The business will get accurate and relevant information about the organization being acquired, ensuring that the anticipated value of the transaction is correctly planned for.
      • Fewer business interruptions will happen, because IT can accurately plan for and execute the high-priority integration tasks.
      • The business can make a fair offer to the purchased organization, having properly valuated all aspects being bought, including the IT environment.

      Insight summary

      Overarching Insight

      As an IT executive, take control of when you get involved in a growth transaction. Do this by proactively identifying acquisition targets, demonstrating the value of IT, and ensuring that integration 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 buying 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

      Most IT synergies can be realized in due diligence. It is more impactful to consider IT processes and practices (e.g. contracts and culture) in due diligence rather than later in the integration.

      Execution & Value Realization Insight

      IT needs to realize synergies within the first 100 days of integration. The most successful transactions are when IT continuously realizes synergies a year after the transaction and beyond.

      Blueprint deliverables

      Key Deliverable: M&A Buy Playbook

      The M&A Buy Playbook should be a reusable document that enables your IT organization to successfully deliver on any acquisition transaction.

      Screenshots of the 'M and A Buy Playbook' deliverable.

      M&A Buy One-Pager

      See a one-page overview of each phase of the transaction.

      Screenshots of the 'M and A Buy One-Pagers' deliverable.

      M&A Buy Case Studies

      Read a one-page case study for each phase of the transaction.

      Screenshots of the 'M and A Buy Case Studies' deliverable.

      M&A Integration Project Management Tool (SharePoint)

      Manage the integration process of the acquisition using this SharePoint template.

      Screenshots of the 'M and A Integration Project Management Tool (SharePoint)' deliverable.

      M&A Integration Project Management Tool (Excel)

      Manage the integration process of the acquisition using this Excel tool if you can’t or don’t want to use SharePoint.

      Screenshots of the 'M and A Integration 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 their perspectives of 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 acquisition strategic direction.
      • Call #5: Create program metrics and identify a standard integration strategy.
      • Call #6: Assess the potential organization(s).
      • Call #7: Identify the integration 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 acquisition transaction.

      The Buy 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 Growth Opportunities
      • 2.1 Establish the M&A Program Plan
      • 2.2 Prepare IT to Engage in the Acquisition
      • 3.1 Assess the Target Organization
      • 3.2 Prepare to Integrate
      • 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 growth 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 purchasing 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 indicators of the relationship 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: CEO-CIO Alignment diagnostic, M&A Buy Playbook

      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 growth transactions or support your rationale in recommending growth transactions.

      Download the sample report.

      Record the results in the M&A Buy 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: CIO Business Vision diagnostic, Computer, Whiteboard and markers, M&A Buy Playbook

      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 Buy 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: M&A Buy 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 Buy 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 Buy 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 Buy 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 Buy 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 Buy 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 Buy 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 Buy 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 Buy 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 Buy 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 Buy 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 product of the (# 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 Buy 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 Buy 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 Buy 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 growth 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 growth 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 Buy 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 Buy 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 growth strategy

      Materials: Computer, Whiteboard and markers, M&A Buy 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 Buy Playbook.

      1.3.3 Recommend growth 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 Buy 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 this opening and begin the discussions with your business on how and why an acquisition would be a great opportunity.

      Record the results in the M&A Buy Playbook.

      By the end of this Proactive phase, you should:

      Be prepared to suggest M&A opportunities to support your company’s goals through growth or acquisition 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 growth or reduction strategies such as mergers, acquisitions, or divestitures.

      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
      • Acquisition or buying recommendations

      The Buy 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 Growth Opportunities
      • 2.1 Establish the M&A Program Plan
      • 2.2 Prepare IT to Engage in the Acquisition
      • 3.1 Assess the Target Organization
      • 3.2 Prepare to Integrate
      • 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 integration 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 AcquiringFormalize 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 decisions to pursue an acquisition
      • 1.1 Review the business rationale for the acquisition
      • 1.2 Assess the IT/digital strategy
      • 1.3 Identify pain points and opportunities tied to the acquisition
      • 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 integration 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 acquisition strategic direction
      1. Operating model for future state
      2. Transition team
      3. Governance structure
      4. M&A program metrics
      1. IT valuation framework
      1. Integration 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 an acquisition is a unique opportunity for many IT organizations. IT organizations that can participate in the acquisition transaction at this stage are likely considered a strategic partner of the business.

      For one-off acquisitions, IT being invited during this stage of the process is rare. However, for organizations that are preparing to engage in many acquisitions 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 will also be asked to participate in ensuring that the potential organization being sought will be able to meet any IT-specific search criteria that was set when the transaction was put into motion.

      Goal: To identify a repeatable program plan that IT can leverage when acquiring all or parts of another organization’s 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 relationships 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 decisions to pursue an acquisition and the opportunities or pain points the acquisition 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 acquisitions.

      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 growth strategies tied to mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures

      Materials: Flip charts/whiteboard, Markers, M&A Buy 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 growth 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 growth process.

      Record the results in the M&A Buy 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. Integration for Success We will create an integration strategy that enables the organization and clearly communicates the resources required to succeed.
      4. Managed Data We will handle data creation, modification, integration, and use across the enterprise in compliance with our data governance policy.
      5. Establish a single IT Environment We will identify, prioritize, and manage the applications and services that IT provides in order to eliminate redundant technology and maximize the value that users and customers experience.
      6. Compliance With Laws and Regulations We will operate in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations for both our organization and the potentially purchased 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. Operating to Succeed We will bring all of IT into a central operating model within two years of the transaction.

      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 growth strategies tied to mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures

      Materials: Flip charts/whiteboard, Markers, M&A Buy 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 growth 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 growth process.
      4. Review the guiding principles every six months to ensure they continue to support the delivery of the business’ growth strategy goals.

      Record the results in the M&A Buy 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 integration 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 transaction 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 M&A transaction team.

      Employees who have a significant role in ensuring that these capabilities are being delivered will be a top priority.

      Infrastructure

      • Systems Integration
      • Data 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

      Materials: Operating model, Capability overlay, Flip charts/whiteboard, Markers, M&A Buy 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 growth transaction.

      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 buying transaction process and integration. Highlight and make copies of those capabilities in the M&A Buy Playbook.
      3. Arrange the capabilities to clearly show the flow of inputs and outputs. Identify critical stakeholders of the process (such as customers or end users) if that will help the flow.
      4. 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 or products to better understand needs and deliver on the capability.

      An example operating model is included in the M&A Buy Playbook. This process benefits from strong reference architecture and capability mapping ahead of time.

      Record the results in the M&A Buy 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 Buy 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 integration 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 Buy 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 Buy 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 integration on a budget that is the same or lower than the budget estimated during due diligence.
      • Meeting or improving on IT time-to-integration estimates: Delivering successful IT integration 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 integration on a budget that is the same or lower than the budget estimated during due diligence.
      • Meeting or improving on IT time-to-integration estimates: Delivering successful IT integration 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.
      • 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 integration
      • $ 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 Buy 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 Buy Playbook.

      Discovery & Strategy

      Step 2.2

      Prepare IT to Engage in the Acquisition

      Activities

      • 2.2.1 Establish the integration 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 acquisition and align IT’s integration strategy with the business’ M&A strategy.

      Integration strategies

      There are several IT integration strategies that will help you achieve your target technology environment.

      IT Integration Strategies
      • Absorption. Convert the target organization’s strategy, structure, processes, and/or systems to that of the acquiring organization.
      • Best-of-Breed. Pick and choose the most effective people, processes, and technologies to form an efficient operating model.
      • Transformation Retire systems from both organizations and use collective capabilities, data, and processes to create something entirely new.
      • Preservation Retain individual business units that will operate within their own capability. People, processes, and technologies are unchanged.

      The approach IT takes will depend on the business objectives for the M&A.

      • Generally speaking, the integration strategy is well understood and influenced by the frequency of and rationale for acquiring.
      • Based on the initiatives generated by each business process owner, you need to determine the IT integration strategy that will best support the desired target technology environment.

      Key considerations when choosing an IT integration strategy include:

      • What are the main business objectives of the M&A?
      • What are the key synergies expected from the transaction?
      • What IT integration best helps obtain these benefits?
      • What opportunities exist to position the business for sustainable growth?

      Absorption and best-of-breed

      Review highlights and drawbacks of absorption and best-of-breed integration strategies

      Absorption
        Highlights
      • Recommended for businesses striving to reduce costs and drive efficiency gains.
      • Economies of scale realized through consolidation and elimination of redundant applications.
      • Quickest path to a single company operation and systems as well as lower overall IT cost.
        Drawbacks
      • Potential for disruption of the target company’s business operations.
      • Requires significant business process changes.
      • Disregarding the target offerings altogether may lead to inferior system decisions that do not yield sustainable results.
      Best-of-Breed
        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.
      • Potential for better buy-in from the target because some of their systems are kept, resulting in willingness to
        Drawbacks
      • May take longer to integrate because it tends to present increased complexity that results in higher costs and risks.
      • Requires major integration efforts from both sides of the company. If the target organization is uncooperative, creating the desired technology environment will be difficult.

      Transformation and preservation

      Review highlights and drawbacks of transformation and preservation integration strategies

      Transformation
        Highlights
      • This is the most customized approach, although it is rarely used.
      • It is essential to have an established long-term vision of business capabilities when choosing this path.
      • When executed correctly, this approach presents potential for significant upside and creation of sustainable competitive advantages.
        Drawbacks
      • This approach requires extensive time to implement, and the cost of integration work may be significant.
      • If a new system is created without strategic capabilities, the organizations will not realize long-term benefits.
      • The cost of correcting complexities at later stages in the integration effort may be drastic.
      Preservation
        Highlights
      • This approach is appropriate if the merging organizations will remain fairly independent, if there will be limited or no communication between companies, and if the companies’ market strategies, products, and channels are entirely distinct.
      • Environment can be accomplished quickly and at a low cost.
        Drawbacks
      • Impact to each business is minimal, but there is potential for lost synergies and higher operational costs. This may be uncontrollable if the natures of the two businesses are too different to integrate.
      • Reduced benefits and limited opportunities for IT integration.

      2.2.1 Establish the integration strategy

      1-2 hours

      Input: Business integration strategy, Guiding principles, M&A governance

      Output: IT’s integration strategy

      Materials: Flip charts/whiteboard, Markers, M&A Buy Playbook

      Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team

      The purpose of this activity is to determine IT’s approach to integration. The approach might differ slightly from transaction to transaction. However, the business’ approach to transactions should give insight into the general integration 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 integration.
      2. Review and discuss the highlights and drawbacks of each type of integration.
      3. Use Info-Tech’s Integration Posture Selection Framework on the next slide to select the integration 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 integration best helps obtain these benefits?

      Record the results in the M&A Buy Playbook.

      Integration Posture Selection Framework

      Business M&A Strategy

      Resultant Technology Strategy

      M&A Magnitude (% of Acquirer Assets, Income, or Market Value)

      IT Integration Posture

      A. Horizontal Adopt One Model ‹10% Absorption
      10 to 75% Absorption or Best-of-Breed
      ›75% Best-of-Breed
      B. Vertical Create Links Between Critical Systems Any
      • Preservation (Differentiated Functions)
      • Absorption or Best-of-Breed (Non-Differentiated Functions)
      C. Conglomerate Independent Model Any Preservation
      D. Hybrid: Horizontal & Conglomerate Independent Model Any Preservation

      2.2.2 Conduct a RACI

      1-2 hours

      Input: IT capabilities, Transition team, Integration strategy

      Output: Completed RACI for transition team

      Materials: Reference architecture, Organizational structure, Flip charts/whiteboard, Markers, M&A Buy 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 purchase or acquisition. For example:
        • Communicate with the company M&A team.
        • Identify critical IT risks that could impact the organization after the transaction.
        • Identify key artifacts to collect and review during due diligence.
      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 Buy 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 integration strategy, RACI

      Output: IT’s M&A communication plan

      Materials: Flip charts/whiteboard, Markers, RACI, M&A Buy 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 Buy 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 Buy 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 they have to assess the IT organization of a potential purchase. As a result, having a standardized template to quickly gauge the value of the business can be critical.

      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 their employees.
      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.

      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 acquisition

      Materials: M&A Buy Playbook

      Participants: IT executive/CIO

      The purpose of this activity is to assess the organization(s) that your organization is considering purchasing.

      1. Complete the Historical Valuation Worksheet in the M&A Buy Playbook to understand the type of IT organization that your company may inherit and need to integrate with.
        • 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 should be targeted for the acquisition.

      Record the results in the M&A Buy 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 growth transactions

      Key outcomes from the Discovery & Strategy phase
      • Be prepared to analyze and recommend potential organizations that the business can acquire or merge with, using a strong program plan that can be repeated across transactions.
      • 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 integration strategy framework
      • Conduct a RACI for key transaction tasks for the transaction team
      • Document the communication plan

      M&A Buy 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 Growth Opportunities
      • 2.1 Establish the M&A Program Plan
      • 2.2 Prepare IT to Engage in the Acquisition
      • 3.1 Assess the Target Organization
      • 3.2 Prepare to Integrate
      • 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
      • Identify data room artifacts
      • Assess technical debt
      • Valuate the target IT organization
      • Assess culture
      • Prioritize integration tasks
      • Establish the integration roadmap
      • Identify the needed workforce supply
      • Estimate integration 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
      • Prospective IT 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 IntegrationAssess the Target Organization(s)Create the Valuation FrameworkPlan the Integration RoadmapNext Steps and Wrap-Up (offsite)

      Activities

      • 0.1 Identify the rationale for the company's decisions to pursue an acquisition.
      • 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 acquisition.
      • 1.2 Identify pain points and opportunities tied to the acquisition.
      • 1.3 Establish the integration strategy.
      • 1.4 Create the due diligence charter.
      • 2.1 Create a list of IT artifacts to be reviewed in the data room.
      • 2.2 Conduct a technical debt assessment.
      • 2.3 Assess the current culture and identify the goal culture.
      • 2.4 Identify the needed workforce supply.
      • 3.1 Valuate the target organization’s data.
      • 3.2 Valuate the target organization’s applications.
      • 3.3 Valuate the target organization’s infrastructure.
      • 3.4 Valuate the target organization’s risk and security.
      • 3.5 Combine individual valuations to make a single framework.
      • 4.1 Prioritize integration tasks.
      • 4.2 Establish the integration roadmap.
      • 4.3 Establish and align project metrics with identified tasks.
      • 4.4 Estimate integration 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. Integration strategy
      3. Due diligence charter
      1. Data room artifacts
      2. Technical debt assessment
      3. Culture assessment
      4. Workforce supply identified
      1. IT valuation framework to assess target organization(s)
      1. Integration roadmap and associated resourcing
      1. Acquisition integration strategy for IT

      What is the Due Diligence & Preparation phase?

      Mid-transaction state

      The Due Diligence & Preparation phase during an acquisition is a critical time for IT. If IT fails to proactively participate in this phase, IT will have to merely react to integration expectations set by the business.

      While not all IT organizations are able to participate in this phase, the evolving nature of M&As to be driven by digital and technological capabilities increases the rationale for IT being at the table. Identifying critical IT risks, which will inevitably be business risks, begins during the due diligence phase.

      This is also the opportunity for IT to plan how it will execute the planned integration strategy. Having access to critical information only available in data rooms will further enable IT to successfully plan and execute the acquisition to deliver the value the business is seeking through a growth transaction.

      Goal: To thoroughly evaluate all potential risks associated with the organization(s) being pursued and create a detailed plan for integrating the IT environments

      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 decisions to pursue an acquisition and what opportunities or pain points the acquisition should alleviate.
      • Identify the key roles for the transaction team.
      • Identify the M&A governance.
      • Determine target metrics.
      • Select an integration 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

      Assess the Target Organization

      Activities

      • 3.1.1 Drive value with a due diligence charter
      • 3.1.2 Identify data room artifacts
      • 3.1.3 Assess technical debt
      • 3.1.4 Valuate the target IT organization
      • 3.1.5 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 actively evaluate the target organization being pursued for acquisition.

      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 integration strategy framework, RACI of key transaction tasks for the transaction team

      Output: IT Due Diligence Charter

      Materials: M&A Buy 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 Buy 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
        • Integration strategy
        • Acquisition 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 Buy Playbook.

      3.1.2 Identify data room artifacts

      4 hours

      Input: Future-state operating model, M&A governance, Target metrics, Selected integration strategy framework, RACI of key transaction tasks for the transaction team

      Output: List of items to acquire and review in the data room

      Materials: Critical domain lists on following slides, M&A Buy Playbook

      Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team, Transition team

      The purpose of this activity is to create a list of the key artifacts that should be asked for and reviewed 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. This information should be directed to the target organization.
      2. IT leadership may or may not be asked to enter the data room directly. Therefore, it’s important that you clearly identify these artifacts.
      3. List each question or concern, select the associated workstream in the M&A Buy Playbook, and update the status of the information retrieval.
      4. Use the comments section to document your discoveries or concerns.

      Record the results in the M&A Buy Playbook.

      Critical domains

      Understand the key stakeholders and outputs for each domain

      Each critical domain will likely have different stakeholders who know that domain best. Communicate with these stakeholders throughout the M&A process to make sure you are getting accurate information and interpreting it correctly.

      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 integration 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)

      Assess the target organization’s technical debt

      The other organization could be costly to purchase if not yet modernizing.

      • Consider the potential costs that your business will have to spend to get the other IT organization modernized or even digital.
      • This will be highly affected by your planned integration strategy.
      • A best-of-breed strategy might simply mean there's little to bring over from the other organization’s environment.
      • It’s often challenging to identify a direct financial cost for technical debt. Consider direct costs but also assess categories of impact that can have a long-term effect on your business: lost customer, staff, or business partner goodwill; limited flexibility and resilience; and health, safety, and compliance impacts.
      • Use more objective measures to track subjective impact. For example, consider the number of customers who could be significantly affected by each tech debt in the next quarter.

      Focus on solving the problems you need to address.

      Analyzing technical debt has value in that the analysis can help your organization make better risk management and resource allocation decisions.

      Review these examples of technical debt

      Do you have any of these challenges?

      Applications
      • Inefficient or incomplete code
      • Fragile or obsolete systems of record that limit the implementation of new functionality
      • Out-of-date IDEs or compilers
      • Unsupported applications
      Data & Analytics
      • Data presented via API that does not conform to chosen standards (EDI, NRF-ARTS, etc.)
      • Poor data governance
      • No transformation between OLTP and the data warehouse
      • Heavy use of OLTP for reporting
      • Lack of AI model and decision governance, maintenance
      End-User Computing
      • Aging and slow equipment
      • No configuration management
      • No MDM/UEM
      Security
      • Unpatched/unpatchable systems
      • Legacy firewalls
      • No data classification system
      • “Perimeter” security architecture
      • No documented security incident response
      • No policies, or unenforced policies
      Operations
      • Incomplete, ineffective, or undocumented business continuity and disaster recovery plans
      • Insufficient backups or archiving
      • Inefficient MACD processes
      • Application sprawl with no record of installed applications or licenses
      • No ticketing or ITSM system
      • No change management process
      • No problem management process
      • No event/alert management
      Infrastructure
      • End-of-life/unsupported equipment
      • Aging power or cooling systems
      • Water- or halon-based data center fire suppression systems
      • Out-of-date firmware
      • No DR site
      • Damaged or messy cabling
      • Lack of system redundancy
      • Integrated computers on business equipment (e.g. shop floor equipment, medical equipment) running out-of-date OS/software
      Project & Portfolio Management
      • No project closure process
      • Ineffective project intake process
      • No resource management practices

      “This isn’t a philosophical exercise. Knowing what you want to get out of this analysis informs the type of technical debt you will calculate and the approach you will take.” (Scott Buchholz, CTO, Deloitte Government & Public Services Practice, The Wall Street Journal, 2015)

      3.1.3 Assess technical debt

      1-2 hours

      Input: Participant views on organizational tech debt, Five to ten key technical debts, Business impact scoring scales, Reasonable next-quarter scenarios for each technical debt, Technical debt business impact analysis

      Output: Initial list of tech debt for the target organization

      Materials: Whiteboard, Sticky notes, Technical Debt Business Impact Analysis Tool, M&A Buy Playbook

      Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Business leaders, Transition team

      The purpose of this activity is to assess the technical debt of the other IT organization. Taking on unnecessary technical debt is one of the biggest risks to the IT environment

      1. This activity can be completed by leveraging the blueprint Manage Your Technical Debt, specifically the Technical Debt Business Impact Analysis Tool. Complete the following activities in the blueprint:
        • 1.2.1 Identify your technical debt
        • 1.2.2 Select tech debt for your impact analysis
        • 2.2.2 Estimate tech debt impact
        • 2.2.3 Identify the most-critical technical debts
      2. Review examples of technical debt in the previous slide to assist you with this activity.
      3. Document the results from tab 3, Impact Analysis, in the M&A Buy Playbook if you are trying to record all artifacts related to the transaction in one place.

      Record the results in the M&A Buy Playbook.

      How to valuate an IT environment

      And why it matters so much

      • Valuating the target organization’s IT environment is a critical step to fully understand what it might be worth. Business partners are often not in the position to valuate the IT aspects to the degree that you would be.
      • The business investments in IT can be directly translated to a value amount. Meaning 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 can be 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.

      The IT valuation conducted during due diligence can have a significant impact on the final financials of the transaction for the business.

      3.1.4 Valuate the target IT organization

      1 day

      Input: Valuation of data, Valuation of applications, Valuation of infrastructure and operations, Valuation of security and risk

      Output: Valuation of target organization’s IT

      Materials: Relevant templates/tools, Capital budget, Operating budget, M&A Buy Playbook

      Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Prospective IT organization

      The purpose of this activity is to valuate the other IT organization.

      1. Review each of slides 42 to 45 to generate a valuation of IT’s data, applications, infrastructure, and security and risk. These valuations consider several tangible and intangible factors and result in a final dollar amount. For more information on this activity, review Activity 1.2.1 from the Proactive phase.
      2. Identify financial amounts for each critical area and add the financial output to the summary slide in the M&A Buy Playbook.
      3. Compare this information against your own IT organization’s valuation.
        1. Does it add value to your IT organization?
        2. Is there too much risk to accept if this transaction goes through?

      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 Buy Playbook.

      Culture should not be overlooked, especially as it relates to the integration 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 integration 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-integration?

      3.1.5 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, M&A Buy Playbook

      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 both organizations. More importantly, your IT organization can select its desired IT culture for the long term if it does not already exist.

      1. Complete this activity by leveraging the blueprint Fix Your IT Culture, specifically the IT Culture Diagnostic. 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.
      2. Document the results from tab 3, Results, in the M&A Buy Playbook if you are trying to record all artifacts related to the transaction in one place.
      3. Repeat the activity for the target organization.
      4. Leverage the information to determine what the goal for the culture of IT will be post-integration if it will differ from the current culture.

      Record the results in the M&A Buy Playbook.

      Due Diligence & Preparation

      Step 3.2

      Prepare to Integrate

      Activities

      • 3.2.1 Prioritize integration tasks
      • 3.2.2 Establish the integration roadmap
      • 3.2.3 Identify the needed workforce supply
      • 3.2.4 Estimate integration costs
      • 3.2.5 Create an employee transition plan
      • 3.2.6 Create functional workplans for employees
      • 3.2.7 Align project metrics with identified tasks

      This step involves the following participants:

      • IT executive/CIO
      • IT senior leadership
      • Transition team
      • Company M&A team

      Outcomes of Step

      Have an established plan of action toward integration across all domains and a strategy toward resources.

      Don’t underestimate the importance of integration preparation

      Integration is the process of combining the various components of one or more organizations into a single organization.

      80% of integration should happen within the first two years. (Source: CIO Dive)

      70% of M&A IT integrations fail due to components that could and should be addressed at the beginning. (Source: The Wall Street Journal, 2019)

      Info-Tech Insight

      Integration is not rationalization. Once the organization has integrated, it can prepare to rationalize the IT environment.

      Integration needs

      Identify your domain needs to support the target technology environment

      Set up a meeting with your IT due diligence team to:

      • Address data, applications, infrastructure, and other domain gaps.
      • 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 your organization and the target organization.
      • Identify the IT people and process gaps, redundancies, and initiatives.
      • Determine your infrastructure needs and identify redundancies.
        • Does IT have the infrastructure to support the applications and business capabilities of the resultant enterprise?
        • Identify any gaps between the current infrastructure in both organizations and the infrastructure required in the resultant enterprise.
        • Identify any redundancies.
        • Determine the appropriate IT integration 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 integration.

      Integration implications

      Understand the implications for integration with respect to each target technology environment

      Domain

      Independent Models

      Create Links Between Critical Systems

      Move Key Capabilities to Common Systems

      Adopt One Model

      Data & Analytics

      • Consider data sources that might need to be combined (e.g. financials, email lists, internet).
      • Understand where each organization will warehouse its data and how it will be managed in a cost-effective manner.
      • Consider your reporting and transactional needs. Initially systems may remain separate, but eventually they will need to be merged.
      • Analyze whether or not the data types are compatible between companies.
      • Understand the critical data needs and the complexity of integration activities.
      • Consider your reporting and transactional needs. Initially systems may remain separate, but eventually they will need to be merged.
      • Focus on the master data domains that represent the core of your business.
      • Assess the value, size, location, and cleanliness of the target organization’s data sets.
      • Determine the data sets that will be migrated to capture expected synergies and drive core capabilities while addressing how other data sets will be maintained and managed.
      • Decide which applications to keep and which to terminate. This includes setting timelines for application retirement.
      • Establish interim linkages and common interfaces for applications while major migrations occur.

      Applications

      • Establish whether or not there are certain critical applications that still need to be linked (e.g. email, financials).
      • Leverage the unique strengths and functionalities provided by the applications used by each organization.
      • Confirm that adequate documentation and licensing exists.
      • Decide which critical applications need to be linked versus which need to be kept separate to drive synergies. For example, financial, email, and CRM may need to be linked, while certain applications may remain distinct.
      • Pay particular attention to the extent to which systems relating to customers, products, orders, and shipments need to be integrated.
      • Determine the key capabilities that require support from the applications identified by business process owners.
      • Assess which major applications need to be adopted by both organizations, based on the M&A goals.
      • Establish interim linkages and common interfaces for applications while major migrations occur.
      • Decide which applications to keep and which to terminate. This includes setting timelines for application retirement.
      • Establish interim linkages and common interfaces for applications while major migrations occur.

      Integration implications (continued)

      Understand the implications for integration with respect to each target technology environment

      Domain

      Independent Models

      Create Links Between Critical Systems

      Move Key Capabilities to Common Systems

      Adopt One Model

      Infrastructure

      • Assess the infrastructure demands created by retaining separate models (e.g. separate domains, voice, network integration).
      • Evaluate whether or not there are redundant data centers that could be consolidated to reduce costs.
      • Assess the infrastructure demands created by retaining separate models (e.g. separate domains, voice, network integration).
      • Evaluate whether or not there are redundant data centers that could be consolidated to reduce costs.
      • Evaluate whether certain infrastructure components, such as data centers, can be consolidated to support the new model while also eliminating redundancies. This will help reduce costs.
      • Assess which infrastructure components need to be kept versus which need to be terminated to support the new application portfolio. Keep in mind that increasing the transaction volume on a particular application increases the infrastructure capacity that is required for that application.
      • Extend the network to integrate additional locations.

      IT People & Processes

      • Retain workers from each IT department who possess knowledge of key products, services, and legacy systems.
      • Consider whether there are redundancies in staffing that could be eliminated.
      • The IT processes of each organization will most likely remain separate.
      • Consider the impact of the target organization on your IT processes.
      • Retain workers from each IT department who possess knowledge of key products, services, and legacy systems.
      • Consider whether there are redundancies in staffing that could be eliminated.
      • Consider how critical IT processes of the target organization fit with your current IT processes.
      • Identify which redundant staff members should be terminated by focusing on the key skills that will be necessary to support the common systems.
      • If there is overlap with the IT processes in both organizations, you may wish to map out both processes to get a sense for how they might work together.
      • Assess what processes will be prioritized to support IT strategies.
      • Identify which redundant staff members should be terminated by focusing on the key skills that will be necessary to support the prioritized IT processes.

      Integration implications (continued)

      Understand the implications for integration with respect to each target technology environment

      Domain

      Independent Models

      Create Links Between Critical Systems

      Move Key Capabilities to Common Systems

      Adopt One Model

      Leadership/IT Executive

      • Have insight into the goals and direction of the organization’s leadership. Make sure that a communication path has been established to receive information and provide feedback.
      • The decentralized model will require some form of centralization and strong governance processes to enable informed decisions.
      • Ensure that each area can deliver on its needs while not overstepping the goals and direction of the organization.
      • This will help with integration in the sense that front-line employees can see a single organization beginning to form.
      • In this model, there is the opportunity to select elements of each leadership style and strategy that will work for the larger organization.
      • Leadership can provide a single and unified approach to how the strategic goals will be executed.
      • More often than not, this would be the acquiring organization’s strategic direction.

      Vendors

      • Determine which contracts the target organization currently has in place.
      • Having different vendors in place will not be a bad model if it makes sense.
      • Spend time reviewing the contracts and ensuring that each organization has the right contracts to succeed.
      • Identify what redundancies might exist (ERPs, for example) and determine if the vendor would be willing to terminate one contract or another.
      • Through integration, it might be possible to engage in one set of contract negotiations for a single application or technology.
      • Identify whether there are opportunities to combine contracts or if they must remain completely separated until the end of the term.
      • In an effort to capitalize on the contracts working well, reduce the contracts that might be hindering the organization.
      • Speak to the vendor offering the contract.
      • Going forward, ensure the contracts are negotiated to include clauses to allow for easier and more cost-effective integration.

      Integration implications (continued)

      Understand the implications for integration with respect to each target technology environment

      Domain

      Independent Models

      Create Links Between Critical Systems

      Move Key Capabilities to Common Systems

      Adopt One Model

      Security

      • Both organizations would need to have a process for securing their organization.
      • Sharing and accessing information might be more difficult, as each organization would need to keep the other organization separate to ensure the organization remains secure.
      • Creating standard policies and procedures that each organization must adhere to would be critical here (for example, multifactor authentication).
      • Establish a single path of communication between the two organizations, ensuring reliable and secure data and information sharing.
      • Leverage the same solutions to protect the business as a whole from internal and external threats.
      • Identify opportunities where there might be user points of failure that could be addressed early in the process.
      • Determine what method of threat detection and response will best support the business and select that method to apply to the entire organization, both original and newly acquired.

      Projects

      • Projects remain ongoing as they were prior to the integration.
      • Some projects might be made redundant after the initial integration is over.
      • Re-evaluate the projects after integration to ensure they continue to deliver on the business’ strategic direction.
      • Determine which projects are similar to one another and identify opportunities to leverage business needs and solutions for each organization where possible.
      • Review project histories to determine the rationale for and success of projects that could be reused in either organization going forward.
      • Determine which projects should remain ongoing and which projects could wait to be implemented or could be completely stopped.
      • There might be certain modernization projects ongoing that cannot be stopped.
      • However, for all other projects, embrace a single portfolio.
      • Completely reduce or remove all ongoing projects from the one organization and continue with only the projects of the other organization.
      • Add in new projects when they arise as needed.

      3.2.1 Prioritize integration tasks

      2 hours

      Input: Integration tasks, Transition team, M&A RACI

      Output: Prioritized integration list

      Materials: Integration task checklist, Integration roadmap

      Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team

      The purpose of this activity is to prioritize the different integration 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. Download the SharePoint or Excel version of the M&A Integration Project Management Tool. Identify which integration tasks you want as part of your project plan. Alter or remove any tasks that are irrelevant to your organization. Add in tasks you think are missing.
      2. 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).
      3. 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 Integration Project Management Tool (SharePoint).

      Record the updates in the M&A Integration Project Management Tool (Excel).

      Integration checklists

      Prerequisite Checklist
      • Build the project plan for integration 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 acquisition or purchase
      • Develop IT's purchasing 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
      • Assess workforce demand and supply
      • Plan and communicate potential layoffs
      • Create an employee transition plan
      • Identify the IT investment
      Business
      • Design an enterprise architecture
      • Document your business architecture
      • Identify and assess all of IT's risks
      Leadership/IT Executive
      • Build an IT budget
      • Structure operating budget
      • Structure capital budget
      • Identify the needed workforce demand vs. capacity
      • Establish and monitor key metrics
      • Communicate value realized/cost savings
      Data
      • Confirm data strategy
      • Confirm data governance
      • Data architecture
      • Data sources
      • Data storage (on-premises vs. cloud)
      • Enterprise content management
      • Compatibility of data types between organizations
      • Cleanliness/usability of target organization data sets
      • Identify data sets that need to be combined to capture synergies/drive core capabilities
      • Reporting and analytics capabilities
      Applications
      • Prioritize and address critical applications
        • ERP
        • CRM
        • Email
        • HRIS
        • Financial
        • Sales
        • Risk
        • Security
      • Leverage application rationalization framework to determine applications to keep, terminate, or create
      • Develop method of integrating applications
      • Model critical applications that have dependencies on one another
      • Identify the infrastructure capacity required to support critical applications
      Operations
      • Communicate helpdesk/service desk information
      • Manage sales access to customer data
      • Determine locations and hours of operation
      • Consolidate phone lists and extensions
      • Synchronize email address books

      Integration checklists (continued)

      Infrastructure
      • Determine single network access
      • 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
      Vendors
      • Establish a sustainable vendor management office
      • Review vendor landscape
      • Identify warranty options
      • Rationalize vendor services and solutions
      • Identify opportunities to mature the security architecture
      People
      • Design an IT operating model
      • Redesign your IT organizational structure
      • Conduct a RACI
      • Conduct a culture assessment and identify goal IT culture
      • Build an IT employee engagement program
      • Determine critical roles and systems/process/products they support
      • Create a list of employees to be terminated
      • Create employee transition plans
      • Create functional workplans
      Projects
      • Stop duplicate or unnecessary target organization projects
      • Communicate project intake process
      • Prioritize projects
      Products & Services
      • Ensure customer services requirements are met
      • Ensure customer interaction requirements are met
      • Select a solution for product lifecycle management
      Security
      • Conduct a security assessment of target organization
      • 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 terminated
      • Identify process expectations from target organization
      • Establish a communication plan
      • Develop a change management process
      • Establish/review IT policies

      3.2.2 Establish the integration roadmap

      2 hours

      Input: Prioritized integration tasks, Employee transition plan, Integration RACI, Costs for activities, Activity owners

      Output: Integration roadmap

      Materials: M&A Integration Project Plan Tool (SharePoint), M&A Integration Project Plan Tool (Excel)

      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 integration process. Using the information gathered in previous activities, you can create a roadmap that will ensure a smooth integration.

      1. Leverage our M&A Integration Project Management Tool to track critical elements of the integration 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.
        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 integration 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 Integration Project Management Tool (SharePoint).

      Record the updates in the M&A Integration Project Management Tool (Excel).

      Integration 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 Integration Project Plan Tool (SharePoint) .wsp file from the Mergers & Acquisitions: The Buy 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 Standard Site Collection features.
      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.

      Participate in active workforce planning to transition employees

      The chosen IT operating model, primary M&A goals, and any planned changes to business strategy will dramatically impact IT staffing and workforce planning efforts.

      Visualization of the three aspects of 'IT workforce planning', as listed below.

      IT workforce planning

      • Primary M&A goals
        If the goal of the M&A is cost cutting, then workforce planning will be necessary to identify labor redundancies.
      • Changes to business strategy
        If business strategy will change after the merger, then workforce planning will typically be more involved than if business strategy will not change.
      • Integration strategy
        For independent models, workforce planning will typically be unnecessary.
        For connection of essential systems or absorption, workforce planning will likely be an involved, time-consuming process.
      1. Estimate the headcount you will need through the end of the M&A transition period.
      2. Outline the process you will use to assess staff for roles that have more than one candidate.
      3. Review employees in each department to determine the best fit for each role.
      4. Determine whether terminations will happen all together or in waves.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Don’t be a short-term thinker when it comes to workforce planning! IT teams that only consider the headcount needed on day one of the new entity will end up scrambling to find skilled resources to fill workforce gaps later in the transition period.

      3.2.3 Identify the needed workforce supply

      3-4 hours

      Input: IT strategy, Prioritized integration tasks

      Output: A clear indication of how many resources are required for each role and the number of resources that the organization actually has

      Materials: Resource Management Supply-Demand Calculator

      Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Target organization employees, Company M&A team, Transition team

      The purpose of this activity is to determine the anticipated amount of work that will be required to support projects (like integration), administrative, and keep-the-lights-on activities.

      1. Download the Resource Management Supply-Demand Calculator.
      2. The calculator requires minimal up-front staff participation: You can obtain meaningful results with participation from as few as one person with insight on the distribution of your resources and their average work week or month.
      3. The calculator will yield a report that shows a breakdown of your annual resource supply and demand, as well as the gap between the supply and demand. Further insight on project and non-project supply and demand are provided.
      4. Repeat the tool several times to identify the needs of your IT environment for day one, day 30/100, and year one. Anticipate that these will change over time. Also, do not forget to obtain this information from the target organization. Given that you will be integrating, it’s important to know how many staff they have in which roles.
      5. **For additional information, please review slides starting from slide 44 in Establish Realistic IT Resource Management Practices to see how to use the tool.

      Record the results in the Resource Management Supply-Demand Calculator.

      Resource Supply-Demand Calculator Output Example

      Example of a 'Resource Management Supply-Demand Analysis Report' with charts and tables measuring Annualized Resource Supply and Demand, Resource Capacity Confidence, Project Capacity, and combinations of those metrics.

      Resource Capacity Confidence. This figure is based on your confidence in supply confidence, demand stability, and the supply-demand ratio.

      Importance of estimating integration costs

      Change is the key driver of integration costs

      Integration 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 integration is a success.
      Integration costs vary by industry type.
      • Certain industries may have integration costs made up of mostly one type, differing from other industries, due to the complexity and different demands of the transaction. For example:
        • Healthcare integration 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 integration costs due to most transactions occurring within the same sector rather than as a cross-sector investment. For example, oil and gas acquisitions tend to be for oil fields and rigs (strategic fixed assets), which can easily be added to the buyer’s portfolio.

      Integration costs are more related to the degree of change required than the size of the transaction.

      3.2.4 Estimate integration costs

      3-4 hours

      Input: Integration 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 integration

      Materials: Integration task checklist, Integration roadmap, M&A Buy 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 integration. It’s important to ensure a realistic figure is identified and communicated 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 Buy 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 Buy Playbook.

      Employee transition planning

      Considering employee impact will be a huge component to ensure successful integration

      • 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 integration 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.

      3.2.5 Create an employee transition plan

      3-4 hours

      Input: IT strategy, IT organizational design, Resource Supply-Demand Calculator output

      Output: Employee transition plans

      Materials: M&A Buy 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 Buy Playbook.

      3.2.6 Create functional workplans for employees

      3-4 hours

      Input: Prioritized integration tasks, Employee transition plan, Integration RACI, Costs for activities, Activity owners

      Output: Employee functional workplans

      Materials: M&A Buy 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 (3.2.5) 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 Buy 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 Buy Playbook.

      Metrics for integration

      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 integration
      • $ Accurate IT budget estimates
      • % Revenue growth directly tied to IT delivery
      • % Profit margin growth

      3.2.7 Align project metrics with identified tasks

      3-4 hours

      Input: Prioritized integration tasks, Employee transition plan, Integration RACI, Costs for activities, Activity owners, M&A goals

      Output: Integration-specific metrics to measure success

      Materials: Roadmap template, M&A Buy 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 integration 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 Buy Playbook.

      By the end of this mid-transaction phase you should:

      Have successfully evaluated the target organization’s IT environment, escalated the acquisition risks and benefits, and prepared IT for integration.

      Key outcomes from the Due Diligence & Preparation phase
      • Participate in due diligence activities to accurately valuate the target organization(s) and determine if there are critical risks or benefits the current organization should be aware of.
      • Create an integration roadmap that considers the tasks that will need to be completed and the resources required to support integration.
      Key deliverables from the Due Diligence & Preparation phase
      • Establish a due diligence charter
      • Create a list of data room artifacts and engage in due diligence
      • Assess the target organization’s technical debt
      • Valuate the target IT organization
      • Assess and plan for culture
      • Prioritize integration tasks
      • Establish the integration roadmap
      • Identify the needed workforce supply
      • Estimate integration costs
      • Create employee transition plans
      • Create functional workplans for employees
      • Align project metrics with identified tasks

      M&A Buy 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 Growth Opportunities
      • 2.1 Establish the M&A Program Plan
      • 2.2 Prepare IT to Engage in the Acquisition
      • 3.1 Assess the Target Organization
      • 3.2 Prepare to Integrate
      • 4.1 Execute the Transaction
      • 4.2 Reflection and Value Realization

      This phase will walk you through the following activities:

      • Rationalize the IT environment
      • Continually update the project plan
      • Confirm integration costs
      • Review IT’s transaction value
      • Conduct a transaction and integration 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 Integration

      Day 4

      Establish the Transaction FoundationDiscover the Motivation for IntegrationPlan the Integration RoadmapPrepare Employees for the TransitionEngage in IntegrationAssess the Transaction Outcomes (Must be within 30 days of transaction date)

      Activities

      • 0.1 Understand the rationale for the company's decisions to pursue an acquisition.
      • 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 acquisition.
      • 1.2 Identify pain points and opportunities tied to the acquisition.
      • 1.3 Establish the integration strategy.
      • 1.4 Prioritize Integration tasks.
      • 2.1 Establish the integration roadmap.
      • 2.2 Establish and align project metrics with identified tasks.
      • 2.3 Estimate integration costs.
      • 3.1 Assess the current culture and identify the goal culture.
      • 3.2 Identify the needed workforce supply.
      • 3.3 Create an employee transition plan.
      • 3.4 Create functional workplans for employees.
      • I.1 Complete the integration by regularly updating the project plan.
      • I.2 Begin to rationalize the IT environment where possible and necessary.
      • 4.1 Confirm integration costs.
      • 4.2 Review IT’s transaction value.
      • 4.3 Conduct a transaction and integration 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. Integration strategy
      1. Integration roadmap and associated resourcing
      1. Culture assessment
      2. Workforce supply identified
      3. Employee transition plan
      1. Rationalized IT environment
      2. Updated integration project plan
      1. SWOT of transaction
      2. M&A Buy 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 integration tasks. Set the organization up for success by having an integration roadmap. Retaining critical IT staff throughout this process will also be imperative to the overall transaction success.

      Throughout the integration process, roadblocks will arise and need to be addressed. However, by ensuring that employees, technology, and processes are planned for ahead of the transaction, you as IT will be able to weather those unexpected concerns with greater ease.

      Now that you as an IT leader have engaged in an acquisition, demonstrating the value IT was able to provide to the process is critical to establishing a positive and respected relationship with other senior leaders in the business. Be prepared to identify the positives and communicate this value to advance the business’ perception of IT.

      Goal: To carry out the planned integration 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 an acquisition and what opportunities or pain points the acquisition should alleviate.
      • Identify the key roles for the transaction team.
      • Identify the M&A governance.
      • Determine target metrics and align to project tasks.
      • Select an integration strategy framework.
      • Conduct a RACI for key transaction tasks for the transaction team.
      • Create a list of data room artifacts and engage in due diligence (directly or indirectly).
      • Prioritize integration tasks.
      • Establish the integration roadmap.
      • Identify the needed workforce supply.
      • 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.
      • Be able to valuate the IT environment and communicate IT's value to the business.
      • Establish a due diligence charter.
      • Assess the target organization’s technical debt.
      • Valuate the target IT organization.
      • Assess and plan for culture.
      • Estimate integration costs.
      • Create functional workplans for employees.

      Integration checklists

      Prerequisite Checklist
      • Build the project plan for integration 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 acquisition or purchase
      • Develop IT's purchasing 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
      • Assess workforce demand and supply
      • Plan and communicate potential layoffs
      • Create an employee transition plan
      • Identify the IT investment
      Business
      • Design an enterprise architecture
      • Document your business architecture
      • Identify and assess all of IT's risks
      Leadership/IT Executive
      • Build an IT budget
      • Structure operating budget
      • Structure capital budget
      • Identify the needed workforce demand vs. capacity
      • Establish and monitor key metrics
      • Communicate value realized/cost savings
      Data
      • Confirm data strategy
      • Confirm data governance
      • Data architecture
      • Data sources
      • Data storage (on-premises vs. cloud)
      • Enterprise content management
      • Compatibility of data types between organizations
      • Cleanliness/usability of target organization data sets
      • Identify data sets that need to be combined to capture synergies/drive core capabilities
      • Reporting and analytics capabilities
      Applications
      • Prioritize and address critical applications
        • ERP
        • CRM
        • Email
        • HRIS
        • Financial
        • Sales
        • Risk
        • Security
      • Leverage application rationalization framework to determine applications to keep, terminate, or create
      • Develop method of integrating applications
      • Model critical applications that have dependencies on one another
      • Identify the infrastructure capacity required to support critical applications
      Operations
      • Communicate helpdesk/service desk information
      • Manage sales access to customer data
      • Determine locations and hours of operation
      • Consolidate phone lists and extensions
      • Synchronize email address books

      Integration checklists (continued)

      Infrastructure
      • Determine single network access
      • 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
      Vendors
      • Establish a sustainable vendor management office
      • Review vendor landscape
      • Identify warranty options
      • Rationalize vendor services and solutions
      • Identify opportunities to mature the security architecture
      People
      • Design an IT operating model
      • Redesign your IT organizational structure
      • Conduct a RACI
      • Conduct a culture assessment and identify goal IT culture
      • Build an IT employee engagement program
      • Determine critical roles and systems/process/products they support
      • Create a list of employees to be terminated
      • Create employee transition plans
      • Create functional workplans
      Projects
      • Stop duplicate or unnecessary target organization projects
      • Communicate project intake process
      • Prioritize projects
      Products & Services
      • Ensure customer services requirements are met
      • Ensure customer interaction requirements are met
      • Select a solution for product lifecycle management
      Security
      • Conduct a security assessment of target organization
      • 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 terminated
      • Identify process expectations from target organization
      • Establish a communication plan
      • Develop a change management process
      • Establish/review IT policies

      Execution & Value Realization

      Step 4.1

      Execute the Transaction

      Activities

      • 4.1.1 Rationalize the IT environment
      • 4.1.2 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 on the integration and strategize how to rationalize the two (or more) IT environments and update the project plan, strategizing against any roadblocks as they might come.

      Compile –› Assess –› Rationalize

      Access to critical information often does not happen until day one

      • As the transaction comes to a close and the target organization becomes the acquired organization, it’s important to start working on the rationalization of your organization.
      • One of the most important elements will be to have a complete understanding of the acquired organization’s IT environment. Specifically, assess the technology, people, and processes that might exist.
      • This rationalization will be heavily dependent on your planned integration strategy determined in the Discovery & Strategy phase of the process.
      • If your IT organization was not involved until after that phase, then determine whether your organization plans on remaining in its original state, taking on the acquired organization’s state, or forming a best-of-breed state by combining elements.
      • To execute on this, however, a holistic understanding of the new IT environment is required.

      Some Info-Tech resources to support this initiative:

      • Reduce and Manage Your Organization’s Insider Threat Risk
      • Build an Application Rationalization Framework
      • Rationalize Your Collaboration Tools
      • Consolidate IT Asset Management
      • Build Effective Enterprise Integration on the Back of Business Process
      • Consolidate Your Data Centers

      4.1.1 Rationalize the IT environment

      6-12 months

      Input: RACI chart, List of critical applications, List of vendor contracts, List of infrastructure assets, List of data assets

      Output: Rationalized IT environment

      Materials: Software Terms & Conditions Evaluation Tool

      Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Vendor management

      The purpose of this activity is to rationalize the IT environment to reduce and eliminate redundant technology.

      1. Compile a list of the various applications and vendor contracts from the acquired organization and the original organization.
      2. Determine where there is repetition. Have a member of the vendor management team review those contracts and identify cost-saving opportunities.

      This will not be a quick and easy activity to complete. It will require strong negotiation on the behalf of the vendor management team.

      For additional information and support for this activity, see the blueprint Master Contract Review and Negotiations for Software Agreements.

      4.1.2 Continually update the project plan

      Reoccurring basis following transition

      Input: Prioritized integration tasks, Integration RACI, Activity owners

      Output: Updated integration project plan

      Materials: M&A Integration Project Management Tool

      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 and review the status of the various integration 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 Integration Project Management Tool (SharePoint).

      Record the updates in the M&A Integration Project Management Tool (Excel).

      Execution & Value Realization

      Step 4.2

      Reflection and Value Realization

      Activities

      • 4.2.1 Confirm integration costs
      • 4.2.2 Review IT’s transaction value
      • 4.2.3 Conduct a transaction and integration 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 on how to improve future acquisition transactions.

      4.2.1 Confirm integration costs

      3-4 hours

      Input: Integration tasks, Transition team, Previous RACI, Estimated costs

      Output: Actual integration costs

      Materials: M&A Buy Playbook

      Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, IT transaction team, Company M&A team

      The purpose of this activity is to confirm the associated costs around integration. While the integration costs would have been estimated previously, it’s important to confirm the costs that were associated with the integration 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 3.2.4, 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 Buy Playbook.

      Track synergy capture through the IT integration

      The ultimate goal of the M&A is to achieve and deliver deal objectives. Early in the M&A, IT must identify, prioritize, and execute upon synergies that deliver value to the business and its shareholders. Continue to measure IT’s contribution toward achieving the organization’s M&A goals throughout the integration by keeping track of cost savings and synergies that have been achieved. When these achievements happen, communicate them and celebrate success.

      1. Define Synergy Metrics: Select metrics to track synergies through the integration.
        1. You can track value by looking at percentages of improvement in process-level metrics depending on the synergies being pursued.
        2. For example, if the synergy being pursued is increasing asset utilization, metrics could range from capacity to revenue generated through increased capacity.
      2. Prioritize Synergistic 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 Synergy Captures: Develop a detailed workplan to resource the roadmap and track synergy captures as the initiatives are undertaken.

      Once 80% of the necessary synergies are realized, executive pressure will diminish. However, IT must continue to work toward the technology end state to avoid delayed progression.

      4.2.2 Review IT’s transaction value

      3-4 hours

      Input: Prioritized integration tasks, Integration RACI, Activity owners, M&A company goals

      Output: Transaction value

      Materials: M&A Buy 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 earlier, determine from the company M&A team what those metrics might be. Review activity 3.2.7 for more information on metrics.
      2. Identify whether the metric (which should be used to 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 engaging 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 that were set out by the business.

      Record the results in the M&A Buy Playbook.

      4.2.3 Conduct a transaction and integration SWOT

      2 hours

      Input: Integration costs, Retention rates, Value 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 various 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 Buy Playbook.

      M&A Buy 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 in future transactions.
      • Critically examine the M&A Buy 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 acquisition 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 integration SWOT

      Output: Refined M&A playbook

      Materials: M&A Buy 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 Buy Playbook, and it should reflect the most successful outcome for you in your organization.

      Record the results in the M&A Buy Playbook.

      By the end of this post-transaction phase you should:

      Have completed the integration 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 integration 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
      • Rationalize the IT environment
      • Continually update the project plan for completion
      • Confirm integration costs
      • Review IT’s transaction value
      • Conduct a transaction and integration SWOT
      • Review the playbook and prepare for future transactions

      Summary of Accomplishment

      Problem Solved

      Congratulations, you have completed the M&A Buy 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 an acquisition. You now have:

      • Created a standardized approach for how your IT organization should address acquisitions.
      • Evaluated the target organizations successfully and established an integration project plan.
      • Delivered on the integration 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 in case if you have to do this all again in a future transaction.

      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

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      Fricke, Pierre. “The Biggest Opportunity You’re Missing During an M&Aamp; IT Integration.” Rackspace, 4 Nov. 2020. Web.

      Garrison, David W. “Most Mergers Fail Because People Aren't Boxes.” Forbes, 24 June 2019. Web.

      Harroch, Richard. “What You Need To Know About Mergers & Acquisitions: 12 Key Considerations When Selling Your Company.” Forbes, 27 Aug. 2018. Web.

      Hope, Michele. “M&A Integration: New Ways To Contain The IT Cost Of Mergers, Acquisitions And Migrations.” Iron Mountain, n.d. Web.

      “How Agile Project Management Principles Can Modernize M&A.” Business.com, 13 April 2020. Web.

      Hull, Patrick. “Answer 4 Questions to Get a Great Mission Statement.” Forbes, 10 Jan. 2013. Web.

      Kanter, Rosabeth Moss. “What We Can Learn About Unity from Hostile Takeovers.” Harvard Business Review, 12 Nov. 2020. Web.

      Koller, Tim, et al. “Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies, 7th edition.” McKinsey & Company, 2020. Web.

      Labate, John. “M&A Alternatives Take Center Stage: Survey.” The Wall Street Journal, 30 Oct. 2020. Web.

      Lerner, Maya Ber. “How to Calculate ROI on Infrastructure Automation.” DevOps.com, 1 July 2020. Web.

      Loten, Angus. “Companies Without a Tech Plan in M&A Deals Face Higher IT Costs.” The Wall Street Journal, 18 June 2019. Web.

      Low, Jia Jen. “Tackling the tech integration challenge of mergers today” Tech HQ, 6 Jan. 2020. Web.

      Lucas, Suzanne. “5 Reasons Turnover Should Scare You.” Inc. 22 March 2013. Web.

      “M&A Trends Survey: The future of M&A. Deal trends in a changing world.” Deloitte, Oct. 2020. Web.

      Maheshwari, Adi, and Manish Dabas. “Six strategies tech companies are using for successful divesting.” EY, 1 Aug. 2020. Web.

      Majaski, Christina. “Mergers and Acquisitions: What's the Difference?” Investopedia, 30 Apr. 2021.

      “Mergers & Acquisitions: Top 5 Technology Considerations.” Teksetra, 21 Jul. 2020. Web.

      “Mergers Acquisitions M&A Process.” Corporate Finance Institute, n.d. Web.

      “Mergers and acquisitions: A means to gain technology and expertise.” DLA Piper, 2020. Web.

      Nash, Kim S. “CIOs Take Larger Role in Pre-IPO Prep Work.” The Wall Street Journal, 5 March 2015. Web.

      Paszti, Laila. “Canada: Emerging Trends In Information Technology (IT) Mergers And Acquisitions.” Mondaq, 24 Oct. 2019. Web.

      Patel, Kiison. “The 8 Biggest M&A Failures of All Time” Deal Room, 9 Sept. 2021. Web.

      Peek, Sean, and Paula Fernandes. “What Is a Vision Statement?” Business News Daily, 7 May 2020. Web.

      Ravid, Barak. “Tech execs focus on growth amid increasingly competitive M&A market.” EY, 28 April 2021. Web.

      Resch, Scott. “5 Questions with a Mergers & Acquisitions Expert.” CIO, 25 June 2019. Web.

      Salsberg, Brian. “Four tips for estimating one-time M&A integration costs.” EY, 17 Oct. 2019. Web.

      Samuels, Mark. “Mergers and acquisitions: Five ways tech can smooth the way.” ZDNet, 15 Aug. 2018. Web.

      “SAP Divestiture Projects: Options, Approach and Challenges.” Cognizant, May, 2014. Web.

      Steeves, Dave. “7 Rules for Surviving a Merger & Acquisition Technology Integration.” Steeves and Associates, 5 Feb. 2020. Web.

      Tanaszi, Margaret. “Calculating IT Value in Business Terms.” CSO, 27 May 2004. Web.

      “The CIO Playbook. Nine Steps CIOs Must Take For Successful Divestitures.” SNP, 2016. Web.

      “The Role of IT in Supporting Mergers and Acquisitions.” Cognizant, Feb. 2015. Web.

      Torres, Roberto. “M&A playbook: How to prepare for the cost, staff and tech hurdles.” CIO Dive, 14 Nov. 2019. Web.

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      Weller, Joe. “The Ultimate Guide to the M&A Process for Buyers and Sellers.” Smartsheet, 16 May 2019. Web.

      Embed Privacy and Security Culture Within Your Organization

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      • Parent Category Name: Governance, Risk & Compliance
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      Engagement with privacy and security within organizations has not kept pace with the increasing demands from regulations. As a result, organizations often find themselves saying they support privacy and security engagement but struggling to create behavioral changes in their staff.

      However, with new privacy and security requirements proliferating globally, we can’t help but wonder how much longer we can carry on with this approach.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      To truly take hold, privacy and security engagement must be supported by senior leadership, aligned with business objectives, and embedded within each of the organization’s operating groups and teams.

      Impact and Result

      • Develop a defined structure for privacy and security in the context of your organization, your obligations, and your objectives.
      • Align your business goals and strategy with privacy and security to obtain support from your senior leadership team.
      • Identify and implement a set of metrics to monitor the success of each of the six engagement enablers amongst your team.

      Embed Privacy and Security Culture Within Your Organization Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should develop a culture of privacy and security at your 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. Define privacy and security in the context of the organization

      Use the charter template to document the primary outcomes and objectives for the privacy and security engagement program within the organization and map the organizational structure to each of the respective roles to help develop a culture of privacy and security.

      • Privacy and Security Engagement Charter

      2. Map your privacy and security enablers

      This tool maps business objectives and key strategic goals to privacy and security objectives and attributes identified as a part of the overall engagement program. Leverage the alignment tool to ensure your organizational groups are mapped to their corresponding enablers and supporting metrics.

      • Privacy and Security Business Alignment Tool

      3. Identify and track your engagement indicators

      This document maps out the organization’s continued efforts in ensuring employees are engaged with privacy and security principles, promoting a strong culture of privacy and security. Use the playbook to document and present the organization’s custom plan for privacy and security culture.

      • Privacy and Security Engagement Playbook

      Infographic

      Workshop: Embed Privacy and Security Culture Within Your 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 Determine Drivers and Engagement Objectives

      The Purpose

      Understand the current privacy and security landscape in the organization.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Targeted set of drivers from both a privacy and security perspective

      Activities

      1.1 Discuss key drivers for a privacy and security engagement program.

      1.2 Identify privacy requirements and objectives.

      1.3 Identify security requirements and objectives.

      1.4 Review the business context.

      Outputs

      Understanding of the role and requirements of privacy and security in the organization

      Privacy drivers and objectives

      Security drivers and objectives

      Privacy and security engagement program objectives

      2 Align Privacy and Security With the Business

      The Purpose

      Ensure that your privacy and security engagement program is positioned to obtain the buy-in it needs through business alignment.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Direct mappings between a culture of privacy and security and the organization’s strategic and business objectives

      Activities

      2.1 Review the IT/InfoSec strategy with IT and the InfoSec team and map to business objectives.

      2.2 Review the privacy program and privacy strategic direction with the Privacy/Legal/Compliance team and map to business objectives.

      2.3 Define the four organizational groupings and map to the organization’s structure.

      Outputs

      Privacy and security objectives mapped to business strategic goals

      Mapped organizational structure to Info-Tech’s organizational groups

      Framework for privacy and security engagement program

      Initial mapping assessment within Privacy and Security Business Alignment Tool

      3 Map Privacy and Security Enablers to Organizational Groups

      The Purpose

      Make your engagement plan tactical with a set of enablers mapped to each of the organizational groups and privacy and security objectives.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Measurable indicators through the use of targeted enablers that customize the organization’s approach to privacy and security culture

      Activities

      3.1 Define the privacy enablers.

      3.2 Define the security enablers.

      3.3 Map the privacy and security enablers to organizational structure.

      3.4 Revise and complete Privacy and Security Business Alignment Tool inputs.

      Outputs

      Completed Privacy and Security Engagement Charter.

      Completed Privacy and Security Business Alignment Tool.

      4 Identify and Select KPIs and Metrics

      The Purpose

      Ensure that metrics are established to report on what the business wants to see and what security and privacy teams have planned for.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      End-to-end, comprehensive program that ensures continued employee engagement with privacy and security at all levels of the organization.

      Activities

      4.1 Segment KPIs and metrics based on categories or business, technical, and behavioral.

      4.2 Select KPIs and metrics for tracking privacy and security engagement.

      4.3 Assign ownership over KPI and metric tracking and monitoring.

      4.4 Determine reporting cadence and monitoring.

      Outputs

      KPIs and metrics identified at a business, technical, and behavioral level for employees for continued growth

      Completed Privacy and Security Engagement Playbook

      Dive Into Five Years of Security Strategies

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      • Parent Category Name: Security Strategy & Budgeting
      • Parent Category Link: /security-strategy-and-budgeting
      • As organizations build their security programs, there is often the question of what are other companies doing.
      • Part of this is a desire to know whether challenges are unique to certain companies, but also to understand how people are tackling some of their security gaps.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      Don’t just wonder what others are doing – use this report to see how companies are faring in their current state, where they want to target in their future state, and the ways they’re planning to raise their security posture.

      Impact and Result

      • Whether you’re building out your security program for the first time or are just interested in how others are faring, review insights from 66 security strategies in this report.
      • This research complements the blueprint, Build an Information Security Program, and can be used as a guide while completing that project.

      Dive Into Five Years of Security Strategies Research & Tools

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

      1. Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out what this report contains.

      [infographic]

      Take Control of Infrastructure and Operations Metrics

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      • Parent Category Name: Operations Management
      • Parent Category Link: /i-and-o-process-management
      • Measuring the business value provided by IT is very challenging.
      • You have a number of metrics, but they may not be truly meaningful, contextual, or actionable.
      • You know you need more than a single metric to tell the whole story. You also suspect that metrics from different systems combined will tell an even fuller story.
      • You are being asked to provide information from different levels of management, for different audiences, conveying different information.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Many organizations collect metrics to validate they are keeping the lights on. But the Infrastructure and Operations managers who are benefitting the most are taking steps to ensure they are getting the right metrics to help them make decisions, manage costs, and plan for change.
      • Complaints about metrics are often rooted in managers wading through too many individual metrics, wrong metrics, or data that they simply can’t trust.
      • Info-Tech surveyed and interviewed a number of Infrastructure managers, CIOs, and IT leaders to understand how they are leveraging metrics. Successful organizations are using metrics for everything from capacity planning to solving customer service issues to troubleshooting system failures.

      Impact and Result

      • Manage metrics so they don’t become time wasters and instead provide real value.
      • Identify the types of metrics you need to focus on.
      • Build a metrics process to ensure you are collecting the right metrics and getting data you can use to save time and make better decisions.

      Take Control of Infrastructure and Operations Metrics Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should implement a metrics program in your Infrastructure and Operations practice, 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. Gap analysis

      This phase will help you identify challenges that you want to avoid by implementing a metrics program, discover the main IT goals, and determine your core metrics.

      • Take Control of Infrastructure and Operations Metrics – Phase 1: Gap Analysis
      • Infra & Ops Metrics Executive Presentation

      2. Build strategy

      This phase will help you make an actionable plan to implement your metrics program, define roles and responsibilities, and communicate your metrics project across your organization and with the business division.

      • Take Control of Infrastructure and Operations Metrics – Phase 2: Build Strategy
      • Infra & Ops Metrics Definition Template
      • Infra & Ops Metrics Tracking and Reporting Tool
      • Infra & Ops Metrics Program Roles & Responsibilities Guide
      • Weekly Metrics Review With Your Staff
      • Quarterly Metrics Review With the CIO
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      Design and Build a User-Facing Service Catalog

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      • Parent Category Name: Service Management
      • Parent Category Link: /service-management
      • Business users don’t know what breadth of services are available to them.
      • It is difficult for business users to obtain useful information regarding services because they are often described in technical language.
      • Business users have unrealistic expectations of what IT can do for them.
      • There is no defined agreement on what is available, so the business assumes everything is.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Define services from the business user’s perspective, not IT’s perspective.
        • A service catalog is of no use if a user looks at it and sees a significant amount of information that doesn’t apply to them.
      • Separate the enterprise services from the Line of Business (LOB) services.
        • This will simplify the process of documenting your service definitions and make it easier for users to navigate, which leads to a higher chance of user acceptance.

      Impact and Result

      • Our program helps you organize your services in a way that is relevant to the users, and practical and manageable for IT.
      • Our approach to defining and categorizing services ensures your service catalog remains a living document. You may add or revise your service records with ease.
      • Our program creates a bridge between IT and the business. Begin transforming IT’s perception within the organization by communicating the benefits of the service catalog.

      Design and Build a User-Facing Service Catalog Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise executive brief to understand why building a Service Catalog is a good idea for your business, and how following our approach will help you accomplish this difficult task.

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

      1. Launch the project

      The Launch the Project phase will walk through completing Info-Tech's project charter template. This phase will help build a balanced project team, create a change message and communication plan, and achieve buy-in from key stakeholders.

      • Design & Build a User-Facing Service Catalog – Phase 1: Launch the Project
      • Service Catalog Project Charter

      2. Identify and define enterprise services

      The Identify and Define Enterprise Services phase will help to target enterprise services offered by the IT team. They are offered to everyone in the organization, and are grouped together in logical categories for users to access them easily.

      • Design & Build a User-Facing Service Catalog – Phase 2: Identify and Define Enterprise Services
      • Sample Enterprise Services

      3. Identify and define Line of Business (LOB) services

      After completing this phase, all services IT offers to each LOB or functional group should have been identified. Each group should receive different services and display only these services in the catalog.

      • Design & Build a User-Facing Service Catalog – Phase 3: Identify and Define Line of Business Services
      • Sample LOB Services – Industry Specific
      • Sample LOB Services – Functional Group

      4. Complete the Services Definition Chart

      Completing the Services Definition Chart will help the business pick which information to include in the catalog. This phase also prepares the catalog to be extended into a technical service catalog through the inclusion of IT-facing fields.

      • Design & Build a User-Facing Service Catalog – Phase 4: Complete Service Definitions
      • Services Definition Chart
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Design and Build a User-Facing 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

      The purpose of this module is to help engage IT with business decision making.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      This module will help build a foundation for the project to begin. The buy-in from key stakeholders is key to having them take onus on the project’s completion.

      Activities

      1.1 Assemble the project team.

      1.2 Develop a communication plan.

      1.3 Establish metrics for success.

      1.4 Complete the project charter.

      Outputs

      A list of project members, stakeholders, and a project leader.

      A change message, communication strategy, and defined benefits for each user group.

      Metrics used to monitor the usefulness of the catalog, both from a performance and monetary perspective.

      A completed project charter to engage users in the initiative.

      2 Identify and Define Enterprise Services

      The Purpose

      The purpose of this module is to review services which are offered across the entire organization.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      A complete list of enterprise services defined from the user’s perspective to help them understand what is available to them.

      Activities

      2.1 Identify enterprise services used by almost everyone across the organization.

      2.2 Categorize services into logical groups.

      2.3 Define the services from the user’s perspective.

      Outputs

      A complete understanding of enterprise services for both IT service providers and business users.

      Logical groups for organizing the services in the catalog.

      Completed definitions in business language, preferably reviewed by business users.

      3 Identify and Define Line of Business (LOB) Services

      The Purpose

      The purpose of this module is to define the remaining LOB services for business users, and separate them into functional groups.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Business users are not cluttered with LOB definitions that do not pertain to their business activities.

      Business users are provided with only relevant IT information.

      Activities

      3.1 Identify the LOBs.

      3.2 Determine which one of two methodologies is more suitable.

      3.3 Identify LOB services using appropriate methodology.

      3.4 Define services from a user perspective.

      Outputs

      A structured view of the different functional groups within the business.

      An easy to follow process for identifying all services for each LOB.

      A list of every service for each LOB.

      Completed definitions in business language, preferably reviewed by business users.

      4 Complete the Full Service Definitions

      The Purpose

      The purpose of this module is to guide the client to completing their service record definitions completely.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      This module will finalize the deliverable for the client by defining every user-facing service in novice terms.

      Activities

      4.1 Understand the components to each service definition (information fields).

      4.2 Pick which information to include in each definition.

      4.3 Complete the service definitions.

      Outputs

      A selection of information fields to be included in the service catalog.

      A selection of information fields to be included in the service catalog.

      A completed service record design, ready to be implemented with the right tool.

      Further reading

      Design and Build a User-Facing Service Catalog

      Improve user satisfaction with IT with a convenient menu-like catalog.

      Our understanding of the problem

      This Research Is Designed For:

      • CIOs
      • Directors and senior managers within IT and the business

      This Research Will Help You:

      • Articulate all of the services IT provides to the business in a language the business users understand.
      • Improve IT and business alignment through a common understanding of service features and IT support.

      This Research Will Help Them

      • Standardize and communicate how users request access to services.
      • Standardize and communicate how users obtain support for services.
      • Clearly understand IT’s role in providing each service.

      What is a service catalog?

      The user-facing service catalog is the go-to place for IT service-related information.

      The catalog defines, documents, and organizes the services that IT delivers to the organization. The catalog also describes the features of the services and how the services are intended to be used.

      The user-facing service catalog creates benefits for both the business and IT.

      For business users, the service catalog:

      1. Documents how to request access to the service, hours of availability, delivery timeframes, and customer responsibilities.
      2. Specifies how to obtain support for the services, support hours, and documentation.

      For IT, the service catalog:

      1. Identifies who owns the services and who is authorized to use the services.
      2. Specifies IT support requirements for the services, including support hours and documentation.

      What is the difference between a user-facing service catalog and a technical service catalog?

      This blueprint is about creating a user-facing service catalog written and organized in a way that focuses on the services from the business’ view.

      User facing

      User-friendly, intuitive, and simple overview of the services that IT provides to the business.

      The items you would see on the menu at a restaurant are an example of User Facing. The content is relatable and easy to understand.

      Technical

      Series of technical workflows, supporting services, and the technical components that are required to deliver a service.

      The recipe book with cooking instructions is an example of Technical Facing. This catalog is intended for the IT teams and is “behind the scene.”

      What is a service and what does it mean to be service oriented?

      The sum of the people, processes, and technologies required to enable users to achieve a business outcome is a Service.

      A service is used directly by the end users and is perceived as a coherent whole.

      Business Users →Service = Application & Systems + People & Processes

      Service Orientation is…

      • A focus on business requirements and business value, rather than IT driven motives.
      • Services are designed to enable required business activities.
      • Services are defined from the business perspective using business language.

      In other words, put on your user hat and leave behind the technical jargons!

      A lack of a published user-facing service catalog could be the source of many pains throughout your organization

      IT Pains

      • IT doesn’t understand all the services they provide.
      • Business users would go outside of IT for solutions, proliferating shadow IT.
      • Business users have a negative yet unrealistic perception of what IT is capable of.
      • IT has no way of managing expectations for their users, which tend to inflate.
      • There is often no defined agreement on services; the business assumes everything is available.

      Business Pains

      • Business users don’t know what services are available to them.
      • It is difficult to obtain useful information regarding a service because IT always talks in technical language.
      • Without a standard process in place, business users don’t know how to request access to a service with multiple sources of information available.
      • Receiving IT support is a painful, long process and IT doesn’t understand what type of support the business requires.

      An overwhelming majority of IT organizations still need to improve how they demonstrate their value to the business

      This image contains a pie chart with a slice representing 23% of the circle This image contains a pie chart with a slice representing 47% of the circle This image contains a pie chart with a slice representing 92% of the circle

      23% of IT is still viewed as a cost center.

      47% of business executives believe that business goals are going unsupported by IT.

      92% of IT leaders see the need to prove the business value of IT’s contribution.

      How a Service Catalog can help:

      Use the catalog to demonstrate how IT is an integral part of the organization and IT services are essential to achieve business objectives.

      Source: IT Communication in Crisis Report

      Transform the perception of IT by articulating all the services that are provided through the service catalog in a user-friendly language.

      Source: Info-Tech Benchmarking and Diagnostic Programs

      Increase IT-business communication and collaboration through the service catalog initiative. Move from technology focused to service-oriented.

      Source: IT Communication in Crisis Report

      Project Steps

      Phase 1 – Project Launch

      1.2 Project Team

      The team must be balanced between representatives from the business and IT.

      1.2 Communication Plan

      Communication plan to facilitate input from both sides and gain adoption.

      1.3 Identify Metrics

      Metrics should reflect the catalog benefits. Look to reduced number of service desk inquiries.

      1.4 Project Charter

      Project charter helps walk you through project preparation.

      This blueprint separates enterprise service from line of business service.

      This image contains a comparison between Enterprise IT Service and Line of Business Service, which will be discussed in further detail later in this blueprint.

      Project steps

      Phase 2 – Identify and Define Enterprise Services

      2.1 Identify the services that are used across the entire organization.

      2.2 Users must be able to identify with the service categories.

      2.3 Create basic definitions for enterprise services.

      Phase 3 – Identify and Define Line of Business Services

      3.1 Identify the different lines of business (LOBs) in the organization.

      3.2 Understand the differences between our two methodologies for identifying LOB services.

      3.3 Use methodology 1 if you have thorough knowledge of the business.

      3.4 Use methodology 2 if you only have an IT view of the LOB.

      Phase 4 – Complete Service Definitions

      4.1 Understand the different components to each service definition, or the fields in the service record.

      4.2 Identify which information to include for each service definition.

      4.3 Define each enterprise service according to the information and field properties.

      4.3 Define each LOB service according to the information and field properties.

      Define your service catalog in bundles to achieve better catalog design in the long run

      Trying to implement too many services at once can be overwhelming for both IT and the users. You don’t have to define and implement all of your services in one release of the catalog.

      Info-Tech recommends implementing services themselves in batches, starting with enterprise, and then grouping LOB services into separate releases. Why? It benefits both IT and business users:

      • It enables a better learning experience for IT – get to test the first release before going full-scale. In other words, IT gets a better understanding of all components of their deliverable before full adoption.
      • It is easier to meet customer agreements on what is to be delivered early, and easier to be able to meet those deadlines.
      This image depicts how you can use bundles to simplify the process of catalog design using bundles. The cycle includes the steps: Identify Services; Select a Service Bundle; Review Record Design; followed by a cycle of: Pick a service; Service X; Service Data Collection; Create Service Record, followed by Publish the bundle; Communicate the bundle; Rinse and Repeat.

      After implementing a service catalog, your IT will be able to:

      Use the service catalog to communicate all the services that IT provides to the business.

      Improve IT’s visibility within the organization by creating a single source of information for all the value creating services IT has to offer. The service catalog helps the business understand the value IT brings to each service, each line of business, and the overall organization.

      Concentrate more on high-value IT services.

      The service catalog contains information which empowers business users to access IT services and information without the help of IT support staff. The reduction in routine inquiries decreases workload and increases morale within the IT support team, and allows IT to concentrate on providing higher value services.

      Reduce shadow IT and gain control of services.

      Service catalog brings more control to your IT environment by reducing shadow IT activities. The service catalog communicates business requests responsively in a language the business users understand, thus eliminating the need for users to seek outside help.

      After implementing a service catalog, your business will be able to:

      Access IT services with ease.

      The language of IT is often confusing for the business and the users don’t know what to do when they have a concern. With a user-facing service catalog, business users can access information through a single source of information, and better understand how to request access or receive support for a service through clear, consistent, and business-relevant language.

      Empower users to self-serve.

      The service catalog enables users to “self-serve” IT services. Instead of calling the service desk every time an issue occurs, the users can rely on the service catalog for information. This simplified process not only reduces routine service requests, but also provides information in a faster, more efficient manner that increases productivity for both IT and the business.

      Gain transparency on the IT services provided.

      With every service clearly defined, business users can better understand the current support level, communicate their expectation for IT accountability, and help IT align services with critical business strategies.

      Leverage the different Info-Tech deliverable tools to help you along the way

      1. Project Charter

      A project charter template with a few samples completed. The project charter helps you govern the project progress and responsibilities.

      2. Enterprise Service Definitions

      A full list of enterprise definitions with features and descriptions pre-populated. These are meant to get you on your feet defining your own enterprise services, or editing the ones already there.

      3. Basic Line of Business Service Definitions

      Similar to the enterprise services deliverable, but with two separate deliverables focusing on different perspectives – functional groups services (e.g. HR and finance) and industry-specific services (e.g. education and government).

      Service Definitions & Service Record Design

      Get a taste of a completed service catalog with full service definitions and service record design. This is the final product of the service catalog design once all the steps and activities have been completed.

      The service catalog can be the foundation of your future IT service management endeavors

      After establishing a catalog of all IT services, the following projects are often pursued for other objectives. Service catalog is a precursor for all three.

      1. Technical Service Catalog

      Need an IT-friendly breakdown of each service?
      Keep better record of what technical components are required to deliver a service. The technical service catalog is the IT version of a user-facing catalog.

      2. Service-Based Costing

      Want to know how much each IT service is costing you?
      Get a better grip on the true cost of IT. Using service-based costing can help justify IT expenses and increase budgetary allotment.

      3. Chargeback

      Want to hold each business unit accountable for the IT services they use?
      Some business units abuse their IT services because they are thought to be free. Keep them accountable and charge them for what they use.

      The service catalog need not be expensive – organizations of all sizes (small, medium, large) can benefit from a service catalog

      No matter what size organization you may be, every organization can create a service catalog. Small businesses can benefit from the catalog the same way a large organization can. We have an easy step-by-step methodology to help introduce a catalog to your business.

      It is common that users do not know where to go to obtain services from IT… We always end up with a serious time-crunch at the beginning of a new school year. With automated on- and off-boarding services, this could change for the better.Dean Obermeyer, Technology Coordinator, Los Alamos Public Schools

      CIO Call to Action

      As the CIO and the project sponsor, you need to spearhead the development of the service catalog and communicate support to drive engagement and adoption.

        Start

      1. Select an experienced project leader
      2. Identify stakeholders and select project team members with the project leader
      3. Throughout the project

      4. Attend or lead the project kick-off meeting
      5. Create checkpoints to regularly touch base with the project team
      6. Service catalog launch

      7. Communicate the change message from beginning to implementation

      Identify a project leader who will drive measurable results with this initiative

      The project leader acts on behalf of the CIO and must be a senior level staff member who has extensive knowledge of the organization and experiences marshalling resources.

      Influential & Impactful

      Developing a service catalog requires dedication from many groups within IT and outside of IT.
      The project leader must hold a visible, senior position and can marshal all the necessary resources to ensure the success of the project. Ability to exert impact and influence around both IT and the business is a must.

      Relationship with the Business

      The user-facing service catalog cannot be successful if business input is not received.
      The project leader must leverage his/her existing relationship with the business to test out the service definitions and the service record design.

      Results Driven

      Creating a service catalog is not an easy job and the project leader must continuously engage the team members to drive results and efficiency.
      The highly visible nature of the service catalog means the project leader must produce a high-quality outcome that satisfies the business users.

      Info-Tech’s methodology helps organization to standardize how to define services

      CASE STUDY A
      Industry Municipal Government
      Source Onsite engagement

      Municipal Government
      The IT department of a large municipal government in the United States provides services to a large number of customers in various government agencies.
      Service Catalog Initiative
      The municipal government allocated a significant amount of resources to answer routine inquiries that could have been avoided through user self-service. The government also found that they do not organize all the services IT provides, and they could not document and publish them to the customer. The government has already begun the service catalog initiative, but was struggling with how to identify services. Progress was slow because people were arguing amongst themselves – the project team became demoralized and the initiative was on the brink of failure.
      Results
      With Info-Tech’s onsite support, the government was able to follow a standardized methodology to identify and define services from the user perspective. The government was able to successfully communicate the initiative to the business before the full adoption of the service catalog.

      We’re in demos with vendors right now to purchase an ITSM tool, and when the first vendor looked at our finished catalog, they were completely impressed.- Client Feedback

      [We feel] very confident. The group as a whole is pumped up and empowered – they're ready to pounce on it. We plan to stick to the schedule for the next three months, and then review progress/priorities. - Client Feedback

      CASE STUDY B
      Industry Healthcare
      Source Onsite engagement

      Healthcare Provider
      The organization is a healthcare provider in Canada. It treats patients with medical emergencies, standard operations, and manages a faculty of staff ranging from nurses and clerks, to senior doctors. This organization is run across several hospitals, various local clinics, and research centers.
      Service Catalog Initiative
      Because the organization is publicly funded, it is subject to regular audit requirements – one of which is to have a service catalog in place.
      The organization also would like to charge back its clients for IT-related costs. In order to do this, the organization must be able to trace it back to each service. Therefore, the first step would be to create a user-facing service catalog, followed by the technical service catalog, which then allows the organization to do service-based costing and chargeback.
      Results
      By leveraging Info-Tech’s expertise on the subject, the healthcare provider was able to fast-track its service catalog development and establish the groundwork for chargeback abilities.

      "There is always some reticence going in, but none of that was apparent coming out. The group dynamic was very good. [Info-Tech] was able to get that response, and no one around the table was silent.
      The [expectation] of the participants was that there was a purpose in doing the workshop. Everybody knew it was for multiple reasons, and everyone had their own accountability/stakes in the development of it. Highly engaged."
      - Client Feedback

      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

      Launch the Project

      Identify Enterprise Services

      Identify Line of Business Services

      Complete Service Definitions

      Best-Practice Toolkit

      1.1 Assemble the project team.

      1.2 Develop a communication plan.

      1.3 Establish metrics for success.

      1.4 Complete the project charter.

      2.1 Identify services available organization-wide.

      2.2 Categorize services into logical groups.

      2.3 Define the services.

      3.1 Identify different LOBs.

      3.2 Pick one of two methodologies.

      3.3 Use method to identify LOB services.

      4.1 Learn components to each service definition.

      4.2 Pick which information to include in each definition.

      4.3 Define each service accordingly.

      Guided Implementations Identify the project leader with the appropriate skills.

      Assemble a well-rounded project team.

      Develop a mission statement and change messages.

      Create a comprehensive list of enterprise services that are used across the organization.

      Create a categorization scheme that is based on the needs of the business users.

      Walk through the two Info-Tech methodologies and understand which one is applicable.

      Define LOB services using the appropriate methodology.

      Decide what should be included and what should be kept internal for the service record design.

      Complete the full service definitions.

      Onsite Workshop Phase 1 Results:

      Clear understanding of project objectives and support obtained from the business.

      Phase 2 Results:

      Enterprise services defined and categorized.

      Phase 3 Results:

      LOB services defined based on user perspective.

      Phase 4 Results:

      Service record designed according to how IT wishes to communicate to the business.

      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
      Activities

      Launch the Project

      Identify Enterprise Services

      Identify Line of Business Services

      Complete Service Definitions

      1.1 Assemble the project team.

      1.2 Develop a communication plan.

      1.3 Establish metrics for success.

      1.4 Complete the project charter.

      2.1 Identify services available organization-wide.

      2.2 Categorize services into logical groups.

      2.3 Define the services.

      3.1 Identify different LOBs.

      3.2 Pick one of two methodologies.

      3.3 Use method to identify LOB services.

      4.1 Learn components to each service definition.

      4.2 Pick which information to include in each definition.

      4.3 Define each service accordingly.

      Deliverables
      • Service Catalog Project Charter
      • Enterprise Service Definitions
      • LOB Service Definitions – Functional groups
      • LOB Service Definitions – Industry specific
      • Service Definitions Chart

      PHASE 1

      Launch the Project

      Design & Build a User-Facing Service Catalog

      Step 1 – Create a project charter to launch the initiative

      1. Complete the Project Charter
      2. Create Enterprise Services Definitions
      3. Create Line of Business Services Definitions
      4. Complete Service Definitions

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Develop a mission statement to obtain buy-ins from both IT and business stakeholders.
      • Assemble a well-rounded project team to increase the success of the project.
      • Identify and obtain support from stakeholders.
      • Create an impactful change message to the organization to promote the service catalog.
      • Determine project metrics to measure the effectiveness and value of the initiative.

      Step Insights

      • The project leader must have a strong relationship with the business, the ability to garner user input, and the authority to lead the team in creating a user-facing catalog that is accessible and understandable to the user.
      • Having two separate change messages prepared for IT and the business is a must. The business change message advocates how the catalog will make IT more accessible to users, and the IT message centers around how the catalog will make IT’s life easier through a standardized request 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: Launch the project
      Proposed Time to Completion: 2 weeks
      Step 1.2: Create change messages

      Step 1.2: Create change messages

      Start with an analyst kick off call:

      • Identify the key objectives of creating a user-facing service catalog.
      • Identify the necessary members of the project team.

      Review findings with analyst:

      • Prioritize project stakeholders according to their involvement and influence.
      • Create a change message for IT and the business articulating the benefits.

      Then complete these activities…

    • Assemble a team with representatives from all areas of IT.
    • Identify the key project stakeholders.
    • Create a project mission statement.
    • Then complete these activities…

    • Create a separate change message for IT and the business.
    • Determine communication methods and channels.
    • With these tools & templates: Service

      Catalog Project Charter

      With these tools & templates:

      Service Catalog Project Charter

      Use Info-Tech’s Service Catalog Project Charter to begin your initiative

      1.1 Project Charter

      The following section of slides outline how to effectively use Info-Tech’s sample project charter.

      The Project Charter is used to govern the initiative throughout the project. IT should provide the foundation for project communication and monitoring.

      It has been pre-populated with information appropriate for Service Catalog projects. Please review this sample text and change, add, or delete information as required.

      Building the charter as a group will help you to clarify your key messages and help secure buy-in from critical stakeholders upfront.

      You may feel like a full charter isn’t necessary, and depending on your organizational size, it might not be. However, the exercise of building the charter is important none-the-less. No matter your current climate, some elements of communicating the value and plans for implementing the catalog will be necessary.

      The Charter includes the following sections:

      • Mission Statement
      • Project team members
      • Project stakeholders
      • Change message
      • Communication and organizational plan
      • Metrics

      Use Info-Tech’s Service Catalog Project Charter.

      Create a mission statement to articulate the purpose of this project

      The mission statement must be compelling because embarking on creating a service catalog is no easy task. It requires significant commitment from different people in different areas of the business.

      Good mission statements are directive, easy to understand, narrow in focus, and favor substance over vagueness.

      While building your mission statement, think about what it is intended to do, i.e. keep the project team engaged and engage others to adopt the service catalog. Included in the project charter’s mission statement section is a brief description of the goals and objectives of the service catalog.

      Ask yourself the following questions:

      1. What frustrations does your business face regarding IT services?
      2. f our company continues growing at this rate, will IT be able to manage service levels?
      3. How has IT benefited from consolidating IT services into a user perspective?

      Project Charter

      Info-Tech’s project charter contains two sample mission statements, along with additional tips to help you create yours.

      Tackle the project with a properly assembled team to increase the speed and quality in which the catalog will be created

      Construct a well-balanced project team to increase your chances of success.

      Project Leader

      Project leader will be the main catalyst for the creation of the catalog. This person is responsible for driving the whole initiative.

      Project Participants

      IT project participants’ input and business input will be pivotal to the creation of the catalog.

      Project Stakeholders

      The project stakeholders are the senior executives who have a vested interest in the service catalog. IT must produce periodic and targeted communication to these stakeholders.

      Increase your chances of success by creating a dynamic group of project participants

      Your project team will be a major success factor for your service catalog. Involvement from IT management and the business is a must.

      IT Team Member

      IT Service Desk Manager

      • The Service Desk team will be an integral part of the service catalog creation. Because of their client-facing work, service desk technicians can provide real feedback about how users view and request services.

      Senior Manager/Director of Application

      • The Application representative provides input on how applications are used by the business and supported by IT.

      Senior Manager/Director of Infrastructure

      • The infrastructure representative provides input on services regarding data storage, device management, security, etc.

      Business Team Member

      Business IT Liaison

      • This role is responsible for bridging the communication between IT and the business. This role could be fulfilled by the business relationship manager, service delivery manager, or business analyst. It doesn’t have to be a dedicated role; it could be part of an existing role.

      Business representatives from different LOBs

      • Business users need to validate the service catalog design and ensure the service definitions are user facing and relevant.

      Project Charter

      Input your project team, their roles, and relevant contact information into your project charter, Section 2.

      Identify the senior managers who are the stakeholders for the service catalog

      Obtain explicit buy-in from both IT and business stakeholders.

      The stakeholders could be your biggest champions for the service catalog initiative, or they could pull you back significantly. Engage the stakeholders at the start of the project and communicate the benefits of the service catalog to them to gain their approval.

      Stakeholders

      Benefits

      CIO
      • Improved visibility and perception for IT
      • Ability to better manage business expectation

      Manager of Service Desk

      • Reduced number of routine inquires
      • Respond to business needs faster and uniformly

      Senior Manager/Director of Application & Infrastructure

      • Streamlined and standardized request/support process
      • More effective communication with the business

      Senior Business Executives from Major LOBs

      • Self-service increases user productivity for business users
      • Better quality of services provided by IT

      Project Charter

      Document a list of stakeholders, their involvement in the process (why they are stakeholders), and their contact information in Section 3.

      Articulate the creation of the service catalog to the organization

      Spread the word of service catalog implementation. Bring attention to your change message through effective mediums and organizational changes.

      Key aspects of a communication plan

      The methods of communication (e.g. newsletters, email broadcast, news of the day, automated messages) notify users of implementation.

      In addition, it is important to know who will deliver the message (delivery strategy). Talking to the business leaders is very important, and you need IT executives to deliver the message. Work hard on obtaining their support as they are the ones communicating to their staff and could be your project champions.

      Recommended organizational changes

      The communication plan should consist of changes that will affect the way users interact with the catalog. Users should know of any meetings pertinent to the maintenance and improvement of the catalog, and ways to access the catalog (e.g. link on desktop/start menu).

      This image depicts the cycle of communicating change. the items in the cycle include: What is the change?; Why are we doing it?; How are we going to go about it?; What are we trying to achieve?; How often will we be updated?

      The Qualities of Leadership: Leading Change

      Project Charter

      Your communication plan should serve as a rough guide. Communication happens in several unpredictable happenstances, but the overall message should be contained within.

      Ensure you get the whole company on board for the service catalog with a well practiced change message

      The success of your catalog implementation hinges on the business’ readiness.

      One of the top challenges for organizations that are implementing a service catalog is the acceptance and adoption of the change. Effective planning for implementation and communication is pivotal. Ensure you create tailored plans for communication and understand how the change will impact staff.

      1. Draft your change message
      2. “Better Service, Better Value.” It is important to have two change messages prepared: one for the IT department and one for business users.
        Outline a few of the key benefits each user group will gain from adopting the service catalog (e.g. Faster, ease of use, convenient, consistent…)

      3. Address feedback
      4. Anticipate some resistances of service catalog adoption and prepare responses. These may be the other benefits which were not included in the change message (e.g. IT may be reluctant to think in business language.)

      5. Conduct training sessions
      6. Host lunch & learns to demonstrate the value of the service catalog to both business and IT user groups.
        These training sessions also serve as a great way to gather feedback from users regarding style and usability.

      Project Charter

      Pick your communication medium, and then identify your target audience. You should have a change message for each: the IT department and the business users. Pay careful consideration to wording and phrasing with regard for each.

      Track metrics throughout the project to keep stakeholders informed

      In order to measure the success of your service catalog, you must establish baseline metrics to determine how much value the catalog is creating for your business.

      1. Number of service requests via the service catalog
      2. The number of service catalog requests should be carefully monitored so that it does not fluctuate too greatly. In general, the number of requests via the service catalog should increase, which indicates a higher level of self-serve.

      3. Number of inquiry calls to the service desk
      4. The number of inquiry calls should decrease because customers are able to self-serve routine IT inquiries that would otherwise have gone through the service desk.

      5. Customer satisfaction – specific questions
      6. The organization could adopt the following sample survey questions:
        From 0-5: How satisfied are you with the functionality of the service catalog? How often do you turn to the service catalog first to solve IT problems?

      7. Number of non-standard requests
      8. The number of non-standard requests should decrease because a majority of services should eventually be covered in the service catalog. Users should be able to solve nearly any IT related problem through navigating the service catalog.

      Metric Description Current Metric Future Goal
      Number of service requests via the Service Catalog
      Number of inquiry calls to the service desk
      Customer Satisfaction – specific question
      Number of non-standard requests

      Use metrics to monitor the monetary improvements the service catalog creates for the business

      When measuring against your baseline, you should expect to see the following two monetary improvements:

      1. Improved service desk efficiency
      2. (# of routine inquiry calls reduced) x (average time for a call) x (average service desk wage)

        Routine inquiries often take up a significant portion of the service desk’s effort, and the majority of them can be answered via the service catalog, thus reducing the amount of time required for a service desk employee to engage in routine solutions. The reduction in routine inquiries allows IT to allocate resources to high-value services and provide higher quality of support.

      Example

      Originally, the service desk of an organization answers 850 inquiries per month, and around 540 of them are routine inquiries requesting information on when a service is available, who they can contact if they want to receive a service, and what they need to do if they want access to a service, etc.

      IT successfully communicated the introduction of the service catalog to the business and 3 months after the service catalog was implemented, the number of routine inquiries dropped to 60 per month. Given that the average time for IT to answer the inquiry is 10 minutes (0.167 hour) and the hourly wage of a service desk technician is $25, the monthly monetary cost saving of the service catalog is:

      (540 – 60) x 0.167 x 25 = $2004.00

      • Reduced expense by eliminating non-standard requests

      (Average additional cost of non-standard request) x (Reduction of non-standard request)
      +
      (Extra time IT spends on non-standard request fulfilment) x (Average wage)

      Non-standard requests require a lot of time, and often a lot of money. IT frequently incurs additional cost because the business is not aware of how to properly request service or support. Not only can the service catalog standardize and streamline the service request process, it can also help IT define its job boundary and say no to the business if needed.

      Example

      The IT department of an organization often finds itself dealing with last-minute, frustrating service requests from the business. For example, although equipment requests should be placed a week in advance, the business often requests equipment to be delivered the next day, leaving IT to pay for additional expedited shipping costs and/or working fanatically to allocate the equipment. Typically, these requests happen 4 times a month, with an additional cost of $200.00. IT staff work an extra 6 hours per each non-standard request at an hourly wage of $30.00.

      With the service catalog, the users are now aware of the rules that are in place and can submit their request with more ease. IT can also refer the users to the service catalog when a non-standard request occurs, which helps IT to charge the cost to the department or not meet the terms of the business.

      The monthly cost saving in this case is:

      $200.00 x 4 + 6 hours x 30 = $980.00

      Create your project charter for the service catalog initiative to get key stakeholders to buy in

      1.1 2-3 hours

      The project charter is an important document to govern your project process. Support from the project sponsors is important and must be documented. Complete the following steps working with Info-Tech’s sample Project Charter.

      1. The project leader and the core project team must identify key reasons for creating a service catalog. Document the project objectives and benefits in the mission statement section.
      2. Identify and document your project team. The team must include representatives from the Infrastructure, Applications, Service desk, and a Business-IT Liaison.
      3. Identify and document your project stakeholders. The stakeholders are those who have interest in seeing the service catalog completed. Stakeholders for IT are the CIO and management of different IT practices. Stakeholders for the business are executives of different LOBs.
      4. Identify your target audience and choose the communication medium most effective to reach them. Draft a communication message hitting all key elements.
        Info-Tech’s project charter contains sample change messages for the business and IT.
      5. Develop a strategy as to how the change message will be distributed, i.e. the communication and organizational change plan.
      6. Use the metrics identified as a base to measure your service catalog’s implementation. If you have identified any other objectives, add new metrics to monitor your progress from the baseline to reaching those objectives.
      7. Sign and date the project charter to officiate commitment to completing the project and reaching your objectives. Have the signed and dated charter available to members of the project team.

      INPUT

      • A collaborative discussion between team members

      OUTPUT

      • Thorough briefing for project launch
      • A committed team

      Materials

      • Communication message and plan
      • Metric tracking

      Participants

      • Project leader
      • Core project team

      Obtain buy-in from business users at the beginning of the service catalog initiative

      CASE STUDY A
      Industry Government
      Source Onsite engagement

      Challenge

      The nature of government IT is quite complex: there are several different agencies located in a number of different areas. It is extremely important to communicate the idea of the service catalog to all the users, no matter the agency or location.

      The IT department had yet to let business leaders of the various agencies know about the initiative and garner their support for the project. This has proven to be prohibitive for gaining adoption from all users.

      Solution

      The IT leaders met and identified all the opportunities to communicate the service catalog to the business leaders and end users.

      To meet with the business leaders, IT leaders hosted a service level meeting with the business directors and managers. They adopted a steering committee for the continuation of the project.

      To communicate with business users, IT leaders published announcements on the intranet website before releasing the catalog there as well.

      Results

      Because IT communicated the initiative, support from business stakeholders was obtained early and business leaders were on board shortly after.

      IT also managed to convince key business stakeholders to become project champions, and leveraged their network to communicate the initiative to their employees.

      With this level of adoption, it meant that it was easier for IT to garner business participation in the project and to obtain feedback throughout.

      Info-Tech assists project leader to garner support from the project team

      CASE STUDY A
      Industry Government
      Source Onsite engagement

      Challenge

      The project received buy-in from the CIO and director of infrastructure. Together they assembled a team and project leader.

      The two struggled to get buy-in from the rest of the team, however. They didn’t understand the catalog or its benefits and objectives. They were reluctant to change their old ways. They didn’t know how much work was required from them to accomplish the project.

      Solution

      With the Info-Tech analyst on site, the client was able to discuss the benefits within their team as well as the project team responsibilities.

      The Info-Tech analyst convinced the group to move towards focusing on a business- and service-oriented mindset.

      The workshop discussion was intended to get the entire team on board and engaged with meeting project objectives.

      Results

      The project team had experienced full buy-in after the workshop. The CIO and director relived their struggles of getting project members on-board through proper communication and engagement.

      Engaging the members of the project team with the discussion was key to having them take ownership in accomplishing the project.

      The business users understood that the service catalog was to benefit their long-term IT service development.

      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 this image contains a screenshot from section 1.1 of this blueprint. Begin your project with a mission statement
      A strong mission statement that outlines the benefits of the project is needed to communicate the purpose of the project. The onsite Info-Tech analysts will help you customize the message and establish the foundation of the project charter.
      1.2 this image contains a screenshot from section 1.2 of this blueprint.

      Identify project team members

      Our onsite analysts will help you identify high-value team members to contribute to this project.

      1.3 This image contains a screenshot from section 1.3 of this blueprint.

      Identify important business and IT stakeholders

      Buy-in from senior IT and business management is a must. Info-Tech will help you identify the stakeholders and determine their level of influence and impact.

      1.4 This image contains a screenshot from section 1.4 of this blueprint.

      Create a change message for the business and IT

      It is important to communicate changes early and the message must be tailored for each target audience. Our analysts will help you create an effective message by articulating the benefits of the service catalog to the business and to IT.

      1.5 This image contains a screenshot from section 1.5 of this blueprint.

      Determine service project metrics

      To demonstrate the value of the service catalog, IT must come up with tangible metrics. Info-Tech’s analysts will provide some sample metrics as well as facilitate a discussion around which metrics should be tracked and monitored.

      PHASE 2

      Identify and Define Enterprise Services

      Design & Build a User-Facing Service Catalog

      Step 2 – Create Enterprise Services Definitions

      1. Complete the Project Charter
      2. Create Enterprise Services Definitions
      3. Create Line of Business Services Definitions
      4. Complete Service Definitions

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Identify and define enterprise services that are commonly used across the organization.
      • Create service descriptions and features to accurately sum up the functionality of each service.
      • Create service categories and assign each service to a category.

      Step Insights

      • When defining services, be sure to carefully distinguish between what is a feature and what is a service. Often, separate services are defined in situations when they would be better off as features of existing services, and vice versa.
      • When coming up with enterprise services categories, ensure the categories group the services in a way that is intuitive. The users should be able to find a service easily based on the names of the categories.

      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 Enterprise Services
      Proposed Time to Completion: 4 weeks

      Step 2.1: Identify enterprise services

      Step 2.2: Create service categories

      Start with an analyst kick off call:

      • Identify enterprise services that are commonly used.
      • Ensure the list is comprehensive and capture common IT needs.
      • Create service descriptions and features.

      Review findings with analyst:

      • Review full list of identified enterprise services.
      • Identify service categories that are intuitive to the users.

      Then complete these activities…

      • Use Info-Tech’s sample enterprise service definitions as a guide, and change/add/delete the service definitions to customize them to your organization.

      Then complete these activities…

      • Group identified services into categories that are intuitive to the users.

      With these tools & templates: Service

      Sample Enterprise Services

      With these tools & templates:

      Sample Enterprise Services

      Identify enterprise services in the organization apart from the services available to lines of business

      Separating enterprise services from line of business services helps keep things simple to organize the service catalog. -

      Documentation of all business-facing IT services is an intimidating task, and a lack of parameters around this process often leads to longer project times and unsatisfactory outcomes.

      To streamline this process, separating enterprise services from line of business services allows IT to effectively and efficiently organize these services. This method increases the visibility of the service catalog through user-oriented communication plans.

      Enterprise Services are common services that are used across the organization.

      1. Common Services for all users within the organization (e.g. Email, Video Conferencing, Remote Access, Guest Wireless)
      2. Service Requests organized into Service Offerings (e.g. Hardware Provisioning, Software Deployment, Hardware Repair, Equipment Loans)
      3. Consulting Services (e.g. Project Management, Business Analysis, RFP Preparation, Contract Negotiation)

      All user groups access Enterprise Services

      Enterprise Services

      • Finance
      • IT
      • Sales
      • HR

      Ensure your enterprise services are defined from the user perspective and are commonly used

      If you are unsure whether a service is enterprise wide, ask yourself these two questions:

      This image contains an example of how you would use the two questions: Does the user directly use the service themselves?; and; Is the service used by the entire organization (or nearly everyone)?. The examples given are: A. Video Conferencing; B. Exchange Server; C. Email & Fax; D. Order Entry System

      Leverage Info-Tech’s Sample Enterprise Services definition

      2.1 Info-Tech’s Sample Enterprise Services definitions

      Included with this blueprint is Info-Tech’s Sample Enterprise Services definitions.

      The sample contains dozens of services common across most organizations; however, as a whole, they are not complete for every organization. They must be modified according to the business’ needs. Phase two will serve as a guide to identifying an enterprise service as well as how to fill out the necessary fields.

      This image contains a screenshot of definitions from Info-Tech's Sample Enterprises services

      Info-Tech Insight

      Keep track of which services you either modify or delete. You will have to change the same services in the final Info-Tech deliverable.

      The next slide will introduce you to the information for each service record that can be edited.

      Info-Tech’s Sample Enterprise Services definitions is designed to be easily customized

      2.1 Info-Tech’s Sample Enterprise Services definitions

      Below is an example of a service record and its necessary fields of information. This is information that can be kept, deleted, or expanded upon.

      Name the service unambiguously and from the user’s perspective.

      Brief description of how the service allows users to perform tasks.

      Describe the functionality of the service and how it helps users to achieve their business objectives.

      Cluster the services into logical groups.

      Service Name Description Features Category
      Email Email communication to connect with other employees, suppliers, and customers
      • Inbox
      • Calendar
      • Resource Scheduling (meeting rooms)
      • Access to shared mailboxes
      • Limit on mailbox size (‘x’ GB)
      • Address book/external contacts
      • Spam filtering, virus protection
      • Archiving and retrieval of older emails
      • Web/browser access to email
      • Mass email/notification (emergency, surveys, reporting)
      • Setting up a distribution list
      • Setting up Active Sync for email access on mobile devices
      Communications

      Distinguish between a feature and a unique service

      It can be difficult to determine what is considered a service itself, and what is a feature of another service. Use these tips and examples below to help you standardize this judgement.

      Example 1

      Web Conferencing has already been defined as a service. Is Audio Conferencing its own service or a feature of Web Conferencing?

      Info-Tech Tip: Is Audio Conferencing run by the same application as the Web Conferencing? Does it use the same equipment? If not, Audio Conferencing is probably its own service.

      Example 2

      Web Conferencing has already been defined as a service. Is “Screen Sharing” its own service or a feature of Web Conferencing?

      Info-Tech Tip: It depends on how the user interacts with Screen Sharing. Do they only screen share when engaged in a Web Conference? If so, Screen Sharing is a feature and not a service itself.

      Example 3

      VoIP is a popular alternative to landline telephone nowadays, but should it be part of the telephony service or a separate service?

      Info-Tech Tip: It depends on how the VoIP phone is set up.

      If the user uses the VoIP phone the same way they would use a landline phone – because the catalog is user facing – consider the VoIP as part of the telephone service.

      If the user uses their computer application to call and receive calls, consider this a separate service on its own.

      Info-Tech Insight

      While there are some best practices for coming up with service definitions, it is not an exact science and you cannot accommodate everyone. When in doubt, think how most users would perceive the service.

      Change or delete Info-Tech’s enterprise services definitions to make them your own

      2.1 3 hours

      You need to be as comprehensive as possible and try to capture the entire breadth of services IT provides to the business.

      To achieve this, a three-step process is recommended.

      1. First, assemble your project team. It is imperative to have representatives from the service desk. Host two separate workshops, one with the business and one with IT. These workshops should take the form of focus groups and should take no more than 1-2 hours.
      2. Business Focus Group:
      • In an open-forum setting, discuss what the business needs from IT to carry out their day-to-day activities.
      • Engage user-group representatives and business relationship managers.

      IT Focus Group:

      • In a similar open-forum setting, determine what IT delivers to the business. Don’t think about it from a support perspective, but from an “ask” perspective – e.g. “Service Requests.
      • Engage the following individuals: team leads, managers, directors.
    • Review results from the focus groups and compare with your service desk tickets – are there services users inquire about frequently that are not included? Finalize your list of enterprise services as a group.
    • INPUT

      • Modify Info-Tech’s sample services

      OUTPUT

      • A list of some of your business’ enterprise services

      Materials

      • Whiteboard/marker
      • Info-Tech sample enterprise services

      Participants

      • Key members of the project team
      • Service desk rep
      • Business rep

      Using Info-Tech’s Sample Enterprise Services, expand upon the services to add those that we did not include

      2.2 1-3 hours (depending on size and complexity of the IT department)

      Have your user hat on when documenting service features and descriptions. Try to imagine how the users interact with each service.

      1. Once you have your service name, start with the service feature. This field lists all the functionality the service provides. Think from the user’s perspective and document the IT-related activities they need to complete.
      2. Review the service feature fields with internal IT first to make sure there isn’t any information that IT doesn’t want to publish. Afterwards, review with business users to ensure the language is easy to understand and the features are relatable.
      3. Lastly, create a high-level service description that defines the nature of the service in one or two sentences.

      INPUT

      • Collaborate and discuss to expand on Info-Tech’s example

      OUTPUT

      • A complete list of your business’ enterprise services

      Materials

      • Whiteboard/marker
      • Info-Tech sample enterprise services

      Participants

      • Key members of the project team
      • Service desk rep
      • Business rep

      Follow Info-Tech’s guidelines to establish categories for the enterprise services that IT provides to the business

      Similar to the services and their features, there is no right or wrong way to categorize. The best approach is to do what makes sense for your organization and understand what your users think.

      What are Service Categories?

      Categories organize services into logical groups that the users can identify with. Services with similar functions are grouped together in a common category.

      When deciding your categories, think about:

      • What is best for the users?
      • Look at the workflows from the user perspective: how and why do they use the service?
      • Will the user connect with the category name?
      • Will they think about the services within the category?
      Enterprise Service Categories
      Accounts and Access
      Collaboration
      Communication
      Connectivity
      Consulting
      Desktop, Equipment, & Software
      Employee Services
      Files and Documents
      Help & Support
      Training

      Sample categories

      Categorize the services from the list below; how would you think to group them?

      There is no right or wrong way to categorize services; it is subjective to how they are provided by IT and how they are used by the business. Use the aforementioned categories to group the following services. Sample solutions are provided on the following slide.

      Service Name
      Telephone
      Email
      Remote access
      Internet
      BYOD (wireless access)
      Instant Messaging
      Video Conferencing
      Audio Conferencing
      Guest Wi-Fi
      Document Sharing

      Tips and tricks:

      1. Think about the technology behind the service. Is it the same application that provides the services? For example: is instant messaging run by the same application as email?
      2. Consider how the service is used by the business. Are two services always used together? If instant messaging is always used during video conferencing, then they belong in the same category.
      3. Consider the purpose of the services. Do they achieve the same outcomes? For example, document sharing is different from video conferencing, though they both support a collaborative working environment.

      This is a sample of different categorizations – use these examples to think about which would better suit your business

      Example 1 Example 2

      Desktop, Equipment, & Software Services

      Connectivity

      Mobile Devices

      Communications

      Internet

      Telephone

      BYOD (wireless access)

      Telephone

      Guest Wi-Fi

      Internet

      Email

      Remote Access

      Instant Messaging

      Video Conferencing

      Audio Conferencing

      Communications

      Collaboration

      Storage and Retrieval

      Accounts and Access

      Telephone

      Email

      Document Sharing

      Remote access

      Email

      Instant Messaging

      Connectivity

      Mobile Devices

      Video Conferencing

      Internet

      BYOD (wireless access)

      Audio Conferencing

      Guest Wi-Fi

      Guest Wi-Fi

      Document Sharing

      Info-Tech Insight

      Services can have multiple categories only if it means the users will be better off. Try to limit this as much as possible.

      Neither of these two examples are the correct answer, and no such thing exists. The answers you came up with may well be better suited for the users in your business.

      With key members of your project team, categorize the list of enterprise services you have created

      2.3 1 hour

      Before you start, you must have a modified list of all defined enterprise services and a modified list of categories.

      1. Write down the service names on sticky notes and write down the categories either on the whiteboard or on the flipchart.
      2. Assign the service to a category one at a time. For each service, obtain consensus on how the users would view the service and which category would be the most logical choice. In some cases, discuss whether a service should be included in two categories to create better searchability for the users.
      3. If a consensus could not be reached on how to categorize a service, review the service features and category name. In some cases, you may go back and change the features or modify or create new categories if needed.

      INPUT

      • Collaborate and discuss to expand on Info-Tech’s example

      OUTPUT

      • A complete list of your business’ enterprise services

      Materials

      • Whiteboard/marker
      • Info-Tech sample enterprise services

      Participants

      • Key members of the project team
      • Service desk rep
      • Business rep

      Accounts & Access Services

      • User ID & Access
      • Remote Access
      • Business Applications Access

      Communication Services

      • Telephone
      • Email
      • Mobile devices

      Files & Documents

      • Shared Folders
      • File Storage
      • File Restoration
      • File Archiving

      Collaboration

      • Web Conferencing
      • Audio Conferencing
      • Video Conferencing
      • Chat
      • Document Sharing

      Employee Services

      • Onboarding & Off Boarding
      • Benefits Self Service
      • Time and Attendance
      • Employee Records Management

      Help & Support

      • Service Desk
      • Desk Side Support
      • After Hours Support

      Desktop, Equipment, & Software

      • Printing
      • Hardware Provisioning
      • Software Provisioning
      • Software Support
      • Device Move
      • Equipment Loaner

      Education & Training Services

      • Desktop Application Training
      • Corporate Application Training
      • Clinical Application Training
      • IT Training Consultation

      Connectivity

      • BYOD (wireless access)
      • Internet
      • Guest Wi-Fi

      IT Consulting Services

      • Project Management
      • Analysis
      • RFP Reviews
      • Solution Development
      • Business Analysis/Requirements Gathering
      • RFI/RFP Evaluation
      • Security Consulting & Assessment
      • Contract Management
      • Contract Negotiation

      IT department identifies a comprehensive list of enterprise services

      CASE STUDY A
      Industry Government
      Source Onsite engagement

      Challenge

      Because of the breadth of services IT provides across several agencies, it was challenging to identify what was considered enterprise beyond just the basic ones (email, internet, etc.)

      IT recognized that although the specific tasks of service could be different, there are many services that are offered universally across the organization and streamlining the service request and delivery process would reduce the burden on IT.

      Solution

      The client began with services that users interact with on a daily basis; this includes email, wireless, telephone, internet, printing, etc.

      Then, they focused on common service requests from the users, such as software and hardware provisioning, as well as remote access.

      Lastly, they began to think of other IT services that are provided across the organization, such as RFP/RFI support, project management analysis, employee onboarding/off-boarding, etc.

      Results

      By going through the lists and enterprise categories, the government was able to come up with a comprehensive list of all services IT provides to the business.

      Classifying services such as onboarding meant that IT could now standardize IT services for new recruits and employee termination.

      By capturing all enterprise services offered to the organization, IT centralized its management of services instead of having scattered request processes.

      Organization distinguishes features from services using Info-Tech’s tips and techniques

      CASE STUDY B
      Industry Government
      Source Onsite engagement

      Challenge

      For some services, the project team had difficulty deciding on what was a service and what was a feature. They found it hard to distinguish between a service with features or multiple services.

      For example, the client struggled to define the Wi-Fi services because they had many different user groups and different processes to obtain the service. Patients, visitors, doctors, researchers, and corporate employees all use Wi-Fi, but the service features for each user group were different.

      Solution

      The Info-Tech analyst came on-site and engaged the project team in a discussion around how the users would view the services.

      The analyst also provided tips and techniques on identifying services and their features.

      Because patients and visitors do not access Wi-Fi or receive support for the service in the same way as clinical or corporate employees, Wi-Fi was separated into two services (one for each user group).

      Results

      Using the tips and techniques that were provided during the onsite engagement, the project team was able to have a high degree of clarity on how to define the services by articulating who the authorized users are, and how to access the process.

      This allowed the group to focus on the users’ perspective and create clear, unambiguous service features so that users could clearly understand eligibility requirements for the service and how to request them.

      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

      this is a picture 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 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 This image contains a screenshot from section 2.1 of this blueprint.

      Understand what enterprise services are

      The project team must have a clear understanding of what qualifies as an enterprise service. The onsite analysts will also promote a user-oriented mindset so the catalog focuses on business needs.

      2.2 this image contains a screenshot from section 2.2 of this blueprint.

      Identify enterprise services

      The Info-Tech analysts will provide a list of ready-to-use services and will work with the project team to change, add, and delete service definitions and to customize the service features.

      2.3 this image contains a screenshot from section 2.3 of this blueprint.

      Identify categories for enterprise services

      The Info-Tech analyst will again emphasize the importance of being service-oriented rather than IT-oriented. This will allow the group to come up with categories that are intuitive to the users.

      PHASE 3

      Identify and Define Line of Business Services

      Design & Build a User-Facing Service Catalog

      Step 3 – Create Line of Business Services Definitions

      1. Complete the Project Charter
      2. Create Enterprise Services Definitions
      3. Create Line of Business Services Definitions
      4. Complete Service Definitions

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Identify lines of business (LOB) within the organization as well as the user groups within the different LOBs.
      • Determine which one of Info-Tech’s two approaches is more suitable for your IT organization.
      • Define and document LOB services using the appropriate approach.
      • Categorize the LOB services based on the organization’s functional structure.

      Step Insights

      • Collaboration with the business significantly strengthens the quality of line of business service definitions. A significant amount of user input is crucial to create impactful and effective service definitions.
      • If a strong relationship with the business is not in place, IT can look at business applications and the business activities they support in order to understand how to define line of business services.

      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: Define LOB Services

      Proposed Time to Completion: 4 weeks

      Step 3.1: Identify LOB services

      Step 3.2: Define LOB services

      Start with an analyst kick off call:

      • Identify enterprise services that are commonly used.
      • Ensure the list is comprehensive and capture common IT needs.
      • Create service descriptions and features.

      Review findings with analyst:

      • Use either the business view or the IT view methodology to identify and define LOB services.

      Then complete these activities…

      • Select one of the methodologies and either compile a list of business applications or a list of user groups/functional departments.

      Then complete these activities…

      • Validate the service definitions and features with business users.

      With these tools & templates: Service

      LOB Services – Functional Group
      LOB Services – Industry Specific

      With these tools & templates:

      LOB Services – Functional Group
      LOB Services – Industry Specific

      Communicate with your business users to get a clear picture of each line of business

      Within a business unit, there are user groups that use unique applications and IT services to perform business activities. IT must understand which group is consuming each service to document to their needs and requirements. Only then is it logical to group services into lines of business.

      Covering every LOB service is a difficult task. Info-Tech offers two approaches to identifying LOB services, though we recommend working alongside business user groups to have input on how each service is used directly from the users. Doing so makes the job of completing the service catalog easier, and the product more detailed and user friendly.

      Some helpful questions to keep in mind when characterizing user groups:

      • Where do they fall on the organizational chart?
      • What kind of work do they do?
      • What is included in their job description?
      • What are tasks that they do in addition to their formal responsibilities?
      • What do they need from IT to do their day-to-day tasks?
      • What does their work day look like?
      • When, why, and how do they use IT services?

      Info-Tech Insight

      With business user input, you can answer questions as specific as “What requirements are necessary for IT to deliver value to each line of business?” and “What does each LOB need in order to run their operation?”

      Understand when it is best to use one of Info-Tech’s two approaches to defining LOB services

      1. Business View

      Business View is the preferred method for IT departments with a better understanding of business operations. This is because they can begin with input from the user, enabling them to more successfully define every service for each user group and LOB.

      In addition, IT will also have a chance to work together with the business and this will improve the level of collaboration and communication. However, in order to follow this methodology, IT needs to have a pre-established relationship with the business and can demonstrate their knowledge of business applications.

      2. IT View

      The IT view begins with considering each business application used within the organization’s lines of business. Start with a broad view, following with a process of narrowing down, and then iterate for each business application.

      This process leads to each unique service performed by every application within the business’ LOBs.

      The IT view does not necessarily require a substantial amount of information about the business procedures. IT staff are capable of deducing what business users often require to maintain their applications’ functionality.

      Use one of Info-Tech’s two methodologies to help you identify each LOB service

      Choose the methodology that fits your IT organization’s knowledge of the business.

      This image demonstrates a comparison between the business view of service and the IT View of Service. Under the Business View, the inputs are LOB; User Groups; and Business Activity. Under the IT View, the inputs are Business Application and Functionality, and the outputs are Business Activity; User Groups; and LOB.

      1. Business View

      If you do have knowledge of business operations, using the business view is the better option and the service definition will be more relatable to the users.

      2. IT View

      For organizations that don’t have established relationships with the business or detailed knowledge of business activities, IT can decompose the application into services. They have more familiarity and comfort with the business applications than with business activities.

      It is important to continue after the service is identified because it helps confirm and solidify the names and features. Determining the business activity and the user groups can help you become more user-oriented.

      Identifying LOB services using Info-Tech’s Business View method

      We will illustrate the two methodologies with the same example.

      If you have established an ongoing relationship with the business and you are familiar with their business operations, starting with the LOB and user groups will ensure you cover all the services IT provides to the business and create more relatable service names.

      This is a screenshot of an example of the business view of Service.

      Identifying LOB services using Info-Tech’s IT View method

      If you want to understand what services IT provides to the Sales functional group, and you don’t have comprehensive knowledge of the department, you need to start with the IT perspective.

      This is a screenshot of an example of the business view of Service.

      Info-Tech Insight

      If you are concerned about the fact that people always associate a service with an application, you can include the application in the service name or description so users can find the service through a search function.

      Group LOB services into functional groups as you did enterprise services into categories

      3.1 Sample Line of Business Services Definitions – Functional Groups & Industry Examples

      Like categories for enterprise services in Phase Two, LOB services are grouped into functional groups. Functional groups are the components of an organizational chart (HR, Finance, etc.) that are found in a company’s structure.

      Functional Groups

      Functional groups enable a clear view for business users of what services they need, while omitting services that do not apply to them. This does not overwhelm them, and provides them with only relevant information.

      Industry Services

      To be clear, industry services can be put into functional groups.

      Info-Tech provides a few sample industry services (without their functional group) to give an idea of what LOB service is specific to these industries. Try to extrapolate from these examples to create LOB services for your business.

      Use Info-Tech’s Sample LOB Services – Functional Group and Sample LOB Services – Industry Specific documents.

      This is a screenshot of Info-Tech's Functional Group Services

      Info-Tech Insight

      Keep track of which services you either modify or delete. You will have to change the same services in the final Info-Tech deliverable.

      Identify the user group and business activity within each line of business – Business view

      3.1 30-45 minutes per line of business

      Only perform this activity if you have a relationship with the business that can enable you to generate business input on service identifications and definitions.

      In a group of your project participants, repeat the sequence for each LOB.

      1. Brainstorm each user group within the LOB that is creating value for the business by performing functional activities.
      2. Think of what each individual end user must do to create their value. Think of the bigger picture rather than specifics at this point. For example, sales representatives must communicate with clients to create value.
      3. Now that you have each user group and the activities they perform, consider the specifics of how they go about doing that activity. Consider each application they use and how much they use that application. Think of any and all IT services that could occur as a result of that application usage.

      INPUT

      • A collaborative discussion (with a business relationship)

      OUTPUT

      • LOB services defined from the business perspective

      Materials

      • Sticky notes
      • Whiteboard/marker

      Participants

      • Members of the project team
      • Representatives from the LOBs

      Identify the user group and business activity within each line of business – IT view

      3.1 30-45 minutes per application

      Only perform this activity if you cannot generate business input through your relationships, and must begin service definitions with business applications.

      In a group of your project participants, repeat the sequence for each application.

      1. Brainstorm all applications that the business provides through IT. Cross out the ones that provide enterprise services.
      2. In broad terms, think about what the application is accomplishing to create value for the business from IT’s perspective. What are the modules? Is it recording interactions with the clients? Each software can have multiple functionalities.
      3. Narrow down each functionality performed by the application and think about how IT helps deliver that value. Create a name for the service that the users can relate to and understand.
      4. → Optional

      5. Now go beyond the service and think about the business activities. They are always similar to IT’s application functionality, but from the user perspective. How would the user think about what the application’s functionality to accomplish that particular service is? At this point, focus on the service, not the application.
      6. Determine the user groups for each service. This step will help you complete the service record design in phase 4. Keep in mind that multiple user groups may access one service.

      INPUT

      • A collaborative discussion (without a business relationship)

      OUTPUT

      • LOB services defined from the IT perspective

      Materials

      • Sticky notes
      • Whiteboard/marker

      Participants

      • Members of the project team

      You must review your LOB service definitions with the business before deployment

      Coming up with LOB service definitions is challenging for IT because it requires comprehension of all lines of business within the organization as well as direct interaction with the business users.

      After completing the LOB service definitions, IT must talk to the business to ensure all the user groups and business activities are covered and all the features are accurate.

      Here are some tips to reviewing your LOB Service Catalog generated content:

      • If you plan to talk to a business SME, plan ahead to help complete the project in time for rollout.
      • Include a business relationship manager on the project team to facilitate discussion if you do not have an established relationship with the business.

      Sample Meeting Agenda

      Go through the service in batches. Present 5-10 related services to the business first. Start with the service name and then focus on the features.

      In the meeting, discuss whether the service features accurately sum up the business activities, or if there are missing key activities. Also discuss whether certain services should be split up into multiple services or combined into one.

      Organization identifies LOB services using Info-Tech’s methodologies

      CASE STUDY A
      Industry Government
      Source Onsite engagement

      Challenge

      There were many users from different LOBs, and IT provided multiple services to all of them. Tracking them and who had access to what was difficult.

      IT didn’t understand who provided the services (service owner) and who the customers were (business owner) for some of the services.

      Solution

      After identifying the different Lines of Business, they followed the first approach (Business View) for those that IT had sufficient knowledge of in terms of business operations:

      1. Identified lines of business
      2. Identified user groups
      3. Identified business activities

      For the LOBs they weren’t familiar with, they used the IT view method, beginning with the application:

      1. Identified business apps
      2. Deduced the functionalities of each application
      3. Traced the application back to the service and identified the service owner and business owner

      Results

      Through these two methodologies, IT was able to define services according to how the users both perceive and utilize them.

      IT was able to capture all the services it provides to each line of business effectively without too much help from the business representatives.

      By capturing all enterprise services offered to the organization, IT centralized its management of services instead of having scattered request processes.

      Info-Tech helps organization to identify LOB services using the IT View

      CASE STUDY B
      Industry Healthcare
      Source Onsite engagement

      Challenge
      The organization uses a major application containing several modules used by different users for various business activities.

      The challenge was to break down the application into multiple services in a way that makes sense to the business users. Users should be able to find services specific to them easily.

      Therefore, the project team must understand how to map the modules to different services and user groups.


      Solution
      The project team identified the major lines of business and took various user groups such as nurses and doctors, figured out their daily tasks that require IT services, and mapped each user-facing service to the functionality of the application.

      The project team then went back to the application to ensure all the modules and functionalities within the application were accounted for. This helped to ensure that services for all user groups were covered and prepared to be released in the catalog.


      Results
      Once the project team had come up with a comprehensive list of services for each line of business, they were able to sit with the business and review the services.

      IT was also able to use this opportunity to demonstrate all the services it provides. Having all the LOB services demonstrates IT has done its preparation and can show the value they help create for the business in a language the users can understand. The end result was a strengthened relationship between the business and the IT department.

      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

      This is a picture 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 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 this image contains a screenshot from section 3.1 of this blueprint.

      Understand what Line of Business services are

      The onsite analysts will provide a clear distinction between enterprise services and LOB services. The analysts will also articulate the importance of validating LOB services with the business.

      3.2 this image contains a screenshot from section 3.2 of this blueprint.

      Identify LOB services using the business’ view

      There are two methods for coming up with LOB services. If IT has comprehensive knowledge of the business, they can identify the services by outlining the user groups and their business activities.

      3.3 This image contains a screenshot from section 3.3 of this blueprint.

      Identify LOB services using IT’s view

      If IT does not understand the business and cannot obtain business input, Info-Tech’s analysts will present the second method, which allows IT to identify services with more comfortability through business applications/systems.

      3.4 This image contains a screenshot from section 3.4 of this blueprint.

      Categorize the LOB services into functional groups

      The analysts will help the project team categorize the LOB services based on user groups or functional departments.

      PHASE 4

      Complete Service Definitions

      Design & Build a User-Facing Service Catalog

      Step 4: Complete service definitions and service record design

      1. Complete the Project Charter
      2. Create Enterprise Services Definitions
      3. Create Line of Business Services Definitions
      4. Complete Service Definitions

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Select which fields of information you would like to include in your service catalog design.
      • Determine which fields should be kept internal for IT use only.
      • Complete the service record design with business input if possible.

      Step Insights

      • Don’t overcomplicate the service record design. Only include the pieces of information the users really need to see.
      • Don’t publish anything that you don’t want to be held accountable for. If you are not ready, keep the metrics and costs internal.
      • It is crucial to designate a facilitator and a decision maker so confusions and disagreements regarding service definitions can be resolved efficiently.

      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 4: Complete service definitions
      Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 4 weeks

      Step 4.1: Design service record

      Step 4.2: Complete service definitions

      Start with an analyst kick off call:

      • Review Info-Tech’s sample service record and determine which fields to add/change/delete.
      • Determine which fields should be kept internal.

      Review findings with analyst:

      • Complete all fields in the service record for each identified service.

      Then complete these activities…

      • Finalize the design of the service record and bring over enterprise services and LOB services.

      Then complete these activities…

      • Test the service definitions with business users prior to catalog implementation.

      With these tools & templates: Service

      Services Definition Chart

      With these tools & templates:

      Services Definition Chart

      Utilize Info-Tech’s Services Definition Chart to map out your final service catalog design

      Info-Tech’s Sample Services Definition Chart

      Info-Tech has provided a sample Services Definition Chart with standard service definitions and pre-populated fields. It is up to you throughout this step to decide which fields are necessary to your business users, as well as how much detail you wish to include in each of them.

      This image contains a screenshot from Info-Tech's Services Definition Chart.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Keep track of which services you either modify or delete. You will have to change the same services in the final Info-Tech deliverable.

      Tips and techniques for service record design

      The majority of the fields in the service catalog are user facing, which means they must be written in business language that the users can understand.

      If there is any confusion or disagreement in filling out the fields, a facilitator is required to lead the working groups in coming up with a definitive answer. If a decision is still not reached, it should be escalated to the decision maker (usually the service owner).

      IT-Facing Fields

      There are IT facing fields that should not be published to the business users – they are for the benefit of IT. For example, you may want to keep Performance Metrics internal to IT until you are ready to discuss it with the business.

      If the organization is interested in creating a Technical Service Catalog following this initiative, these fields will provide a helpful starting place for IT to identify the people, process, and technology required to support user-facing services.

      Info-Tech Insight

      It is important for IT-facing fields to be kept internal. If business users are having trouble with a service and the service owner’s name is available to them, they will phone them for support even if they are not the support owner.

      Design your service catalog with business input: have the user in mind

      When completing the service record, adopt the principle that “Less is More.” Keep it simple and write the service description from the user’s perspective, without IT language. From the list below, pick which fields of information are important to your business users.

      What do the users need to access the service quickly and with minimal assistance?

      The depicted image contains an example of an analysis of what users need to access the service quickly and with minimal assistance. The contents are as follows. Under Service Overview, Name; Description; Features; Category; and Supporting Services. Under Owners, are Service Owner; Business Owner. Under Access Policies and Procedures, are Authorized Users; Request Process; Approval Requirements/Process; Turnaround Time; User Responsibility. Under Availability and Service Levels are Support Hours; Hours of Availability; Planned Downtime; and Metrics. Under Support Policies & Procedures are Support Process; Support Owner; Support Documentation. Under Costs are Internal Cost; Customer Cost. The items which are IT Facing are coloured Red. These include Supporting Services; Service Owner; Business Owner; Metrics; Support Owner; and Internal Cost.

      Identify service overview

      “What information must I have in each service record? What are the fundamentals required to define a service?”

      Necessary Fields – Service Description:

      • Service name → a title for the service that gives a hint of its purpose.
      • Service description → what the service does and expected outcomes.
      • Service features → describe functionality of the service.
      • Service category → an intuitive way to group the service.
      • Support services → applications/systems required to support the service.

      Description: Delivers electronic messages to and from employees.

      Features:

      • Desk phone
      • Teleconference phones (meeting rooms)
      • Voicemail
      • Recover deleted voicemails
      • Team line: call rings multiple phones/according to call tree
      • Employee directory
      • Caller ID, Conference calling

      Category: Communications

      This image contains an example of a Service overview table. The headings are: Description; Features; Category; Supporting Services (Systems, Applications).

      Identify owners

      Who is responsible for the delivery of the service and what are their roles?

      Service Owner and Business Owner

      Service owner → the IT member who is responsible and accountable for the delivery of the service.

      Business owner → the business partner of the service owner who ensures the provided service meets business needs.

      Example: Time Entry

      Service Owner: Manager of Business Solutions

      Business Owner: VP of Human Resources

      This image depicts a blank table with the headings Service Owner, and Business Owner

      Info-Tech Insight

      For enterprise services that are used by almost everyone in the organization, the business owner is the CIO.

      Identify access policies and procedures

      “Who is authorized to access this service? How do they access it?”

      Access Policies & Procedures

      Authorized users → who can access the service.

      Request process → how to request access to the service.

      Approval requirement/process → what the user needs to have in place before accessing the service.

      Example: Guest Wi-Fi

      Authorized Users: All people on site not working for the company

      Request Process: Self-Service through website for external visitors

      Approval Requirement/Process: N/A

      This image depicts a blank table with the headings: Authorized Users; Request Process; Approval Requirement/Process

      Info-Tech Insight

      Clearly defining how to access a service saves time and money by decreasing calls to the service desk and getting users up and running faster. The result is higher user productivity.

      Identify access policies and procedures

      “Who is authorized to access this service? How do they access it?”

      Access Policies & Procedures

      Requirements & pre-requisites → details of what must happen before a service can be provided.

      Turnaround time → how much time it will take to grant access to the service.

      User responsibility → What the user is expected to do to acquire the service.

      Example: Guest Wi-Fi

      Requirements & Pre-requisites: Disclaimer of non-liability and acceptance

      Turnaround time: Immediate

      User Responsibility: Adhering to policies outlined in the disclaimer

      This image depicts a blank table with the headings: Authorized Users; Request Process; Approval Requirement/Process

      Info-Tech Insight

      Clearly defining how to access a service saves time and money by decreasing calls to the service desk and getting users up and running faster. The result is higher user productivity.

      Identify availability and service levels

      “When is this service available to users? What service levels can the user expect?”

      Availability & Service Levels

      Support hours → what days/times is this service available to users?

      Hours of availability/planned downtime → is there scheduled downtime for maintenance?

      Performance metrics → what level of performance can the user expect for this service?

      Example: Software Provisioning

      Support Hours: Standard business hours

      Hours of Availability/Planned Downtime: Standard business hours; can be agreed to work beyond operating hours either earlier or later

      Performance Metrics: N/A

      This image depicts a blank table with the headings: Support hours; Hours of availability/planned downtime; Performance Metrics.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Manage user expectations by clearly documenting and communicating service levels.

      Identify support policies and procedures

      “How do I obtain support for this service?”

      Support Policies & Procedures

      Support process → what is the process for obtaining support for this service?

      Support owner → who can users contact for escalations regarding this service?

      Support documentation → where can users find support documentation for this service?

      Example: Shared Folders

      Support Process: Contact help desk or submit a ticket via portal

      Support Owner: Manager, client support

      Support Documentation: .pdf of how-to guide

      This image depicts a blank table with the headings: Support Process; Support Owner; Support Documentation

      Info-Tech Insight

      Clearly documenting support procedures enables users to get the help they need faster and more efficiently.

      Identify service costs and approvals

      “Is there a cost for this service? If so, how much and who is expensing it?”

      Costs

      Internal Cost → do we know the total cost of the service?

      Customer Cost → a lot of services are provided without charge to the business; however, certain service requests will be charged to a department’s budget.

      Example: Hardware Provisioning

      Internal Cost: For purposes of audit, new laptops will be expensed to IT.

      Customer Cost: Cost to rush order 10 new laptops with retina displays for the graphics team. Charged for extra shipment cost, not for cost of laptop.

      This image depicts a blank table with the headings: Internal Costs; Customer costs

      Info-Tech Insight

      Set user expectations by clearly documenting costs associated with a service and how to obtain approval for these costs if required.

      Complete the service record design fields for every service

      4.1 3 Hours

      This is the final activity to completing the service record design. It has been a long journey to make it here; now, all that is left is completing the fields and transferring information from previous activities.

      1. Organize the services however you think is most appropriate. A common method of organization is alphabetically by enterprise category, and then each LOB functional group.
      2. Determine which fields you would like to keep or edit to be part of your design. Also add any other fields you can think of which will add value to the user or IT. Remember to keep them IT facing if necessary.
      3. Complete the fields for each service one by one. Keep in mind that for some services, a field or two may not apply to the nature of that service and may be left blank or filled with a null value (e.g. N/A).

      INPUT

      • A collaborative discussion

      OUTPUT

      • Completed service record design ready for a catalog

      Materials

      • Info-Tech sample service record design.

      Participants

      • Project stakeholders, business representatives

      Info-Tech Insight

      Don’t forget to delete or bring over the edited LOB and Enterprise services from the phase 2 and 3 deliverables.

      Complete the service definitions and get them ready for publication

      Now that you have completed the first run of service definitions, you can go back and complete the rest of the identified services in batches. You should observe increased efficiency and effectiveness in filling out the service definitions.

      This image depicts how you can use bundles to simplify the process of catalog design using bundles. The cycle includes the steps: Identify Services; Select a Service Bundle; Review Record Design; followed by a cycle of: Pick a service; Service X; Service Data Collection; Create Service Record, followed by Publish the bundle; Communicate the bundle; Rinse and Repeat.

      This blueprint’s purpose is to help you design a service catalog. There are a number of different platforms to build the catalog offered by application vendors. The sophistication of the catalog depends on the size of your business. It may be as simple as an Excel book, or something as complex as a website integrated with your service desk.

      Determine how you want to publish the service catalog

      There are various levels of maturity to consider when you are thinking about how to deploy your service catalog.

      1. Website/User Portal 2. Catalog Module Within ITSM Tool

      3. Homegrown Solution

      Prerequisite

      An internet website, or a user portal

      An existing ITSM tool with a built-in service catalog module

      Database development capabilities

      Website development capabilities

      Pros

      Low cost

      Low effort

      Easy to deploy

      Customized solution tailored for the organization

      High flexibility regarding how the service catalog is published

      Cons

      Not aesthetically appealing

      Lacking sophistication

      Difficult to customize to organization’s needs

      Limitation on how the service catalog info is published

      High effort

      High cost

      → Maturity Level →

      Organization uses the service catalog to outline IT’s and users’ responsibilities

      CASE STUDY A
      Industry Government
      Source Onsite engagement

      Challenge

      The client had collected a lot of good information, but they were not sure about what to include to ensure the users could understand the service clearly.

      They were also not sure what to keep internal so the service catalog did not increase IT’s workload. They want to help the business, but not appear as if they are capable of solving everything for everyone immediately. There was a fear of over-commitment.

      Solution

      The government created a Customer Responsibility field for each service, so it was not just IT who was providing solutions. Business users needed to understand what they had to do to receive some services.

      The Service Owner and Business Owner fields were also kept internal so users would go through the proper request channel instead of calling Service Owners directly.

      Lastly, the Performance Metrics field was kept internal until IT was ready to present service metrics to the business.

      Results

      The business was provided clarity on their responsibility and what was duly owed to them by IT staff. This established clear boundaries on what was to be expected of IT services projected into the future.

      The business users knew what to do and how to obtain the services provided to them. In the meantime, they didn’t feel overwhelmed by the amount of information provided by the service catalog.

      Organization leverages the service catalog as a tool to define IT workflows and business processes

      CASE STUDY B
      Industry Healthcare
      Source Onsite engagement

      Challenge

      There is a lack of clarity and a lack of agreement between the client’s team members regarding the request/approval processes for certain services. This was an indication that there is a level of ambiguity around process. Members were not sure what was the proper way to access a service and could not come up with what to include in the catalog.

      Different people from different teams had different ways of accessing services. This could be true for both enterprise and LOB services.

      Solution

      The Info-Tech analyst facilitated a discussion about workflows and business processes.

      In particular, the discussion focused around the approval/authorization process, and IT’s workflows required to deliver the service. The Info-Tech analyst on site walked the client through their different processes to determine which one should be included in the catalog.

      Results

      The discussion brought clarity to the project team around both IT and business process. Using this new information, IT was able to communicate to the business better, and create consistency for IT and the users of the catalog.

      The catalog design was a shared space where IT and business users could confer what the due process and responsibilities were from both sides. This increased accountability for both parties.

      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

      this is a picture 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 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 this image contains a screenshot from section 4.1 of this blueprint.

      Determine which fields should be included in the record design

      The analysts will present the sample service definitions record and facilitate a discussion to customize the service record so unique business needs are captured.

      4.2 this image contains a screenshot from section 4.2.1 of this blueprint.

      Determine which fields should be kept internal

      The onsite analysts will explain why certain fields are used but not published. The analysts will help the team determine which fields should be kept internal.

      4.3 this image contains a screenshot from section 4.3 of this blueprint.

      Complete the service definitions

      The Info-Tech analysts will help the group complete the full service definitions. This exercise will also provide the organization with a clear understanding of IT workflows and business processes.

      Summary of accomplishment

      Knowledge Gained

      • Understanding why it is important to identify and define services from the user’s perspective.
      • Understand the differences between enterprise services and line of business services.
      • Distinguish service features from services.
      • Involve the business users to define LOB services using either IT’s view or LOB’s view.

      Processes Optimized

      • Enterprise services identification and documentation.
      • Line of business services identification and documentation.

      Deliverables Completed

      • Service catalog project charter
      • Enterprise services definitions
      • Line of business service definitions – functional groups
      • Line of business service definitions – industry specific
      • Service definition chart

      Project step summary

      Client Project: Design and Build a User-Facing Service Catalog

      1. Launch the Project – Maximize project success by assembling a well-rounded team and managing all important stakeholders.
      2. Identify Enterprise Services – Identify services that are used commonly across the organization and categorize them in a user-friendly way.
      3. Identify Line of Business Services – Identify services that are specific to each line of business using one of two Info-Tech methodologies.
      4. Complete the Service Definitions – Determine what should be presented to the users and complete the service definitions for all identified services.

      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

      Establish a Service-Based Costing Model

      Develop the right level of service-based costing capability by applying our methodology.

      Fix Your IT Culture

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}518|cart{/j2store}
      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 10.0/10 Overall Impact
      • member rating average dollars saved: $32,499 Average $ Saved
      • member rating average days saved: 20 Average Days Saved
      • Parent Category Name: Lead
      • Parent Category Link: /lead
      • Go beyond value statements to create a culture that enables the departmental strategy.
      • There is confusion about how to translate culture from an abstract concept to something that is measurable, actionable, and process driven.
      • Organizations lack clarity about who is accountable and responsible for culture, with groups often pointing fingers at each other.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • When it comes to culture, the lived experience can be different from stated values. Culture is the pattern of behaviors and the way work is done rather than simply perks, working environment, and policy.
      • Executives’ active participation in culture change is paramount. If executives aren’t willing to change the way they behave, attempts to shift the culture will fail.
      • Elevate culture to a business imperative. Foster a culture that is linked to strategy rather than trying to replicate the hot culture of the moment.
      • Target values that will have the greatest impact. Select a few focus values as a guide and align all behaviors and work practices to those values.

      Impact and Result

      • Executives need to clarify how the culture they want will help achieve their strategy and choose the focus values that will have the maximum impact.
      • Measure the current state of culture and facilitate the process of leveraging existing elements while shifting undesirable ones.

      Fix Your IT Culture Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should improve your culture to enable your 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. Assessment: Determine current culture and identify focus values

      Complete a cultural assessment and select focus values to form core culture efforts.

      • Culture Documentation Template
      • IT Departmental Values Survey
      • IT Culture Diagnostic
      • Cultural Assessment Report Template

      2. Tools: Give IT executives the tools to drive change

      Enable executives to gather feedback on behavioral perceptions and support behavioral change.

      • Executive Reflection Template

      3. Behavioral Alignment: Align IT behaviors to the desired culture

      Review all areas of the department to understand where the links to culture exist and create a communication plan.

      • Standard Internal Communications Plan
      • IT Competency Library
      • Leadership Competency Library

      4. Sustainment: Disseminate and manage culture within the department

      Customize a process to infuse behaviors aligned with focus values in work practices and complete the first wave of meetings.

      • Culture Facilitation Guide for Leaders
      [infographic]

      Transition Projects Over to the Service Desk

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}495|cart{/j2store}
      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): N/A
      • member rating average dollars saved: N/A
      • member rating average days saved: N/A
      • Parent Category Name: Service Desk
      • Parent Category Link: /service-desk
      • IT suffers from a lack of strategy and plan for transitioning support processes to the service desk.
      • Lack of effective communication between the project delivery team and the service desk, leads to an inefficient knowledge transfer to the service desk.
      • New service is not prioritized and categorized, negatively impacting service levels and end-user satisfaction.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      Make sure to build a strong knowledge management strategy to identify, capture, and transfer knowledge from project delivery to the service desk.

      Impact and Result

      • Build touchpoints between the service desk and project delivery team and make strategic points in the project lifecycles to ensure service support is done effectively following the product launch.
      • Develop a checklist of action items on the initiatives that should be done following project delivery.
      • Build a training plan into the strategy to make sure service desk agents can handle tickets independently.

      Transition Projects Over to the Service Desk Research & Tools

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

      1. Transition Projects Over to the Service Desk – A guideline to walk you through transferring project support to the service desk.

      This storyboard will help you craft a project support plan to document information to streamline service support.

      • Transition Projects Over to the Service Desk Storyboard

      2. Project Handover and Checklist – A structured document to help you record information on the project and steps to take to transfer support.

      Use these two templates as a means of collaboration with the service desk to provide information on the application/product, and steps to take to make sure there are efficient service processes and knowledge is appropriately transferred to the service desk to support the service.

      • Project Handover Template
      • Service Support Transitioning Checklist
      [infographic]

      Further reading

      Transition Projects Over to the Service Desk

      Increase the success of project support by aligning your service desk and project team.

      Analyst Perspective

      Formalize your project support plan to shift customer service to the service desk.

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

      As a service support team member, you receive a ticket from an end user about an issue they’re facing with a new application. You are aware of the application release, but you don’t know how to handle the issue. So, you will need to either spend a long time investigating the issue via peer discussion and research or escalate it to the project team.

      Newly developed or improved services should be transitioned appropriately to the support team. Service transitioning should include planning, coordination, and communication. This helps project and support teams ensure that upon a service failure, affected end users receive timely and efficient customer support.

      At the first level, the project team and service desk should build a strategy around transitioning service support to the service desk by defining tasks, service levels, standards, and success criteria.

      In the second step, they should check the service readiness to shift support from the project team to the service desk.

      The next step is training on the new services via efficient communication and coordination between the two parties. The project team should allocate some time, according to the designed strategy, to train the service desk on the new/updated service. This will enable the service desk to provide independent service handling.

      This research walks you through the above steps in more detail and helps you build a checklist of action items to streamline shifting service support to the service desk.

      Mahmoud Ramin, PhD

      Senior Research Analyst
      Infrastructure and Operations
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Executive Summary

      Your Challenge

      • IT suffers from a lack of strategy and planning for transitioning support processes to the service desk.
      • Lack of effective communication between the project delivery team and the service desk leads to an inefficient knowledge transfer to the service desk.
      • New service is not prioritized and categorized, negatively impacting service levels and end-user satisfaction.

      Common Obstacles

      • Building the right relationship between the service desk and project team is challenging, making support transition tedious.
      • The service desk is siloed; tasks and activities are loosely defined. Service delivery is inconsistent, which impacts customer satisfaction.
      • Lack of training on new services forces the service desk to unnecessarily escalate tickets to other levels and delays service delivery.

      Info-Tech’s Approach

      • Build touchpoints between the service desk and project delivery team and make strategic points in the project lifecycles to ensure service support is done effectively following the product launch.
      • Develop a checklist of action items on the initiatives that should be done following project delivery.
      • Build a training plan into the strategy to make sure service desk agents can handle tickets independently.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Make sure to build a strong knowledge management strategy to identify, capture, and transfer knowledge from project delivery to the service desk.

      A lack of formal service transition process presents additional challenges

      When there is no formal transition process following a project delivery, it will negatively impact project success and customer satisfaction.

      Service desk team:

      • You receive a request from an end user to handle an issue with an application or service that was recently released. You are aware of the features but don’t know how to solve this issue particularly.
      • You know someone in the project group who is familiar with the service, as he was involved in the project. You reach out to him, but he is very busy with another project.
      • You get back to the user to let them know that this will be done as soon as the specialist is available. But because there is no clarity on the scope of the issue, you cannot tell them when this will be resolved.
      • Lack of visibility and commitment to the service recovery will negatively impact end-user satisfaction with the service desk.

      Project delivery team:

      • You are working on an exciting project, approaching the deadline. Suddenly, you receive a ticket from a service desk agent asking you to solve an incident on a product that was released three months ago.
      • Given the deadline on the current project, you are stressed, thinking about just focusing on the projects. On the other hand, the issue with the other service is impacting multiple users and requires much attention.
      • You spend extra time handling the issue and get back to your project. But a few days later the same agent gets back to you to take care of the same issue.
      • This is negatively impacting your work quality and causing some friction between the project team and the service desk.

      Link how improvement in project transitioning to the service desk can help service support

      A successful launch can still be a failure if the support team isn't fully informed and prepared.

      • In such a situation, the project team sends impacted users a mass notification without a solid plan for training and no proper documentation.
      • To provide proper customer service, organizations should involve several stakeholder groups to collaborate for a seamless transition of projects to the service desk.
      • This shift in service support takes time and effort; however, via proper planning there will be less confusion around customer service, and it will be done much faster.
        • For instance, if AppDev is customizing an ERP solution without considering knowledge transfer to the service desk, relevant tickets will be unnecessarily escalated to the project team.
      • On the other hand, the service desk should update configuration items (CIs) and the service catalog and related requests, incidents, problems, and workarounds to the relevant assets and configurations.
      • In this transition process, knowledge transfer plays a key role. Users, the service desk, and other service support teams need to know how the new application or service works and how to manage it when an issue arises.
      • Without a knowledge transfer, service support will be forced to either reinvent the wheel or escalate the ticket to the development team. This will unnecessarily increase the time for ticket handling, increase cost per ticket, and reduce end-user satisfaction.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Involve the service desk in the transition process via clear communication, knowledge transfer, and staff training.

      Integrate the service desk into the project management lifecycle for a smooth transition of service support

      Service desk involvement in the development, testing, and maintenance/change activity steps of your project lifecycle will help you logically define the category and priority level of the service and enable service level improvement accordingly after the project goes live.

      Project management lifecycle

      As some of the support and project processes can be integrated, responsibility silos should be broken

      Processes are done by different roles. Determine roles and responsibilities for the overlapping processes to streamline service support transition to the service desk.

      The project team is dedicated to projects, while the support team focuses on customer service for several products.

      Siloed responsibilities:

      • Project team transfers the service fully to the service desk and leaves technicians alone for support without a good knowledge transfer.
      • Specialists who were involved in the project have deep knowledge about the product, but they are not involved in incident or problem management.
      • Service desk was not involved in the planning and execution processes, which leads to lack of knowledge about the product. This leaves the support team with some vague knowledge about the service, which negatively impacts the quality of incident and problem management.

      How to break the silos:

      Develop a tiered model for the service desk and include project delivery in the specialist tier.

      • Use tier 1 (service desk) as a single point of contact to support all IT services.
      • Have tier 2/3 as experts in technology. These agents are a part of the project team. They are also involved in incident management, root-cause analysis, and change management.

      Determine the interfaces

      At the project level, get a clear understanding of support capabilities and demands, and communicate them to the service desk to proactively bring them into the planning step.

      The following questions help you with an efficient plan for support transition

      Questions for support transition

      Clear responsibilities help you define the level of involvement in the overlapping processes

      Conduct a stakeholder analysis to identify the people that can help ensure the success of the transition.

      Goal: Create a prioritized list of people who are affected by the new service and will provide support.

      Why is stakeholder analysis essential?

      Why is stakeholder analysis essential

      Identify the tasks that are required for a successful project handover

      Embed the tasks that the project team should deliver before handing support to the service desk.

      Task/Activity Example

      Conduct administrative work in the application

      • New user setup
      • Password reset

      Update documentation

      • Prepare for knowledge transfer>
      Service request fulfillment/incident management
      • Assess potential bugs
      Technical support for systems troubleshooting
      • Configure a module in ITSM solution

      End-user training

      • FAQs
      • How-to questions
      Service desk training
      • Train technicians for troubleshooting

      Support management (monitoring, meeting SLAs)

      • Monitoring
      • Meeting SLAs

      Report on the service transitioning

      • Transition effectiveness
      • Four-week warranty period
      Ensure all policies follow the transition activities
      • The final week of transition, the service desk will be called to a meeting for final handover of incidents and problems

      Integrate project description and service priority throughout development phase

      Include the service desk in discussions about project description, so it will be enabled to define service priority level.

      • Project description will be useful for bringing the project forward to the change advisory board (CAB) for approval and setting up the service in the CMDB.
      • Service priority is used for adding the next layer of attributes to the CMDB for the service and ensuring the I&O department can set up systems monitoring.
      • This should be done early in the process in conjunction with the project manager and business sponsors.
      • It should be done as the project gets underway and the team can work on specifically where that milestone will be in each project.
      • What to include in the project description:
        • Name
        • Purpose
        • Publisher
        • Departments that will use the service
        • Service information
        • Regulatory constrains
      • What to include in the service priority information:
        • Main users
        • Number of users
        • Service requirements
        • System interdependencies
        • Criticality of the dependent systems
        • Service category
        • Service SME and support backup
        • System monitoring resources
        • Alert description and flow

      Document project description and service priority in the Project Handover Template.

      Embed service levels and maintenance information

      Include the service desk in discussions about project description, so it will be enabled to define service priority level.

      • Service level objectives (SLOs) will be added to CMDB to ensure the product is reviewed for business continuity and disaster recovery and that the service team knows what is coming.
      • This step will be good to start thinking about training agents and documenting knowledgebase (KB) articles.
      • What to include in SLO:
        • Response time
        • Resolution time
        • Escalation time
        • Business owner
        • Service owner
        • Vendor(s)
        • Vendor warranties
        • Data archiving/purging
        • Availability list
        • Business continuity/recovery objectives
        • Scheduled reports
        • Problem description
      • Maintenance and change requirements: You should add maintenance windows to the change calendar and ensure the maintenance checklist is added to KB articles and technician schedules.
      • What to include in maintenance and change requirements:
        • Scheduled events for the launch
        • Maintenance windows
        • Module release
        • Planned upgrades
        • Anticipated intervals for changes and trigger points
        • Scheduled batches

      Document service level objectives and maintenance in the Project Handover Template.

      Enhance communication between the project team and the service desk

      Communicating with the service desk early and often will ensure that agents fully get a deep knowledge of the new technology.

      Transition of a project to the service desk includes both knowledge transfer and execution transfer.

      01

      Provide training and mentoring to ensure technical knowledge is passed on.

      02

      Transfer leadership responsibilities by appointing the right people.

      03

      Transfer support by strategically assigning workers with the right technical and interpersonal skills.

      04

      Transfer admin rights to ensure technicians have access rights for troubleshooting.

      05

      Create support and a system to transfer work process. For example, using an online platform to store knowledge assets is a great way for support to access project information.

      Info-Tech Insight

      A communication plan and executive presentation will help project managers outline recommendations and communicate their benefits.

      Communicate reasons for projects and how they will be implemented

      Proactive communication of the project to affected stakeholders will help get their buy-in for the new technology and feedback for better support.

      Leaders of successful change spend considerable time developing a powerful change message, i.e. a compelling narrative that articulates the desired end state, that makes the change concrete and meaningful to staff.

      The message should:

      • Explain why the change or new application is needed.
      • Summarize what will stay the same.
      • Highlight what will be left behind.
      • Emphasize what is being changed due to the new or updated product.
      • Explain how the application will be implemented.
      • Address how this will affect various roles in the organization.
      • Discuss the staff’s role in making the project successful.
      • Communicate the supporting roles in the early implementation stages and later on.

      Five elements of communicating change

      Implement knowledge transfer to the service desk to ensure tickets won’t be unnecessarily escalated

      The support team usually uses an ITSM solution, while the project team mostly uses a project management solution. End users’ support is done and documented in the ITSM tool.

      Even terminologies used by these teams are different. For instance, service desk’s “incident” is equivalent to a project manager’s “defect.” Without proper integration of the development and support processes, the contents get siloed and outdated over time.

      Potential ways to deal with this challenge:

      Use the same platform for both project and service support

      This helps you document information in a single platform and provides better visibility of the project status to the support team as well. It also helps project team find out change-related incidents for a faster rollback.

      Note: This is not always feasible because of the high costs incurred in purchasing a new application with both ITSM and PM capabilities and the long time it takes for implementing such a solution.

      Integrate the PM and ITSM tools to improve transition efficiency

      Note: Consider the processes that should be integrated. Don’t integrate unnecessary steps in the development stage, such as design, which will not be helpful for support transition.

      Build a training plan for the new service

      When a new system is introduced or significant changes are applied, describe the steps and timeline for training.

      Training the service desk has two-fold benefits:
      Improve support:
      • Support team gets involved in user acceptance testing, which will provide feedback on potential bugs or failures in the technology.
      • Collaboration between specialists and tier 1 technicians will allow the service desk to gather information for handling potential incidents on the application.
      Shift-left enablement:
      • At the specialist level, agents will be more focused on other projects and spend less time on application issues, as they are mostly handled by the service desk.
      • As you shift service support left:
        • Cost per ticket decreases as more of the less costly resources are doing the work.
        • Average time to resolve decreases as the ticket is handled by the service desk.
        • End-user satisfaction increases as they don’t need to wait long for resolution.

      Who resolves the incident

      For more information about shift-left enablement, refer to InfoTech’s blueprint Optimize the Service Desk With a Shift-Left Strategy.

      Integrate knowledge management in the transition plan

      Build a knowledge transfer process to streamline service support for the newly developed technology.

      Use the following steps to ensure the service desk gets trained on the new project.

      1. Identify learning opportunities.
      2. Prioritize the identified opportunities based on:
      • Risk of lost knowledge
      • Impact of knowledge on support improvement
    • Define ways to transfer knowledge from the project team to the service desk. These could be:
      • One-on-one meetings
      • Mentoring sessions
      • Knowledgebase articles
      • Product road test
      • Potential incident management shadowing
    • Capture and transfer knowledge (via the identified means).
    • Support the service desk with further training if the requirement arises.
    • Info-Tech Insight

      Allocate knowledge transfer within ticket handling workflows. When incident is resolved by a specialist, they will assess if it is a good candidate for technician training and/or a knowledgebase article. If so, the knowledge manager will be notified of the opportunity to assign it to a SME for training and documentation of an article.

      For more information about knowledge transfer, refer to phase 3 of Info-Tech’s blueprint Standardize the Service Desk.

      Focus on the big picture first

      Identify training functions and plan for a formal knowledge transfer

      1. Brainstorm training functions for each group.
      2. Determine the timeline needed to conduct training for the identified training topics.
      RoleTraining FunctionTimeline

      Developer/Technical Support

      • Coach the service desk on the new application
      • Document relevant KB articles
      Business Analysts
      • Conduct informational interviews for new business requirements

      Service Desk Agents

      • Conduct informational interviews
      • Shadow incident management procedures
      • Document lessons learned
      Vendor
      • Provide cross-training to support team

      Document your knowledge transfer plan in the Project Handover Template.

      Build a checklist of the transition action items

      At this stage, the project is ready to go live and support needs to be independently done by the service desk.

      Checklist of the transition action items

      Info-Tech Insight

      No matter how well training is done, specialists may need to work on critical incidents and handle emergency changes. With effective service support and transition planning, you can make an agreement between the incident manager, change manager, and project manager on a timeline to balance critical incident or emergency change management and project management and define your SLA.

      Activity: Prepare a checklist of initiatives before support transition

      2-3 hours

      Document project support information and check off each support transition initiative as you shift service support to the service desk.

      1. As a group, review the Project Handover Template that you filled out in the previous steps.
      2. Download the Service Support Transitioning Checklist, and review the items that need to be done throughout the development, testing, and deployment steps of your project.
      3. Brainstorm at what step service desk needs to be involved.
      4. As you go through each initiative and complete it, check it off to make sure you are following the agreed document for a smooth transition of service support.
      Input Output
      • Project information
      • Support information for developed application/service
      • List of transitioning initiatives
      MaterialsParticipants
      • Project Handover Template
      • Service Support Transitioning Checklist
      • Project Team
      • Service Desk Manager
      • IT Lead

      Download the Project Handover Template

      Download the Service Support Transitioning Checklist

      Define metrics to track the success of project transition

      Consider key metrics to speak the language of targeted end users.

      You won’t know if transitioning support processes are successful unless you measure their impact. Find out your objectives for project transition and then track metrics that will allow you to fulfill these goals.

      Determine critical success factors to help you find out key metrics:

      High quality of the service

      Effectiveness of communication of the transition

      Manage risk of failure to help find out activities that will mitigate risk of service disruption

      Smooth and timely transition of support to the service desk

      Efficient utilization of the shared services and resources to mitigate conflicts and streamline service transitioning

      Suggested metrics:

      • Time to fulfill requests and resolve incidents for the new project
      • Time spent training the service desk
      • Number of knowledgebase articles created by the project team
      • Percentage of articles used by the service desk that prevented ticket escalation
      • First-level resolution
      • Ratio of escalated tickets for the new project
      • Problem ticket volume for the new project
      • Average customer satisfaction with the new project support
      • SLA breach rate

      Summary of Accomplishment

      Problem Solved

      Following the steps outlined in this research has helped you build a strategy to shift service support from the project team to the service desk, resulting in an improvement in customer service and agent satisfaction.

      You have also developed a plan to break the silo between the service desk and specialists and enable knowledge transfer so the service desk will not need to unnecessarily escalate tickets to developers. In the meantime, specialists are also responsible for service desk training on the new application.

      Efficient communication of service levels has helped the project team set clear expectations for managers to create a balance between their projects and service support.

      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

      Standardize the Service Desk

      Improve customer service by driving consistency in your support approach and meeting SLAs.

      Optimize the Service Desk With a Shift-Left Strategy

      The best type of service desk ticket is the one that doesn’t exist.

      Tailor IT Project Management Processes to Fit Your Projects

      Right-size PMBOK for all of your IT projects.

      Works Cited

      Brown, Josh. “Knowledge Transfer: What it is & How to Use it Effectively.” Helpjuice, 2021. Accessed November 2022.

      Magowan, Kirstie. “Top ITSM Metrics & KPIs: Measuring for Success, Aiming for Improvement.” BMC Blogs, 2020. Accessed November 2022.

      “The Complete Blueprint for Aligning Your Service Desk and Development Teams (Process Integration and Best Practices).” Exalate, 2021. Accessed October 2022.

      “The Qualities of Leadership: Leading Change.” Cornelius & Associates, 2010. Web.

      Optimize IT Change Management

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      • 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.

      Build a Data Classification MVP for M365

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}67|cart{/j2store}
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      • Parent Category Name: End-User Computing Applications
      • Parent Category Link: /end-user-computing-applications
      • Resources are the primary obstacle to getting a foot hold in O365 governance, whether it is funding or FTE resources.
      • Data is segmented and is difficult to analyze when you can’t see it or manage the relationships between sources.
      • Organizations expect results early and quickly and a common obstacle is that building a proper data classification framework can take more than two years and the business can't wait that long.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Data classification is the lynchpin to ANY effective governance of O/M365 and your objective is to navigate through this easily and effectively and build a robust, secure, and viable governance model.
      • Start your journey by identifying what and where your data is and how much data you have. You need to understand what sensitive data you have and where it is stored before you can protect it or govern that data.
      • Ensure there is a high-level leader who is the champion of the governance objective.

      Impact and Result

      • Using least complex sensitivity labels in your classification are your building blocks to compliance and security in your data management schema; they are your foundational steps.

      Build a Data Classification MVP for M365 Research & Tools

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

      1. Build a Data Classification MVP for M365 Deck – A guide for how to build a minimum-viable product for data classification that end users will actually use.

      Discover where your data resides, what governance helps you do, and what types of data you're classifying. Then build your data and security protection baselines for your retention policy, sensitivity labels, workload containers, and both forced and unforced policies.

      • Build a Data Classification MVP for M365 Storyboard
      [infographic]

      Further reading

      Build a Data Classification MVP for M365

      Kickstart your governance with data classification users will actually use!

      Executive Summary

      Info-Tech Insight

      • Creating an MVP gets you started in data governance
        Information protection and governance are not something you do once and then you are done. It is a constant process where you start with the basics (a minimum-viable product or MVP) and enhance your schema over time. The objective of the MVP is reducing obstacles to establishing an initial governance position, and then enabling rapid development of the solution to address a variety of real risks, including data loss prevention (DLP), data retention, legal holds, and data labeling.
      • Define your information and protection strategy
        The initial strategy is to start looking across your organization and identifying your customer data, regulatory data, and sensitive information. To have a successful data protection strategy you will include lifecycle management, risk management, data protection policies, and DLP. All key stakeholders need to be kept in the loop. Ensure you keep track of all available data and conduct a risk analysis early. Remember, data is your highest valued intangible asset.
      • Planning and resourcing are central to getting started on MVP
        A governance plan and governance decisions are your initial focus. Create a team of stakeholders that include IT and business leaders (including Legal, Finance, HR, and Risk), and ensure there is a top-level leader who is the champion of the governance objective, which is to ensure your data is safe, secure, and not prone to leakage or theft, and maintain confidentiality where it is warranted.

      Executive Summary

      Your Challenge
      • Today, the amount of data companies are gathering is growing at an explosive rate. New tools are enabling unforeseen channels and ways of collaborating.
      • Combined with increased regulatory oversight and reporting obligations, this makes the discovery and management of data a massive undertaking. IT can’t find and protect the data when the business has difficulty defining its data.
      • The challenge is to build a framework that can easily categorize and classify data yet allows for sufficient regulatory compliance and granularity to be useful. Also, to do it now because tomorrow is too late.
      Common Obstacles

      Data governance has several obstacles that impact a successful launch, especially if governing M365 is not a planned strategy. Below are some of the more common obstacles:

      • Resources are the primary obstacle to starting O365 governance, whether it is funding or people.
      • Data is segmented and is difficult to analyze when you can’t see it or manage the relationships between sources.
      • Organizations expect results early and quickly and a common obstacle is that building a "proper data classification framework” is a 2+ year project and the business can't wait that long.
      Info-Tech’s Approach
      • Start with the basics: build a minimum-viable product (MVP) to get started on the path to sustainable governance.
      • Identify what and where your data resides, how much data you have, and understand what sensitive data needs to be protected.
      • Create your team of stakeholders, including Legal, records managers, and privacy officers. Remember, they own the data and should manage it.
      • Categorization comes before classification, and discovery comes before categorization. Use easy-to-understand terms like high, medium, or low risk.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Data classification is the lynchpin to any effective governance of O/M365 and your objective is to navigate through this easily and effectively and build a robust, secure, and viable governance model. Start your journey by identifying what and where your data is and how much data do you have. You need to understand what sensitive data you have and where it is stored before you can protect or govern it. Ensure there is a high-level leader who is the champion of the governance objectives. Data classification fulfills the governance objectives of risk mitigation, governance and compliance, efficiency and optimization, and analytics.

      Questions you need to ask

      Four key questions to kick off your MVP.

      1

      Know Your Data

      Do you know where your critical and sensitive data resides and what is being done with it?

      Trying to understand where your information is can be a significant project.

      2

      Protect Your Data

      Do you have control of your data as it traverses across the organization and externally to partners?

      You want to protect information wherever it goes through encryption, etc.

      3

      Prevent Data Loss

      Are you able to detect unsafe activities that prevent sharing of sensitive information?

      Data loss prevention (DLP) is the practice of detecting and preventing data breaches, exfiltration, or unwanted destruction of sensitive data.

      4

      Govern Your Data

      Are you using multiple solutions (or any) to classify, label, and protect sensitive data?

      Many organizations use more than one solution to protect and govern their data, making it difficult to determine if there are any coverage gaps.

      Classification tiers

      Build your schema.

      Pyramid visualization for classification tiers. The top represents 'Simplicity', and the bottom 'Complexity' with the length of the sides at each level representing the '# of policies' and '# of labels'. At the top level is 'MVP (Minimum-Viable Product) - Confidential, Internal (Subcategory: Personal), Public'. At the middle level is 'Regulated - Highly Confidential, Confidential, Sensitive, General, Internal, Restricted, Personal, Sub-Private, Public'. And a the bottom level is 'Government (DOD) - Top Secret (TS), Secret, Confidential, Restricted, Official, Unclassified, Clearance'

      Info-Tech Insight

      Deciding on how granular you go into data classification will chiefly be governed by what industry you are in and your regulatory obligations – the more highly regulated your industry, the more classification levels you will be mandated to enforce. The more complexity you introduce into your organization, the more operational overhead both in cost and resources you will have to endure and build.

      Microsoft MIP Topology

      Microsoft Information Protection (MIP), which is Microsoft’s Data Classification Services, is the key to achieving your governance goals. Without an MVP, data classification will be overwhelming; simplifying is the first step in achieving governance.

      A diagram of multiple offerings all connected to 'MIP Data Classification Service'. Circled is 'Sensitivity Labels' with an arrow pointing back to 'MIP' at the center.
      (Source: Microsoft, “Microsoft Purview compliance portal”)

      Info-Tech Insight

      Using least-complex sensitivity labels in your classification are your building blocks to compliance and security in your data management schema; they are your foundational steps.

      MVP RACI Chart

      Data governance is a "takes a whole village" kind of effort.

      Clarify who is expected to do what with a RACI chart.

      End User M365 Administrator Security/ Compliance Data Owner
      Define classification divisions R A
      Appy classification label to data – at point of creation A R
      Apply classification label to data – legacy items R A
      Map classification divisions to relevant policies R A
      Define governance objectives R A
      Backup R A
      Retention R A
      Establish minimum baseline A R

      What and where your data resides

      Data types that require classification.

      Logos for 'Microsoft', 'Office 365', and icons for each program included in that package.
      M365 Workload Containers
      Icon for MS Exchange. Icon for MS SharePoint.Icon for MS Teams. Icon for MS OneDrive. Icon for MS Project Online.
      Email
      • Attachments
      Site Collections, Sites Sites Project Databases
      Contacts Teams and Group Site Collections, Sites Libraries and Lists Sites
      Metadata Libraries and Lists Documents
      • Versions
      Libraries and Lists
      Teams Conversations Documents
      • Versions
      Metadata Documents
      • Versions
      Teams Chats Metadata Permissions
      • Internal Sharing
      • External Sharing
      Metadata
      Permissions
      • Internal Sharing
      • External Sharing
      Files Shared via Teams Chats Permissions
      • Internal Sharing
      • External Sharing

      Info-Tech Insight

      Knowing where your data resides will ensure you do not miss any applicable data that needs to be classified. These are examples of the workload containers; you may have others.

      Discover and classify on- premises files using AIP

      AIP helps you manage sensitive data prior to migrating to Office 365:
      • Use discover mode to identify and report on files containing sensitive data.
      • Use enforce mode to automatically classify, label, and protect files with sensitive data.
      Can be configured to scan:
      • SMB files
      • SharePoint Server 2016, 2013
      Stock image of a laptop uploading to the cloud with a padlock and key in front of it.
      • Map your network and find over-exposed file shares.
      • Protect files using MIP encryption.
      • Inspect the content in file repositories and discover sensitive information.
      • Classify and label file per MIP policy.
      Azure Information Protection scanner helps discover, classify, label, and protect sensitive information in on-premises file servers. You can run the scanner and get immediate insight into risks with on-premises data. Discover mode helps you identify and report on files containing sensitive data (Microsoft Inside Track and CIAOPS, 2022). Enforce mode automatically classifies, labels, and protects files with sensitive data.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Any asset deployed to the cloud must have approved data classification. Enforcing this policy is a must to control your data.

      Understanding governance

      Microsoft Information Governance

      Information Governance
      • Retention policies for workloads
      • Inactive and archive mailboxes

      Arrow pointing down-right

      Records Management
      • Retention labels for items
      • Disposition review

      Arrow pointing down-left

      Retention and Deletion

      ‹——— Connectors for Third-Party Data ———›

      Information governance manages your content lifecycle using solutions to import, store, and classify business-critical data so you can keep what you need and delete what you do not. Backup should not be used as a retention methodology since information governance is managed as a “living entity” and backup is a stored information block that is “suspended in time.” Records management uses intelligent classification to automate and simplify the retention schedule for regulatory, legal, and business-critical records in your organization. It is for that discrete set of content that needs to be immutable.
      (Source: Microsoft, “Microsoft Purview compliance portal”)

      Retention and backup policy decision

      Retention is not backup.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Retention is not backup. Retention means something different: “the content must be available for discovery and legal document production while being able to defend its provenance, chain of custody, and its deletion or destruction” (AvePoint Blog, 2021).

      Microsoft Responsibility (Microsoft Protection) Weeks to Months Customer Responsibility (DLP, Backup, Retention Policy) Months to Years
      Loss of service due to natural disaster or data center outage Loss of data due to departing employees or deactivated accounts
      Loss of service due to hardware or infrastructure failure Loss of data due to malicious insiders or hackers deleting content
      Short-term (30 days) user error with recycle bin/ version history (including OneDrive “File Restore”) Loss of data due to malware or ransomware
      Short-term (14 days) administrative error with soft- delete for groups, mailboxes, or service-led rollback Recovery from prolonged outages
      Long-term accidental deletion coverage with selective rollback

      Understand retention policy

      What are retention policies used for? Why you need them as part of your MVP?

      Do not confuse retention labels and policies with backup.

      Remember: “retention [policies are] auto-applied whereas retention label policies are only applied if the content is tagged with the associated retention label” (AvePoint Blog, 2021).

      E-discovery tool retention policies are not turned on automatically.

      Retention policies are not a backup tool – when you activate this feature you are unable to delete anyone.

      “Data retention policy tools enable a business to:

      • “Decide proactively whether to retain content, delete content, or retain and then delete the content when needed.
      • “Apply a policy to all content or just content meeting certain conditions, such as items with specific keywords or specific types of sensitive information.
      • “Apply a single policy to the entire organization or specific locations or users.
      • “Maintain discoverability of content for lawyers and auditors, while protecting it from change or access by other users. […] ‘Retention Policies’ are different than ‘Retention Label Policies’ – they do the same thing – but a retention policy is auto-applied, whereas retention label policies are only applied if the content is tagged with the associated retention label.

      “It is also important to remember that ‘Retention Label Policies’ do not move a copy of the content to the ‘Preservation Holds’ folder until the content under policy is changed next.” (Source: AvePoint Blog, 2021)

      Definitions

      Data classification is a focused term used in the fields of cybersecurity and information governance to describe the process of identifying, categorizing, and protecting content according to its sensitivity or impact level. In its most basic form, data classification is a means of protecting your data from unauthorized disclosure, alteration, or destruction based on how sensitive or impactful it is.

      Once data is classified, you can then create policies; sensitive data types, trainable classifiers, and sensitivity labels function as inputs to policies. Policies define behaviors, like if there will be a default label, if labeling is mandatory, what locations the label will be applied to, and under what conditions. A policy is created when you configure Microsoft 365 to publish or automatically apply sensitive information types, trainable classifiers, or labels.

      Sensitivity label policies show one or more labels to Office apps (like Outlook and Word), SharePoint sites, and Office 365 groups. Once published, users can apply the labels to protect their content.

      Data loss prevention (DLP) policies help identify and protect your organization's sensitive info (Microsoft Docs, April 2022). For example, you can set up policies to help make sure information in email and documents is not shared with the wrong people. DLP policies can use sensitive information types and retention labels to identify content containing information that might need protection.

      Retention policies and retention label policies help you keep what you want and get rid of what you do not. They also play a significant role in records management.

      Data examples for MVP classification

      • Examples of the type of data you consider to be Confidential, Internal, or Public.
      • This will help you determine what to classify and where it is.
      Internal Personal, Employment, and Job Performance Data
      • Social Security Number
      • Date of birth
      • Marital status
      • Job application data
      • Mailing address
      • Resume
      • Background checks
      • Interview notes
      • Employment contract
      • Pay rate
      • Bonuses
      • Benefits
      • Performance reviews
      • Disciplinary notes or warnings
      Confidential Information
      • Business and marketing plans
      • Company initiatives
      • Customer information and lists
      • Information relating to intellectual property
      • Invention or patent
      • Research data
      • Passwords and IT-related information
      • Information received from third parties
      • Company financial account information
      • Social Security Number
      • Payroll and personnel records
      • Health information
      • Self-restricted personal data
      • Credit card information
      Internal Data
      • Sales data
      • Website data
      • Customer information
      • Job application data
      • Financial data
      • Marketing data
      • Resource data
      Public Data
      • Press releases
      • Job descriptions
      • Marketing material intended for general public
      • Research publications

      New container sensitivity labels (MIP)

      New container sensitivity labels

      Public Private
      Privacy
      1. Membership to group is open; anyone can join
      2. “Everyone except external guest” ACL onsite; content available in search to all tenants
      1. Only owner can add members
      2. No access beyond the group membership until someone shares it or changes permissions
      Allowed Not Allowed
      External guest policy
      1. Membership to group is open; anyone can join
      2. “Everyone except external guest” ACL onsite; content available in search to all tenants
      1. Only owner can add members
      2. No access beyond the group membership until someone shares it or changes permissions

      What users will see when they create or label a Team/Group/Site

      Table of what users will see when they create or label a team/group/site highlighting 'External guest policy' and 'Privacy policy options' as referenced above.
      (Source: Microsoft, “Microsoft Purview compliance portal”)

      Info-Tech Insights

      Why you need sensitivity container labels:
      • Manage privacy of Teams Sites and M365 Groups
      • Manage external user access to SPO sites and teams
      • Manage external sharing from SPO sites
      • Manage access from unmanaged devices

      Data protection and security baselines

      Data Protection Baseline

      “Microsoft provides a default assessment in Compliance Manager for the Microsoft 365 data protection baseline" (Microsoft Docs, June 2022). This baseline assessment has a set of controls for key regulations and standards for data protection and general data governance. This baseline draws elements primarily from NIST CSF (National Institute of Standards and Technology Cybersecurity Framework) and ISO (International Organization for Standardization) as well as from FedRAMP (Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program) and GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union).

      Security Baseline

      The final stage in M365 governance is security. You need to implement a governance policy that clearly defines storage locations for certain types of data and who has permission to access it. You need to record and track who accesses content and how they share it externally. “Part of your process should involve monitoring unusual external sharing to ensure staff only share documents that they are allowed to” (Rencore, 2021).

      Info-Tech Insights

      • Controls are already in place to set data protection policy. This assists in the MVP activities.
      • Finally, you need to set your security baseline to ensure proper permissions are in place.

      Prerequisite baseline

      Icon of crosshairs.
      Security

      MFA or SSO to access from anywhere, any device

      Banned password list

      BYOD sync with corporate network

      Icon of a group.
      Users

      Sign out inactive users automatically

      Enable guest users

      External sharing

      Block client forwarding rules

      Icon of a database.
      Resources

      Account lockout threshold

      OneDrive

      SharePoint

      Icon of gears.
      Controls

      Sensitivity labels, retention labels and policies, DLP

      Mobile application management policy

      Building baselines

      Sensitivity Profiles: Public, Internal, Confidential; Subcategory: Highly Confidential

      Microsoft 365 Collaboration Protection Profiles

      Sensitivity Public External Collaboration Internal Highly Confidential
      Description Data that is specifically prepared for public consumption Not approved for public consumption, but OK for external collaboration External collaboration highly discouraged and must be justified Data of the highest sensitivity: avoid oversharing, internal collaboration only
      Label details
      • No content marking
      • No encryption
      • Public site
      • External collaboration allowed
      • Unmanaged devices: allow full access
      • No content marking
      • No encryption
      • Private site
      • External collaboration allowed
      • Unmanaged devices: allow full access
      • Content marking
      • Encryption
      • Private site
      • External collaboration allowed but monitored
      • Unmanaged devices: limited web access
      • Content marking
      • Encryption
      • Private site
      • External collaboration disabled
      • Unmanaged devices: block access
      Teams or Site details Public Team or Site open discovery, guests are allowed Private Team or Site members are invited, guests are allowed Private Team or Site members are invited, guests are not allowed
      DLP None Warn Block

      Please Note: Global/Compliance Admins go to the 365 Groups platform, the compliance center (Purview), and Teams services (Source: Microsoft Documentation, “Microsoft Purview compliance documentation”)

      Info-Tech Insights

      • Building baseline profiles will be a part of your MVP. You will understand what type of information you are addressing and label it accordingly.
      • Sensitivity labels are a way to classify your organization's data in a way that specifies how sensitive the data is. This helps you decrease risks in sharing information that shouldn't be accessible to anyone outside your organization or department. Applying sensitivity labels allows you to protect all your data easily.

      MVP activities

      PRIMARY
      ACTIVITIES
      Define Your Governance
      The objective of the MVP is reducing barriers to establishing an initial governance position, and then enabling rapid progression of the solution to address a variety of tangible risks, including DLP, data retention, legal holds, and labeling.
      Decide on your classification labels early.

      CATEGORIZATION





      CLASSIFICATION

      MVP
      Data Discovery and Management
      AIP (Azure Information Protection) scanner helps discover, classify, label, and protect sensitive information in on-premises file servers. You can run the scanner and get immediate insight into risks with on-premises data.
      Baseline Setup
      Building baseline profiles will be a part of your MVP. You will understand what type of information you are addressing and label it accordingly. Microsoft provides a default assessment in Compliance Manager for the Microsoft 365 data protection baseline.
      Default M365 settings
      Microsoft provides a default assessment in Compliance Manager for the Microsoft 365 data protection baseline. This baseline assessment has a set of controls for key regulations and standards for data protection and general data governance.
      SUPPORT
      ACTIVITIES
      Retention Policy
      Retention policy is auto-applied. Decide whether to retain content, delete content, or retain and then delete the content.
      Sensitivity Labels
      Automatically enforce policies on groups through labels; classify groups.
      Workload Containers
      M365: SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, and Exchange, where your data is stored for labels and policies.
      Unforced Policies
      Written policies that are not enforceable by controls in Compliance Manager such as acceptable use policy.
      Forced Policies
      Restrict sharing controls to outside organizations. Enforce prefix or suffix to group or team names.

      ACME Company MVP for M/O365

      PRIMARY
      ACTIVITIES
      Define Your Governance


      Focus on ability to use legal hold and GDPR compliance.

      CATEGORIZATION





      CLASSIFICATION

      MVP
      Data Discovery and Management


      Three classification levels (public, internal, confidential), which are applied by the user when data is created. Same three levels are used for AIP to scan legacy sources.

      Baseline Setup


      All data must at least be classified before it is uploaded to an M/O365 cloud service.

      Default M365 settings


      Turn on templates 1 8 the letter q and the number z

      SUPPORT
      ACTIVITIES
      Retention Policy


      Retention policy is auto-applied. Decide whether to retain content, delete content, or retain and then delete the content.

      Sensitivity Labels


      Automatically enforce policies on groups through labels; classify groups.

      Workload Containers


      M365: SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, and Exchange, where your data is stored for labels and policies.

      Unforced Policies


      Written policies that are not enforceable by controls in Compliance Manager such as acceptable use policy.

      Forced Policies


      Restrict sharing controls to outside organizations. Enforce prefix or suffix to group or team names.

      Related Blueprints

      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.

      Map your organizational goals to the administration features available in the Office 365 console. Your governance should reflect your requirements.

      Migrate to Office 365 Now

      Jumping into an Office 365 migration project without careful thought of the risks of a cloud migration will lead to project halt and interruption. Intentionally plan in order to expose risk and to develop project foresight for a smooth migration.

      Microsoft Teams Cookbook

      Remote work calls for leveraging your Office 365 license to use Microsoft Teams – but IT is unsure about best practices for governance and permissions. Moreover, IT has few resources to help train end users with Teams best practices

      IT Governance, Risk & Compliance

      Several blueprints are available on a broader topic of governance, from Make Your IT Governance Adaptable to Improve IT Governance to Drive Business Results and Build an IT Risk Management Program.

      Bibliography

      “Best practices for sharing files and folders with unauthenticated users.” Microsoft Build, 28 April 2022. Accessed 2 April 2022.

      “Build and manage assessments in Compliance Manager.” Microsoft Docs, 15 June 2022. Web.

      “Building a modern workplace with Microsoft 365.” Microsoft Inside Track, n.d. Web.

      Crane, Robert. “June 2020 Microsoft 365 Need to Know Webinar.” CIAOPS, SlideShare, 26 June 2020. Web.

      “Data Classification: Overview, Types, and Examples.” Simplilearn, 27 Dec. 2021. Accessed 11 April 2022.

      “Data loss prevention in Exchange Online.” Microsoft Docs, 19 April 2022. Web.

      Davies, Nahla. “5 Common Data Governance Challenges (and How to Overcome Them).” Dataversity. 25 October 2021. Accessed 5 April 2022.

      “Default labels and policies to protect your data.” Microsoft Build, April 2022. Accessed 3 April 2022.

      M., Peter. "Guide: The difference between Microsoft Backup and Retention." AvePoint Blog, 9 Oct. 2021. Accessed 4 April 2022.

      Meyer, Guillaume. “Sensitivity Labels: What They Are, Why You Need Them, and How to Apply Them.” nBold, 6 October 2021. Accessed 2 April 2022.

      “Microsoft 365 guidance for security & compliance.” Microsoft, 27 April 2022. Accessed 28 April 2022.

      “Microsoft Purview compliance portal.” Microsoft, 19 April 2022. Accessed 22 April 2022.

      “Microsoft Purview compliance documentation.” Microsoft, n.d. Accessed 22 April 2022.

      “Microsoft Trust Center: Products and services that run on trust.” Microsoft, 2022. Accessed 3 April 2022.

      “Protect your sensitive data with Microsoft Purview.” Microsoft Build, April 2022. Accessed 3 April 2022.

      Zimmergren, Tobias. “4 steps to successful cloud governance in Office 365.” Rencore, 9 Sept. 2021. Accessed 5 April 2022.

      Manage Exponential Value Relationships

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}210|cart{/j2store}
      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 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

      Implementing exponential IT will require businesses to work with external vendors to facilitate the rapid adoption of cutting-edge technologies such as generative artificial intelligence. IT leaders must:

      These challenges require new skills which build trust and collaboration among vendors.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      Outcome-based relationships require a higher degree of trust than traditional vendor relationships. Build trust by sharing risks and rewards.

      Impact and Result

      • Assess your readiness to take on the new types of vendor relationships that will help you succeed.
      • Identify where you need to build your capabilities in order to successfully manage relationships.
      • Successfully manage outcomes, financials, risk, and relationships in complex vendor relationships.

      Manage Exponential Value Relationships Research & Tools

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

      1. Manage Exponential Value Relationships Storyboard – Learn about the new era of exponential vendor relationships and the capabilities needed to succeed.

      This research walks you through how to assess your capabilities to undertake a new model of vendor relationships and drive exponential IT.

      • Manage Exponential Value Relationships Storyboard

      2. Exponential Relationships Readiness Assessment – Assess your readiness to engage in exponential vendor partnerships.

      This tool will facilitate your readiness assessment.

      • Exponential Relationships Readiness Assessment
      [infographic]

      Further reading

      Manage Exponential Value Relationships

      Are you ready to manage outcome-based agreements?

      Analyst Perspective

      Outcome-based agreements require a higher degree of mutual trust.

      Kim Osborne Rodriguez

      Exponential IT brings with it an exciting new world of cutting-edge technology and increasingly accelerated growth of business and IT. But adopting and driving change through this paradigm requires new capabilities to grow impactful and meaningful partnerships with external vendors who can help implement technologies like artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

      Building outcome-based partnerships involves working very closely with vendors who, in many cases, will have just as much to lose as the organizations implementing these new technologies. This requires a greater degree of trust between parties than a standard vendor relationship. It also drastically increases the risks to both organizations; as each loses some control over data and outcomes, they must trust that the other organization will follow through on commitments and obligations.

      Outcome-based partnerships build upon traditional vendor management practices and create the potential for organizations to embrace emerging technology in new ways.

      Kim Osborne Rodriguez
      Research Director, CIO Advisory
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Executive Summary

      Exponential IT drives change

      Vendor relationships must evolve

      To deliver exponential value

      Implementing exponential IT will require businesses to work with external vendors to facilitate the rapid adoption of cutting-edge technologies such as generative artificial intelligence. IT leaders must:

      • Build strategic relationships with external entities to support the autonomization of the enterprise.
      • Procure, operate, and manage contracts and performance in outcome-based relationships.
      • Build relationships with new vendors.

      These challenges require new skills which build trust and collaboration with vendors.

      Traditional vendor management approaches are still important for organizations to develop and maintain. But exponential relationships bring new challenges:

      • A shift from managing technology service agreements to managing business capability agreements
      • Increased vendor access to intellectual property, confidential information, and customers

      IT leaders must adapt traditional vendor management capabilities to successfully lead this change.

      Outcome-based relationships should not be undertaken lightly as they can significantly impact the risk profile of the organization. Use this research to:

      • Assess your foundational vendor management capabilities as well as the transformative capabilities you need to manage outcome-based relationships.
      • Identify where you need to build your capabilities in order to successfully manage relationships.
      • Successfully manage outcomes, financials, risk, and relationships in complex vendor partnerships.

      Exponential value relationships will help drive exponential IT and autonomization of the enterprise.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Outcome-based partnerships require a higher degree of trust than traditional vendor relationships. Build trust by sharing risks and rewards.

      Vendor relationships can be worth billions of dollars

      Positive vendor relationships directly impact the bottom line, sometimes to the tune of billions of dollars annually.

      • Organizations typically spend 40% to 80% of their total budget on external suppliers.
      • Greater supplier trust translates directly to greater business profits, even in traditional vendor relationships.1
      • Based on over a decade of data from vehicle manufacturers, greater supplier relationships nearly doubled the unit profit margin on vehicles, contributing over $20 billion to Toyota’s annual profits based on typical sales volume.2
      • Having positive vendor relationships can be instrumental in times of crisis – when scarcity looms, vendors often choose to support their best customers.3,4 For example, Toyota protected itself from the losses many original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) faced in 2020 and showed improved profitability that year due to increased demand for vehicles which it was able to supply as a result of top-ranked vendor relationships.
      1 PR Newswire, 2022.
      2 Based on 10 years of data comparing Toyota and Nissan, every 1-point increase in the company’s Working Relations Index was correlated with a $15.77 net profit increase per unit. Impact on Toyota annual profits is based on 10.5 million units sold in 2021 and 2022.
      3 Interview with Renee Stanley, University of Texas at Arlington. Conducted 17 May 2023.
      4 Plante Moran, 2020.

      Supplier Trust Impacts OEM Profitability

      Sources: Macrotrends, Plante Moran 2022, Nissan 2022 and 2023, and Toyota 2022. Profit per car is based on total annual profit divided by total annual sales volume.

      Outcome-based relationships are a new paradigm

      In a new model where organizations are procuring autonomous capabilities, outcomes will govern vendor relationships.

      An outcome-based relationship requires a higher level of mutual trust than traditional vendor relationships. This requires shared reward and shared risk.

      Don’t forget about traditional vendor management relationships! Not all vendor relationships can (or should) be outcome-based.

      Managing Exponential Value Relationships.

      Case study

      INDUSTRY: Technology

      SOURCE: Press Release

      Microsoft and OpenAI partner on Azure, Teams, and Microsoft Office suite

      In January 2023, Microsoft announced a $10 billion investment in OpenAI, allowing OpenAI to continue scaling its flagship large language model, ChatGPT, and giving Microsoft first access to deploy OpenAI’s products in services like GitHub, Microsoft Office, and Microsoft Teams.

      Shared risk

      Issues with OpenAI’s platforms could have a debilitating effect on Microsoft’s own reputation – much like Google’s $100 billion stock loss following a blunder by its AI platform Bard – not to mention the financial loss if the platform does not live up to the hype.

      Shared reward

      This was a particularly important strategic move by Microsoft, as its main competitors develop their own AI models in a race to the top. This investment also gave OpenAI the resources to continue scaling and evolving its services much faster than it would be capable of on its own. If OpenAI’s products succeed, there is a significant upside for both companies.

      The image contains a graph that demonstrates time to reach 1 million users.

      Adapt your approach to vendor relationships

      Both traditional vendors and exponential relationships are important.

      Traditional

      procurement

      Vendor

      management

      Exponential vendor relationships

      • Ideal for procuring a product or service
      • Typically evaluates vendors based on their capabilities and track record of success
      • Focuses on metrics, KPIs, and contracts to deliver success to the organization purchasing the product or service
      • Vendors typically only have access to company data showing what is required to deliver their product or service
      • Ideal for managing vendors supplying products or services
      • Typically evaluates vendors based on the value and the criticality of a vendor to drive VM-resource allocation
      • External vendors do not generally participate in sharing of risks or rewards outside of payment for services or incentives/penalties
      • Vendors typically have limited access to company data
      • Ideal for procuring an autonomous capability
      • Typically evaluated based on the total possible value creation for both parties
      • External vendors share in substantial portions of the risks and rewards of the relationship
      • Vendors typically have significant access to company data, including proprietary methods, intellectual property, and customer lists

      Use this research to successfully
      manage outcome-based relationships.

      Use Info-Tech’s research to Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative.

      Common obstacles

      Exponential relationships require new approaches to vendor management as businesses autonomize:

      • Autonomization refers to the shift toward autonomous business capabilities which leverage technologies such as AI and quantum computing to operate independently of human interaction.
      • The speed and complexity of technology advancement requires that businesses move quickly and confidently to develop strong relationships and deliver value.
      • We are seeing businesses shift from procuring products and services to procuring autonomous business capabilities (sometimes called “as a service,” or aaS). This shift can drive exponential value but also increases complexity and risk.
      • Exponential IT requires a shift in emphasis toward more mature relationship and risk management strategies, compared to traditional vendor management.

      The shift from technology service agreements to business capability agreements needs a new approach

      Eighty-seven percent of organizations are currently experiencing talent shortages or expect to within a few years.

      Source: McKinsey, “Mind the [skills] gap”, 2021.

      Sixty-three percent of IT leaders plan to implement AI in their organizations by the end of 2023.

      Source: Info-Tech Research Group survey, 2022

      Insight summary

      Build trust

      Successfully managing exponential relationships requires increased trust and the ability to share both risks and rewards. Outcome-based vendors typically have greater access to intellectual property, customer data, and proprietary methods, which can pose a risk to the organization if this information is used to benefit competitors. Build mutual trust by sharing both risks and rewards.

      Manage risk

      Outcome-based relationships with external vendors can drastically affect an organization’s risk profile. Carefully consider third-party risk and shared risk, including ESG risk, as well as the business risk of losing control over capabilities and assets. Qualified risk specialists (such as legal, regulatory, contract, intellectual property law) should be consulted before entering outcome-based relationships.

      Drive outcomes

      Fostering strategic relationships can be instrumental in times of crisis, when being the customer of choice for key vendors can push your organization up the line from the vendor’s side – but be careful about relying on this too much. Vendor objectives may not align with yours, and in the end, everyone needs to protect themselves.

      Assess your readiness for exponential value relationships

      Key deliverable:

      Exponential Relationships Readiness Assessment

      Determine your readiness to build exponential value relationships.

      Measure the value of this blueprint

      Save thousands of dollars by leveraging this research to assess your readiness, before you lose millions from a relationship gone bad.

      Our research indicates that most organizations would take months to prepare this type of assessment without using our research. That’s over 80 person-hours spent researching and gathering data to support due diligence, for a total cost of thousands of dollars. Doesn’t your staff have better things to do?

      Start by answering a few brief questions, then return to this slide at the end to see how much your answers have changed.

      Establish Baseline Metrics

      Use Info-Tech’s research to Exponential Relationships Readiness Assessment.

      Estimated time commitment without Info-Tech’s research (person-hours)

      Establish a baseline

      Gauge the effectiveness of this research by asking yourself the following questions before and after completing your readiness assessment:

      Questions

      Before

      After

      To what extent are you satisfied with your current vendor management approach?

      How many of your current vendors would you describe as being of strategic importance?

      How much do you spend on vendors annually?

      How much value do you derive from your vendor relationships annually?

      Do you have a vendor management strategy?

      What outcomes are you looking to achieve through your vendor relationships?

      How well do you understand the core capabilities needed to drive successful vendor management?

      How well do you understand your current readiness to engage in outcome-based vendor relationships?

      Do you feel comfortable managing the risks when working with organizations to implement artificial intelligence and other autonomous capabilities?

      How to use this research

      Five tips to get the most out of your readiness assessment.

      1. Each category consists of five competencies, with a maximum of five points each. The maximum score on this assessment is 100 points.
      2. Effectiveness levels range from basic (level 1) to advanced (level 5). Level 1 is generally considered the baseline for most effectively operating organizations. If your organization is struggling with level 1 competencies, it is recommended to improve maturity in those areas before pursuing exponential relationships.
      3. This assessment is qualitative; complete the assessment to the best of your ability, based on the scoring rubric provided. If you fall between levels, use the lower one in your assessment.
      4. The scoring rubric may not perfectly fit the processes and practices within every organization. Consider the spirit of the description and score accordingly.
      5. Other industry- and region-specific competencies may be required to succeed at exponential relationships. The competencies in this assessment are a starting point, and internal validation and assessments should be conducted to uncover additional competencies and skills.

      Financial management

      Manage your budget and spending to stay on track throughout your relationship.

      “Most organizations underestimate the amount of time, money, and skill required to build and maintain a successful relationship with another organization. The investment in exponential relationships is exponential in itself – as are the returns.”

      – Jennifer Perrier, Principal Research Director,
      Info-Tech Research Group

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Executive leadership team, including CIO
      • CFO
      • Vendor management leader
      • Other internal stakeholders of vendor relationships

      Activities:

      • Assess your ability to manage scope and budget in exponential IT relationships.

      Successfully manage complex finances

      Stay on track and keep your relationship running smoothly.

      Why is this important?

      • Finance is at the core of most business – it drives decision making, acts as a constraint for innovation and optimization, and plays a key role in assessing options (such as return on investment or payback period).
      • Effectively managing finances is a critical success factor in developing strong relationships. Each organization must be able to manage their own budget and spending in order to balance the risk and reward in the relationship. Often, these risks and rewards will come in the form of profit and loss or revenue and spend.

      Build it into your practice:

      1. Ensure your financial decision-making practices are aligned with the organizational and relationship strategy. Do metrics and criteria reflect the organization’s goals?
      2. Develop strong accounting and financial analysis practices – this includes the ability to conduct financial due diligence on potential vendors.
      3. Develop consistent methodology to track and report on the desired outcomes on a regular basis.

      Build your ability to manage finances

      The five competencies needed to manage finances in exponential value relationships are:

      Budget procedures

      Financial alignment

      Adaptability

      Financial analysis

      Reporting & compliance

      Clearly articulate and communicate budgets, with proactive analysis and reporting.

      There is a strong, direct alignment between financial outcomes and organizational strategy and goals.

      Financial structures can manage many different types of relationships and structures without major overhaul.

      Proactive financial analysis is conducted regularly, with actionable insights.

      This exceeds legal requirements and includes proactive and actionable reporting.

      Relationship management

      Drive exponential value by becoming a customer of choice.

      “The more complex the business environment becomes — for instance, as new technologies emerge or as innovation cycles get faster — the more such relationships make sense. And the better companies get at managing individual relationships, the more likely it is that they will become “partners of choice” and be able to build entire portfolios of practical and value-creating partnerships.”

      (“Improving the management of complex business partnerships.” McKinsey, 2019)

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Executive leadership team, including CIO
      • Vendor management leader
      • Other internal stakeholders of vendor relationships

      Activities:

      • Assess your ability to manage relationships in exponential IT relationships.

      Take your relationships to the next level

      Maintaining positive relationships is key to building trust.

      Why is this important?

      • All relationships will experience challenges, and the ability to resolve these issues will rely heavily on the relationship management skills and soft skills of the leadership within each organization.
      • Based on a 20-year study of vendor relationships in the automotive sector, business-to-business trust is a function of reasonable demands, follow-through, and information sharing.
      (Source: Plante Moran, 2020)

      Build it into your practice:

      1. Develop the soft skills necessary to promote psychological safety, growth mindset, and strong and open communication channels.
      2. Be smart about sharing information – you don’t need to share everything, but being open about relevant information will enhance trust.
      3. Both parties need to work hard to develop trust necessary to build a true relationship. This will require increased access to decision-makers, clearly defined guardrails, and the ability for unsatisfied parties to leave.

      Build your ability to manage relationships

      The five competencies needed to manage relationships in exponential partnerships are:

      Strategic alignment

      Follow-through

      Information sharing

      Shared risk & rewards

      Communication

      Work with vendors to create roadmaps and strategies to drive mutual success.

      Ensure demands are reasonable and consistently follow through on commitments.

      Proactively and freely share relevant information between parties.

      Equitably share responsibility for outcomes and benefits from success.

      Ensure clear, proactive, and frequent communication occurs between parties.

      Performance management

      Outcomes management focuses on results, not methods.

      According to Jennifer Robinson, senior editor at Gallup, “This approach focuses people and teams on a concrete result, not the process required to achieve it. Leaders define outcomes and, along with managers, set parameters and guidelines. Employees, then, have a high degree of autonomy to use their own unique talents to reach goals their own way.” (Forbes, 2023)

      In the context of exponential relationships, vendors can be given a high degree of autonomy provided they meet their objectives.

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Executive leadership team, including CIO
      • Vendor management leader
      • Other internal stakeholders of vendor relationships

      Activities:

      • Assess your ability to manage outcomes in exponential IT relationships.

      Manage outcomes to drive mutual success

      Build trust by achieving shared objectives.

      Why is this important?

      • Relationships are based on shared risk and shared reward for all parties. In order to effectively communicate the shared rewards, you must first understand and communicate your objectives for the relationship, then measure outcomes to ensure all parties are benefiting.
      • Effectively managing outcomes reduces the risk that one party will choose to leave based on a perception of benefits not being achieved. Parties may still leave the agreement, but decisions should be based on shared facts and issues should be communicated and addressed early.

      Build it into your practice:

      1. Clearly articulate what you hope to achieve by entering an outcome-based relationship. Each party should outline and agree to the goals, objectives, and desired outcomes from the relationship.
      2. Document how rewards will be shared among parties. What type of rewards are anticipated? Who will benefit and how?
      3. Develop consistent methodology to track and report on the desired outcomes on a regular basis. This might consist of a vendor scorecard or a monthly meeting.

      Build your ability to manage outcomes

      The five competencies needed to manage outcomes in exponential value relationships are:

      Goal setting

      Negotiation

      Performance tracking

      Issue
      resolution

      Scope management

      Set specific, measurable and actionable goals, and communicate them with stakeholders.

      Clearly articulate and agree upon measurable outcomes between all parties.

      Proactively track progress toward goals/outcomes and discuss results with vendors regularly.

      Openly discuss potential issues and challenges on a regular basis. Find collaborative solutions to problems.

      Proactively manage scope and discuss with vendors on a regular basis.

      Risk management

      Exponential IT means exponential risk – and exponential rewards.

      One of the key differentiators between traditional vendor relationships and exponential relationships is the degree to which risk is shared between parties. This is not possible in all industries, which may limit companies’ ability to participate in this type of exponential relationship.

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Executive leadership team, including CIO
      • Vendor management leader
      • Risk management leader
      • Other internal stakeholders of vendor relationships

      Activities:

      • Assess your ability to manage risk in exponential IT relationships.

      Relationships come with a lot of hidden risks

      Successfully managing complex risks can be the difference between a spectacular success and company-ending failure.

      Why is this important?

      • Relationships inherently involve a loss of control. You are relying on another party to fulfill their part of the agreement, and you depend on the success of the outcome. Loss of control comes with significant risks.
      • Sharing in risk is what differentiates an outcome-based relationship from a traditional vendor relationship; vendors must have skin in the game.
      • Organizations must consider many different types of risk when considering a relationship with a vendor: fraud, security, human rights, labor relations, ESG, and operational risks. Remember that risk is not inherently bad; some risk is necessary.

      Build it into your practice:

      1. Build or hire the necessary risk expertise needed to properly assess and evaluate the risks of potential vendor relationships. This includes intellectual property, ESG, legal/regulatory, cybersecurity, data security, and more.
      2. Develop processes and procedures which clearly communicate and report on risk on a regular basis.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Some highly regulated industries (such as finance) are prevented from transferring certain types of risk. In these industries, it may be much more difficult to form vendor relationships.

      Don’t forget about third-party ESG risk

      Customers care about ESG. You should too.

      Protect yourself against third-party ESG risks by considering the environmental and social impacts of your vendors.

      Third-party ESG risks can include the following:

      • Environmental risk: Vendors with unsustainable practices such as carbon emissions or waste generation of natural resource depletion can negatively impact the organization’s environmental goals.
      • Social risk: Unsafe or illegal labor practices, human rights violations, and supply chain management issues can reflect negatively on organizations that choose to work with vendors who engage in such practices.
      • Governance risk: Vendors who engage in illegal or unethical behaviors, including bribery and corruption or data and privacy breaches can impact downstream customers.

      Working with vendors that have a poor record of ESG carries a very real reputational risk for organizations who do not undertake appropriate due diligence.

      A global survey of nearly 14,000 customers revealed that…

      Source: EY Future Consumer Index, 2021

      Seventy-seven percent of customers believe companies have a responsibility to manufacture sustainably.

      Sixty-eight percent of customers believe businesses should ensure their suppliers meet high social and environmental standards.

      Fifty-five percent of customers consider the environmental impact of production in their purchasing decisions.

      Build your ability to manage risk

      The five competencies needed to manage risk in exponential value relationships are:

      Third-party risk

      Value chain

      Data management

      Regulatory & compliance

      Monitoring & reporting

      Understand and assess third-party risk, including ESG risk, in potential relationships.

      Assess risk throughout the value chain for all parties and balance risk among parties.

      Proactively assess and manage potential data risks, including intellectual property and strategic data.

      Manage regulatory and compliance risks, including understanding risk transfer and ultimate risk holder.

      Proactive and open monitoring and reporting of risks, including regular communication among stakeholders.

      Contract management

      Contract management is a critical part of vendor management.

      Well-managed contracts include clearly defined pricing, performance-based outcomes, clear roles and responsibilities, and appropriate remedies for failure to meet requirements. In outcome-based relationships, contracts are generally used as a secondary method of enforcing performance, with relationship management being the primary method of addressing challenges and ensuring performance.

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Executive leadership team, including CIO
      • Vendor management leader
      • Risk management leader
      • Other internal stakeholders of vendor relationships

      Activities:

      • Assess your ability to manage risk in exponential IT relationships.

      Build your ability to manage contracts

      The five competencies needed to manage contracts in exponential value relationships are:

      Pricing

      Performance outcomes

      Roles and responsibilities

      Remedies

      Payment

      Pricing is clearly defined in contracts so that the total cost is understood including all fees, optional pricing, and set caps on increases.

      Contracts are performance-based whenever possible, including deliverables, milestones, service levels, due dates, and outcomes.

      Each party's roles and responsibilities are clearly defined in the contract documents with adequate detail.

      Contracts contain appropriate remedies for a vendor's failure to meet SLAs, due dates, and other obligations.

      Payment is made after performance targets are met, approved, or accepted.

      Activity 1: Assess your readiness for exponential relationships

      1-3 hours

      1. Gather key stakeholders from across your organization to participate in the readiness assessment exercise.
      2. As a group, review the core competencies from the previous four sections and determine where your organization’s effectiveness lies for each competency. Record your responses in the Exponential Relationships Readiness Assessment tool.

      Download the Exponential Relationships Readiness Assessment tool.

      Input Output
      • Core competencies
      • Knowledge of internal processes and capabilities
      • Readiness assessment
      Materials Participants
      • Exponential
        Relationships Readiness Assessment
        tool
      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Executive leadership team, including CIO
      • Vendor management leader
      • Other internal stakeholders of vendor relationships

      Understand your assessment

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Executive leadership team, including CIO
      • Vendor management leader
      • Other internal stakeholders of vendor relationships

      Activities:

      • Create an action plan.

      Understand the results of your assessment

      Consider the following recommendations based on your readiness assessment scores:

      • The chart to the right shows sample results. The bars indicate the recommended scores, and the line indicates the readiness score.
      • Three or more categories below the recommended scores, or any categories more than five points below the recommendation: outcome-based relationships are not recommended at this time.
      • Two or more categories below the recommended scores: Proceed with caution and limit outcome-based relationships to low-risk areas. Continue to mature capabilities.
      • One category below the recommended scores: Evaluate the risks and benefits before engaging in higher-risk vendor relationships. Continue to mature capabilities.
      • All categories at or above the recommended scores: You have many of the core capabilities needed to succeed at exponential relationships! Continue to evaluate and refine your vendor relationships strategy, and identify any additional competencies needed based on your industry or region.

      Acme Corp Exponential Relationships Readiness.

      Activity 2: Create an action plan

      1 hour

      1. Gather the stakeholders who participated in the readiness assessment exercise.
      2. As a group, review the results of the readiness assessment. Where there any surprise? Do the results reflect your understanding of the organization’s maturity?
      3. Determine which areas are likely to limit the organization’s relationship capability, based on lowest scoring areas and relative importance to the organization.
      4. Break out into groups and have each group identify three actions the organization could take to mature the lowest scoring areas.
      5. Bring the group back together and prioritize the actions. Note who will be accountable for each next step.
      InputOutput
      • Readiness assessment
      • Action plan to improve maturity of capabilities
      MaterialsParticipants
      • Exponential
        Relationship Readiness Assessment
        tool
      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Executive leadership team, including CIO
      • Vendor management leader
      • Other internal stakeholders of vendor relationships

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      Author

      Kim Osborne Rodriguez

      Kim Osborne Rodriguez
      Research Director, CIO Advisory
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Kim is a professional engineer and Registered Communications Distribution Designer (RCDD) with over a decade of experience in management and engineering consulting spanning healthcare, higher education, and commercial sectors. She has worked on some of the largest hospital construction projects in Canada, from early visioning and IT strategy through to design, specifications, and construction administration. She brings a practical and evidence-based approach, with a track record of supporting successful projects.

      Kim holds a Bachelor’s degree in Honours Mechatronics Engineering and an option in Management Sciences from the University of Waterloo.

      Research Contributors and Experts

      Jack Hakimian

      Jack Hakimian
      Senior Vice President
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Jack has more than 25 years of technology and management consulting experience. He has served multibillion-dollar organizations in multiple industries including financial services and telecommunications. Jack also served several large public sector institutions.

      He is a frequent speaker and panelist at technology and innovation conferences and events and holds a Master’s degree in Computer Engineering as well as an MBA from the ESCP-EAP European School of Management.

      Michael Tweedie

      Michael Tweedie
      Practice Lead, CIO Strategy
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Mike Tweedie brings over 25 years as a technology executive. He’s led several large transformation projects across core infrastructure, application and IT services as the head of Technology at ADP Canada. He was also the Head of Engineering and Service Offerings for a large French IT services firm, focused on cloud adoption and complex ERP deployment and management.

      Mike holds a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Ryerson University.

      Scott Bickley

      Scott Bickley
      Practice Lead, VCCO
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Scott Bickley is a Practice Lead & Principal Research Director at Info-Tech Research Group, focused on Vendor Management and Contract Review. He also has experience in the areas of IT Asset Management (ITAM), Software Asset Management (SAM), and technology procurement along with a deep background in operations, engineering, and quality systems management.

      Scott holds a B.S. in Justice Studies from Frostburg State University. He also holds active IAITAM certification designations of CSAM and CMAM and is a Certified Scrum Master (SCM).

      Donna Bales

      Donna Bales
      Principal Research Director
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Donna Bales is a Principal Research Director in the CIO Practice at Info-Tech Research Group, specializing in research and advisory services in IT risk, governance, and compliance. She brings over 25 years of experience in strategic consulting and product development and has a history of success in leading complex, multistakeholder industry initiatives.

      Donna has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Western Ontario.

      Research Contributors and Experts

      Jennifer Perrier

      Jennifer Perrier
      Principal Research Director
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Jennifer has 25 years of experience in the information technology and human resources research space, joining Info-Tech in 1998 as the first research analyst with the company. Over the years, she has served as a research analyst and research manager, as well as in a range of roles leading the development and delivery of offerings across Info-Tech’s product and service portfolio, including workshops and the launch of industry roundtables and benchmarking. She was also Research Lead for McLean & Company, the HR advisory division of Info-Tech, during its start-up years.

      Jennifer’s research expertise spans the areas of IT strategic planning, governance, policy and process management, people management, leadership, organizational change management, performance benchmarking, and cross-industry IT comparative analysis. She has produced and overseen the development of hundreds of publications across the full breadth of both the IT and HR domains in multiple industries. In 2022, Jennifer joined Info-Tech’s IT Financial Management Practice with a focus on developing financial transparency to foster meaningful dialogue between IT and its stakeholders and drive better technology investment decisions.

      Phil Bode

      Phil Bode
      Principal Research Director
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Phil has 30+ years of experience with IT procurement-related topics: contract drafting and review, negotiations, RFXs, procurement processes, and vendor management. Phil has been a frequent speaker at conferences, a contributor to magazine articles in CIO Magazine and ComputerWorld, and quoted in many other magazines. He is a co-author of the book The Art of Creating a Quality RFP.

      Phil has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a double major of Finance and Entrepreneurship and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a major of Accounting, both from the University of Arizona.

      Research Contributors

      Erin Morgan

      Erin Morgan
      Assistant Vice President, IT Administration
      University of Texas at Arlington

      Renee Stanley

      Renee Stanley
      Assistant Director IT Procurement and Vendor Management
      University of Texas at Arlington

      Note: Additional contributors did not wish to be identified.

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      Kasanoff, Bruce. “New Study Reveals Costs Of Bad Supplier Relationships.” Forbes, 6 Aug 2014. Accessed 17 May 2023.
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      Macrotrends. “Toyota Gross Profit 2010-2022.” Macrotrends. Accessed 18 May 2023.
      McKinsey. “Mind the [skills] gap.” McKinsey, 27 Jan 2021. Accessed 18 May 2023.
      Morgan, Blake. “7 Examples of How Digital Transformation Impacted Business Performance.” Forbes, 21 Jul 2019. Accessed 10 May 2023.
      Nissan Motor Corporation. “Nissan reports strong financial results for fiscal year 2022.” Nissan Global Newsroom, 11 May 2023. Accessed 18 May 2023.

      Bibliography

      “OpenAI and Microsoft extend partnership.” Open AI, 23 Jan 2023. Accessed 26 May 2023.
      Pearson, Bryan. “The Apple Of Its Aisles: How Best Buy Lured One Of The Biggest Brands.“ Forbes, 23 Apr 2015. Accessed 23 May 2023.
      Perifanis, Nikolaos-Alexandros and Fotis Kitsios. “Investigating the Influence of Artificial Intelligence on Business Value in the Digital Era of Strategy: A Literature Review.” Information, 2 Feb 2023. Accessed 10 May 2023.
      Scott, Tim and Nathan Spitse. “Third-party risk is becoming a first priority challenge.” Deloitte. Accessed 18 May 2023.
      Stanley, Renee. Interview by Kim Osborne Rodriguez, 17 May 2023.
      Statista. “Toyota's retail vehicle sales from 2017 to 2021.” Statista, 27 Jul 2022. Accessed 18 May 2023.
      Tlili, Ahmed, et al. “What if the devil is my guardian angel: ChatGPT as a case study of using chatbots in education.” Smart Learning Environments, 22 Feb 2023. Accessed 9 May 2023.
      Vitasek, Kate. “Outcome-Based Management: What It Is, Why It Matters And How To Make It Happen.” Forbes, 12 Jan 2023. Accessed 9 May 2023.

      Optimize the Current Testing Process for Enterprise Mobile Applications

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      • Parent Category Name: Testing, Deployment & QA
      • Parent Category Link: /testing-deployment-and-qa
      • Your team has little or no experience in mobile testing.
      • You need to optimize current testing processes to include mobile.
      • You need to conduct an RFP for mobile testing tools.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • One-size-fits-all testing won’t work for mobile. The testing tools are fragmented.
      • Mobile offers many new test cases, so organizations can expect to spend more time testing.

      Impact and Result

      • Identify and address gaps between your current testing process and a target state that includes mobile testing.
      • Establish project value metrics to ensure business and technical requirements are met.

      Optimize the Current Testing Process for Enterprise Mobile Applications Research & Tools

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

      1. Assess the current testing state

      Determine a starting point for architecture and discuss pain points that will drive reusability.

      • Storyboard: Optimize the Current Testing Process for Enterprise Mobile Applications
      • Mobile Testing Project Charter Template
      • Visual SOP Template for Application Testing

      2. Determine the target state testing framework

      Document a preliminary list of test requirements and create vendor RFP and scoring.

      • Test Requirements Tool
      • Request for Proposal (RFP) Template

      3. Implement testing tools to support the testing SOP

      Create an implementation rollout plan.

      • Project Planning and Monitoring Tool

      Infographic

      Workshop: Optimize the Current Testing Process 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 the Fit for Test Process Optimization

      The Purpose

      Understand mobile testing pain points.

      Evaluate current statistics and challenges around mobile testing and compare with your organization.

      Realize the benefits of mobile testing.

      Understand the differences of mobile testing.

      Assess your readiness for optimizing testing to include mobile.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Preliminary understanding of how mobile testing is different from conventional approaches to testing apps.

      Understanding of how mobile testing can optimize your current testing process.

      Activities

      1.1 Understand the pain points experienced with mobile testing

      1.2 Evaluate current statistics and challenges of mobile testing and compare your organization

      1.3 Realize the benefits that come from mobile testing

      1.4 Understand the differences between mobile app testing and conventional app testing

      1.5 Assess your readiness for optimizing the testing process to include mobile

      Outputs

      Organizational state assessment for mobile testing

      2 Structure & Launch the Project

      The Purpose

      Identify stakeholders for testing requirements gathering.

      Create a project charter to obtain project approval.

      Present and obtain project charter sign-off.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Well documented project charter.

      Approval to launch the project.

      Activities

      2.1 Identify stakeholders for testing requirements gathering

      2.2 Create a project charter to obtain project approval

      2.3 Present & obtain project charter sign-off

      Outputs

      Project objectives and scope

      Project roles and responsibilities

      3 Assess Current Testing State

      The Purpose

      Document your current non-mobile testing processes.

      Create a current testing visual SOP.

      Determine current testing pain points.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Thorough understanding of current testing processes and pain points.

      Activities

      3.1 Document your current non-mobile testing processes

      3.2 Create a current state visual SOP

      3.3 Determine current testing pain points

      Outputs

      Documented current testing processes in the form of a visual SOP

      List of current testing pain points

      4 Determine Target State Testing Framework

      The Purpose

      Determine your target state for mobile testing.

      Choose vendors for the RFP process.

      Evaluate selected vendor(s) against testing requirements.

      Design mobile testing visual SOP(s).

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Prioritized list of testing requirements for mobile.

      Vendor selection for mobile testing solutions through an RFP process.

      New SOP designed to include both current testing and mobile testing processes.

      Activities

      4.1 Determine your target state for mobile testing by following Info-Tech’s framework as a starting point

      4.2 Design new SOP to include testing for mobile apps

      4.3 Translate all considered visual SOP mobile injections into requirements

      4.4 Document the preliminary list of test requirements in the RFP

      4.5 Determine which vendors to include for the RFP process

      4.6 Reach out to vendors for a request for proposal

      4.7 Objectively evaluate vendors against testing requirements

      4.8 Identify and assess the expected costs and impacts from determining your target state

      Outputs

      List of testing requirements for mobile

      Request for Proposal

      5 Implement Testing Tools to Support Your Testing SOP

      The Purpose

      Develop an implementation roadmap to integrate new testing initiatives.

      Anticipate potential roadblocks during implementation rollout.

      Operationalize mobile testing and ensure a smooth hand-off to IT operations.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Creation of implementation project plan.

      List of approaches to mitigate potential implementation roadblocks.

      Achieving clean hand-off to IT ops team.

      Activities

      5.1 Develop a project plan to codify your current understanding of the scope of work

      5.2 Anticipate potential roadblocks during your tool’s implementation

      5.3 Operationalize your testing tools and ensure a smooth hand-off from the project team

      Outputs

      Mobile testing metrics implementation plan

      6 Conduct Your Retrospectives

      The Purpose

      Conduct regular retrospectives to consider areas for improvement.

      Adjust your processes, systems, and testing tools to improve performance and usability.

      Revisit implementation metrics to communicate project benefits.

      Leverage the lessons learned and apply them to other projects.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Project specific metrics.

      Discovery of areas to improve.

      Activities

      6.1 Conduct regular retrospectives to consider areas for improvement

      6.2 Revisit your implementation metrics to communicate project benefits to business stakeholders

      6.3 Adjust your processes, systems, and testing tools to improve performance and usability

      6.4 Leverage the lessons learned and apply them to other IT projects

      Outputs

      Steps to improve your mobile testing

      Establish Data Governance

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      • Parent Category Name: Data Management
      • Parent Category Link: /data-management
      • Organizations are faced with challenges associated with changing data landscapes, evolving business models, industry disruptions, regulatory and compliance obligations, as well as changing and maturing user landscapes and demands for data.
      • Although the need for a data governance program is often evident, organizations often miss the mark.
      • Your data governance efforts should be directly aligned to delivering measurable business value by supporting key strategic initiatives, value streams, and underlying business capabilities.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Your organization’s value streams and their associated business capabilities require effectively governed data. Without this, you may experience elevated operational costs, missed opportunities, eroded stakeholder satisfaction, and exposure to increased business risk.
      • Ensure your data governance program delivers measurable business value by aligning the associated data governance initiatives with the business architecture.
      • Data governance must continuously align with the organization’s enterprise governance function. It should not be perceived as a pet project of IT, but rather as an enterprise-wide, business-driven initiative.

      Impact and Result

      Info-Tech’s approach to establishing and sustaining effective data governance is anchored in the strong alignment of organizational value streams and their business capabilities with key data governance dimensions and initiatives. Info-Tech's approach will help you:

      • Align your data governance with enterprise governance, business strategy, and the organizational value streams to ensure the program delivers measurable business value.
      • Understand your current data governance capabilities and build out a future state that is right-sized and relevant.
      • Define data governance leadership, accountability, and responsibility.
      • Ensure data governance is supported by an operating model that effectively manages change and communication and fosters a culture of data excellence.

      Establish Data Governance Research & Tools

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

      1. Data Governance Research – A step-by-step document to ensure that the people handling the data are involved in the decisions surrounding data usage, data quality, business processes, and change implementation.

      Data governance is a strategic program that will help your organization control data by managing the people, processes, and information technology needed to ensure that accurate and consistent data policies exist across varying lines of the business, enabling data-driven insight. This research will provide an overview of data governance and its importance to your organization, assist in making the case and securing buy-in for data governance, identify data governance best practices and the challenges associated with them, and provide guidance on how to implement data governance best practices for a successful launch.

      • Establish Data Governance – Phases 1-3

      2. Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook – A structured tool to assist with establishing effective data governance practices.

      This workbook will help your organization understand the business and user context by leveraging your business capability map and value streams, develop data use cases using Info-Tech's framework for building data use cases, and gauge the current state of your organization's data culture.

      • Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook

      3. Data Use Case Framework Template – An exemplar template to highlight and create relevant use cases around the organization’s data-related problems and opportunities.

      This business needs gathering activity will highlight and create relevant use cases around data-related problems or opportunities that are clear and contained and, if addressed, will deliver value to the organization. This template provides a framework for data requirements and a mapping methodology for creating use cases.

      • Data Use Case Framework Template

      4. Data Governance Initiative Planning and Roadmap Tool – A visual roadmapping tool to assist with establishing effective data governance practices.

      This tool will help your organization plan the sequence of activities, capture start dates and expected completion dates, and create a roadmap that can be effectively communicated to the organization.

      • Data Governance Initiative Planning and Roadmap Tool

      5. Business Data Catalog – A comprehensive template to help you to document the key data assets that are to be governed based on in-depth business unit interviews, data risk/value assessments, and a data flow diagram for the organization.

      Use this template to document information about key data assets such as data definition, source system, possible values, data sensitivity, data steward, and usage of the data.

      • Business Data Catalog

      6. Data Governance Program Charter Template – A program charter template to sell the importance of data governance to senior executives.

      This template will help get the backing required to get a data governance project rolling. The program charter will help communicate the project purpose, define the scope, and identify the project team, roles, and responsibilities.

      • Data Governance Program Charter Template

      7. Data Governance Policy

      This policy establishes uniform data governance standards and identifies the shared responsibilities for assuring the integrity of the data and that it efficiently and effectively serves the needs of your organization.

      • Data Governance Policy

      8. Data Governance Exemplar – An exemplar showing how you can plan and document your data governance outputs.

      Use this exemplar to understand how to establish data governance in your organization. Follow along with the sections of the blueprint Establish Data Governance and complete the document as you progress.

      • Data Governance Exemplar
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Establish Data Governance

      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 Business Context and Value

      The Purpose

      Identify key business data assets that need to be governed.

      Create a unifying vision for the data governance program.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Understand the value of data governance and how it can help the organization better leverage its data.

      Gain knowledge of how data governance can benefit both IT and the business.

      Activities

      1.1 Establish business context, value, and scope of data governance at the organization

      1.2 Introduction to Info-Tech’s data governance framework

      1.3 Discuss vision and mission for data governance

      1.4 Understand your business architecture, including your business capability map and value streams

      1.5 Build use cases aligned to core business capabilities

      Outputs

      Sample use cases (tied to the business capability map) and a repeatable use case framework

      Vision and mission for data governance

      2 Understand Current Data Governance Capabilities and Plot Target-State Levels

      The Purpose

      Assess which data contains value and/or risk and determine metrics that will determine how valuable the data is to the organization.

      Assess where the organization currently stands in data governance initiatives.

      Determine gaps between the current and future states of the data governance program.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Gain a holistic understanding of organizational data and how it flows through business units and systems.

      Identify which data should fall under the governance umbrella.

      Determine a practical starting point for the program.

      Activities

      2.1 Understand your current data governance capabilities and maturity

      2.2 Set target-state data governance capabilities

      Outputs

      Current state of data governance maturity

      Definition of target state

      3 Build Data Domain to Data Governance Role Mapping

      The Purpose

      Determine strategic initiatives and create a roadmap outlining key steps required to get the organization to start enabling data-driven insights.

      Determine timing of the initiatives.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Establish clear direction for the data governance program.

      Step-by-step outline of how to create effective data governance, with true business-IT collaboration.

      Activities

      3.1 Evaluate and prioritize performance gaps

      3.2 Develop and consolidate data governance target-state initiatives

      3.3 Define the role of data governance: data domain to data governance role mapping

      Outputs

      Target-state data governance initiatives

      Data domain to data governance role mapping

      4 Formulate a Plan to Get to Your Target State

      The Purpose

      Consolidate the roadmap and other strategies to determine the plan of action from Day One.

      Create the required policies, procedures, and positions for data governance to be sustainable and effective.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Prioritized initiatives with dependencies mapped out.

      A clearly communicated plan for data governance that will have full business backing.

      Activities

      4.1 Identify and prioritize next steps

      4.2 Define roles and responsibilities and complete a high-level RACI

      4.3 Wrap-up and discuss next steps and post-workshop support

      Outputs

      Initialized roadmap

      Initialized RACI

      Further reading

      Establish Data Governance

      Deliver measurable business value.

      Executive Brief

      Analyst Perspective

      Establish a data governance program that brings value to your organization.

      Picture of analyst

      Data governance does not sit as an island on its own in the organization – it must align with and be driven by your enterprise governance. As you build out data governance in your organization, it’s important to keep in mind that this program is meant to be an enabling framework of oversight and accountabilities for managing, handling, and protecting your company’s data assets. It should never be perceived as bureaucratic or inhibiting to your data users. It should deliver agreed-upon models that are conducive to your organization’s operating culture, offering clarity on who can do what with the data and via what means. Data governance is the key enabler for bringing high-quality, trusted, secure, and discoverable data to the right users across your organization. Promote and drive the responsible and ethical use of data while helping to build and foster an organizational culture of data excellence.

      Crystal Singh

      Director, Research & Advisory, Data & Analytics Practice

      Info-Tech Research Group

      Executive Summary

      Your Challenge

      The amount of data within organizations is growing at an exponential rate, creating a need to adopt a formal approach to governing data. However, many organizations remain uninformed on how to effectively govern their data. Comprehensive data governance should define leadership, accountability, and responsibility related to data use and handling and be supported by a well-oiled operating model and relevant policies and procedures. This will help ensure the right data gets to the right people at the right time, using the right mechanisms.

      Common Obstacles

      Organizations are faced with challenges associated with changing data landscapes, evolving business models, industry disruptions, regulatory and compliance obligations, and changing and maturing user landscape and demand for data. Although the need for a data governance program is often evident, organizations miss the mark when their data governance efforts are not directly aligned to delivering measurable business value. Initiatives should support key strategic initiatives, as well as value streams and their underlying business capabilities.

      Info-Tech’s Approach

      Info-Tech’s approach to establishing and sustaining effective data governance is anchored in the strong alignment of organizational value streams and their business capabilities with key data governance dimensions and initiatives. Organizations should:

      • Align their data governance with enterprise governance, business strategy and value streams to ensure the program delivers measurable business value.
      • Understand their current data governance capabilities so as to build out a future state that is right-sized and relevant.
      • Define data leadership, accountability, and responsibility. Support these with an operating model that effectively manages change and communication and fosters a culture of data excellence.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Your organization’s value streams and the associated business capabilities require effectively governed data. Without this, you face elevated operating costs, missed opportunities, eroded stakeholder satisfaction, and increased business risk.

      Your challenge

      This research is designed to help organizations build and sustain an effective data governance program.

      • Your organization has recognized the need to treat data as a corporate asset for generating business value and/or managing and mitigating risk.
      • This has brought data governance to the forefront and highlighted the need to build a performance-driven enterprise program for delivering quality, trusted, and readily consumable data to users.
      • An effective data governance program is one that defines leadership, accountability, and responsibility related to data use and handling. It’s supported by a well-oiled operating model and relevant policies and procedures, all of which help build and foster a culture of data excellence where the right users get access to the right data at the right time via the right mechanisms.

      As you embark on establishing data governance in your organization, it’s vital to ensure from the get-go that you define the drivers and business context for the program. Data governance should never be attempted without direction on how the program will yield measurable business value.

      “Data processing and cleanup can consume more than half of an analytics team’s time, including that of highly paid data scientists, which limits scalability and frustrates employees.” – Petzold, et al., 2020

      Image is a circle graph and 30% of it is coloured with the number 30% in the middle of the graph

      “The productivity of employees across the organization can suffer.” – Petzold, et al., 2020

      Respondents to McKinsey’s 2019 Global Data Transformation Survey reported that an average of 30% of their total enterprise time was spent on non-value-added tasks because of poor data quality and availability. – Petzold, et al., 2020

      Common obstacles

      Some of the barriers that make data governance difficult to address for many organizations include:

      • Gaps in communicating the strategic value of data and data governance to the organization. This is vital for securing senior leadership buy-in and support, which, in turn, is crucial for sustained success of the data governance program.
      • Misinterpretation or a lack of understanding about data governance, including what it means for the organization and the individual data user.
      • A perception that data governance is inhibiting or an added layer of bureaucracy or complication rather than an enabling and empowering framework for stakeholders in their use and handling of data.
      • Embarking on data governance without firmly substantiating and understanding the organizational drivers for doing so. How is data governance going to support the organization’s value streams and their various business capabilities?
      • Neglecting to define and measure success and performance. Just as in any other enterprise initiative, you have to be able to demonstrate an ROI for time, resources and funding. These metrics must demonstrate the measurable business value that data governance brings to the organization.
      • Failure to align data governance with enterprise governance.
      Image is a circle graph and 78% of it is coloured with the number 78% in the middle of the graph

      78% of companies (and 92% of top-tier companies) have a corporate initiative to become more data-driven. – Alation, 2020

      Image is a circle graph and 58% of it is coloured with the number 58% in the middle of the graph

      But despite these ambitions, there appears to be a “data culture disconnect” – 58% of leaders overestimate the current data culture of their enterprises, giving a grade higher than the one produced by the study. – Fregoni, 2020

      The strategic value of data

      Power intelligent and transformative organizational performance through leveraging data.

      Respond to industry disruptors

      Optimize the way you serve your stakeholders and customers

      Develop products and services to meet ever-evolving needs

      Manage operations and mitigate risk

      Harness the value of your data

      The journey to being data-driven

      The journey to declaring that you are a data-driven organization requires a pit stop at data enablement.

      The Data Economy

      Data Disengaged

      You have a low appetite for data and rarely use data for decision making.

      Data Enabled

      Technology, data architecture, and people and processes are optimized and supported by data governance.

      Data Driven

      You are differentiating and competing on data and analytics; described as a “data first” organization. You’re collaborating through data. Data is an asset.

      Data governance is essential for any organization that makes decisions about how it uses its data.

      Data governance is an enabling framework of decision rights, responsibilities, and accountabilities for data assets across the enterprise.

      Data governance is:

      • Executed according to agreed-upon models that describe who can take what actions with what information, when, and using what methods (Olavsrud, 2021).
      • True business-IT collaboration that will lead to increased consistency and confidence in data to support decision making. This, in turn, helps fuel innovation and growth.

      If done correctly, data governance is not:

      • An annoying, finger-waving roadblock in the way of getting things done.
      • Meant to solve all data-related business or IT problems in an organization.
      • An inhibitor or impediment to using and sharing data.

      Info-Tech’s Data Governance Framework

      An image of Info-Tech's Data Governance Framework

      Create impactful data governance by embedding it within enterprise governance

      A model is depicted to show the relationship between enterprise governance and data governance.

      Organizational drivers for data governance

      Data governance personas:

      Conformance: Establishing data governance to meet regulations and compliance requirements.

      Performance: Establishing data governance to fuel data-driven decision making for driving business value and managing and mitigating business risk.

      Two images are depicted that show the difference between conformance and performance.

      Data Governance is not a one-person show

      • Data governance needs a leader and a home. Define who is going to be leading, driving, and steering data governance in your organization.
      • Senior executive leaders play a crucial role in championing and bringing visibility to the value of data and data governance. This is vital for building and fostering a culture of data excellence.
      • Effective data governance comes with business and IT alignment, collaboration, and formally defined roles around data leadership, ownership, and stewardship.
      Four circles are depicted. There is one person in the circle on the left and is labelled: Data Governance Leadership. The circle beside it has two people in it and labelled: Organizational Champions. The circle beside it has three people in it and labelled: Data Owners, Stewards & Custodians. The last circle has four people in it and labelled: The Organization & Data Storytellers.

      Traditional data governance organizational structure

      A traditional structure includes committees and roles that span across strategic, tactical, and operational duties. There is no one-size-fits-all data governance structure. However, most organizations follow a similar pattern when establishing committees, councils, and cross-functional groups. Most organizations strive to identify roles and responsibilities at a strategic and operational level. Several factors will influence the structure of the program, such as the focus of the data governance project and the maturity and size of the organization.

      A triangular model is depicted and is split into three tiers to show the traditional data governance organizational structure.

      A healthy data culture is key to amplifying the power of your data.

      “Albert Einstein is said to have remarked, ‘The world cannot be changed without changing our thinking.’ What is clear is that the greatest barrier to data success today is business culture, not lagging technology. “– Randy Bean, 2020

      What does it look like?

      • Everybody knows the data.
      • Everybody trusts the data.
      • Everybody talks about the data.

      “It is not enough for companies to embrace modern data architectures, agile methodologies, and integrated business-data teams, or to establish centers of excellence to accelerate data initiatives, when only about 1 in 4 executives reported that their organization has successfully forged a data culture.”– Randy Bean, 2020

      Data literacy is an essential part of a data-driven culture

      • In a data-driven culture, decisions are made based on data evidence, not on gut instinct.
      • Data often has untapped potential. A data-driven culture builds tools and skills, builds users’ trust in the condition and sources of data, and raises the data skills and understanding among their people on the front lines.
      • Building a data culture takes an ongoing investment of time, effort, and money. This investment will not achieve the transformation you want without data literacy at the grassroots level.

      Data-driven culture = “data matters to our company”

      Despite investments in data initiative, organizations are carrying high levels of data debt

      Data debt is “the accumulated cost that is associated with the sub-optimal governance of data assets in an enterprise, like technical debt.”

      Data debt is a problem for 78% of organizations.

      40% of organizations say individuals within the business do not trust data insights.

      66% of organizations say a backlog of data debt is impacting new data management initiatives.

      33% of organizations are not able to get value from a new system or technology investment.

      30% of organizations are unable to become data-driven.

      Source: Experian, 2020

      Absent or sub-optimal data governance leads to data debt

      Only 3% of companies’ data meets basic quality standards. (Source: Nagle, et al., 2017)

      Organizations suspect 28% of their customer and prospect data is inaccurate in some way. (Source: Experian, 2020)

      Only 51% of organizations consider the current state of their CRM or ERP data to be clean, allowing them to fully leverage it. (Source: Experian, 2020)

      35% of organizations say they’re not able to see a ROI for data management initiatives. (Source: Experian, 2020)

      Embrace the technology

      Make the available data governance tools and technology work for you:

      • Data catalog
      • Business data glossary
      • Data lineage
      • Metadata management

      While data governance tools and technologies are no panacea, leverage their automated and AI-enabled capabilities to augment your data governance program.

      Logos of data governance tools and technology.

      Measure success to demonstrate tangible business value

      Put data governance into the context of the business:

      • Tie the value of data governance and its initiatives back to the business capabilities that are enabled.
      • Leverage the KPIs of those business capabilities to demonstrate tangible and measurable value. Use terms and language that will resonate with senior leadership.

      Don’t let measurement be an afterthought:

      Start substantiating early on how you are going to measure success as your data governance program evolves.

      Build a right-sized roadmap

      Formulate an actionable roadmap that is right-sized to deliver value in your organization.

      Key considerations:

      • When building your data governance roadmap, ensure you do so through an enterprise lens. Be cognizant of other initiatives that might be coming down the pipeline that may require you to align your data governance milestones accordingly.
      • Apart from doing your planning with consideration for other big projects or launches that might be in-flight and require the time and attention of your data governance partners, also be mindful of the more routine yet still demanding initiatives.
      • When doing your roadmapping, consider factors like the organization’s fiscal cycle, typical or potential year-end demands, and monthly/quarterly reporting periods and audits. Initiatives such as these are likely to monopolize the time and focus of personnel key to delivering on your data governance milestones.

      Sample milestones:

      Data Governance Leadership & Org Structure Definition

      Define the home for data governance and other key roles around ownership and stewardship, as approved by senior leadership.

      Data Governance Charter and Policies

      Create a charter for your program and build/refresh associated policies.

      Data Culture Diagnostic

      Understand the organization’s current data culture, perception of data, value of data, and knowledge gaps.

      Use Case Build and Prioritization

      Build a use case that is tied to business capabilities. Prioritize accordingly.

      Business Data Glossary

      Build and/or refresh the business’ glossary for addressing data definitions and standardization issues.

      Tools & Technology

      Explore the tools and technology offering in the data governance space that would serve as an enabler to the program. (e.g. RFI, RFP).

      Key takeaways for effective business-driven data governance

      Data governance leadership and sponsorship is key.

      Ensure strategic business alignment.

      Build and foster a culture of data excellence.

      Evolve along the data journey.

      Make data governance an enabler, not a hindrance.

      Insight summary

      Overarching insight

      Your organization’s value streams and the associated business capabilities require effectively governed data. Without this, you face the impact of elevated operational costs, missed opportunities, eroded stakeholder satisfaction, and exposure to increased business risk.

      Insight 1

      Data governance should not sit as an island in your organization. It must continuously align with the organization’s enterprise governance function. It shouldn’t be perceived as a pet project of IT, but rather as an enterprise-wide, business-driven initiative.

      Insight 2

      Ensure your data governance program delivers measurable business value by aligning the associated data governance initiatives with the business architecture. Leverage the measures of success or KPIs of the underlying business capabilities to demonstrate the value data governance has yielded for the organization.

      Insight 3

      Data governance remains the foundation of all forms of reporting and analytics. Advanced capabilities such as AI and machine learning require effectively governed data to fuel their success.

      Tactical insight

      Tailor your data literacy program to meet your organization’s needs, filling your range of knowledge gaps and catering to your different levels of stakeholders. When it comes to rolling out a data literacy program, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Your data literacy program is intended to fill the knowledge gaps about data, as they exist in your organization. It should be targeted across the board – from your executive leadership and management through to the subject matter experts across different lines of the business in your organization.

      Info-Tech’s methodology for establishing data governance

      1. Build Business and User Context 2. Understand Your Current Data Governance Capabilities 3. Build a Target State Roadmap and Plan
      Phase Steps
      1. Substantiate Business Drivers
      2. Build High-Value Use Cases for Data Governance
      1. Understand the Key Components of Data Governance
      2. Gauge Your Organization’s Current Data Culture
      1. Formulate an Actionable Roadmap and Right-Sized Plan
      Phase Outcomes
      • Your organization’s business capabilities and value streams
      • A business capability map for your organization
      • Categorization of your organization’s key capabilities
      • A strategy map tied to data governance
      • High-value use cases for data governance
      • An understanding of the core components of an effective data governance program
      • An understanding your organization’s current data culture
      • A data governance roadmap and target-state plan comprising of prioritized initiatives

      Blueprint deliverables

      Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals:

      Screenshot of Info-Tech's Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook data-verified=

      Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook

      Use the Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook as you plan, build, roll-out, and scale data governance in your organization.

      Screenshot of Info-Tech's Data Use Case Framework Template

      Data Use Case Framework Template

      This template takes you through a business needs gathering activity to highlight and create relevant use cases around the organization’s data-related problems and opportunities.

      Screenshot of Info-Tech's Business Data Glossary data-verified=

      Business Data Glossary

      Use this template to document the key data assets that are to be governed and create a data flow diagram for your organization.

      Screenshot of Info-Tech's Data Culture Diagnostic and Scorecard data-verified=

      Data Culture Diagnostic and Scorecard

      Leverage Info-Tech’s Data Culture Diagnostic to understand how your organization scores across 10 areas relating to data culture.

      Key deliverable:

      Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook

      Measure the value of this blueprint

      Leverage this blueprint’s approach to ensure your data governance initiatives align and support your key value streams and their business capabilities.

      • Aligning your data governance program and its initiatives to your organization’s business capabilities is vital for tracing and demonstrating measurable business value for the program.
      • This alignment of data governance with value streams and business capabilities enables you to use business-defined KPIs and demonstrate tangible value.
      Screenshot from this blueprint on the Measurable Business Value

      In phases 1 and 2 of this blueprint, we will help you establish the business context, define your business drivers and KPIs, and understand your current data governance capabilities and strengths.

      In phase 3, we will help you develop a plan and a roadmap for addressing any gaps and improving the relevant data governance capabilities so that data is well positioned to deliver on those defined business metrics.

      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 keeps 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.

      Establish Data Governance project overview

      Contact your account representative for more information. workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889

      1. Build Business and User context2. Understand Your Current Data Governance Capabilities3. Build a Target State Roadmap and Plan
      Best-Practice Toolkit
      1. Substantiate Business Drivers
      2. Build High-Value Use Cases for Data Governance
      1. Understand the Key Components of Data Governance
      2. Gauge Your Organization’s Current Data Culture
      1. Formulate an Actionable Roadmap and Right-Sized Plan
      Guided Implementation
      • Call 1
      • Call 2
      • Call 3
      • Call 4
      • Call 5
      • Call 6
      • Call 7
      • Call 8
      • Call 9
      Phase Outcomes
      • Your organization’s business capabilities and value streams
      • A business capability map for your organization
      • Categorization of your organization’s key capabilities
      • A strategy map tied to data governance
      • High-value use cases for data governance
      • An understanding of the core components of an effective data governance program
      • An understanding your organization’s current data culture
      • A data governance roadmap and target-state plan comprising of prioritized initiatives

      Guided Implementation

      What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

      An outline of what guided implementation looks 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 8 to 12 calls over the course of 4 to 6 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
      Establish Business Context and Value Understand Current Data Governance Capabilities and Plot Target-State Levels Build Data Domain to Data Governance Role Mapping Formulate a Plan to Get to Your Target State
      Activities
      • Establish business context, value, and scope of data governance at the organization
      • Introduction to Info-Tech’s data governance framework
      • Discuss vision and mission for data governance
      • Understand your business architecture, including your business capability map and value streams
      • Build use cases aligned to core business capabilities
      • Understand your current data governance capabilities and maturity
      • Set target state data governance capabilities
      • Evaluate and prioritize performance gaps
      • Develop and consolidate data governance target-state initiatives
      • Define the role of data governance: data domain to data governance role mapping
      • Identify and prioritize next steps
      • Define roles and responsibilities and complete a high-level RACI
      • Wrap-up and discuss next steps and post-workshop support
      Deliverables
      1. Sample use cases (tied to the business capability map) and a repeatable use case framework
      2. Vision and mission for data governance
      1. Current state of data governance maturity
      2. Definition of target state
      1. Target-state data governance initiatives
      2. Data domain to data governance role mapping
      1. Initialized roadmap
      2. Initialized RACI

      Phase 1

      Build Business and User Context

      Three circles are in the image that list the three phases and the main steps. Phase 1 is highlighted.

      “When business users are invited to participate in the conversation around data with data users and IT, it adds a fundamental dimension — business context. Without a real understanding of how data ties back to the business, the value of analysis and insights can get lost.” – Jason Lim, Alation

      This phase will guide you through the following activities:

      • Identify Your Business Capabilities
      • Define your Organization’s Key Business Capabilities
      • Develop a Strategy Map that Aligns Business Capabilities to Your Strategic Focus

      This phase involves the following participants:

      • Data Governance Leader/Data Leader (CDO)
      • Senior Business Leaders
      • Business SMEs
      • Data Leadership, Data Owners, Data Stewards and Custodians

      Step 1.1

      Substantiate Business Drivers

      Activities

      1.1.1 Identify Your Business Capabilities

      1.1.2 Categorize Your Organization’s Key Business Capabilities

      1.1.3 Develop a Strategy Map Tied to Data Governance

      This step will guide you through the following activities:

      • Leverage your organization’s existing business capability map or initiate the formulation of a business capability map, guided by info-Tech’s approach
      • Determine which business capabilities are considered high priority by your organization
      • Map your organization’s strategic objectives to value streams and capabilities to communicate how objectives are realized with the support of data

      Outcomes of this step

      • A foundation for data governance initiative planning that’s aligned with the organization’s business architecture: value streams, business capability map, and strategy map

      Info-Tech Insight

      Gaining a sound understanding of your business architecture (value streams and business capabilities) is a critical foundation for establishing and sustaining a data governance program that delivers measurable business value.

      1.1.1 Identify Your Business Capabilities

      Confirm your organization's existing business capability map or initiate the formulation of a business capability map:

      • If you have an existing business capability map, meet with the relevant business owners/stakeholders to confirm that the content is accurate and up to date. Confirm the value streams (how your organization creates and captures value) and their business capabilities are reflective of the organization’s current business environment.
      • If you do not have an existing business capability map, follow this activity to initiate the formulation of a map (value streams and related business capabilities):
        1. Define the organization’s value streams. Meet with senior leadership and other key business stakeholders to define how your organization creates and captures value.
        2. Define the relevant business capabilities. Meet with senior leadership and other key business stakeholders to define the business capabilities.

      Note: A business capability defines what a business does to enable value creation. 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.

      Input

      • List of confirmed value streams and their related business capabilities

      Output

      • Business capability map with value streams for your organization

      Materials

      • Your existing business capability map or the template provided in the Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook accompanying this blueprint

      Participants

      • Key business stakeholders
      • Data stewards
      • Data custodians
      • Data Governance Working Group

      For more information, refer to Info-Tech’s Document Your Business Architecture.

      Define or validate the organization’s value streams

      Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities. These value realization activities, in turn, depend on data.

      If the organization does not have a business architecture function to conduct and guide Activity 1.1.1, you can leverage the following approach:

      • Meet with key stakeholders regarding this topic, then discuss and document your findings.
      • When trying to identify the right stakeholders, consider: Who are the decision makers and key influencers? Who will impact this piece of business architecture related work? Who has the relevant skills, competencies, experience, and knowledge about the organization?
      • Engage with these stakeholders to define and validate how the organization creates value.
      • Consider:
        • Who are your main stakeholders? This will depend on the industry in which you operate. For example, customers, residents, citizens, constituents, students, patients.
        • What are your stakeholders looking to accomplish?
        • How does your organization’s products and/or services help them accomplish that?
        • What are the benefits your organization delivers to them and how does your organization deliver those benefits?
        • How do your stakeholders receive those benefits?

      Align data governance to the organization's value realization activities.

      Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Your organization’s value streams and the associated business capabilities require effectively governed data. Without this, you face the possibilities of elevated operational costs, missed opportunities, eroded stakeholder satisfaction, negative impact to reputation and brand, and/or increased exposure to business risk.

      Example of value streams – Retail Banking

      Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities.

      Example value stream descriptions for: Retail Banking

      Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.

      Model example of value streams for retail banking.

      For this value stream, download Info-Tech’s Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail Banking.

      Example of value streams – Higher Education

      Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities.

      Example value stream descriptions for: Higher Education

      Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.

      Model example of value streams for higher education

      For this value stream, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Higher Education.

      Example of value streams – Local Government

      Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities.

      Example value stream descriptions for: Local Government

      Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.

      Model example of value streams for local government

      For this value stream, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Local Government.

      Example of value streams – Manufacturing

      Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities.

      Example value stream descriptions for: Manufacturing

      Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.

      Model example of value streams for manufacturing

      For this value stream, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Manufacturing.

      Example of value streams – Retail

      Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities.

      Example value stream descriptions for: Retail

      Model example of value streams for retail

      Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.

      For this value stream, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail.

      Define the organization’s business capabilities in a business capability map

      A business capability defines what a business does to enable value creation. Business capabilities represent stable business functions and typically will have a defined business outcome.

      Business capabilities can be thought of as business terms defined using descriptive nouns such as “Marketing” or “Research and Development.”

      If your organization doesn’t already have a business capability map, you can leverage the following approach to build one. This initiative requires a good understanding of the business. By working with the right stakeholders, you can develop a business capability map that speaks a common language and accurately depicts your business.

      Working with the stakeholders as described above:

      • Analyze the value streams to identify and describe the organization’s capabilities that support them.
      • Consider: What is the objective of your value stream? (This can highlight which capabilities support which value stream.)
      • As you initiate your engagement with your stakeholders, don’t start a blank page. Leverage the examples on the next slides as a starting point for your business capability map.
      • When using these examples, consider: What are the activities that make up your particular business? Keep the ones that apply to your organization, remove the ones that don’t, and add any needed.

      Align data governance to the organization's value realization activities.

      Info-Tech Insight

      A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.

      For more information, refer to Info-Tech’s Document Your Business Architecture.

      Example business capability map – Retail Banking

      A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.

      Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

      Info-Tech Tip:

      Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of data and data governance in supporting the very value realization capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the data governance program.

      Example business capability map for: Retail Banking

      Model example business capability map for retail banking

      For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail Banking.

      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 hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.

      Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

      Info-Tech Tip:

      Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of data and data governance in supporting the very value realization capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the data governance program.

      Example business capability map for: Higher Education

      Model example business capability map for higher education

      For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture 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 hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.

      Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

      Info-Tech Tip:

      Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of data and data governance in supporting the very value realization capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the data governance program.

      Example business capability map for: Local Government

      Model example business capability map for local government

      For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Local Government.

      Example business capability map – Manufacturing

      A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.

      Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

      Info-Tech Tip:

      Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of data and data governance in supporting the very value realization capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the data governance program.

      Example business capability map for: Manufacturing

      Model example business capability map for manufacturing

      For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Manufacturing.

      Example business capability map - Retail

      A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.

      Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

      Info-Tech Tip:

      Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of data and data governance in supporting the very value realization capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the data governance program.

      Example business capability map for: Retail

      Model example business capability map for retail

      For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail.

      1.1.2 Categorize Your Organization’s Key Capabilities

      Determine which capabilities are considered high priority in your organization.

      1. Categorize or heatmap the organization’s key capabilities. Consult with senior and other key business stakeholders to categorize and prioritize the business’ capabilities. This will aid in ensuring your data governance future state planning is aligned with the mandate of the business. One approach to prioritizing capabilities with business stakeholders is to examine them through the lens of cost advantage creators, competitive advantage differentiators, and/or by high value/high risk.
      2. Identify cost advantage creators. Focus on capabilities that drive a cost advantage for your organization. Highlight these capabilities and prioritize programs that support them.
      3. Identify competitive advantage differentiators. Focus on capabilities that give your organization an edge over rivals or other players in your industry.

      This categorization/prioritization exercise helps highlight prime areas of opportunity for building use cases, determining prioritization, and the overall optimization of data and data governance.

      Input

      • Strategic insight from senior business stakeholders on the business capabilities that drive value for the organization

      Output

      • Business capabilities categorized and prioritized (e.g. cost advantage creators, competitive advantage differentiators, high value/high risk)

      Materials

      • Your existing business capability map or the business capability map derived in the previous activity

      Participants

      • Key business stakeholders
      • Data stewards
      • Data custodians
      • Data Governance Working Group

      For more information, refer to Info-Tech’s Document Your Business Architecture.

      Example of business capabilities categorization or heatmapping – Retail

      This exercise is useful in ensuring the data governance program is focused and aligned to support the priorities and direction of the business.

      • Depending on the mandate from the business, priority may be on developing cost advantage. Hence the capabilities that deliver efficiency gains are the ones considered to be cost advantage creators.
      • The business’ priority may be on maintaining or gaining a competitive advantage over its industry counterparts. Differentiation might be achieved in delivering unique or enhanced products, services, and/or experiences, and the focus will tend to be on the capabilities that are more end-stakeholder-facing (e.g. customer-, student-, patient,- and/or constituent-facing). These are the organization’s competitive advantage creators.

      Example: Retail

      Example of business capabilities categorization or heatmapping – Retail

      For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail.

      1.1.3 Develop a Strategy Map Tied to Data Governance

      Identify the strategic objectives for the business. Knowing the key strategic objectives will drive business-data governance alignment. It’s important to make sure the right strategic objectives of the organization have been identified and are well understood.

      1. Meet with senior business leaders and other relevant stakeholders to help identify and document the key strategic objectives for the business.
      2. Leverage their knowledge of the organization’s business strategy and strategic priorities to visually represent how these map to value streams, business capabilities, and, ultimately, to data and data governance needs and initiatives. Tip: Your map is one way to visually communicate and link the business strategy to other levels of the organization.
      3. Confirm the strategy mapping with other relevant stakeholders.

      Guide to creating your map: Starting with strategic objectives, map the value streams that will ultimately drive them. Next, link the key capabilities that enable each value stream. Then map the data and data governance to initiatives that support those capabilities. This is one approach to help you prioritize the data initiatives that deliver the most value to the organization.

      Input

      • Strategic objectives as outlined by the organization’s business strategy and confirmed by senior leaders

      Output

      • A strategy map that maps your organizational strategic objectives to value streams, business capabilities, and, ultimately, to data program

      Materials

      Participants

      • Key business stakeholders
      • Data stewards
      • Data custodians
      • Data Governance Working Group

      Download Info-Tech’s Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook

      Example of a strategy map tied to data governance

      • Strategic objectives are the outcomes that the organization is looking to achieve.
      • Value streams enable an organization to create and capture value in the market through interconnected activities that support strategic objectives.
      • Business capabilities define what a business does to enable value creation in value streams.
      • Data capabilities and initiatives are descriptions of action items on the data and data governance roadmap and which will enable one or multiple business capabilities in its desired target state.

      Info-Tech Tip:

      Start with the strategic objectives, then map the value streams that will ultimately drive them. Next, link the key capabilities that enable each value stream. Then map the data and data governance initiatives that support those capabilities. This process will help you prioritize the data initiatives that deliver the most value to the organization.

      Example: Retail

      Example of a strategy map tied to data governance for retail

      For this strategy map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail.

      Step 1.2

      Build High-Value Use Cases for Data Governance

      Activities

      1.2.1 Build High-Value Use Cases

      This step will guide you through the following activities:

      • Leveraging your categorized business capability map to conduct deep-dive sessions with key business stakeholders for creating high-value uses cases
      • Discussing current challenges, risks, and opportunities associated with the use of data across the lines of business
      • Exploring which other business capabilities, stakeholder groups, and business units will be impacted

      Outcomes of this step

      • Relevant use cases that articulate the data-related challenges, needs, or opportunities that are clear and contained and, if addressed ,will deliver value to the organization

      Info-Tech Tip

      One of the most important aspects when building use cases is to ensure you include KPIs or measures of success. You have to be able to demonstrate how the use case ties back to the organizational priorities or delivers measurable business value. Leverage the KPIs and success factors of the business capabilities tied to each particular use case.

      1.2.1 Build High-Value Use Cases

      This business needs-gathering activity will highlight and create relevant use cases around data-related problems or opportunities that are clear and contained and, if addressed, will deliver value to the organization.

      1. Bring together key business stakeholders (data owner, stewards, SMEs) from a particular line of business as well as the relevant data custodian(s) to build cases for their units. Leverage the business capability map you created for facilitating this act.
      2. Leverage Info-Tech’s framework for data requirements and methodology for creating use cases, as outlined in the Data Use Case Framework Template and seen on the next slide.
      3. Have the stakeholders move through each breakout session outlined in the Use Case Worksheet. Use flip charts or a whiteboard to brainstorm and document their thoughts.
      4. Debrief and document results in the Data Use Case Framework Template
      5. Repeat this exercise with as many lines of the business as possible, leveraging your business capability map to guide your progress and align with business value.

      Tip: Don’t conclude these use case discussions without substantiating what measures of success will be used to demonstrate the business value of the effort to produce the desired future state, as relevant to each particular use case.

      Input

      • Value streams and business capabilities as defined by business leaders
      • Business stakeholders’ subject area expertise
      • Data custodian systems, integration, and data knowledge

      Output

      • Use cases that articulate data-related challenges, needs or opportunities that are tied to defined business capabilities and hence if addressed will deliver measurable value to the organization.

      Materials

      • Your business capability map from activity 1.1.1
      • Info-Tech’s Data Use Case Framework Template
      • Whiteboard or flip charts (or shared screen if working remotely)
      • Markers/pens

      Participants

      • Key business stakeholders
      • Data stewards and business SMEs
      • Data custodians
      • Data Governance Working Group

      Download Info-Tech’s Data Use Case Framework Template

      Info-Tech’s Framework for Building Use Cases

      Objective: This business needs-gathering activity will highlight and create relevant use cases around data-related problems or opportunities that are clear and contained and, if addressed, will deliver value to the organization.

      Leveraging your business capability map, build use cases that align with the organization’s key business capabilities.

      Consider:

      • Is the business capability a cost advantage creator or an industry differentiator?
      • Is the business capability currently underserved by data?
      • Does this need to be addressed? If so, is this risk- or value-driven?

      Info-Tech’s Data Requirements and Mapping Methodology for Creating Use Cases

      1. What business capability (or capabilities) is this use case tied to for your business area(s)?
      2. What are your data-related challenges in performing this today?
      3. What are the steps in this process/activity today?
      4. What are the applications/systems used at each step today?
      5. What data domains are involved, created, used, and/or transformed at each step today?
      6. What does an ideal or improved state look like?
      7. What other business units, business capabilities, activities, and/or processes will be impacted or improved if this issue was solved?
      8. Who are the stakeholders impacted by these changes? Who needs to be consulted?
      9. What are the risks to the organization (business capability, revenue, reputation, customer loyalty, etc.) if this is not addressed?
      10. What compliance, regulatory, and/or policy concerns do we need to consider in any solution?
      11. What measures of success or change should we use to prove the value of the effort (such as KPIs, ROI)? What is the measurable business value of doing this?

      The resulting use cases are to be prioritized and leveraged for informing the business case and the data governance capabilities optimization plan.

      Taken from Info-Tech’s Data Use Case Framework Template

      Phase 2

      Understand Your Current Data Governance Capabilities

      Three circles are in the image that list the three phases and the main steps. Phase 2 is highlighted.

      This phase will guide you through the following activities:

      • Understand the Key Components of Data Governance
      • Gauge Your Organization’s Current Data Culture

      This phase involves the following participants:

      • Data Leadership
      • Data Ownership & Stewardship
      • Policies & Procedures
      • Data Literacy & Culture
      • Operating Model
      • Data Management
      • Data Privacy & Security
      • Enterprise Projects & Services

      Step 2.1

      Understand the Key Components of Data Governance

      This step will guide you through the following activities:

      • Understanding the core components of an effective data governance program and determining your organization’s current capabilities in these areas:
        • Data Leadership
        • Data Ownership & Stewardship
        • Policies & Procedures
        • Data Literacy & Culture
        • Operating Model
        • Data Management
        • Data Privacy & Security
        • Enterprise Projects & Services

      Outcomes of this step

      • An understanding the core components of an effective data governance program
      • An understanding your organization’s current data governance capabilities

      Review: Info-Tech’s Data Governance Framework

      An image of Info-Tech's Data Governance Framework

      Key components of data governance

      A well-defined data governance program will deliver:

      • Defined accountability and responsibility for data.
      • Improved knowledge and common understanding of the organization’s data assets.
      • Elevated trust and confidence in traceable data.
      • Improved data ROI and reduced data debt.
      • An enabling framework for supporting the ethical use and handling of data.
      • A foundation for building and fostering a data-driven and data-literate organizational culture.

      The key components of establishing sustainable enterprise data governance, taken from Info-Tech’s Data Governance Framework:

      • Data Leadership
      • Data Ownership & Stewardship
      • Operating Model
      • Policies & Procedures
      • Data Literacy & Culture
      • Data Management
      • Data Privacy & Security
      • Enterprise Projects & Services

      Data Leadership

      • Data governance needs a dedicated head or leader to steer the organization’s data governance program.
      • For organizations that do have a chief data officer (CDO), their office is the ideal and effective home for data governance.
      • Heads of data governance also have titles such as director of data governance, director of data quality, and director of analytics.
      • The head of your data governance program works with all stakeholders and partners to ensure there is continuous enterprise governance alignment and oversight and to drive the program’s direction.
      • While key stakeholders from the business and IT will play vital data governance roles, the head of data governance steers the various components, stakeholders, and initiatives, and provides oversight of the overall program.
      • Vital data governance roles include: data owners, data stewards, data custodians, data governance steering committee (or your organization’s equivalent), and any data governance working group(s).

      The role of the CDO: the voice of data

      The office of the chief data officer (CDO):

      • Has a cross-organizational vision and strategy for data.
      • Owns and drives the data strategy; ensures it supports the overall organizational strategic direction and business goals.
      • Leads the organizational data initiatives, including data governance
      • Is accountable for the policy, strategy, data standards, and data literacy necessary for the organization to operate effectively.
      • Educates users and leaders about what it means to be “data-driven.”
      • Builds and fosters a culture of data excellence.

      “Compared to most of their C-suite colleagues, the CDO is faced with a unique set of problems. The role is still being defined. The chief data officer is bringing a new dimension and focus to the organization: ‘data.’ ”

      – Carruthers and Jackson, 2020

      Who does the CDO report to?

      Example reporting structure.
      • The CDO should be a true C- level executive.
      • Where the organization places the CDO role in the structure sends an important signal to the business about how much it values data.

      “The title matters. In my opinion, you can’t have a CDO without executive authority. Otherwise no one will listen.”

      – Anonymous European CDO

      “The reporting structure depends on who’s the ‘glue’ that ties together all these uniquely skilled individuals.”

      – John Kemp, Senior Director, Executive Services, Info-Tech Research Group

      Data Ownership & Stewardship

      Who are best suited to be data owners?

      • Wherever they may sit in your organization, data owners will typically have the highest stake in that data.
      • Data owners need to be suitably senior and have the necessary decision-making power.
      • They have the highest interest in the related business data domain, whether they are the head of a business unit or the head of a line of business that produces data or consumes data (or both).
      • If they are neither of these, it’s unlikely they will have the interest in the data (in terms of its quality, protection, ethical use, and handling, for instance) necessary to undertake and adopt the role effectively.

      Data owners are typically senior business leaders with the following characteristics:

      • Positioned to accept accountability for their data domain.
      • Hold authority and influence to affect change, including across business processes and systems, needed to improve data quality, use, handling, integration, etc.
      • Have access to a budget and resources for data initiatives such as resolving data quality issues, data cleansing initiatives, business data catalog build, related tools and technology, policy management, etc.
      • Hold the influence needed to drive change in behavior and culture.
      • Act as ambassadors of data and its value as an organizational strategic asset.

      Right-size your data governance organizational structure

      • Most organizations strive to identify roles and responsibilities at a strategic and operational level. Several factors will influence the structure of the program such as the focus of the data governance project as well as the maturity and size of the organization.
      • Your data governance structure has to work for your organization, and it has to evolve as the organization evolves.
      • Formulate your blend of data governance roles, committees, councils, and cross-functional groups, that make sense for your organization.
      • Your data governance organizational structure should not add complexity or bureaucracy to your organization’s data landscape; it should support and enable your principle of treating data as an asset.

      There is no one-size-fits-all data governance organizational structure.

      Example of a Data Governance Organizational Structure

      Critical roles and responsibilities for data governance

      Data Governance Working Groups

      Data governance working groups:

      • Are cross-functional teams
      • Deliver on data governance projects, initiatives, and ad hoc review committees.

      Data Stewards

      Traditionally, data stewards:

      • Serve on an operational level addressing issues related to adherence to standards/procedures, monitoring data quality, raising issues identified, etc.
      • Are responsible for managing access, quality, escalating issues, etc.

      Data Custodians

      • Traditionally, data custodians:
      • Serve on an operational level addressing issues related to data and database administration.
      • Support the management of access, data quality, escalating issues, etc.
      • Are SMEs from IT and database administration.

      Example: Business capabilities to data owner and data stewards mapping for a selected data domain

      Info-Tech Insight

      Your organization’s value streams and the associated business capabilities require effectively governed data. Without this, you face elevated operational costs, missed opportunities, eroded stakeholder satisfaction, and exposure to increased business risk.

      Enabling business capabilities with data governance role definitions

      Example: Business capabilities to data owner and data stewards mapping for a selected data domain

      Operating Model

      Your operating model is the key to designing and operationalizing a form of data governance that delivers measurable business value to your organization.

      “Generate excitement for data: When people are excited and committed to the vision of data enablement, they’re more likely to help ensure that data is high quality and safe.” – Petzold, et al., 2020

      Operating Model

      Defining your data governance operating model will help create a well-oiled program that sustainably delivers value to the organization and manages risks while building and fostering a culture of data excellence along the way. Some organizations are able to establish a formal data governance office, whether independent or attached to the office of the chief data officer. Regardless of how you are organized, data governance requires a home, a leader, and an operating model to ensure its sustainability and evolution.

      Examples of focus areas for your operating model:

      • Delivery: While there are core tenets to every data governance program, there is a level of variability in the implementation of data governance programs across organizations, sectors, and industries. Every organization has its own particular drivers and mandates, so the level and rigor applied will also vary.
      • The key is to determine what style will work best in your organization, taking into consideration your organizational culture, executive leadership support (present and ongoing), catalysts such as other enterprise-wide transformative and modernization initiatives, and/or regulatory and compliances drivers.

      • Communication: Communication is vital across all levels and stakeholder groups. For instance, there needs to be communication from the data governance office up to senior leadership, as well as communication within the data governance organization, which is typically made up of the data governance steering committee, data governance council, executive sponsor/champion, data stewards, and data custodians and working groups.
      • Furthermore, communication with the wider organization of data producers, users, and consumers is one of the core elements of the overall data governance communications plan.

      Communication is vital for ensuring acceptance of new processes, rules, guidelines, and technologies by all data producers and users as well as for sharing success stories of the program.

      Operating Model

      Tie the value of data governance and its initiatives back to the business capabilities that are enabled.

      “Leading organizations invest in change management to build data supporters and convert the skeptics. This can be the most difficult part of the program, as it requires motivating employees to use data and encouraging producers to share it (and ideally improve its quality at the source)[.]” – Petzold, et al., 2020

      Operating Model

      Examples of focus areas for your operating model (continued):

      • Change management and issue resolution: Data governance initiatives will very likely bring about a level of organizational disruption, with governance recommendations and future state requiring potentially significant business change. This may include a redesign of a substantial number of data processes affecting various business units, which will require tweaking the organization’s culture, thought processes, and procedures surrounding its data.
      • Preparing people for change well in advance will allow them to take the steps necessary to adapt and reduce potential confrontation. By planning for and efficiently communicating any changes that a data governance initiative may bring, many initial issues can be resolved from the outset.

        Attempting to implement change without an effective communications plan can result in disagreements over data control and stalemates between stakeholder units. The recommendations of the governance group must reflect the needs of all stakeholders or there will be pushback.

      • Performance measuring, monitoring and reporting: Measuring and reporting on performance, successes, and realization of tangible business value are a must for sustaining, growing, and scaling your data governance program.
      • Aligning your data governance to the organization's value realization activities enables you to leverage the KPIs of those business capabilities to demonstrate tangible and measurable value. Use terms and language that will resonate with your senior business leadership.

      Info-Tech Tip:

      Launching a data governance program will bring with it a level of disruption to the culture of the organization. That disruption doesn’t have to be detrimental if you are prepared to manage the change proactively and effectively.

      Policies, Procedures & Standards

      “Data standards are the rules by which data are described and recorded. In order to share, exchange, and understand data, we must standardize the format as well as the meaning.” – U.S. Geological Survey

      Policies, Procedures & Standards

      • When defining, updating, or refreshing your data policies, procedures, and standards, ensure they are relevant, serve a purpose, and/or support the use of data in the organization.
      • Avoid the common pitfall of building out a host of policies, procedures, and standards that are never used or followed by users and therefore don’t bring value or serve to mitigate risk for the organization.
      • Data policies can be thought of as formal statements and are typically created, approved, and updated by the organization’s data decision-making body (such as a data governance steering committee).
      • Data standards and procedures function as actions, or rules, that support the policies and their statements.
      • Standards and procedures are designed to standardize the processes during the overall data lifecycle. Procedures are instructions to achieve the objectives of the policies. The procedures are iterative and will be updated with approval from your data governance committee as needed.
      • Your organization’s data policies, standards, and procedures should not bog down or inhibit users; rather, they should enable confident data use and handling across the overall data lifecycle. They should support more effective and seamless data capture, integration, aggregation, sharing, and retention of data in the organization.

      Examples of data policies:

      • Data Classification Policy
      • Data Retention Policy
      • Data Entry Policy
      • Data Backup Policy
      • Data Provenance Policy
      • Data Management Policy

      Data Domain Documentation

      Select the correct granularity for your business need

      Diagram of data domain documentation
      Sources: Dataversity; Atlan; Analytics8

      Data Domain Documentation Examples

      Data Domain Documentation Examples

      Data Culture

      “Organizational culture can accelerate the application of analytics, amplify its power, and steer companies away from risky outcomes.” – Petzold, et al., 2020

      A healthy data culture is key to amplifying the power of your data and to building and sustaining an effective data governance program.

      What does a healthy data culture look like?

      • Everybody knows the data.
      • Everybody trusts the data.
      • Everybody talks about the data.

      Building a culture of data excellence.

      Leverage Info-Tech’s Data Culture Diagnostic to understand your organization’s culture around data.

      Screenshot of Data Culture Scorecard

      Contact your Info-Tech Account Representative for more information on the Data Culture Diagnostic

      Cultivating a data-driven culture is not easy

      “People are at the heart of every culture, and one of the biggest challenges to creating a data culture is bringing everyone into the fold.” – Lim, Alation

      It cannot be purchased or manufactured,

      It must be nurtured and developed,

      And it must evolve as the business, user, and data landscapes evolve.

      “Companies that have succeeded in their data-driven efforts understand that forging a data culture is a relentless pursuit, and magic bullets and bromides do not deliver results.” – Randy Bean, 2020

      Hallmarks of a data-driven culture

      There is a trusted, single source of data the whole company can draw from.

      There’s a business glossary and data catalog and users know what the data fields mean.

      Users have access to data and analytics tools. Employees can leverage data immediately to resolve a situation, perform an activity, or make a decision – including frontline workers.

      Data literacy, the ability to collect, manage, evaluate, and apply data in a critical manner, is high.

      Data is used for decision making. The company encourages decisions based on objective data and the intelligent application of it.

      A data-driven culture requires a number of elements:

      • High-quality data
      • Broad access and data literacy
      • Data-driven decision-making processes
      • Effective communication

      Data Literacy

      Data literacy is an essential part of a data-driven culture.

      • Building a data-driven culture takes an ongoing investment of time, effort, and money.
      • This investment will not realize its full return without building up the organization’s data literacy.
      • Data literacy is about filling data knowledge gaps across all levels of the organization.
      • It’s about ensuring all users – senior leadership right through to core users – are equipped with appropriate levels of training, skills, understanding, and awareness around the organization’s data and the use of associated tools and technologies. Data literacy ensures users have the data they need and they know how to interpret and leverage it.
      • Data literacy drives the appetite, demand, and consumption for data.
      • A data-literate culture is one where the users feel confident and skilled in their use of data, leveraging it for making informed or evidence-based decisions and generating insights for the organization.

      Data Management

      • Data governance serves as an enabler to all of the core components that make up data management:
        • Data quality management
        • Data architecture management
        • Data platform
        • Data integration
        • Data operations management
        • Data risk management
        • Reference and master data management (MDM)
        • Document and content management
        • Metadata management
        • Business intelligence (BI), reporting, analytics and advanced analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML)
      • Key tools such as the business data glossary and data catalog are vital for operationalizing data governance and in supporting data management disciplines such as data quality management, metadata management, and MDM as well as BI, reporting, and analytics.

      Enterprise Projects & Services

      • Data governance serves as an enabler to enterprise projects and services that require, use, share, sell, and/or rely on data for their viability and, ultimately, their success.
      • Folding or embedding data governance into the organization’s project management function or project management office (PMO) serves to ensure that, for any initiative, suitable consideration is given to how data is treated.
      • This may include defining parameters, following standards and procedures around bringing in new sources of data, integrating that data into the organization’s data ecosystem, using and sharing that data, and retaining that data post-project completion.
      • The data governance function helps to identify and manage any ethical issues, whether at the start of the project and/or throughout.
      • It provides a foundation for asking relevant questions as it relates to the use or incorporation of data in delivering the specific project or service. Do we know where the data obtained from? Do we have rights to use that data? Are there legislations, policies, or regulations that guide or dictate how that data can be used? What are the positive effects, negative impacts, and/or risks associated with our intended use of that data? Are we positioned to mitigate those risks?
      • Mature data governance creates organizations where the above considerations around data management and the ethical use and handling of data is routinely implemented across the business and in the rollout and delivery of projects and services.

      Data Privacy & Security

      • Data governance supports the organization’s data privacy and security functions.
      • Key tools include the data classification policy and standards and defined roles around data ownership and data stewardship. These are vital for operationalizing data governance and supporting data privacy, security, and the ethical use and handling of data.
      • While some organizations may have a dedicated data security and privacy group, data governance provides an added level of oversight in this regard.
      • Some of the typical checks and balances include ensuring:
        • There are policies and procedures in place to restrict and monitor staff’s access to data (one common way this is done is according to job descriptions and responsibilities) and that these comply with relevant laws and regulations.
        • There’s a data classification scheme in place where data has been classified on a hierarchy of sensitivity (e.g. top secret, confidential, internal, limited, public).
        • The organization has a comprehensive data security framework, including administrative, physical, and technical procedures for addressing data security issues (e.g. password management and regular training).
        • Risk assessments are conducted, including an evaluation of risks and vulnerabilities related to intentional and unintentional misuse of data.
        • Policies and procedures are in place to mitigate the risks associated with incidents such as data breaches.
        • The organization regularly audits and monitors its data security.

      Ethical Use & Handling of Data

      Data governance will support your organization’s ethical use and handling of data by facilitating definition around important factors, such as:

      • What are the various data assets in the organization and what purpose(s) can they be used for? Are there any limitations?
      • Who is the related data owner? Who holds accountability for that data? Who will be answerable?
      • Where was the data obtained from? What is the intended use of that data? Do you have rights to use that data? Are there legislations, policies, or regulations that guide or dictate how that data can be used?
      • What are the positive effects, negative impacts, and/or risks associated with the use of that data?

      Ethical Use & Handling of Data

      • Data governance serves as an enabler to the ethical use and handling of an organization’s data.
      • The Open Data Institute (ODI) defines data ethics as: “A branch of ethics that evaluates data practices with the potential to adversely impact on people and society – in data collection, sharing and use.”
      • Data ethics relates to good practice around how data is collected, used and shared. It’s especially relevant when data activities have the potential to impact people and society, whether directly or indirectly (Open Data Institute, 2019).
      • A failure to handle and use data ethically can negatively impact an organization’s direct stakeholders and/or the public at large, lead to a loss of trust and confidence in the organization's products and services, lead to financial loss, and impact the organization’s brand, reputation, and legal standing.
      • Data governance plays a vital role in building and managing your data assets, knowing what data you have, and knowing the limitations of that data. Data ownership, data stewardship, and your data governance decision-making body are key tenets and foundational components of your data governance. They enable an organization to define, categorize, and confidently make decisions about its data.

      Step 2.2

      Gauge Your Organization’s Current Data Culture

      Activities

      2.2.1 Gauge Your Organization’s Current Data Culture

      This step will guide you through the following activities:

      • Conduct a data culture survey or leverage Info-Tech’s Data Culture Diagnostic to increase your understanding of your organization’s data culture

      Outcomes of this step

      • An understanding of your organizational data culture

      2.2.1 Gauge Your Organization’s Current Data Culture

      Conduct a Data Culture Survey or Diagnostic

      The objectives of conducting a data culture survey are to increase the understanding of the organization's data culture, your users’ appetite for data, and their appreciation for data in terms of governance, quality, accessibility, ownership, and stewardship. To perform a data culture survey:

      1. Identify members of the data user base, data consumers, and other key stakeholders for surveying.
      2. Conduct an information session to introduce Info-Tech’s Data Culture Diagnostic survey. Explain the objective and importance of the survey and its role in helping to understand the organization’s current data culture and inform the improvement of that culture.
      3. Roll out the Info-Tech Data Culture Diagnostic survey to the identified users and stakeholders.
      4. Debrief and document the results and scorecard in the Data Strategy Stakeholder Interview Guide and Findings document.

      Input

      • Email addresses of participants in your organization who should receive the survey

      Output

      • Your organization’s Data Culture Scorecard for understanding current data culture as it relates to the use and consumption of data
      • An understanding of whether data is currently perceived to be an asset to the organization

      Materials

      Screenshot of Data Culture Scorecard

      Participants

      • Participants include those at the senior leadership level through to middle management, as well as other business stakeholders at varying levels across the organization
      • Data owners, stewards, and custodians
      • Core data users and consumers

      Contact your Info-Tech Account Representative for details on launching a Data Culture Diagnostic.

      Phase 3

      Build a Target State Roadmap and Plan

      Three circles are in the image that list the three phases and the main steps. Phase 3 is highlighted.

      “Achieving data success is a journey, not a sprint.” Companies that set a clear course, with reasonable expectations and phased results over a period of time, get to the destination faster.” – Randy Bean, 2020

      This phase will guide you through the following activities:

      • Build your Data Governance Roadmap
      • Develop a target state plan comprising of prioritized initiatives

      This phase involves the following participants:

      • Data Governance Leadership
      • Data Owners/Data Stewards
      • Data Custodians
      • Data Governance Working Group(s)

      Step 3.1

      Formulate an Actionable Roadmap and Right-Sized Plan

      This step will guide you through the following activities:

      • Build your data governance roadmap
      • Develop a target state plan comprising of prioritized initiatives

      Outcomes of this step

      • A foundation for data governance initiative planning that’s aligned with the organization’s business architecture: value streams, business capability map, and strategy map

      Build a right-sized roadmap

      Formulate an actionable roadmap that is right sized to deliver value in your organization.

      Key considerations:

      • When building your data governance roadmap, ensure you do so through an enterprise lens. Be cognizant of other initiatives that might be coming down the pipeline that may require you to align your data governance milestones accordingly.
      • Apart from doing your planning with consideration for other big projects or launches that might be in-flight and require the time and attention of your data governance partners, also be mindful of the more routine yet still demanding initiatives.
      • When doing your roadmapping, consider factors like the organization’s fiscal cycle, typical or potential year-end demands, and monthly/quarterly reporting periods and audits. Initiatives such as these are likely to monopolize the time and focus of personnel key to delivering on your data governance milestones.

      Sample milestones:

      Data Governance Leadership & Org Structure Definition

      Define the home for data governance and other key roles around ownership and stewardship, as approved by senior leadership.

      Data Governance Charter and Policies

      Create a charter for your program and build/refresh associated policies.

      Data Culture Diagnostic

      Understand the organization’s current data culture, perception of data, value of data, and knowledge gaps.

      Use Case Build and Prioritization

      Build a use case that is tied to business capabilities. Prioritize accordingly.

      Business Data Glossary/Catalog

      Build and/or refresh the business’ glossary for addressing data definitions and standardization issues.

      Tools & Technology

      Explore the tools and technology offering in the data governance space that would serve as an enabler to the program. (e.g. RFI, RFP).

      Recall: Info-Tech’s Data Governance Framework

      An image of Info-Tech's Data Governance Framework

      Build an actionable roadmap

      Data Governance Leadership & Org Structure Division

      Define key roles for getting started.

      Use Case Build & Prioritization

      Start small and then scale – deliver early wins.

      Literacy Program

      Start understanding data knowledge gaps, building the program, and delivering.

      Tools & Technology

      Make the available data governance tools and technology work for you.

      Key components of your data governance roadmap

      By now, you have assessed current data governance environment and capabilities. Use this assessment, coupled with the driving needs of your business, to plot your data Governance roadmap accordingly.

      Sample data governance roadmap milestones:

      • Define data governance leadership.
      • Define and formalize data ownership and stewardship (as well as the role IT/data management will play as data custodians).
      • Build/confirm your business capability map and data domains.
      • Build business data use cases specific to business capabilities.
      • Define business measures/KPIs for the data governance program (i.e. metrics by use case that are relevant to business capabilities).
      • Data management:
        • Build your data glossary or catalog starting with identified and prioritized terms.
        • Define data domains.
      • Design and define the data governance operating model (oversight model definition, communication plan, internal marketing such as townhalls, formulate change management plan, RFP of data governance tool and technology options for supporting data governance and its administration).
      • Data policies and procedures:
        • Formulate, update, refresh, consolidate, rationalize, and/or retire data policies and procedures.
        • Define policy management and administration framework (i.e. roll-out, maintenance, updates, adherence, system to be used).
      • Conduct Info-Tech’s Data Culture Diagnostic or survey (across all levels of the organization).
      • Define and formalize the data literacy program (build modules, incorporate into LMS, plan lunch and learn sessions).
      • Data privacy and security: build data classification policy, define classification standards.
      • Enterprise projects and services: embed data governance in the organization’s PMO, conduct “Data Governance 101” for the PMO.

      Defining data governance roles and organizational structure at Organization

      The approach employed for defining the data governance roles and supporting organizational structure for .

      Key Considerations:

      • The data owner and data steward roles are formally defined and documented within the organization. Their involvement is clear, well-defined, and repeatable.
      • There are data owners and data stewards for each data domain within the organization. The data steward role is given to someone with a high degree of subject matter expertise.
      • Data owners and data stewards are effective in their roles by ensuring that their data domain is clean and free of errors and that they protect the organization against data loss.
      • Data owners and data stewards have the authority to make final decisions on data definitions, formats, and standard processes that apply to their respective data sets. Data owners and data stewards have authority regarding who has access to certain data.
      • Data owners and data stewards are not from the IT side of the organization. They understand the lifecycle of the data (how it is created, curated, retrieved, used, archived, and destroyed) and they are well-versed in any compliance requirements as it relates to their data.
      • The data custodian role is formally defined and is given to the relevant IT expert. This is an individual with technical administrative and/or operational responsibility over data (e.g. a DBA).
      • A data governance steering committee exists and is comprised of well-defined roles, responsibilities, executive sponsors, business representatives, and IT experts.
      • The data governance steering committee works to provide oversight and enforce policies, procedures, and standards for governing data.
      • The data governance working group has cross-functional representation. This comprises business and IT representation, as well as project management and change management where applicable: data stewards, data custodians, business subject matter experts, PM, etc.).
      • Data governance meetings are coordinated and communicated about. The meeting agenda is always clear and concise, and meetings review pressing data-related issues. Meeting minutes are consistently documented and communicated.

      Sample: Business capabilities to data owner and data stewards mapping for a selected data domain

      Info-Tech Insight

      Your organization’s value streams and the associated business capabilities require effectively governed data. Without this, you face elevated operational costs, missed opportunities, eroded stakeholder satisfaction, and exposure to increased business risk.

      Enable business capabilities with data governance role definitions.

      Sample: Business capabilities to data owner and data stewards mapping for a selected data domain

      Consider your technology options:

      Make the available data governance tools and technology work for you:

      • Data catalog
      • Business data glossary
      • Data lineage
      • Metadata management

      Logos of data governance tools and technology.

      These are some of the data governance tools and technology players. Check out SoftwareReviews for help making better software decisions.

      Make the data steward the catalyst for organizational change and driving data culture

      The data steward must be empowered and backed politically with decision-making authority, or the role becomes stale and powerless.

      Ensuring compliance can be difficult. Data stewards may experience pushback from stakeholders who must deliver on the policies, procedures, and processes that the data steward enforces.

      Because the data steward must enforce data processes and liaise with so many different people and departments within the organization, the data steward role should be their primary full-time job function – where possible.

      However, in circumstances where budget doesn’t allow a full-time data steward role, develop these skills within the organization by adding data steward responsibilities to individuals who are already managing data sets for their department or line of business.

      Info-Tech Tip

      A stewardship role is generally more about managing the cultural change that data governance brings. This requires the steward to have exceptional interpersonal skills that will assist in building relationships across departmental boundaries and ensuring that all stakeholders within the organization believe in the initiative, understand the anticipated outcomes, and take some level of responsibility for its success.

      Changes to organizational data processes are inevitable; have a communication plan in place to manage change

      Create awareness of your data governance program. Use knowledge transfer to get as many people on board as possible.

      Data governance initiatives must contain a strong organizational disruption component. A clear and concise communication strategy that conveys milestones and success stories will address the various concerns that business unit stakeholders may have.

      By planning for and efficiently communicating any changes that a data governance initiative may bring, many initial issues can be resolved from the outset.

      Governance recommendations will require significant business change. The redesign of a substantial number of data processes affecting various business units will require an overhaul of the organization’s culture, thought processes, and procedures surrounding its data. Preparing people for change well in advance will allow them to take the necessary steps to adapt and reduce potential confrontation.

      Because a data governance initiative will involve data-driven business units across the organization, the governance team must present a compelling case for data governance to ensure acceptance of new processes, rules, guidelines, and technologies by all data producers and users.

      Attempting to implement change without an effective communication plan can result in disagreements over data control and stalemates between stakeholder units. The recommendations of the governance group must reflect the needs of all stakeholders or there will be pushback.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Launching a data governance initiative is guaranteed to disrupt the culture of the organization. That disruption doesn’t have to be detrimental if you are prepared to manage the change proactively and effectively.

      Create a common data governance vision that is consistently communicated to the organization

      A data governance program should be an enterprise-wide initiative.

      To create a strong vision for data governance, there must be participation from the business and IT. A common vision will articulate the state the organization wishes to achieve and how it will reach that state. Visioning helps to develop long-term goals and direction.

      Once the vision is established, it must be effectively communicated to everyone, especially those who are involved in creating, managing, disposing, or archiving data.

      The data governance program should be periodically refined. This will ensure the organization continues to incorporate best methods and practices as the organization grows and data needs evolve.

      Info-Tech Tips

      • Use information from the stakeholder interviews to derive business goals and objectives.
      • Work to integrate different opinions and perspectives into the overall vision for data governance.
      • Brainstorm guiding principles for data and understand the overall value to the organization.

      Develop a compelling data governance communications plan to get all departmental lines of business on board

      A data governance program will impact all data-driven business units within the organization.

      A successful data governance communications plan involves making the initiative visible and promoting staff awareness. Educate the team on how data is collected, distributed, and used, what internal processes use data, and how that data is used across departmental boundaries.

      By demonstrating how data governance will affect 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 clear and concise communications strategy will raise the profile of data governance within the organization, and staff will understand how the program will benefit them and how they can share in the success of the initiative. This will end up providing support for the initiative across the board.

      A proactive communications plan will:

      • Assist in overcoming issues with data control, stalemates between stakeholder units, and staff resistance.
      • Provide a formalized process for implementing new policies, rules, guidelines, and technologies, and managing organizational data.
      • Detail data ownership and accountability for decision making, and identify and resolve data issues throughout the organization.
      • Encourage acceptance and support of the initiative.

      Info-Tech Tip

      Focus on literacy and communication: include training in the communication plan. Providing training for data users on the correct procedures for updating and verifying the accuracy of data, data quality, and standardized data policies will help validate how data governance will benefit them and the organization.

      Leverage the data governance program to communicate and promote the value of data within the organization

      The data governance program is responsible for continuously promoting the value of data to the organization. The data governance program should seek a variety of ways to educate the organization and data stakeholders on the benefit of data management.

      Even if data policies and procedures are created, they will be highly ineffective if they are not properly communicated to the data producers and users alike.

      There needs to be a communication plan that highlights how the data producer and user will be affected, what their new responsibilities are, and the value of that change.

      To learn how to manage organizational change, refer to Info-Tech’s Master Organizational Change Management Practices.

      Understand what makes for an effective policy for data governance

      It can be difficult to understand what a policy is, and what it is not. Start by identifying the differences between a policy and standards, guidelines, and procedures.

      Diagram of an effective policy for data governance

      The following are key elements of a good policy:

      Heading Descriptions
      Purpose Describes the factors or circumstances that mandate the existence of the policy. Also states the policy’s basic objectives and what the policy is meant to achieve.
      Scope Defines to whom and to what systems this policy applies. Lists the employees required to comply or simply indicates “all” if all must comply. Also indicates any exclusions or exceptions, i.e. those people, elements, or situations that are not covered by this policy or where special consideration may be made.
      Definitions Define any key terms, acronyms, or concepts that will be used in the policy. A standard glossary approach is sufficient.
      Policy Statements Describe the rules that comprise the policy. This typically takes the form of a series of short prescriptive and proscriptive statements. Sub-dividing this section into sub-sections may be required depending on the length or complexity of the policy.
      Non-Compliance Clearly describe consequences (legal and/or disciplinary) for employee non-compliance with the policy. It may be pertinent to describe the escalation process for repeated non-compliance.
      Agreement Confirms understanding of the policy and provides a designated space to attest to the document.

      Leverage myPolicies, Info-Tech’s web-based application for managing your policies and procedures

      Most organizations have problems with policy management. These include:

      1. Policies are absent or out of date
      2. Employees largely unaware of policies in effect
      3. Policies are unmonitored and unenforced
      4. Policies are in multiple locations
      5. Multiple versions of the same policy exist
      6. Policies managed inconsistently across different silos
      7. Policies are written poorly by untrained authors
      8. Inadequate policy training program
      9. Draft policies stall and lose momentum
      10. Weak policy support from senior management

      Technology should be used as a means to solve these problems and effectively monitor, enforce, and communicate policies.

      Product Overview

      myPolicies is a web-based solution to create, distribute, and manage corporate policies, procedures, and forms. Our solution provides policy managers with the tools they need to mitigate the risk of sanctions and reduce the administrative burden of policy management. It also enables employees to find the documents relevant to them and build a culture of compliance.

      Some key success factors for policy management include:

      • Store policies in a central location that is well known and easy to find and access. A key way that technology can help communicate policies is by having them published on a centralized website.
      • Link this repository to other policies’ taxonomies of your organization. E.g. HR policies to provide a single interface for employees to access guidance across the organization.
      • Reassess policies annually at a minimum. myPolicies can remind you to update the organization’s policies at the appropriate time.
      • Make the repository searchable and easily navigable.
      • myPolicies helps you do all this and more.
      myPolicies logo myPolicies

      Enforce data policies to promote consistency of business processes

      Data policies are short statements that seek to manage the creation, acquisition, integrity, security, compliance, and quality of data. These policies vary amongst organizations, depending on your specific data needs.

      • Policies describe what to do, while standards and procedures describe how to do something.
      • There should be few data policies, and they should be brief and direct. Policies are living documents and should be continuously updated to respond to the organization’s data needs.
      • The data policies should highlight who is responsible for the data under various scenarios and rules around how to manage it effectively.

      Examples of Data Policies

      Trust

      • Data Cleansing and Quality Policy
      • Data Entry Policy

      Availability

      • Acceptable Use Policy
      • Data Backup Policy

      Security

      • Data Security Policy
      • Password Policy Template
      • User Authorization, Identification, and Authentication Policy Template
      • Data Protection Policy

      Compliance

      • Archiving Policy
      • Data Classification Policy
      • Data Retention Policy

      Leverage data management-related policies to standardize your data management practices

      Info-Tech’s Data Management Policy:

      This policy establishes uniform data management standards and identifies the shared responsibilities for assuring the integrity of the data and that it efficiently and effectively serves the needs of the organization. This policy applies to all critical data and to all staff who may be creators and/or users of such data.

      Info-Tech’s Data Entry Policy:

      The integrity and quality of data and evidence used to inform decision making is central to both the short-term and long-term health of an organization. It is essential that required data be sourced appropriately and entered into databases and applications in an accurate and complete manner to ensure the reliability and validity of the data and decisions made based on the data.

      Info-Tech’s Data Provenance Policy:

      Create policies to keep your data's value, such as:

      • Only allow entry of data from reliable sources.
      • Employees entering and accessing data must observe requirements for capturing/maintaining provenance metadata.
      • Provenance metadata will be used to track the lifecycle of data from creation through to disposal.

      Info-Tech’s Data Integration and Virtualization Policy:

      This policy aims to assure the organization, staff, and other interested parties that data integration, replication, and virtualization risks are taken seriously. Staff must use the policy (and supporting guidelines) when deciding whether to integrate, replicate, or virtualize data sets.

      Select the right mix of metrics to successfully supervise data policies and processes

      Policies are only as good as your level of compliance. Ensure supervision controls exist to oversee adherence to policies and procedures.

      Although they can be highly subjective, metrics are extremely important to data governance success.

      • Establishing metrics that measure the performance of a specific process or data set will:
        • Create a greater degree of ownership from data stewards and data owners.
        • Help identify underperforming individuals.
        • Allow the steering committee to easily communicate tailored objectives to individual data stewards and owners.
      • Be cautious when establishing metrics. The wrong metrics can have negative repercussions.
        • They will likely draw attention to an aspect of the process that doesn’t align with the initial strategy.
        • Employees will work hard and grow frustrated as their successes aren’t accurately captured.

      Policies are great to have from a legal perspective, but unless they are followed, they will not benefit the organization.

      • One of the most useful metrics for policies is currency. This tracks how up to date the policy is and how often employees are informed about the policy. Often, a policy will be introduced and then ignored. Policies must be continuously reviewed by management and employees.
      • Some other metrics include adherence (including performance in tests for adherence) and impacts from non-adherence.

      Review metrics on an ongoing basis with those data owners/stewards who are accountable, the data governance steering committee, and the executive sponsors.

      Establish data standards and procedures for use across all organizational lines of business

      A data governance program will impact all data-driven business units within the organization.

      • Data management procedures are the methods, techniques, and steps to accomplish a specific data objective. Creating standard data definitions should be one of the first tasks for a data governance steering committee.
      • Data moves across all departmental boundaries and lines of business within the organization. These definitions must be developed as a common set of standards that can be accepted and used enterprise wide.
      • Consistent data standards and definitions will improve data flow across departmental boundaries and between lines of business.
      • Ensure these standards and definitions are used uniformly throughout the organization to maintain reliable and useful data.

      Data standards and procedural guidelines will vary from company to company.

      Examples include:

      • Data modeling and architecture standards.
      • Metadata integration and usage procedures.
      • Data security standards and procedures.
      • Business intelligence standards and procedures.

      Info-Tech Tip

      Have a fundamental data definition model for the entire business to adhere to. Those in the positions that generate and produce data must follow the common set of standards developed by the steering committee and be accountable for the creation of valid, clean data.

      Changes to organizational data processes are inevitable; have a communications plan in place to manage change

      Create awareness of your data governance program, using knowledge transfer to get as many people on board as possible.

      By planning for and efficiently communicating any changes that a data governance initiative may bring, many initial issues can be resolved from the outset.

      Governance recommendations will require significant business change. The redesign of a substantial number of data processes affecting various business units will require an overhaul of the organization’s culture, thought processes, and procedures surrounding its data. Preparing people for change well in advance will allow them to take the necessary steps to adapt and reduce potential confrontation.

      Because a data governance initiative will involve data-driven business units across the organization, the governance team must present a compelling case for data governance to ensure acceptance of new processes, rules, guidelines, and technologies by all data producers and users.

      Attempting to implement change without an effective communications plan can result in disagreements over data control and stalemates between stakeholder units. The recommendations of the governance group must reflect the needs of all stakeholders or there will be pushback.

      Data governance initiatives will very likely bring about a level of organizational disruption. A clear and concise communications strategy that conveys milestones and success stories will address the various concerns that business unit stakeholders may have.

      Info-Tech Tip

      Launching a data governance program will bring with it a level of disruption to the culture of the organization. That disruption doesn’t have to be detrimental if you are prepared to manage the change proactively and effectively.

      Additional Support

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

      Picture of analyst

      Contact your account representative for more information.

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

      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 Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.

      The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

      Screenshot of example data governance strategy map.

      Build Your Business and User Context

      Work with your core team of stakeholders to build out your data governance strategy map, aligning data governance initiatives with business capabilities, value streams, and, ultimately, your strategic priorities.

      Screenshot of Data governance roadmap

      Formulate a Plan to Get to Your Target State

      Develop a data governance future state roadmap and plan based on an understanding of your current data governance capabilities, your operating environment, and the driving needs of your business.

      Related Info-Tech Research

      Build a Robust and Comprehensive Data Strategy

      Key to building and fostering a data-driven culture.

      Create a Data Management Roadmap

      Streamline your data management program with our simplified framework.

      The First 100 Days as CDO

      Be the voice of data in a time of transformation.

      Research Contributors

      Name Position Company
      David N. Weber Executive Director - Planning, Research and Effectiveness Palm Beach State College
      Izabela Edmunds Information Architect Mott MacDonald
      Andy Neill Practice Lead, Data & Analytics Info-Tech Research Group
      Dirk Coetsee Research Director, Data & Analytics Info-Tech Research Group
      Graham Price Executive Advisor, Advisory Executive Services Info-Tech Research Group
      Igor Ikonnikov Research Director, Data & Analytics Info-Tech Research Group
      Jean Bujold Senior Workshop Delivery Director Info-Tech Research Group
      Rajesh Parab Research Director, Data & Analytics Info-Tech Research Group
      Reddy Doddipalli Senior Workshop Director Info-Tech Research Group
      Valence Howden Principal Research Director, CIO Info-Tech Research Group

      Bibliography

      Alation. “The Alation State of Data Culture Report – Q3 2020.” Alation, 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      Allott, Joseph, et al. “Data: The next wave in forestry productivity.” McKinsey & Company, 27 Oct. 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      Bean, Randy. “Why Culture Is the Greatest Barrier to Data Success.” MIT Sloan Management Review, 30 Sept. 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      Brence, Thomas. “Overcoming the Operationalization Challenge with Data Governance at New York Life.” Informatica, 18 March 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      Bullmore, Simon, and Stuart Coleman. “ODI Inside Business – a checklist for leaders.” Open Data Institute, 19 Oct. 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      Canadian Institute for Health Information. “Developing and implementing accurate national standards for Canadian health care information.” Canadian Institute for Health Information. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      Carruthers, Caroline, and Peter Jackson. “The Secret Ingredients of the Successful CDO.” IRM UK Connects, 23 Feb. 2017.

      Dashboards. “Useful KPIs for Healthy Hospital Quality Management.” Dashboards. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      Dashboards. “Why (and How) You Should Improve Data Literacy in Your Organization Today.” Dashboards. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      Datapine. “Healthcare Key Performance Indicators and Metrics.” Datapine. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      Datapine. “KPI Examples & Templates: Measure what matters the most and really impacts your success.” Datapine. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      Diaz, Alejandro, et al. “Why data culture matters.” McKinsey Quarterly, Sept. 2018. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      Everett, Dan. “Chief Data Officer (CDO): One Job, Four Roles.” Informatica, 9 Sept. 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      Experian. “10 signs you are sitting on a pile of data debt.” Experian. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      Fregoni, Silvia. “New Research Reveals Why Some Business Leaders Still Ignore the Data.” Silicon Angle, 1 Oct. 2020.

      Informatica. Holistic Data Governance: A Framework for Competitive Advantage. Informatica, 2017. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      Knight, Michelle. “What Is a Data Catalog?” Dataversity, 28 Dec. 2017. Web.

      Lim, Jason. “Alation 2020.3: Getting Business Users in the Game.” Alation, 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      McDonagh, Mariann. “Automating Data Governance.” Erwin, 29 Oct. 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      NewVantage Partners. Data-Driven Business Transformation: Connecting Data/AI Investment to Business Outcomes. NewVantage Partners, 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      Olavsrud, Thor. “What is data governance? A best practices framework for managing data assets.” CIO.com, 18 March 2021. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      Open Data Institute. “Introduction to data ethics and the data ethics canvas.” Open Data Institute, 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      Open Data Institute. “The UK National Data Strategy 2020: doing data ethically.” Open Data Institute, 17 Nov. 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      Open Data Institute. “What is the Data Ethics Canvas?” Open Data Institute, 3 July 2019. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      Pathak, Rahul. “Becoming a Data-Driven Enterprise: Meeting the Challenges, Changing the Culture.” MIT Sloan Management Review, 28 Sept. 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      Redman, Thomas, et al. “Only 3% of Companies’ Data Meets Basic Quality Standards.” Harvard Business Review. 11 Sept 2017.

      Petzold, Bryan, et al. “Designing data governance that delivers value.” McKinsey & Company, 26 June 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      Smaje, Kate. “How six companies are using technology and data to transform themselves.” McKinsey & Company, 12 Aug. 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      Talend. “The Definitive Guide to Data Governance.” Talend. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      “The Powerfully Simple Modern Data Catalog.” Atlan, 2021. Web.

      U.S. Geological Survey. “Data Management: Data Standards.” U.S. Geological Survey. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      Waller, David. “10 Steps to Creating a Data-Driven Culture.” Harvard Business Review, 6 Feb. 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      “What is the Difference Between A Business Glossary, A Data Dictionary, and A Data Catalog, and How Do They Play A Role In Modern Data Management?” Analytics8, 23 June 2021. Web.

      Wikipedia. “RFM (market research).” Wikipedia. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      Windheuser, Christoph, and Nina Wainwright. “Data in a Modern Digital Business.” Thoughtworks, 12 May 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      Wright, Tom. “Digital Marketing KPIs - The 12 Key Metrics You Should Be Tracking.” Cascade, 3 March 2021. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      Understand and Apply Internet-of-Things Use Cases to Drive Organizational Success

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}535|cart{/j2store}
      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): N/A
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      • Parent Category Name: Customer Relationship Management
      • Parent Category Link: /customer-relationship-management
      • The Internet of Things (IoT) is a rapidly proliferating technology – connected devices have experienced unabated growth over the last ten years.
      • The business wants to capitalize on the IoT and move the needle forward for proactive customer service and operational efficiency.
      • Moreover, IT wants to maintain its reputation as forward-thinking, and the business wants to be innovative.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Leverage Info-Tech’s comprehensive three-phase approach to IoT projects: understand the fundamentals of IoT capabilities, assess where the IoT will drive value within the organization, and present findings to stakeholders.
      • Conduct a foundational IoT discussion with stakeholders to level set expectations about the technology’s capabilities.
      • Determine your organization’s approach to the IoT in terms of both hardware and software.
      • Determine which use case your organization fits into: three of the use cases highlighted in this report include predictive customer service, smart offices, and supply chain applications.

      Impact and Result

      • Our methodology addresses the possible issues by using a case-study approach to demonstrate the “Art of the Possible” for the IoT.
      • With an understanding of the IoT, it is possible to find applicable use cases for this emerging technology and get a leg up on competitors.

      Understand and Apply Internet-of-Things Use Cases to Drive Organizational Success Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why your organization should care about the IoT’s potential to transform the service and the workplace, and how Info-Tech will support you as you identify and build your IoT use cases.

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

      1. Understand core IoT use cases

      Analyze the scope of the IoT and the three most prominent enterprise use cases.

      • Understand and Apply Internet-of-Things Use Cases to Drive Organizational Success – Phase 1: Understand Core IoT Use Cases

      2. Build the business case for IoT applications

      Develop and prioritize use cases for the IoT using Info-Tech’s IoT Initiative Framework.

      • Understand and Apply Internet-of-Things Use Cases to Drive Organizational Success – Phase 2: Build the Business Case for IoT Initiatives

      3. Present IoT initiatives to stakeholders

      Present the IoT initiative to stakeholders and understand the way forward for the IoT initiative.

      • Understand and Apply Internet-of-Things Use Cases to Drive Organizational Success – Phase 3: Present IoT Initiatives to Stakeholders
      • Internet of Things Stakeholder Presentation Template
      [infographic]

      Improve Security Governance With a Security Steering Committee

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}373|cart{/j2store}
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      • Parent Category Name: Governance, Risk & Compliance
      • Parent Category Link: /governance-risk-compliance
      • 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.

      Build a Platform-Based Organization

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      • Parent Category Name: Innovation
      • Parent Category Link: /innovation
      • The organization is riddled with bureaucracy. Some even believe that bureaucracy is inevitable and is an outcome of a complex business operating in a complex market and regulatory environment.
      • Time to market for new products and services is excruciatingly long.
      • Digital natives like Facebook, Netflix, and Spotify do not compare well with the organization and cannot be looked to for inspiration.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Large corporations often consist of a few operating units, each with its own idiosyncracies about strategies, culture, and capabilities. These tightly integrated operating units make a company prone to bureaucracy.
      • The antidote to this bureaucracy is a platform structure: small, autonomous teams operating as startups within the organization.

      Impact and Result

      • Platforms consist of related activities and associated technologies that deliver on a specific organizational goal. A platform can therefore be run as a business or as a service. This structure of small autonomous teams that are loosely joined will make your employees directly accountable to the customers. In a way, they become entrepreneurs and do not remain just employees.

      Build a Platform-Based Organization Research & Tools

      Build a platform-based organization

      Download our guide to learn how you can get started with a platform structure.

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

      • Build a Platform-Based Organization Storyboard
      [infographic]

      Further reading

      Build a Platform-Based Organization

      Use a platform structure to overcome bureaucracy.

      Analyst Perspective

      Build a platform-based organization.

      Bureaucracy saps innovation out of large corporations. Some even believe that bureaucracy is inevitable and is an outcome of a complex business operating in a complex market and regulatory environment.

      So, what is the antidote to bureaucracy? Some look to startups like Uber, Airbnb, Netflix, and Spotify, but they are digital native and don’t compare well to a large monolithic corporation.

      However, all is not lost for large corporations. Inspiration can be drawn from a company in China – Haier, which is not a typical poster child of the digital age like Spotify. In fact, three decades ago, it was a state-owned company with a shoddy product quality.

      Haier uses an intriguing organization structure based on microenterprises and platforms that has proven to be an antidote to bureaucracy.

      Vivek Mehta
      Research Director, Digital & Innovation
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Executive Summary

      The Challenge

      Large corporations are prone to bureaucracies, which sap their organizations of creativity and make them blind to new opportunities. Though many executives express the desire to get rid of it, bureaucracy is thriving in their organizations.

      Why It Happens

      As organizations grow and become more complex over time, they yearn for efficiency and control. Some believe bureaucracy is the natural outcome of running a complex organization in a complex business and regulatory environment.

      Info-Tech’s Approach

      A new organizational form – the platform structure – is challenging the bureaucratic model. The platform structure makes employees directly accountable to customers and organizes them in an ecosystem of autonomous units.

      As a starting point, sketch out a platform structure that works for your organization. Then, establish a governance model and identify and nurture key capabilities for the platform structure.

      Info-Tech Insight

      The antidote to bureaucracy is a platform structure: small, autonomous teams operating as startups within the organization.

      Executive Brief Case Study

      Small pieces, loosely joined

      Haier

      Industry: Manufacturing
      Source: Harvard Business Review November-December 2018

      Haier, based in China, is currently the world’s largest appliance maker. Zhang Ruimin, Haier’s CEO, has built an intriguing organizing structure where every employee is directly accountable to customers – internal and/or external. A large corporation often consists of a few operating units, each with its own idiosyncrasies, which makes it slow to innovate. To avoid that, Haier has divided itself into 4,000 microenterprises (MEs), most of which have ten to 15 employees. There are three types of microenterprises in Haier:

      1. Approximately 200 “transforming” MEs: market-facing units like Zhisheng, which manufactures refrigerators, a legacy Haier product, for today’s young urbanites.
      2. Approximately 50 “incubating” MEs: entirely new businesses like Xinchu that wrap existing products into entirely new business models.
      3. Approximately 3,800 “node” MEs: units that sell component products and services such as design, manufacturing, and human resources support to Haier’s market-facing MEs.

      Each ME operates as an autonomous unit with its own targets – an organizing structure that enables innovation at Haier.

      (Harvard Business Review, 2018)

      The image is a rectangular graphic with the words Refrigeration Platform in the centre. There are six text boxes around the centre, reading (clockwise from top left): Zhisheng Young urbanites; Langdu Premium; Jinchu Mid-priced; Xinchu Internet-connected; Overseas Export markets; Leader Value-priced. There are a series of white boxes bordering the graphic, with the following labels: at top--Sales nodes; at right--Support nodes (R&D, HR, supply chain, etc.); at bottom left---Design nodes; at bottom right--Production nodes.

      Markets disproportionately reward platform structure

      Tech companies like Facebook, Netflix, and Spotify are organized around a set of modular platforms run by accountable platform teams. This modular org structure enables them to experiment, learn, and scale quickly – a key attribute of innovative organizations.

      Facebook ~2,603 million monthly active users

      India ~1,353 million population

      Netflix ~183 million monthly paid subscribers

      Spotify ~130 million premium subscribers

      Canada ~37 million population

      (“Facebook Users Worldwide 2020,” “Number of Netflix Subscribers 2019,” “Spotify Users - Subscribers in 2020,” Statista.)

      1. Sketch Out the Platform Structure

      What is a platform anyway?

      A modular component of an org structure

      Platforms consist of a logical cluster of activities and associated technology that delivers on a specific business goal and can therefore be run as a business, or ‘as a service’ … Platforms focus on business solutions to serve clients (internal or external) and to supply other platforms.” – McKinsey, 2019

      Platforms operate as independent units with their own business, technology, governance, processes, and people management. As an instance, a bank could have payments platform under a joint business and IT leadership. This payments-as-a-service platform could provide know-how, processes, and technology to the bank’s internal customers such as retail and commercial business units.

      Many leading IT organizations are set up in a platform-based structure that allows them to rapidly innovate. It’s an imperative for organizations in other industries that they must pilot and then scale with a platform play.

      What a platform-based org looks like

      It looks like a multicellular organism, where each cell is akin to a platform

      An organism consists of multiple cells of different types, sizes, and shapes. Each cell is independent in its working. Regardless of the type, a cell would have three features –the nucleus, the cell membrane, and, between the two, the cytoplasm.

      Similarly, an organization could be imagined as one consisting of several platforms of different types and sizes. Each platform must be autonomous, but they all share a few common features – have a platform leader, set up and monitor targets, and enable interoperability amongst platforms. Platforms could be of three types (McKinsey, 2019):

      1. Customer-journey platforms enable customer proposition and experience built on reusable code. They provide “journey as a service”; for example, Account Opening in a bank.
      2. Business-solution platforms are modular and run as a business or as a service. They provide “company as a service”; for example, Payments or Fraud Detection in a bank.
      3. Core IT provisioning platforms provide core IT services for the organization, for example, cloud, data, automation.

      There are two images: in the lower part of the graphic shows a multicellular organism, and has text pointing to a single cell. At the top, there is a zoomed in image of that single cell, with its component parts labelled: Cell Membrane, Nucleus, and Cytoplasm.

      Case study: Payments platform in a bank

      Payments as a service to internal business units

      The payments platform is led by an SVP – the platform leader. Business and IT teams are colocated and have joint leadership. The platform team works with a mindset of a startup, serving internal customers of the bank – retail and commercial lines of business.

      A diagram showing Advisory Council in a large grey box on the left. To the right are smaller dark blue boxes labeled 'Real-time peer-to-peer payments,' Wire transfers,' 'Batch payments,' 'Mobile wallets,' and 'International payments (VISA, WU, etc.),' and one light blue box labeled 'Payments innovation.'


      Advisory Council: An Advisory Council is responsible for strategy, business, and IT architecture and for overseeing the work within the team. The Advisory Council prioritizes the work, earmarks project budgets, sets standards such as for APIs and ISO 20022, and leads vendor evaluation.

      International payments (VISA, WU, etc.): Project execution teams are structured around payment modes. Teams collaborate with each other whenever a common functionality is to be developed, like fraud check on a payment or account posting for debits and credits.

      Payments innovation: A think tank keeping track of trends in payments and conducting proof of concepts (POCs) with prospective fintech partners and with new technologies.

      Use a capability map to sketch out a platform-based structure

      Corral your organization’s activities and associated tech into a set of 20 to 40 platforms that cover customer journeys, business capabilities, and core IT. Business and IT teams must jointly work on this activity and could use a capability map as an aid to facilitate the discussion.

      The image is an example of a capability map, shown in more detail in the following section.

      An example of sketching a platform-based org structure for an insurance provider (partial)

      Design Policy Create Policy Issue Policy Service Customers Process Claims Manage Investments
      Defining Market Research & Analysis Underwriting Criteria Selection Customer Targeting Interaction Management First Notice of Loss (FNOL) Investment Strategy
      Actuarial Analysis Product Reserving Needs Assessment & Quotes Payments Claims Investigation Portfolio Management
      Catastrophe Risk Modeling Reinsurance Strategy Contract Issuance Adjustments Claims Adjudication Deposits & Disbursements
      Product Portfolio Strategy Product Prototyping Application Management Renewals Claims Recovery (Subrogation) Cash & Liquidity Management
      Rate Making Product Testing Sales Execution Offboarding Dispute Resolution Capital Allocation
      Policy Definition Product Marketing Contract Change Management

      Customer Retention

      [Servicing a customer request is a customer-journey platform.]

      Claims Inquiry

      [Filing a claim is a customer-journey platform.]

      Credit Bureau Reporting
      Shared Customer Management

      Account Management

      [Customer and account management is a business-capability platform to enable journeys.]

      Channel Management Risk Management Regulatory & Compliance Knowledge Management
      Partner Management

      Access and Identity Management

      [Access and identity management is a core IT platform.]

      Change Management Enterprise Data Management Fraud Detection [Fraud detection is a business-capability platform to enable journeys.] Product Innovation
      Enabling Corporate Governance Strategic Planning Reporting Accounting Enterprise Architecture Human Resources
      Legal Corporate Finance IT Facilities Management

      2. Establish Governance and Nurture Key Capabilities

      Two ingredients of the platform structure

      Establish a governance

      Advisory Council (AC) operates like a conductor at an orchestra, looking across all the activities to understand and manage the individual components.

      Nurture key capabilities

      Team structure, processes and technologies must be thoughtfully orchestrated and nurtured.

      Establish strong governance

      Empowerment does not mean anarchy

      While platforms are distinct units, they must be in sync with each other, like individual musicians in an orchestra. The Advisory Council (AC) must act like a conductor of the orchestra and lead and manage across platforms in three ways.

      1. Prioritize spend and effort. The AC team makes allocation decisions and prioritizes spend and effort on those platforms that can best support organizational goals and/or are in most urgent technical need. The best AC teams have enterprise architects who can understand business and dive deep enough into IT to manage critical interdependencies.
      2. Set and enforce standards. The AC team establishes both business and technology standards for interoperability. For example, the AC team can set the platform and application interfaces standards and the industry standards like ISO 20022 for payments. The AC team can also provide guidance on common apps and tools to use, for example, a reconciliation system for payments.
      3. Facilitate cross-platform work. The AC team has a unique vantage point where it can view and manage interdependencies among programs. As these complexities emerge, the AC team can step in and facilitate the interaction among the involved platform teams. In cases when a common capability is required by multiple platforms, the AC team can facilitate the dialogue to have it built out.

      Nurture the following capabilities:

      Design thinking

      “Zero distance from the customer” is the focus of platform structure. Each platform must operate with a mindset of a startup serving internal and/or external users.

      Agile delivery model

      Platform teams iteratively develop their offerings. With guidance from Advisory Council, they can avoid bottlenecks of formal alignment and approvals.

      Enterprise architecture

      The raison d'être of enterprise architecture discipline is to enable modularity in the architecture, encourage reusability of assets, and simplify design.

      Microservices

      Microservices allow systems to grow with strong cohesion and weak coupling and enable teams to scale components independently.

      APIs

      With their ability to link systems and data, APIs play a crucial role in making IT systems more responsive and adaptable.

      Machine learning

      With the drop in its cost, predictability is becoming the new electricity for business. Platforms use machine learning capability for better predictions.

      Related Info-Tech Research

      Drive Digital Transformation With Platform Strategies
      Innovate and transform your business models with digital platforms.

      Implement Agile Practices That Work
      Guide your organization through its Agile transformation journey.

      Design a Customer-Centric Digital Operating Model
      Putting the customer at the center of digital transformation.

      Bibliography

      Bossert, Oliver, and Jürgen Laartz. “Perpetual Evolution—the Management Approach Required for Digital Transformation.” McKinsey, 5 June 2017. Accessed 21 May 2020.

      Bossert, Oliver, and Driek Desmet. “The Platform Play: How to Operate like a Tech Company.” McKinsey, 28 Feb. 2019. Accessed 21 May 2020.

      “Facebook Users Worldwide 2020.” Statista. Accessed 21 May 2020.

      Hamel, Gary, and Michele Zanini. “The End of Bureaucracy.” Harvard Business Review. Nov.-Dec. 2018. Accessed 21 May 2020.

      “Number of Netflix Subscribers 2019.” Statista. Accessed 21 May 2020.

      “Spotify Users - Subscribers in 2020.” Statista. Accessed 21 May 2020.

      Maximize Your American Rescue Plan Funding

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      • Parent Category Name: Cost & Budget Management
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      • Will funding from COVID-19 stimulus opportunities mean more human and financial resources for IT?
      • Are there governance processes in place to successfully execute large projects?
      • What does a large, one-time influx of capital mean for keeping-the-lights-on budgets?
      • How will ARP funding impact your internal resourcing?
      • How can you ensure that IT is not left behind or an afterthought?

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Seek a one-to-many relationship between IT solutions and business problems. Use the central and overarching nature of IT to identify one solution to multiple business problems that span multiple programs, departments, and agencies.
      • Lack of specific guidance should not be a roadblock to starting. Be proactive by initiating the planning process so that you are ready to act as soon as details are clear.
      • IT involvement is the lynchpin for success. The pandemic has made this theme self-evident, and it needs to stay that way.
      • The fact that this funding is called COVID-19 relief might make you think you should only use it for recovery, but actually it should be viewed as an opportunity to help the organization thrive post-pandemic.

      Impact and Result

      • Shift IT’s role from service provider to innovator. Take ARP funding as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create future enterprise capabilities by thinking big to consider IT innovation that can transform the business and its initiatives for the post-pandemic world.
      • Whether your organization is eligible for a direct or an indirect transfer, be sure you understand the requirements to apply for funding internally through a business case or externally through a grant application.
      • Gain the skills to execute the project with confidence by developing a comprehensive statement of work and managing your projects and vendor relationships effectively.

      Maximize Your American Rescue Plan Funding Research & Tools

      Use our research to help maximize ARP funding.

      Follow Info-Tech's approach to think big, align with the business, analyze budget and staffing, execute with confidence, and ensure compliance and reporting.

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

      [infographic]

      Workshop: Maximize Your American Rescue Plan Funding

      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 Think Big

      The Purpose

      Push the boundaries of conventional thinking and consider IT innovations that truly transform the business.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      A list of innovative IT opportunities that your IT department can use to transform the business

      Activities

      1.1 Discuss the objectives of ARP and what they mean to IT departments.

      1.2 Identify drivers for change.

      1.3 Review IT strategy.

      1.4 Augment your IT opportunities list.

      Outputs

      Revised IT vision

      List of innovative IT opportunities that can transform the business

      2 Align With the Business

      The Purpose

      Partner with the business to reprioritize projects and initiatives for the post-pandemic world.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Assessment of the organization’s new and existing IT opportunities and alignment with business objectives

      Activities

      2.1 Assess alignment of current and new IT initiatives with business objectives.

      2.2 Review and update prioritization criteria for IT projects.

      Outputs

      Preliminary list of IT initiatives

      Revised project prioritization criteria

      3 Analyze IT Budget and Staffing

      The Purpose

      Identify IT budget deficits resulting from pandemic response and discover opportunities to support innovation through new staff and training.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Prioritized shortlist of business-aligned IT initiative and projects

      Activities

      3.1 Classify initiatives into project categories using ROM estimates.

      3.2 Identify IT budget needs for projects and ongoing services.

      3.3 Identify needs for new staff and skills training.

      3.4 Determine business benefits of proposed projects.

      3.5 Prioritize your organization’s projects.

      Outputs

      Prioritized shortlist of business-aligned IT initiatives and projects

      4 Plan Next Steps

      The Purpose

      Tie IT expenditures to direct transfers or link them to ARP grant opportunities.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Action plan to obtain ARP funding

      Activities

      4.1 Tie projects to direct transfers, where applicable.

      4.2 Align list of projects to indirect ARP grant opportunities.

      4.3 Develop an action plan to obtain ARP funding.

      4.4 Discuss required approach to project governance.

      Outputs

      Action plan to obtain ARP funding

      Project governance gaps

      Cost Optimization

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      Minimize the damage of IT cost cuts

      Create a Service Management Roadmap

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      • Parent Category Name: Service Management
      • Parent Category Link: /service-management
      • Inconsistent adoption of holistic practices has led to a chaotic service delivery model that results in poor customer satisfaction.
      • There is little structure, formalization, or standardization in the way IT services are designed and managed, leading to diminishing service quality and low business satisfaction.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Having effective service management practices in place will allow you to pursue activities, such as innovation, and drive the business forward.
      • Addressing foundational elements like business alignment and management practices will enable you to build effective core practices that deliver business value.
      • Providing consistent leadership support and engagement is essential to allow practitioners to focus on delivering expected outcomes.

      Impact and Result

      • Understand the foundational and core elements that allow you to build a successful service management practice focused on outcomes.
      • Use Info-Tech’s advice and tools to perform an assessment of your organization’s current state, identify the gaps, and create a roadmap for success.
      • Increase business and customer satisfaction by delivering services focused on creating business value.

      Create a Service Management Roadmap Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why many service management maturity projects fail to address foundational and core elements, 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

      Kick-off the project and complete the project charter.

      • Create a Service Management Roadmap – Phase 1: Launch Project
      • Service Management Roadmap Project Charter

      2. Assess the current state

      Determine the current state for service management practices.

      • Create a Service Management Roadmap – Phase 2: Assess the Current State
      • Service Management Maturity Assessment Tool
      • Organizational Change Management Capability Assessment Tool
      • Service Management Roadmap Presentation Template

      3. Build the roadmap

      Build your roadmap with identified initiatives.

      • Create a Service Management Roadmap – Phase 3: Identify the Target State

      4. Build the communication slide

      Create the communication slide that demonstrates how things will change, both short and long term.

      • Create a Service Management Roadmap – Phase 4: Build the Roadmap
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Create a Service Management 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 Understand Service Management

      The Purpose

      Understand service management.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Gain a common understanding of service management, the forces that impact your roadmap, and the Info-Tech Service Management Maturity Model.

      Activities

      1.1 Understand service management.

      1.2 Build a compelling vision and mission.

      Outputs

      Constraints and enablers chart

      Service management vision, mission, and values

      2 Assess the Current State of Service Management

      The Purpose

      Assess the organization’s current service management capabilities.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Understand attitudes, behaviors, and culture.

      Understand governance and process ownership needs.

      Understand strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

      Defined desired state.

      Activities

      2.1 Assess cultural ABCs.

      2.2 Assess governance needs.

      2.3 Perform SWOT analysis.

      2.4 Define desired state.

      Outputs

      Cultural improvements action items

      Governance action items

      SWOT analysis action items

      Defined desired state

      3 Continue Current-State Assessment

      The Purpose

      Assess the organization’s current service management capabilities.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Understand the current maturity of service management processes.

      Understand organizational change management capabilities.

      Activities

      3.1 Perform service management process maturity assessment.

      3.2 Complete OCM capability assessment.

      3.3 Identify roadmap themes.

      Outputs

      Service management process maturity activities

      OCM action items

      Roadmap themes

      4 Build Roadmap and Communication Tool

      The Purpose

      Use outputs from previous steps to build your roadmap and communication one-pagers.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Easy-to-understand roadmap one-pager

      Communication one-pager

      Activities

      4.1 Build roadmap one-pager.

      4.2 Build communication one-pager.

      Outputs

      Service management roadmap

      Service management roadmap – Brought to Life communication slide

      Further reading

      Create a Service Management Roadmap

      Implement service management in an order that makes sense.

      ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

      "More than 80% of the larger enterprises we’ve worked with start out wanting to develop advanced service management practices without having the cultural and organizational basics or foundational practices fully in place. Although you wouldn’t think this would be the case in large enterprises, again and again IT leaders are underestimating the importance of cultural and foundational aspects such as governance, management practices, and understanding business value. You must have these fundamentals right before moving on."

      Tony Denford,

      Research Director – CIO

      Info-Tech Research Group

      Our understanding of the problem

      This Research Is Designed For:

      • CIO
      • Senior IT Management

      This Research Will Help You:

      • Create or maintain service management (SM) practices to ensure user-facing services are delivered seamlessly to business users with minimum interruption.
      • Increase the level of reliability and availability of the services provided to the business and improve the relationship and communication between IT and the business.

      This Research Will Also Assist

      • Service Management Process Owners

      This Research Will Help Them:

      • Formalize, standardize, and improve the maturity of service management practices.
      • Identify new service management initiatives to move IT to the next level of service management maturity.

      Executive summary

      Situation

      • Inconsistent adoption of holistic practices has led to a chaotic service delivery model that results in poor customer satisfaction.
      • There is little structure, formalization, or standardization in the way IT services are designed and managed, leading to diminishing service quality and low business satisfaction.

      Complication

      • IT organizations want to be seen as strategic partners, but they fail to address the cultural and organizational constraints.
      • Without alignment with the business goals, services often fail to provide the expected value.
      • Traditional service management approaches are not adaptable for new ways of working.

      Resolution

      • Follow Info-Tech’s methodology to create a service management roadmap that will help guide the optimization of your IT services and improve IT’s value to the business.
      • The blueprint will help you right-size your roadmap to best suit your specific needs and goals and will provide structure, ownership, and direction for service management.
      • This blueprint allows you to accurately identify the current state of service management at your organization. Customize the roadmap and create a plan to achieve your target service management state.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Having effective service management practices in place will allow you to pursue activities such as innovation and drive the business forward. Addressing foundational elements like business alignment and management practices will enable you to build effective core practices that deliver business value. Consistent leadership support and engagement is essential to allow practitioners to focus on delivering expected outcomes.

      Poor service management manifests in many different pains across the organization

      Immaturity in service management will not result in one pain – rather, it will create a chaotic environment for the entire organization, crippling IT’s ability to deliver and perform.

      Low Service Management Maturity

      These are some of the pains that can be attributed to poor service management practices.

      • Frequent service-impacting incidents
      • Low satisfaction with the service desk
      • High % of failed deployments
      • Frequent change-related incidents
      • Frequent recurring incidents
      • Inability to find root cause
      • No communication with the business
      • Frequent capacity-related incidents

      And there are many more…

      Mature service management practices are a necessity, not a nice-to-have

      Immature service management practices are one of the biggest hurdles preventing IT from reaching its true potential.

      In 2004, PwC published a report titled “IT Moves from Cost Center to Business Contributor.” However, the 2014-2015 CSC Global CIO Survey showed that a high percentage of IT is still considered a cost center.

      And low maturity of service management practices is inhibiting activities such as agility, DevOps, digitalization, and innovation.

      A pie chart is shown that is titled: Where does IT sit? The chart has 3 sections. One section represents IT and the business have a collaborative partnership 28%. The next section represents at 33% where IT has a formal client/service provider relationship with the business. The last section has 39% where IT is considered as a cost center.
      Source: CSC Global CIO Survey: 2014-2015 “CIOs Emerge as Disruptive Innovators”

      39%: Resources are primarily focused on managing existing IT workloads and keeping the lights on.

      31%: Too much time and too many resources are used to handle urgent incidents and problems.

      There are many misconceptions about what service management is

      Misconception #1: “Service management is a process”

      Effective service management is a journey that encompasses a series of initiatives that improves the value of services delivered.

      Misconception #2: “Service Management = Service Desk”

      Service desk is the foundation, since it is the main end-user touch point, but service management is a set of people and processes required to deliver business-facing services.

      Misconception #3: “Service management is about the ITSM tool”

      The tool is part of the overall service management program, but the people and processes must be in place before implementing.

      Misconception #4: “Service management development is one big initiative”

      Service management development is a series of initiatives that takes into account an organization’s current state, maturity, capacities, and objectives.

      Misconception #5: “Service management processes can be deployed in any order, assuming good planning and design”

      A successful service management program takes into account the dependencies of processes.

      Misconception #6: “Service management is resolving incidents and deploying changes”

      Service management is about delivering high-value and high-quality services.

      Misconception #7: “Service management is not the key determinant of success”

      As an organization progresses on the service management journey, its ability to deliver high-value and high-quality services increases.

      Misconception #8: “Resolving Incidents = Success”

      Preventing incidents is the name of the game.

      Misconception #9: “Service Management = Good Firefighter”

      Service management is about understanding what’s going on with user-facing services and proactively improving service quality.

      Misconception #10: “Service management is about IT and technical services (e.g. servers, network, database)”

      Service management is about business/user-facing services and the value the services provide to the business.

      Service management projects often don’t succeed because they are focused on process rather than outcomes

      Service management projects tend to focus on implementing process without ensuring foundational elements of culture and management practices are strong enough to support the change.

      1. Aligning your service management goals with your organizational objectives leads to better understanding of the expected outcomes.
      2. Understand your customers and what they value, and design your practices to deliver this value.

      3. IT does not know what order is best when implementing new practices or process improvements.
      4. Don't run before you can walk. Fundamental practices must reach the maturity threshold before developing advanced practices. Implement continuous improvement on your existing processes so they continue to support new practices.

      5. IT does not follow best practices when implementing a practice.
      6. Our best-practice research is based on extensive experience working with clients through advisory calls and workshops.

      Info-Tech can help you create a customized, low-effort, and high-value service management roadmap that will shore up any gaps, prove IT’s value, and achieve business satisfaction.

      Info-Tech’s methodology will help you customize your roadmap so the journey is right for you

      With Info-Tech, you will find out where you are, where you want to go, and how you will get there.

      With our methodology, you can expect the following:

      • Eliminate or reduce rework due to poor execution.
      • Identify dependencies/prerequisites and ensure practices are deployed in the correct order, at the correct time, and by the right people.
      • Engage all necessary resources to design and implement required processes.
      • Assess current maturity and capabilities and design the roadmap with these factors in mind.

      Doing it right the first time around

      You will see these benefits at the end

        ✓ Increase the quality of services IT provides to the business.

        ✓ Increase business satisfaction through higher alignment of IT services.

        ✓ Lower cost to design, implement, and manage services.

        ✓ Better resource utilization, including staff, tools, and budget.

      Focus on a strong foundation to build higher value service management practices

      Info-Tech Insight

      Focus on behaviors and expected outcomes before processes.

      Foundational elements

      • Operating model facilitates service management goals
      • Culture of service delivery
      • Governance discipline to evaluate, direct, and monitor
      • Management discipline to deliver

      Stabilize

      • Deliver stable, reliable IT services to the business
      • Respond to user requests quickly and efficiently
      • Resolve user issues in a timely manner
      • Deploy changes smoothly and successfully

      Proactive

      • Avoid/prevent service disruptions
      • Improve quality of service (performance, availability, reliability)

      Service Provider

      • Understand business needs
      • Ensure services are available
      • Measure service performance, based on business-oriented metrics

      Strategic Partner

      • Fully aligned with business
      • Drive innovation
      • Drive measurable value

      Info-Tech Insight

      Continued leadership support of the foundational elements will allow delivery teams to provide value to the business. Set the expectation of the desired maturity level and allow teams to innovate.

      Follow our model and get to your target state

      A model is depicted that shows the various target states. There are 6 levels showing in the example, and the example is made to look like a tree with a character watering it. In the roots, the level is labelled foundational. The trunk is labelled the core. The lowest hanging branches of the tree is the stabilize section. Above it is the proactive section. Nearing the top of the tree is the service provider. The canopy of the tree are labelled strategic partner.

      Before moving to advanced service management practices, you must ensure that the foundational and core elements are robust enough to support them. Leadership must nurture these practices to ensure they are sustainable and can support higher value, more mature practices.

      Each step along the way, Info-Tech has the tools to help you

      Phase 1: Launch the Project

      Assemble a team with the right talent and vision to increase the chances of project success.

      Phase 2: Assess Current State

      Understand where you are currently on the service management journey using the maturity assessment tool.

      Phase 3: Build Roadmap

      Based on the assessments, build a roadmap to address areas for improvement.

      Phase 4: Build Communication slide

      Based on the roadmap, define the current state, short- and long-term visions for each major improvement area.

      Info-Tech Deliverables:

      • Project Charter
      • Assessment Tools
      • Roadmap Template
      • Communication Template

      CIO call to action

      Improving the maturity of the organization’s service management practice is a big commitment, and the project can only succeed with active support from senior leadership.

      Ideally, the CIO should be the project sponsor, even the project leader. At a minimum, the CIO needs to perform the following activities:

      1. Walk the talk – demonstrate personal commitment to the project and communicate the benefits of the service management journey to IT and the steering committee.
      2. Improving or adopting any new practice is difficult, especially for a project of this size. Thus, the CIO needs to show visible support for this project through internal communication and dedicated resources to help complete this project.

      3. Select a senior, capable, and results-driven project leader.
      4. Most likely, the implementation of this project will be lengthy and technical in some nature. Therefore, the project leader must have a good understanding of the current IT structure, senior standing within the organization, and the relationship and power in place to propel people into action.

      5. Help to define the target future state of IT’s service management.
      6. Determine a realistic target state for the organization based on current capability and resource/budget restraints.

      7. Conduct periodic follow-up meetings to keep track of progress.
      8. Reinforce or re-emphasize the importance of this project to the organization through various communication channels if needed.

      Stabilizing your environment is a must before establishing any more-mature processes

      CASE STUDY

      Industry: Manufacturing

      Source: Engagement

      Challenge

      • The business landscape was rapidly changing for this manufacturer and they wanted to leverage potential cost savings from cloud-first initiatives and consolidate multiple, self-run service delivery teams that were geographically dispersed.

      Solution

      Original Plan

      • Consolidate multiple service delivery teams worldwide and implement service portfolio management.

      Revised Plan with Service Management Roadmap:

      • Markets around the world had very different needs and there was little understanding of what customers value.
      • There was also no understanding of what services were currently being offered within each geography.

      Results

      • Plan was adjusted to understand customer value and services offered.
      • Services were then stabilized and standardized before consolidation.
      • Team also focused on problem maturity and drove a continuous improvement culture and increasing transparency.

      MORAL OF THE STORY:

      Understanding the value of each service allowed the organization to focus effort on high-return activities rather than continuous fire fighting.

      Understand the processes involved in the proactive phase

      CASE STUDY

      Industry: Manufacturing

      Source: Engagement

      Challenge

      • Services were fairly stable, but there were significant recurring issues for certain services.
      • The business was not satisfied with the service quality for certain services, due to periodic availability and reliability issues.
      • Customer feedback for the service desk was generally good.

      Solution

      Original Plan

      • Review all service desk and incident management processes to ensure that service issues were handled in an effective manner.

      Revised Plan with Service Management Roadmap:

      • Design and deploy a rigorous problem management process to determine the root cause of recurring issues.
      • Monitor key services for events that may lead to a service outage.

      Results

      • Root cause of recurring issues was determined and fixes were deployed to resolve the underlying cause of the issues.
      • Service quality improved dramatically, resulting in high customer satisfaction.

      MORAL OF THE STORY:

      Make sure that you understand which processes need to be reviewed in order to determine the cause for service instability. Focusing on the proactive processes was the right answer for this company.

      Have the right culture and structure in place before you become a service provider

      CASE STUDY

      Industry: Healthcare

      Source:Journal of American Medical Informatics Association

      Challenge

      • The IT organization wanted to build a service catalog to demonstrate the value of IT to the business.
      • IT was organized in technology silos and focused on applications, not business services.
      • IT services were not aligned with business activities.
      • Relationships with the business were not well established.

      Solution

      Original Plan

      • Create and publish a service catalog.

      Revised Plan: with Service Management Roadmap:

      • Establish relationships with key stakeholders in the business units.
      • Understand how business activities interface with IT services.
      • Lay the groundwork for the service catalog by defining services from the business perspective.

      Results

      • Strong relationships with the business units.
      • Deep understanding of how business activities map to IT services.
      • Service definitions that reflect how the business uses IT services.

      MORAL OF THE STORY:

      Before you build and publish a service catalog, make sure that you understand how the business is using the IT services that you provide.

      Calculate the benefits of using Info-Tech’s methodology

      To measure the value of developing your roadmap using the Info-Tech tools and methodology, you must calculate the effort saved by not having to develop the methods.

      A. How much time will it take to develop an industry-best roadmap using Info-Tech methodology and tools?

      Using Info-Tech’s tools and methodology you can accurately estimate the effort to develop a roadmap using industry-leading research into best practice.

      B. What would be the effort to develop the insight, assess your team, and develop the roadmap?

      This metric represents the time your team would take to be able to effectively assess themselves and develop a roadmap that will lead to service management excellence.

      C. Cost & time saving through Info-Tech’s methodology

      Measured Value

      Step 1: Assess current state

      Cost to assess current state:

      • 5 Directors + 10 Managers x 10 hours at $X an hour = $A

      Step 2: Build the roadmap

      Cost to create service management roadmap:

      • 5 Directors + 10 Managers x 8 hours at $X an hour = $B

      Step 3: Develop the communication slide

      Cost to create roadmaps for phases:

      • 5 Directors + 10 Managers x 6 hours at $X an hour = $C

      Potential financial savings from using Info-Tech resources:

      Estimated cost to do “B” – (Step 1 ($A) + Step 2 ($B) + Step 3 ($C)) = $Total Saving

      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 keeps 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.

      Create a Service Management Roadmap – project overview


      Launch the project

      Assess the current state

      Build the roadmap

      Build communication slide

      Best-Practice Toolkit

      1.1 Create a powerful, succinct mission statement

      1.2 Assemble a project team with representatives from all major IT teams

      1.3 Determine project stakeholders and create a communication plan

      1.4 Establish metrics to track the success of the project

      2.1 Assess impacting forces

      2.2 Build service management vision, mission, and values

      2.3 Assess attitudes, behaviors, and culture

      2.4 Assess governance

      2.5 Perform SWOT analysis

      2.6 Identify desired state

      2.7 Assess SM maturity

      2.8 Assess OCM capabilities

      3.1 Document overall themes

      3.2 List individual initiatives

      4.1 Document current state

      4.2 List future vision

      Guided Implementations

      • Kick-off the project
      • Build the project team
      • Complete the charter
      • Understand current state
      • Determine target state
      • Build the roadmap based on current and target state
      • Build short- and long-term visions and initiative list

      Onsite Workshop

      Module 1: Launch the project

      Module 2: Assess current service management maturity

      Module 3: Complete the roadmap

      Module 4: Complete the communication slide

      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

      Activities

      Understand Service Management

      1.1 Understand the concepts and benefits of service management.

      1.2 Understand the changing impacting forces that affect your ability to deliver services.

      1.3 Build a compelling vision and mission for your service management program.

      Assess the Current State of Your Service Management Practice

      2.1 Understand attitudes, behaviors, and culture.

      2.2 Assess governance and process ownership needs.

      2.3 Perform SWOT analysis.

      2.4 Define the desired state.

      Complete Current-State Assessment

      3.1 Conduct service management process maturity assessment.

      3.2 Identify organizational change management capabilities.

      3.3 Identify themes for roadmap.

      Build Roadmap and Communication Tool

      4.1 Build roadmap one-pager.

      4.2 Build roadmap communication one-pager.

      Deliverables

      1. Constraints and enablers chart
      2. Service management vision, mission, and values
      1. Action items for cultural improvements
      2. Action items for governance
      3. Identified improvements from SWOT
      4. Defined desired state
      1. Service Management Process Maturity Assessment
      2. Organizational Change Management Assessment
      1. Service management roadmap
      2. Roadmap Communication Tool in the Service Management Roadmap Presentation Template

      PHASE 1

      Launch the Project

      Launch the project

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Create a powerful, succinct mission statement based on your organization’s goals and objectives.
      • Assemble a project team with representatives from all major IT teams.
      • Determine project stakeholders and create a plan to convey the benefits of this project.
      • Establish metrics to track the success of the project.

      Step Insights

      • The project leader should have a strong relationship with IT and business leaders to maximize the benefit of each initiative in the service management journey.
      • The service management roadmap initiative will touch almost every part of the organization; therefore, it is important to have representation from all impacted stakeholders.
      • The communication slide needs to include the organizational change impact of the roadmap initiatives.

      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: Launch the Project

      Step 1.1 – Kick-off the Project

      Start with an analyst kick-off call:

      • Identify current organization pain points relating to poor service management practices
      • Determine high-level objectives
      • Create a mission statement

      Then complete these activities…

      • Identify potential team members who could actively contribute to the project
      • Identify stakeholders who have a vested interest in the completion of this project

      With these tools & templates:

      • Service Management Roadmap Project Charter

      Step 1.2 – Complete the Charter

      Review findings with analyst:

      • Create the project team; ensure all major IT teams are represented
      • Review stakeholder list and identify communication messages

      Then complete these activities…

      • Establish metrics to complete project planning
      • Complete the project charter

      With these tools & templates:

      • Service Management Roadmap Project Charter

      Use Info-Tech’s project charter to begin your initiative

      1.1 Service Management Roadmap Project Charter

      The Service Management Roadmap Project Charter is used to govern the initiative throughout the project. It provides the foundation for project communication and monitoring.

      The template has been pre-populated with sample information appropriate for this project. Please review this sample text and change, add, or delete information as required.

      The charter includes the following sections:

      • Mission Statement
      • Goals & Objectives
      • Project Team
      • Project Stakeholders
      • Current State (from phases 2 & 3)
      • Target State (from phases 2 & 3)
      • Target State
      • Metrics
      • Sponsorship Signature
      A screenshot of Info-Tech's Service Management Roadmap Project Charter is shown.

      Use Info-Tech’s ready-to-use deliverable to customize your mission statement

      Adapt and personalize Info-Tech’s Service Management Roadmap Mission Statement and Goals & Objectives below to suit your organization’s needs.

      Goals & Objectives

      • Create a plan for implementing service management initiatives that align with the overall goals/objectives for service management.
      • Identify service management initiatives that must be implemented/improved in the short term before deploying more advanced initiatives.
      • Determine the target state for each initiative based on current maturity and level of investment available.
      • Identify service management initiatives and understand dependencies, prerequisites, and level of effort required to implement.
      • Determine the sequence in which initiatives should be deployed.
      • Create a detailed rollout plan that specifies initiatives, time frames, and owners.
      • Engage the right teams and obtain their commitment throughout both the planning and assessment of roadmap initiatives.
      • both the planning and assessment of roadmap initiatives. Obtain support for the completed roadmap from executive stakeholders.

      Example Mission Statement

      To help [Organization Name] develop a set of service management practices that will better address the overarching goals of the IT department.

      To create a roadmap that sequences initiatives in a way that incorporates best practices and takes into consideration dependencies and prerequisites between service management practices.

      To garner support from the right people and obtain executive buy-in for the roadmap.

      Create a well-balanced project team

      The project leader should be a member of your IT department’s senior executive team with goals and objectives that will be impacted by service management implementation. The project leader should possess the following characteristics:

      Leader

      • Influence and impact
      • Comprehensive knowledge of IT and the organization
      • Relationship with senior IT management
      • Ability to get things done

      Team Members

      Identify

      The project team members are the IT managers and directors whose day-to-day lives will be impacted by the service management roadmap and its implementation. The service management initiative will touch almost every IT staff member in the organization; therefore, it is important to have representatives from every single group, including those that are not mentioned. Some examples of individuals you should consider for your team:

      • Service Delivery Managers
      • Director/Manager of Applications
      • Director/Manager of Infrastructure
      • Director/Manager of Service Desk
      • Business Relationship Managers
      • Project Management Office

      Engage & Communicate

      You want to engage your project participants in the planning process as much as possible. They should be involved in the current-state assessment, the establishment of goals and objectives, and the development of your target state.

      To sell this project, identify and articulate how this project and/or process will improve the quality of their job. For example, a formal incident management process will benefit people working at the service desk or on the applications or infrastructure teams. Helping them understand the gains will help to secure their support throughout the long implementation process by giving them a sense of ownership.

      The project stakeholders should also be project team members

      When managing stakeholders, it is important to help them understand their stake in the project as well as their own personal gain that will come out of this project.

      For many of the stakeholders, they also play a critical role in the development of this project.

      Role & Benefits

      • CIO
      • The CIO should be actively involved in the planning stage to help determine current and target stage.

        The CIO also needs to promote and sell the project to the IT team so they can understand that higher maturity of service management practices will allow IT to be seen as a partner to the business, giving IT a seat at the table during decision making.

      • Service Delivery Managers/Process Owners
      • Service Delivery Managers are directly responsible for the quality and value of services provided to the business owners. Thus, the Service Delivery Managers have a very high stake in the project and should be considered for the role of project leader.

        Service Delivery Managers need to work closely with the process owners of each service management process to ensure clear objectives are established and there is a common understanding of what needs to be achieved.

      • IT Steering Committee
      • The Committee should be informed and periodically updated about the progress of the project.

      • Manager/Director – Service Desk
      • The Manager of the Service Desk should participate closely in the development of fundamental service management processes, such as service desk, incident management, and problem management.

        Having a more established process in place will create structure, governance, and reduce service desk staff headaches so they can handle requests or incidents more efficiently.

      • Manager/Director –Applications & Infrastructure
      • The Manager of Applications and Infrastructure should be heavily relied on for their knowledge of how technology ties into the organization. They should be consulted regularly for each of the processes.

        This project will also benefit them directly, such as improving the process to deploy a fix into the environment or manage the capacity of the infrastructure.

      • Business Relationship Manager
      • As the IT organization moves up the maturity ladder, the Business Relationship Manager will play a fundamental role in the more advanced processes, such as business relationship management, demand management, and portfolio management.

        This project will be an great opportunity for the Business Relationship Manager to demonstrate their value and their knowledge of how to align IT objectives with business vision.

      Ensure you get the entire IT organization on board for the project with a well-practiced change message

      Getting the IT team on board will greatly maximize the project’s chance of success.

      One of the top challenges for organizations embarking on a service management journey is to manage the magnitude of the project. To ensure the message is not lost, communicate this roadmap in two steps.

      1. Communicate the roadmap initiative

      The most important message to send to the IT organization is that this project will benefit them directly. Articulate the pains that IT is currently experiencing and explain that through more mature service management, these pains can be greatly reduced and IT can start to earn a place at the table with the business.

      2. Communicate the implementation of each process separately

      The communication of process implementation should be done separately and at the beginning of each implementation. This is to ensure that IT staff do not feel overwhelmed or overloaded. It also helps to keep the project more manageable for the project team.

      Continuously monitor feedback and address concerns throughout the entire process

      • Host lunch and learns to provide updates on the service management initiative to the entire IT team.
      • Understand if there are any major roadblocks and facilitate discussions on how to overcome them.

      Articulate the service management initiative to the IT organization

      Spread the word and bring attention to your change message through effective mediums and organizational changes.

      Key aspects of a communication plan

      The methods of communication (e.g. newsletters, email broadcast, news of the day, automated messages) notify users of implementation.

      In addition, it is important to know who will deliver the message (delivery strategy). You need IT executives to deliver the message – work hard on obtaining their support as they are the ones communicating to their staff and should be your project champions.

      Anticipate organizational changes

      The implementation of the service management roadmap will most likely lead to organizational changes in terms of structure, roles, and responsibilities. Therefore, the team should be prepared to communicate the value that these changes will bring.

      Communicating Change

      • What is the change?
      • Why are we doing it?
      • How are we going to go about it?
      • What are we trying to achieve?
      • How often will we be updated?

      The Qualities of Leadership: Leading Change

      Create a project communication plan for your stakeholders

      This project cannot be successfully completed without the support of senior IT management.

      1. After the CIO has introduced this project through management meetings or informal conversation, find out how each IT leader feels about this project. You need to make sure the directors and managers of each IT team, especially the directors of application and infrastructure, are on board.
      2. After the meeting, the project leader should seek out the major stakeholders (particularly the heads of applications and infrastructure) and validate their level of support through formal or informal meetings. Create a list documenting the major stakeholders, their level of support, and how the project team will work to gain their approval.
      3. For each identified stakeholder, create a custom communication plan based on their role. For example, if the director of infrastructure is not a supporter, demonstrate how this project will enable them to better understand how to improve service quality. Provide periodic reporting or meetings to update the director on project progress.

      INPUT

      • A collaborative discussion between team members

      OUTPUT

      • Thorough briefing for project launch
      • A committed team

      Materials

      • Communication message and plan
      • Metric tracking

      Participants

      • Project leader
      • Core project team

      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:

      Photo of an Info-Tech analyst is shown.
      • 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 shown.

      Create a powerful, succinct mission statement

      Using Info-Tech’s sample mission statement as a guide, build your mission statement based on the objectives of this project and the benefits that this project will achieve. Keep the mission statement short and clear.

      1.2

      A screenshot of activity 1.2 is shown.

      Assemble the project team

      Create a project team with representatives from all major IT teams. Engage and communicate to the project team early and proactively.

      1.3

      A screenshot of activity 1.3 is shown.

      Identify project stakeholders and create a communication plan

      Info-Tech will help you identify key stakeholders who have a vested interest in the success of the project. Determine the communication message that will best gain their support.

      1.4

      A screenshot of activity 1.4 is shown.

      Use metrics to track the success of the project

      The onsite analyst will help the project team determine the appropriate metrics to measure the success of this project.

      PHASE 2

      Assess Your Current Service Management State

      Assess your current state

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Use Info-Tech’s Service Management Maturity Assessment Tool to determine your overall practice maturity level.
      • Understand your level of completeness for each individual practice.
      • Understand the three major phases involved in the service management journey; know the symptoms of each phase and how they affect your target state selection.

      Step Insights

      • To determine the real maturity of your service management practices, you should focus on the results and output of the practice, rather than the activities performed for each process.
      • Focus on phase-level maturity as opposed to the level of completeness for each individual 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: Determine Your Service Management Current State

      Step 2.1 – Assess Impacting Forces

      Start with an analyst kick-off call:

      • Discuss the impacting forces that can affect the success of your service management program
      • Identify internal and external constraints and enablers
      • Review and interpret how to leverage or mitigate these elements

      Then complete these activities…

      • Present the findings of the organizational context
      • Facilitate a discussion and create consensus amongst the project team members on where the organization should start

      With these tools & templates:

      Service Management Roadmap Presentation Template

      Step 2.2 – Build Vision, Mission, and Values

      Review findings with analyst:

      • Review your service management vision and mission statement and discuss the values

      Then complete these activities…

      • Socialize the vision, mission, and values to ensure they are aligned with overall organizational vision. Then, set the expectations for behavior aligned with the vision, mission, and values

      With these tools & templates:

      Service Management Roadmap Presentation Template

      Step 2.3 – Assess Attitudes, Behaviors, and Culture

      Review findings with analyst:

      • Discuss tactics for addressing negative attitudes, behaviors, or culture identified

      Then complete these activities…

      • Add items to be addressed to roadmap

      With these tools & templates:

      Service Management Roadmap Presentation Template

      Step 2.4 – Assess Governance Needs

      Review findings with analyst:

      • Understand the typical types of governance structure and the differences between management and governance
      • Choose the management structure required for your organization

      Then complete these activities…

      • Determine actions required to establish an effective governance structure and add items to be addressed to roadmap

      With these tools & templates:

      Service Management Roadmap Presentation Template

      Step 2.5 – Perform SWOT Analysis

      Review findings with analyst:

      • Discuss SWOT analysis results and tactics for addressing within the roadmap

      Then complete these activities…

      • Add items to be addressed to roadmap

      With these tools & templates:

      Service Management Roadmap Presentation Template

      Step 2.6 – Identify Desired State

      Review findings with analyst:

      • Discuss desired state and commitment needed to achieve aspects of the desired state

      Then complete these activities…

      • Use the desired state to critically assess the current state of your service management practices and whether they are achieving the desired outcomes
      • Prep for the SM maturity assessment

      With these tools & templates:

      Service Management Roadmap Presentation Template

      Step 2.7 – Perform SM Maturity Assessment

      Review findings with analyst:

      • Review and interpret the output from your service management maturity assessment

      Then complete these activities…

      • Add items to be addressed to roadmap

      With these tools & templates:

      Service Management Roadmap Presentation Template

      Service Management Maturity Assessment

      Step 2.8 – Review OCM Capabilities

      Review findings with analyst:

      • Review and interpret the output from your organizational change management maturity assessment

      Then complete these activities…

      • Add items to be addressed to roadmap

      With these tools & templates:

      Service Management Roadmap Presentation Template

      Organizational Change Management Assessment

      Understand and assess impacting forces – constraints and enablers

      Constraints and enablers are organizational and behavioral triggers that directly impact your ability and approach to establishing Service Management practices.

      A model is shown to demonstrate the possibe constraints and enablers on your service management program. It incorporates available resources, the environment, management practices, and available technologies.

      Effective service management requires a mix of different approaches and practices that best fit your organization. There’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. Consider the resources, environment, emerging technologies, and management practices facing your organization. What items can you leverage or use to mitigate to move your service management program forward?

      Use Info-Tech’s “Organizational Context” template to list the constraints and enablers affecting your service management

      The Service Management Roadmap Presentation Template will help you understand the business environment you need to consider as you build out your roadmap.

      Discuss and document constraints and enablers related to the business environment, available resources, management practices, and emerging technologies. Any constraints will need to be addressed within your roadmap and enablers should be leveraged to maximize your results.


      Screenshot of Info-Tech's Service Management Roadmap Presentation Template is shown.

      Document constraints and enablers

      1. Discuss and document the constrains and enablers for each aspect of the management mesh: environment, resources, management practices, or technology.
      2. Use this as a thought provoker in later exercises.

      INPUT

      • A collaborative discussion

      OUTPUT

      • Organizational context constraints and enablers

      Materials

      • Whiteboards or flip charts

      Participants

      • All stakeholders

      Build compelling vision and mission statements to set the direction of your service management program

      While you are articulating the vision and mission, think about the values you want the team to display. Being explicit can be a powerful tool to create alignment.

      A vision statement describes the intended state of your service management organization, expressed in the present tense.

      A mission statement describes why your service management organization exists.

      Your organizational values state how you will deliver services.

      Use Info-Tech’s “Vision, Mission, and Values” template to set the aspiration & purpose of your service management practice

      The Service Management Roadmap Presentation Template will help you document your vision for service management, the purpose of the program, and the values you want to see demonstrated.

      If the team cannot gain agreement on their reason for being, it will be difficult to make traction on the roadmap items. A concise and compelling statement can set the direction for desired behavior and help team members align with the vision when trying to make ground-level decisions. It can also be used to hold each other accountable when undesirable behavior emerges. It should be revised from time to time, when the environment changes, but a well-written statement should stand the test of time.

      A screenshot of the Service Management Roadmap Presentation Temaplate is shown. Specifically it is showing the section on the vision, mission, and values results.

      Document your organization’s vision, mission , and values

      1. Vision: Identify your desired target state, consider the details of that target state, and create a vision statement.
      2. Mission: Consider the fundamental purpose of your SM program and craft a statement of purpose.
      3. Values: As you work through the vision and mission, identify values that your organization prides itself in or has the aspiration for.
      4. Discuss common themes and then develop a concise vision statement and mission statement that incorporates the group’s ideas.

      INPUT

      • A collaborative discussion

      OUTPUT

      • Vision statement
      • Mission statement
      • Organizational values

      Materials

      • Whiteboards or flip charts
      • Sample vision and mission statements

      Participants

      • All stakeholders
      • Senior leadership

      Understanding attitude, behavior, and culture

      Attitude

      • What people think and feel. It can be seen in their demeanor and how they react to change initiatives, colleagues, and users.

      Any form of organizational change involves adjusting people’s attitudes, creating buy-in and commitment. You need to identify and address attitudes that can lead to negative behaviors and actions or that are counter-productive. It must be made visible and related to your desired behavior.

      Behaviour

      • What people do. This is influenced by attitude and the culture of the organization.

      To implement change within IT, especially at a tactical level, both IT and organizational behavior needs to change. This is relevant because people don’t like to change and will resist in an active or passive way unless you can sell the need, value, and benefit of changing their behavior.

      Culture

      • The accepted and understood ways of working in an organization. The values and standards that people find normal and what would be tacitly identified to new resources.

      The organizational or corporate “attitude,” the impact on employee behavior and attitude is often not fully understood. Culture is an invisible element, which makes it difficult to identify, but it has a strong impact and must be addressed to successfully embed any organizational change or strategy.

      Culture is a critical and under-addressed success factor

      43% of CIOs cited resistance to change as the top impediment to a successful digital strategy.

      CIO.com

      75% of organizations cannot identify or articulate their culture or its impact.

      Info-Tech

      “Shortcomings in organizational culture are one of the main barriers to company success in the digital age.”

      McKinsey – “Culture for a digital age”

      Examples of how they apply

      Attitude

      • “I’ll believe that when I see it”
      • Positive outlook on new ideas and changes

      Behaviour

      • Saying you’ll follow a new process but not doing so
      • Choosing not to document a resolution approach or updating a knowledge article, despite being asked

      Culture

      • Hero culture (knowledge is power)
      • Blame culture (finger pointing)
      • Collaborative culture (people rally and work together)

      Why have we failed to address attitude, behavior, and culture?

        ✓ While there is attention and better understanding of these areas, very little effort is made to actually solve these challenges.

        ✓ The impact is not well understood.

        ✓ The lack of tangible and visible factors makes it difficult to identify.

        ✓ There is a lack of proper guidance, leadership skills, and governance to address these in the right places.

        ✓ Addressing these issues has to be done proactively, with intent, rigor, and discipline, in order to be successful.

        ✓ We ignore it (head in the sand and hoping it will fix itself).

      Avoidance has been a common strategy for addressing behavior and culture in organizations.

      Use Info-Tech’s “Culture and Environment” template to identify cultural constraints that should be addressed in roadmap

      The Service Management Roadmap Presentation Template will help you document attitude, behavior, and culture constraints.

      Discuss as a team attitudes, behaviors, and cultural aspects that can either hinder or be leveraged to support your vision for the service management program. Capture all items that need to be addressed in the roadmap.

      A screenshot of the Service Management Roadmap Presentation Template is shown. Specifically showing the culture and environment slide.

      Document your organization’s attitudes, behaviors, and culture

      1. Discuss and document positive and negative aspects of attitude, behavior, or culture within your organization.
      2. Identify the items that need to be addressed as part of your roadmap.

      INPUT

      • A collaborative discussion

      OUTPUT

      • Culture and environment worksheet

      Materials

      • Whiteboards or flip charts

      Participants

      • All stakeholders

      The relationship to governance

      Attitude, behavior, and culture are still underestimated as core success factors in governance and management.

      Behavior is a key enabler of good governance. Leading by example and modeling behavior has a cascading impact on shifting culture, reinforcing the importance of change through adherence.

      Executive leadership and governing bodies must lead and support cultural change.

      Key Points

      • Less than 25% of organizations have formal IT governance in place (ITSM Tools).
      • Governance tends to focus on risk and compliance (controls), but forgets the impact of value and performance.

      Lack of oversight often limits the value of service management implementations

      Organizations often fail to move beyond risk mitigation, losing focus of the goals of their service management practices and the capabilities required to produce value.

      Risk Mitigation

      • Stabilize IT
      • Service Desk
      • Incident Management
      • Change Management

      Gap

      • Organizational alignment through governance
      • Disciplined focus on goals of SM

      Value Production

      • Value that meets business and consumer needs

      This creates a situation where service management activities and roadmaps focus on adjusting and tweaking process areas that no longer support how the organization needs to work.

      How does establishing governance for service management provide value?

      Governance of service management is a gap in most organizations, which leads to much of the failure and lack of value from service management processes and activities.

      Once in place, effective governance enables success for organizations by:

      1. Ensuring service management processes improve business value
      2. Measuring and confirming the value of the service management investment
      3. Driving a focus on outcome and impact instead of simply process adherence
      4. Looking at the integrated impact of service management in order to ensure focused prioritization of work
      5. Driving customer-experience focus within organizations
      6. Ensuring quality is achieved and addressing quality impacts and dependencies between processes

      Four common service management process ownership models

      Your ownership structure largely defines how processes will need to be implemented, maintained, and improved. It has a strong impact on their ability to integrate and how other teams perceive their involvement.

      An organizational structure is shown. In the image is an arrow, with the tip facing in the right direction. The left side of the arrow is labelled: Traditional, and the right side is labelled: Complex. The four models are noted along the arrow. Starting on the left side and going to the right are: Distributed Process Ownership, Centralized Process Ownership, Federated Process Ownership, and Service Management Office.

      Most organizations are somewhere within this spectrum of four core ownership models, usually having some combination of shared traits between the two models that are closest to them on the scale.

      Info-Tech Insight

      The organizational structure that is best for you depends on your needs, and one is not necessarily better than another. The next four slides describe when each ownership level is most appropriate.

      Distributed process ownership

      Distributed process ownership is usually evident when organizations initially establish their service management practices. The processes are assigned to a specific group, who assumes some level of ownership over its execution.

      The distributed process ownership model is shown. CIO is listed at the top with four branches leading out from below it. The four branches are labelled: Service Desk, Operations, Applications, and Security.

      Info-Tech Insight

      This model is often a suitable approach for initial implementations or where it may be difficult to move out of siloes within the organization’s structure or culture.

      Centralized process ownership

      Centralized process ownership usually becomes necessary for organizations as they move into a more functional structure. It starts to drive management of processes horizontally across the organization while still retaining functional management control.

      A centralized process ownership model is shown. The CIO is at the top and the following are branches below it: Service Manager, Support, Middleware, Development, and Infrastructure.

      Info-Tech Insight

      This model is often suitable for maturing organizations that are starting to look at process integration and shared service outcomes and accountability.

      Federated process ownership

      Federated process ownership allows for global control and regional variation, and it supports product orientation and Agile/DevOps principles

      A federated process ownership model is shown. The Sponsor/CIO is at the top, with the ITSM Executive below it. Below that level is the: Process Owner, Process Manager, and Process Manager.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Federated process ownership is usually evident in organizations that have an international or multi-regional presence.

      Service management office (SMO)

      SMO structures tend to occur in highly mature organizations, where service management responsibility is seen as an enterprise accountability.

      A service management office model is shown. The CIO is at the top with the following branches below it: SMO, End-User Services, Infra., Apps., and Architecture.

      Info-Tech Insight

      SMOs are suitable for organizations with a defined IT and organizational strategy. A SMO supports integration with other enterprise practices like enterprise architecture and the PMO.

      Determine which process ownership and governance model works best for your organization

      The Service Management Roadmap Presentation Template will help you document process ownership and governance model

      Example:

      Key Goals:

        ☐ Own accountability for changes to core processes

        ☐ Understand systemic nature and dependencies related to processes and services

        ☐ Approve and prioritize improvement and CSI initiatives related to processes and services

        ☐ Evaluate success of initiative outcomes based on defined benefits and expectations

        ☐ Own Service Management and Governance processes and policies

        ☐ Report into ITSM executive or equivalent body

      Membership:

        ☐ Process Owners, SM Owner, Tool Owner/Liaison, Audit

      Discuss as a team which process ownership model works for your organization. Determine who will govern the service management practice. Determine items that should be identified in your roadmap to address governance and process ownership gaps.

      Use Info-Tech’s “SWOT” template to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & threats that should be addressed

      The Service Management Roadmap Presentation Template will help you document items from your SWOT analysis.

      A screenshot of the Service Management Roadmap Presentation Template is shown. Specifically the SWOT section is shown.

      Brainstorm the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to resources, environment, technology, and management practices. Add items that need to be addressed to your roadmap.

      Perform a SWOT analysis

      1. Brainstorm each aspect of the SWOT with an emphasis on:
      • Resources
      • Environment
      • Technologies
      • Management Practices
    • Record your ideas on a flip chart or whiteboard.
    • Add items to be addressed to the roadmap.
    • INPUT

      • A collaborative discussion

      OUTPUT

      • SWOT analysis
      • Priority items identified

      Materials

      • Whiteboards or flip charts

      Participants

      • All stakeholders

      Indicate desired maturity level for your service management program to be successful

      Discuss the various maturity levels and choose a desired level that would meet business needs.

      The desired maturity model is depicted.

      INPUT

      • A collaborative discussion

      OUTPUT

      • Desired state of service management maturity

      Materials

      • None

      Participants

      • All stakeholders

      Use Info-Tech’s Service Management Process Maturity Assessment Tool to understand your current state

      The Service Management Process Maturity Assessment Tool will help you understand the true state of your service management.

      A screenshot of Info-Tech's Service Management Process Assessment Tool is shown.

      Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 tabs

      These three worksheets contain questions that will determine the overall maturity of your service management processes. There are multiple sections of questions focused on different processes. It is very important that you start from Part 1 and continue the questions sequentially.

      Results tab

      The Results tab will display the current state of your service management processes as well as the percentage of completion for each individual process.

      Complete the service management process maturity assessment

      The current-state assessment will be the foundation of building your roadmap, so pay close attention to the questions and answer them truthfully.

      1. Start with tab 1 in the Service Management Process Maturity Assessment Tool. Remember to read the questions carefully and always use the feedback obtained through the end-user survey to help you determine the answer.
      2. In the “Degree of Process Completeness” column, use the drop-down menu to input the results solicited from the goals and objectives meeting you held with your project participants.
      3. A screenshot of Info-Tech's Service Management Process Assessment Tool is shown. Tab 1 is shown.
      4. Host a meeting with all participants following completion of the survey and have them bring their results. Discuss in a round-table setting, keeping a master sheet of agreed upon results.

      INPUT

      • Service Management Process Maturity Assessment Tool questions

      OUTPUT

      • Determination of current state

      Materials

      • Service Management Process Maturity Assessment Tool

      Participants

      • Project team members

      Review the results of your current-state assessment

      At the end of the assessment, the Results tab will have action items you could perform to close the gaps identified by the process assessment tool.

      A screenshot of Info-Tech's Service Management Process Maturity Assessment Results is shown.

      INPUT

      • Maturity assessment results

      OUTPUT

      • Determination of overall and individual practice maturity

      Materials

      • Service Management Maturity Assessment Tool

      Participants

      • Project team members

      Use Info-Tech’s OCM Capability Assessment tool to understand your current state

      The Organizational Change Management Capabilities Assessment tool will help you understand the true state of your organizational change management capabilities.

      A screenshot of Info-Tech's Organizational Change Management Capabilities Assessment

      Complete the Capabilities tab to capture the current state for organizational change management. Review the Results tab for interpretation of the capabilities. Review the Recommendations tab for actions to address low areas of maturity.

      Complete the OCM capability assessment

      1. Open Organizational Change Management Capabilities Assessment tool.
      2. Come to consensus on the most appropriate answer for each question. Use the 80/20 rule.
      3. Review result charts and discuss findings.
      4. Identify roadmap items based on maturity assessment.

      INPUT

      • A collaborative discussion

      OUTPUT

      • OCM Assessment tool
      • OCM assessment results

      Materials

      • OCM Capabilities Assessment tool

      Participants

      • All stakeholders

      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:

      Photo of an Info-Tech analyst is shown.

      • 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 shown.

      Create a powerful, succinct mission statement

      Using Info-Tech’s sample mission statement as a guide, build your mission statement based on the objectives of this project and the benefits that this project will achieve. Keep the mission statement short and clear.

      2.2

      A screenshot of activity 2.2 is shown.

      Complete the assessment

      With the project team in the room, go through all three parts of the assessment with consideration of the feedback received from the business.

      2.3

      A screenshot of activity 2.3 is shown.

      Interpret the results of the assessment

      The Info-Tech onsite analyst will facilitate a discussion on the overall maturity of your service management practices and individual process maturity. Are there any surprises? Are the results reflective of current service delivery maturity?

      PHASE 3

      Build Your Service Management Roadmap

      Build Roadmap

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Document your vision and mission on the roadmap one-pager.
      • Using the inputs from the current-state assessments, identify the key themes required by your organization.
      • Identify individual initiatives needed to address key themes.

      Step Insights

      • Using the Info-Tech thought model, address foundational gaps early in your roadmap and establish the management methods to continuously make them more robust.
      • If any of the core practices are not meeting the vision for your service management program, be sure to address these items before moving on to more advanced service management practices or processes.
      • Make sure the story you are telling with your roadmap is aligned to the overall organizational goals.

      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: Determine Your Service Management Target State

      Step 3.1 – Document the Overall Themes

      Start with an analyst kick-off call:

      • Review the outputs from your current-state assessments to identify themes for areas that need to be included in your roadmap

      Then complete these activities…

      • Ensure foundational elements are solid by adding any gaps to the roadmap
      • Identify any changes needed to management practices to ensure continuous improvement

      With these tools & templates:

      Service Management Roadmap Presentation Template

      Step 3.2 – Determine Individual Initiatives

      Review findings with analyst:

      • Determine the individual initiatives needed to close the gaps between the current state and the vision

      Then complete these activities…

      • Finalize and document roadmap for executive socialization

      With these tools & templates:

      Service Management Roadmap Presentation Template

      Focus on a strong foundation to build higher value service management practices

      Info-Tech Insight

      Focus on behaviors and expected outcomes before processes.

      Foundational elements

      • Operating model facilitates service management goals
      • Culture of service delivery
      • Governance discipline to evaluate, direct, and monitor
      • Management discipline to deliver

      Stabilize

      • Deliver stable, reliable IT services to the business
      • Respond to user requests quickly and efficiently
      • Resolve user issues in a timely manner
      • Deploy changes smoothly and successfully

      Proactive

      • Avoid/prevent service disruptions
      • Improve quality of service (performance, availability, reliability)

      Service Provider

      • Understand business needs
      • Ensure services are available
      • Measure service performance, based on business-oriented metrics

      Strategic Partner

      • Fully aligned with business
      • Drive innovation
      • Drive measurable value

      Info-Tech Insight

      Continued leadership support of the foundational elements will allow delivery teams to provide value to the business. Set the expectation of the desired maturity level and allow teams to innovate.

      Identify themes that can help you build a strong foundation before moving to higher level practices

      A model is depicted that shows the various target states. There are 6 levels showing in the example, and the example is made to look like a tree with a character watering it. In the roots, the level is labelled foundational. The trunk is labelled the core. The lowest hanging branches of the tree is the stabilize section. Above it is the proactive section. Nearing the top of the tree is the service provider. The top most branches of the tree is labelled strategic partner.

      Before moving to advanced service management practices, you must ensure that the foundational and core elements are robust enough to support them. Leadership must nurture these practices to ensure they are sustainable and can support higher value, more mature practices.

      Use Info-Tech’s “Service Management Roadmap” template to document your vision, themes and initiatives

      The Service Management Roadmap Presentation Template contains a roadmap template to help communicate your vision, themes to be addressed, and initiatives

      A screenshot of Info-Tech's Service Management Roadmap template is shown.

      Working from the lower maturity items to the higher value practices, identify logical groupings of initiatives into themes. This will aid in communicating the reasons for the needed changes. List the individual initiatives below the themes. Adding the service management vision and mission statements can help readers understand the roadmap.

      Document your service management roadmap

      1. Document the service management vision and mission on the roadmap template.
      2. Identify, from the assessments, areas that need to be improved or implemented.
      3. Group the individual initiatives into logical themes that can ease communication of what needs to happen.
      4. Document the individual initiatives.
      5. Document in terms that business partners and executive sponsors can understand.

      INPUT

      • Current-state assessment outputs
      • Maturity model

      OUTPUT

      • Service management roadmap

      Materials

      • Whiteboard
      • Roadmap template

      Participants

      • All stakeholders

      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:

      Photo of an Info-Tech analyst is shown.

      • 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 shown.

      Identify themes to address items from the foundational level up to higher value service management practices

      Identify easily understood themes that will help others understand the expected outcomes within your organization.

      A screenshot of activity 3.2 is shown.

      Document individual initiatives that contribute to the themes

      Identify specific activities that will close gaps identified in the assessments.

      PHASE 2

      Build Communication Slide

      Complete your service management roadmap

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Use the current-state assessment exercises to document the state of your service management practices. Document examples of the behaviors that are currently seen.
      • Document the expected short-term gains. Describe how you want the behaviors to change.
      • Document the long-term vision for each item and describe the benefits you expect to see from addressing each theme.

      Step Insights

      • Use the communication template to acknowledge the areas that need to be improved and paint the short- and long-term vision for the improvements to be made through executing the roadmap.
      • Write it in business terms so that it can be used widely to gain acceptance of the upcoming changes that need to occur.
      • Include specific areas that need to be fixed to make it more tangible.
      • Adding the values from the vision, mission, and values exercise can also help you set expectations about how the team will behave as they move towards the longer-term vision.

      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: Build the Service Management Roadmap

      Step 4.1: Document the Current State

      Start with an analyst kick-off call:

      • Review the pain points identified from the current state analysis
      • Discuss tactics to address specific pain points

      Then complete these activities…

      • Socialize the pain points within the service delivery teams to ensure nothing is being misrepresented
      • Gather ideas for the future state

      With these tools & templates:

      Service Management Roadmap Presentation Template

      Step 4.2: List the Future Vision

      Review findings with analyst:

      • Review short- and long-term vision for improvements for the pain points identified in the current state analysis

      Then complete these activities…

      • Prepare to socialize the roadmap
      • Ensure long-term vision is aligned with organizational objectives

      With these tools & templates:

      Service Management Roadmap Presentation Template

      Use Info-Tech’s “Service Management Roadmap – Brought to Life” template to paint a picture of the future state

      The Service Management Roadmap Presentation Template contains a communication template to help communicate your vision of the future state

      A screenshot of Info-Tech's Service Management Roadmap - Brought to Life template

      Use this template to demonstrate how existing pain points to delivering services will improve over time by painting a near- and long-term picture of how things will change. Also list specific initiatives that will be launched to affect the changes. Listing the values identified in the vision, mission, and values exercise will also demonstrate the team’s commitment to changing behavior to create better outcomes.

      Document your current state and list initiatives to address them

      1. Use the previous assessments and feedback from business or customers to identify current behaviors that need addressing.
      2. Focus on high-impact items for this document, not an extensive list.
      3. An example of step 1 and 2 are shown.
      4. List the initiatives or actions that will be used to address the specific pain points.

      An example of areas for improvement.

      INPUT

      • Current-state assessment outputs
      • Feedback from business

      OUTPUT

      • Service Management Roadmap Communication Tool, in the Service Management Roadmap Presentation

      Materials

      • Whiteboard
      • Roadmap template

      Participants

      • All stakeholders

      Document your future state

      An example of document your furture state is shown.

      1. For each pain point document the expected behaviors, both short term and longer term.
      2. Write in terms that allow readers to understand what to expect from your service management practice.

      INPUT

      • Current-state assessment outputs
      • Feedback from business

      OUTPUT

      • Service Management Roadmap Communication Tool, in the Service Management Roadmap Presentation Template

      Materials

      • Whiteboard
      • Roadmap template

      Participants

      • All stakeholders

      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:

      Photo of an Info-Tech analyst is shown.

      • 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 shown.

      Identify the pain points and initiatives to address them

      Identify items that the business can relate to and initiatives or actions to address them.

      4.2

      A screenshot of activity 4.2 is shown.

      Identify short- and long-term expectations for service management

      Communicate the benefits of executing the roadmap both short- and long-term gains.

      Research contributors and experts

      Photo of Valence Howden

      Valence Howden, Principal Research Director, CIO Practice

      Info-Tech Research Group

      Valence helps organizations be successful through optimizing how they govern, design, and execute strategies, and how they drive service excellence in all work. With 30 years of IT experience in the public and private sectors, he has developed experience in many information management and technology domains, with focus in service management, enterprise and IT governance, development and execution of strategy, risk management, metrics design and process design, and implementation and improvement.

      Photo of Graham Price

      Graham Price, Research Director, CIO Practice

      Info-Tech Research Group

      Graham has an extensive background in IT service management across various industries with over 25 years of experience. He was a principal consultant for 17 years, partnering with Fortune 500 clients throughout North America, leveraging and integrating industry best practices in IT service management, service catalog, business relationship management, IT strategy, governance, and Lean IT and Agile.

      Photo of Sharon Foltz

      Sharon Foltz, Senior Workshop Director

      Info-Tech Research Group

      Sharon is a Senior Workshop Director at Info-Tech Research Group. She focuses on bringing high value to members via leveraging Info-Tech’s blueprints and other resources enhanced with her breadth and depth of skills and expertise. Sharon has spent over 15 years in various IT roles in leading companies within the United States. She has strong experience in organizational change management, program and project management, service management, product management, team leadership, strategic planning, and CRM across various global organizations.

      Related Info-Tech Research

      Build a Roadmap for Service Management Agility

      Extend the Service Desk to the Enterprise

      Bibliography

      • “CIOs Emerge as Disruptive Innovators.” CSC Global CIO Survey: 2014-2015. Web.
      • “Digital Transformation: How Is Your Organization Adapting?” CIO.com, 2018. Web.
      • Goran, Julie, Laura LaBerge, and Ramesh Srinivasan. “Culture for a digital age.” McKinsey, July 2017. Web.
      • The Qualities of Leadership: Leading Change. Cornelius & Associates, 14 April 2012.
      • Wilkinson, Paul. “Culture, Ethics, and Behavior – Why Are We Still Struggling?” ITSM Tools, 5 July 2018. Web.

      First 30 Days Pandemic Response Plan

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}418|cart{/j2store}
      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): N/A
      • member rating average dollars saved: N/A
      • member rating average days saved: N/A
      • Parent Category Name: DR and Business Continuity
      • Parent Category Link: /business-continuity
      • Given the speed and scope of the spread of the pandemic, governments are responding with changes almost daily as to what organizations and people can and can’t do. This volatility and uncertainty challenges organizations to respond, particularly in the absence of a business continuity or crisis management plan.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Assess the risk to and viability of your organization in order to create appropriate action and communication plans quickly.

      Impact and Result

      • HR departments must be directly involved in developing the organization’s pandemic response plan. Use Info-Tech's Risk and Viability Matrix and uncover the crucial next steps to take during the first 30 days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

      First 30 Days Pandemic Response Plan Research & Tools

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

      1. Create a response plan for the first 30 days of a pandemic

      Manage organizational risk and viability during the first 30 days of a crisis.

      • First 30 Days Pandemic Response Plan Storyboard
      • Crisis Matrix Communications Template: Business As Usual
      • Crisis Matrix Communications Template: Organization Closing
      • Crisis Matrix Communications Template: Manage Risk and Leverage Resilience
      • Crisis Matrix Communications Template: Reduce Labor and Mitigate Risk
      [infographic]

      Build Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}605|cart{/j2store}
      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): N/A
      • member rating average dollars saved: N/A
      • member rating average days saved: N/A
      • Parent Category Name: Selection & Implementation
      • Parent Category Link: /selection-and-implementation
      • Given the increasing complexity of software implementations, you are continually challenged with staying above water with your current team.
      • In addition, rapid changes in the business make maintaining project sponsors’ engagement challenging.
      • Project sprawl across the organization has created a situation where each project lead tracks progress in their own way. This makes it difficult for leadership to identify what was successful – and what wasn’t.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      An effective enterprise application implementation playbook is not just a list of steps, but a comprehensive view of what is necessary to support your implementation. This starts with a people-first approach. Start by asking about sponsors, stakeholders, and goals. Without asking these questions first, the implementation will be set up for failure, regardless of the technology, processes, and tools available.

      Impact and Result

      Follow these steps to build your enterprise application playbook:

      • Define your sponsor, map out your stakeholders, and lay out the vision, goals and objectives for your project.
      • Detail the scope, metrics, and the team that will make it happen.
      • Outline the steps and processes that will carry you through the implementation.

      Build Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook Research & Tools

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

      1. Build Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook Deck - Your implementation doesn’t start with technology, but with an effective plan that the team can align on.

      This blueprint provides the steps necessary to build your own enterprise application implementation playbook that can be deployed and leveraged by your implementation teams.

      • Build Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook – Phases 1-3

      2. Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook – The key output from leveraging this research is a completed implementation playbook.

      This is the main playbook that you build through the exercises defined in the blueprint.

      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook

      3. Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook - Timeline Tool – Supporting tool that captures the project timeline information, issue log, and follow-up dashboard.

      This tool provides input into the playbook around project timelines and planning.

      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook - Timeline Tool

      4. Light Project Change Request Form Template – This tool will help you record the requested change, allow assess the impact of the change and proceed the approval process.

      This provides input into the playbook around managing change requests

      • Light Project Change Request Form Template

      Infographic

      Workshop: Build Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook

      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 the Project

      The Purpose

      Lay out the overall objectives, stakeholders, and governance structure for the project.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Align everyone on the sponsor, key stakeholders, vision, and goals for your project

      Activities

      1.1 Select the project sponsor.

      1.2 Identify your stakeholders.

      1.3 Align on a project vision.

      1.4 List your guiding principles.

      1.5 Confirm your goals and objectives for the implementation project.

      1.6 Define the project governance structure.

      Outputs

      Project sponsor has been selected.

      Project stakeholders have been identified and mapped with their roles and responsibilities.

      Vision has been defined.

      Guiding principles have been defined.

      Articulated goals and objectives.

      Detailed governance structure.

      2 Set up for Success

      The Purpose

      Define the elements of the playbook that provide scope and boundaries for the implementation.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Align the implementation team on the scope for the project and how the team should operate during the implementation.

      Activities

      2.1 Gather and review requirements, with an agreed to scope.

      2.2 Define metrics for your project.

      2.3 Define and document the risks that can impact the project.

      2.4 Establish team composition and identify the team.

      2.5 Detail your OCM structure, resources, roles, and responsibilities.

      2.6 Define requirements for training.

      2.7 Create a communications plan for stakeholder groups and delivery teams.

      Outputs

      Requirements for enterprise application implementation with an agreed-to scope.

      Metrics to help measure what success looks like for the implementation.

      Articulated list of possible risks during the implementation.

      The team responsible and accountable for implementation is identified.

      Details of your organization’s change management process.

      Outline of training required.

      An agreed-to plan for communication of project status.

      3 Document Your Plan

      The Purpose

      With the structure and boundaries in place, we can now lay out the details on the implementation plan.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      A high-level plan is in place, including next steps and a process on running retrospectives.

      Activities

      3.1 Define your implementation steps.

      3.2 Create templates to enable follow-up throughout the project.

      3.3 Decide on the tracking tools to help during your implementation.

      3.4 Define the follow-up processes.

      3.5 Define project progress communication.

      3.6 Create a Change request process.

      3.7 Define your retrospective process for continuous improvement.

      3.8 Prepare a closure document for sign-off.

      Outputs

      An agreed to high-level implementation plan.

      Follow-up templates to enable more effective follow-ups.

      Shortlist of tracking tools to leverage during the implementation.

      Defined processes to enable follow-up.

      Defined project progress communication.

      A process for managing change requests.

      A process and template for running retrospectives.

      A technique and template for closure and sign-off.

      Further reading

      Build Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook

      Your implementation doesn’t start with technology, but with an effective plan that the team can align on.

      Analyst Perspective

      Your implementation is not just about technology, but about careful planning, collaboration, and control.

      Recardo de Oliveira

      A successful enterprise application implementation requires more than great software; it requires a clear line of sight to the people, processes, metrics, and tools that can help make this happen.

      Additionally, every implementation is unique with its own set of challenges. Working through these challenges requires a tailored approach taking many factors into account. Building out your playbook for your implementation is an important initial step before diving head-first into technology.

      Regardless of whether you use an implementation partner, a playbook ensures that you don’t lose your enterprise application investment before you even get started!

      Ricardo de Oliveira

      Research Director,
      Application Delivery and Management
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Executive Summary

      Your Challenge

      • Given the increasing complexity of software implementations, you are continually challenged with staying above water with your current team.
      • Rapid changes in the business make maintaining project sponsors’ engagement challenging.
      • Project sprawl across the organization has created a situation where project leads track progress in their own way. This makes it difficult for leadership to identify what was successful (and what wasn’t).

      Common Obstacles

      • Your best process experts are the same people you need to keep the business running. The business cannot afford to have its best people pulled into the implementation for long periods of time.
      • Enterprise application implementations generate huge organizational changes and the adoption of the new systems and processes resulting from these projects are quite difficult.
      • People are generally resistant to change, especially large, transformational changes that will impact the day-to-day way of doing things.

      Info-Tech's Approach

      • Build your enterprise application implementation playbook. Follow these steps to build your enterprise application playbook:
        • Define your sponsor, map out your stakeholders, and lay out the vision, goals, and objectives for your project.
        • Detail the scope, metrics, and the team that will make it happen.
        • Detail the steps and processes that will carry you through the implementation

      Info-Tech Insight

      An effective enterprise application implementation playbook is not just a list of steps; it is a comprehensive view of what is necessary to support your implementation. This starts with a people-first approach. Start by asking about sponsors, stakeholders, and goals. Without asking these questions first, the implementation will be set up for failure, regardless of the technology, processes, and tools available.

      Enterprise Applications Lifescycle Advisory Services. Strategy, selection, implementation, optimization and operations.

      Insight summary

      Building an effective playbook starts with asking the right questions, not jumping straight into the technical details.

      • This blueprint provides the steps required to lay out an implementation playbook to align the team on what is necessary to support the implementation.
      • Build your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook by:
        • Aligning and confirming project’s goals, stakeholders, governance and team.
        • Clearly defining what is in and out of scope for the project and the risks involved.
        • Building up a strong change management process.
        • Providing the tools and processes to keep track of the project.
        • Pulling it all together into an actionable playbook.

      Grapsh showing 39%

      Lack of planning is the reason that 39% of projects fail. Poor project planning can be disastrous: The consequences are usually high costs and time overruns.

      Graph showing 20%

      Almost 20% of IT projects can fail so badly that they can become a threat to a company’s existence. Lack of proper planning, poor communication, and poorly defined goals all contribute to the failure of projects.

      Graph showig 2.5%

      A PwC study of over 10,640 projects found that a tiny portion of companies – 2.5% – completed 100% of their projects successfully. These failures extract a heavy cost – failed IT projects alone cost the United States $50-$150B in lost revenue and productivity.

      Source: Forbes, 2020

      Planning and control are key to enterprise project success

      An estimated 70% of large-scale corporate projects fail largely due to a lack of change management infrastructure, proper oversight, and regular performance check-ins to track progress (McKinsey, 2015).

      Table showing that 88% of projects completed on time, 90% completed within budget and 92% meet original goals. 68% of projects have scope creep, 24% deemed failures and 46% experience budget lose when project fails

      “A survey published in HBR found that the average IT project overran its budget by 27%. Moreover, at least one in six IT projects turns into a ‘black swan’ with a cost overrun of 200% and a schedule overrun of 70%. Kmart’s massive $1.2B failed IT modernization project, for instance, was a big contributor to its bankruptcy.”

      Source: Forbes, 2020

      Sponsor commitment directly improves project success.

      Having the right sponsor significantly improves your chances of success across many different dimensions:

      1. On-time delivery
      2. Delivering within budget
      3. Delivered within an agreed-to scope
      4. Delivered with sufficient quality.
      Graph that shows Project success scores versus sponsor involvement in change communication. Shows increase for projects on time, projects on budget, within scope and overall quality.

      Source: Info-Tech, PPM Current State Scorecard Diagnostic

      Executive Brief Case Study

      Chocolate manufacturer implementing a new ERP

      INDUSTRY

      Consumer Products

      SOURCE

      Carlton, 2021

      Challenge

      Not every ERP ends in success. This case study reviews the failure of Hershey, a 147-year-old confectioner, headquartered in Hershey Pennsylvania. The enterprise saw the implementation of an ERP platform as being central to its future growth.

      Solution

      Consequently, rather than approaching its business challenge on the basis of an iterative approach, it decided to execute a holistic plan, involving every operating center in the company. Subsequently, SAP was engaged to implement a $10 million systems upgrade; however, management problems emerged immediately.

      Results

      The impact of this decision was significant, and the company was unable to conduct business because virtually every process, policy, and operating mechanism was in flux simultaneously. The consequence was the loss of $150 million in revenue, a 19% reduction in share price, and the loss of 12% in international market share.

      Remember: Poor management can scupper implementation, even when you have selected the perfect system.

      A successful software implementation provides more than simply immediate business value…

      It can build competitive advantage.

      • When software projects fail, it can jeopardize an organization’s financial standing and reputation, and in some severe cases, it can bring the company down altogether.
      • Rarely do projects fail for a single reason, but by understanding the pitfalls, developing a risk mitigation plan, closely monitoring risks, and self-evaluating during critical milestones, you can increase the probability of delivering on time, on budget, and with the intended benefits.

      Benefits are not limited to just delivering on time. Some others include:

      • Building organizational delivery competence and overall agility.
      • The opportunity to start an inventory of best practices, eventually building them into a center of excellence.
      • Developing a competitive advantage by maximizing software value and continuously transforming the business.
      • An opportunity to develop a competent pool of staff capable of executing on projects and managing organizational change.

      Blueprint deliverables

      Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals:

      Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook – Timeline Tool

      Supporting template that captures the project timeline information, issue log, and follow-up dashboard.

      Info-Tech: Project Planning and Monitoring Tool.
      Light Project Change Request Form Template

      This tool will help you record the requested change, and allow you to assess the impact of the change and proceed with the approval process.

      Info-Tech: Light change request form template.

      Key deliverable:

      Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook

      Record the results from the exercises to define the steps for a successful implementation.

      Build your enterprise application implementation playbook.

      Info-Tech’s methodology for Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook

      Phase Steps

      1. Understand the Project

      1. Identify the project sponsor
      2. Define project stakeholders
      3. Review project vision and guiding principles
      4. Review project objectives
      5. Establish project governance

      2. Set up for success

      1. Review project scope
      2. Define project metrics
      3. Prepare for project risks
      4. Identify the project team
      5. Define your change management process

      3. Document your plan

      1. Develop a master project plan
      2. Define a follow-up plan
      3. Define the follow-up process
      4. Understand what’s next
      Phase Outcomes
      • Project sponsor has been selected
      • Project stakeholders have been identified and mapped with their roles and responsibilities.
      • Vision, guiding principles, goals objectives, and governance have been defined
      • Project scope has been confirmed
      • Project metrics to identify successful implementation has been defined
      • Risks have been assessed and articulated.
      • Identified project team
      • An agreed-to change management process
      • Project plan covering the overall implementation is in place, including next steps and retrospectives

      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."

      Diagnostic and consistent frameworks are used throughout all four options.

      Guided Implementation

      What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

      The three phases of 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 is between 8 to 12 calls over the course of 4 to 6 months.

      Workshop Overview

      Contact your account representative for more information.

      workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889 Activities and deliverables for each module of the workshop. Module 1: understanding the project, Module 2: Set up for success, Modeule 3: Document your plan, and Post Workshop: Next steps and Wrap-up(offsite).

      Phase 1

      Understand the project

      3 phases, phase 1 is highlighted.

      This phase will walk you through the following activities:

      1.1 Identify the project sponsor

      1.2 Identify project stakeholders

      1.3 Review project vision and guiding principles

      1.4 Review project objectives

      1.5 Establish project governance

      This phase involves the following participants:

      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      Step 1.1

      Identify the project sponsor

      Activities

      1.1.1 Define the project sponsor's responsibilities

      1.1.2 Shortlist potential sponsors

      1.1.3 Select the project sponsor

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      Outcomes of this step

      Selected sponsor.

      Sponsor commitment directly improves project success.

      Having the right sponsor significantly improves your chances of success across many different dimensions:

      1. On-time delivery
      2. Delivering within budget
      3. Delivered within an agreed-to scope
      4. Delivered with sufficient quality.

      Graph that shows Project success scores versus sponsor involvement in change communication. Shows increase for projects on time, projects on budget, within scope and overall quality.

      Source: Info-Tech, PPM Current State Scorecard Diagnostic

      Typical project sponsor responsibilities

      • Help define the business goals of their projects before they start.
      • Provide guidance and support to the project manager and the project team throughout the project management lifecycle.
      • Ensure that sufficient financial resources are available for their projects.
      • Resolve problems and issues that require authority beyond that of the project manager.
      • Ensure that the business objectives of their projects are achieved and communicated.

      For further discussion on sponsor responsibilities, use Info-Tech’s blueprint, Drive Business Value With a Right-Sized Project Gating Process

      Portrait of head with multiple layers representing the responsibilities of a sponsor. From top down: Define business goals, provide guidance, ensure human ad financial resources, resolve problems and issues.

      1.1.1 Define the project sponsor’s responsibilities

      0.5-1 hour

      1. Discuss the minimum requirements for a sponsor at your organization.
      2. As a group, brainstorm the criteria necessary for an individual to be a project sponsor:
        1. Is there a limit to the number of projects they can sponsor at one time?
        2. Is there a minimum number of hours they must be available to the project team?
        3. Do they have to be at a certain seniority level in the organization?
        4. What is their role at each stage of the project lifecycle?
      3. Document these criteria on a whiteboard.
      4. Record the sponsor’s responsibilities in section 1.1 of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Download Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook

      Input

      Output

      • Requirements for a sponsor
      • Your responsibilities as a sponsor

      Materials

      Participants

      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook
      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      1.1.1 Define the project sponsor’s responsibilities (Continued)

      Example

      Project sponsor responsibilities.

      1.1.2 Shortlist potential sponsors

      0.5-1 hour

      1. Based on the responsibilities defined in Exercise 1.1.1, produce a list of the potential sponsors.
      2. Record the sponsor’s shortlist in section 1.2 of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Download Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook

      Input

      Output

      • Characteristics of a sponsor
      • Your list of candidates

      Materials

      Participants

      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook
      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      1.1.2 Shortlist potential sponsors (Continued)

      Example

      Shortlist of potential sponsors. 6 names listed with checkmarks on criteria ranking.

      Don’t forget, the project team is there to support the sponsor

      Given the burden of the sponsor role, the project team is committed to doing their best to facilitate a successful outcome.

      Project Success: Follow best practices, escalate issues, stay focused, communicate, adapt to change.

      • Follow the framework set out by the governance group at the organization to drive efficiency on the project.
      • Ensure stakeholders with proper authority are notified of issues that occur during the project.
      • Stay focused on the project tasks to drive quality on the deliverables and avoid rework after the project.
      • Communicate within the project team to drive coordination of tasks, complete deliverables, and avoid resource waste.
      • Changes are more common than not; the team must be prepared to adjust plans and stay agile to adapt to changes for the project.

      Seek the key characteristics of a sponsor

      Man walking up stairs denoting characteristics of a good sponsor. First step: Leader, second step: Strong Communicator, third step: knowledgeable, fourth step: problem solver, fifth step: delegator, final step: dedicated.

      1.1.3 Select the project sponsor

      0.5-1 hour

      1. Review the characteristics and the list of potential candidates.
      2. Assess availability, suitability, and desire of the selected sponsor.
      3. Record the selected sponsor in section 1.3 of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Download Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook

      Input

      Output

      • List of candidates
      • Characteristics of a sponsor
      • Your selected sponsor

      Materials

      Participants

      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook
      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      1.1.3 Select the project sponsor (Continued)

      Example

      Name of example sponsor with their key traits listed.

      Step 1.2

      Identify the project stakeholders

      Activities

      1.2.1 Identify your stakeholders

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      Outcomes of this step

      Stakeholders’ management plan

      How to find the right stakeholders

      Start with the obvious candidates, but keep an open mind.

      How to find stakeholders

      • Talk to your stakeholders and ask who else you should be talking to, to discover additional stakeholders and ensure you don’t miss anyone.
      • Less obvious stakeholders can be found by conducting various types of trace analysis, i.e. following various paths flowing from your initiative through to the path’s logical conclusion.

      Create a stakeholder network map for your application implementation

      Follow the trail of breadcrumbs from your direct stakeholders to their influencers to uncover hidden stakeholders.

      Stakeholder network map showing direction of professional influence as well as bidirectional, informal influence relationships.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Your stakeholder map defines the influence landscape your enterprise application operates in. It is every bit as important as the teams who enhance, support, and operate your applications directly.

      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 substantial informal relationships with your stakeholders.

      Understand how to navigate the complex web of stakeholders

      Identify which stakeholders to include and what their level of involvement should be during requirements elicitation based on relevant topic expertise.

      Graph showing influence vs. interest, divided into 4 quadrants. Low influence and intersest is labeled: Monitor, low influence and high interest is labeled: Keep informed, High influence and low interest is labeled: Keep satisfied, and high influence and high interest is labeled: Involve closely

      Large-scale projects require the involvement of many stakeholders from all corners and levels of the organization, including project sponsors, IT, end users, and business stakeholders. Consider the influence and interest of stakeholders in contributing to the requirements elicitation process and involve them accordingly.

      Map the organization’s stakeholders

      List of various stakeholder titles. As well as a graph showing the influence vs involvement of each stakeholder title. Influence and interest is divided into 4 quadrants: Monitor, Keep informed, keep satisfied, and involve closely.

      1.2.1 Identify your stakeholders

      1-2 hours

      1. As a group, identify all the project stakeholders. A stakeholder may be an individual such as the CEO or CFO, or it may be a group such as front-line employees.
      2. Map each stakeholder on the quadrant based on their expected influence and involvement in the project
      3. Identify stakeholders and add them to the list.
      4. Record the stakeholders list in section 1.4 of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.
      5. Download Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook

        Input

        Output

        • Types of stakeholders
        • Your stakeholders initial list

        Materials

        Participants

        • Whiteboard/flip charts
        • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook
        • Project team
        • Operations
        • SMEs
        • Team lead and facilitators
        • IT leaders

      1.2.1 Identify your stakeholders(Continued)

      Example

      Table with rows of stakeholders: Customer, End Users, IT, Vendor and other listed. Columns provide: description, examples, value and involvement level of each stakeholder.

      Step 1.3

      Review project vision and guiding principles

      Activities

      1.3.1 Align on a project vision

      1.3.2 List your guiding principles

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      Outcomes of this step

      Project vision and guiding principles

      Vision and guiding principles

      GUIDING PRINCIPLES

      Guiding principles are high-level rules of engagement that help to align stakeholders from the outset. Determine guiding principles to shape the scope and ensure stakeholders have the same vision.

      Creating Guiding Principles

      Guiding principles should be constructed as full sentences. These statements should be able to guide decisions.

      EXAMPLES
      • [Organization] is implementing an ERP system to streamline processes and reduce redundancies, saving time and money.
      • [Organization] is implementing an ERP to integrate disparate systems and rationalize the application portfolio.
      • [Organization] is aiming at taking advantage of industry best practices and strives to minimize the level of customization required in solution.

      Questions to Ask

      1. What is a strong statement that will help guide decision making throughout the life of the ERP project?
      2. What are your overarching requirements for business processes?
      3. What do you ultimately want to achieve?
      4. What is a statement that will ensure all stakeholders are on the same page for the project?

      1.3.1 Align on a project vision

      1-2 hours

      1. As a group, discuss whether you want to create a separate project vision statement or restate your corporate vision and/or goals.
        1. A project vision statement will provide project-guiding principles, encompass the project objectives, and give a rationale for the project.
        2. Using the corporate vision/goals will remind the business and IT that the project is to implement an enterprise application that supports and enhances the organizational objectives.
      2. Record the project vision in section 1.5 of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Download Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook

      Input

      Output

      • Project vision statement defined during strategy building
      • Your project vision

      Materials

      Participants

      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook
      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      1.3.1 Align on a project vision (Continued)

      Example

      Project Vision

      We, [Organization], will select and implement an integrated software suite that enhances the growth and profitability of the organization through streamlined global business processes, real-time data-driven decisions, increased employee productivity, and IT investment protection.

      Guiding principles examples

      The guiding principles will help guide your decision-making process. These can be adjusted to align with your internal language.

      • Support business agility: A flexible and adaptable integrated business system providing a seamless user experience.
      • Use best practices: Do not recreate or replicate what we have today; focus on modernization. Exercise customization governance by focusing on those customizations that are strategically differentiating.
      • Automate: Take manual work out where we can, empowering staff and improving productivity through automation and process efficiencies.
      • Stay focused: Focus on scope around core business capabilities. Maintain scope control. Prioritize demand in line with the strategy.
      • Strive for "one source of truth": Unify data model and integrate processes where possible. Assess integration needs carefully.

      1.3.2 List your guiding principles

      1-2 hours

      1. Start with the guiding principles defined during the strategy building.
      2. Review each of the sample guiding principles provided and ask the following questions:
        1. Do we agree with the statement?
        2. Is this statement framed in the language we use internally? Does everyone agree on the meaning of the statement?
        3. Will this statement help guide our decision-making process?
      3. Record the guiding principles in section 1.6 of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Download Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook

      Input

      Output

      • Guiding principles defined during strategy building
      • Your guiding principles

      Materials

      Participants

      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook
      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      1.3.2 List your guiding principles (Continued)

      Example

      Guiding principals: Support business agility, use best practices, automate, stay focused, strive for `one source truth`.

      Step 1.4

      Review project objectives

      Activities

      1.4.1 Confirm your goals and objectives for the implementation project

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      Outcomes of this step

      The objectives of the implementation project

      Review the elements of the project charter

      Leverage completed deliverables to get project managers started down the path of success.

      Deliverables of project chaters for PMs. Project purpose, scope, logistics and sign-off.

      1.4.1 List your guiding principles

      1-2 hours

      1. Articulate the high-level objectives of the project. (What are the goals of the project?)
      2. Elicit the business benefits the sponsor is committed to achieving. (What are the business benefits of the project?)
      3. Record Project goals and objectives in section 1.7 of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Download Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook

      Input

      Output

      • Your BizDevOps objectives and metrics
      • Understanding of various collaboration methods, such as Scrum, Kanban, and Scrumban
      • Your chosen collaboration method

      Materials

      Participants

      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook
      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      1.4.1 Confirm your goals and objectives for the implementation project (Continued)

      Example:

      Project Objectives: End-user visibility, New business development, employee experience. Business Benefits for each objective listed.

      Step 1.5

      Establish project governance

      Activities

      1.5.1 Define the project governance structure

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      Outcomes of this step

      Approach to build an effective project governance

      1.5.1 List your guiding principles

      0.5-1 hour

      1. Identify the IT governance structure in place today and document the high-level function of each body (councils, steering committees, review boards, centers of excellence, etc.).
      2. Identify and document the existing enterprise applications governance structure, roles, and responsibilities (if any exist).
      3. Identify gaps and document the desired enterprise applications governance structure, roles, and responsibilities.
      4. Record the project governance structure in section 1.8 of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Download Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook

      Input

      Output

      • IT governance structure
      • Your project governance structure

      Materials

      Participants

      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook
      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      Governance is NOT management

      Three levels of governance: Team Level, Steering Committee Level, and Executive Governance Level.

      Info-Tech Insight

      You won’t get engagement unless there is a sense of accountability. Do not leave this vague. Accountability needs to be assigned to specific individuals in your organization to ensure the system development achieves what was intended by your organization and not what your system integrator (SI) intended.

      Who is accountable?

      Too many assumptions are made that the SI is accountable for all implementation activities and deliverables – this is simply untrue. All activities can be better planned for, and misunderstandings can be avoided, with a clear line of sight on roles and responsibilities and the documentation that will support these assumptions.

      Discuss, define, and document roles and responsibilities:
      • For each role (e.g. executive sponsor, delivery manager, test lead, conversion lead), clearly articulate the responsibilities of the role, who is accountable for fulfillment, and whether it’s a client role, SI role, or both.
      • Articulate the purpose of each deliverable clearly, define which individual or team has responsibility for it, and document who is expected to contribute.
      • Empower the team by granting them the authority to make decisions. Ease their reluctance to think outside the box for fear of stakeholder or user backlash.
      • The implementation cannot and will not be transformative if the wrong people are involved or if the right people have not been given the tools required to succeed in their role.

      1.5.2 List your guiding principles

      0.5-1 hour

      1. Assess the skills necessary for an enterprise implementation. Inventory the competencies required for an enterprise implementation team. Map your internal resources to each competency as applicable.
      2. Select your internal implementation team. Determine who needs to be involved closely with the implementation. Key stakeholders should also be considered as members of your implementation team.
      3. Identify the number of external consultants/support required for implementation. Consider your in-house skills, timeline, integration environment complexity, and cost constraints as you make your resourcing plan.
      4. Record governance team roles and responsibilities in 1.9 section of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Download Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook

      Input

      Output

      • Available resources (internal, external, contract)
      • Your governance structure roles and responsibilities

      Materials

      Participants

      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook
      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      1.5.2 Define governance team roles and responsibilities (Continued)

      Example

      Governance team roles and their responsibilities.

      Phase 2

      Set up for success

      3 phases, phase 2 is highlighted.

      This phase will walk you through the following activities:

      2.1. Review project scope

      2.2. Define project metrics

      2.3. Prepare for project risks

      2.4. Identify the project team

      2.5. Define your change management process

      This phase involves the following participants:

      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      Step 2.1

      Review project scope

      Activities

      2.1.1 Gather and review requirements

      2.1.2 Confirm your scope for implementation

      2.1.3 Formulate a scope statement

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      Outcomes of this step

      The project scope

      Requirements are key to defining scope

      Project scope management includes the processes required to ensure that the project includes all and only the work required to complete the project successfully. Therefore, managing project scope is about defining and controlling what is and is not included in the project.

      PMBOK defines requirements as “conditions or capabilities that are to be met by the project or present in the product, service, or result to satisfy an agreement or other formally imposed specification.” Detailed requirements should be gathered and elicited in order to provide the basis for defining the project scope.

      70% of projects fail due to poor requirements, organizations using poor practices spent 62% more, 4th highest correlation to high IT performance is requirements gathering.

      Well-executed requirements gathering results in:

      • Consistent approach from project to project, resulting in more predictable outcomes.
      • Solutions that meet the business need on the surface and under the hood.
      • Reduce risk for fast-tracked projects by establishing a right-sized approach.
      • Requirements team that can drive process improvement and improved execution.
      • Confidence when exploring solution alternatives.

      Poorly executed requirements gathering results in:

      • IT receiving the blame for any project shortcomings or failures.
      • Business needs getting lost in the translation between the initial request and final output.
      • Inadequate solutions or cost overruns and dissatisfaction with IT.
      • IT losing its credibility as stakeholders do not see the value and work around the process.
      • Late projects that tie up IT resources longer than planned, and cost overruns that come out of the IT budget.
      • Inconsistent project execution, leading to inconsistent outcomes.

      Strong stakeholder satisfaction with requirements results in higher satisfaction in other areas

      High stakeholder satisfaction with requirements results in higher satisfaction in other areas.

      Note: “High satisfaction” was classified as a score greater or equal to eight, and “low satisfaction” was every organization that scored below eight on the same questions.

      2.1.1 Gather and review requirements

      1-2 hours

      1. Once existing documentation has been gathered, evaluate the effectiveness of the documentation and decide whether you need additional information to proceed to current-state mapping.
      2. The initiative team should avoid spending too much time on the discovery phase, as the goal of discovery is to obtain enough information to produce a level-one current-state map.
      3. Consider reviewing capabilities, business processes, current applications, integration, and data migration.

      Download Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook

      Input

      Output

      • Your requirements, capabilities, business processes, current applications, integration, and/or data migration
      • Your requirements, capabilities, business processes, current applications, integration, and/or data migration revisited

      Materials

      Participants

      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook
      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      2.1.1 Requirements list

      Example

      Requirements with description, category and priority.

      2.1.2 Confirm your scope for implementation

      1-2 hours

      1. Based on the requirements, write down features of the product or services, as well as dependencies with other interfaces.
      2. Write down exclusions to guard against scope creep.
      3. Validate the scope by asking these questions:
        1. Will this scope provide a common understanding for all stakeholders, including those outside of IT, as to what the project will accomplish and what it excludes?
        2. Should any detail be added to prevent scope creep later?
      4. Record the project scope in section 2.1 of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Download Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook

      Input

      Output

      • What’s in scope
      • What’s out of scope
      • What needs to integrate
      • Your scope areas

      Materials

      Participants

      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook
      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      2.1.2 Scope detail

      Example

      Example of scope detail. Table with scope levels: In scope, out of scope and existing scope. Each scope level has details about it listed.

      Distill your requirements into a scope statement

      Requirements are about the what and the how.
      Scope specifies the features of the product or service – what is in and what is out
      Table showing Requirement document vs. Scope statement. It lists the audience, content, inputs and outputs for each.

      The Build Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook 2.2 Project Scope Statement includes:

      • Scope description (features, how it interfaces with other solution components, dependencies).
      • Exclusions (what is not part of scope).
      • Deliverables (product outputs, documentation).
      • Acceptance criteria (what metrics must be satisfied for the deliverable to be accepted).
      • Final sign-off (owner).
      • Project exclusions (scope item, details).

      The scope statement should communicate the breadth of the project

      To assist in forming your scope statement, answer the following questions:
      • What are the major coverage points?
      • Who will be using the systems?
      • How will different users interact with the systems?
      • What are the objectives that need to be addressed?
      • Where do we start?
      • Where do we draw the line?

      2.1.3 Formulate a scope statement

      1-2 hours

      1. Lay out the scope description (features, how it interfaces with other solution components, dependencies).
      2. Record the exclusions (what is not part of scope).
      3. Fill out the scope statement.
      4. Record the scope statement in section 2.2 of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Download Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Input

      Output

      • Your scope areas
      • Your scope statement

      Materials

      Participants

      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.
      • Scope statement template
      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      2.1.3 Scope statement

      Example

      Examples of scope statements showing the following: Product or service in scope, project deliverables and acceptance criteria, and project exclusions.

      Step 2.2

      Review project scope

      Activities

      2.2.1 Define metrics for your project

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      Outcomes of this step

      The project metrics

      Building leading indicators

      Lagging KPIs are relatively simple to identify, whereas leading KPIs can be more elusive.

      For example, take the lagging KPI “Customer Satisfaction.” How do you turn that into a leading KPI? One method is to look at sources of customer complaints. In a retail sales system, backordered items will negatively impact customer satisfaction. As a leading indicator, track the number of orders with backordered lines and the percentage of the total order that was backordered.

      Performance Metrics

      Use leading and lagging metrics, as well as benchmarks, to track the progress of your system.

      Leading KPIs: Input-oriented measures:

      • Number of active users in the system.
      • Time-to-completion for processes that previously experienced efficiency pain points.

      Lagging KPIs: Output-oriented measures:

      • Faster production times.
      • Increased customer satisfaction scores

      Benchmarks: A standard to measure performance against:

      • Number of days to ramp up new users.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Leading indicators make the news; lagging indicators report on the news. Focusing on leading indicators allows you to address challenges before they become large problems with only expensive solutions.

      2.2.1 Define metrics for your project

      1-2 hours

      1. Examine outputs from any feedback mechanisms you have (satisfaction surveys, emails, existing SLAs, burndown charts, resourcing costs, licensing costs per sprint, etc.).
      2. Look at historical trends and figures when available. However, be careful of frequent anomalies, as these may indicate a root cause that needs to be addressed.
      3. Explore the definition of specific metrics across different functional teams to ensure consistency of measurement and reporting.
      4. Record the Project Metrics in section 2.3 of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Download Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Input

      Output

      • Outputs of any feedback mechanism
      • Historical trends
      • Your project tracking metrics

      Materials

      Participants

      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.
      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      2.2.1 Metrics

      In addition to delivery metrics and system performance metrics, equip the business with process-based metrics to continuously prove the value of the enterprise software. Review the examples below as a starting point.

      Table showing metrics and desciption. Metrics listed are: Percent of requirements complete, issues found, issues resolved, and percent of processess complete.

      Step 2.3

      Prepare for project risks

      Activities

      2.3.1 Build a risk event menu

      2.3.2 Determine contextual risks

      2.3.3 Determine process risks

      2.3.4 Determine business risks

      2.3.5 Determine change risks

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      Outcomes of this step

      Steps to create your product canvas and product vision statement

      All risks are not created equal

      Project Risk consists of: Contextual risk, process risk, change risk and business risk.

      For more information on Info-Tech’s Four-Pillar Risk Framework, please see Right-Size Your Project Risk Investment.

      Info-Tech’s Four-Pillar Risk Framework

      Unusual risks should be detected by finding out how each project is different from the norm. Use this framework to start this process by confronting the risks that are more easily anticipated.

      2.3.1 Build a risk event menu

      0.5-1 hour

      1. Build and maintain an active menu of potential risk events across the four risk categories.
      2. Record the risk event menu in section 2.4 of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Download Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Input

      Output

      • Risk events
      • Your risk events menu

      Materials

      Participants

      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.
      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      2.3.1 Risk event menu

      Example

      Risk event menu example. A table with: Contextual Risk, process risk, business risk, change risk events with examples for each.

      2.3.2 Determine contextual risks

      0.5-1 hour

      1. Contextual risk factors are those that operate within the context of your department, organization, and/or community.
      2. Fill out contextual risks.
      3. Record the contextual risks in section 2.5 of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Download

      Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Input

      Output

      • Your risk events menu
      • Your list of people involved in risk management
      • Your contextual risks

      Materials

      Participants

      • Project Risk Management Workbook
      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.
      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      2.3.2 Contextual risks

      Example

      two tables for Contextual risks. Table 1: Risk identification with event name, risk cause, impact and risk owner. Table 2: shows probability of risk, impact, rating, recommended action, and any mitigations.

      2.3.3 Determine process risks

      0.5-1 hour

      1. Process risks are those that involve project sponsorship, project management, business and functional requirements, work assignment, communication, and/or visibility.
      2. Fill out process risks.
      3. Record the process risks in section 2.6 of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Download

      Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Input

      Output

      • Your risk events menu
      • Your list of people involved in risk management
      • Your process risks

      Materials

      Participants

      • Project Risk Management Workbook
      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.
      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      2.3.3 Process risks

      Example

      two tables for Process risks. Table 1: Risk identification with event name, risk cause, impact and risk owner. Table 2: shows probability of risk, impact, rating, recommended action, and any mitigations.

      2.3.4 Determine business risks

      0.5-1 hour

      1. Business risks are those that affect the bottom line of the organization. They usually have implications on revenue, costs, and/or image.
      2. Fill out business risks.
      3. Record the business risks in section 2.7 of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Download

      Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Input

      Output

      • Your risk events menu
      • Your list of people involved in risk management
      • Your business risks

      Materials

      Participants

      • Project Risk Management Workbook
      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.
      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      2.3.4 Business risks

      Example

      two tables for Business risks. Table 1: Risk identification with event name, risk cause, impact and risk owner. Table 2: shows probability of risk, impact, rating, recommended action, and any mitigations.

      2.3.5 Determine change risks

      0.5-1 hour

      1. Change risks are those that result from imposing changes on the people and customers of the organization and their daily routines.
      2. Fill change risks.
      3. Record the change risks in section 2.7 of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Download Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Input

      Output

      • Your risk events menu
      • Your list of people involved in risk management
      • Your business risks

      Materials

      Participants

      • Project Risk Management Workbook
      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.
      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      2.3.5 Change risks

      Example

      two tables for Change risks. Table 1: Risk identification with event name, risk cause, impact and risk owner. Table 2: shows probability of risk, impact, rating, recommended action, and any mitigations.

      Step 2.4

      Identify the project team

      Activities

      2.4.1 Establish team composition

      2.4.2 Identify the team

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      Outcomes of this step

      Steps to get your project team ready

      Understand the unique external resource considerations for the implementation

      Organizations rarely have sufficient internal staffing to resource an enterprise software implementation project entirely on their own. Consider the options for closing the gap in internal resource availability.

      The most common project resourcing structures for enterprise projects are:

      1. Management consultant
      2. Vendor consultant
      3. System integrator

      When contemplating a resourcing structure, consider:

      • Availability of in-house implementation competencies and resources.
      • Timeline and cost constraints.
      • Integration environment complexity.

      CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING

      Internal Vs. External Roles and Responsibilities

      Clearly delineate between internal and external team responsibilities and accountabilities and communicate this to your technology partner upfront.

      Internal Vs. External Accountabilities

      Accountability is different than responsibility. Your vendor or SI partner may be responsible for completing certain tasks, but be careful not to outsource accountability for the implementation – ultimately, the internal team will be accountable.

      Partner Implementation Methodologies

      Often vendors and/or SIs will have their own preferred implementation methodology. Consider the use of your partner’s implementation methodology; however, you know what will work for your organization.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Selecting a partner is not just about capabilities, it’s about compatibility! Ensure you select a partner that has a culture compatible with your own.

      2.4.1 Establish team composition

      0.5-1 hour

      1. Assess the skills necessary for an enterprise implementation.
      2. Select your internal implementation team.
      3. Identify the number of external consultants/support required for implementation.
      4. Document the roles and responsibilities, accountabilities, and other expectations as they relate to each step of the implementation.
      5. Record the team composition in section 2.9 of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Download

      Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Input

      Output

      • List of project team skills
      • Your team composition
      • Your business risks

      Materials

      Participants

      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.
      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      2.4.1 Team composition

      Example

      Team composition: Role of each team member, and their skills.

      2.4.2 Identify the team

      0.5-1 hour

      1. Identify a candidate for each role and determine their responsibility in the project and their expected time commitment.
      2. The project will require a cross-functional team within IT and business units. Make sure the responsibilities are clearly communicated to the selected project sponsor.
      3. Create a RACI matrix for the project.
      4. Record the team list in section 2.10 of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Download

      Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Input

      Output

      • Your team composition
      • Your team with responsibilities and commitment

      Materials

      Participants

      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.
      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      2.4.2 Team list

      Example

      Team list: Role of each team member, candidate, responsibilities, and their commitment in hours per week.

      RACI example

      RACI example. Responsibilities and team member roles that are tasked with each responsibility.

      Step 2.5

      Define your change management process

      Activities

      2.5.1 Define OCM structure and resources

      2.5.2 Define OCM team’s roles and responsibilities

      2.5.3 Define requirements for training

      2.5.4 Create a communications plan for stakeholder groups, and delivery teams

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      Outcomes of this step

      A structure and procedures for an effective organizational change management

      Define your change management process to improve quality and adoption

      Organizational change management is the practice through which the PMO can improve user adoption rates and maximize project benefits.

      Correlation of change management effectiveness with meeting results.

      “It’s one thing to provide a new technology tool to your end users.

      It’s quite another to get them to use the tool, and still different for them to use the new tool proficiently.

      When your end users fully use a new technology and make it part of their daily work habits, they have ‘adopted’ the new tool.”

      – “End-User Adoption and Change Management Process” (2022)

      Large projects require organizational change management

      Organizational change management (OCM) governs the introduction of new business processes and technologies to ensure stakeholder adoption. The purpose of OCM is to prepare the business to accept the change.

      OCM is a separate body of knowledge. However, as a practice, it is inseparable from project management.

      In IT, project planning tends to fixate on technology, and it underestimates the behavioral and cultural factors that inhibit user adoption. Whether change is project-specific or continuous, it’s more important to instill the desire to change than to apply specific tools and techniques.

      Accountability for instilling this desire should start with the project sponsor. The project manager should support this with effective stakeholder and communication management plans.

      16% of projects with poor change management met or exceeded objectives. 71% of projects with excellent change management finish on or ahead of schedule. 67% of organizations include project change management in their initiatives.

      For further discussion on organizational change, use Info-Tech’s blueprint, Master Organizational Change Management Practices

      Your application implementation will be best served by centralizing OCM

      A centralized approach to OCM is most effective, and the PMO is already a centralized project office and is already accountable for project outcomes.

      What’s more, in organizations where accountabilities for OCM are not explicitly defined, the PMO will likely already be assumed to be the default change leader by the wider organization.

      It makes sense for the PMO to accept this accountability – in the short term at least – and claim the benefits that will come from coordinating and consistently driving successful project outcomes.

      In the long term, OCM leadership will help the PMO become a strategic partner with the executive layer and the business side.

      Short-term gains made by the PMO can be used to spark dialogues with those who authorize project spending and have the implicit fiduciary obligation to drive project benefits.

      Ultimately, it’s their job to explicitly transfer that obligation along with the commensurate resourcing and authority for OCM activities.

      Organizational resistance to change is cited as the #1 challenge to project success that PMOs face. Companies with mature PMOs that effectively manage change meet expectations 90% of the time.

      For further discussion on organizational change, use Info-Tech’s blueprint, Master Organizational Change Management Practices

      2.5.1 Define OCM structure and resources

      0.5-1 hour

      1. Assess the roles and resources that might be needed to help support these OCM efforts.
      2. Record the OCM structure in section 2.11 of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Download

      Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Input

      Output

      • Your project objectives
      • Your OCM structure and resources

      Materials

      Participants

      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.
      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      2.5.1 OCM structure and resources

      Example

      OCM structure example. Table showing OCM activity and resources available to support.

      2.5.2 Define OCM team’s roles and responsibilities

      0.5-1 hour

      1. Assess the tasks required for the team.
      2. Determine roles and responsibilities.
      3. Record the results in the RACI matrix in section 2.13 of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Download

      Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Input

      Output

      • Your communications timeline
      • Your OCM structure and resources
      • Your OCM plan and RACI matrix

      Materials

      Participants

      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.
      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      OCM team’s roles and responsibilities

      Example

      Responsibilities for OCM team members.

      2.5.3 Define requirements for training

      0.5-1 hour

      1. Analyze HR requirements to ensure efficient use of HR and project stakeholder time.
      2. Outline appropriate HR and training activities.
      3. Define training content and make key logistical decisions concerning training delivery for staff and users.
      4. Record training requirements in section 2.14 of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Download

      Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Input

      Output

      • Your OCM Plan and RACI matrix
      • Your HR training needs

      Materials

      Participants

      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.
      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      2.5.3 Training requirements

      Example

      Training requirements example: Project milestones, milestone time frame, hr/training activities, activity timing, and notes.

      Project communication plans must address creation, flow, deposition, and security of project information

      A good communication management plan is like the oil that keeps moving parts going. Ensuring smooth information flow is a fundamental aspect of project management.

      Project communication management is more than keeping track of stakeholder requirements. A communication management plan must address timely and appropriate creation, flow, and deposition of information about the project – as well as the security of the information.

      Create:

      • In addition to standardized status reporting elements discussed for level 1 projects, level 2 and 3 projects may require additional information to be disseminated among key stakeholders and the PMO.

      Flow:

      • The plan must address the methods of communication. Distributed project teams require more careful planning, as they pose additional communication challenges.

      Deposit:

      • As the volume of information continues to grow exponentially, retrieving information becomes a challenge. The plan for depositing project information must be consistent with your organization’s content management policies.

      Security:

      • Preventing unauthorized access and information leaks is important for projectsthat are intended to provide the organization with a competitive edge or for projects that deal with confidential data.
      45% of organizations had established mature communications and engagement processes.

      2.5.4 Create a communications timeline

      0.5-1 hour

      1. Base your change communications on your organization’s cultural appetite for change in general.
      2. Document communications plan requirements.
      3. Create a high-level communications timeline.
      4. Tailor a communications strategy for each stakeholder group.
      5. Record the communications timeline in section 2.12 of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Download

      Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Input

      Output

      • Your OCM structure and resources
      • Your project objectives
      • Your project scope
      • Your stakeholders’ management plan
      • Your communications timeline

      Materials

      Participants

      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.
      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      Example of communications timeline

      Project sponsors are the most compelling storytellers to communicate the change

      Example of project communications timeline. Planning, requirements, design, development, QA, deployment, warranty, and benefits/closure.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Communication with stakeholders and sponsors is not a single event, but a continual process throughout the lifecycle of the project implementation – and beyond!

      Phase 3

      Document your plan

      3 phases, phase 3 is highlighted.

      This phase will walk you through the following activities:

      3.1 Develop a master project plan

      3.2. Define a follow-up plan

      3.3. Define the follow-up process

      3.4. Understand what’s next

      This phase involves the following participants:

      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      Step 3.1

      Develop a master project plan

      Activities

      3.1.1 Define your implementation steps

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      Outcomes of this step

      Steps to create your resourcing and master plans

      Resources Vs. Demand

      Organizations rarely have sufficient internal staffing to resource an enterprise software implementation project entirely on their own. Consider the options for closing the gap in internal resource availability.

      Project demand: Data classification, cloud strategy, application rationalization, recovery planning etc. must be weighted against the organizations internal staffing resources.

      Competing priorities

      Example

      Table for competing priorities: List of projects, their timeline, priority notes, and their implications.

      3.1.1 Define your implementation steps

      0.5-1 hour

      1. Write each phase of the project on a separate sticky note and add it to the whiteboard. Determine what steps make up each phase. Write each step of the phase on a separate sticky note and add it to the whiteboard.
      2. Determine what tasks make up each step. Write each task of the step on a separate sticky note and add it to the whiteboard.
      3. Record the tasks in the Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook – Timeline tool. This tool has an example of a typical list of tasks, to help you start your master plan. Use the timeline for project planning and progress tracking.
      4. Record your project’s basic data and work schedule.

      Download

      Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Input

      Output

      • Project's work breakdown structure
      • Your project master plan

      Materials

      Participants

      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      Implementation plan – basic data

      Record your project name, project manager, and stakeholders from previous exercises.

      Example project information form: Project name, estimated start date, estimated end date, project manager, stakeholders, and time off of project.

      Implementation plan – work schedule

      Use this template to keep track of all project tasks, dates, owners, dependencies, etc.

      Use this template to keep track of all project tasks, dates, owners, dependencies, etc.

      “Actual Start Date” and “Actual Completion Date” columns must be updated to be reflected in the Gantt chart.

      This information will also be captured as the source for session 3.2.1 dashboards.

      Step 3.2

      Define a follow up plan

      Activities

      3.2.1 Create templates to enable follow-up throughout the project

      3.2.2 Decide on the tracking tools to help during your implementation

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      Outcomes of this step

      Steps to create the processes and define the tools to track progress

      Leveraging dashboards

      Build a dashboard that reflects the leading metrics you have identified. Call out requirements that represent key milestones in the implementation.

      For further information on monitoring the project, use Info-Tech’s blueprint, Governance and Management of Enterprise Software Implementation

      Build a dashboard that reflects the leading metrics you have identified. Call out requirements that represent key milestones in the implementation.

      3.2.1 Create templates to enable follow-up throughout the project

      0.5-1 hour

      1. Create status report, dashboards/charts, budget control, risk/issues/gaps templates, and change request forms.
      2. Build a dashboard that reflects the leading metrics you have identified.
      3. Call out requirements that represent key milestones in the implementation.

      Download

      Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Input

      Output

      • Your projects master plan
      • Your project follow-up kit

      Materials

      Participants

      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      Dashboards

      Based on the inputs in session 3.1.1 Define Your Implementation Steps, once the “Actual Start Date” and “Actual Completion Date” columns have been updated, this dashboard will present the project status and progress

      Based on the inputs in session 3.1.1 Define Your Implementation Steps, once the “Actual Start Date” and “Actual Completion Date” columns have been updated, this dashboard will present the project status and progress.

      This executive overview of the project's progress is meant to be used during the status meeting.

      Select the right tools

      Use SoftwareReviews to explore product features, vendor experience, and capability satisfaction.

      SoftwareReviews, Requirements Management, 2023

      SoftwareReviews, Project Management, 2023

      SoftwareReviews, Business Intelligence & Analytics, 2023

      3.2.2 Decide on the tracking tools to help during your implementation

      0.5-1 hour

      1. Based on the standards within your organization, select the appropriate project tracking tools to help you track the implementation project.
      2. If you do not have any tools or wish to change them, please see leverage Info-Tech’s SoftwareReviews to help you in making your decision.
      3. Consider tooling across a number of different categories:
        1. Requirements Management
        2. Project Management
        3. Reporting and Analytics
      4. Record the project tracking tools in section 3.3 of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Download

      Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Input

      Output

      • Your project follow-up kit
      • Your project follow-up kit tools

      Materials

      Participants

      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      Example: project tools

      Table listing project tools by type, use, and products available.

      Step 3.3

      Define a follow-up process

      Activities

      3.3.1 Define project progress communication

      3.3.2 Create a change request process

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      Outcomes of this step

      Steps to create your follow-up process

      Project status updates should occur throughout the implementation

      Project status updates can be both formal and informal. Formal status updates provide a standardized means of disseminating information on project progress. It is the lifeblood of project management: Accurate and up-to-date status reporting enables your project manager to ensure that your project can continue to use the resources needed.

      Informal status updates are done over coffee with key stakeholders to address their concerns and discuss key outcomes they want to see. Informal status updates help to build a more personal relationship.

      Ask for feedback during the status update meetings. Use the meeting as an opportunity to align values, goals, and incentives.

      Codify the following considerations:

      • Minimum requirement for a formal status update:
        • Frequency of reporting, as required by the project portfolio
        • Parties to be consulted and informed
        • Recording, producing, and archiving meeting minutes, both formal and informal
      • Procedure for follow-up on feedback generated from status updates:
        • Filing change requests
        • Keeping the change requester/relevant stakeholders in the loop

      3.3.1 Define project progress communication

      0.5-1 hour

      1. Provide a standardized means of disseminating information on project progress.
      2. Create an accurate and up-to-date status report to help keep team engaged and leadership supporting the project.
      3. Record the project progress communication in section 3.5 of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Download

      Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Input

      Output

      • Your project follow-up process
      • Your project progress communication

      Materials

      Participants

      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.
      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      Project progress communication

      Example

      Example table of project progress communication. Audience, purpose, delivery/format, communicator, delivery date, and status/notes.

      Manage project scope changes

      1. Change in project scope is unpredictable and almost inevitable regardless of project size. If changes are not properly managed, the project runs the risk of scope creep and loss of progress. Therefore, changes need to be monitored and controlled.
      2. Scope change can be initiated voluntarily by the project sponsor or other stakeholders, or it could be a mandatory reaction to changing project process.
      3. Scope change may also take place due to internal factors such as a stakeholder requiring more extensive insights or external factors such as changing market conditions.
      4. Scope changes have the potential to affect project outcomes either positively or negatively, depending on how the change is managed and implemented. The project manager should take care to maintain focus on the project’s ultimate objectives; consideration needs to be given as to what to do and what to give up.
      5. If changes arise, project managers should ensure that adequate resources and actions are provided so the project can be completed on time and on budget.
      • The project manager needs to use both hard and soft skills: analytical skills for evaluating and quantifying the impact of potential changes and communication skills for communicating and negotiating with stakeholders.
      • Build trust and credibility by taking an evidence-based approach when presenting changes. This gives you room to respectfully push back on certain changes.
      • Assess changes before crossing them off the list, but don’t be afraid to say no. Greater care must be taken when there is very limited budgetary freedom or when scope changes will interfere with the critical path.
      • All change requests must be received by the project manager first so they can make sure that IT project resources are not approached with multiple ad hoc change requests.

      Document your process to manage project change requests

      1 Initial assessment

      Using the scope statement as the reference point:

      • Why do we need the change?
      • Is the change necessary?
      • What is the business value that the change brings to the project?

      Recommend alternative solutions that are easier to implement while consulting the requester.

      2 Minor change

      If the change has been classified as minor, the project manager and the project team can tackle it directly, since it doesn’t affect project budget or schedule in a significant way. Ensure that the change is documented.

      3 conduct an in-depth assessment

      The project manager should bring major changes to the attention of the project sponsor and carry out a detailed assessment of the change and its impact.

      Additional time and resources are required to do the in-depth assessment because the impact on the project can be complex and affect requirements, resources, budget, and schedule.

      4 Obtain approval from the governing body

      Present the results to the governing body. Since a major change significantly affects the project baseline beyond the authorized contingency, it is the responsibility of the governing body to either approve the change with allocation of additional resources or reject the change and maintain course.

      Flow chart to document your process to manage project change requests.

      For further discussion on change requests, use Info-Tech’s blueprint, Begin Your Projects With the End in Mind

      3.3.2 Create a change request process

      0.5-1 hour

      1. Identify any existing processes that you have for addressing changes for projects.
      2. Discuss whether or not the current change request process will suit the project at hand.
      3. Define the agreed-to change request process that fits your organization’s culture.
      4. For a change request template, you can leverage, refer to section 3.6 of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.
      5. Make any changes to the template as necessary.

      Download

      Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Input

      Output

      • Your project scope
      • Your change request

      Materials

      Participants

      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      3.3.2 Create a change request process (Continued)

      Example of a change request process form.

      Step 3.4

      Understand what's next

      Activities

      3.4.1 Run a “lessons learned” session for continuous improvement

      3.4.2 Prepare a closure document for sign-off

      3.4.3 Document optimization and future release opportunities

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      Outcomes of this step

      Lessons learned throughout the project-guiding

      Good project planning is key to smooth project closing

      Begin with the end in mind. Without a clear scope statement and criteria for acceptance, it’s anyone’s guess when or how a project will end.

      During the closing process, the project manager should use planning and execution documents, such as the project charter and the scope statement, to assess project completeness and obtain sign-off based on the acceptance criteria.

      Project completion criteria should be clearly defined. For example, the project is defined as finished when costs are in, vendor receipts are received, financials are reviewed and approved, etc.

      However, there are other steps to be taken after completing the project deliverables. These activities include:

      • Transferring project knowledge and operations to support
      • Completing user training
      • Obtaining business sign-off and acceptance
      • Releasing resources
      • Conducting post-mortem meeting
      • Archiving project assets

      The project manager needs to complete all project management processes, including:

      • Risk management (close out risk assessment and action plan)
      • Quality management (test the final deliverables against acceptance criteria)
      • Stakeholder management (decision log, close out issues, plan and assign owners for resolutions of open issues)
      • Project team management (performance evaluation for team members as well as the project manager)

      3.4.1 Define the process for lessons learned

      0.5-1 hour

      1. Determine the reporting frequency for lessons learned.
      2. Consider attributing lessons learned to project phases.
      3. Coordinate lessons learned check-ins with project milestones to review and reflect.
      4. At each reporting session, the project team should identify challenges and successes informally.
      5. The PM and the PMO should transform the reports from each team member into formalized lessons.
      6. Record lessons learned for each project in section 3.7 of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Download

      Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Input

      Output

      • Your project's lessons learned

      Materials

      Participants

      • Project Lessons Learned Template
      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.
      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      Lessons learned

      Example

      Form: Project successes, notes, areas of imporvement, impact, solution.

      Watch for these potential problems with project closure

      Don’t leave the door open for stakeholder dissatisfaction. Properly close out your projects.

      Potential problems with project closure.

      For further information on project closure issues, use Info-Tech’s blueprint, Get Started With Project Management Excellence.

      3.4.2 Prepare a closure document for sign-off

      0.5-1 hour

      1. Create a realistic closure and transition process that gains sign-off from the sponsor.
      2. Prepare a project closure checklist.
      3. Transfer accountability to operations, release project resources, and avoid disrupting other projects that are trying to get started.
      4. Record the project closure document in section 3.8 of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Download

      Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Input

      Output

      • Your project objectives
      • Your project scope
      • Your project's closure checklist

      Materials

      Participants

      • Project closure checklist Template
      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.
      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      Closure checklist

      Project closure checklist. project management checklist, deliverables, goals, benefits, outstanding action items and issues, handover of technical documents, knowledge transfer, sign-off.

      For further information on closure procedures, use Info-Tech’s blueprint, Begin Your Projects With the End in Mind.

      3.4.3 Document optimization and future release opportunities

      0.5-1 hour

      Consider the future opportunities for improvement post-release:

      1. Product and vendor satisfaction opportunities
      2. Capability and feature optimization opportunities
      3. Process optimization opportunities
      4. Integration optimization opportunities
      5. Data optimization opportunities
      6. Cost-saving opportunities
      7. Record optimization and future release opportunities in section 3.9 of Info-Tech’s Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Download

      Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.

      Input

      Output

      • Your project objectives
      • Your project scope
      • Your optimization opportunities list

      Materials

      Participants

      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook.
      • Project team
      • Operations
      • SMEs
      • Team lead and facilitators
      • IT leaders

      Optimization opportunities

      Example

      Optimization types and opportunities.

      Related Info-Tech Research

      Build upon your foundations

      Build an ERP Strategy and Roadmap

      • A business-led, top-management-supported initiative partnered with IT has the greatest chance of success. This blueprint provides business and IT the methodology for getting the right level of detail for the business processes that the ERP supports thus avoiding getting lost in the details.

      Governance and Management of Enterprise Software Implementation

      • Implementing enterprise software is hard. You need a framework that will greatly improve your chance of success. Traditional Waterfall project implementations have a demonstrated a low success rate for on-time, on-budget delivery.

      Select and Implement a Human Resource Information System

      • Your organization is in the midst of a selection and implementation process for a human resource information system (HRIS), and there is a need to disambiguate the market and arrive at a shortlist of vendors.

      Select and Implement an ERP Solution

      • Selecting and implementing an ERP is one of the most expensive and time-consuming technology transformations an organization can undertake. ERP projects are notorious for time and budget overruns, with only a margin of the anticipated benefits being realized.

      Right-Size Your Project Risk Investment

      • Avoid the all-or-nothing mindset; even modest investments in risk will provide a return. Learn from and record current and historical risk events so lessons learned can easily be embedded into future projects. Assign someone to own the risk topic and make it their job to keep a relevant menu of risks.

      Related Info-Tech Research

      Build upon your foundations

      Drive Business Value With a Right-Sized Project Gating Process

      • Many organizations have implemented gating as part of their project management process. So, what separates those who are successful from those who are not? For starters, successful gating requires that each gate is treated as an essential audit. That means there need to be clear roles and responsibilities in the framework.

      Master Organizational Change Management Practices

      • Organizational change management (OCM) is often an Achilles’ heel for IT departments and business units, putting projects and programs at risk – especially large, complex, transformational projects.

      Get Started With Project Management Excellence

      • Lack of proper scoping at the beginning of the project leads to constant rescoping, rescheduling, and budget overruns.

      ERP Requirements Picklist Tool

      • Use this tool to collect ERP requirements in alignment with the major functional areas of ERP. Review the existing set of ERP requirements as a starting point to compiling your organization's requirements.

      Begin Your Projects With the End in Mind

      • Stakeholders are dissatisfied with IT’s inability to meet or even provide consistent, accurate estimates. The business’ trust in IT erodes every time a project is late, lost, or unable to start.

      Get Started With IT Project 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.

      Bibliography

      7 Shocking Project Management Statistics and Lessons We Should Learn.” TeamGantt, Jan. 2017.

      Akrong, Godwin Banafo, et al. "Overcoming the Challenges of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): A Systematic Review Approach." IJEIS vol.18, no.1 2022: pp.1-41.

      Andriole, S. “Why No One Can Manage Projects, Especially Technology Projects.” Forbes, 1 Dec. 2020.

      Andriole, Steve. “Why No One Can Manage Projects, Especially Technology Projects.” Forbes, 1 Dec. 2020.

      Beeson, K. “ERP Implementation Plan (ERP Implementation Process Guide).” ERP Focus, 8 Aug. 2022.

      Biel, Justin. “60 Critical ERP Statistics: 2022 Market Trends, Data and Analysis.” Oracle Netsuite, 12 July 2022.

      Bloch, Michael, et al. “Delivering Large-Scale IT Projects on Time, on Budget, and on Value.” McKinsey & Company, 2012.

      Buverud, Heidi. ERP System Implementation: How Top Managers' Involvement in a Change Project Matters. 2019. Norwegian School of Economics, Ph.D. thesis.

      Carlton, R. “Four ERP Implementation Case Studies You Can Learn From.” ERP Focus, 15 July 2015.

      Gopinath, S. Project Management in the Emerging World of Disruption. PMI India Research and Academic Conference 2019. Kozhikode Publishers.

      Grabis, J. “On-Premise or Cloud Enterprise Application Deployment: Fit-Gap Perspective.” Enterprise Information Systems. Edited by Filipe, J., Śmiałek, M., Brodsky, A., Hammoudi, S. ICEIS, 2019.

      Harrin, E. The Definitive Guide to Project Sponsors. RGPM, 13 Dec. 2022.

      Jacobs-Long, Ann. “EPMO’s Can Make A Difference In Your Organization.” 9 May 2012.

      Kotadia, C. “Challenges Involved in Adapting and Implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems.” International Journal of Research and Review vol. 7 no. 12 December 2020: 538-548.

      Panorama Consulting Group. "2018 ERP Report." Panorama Consulting Group, 2018. Accessed 12 Oct. 2021.

      Panorama Consulting Group. "2021 ERP Report." Panorama Consulting Group, 2021. Accessed 12 Oct. 2021.

      PM Solutions. (2014). The State of the PMO 2014.

      PMI. Pulse of the Profession. 2017.

      Podeswa, H. “The Business Case for Agile Business Analysis.” Requirements Engineering Magazine, 21 Feb. 2017.

      Project Delivery Performance in Australia. AIPM and KPMG, 2020.

      Prosci. (2020). Prosci 2020 Benchmarking Data from 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019.

      Swartz, M. “End User Adoption and Change Management Process.” Swartz Consulting LLC, 11 July 2022.

      Trammell, H. “28 Important Project Management KPIs (& How To Track Them).” ClearPoint Strategy, 2022.

      “What are Business Requirements?" Requirements.com, 18 Oct. 2018.

      “What Is the Role of a Project Sponsor?” Six Sigma Daily, 18 May 2022.

      “When Will You Think Differently About Programme Delivery?” 4th Global Portfolio and Programme Management Survey. PricewaterhouseCoopers, Sept. 2014.

      Create an IT View of the Service Catalog

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}396|cart{/j2store}
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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

      Position IT to Support and Be a Leader in Open Data Initiatives

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}326|cart{/j2store}
      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 10.0/10 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: Innovation
      • Parent Category Link: /innovation
      • Open data programs are often seen as unimportant or not worth taking up space in the budget in local government.
      • Open data programs are typically owned by a single open data evangelist who works on it as a side-of-desk project.
      • Having a single resource spend a portion of their time on open data doesn’t allow the open data program to mature to the point that local governments are realizing benefits from it.
      • It is difficult to gain buy-in for open data as it is hard to track the benefits of an open data program.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Local government can help push the world towards being more open, unlocking economic benefits for the wider economy.
      • Cities don’t know the solutions to all of their problems often they don’t know all of the problems they have. Release data as a platform to crowdsource solutions and engage your community.
      • Build your open data policies in collaboration with the community. It’s their data, let them shape the way it’s used!

      Impact and Result

      • Level-set expectations for your open data program. Every local government is different in terms of the benefits they can achieve with open data; ensure the business understands what is realistic to achieve.
      • Create a team of open data champions from departments outside of IT. Identify potential champions for the team and use this group to help gain greater business buy-in and gather feedback on the program’s direction.
      • Follow the open data maturity model in order to assess your current state, identify a target state, and assess capability gaps that need to be improved upon.
      • Use industry best practices to develop an open data policy and processes to help improve maturity of the open data program and reach your desired target state.
      • Identify metrics that you can use to track, and communicate the success of, the open data program.

      Position IT to Support and Be a Leader in Open Data Initiatives Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should develop your open data 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. Set the foundation for the success of your open data program

      Identify your open data program's current state maturity, and gain buy-in from the business for the program.

      • Position IT to Support and Be a Leader in Open Data Initiatives – Phase 1: Set the Foundation for the Success of Your Open Data Program
      • Open Data Maturity Assessment
      • Open Data Program – IT Stakeholder Powermap Template
      • Open Data in Our City Stakeholder Presentation Template

      2. Grow the maturity of your open data program

      Identify a target state maturity and reach it through building a policy and processes and the use of metrics.

      • Position IT to Support and Be a Leader in Open Data Initiatives – Phase 2: Grow the Maturity of Your Open Data Program
      • Open Data Policy Template
      • Open Data Process Template
      • Open Data Process Descriptions Template
      • Open Data Process Visio Templates (Visio)
      • Open Data Process Visio Templates (PDF)
      • Open Data Metrics Template
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Position IT to Support and Be a Leader in Open Data Initiatives

      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 Business Drivers for Open Data Program

      The Purpose

      Ensure that the open data program is being driven out from the business in order to gain business support.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Identify drivers for the open data program that are coming directly from the business.

      Activities

      1.1 Understand constraints for the open data program.

      1.2 Conduct interviews with the business to gain input on business drivers and level-set expectations.

      1.3 Develop list of business drivers for open data.

      Outputs

      Defined list of business drivers for the open data program

      2 Assess Current State and Define Target State of the Open Data Program

      The Purpose

      Understand the gaps between where your program currently is and where you want it to be.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Identify top processes for improvement in order to bring the open data program to the desired target state maturity.

      Activities

      2.1 Perform current state maturity assessment.

      2.2 Define desired target state with business input.

      2.3 Highlight gaps between current and target state.

      Outputs

      Defined current state maturity

      Identified target state maturity

      List of top processes to improve in order to reach target state maturity

      3 Develop an Open Data Policy

      The Purpose

      Develop a draft open data policy that will give you a starting point when building your policy with the community.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      A draft open data policy will be developed that is based on best-practice standards.

      Activities

      3.1 Define the purpose of the open data policy.

      3.2 Establish principles for the open data program.

      3.3 Develop a rough governance outline.

      3.4 Create a draft open data policy document based on industry best-practice examples.

      Outputs

      Initial draft of open data policy

      4 Develop Open Processes and Identify Metrics

      The Purpose

      Build open data processes and identify metrics for the program in order to track benefits realization.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Formalize processes to set in place to improve the maturity of the open data program.

      Identify metrics that can track the success of the open data program.

      Activities

      4.1 Develop the roles that will make up the open data program.

      4.2 Create processes for new dataset requests, updates of existing datasets, and the retiring of datasets.

      4.3 Identify metrics that will be used for measuring the success of the open data program.

      Outputs

      Initial draft of open data processes

      Established metrics for the open data program

      Build an IT Employee Engagement Program

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      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 9.2/10 Overall Impact
      • member rating average dollars saved: $5,734 Average $ Saved
      • member rating average days saved: 8 Average Days Saved
      • Parent Category Name: Engage
      • Parent Category Link: /engage
      • IT’s performance and stakeholder satisfaction with IT services hinge on IT’s ability to attract and retain top talent and to motivate teams to go above and beyond.
      • With the growing IT job market, turnover is a serious threat to IT’s ability to deliver seamless value and continuously drive innovation.
      • Engagement initiatives are often seen as being HR’s responsibility; however, IT leadership needs to take accountability for the retention and productivity of their employees in order to drive business value.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Engagement is a two-way street. Initiatives must address a known need and be actively sought by employees – not handed down from management.
      • Engagement initiatives are useless unless they target the right issues. It can be tempting to focus on the latest perks and gadgets and ignore difficult issues. Use a systematic approach to uncover and tackle the real problems.
      • It’s time for IT leadership to step up. IT leaders have a much bigger impact on IT staff engagement than HR ever can. Leverage this power to lead your team to peak performance.

      Impact and Result

      • Info-Tech engagement diagnostics and accompanying tools will help you perform a deep dive into the root causes of disengagement on your team.
      • The guidance that accompanies Info-Tech’s tools will help you avoid common engagement program pitfalls and empower IT leaders to take charge of their own team’s engagement.

      Build an IT Employee Engagement Program Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to discover why engagement is critical to IT performance, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand how our tools will help you construct an effective employee engagement program.

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

      1. Measure employee engagement

      Use Info-Tech's Pulse or Full Engagement Surveys to measure employee engagement.

      • Improve Employee Engagement to Drive IT Performance – Phase 1: Measure Employee Engagement
      • Engagement Strategy Record
      • Engagement Communication Template

      2. Analyze results and ideate solutions

      Understand the drivers of engagement that are important for your team, and involve your staff in brainstorming engagement initiatives.

      • Improve Employee Engagement to Drive IT Performance – Phase 2: Analyze Results and Ideate Solutions
      • Engagement Survey Results Interpretation Guide
      • Full Engagement Survey Focus Group Facilitation Guide
      • Pulse Engagement Survey Focus Group Facilitation Guide
      • Focus Group Facilitation Guide Driver Definitions
      • One-on-One Manager Meeting Worksheet

      3. Select and implement engagement initiatives

      Select engagement initiatives for maximal impact, create an action plan, and establish open and ongoing communication about engagement with your team.

      • Improve Employee Engagement to Drive IT Performance – Phase 3: Select and Implement Engagement Initiatives
      • Summary of Interdepartmental Engagement Initiatives
      • Engagement Progress One-Pager
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Build an IT Employee Engagement 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 (Preparation) Run Engagement Survey

      The Purpose

      Select and run your engagement survey prior to the workshop.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Receive an in-depth report on your team’s engagement drivers to form the basis of your engagement strategy.

      Activities

      1.1 Select engagement survey.

      1.2 Identify engagement program goals and metrics.

      1.3 Run engagement survey.

      Outputs

      Full or Pulse engagement survey report

      Engagement survey results interpretation guide

      2 Explore Engagement

      The Purpose

      To understand the current state of engagement and prepare to discuss the drivers behind it with your staff.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Empower your leadership team to take charge of their own teams’ engagement.

      Activities

      2.1 Review engagement survey results.

      2.2 Finalize focus group agendas.

      2.3 Train managers.

      Outputs

      Customized focus group agendas

      3 Hold Focus Groups

      The Purpose

      Establish an open dialogue with your staff to understand what would improve their engagement.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Employee-generated initiatives have the greatest chance at success.

      Activities

      3.1 Identify priority drivers.

      3.2 Identify engagement KPIs.

      3.3 Brainstorm engagement initiatives.

      3.4 Vote on initiatives within teams.

      Outputs

      Summary of focus groups results

      Identified engagement initiatives

      Identified engagement initiatives

      4 Select and Plan Initiatives

      The Purpose

      Learn the characteristics of successful engagement initiatives and build execution plans for each.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Choose initiatives with the greatest impact on your team’s engagement, and ensure you have the necessary resources for success.

      Activities

      4.1 Select engagement initiatives with IT leadership.

      4.2 Create initiative project plans.

      4.3 Present project plans.

      4.4 Define implementation checkpoints.

      4.5 Develop communications plan.

      4.6 Define strategy for ongoing engagement monitoring.

      Outputs

      Engagement project plans

      Implementation and communication checkpoints

      Further surveys planned (optional)

      5 Additional Leadership Training

      The Purpose

      Select training modules that best address your team’s needs from Info-Tech’s modular leadership training program.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Arm your IT leadership team with the key skills of effective leadership, tailored to their existing experience level.

      Activities

      5.1 Adopting an Integrated Leadership Mindset

      5.2 Optimizing Talent Leadership Practices

      5.3 Driving Diversity & Inclusion

      5.4 Fortifying Internal Stakeholder Relations

      5.5 Engaging Executives and the Board

      5.6 Crafting Your Leadership Brand

      5.7 Crafting and Delivering Compelling Presentations

      5.8 Communication & Difficult Conversations

      5.9 Conflict Management

      5.10 Performance Management

      5.11 Feedback & Coaching

      5.12 Creating a Culture of Personal Accountability

      Outputs

      Develop the skills to lead resourcefully in times of uncertainty

      Apply leadership behaviors across enterprise initiatives to deploy and develop talent successfully

      Develop diversity and inclusion practices that turn the IT function and leaders into transformative champions of inclusion

      Identify elements of effective partnering to maximize the impact of internal interactions

      Understand the major obstacles to CEO and board relevance and uncover the keys to elevating your internal executive profile

      Develop a leadership brand statement that demonstrates leadership competency and is aligned with the brand, mission, vision, and goals of the organization

      Identify the components of effective presentations and hone your presentation skills

      Gain the skills to confront and drive solutions from difficult situations

      Develop strategies to engage in conflict constructively and reach a resolution that benefits the team or organization

      Learn to identify the root causes of low performance and develop the skills to guide employees through the process of improvement

      Adopt a behavior-focused coaching model to help managers sustain and apply effective coaching principles

      Understand how and when to encourage autonomy and how to empower employees to take success into their own hands

      Tymans Group Consulting

      Your IT performs better and more resilient.

      Discover and implement all the ingredients that make your IT perform fast and rock solid.

      Yes, I want performant and resilient technology

      And BTW, what is the ONE thing to look for in a consultant - advisor: Passion! TY brings passion to IT resilience, and achieves results for your organisation, your clients and your stakeholders.

      What is resilience, and how do I become resilient?

      Being IT resilient means that your IT operating environment can withstand or at least is prepared for any disruption. These can be planned, such as regular changes to the systems, applications, or even operational instructions, or unplanned, such as large or small incidents.

      This resiliency means your business can keep moving forward, and your clients can continue consuming your services.

      There are several components to IT resiliency. Click below, or scroll for the quick version.

      Learn more

      How can Tymans Group help you?

      It's very simple. You need someone who has hard experience.  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. 

      Ask the consulting firm: did you actually bring back a company from disaster? Did you actually bring services back to life after they failed completely? Did you lead teams to ensure that our customers could get what they needed, when they needed it? In other words, did you advise your clients on what they needed to do, before bad things happened?

      Do you have experience based on real-life issues, to ensure my teams can learn from this and prevent issues from crippling my company? Can you teach them how to address issues pro-actively? Can you teach my business based on true return on investment?

       If they can, you have a great partner (ask them for proof.) If they cannot prove it, ask me. Resilience is in my blood. 

      • Our Resilience Pack helps you on your way

        This pack contains the DIY guides that have helped many managers, specialists, business owners and even other consultants successfully implement what is needed to make your business resilient and your IT performant. You can do this! And where needed, you can get extra help from us.

        Read more

      • TY as your advisor

        This gives you our expertise on tap. You have an issue? Call us. You want to have a sparring partner to solve a problem? Call us. You are in need of a sounding board? Call us.

        TY provides advisory services as well as traditional consulting. We also execute study and revision services for your policies, standards, procedures and guidelines to ensure compliance with DORA, NIS2 and corporate requirements of both your own company and that of your clients.

        Additionally, it is an ideal companion to our Resilience Pack.

      • Focused Consulting and Implementing

        This is where you have our undivided attention and we work with you one on one until resolution. Note that there is a waiting period for this service at this time.

      What our relations tell us

      • Citigroup Manager

        As a technical consultant, Gert is an All-Star performer...  He has got many wins under his belt... His willingness to work hard, knowledge of regional systems (especially Tokyo) and Microsoft Office is well respected within the Group 

      • Sandra

        Tx for all the efforts done! Great Job! And good luck for the ones amongst you that still need to work tomorrow Grtz Sandra VB
      • Patrick A.

        Hi Gert, I'm busy documenting .... Thanks for your real friendly and careful, yet effective support :-) Patrick A.
      • Lucie VH

        During my vacation, Gert took over the management of a number of ongoing problems. Even before I actually left for my trip, he took action and proposed a number of improvements. Gert coordinated between the different stakeholders and PTA's and resolved a number of acute issues. And he did this in a very pleasant, yet effective way.
      • Dawn

        No worries. It only freaked me out for a few minutes, then I saw that the system had blocked them from doing any real damage. Thanks for the cleanup and extra measures, though! As always, you rock!
      • After a successful DRP

        Thanks for all the efforts done ans special Tx Gert for Coordinating this again!
      • A CIO

        Yet again Gert, Thanks for handling this in such a top way!
      • A Sales Manager

        Awesome Gert, I will let the team know we can close this issue!
      • Investment bank manager

        Flexibility, Adaptability, problem Solving are Gert's strong points, Exceptionally beneficial in "crisis." I can attest that Gert will always see a problem through. if he needs to hand it off, it will aways have good handoff notes. His business knowledge is good and will part of the next project.

      • Wall Street Performance Review

        As with the classes for SFC, Gert organised formal classes for all of the Research IT teams.... I would class this job as well done, given everything that was going on with Rsearch IT. 

      • Stuart B on Gert Taeymans

        Excellent technical resource. Quick help on issues and provide explanations to regional teams. Often covers for us in the evenings or when things get particularly busy.

      • Asia support to roll out global system

        Gert time in Japan was a great success. He really helped the IT group through a really difficult tume during the roll out of {the global research publishing system} and had to cover all the bases that had not been properly coverd by the previous person in Japan. Gert's visit also coincided with Stuart's joining into the Asia IT Research group. Gert was very flexible  in the hours that he worked and the lenght of time he was out in Tokyo (in the end more than 4 weeks.)

        The feedback from both the users and the IT group was VERY positive on Gertt's contribution. He was more than capabable to put across technical points to the IT team, in their language.

      • IT Director

        Gert is a knowledgeable individual who takes on additional responsibility... rapidly addressng end-user issues and developing custom solutions when needed.

      Benefits of working with Tymans Group

      • We focus on actual deliverables

        TY delivers on the IT resilience what and how. Get actionable IT, management, governance, and productivity research, insights, blueprints with templates, easy-to-use tools, and clear instructions to help you execute effectively and become IT resilient.

      • Get insights from top IT professionals

        Our TY network base constantly informs us about our IT resilience research and validates it through client experiences. TY adds to that by applying this research to real-world situations in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Europe and the US.

      • Data-driven insights

        It is tempting to use your gut instinct. Don't. Everything TY does, is data-driven. From our research to our interactions with you, we use an analytical approach to help you move forward with your key IT resilience projects.

      Features

      • Editable

        All our DIY guides consist of high-quality PowerPoint, Word, Excel, and Visio documents guiding your through every step you need to take to achieve your goal.

      • Practical

        Our content is immediately applicable because we provide you with exact steps to take so that you can implement the solution to your IT situation.

      • Details and Presentations

        Many of the guides contain both the implementation details, as well as presentation materials, where appropriate, for management. 

      • Do it yourself

        The implementation guides allow you to use your own staff to implement all the required steps.

      • Phone and Online support

        You can add TY consulting-on-tap support to your guide for an additional fee. This support includes your specific questions about the topic. It may require us to deep-dive into your specific situation, affecting the price. Contact us to discuss.

      • Guided implementations

        Should you want more comprehense help, then we offer guided workshops on most of the guides. This is a more expensive addon, where TY connects you with one or more specialist analysts who guide you through the process. Contact us to discuss your needs.

      Frequently asked questions

      • Does this work for less than 25 employees?

        Resilience is not size-dependent. That said, if you are supplying critical services to financial services firms, you may not have a choice. In that case, be prepared to up your game. Call TY in this case. We can help you fulfill third-party requirements, such as the DORA regulation.

        In other cases, if you plan to grow your company beyond 25 employees, then yes. Start with the basics through. Make sure you have a good understanding of your current challenges. 

        If you are just starting out and want to ensure that your company's processes are correct right out of the gate, it's better to give me a call so that we can start you off in the right direction without spending too much.

      • I'm a small business owner, can I do all this by myself?

        See also the above question about company size and target clients. If you have fewer than 25 employees and you are not supplying critical services to financial institutions, then maybe some of our guides are not for you. We can still help you organize your resilience, but it may be more cost-effective to use only our TY Advisory services.

        Once you grow beyond 25 employees, you will benefit from our processes. Just implement what you need. How do you know what you need? You probably already have an inkling of what is lacking in your organization. If you are unsure, please get in touch with us.

        In short, the answer is yes, and TY can help you. Once you know what you are looking for, that guide will allow you to handle it yourself. If you need help selecting the right guide, please get in touch with us.

      • Do you provide refunds?

        Before buying the DIY guides, please check out the free Executive Summary when available. If there is no Executive summary available, please contact me with any questions you have. 

        As these are downloadable products, I cannot provide any refunds, but I will help you with any exchange where you have a good reason. 

      • I bought the wrong item

        If you bought the wrong item, please contact me and we'll be happy to provide an alternative item.

      • I want more assistance

        Yes, more assistance is available.  Tymans Group can provide you with per-guide assistance or work with you on an overall strategy.

        Per-guide assistance ranges from a single phone or video consultation to guided implementation or workshop. Alternatively we can go to do-it-for-you implementation or even full-time consulting.

        Please contact me for a talk.

      I want more information to become more resilient.

      Continue reading

      Adapt Your Customer Experience Strategy to Successfully Weather COVID-19

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      • member rating average days saved: N/A
      • Parent Category Name: Customer Relationship Management
      • Parent Category Link: /customer-relationship-management
      • COVID-19 is an unprecedented global pandemic. It’s creating significant challenges across every sector.
      • Collapse of financial markets and a steep decline in consumer confidence has most firms nervous about revenue shortfalls and cash burn rates.
      • The economic impact of COVID-19 is freezing IT budgets and sharply changing IT priorities.
      • The human impact of COVID-19 is likely to lead to staffing shortfalls and knowledge gaps.
      • COVID-19 may be in play for up to two years.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      The challenges posed by the virus are compounded by the fact that consumer expectations for strong service delivery remain high:

      • Customers still expect timely, on-demand service from the businesses they engage with.
      • There is uncertainty about how to maintain strong, revenue-driving experiences when faced with the operational challenges posed by the virus.
      • COVID-19 is changing how organizations prioritize spending priorities within their CXM strategies.

      Impact and Result

      • Info-Tech recommends rapidly updating your strategy for customer experience management to ensure it can rise to the occasion.
      • Start by assessing the risk COVID-19 poses to your CXM approach and how it’ll impact marketing, sales, and customer service functions.
      • Implement actionable measures to blunt the threat of COVID-19 while protecting revenue, maintaining consistent product and service delivery, and improving the integrity of your brand. We’ll dive into five proven techniques in this brief!

      Adapt Your Customer Experience Strategy to Successfully Weather COVID-19 Research & Tools

      Start here

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should examine the impact of COVID-19 on customer experience 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:

      • Adapt Your Customer Experience Strategy to Successfully Weather COVID-19 Storyboard

      1. Assess the impact of COVID-19 on your CXM strategy

      Create a consolidated, updated view of your current customer experience management strategy and identify which elements can be capitalized on to dampen the impact of COVID-19 and which elements are vulnerabilities that the pandemic may threaten to exacerbate.

      2. Blunt the damage of COVID-19 with new CXM tactics

      Create a roadmap of business and technology initiatives through the lens of customer experience management that can be used to help your organization protect its revenue, maintain customer engagement, and enhance its brand integrity.

      [infographic]

      Human Resources Management

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}31|cart{/j2store}
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      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 9.6/10
      • member rating average dollars saved: $13,367
      • member rating average days saved: 7
      • Parent Category Name: people and Resources
      • Parent Category Link: /people-and-resources
      Talent is the differentiator; availability is not.

      Sustain and Grow the Maturity of Innovation in Your Enterprise

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}91|cart{/j2store}
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      • member rating average dollars saved: N/A
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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

      IT Governance

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      • Parent Category Name: Strategy and Governance
      • Parent Category Link: /strategy-and-governance
      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you may want to redesign your IT governance, Review our methodology, and understand how we can support you in completing this process.

      Drive Digital Transformation With Platform Strategies

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      • Parent Category Name: IT Strategy
      • Parent Category Link: /it-strategy
      • Enterprise is grappling with the challenges of existing business models and strategies not leading to desired outcomes.
      • Enterprise is struggling to remain competitive.
      • Enterprise wants to understand how to leverage platform strategies and a digital platform.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      To remain competitive enterprises must renew and refresh their business model strategies and design/develop digital platforms – this requires enterprises to:

      • Understand how digital-native enterprises are using platform business models and associated strategies.
      • Understand their core assets and strengths and how these can be leveraged for transformation.
      • Understand the core characteristics and components of a digital platform so that they can design digital platform(s) for their enterprise.
      • Ask if the client’s digital transformation (DX) strategy is aligned with a digital platform enablement strategy.
      • Ask if the enterprise has paid attention to the structure, culture, principles, and practices of platform teams.

      Impact and Result

      Organizations that implement this project will gain benefits in five ways:

      • Awareness and understanding of various platform strategies.
      • Application of specific platform strategies within the context of the enterprise.
      • Awareness of their existing business mode, core assets, value proposition, and strengths.
      • Alignment between DX themes and platform enablement themes so enterprises can develop roadmaps that gauge successful DX.
      • Design of a digital platform, including characteristics, components, and team characteristics, culture, principles, and practices.

      Drive Digital Transformation With Platform Strategies Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should consider the platform business model and a digital platform to remain competitive.

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

      1. Set goals for your platform business model

      Understand the platform business model and strategies and then set your platform business model goals.

      • Drive Digital Transformation With Platform Strategies – Phase 1: Set Goals for Your Platform Business Model
      • Business Platform Playbook

      2. Configure digital platform

      Define design goals for your digital platform. Align your DX strategy with digital platform capabilities and understand key components of the digital platform.

      • Drive Digital Transformation With Platform Strategies – Phase 2: Configure Your Digital Platform
      • Digital Platform Playbook
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Drive Digital Transformation With Platform Strategies

      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 Platform Business Model and Strategies

      The Purpose

      Understand existing business model, value proposition, and key assets.

      Understand platform business model and strategies.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Understanding the current assets helps with knowing what can be leveraged in the new business model/transformation.

      Understanding the platform strategies can help the enterprise renew/refresh their business model.

      Activities

      1.1 Document the current business model along with value proposition and key assets (that provide competitive advantage).

      1.2 Transformation narrative.

      1.3 Platform model canvas.

      1.4 Document the platform strategies in the context of the enterprise.

      Outputs

      Documentation of current business model along with value proposition and key assets (that provide competitive advantage).

      Documentation of the selected platform strategies.

      2 Planning for Platform Business Model

      The Purpose

      Understand transformation approaches.

      Understand various layers of platforms.

      Ask fundamental and evolutionary questions about the platform.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Understanding of the transformational model so that the enterprise can realize the differences.

      Understanding of the organization’s strengths and weaknesses for a DX.

      Extraction of strategic themes to plan and develop a digital platform roadmap.

      Activities

      2.1 Discuss and document decision about DX approach and next steps.

      2.2 Discuss and document high-level strategic themes for platform business model and associated roadmap.

      Outputs

      Documented decision about DX approach and next steps.

      Documented high-level strategic themes for platform business model and associated roadmap.

      3 Digital Platform Strategy

      The Purpose

      Understand the design goals for the digital platform.

      Understand gaps between the platform’s capabilities and the DX strategy.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Design goals set for the digital platform that are visible to all stakeholders.

      Gap analysis performed between enterprise’s digital strategy and platform capabilities; this helps understand the current situation and thus informs strategies and roadmaps.

      Activities

      3.1 Discuss and document design goals for digital platform.

      3.2 Discuss DX themes and platform capabilities – document the gaps.

      3.3 Discuss gaps and strategies along with timelines.

      Outputs

      Documented design goals for digital platform.

      Documented DX themes and platform capabilities.

      DX themes and platform capabilities map.

      4 Digital Platform Design: Key Components

      The Purpose

      Understanding of key components of a digital platform, including technology and teams.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Understanding of the key components of a digital platform and designing the platform.

      Understanding of the team structure, culture, and practices needed for successful platform engineering teams.

      Activities

      4.1 Confirmation and discussion on existing UX/UI and API strategies.

      4.2 Understanding of microservices architecture and filling of microservices canvas.

      4.3 Real-time stream processing data pipeline and tool map.

      4.4 High-level architectural view.

      4.5 Discussion on platform engineering teams, including culture, structure, principles, and practices.

      Outputs

      Filled microservices canvas.

      Documented real-time stream processing data pipeline and tool map.

      Documented high-level architectural view.

      Build a Data Pipeline for Reporting and Analytics

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      • Parent Category Name: Data Management
      • Parent Category Link: /data-management
      • Continuous and disruptive database design updates while trying to have one design pattern to fit all use cases.
      • Sub-par performance while loading, retrieving, and querying data.
      • You want to shorten time-to-market of the projects aimed at data delivery and consumption.
      • Unnecessarily complicated database design limits usability of the data and requires knowledge of specific data structures for their effective use.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Evolve your data architecture. Data pipeline is an evolutionary break away from the enterprise data warehouse methodology.
      • Avoid endless data projects. Building centralized all-in-one enterprise data warehouses takes forever to deliver a positive ROI.
      • Facilitate data self-service. Use-case optimized data delivery repositories facilitate data self-service.

      Impact and Result

      • Understand your high-level business capabilities and interactions across them – your data repositories and flows should be just a digital reflection thereof.
      • Divide your data world in logical verticals overlaid with various speed data progression lanes, i.e. build your data pipeline – and conquer it one segment at a time.
      • Use the most appropriate database design pattern for a given phase/component in your data pipeline progression.

      Build a Data Pipeline for Reporting and Analytics Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Build your data pipeline using the most appropriate data design patterns.

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

      1. Understand data progression

      Identify major business capabilities, business processes running inside and across them, and datasets produced or used by these business processes and activities performed thereupon.

      • Build a Data Pipeline for Reporting and Analytics – Phase 1: Understand Data Progression

      2. Identify data pipeline components

      Identify data pipeline vertical zones: data creation, accumulation, augmentation, and consumption, as well as horizontal lanes: fast, medium, and slow speed.

      • Build a Data Pipeline for Reporting and Analytics – Phase 2: Identify Data Pipeline Components

      3. Select data design patterns

      Select the right data design patterns for the data pipeline components, as well as an applicable data model industry standard (if available).

      • Build a Data Pipeline for Reporting and Analytics – Phase 3: Select Data Design Patterns
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Build a Data Pipeline for Reporting and Analytics

      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 Data Progression

      The Purpose

      Identify major business capabilities, business processes running inside and across them, and datasets produced or used by these business processes and activities performed thereupon.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Indicates the ownership of datasets and the high-level data flows across the organization.

      Activities

      1.1 Review & discuss typical pitfalls (and their causes) of major data management initiatives.

      1.2 Discuss the main business capabilities of the organization and how they interact.

      1.3 Discuss the business processes running inside and across business capabilities and the datasets involved.

      1.4 Create the Enterprise Business Process Model (EBPM).

      Outputs

      Understanding typical pitfalls (and their causes) of major data management initiatives.

      Business capabilities map

      Business processes map

      Enterprise Business Process Model (EBPM)

      2 Identify Data Pipeline Components

      The Purpose

      Identify data pipeline vertical zones: data creation, accumulation, augmentation, and consumption, as well as horizontal lanes: fast, medium, and slow speed.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Design the high-level data progression pipeline.

      Activities

      2.1 Review and discuss the concept of a data pipeline in general, as well as the vertical zones: data creation, accumulation, augmentation, and consumption.

      2.2 Identify these zones in the enterprise business model.

      2.3 Review and discuss multi-lane data progression.

      2.4 Identify different speed lanes in the enterprise business model.

      Outputs

      Understanding of a data pipeline design, including its zones.

      EBPM mapping to Data Pipeline Zones

      Understanding of multi-lane data progression

      EBPM mapping to Multi-Speed Data Progression Lanes

      3 Develop the Roadmap

      The Purpose

      Select the right data design patterns for the data pipeline components, as well as an applicable data model industry standard (if available).

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Use of appropriate data design pattern for each zone with calibration on the data progression speed.

      Activities

      3.1 Review and discuss various data design patterns.

      3.2 Discuss and select the data design pattern selection for data pipeline components.

      3.3 Discuss applicability of data model industry standards (if available).

      Outputs

      Understanding of various data design patterns.

      Data Design Patterns mapping to the data pipeline.

      Selection of an applicable data model from available industry standards.

      Achieve Digital Resilience by Managing Digital Risk

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      • Parent Category Name: Governance, Risk & Compliance
      • Parent Category Link: /governance-risk-compliance

      Businesses are expected to balance achieving innovation through initiatives that transform the organization with effective risk management. While this is nothing new, added challenges arise due to:

      • An increasingly large vendor ecosystem within which to manage risk.
      • A fragmented approach to risk management that separates cyber and IT risk from enterprise risk.
      • A rapidly growing number of threat actors and a larger attack surface.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • All risks are digital risks.
      • Manage digital risk with a collaborative approach that supports digital transformation, ensures digital resilience, and distributes responsibility for digital risk management across the organization.

      Impact and Result

      Address digital risk to build digital resilience. In the process, you will drive transformation and maintain digital trust among your employees, end users, and consumers by:

      • Defining digital risk, including primary risk categories and prevalent risk factors.
      • Leveraging industry examples to help identify external risk considerations.
      • Building a digital risk profile, addressing core risk categories, and creating a correlating plan for digital risk management.

      Achieve Digital Resilience by Managing Digital Risk Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Risk does not exist in isolation and must extend beyond your cyber and IT teams. Read our concise Executive Brief to find out how to manage digital risk to help drive digital transformation and build your organization's digital resilience.

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

      1. Redefine digital risk and resilience

      Discover an overview of what digital risk is, learn how to assess risk factors for the five primary categories of digital risk, see several industry-specific scenarios, and explore how to plan for and mitigate identified risks.

      • Achieve Digital Resilience by Managing Digital Risk – Phases 1-2
      • Digital Risk Management Charter

      2. Build your digital risk profile

      Begin building the digital risk profile for your organization, identify where your key areas of risk exposure exist, and assign ownership and accountability among the organization’s business units.

      • Digital Risk Profile Tool
      • Digital Risk Management Executive Report
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Achieve Digital Resilience by Managing Digital 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 Scope and Define Digital Risk

      The Purpose

      Develop an understanding and standard definition of what digital risk is, who it impacts, and its relevance to the organization.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Understand what digital risk means and how it differs from traditional enterprise or cybersecurity risk.

      Develop a definition of digital risk that recognizes the unique external and internal considerations of your organization.

      Activities

      1.1 Review the business context

      1.2 Review the current roles of enterprise, IT, and cyber risk management within the organization

      1.3 Define digital transformation and list transformation initiatives

      1.4 Define digital risk in the context of the organization

      1.5 Define digital resilience in the context of the organization

      Outputs

      Digital risk drivers

      Applicable definition of digital risk

      Applicable definition of digital resilience

      2 Make the Case for Digital Risk Management

      The Purpose

      Understand the roles digital risk management and your digital risk profile have in helping your organization achieve safe, transformative growth.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      An overview and understanding of digital risk categories and subsequent individual digital risk factors for the organization

      Industry considerations that highlight the importance of managing digital risk

      A structured approach to managing the categories of digital risk

      Activities

      2.1 Review and discuss industry case studies and industry examples of digital transformation and digital risk

      2.2 Revise the organization's list of digital transformation initiatives (past, current, and future)

      2.3 Begin to build your organization's Digital Risk Management Charter (with inputs from Module 1)

      2.4 Revise, customize, and complete a Digital Risk Management Charter for the organization

      Outputs

      Digital Risk Management Charter

      Industry-specific digital risks, factors, considerations, and scenarios

      The organization's digital risks mapped to its digital transformation initiatives

      3 Build Your Digital Risk Profile

      The Purpose

      Develop an initial digital risk profile that identifies the organization’s core areas of focus in managing digital risk.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      A unique digital risk profile for the organization

      Digital risk management initiatives that are mapped against the organization's current strategic initiatives and aligned to meet your digital resilience objectives and benchmarks

      Activities

      3.1 Review category control questions within the Digital Risk Profile Tool

      3.2 Complete all sections (tabs) within the Digital Risk Profile Tool

      3.3 Assess the results of your Digital Risk Profile Tool

      3.4 Discuss and assign initial weightings for ownership of digital risk among the organization's stakeholders

      Outputs

      Completion of all category tabs within the Digital Risk Profile Tool

      Initial stakeholder ownership assignments of digital risk categories

      4 Manage Your Digital Risk

      The Purpose

      Refine the digital risk management plan for the organization.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      A targeted, organization-specific approach to managing digital risk as a part of the organization's projects and initiatives on an ongoing basis

      An executive presentation that outlines digital risk management for your senior leadership team

      Activities

      4.1 Conduct brief information sessions with the relevant digital risk stakeholders identified in Module 3.

      4.2 Review and revise the organization's Digital Risk Profile as necessary, including adjusting weightings for the digital risk categories

      4.3 Begin to build an actionable digital risk management plan

      4.4 Present your findings to the organization's relevant risk leaders and executive team

      Outputs

      A finalized and assessed Digital Risk Profile Tool

      Stakeholder ownership for digital risk management

      A draft Digital Risk Management plan and Digital Risk Management Executive Report

      Streamline Application Management

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      • Parent Category Name: Maintenance
      • Parent Category Link: /maintenance
      • Today’s rapidly scaling and increasingly complex products create mounting pressure on delivery teams to release new features and changes quickly and with sufficient quality.
      • Many organizations lack the critical management capabilities to balance maintenance with new development and ensure high product value.
      • Application management is often viewed as a support function rather than an enabler of business growth. Focus and investments are only placed on management when it becomes a problem.
      • The lack of governance and practice accountability leaves application management in a chaotic state: politics take over, resources are not strategically allocated, and customers are frustrated.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • New features, fixes, and enhancements are all treated the same and managed in a single backlog. Teams need to focus on prioritizing their efforts on what is valuable to the organization, not to a single department.
      • Business integration is not optional. The business (i.e. product owners) must be represented in guiding delivery efforts and performing ongoing validation and verification of new features and changes.

      Impact and Result

      • Justify the necessity to optimize application management. Gain a grounded understanding of stakeholder objectives and validate their achievability against the current maturity of application management.
      • Strengthen backlog management practices. Obtain a holistic picture of the business and technical impacts, risks, value, complexity, and urgency of each backlog item in order to justify its priority and relevance. Apply the appropriate management approach to each software product according to its criticality and value to the business.
      • Establish and govern a repeatable process. Develop a management process with well-defined steps, quality controls, and roles and responsibilities, and instill good practices to improve the success of delivery.

      Streamline Application Management Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should sustain your application management practice, 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 priorities

      State the success criteria of your application management practice through defined objectives and metrics. Assess your maturity.

      • Streamline Application Management – Phase 1: Define Your Priorities
      • Application Management Strategy Template
      • Application Management Maturity Assessment Tool

      2. Govern application management

      Structure your application management governance model with the right process and roles. Inject product ownership into your practice.

      • Streamline Application Management – Phase 2: Govern Application Management

      3. Build your optimization roadmap

      Build your application management optimization roadmap to achieve your target state.

      • Streamline Application Management – Phase 3: Build Your Optimization Roadmap
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Streamline Application 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 Your Priorities

      The Purpose

      State the success criteria of your application management practice through defined objectives and metrics.

      Assess your maturity.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Grounded stakeholder expectations

      Application management maturity and identification of optimization opportunities

      Activities

      1.1 Set your objectives.

      1.2 Assess your maturity.

      Outputs

      Application management objectives and metrics

      Application management maturity and optimization opportunities

      2 Govern Application Management

      The Purpose

      Structure your application management governance model with the right process and roles.

      Inject product ownership into your practice.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Management approach aligned to product value and criticality

      Management techniques to govern the product backlog

      Target-state application management process and roles

      Activities

      2.1 Select your management approach.

      2.2 Manage your single product backlog.

      2.3 Optimize your management process.

      2.4 Define your management roles.

      Outputs

      Application management approach for each application

      Product backlog management practices

      Application management process

      Application management roles and responsibilities and communication flow

      3 Build Your Optimization Roadmap

      The Purpose

      Build your application management optimization roadmap to achieve your target state.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Optimization opportunities

      Application management optimization roadmap

      Activities

      3.1 Build your optimization roadmap.

      Outputs

      Application management optimization roadmap

      Mature and Scale Product Ownership

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      • Parent Category Name: Development
      • Parent Category Link: /development
      • Product owners must bridge the gap between the customers, operations, and delivery to ensure products continuously deliver increasing value.
      • Product owners are often assigned to projects or product delivery without proper support, guidance, or alignment.
      • In many organizations, the product owner role is not well-defined, serves as a proxy for stakeholder ownership, and lacks reinforcement of the key skills needed to be successful.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      A product owner is the CEO for their product. Successful product management starts with empowerment and accountability. Product owners own the vision, roadmap, and value realization for their product or family aligned to enterprise goals and priorities.

      • Product and service ownership share the same foundation - underlying capabilities and best practices to own and improve a product or service are identical for both roles. Use the terms that make the most sense for your culture.
      • Product owners represent three primary perspectives: Business (externally facing), Technical (systems and tools), or Operational (manual processes). Although all share the same capabilities, how they approach their responsibilities is influenced by their primary perspective.
      • Product owners are operating under an incomplete understanding of the capabilities needed to succeed. Most product/service owners lack a complete picture of the needed capabilities, skills, and activities to successfully perform their roles.

      Impact and Result

      • Create a culture of product management trust and empowerment with product owners aligned to your operational structure and product needs.
      • Promote and develop true Agile skills among your product owners and family managers.
      • Implement Info-Tech’s product owner capability model to define the role expectations and provide a development path for product owners.

      Mature and Scale Product Ownership Research & Tools

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

      1. Mature and Scale Product Ownership Storyboard – Establish a culture of success for product management and mature product owner capabilities.

      Strengthen the product owner role in your organization by focusing on core capabilities and proper alignment.

    • Establish a foundation for empowerment and success.
    • Assign and align product owners with products and stakeholders.
    • Mature product owner capabilities and skills.
      • Mature and Scale Product Ownership Storyboard

      2. Mature and Scale Product Ownership Readiness Assessment – Determine your readiness for a product-centric culture based on Info-Tech’s CLAIM+G model.

      Using Info-Tech’s CLAIM model, quickly determine your organization’s strengths and weaknesses preparing for a product culture. Use the heat map to identify key areas.

      • Mature and Scale Product Ownership Readiness Assessment

      3. Mature and Scale Product Ownership Playbook – Playbook for product owners and product managers.

      Use the blueprint exercises to build your personal product owner playbook. You can also use the workbook to capture exercise outcomes.

      • Mature and Scale Product Ownership Playbook

      4. Mature and Scale Product Ownership Workbook – Workbook for product owners and product managers.

      Use this workbook to capture exercise outcomes and transfer them to your Mature and Scale Product Ownership Playbook (optional).

      • Mature and Scale Product Ownership Workbook

      5. Mature and Scale Product Ownership Proficiency Assessment – Determine your current proficiency and improvement areas.

      Product owners need to improve their core capabilities and real Agile skills. The assessment radar will help identify current proficiency and growth opportunities.

      • Mature and Scale Product Ownership Proficiency Assessment
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Mature and Scale Product Ownership

      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 foundation for product ownership

      The Purpose

      Establish the foundation for product ownership.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Product owner playbook with role clarity and RACI.

      Activities

      1.1 Define enablers and blockers of product management.

      1.2 Define your product management roles and names.

      1.3 Assess your product management readiness.

      1.4 Identify your primary product owner perspective.

      1.5 Define your product owner RACI.

      Outputs

      Enablers and blockers

      Role definitions.

      Product culture readiness

      Product owner perspective mapping

      Product owner RACI

      2 Align product owners to products

      The Purpose

      Align product owners to products.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Assignment of resources to open products.

      A stakeholder management strategy.

      Activities

      2.1 Assign resources to your products and families.

      2.2 Visualize relationships to identify key influencers.

      2.3 Group stakeholders into categories.

      2.4 Prioritize your stakeholders.

      Outputs

      Product resource assignment

      Stakeholder management strategy

      Stakeholder management strategy

      Stakeholder management strategy

      3 Mature product owner capabilities

      The Purpose

      Mature product owner capabilities.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Assess your Agile product owner readiness

      Assess and mature product owner capabilities

      Activities

      3.1 Assess your real Agile skill proficiency.

      3.2 Assess your vison capability proficiency.

      3.3 Assess your leadership capability proficiency.

      3.4 Assess your PLM capability proficiency.

      3.5 Assess your value realization capability proficiency.

      3.6 Identify your business value drivers and sources of value.

      Outputs

      Real Agile skill proficiency assessment

      Info-Tech’s product owner capability model proficiency assessment

      Info-Tech’s product owner capability model proficiency assessment

      Info-Tech’s product owner capability model proficiency assessment

      Info-Tech’s product owner capability model proficiency assessment

      Business value drivers and sources of value

      Further reading

      Mature and Scale Product Ownership

      Strengthen the product owner’s role in your organization by focusing on core capabilities and proper alignment.

      Executive Brief

      Analyst Perspective

      Empower product owners throughout your organization.

      Hans Eckman

      Whether you manage a product or service, the fundamentals of good product ownership are the same. Organizations need to focus on three key elements of product ownership in order to be successful.

      • Create an environment of empowerment and service leadership to reinforce product owners and product family managers as the true owners of the vision, improvement, and realized the value of their products.
      • Align product and product family owner roles based on operational alignment and the groups defined when scaling product management.
      • Develop your product owners to improve the quality of roadmaps, alignment to enterprise goals, and profit and loss (P&L) for each product or service.

      By focusing the attention of the teammates serving in product owner or service owner roles, your organization will deliver value sooner and respond to change more effectively.

      Hans Eckman

      Principal Research Director – Application Delivery and Management
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Executive Summary

      Your Challenge

      Product owners must bridge the gap between the customers, operations, and delivery to ensure products continuously deliver increasing value.

      Product owners are often assigned to projects or product delivery without proper support, guidance, or alignment.

      In many organizations the product owner role is not well-defined, serves as a proxy for stakeholder ownership, and lacks reinforcement of the key skills needed to be successful.

      Common Obstacles

      Organizations have poor alignment or missing product owners between lines of business, IT, and operations.

      Product owners are aligned to projects and demand management rather than long-term strategic product ownership.

      Product families are not properly defined, scaled, and supported within organizations.

      Individuals in product owner roles have an incomplete understanding of needed capabilities and lack a development path.

      Info-Tech's Approach

      Create a culture of product management trust and empowerment with product owners aligned to your operational structure and product needs.

      Promote and develop true Agile skills among your product owners and family managers.

      Implement Info-Tech’s product owner capability model to define the role expectations and provide a development path for product owners.

      Extend product management success using Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision and Deliver Digital Products at Scale.

      Info-Tech Insight

      There is no single correct approach to product ownership. Product ownership must be tuned and structured to meet the delivery needs of your organization and the teams it serves.

      Info-Tech’s Approach

      Product owners make the final decision

      • Establish a foundation for empowerment and success
      • Assign product owners and align with products and stakeholders
      • Mature product owner capabilities and skills
      Product Owner capabilities: Vision, Product Lifecycle Management, Leadership, Value Realization

      The Info-Tech difference

      1. Assign product owners where product decisions are needed, not to match org charts or delivery teams. The product owner has the final word on product decisions.
      2. Organize product owners into related teams to ensure product capabilities delivered are aligned to enterprise strategy and goals.
      3. Shared products and services must support the needs of many product owners with conflicting priorities. Shared service product owners must map and prioritize demand to align to enterprise priorities and goals.
      4. All product owners share the same capability model.

      Insight summary

      There is no single correct approach to product ownership

      Successful product management starts with empowerment and accountability. Product owners own the vision, roadmap, and value realization for their product or family aligned to enterprise goals and priorities.

      Phase 1 insight

      Product owners represent three primary perspectives: business (external-facing), technical (systems and tools), or operational (manual processes). Although all share the same capabilities, how they approach their responsibilities is influenced by their primary perspective.

      Phase 2 insight

      Start with your operational grouping of products and families, identifying where an owner is needed. Then, assign people to the products and families. The owner does not define the product or family.

      Phase 3 insight

      Product owners are operating under an incomplete understanding of the capabilities needed to succeed. Most product/service owners lack a complete picture of the needed capabilities, skills, and activities to successfully perform their roles.

      Product and service ownership share the same foundation

      The underlying capabilities and best practices to own and improve a product or service are identical for both roles. Use the terms that make the most sense for your culture.

      Map product owner roles to your existing job titles

      Identify where product management is needed and align expectations with existing roles. Successful product management does not require a dedicated job family.

      Projects can be a mechanism for funding product changes and improvements

      Projects can be a mechanism for funding product changes and improvements. Shows difference of value for project life-cycles, hybrid life-cycles, and product life-cycles.

      Projects within products

      Regardless of whether you recognize yourself as a product-based or project-based shop, the same basic principles should apply.

      You go through a period or periods of project-like development to build a version of an application or product.

      You also have parallel services along with your project development, which encompass the more product-based view. These may range from basic support and maintenance to full-fledged strategy teams or services like sales and marketing.

      Product and services owners share the same foundation and capabilities

      For the purpose of this blueprint, product/service and product owner/service owner are used interchangeably. The term “product” is used for consistency but would apply to services, as well.

      Product = Service

      Common foundations: Focus on continuous improvement, ROI, and value realization. Clear vision, goals, roadmap, and backlog.

      “Product” and “service” are terms that each organization needs to define to fit its culture and customers (internal and external). The most important aspect is consistent use and understanding of:

      • External products
      • Internal products
      • External services
      • Internal services
      • Products as a service (PaaS)
      • Productizing services (SaaS)

      Recognize the product owner perspectives

      The 3 product owner perspectives. 1. Business: Customer-facing, value-generating. 2. Technical: IT systems and tools. 3. Operations: Keep-the-lights-on processes.

      Product owners represent one of three primary perspectives. Although all share the same capabilities, how they approach their responsibilities is influenced by their primary perspective.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Product owners must translate needs and constraints from their perspective into the language of their audience. Kathy Borneman, Digital Product Owner at SunTrust Bank, noted the challenges of finding a common language between lines of business and IT (e.g. what is a unit?).

      Match your product management role definitions to your product family levels

      Product ownership exists at the different operational tiers or levels in your product hierarchy. This does not imply a management relationship.

      Product portfolio

      Groups of product families within an overall value stream or capability grouping.

      Project portfolio manager

      Product family

      A collection of related products. Products can be grouped along architectural, functional, operational, or experiential patterns.

      Product family manager

      Product

      Single product composed of one or more applications and services.

      Product owner

      Info-Tech Insight

      Define the current roles that will perform the product management function or define consistent role names to product owners and managers.

      Align enterprise value through product families

      Product families are operational groups based on capabilities or business functions. Product family managers translate goals, priorities, and constraints so they are actionable at the next level. Product owners prioritize changes to enhance the capabilities that allow you to realize your product family. Enabling capabilities realize value and help reach your goals.

      Understand special circumstances

      In Deliver Digital Products at Scale, products were grouped into families using Info-Tech’s five scaling patterns. Assigning owners to Enterprise Applications and Shared Services requires special consideration.

      Value stream alignment

      • Business architecture
        • Value stream
        • Capability
        • Function
      • Market/customer segment
      • Line of business (LoB)
      • Example: Customer group > value stream > products

      Enterprise applications

      • Enabling capabilities
      • Enterprise platforms
      • Supporting apps
      • Example: HR > Workday/Peoplesoft > Modules Supporting: Job board, healthcare administrator

      Shared Services

      • Organization of related services into service family
      • Direct hierarchy does not necessarily exist within the family
      • Examples: End-user support and ticketing, workflow and collaboration tools

      Technical

      • Domain grouping of IT infrastructure, platforms, apps, skills, or languages
      • Often used in combination with Shared Services grouping or LoB-specific apps
      • Examples: Java, .NET, low-code, database, network

      Organizational alignment

      • Used at higher levels of the organization where products are aligned under divisions
      • Separation of product managers from organizational structure is no longer needed because the management team owns the product management role

      Map sources of demand and influencers

      Use the stakeholder analysis to define the key stakeholders and sources of demand for enterprise applications and shared services. Extend your mapping to include their stakeholders and influencers to uncover additional sources of demand and prioritization.

      Map of key stakeholders for enterprise applications and shared services.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Your product owner map defines the influence landscape your product operates. It is every bit as important as the teams who enhance, support and operate your product directly.

      Combine your product owner map with your stakeholder map to create a comprehensive view of influencers.

      The primary value of the product owner is to fill the backlog with the highest ROI opportunities aligned with enterprise goals.

      Info-Tech Insight

      The product owner owns the direction of the product.

      • Roadmap - Where are we going?
      • Backlog - What changes are needed to get there?
      • Product review - Did we get close enough?

      Product delivery realizes value for your product family

      While planning and analysis are done at the family level, work and delivery are done at the individual product level.

      Product strategy includes: Vision, Goals, Roadmap, backlog and Release plan.

      Product family owners are more strategic

      When assigning resources, recognize that product family owners will need to be more strategic with their planning and alignment of child families and products.

      Product family owners are more strategic. They require a roadmap that is strategic, goal-based, high-level, and flexible.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Roadmaps for your product family are, by design, less detailed. This does not mean they aren’t actionable! Your product family roadmap should be able to communicate clear intentions around the future delivery of value in both the near and long term.

      Connecting your product family roadmaps to product roadmaps

      Your product and product family roadmaps should be connected at an artifact level that is common between both. Typically, this is done with capabilities, but it can be done at a more granular level if an understanding of capabilities isn’t available.

      Product family roadmap versus Product Roadmaps.

      Develop a product owner stakeholder strategy

      Stakeholder management, Product lifecycle, Project delivery, Operational support.

      Stakeholders are a critical cornerstone to product ownership. They provide the context, alignment, and constraints that influence or control what a product owner can accomplish.

      Product owners operate within a network of stakeholders who represent different perspectives within the organization.

      First, product owners must identify members of their stakeholder network. Next, they should devise a strategy for managing stakeholders.

      Without a stakeholder strategy, product owners will encounter obstacles, resistance, or unexpected changes.

      Create a stakeholder network map to product roadmaps and prioritization

      Follow the trail of breadcrumbs from your direct stakeholders to their influencers, to uncover hidden stakeholders.

      Stakeholder network map defines the influence landscape your product operates. Connectors determine who may be influencing your direct stakeholders.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Your stakeholder map defines the influence landscape your product operates. It is every bit as important as the teams who enhance, support and operate your product directly.

      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 substantive relationships with your stakeholders.

      Being successful at Agile is more than about just doing Agile

      The following represents the hard skills needed to “Do Agile”:

      Being successful at Agile needs 4 hard skills: 1. Engineering skills, 2. Technician Skills, 3. Framework/Process skills, 4. Tools skills.
      • Engineering skills. These are the skills and competencies required for building brand-new valuable software.
      • Technician skills. These are the skills and competencies required for maintaining and operating the software delivered to stakeholders.
      • Framework/Process skills. These are the specific knowledge skills required to support engineering or technician skills.
      • Tools skills. This represents the software that helps you deliver other software.

      While these are important, they are not the whole story. To effectively deliver software, we believe in the importance of being Agile over simply doing Agile.

      Adapted from: “Doing Agile” Is Only Part of the Software Delivery Pie

      Why focus on core skills?

      They are the foundation to achieve business outcomes

      Skills, actions, output and outcomes

      The right skills development is only possible with proper assessment and alignment against outcomes.

      Focus on these real Agile skills

      Agile skills

      • Accountability
      • Collaboration
      • Comfort with ambiguity
      • Communication
      • Empathy
      • Facilitation
      • Functional decomposition
      • Initiative
      • Process discipline
      • Resilience

      Product capabilities deliver value

      As a product owner, you are responsible for managing these facets through your capabilities and activities.

      The core product and value stream consists of: Funding - Product management and governance, Business functionality - Stakeholder and relationship management, and Technology - Product delivery.

      Info-Tech Best Practice

      It is easy to lose sight of what matters when we look at a product from a single point of view. Despite what "The Agile Manifesto" says, working software is not valuable without the knowledge and support that people need in order to adopt, use, and maintain it. If you build it, they will not come. Product owners must consider the needs of all stakeholders when designing and building products.

      Recognize product owner knowledge gaps

      Pulse survey of product owners

      Pulse survey of product owners. Graph shows large percentage of respondents have alignment to common agile definition of product owners. Yet a significant perception gap in P&L, delivery, and analytics.

      Info-Tech Insight

      1. Less than 15% of respondents identified analytics or financial management as a key component of product ownership.
      2. Assess your product owner’s capabilities and understanding to develop a maturity plan.

      Source: Pulse Survey (N=18)

      Implement the Info-Tech product owner capability model

      Unfortunately, most product owners operate with incomplete knowledge of the skills and capabilities needed to perform the role. Common gaps include focusing only on product backlogs, acting as a proxy for product decisions, and ignoring the need for key performance indicators (KPIs) and analytics in both planning and value realization.

      Product Owner capabilities: Vision, Product Lifecycle Management, Leadership, Value Realization

      Vision

      • Market Analysis
      • Business Alignment
      • Product Roadmap

      Leadership

      • Soft Skills
      • Collaboration
      • Decision Making

      Product Lifecycle Management

      • Plan
      • Build
      • Run

      Value Realization

      • KPIs
      • Financial Management
      • Business Model

      Product owner capabilities provide support

      Vision predicts impact of Value realization. Value realization provides input to vision

      Your vision informs and aligns what goals and capabilities are needed to fulfill your product or product family vision and align with enterprise goals and priorities. Each item on your roadmap should have corresponding KPIs or OKRs to know how far you moved the value needle. Value realization measures how well you met your target, as well as the impacts on your business value canvas and cost model.

      Product lifecycle management builds trust with Leadership. Leadership improves quality of Product lifecycle management.

      Your leadership skills improve collaborations and decisions when working with your stakeholders and product delivery teams. This builds trust and improves continued improvements to the entire product lifecycle. A product owner’s focus should always be on finding ways to improve value delivery.

      Product owner capabilities provide support

      Leadership enhances Vision. Vision Guides Product Lifecycle Management. Product Lifecycle Management delivers Value Realization. Leadership enhances Value Realization

      Develop product owner capabilities

      Each capability: Vision, Product lifecycle management, Value realization and Leadership has 3 components needed for successful product ownership.

      Avoid common capability gaps

      Vision

      • Focusing solely on backlog grooming (tactical only)
      • Ignoring or failing to align product roadmap to enterprise goals
      • Operational support and execution
      • Basing decisions on opinion rather than market data
      • Ignoring or missing internal and external threats to your product

      Leadership

      • Failing to include feedback from all teams who interact with your product
      • Using a command-and-control approach
      • Viewing product owner as only a delivery role
      • Acting as a proxy for stakeholder decisions
      • Avoiding tough strategic decisions in favor of easier tactical choices

      Product lifecycle management

      • Focusing on delivery and not the full product lifecycle
      • Ignoring support, operations, and technical debt
      • Failing to build knowledge management into the lifecycle
      • Underestimating delivery capacity, capabilities, or commitment
      • Assuming delivery stops at implementation

      Value realization

      • Focusing exclusively on “on time/on budget” metrics
      • Failing to measure a 360-degree end-user view of the product
      • Skipping business plans and financial models
      • Limiting financial management to project/change budgets
      • Ignoring market analysis for growth, penetration, and threats

      Your product vision is your North Star

      It's ok to dream a little!

      Who is the target customer, what is the key benefit, what do they need, what is the differentiator

      Adapted from: Crossing the Chasm

      Info-Tech Best Practice

      A product vision shouldn’t be so far out that it doesn’t feel real or so short-term that it gets bogged down in minutiae and implementation details. Finding the right balance will take some trial and error and will be different for each organization.

      Leverage the product canvas to state and inform your product vision

      Leverage the product Canvas to state and inform your product vision. Includes: Product name, Tracking info, Vision, List of business objectives or goals, Metrics used to measure value realization, List of groups who consume the product/service, and List of key resources or stakeholders.

      Define product value by aligning backlog delivery with roadmap goals

      In each product plan, the backlogs show what you will deliver. Roadmaps identify when and in what order you will deliver value, capabilities, and goals.

      In each product plan, the backlogs show what you will deliver. Roadmaps identify when and in what order you will deliver value, capabilities, and goals.

      Use a balanced value to establish a common definition of goals and value

      Value drivers are strategic priorities aligned to our enterprise strategy and translated through our product families. Each product and change has an impact on the value driver helping us reach our enterprise goals.

      Importance of the value driver multiplied by the Impact of value score is equal to the Value score.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Your value drivers and impact helps estimate the expected value of roadmap items, prioritize roadmap and backlog items, and identify KPIs and OKRs to measure value realization and actual impact.

      Use CLAIM to guide your journey

      Culture, Learning, Automation, Integrated teams, Metrics and governance.

      Value is best created by self-managing teams who deliver in frequent, short increments supported by leaders who coach them through challenges.

      Product-centric delivery and Agile are a radical change in how people work and think. Structured, facilitated learning is required throughout the transformation to help leaders and practitioners make the shift.

      Product management, Agile, and DevOps have inspired SDLC tools that have become a key part of delivery practices and work management.

      Self-organizing teams that cross business, delivery, and operations are essential to gain the full benefits of product-centric delivery.

      Successful implementations require the disciplined use of metrics that support developing better teams

      Communicate reasons for changes and how they will be implemented

      Five elements of communicating change: What is the change? Why are we doing it? How are we going to go about it? How long will it take us to do it? What will the role be for each department individual?

      Leaders of successful change spend considerable time developing a powerful change message; that is, a compelling narrative that articulates the desired end state, and that makes the change concrete and meaningful to staff.

      The organizational change message should:

      • Explain why the change is needed.
      • Summarize what will stay the same.
      • Highlight what will be left behind.
      • Emphasize what is being changed.
      • Explain how the change will be implemented.
      • Address how change will affect various roles in the organization.
      • Discuss the staff’s role in making the change successful.

      Info-Tech’s methodology for mature and scale product ownership

      Phase steps

      1. Establish the foundation for product ownership

      Step 1.1 Establish an environment for product owner success

      Step 1.2 Establish your product ownership model

      2. Align product owners to products

      Step 2.1 Assign product owners to products

      Step 2.2 Manage stakeholder influence

      3. Mature product owner capabilities

      Step 3.1 Assess your Agile product owner readiness

      Step 3.2 Mature product owner capabilities

      Phase outcomes

      1.1.1 Define enablers and blockers of product management

      1.1.2 Define your product management roles and names

      1.2.1 Identify your primary product owner perspective

      1.2.2 Define your product owner RACI

      2.1.1 Assign resources to your products and families

      2.2.1 Visualize relationships to identify key influencers

      2.2.2 Group stakeholders into categories

      2.2.3 Prioritize your stakeholders

      3.1.1 Assess your real Agile skill proficiency

      3.2 Mature product owner capabilities

      3.2.1 Assess your vision capability proficiency

      3.2.2 Assess your leadership capability proficiency

      3.2.3 Assess your PLM capability proficiency

      3.2.4 Identify your business value drivers and sources of value

      3.2.5 Assess your value realization capability proficiency

      Blueprint deliverables

      Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals.

      Key deliverable

      Mature and Scale Product Ownership Playbook

      Capture and organize the outcomes of the activities in the workbook.

      Mature and Scale Product Ownership Workbook

      The workbook helps organize and communicate the outcomes of each activity.

      Mature and Scale Product Ownership Readiness Assessment

      Determine your level of mastery of real Agile skills and product owner capabilities.


      Blueprint benefits

      IT benefits

      • Competent product owner who can support teams operating in any delivery methodology.
      • Representative viewpoint and input from the technical and operational product owner perspectives.
      • Products aligned to business needs and committed work are achievable.
      • Single point of contact with a business representative.
      • Acceptance of product owner role outside the Scrum teams.

      Business benefits

      • Better alignment to enterprise goals, vision, and outcomes.
      • Improved coordination with stakeholders.
      • Quantifiable value realization tied to vision.
      • Product decisions made at the right time and with the right input.
      • Product owner who has the appropriate business, operations, and technical knowledge.

      Measure the value of this blueprint

      Align product owner metrics to product delivery and value realization.

      Member outcome

      Suggested Metric

      Estimated impact

      Increase business application satisfaction Satisfaction of business applications (CIO BV Diagnostic) 20% increase within one year after implementation
      Increase effectiveness of application portfolio management Effectiveness of application portfolio management (M&G Diagnostic) 20% increase within one year after implementation
      Increase importance and effectiveness of application portfolio Importance and effectiveness to business (APA Diagnostic) 20% increase within one year after implementation
      Increase satisfaction of support of business operations Support to business (CIO BV Diagnostic) 20% increase within one year after implementation
      Successfully deliver committed work (productivity) Number of successful deliveries; burndown Reduction in project implementation overrun by 20%

      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?

      Phase 1 Establish the Foundation for Product Ownership

      Phase 2 Align Product Owners to Products

      Phase 3 Mature Product Owner Capabilities

      • Call #1:
        Scope objectives and your specific challenges
      • Call #2:
        Step 1.1 Establish an environment for product owner success
        Step 1.2 Establish your product ownership model
      • Call #3:
        Step 2.1 Assign product owners to products
      • Call #4:
        Step 2.2 Manage stakeholder influence
      • Call #5:
        Step 3.1 Assess your Agile product owner readiness
      • Call #6:
        Step 3.2 Mature product owner capabilities

      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 and 12 calls over the course of 4 to 6 months.

      Workshop Overview

      Contact your account representative for more information.
      workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889

      Phase 1

      Phase 2

      Phase 3

      Activities

      Establish the Foundation for Product Ownership

      Step 1.1 Establish an environment for product owner success

      1.1.1 Define enablers and blockers of product management

      1.1.2 Define your product management roles and names

      1.1.3 Assess your product management readiness

      Step 1.2 Establish your product ownership model

      1.2.1 Identify your primary product owner perspective

      1.2.2 Define your product owner RACI

      Align Product Owners to Products

      Step 2.1 Assign product owners to products

      2.1.1 Assign resources to your products and families

      Step 2.2 Manage stakeholder influence

      2.2.1 Visualize relationships to identify key influencers

      2.2.2 Group stakeholders into categories

      2.2.3 Prioritize your stakeholders

      Mature Product Owner Capabilities

      Step 3.1 Assess your Agile product owner readiness

      3.1.1 Assess your real Agile skill proficiency

      Step 3.2 Mature product owner capabilities=

      3.2.1 Assess your Vision capability proficiency

      3.2.2 Assess your Leadership capability proficiency

      3.2.3 Assess your PLM capability proficiency

      3.2.4 Identify your business value drivers and sources of value

      3.2.5 Assess your Value Realization capability proficiency

      Deliverables

      1. Enablers and blockers
      2. Role definitions
      3. Product culture readiness
      4. Product owner perspective mapping
      5. Product owner RACI
      1. Product resource assignment
      2. Stakeholder management strategy
      1. Real Agile skill proficiency assessment
      2. Info-Tech’s product owner capability model proficiency assessment
      3. Business value drivers and sources of value

      Related Info-Tech Research

      Product delivery

      Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision

      Build a product vision your organization can take from strategy through execution.

      Deliver Digital Products at Scale

      Deliver value at the scale of your organization through defining enterprise product families.

      Build Your Agile Acceleration Roadmap

      Quickly assess the state of your Agile readiness and plan your path forward to higher value realization.

      Develop Your Agile Approach for a Successful Transformation

      Understand Agile fundamentals, principles, and practices so you can apply them effectively in your organization.

      Implement DevOps Practices That Work

      Streamline business value delivery through the strategic adoption of DevOps practices.

      Extend Agile Practices Beyond IT

      Further the benefits of Agile by extending a scaled Agile framework to the business.

      Build Your BizDevOps Playbook

      Embrace a team sport culture built around continuous business-IT collaboration to deliver great products.

      Embed Security Into the DevOps Pipeline

      Shift security left to get into DevSecOps.

      Spread Best Practices With an Agile Center of Excellence

      Facilitate ongoing alignment between Agile teams and the business with a set of targeted service offerings.

      Enable Organization-Wide Collaboration by Scaling Agile

      Execute a disciplined approach to rolling out Agile methods in the organization.

      Related Info-Tech Research

      Application portfolio management

      APM Research Center

      See an overview of the APM journey and how we can support the pieces in this journey.

      Application Portfolio Management Foundations

      Ensure your application portfolio delivers the best possible return on investment.

      Streamline Application Maintenance

      Effective maintenance ensures the long-term value of your applications.

      Streamline Application Management

      Move beyond maintenance to ensuring exceptional value from your apps.

      Build an Application Department Strategy

      Delivering value starts with embracing what your department can do.

      Embrace Business-Managed Applications

      Empower the business to implement its own applications with a trusted business-IT relationship.

      Optimize Applications Release Management

      Facilitate ongoing alignment between Agile teams and the business with a set of targeted service offerings.

      Related Info-Tech Research

      Value, delivery metrics, estimation

      Build a Value Measurement Framework

      Focus product delivery on business value-driven outcomes.

      Select and Use SDLC Metrics Effectively

      Be careful what you ask for, because you will probably get it.

      Application Portfolio Assessment: End User Feedback

      Develop data-driven insights to help you decide which applications to retire, upgrade, re-train on, or maintain to meet the demands of the business.

      Create a Holistic IT Dashboard

      Mature your IT department by measuring what matters.

      Refine Your Estimation Practices With Top-Down Allocations

      Don’t let bad estimates ruin good work.

      Estimate Software Delivery With Confidence

      Commit to achievable software releases by grounding realistic expectations.

      Reduce Time to Consensus With an Accelerated Business Case

      Expand on the financial model to give your initiative momentum.

      Optimize Project Intake, Approval, and Prioritization

      Deliver more projects by giving yourself the voice to say “no” or “not yet” to new projects.

      Enhance PPM Dashboards and Reports

      Facilitate ongoing alignment between Agile teams and the business with a set of targeted service offerings.

      Related Info-Tech Research

      Organizational design and performance

      Redesign Your IT Organizational Structure

      Focus product delivery on business value-driven outcomes.

      Build a Strategic Workforce Plan

      Have the right people in the right place, at the right time.

      Implement a New Organizational Structure

      Reorganizations are inherently disruptive. Implement your new structure with minimal pain for staff while maintaining IT performance throughout the change.

      Build an IT Employee Engagement Program

      Don’t just measure engagement, act on it.

      Set Meaningful Employee Performance Measures

      Set holistic measures to inspire employee performance.

      Phase 1

      Establish the Foundation for Product Ownership

      Phase 1: Establish an environment for product owner success, Establish your product ownership model

      Mature and Scale Product Ownership

      This phase will walk you through the following activities:

      1.1.1 Define enablers and blockers of product management

      1.1.2 Define your product management roles and names

      1.1.3 Assess your product management readiness

      1.2.1 Identify your primary product owner perspective

      1.2.2 Define your product owner RACI

      This phase involves the following participants:

      • Product owners
      • Product managers
      • Development team leads
      • Portfolio managers
      • Delivery managers
      • Business analysts

      Step 1.1

      Establish an environment for product owner success

      Activities

      1.1.1 Define enablers and blockers of product management

      1.1.2 Define your product management roles and names

      1.1.3 Assess your product management readiness

      Establish the foundation for product ownership

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Product owners
      • Product managers
      • Development team leads
      • Portfolio managers
      • Delivery managers
      • Business analysts

      Outcomes of this step

      • Enablers and blockers
      • Role definitions

      Empower product owners as the true owners of their product

      Product ownership requires decision-making authority and accountability for the value realization from those decisions. POs are more than a proxy for stakeholders, aggregators for changes, and the communication of someone else’s priorities.

      “A Product Owner in its most beneficial form acts like an Entrepreneur, like a 'mini-CEO'. The Product Owner is someone who really 'owns' the product.”

      – Robbin Schuurman,
      “Tips for Starting Technical Product Managers”

      Info-Tech Best Practice

      Implement Info-Tech’s Product Owner Capability Model to help empower and hold product owners accountable for the maturity and success of their product. The product owner must understand how their product fits into the organization’s mission and strategy in order to align to enterprise value.

      Product and service owners share the same foundation and capabilities

      For the purpose of this blueprint, product/service and product owner/service owner are used interchangeably. The term “product” is used for consistency but applies to services, as well.

      Product = Service

      Common foundations: Focus on continuous improvement, ROI, and value realization. Clear vision, goals, roadmap, and backlog.

      “Product” and “service” are terms that each organization needs to define to fit its culture and customers (internal and external). The most important aspect is consistent use and understanding of:

      • External products
      • Internal products
      • External services
      • Internal services
      • Products as a service (PaaS)
      • Productizing services (SaaS)

      Define product ownership to match your culture and customers

      Characteristics of a discrete product:

      • Has end users or consumers
      • Delivers quantifiable value
      • Evolves or changes over time
      • Has predictable delivery
      • Has definable boundaries
      • Has a cost to produce and operate
      • Has a discrete backlog and roadmap of improvements

      What does not need a product owner?

      • Individual features
      • Transactions
      • Unstructured data
      • One-time solutions
      • Non-repeatable processes
      • Solutions that have no users or consumers
      • People or teams

      Info-Tech Insight

      • Products are long-term endeavors that don’t end after the project finishes.
      • Products mature and improve their ability to deliver value.
      • Products have a discrete backlog of changes to improve the product itself, separate from operational requests fulfilled by the product or service.

      Need help defining your products or services? Download our blueprint Deliver Digital Products at Scale.

      Connect roadmaps to value realization with KPIs

      Every roadmap item should have an expected realized value once it is implemented. The associate KPIs or OKRs determine if our goal was met. Any gap in value feedback back into the roadmap and backlog refinement.</p data-verified=

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      Info-Tech Insight

      Every roadmap item should have an expected realized value once it is implemented. The associate KPIs or OKRs determine if our goal was met. Any gap in value feedback back into the roadmap and backlog refinement.

      Identify the differences between a project-centric and a product-centric organization

      Differences between Project centric and Product centric organizations in regards to: Funding, Prioritization, Accountability, Product management, Work allocation, and Capacity management.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Product delivery requires significant shifts in the way you complete development work and deliver value to your users. Make the changes that support improving end-user value and enterprise alignment.

      Projects can be a mechanism for funding product changes and improvements

      Projects lifecycle, hybrid lifecycle and product lifecycle. Period or periods of project development have parallel services that encompass a more product-based view.

      Projects withing products

      Regardless of whether you recognize yourself as a product-based or project-based shop, the same basic principles should apply.

      You go through a period or periods of project-like development to build a version of an application or product.

      You also have parallel services along with your project development, which encompasses a more product-based view. These may range from basic support and maintenance to full-fledged strategy teams or services like sales and marketing.

      Recognize common barriers to product management

      The transition to product ownership is a series of behavioral and cultural changes supported by processes and governance. It takes time and consistency to be successful.

      • Command and control structures
      • Lack of ownership and accountability
      • High instability in the market, demand, or organization
      • Lack of dedicated teams align to delivery, service, or product areas
      • Culture of one-off projects
      • Lack of identified and engaged stakeholders
      • Lack of customer exposure and knowledge

      Agile’s four core values

      “…while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.”

      Source: “The Agile Manifesto”

      We value...

      We value being agile: Individuals and interactions, Working Software, Customer collaboration, Responding to change. Versus being prescriptive: Processes and tools, Comprehensive documentation, Contract negotiation, following a plan.

      Exercise 1.1.1 Define enablers and blockers of product management

      1 hour
      1. Identify and mitigate blockers of product management in your organization.
      2. What enablers will support strong product owners?
      3. What blockers will make the transition to product management harder?
      4. For each blocker, also define at least one mitigating step.
      Define enablers e.g. team culture. Define blockers and at least one mitigating step

      Output

      • Enablers and blockers

      Participants

      • Product owners
      • Product managers
      • Development team leads
      • Portfolio managers
      • Business analysts

      Capture in the Mature and Scale Product Ownership Playbook.

      Align enterprise value through product families

      Product families are operational groups based on capabilities or business functions. Product family managers translate goals, priorities, and constraints so they are actionable at the next level. Product owners prioritize changes to enhance the capabilities that allow you to realize your product family. Enabling capabilities realize value and help reach your goals.

      Effective product delivery requires thinking about more than just a single product

      Good application and product management begins with strengthening good practices for a single or small set of applications, products, and services.

      Product portfolio

      Groups of product families within an overall value stream or capability grouping.

      Project portfolio manager

      Product family

      A collection of related products. Products can be grouped along architectural, functional, operational, or experiential patterns.

      Product family manager

      Product

      Single product composed of one or more applications and services.

      Product owner

      Info-Tech Insight

      Define the current roles that will perform the product management function or define consistent role names to product owners and managers.

      Exercise 1.1.2 Define your product management roles and names

      1-2 hour
      1. Identify the roles in which product management activities will be owned.
      2. Define a common set of role names and describe the role.
      3. Map the level of accountability for each role: Product or Product Family
      4. Product owner perspectives will be defined in the next step.

      Define roles, description and level of product accountability.

      Output

      • Role definitions

      Participants

      • Product owners
      • Product managers
      • Development team leads
      • Portfolio managers
      • Business analysts

      Capture in the Mature and Scale Product Ownership Playbook.

      Use CLAIM to guide your journey

      Culture, Learning, Automation, Integrated teams, Metrics and governance.

      Value is best created by self-managing teams who deliver in frequent, short increments supported by leaders who coach them through challenges.

      Product-centric delivery and Agile are a radical change in how people work and think. Structured, facilitated learning is required throughout the transformation to help leaders and practitioners make the shift.

      Product management, Agile, and DevOps have inspired SDLC tools that have become a key part of delivery practices and work management.

      Self-organizing teams that cross business, delivery, and operations are essential to gain the full benefits of product-centric delivery.

      Successful implementations require the disciplined use of metrics that support developing better teams

      Exercise 1.1.3 Assess your product management readiness

      1 hour
      1. Open and complete the Mature and Scale Product Ownership Readiness Assessment in your Playbook or the provided Excel tool.
      2. Discuss high and low scores for each area to reach a consensus.
      3. Record your results in your Playbook.

      Assess your culture, learning, automation, Integrated teams, metrics and governance.

      Output

      • Assessment of product management readiness based on Info-Tech’s CLAIM+G model.

      Participants

      • Product owners
      • Product managers
      • Development team leads
      • Portfolio managers
      • Business analysts

      Capture in the Mature and Scale Product Ownership Readiness Assessment.

      Communicate reasons for changes and how they will be implemented

      Five elements of communicating change: What is the change? Why are we doing it? How are we going to go about it? How long will it take us to do it? What will the role be for each department individual?

      Leaders of successful change spend considerable time developing a powerful change message; that is, a compelling narrative that articulates the desired end state, and that makes the change concrete and meaningful to staff.

      The organizational change message should:

      Step 1.2

      Establish your product ownership model

      Activities

      1.2.1 Identify your primary product owner perspective

      1.2.2 Define your product owner RACI

      Establish the foundation for product ownership

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Product owners
      • Product managers
      • Development team leads
      • Portfolio managers
      • Delivery managers
      • Business analysts

      Outcomes of this step

      • Product owner perspective mapping
      • Product owner RACI

      Recognize the product owner perspectives

      The 3 product owner perspectives. 1. Business: Customer-facing, value-generating. 2. Technical: IT systems and tools. 3. Operations: Keep-the-lights-on processes.

      Product owners represent one of three primary perspectives. Although all share the same capabilities, how they approach their responsibilities is influenced by their primary perspective.

      Info-Tech Best Practice

      Product owners must translate needs and constraints from their perspective into the language of their audience. Kathy Borneman, Digital Product Owner at SunTrust Bank, noted the challenges of finding a common language between lines of business and IT (e.g. what is a unit?).

      Identify and align to product owner perspectives to ensure product success

      Product owner perspectives

      The 3 product owner perspectives. 1. Business: Customer-facing, value-generating. 2. Technical: IT systems and tools. 3. Operations: Keep-the-lights-on processes.
      1. Each product owner perspective provides important feedback, demand, and support for the product.
      2. Where a perspective is represented by a distinct role, the perspective is managed with that product owner.
      3. If separate roles don’t exist, the product owner must evaluate their work using two or three perspectives.
      4. The ultimate success of a product, and therefore product owner, is meeting the end-user value of the business product owner, tool support of the technical product owner, and manual processing support of the operations product owner.

      Line of business (LOB) product owners

      LOB product owners focus on the products and services consumed by the organization’s external consumers and users. The role centers on the market needs, competitive landscape, and operational support to deliver products and services.

      Business perspective

      • Alignment to enterprise strategy and priorities
      • Growth: market penetration and/or revenue
      • Perception of product value
      • Quality, stability, and predictability
      • Improvement and innovation
      • P&L
      • Market threats and opportunities
      • Speed to market
      • Service alignment
      • Meet or exceed individual goals

      Relationship to Operations

      • Customer satisfaction
      • Speed of delivery and manual processing
      • Continuity

      Relationship to Technical

      • Enabler
      • Analysis and insight
      • Lower operating and support costs

      Technical product owners

      Technical product owners are responsible for the IT systems, tools, platforms, and services that support business operations. Often they are identified as application or platform managers.

      Technical perspective

      • Application, application suite, or group of applications
      • Core platforms and tools
      • Infrastructure and networking
      • Third-party technology services
      • Enable business operations
      • Direct-to-customer product or service
      • Highly interconnected
      • Need for continuous improvement
      • End-of-life management
      • Internal value proposition and users

      Relationship to Business

      • Direct consumers
      • End users
      • Source of funding

      Relationship to Operations

      • End users
      • Process enablement or automation
      • Support, continuity, and manual intervention

      Operations (service) product owners

      Operational product owners focus on the people, processes, and tools needed for manual processing and decisions when automation is not cost-effective. Operational product owners are typically called service owners due to the nature of their work.

      Operational perspective

      • Business enablement
      • Continuity
      • Problem, incident, issue resolution
      • Process efficiency
      • Throughput
      • Error/defect avoidance
      • Decision enablement
      • Waste reduction
      • Limit time in process
      • Disaster recovery

      Relationship to Business

      • Revenue enablement
      • Manual intervention and processing
      • End-user satisfaction

      Relationship to Technical

      • Process enabler
      • Performance enhancement
      • Threat of automation

      Exercise 1.2.1 Identify your primary product owner perspective

      1 hour
      1. Identify which product owner perspective represents your primary focus.
      2. Determine where the other perspectives need to be part of your product roadmap or if they are managed by other product owners.

      Identify product/service name, identify product owner perspective, determine if other perspectives need to be part of roadmap.

      Output

      • Identification of primary product owner perspective.

      Participants

      • Product owners
      • Product managers
      • Development team leads
      • Portfolio managers
      • Business analysts

      Capture in the Mature and Scale Product Ownership Playbook.

      Realign differences between project managers and product owners

      Differences between Project Manager and Product Owners in regards to: Funding, Prioritization, Accountability, Product management, Work allocation, and Capacity management.

      Manage and communicate key milestones

      Successful product owners understand and define the key milestones in their product delivery lifecycles. These need to be managed along with the product backlog and roadmap.

      Define key milestones and their product delivery life-cycles.

      Info-Tech Best Practice

      Product ownership isn’t just about managing the product backlog and development cycles. Teams need to manage key milestones such as learning milestones, test releases, product releases, phase gates, and other organizational checkpoints.

      Define who manages each key milestone

      Key milestones must be proactively managed. If a project manager is not available, those responsibilities need to be managed by the product owner or Scrum Master. Start with responsibility mapping to decide which role will be responsible.

      Example milestones and Project Manager, Product Owner and Team Facilitator.

      *Scrum Master, Delivery Manager, Team Lead

      Exercise 1.2.2 Define your product owner RACI

      60 minutes
      1. Review your product and project delivery methodologies to identify key milestones (including approvals, gates, reviews, compliance checks, etc.). List each milestone on a flip chart or whiteboard.
      2. For each milestone, define who is accountable for the completion.
      3. For each milestone, define who is responsible for executing the milestone activity. (Who does the work that allows the milestone to be completed?)
      4. Review any responsibility and accountability gaps and identify opportunities to better support and execute your operating model.
      5. If you previously completed Deliver Digital Products at Scale , review and update your RACI in the Mature and Scale Product Ownership Workbook .

      Define: Milestones, Project Manager, Product/service owner, Team Facilitator, and Other roles.

      Output

      • Product owner RACI

      Participants

      • Product owners
      • Product managers
      • Development team leads
      • Portfolio managers
      • Business analysts

      Capture in the Mature and Scale Product Ownership Playbook.

      Phase 2

      Align Product Owners to Products

      Phase 2: Assign product owners to products, Manage stakeholder influence

      Mature and Scale Product Ownership

      This phase will walk you through the following activities:

      2.1.1 Assign resources to your products and families

      2.2.1 Visualize relationships to identify key influencers

      2.2.2 Group stakeholders into categories

      2.2.3 Prioritize your stakeholders

      This phase involves the following participants:

      • Product owners
      • Product managers
      • Development team leads
      • Portfolio managers
      • Delivery managers
      • Business analysts

      Step 2.1

      Assign product owners to products

      Activities

      2.1.1 Assign resources to your products and families

      Align product owners to products

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Product owners
      • Product managers
      • Development team leads
      • Portfolio managers
      • Delivery managers
      • Business analysts

      Outcomes of this step

      • Product resource assignment

      Match your product management role definitions to your product family levels

      Using the role definitions, you created in Exercise 1.1.2, determine which roles correspond to which levels of your product families.

      Product portfolio

      Groups of product families within an overall value stream or capability grouping.

      Project portfolio manager

      Product family

      A collection of related products. Products can be grouped along architectural, functional, operational, or experiential patterns.

      Product family manager

      Product

      Single product composed of one or more applications and services.

      Product owner

      Info-Tech Insight

      Define the current roles that will perform the product management function or define consistent role names to product owners and managers.

      Assign resources throughout your product families

      Project families are owned by a product manager. Product owners own each product that has a distinct backlog.

      Info-Tech Insight

      • Start by assigning resources to each product or product family box.
      • A product owner can be responsible for more than one product.
      • Ownership of more than one product does not mean they share the same backlog.
      • For help organizing your product families, please download Deliver Digital Products at Scale.

      Understand special circumstances

      In Deliver Digital Products at Scale , products were grouped into families using Info-Tech’s five scaling patterns. Assigning owners to Enterprise Applications and Shared Services requires special consideration.

      Value stream alignment

      • Business architecture
        • Value stream
        • Capability
        • Function
      • Market/customer segment
      • Line of business (LoB)
      • Example: Customer group > value stream > products

      Enterprise applications

      • Enabling capabilities
      • Enterprise platforms
      • Supporting apps
      • Example: HR > Workday/Peoplesoft > Modules Supporting: Job board, healthcare administrator

      Shared Services

      • Organization of related services into service family
      • Direct hierarchy does not necessarily exist within the family
      • Examples: End-user support and ticketing, workflow and collaboration tools

      Technical

      • Domain grouping of IT infrastructure, platforms, apps, skills, or languages
      • Often used in combination with Shared Services grouping or LoB-specific apps
      • Examples: Java, .NET, low-code, database, network

      Organizational alignment

      • Used at higher levels of the organization where products are aligned under divisions
      • Separation of product managers from organizational structure is no longer needed because the management team owns the product management role

      Map the source of demand to each product

      With enterprise applications and shared services, your demand comes from other product and service owners rather than end customers in a value stream.

      Enterprise applications

      • Primary demand comes from the operational teams and service groups using the platform.
      • Each group typically has processes and tools aligned to a module or portion of the overall platform.
      • Product owners determine end-user needs to assist with process improvement and automation.
      • Product family managers help align roadmap goals and capabilities across the modules and tools to ensure consistency and the alignment of changes.

      Shared services

      • Primary demand for shared services comes from other product owners and service managers whose solution or application is dependent on the shared service platform.
      • Families are grouped by related themes (e.g. workflow tools) to increase reusability, standard enterprise solutions, reduced redundancy, and consistent processes across multiple teams.
      • Product owners manage the individual applications or services within a family.

      Pattern: Enterprise applications

      A division or group delivers enabling capabilities and the team’s operational alignment maps directly to the modules/components of an enterprise application and other applications that support the specific business function.

      Workforce Management, Strategic HR, Talent Management, Core HR

      Example:

      • Human resources is one corporate function. Within HR, however, there are subfunctions that operate independently.
      • Each operational team is supported by one or more applications or modules within a primary HR system.
      • Even though the teams work independently, the information they manage is shared with, or ties into processes used by other teams. Coordination of efforts helps provide a higher level of service and consistency.

      For additional information about HRMS, please download Get the Most Out of Your HRMS.

      Assigning owners to enterprise applications

      Align your enterprise application owners to your operating teams that use the enterprise applications. Effectively, your service managers will align with your platform module owners to provide integrated awareness and planning.

      Family manager (top-level), Family managers (second-level) and Product owners.

      Pattern: Shared services

      Grouping by service type, knowledge area, or technology allows for specialization while families align service delivery to shared business capabilities.

      Grouping by service type, knowledge area, or technology allows for specialization while families align service delivery to shared business capabilities.

      Example:

      • Recommended for governance, risk, and compliance; infrastructure; security; end-user support; and shared platforms (workflow, collaboration, imaging/record retention). Direct hierarchies do not necessarily exist within the shared service family.
      • Service groupings are common for service owners (also known as support managers, operations managers, etc.).
      • End-user ticketing comes through a common request system, is routed to the team responsible for triage, and then is routed to a team for resolution.
      • Collaboration tools and workflow tools are enablers of other applications, and product families might support multiple apps or platforms delivering that shared capability.

      Assigning owners to shared services

      Assign owners by service type, knowledge area, or technology to provide alignment of shared business capabilities and common solutions.

      Family manager (top-level), Family managers (second-level) and Product owners.

      Map sources of demand and influencers

      Use the stakeholder analysis to define the key stakeholders and sources of demand for enterprise applications and shared services. Extend your mapping to include their stakeholders and influencers to uncover additional sources of demand and prioritization.

      Map of key stakeholders for enterprise applications and shared services.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Your product owner map defines the influence landscape your product operates. It is every bit as important as the teams who enhance, support, and operate your product directly.

      Combine your product owner map with your stakeholder map to create a comprehensive view of influencers.

      Exercise 2.1.1 Assign resources to your products and families

      1-4 hours
      1. Use the product families you completed in Deliver Digital Products at Scale to determine which products and product families need a resource assigned. Where the same resource fills more than one role, they are the product owner or manager for each independently.
      2. Product families that are being managed as products (one backlog for multiple products) should have one owner until the family is split into separate products later.
      3. For each product and family, define the following:
        • Who is the owner (role or person)?
        • Is ownership clearly defined?
        • Are there other stakeholders who make decisions for the product?
      4. Record the results in the Mature and Scale Product Ownership Workbook on the Product Owner Mapping worksheet.

      Output

      • Product owner and manager resource alignment.

      Participants

      • Product owners
      • Product managers
      • Development team leads
      • Portfolio managers
      • Business analysts

      Capture in the Mature and Scale Product Ownership Playbook.

      Step 2.2

      Manage stakeholder influence

      Activities

      2.2.1 Visualize relationships to identify key influencers

      2.2.2 Group stakeholders into categories

      2.2.3 Prioritize your stakeholders

      Align product owners to products

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Product owners
      • Product managers
      • Development team leads
      • Portfolio managers
      • Delivery managers
      • Business analysts

      Outcomes of this step

      • Stakeholder management strategy

      Develop a product owner stakeholder strategy

      Stakeholder management, Product lifecycle, Project delivery, Operational support.

      Stakeholders are a critical cornerstone to product ownership. They provide the context, alignment, and constraints that influence or control what a product owner can accomplish.

      Product owners operate within a network of stakeholders who represent different perspectives within the organization.

      First, product owners must identify members of their stakeholder network. Next, they should devise a strategy for managing stakeholders.

      Without a stakeholder strategy, product owners will encounter obstacles, resistance, or unexpected changes.

      Create a stakeholder network map to product roadmaps and prioritization

      Follow the trail of breadcrumbs from your direct stakeholders to their influencers to uncover hidden stakeholders.

      Create a stakeholder network map to product roadmaps and prioritization. Use connectors to determine who may be influencing your direct stakeholders.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Your stakeholder map defines the influence landscape your product operates. It is every bit as important as the teams who enhance, support, and operate your product directly.

      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 substantive relationships with your stakeholders.

      Exercise 2.2.1 Visualize relationships to identify key influencers

      1 hour
      1. List direct stakeholders for your product.
      2. 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 informal bidirectional influence relationships.
      5. Record the results in the Mature and Scale Product Ownership Workbook .

      Output

      • Relationships among stakeholders and influencers

      Participants

      • Product owners
      • Product managers
      • Development team leads
      • Portfolio managers
      • Business analysts

      Capture in the Mature and Scale Product Ownership Playbook.

      Categorize your stakeholders with a prioritization map

      A stakeholder prioritization map helps product owners categorize their stakeholders by their level of influence and ownership in the product and/or teams.

      Influence versus Ownership/Interest

      There are four areas on the map, and the stakeholders within each area should be treated differently.

      • 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 impediments to the objectives.
      • 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 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 are generally apathetic and have little influence over or interest in the initiative.

      Exercise 2.2.2 Group stakeholders into categories

      1 hour
      1. Identify your stakeholders’ interest in and influence on your Agile implementation as high, medium, or low by rating the attributes below.
      2. Map your results to the model below to determine each stakeholder’s category.
      3. Record the results in the Mature and Scale Product Ownership Workbook .

      Influence versus Ownership/Interest with CMO, CIO and Product Manager in assigned areas.

      Output

      • Categorization of stakeholders and influencers

      Participants

      • Product owners
      • Product managers
      • Development team leads
      • Portfolio managers
      • Business analysts

      Capture in the Mature and Scale Product Ownership 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.

      Stakeholder category versus level of support.

      Consider the three dimensions of stakeholder prioritization: influence, interest, and support. Support can be determined by rating the following question: How likely is it that your stakeholder would recommend your product? These parameters are used to prioritize which stakeholders are most important and should receive your focused attention. The table to the right indicates how stakeholders are ranked.

      Exercise 2.2.3 Prioritize your stakeholders

      1 hour
      1. Identify the level of support of each stakeholder by answering the following question: How likely is it that your stakeholder would endorse your product?
      2. Prioritize your stakeholders using the prioritization scheme on the previous slide.
      3. Record the results in the Mature and Scale Product Ownership Workbook .

      Stakeholder, Category, level of support, prioritization.

      Output

      • Stakeholder and influencer prioritization

      Participants

      • Product owners
      • Product managers
      • Development team leads
      • Portfolio managers
      • Business analysts

      Capture in the Mature and Scale Product Ownership Playbook.

      Define strategies for engaging stakeholders by type

      Authority Vs. Ownership/Interest.

      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 your stakeholder groups, the product owner 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.

      Phase 3

      Mature Product Owner Capabilities

      Phase 3: Assess your Agile product owner readiness, Mature product owner capabilities.

      Mature and Scale Product Ownership

      This phase will walk you through the following activities:

      3.1.1 Assess your real Agile skill proficiency

      3.2.1 Assess your vision capability proficiency

      3.2.2 Assess your leadership capability proficiency

      3.2.3 Assess your PLM capability proficiency

      3.2.4 Identify your business value drivers and sources of value

      3.2.5 Assess your value realization capability proficiency

      This phase involves the following participants:

      • Product owners
      • Product managers

      Step 3.1

      Assess your Agile product owner readiness

      Activities

      3.1.1 Assess your real Agile skill proficiency

      Mature product owner capabilities

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Product owners
      • Product managers

      Outcomes of this step

      • Real Agile skill proficiency assessment

      Why focus on core skills?

      They are the foundation to achieve business outcomes

      Skills, actions, output and outcomes

      The right skills development is only possible with proper assessment and alignment against outcomes.

      Being successful at Agile is more than about just doing Agile

      The following represents the hard skills needed to “Do Agile”:

      Being successful at Agile needs 4 hard skills: 1. Engineering skills, 2. Technician Skills, 3. Framework/Process skills, 4. Tools skills.

      • Engineering skills. These are the skills and competencies required for building brand-new valuable software.
      • Technician skills. These are the skills and competencies required for maintaining and operating the software delivered to stakeholders.
      • Framework/Process skills. These are the specific knowledge skills required to support engineering or technician skills.
      • Tools skills. This represents the software that helps you deliver other software.

      While these are important, they are not the whole story. To effectively deliver software, we believe in the importance of being Agile over simply doing Agile.

      Adapted from: “Doing Agile” Is Only Part of the Software Delivery Pie

      Focus on these real Agile skills

      Agile skills

      • Accountability
      • Collaboration
      • Comfort with ambiguity
      • Communication
      • Empathy
      • Facilitation
      • Functional decomposition
      • Initiative
      • Process discipline
      • Resilience

      Info-Tech research shows these are the real Agile skills to get started with

      Skill Name

      Description

      Accountability

      Refers to the state of being accountable. In an Agile context, it implies transparency, dedication, acting responsibly, and doing what is necessary to get the job done.

      Collaboration

      Values diverse perspectives and working with others to achieve the best output possible. Effective at working toward individual, team, department, and organizational goals.

      Comfort with ambiguity

      Allows you to confidently take the next steps when presented with a problem without having all the necessary information present.

      Communication

      Uses different techniques to share information, concerns, or emotions when a situation arises, and it allows you to vary your approach depending on the current phase of development.

      Empathy

      Is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another to better serve your team and your stakeholders.

      Facilitation

      Refers to guiding and directing people through a set of conversations and events to learn and achieve a shared understanding.

      Functional decomposition

      Is being able to break down requirements into constituent epics and stories.

      Initiative

      Is being able to anticipate challenges and then act on opportunities that lead to better business outcomes.

      Process discipline

      Refers to the focus of following the right steps for a given activity at the right time to achieve the right outcomes.

      Resilience

      Refers to the behaviors, thoughts, and actions that allow a person to recover from stress and adversity.

      Accountability

      An accountable person:

      • Takes ownership of their own decisions and actions and is responsible for the quality of results.
      • Recognizes personal accountabilities to others, including customers.
      • Works well autonomously.
      • Ensures that the mutual expectations between themselves and others are clearly defined.
      • Takes the appropriate actions to ensure that obligations are met in a timely manner.
      • As a leader, takes responsibility for those being led.

      Accountability drives high performance in teams and organizations

      • The performance level of teams depends heavily on accountability and who demonstrates it:
        • In weak teams, there is no accountability.
        • In mediocre teams, supervisors demonstrate accountability.
        • In high-performance teams, peers manage most performance problems through joint accountability. (Grenny, 2014)
      • According to Bain & Company, accountability is the third most important attribute of high-performing companies. Some of the other key attributes include honest, performance-focused, collaborative, and innovative. (Mankins, 2013)

      All components of the employee empowerment driver have a strong, positive correlation with engagement.

      Employee empowerment and Correlation with engagement.

      Source: McLean & Company Engagement Database, 2018; N=71,794

      Accountability

      Your Score: ____

      1 - Foundational: Transitioning and Growing

      2 - Capable/Competent: Core Contributor

      3 - Influential: Gifted Improver

      4 - Transformational: Towering Strength

      • Alerts others to possible problems in a timely manner.
      • Seeks appropriate support to solve problems.
      • Actively contributes to the creation and evaluation of possible solutions.
      • Acts on solutions selected and decisions made as directed.
      • Makes effective decisions about how to complete work tasks.
      • Demonstrates the capability of breaking down concrete issues into parts and synthesizing information succinctly.
      • Collects and analyzes information from a variety of sources.
      • Seeks information and input to fully understand the cause of problems.
      • Takes action to address obstacles and problems before they impact performance and results.
      • Initiates the evaluation of possible solutions to problems.
      • Makes effective decisions about work task prioritization.
      • Appropriately assesses risks before deciding.
      • Effectively navigates through ambiguity, using multiple data points to analyze issues and identify trends.
      • Does not jump to conclusions.
      • Draws logical conclusions and provides opinions and recommendations with confidence.
      • Takes ownership over decisions and their consequences.
      • Demonstrates broad knowledge of information sources that can be used to assess problems and make decisions.
      • Invests time in planning, discovery, and reflection to drive better decisions.
      • Effectively leverages hard data as inputs to making decisions.
      • Garners insight from abstract data and makes appropriate decisions.
      • Coaches others in effective decision-making practices.
      • Has the authority to solve problems and make decisions.
      • Thinks several steps ahead in deciding the best course of action, anticipating likely outcomes, risks, or implications.
      • Establishes metrics to aid in decision-making, for self and teams
      • Prioritizes objective and ambiguous information and analyzes this when making decisions.
      • Solicits a diverse range of opinions and perspectives as inputs to decision making.
      • Applies frameworks to decision making, particularly in situations that have little base in prior experience.
      • Makes effective decisions about organizational priorities.
      • Holds others accountable for their decisions and consequences.
      • Creates a culture of empowerment and trust to facilitate effective problem solving and decision making.
      • Makes sound decisions that have organization-wide consequences and that influence future direction.

      Collaboration as a skill

      The principles and values of Agile revolve around collaboration.

      • Works well with others on specialized and cross-functional teams.
      • Can self-organize while part of a team.
      • Respects the commitments that others make.
      • Identifies and articulates dependencies.
      • Values diverse perspectives and works with others to achieve the best output possible.
      • Effective at working toward individual, team, department, and organizational goals.
      The principles and values of Agile revolve around collaboration. Doing what was done before (being prescriptive), going though the motions (doing Agile), living the principles (being Agile)

      Collaboration

      The Agile Manifesto has three principles that focus on collaboration:

      1. The business and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
      2. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need and trust them to get the job done.
      3. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.

      Effective collaboration supports Agile behaviors, including embracing change and the ability to work iteratively.

      Collaboration

      Your Score: ____

      1 - Foundational: Transitioning and Growing

      2 - Capable/Competent: Core Contributor

      3 - Influential: Gifted Improver

      4 - Transformational: Towering Strength

      • Understands role on the team and the associated responsibilities and accountabilities.
      • Treats team members with respect.
      • Contributes to team decisions and to the achievement of team goals and objectives.
      • Demonstrates a positive attitude.
      • Works cross-functionally to achieve common goals and to support the achievement of other team/department goals.
      • Values working in a diverse team and understands the importance of differing perspectives to develop unique solutions or ideas.
      • Fosters team camaraderie, collaboration, and cohesion.
      • Understands the impact of one's actions on the ability of team members to do their jobs.
      • Respects the differences other team members bring to the table by openly seeking others' opinions.
      • Helps the team accomplish goals and objectives by breaking down shared goals into smaller tasks.
      • Approaches challenging team situations with optimism and an open mind, focusing on coming to a respectful conclusion.
      • Makes suggestions to improve team engagement and effectiveness.
      • Supports implementation of team decisions.
      • Professionally gives and seeks feedback to achieve common goals.
      • Values working in a diverse team and understands the importance of differing perspectives to develop unique solutions or ideas.
      • Motivates the team toward achieving goals and exceeding expectations.
      • Reaches out to other teams and departments to build collaborative, cross-functional relationships.
      • Creates a culture of collaboration that leverages team members' strengths, even when the team is remote or virtual.
      • Participates and encourages others to participate in initiatives that improve team engagement and effectiveness.
      • Builds consensus to make and implement team decisions, often navigating through challenging task or interpersonal obstacles.
      • Values leading a diverse team and understands the importance of differing perspectives to develop unique solutions or ideas.
      • Creates a culture of collaboration among teams, departments, external business partners, and all employee levels.
      • Breaks down silos to achieve inter-departmental collaboration.
      • Demonstrates ownership and accountability for team/department/ organizational outcomes.
      • Uses an inclusive and consultative approach in setting team goals and objectives and making team decisions.
      • Coaches others on how to identify and proactively mitigate potential points of team conflict.
      • Recognizes and rewards teamwork throughout the organization.
      • Provides the tools and resources necessary for teams to succeed.
      • Values diverse teams and understands the importance of differing perspectives to develop unique solutions or ideas.

      Comfort with ambiguity

      Ability to handle ambiguity is a key factor in Agile success.

      • Implies the ability to maintain a level of effectiveness when all information is not present.
      • Able to confidently act when presented with a problem without all information present.
      • Risk and uncertainty can comfortably be handled.
      • As a result, can easily adapt and embrace change.
      • People comfortable with ambiguity demonstrate effective problem-solving skills.

      Relative importance of traits found in Agile teams

      1. Handles ambiguity
      2. Agreeable
      3. Conscientious

      Comfort with ambiguity

      Your Score: ____

      1 - Foundational: Transitioning and Growing

      2 - Capable/Competent: Core Contributor

      3 - Influential: Gifted Improver

      4 - Transformational: Towering Strength

      • Requires most information to be present before carrying out required activities.
      • Can operate with some information missing.
      • Comfortable asking people within their known circles for help.
      • Significant time is taken to reveal small pieces of information.
      • More adept at operating with information missing.
      • Willing to reach out to people outside of their regular circles for assistance and clarification.
      • Able to apply primary and secondary research methods to fill in the missing pieces.
      • Can operate essentially with a statement and a blank page.
      • Able to build a plan, drive others and themselves to obtain the right information to solve the problem.
      • Able to optimize only pulling what is necessary to answer the desired question and achieve the desired outcome.

      Communication

      Even though many organizations recognize its importance, communication is one of the root causes of project failure.

      Project success vs Communication effectiveness. Effective communications is associated with a 17% increase in finishing projects within budget.

      56%

      56% of the resources spent on a project are at risk due to ineffective communications.

      PMI, 2013.

      29%

      In 29% of projects started in the past 12 months, poor communication was identified as being one of the primary causes of failure.

      PMI, 2013.

      Why are communication skills important to the Agile team?

      It’s not about the volume, it’s about the method.

      • Effectively and appropriately interacts with others to build relationships and share ideas and information.
      • Uses tact and diplomacy to navigate difficult situations.
      • Relays key messages by creating a compelling story, targeted toward specific audiences.

      Communication effectiveness, Activity and Effort required.

      Adapted From: Agile Modeling

      Communication

      Your Score:____

      1 - Foundational: Transitioning and Growing

      2 - Capable/Competent: Core Contributor

      3 - Influential: Gifted Improver

      4 - Transformational: Towering Strength

      • Actively listens, learns through observation, and uses clear and precise language.
      • Possesses an open and approachable demeanor, with a positive and constructive tone.
      • Demonstrates interest in the thoughts and feelings of others.
      • Considers potential responses of others before speaking or acting.
      • Checks own understanding of others’ communication by repeating or paraphrasing.
      • Demonstrates self-control in stressful situations.
      • Provides clear, concise information to others via verbal or written communication.
      • Seeks to understand others' points of view, looking at verbal and non-verbal cues to encourage open and honest discussions.
      • Invites and encourages others to participate in discussions.
      • Projects a sincere and genuine tone.
      • Remains calm when dealing with others who are upset or angry.
      • Provides and seeks support to improve communication.
      • Does not jump to conclusions or act on assumptions.
      • Tailors messages to meet the different needs of different audiences.
      • Accurately interprets responses of others to their words and actions.
      • Provides feedback effectively and with empathy.
      • Is a role model for others on how to effectively communicate.
      • Ensures effective communication takes place at the departmental level.
      • Engages stakeholders using appropriate communication methods to achieve desired outcomes.
      • Creates opportunities and forums for discussion and idea sharing.
      • Demonstrates understanding of the feelings, motivations, and perspectives of others, while adapting communications to anticipated reactions.
      • Shares insights about their own strengths, weaknesses, successes, ad failures to show empathy and help others relate.
      • Discusses contentious issues without getting defensive and maintains a professional tone.
      • Coaches others on how to communicate effectively and craft targeted messages.
      • Sets and exemplifies standards for respectful and effective communications in the organization.
      • Comfortably delivers strategic messages supporting their function and the organization at the enterprise level.
      • Communicates with senior-level executives on complex organizational issues.
      • Promotes inter-departmental communication and transparency.
      • Achieves buy-in and consensus from people who share widely different views.
      • Shares complex messages in clear, understandable language.
      • Accurately interprets how they are perceived by others.
      • Rallies employees to communicate ideas and build upon differing perspectives to drive innovation.

      Empathy

      Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another in order to better serve your team and your stakeholders. There are three kinds:

      Cognitive

      Thought, understanding, intellect

      • Knowing how someone else feels and what they might be thinking.
      • Contributes to more effective communication.

      Emotional

      Feelings, physical sensation

      • You physically feel the emotions of the other person.
      • Helps build emotional connections with others.

      Compassionate

      Intellect, emotion with action

      • Along with understanding, you take action to help.

      How is empathy an Agile skill?

      Empathy enables you to serve your team, your customers, and your organization

      Serving the team

      • Primary types: Emotional and compassionate empathy.
      • The team is accountable for delivery.
      • By being able to empathize with the person you are talking to, complex issues can be addressed.
      • A lack of empathy leads to a lack of collaboration and being able to go forward on a common path.

      Serving your customers and stakeholders

      • Primary type: Cognitive empathy.
      • Agile enables the delivery of the right value at the right time to your stakeholders
      • Translating your stakeholders' needs requires an understanding of who they are as people. This is done through observations, interviews and conversations.
      • Leveraging empathy maps and user-story writing is an effective tool.

      Empathy

      Your Score: ____

      1 - Foundational: Transitioning and Growing

      2 - Capable/Competent: Core Contributor

      3 - Influential: Gifted Improver

      4 - Transformational: Towering Strength

      • Knowing how someone else feels and what they might be thinking.
      • Ability to build emotional connections with others.
      • Able to harness emotional connections to achieve tangible and experiential outcomes.
      • Demonstrates an awareness of different feelings and ways of thinking by both internal and external stakeholders.
      • Limited ability to make social connections with others outside of the immediate team.
      • Able to connect with similarly minded people to improve customer/stakeholder satisfaction. (Insights into action)
      • Able to interact and understand others with vastly different views.
      • Lack of agreement does not stop individual. from asking questions, understanding, and pushing the conversation forward

      Facilitation

      It’s not just your manager’s problem.

      “Facilitation is the skill of moderating discussions within a group in order to enable all participants to effectively articulate their views on a topic under discussion, and to ensure that participants in the discussion are able to recognize and appreciate the differing points of view that are articulated.” (IIBA, 2015)

      • Drives action through influence, often without authority.
      • Leads and impacts others' thinking, decisions, or behavior through inclusive practices and relationship building.
      • Encourages others to self-organize and hold themselves accountable.
      • Identifies blockers and constructively removes barriers to progress.

      Facilitation

      Your Score: ____

      1 - Foundational: Transitioning and Growing

      2 - Capable/Competent: Core Contributor

      3 - Influential: Gifted Improver

      4 - Transformational: Towering Strength

      • Drives action through influence, often without authority.
      • Leads and impacts others' thinking, decisions, or behavior through inclusive practices and relationship building.
      • Encourages others to self-organize and hold themselves accountable.
      • Identifies blockers and constructively removes barriers to progress.
      • Maps and executes processes effectively.
      • Uses facts and concrete examples to demonstrate a point and gain support from others.
      • Openly listens to the perspectives of others.
      • Builds relationships through honest and consistent behavior.
      • Understands the impact of their own actions and how others will perceive it.
      • Identifies impediments to progress.
      • Anticipates the effect of one's approach on the emotions and sensitivities of others.
      • Practices active listening while demonstrating positivity and openness.
      • Customizes discussion and presentations to include "what’s in it for me" for the audience.
      • Presents compelling information to emphasize the value of an idea.
      • Involves others in refining ideas or making decisions in order to drive buy-in and action.
      • Knows how to appropriately use influence to achieve outcomes without formal authority.
      • Seeks ways and the help of others to address barriers or blockers to progress.
      • Leverages a planned approach to influencing others by identifying stakeholder interests, common goals, and potential barriers.
      • Builds upon successes to gain acceptance for new ideas.
      • Facilitates connections between members of their network for the benefit of the organization or others.
      • Demonstrates the ability to draw on trusting relationships to garner support for ideas and action.
      • Encourages a culture that allows space for influence to drive action.
      • Adept at appropriately leveraging influence to achieve business unit outcomes.
      • Actively manages the removal of barriers and blockers for teams.

      Functional decomposition

      It’s not just a process, it’s a skill.

      “Functional decomposition helps manage complexity and reduce uncertainty by breaking down processes, systems, functional areas, or deliverables into their simpler constituent parts and allowing each part to be analyzed independently."

      (IIBA, 2015)

      Being able to break down requirements into constituent consumable items (example: epics and user stories).

      Start: Strategic Initiatives. 1: Epics. 2: Capabilities. 3: Features. End: Stories.

      Use artifact mapping to improve functional decomposition

      In our research, we refer to these items as epics, capabilities, features, and user stories. How you develop your guiding principles and structure your backlog should be based on the terminology and artifact types commonly used in your organization.

      Agile, Waterfall, Relationship, Decomposition skill most in demand, definition.

      Functional Decomposition

      Your Score: ____

      1 - Foundational: Transitioning and Growing

      2 - Capable/Competent: Core Contributor

      3 - Influential: Gifted Improver

      4 - Transformational: Towering Strength

      • Able to decompose items with assistance from other team members.
      • Able to decompose items independently, ensuring alignment with business value.
      • Able to decompose items independently and actively seeks out collaboration opportunities with relevant SME's during and after the refinement process to ensure completion.
      • Able to decompose items at a variety of granularity levels.
      • Able to teach and lead others in their decomposition efforts.
      • Able to quickly operate at different levels of the requirements stack.

      Initiative and self-organization

      A team that takes initiative can self-organize to solve critical problems.

      • "The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams." (Agile Manifesto)
      • In a nutshell, the initiative represents the ability to anticipate challenges and act on opportunities that lead to better business outcomes.
      • Anticipates challenges and acts on opportunities that lead to better business outcomes.
      • Thinks critically and is motivated to use both specialist expertise and general knowledge.
      • Driven by the delivery of business value and better business outcomes.
      • Empowers others to act and is empowered and self-motivated.

      Initiative and self-organization

      Your Score: ____

      1 - Foundational: Transitioning and Growing

      2 - Capable/Competent: Core Contributor

      3 - Influential: Gifted Improver

      4 - Transformational: Towering Strength

      • Demonstrates awareness of an opportunity or issue which is presently occurring or is within the immediate work area.
      • Reports an opportunity or issue to the appropriate person.
      • Acts instead of waiting to be asked.
      • Willingly takes on challenges, even if they fall outside their area of expertise.
      • Is proactive in identifying issues and making recommendations to resolve them.
      • Within the scope of the work environment, takes action to improve processes or results, or to resolve problems.
      • Not deterred by obstacles.
      • Tackles challenges that require risk taking.
      • Procures the necessary resources, team and technical support to enable success.
      • Assists others to get the job done.
      • Demonstrates awareness of an opportunities or issues which are in the future or outside the immediate work area.
      • Typically exceeds the expectations of the job.
      • Learns new technology or skills outside their specialization so that they can be a more effective team member.
      • Recommends solutions to enhance results or prevent potential issues.
      • Drives implementation of new processes within the team to improve results.
      • Able to provide recommendations on plans and decisions that are strategic and future-oriented for the organization.
      • Identifies areas of high risk or of organizational level impact.
      • Able to empower significant recourses from the organization to enable success.
      • Leads long-term engagements that result in improved organizational capabilities and processes.

      Process discipline

      A common misconception is that Agile means no process and no discipline. Effective Agile teams require more adherence to the right processes to create a culture of self-improvement.

      • Refers to the focus of following the right steps for a given activity at the right time to achieve the right outcomes.
      • Focus on following the right steps for a given activity at the right time to achieve desired outcomes.
      Example: Scrum Ceremonies during a sprint (1 - 4 weeks/sprint). 1: Sprint planning, 2: Daily scrum, 3: Sprint review, 4: Sprint retrospective.

      Process discipline

      Your Score: ____

      1 - Foundational: Transitioning and Growing

      2 - Capable/Competent: Core Contributor

      3 - Influential: Gifted Improver

      4 - Transformational: Towering Strength

      • Demonstrates awareness of the key processes and steps that are needed in a given situation.
      • Limited consistency in following processes and limited understanding of the 'why' behind the processes.
      • Aware and follows through with key agile processes in a consistent manner.
      • Demonstrates not only the knowledge of processes but understands the 'why' behind their existence.
      • Aware and follows through with key agile processes in a consistent manner.
      • Demonstrates understanding of not only why specific processes exist but can suggest changes to improve efficiency, consistency, and outcomes.

      N/A -- Maximum level is '3

      Resilience

      If your team hits the wall, don’t let the wall hit them back.

      • Resilience is critical for an effective Agile transformation. A team that demonstrates resilience always exhibits:
      • Evolution over transformation – There is a recognition that changes happen over time.
      • Intensity and productivity – A race is not won by the ones who are the fastest, but by the ones who are the most consistent. Regardless of what comes up, the team can push through.
      • That organizational resistance is futile – Given that it is working on the right objectives, the team needs to demonstrate a consistency of approach and intensity regardless of what may stand in its way.
      • Refers to the behaviors, thoughts, and actions that allow a person to recover from stress and adversity.

      How resilience aligns with Agile

      A team is not “living the principles” without resilience.

      1. Purpose

        Aligns with: “Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.” The vision or goals may not be clear in certain circumstances and can be difficult to relate to a single work item. Being able to intrinsically source and harness a sense of purpose becomes more important, especially as a self-organizing team.
      2. Perseverance

        Aligns with: “Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.” Perseverance enables teams to continuously deliver at a steady pace, addressing impediments or setbacks and continuing to move forward.
      3. Composure

        Aligns with: “Agile processes promote sustainable development,” and “At regular intervals, the team reflects ... and adjusts its behavior accordingly.”
        When difficult situations arise, composure allows us to understand perspectives, empathize with customers, accept late changes, and sustain a steady pace.
      4. Self-Reliance

        Aligns with: “The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.” Knowing oneself, recognizing strengths, and drawing on past successes, can be a powerful aid in creating high-performing Agile teams
      5. Authenticity

        Aligns with: “At regular intervals, the team reflects … and adjusts its behavior accordingly,” and “Build projects around motivated individuals.”
        When difficult situations arise, authenticity is crucial. “For example, being able to openly disclose areas outside of your strengths in sprint planning or being able to contribute constructively toward self-organization.”

      Adapted from: Why Innovation, 2019.

      Resilience

      Your Score: ____

      1 - Foundational: Transitioning and Growing

      2 - Capable/Competent: Core Contributor

      3 - Influential: Gifted Improver

      4 - Transformational: Towering Strength

      • Easily distracted and stopped by moderately stressful and challenging situations.
      • Requires significant help from others to get back on track.
      • Not frequently able (or knows) how to ask for help
      • Handles typical stresses and challenges for the given role.
      • Able to get back on track with limited assistance.
      • Able to ask for help when they need it.
      • Quality of work unaffected by an increase in pressures and challenges.
      • Handles stresses and challenges what is deemed above and beyond their given role.
      • Able to provide advice to others on how to handle difficult and challenging situations.
      • Quality of work and outcomes is maintained and sometimes exceeded as pressure increases.
      • Team looks to this individual as being the gold standard on how to approach any given problem or situation.
      • Directly mentors others on approaches in situations regardless of the level of challenge.

      Exercise 1.2.1 Identify your primary product owner perspective

      1 hour
      1. Review each real Agile skill and determine your current proficiency.
      2. Complete your assessment in the Mature and Scale Product Owner Proficiency Assessment tool.
      3. Record the results in the Mature and Scale Product Ownership Playbook.
      4. Review the skills map to identify strengths and areas of growth.

      Accountability, Collaboration, Comfort in Ambiguity, Communication, Empathy, Facilitation, Functional Decomposition, Initiative, Process Discipline, Resilience.

      Output

      • Agile skills assessment results.

      Participants

      • Product owners
      • Product managers

      Capture in the Mature and Scale Product Owner Proficiency Assessment.

      Determine your Agile skills proficiency: Edit chart data to plot your scores or add your data points and connect the lines.

      Step 3.2

      Mature product owner capabilities

      Activities

      3.2.1 Assess your vision capability proficiency

      3.2.2 Assess your leadership capability proficiency

      3.2.3 Assess your PLM capability proficiency

      3.2.4 Identify your business value drivers and sources of value

      3.2.5 Assess your value realization capability proficiency

      Mature product owner capabilities

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Product owners
      • Product managers

      Outcomes of this step

      • Info-Tech product owner capability model proficiency assessment

      Product capabilities deliver value

      As a product owner, you are responsible for managing these facets through your capabilities and activities.

      The core product and value stream consists of: Funding - Product management and governance, Business functionality - Stakeholder and relationship management, and Technology - Product delivery.

      Info-Tech Best Practice

      It is easy to lose sight of what matters when we look at a product from a single point of view . Despite what "The Agile Manifesto" says, working software is not valuable without the knowledge and support that people need in order to adopt, use, and maintain it. If you build it, they will not come. Product owners must consider the needs of all stakeholders when designing and building products.

      Recognize product owner knowledge gaps

      Pulse survey of product owners

      Pulse survey of product owners. Graph shows large percentage of respondents have alignment to common agile definition of product owners. Yet a significant perception gap in P&L, delivery, and analytics.

      Info-Tech Insight

      1. Less than 15% of respondents identified analytics or financial management as a key component of product ownership.
      2. Assess your product owner’s capabilities and understanding to develop a maturity plan.

      Source: Pulse Survey (N=18)

      Implement the Info-Tech product owner capability model

      Unfortunately, most product owners operate with incomplete knowledge of the skills and capabilities needed to perform the role. Common gaps include focusing only on product backlogs, acting as a proxy for product decisions, and ignoring the need for key performance indicators (KPIs) and analytics in both planning and value realization.

      Product Owner capabilities: Vision, Product Lifecycle Management, Leadership, Value Realization

      Vision

      • Market Analysis
      • Business Alignment
      • Product Roadmap

      Leadership

      • Soft Skills
      • Collaboration
      • Decision Making

      Product Lifecycle Management

      • Plan
      • Build
      • Run

      Value Realization

      • KPIs
      • Financial Management
      • Business Model

      Product owner capabilities provide support

      Vision predicts impact of Value realization. Value realization provides input to vision

      Your vision informs and aligns what goals and capabilities are needed to fulfill your product or product family vision and align with enterprise goals and priorities. Each item on your roadmap should have corresponding KPIs or OKRs to know how far you moved the value needle. Value realization measures how well you met your target, as well as the impacts on your business value canvas and cost model.

      Product lifecycle management builds trust with Leadership. Leadership improves quality of Product lifecycle management.

      Your leadership skills improve collaborations and decisions when working with your stakeholders and product delivery teams. This builds trust and improves continued improvements to the entire product lifecycle. A product owner’s focus should always be on finding ways to improve value delivery.

      Product owner capabilities provide support

      Leadership enhances Vision. Vision Guides Product Lifecycle Management. Product Lifecycle Management delivers Value Realization. Leadership enhances Value Realization

      Develop product owner capabilities

      Each capability: Vision, Product lifecycle management, Value realization and Leadership has 3 components needed for successful product ownership.

      Avoid common capability gaps

      Vision

      • Focusing solely on backlog grooming (tactical only)
      • Ignoring or failing to align product roadmap to enterprise goals
      • Operational support and execution
      • Basing decisions on opinion rather than market data
      • Ignoring or missing internal and external threats to your product

      Leadership

      • Failing to include feedback from all teams who interact with your product
      • Using a command-and-control approach
      • Viewing product owner as only a delivery role
      • Acting as a proxy for stakeholder decisions
      • Avoiding tough strategic decisions in favor of easier tactical choices

      Product lifecycle management

      • Focusing on delivery and not the full product lifecycle
      • Ignoring support, operations, and technical debt
      • Failing to build knowledge management into the lifecycle
      • Underestimating delivery capacity, capabilities, or commitment
      • Assuming delivery stops at implementation

      Value realization

      • Focusing exclusively on “on time/on budget” metrics
      • Failing to measure a 360-degree end-user view of the product
      • Skipping business plans and financial models
      • Limiting financial management to project/change budgets
      • Ignoring market analysis for growth, penetration, and threats

      Capabilities: Vision

      Market Analysis

      • Customer Empathy: Identify the target users and unique value your product provides that is not currently being met. Define the size of your user base, segmentation, and potential growth.
      • Customer Journey: Define the future path and capabilities your users will respond to.
      • Competitive analysis: Complete a SWOT analysis for your end-to-end product lifecycle. Use Info-Tech’s Business SWOT Analysis Template.

      Business Alignment

      • Enterprise alignment: Align to enterprise and product family goals, strategies, and constraints.
      • Delivery and release strategy: Develop a delivery strategy to achieve value quickly and adapt to internal and external changes. Value delivery is constrained by your delivery pipeline.
      • OCM and go-to-market strategy: Create organizational change management, communications, and a user implementation approach to improve adoption and satisfaction from changes.

      Product Roadmap

      • Roadmap strategy: Determine the duration, detail, and structure of your roadmap to accurately communicate your vision.
      • Value prioritization: Define criteria used to evaluate and sequence demand items.
      • Release and capacity planning: Build your roadmap with realistic goals and milestones based on your delivery pipeline and dependencies.

      “Customers are best heard through many ears.”

      – Thomas K. Connellan, Inside the Magic Kingdom

      Vision: Market Analysis, Business Alignment, and Product Roadmap.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Data comes from many places and may still not tell the complete story.

      Build your product strategy playbook

      Complete Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision to define your Vision, Goals, Roadmap approach, and Backlog quality filters.

      Digital Product Strategy Supporting Workbook

      Supporting workbook that captures the interim results from a number of exercises that will contribute to your overall digital product vision.

      Product Backlog Item Prioritization Tool

      An optional tool to help you capture your product backlog and prioritize based on your given criteria

      Product Roadmap Tool

      An optional tool to help you build out and visualize your first roadmap.

      Your Digital Product Vision Details Strategy

      Record the results from the exercises to help you define, detail, and make real your digital product vision.

      Your product vision is your North Star

      It's ok to dream a little!

      Who is the target customer, what is the key benefit, what do they need, what is the differentiator

      Adapted from: Geoffrey Moore, 2014.

      Info-Tech Best Practice

      A product vision shouldn’t be so far out that it doesn’t feel real or so short-term that it gets bogged down in minutiae and implementation details. Finding the right balance will take some trial and error and will be different for each organization.

      Use product roadmaps to guide delivery

      In Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision, we showed how the product roadmap is key to value realization. As a product owner, the product roadmap is your communicated path to align teams and changes to your defined goals, while aligning your product to enterprise goals and strategy.

      As a product owner, the product roadmap is your communicated path to align teams and changes to your defined goals, while aligning your product to enterprise goals and strategy

      Info-Tech Best Practice

      Info-Tech Best Practice Product delivery requires a comprehensive set of business and technical competencies to effectively roadmap, plan, deliver, support, and validate your product portfolio. Product delivery is a “multi-faceted, complex discipline that can be difficult to grasp and hard to master.” It will take time to learn and adopt methods and become a competent product manager or owner (“What Is Product Management?”, Pichler Consulting Limited).

      Match your roadmap and backlog to the needs of the product

      Ultimately, you want products to be able to respond faster to changes and deliver value sooner. The level of detail in the roadmap and backlog is a tool to help the product owner plan for change. The duration of your product roadmap is all directly related to the tier of product owner in the product family.

      The level of detail in the roadmap and backlog is a tool to help the product owner plan for change. The duration of your product roadmap is all directly related to the tier of product owner in the product family.

      Product delivery realizes value for your product family

      While planning and analysis are done at the family level, work and delivery are done at the individual product level.

      Product strategy includes: Vision, Goals, Roadmap, backlog and Release plan.

      Use artifact mapping to improve functional decomposition

      In our research, we refer to these items as epics, capabilities, features, and user stories. How you develop your guiding principles and structure your backlog should be based on the terminology and artifact types commonly used in your organization.

      Agile, Waterfall, Relationship, Decomposition skill most in demand, definition.

      Manage and communicate key milestones

      Successful product owners understand and define the key milestones in their product delivery lifecycles. These need to be managed along with the product backlog and roadmap.

      Define key milestones and their release dates.

      Info-Tech Best Practice

      Product ownership isn’t just about managing the product backlog and development cycles! Teams need to manage key milestones such as learning milestones, test releases, product releases, phase gates, and other organizational checkpoints!

      Milestones

      • Points in the timeline when the established set of artifacts is complete (feature-based), or checking status at a particular point in time (time-based).
      • Typically assigned a date and used to show the progress of development.
      • Plays an important role when sequencing different types of artifacts.

      Release dates

      • Releases mark the actual delivery of a set of artifacts packaged together in a new version of the product.
      • Release dates, firm or not, allow stakeholders to anticipate when this is coming.

      Leverage the product canvas to state and inform your product vision

      Leverage the product Canvas to state and inform your product vision. Includes: Product name, Tracking info, Vision, List of business objectives or goals, Metrics used to measure value realization, List of groups who consume the product/service, and List of key resources or stakeholders.

      Capability: Vision

      Your Score: ____

      1 - Foundational: Transitioning and Growing

      2 - Capable/Competent: Core Contributor

      3 - Influential: Gifted Improver

      4 - Transformational: Towering Strength

      • Product backlog.
      • Basic roadmap with milestones and releases.
      • Unprioritized stakeholder list.
      • Understanding of product’s purpose and value.
      • Customers and end-users defined with core needs identified.
      • Roadmap with goals and capabilities defined by themes and set to appropriate time horizons.
      • Documented stakeholder management plan with communication and collaboration aligned to the stakeholder strategy.
      • Value drivers traced to product families and enterprise goals.
      • Customer personas defined with pain relievers and value creators defined.
      • Fully-developed roadmap traced to family (and child) roadmaps.
      • Expected ROI for all current and next roadmap items.
      • KPIs/OKRs used to improve roadmap prioritization and sequencing.
      • Proactive stakeholder engagement and reviews.
      • Cross-functional engagement to align opportunities and drive enterprise value.
      • Formal metrics to assess customer needs and value realization.
      • Roadmaps managed in an enterprise system for full traceability, value realization reporting, and views for defined audiences.
      • Proactive stakeholder engagement with regular planning and review ceremonies tied to their roadmaps and goals.
      • Cross-functional innovation to find disruptive opportunities to drive enterprise value.
      • Omni-channel metrics and customer feedback mechanisms to proactively evaluate goals, capabilities, and value realization.

      Exercise 3.2.1 Assess your Vision capability proficiency

      1 hour
      1. Review the expectations for this capability and determine your current proficiency for each skill.
      2. Complete your assessment in the Mature and Scale Product Owner Proficiency Assessment tool.
      3. Record the results in the Mature and Scale Product Ownership Playbook.
      4. Review the skills map to identify strengths and areas of growth.

      Output

      • Product owner capability assessment

      Participants

      • Product owners
      • Product managers

      Capture in the Mature and Scale Product Owner Proficiency Assessment.

      Capabilities: Leadership

      Soft Skills

      • Communication: Maintain consistent, concise, and appropriate communication using SMART guidelines (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely).
      • Integrity: Stick to your values, principles, and decision criteria for the product to build and maintain trust with your users and teams.
      • Influence: Manage stakeholders using influence and collaboration over contract negotiation.

      Collaboration

      • Stakeholder management: Build a communications strategy for each stakeholder group, tailored to individual stakeholders.
      • Relationship management: Use every interaction point to strengthen relationships, build trust, and empower teams.
      • Team development: Promote development through stretch goals and controlled risks to build team capabilities and performance.

      Decision Making

      • Prioritized criteria: Remove personal bias by basing decisions off data analysis and criteria.
      • Continuous improvement: Balance new features with the need to ensure quality and create an environment of continuous improvement.
      • Team empowerment/negotiation: Push decisions to teams closest to the problem and solution, using Delegation Poker to guide you.

      “Everything walks the walk. Everything talks the talk.”

      – Thomas K. Connellan, Inside the Magic Kingdom

      Leadership: Soft skills, collaboration, decision making.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Product owners cannot be just a proxy for stakeholder decisions. The product owner owns product decisions and management of all stakeholders.

      Capability: Leadership

      Your Score: ____

      1 - Foundational: Transitioning and Growing

      2 - Capable/Competent: Core Contributor

      3 - Influential: Gifted Improver

      4 - Transformational: Towering Strength

      • Activities are prioritized with minimal direction and/or assistance.
      • Progress self-monitoring against objectives with leadership apprised of deviations against plan.
      • Facilitated decisions from stakeholders or teams.
      • Informal feedback on performance and collaboration with teams.
      • Independently prioritized activities and provide direction or assistance to others as needed.
      • Managed issue resolution and provided guidance on goals, priorities, and constraints.
      • Product decision ownership with input from stakeholders, SMEs, and delivery teams.
      • Formal product management retrospectives with tracked and measured changes to improve performance.
      • Consulted in the most challenging situations to provide subject matter expertise on leading practices and industry standards.
      • Provide mentoring and coaching to your peers and/or teammates.
      • Use team empowerment, pushing decisions to the lowest appropriate level based on risk and complexity.
      • Mature and flexible communication.
      • Provide strategies and programs ensuring all individuals in the delivery organization obtain the level of coaching and supervision required for success in their position.
      • Provide leadership to the organization’s coaches ensuring delivery excellence across the organization.
      • Help develop strategic initiatives driving common approaches and utilizing information assets and processes across the enterprise.

      Exercise 3.2.2 Assess your Leadership capability proficiency

      1 hour
      1. Review the expectations for this capability and determine your current proficiency for each skill.
      2. Complete your assessment in the Mature and Scale Product Owner Proficiency Assessment tool.
      3. Record the results in the Mature and Scale Product Ownership Playbook.
      4. Review the skills map to identify strengths and areas of growth.

      Output

      • Product owner capability assessment

      Participants

      • Product owners
      • Product managers

      Capture in the Mature and Scale Product Owner Proficiency Assessment.

      Capability: Product lifecycle management

      Plan

      • Product backlog: Follow a schedule for backlog intake, grooming, updates, and prioritization.
      • Journey map: Create an end-user journey map to guide adoption and loyalty.
      • Fit for purpose: Define expected value and intended use to ensure product meets your end user’s needs.

      Build

      • Capacity management: Work with operations and delivery teams to ensure consistent and stable outcomes.
      • Release strategy: Build learning, release, and critical milestones into a repeatable release plan.
      • Compliance: Build policy compliance into delivery practices to ensure alignment and reduce avoidable risk (privacy, security).

      Run

      • Adoption: Focus attention on end-user adoption and proficiency to accelerate value and maximize retention.
      • Support: Build operational support and business continuity into every team.
      • Measure: Measure KPIs and validate expected value to ensure product alignment to goals and consistent product quality.

      “Pay fantastic attention to detail. Reward, recognize, celebrate.”

      – Thomas K. Connellan, Inside the Magic Kingdom

      Product Lifecycle Management: Plan, Build, Run

      Info-Tech Insight

      Product owners must actively manage the full lifecycle of the product.

      Define product value by aligning backlog delivery with roadmap goals

      In each product plan, the backlogs show what you will deliver. Roadmaps identify when and in what order you will deliver value, capabilities, and goals.

      In each product plan, the backlogs show what you will deliver. Roadmaps identify when and in what order you will deliver value, capabilities, and goals.

      A backlog stores and organizes PBIs at various stages of readiness

      A backlog stores and organizes PBIs at different levels of readiness. Stage 3 - Ideas are composed of raw, vague ideas that have yet to go through any formal valuation. Stage 2 - Qualified are researched and qualified PBIs awaiting refinement. Stage 1 - Ready are Discrete, refined RBIs that are read to be placed in your development team's sprint plans.

      A well-formed backlog can be thought of as a DEEP backlog:

      Detailed Appropriately: PBIs are broken down and refined, as necessary.

      Emergent: The backlog grows and evolves over time as PBIs are added and removed.

      Estimated: The effort a PBI requires is estimated at each tier.

      Prioritized: The PBI’s value and priority are determined at each tier.

      (Perforce, 2018)

      Distinguish your specific goals for refining in the product backlog vs. planning for a sprint itself

      Often backlog refinement is used interchangeably or considered a part of sprint planning. The reality is they are very similar, as the required participants and objectives are the same; however, there are some key differences.

      Backlog refinement versus Sprint planning. Differences in Objectives, Cadence and Participants

      Use quality filters to promote high value items into the delivery pipeline

      Product backlog has quality filters such as: Backlogged, Qualified and Ready. Sprint backlog has a backlog of accepted PBI's

      Basic scrum process

      The scrum process coordinates multiple stakeholders to deliver on business priorities.

      Prioritized Backlog, Sprint Backlog, Manage Delivery, Sprint Review, Product Release

      Capability: Product lifecycle management

      Your Score: ____

      1 - Foundational: Transitioning and Growing

      2 - Capable/Competent: Core Contributor

      3 - Influential: Gifted Improver

      4 - Transformational: Towering Strength

      • Informal or undocumented intake process.
      • Informal or undocumented delivery lifecycle.
      • Unstable or unpredictable throughput or quality.
      • Informal or undocumented testing and release processes.
      • Informal or undocumented organizational change management planning for each release.
      • Informal or undocumented compliance validation with every release.
      • Documented intake process with stakeholder prioritization of requests.
      • Consistent delivery lifecycle with stable and predictable throughput with an expected range of delivery variance.
      • Formal and documented testing and release processes.
      • Organizational change management planning for each major release.
      • Compliance validation with every major release.
      • Intake process using value drivers and prioritization criteria to sequence all items.
      • Consistent delivery lifecycle with stable and predictable throughput with little variance.
      • Risk-based and partially automated testing and release processes.
      • Organizational change management planning for all releases.
      • Automated compliance validation with every major release.
      • Intake process using enterprise value drivers and prioritization criteria to sequence all items.
      • Stable Agile DevOps with low variability and automation.
      • Risk-based automated and manual testing.
      • Multiple release channels based on risk. Automated build, validation, and rollback capabilities.
      • Cross-channel, integrated organizational change management for all releases.
      • Automated compliance validation with every change or release.

      Exercise 3.2.3 Assess your PLM capability proficiency

      1 hour
      1. Review the expectations for this capability and determine your current proficiency for each skill.
      2. Complete your assessment in the Mature and Scale Product Owner Proficiency Assessment tool.
      3. Record the results in the Mature and Scale Product Ownership Playbook.
      4. Review the skills map to identify strengths and areas of growth.

      Output

      • Product owner capability assessment

      Participants

      • Product owners
      • Product managers

      Capture in the Mature and Scale Product Owner Proficiency Assessment.

      Capabilities: Value realization

      Key performance indicators (KPIs)

      • Usability and user satisfaction: Assess satisfaction through usage monitoring and end-user feedback.
      • Value validation: Directly measure performance against defined value proposition, goals, and predicted ROI.
      • Fit for purpose: Verify the product addresses the intended purpose better than other options.

      Financial management

      • P&L: Manage each product as if it were its own business with profit and loss statements.
      • Acquisition cost/market growth: Define the cost of acquiring a new consumer, onboarding internal users, and increasing product usage.
      • User retention/market share: Verify product usage continues after adoption and solution reaches new user groups to increase value.

      Business model

      • Defines value proposition: Dedicate your primary focus to understanding and defining the value your product will deliver.
      • Market strategy and goals: Define your acquisition, adoption, and retention plan for users.
      • Financial model: Build an end-to-end financial model and plan for the product and all related operational support.

      “The competition is anyone the customer compares you with.”

      – Thomas K. Connellan, Inside the Magic Kingdom

      Value Realization: KPIs, Financial management, Business model

      Info-Tech Insight

      Most organizations stop with on-time and on-budget. True financial alignment needs to define and manage the full lifecycle P&L.

      Use a balanced value to establish a common definition of goals and value

      Value drivers are strategic priorities aligned to our enterprise strategy and translated through our product families. Each product and change has an impact on the value driver helping us reach our enterprise goals.

      Importance of the value driver multiplied by the Impact of value score is equal to the Value score.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Your value drivers and impact helps estimate the expected value of roadmap items, prioritize roadmap and backlog items, and identify KPIs and OKRs to measure value realization and actual impact.

      Include balanced value as one criteria to guide better decisions

      Your balanced value is just one of many criteria needed to align your product goals and sequence roadmap items. Feasibility, delivery pipeline capacity, shared services, and other factors may impact the prioritization of backlog items.

      Build your balanced business value score by using four key value drivers.

      Determine your value drivers

      Competent organizations know that value cannot always be represented by revenue or reduced expenses. However, it is not always apparent how to envision the full spectrum of sources of value. Dissecting value by benefit type and the value source’s orientation allows you to see the many ways in which a product or service brings value to the organization.

      Business value matrix

      Graph with 4 quadrants representing Outward versus Inward, and Financial benefit versus Human benefit. The quadrants are Reach customers, Increase revenue/demonstrate value, Enhance services, Reduce costs.

      Financial benefits vs. improved capabilities

      Financial benefits refer to the degree to which the value source can be measured through monetary metrics and is often quite tangible.

      Human benefits refer to how a product or service can deliver value through a user’s experience.

      Inward vs. outward orientation

      Inward refers to value sources that have an internal impact and improve your organization’s effectiveness and efficiency in performing its operations.

      Outward refers to value sources that come from your interaction with external factors, such as the market or your customers.

      Exercise 3.2.4 Identify your business value drivers and sources of value

      1 hour
      1. Brainstorm the different types of business value that you produce on the sticky notes (one item per page). Draw from examples of products in your portfolio.
      2. Identify the most important value items for your organization (two to three per quadrant).
      3. Record the results in the Mature and Scale Product Ownership Workbook.

      Output

      • Product owner capability assessment

      Participants

      • Product owners
      • Product managers

      Capture in the Mature and Scale Product Ownership Workbook.

      My business value sources

      Graph with 4 quadrants representing Outward versus Inward, and Financial benefit versus Human benefit. The quadrants are Reach customers, Increase revenue/demonstrate value, Enhance services, Reduce costs.

      Capability: Value realization

      Your Score: ____

      1 - Foundational: Transitioning and Growing

      2 - Capable/Competent: Core Contributor

      3 - Influential: Gifted Improver

      4 - Transformational: Towering Strength

      • Product canvas or basic product positioning overview.
      • Simple budget or funding mechanism for changes.
      • Product demos and informal user feedback mechanisms.
      • Business value canvas or basic business model tied to roadmap funding.
      • Product funding tied to roadmap milestones and prioritization.
      • Defined KPIs /OKRs for roadmap delivery throughput and value realization measurement.
      • Business model with operating cost structures, revenue/value traceability, and market/user segments.
      • Scenario-based roadmap funding alignment.
      • Roadmap aligned KPIs /OKRs for delivery throughput and value realization measurement as a key factor in roadmap prioritization.
      • Business model tied to enterprise operating costs and value realization KPIs/OKRs.
      • P&L roadmap and cost accounting tied to value metrics.
      • Roadmap aligned enterprise and scenario-based KPIs /OKRs for delivery throughput and value realization measurement as a key factor in roadmap prioritization.

      Exercise 3.2.5 Assess your value realization capability proficiency

      1 hour
      1. Review the expectations for this capability and determine your current proficiency for each skill.
      2. Complete your assessment in the Mature and Scale Product Owner Proficiency Assessment tool.
      3. Record the results in the Mature and Scale Product Ownership Playbook.
      4. Review the skills map to identify strengths and areas of growth.

      Output

      • Product owner capability assessment

      Participants

      • Product owners
      • Product managers

      Capture in the Mature and Scale Product Owner Proficiency Assessment.

      Determine your product owner capability proficiency in regards to: Vision, Leadership, Product Lifecycle, and Value Realization

      Summary of Accomplishment

      Problem solved.

      Product ownership can be one of the most difficult challenges facing delivery and operations teams. By focusing on operational grouping and alignment of goals, organizations can improve their value realization at all levels in the organization.

      The foundation for delivering and enhancing products and services is rooted in the same capability model. Traditionally, product owners have focused on only a subset of skills and capabilities needed to properly manage and grow their products. The product owner capability model is a useful tool to ensure optimal performance from product owners and assess the right level of detail for each product within the product families.

      Congratulations. You’ve completed a significant step toward higher-value products and services.

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

      3.1.1 Assess your real Agile skill proficiency

      Assess your skills and capabilities against the real Agile skills inventory

      2.2.3 Prioritize your stakeholders

      Build a stakeholder management strategy.

      Research Contributors and Experts

      Emily Archer

      Lead Business Analyst,
      Enterprise Consulting, authentic digital agency

      Emily Archer is a consultant currently working with Fortune 500 clients to ensure the delivery of successful projects, products, and processes. She helps increase the business value returned for organizations’ investments in designing and implementing enterprise content hubs and content operations, custom web applications, digital marketing, and e-commerce platforms.

      David Berg

      Founder & CTO
      Strainprint Technologies Inc.

      David Berg is a product commercialization expert who has spent the last 20 years delivering product management and business development services across a broad range of industries. Early in his career, David worked with product management and engineering teams to build core network infrastructure products that secure and power the internet we benefit from today. David’s experience also includes working with clean technologies in the area of clean power generation, agritech, and Internet of Things infrastructure. Over the last five years, David has been focused on his latest venture, Strainprint Technologies, a data and analytics company focused on the medical cannabis industry. Strainprint has built the largest longitudinal medical cannabis dataset in the world, with a goal to develop an understanding of treatment behavior, interactions, and chemical drivers to guide future product development.

      Research Contributors and Experts

      Kathy Borneman

      Digital Product Owner, SunTrust Bank

      Kathy Borneman is a senior product owner who helps people enjoy their jobs again by engaging others in end-to-end decision making to deliver software and operational solutions that enhance the client experience and allow people to think and act strategically.

      Charlie Campbell

      Product Owner, Merchant e-Solutions

      Charlie Campbell is an experienced problem solver with the ability to quickly dissect situations and recommend immediate actions to achieve resolution, liaise between technical and functional personnel to bridge the technology and communication gap, and work with diverse teams and resources to reach a common goal.

      Research Contributors and Experts

      Yarrow Diamond

      Sr. Director, Business Architecture
      Financial Services

      Yarrow Diamond is an experienced professional with expertise in enterprise strategy development, project portfolio management, and business process reengineering across financial services, healthcare and insurance, hospitality, and real estate environments. She has a master’s in Enterprise Architecture from Penn State University, LSSMBB, PMP, CSM, ITILv3.

      Cari J. Faanes-Blakey, CBAP, PMI-PBA

      Enterprise Business Systems Analyst,
      Vertex, Inc.

      Cari J. Faanes-Blakey has a history in software development and implementation as a Business Analyst and Project Manager for financial and taxation software vendors. Active in the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA), Cari participated on the writing team for the BA Body of Knowledge 3.0 and the certification exam.

      Research Contributors and Experts

      Kieran Gobey

      Senior Consultant Professional Services
      Blueprint Software Systems

      Kieran Gobey is an IT professional with 24 years of experience, focused on business, technology, and systems analysis. He has split his career between external and internal customer-facing roles, and this has resulted in a true understanding of what is required to be a Professional Services Consultant. His problem-solving skills and ability to mentor others have resulted in successful software implementations.

      Kieran’s specialties include deep system troubleshooting and analysis skills, facilitating communications to bring together participants effectively, mentoring, leadership, and organizational skills.

      Rupert Kainzbauer

      VP Product, Digital Wallets
      Paysafe Group

      Rupert Kainzbauer is an experienced senior leader with a passion for defining and delivering products that deliver real customer and commercial benefit. With a team of highly experienced and motivated product managers, he has successfully led highly complex, multi-stakeholder payments initiatives, from proposition development and solution design through to market delivery. Their domain experience is in building online payment products in high-risk and emerging markets, remittance, prepaid cards, and mobile applications.

      Research Contributors and Experts

      Saeed Khan

      Founder,
      Transformation Labs

      Saeed Khan has been working in high tech for 30 years in Canada and the US and has held several leadership roles in Product Management in that time. He speaks regularly at conferences and has been writing publicly about technology product management since 2005.

      Through Transformation Labs, Saeed helps companies accelerate product success by working with product teams to improve their skills, practices, and processes. He is a cofounder of ProductCamp Toronto and currently runs a Meetup group and global Slack community called Product Leaders; the only global community of senior level product executives.

      Hoi Kun Lo

      Product Owner
      Nielsen

      Hoi Kun Lo is an experienced change agent who can be found actively participating within the IIBA and WITI groups in Tampa, FL and a champion for Agile, architecture, diversity, and inclusion programs at Nielsen. She is currently a Product Owner in the Digital Strategy team within Nielsen Global Watch Technology.

      Research Contributors and Experts

      Abhishek Mathur

      Sr Director, Product Management
      Kasisto, Inc.

      Abhishek Mathur is a product management leader, an artificial intelligence practitioner, and an educator. He has led product management and engineering teams at Clarifai, IBM, and Kasisto to build a variety of artificial intelligence applications within the space of computer vision, natural language processing, and recommendation systems. Abhishek enjoys having deep conversations about the future of technology and helping aspiring product managers enter and accelerate their careers.

      Jeff Meister

      Technology Advisor and Product Leader

      Jeff Meister is a technology advisor and product leader. He has more than 20 years of experience building and operating software products and the teams that build them. He has built products across a wide range of industries and has built and led large engineering, design, and product organizations.

      Jeff most recently served as Senior Director of Product Management at Avanade, where he built and led the product management practice. This involved hiring and leading product managers, defining product management processes, solution shaping and engagement execution, and evangelizing the discipline through pitches, presentations, and speaking engagements.

      Jeff holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (Electrical Engineering) and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Waterloo, an MBA from INSEAD (Strategy), and certifications in product management, project management, and design thinking.

      Research Contributors and Experts

      Vincent Mirabelli

      Principal,
      Global Project Synergy Group

      With over 10 years of experience in both the private and public sectors, Vincent Mirabelli possesses an impressive track record of improving, informing, and transforming business strategy and operations through process improvement, design and re-engineering, and the application of quality to business analysis, project management, and process improvement standards.

      Oz Nazili

      VP, Product & Growth
      TWG

      Oz Nazili is a product leader with a decade of experience in both building products and product teams. Having spent time at funded startups and large enterprises, he thinks often about the most effective way to deliver value to users. His core areas of interest include Lean MVP development and data-driven product growth.

      Research Contributors and Experts

      Mike Starkey

      Director of Engineering
      W.W. Grainger

      Mike Starkey is a Director of Engineering at W.W. Grainger, currently focusing on operating model development, digital architecture, and building enterprise software. Prior to joining W.W. Grainger, Mike held a variety of technology consulting roles throughout the system delivery lifecycle spanning multiple industries such as healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and utilities with Fortune 500 companies.

      Anant Tailor

      Cofounder and Head of Product
      Dream Payments Corp.

      Anant Tailor is a cofounder at Dream Payments where he currently serves as the COO and Head of Product, having responsibility for Product Strategy & Development, Client Delivery, Compliance, and Operations. He has 20+ years of experience building and operating organizations that deliver software products and solutions for consumers and businesses of varying sizes.

      Prior to founding Dream Payments, Anant was the COO and Director of Client Services at DonRiver Inc, a technology strategy and software consultancy that he helped to build and scale into a global company with 100+ employees operating in seven countries.

      Anant is a Professional Engineer with a Bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering from McMaster University and a certificate in Product Strategy & Management from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

      Research Contributors and Experts

      Angela Weller

      Scrum Master, Businessolver

      Angela Weller is an experienced Agile business analyst who collaborates with key stakeholders to attain their goals and contributes to the achievement of the company’s strategic objectives to ensure a competitive advantage. She excels when mediating or facilitating teams.

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      Shift security left to get into DevSecOps.

      Spread Best Practices With an Agile Center of Excellence

      Facilitate ongoing alignment between Agile teams and the business with a set of targeted service offerings.

      Enable Organization-Wide Collaboration by Scaling Agile

      Execute a disciplined approach to rolling out Agile methods in the organization.

      Related Info-Tech Research

      Application Portfolio Management

      APM Research Center

      See an overview of the APM journey and how we can support the pieces in this journey.

      Application Portfolio Management Foundations

      Ensure your application portfolio delivers the best possible return on investment.

      Streamline Application Maintenance

      Effective maintenance ensures the long-term value of your applications.

      Streamline Application Management

      Move beyond maintenance to ensuring exceptional value from your apps.

      Build an Application Department Strategy

      Delivering value starts with embracing what your department can do.

      Embrace Business-Managed Applications

      Empower the business to implement their own applications with a trusted business-IT relationship

      Optimize Applications Release Management

      Facilitate ongoing alignment between Agile teams and the business with a set of targeted service offerings.

      Related Info-Tech Research

      Value, Delivery Metrics, Estimation

      Build a Value Measurement Framework

      Focus product delivery on business value–driven outcomes.

      Select and Use SDLC Metrics Effectively

      Be careful what you ask for, because you will probably get it.

      Application Portfolio Assessment: End User Feedback

      Develop data-driven insights to help you decide which applications to retire, upgrade, re-train on, or maintain to meet the demands of the business.

      Create a Holistic IT Dashboard

      Mature your IT department by measuring what matters.

      Refine Your Estimation Practices With Top-Down Allocations

      Don’t let bad estimates ruin good work.

      Estimate Software Delivery With Confidence

      Commit to achievable software releases by grounding realistic expectations.

      Reduce Time to Consensus With an Accelerated Business Case

      Expand on the financial model to give your initiative momentum.

      Optimize Project Intake, Approval, and Prioritization

      Deliver more projects by giving yourself the voice to say “no” or “not yet” to new projects.

      Enhance PPM Dashboards and Reports

      Facilitate ongoing alignment between Agile teams and the business with a set of targeted service offerings.

      Related Info-Tech Research

      Organizational Design and Performance

      Redesign Your IT Organizational Structure

      Focus product delivery on business value-driven outcomes.

      Build a Strategic IT Workforce Plan

      Have the right people, in the right place, at the right time.

      Implement a New Organizational Structure

      Reorganizations are inherently disruptive. Implement your new structure with minimal pain for staff while maintaining IT performance throughout the change.

      Build an IT Employee Engagement Program

      Don’t just measure engagement, act on it

      Set Meaningful Employee Performance Measures

      Set holistic measures to inspire employee performance.

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      A, Karen. “20 Mental Models for Product Managers.” Product Management Insider, Medium, 2 Aug. 2018. Web.

      Adams, Paul. “Product Teams: How to Build & Structure Product Teams for Growth.” Inside Intercom, 30 Oct. 2019. Web.

      Aghina, Handscomb, Ludolph, West, and Abby Yip, “How to select and develop individuals for successful agile teams: A practical guide” McKinsey & Company 20 Dec. 2018. Web.

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      Ambler, Scott W. "Communication on Agile Software Teams“, Agile Modeling. 2001-2022. Web.

      Ambysoft. “2018 IT Project Success Rates Survey Results.” Ambysoft. 2018. Web.

      Banfield, Richard, et al. “On-Demand Webinar: Strategies for Scaling Your (Growing) Enterprise Product Team.” Pluralsight, 31 Jan. 2018. Web.

      Beck, Beedle, van Bennekum, Cockburn, Cunningham, Fowler, Grenning, Highsmith, Hunt, Jeffries, Kern, Marick, Martin, Mellor, Schwaber, Sutherland, Thomas, "Manifesto for Agile Software Development." agilemanifesto.org. 2001

      Berez, Steve, et al. “How to Plan and budget for Agile at Scale.” Bain & Company, 08 Oct 2019. Web

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      Halisky, Merland, and Luke Lackrone. “The Product Owner’s Universe.” Agile2016 Conference, Agile Alliance, 2016. Web.

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      Kamer, Jurriaan. “How to Build Your Own ‘Spotify Model’.” The Ready, Medium, 9 Feb. 2018. Web.

      Kendis Team. “Exploring Key Elements of Spotify’s Agile Scaling Model.” Scaled Agile Framework, Medium, 23 Jul. 2018. Web.

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      McCloskey, Heather. “When and How to Scale Your Product Team.” UserVoice, 21 Feb. 2017. Web. Mironov, Rich. “Scaling Up Product Manager/Owner Teams.” Rich Mironov's Product Bytes, Mironov Consulting, 12 Apr. 2014. Web.

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      Overeem, Barry. “Retrospective: Using the Team Radar.” Barry Overeem, 27 Feb. 2017. Web.

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      Radigan,Dan. “Putting the ‘Flow' Back in Workflow With WIP Limits.” Atlassian, n.d. Web.

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      Schuurman, Robbin. “10 Tips for Product Owners on (Business) Value.” Scrum.org, 30 Nov. 2017. Web.

      Schuurman, Robbin. “10 Tips for Product Owners on Agile Product Management.” Scrum.org, 28 Nov. 2017. Web.

      Schuurman, Robbin. “10 Tips for Product Owners on Product Backlog Management.” Scrum.org, 5 Dec. 2017. Web.

      Schuurman, Robbin. “10 Tips for Product Owners on the Product Vision.” Scrum.org, 29 Nov. 2017. Web.

      Schuurman, Robbin. “Tips for Starting Product Owners.” Scrum.org, 27 Nov. 2017. Web.

      Sharma, Rohit. “Scaling Product Teams the Structured Way.” Monetary Musings, 28 Nov. 2016. Web.

      Shirazi, Reza. “Betsy Stockdale of Seilevel: Product Managers Are Not Afraid To Be Wrong.” Austin Voice of Product, 2 Oct. 2018. Web.

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      Backlog

      2009 Business Analysis Benchmark Study.” IAG Consulting, 2009. Web.

      Armel, Kate. “Data-driven Estimation, Management Lead to High Quality.” Quantitative Software Management Inc, 2015. Web.

      Bradley, Marty. “Agile Estimation Guidance.” Leading Agile, 30 Aug. 2016. Web. Feb. 2019.

      CollabNet and VersionOne. “12th Annual State of Agile Report.” VersionOne, 9 April 2018. Web.

      Craveiro, João. “Marty meets Martin: connecting the two triads of Product Management.” Product Coalition, 18 Nov. 2017. Accessed Feb. 2019.

      “Enablers.” Scaled Agile, n.d. Web.

      “Epic.” Scaled Agile, n.d. Web.

      Fischer, Christian. “Scrum Compact.” Itemis, n.d. Web. Feb. 2019.

      Hackshall, Robin. “Product Backlog Refinement.” Scrum Alliance, 9 Oct. 2014. Accessed Feb. 2019.

      Hartman, Bob. “New to agile? INVEST in good user stories.” Agile For All, 14 May 2009. Web.

      Huether, Derek. “Cheat Sheet for Product Backlog Refinement (Grooming).” Leading Agile, 2 Nov. 2013. Accessed Feb. 2019.

      Karlsson, Johan. “Backlog Grooming: Must-Know Tips for High-Value Products.” Perforce, 18 May 2018. Accessed Feb. 2019.

      Khan, Saeed. “Good Bye ‘Product Owner’, Hello ‘Backlog Manager.’” On Product Management, 27 June 2011. Accessed Feb. 2019.

      Khan, Saeed. “Let’s End the Confusion: A Product Owner is NOT a Product Manager.” On Product Management, 14 July 2017. Accessed Feb. 2019.

      Lawrence, Richard. “New Story Splitting Resource.” Agile For All. 27 Jan. 2012. Web. Feb. 2019.

      Leffingwell, Dean. “SAFe 4.0.” Scaled Agile Inc, 2017. Accessed Feb. 2019.

      Lucero, Mario. “Product Backlog – Deep Model.” Agilelucero, 8 Oct. 2014. Web.

      “PI Planning.” Scaled Agile, n.d. Web.

      Pichler, Roman. “The Product Roadmap and the Product Backlog.” Roman Pichler, 9 Sept. 2014. Accessed Feb. 2019.

      Rubin, Kenneth S. Essential Scrum: A Practical Guide to the Most Popular Agile Process. Pearson Education, 2012.

      Schuurman, Robbin. “10 Tips for Product Owners on Product Backlog Management.” Burozeven, 20 Nov. 2017. Accessed Feb. 2019.

      Srinivasan, Vibhu. “Product Backlog Management: Tips from a Seasoned Product Owner.” Agile Alliance, n.d. Accessed Feb. 2019.

      Todaro, Dave. “Splitting Epics and User Stories.” Ascendle, n.d. Accessed Feb. 2019.

      “What Characteristics Make Good Agile Acceptance Criteria?” Segue Technologies, 3 Sept. 2015. Web. Feb. 2019.

      Bibliography (Roadmap)

      Bastow, Janna. “Creating Agile Product roadmaps Everyone Understands.” ProdPad, 22 Mar. 2017. Accessed Sept. 2018.

      Bastow, Janna. “The Product Tree Game: Our Favorite Way To Prioritize Features.” ProdPad, 21 Feb. 2016. Accessed Sept. 2018.

      Chernak, Yuri. “Requirements Reuse: The State of the Practice.” 2012 IEEE International Conference, 12 June 2012, Herzliya, Israel. Web.

      Fowler, Martin. “Application Boundary.” MartinFowler.com, 11 Sept. 2003. Accessed 20 Nov. 2017.

      Harrin, Elizabeth. “Learn What a Project Milestone Is.” The Balance Careers, 10 May 2018. Accessed Sept. 2018.

      “How to create a product roadmap.” Roadmunk, n.d. Accessed Sept. 2018.

      Johnson, Steve. “How to Master the 3 Horizons of Product Strategy.” Aha!, 24 Sept. 2015. Accessed Sept. 2018.

      Johnson, Steve. “The Product Roadmap vs. the Technology Roadmap.” Aha!, 23 June 2016. Accessed Sept. 2018

      Juncal, Shaun. “How Should You Set Your Product Roadmap Timeframes?” ProductPlan, Web. Sept. 2018.

      Leffingwell, Dean. “SAFe 4.0.” Scaled Agile, 2017. Web.

      Maurya, Ash. “What is a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).” Leanstack, 12 June 2017. Accessed Sept. 2018.

      Pichler, Roman. “10 Tips for Creating an Agile Product Roadmap.” Roman Pichler, 20 July 2016. Accessed Sept. 2018.

      Pichler, Roman. Strategize: Product Strategy and Product Roadmap Practices for the Digital Age. Pichler Consulting, 2016.

      “Product Roadmap Contents: What Should You Include?” ProductPlan, n.d. Accessed 20 Nov. 2017.

      Saez, Andrea. “Why Your Roadmap Is Not a Release Plan.” ProdPad, 23 October 2015. Accessed Sept. 2018.

      Schuurman, Robbin. “Tips for Agile product roadmaps & product roadmap examples.” Scrum.org, 7 Dec. 2017. Accessed Sept. 2018.

      Bibliography (Vision and Canvas)

      Adams, Paul. “The Future Product Canvas.” Inside Intercom, 10 Jan. 2014. Web.

      “Aligning IT Funding Models to the Pace of Technology Change.” EDUCAUSE, 14 Dec. 2015. Web.

      Altman, Igor. “Metrics: Gone Bad.” OpenView, 10 Nov. 2009. Web.

      Barry, Richard. “The Product Vision Canvas – a Strategic Tool in Developing a Successful Business.” Polymorph, 2019. Web.

      “Business Canvas – Business Models & Value Propositions.” Strategyzer, 2019. Web.

      “Business Model Canvas.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, 4 Aug. 2019. Web.

      Charak, Dinker. “Idea to Product: The Working Model.” ThoughtWorks, 13 July 2017. Web.

      Charak, Dinker. “Product Management Canvas - Product in a Snapshot.” Dinker Charak, 29 May 2017. Web.

      Chudley, James. “Practical Steps in Determining Your Product Vision (Product Tank Bristol, Oct. 2018).” LinkedIn SlideShare. Uploaded by cxpartners, 2 Nov. 2018. Web.

      Cowan, Alex. “The 20 Minute Business Plan: Business Model Canvas Made Easy.” COWAN+, 2019. Web.

      Craig, Desiree. “So You've Decided To Become A Product Manager.” Start it up, Medium, 2 June 2019. Web.

      “Create an Aha! Business Model Canvas Strategic Model.” Aha! Support, 2019. Web.

      Eick, Stephen. “Does Code Decay? Assessing the Evidence from Change Management Data.” IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol. 27, no. 1, Jan. 2001, pp. 1-12. Web.

      Eriksson, Martin. “The next Product Canvas.” Mind the Product, 22 Nov. 2013. Web.

      “Experience Canvas: a Lean Approach: Atlassian Team Playbook.” Atlassian, 2019. Web.

      Freeman, James. “How to Make a Product Canvas – Visualize Your Product Plan.” Edraw, 23 Dec. 2019. Web.

      Fuchs, Danny. “Measure What Matters: 5 Best Practices from Performance Management Leaders.” OpenGov, 8 Aug. 2018. Web.

      Gorisse, Willem. “A Practical Guide to the Product Canvas.” Mendix, 28 Mar. 2017. Web.

      Gothelf, Jeff. “The Lean UX Canvas.” Jeff Gothelf, 15 Dec. 2016. Web.

      Gottesdiener, Ellen. “Using the Product Canvas to Define Your Product: Getting Started.” EBG Consulting, 15 Jan. 2019. Web.

      Gottesdiener, Ellen. “Using the Product Canvas to Define Your Product's Core Requirements.” EBG Consulting, 4 Feb. 2019. Web.

      Gray, Mark Krishan. “Should I Use the Business Model Canvas or the Lean Canvas?” Blog, Medium.com, 2019. Web.

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      Hanby, Jeff. "Software Maintenance: Understanding and Estimating Costs." LookFar, 21 Oct. 2016. Web.

      “How do you define a product?” Scrum.org, 4 Apr 2017, Web

      Juncal, Shaun. “How to Build a Product Roadmap Based on a Business Model Canvas.” ProductPlan, 19 June 2019. Web.

      “Lean Canvas Intro - Uber Example.” YouTube, uploaded by Railsware Product Academy, 12 Oct. 2018. Web.

      “Lesson 6: Product Canvas.” ProdPad Help Center, 2019. Web.

      Lucero, Mario. “The Product Canvas.” Agilelucero.com, 22 June 2015. Web.

      Maurya, Ash. “Create a New Lean Canvas.” Canvanizer, 2019. Web.

      Maurya, Ash. “Don't Write a Business Plan. Create a Lean Canvas Instead.” LEANSTACK, 2019. Web.

      Maurya, Ash. “Why Lean Canvas vs Business Model Canvas?” Medium, 27 Feb. 2012. Web.

      Mirabelli, Vincent. “The Project Value Canvas.” Vincent Mirabelli, 2019. Web.

      Mishra, LN. “Business Analysis Canvas – The Ultimate Enterprise Architecture.” BA Times, 19 June 2019. Web.

      Muller. Jerry Z. “Why performance metrics isn’t always the best way to judge performance.” Fast Company, 3 April 2019. Web.

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      Pichler, Roman. “A Product Canvas for Agile Product Management, Lean UX, Lean Startup.” Roman Pichler, 16 July 2012. Web.

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      Pichler, Roman. “The Agile Vision Board: Vision and Product Strategy.” Roman Pichler, 10 May 2011. Web.

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      Pichler, Roman. “The Product Canvas Tutorial V1.0.” LinkedIn SlideShare. Uploaded by Roman Pichler, 14 Feb. 2013. Web.

      Pichler, Roman. “The Product Vision Board: Introduction.” YouTube uploaded by Roman Pichler, 3 Mar. 2017. Web.

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      Roggero, Giulio. “Product Canvas Step-by-Step.” LinkedIn SlideShare, uploaded by Giulio Roggero, 18 May 2013. Web.

      Royce, Dr. Winston W. “Managing the Development of Large Software Systems.” Scf.usc.edu, 1970. Web.

      Ryan, Dustin. “The Product Canvas.” Qdivision, Medium, 20 June 2017. Web.

      Snow, Darryl. “Product Vision Board.” Medium, 6 May 2017. Web.

      Stanislav, Shymansky. “Lean Canvas – a Tool Your Startup Needs Instead of a Business Plan.” Railsware, 12 Oct. 2018. Web.

      Stanislav, Shymansky. “Lean Canvas Examples of Multi-Billion Startups.” Railsware, 20 Feb. 2019. Web.

      “The Product Vision Canvas.” YouTube, Uploaded by Tom Miskin, 20 May 2019. Web.

      Tranter, Leon. “Agile Metrics: the Ultimate Guide.” Extreme Uncertainty, n.d. Web.

      “Using Business Model Canvas to Launch a Technology Startup or Improve Established Operating Model.” AltexSoft, 27 July 2018. Web.

      Veyrat, Pierre. “Lean Business Model Canvas: Examples + 3 Pillars + MVP + Agile.” HEFLO BPM, 10 Mar. 2017. Web.

      “What Are Software Metrics and How Can You Track Them?” Stackify, 16 Sept. 2017. Web

      “What Is a Product Vision?” Aha!, 2019. Web.

      Supporting Research

      Transformation topics and supporting Info-Tech research to make the journey easier, with less rework.

      Supporting research and services

      Improving IT alignment

      Build a Business-Aligned IT Strategy

      Success depends on IT initiatives clearly aligned to business goals, IT excellence, and driving technology innovation.

      Includes a "Strategy on a page" template

      Make Your IT Governance Adaptable

      Governance isn't optional, so keep it simple and make it flexible.

      Create an IT View of the Service Catalog

      Unlock the full value of your service catalog with technical components.

      Application Portfolio Management Foundations

      Ensure your application portfolio delivers the best possible return on investment.

      Supporting research and services

      Shifting toward Agile DevOps

      Agile/DevOps Resource Center

      Tools and advice you need to be successful with Agile.

      Develop Your Agile Approach for a Successful Transformation

      Understand Agile fundamentals, principles, and practices so you can apply them effectively in your organization.

      Implement DevOps Practices That Work

      Streamline business value delivery through the strategic adoption of DevOps practices.

      Perform an Agile Skills Assessment

      Being Agile isn't about processes, it's about people.

      Define the Role of Project Management in Agile and Product-Centric Delivery

      Projects and products are not mutually exclusive.

      Supporting research and services

      Shifting toward product management

      Make the Case for Product Delivery

      Align your organization on the practices to deliver what matters most.

      Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision

      Build a product vision your organization can take from strategy through execution.

      Deliver Digital Products at Scale

      Deliver value at the scale of your organization through defining enterprise product families.

      Build a Better Product Owner

      Strengthen the product owner's role in your organization by focusing on core capabilities and proper alignment.

      Supporting research and services

      Improving value and delivery metrics

      Build a Value Measurement Framework

      Focus product delivery on business value-driven outcomes.

      Create a Holistic IT Dashboard

      Mature your IT department by measuring what matters.

      Select and Use SDLC Metrics Effectively

      Be careful what you ask for because you will probably get it.

      Reduce Time to Consensus With an Accelerated Business Case

      Expand on the financial model to give your initiative momentum.

      Supporting research and services

      Improving governance, prioritization, and value

      Make Your IT Governance Adaptable

      Governance isn't optional, so keep it simple and make it flexible.

      Maximize Business Value from IT Through Benefits Realization

      Embed benefits realization into your governance process to prioritize IT spending and confirm the value of IT.

      Drive Digital Transformation With Platform Strategies

      Innovate and transform your business models with digital platforms.

      Succeed With Digital Strategy Execution

      Building a digital strategy is only half the battle: create a systematic roadmap of technology initiatives to execute the strategy and drive digital transformation.

      Build a Value Measurement Framework

      Focus product delivery on business value-driven outcomes.

      Create a Holistic IT Dashboard

      Mature your IT department by measuring what matters.

      Supporting research and services

      Improving requirements management and quality assurance

      Requirements Gathering for Small Enterprises

      Right-size the guidelines of your requirements gathering process.

      Improve Requirements Gathering

      Back to basics: great products are built on great requirements.

      Build a Software Quality Assurance Program

      Build quality into every step of your SDLC.

      Automate Testing to Get More Done

      Drive software delivery throughput and quality confidence by extending your automation test coverage.

      Manage Your Technical Debt

      Make the case to manage technical debt in terms of business impact.

      Create a Business Process Management Strategy

      Avoid project failure by keeping the "B" in BPM.

      Build a Winning Business Process Automation Playbook

      Optimize and automate your business processes with a user-centric approach.

      Create a Winning BPI Playbook

      Don't waste your time focusing on the "as is." Focus on the improvements and the "to be."

      Supporting research and services

      Improving release management

      Optimize Applications Release Management

      Build trust by right-sizing your process using appropriate governance.

      Streamline Application Maintenance

      Effective maintenance ensures the long-term value of your applications.

      Streamline Application Management

      Move beyond maintenance to ensure exceptional value from your apps.

      Optimize Change Management

      Right-size your change management process.

      Manage Your Technical Debt

      Make the case to manage technical debt in terms of business impact.

      Improve Application Development Throughput

      Drive down your delivery time by eliminating development inefficiencies and bottlenecks while maintaining high quality.

      Supporting research and services

      Business relationship management

      Embed Business Relationship Management

      Leverage knowledge of the business to become a strategic IT partner.

      Improving security

      Build an Information Security Strategy

      Create value by aligning your strategy to business goals and business risks.

      Develop and Deploy Security Policies

      Enhance your overall security posture with a defensible and prescriptive policy suite.

      Simplify Identity and Access Management

      Leverage risk- and role-based access control to quantify and simplify the IAM process.

      Supporting research and services

      Improving and supporting business-managed applications

      Embrace Business-Managed Applications

      Empower the business to implement their own applications with a trusted business-IT relationship.

      Enhance Your Solution Architecture Practices

      Ensure your software systems solution is architected to reflect stakeholders’ short-and long-term needs.

      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.

      Build Your First RPA Bot

      Support RPA delivery with strong collaboration and management foundations.

      Automate Work Faster and More Easily With Robotic Process Automation

      Embrace the symbiotic relationship between the human and digital workforce.

      Supporting research and services

      Improving business intelligence, analytics, and reporting

      Modernize Data Architecture for Measurable Business Results

      Enable the business to achieve operational excellence, client intimacy, and product leadership with an innovative, Agile, and fit-for-purpose data architecture practice.

      Build a Reporting and Analytics Strategy

      Deliver actionable business insights by creating a business-aligned reporting and analytics strategy.

      Build Your Data Quality Program

      Quality data drives quality business decisions.

      Design Data-as-a-Service

      Journey to the data marketplace ecosystems.

      Build a Robust and Comprehensive Data Strategy

      Key to building and fostering a data-driven culture.

      Build an Application Integration Strategy

      Level the table before assembling the application integration puzzle or risk losing pieces.

      Appendix

      Pulse survey results

      Pulse survey (N=18): What are the key components of product/service ownership?

      Pulse survey results: What are the key components of product/service ownership? Table shows answer options and responses in percentage.

      Pulse Survey (N=18): What are the key individual skills for a product/service owner?

      What are the key individual skills for a product/service owner? Table shows answer options and responses in percentage

      Other choices entered by respondents:

      • Anticipating client needs, being able to support delivery in all phases of the product lifecycle, adaptability, and ensuring a healthy backlog (at least two sprints’ worth of work).
      • Requirements elicitation and prioritization.
      • The key skill is being product-focused to ensure it provides value for competitive advantage.

      Pulse Survey (N=18): What are three things an outstanding product/service owner does that an average one doesn’t?

      What are three things an outstanding product/service owner does that an average one doesn't? Table shows results.